Richard Bailey
Richard Bailey’s movies The Dark Sisters (2023), King Judith (2022) and A Ship of Human Skin (2020) are available in wide release through various streaming services. His movies have shown at Alchemy Moving Image, Anthology Film Archives, Arizona Underground, AVIFF Cannes, Berlin Revolution, Black Maria, Dallas VideoFest, Hyperreal Film Club, Proyector International, SENE, SXSW, and many other festivals.
Jeffrey Schwarz
Jeffrey Schwarz is an Emmy Award-winning producer and director known for an extensive body of non-fiction work. His latest feature documentary is Commitment to Life, which chronicles the city of Los Angeles’ response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. It premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February, 2023.
His previous film, Boulevard! A Hollywood Story, is about Gloria Swanson’s attempt to adapt Sunset Boulevard into a musical and the resulting threesome with her songwriters. It premiered at Los Angeles Outfest in 2021. Other work includes The Fabulous Allan Carr (2017), about the flamboyant producer of Grease and La Cage Aux Folles, Tab Hunter Confidential (2015), a biographical portrait of the 1950s screen heartthrob, I Am Divine (2013), about the international drag superstar and John Waters’ leading lady, and HBO Documentary Films’ Vito (2011), the Emmy-winning portrait of beloved gay activist Vito Russo. Vito was nominated for two 2013 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Historical Programming, as well as a 2013 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Schwarz’s other films include Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008) and Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, which won the 2007 AFI Fest Documentary Audience Award and aired on Turner Classic Movies.
Donna Marvin-Platt
Donna Marvin-Platt, a modern day “renaissance woman,” is an award-winning art director and filmmaker, as well as a writer and comedienne. She has over 30 years creative direction experience in the field of medical advertising and has also acted and sang professionally, performing sketch comedy at such venues as Caroline’s, NYC. She wrote and produced the one-person show Life in the Short Lane which she performed at the 78th Street Theatre Lab in NYC. Her last film, the comedic short, Mini Happy Returns, was presented at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
Originally from New Rochelle, NY, Donna received her BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University and currently resides in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with her husband and two young adult children. Missed Conceptions is her first feature documentary.
Peter Flynn
Peter Flynn is a documentary filmmaker and educator. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and teaches courses in media production and film history at Emerson College.
Peter was born in Dublin, Ireland and lives with his wife, son, and two cats in Boston, MA.
His films include Film is Dead. Long Live Film (2024), The Dying of the Light (2016), and Blazing the Trail: The O'Kalems in Ireland (2011).
Dick Atkins
Dick Atkins has been producing and writing movies and television for many years, first as Vice President of Production for Telecom Entertainment (a subsidiary of the advertising agency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles) and then for his own companies, A-Films and Atkins Pictures Inc. He was producer of the feature films Asunder in Virginia, and Forced March (which he also wrote) in Hungary, in addition to serving as executive producer or producer on numerous television movies for network and syndication, including Murder in Coweta County and The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story, a health and lifestyle cable series, three documentaries, an original eight-part video series and pilots for syndication and cable. He also has written three original theatrical shows for teenage performers, and directed many hours of documentary footage in Mongolia with the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere.
One of his current projects, The Dinner Set Gang, was profiled on both CBS/60 Minutes (story nominated for an Emmy) and Court TV. He has worked with many stars, including Kiefer Sutherland, Johnny Cash, Andy Griffith, Richard Gere, Blair Underwood, Angela Lansbury, Lee Remick, Marsha Mason, Mary Steenburgen, Ron Silver, Gregory Harrison, Kenny Rogers and Chris Sarandon, and with award-winning directors and writers.
Jill Salvino
After a successful advertising and commercial career Jill Salvino began directing for film and television. She has directed seven short films. Taking it for Granted won Best Drama at NYC’s Downtown Film Festival, two episodes of The Sonnet Project presented by the New York Shakespeare Exchange and Lies People Tell which premiered in the San Pedro International Film Festival. Lies was chosen by the New York Women in Film and Television as one of their Top Short Films of the Year. Six Degrees of Charity featuring Kevin Bacon raised money for various charities. My Second Backpack is part of the state curriculum for senior year New York kids.
Between the Shades was Jill’s documentary feature directorial debut and was featured day of release in The New York Times and is currently licensed in Universities across the country, available on most platforms and has made its network premiere. Salvino also lectures and does LGBTQI+ panel discussions for corporate America with cuts of this film.
Salvino is a member of Promax, long-standing chair of the Telly Silver Counsel, and a Member of the New York Women in Film and Television, as well as the Emmy Academy. Jill has accumulated over 200 industry awards including: Promax, Tellys, NY Festival, Addys, and an Emmy.
Marty Ketola
Writing Fren-Zee director Marty Ketola has produced five feature films. Alongside Clif Campbell, he also co-wrote the critically acclaimed twenty-episode sci-fi comedy series, Zhon: The Alien Interviews (RobEric Media, 2013), which has the running time of two feature films.
Ketola is also an award-winning film editor, and recent work includes the short thriller Bequest (RicMel Films 2018) which has won awards at eighteen festivals.
Fred Zara
At age 15, Trenton, New Jersey native, Fred Zara, was the drummer for the punk rock band, Prisoners of War, playing venues in the Northeast, including Manhattan’s famed CBGB.
By the late 1990s, Fred began shifting his focus from music to film production. He has since been involved in dozens of documentary and narrative films, both in front and behind the camera. As writer and director his films have screened at film festivals across the US.
His 2009 feature-length documentary, Average Community, which chronicled his early days in Trenton, won awards at festivals in Philadelphia, Orlando, and NYC. In March of 2016, Fred’s narrative feature film, Read Me, premiered in New York City at the Queens World Film Festival and won the festival's award for Best Actor in a Feature Film.
Fred's third award-winning feature film, The Suicide of James Rider, was released by BayView Entertainment in 2020.
Brooke Harris Wolff
Brooke Harris Wolff has been a screenwriter, a member of a standup comedy duo with Wally Dalton, an improv acting teacher, a lyricist, a music producer, and a songwriter (her original songs can be heard on her album, The Last Broad Standing).
Recently, she completed a novelization (Killing Time in Beverly Hills); a sibling memoir (Growing Up Harris), written with Geoff, James, and Jonathan Harris; a graphic novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds, with a story co-written by Academy Award-winning production designer Rick Carter and illustrated by Talia Spencer. Brooke is also the executive producer of the album, These Are the Times—a one-of-a-kind musical, for which she wrote the lyrics, with music by Grant Johnson. Its music director/orchestrator was Doug Walter and producer John Koenig, and is available for purchase as a concept album on various streaming platforms.
Eye of the Storm is the first film Brooke produced and directed. A feature documentary, it chronicles American comedy by tracking the career of standup comic director, Howard Storm. It has been shown in 60 festivals and won 44 awards. She plans to base future films on her own screenplays. Meanwhile, she keeps writing, producing, and directing.
Glenn Berggoetz
Glenn Berggoetz is the writer, director, and producer of twelve feature films. Such entertainment icons as Kane Hodder and Joe Bob Briggs have starred in Glenn's films. Glenn's most well-known films include To Die is Hard, Midget Zombie Takeover, Paralyzed with Fear, and The Worst Movie EVER!
Glenn has had four novels published, and his book on micro-budget filmmaking, The Independent Filmmaker's Guide: Make Your Feature Film for $2,000, was published by Hal Leonard/Rowman & Littlefield. Glenn is also the guitarist and primary singer for the band Norwegian Soft Kitten, which has had five songs reach #1 on indie charts in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
Jeffrey Checker
Dedicated to capturing the truth, and presenting the outcome in an entertaining fashion, Dr. Jeffrey Checker and his team have traveled extensively throughout the U.S., helping people get rid of unwanted, supernatural beings in their lives.
Jeffrey has published three books and has appeared on numerous talk and radio shows. He is an advocate for the underdogs and the oppressed.
With six film festival wins and a movie on a syndicated streaming channel, Dr. Checker and his company, 777 Productions, is capable and ready to create emotionally driven, real-to-life horror films.