Writers

Stacey Main was born and raised in San Diego, California and is a graduate of San Diego State University, with a BS in Television, Film, and New Media Production.

Alisa Katz, a native New Yorker, graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and attended the Film Academy of Prague (FAMU). Katz’s film producing experience includes Edward Zwick’s Defiance, Michael Mann’s Miami Vice and Pieter Jan Brugge’s The Clearing. Katz produced a 22-episode web series for Michael Eisner’s web distribution outlet, Vuguru.

Rebecca Reynolds is a co-founder/writer/producer with the indie company 8180 Films. With Jim Carpenter and Gary Sales, she produced 8180 Film's newest feature, The Girl on the Train, a noir psychological thriller starring Henry Ian Cusick, Nicki Aycox and Stephen Lang.

Jared M. Gordon is a screenwriter, filmmaker, and film professor in Boston, Massachusetts. His creative work can be found at www.jaredmgordon.net and his writer's blog is jaredsinkwell.blogspot.com.

Minhae Shim contributes to The Independent from the vantage point of a filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, and writer. She is an active blogger, and is particularly interested in exploring and extending the traditions of avant-garde cinema and conceptual art.

Neil Kendricks is a San Diego-based artist, filmmaker, and the film curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego who is currently in production on his feature-length documentary, Comics Are Everywhere.

Hermine Muskat is a psychologist and documentary filmmaker. She co-produced Waiting for Armageddon and Doctors of the Dark Side and is a member of the film committee of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. Reach her at hmuskat@gmail.com.

LJ Kessels is a Dutch native and graduate of the University of Amsterdam with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. She’s a freelance writer and involved in the organization of various (film) festivals throughout Europe.

Wendy Dent is an award-winning writer-director-editor-producer and Visiting Scholar at USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Phil Saroyan is a freelance writer in the LA area with accumulated works in screenwriting and is in pre-release for The Not-So-Terrible Ivan, a science fiction story; Phil enjoys fine arts and holds a BA in finance.

Nathaniel Robin Mann is a member of the Dead Rat Orchestra and a composer for Intrepid Cinema.

Maddy Kadish is a producer of educational media. She lives in Boston.

Catherine Epstein is a writer and educator living in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared at The Huffington Post, AlterNet, and the Women's Media Center. She is an educator at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Ralph Arlyck is a writer, documentary filmmaker, educator, and advocate for American independent film producers. The 2012 Mendocino Film Festival awarded Arlyck and his documentary, Following Sean, the annual Albert Maysles Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award.

Michael Galinsky is a filmmaker, photographer, and musician. Along with wife Suki Hawley, he’s produced six award-winning feature films and dozens of shorts. His latest book of photos will be published by Steidl-Miles in Fall 2012.

Courtney Sheehan majored in visual culture at Grinnell College, where she also chaired the committee that programs film events and screenings for the Grinnell community. She is a frequent contributor to The Independent.

A graduate of Emerson College, Mike Sullivan has been a professional editor for 17 years. For the past 12 years he has been editing documentaries for BPI outside of Boston. His work can be seen in museums across the country including The Smithsonian, The College Basketball Hall of Fame, The Tampa Bay History Center, and The Philadelphia Zoo.

John Charette is a freelance journalist based in Sudbury, Ontario.

Peggy Rambach is the author of the novel Fighting Gravity (Steerforth Press) and a collection of stories When the Animals Leave (Ampersand Press). She is the editor of two anthologies that emerged from her work teaching creative writing in Social Services, Corrections, and Health Care. Her website is www.peggyrambach.com.

Alana Jordan is a writer from Birmingham, Alabama.

Besides writing about the film business, Brandon Walter Irvine profiles filmmakers and the films they make. You can read more at his site, www.underplex.com.

Lisa Pegram is a writer, songwriter, and educator who designs international peacemaking initiatives in the arts for youth. Based in Washington, DC she currently balances her literary and performance endeavors with pursuing an MFA in creative writing from Lesley University.

Jennifer Owensby Sanza produced The Teachings of Jon with the funding support of Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the guidance of amazing mentors within PBS world along the way. The Teachings of Jon won the 2007 National Telly Award, becoming one of public television’s most popular documentaries.

Katherine Brodsky is a freelance arts and entertainment writer. She has written for Entertainment Weekly, MovieMaker Magazine, USA Weekend, Variety, Stage Directions, Forward, and many others. She has interviewed a diverse range of intriguing personalities, including Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Pulitzer, Tony, and Genie Award winners & nominees.

Erin Trahan edits and publishes The Independent.

Steven LaFond is a freelance writer and current graduate student in Bennington College's low-residency MFA program.

Kurt Brokaw is an associate teaching professor at The New School. He also teaches film noir and early lesbian fiction at the 92nd Street Y.

Randi Cecchine is an independent documentary shooter/editor/producer, freelancer, and sometime educator living in New York. She has a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA in Media Arts Production from The College of Staten Island.

Michael Grosse received his BA in Journalism from the University of New Hampshire. His work has been published in several local and regional newspapers in New England and online at www.michaelgrosse.net.

Michele Meek is a board member of Independent Media Publications and former publisher of The Independent.

Valerie Weiss is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning writer and director who recently completed the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women where she directed the short film, Transgressions. Transgressions has been described as A Clockwork Orange meets Pleasantville and has won numerous awards including a BAFTA Student Film Award.

Joi R. Wheatley, also known to many as Miss Joi, is a proud alumni of The Fashion Institute of Technology. She currently resides in a quaint area of New Jersey since "it's quite, low key and diverse." If Joi is not bartending at a hot spot in The Big Apple, than you can catch her writing for her notoriously witty blog, The Grind.

Ariella is a native New Yorker and a graduate of Boston University, where she earned a B.A. in Philosophy. Her film, fashion, and culture pieces have appeared in NYLON, amNewYork, New York Magazine, The L Magazine, and Interview.

Vicki Vasilopoulos is a freelance journalist and a filmmaker who is directing Men of the Cloth, a documentary film about Italian master tailors. Learn more about it here.