Dragon*Con Film Festival: Panelists

Panelists ◊ 2008

Here you'll find our panelists who will be discussing all aspects of independent film. Come on back for the next few weeks as we add more.

Dr. Bob Blackwood
Dr. Bob Blackwood took early retirement from Wright College, in 2000, where he taught film study, photography, science fiction, and other literature and English courses. Blackwood has done a variety of critical writing on films, film criticism and journalism, and photojournalism.

Blackwood and Dr. John Flynn, dubbed "The Film Doctors" at the World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto, conducted a survey of WorldCon members of the Top 10 Science Fiction Films and created a book on those ten films, Future Prime: The Top Ten Science Fiction Films. Blackwood's book, From the Silent Era to The Sopranos: Italian American Gangsters in Trend-Setting Films and Television Shows, was released in 2006.

Currently, Blackwood is the president of the International Press Club of Chicago and is on the committee for the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame Awards. He and John Flynn are working on another book about James Bond films.

Anthony Brownrigg
Anthony Brownrigg has been in the film industry since 10 years old, acting, writing, and directing under the tutelage of his father S.F. Brownrigg in Texas.

He is the writer, director, and lead actor in the new horror/comedy Red Victoria, which recently won The Audience choice award at Texas Frightmare Weekend, and Best Feature film at the World Horror Convention. He is preparing his next film, Freeborn, a werewolf epic, as well as the cyberpunk TV series Digital Burn, and a sci-fi comedy based on the award winning web short Red Squad 4.

His acting credits have included the feature films The Promise, Bicycle Bobby, and the horror film They Feed.

Hunter Cressall
Hunter started working in the film industry as a production assistant in Hollywood. He moved on to prop master and art director before becoming a production designer, working on over thirty-six features including Legion, Skeletons, Foreign Correspondents, and Alien Arsenal. When he wasn't working on features, Hunter also designed special hand props and miniatures for both film and television.

In 1999, Hunter left Hollywood to take a position as a Director at a turn-key HD production company in Birmingham, Alabama, shooting and directing television commercials and corporate videos. He has now moved on, becoming a successful, and extremely busy freelance.

In his free time, Hunter still writes and directs his own short films with his amateur film group, Killer Bones.

Jeff Ello
Jeff Ello (aka "Jello") is a technologist and filmmaker, specializing in digital production and special effects techniques for film and commercial projects. Jeff adapts technologies from a wide range of disciplines to achieve visual products that would otherwise be impossible or too expensive for independent budgets.

Jeff is a 3d animator by training, and has enjoyed a digital career that spans a wide array of information technology and visual disciplines. He is constantly investigating and experimenting with emerging technologies. But, as Jeff says, the most fun is to grab a camera and "just go shoot something".

Dr. John L. Flynn
Three-time Hugo-nominated author and critic Dr. John L. Flynn has written 13 books, countless short stories, articles, reviews, and two screenplays. He's a member of the SFWA and has been a regular contributor and columnist to dozens of SF magazines. He sold his first book, Future Threads, in 1985. His other film-related books include Cinematic Vampires (1992), Phantoms of the Opera (1993), The Films of Arnold Schwarzenegger (1993), Dissecting Aliens (1995), and War of the Worlds: From Wells to Spielberg (2005).

John has appeared on television (including the Sci-Fi Channel and Russia's RTR Television), was featured in the documentary Finding the Future (2004), has spoken on the radio, and been a guest at national conferences. He and Dr Bob Blackwood (together known as The Film Doctors), produced Future Prime: The Top Ten Science Fiction Films in 2006.

Matt Green
After spending over 15 years in the special FX business as both a lab technician and an effects coordinator, Matt green moved into the film directing realm in 1999 with the independent film Severed, following it with Vicious (2001), Bloodbath (2002), and Loaded Dice, all starring horror legend Tom Savini. Matt is currently in post production on Zombie Invasion his latest Directorial effort. He also continues to do both physical and creature effects on films all over the south east.

James Hong
James Hong has been in over 500 films and TV shows. He's still going strong with a role in The Day The Earth Stood Still. Mr. Hong has entertained millions as Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China and as the voice of Chi Fu in Mulan, and he has appeared opposite popular stars like Harrison Ford in Blade Runner and Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and The Two Jakes.

His television credentials include Seinfeld, Law and Order, 12 Kung-Fu episodes all as different characters, and eight episodes of Hawaii 5-0. Versatility has been James Hong's trademark throughout his career since 1953. His film roles have ranged from Faye Dunaway's ominous butler in Chinatown to a nerd master in Nerds in Paradise.

His first stint in show business was performing in a comedy duo. His flair for comedy led to a spot as a contestant on You Bet Your Life, where his impersonation of host Groucho Marx earned him a contract at a popular San Francisco club, and soon after he was cast in three feature films.

Lloyd Kaufman (President, Troma Films)
What can (or should) one say about Lloyd Kaufman? Producer, director, writer, actor, president of an independent studio, madman, Lloyd Kaufman is film. He worked on Rocky but would rather make The Toxic Avenger. In a time of cookie-cutter movies, Lloyd created a world of truly memorable films. If you've seen Class of Nuke 'Em High, Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, or Tromeo and Juliet, you remember what you've seen. These are not bland films that vanish in the mire of a hundred other films. They stand out, and that is Troma. Fifty percent camp, fifty percent horror, Lloyd's films combine laughs, gore, sex, and the type of silliness that Hollywood has begun to copy.

Edward Landers
Edward Landers co-stars in the horror/comedy Red Victoria.

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Arianne Martin
Arianne has been seen in shows such as Fox's Prison Break and Lifetime's Inspector Mom. She is a veteran to the independent film scene having starred in numerous features.

She just finished the dark comedy Red Victoria, from writer/director Anthony Brownrigg, in which she plays the titled character. This film is gaining buzz among horror fans and movie fans a like (www.RedVictoriaTheMovie.com).

Most recently, Arianne is producing and starring in Striped Socks Production The Other Side of Paradise. This film is scheduled to be completed late 2008.

For updates on Arianne visit her website at www.ArianneMartin.com

Kevin Sean Michaels
Kevin Sean Michaels is a visual artist, lecturer, filmmaker, and producer from New York City. He was Art Director for Troma Entertainment for three and a half years, working closely with filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman on Troma's new film Poultrygeist! Night of the Chicken Dead.

Vampira: The Movie, Michaels's first documentary, was sceened during the 2007 Dragon*Con Independent Film Festival.

Michaels returns this year to speak about his new project, a documentary of grindhouse Director Ted V. Mikels (Astro-Zombies, The Corpse Grinders, Doll Squad), narrated by John Waters.

Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos dazzled audiences with his performance in the musical drama Zoot Suit in 1978. By the time the show closed, he had won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award and a Theatre World award and was nominated for a Tony Award. Acting roles came in faster after that.

In 1981 he made Wolfen with Albert Finney, and in 1982 he accepted a role in a film that would change cinema history, merging noir and science fiction. The movie was Blade Runner, And Olmos was Gaff, a streetwise detective none-to-happy about the return of Harrison Ford's assassin. Since then, his career has taken off, most famously with roles in Miami Vice and Battlestar Galactica.

Jim Torres
Alabama-based writer, editor and director Jim Torres launched his filmmaking career ten years ago with his first sci-fi short film, The Last Day On Earth. His next short film, Sadomannequin paid affectionate tribute to black-and-white classics from Hollywood�s macabre heyday of vampires, ghouls and other creatures of the night.

With his latest project, the post-apocalyptic feature 20 Years After, Torres lends his uncanny genre instincts and seasoned storytelling skills to a compelling, character driven futuristic fantasy. This post-apocalyptic fairy tale spins a spellbinding, suspenseful, and visually stunning tale of salvation and survival within the menacing terror of a grim and ghostly world. 20 Years After will be released on DVD in both the United States and abroad this fall.

Susannah Torres
A rogue barista by day, Susannah Torres spends the remainder of her time being a micro-budget film producer, promoter and general behind the scenes Swiss army knife with her filmmaker husband, Jim Torres.

She earned her stripes on the sci-fi short film, The Last Day on Earth and got promoted to the FX department in the experimental collaboration Silence and the Hammer. Her work on the b&W horror short Sadomannequin included recruiting the beetles, finding the perfect bullwhip and making sure that Demona's vinyl costumes fit properly (one of her favorite tasks to date). Most recently Susannah did a little bit of everything during just about every stage of 20 Years After, becoming intimately familiar with both the frustrations and the joys of working on a much larger production.

Voltaire
Voltaire is often described as a modern day renaissance man: a singer/performer, creator of comic books, animator, and toy designer. For the film festival, we'll leave most of his accomplishments to others, and instead dwell only on his filmmaking.

Inspired by the films of Ray Harryhausen, Voltaire began animating at the age of ten on a super8 camera. At that time, he says, "no three dimensional object was safe. My brother's action figures, my sister's dolls, silverware, etc. If it was missing, chances were that it was in the basement in front of my camera." Voltaire has created dozens of animated spots for MTV, The Sci-Fi Channel, and many more (including most recently Fangoria TV).

Voltaire has recently returned to the land of film with a series of stop-motion shorts that are presently making the festival circuit. Each film is about a minute long, weird as hell, and narrated by a well known singer (Blondie's Deborah Harry, The Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler).

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