Stephen Costantino is a Producer, Musician and Creature Suit Actor, widely known as the Gamorrean Guard on Jabba the Hutt's barge in Return of the Jedi. In the early 1980s, he formed the band, "Atmosphere" with funk bassist and friend, Corey Dee Williams, son of and stand-in for Lando Calrissian actor, Billy Dee Williams. As a session guitarist, Stephen has played for New Edition, Bel Biv Devoe and The Black Eyed Peas.
Liz Tabish is an actress and filmmaker based in Austin, TX. Her style of filmmaking is guerilla, lo-fi arthouse inspired by 1960-70s European cinema. She received her BA in Film Theory and MA in Directing/Theater from Oklahoma State University. She co-produces at Maenad Films and is co-director of Austin Arthouse Film Festival. She's currently working on an anthology series of vintage horror short films focused on female archetypes entitled Tales From the Dancing Maenads.
Award winning filmmaker and stop motion animator Benjamin Capps came to Chicago after receiving his degree in Theatre from the University of Missouri, Columbia. While an undergraduate, Benjamin founded The Inner Below in order to produce his own experimental theatre, with an emphasis on expanding on Antonin Artaud's theories of Theatre of Cruelty. Having written, directed, produced and acted in numerous stage-productions, Benjamin transitioned to film-making, now having made nine short-films.
Marko Kattilakoski had been a musician/songwriter for over 20 years, when an old friend confronted him with the question: “Marko, shouldn’t we make films?” The question resulted in the 17th century lovecraftian horror/drama "Forlorn Hope" screened at the HPLFF in Portland 2009. Director/writer/producer Marko Kattilakoski began writing the script for "The Music of John Low" three years ago, involved actors and crew, many of them previously involved in the two award winning films, "Coffee Break" (2012) and "The Terrible Typewriter" (2015).
Zeshaan Younus is a writer/director/producer based in Orange County, CA. As a life-long cinephile, he has a true passion for all things horror, science fiction, and paranormal. His first short film, Grey Canyon, follows a couple as they experience an otherworldly presence in the wilderness. He would say that the best movie of all-time is Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece, ALIEN (not the Director’s Cut and not up for discussion). Outside of filmmaking, Zeshaan has a career in government relations and serves in a leadership role for a few local non-profit organizations.
Providence native Jonathan Thomas has persisted in writing weird fiction amidst (or despite) such diverse livelihoods as postal clerk, artist’s model, copyeditor, and percussionist. His collections include Stories From the Big Black House (Radio Void), Midnight Call, Tempting Providence, Thirteen Conjurations, Dreams of Ys and Other Invisible Worlds, and Naked Revenants and Other Fables of Old and New England (all from Hippocampus Press).
Josh Carley started his film-making career as all young filmmakers do - by coercing his friends into letting him cover them with homemade gore for his short films. Those short films led to experience, and Josh soon began getting work as an editor. Over the past seven years, he has edited hundreds of videos. Commercials, music videos, films, documentaries, web pieces - you name it, he's cut it. Now Josh is resuming work on his own content, aided by the many talented filmmakers he's met.
Matt S. Bell started his career as a stills photographer, winning a number of awards and quickly gaining a reputation for his unique, impactful and filmic work. After completing a residency program in Paris, Matt transitioned into moving pictures. He has photographed numerous feature films, commercials, and music videos. His feature projects include Sawyer Hartman's The Parallax Theory, Sony's Santa Jaws, and the documentary Bending Lines: The Sculpture of Robert Wiggs.
As visual effects supervisor, Kolby Kember can tell you how long “fixing it in post” is actually going to take and how much it’s going to cost you. After graduating from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, Kolby moved across the US to work at VFX studios in Los Angeles. While there Kolby contributed to the effects in Captain America, John Carter, and The Avengers. Kolby returned to his home state of Louisiana once the film industry began to prosper locally.
Makan Talayeh is a writer and director living in Los Angeles. He completed two short films and is currently working on a feature film in the realm of a psychological thriller. He is influenced by dark humor and absurdism involving dysfunctional people. Most of his influence comes from 1970’s German and French New Wave cinema.