Filmmakers

Sarah Knight – Director, Producer

Sarah Knight is currently developing a romantic drama, In the Land of Fire & Ice, with writer, David MacGregor.  The film tells a story of a powerful Kuwaiti CEO who, following a professional crisis, travels to Iceland in an attempt to clear her head and make some crucial decisions about her future.  There, on a remote peninsula at the foot of a glacier, she falls in love with a charming Scottish hotel keeper.

Her most recent documentary, Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, is a portrait of Nicole Sherry, Head Groundskeeper for the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards – one of only two women in that job in Major League Baseball.  Diamonds  premiered at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame where it became part of the permanent archives.

Sarah’s previous doc, Hot Flash, about Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women, was nominated for a 2010 Blues Music Award, won the Audience Favorite Award at the 2009 Cinema on the Bayou Festival, and was acquired by Shorts International.

Her adaptation of the bestselling novel, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, was featured in the 2007 IFP Market Emerging Narrative section, was invited to the 2007 Film Independent Screenwriter’s Lab, and was a second round finalist for the 2007 & 2008 Sundance Labs.  The film chronicles the saga of three generations of American Indian women.  Q’orianka Kilcher (Pocahontas in “The New World”) and Misty Upham (“Frozen River”) will star.

Sarah has won fellowships to the Berlinale Talent Campus, the Rotterdam CineMart Producer’s Lab, and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access.

Short films include Qiana (director, screenwriter, producer), Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder (director, writer, co-producer) and the internet cult hit, Survivor in da ‘Hood (director, co-writer).

She directs theatre in New York and Los Angeles.  Credits include An Ideal Wife, based on her adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “An Ideal Husband,” (Pacific Resident Theatre-workshop space).

Sarah has assisted directors Taylor Hackford and Mikael Salomon and producers Peter Macgregor-Scott and Robert Shapiro.

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David MacGregor – Writer, Producer

The product of two immigrant parents from Scotland, David was born in Detroit, Michigan, and his upbringing included bagpipes being played in the basement and a grandfather who washed his hair with scotch. He graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Psychology, played for the university’s soccer team, and made films under the supervision of the former official filmmaker to the Shah of Iran.  Armed with this useful education, he worked as a short-order cook, car porter, bricklayer, and spent one memorable summer reclining in ditches and jackhammering holes into the sides of catch basins.  Suitably inspired, he began writing again, short fiction at first, then venturing into plays and screenplays.

He wrote and directed his first play, The Adventure of the Elusive Ear, in 1998, and since that time has had numerous plays performed around the United States (and in London).  His first full-length play, The Late Great Henry Boyle, premiered at B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA in 2002, and subsequently received its Midwest premiere in 2006 at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, MI.  Gravity, his historical drama based on the mental breakdown of Isaac Newton in 1693, premiered at the Purple Rose Theatre in 2010, and has just been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His next play, Consider the Oyster, will be included as part of the Purple Rose’s 2010-2011 season.  In addition to writing plays, he has served as a playwriting judge for the Michigan High School Thespian Festival for the past five years, and in 2009 was a respondent for the American College Theatre Festival sponsored by the Kennedy Center.

On the screenwriting side of the slate, in 1998 his sci-fi screenplay Phobos was awarded first prize in the American Cinema Foundation’s annual screenwriting competition and in 1999 his psychological thriller, Double Bind, was awarded second prize in FADE IN Magazine’s annual screenwriting competition.  In 2001, his script, The Late Great Henry Boyle, was chosen as one of ten finalists in the Motion Picture Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship Competition and, along with his script, Big Time, was optioned by Symbiosa Entertainment.  In 2002, his short film, Mobility Medics, premiered in Ann Arbor, MI and in 2003, his short film, Implant America, premiered in New Orleans, LA.  In 2009, his street-soccer screenplay, Shadowplayers, was optioned by Fishbowl Films, with Dutch director Jeffrey Elmont attached to direct.

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John Beymer – Director of Photography

John received an Emmy nomination for his work on, Law and Order, for which he served as the Director of Photography on 103 episodes from 2000-2005. He won a Best Cinematography Emmy for the ABC After School Special, A Movie Star’s Daughter. Other television credits include, The Book of Daniel (starring Aidan Quinn & Ellen Burstyn), It Was Him or Us (with Richard Masur & Ann Jillian), Without Warning (with Jane Kaczmarek), Without Consent (starring Jill Eikenberry), Dead Man’s Revenge (with Bruce Dern), Breaking the Silence (with Stephanie Zimbalist), She Says She’s Innocent (starring Katey Sagal), Shattered Dreams (with Lindsay Wagner & Patricia Heaton), Murder in Black and White (with Richard Crenna & Diahann Carroll) and Emmy nominated, Rocking Chair Rebellion. John has shot several hundred commercials and is an accomplished still photographer.

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Emily Schweber – Casting Director

Emily has been casting for almost twenty years, and has established a reputation as one of the top independent casting directors.

She was trained by Mali Finn, one of the most respected casting directors in the business, for ten years. During her time with Mali, they worked with such directors as James Cameron, Curtis Hanson, Joel Schumacher, Frank Darabont, Larry and Andy Wachowski, Brian DePalma, and Steven Shainberg. Together, she and Mali cast, Tigerland, The Wood, and Joyride.

Some of the films Emily has cast have appeared at the Sundance Film Festival, including, The United States of Leland, Bookies, Chrystal, Steel City, Right at Your Door, and The Go-Getter. Scott Caan’s The Dog Problem premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, Ocean of Pearls won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2008 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and That Evening Sun, starring Hal Holbrook, has won top awards at the 2009 South by Southwest, Nashville, and Atlanta Film Festivals.

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Mark Sult – Editor

Mark’s interest in editing was piqued while helping out in the editing room at Tony Bill’s Market street facility. In 1996, Mark began studying editing. His first jobs were on various Infomercials and political ads.  Soon after, he received his first assistant editor job on Runaway Car for FOX, followed by Volcano Fire on the Mountain for ABC.  In 1997 he landed his first feature film as full time editor, The Emissary, for Trinity Broadcasting.

Mark took a break from show business to live in Brazil where he met his beautiful wife of 12 years Adriana. Mark soon realized his passion is storytelling through editing and re-entered the editing world in 2006.  He was nominated for an Eddy Award that year and landed his next theatrically distributed feature film April Showers. Next up were several live action short films of distinction including Amexica, Android Love, and Supernumerary.

Currently Mark is Program Director of the Film & Television Editing Program at Video Symphony in Burbank, California – the very school where he received his initial instruction in 1996.

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Carlos Brown – Costume Designer

Carlos has a Bachelor of Arts from San Carlos Academy in Mexico. He has worked in TV as a costumer and assistant costume designer on, Six Feet Under, Persons Unknown, Law & Order LA. His films as Costume Designer include, Like Water For Chocolate, for which he received the Ariel Award, A Day Without a Mexican, Dead Awake.  As Assitant Costume Designer, A Walk In The Clouds, The Whole Wide Word, Harsh Times, The Air I Breathe, Street Kings, Joline.  Carlos worked in theatre for 10 years for the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in LA. designing, The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding, Salon Mexico, and Lara Rosalba y los Llaveros.  He designed the Opera, Lorca Child of the Moon, at UCLA.