RIIFF 2017 Team

AWARDS ADJUDICATION COMMITTEE:

Sara Archambault •

Sara Archambault is the Program Director at the LEF Foundation in Cambridge, MA, funding the work of independent, documentary film and video artists and broadening recognition and support for their work locally and nationally. She is a co-founder and programmer at The DocYard, Boston's premier nonfiction film series, bringing filmmakers from around the world to screen what's innovative and inspiring in documentary cinema. She is currently producing the documentary film STREET FIGHTING MAN about a neighborhood in transition in Detroit, MI, and is creating an online audio archive called Rhode Island Lost Landscapes which aims to preserve the memories of where things used to be. Sara frequently serves as a juror, panelist and moderator at a variety of film festivals; and volunteers for the Women¹s Fund of RI and Girls Rock! RI

Alice Cross •

Alice Cross teaches film studies at Roger Williams University.

Reshad Kulenovic, MFA •

Reshad Kulenovic is a writer/director based in Rhode Island and New York. He has worked in the production department of numerous films and TV shows, including THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS and in the camera department for the Newport Jazz Festival. He has been awarded the Antonio Cirino Memorial Art Fellowship and the University of Rhode Island gave him the first ever President's Award for Excellence in Film. For his short film SNOVI he became one of the first artists to be funded by the Heinrich Boll Foundation. Another producer of SNOVI was the Centre Andre Malraux Sarajevo, which also produced Jean-Luc Godard's NOTRE MUSIQUE. SNOVI has played 20 international film festivals and was awarded a Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Rhode Island International Film Festival. SNOVI was nominated for a 2011 Student Academy Award.

Reshad was a 2011-2012 RISCA Film Fellow, writing his follow up film while teaching in the Film Media program at the University of Rhode Island.

For more information got to: www.snovifilm.com

Michelle LeBrun •

Documentarian

The award-winning documentary Death: A Love Story, marked Ms. Le Brun’s debut as a filmmaker having directed, produced, written and photographed the film. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, won top awards at several other national film festivals and aired on national PBS and CBC Canada. An analysis of the film was also featured in Documentary Media, by Broderick Fox and Sundancing, by John Anderson. Ms. Le Brun has produced and directed a variety of short films that have aired on Rhode Island PBS including “Gone Fishin’ and “Ruth Dealy: A Portrait”. In 2002 Ms. Le Brun founded HARKEN! Youth Media providing workforce development filmmaking opportunities to youth. We teach youth to master their environment by learning storytelling, technical skills associated with camera work, interviewing, and editing as well as civic engagement to tell compelling stories. Michelle is also an adjunct professor in the Integrated Arts and Learning Graduate Masters Degree Program at Lesley University and also teaches in the Film Media and Communications departments of the University of Rhode Island.

Bob Leddy •

Film Historian

Retired in Nov. 2001 after 38 years at the Providence Journal, including two decades covering high school sports. He majored in journalism at URI Extension Division. For the past 41 years he has also been a contributor to the Journal-Bulletin's editorial pages, beginning with the former "In Perspective'' columns in both papers. His columns and unsigned editorials have focused on film history and criticism. Over the years, he has written numerous book reviews for the paper on film-related topics, and was a frequent lecturer on film history at Lenox (Mass.) High School, and Barrington (R.I.) High. Both schools at the time offered classes in film studies, at which he was invited to speak. He would arrange video screenings of movies, and devote classes to subjects such as film noir (both past and neo), cinematography, directing, story content, acting, etc.

Ray Lepre •

He earned a B.A. Degree from RI College in Film Studies (1989). For the past 17 years he has worked for Cox Communications as a producer and Operations Manager and currently oversees operations for Cox Sports New England, the company owned local network. He has worked as a sports free-lance camera operator covering the New England pro and college teams. Co-Directed “An Uzi at the Alamo” (Scarredheel Productions) 2005. Served as Director of Photography for the narrative short: “Balance” (Scarred Heel Productions) 2006. Is currently working on launching 8 Frederick Films, a local production company that specializes in the creation of short and feature narrative projects.

Ed Mastriano •

Ed Mastriano is a marketing manager at Cox Communications. In his position, Mastriano leads client-driven promotions and marketing services. He is responsible for developing the Cox Media brand, driving new product launches and building partnerships with customers and cable programmers. He has a B.A. from Franklin Pierce College.

G. Wayne Miller, an author, filmmaker and journalist, graduated from Harvard College in 1976 and became a reporter at The Transcript and then at The Cape Cod Times, small daily newspapers in Massachusetts. Since 1981, he has been a staff writer at The Providence Journal, where he specializes in feature and narrative journalism. In 2004, Miller was part of a team that made The Journal a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the paper’s coverage of the devastating Rhode Island Station Nightclub fire that killed 100 people in 2003. His eighth book,” An Uncommon Man: The Life and Times of Senator Claiborne Pell,” is about the six-term Rhode Island senator best remembered for creating the Pell Grants educational loan program. Miller also co-produced and wrote the documentaries “On the Lake: Life and Love in a Distant Place” (2009) and “Behind the Hedgerow: Eileen Slocum and the Meaning of Newport Society” (2010).

Kamille Gentles-Peart •

Assistant Professor of Communication at Roger Williams University teaching international communications.  A first-generation immigrant, born and raised in Jamaica, W.I.  she received a B.A. in Mass Communication, with a focus on multicultural journalism, from Lehman College of the City University of New York. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Her general research interests include the symbiotic relationship between media and the cultural settings in which they are produced.  More precisely, her scholarship addresses how the cultural identities of media audiences inform how they interpret media messages, and how media in turn shape the identities of their audiences.  Her current research explores how West Indian immigrant women in the U.S. interpret mainstream U.S. media content, and how it informs the construction of their identity. 

Duncan B. Putney • about
Actor/Screenwriter/Historical Consultant/History Casting

Duncan is a professional actor and award-winning screenwriter residing in Providence, Rhode Island while working in the New York and New England markets. Duncan is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he studied both accounting and theatre. He went on to make his career in acting in stage, film, and television, as well as an associate producer in film and theatre. He has performed stand up and improv., as well as being a published poet and historian. He has served as an officer/delegate for both SAG and AFTRA. Duncan is creative producer and co-founder of OCD Associates (Original Concept Development) and is also the creator of the History Casting division of LDI Casting, finding historic reenactors extras and historic consultants for film and television productions. Recent projects have been shown at the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Hall and on NBC television, winning two Gold Screen Awards. A public service campaign titled "Canisters" penned by Duncan won a 2009 Emmy Award.

Dr. Thomas R. Zorabedian •

Assistant Dean for the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Rhode Island, working with the Harrington School of Communication and Media. Also, he is a member of the Film Media faculty, teaching film courses for Honors students.

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