CREATIVE TEAM
MAX FINNERAN - Writer/Director, Producer
Max Finneran is a Los Angeles based director and screenwriter. He holds a BA from Brown University in Theater Arts and received an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program at New York University. He has authored numerous screenplays including Ventures, an environmental thriller; International Waters, an action-adventure comedy co-authored with Andy Greenwald (Miss Misery); and People of the Desert, a coming-of-age drama. His artistic background is in theatre and he has collaborated as an actor, writer, director and designer with such seminal experimental theatre companies as The Wooster Group and SOON 3. During his MFA studies at NYU, he wrote, directed and produced six short films that screened and won awards at multiple international film festivals and received international distribution. His short horror film Pumpkin Hell starring Dean Wareham was honored with three Wasserman Awards in Screenwriting, Directing and Producing and went on to play the international film festival circuit widely. The Shells is Max’s feature film debut.
KIM JACKSON - Producer
Kim Jackson is the Founding Producer and President of Streetwise Pictures, a New York City-based film production company providing collaborative investor relations and award-winning production services for feature films. The goal of Streetwise is to support and foster the development, production and distribution of truly seminal and commercial works of film art. An accomplished producer, she began her career in Los Angeles at Disney/ Touchstone, and has been intimately involved in numerous productions, including (among others), INSIDE MAN directed by Spike Lee, MUNICH directed by Steven Spielberg, and CLICK directed by Frank Coraci. As Producer, she has been a driving producing force behind the award-winning films TUB (Sundance 2010), TRAN.SI.TIONS, (Hamptons Film Festival 2010), CHILDREN OF GOD (Newfest, Outfest 2010, HBO), GUN HILL ROAD (Sundance 2011 competition, 2011 Theatrical Release) and BLUE CAPRICE (Sundance 2013).
DANNY VECCHIONE - Director of Photography
Danny holds an M.F.A. from the Tisch School of the Arts atNYU,wherehefocusedoncinematography. Whilethere, he shot over forty short films, winning the Wasserman Award an unprecedented eleven times. The projects that he has worked on have been shown in major film festivals across the world. Over the past several years, he has served as D.P. in every format, including feature films, branded entertainment, television, commercials, music videos, and documentaries. He shot the feature film Shadows And Lies, directed by Jay Anania and starring James Franco, Julianne Nicholson, Martin Donovan, and Josh Lucas, which was an official selection of the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Homewrecker (aka The Locksmith), directed by the Barnes brothers, won the “Best of Next” category at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. His most recent film, Kinyarwanda, directed by Alrick Brown, won the 2011 World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and will be released theatrically this December. Danny is represented by Elevation Talent.
KAY LEE - PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Kay Lee got her start as a costume designer on numerous Off-Broadway shows. She was also a Technical Designer for major apparel companies such as Express, the Gap and Polo Jeans. This experience led her to a career in film. Her feature film credits include Day On Fire (production designer) and Stanley Cuba (costume designer). Her short film credits include: Jesus Henry Christ (2003 Student Academy Award winner, DGA award), Seibutsu (2004 Student Academy Award Finalist) and Payday (2003 Sundance Short Selection) among others. Her most recent experience was as design assistant to the award-winning production designer Rob Pearson (The Matador) on Fireflies in the Garden, starring Julia Roberts, Willem Defoe and Emily Watson.
GINA HIRSCH - EDITOR
Gina Hirsch is a Los Angeles-based editor and assistant editor with a background as an actor in New York theatre. She learned the craft of editing from her father, film editor Paul Hirsch, and has assisted him on several feature films, including Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Source Code, and Mission to Mars under directors Brad Bird, Duncan Jones and Brian De Palma. Recently, Gina was the editor of the award winning short films George and Brad in Bed, starring George Takei and directed by Jessica Sanders, and Olive and Mocha: Fast Times at Sugar High, directed by Suzi Yoonessi. She is also a director, and her own short film You Move Me has appeared at over 50 festivals worldwide in the past year. You Move Me was a “Best of the Fest” selection at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, and it won numerous awards, including the Audience Award for Best Dramatic Short Film at Outfest in Los Angeles. Gina is a graduate of Brown University.
ENIS ROTTHOFF - COMPOSER
Enis Rotthoff is a versatile composer and music producer who likes to combine orchestral music with electronic elements. Since 2001, Enis worked as Assistant Composer to Academy- Award-Winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek on such projects as Finding Neverland, Unfaithful and Evening. He has composed the music for several independent feature films including The Job, directed by Shem Bitterman, Free Willy – Escape from Pirates Cove, directed by Will Geiger, Digging for Belladonna, directed by Franka Potente and A Quiet Love, directed by Till Franzen. After a scholarship for young composers in Berlin, Enis studied “Film Scoring” at the Film & Television Academy Potsdam-Babelsberg and “Audiovisual Communication” at the University of Arts Berlin. He received a Sundance Institute Fellowship for the Sundance Composers Lab and was awarded as European Composer 2008 for Germany by the Federation of Film & Audiovisual Composers of Europe.
LOIS DRABKIN - CASTING DIRECTOR
Lois Drabkin is a casting director and producer in New York City. Her film credits include Noah Buschel’s The Missing Person (Sundance 2009, Strand Releasing); Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us (Sundance 2010, Magnolia); Restless City (Sundance 2011); Neal Cassady (2007, IFC); Red Doors (Tribeca Film Festival 2005); and the New York casting on Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005). Lois was nominated by the Casting Society of America for an ArtiosTM Award in 2010 and 2011 for Outstanding Achievement in Casting -- Low Budget Feature for The Missing Person and Night Catches Us. Projects she has cast that are currently in post-production include Max Finneran’s first feature The Shells, Rodney Evans’ second feature The Happy Sad, and Reggie Bythewood’s BET pilot, Gun Hill. In addition, Lois has worked as an associate alongside a number of the industry’s top casting directors, on such recent projects as: the Phillip Noyce thriller Salt, starring Angelina Jolie; the AMC pilot Rubicon; Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, Jim Sheridan’s Brothers, Mira Nair’s Amelia, Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock, Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies (2008), the HBO series The Wire, and Jonathan Demme’s The Manchurian Candidate (2004). As an independent producer, she produced Michael Melamedoff’s first feature, the dramedy Weakness, a New York-shot ensemble with Bobby Cannavale, Danielle Panabaker and Josh Charles, now available on DVD, pay-per-view, and iTunes. The first feature she produced was The Missing Person.