2011 Festival Jury
NARRATIVE FEATURES JURY
Brian Newman is the founder of Sub-Genre Media, a film and new media production, distribution and marketing company. sub-genre helps filmmakers and new media artists to develop their projects and bring them to an audience. Sub-Genre specializes in audience development, transmedia business practices and distribution strategies. Brian was most recently CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute, where he conceived and launched the Reframe project, a ground-breaking initiative to make available films that were "stuck on the shelf" and disappearing from access. He speaks regularly on new media, innovation, audience development and the future of the industry. He was previously executive director of IMAGE Film & Video Center, producer of the Atlanta Film Festival, and has held positions at IFP and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Brian was born in North Carolina and has an MA in Film Studies from Emory University.
Daniel Waters came to L.A. from Indiana and wrote a screenplay while working in a video store. The screenplay was 1989's Heathers, the darkly comic crucifixion of the Teen Film genre that continues to influence pop culture, for better or worse, to this day. From there, Daniel dived into a scary forest of studio filmmaking with varying degrees of success (Hudson Hawk, Batman Returns, and Demolition Man). Disillusioned, he embarked on a wildly unheralded directing career with Happy Campers and Sex and Death 101, for which he won the audience award for Best Director at the 2007 Seattle International Film Festival. He is currently trying to re-define the vampire genre with an adaptation of Christopher Moore's cult novel, Bloodsucking Fiends, for 20th Century Fox with his more commercially successful younger brother, Mark, set to direct.
DOCUMENTARIES JURY
Dorothy Henckel is the Director of Acquisitions at the Documentary Channel. After earning a B.S. in Chemistry from Indiana University she began her career as a Research Scientist at Roche Diagnostics where she worked for over 11 years. During that time, her path led her to the Indianapolis International Film Festival where over many years she learned nearly every aspect of running a film festival and later became president of the organization’s Board of Directors. From there she left big screens for small ones, said goodbye to the FDA and hello to the FCC, all to join the wild and wonderful world of television at the Documentary Channel. In her spare time Dorothy has produced several award winning short films. She is the forth of six children and claims to be her parents favorite.
Paul Rachman began his film career making underground punk films and music videos for bands such as the Bad Brains and Gang Green in the 1980's. He later rose to become one of the of the industry's top music video directors at Propaganda Films in Los Angeles where he worked with Alice in Chains, Roger Waters, Joan Jett, The Replacements and the Pearl Jam / Soundgarden collaboration "Temple of the Dog." By 1999 he had directed several award winning short films, Drive Baby Drive (1995), and a series of collaborations with NPR storyteller Joe Frank. He made his feature directorial debut in 2000 with Four Dogs Playing Poker, starring Forrest Whittaker, Balthazar Getty and Olivia Williams. In 2006 his seminal punk documentary American Hardcore premiered at Sundance and was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics. He is currently finishing his second feature documentary, Lost Rockers, about musical artists who fell through the cracks of history, and he recently completed a new short film Zoe Rising about the late actress/writer Zoe Lund (Bad Lieutenant, Ms. 45). Paul is also one of the founding filmmakers of the Slamdance Film Festival. He is based in New York City.
SHORT FILM JURY
Mark Bell, a veteran of the film festival circuit, worked with the Seattle International Film Festival and Slamdance Film Festival before joining Film Threat in 2003 as Senior Account Executive for Film Threat DVD.
Mark was named Editor-in-Chief of Film Threat in 2005, and became owner and publisher in 2010 after purchasing Film Threat from founder Chris Gore. Mark has appeared as a film pundit on G4 TV’s "Attack of the Show," and has also been a juror and featured panel speaker at numerous film festivals.
Skizz Cyzyk has spent most of the past 17 years serving as Founder/Festival Director for MicroCineFest; Programming Manager for the Maryland Film Festival; Advisory Board member/juror/technical crew for the Slamdance Film Festival; technical supervisor/projectionist for the Atlanta Film Festival; and a jury member at many other festivals. This is his third year serving on the Indie Memphis jury. He has been making films since 1983, having recently completed FREAKS IN LOVE, a feature documentary chronicling Alice Donut's first quarter century in underground rock. His current project, HIT & STAY, is a feature documentary about how much the antiwar movement has been influenced by activists like the Catonsville Nine. Skizz also writes for music and film magazines, serves on the Maryland Lawyers for the Arts Board of Directors, plays punk rock electric-ukulele for The Go Pills, and is the drummer for indie-pop sensations, The Jennifers, as well as Mink Stole & Her Wonderful Band.
Christine Elise McCarthy, originally from Boston, has been acting professionally for 22 years. She has been seen on many televisions shows, most notably "ER," "Beverly Hills 90210," HBO’s "Tell Me You Love Me," "Law & Order: SVU," "China Beach" and "In the Heat of the Night." Her film credits include many indie projects, including Route 30 and Mojave Phone Booth, as well as Boiling Point and Vanishing Point (both with Viggo Mortenson). As a writer, Christine has three episodes of "Beverly Hills 90210" to her credit and had a pilot optioned by Aaron Spelling. She has also appeared at the Los Angeles comedy theaters Upright Citizens Brigade and Naked Angels, reading comical true-life essays. She has been on the selection committee of Michigan’s Waterfront Film Festival for all or its 13 years and in August wrapped Prom, the first feature in Disney’s new film franchise. Bathing & the Single Girl, screening out-of-competition at the festival, is Christine’s first effort in producing / directing.
HOMETOWNER JURY
Adam Donaghey, president and founder of Zero Trans Fat Productions, is an award-winning independent film producer from Texas. His work has been seen at festivals and theatrical screenings all over the world. Adam's latest projects include Eric Steele's 2011 Austin Film Festival selection Uncertain, TX; Clay Liford's 2011 SXSW selection Wuss; 2010 Sundance Selection My Mom Smokes Weed; 2010 SXSW selection Earthling; Independent Spirit nominee Bryan Poyser's 2010 Sundance selection, Lovers of Hate; and Frank V. Ross' Audrey the Trainwreck, named number eighteen on the New Yorker's list of top 2010 films, and winner of the inaugural Nice Shoes Award at the 2010 Indie Memphis Film Festival. His features in post-production include Frank V. Ross' latest, Tiger Tail in Blue, Ryan Harper Gray's This is a Love Story, and Michelle Mower's Preacher's Daughter. His first feature film, 2009 Indie Memphis Film Festival selection St. Nick, won the Grand Jury Prize for Texas Filmmaking at AFI Dallas and was subsequently picked up by Watchmaker Films. Adam is a graduate of the University of North Texas with a B.A. in Philosophy and is a member of the Kemah Volunteer Fire Department.
Eliza Hajek was born with a vestigial tail! Her parents took her around the world in a traveling show featuring other aberrations, where she was the star. When interest in her died down, she consulted a wise man who told her she would become rich and famous after moving to Los Angeles and becoming involved in film. Looks like he was right!
Her duties as SAGindie's Manager of Development and Sponsorship encompass (among other things) traveling to film festivals, speaking on panels and at seminars, and interacting with independent producers worldwide in order to get the word out about the SAG Low Budget Agreements.
Chris Parnell was a cast member of "Saturday Night Live" from 1998-2006 where he was a part of many memorable sketches and commercial parodies including "The Cowbell Sketch," "The Centaur," "Wade Blasingame: Dog Attorney" and one of the first viral videos, "Lazy Sunday." Chris plays Dr. Leo Spacemen on NBC's award winning "30 Rock," and the voice of Cyril Figgis on the FX animated spy comedy, "Archer." He also appears as Fred Shay opposite fellow SNL alum Ana Gasteyer on the new ABC sitcom, "Suburgatory." On the big screen, Chris will be appearing in the upcoming Judd Apatow/Universal Pictures feature, The Five Year Engagement, as well as the upcoming Columbia Pictures release, 21 Jump Street. Past film work includes Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Chris had his feature film debut in 1996 in Jingle All the Way, playing a toy store salesman opposite his future governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The son of well-known Memphis voice-over artist and former disc jockey, Jack Parnell, Chris got his start early, playing a baby in a stroller in a WHBQ television commercial. His first on-camera speaking role was playing a sacker in a local Piggly Wiggly commercial. He found his calling at Germantown High School and appeared in every play and musical they would cast him in. Chris got his B.F.A. in drama from the North Carolina School of the Arts, did summer stock with the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and performed with the Alley Theater in Houston. After moving to Los Angeles and taking many improvisation and sketch writing classes at The Groundlings Theatre, Parnell became a member of the company in 1997.
2011 Festival Awards
JURY AWARDS
Best Narrative Feature*
Nice Shoes Award*
Includes $25,000 in color grading and finishing services at Nice Shoes, an artist-driven design, animation, VFX and color grading studio in New York City.
Duncan-Williams Scriptwriting Award*
Includes $1,000 cash prize, presented by Duncan-Williams, Inc.
Oxford American 'Soul of Southern Film' Award
Includes $1,000 cash prise, presented by the Editors of The Oxford American.
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Best Documentary Feature*
Best Documentary Short
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Best Narrative Short
Best Animated/Experimental Film
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Best Hometowner Feature*
Includes $1,000 cash prize, presented by the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission / Memphis ED
Best Hometowner Short
Includes $1,000 cash prize, presented by the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission / Memphis ED
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Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award
The Ron Tibbett Award is given annually in honor of our late friend and mentor Ron Tibbett -- award-winning filmmaker; founder/director of the Magnolia Film Festival; and all-around source of love, good humor and inspiration. Ron loved to give awards at "The Mag;" if he could, he'd present an award to every filmmaker in attendance. We love to give awards too, so we created this one in his memory.
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Audience Choice Awards
Narrative Feature*
Documentary Feature*
Short Film
Hometowner
* Award include InkTip prize package.