The November mentoring event is currently at capacity!
Featured Mentors:
Filmmaker: Lise Swenson
Swenson's artwork and films have been exhibited internationally and she has received numerous awards and grants, one of which was the Creative Work Fund which enabled her to seed production on her first feature length social justice film. “Mission Movie” is a fictional adaptation of true-life stories from the Mission District of San Francisco and was screened internationally, winning five awards, two for Best of Festival. Swenson also served as producer and assistant director on "Strange Culture", a film by Lynn Hershman Leeson which premiered at Sundance. Most recently she was Filmmaker in Residence at the deYoung Museum where she produced an alternative iPhone tour entitled dYinterpretaion, a journey through the deYoung museum with artist Lise Swenson. For more information on her media installation work please visit www.liseswenson.com/art/exhibitions.html. Swenson has been a media arts theory and production instructor at the college level since 1987 and has been an active member in Bay Area media arts since the early 1980s. In 1984 she co-founded and co-directed ATA, (Artists' Television Access), a non-profit media arts access, exhibition and education facility. She then went on to serve for many years on the ATA board as President and was also a Film Arts Foundation board member and a member of the SF Art Institute Artists' Committee. In 1995 Swenson founded TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools), a nonprofit that works within school programs and community organizations to teach the fundamentals of media literacy and moviemaking. Today, Swenson is working on her latest feature film, "Saltwater" and a feature documentary, “An Unexamined Life”.
Vector Art Director: Iris Malang
Iris is an artist from San Francisco, California who grew up on the beautiful islands of Hawai’i. Trained as an animator for 4 years and finding a home in the Game industry and strives to create beautiful works of art for mobile and social
gaming platforms. Aside from gaming Iris finds excitement in other activities such as hiking, running, painting, and
exploring a variety of other mediums.
Film Editor: Jess Congdon
Jessica Congdon has worked as a commercial and film editor for the past 14 years. She co-wrote and edited ‘Miss Representation’ directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, which premiered in the 2011 Sundance Documentary Competition and was released on the Oprah Winfrey Network. She also co-directed and edited the documentary ‘Race to Nowhere’ by Vicki Abeles. Other documentary features include 'Speed & Angels' directed by Peyton Wilson, and ‘Motherland’ directed by Jennifer Steinman. The feature film 'Her Minor Thing' by Charles Matthau premiered at the Seattle Film Festival in June 2005. She edited the feature film 'Dopamine' directed by Mark Decena, an award-winning film at Sundance 2003 and released through Sundance Films. She also edited the international feature film ‘Search’ in Stockholm, and the Columbia Tri-Star feature film 'Big Girls Don't Cry' in Berlin, both directed by Maria von Heland. As a commercial editor, she is a founding editor of Umlaut Films in San Francisco. She has worked on commercial campaigns directed by Errol Morris and Brett Morgen, and national and international television campaigns for clients including Nike, Microsoft, Nokia, Budweiser, Mattel, Adidas, Bugaboo, AT&T, and Hilton. The NBC11 'Illuminating' campaign, directed by Ron Fricke, won an Emmy in 2005.
Creative Consultant & Film Comissioner: Ami Zins
Ami Zins was the director of the Oakland Film Office for 13 years during which she attracted and supported productions such as the Matrix II & III, the Bee Season, Mistress of Spices and hundreds of other feature and short films, television, commercial, music video, documentary and student film productions; produced film screenings and advised developing filmmakers. Ami is a graduate of Laney College and San Francisco State University, where she completed her Masters in Theater Arts, and prior to running the film office directed over a dozen plays and taught at local colleges. She is excited to have wrapped up her work with the OFO and to return to teaching, consulting and working on her own creative projects with a focus on social justice.
Director of Education, San Francisco Film Society: Joanne Parsont
Joanne has worked in the Bay Area film community for 15 years as a film programmer, writer, editor, consultant, project manager and media educator, specializing in outreach, education, youth media, children’s and documentary programming. She spent eight years directing the Mill Valley Film Festival’s Children’s FilmFest and the Film Society's Schools at the Festival program and curated children’s programs for the Pacific Film Archive and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. She has a bachelor’s degree in Russian and political science from Duke University and a master’s degree in mass communication studies from the University of Michigan. She worked in Washington, D.C. for both the Public Broadcasting Service and the Learning Channel before arriving in the Bay Area in 1994.
Outreach Supervisor, Dreamworks: Tiffany Feeney
As Outreach Supervisor, Tiffany Feeney is part of DreamWorks Animation’s Outreach team which concentrates on university relations, college level scouting and recruiting as well as industry and community related initiatives. Outreach supports all projects being produced at our Studios. Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, Tiffany worked with “I Spy Recruiting” in New York City providing recruitment services to leading studios including: Charlex, Psyop, and 1st Ave Machine. She also was the Assistant Director of Admission at Pratt Institute recruiting undergraduate candidates and overseeing the traditional and digital animation admissions selection committee.
Associate Professor of Cinema, San Francisco State University: Martha Gorzycki
Since the mid 1980’s, Martha Gorzycki has worked as an animator/animation photographer for award winning independent filmmakers in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an award winning animator/filmmaker and media artist. Her works explores aspects of visual culture and dreams and is exhibited nationally and internationally in festivals, galleries, LCD billboards and the web. She coordinates the animation program at San Francisco State University.
