CHRIS J. RUSSO, Writer / Director / Actor
Chris J. Russo’s award-winning short films have screened at hundreds of film festivals worldwide including the Sundance Film Festival and have aired on several networks such as PBS and MTV’s LOGO Network. Her film, A Woman Reported (starring Moira Kelly), about the moments before a hate crime, garnered critical praise in the national press as Curve Magazine wrote, “It should be required viewing for most of Congress.” In 2002, she wrote and directed the light-hearted coming-of-age short, Size ‘em Up, (starring Julie Brown, Stella Stevens and Leisha Hailey) which aired on Showtime, IFC and the Women’s Entertainment Network. In 2000, Russo won the OUTFEST Best Short Documentary Audience Award for Straight Down The Aisle: Confessions Of Lesbian Bridesmaids.
Last year, Russo completed the prestigious FILM INDEPENDENT Directors Lab with her feature script, Directed By Dorothy Arzner, co-written with Glenn Gaylord. She directed five scenes from the script as part of the requirement for the Lab, replicating environments from the 1920’s on a soundstage and on location, and captured the period-style scenes on 35mm. Lydia Dean Pilcher is attached to produce. Directed By Dorothy Arzner has also been through FILM INDEPENDENT’s 2006 Screenwriters Lab, as well as the Emerging Narrative Section at the IFP Market & Conference, and has been presented as a live staged script reading at the 2008 Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
Russo has also directed music videos for STAX Recording artist, Soulive, political campaign commercials for Santa Barbara District Attorney Candidate, Gary Dunlap, and a film trailer for I Just Want to Be Alone, a romantic comedy feature about two unlikely people in love. Russo also enjoys working with new technologies and most recently completed, 25 Random Things, an HD video short she wrote, directed and even acted in, that is premiering at OUTFEST 2009. Her next project is an experimental road movie documentary, tentatively titled, Montana, she plans to shoot late summer on s16mm. Russo is also in development on three feature scripts she is writing and is attached to direct.
Russo completed her BFA in Photography from the University of Buffalo, and her MFA in Film from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY. In addition to filmmaking, Russo is an accomplished industry professional, with ten years of experience working in Hollywood with television producers, studio executives and cinematographers in her role as Account Manager for Eastman Kodak Company.
REBECCA SEKULICH, Producer / Actor
Rebecca started her career in Michigan, when she incorporated her organization, One of Us Films with her mission, “Reflecting our shared experience through cinema.” The completed 35mm film which Sekulich Co-Produced, One of Us, about acquaintance rape, continues to exhibit in order to provoke discussion about the issue of rape and give voice to the survivors. In 2005, Sekulich line produced the futuristic 16mm short film I Left Me, which aired on HERE TV. In 2006, she co-produced Liz Lachman’s short film, Insignificant Other starring Elizabeth Keener, as well as produced the short, Terminal, about a young woman’s decision to leave her abusive husband, that played the international festival circuit in 2007 and won Best Short at the Beverly Hills Shorts Film Festival.
Sekulich went on to produce SHOWTIME’s first ever web series, Girltrash!, directed by Angela Robinson (Herbie Fully Loaded, The L Word). Last year, she produced five scenes from the feature script, Directed By Dorothy Arzner, directed by Chris J. Russo, as part of FILM INDEPENDENT’s Directors Lab. Her Detroit production company in partnership with the Detroit Orientation Institute just finished the documentary film, Regional Roots: The Birth and Evolution of Detroit and Its People, which is set to air on PBS. Rebecca is currently in development of the feature films, The Stretch Marks, I Just Want to Be Alone and Irene’s Last Call, two of which will be shot in Detroit.
