SENE Film, Music and Arts Festival Film Award Jurors

Mary Baker

Fitchburg State College

Abby Clayton

Film Enthusiast

Newton, MA

Abby is an avid film-goer who regulary attends film festivals in the Boston and Southeast New England area.

Marc Halperin

President

Magic Lamp Distribution and Releasing Inc.

Marc Halperin's 30 years of distribution experience with some of the top companies (Miramax, Fine Line) in the film industry has helped him develop an eye for spotting potentially successful films and an unmatched understanding of what it takes to market them as commercial, crossover or niche products. He has distributed the first films of directors such as Jim Sheridan, Steven Soderberg, Khyentse Norbu, Nigel Cole, David O. Russell, Scott Hicks, Giuseppe Tornatore, Alex Cox and Quentin Tarantino. His company Magic Lamp creates release plans and strategies to successfully market films for niche and mainstream markets. He recently released EVIL ALIENS, a comedy horror film and ZEN NOIR, a buddhist murder mystery that examines the meaning of life and death, and SPLINTER, starring Edward James Olmos, and Tom Sizemore.

Marla Halperin

President of Promotion/Publicity

Magic Lamp Distribution and Releasing Inc.

Marla Lewin Halperin was selected for a special program in literature at St. Ann's College in Oxford, England, studying with poet/playwright/composer, Francis Warner. She completed her undergraduate work in Humanities, and her MA in Film at LoyolaMarymountUniversity in Los Angeles. A member of the Padua Hills Playwrights, started by Sam Shepard, she went on to write/direct/produce many award winning plays. Her produced films are documentaries; "Life After War," (Sundance Channel) (PBS) "Life Of Hadgi Baba," and the feature, "Zen Noir," which played in theatres and has been released on DVD. Marla has been a part of the Producers Network in Cannes, and has been on film juries at Sonoma, Cinequest, Big Bear Film Festivals, as well as the American Screen Writing Association, and done panels and mentoring at SXSW, Cannes, and Hamptons, San Diego Asian and Latin Film Fesitval. President of Promotion/Publicity for Magic Lamp Releasing, since 2001, she has co-ordinated national marketing and publicity, on films "Sex and Lucia," "Scratch," "Evil Aliens," "Splinter," and special events for films for directors, producers and studios as well.

JD Kelleher

Actor, Filmmaker

JD Kelleher was born in Cork, Ireland. He graduated from University College Cork in English and Sociology. He now lives in London where he works as an actor. He has performed with most of the Irish theatre companies including Druid and the Abbey, and in London on the West End and at the National Theatre. His most recent work has been with the Royal Shakespeare Company and he has just completed filming an Irish language drama series for TG4 in Ireland to be broadcast in 2009.

JD's debut short film as director, ONE LAST DRINK BEFORE MORNING, won Best Screenplay second place at the RIIFF 2007 and visiting Rhode Island was the highlight of his festival journeys that year.

Michelle LeBrun

Filmmaker

Harken Productions

Michelle Le Brun founded Harken Productions in 1997. Its mission is to produce compelling films that challenge our assumptions about life and awaken our passion for truth. 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 premiered in documentary competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and won the Insight Award for Best Documentary at the Santa Barbara Film Festival as well as the Award for Best Documentary at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival, among others. The film continues to be used in colleges and universities internationally.

In 2002, working in lock-down high school facilities in East Los Angeles, Michelle saw the possibility of using documentary filmmaking to empower underserved, gang-affiliated and frustrated youth. HARKEN! Youth Media was born. Providing filmmaking opportunities and media literacy to youth, the purpose of HARKEN! Youth Media is to nurture critical thinking, creativity, and leadership skills through documentary filmmaking. We teach youth to master their environment by learning storytelling, media literacy, drama, and technical skills associated with camera work, interviewing, and editing. Youth Media programs are currently offered at the HARKEN! Youth Media home in the Dreyfus building in downtown Providence, RI.

Michelle is also an adjunct professor in the Integrated Arts and Learning Graduate Degree Program at Lesley University and has taught in both Film Media and Communications Departments at the University of Rhode Island.

Ann McGuire

Actor and Film Enthusiast

New Haven, CT

Charles Merzbacher
Chair

Department of Film and Television
Boston University

Charles Merzbacher is a motion picture director and the Chair of the Department of Film & Television at BostonUniversity. Merzbacher's films have won awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Houston International Film Festival, the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, and the National Educational Film and Video Festival. They have also been shown at such prestigious events as the Sundance, Seattle and Montreal Film Festivals.

Merzbacher’s debut feature, JANE STREET, received its world premiere at the National Film Theatre in London in 1997 and has played at film festivals around the world. For the past decade, he has been primarily involved in film education initiatives. At BostonUniversity, he co-founded a program that permits students to produce professional quality television pilots and he helped implement courses in the production of content for new media and mobile devices.

Merzbacher has also played an active role in recent efforts to expand and diversify the economy of media production in New England. In this regard, he is active in several professional organizations, including serving on the executive board of the Massachusetts Production Coalition.

Daniel Peltz

Assistant Professor

Department of Film/Animation/Video

Rhode Island School of Design

Kathryn Ramey

Assistant Professor

Department of Visual and Media Arts

Emerson College

Kathryn Ramey is a filmmaker and anthropologist whose work operates at the intersection of experimental film processes and ethnographic research. Her award winning and strongly personal films are characterized by manipulation of the celluloid including hand-processing, optical printing, and various direct animation techniques. Her scholarly interest is focused on the social history of the Avant-Garde film community, the anthropology of visual communication and the intersection between avant-garde and ethnographic film and art practices. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the Social Science Research Council on the Arts fellowship, the LEF New England moving Image Grant and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship. She has published articles in Visual Anthropology Review and The Independent as well as the anthology Women's Experimental Cinema and has screened films at multiple film festivals and other venues including the Toronto Film Festival, MadCat Women's Film Festival, 25fps Experimental Film Festival in Zagreb, Croatia and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.

Robert Sabal

Associate Professor

Department of Visual and Media Arts

Emerson College

Robert Sabal is a film and video producer whose works include narrative drama, documentary, abstract experimental, instructional, and commercials. His films and videos have won awards at numerous festivals and have been funded through regional, state, and local grants. He previously taught at the University of Arizona and the University of Texas.

Aaron Schurman

Segment Producer

Jim Vickers

Editor

Motif Magazine

Steven Winsor

Film Enthusiast

Steve Winsor was a submissions reviewing member of the Texas A&M Arts Committee and has always been an avid movie critic. He spends his days as a Financial Aid Director at Bryant University.