Film Festival Jury
Winter 2021
Sasheen Artis
Two-Time Emmy Award-Winning Producer
Sasheen Artis is a two-time Emmy winning producer with over 25 years of experience developing and producing television, film and live events, including a Prince concert and two national book tours that garnered two New York Times Bestsellers. She has worked with notables such as President Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, actor/director Robert Duvall, actress Cicely Tyson, LA Phil Conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and singer/songwriter Annie Lennox.
As Chair of the Producers Guild of America Power of Diversity Master Workshop, Artis was responsible for the PGA’s flagship diversity initiative. During her term, participants’ success rate increased from 60% to 100% in securing funding, representation, or employment. Moreover, Artis was invited by HRH Princess Rym Ali and the Royal Film Commission to lead a week-long seminar for creatives in Amman, Jordan, where she taught pitching, story development, budgets and schedules, and marketing. Named a Wayfinder Foundation Fellow in 2019, Artis spearheaded the initiative and produced a webinar for creatives “Ground Zero: Narratives on Homelessness” to help change the depiction of the homeless in media.
Getting her start in marketing and creative services at Paramount Home Entertainment, Artis worked on blockbuster campaigns for TITANIC, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, BRAVEHEART and TV series like STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and Nickelodeon’s RUGRATS. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Producers Guild of America, and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. Artis is originally from New York City and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Standford University.
John Berger
Stage Performer / Writer / Director
John Berger is a stage performer, writer and director. His company, Mannheim Road Films, specializes in all aspects of film and video production from concept to final cut. One of his latest short films, YAPP, is a Chicago comedy starring Tim Kazurinsky, Cayne Collier and a hilarious cast of characters.
He is an alumnus of the world renowned Second City Conservatory, which is an advanced program training performers in creating sketch comedy through improvisation. Additionally, Berger studied film writing and directing at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois.
Angela Boisvert
Emmy Award-Winning Producer / Television Executive
Angela Boisvert is an award-winning television producer whose credits include: ARTBOUND: LULA WASHINGTON, OPEN YOUR EYES, WRITERS BLOC
PRESENTS: LINDA RONSTADT, LOST LA, and FINE CUT: FESTIVAL OF FILMS.
Boisvert has worked in the film and television industry for over 15 years and serves as the Director of Production for KCET/PBS SoCal/LinkTV. She is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America as well as the Academy for Television, Arts and Sciences.
Carmine Cervi
Actor / Writer / Director/ Producer
Carmine Cervi has produced and directed feature and short documentaries as well as fiction films in both the United States and Italy. A professional actor since the age of ten, and alumnus of Chicago’s improv scene, Cervi graduated from Columbia College before relocating to Rome. In Italy, he co-wrote and starred in a weekly TV series, as well as appeared in commercials and performed voice work at the famed Cinecittà. He went on to produce and edit short background docs for Pupi Avati’s DueA Film and directed his first feature documentary, Sacred Sounds, in Morocco.
Upon returning to Chicago, he partnered with Ilko Davidov at BulletProof Film to produce and direct fiction and non-fiction films, and provide production and post-production services for other independent producers.
Cervi has juried a number of film festivals, and co-founded and was director of the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival (CIMMfest).
Timothy Dillard
Actor / Writer / Director / Producer
Upon Tim Dillard’s love of film began as a toddler when he demanded to attend a second screening of Superman at the age of three, but his love of filmmaking began when he snuck onto the set of Carlito’s Way as a teenager.
After studying directing and acting in college, Dillard spent four years grinding away in the independent film scene of Austin, Texas in the nineties, working in whatever capacity he could on projects that ranged from big budget and prestigious to schlock. A move to Europe in 2002 found Dillard working as a personal assistant, stand in, production assistant, production coordinator, and assistant director on various jobs that brought him to locations across Europe and Africa.
After a chance encounter with six-time Academy Award Nominee Jim Sheridan, Dillard began his professional screenwriting career. He has gone on to have a couple of scripts optioned, a couple sold, and several more to write, pitch, and eventually produce.
“Film is the highest form of artistic expression and there is nothing that compares to being a part of the army of technicians, craftspeople, artists, accountants, caterers and rogues that come together to realize the vision of a director.”
Romell Foster-Owens
Emmy Award-Winner / Producer / Director / Writer
Romell Foster-Owens is an award winning Filmmaker, Producer, Director, and Writer of television series, shorts, commercials, and independent feature films. A 20 year veteran of TV and film, Foster-Owens has produced over 100 hours of television, produced 30 films and directed the feature films, Reach For The Skies and The Three Muscatels, both distributed by SONY.
Foster-Owens has the rare distinction of three films, that she produced, being “Official Selections” of the Cannes Film Festival. Other festivals include Sedona, Palm Beach, Pan African International Film Festival, Dances With Films, and the Milan, Madrid and Cleveland International Film Festivals.
Additionally, she produced The Lift, winner of Best Film and Best Director at the Madrid International Film Festival and My Mom And The Girl, winner of the Best Picture and Jury Award at the Connect Film Festival. She produced feature films, First Love and The Lonesome Trail.
Foster-Owens’ numerous awards include an EMMY Award, NAACP Image Award, and the Black Filmmaker’s Hall of Fame Award for Best Independent Film, the National Council of Christians and Jews Humanitarian Award and the Platinum Aurora Award for Best In Show. She also the winner of three Gold Aurora Awards, four Telly Awards, four Addy Awards and the Women In Film Spotlight Award for Outstanding Achievement as a producer.
Foster-Owens is a graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute (Directing), San Diego State University (Theatre), the Producers Guild of America’s Power of Diversity Workshop and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca All Access Program. Foster-Owens is a member of the Alliance Of Women Directors, Women In Film, and Board Member of the Gang Alternatives Program and a Board Member Emeritus of The American Film Institute’s Center for Advance Film Studies. Foster-Owens is the President of Jowharah Films.
Brian Kallies
Producer / Editor
Brian Kallies is an independent documentary filmmaker having produced and/or edited feature docs and docuseries for Showtime, Discovery+, American
Public Television, Apple TV, Amazon, TruTV, other networks and streaming services.
His comedy documentary PHUNNY BUSINESS was critically acclaimed by Roger Ebert as “one of the best documentaries of the year.” Kallies’ environmental feature-length documentary directorial debut, EVERGLADES OF THE NORTH, inspired a national wildlife preserve and water trail. His editorial and story work on another environmental documentary, SHIFTING SANDS, directly affected legislation to create the Indiana Dunes National Park.
Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez
Writer / Director / Producer
Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez is a Latinx director, screenwriter, and producer based in Chicago. His work has been screened at film festivals around the world and featured on the popular short film website Filmstortage.com.
When not working on personal films, Martín contributes his talents to the ever-growing Chicago film industry as a Location Scout for feature films, television, and commercials. His most recent credits include the films Candyman And The Last Shift, as well as the upcoming Amazon show Paper Girls.
Tony Medici
Producer / Director / Cinematographer
Tony Medici is an award winning producer/director/cinematographer with a passion for the visual arts. He is driven to utilize these arts as a catalyst to effect change, create dialog and foster new and expanding perspectives. As Marshal Macluhan declared, “The Medium is the message.”
His career has spanned over 40 years and is going strong. During this time, Medici has been contributing to the creation of television programs covering a myriad of genres from news, sports and cable programming, to corporate, industrial, arts, social media, not for profit and short form and feature documentaries.
Documentary production is my life’s work. It is within this genre that he is most driven and finds his greatest fulfillment. Documentaries afford Medici and the people he collaborates with, the opportunity to share diverse subject matter that he hopes enriches viewer’s points of view, as well as motivates conversation on important social issues.
Medici’s documentary work has touched upon a diverse array of topics ranging from Chicago’s Mexican mural movement, rock star Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, arson, the labor movement in Chicago, the history of Maxwell Street, Chicago’s legendary outdoor bazar, Ken Nordine the creator of Word Jazz, “Juke” hip hop, The Chicago “Imagists” and others.
David Moore
Entertainment Executive
David Moore graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 1992 and has been working in the film and music world since.
After working with the City of Chicago’s Film Office producing industry conferences and film showcases, he took on the role of Executive Director of The Chicago International Music and Movie Film Festival. CIMMFest became the second largest film festival in Chicago with annual attendance over 10,000.
Maja Memišević
Producer
Maja Memišević is a Chicago based Bosnian born and raised producer of short films and documentaries. While studying law in Sarajevo, she was an active member of the local film and music industries, which inspired her to pursue a creative arts path. Memišević collaborates with talented filmmakers from USA, Canada, Peru and Brazil passionately seeking to understand herself, and the world around her through film.
When not working on shorts and docs, Memišević contributes her talents and skills to the ever-growing Chicago film industry working in production on feature films, television, reality shows, and commercials for well-known networks such as Netflix, Amazon, Fox, HBO, NBC, etc.
Her credits include The Last Yugoslavs (documentary), The Carbonaro Effect (reality show), Amy Schumer (Netflix specials), What They Had (narrative feature starring Hilary Swank), Hypothetical (award winning short film), The Orange Story (short film).
Memišević has been involved in many film festivals, such as Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance, Chicago International Film Festival, CIMMfest, and WIFF where she was also selected to be a jury member in 2020 for Mark Boscariol’s 48 Hour Flick Fest.
Koji Steven Sakai
Writer / Producer
Writer/Producer Koji Steven Sakai is the founder of Little Nalu Pictures LLC. He has written seven feature films that have been produced, including, The Commando, a feature film starring Michael Jai White and Mickey Rourke; Haunted Highway (2006), The People I’ve Slept With, Santa & Me, #1 Serial Killer, and Dying to Kill.
Most recently, Sakai wrote and produced a feature film, Last Girl, which is in post-production. The film was the directorial debut of Arsal Asal and stars Jeanne Lau, Stephen L. Wilson, Sarah Wong Thompson, and Christopher Dionne. In addition, his screenplay, Romeo, Juliet, & Rosaline, was optioned by Amazon Studios.
Sakai has also produced a one-hour comedy special on Starz, Dwayne Perkins: Take Note; Comedy InvAsian, a television series featuring the nation’s top Asian American comedians, and Brash Girls Club, a limited comedy series, which premiered on Tubi TV. He produces and hosts three podcasts; Guy Code; Best OR Worst Podcast with M. Martin Mapoma; and Midnight Watchers with Quentin Lee and Jennifer Field.
A graduate of the University of Southern California’s Masters of Professional Writing program, Sakai is currently a screenwriting instructor at UCLA Extensions, New York Film Academy in Burbank, and Chapman University.
Abe Scheuermann
Writer / Producer
Abe Scheuermann is a writer/ producer working primarily in documentary television. Among others, Scheuermann has produced television for History, Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet and TRVL.
After producing two documentary series for History and Animal Planet which used 3D animation, he founded a small, independent video game studio, 800 North, where he developed Dino D-Day, which released on Stream in 2011.
Rana Segal
Director / Producer / Cinematographer
Rana Segal has worked as director, producer and cinematographer for over 30 years. Her work has aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, and Discovery Health Channel. She is an award-winning Director and has received an Emmy nomination for Painting the Town about a Chicago Mural artist, and as a Producer for Shifting Sands: On The Path To Sustainability, about the Indian Dunes.
She has shot many different kinds of films and videos: fashion, music videos, commercials and many documentaries. Some of her documentaries include: Chicago Riverfront: Where The Present Meets The Past, about Chicago architecture, When The Spill Hit Homer, about the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Blue Collar And Buddha, about Laotian Refugees and racism in a small town in Illinois, and Surviving Domestic Violence.
Her latest film is called The Light Of Truth: Richard Hunt’s Monument To Ida B. Wells.
Janice Varney-Hamlin
Entertainment Executive
Janice Varney-Hamlin’s scope of expertise spans entertainment, consumer products, tech and retail industries where she built billion-dollar global brands. She is the founder and CEO of Marketing Immersion, a marketing agency with an expertise and passion for building businesses and brand profitability. Some of their clients include Netflix, Amazon, PBS, PSD Underwear, Mattel, McDonalds, etc.
Varney-Hamlin has been honored by being featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and was granted the title “one of the movers and shakers of the year” as part of a cover story by HFN. She has appeared in Time Magazine, USA Today, Good Morning America, People, Eye on Business, OC Business Journal, Good Morning America and NPR.
Recently, she was featured in two of four episodes of the Netflix documentary, The Toys That Made Us. In this documentary, Varney-Hamlin was noted for her work on Barbie and for being the creator of She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe.
Varney-Hamlin earned an MBA from CSULA and a Master’s in Internet Marketing and Analytics from USF. She is an advisor and member of Arch Angels of Orange County, OSEA, and Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel investment group in the country. She holds board positions on Cuddly.com, and The ACE Fund.
Elizabeth Waller
Producer
Most of Elizabeth Waller’s work has been documentary, working with such people as Tom Weinberg, Ron Weiner, Towers Productions, Duke Hillinger, Ben Hollis, D.P. Carlson, and Rana Segal. She has stood on line for 7:00am breakfast at the commissary of PBS behind Bill Kurtis and has done several special projects, such as Lawyers for the Creative Arts, Chicago. She was working in a newsroom on 9/11.
Waller is a born-and-bred New Yorker and traces her interest in film and media to the influence of her Aunt who worked for decades at NBC-TV NY in the days when it was not so easy to be a woman in television.
She studied/produced films in Paris, The Center for New Television, Chicago; produced a talk show under Ron Weiner (Phil Donohue’s original Director) at Columbia College, Chicago. She has worn many hats in the production world, including location/talent scouting, writing, editing, voiceovers, visuals/scripts, tape logs, shooting, pulling/logging tape, producing segments and creative consulting.
Brian Wilson
Animator
Brian Wilson is an animator with 20 years experience. Most of his work has been in the arena of advertising. Some of the agencies he has worked with under the title of motion director include Leo Burnett, DDB, FCB Draft and HAVAS Worldwide.
Wilson is also a music producer with producer credits on over 10 albums.