Cinema #14: 4.45pm – 6pm, Regal LA Live, April 13th, 2024
Choreographing action
with Silas Dunn, director of Collector (USA), nominated for Best Action Short – World premiere
Immersive and Extended-Reality Filmmaking
with Katerina Munis, director of Daedalus (USA), nominated for Best Fantasy Short, Best Student Female Director, Best Acting Duo, Best Child/Young Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score
Filming outside the mainstream
with Harald Swinkels, co-director of Drawback (Netherlands), nominated for Best Fantasy Short, Best Female Director and Best Original Score – World premiere
Making laugh
with Joshua David Goodman, director of Goomah (USA), nominated for Best Comedy Short – World premiere
Filming in a dark room
with Gordy De St. Jeor, director of She Who Sees All (USA), Nominated for Best Mystery Short and Best Supporting Actress – World premiere
Moderator: Tristan Boesch
Guest Speakers
Silas Dunn
Best known for his flawed, complex characters and the visceral, bloody worlds they inhabit, award-winning writer-director Silas Dunn was born in Tucson, Arizona. Dunn studied screenwriting under Ken Estin at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California. He draws from a wide range of pulp influences such as Ed Brubaker, Donald E Westlake, Don Pendleton, and Max Allan Collins. Dunn’s work has been nominated for a number of screenwriting awards and has been oft-praised for its dark, gritty tone and its intense, brutal violence. Dunn resides in Pacific Grove, California. He also has his own production company, Mass Upset Pictures, which he runs with frequent collaborator, Joel Ezra Hebner. “Collector” is his true directorial debut.
Katerina Munis
Katerina Munis is a visionary film director & writer who received an MFA from U.S.C. School of Cinematic Arts in Film & Television Production. Prior to film, Katerina was a Classicist and Ancient Near Eastern scholar; she studied in North Africa with the U.S. Department of State and worked with emergency-medicine NGOs in active conflict regions of West Africa. After graduating USC, Katerina became Director of Productions at XR Stage, a global studio for immersive filmmaking on LED volumes. She propelled cutting-edge extended-realities for major studio film and TV productions, and executed her debut film Daedalus using XR technology. Daedalus was awarded the Fox Productions grant, won “Best Director” at the Beverly Hills Film Festival, and has received myriad awards during its current international film festival circuit. Katerina’s films, screenplays, and scholarship have been recognized by the Academy Awards’ Nicholls Fellowship, the Sundance Institute’s Development program, Fox, U.S.C.’s scholarship foundation, The Mayo Clinic Foundation, Women in Media, HBO, and more. Katerina innovates at the nexus of art and science in her pursuit of creative enterprises that ignite the mind and the enthrall the imagination.
Harald Swinkels
Harald Swinkels is an award-winning writer-director with an almost obsessive attention to detail in storytelling and filmmaking. Harald is following an alternative, idiosyncratic path in the (international) film world: since the age of 7 he has been a huge movie buff – a passion he shares with one of his two older brothers. When his brother went to high school and turned out to be quite an Alpha, they made a pact: his brother could go into the film industry to pave the way, and Harald had to make a lot of money to generate resources for an international film career. Harald stuck to this plan for 37 years. In 2005, he co-founded a start-up that became the largest independent energy supplier in the Netherlands. When he sold this company in 2019, he finally had his hands completely free to make movies, with his film partner and co-writer/director Caroline Bevaart. Together they form a creative duo, bringing a simultaneous female and male perspective to the screen. They co-founded film production company Exosphere. “Drawback” is their debut film, which has won over 50 awards on the international festival circuit.
Joshua David Goodman
Josh Goodman is an actor, writer and director born and raised in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex of North Texas. Starting out as a trained theater actor trying to break into film, he decided to create his own opportunities by learning to write, direct & produce projects for the screen himself. Now, having some on-set directing experience under his belt, he urgently looks towards his next step in his journey as a filmmaker as well as actor and writer.
Gordy De St. Jeor
Gordy De St. Jeor is a filmmaker from Littleton, Colorado. Starting his career as an actor, he’s slowly transitioned into writing, directing, and cinematography. Gordy also edits and colors all of his own work. He is known in the music video world for directing projects for Wolfgang Van Halen, The Driver Era, and Kat Von D. “She Who Sees All” is a passion project that was written and shot in late 2022.