Dasha Snyder trained as a playwright at Drew University, then furthered her studies at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. Several of her plays were produced off-Broadway. Her full-length play Beached Whales won the Robert Fischer Oxnam Award for Playwriting, and her one-act play My Name Is... won a full production in the Out On The Edge Festival. Her screenplay Transit Karma was a finalist at the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, a semi-finalist in the 2005 Nolita Film Festival and a quarter-finalist in the 9th Annual American Screenwriters Association International Screenplay Competition. Her latest screenplay, the dramedy To Do: was a finalist at AFI's Directing Workshop for Women 2006 and won her a fellowship at the 2006 OutFest Screenwriters Lab. She created, wrote and executive produced The D Word, a New York City parody of Showtime's Sapphic TV series The L Word. The D Word has played LGBT film festivals worldwide and won the Jury Prize for Best Feature at the Fire Island Film & Video Festival. She wrote on The Land, a short film series for Power Up! in production 2008. Her most recent script, Speed Grieving, directed by Jessica Daniels, wrapped principal photography in Winter 2007. Snyder is a contributor to AfterEllen.com, Velvetpark Magazine and GO Magazine, and authored the popular column "Girl's Night Out" on the website Total New York. She served as Coordinator of the Filmmakers Forum and Programming Assistant at NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film Festival for three years, as assistant programmer at Outfest: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and was a producer with Dyke TV. Snyder line produced the documentary Two Hands directed by Nathaniel Kahn, which was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 79th Annual Academy Awards. She is currently writing feature scripts for the screen, both silver & small.
A finalist for the Sundance Institute Screenwriter's Lab in 2004, Noelle Beck Brower has pursued her passion for the performing arts since she was a child growing up in Michigan. She recently finished directing and producing her second short film, The Insomniac Sleeps, which is in post production. In the Fall of 2003 she directed a production of Dominick Argento's one-act opera, Postcard From Morocco for The New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble in New York City. This was the fourth opera that she had directed in 2 years. Her first film experience was as a Production Assistant on the film Girlfight and she has gone on to work within the New York independent film world as an Associate Producer and First Assistant Director on various projects. In the Fall of 2002 she was selected as an Independent Feature Project - Project Involve Trainee, a competitive program for emerging filmmakers. She was also part of the Revlon Intern/Mentor program at New York Women in Film and Television. She has a B.A. from The University of Michigan in Comparative Literature and an M.A. from Columbia University in Classical Studies (Ancient Art History).
Cherien Dabis received a Masters of Fine Arts in Film from Columbia University's School of the Arts, where she wrote, directed, produced and edited several short films, which have screened at dozens of film festivals worldwide, including Sundance and Rotterdam. At Columbia, Dabis received several distinguished scholarships including the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting, the Institute for Humane Studies Film and Fiction Scholarship and the New York Women in Film and Television Scholarship.
Dabis was recently given the honor of participating in IFP/LA Project:Involve, the IFP's competitive mentorship program for emerging filmmakers. In addition, her feature screenplay AMREEKA was chosen to participate in the 2005 IFP Director's Lab. The screenplay was also a finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, a finalist in the Cinequest Screenwriting Competition and a quarterfinalist for the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
In 2003, Dabis was awarded a POWER UP Screenwriting Grant for her short Little Black Boot, which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. The film was also a Grand Prize Winner of the 2004 PlanetOut.com Short Movie Awards. Dabis is also a recipient of the POWER UP filmmaker's fund for her short Memoirs of an Evil Stepmother, winner of two Best Short Film Awards. Her production credits include Jane Campion's psychological thriller In the Cut and NBC's award-winning television series The West Wing.
Prior to her graduate studies, Dabis worked as a media activist and public relations specialist in Washington, D.C., where she shaped national media coverage of key political issues from reproductive rights to environmental and consumer safety. Her communications campaigns helped pass legislation involving better FDA oversight of medical devices, reproductive health and civil rights. She holds a BA with honors in journalism and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati.
Since moving to New York in 1999, Maggie Burkle has directed Episodes 1-9 of Butch McCloud - Your Friendly Neighborhood Lesbian Superhero; Steal This Person or Girls Don't Cry and Wishes for Stages, the First National Transgender Theatre Festival, and Cirque de Bel Canto at WOW cafe. Maggie has worked at Bluestockings bookstore and been a board member of Dyke TV, where she ran monthly producers meetings. She also spent 2 years collaborating with On the Verge Theatre company's production of Lesbian Pulp-O-Rama and finished a successful four-city tour of Sweden in November 2002. An actress with many credits, she is also a dancer and choreographer and is currently at Hunter College finishing a BA in Theatre going on to Study Drama Therapy.
Erin Greenwell graduated with a BFA in screenwriting from Tisch School of the Arts (NYU). She received her foundational experience in video through editing documentaries and as an in-house producer for Manhattan Neighborhood Network (public access). Outside of MNN, Erin continued to produce comedy shorts for LGBT festivals nationwide. Erin's last feature narrative, "21", a coming of age comedy about a lesbian in suburbia, premiered at the New Festival, was nominated for a Best First time feature in San Francisco's Frameline Festival and ran at BAM Rose Cinema as part of the "Best of the New Festival" series. Erin formed Smithy Productions, a video collective, with the aim to house various talents from the lesbian/independent art community under the umbrella of video production.
David Fishel graduated with a BA in cinema and comparative literature from the University of Iowa. His thesis film Exquisite Corpse is the first narrative motion picture made to play with a variable narrative logic on a programmed DVD. In the summer of 2004, Exquisite Corpse played in Australia at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival where it won the first place award for "Best use of Guerrilla Aesthetic" whatever that means. Fishel is originally from Minnesota. He enjoys drinking root beer.
Rachael Levine was born and raised in New York City. After being introduced to photography by a high school teacher, she knew that photography would always be part of her life. Levine continued to study photography as well as communications while attending college at the University of Delaware. She moved back to New York to work in advertising, but soon realized that a 9-to-5 job wasn't for her.
In 1995, she began an internship with producer Dean Silvers and decided to pursue a career in cinematography. On her second venture as a focus puller, she teamed up with cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay. Levine has been his first assistant cameraperson for the past seven years, in addition to shooting short films for aspiring filmmakers at New York University, Columbia, and the School of Visual Arts, among others.
Levine currently works as an assistant on big budget commercials and independent features, including Roger Dodger, and soon to be released P.S. and Thumbsucker. She continues to passionately pursue still photography, while working towards her dream of moving up to director of photography on features.
David J. Castellano received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Design and Technology from the School of Theatre at The University of Evansville and a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic and Costume Design from Ohio University School of Theatre where he designed scenery and costumes for several studio and main stage plays along with many short films in conjunction with Ohio University School of Film. While attending graduate school, Castellano designed for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's My Journey to Here and Now, a production design intern for the WB's The O'Keefes, and costume design intern on Broadway for William Ivey Long.
Castellano recently finished assistant design work for William Ivey Long on Little Shop of Horrors (Broadway and First National Tour). He is also currently working on a documentary, Karaoke! The Movie, with Amanda Embry and Chris Vu Le as a member of Naked Monkey Productions.
Founded in the early 1990s, Dyke TV's mission is to place media tools at the service of lesbian visibility and empowerment. Dyke TV's original series, The Show, now airs on over 78 public access cable channels throughout the country, and for the past ten years has documented the lives of lesbians from Memphis to Modesto. As an organization, Dyke TV has developed into a state-of-the-art community media resource center through which lesbians have access to: digital video equipment; instruction in all aspects of video production and editing; and countless opportunities to create documentary and creative pieces for the Show or public screenings in New York City. Operating from a multi-racial, multi-generational perspective, we especially encourage those traditionally underrepresented in mainstream and LGBT programming, including lesbians of color, lower income women, seniors and youth. With these efforts, Dyke TV hopes to contribute realistic, inclusive lesbian voices to the public discourse about our lives.
Elizabeth Holder is currently field producing and shooting First Year II for MTV. She recently appeared in BEAR CITY (2005, Saturday Night Live, Director: T. Sean Shannon) as the Panda. Holder, with her business partner Xan Parker, is the Executive Producer on the upcoming series, THE D WORD (2005.) Currently Holder and Parker are producing THE HILL, Ivy Meeropol's new documentary film about Capitol Hill.
Holder made her feature documentary directorial debut with RISK/REWARD, a film that follows four women over a tumultuous year on Wall Street. Produced and Directed with Xan Parker, RISK/REWARD screened at film festivals across North America, including Tribeca, Full Frame and Hot Docs, premiered theatrically in NYC and Chicago, and aired on Oxygen Media in March 2004. She has directed multiple episodes of BLUE'S CLUES (Nick Jr., 2000-2003.) Holder's first short film, WEEKEND GETAWAY (1998), distributed by Hypnotic, won the Special Jury Prize at the New York/ Avignon Film Festival and was an official selection of film festivals worldwide. She recently completed her second short film, THE DIVERSION (2005.) She co-directed and co-produced (with Jill Hennessy) the independent feature THE ACTING CLASS (1999), with a cast including Jill Hennessy, Austin Pendleton, Regina King, Courtney B. Vance, Denis O'Hare, Chris Noth, Will Arnett, and Holter Graham.
Holder's first job in film was a Production Assistant on John Waters' HAIRSPRAY (1986.) She has worked in New York directing theatre off-off Broadway, and as a First Assistant Director (BEAR CITY, SPRING FORWARD, CHERRY, LOVE & ACTION IN CHICAGO, 35 MILES FROM NORMAL, HAROLD.) Holder is a graduate of Smith College. She lives in Los Angeles and frequents New York City, where she is a partner in the production company Roland Park Pictures.
In 2003, Xan Parker completed her first documentary feature, Risk/Reward, a documentary film about four women with the tenacity to pursue high-powered careers in the working woman's final frontier -- Wall Street. Produced and directed with Elizabeth Holder, Risk/Reward screened at film festivals across North America, including Tribeca, Full Frame and Hot Docs and will air on the Oxygen cable network. Parker was Associate Producer of 2001 Academy Award nominated Lalee's Kin (directed by Susan Froemke and Deborah Dickson, with Albert Maysles; for HBO). While heading up distribution and development for Maysles Films Inc., she shepherded the creation of directors' edition DVDs of the classic documentary films Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter and Salesman. Parker also worked on the company's award-winning films, Concert of Wills: Making of The Getty Center (1998, PBS), Letting Go: A Hospice Journey (1996, HBO) and Umbrellas (1995, PBS). Parker began her career as an assistant producer at Maryland Public Television. She studied medieval literature at Colgate University. She is a partner in the production company Roland Park Pictures, and she also consults on documentary distribution and development, and on film series and retrospectives. Parker lives with her husband and son in New York City.
Adele Ashley began her film career as an actress, but the bulk of her performing credits came from a professional opera career in Europe. She eventually returned to the U.S. to finish her degree at Smith College (2002) with a B.A. in music. While she enjoyed working in the arts, she was ready to move beyond performing. It was then that she considered returning to the film industry, and turned her eye toward casting (inspired by fellow Smith alum Juliet Taylor). Torn between staying in New York and returning home to L.A., she spent the summer interning at New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT) in an effort to learn about the industry in New York. On a trip home she had the privilege to meet former casting director Lea Stalmaster, who helped her design a career strategy. Adele returned to L.A. for a crash course in life behind the camera. She interned at IFP/LA and eventually graduated into a freelance position as a script analyst for IFP/LA and Court TV in New York. In less than a year, she was invited by a NYWIFT contact to cast a short film. Since then she has been working on referral as a full-time casting director, dividing her work between New York and Los Angeles. In her brief 18-month career, she has cast eleven films and three television pilots. Her most recent credits include God's Waiting List, directed by Duane Adler (Save the Last Dance, writer), starring Roger Guenveur Smith, Nicki Micheaux, Felicia Day, Jo Anne Baron, Lauren Tom and Ingrid Oliu; Street Symphony, Menage a trois, and the television pilot The D Word (parody of The L Word) all due for release in 2005. She has five upcoming projects including Until the Rains, when she will re-team with Duane Adler. All are due for release in 2006. Contact information is available on www.imdb.com.