Film Festival Jury
Summer 2022
Sasheen Artis
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.
Maggie Bellomy
Director/Creator
Prior to joining MammothVision, Maggie Bellomy worked hand-in-hand with the directors at Threshold Animation to create a number of productions for LEGO which include: Bionicle: The Legend Reborn (direct to DVD film) and Clutch Powers (4D Film), Lego: Atlantis (TV special), Hero Factory (TV mini-series). She personally oversaw every aspect of production ensuring each phase was executed to the highest quality from story and pre-production, all the way to final render, comp, and output. She also worked directly with the LEGO executives to ensure their vision and expectations were being met and many times exceeded.
Before her foray into LEGO production, Bellomy’s work included the blockbuster stereoscopic film AVATAR with Lightstorm Entertainment. Based on her reputation as being an expert in the latest motion capture techniques and her leadership abilities, she was recruited to help oversee the production artists. During her time with Lightstorm, Bellomy streamlined and standardized the layout and motion capture pipeline, making it more ‘artist friendly’ resulting in a marked increase in efficiency with less artist error. In addition to managing and scheduling the team, she worked on key scenes of the film directly with James Cameron.
Bellomy’s animation experience includes being invited to join the Animal Logic team in Sydney, Australia to work on HAPPY FEET, her first feature film. She quickly proved herself and earned the privilege of creating key animations for the film’s lead characters Mumbles, Gloria, Raoul and the baby penguins.
Before moving into films, Bellomy honed her skills in animation and in the use of motion capture working on television and video games. Among her many game credits are AND1 Streetball, The X-Files Resist or Serve, and the Knockout Kings series. She worked in a variety of computer graphics roles, specializing in character animation during her early career. Her work includes national television commercials and station branding graphics packages. Bellomy is the artist behind the award-winning logo for the Sarasota area transit system.
Angela Boisvert
Director/Creator
Angela Boisvert is an award-winning television producer whose credits include: Artbound: Lula Washington, Open Your Eyes, Writers
Block 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.
Jerry Bryant
Director/Creator
Chicago music legend and founder of JBTV, Jerry Bryant, has produced and aired over 3,600 episodes of the television music showcase since its inception in 1985. His love for music, respect for talent, and determination to introduce overlooked artists to his loyal viewers have twice garnered hin the coveted Billboard Music Video Award for Best Local/Regional Alternative Modern Rock Show and multiple Chicago/Midwest Emmy® Awards for production.
Jerry's music history began in the mid-1960s with the formation of Studio Enterprises, a student radio training ground with Junior Achievement. He produced radio specials with The Supremes, The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other new acts at the time. In 1967, Jerry produced Studio 68, a local Milwaukee TV program featuring high school students doing comedy skits and reporting musical news. From 1971 to 1973, Jerry was General Manager, Program Director and on-air personality at WQFM in Milwaukee.
Jerry co-founded SuperSpots, a company developed to produce creative television advertising for the entertainment and leisure industry. SuperSpots moved to Chicago in 1979 to take advantage of the growing television market to include cable advertising. The company continues today and Jerry has developed Emmy® Award-winning spots for national and local advertising campaigns like WLIT-FM.
Jerry developed JBTV to show artistic music videos on TV. An all-volunteer student staff gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to do all aspects of television production. Every year, more than 20 interns graduate from JBTV into professional industry jobs.
Throughout his career, Jerry generously welcomed new artists and promoted their work when major channels presented barriers to new music talent. He has launched the careers of hundreds of artists— many have gone on to worldwide acclaim. The big names in modern rock history who owe their success, in part, to JBTV include Joey Rame, Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, Moby, No Doubt and Henry Rollins. As a result, Chicago's JBTV has become the longest running resource of modern-music television programming in the world and Jerry Bryant has become an icon in the rock 'n roll community
Gustavo Martín Benites Gálvez
Director, Screenwriter and 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.
Ben Hollis
Director/Creator
Ben Hollis is an award-winning filmmaker, The Treasure - My Surprising Pandemic Love Affair (2021), and 8-time Emmy recipient for his pioneering work in Chicago television, most notably co-creating, co-producing and hosting the gonzo travelogue Wild Chicago. Thanks to the Found Footage Festival, Hollis's cult classic, Meet Rent-A-Friend, the Original Video Companion, continues to impress media connoisseurs including David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and the editors of Rolling Stone, People Magazine and The Washington Post.
Reed Marvine
Director/Creator
Reed Marvine is a motion graphics artist and broadcast designer working at WTTW, Chicago's PBS station. He has worked in the design industry for over 10 years creating animations for documentaries, like Chicago By 'L', Chicago Stories, The Great Chicago Quiz Show. Marvine also works on the branding and infographics for the nightly live news program Chicago Tonight. He has also previously worked on local hits, like Check, Please, as well as national shows focusing on architecture and nature, like 10 That Changed America and Prehistoric Road Trip.
The team at WTTW is small but scrappy and Marvine has to wear many hats. The hat of a designer that develops logos and branding for new and long-running programs. An animator who uses 2D and 3D tools to tell stories and communicate complex ideas in approachable ways. A coder that builds easy to use templates for news producers. A live production crew member who gets on the headset and plays out graphics for live news, special events, and election night extravaganzas.
Marvine taps into his love for media and technology while never forgetting the fundamentals and the masters who have paved the way. He is always learning, teaching, remixing, and creating. Marvine graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2010.
Stephen McClain
Director/Creator
Originally from Kentucky, Stephen McClain moved to Chicago when I finished my undergrad degrees (BA, Music Performance; BA, English Literature) to pursue a career in acting, writing and directing (stage and film). McClain performed in numerous plays, musicals and operas during his time in Chicago. He acted in a few independent films and industrials. McClain also worked on many film sets in many different positions and roles including assistant director, screenwriter, and independent filmmaker. McClain has an MFA in film and an MMEd in music education.
Brian McLaughlin
Producer and Co-President of Emerald Elephant Entertainment
As a producer and co-president of Emerald Elephant Entertainment, Brian McLaughlin has produced four feature films – all acquired for distribution, two on Amazon Prime Video. He has several in development, a few of which are currently being shopped around. He’s a member of the Producers Guild of America and is on its Education, Mentoring, and Asian American Pacific Islander committees, as well as a mentor in its Power of Diversity Master Workshop and One-on-One Mentoring Program. There was an article about McLaughlin and his work with veterans in the PGA’s Produced By magazine October/November 2018 issue. He is an active member of Veterans in Media and Entertainment and its Producers Guild Liaison.
McLaughlin has written two feature film screenplays, one of which was a quarter-finalist in the prestigious PAGE International Screenwriting Awards and selected for the PGA’s Diversity Workshop. He’s a member of Imagine Entertainment’s invitation-only Impact Community, 500 writers out of 20,000 applicants. McLaughlin is an alumnus of the Writers Guild Foundation’s Veterans Writing Project and continues as a volunteer in that training. He’s been published in The Hollywood Reporter and Produced By magazine.
McLaughlin was a visiting film producer at Notre Dame and instructor at the Los Angeles Film School. He is a former Army major who commanded a paratrooper unit, served in Afghanistan in special operations, and later returned to Afghanistan as the media production advisor to General Petraeus. McLaughlin has a business degree from Notre Dame and an MBA from Boston University. Notre Dame honored him with an Exemplary Asian Pacific Alumni Award.
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.
Maja Memišević
Producer/Director/Cinematographer
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.
Dave Moore
Producer/Director/Cinematographer
Dave 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.
Justin Possenti
Filmmaker/Actor
Justin Possenti is an award-winning filmmaker and actor who has worked in TV and Film for over 20 years. He believes that the highest purpose of the art form is to shine a light onto all aspects of society so that civilization can evolve. He loves his dog Olive big time.
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.
Brian Ratigan
Animator and Director
Brian Ratigan is an award-winning animator and director who is a champion of independent film. He is the founder of Non Films, a label for ephemeral animation and experimental cinema in New York City. Ratigan is established in the film festival circuit as a programmer and jury for Slamdance Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and the London Indie Festival, among others. Ratigan serves as Director of Animation for Kumar Pictures, co-founded Atlanta production company Sugartooth Group, and co-manages Chaotic Cinema.
David Sarno
Writer/Producer
David Sarno is an award-winning editor and filmmaker based in Chicago with over 20 years of experience across many genres. Dave has a passion for film. His documentary work has been screened at festivals across the country and broadcast on CNBC, PBS, OWN, ID, and The History Channel.
Tom Siegel
Videographer, Editor, and Field Producer/Director
Tom Siegel is a broadcast television production veteran with 39 years of experience as a videographer, editor, and field producer/director. Siegel has held staff production positions with Warner/Amex Satellite Entertainment, NBC affiliate WMAQ-TV and PBS affiliate WTTW in Chicago. Credited with 4 Emmy Awards for individual excellence in editing, audio production, cinematography, and for producer/director for the Documentary of Social Significance, Journey of Remembrance. Siegel has also received two Peter Lisagor Journalism Awards for Documentary Cinematography and Editing. Additionally, he was honored with a National C.E.N. award for Children’s and Youth Programming.
Siegel has played a significant role in the production of The PBS NewsHour, The Nightly Business Report, and Soundstage for the National PBS network. Locally for WTTW, he has served as a videographer/editor on documentaries, including Chicago by L, Beauty Rises: Four Lives in The Arts, and Art & Design in Chicago, Top Guns of ’43, as well as ongoing programs Chicago Tonight, Check Please, and the Chicago Stories series. In 2006, he produced and directed WTTW’s travel series, Wild Chicago’s Illinois Road Trip. In 2010, Siegel was chosen to produce and direct one of the 23 Films created for Chicago's Olympic bid.
Elizabeth Waller
Producer/Director
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.
She gives a respectful nod to all of this festival’s participants knowing the blood, sweat, and tears that go into it all and looks forward to seeing their names roll in credits for years to come.