RIIFF Podcasts
These podcasts were undertaken by Toni Pennacchia and Paul Elsnau for Spoiler Alert Radio during 2009 and 2008
To hear their most recent podcasts, click here
To hear their 2008 Festival Wrap Mini-Interviews, click here
MORE: pages: 2.3.4
Gregg Helvey received his M.F.A in film production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, and his B.A.s in English and French from the University of Virginia.
Gregg has traveled the world to film in countries such as El Salvador, China, Kenya and England on projects ranging from independent fictional films to National Geographic and BBC1 documentaries.
His award-winning work includes the documentary, Overexposed, which examines how pornography affects men.
Gregg wrote, directed and produced Kavi, the winning film of the 2009 Student Academy Award® gold medal in the narrative category. The film played at the 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Kavi was filmed entirely on location in India and tells the story of a young boy who wants to play cricket and go to school, but instead he is forced to work in a brick kiln as a modern-day slave.
Direct download: GreggHelvey-Kavi.mp3
Michael Ferreira, a native New Yorker of Portuguese immigrant decent, has performed in various theatrical mediums including: theater, television, film, and live cabaret performance, and also as his celebrated alter ego, Carmella Cann.
Michael is a strong presence in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community of New York City, and an advocate for the prevention of child abuse.
Michael is also contributor to the published book Straight Talk with Gay Guys: What Girlfriends Can't Tell You and Straight Men Won't by Daylle Deanna Schwartz.
He has based his film, It’s Me Matthew!, on a fictionalized account of his life story. Michael decided to act in a lead role and write, produce, and direct the film in order to help others like Matthew, with unresolved losses. The film played at the 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Direct download: MichaelFerreira-ItsMeMatthew.mp3
Sean Baker is best known for co-creating the cult television show Greg the Bunny.
Take Out, Sean's second feature which he co-directed, won the Regal Cinemas Dreammaker Award and Best Feature award at the Nashville Film Festival. Take Out is about an illegal Chinese immigrant that falls behind on payments on an enormous smuggling debt.
Darren Dean wrote, directed and produced the award winning short film Sleep Over for under $250. Born and raised in Northern New Jersey, Darren is a published author, editor and journalist. He was also the front-man for the popular NYC band, SHOT, which contributed music to the behind the scenes featurette for the Sundance award-winning film Acts of Worship.
Prince of Broadway is Sean Baker's 3rd feature film and Darren Dean’s 1st feature as producer and writer. It premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature. The film went on to win awards at a number of other major film festivals.
Prince of Broadway is the story of Lucky and Levon, two men whose lives converge in the underbelly of New York's wholesale fashion district.
Direct download: PrinceOfBroadway.mp3
Filmmaker and commercial editor Daniel Mitchell is originally from London and has been working in Melbourne and Sydney since 2001, editing high end television commercials.
Several years after film school, Daniel has focused his writing and directing work on children's films including Triple Concerto in D Minor.
In the short film Triple Concerto in D Minor, Rebecca, an ambitious young girl, had always wanted to play the triangle with an orchestra. When the National Youth Orchestra are in town, Rebecca has the chance to make her dream come true.
The film played at the 2009 Rhode Island International Film Festival at the Opening Night Gala.
Direct download: DanielMitchell-TripleConcerto.mp3
Scott Wurth is based in Killara, Australia and has used his background in both advertising and photography to focus on documentary storytelling.
Scott has filmed a trilogy of documentary films in the Philippines, including: Tira Bikal (Striking Metal), Cutud, and Panata.
Tira Bikal is about the Matias Santos family in the Philippines whose members became sick and began dying. Matias pledged to God to save his family by imitating the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
Through a grueling event called Tira Bakal, the Santos family tradition is kept alive as the family honors their late grandfather as they continue the ceremony for the family, their community, and generations of people behind it.
Tira Bikal has been touring the film festival circuit and has won awards in festivals including the Action on Film International Film Festival, the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, the Nigeria Entertainment International Film Festival, and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Direct download: ScottWurth-TiraBakal.mp3
Sue Gilbert has made two documentary features on old money wealth, values, past and future generations, Greenaway (in 1982) and Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy (twenty seven years later).
Beyond Greenaway: The Legacy, Sue Gilbert’s second feature, was created after devoting many years to family life. It had its premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Beyond Greenaway explores explores a range of diverse topics such as marriage and divorce, belief in God, drug therapy, and politics, seeing those with affluence as ordinary people sharing their struggles, regardless of their advantages.
In addition to touring a variety of film festivals, Sue conducts workshops based on issues addressed in Beyond Greenaway for businesses, schools and focus groups to help people examine their attitudes about both affluence and the role of their own backgrounds in shaping their values.
Direct download: SueGilbert-BeyondGreenaway.mp3
Victor Barcena won the first prize as a director at the Complutense University of Madrid with the play Woyzeck, from Georg Büchner.
In 2004, he began his Film Direction studies at the Film and Audiovisual Industry School of Madrid.
Victor then began his experience moving from theatre as a documentary director, screenwriter, and filmmaker in Madrid.
His dramatic narrative short called Las Manos De Abel has won a number of awards including at the Nashville Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Jaime Dezcallar has also been a member of a number of theatre companies and went into television work after law school. After 3 years working on the hit Spanish sitcom, Camera Café, and after completing a number of shorts films, he left Madrid to study directing in NYC where he currently resides.
Jaime's dramatic short, The Last Moments of Leopoldo Berenguer, has toured a number of prestigious film festivals worldwide.
Direct download: VictorAndJaimeRiiff2009.mp3
The Rhode Island International Film Festival's Technology Forum is series of discussion focused on the emerging marketing and distribution trends in digital and web-based technologies. This year's edition of the forum took place at the RI Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an affiliate of Brown University.
Listen to highlights of the RIIFF Technology Forum featuring the following panels along with participating RIIFF filmmakers:
• Bill Via, Founder, indieoma.com
• Yuval Zukerman, Technical Architect, Molecular
• Joel Evans, Founder, Cronk Games Inc.
• Carrie Olson, Intellectual Property Attorney, Day Pitney LLP
• Fred Spencer, Educator/Consultant, RISD Continuing Education/Awkward Novice
• Annette Tonti, CEO, MoFuse
• Blake Whitman, Director of Community, Vimeo.com
• David Tames, Co-Founder, Innovation Catalyst Partners, Inc.
• Josh Oakhurst, Web Division, Nail Advertising
Direct download: RIIFFTechForum-Final.mp3
Bobby Ciraldo is the co-owner of Special Entertainment is an Mary L. Nohl Fellowship Award winning production partnership between him and Andrew Swant whose mission is to blend art, entertainment, and humor.
Their projects include: Hamlet A.D.D, Frankie Latina’s Modus Operandi, a number of creative music videos like the famous What What In The Butt by Samwell, and the documentary William Shatner’s Gonzo Ballet (based on the story of the ballet Common People by Margo Sappington created to paint a picture of music and the spirit of William Shatner's album, Has Been) which has played film festivals worldwide.
Direct download: Bobby Ciraldo
Writer/director Rob Connolly discovered a love for creating visual images through studying art and photography while growing up in rural Mount Airy, North Carolina.
His passion for visual storytelling developed further while chronicling his travels around the world.
His latest work and thesis, Our Neck of the Woods, is about the character Bob Underwood's mundane life manufacturing plastic lawn-ornament deer and his connection to an enchanting Georgian refugee that he attempts to rescue her—whether she needs it or not. It has screened in Sundance, RIIFF and a variety of other large and small film festivals.
Direct download: Rob Connolly
Film publicist Nichola Ellis started out working for Columbia Pictures in London where she worked on her first feature Gandhi, Tootsie, and The Big Chill. She then went on to handle the UK campaigns for Highlander, Field of Dreams, and Dances With Wolves.
In 1990, Nichola moved to Los Angeles and joined Dennis Davidson Associates. At DDA, she was responsible for such international campaigns as: Malcolm X, City Slickers, and The Usual Suspects.
In 1995, she founded The Lighthouse Company, a Los Angeles based independent P.R. and marketing agency servicing the film industry, focusing on the complete journey of a film, both in the US and overseas markets, creating and implementing campaigns.
One of The Lighthouse Company's most recent publicity campaigns was for Jochen Alexander Freydank's Spielzeugland (Toyland) which won the 2009 Academy Award for Live Action Short and played the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Direct download: Nichola Ellis
Kai-Duc Luong was born in Cambodia and grew up in France and later made a detour in Chicago, IL.
He has made several award winning shorts and music videos for artists including Chat, The Frogs, and Marissa Nadler.
Kai's recent film, Someplace Else, is a musical journey with bluesman Vance Kelly and his band from Chicago’s south side, mixed with the effect that the band’s music has on the Kai’s personal outlook in life.
Someplace Else has screened at a number of films internationally including the Rhode Island International Film Festival, IFP Chicago, and the Hibernarock Festival in France.
Direct download: Kai-Duc Luong
Scott Bunt has written for newspapers, magazines and standup comics, penned radio and television shows, worked in the music industry as a songwriter, producer and musician.
His recent feature film, Sea of Dust, is based on the real life villain Prester John, and his vengeful master plan to sacrifice “the psychologically vulnerable” on the altar of evil.
Sea of Dust won Grand Prize for best feature film at the 2008 RI International Horror Film Festival.
Direct download: Scott Bunt: Sea of Dust
Geoff Thompson is a BAFTA winning writer, teacher, and martial artist.
Geoff Thompson has worked through a plethora of menial jobs, from glass collector to floor sweeper; he even spent a decade working as a nightclub bouncer.
Geoff decided to become a martial arts instructor and then followed this by living out his dream of becoming a writer.
He is now the author of over thirty books, a stage play, a BAFTA winning short film, Brown Paper Bag, and two feature films. He wrote a screenplay to the award winning short film, Romans 12:20, which won the Grand Prize International Discovery Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
His latest feature film, Clubbed, about a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman, has screened a variety of film festivals including the Raindance Film Festival.
Direct download: Romans 12:20
Based in Auckland, New Zealand, Justine Simei-Barton has worked in film, television, and theater, as director, writer, producer, and instructor. She heads her own film production company, Tala Pasifika Productions.
Justine has won a number of awards including the Senior Pacific Artists’ Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and a QE II Arts Council Travel Grant.
Her recent film The Trophy, portrays a young Samoan girl whose science project wins her a trophy, but creates tension within her tradition-oriented family.
The Trophy has played in film festivals around the world, including the Berlin International Film Festival, the Fajr Iran International Film Festival, and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
Direct download: The Trophy
More: pages 2. 3. 4
Links:
http://www.mergingartsproductions.com
http://www.spoileralertradio.com
http://www.bsrlive.com
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Gregg Helvey - Kavi
Michael Ferreira - It's Me, Matthew!
Sean Baker and Darren Dean - Prince of Broadway
Bobby Ciraldo - William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet
Rob Connolly - Our Neck of the Woods
Nichola Ellis - Film Publicist "Toyland" 
Kai-Duc Luong - Someplace Else
