TRICK

A busy New York stage director, Jim Fall makes his feature film directorial debut with trick. Fall's award-winning short films He Touched Me and Love is Deaf, Dumb and Blind were both shown nationally on USA Cable Network and Nickelodeon. He recently completed work on the screenplays Fabulous People for HBO, and Weasel, based on the award-wining novel by Cynthia DeFelice. He is currently co-writing Sky Hags, a comedy about the airline industry, with novelist Doug Guinan.

Fall's New York theatre directing credits include "The Most Beautiful Boy in the World;" "Blood Orgy of the Carnival Queens!" (co-writer); "Cute Boys in their Underpants go to France"; "Christmas on Hell Island!;" Chorus Girl on Mars!;"; "Adult Themes of a sexual Nature;" "Breath;" "Extras;" "Zastrozzi - The Master of Discipline;" and the comedy team of "Brickface and Stucco." Fall is resident director for the Vortex Theatre Company and serves on their Board of Directors.

Fall attended Temple University, followed by NYU's film school, and also received a film scholarship from The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts.

A native of Sacramento, California, trick marks Jason Schafer's first effort as a screenwriter. He began writing at the age of sixteen and completed the book, music and lyrics to three musical comedies by the time he graduated from UCLA with a BA in Music Composition. He has received numerous awards for songwriting and composition including an NYU Mobile Award for composing the score to Andres Heinz's short film Ground Level B and the 1992 Carol Burnett Award for Musical Theatre. Schafer recently directed a production of his play "Wrong Turn Off the Escalator" in New York and is currently working on a new screenplay.

Eric d'Arbeloff founded Roadside Attractions LLC in 1997 to develop and finance independent film projects. He is the executive producer of The Shoe, a retelling of the Cinderella tale set in cold-war Latvia, which was an official selection of the 1998 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals and the 1999 Berlin Film Festival. d'Arbeloff's background includes stints with producers Roger Corman and Stephen Chao, as well as Fox Family Films. He holds a BA in English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Harvard University.

As production executive for Good Machine, Ross Katz has overseen the productions of Todd Solondz's Happiness and Bart Freundlich's The Myth of Fingerprints. Katz joined Good Machine after working on Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility.

After attending Temple University's film school, Katz moved to Los Angeles to begin his career. He got his first break as an unpaid grip on Reservoir Dogs. He quickly gained experience working in a number of capacities, including director's assistant on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and producer's assistant (to Sydney Pollack, Lindsay Doran).

A long-time consultant to independent filmmakers, Robert Hawk has been credited with discovering and nurturing talents such as Kevin Smith (Clerks), Ed Burns (The Brothers McMullen), Lisa Kreuger (Manny and Lo) and David Moreton and Todd Stephens (Edge of Seventeen). He served as the associate producer of Smith's acclaimed Chasing Amy.

A 15 year veteran of the independent scene, Hawk began his film career as a researcher on Robert Epstein and Richard Schmiechen's Academy Award-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. He also worked as a principal researcher on Epstein's most recent film (with Jeffrey Friedman), The Celluloid Closet. In 1985, he founded San Francisco's Film Arts Festival and served as its director for eight years. He has been a member of the advisory selection committee for the Sundance Film Festival (1987-1998) and is on the advisory board for the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, among many others. He has also served on a number of festival juries in the U.S. and abroad, and has been a curator/programmer for such diverse venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the M.H. deYoung Museum in San Francisco and the Melbourne Film Festival.

Terry Stacey's recent feature film credits include Tom Gilroy's Spring Forward, John Zibell's Laughing River, Edward Radtke's The Dream Catcher, and Justin McCarthy's Jump, the opening film at the 1999 L.A. Independent Film Festival. His other credits include Frank Grow's Love God, and a number of short films, among them Erin Kramer's Bad Bosses Go to Hell and Loren Kaplan's History of the World in Eight Minutes. Stacey's own short film, Bad Liver and Broken Heart played at the 1996 Berlin Film Festival.

Stacey began his film career after graduating from Manchester College and moving to New York, where worked with The Collective for the Living Cinema, making no-budget super 8mm and 16mm shorts. Returning to England in 1987, Stacey spent the next three years shooting documentaries for the BBC and Channel Four, projects that took him to Brazil, Iceland and India. In the 1990s, he worked as a director of photography on music videos, shooting clips for such artists as Rod Stewart, Toni Braxton and Dwight Yoakam.

Brian Kates' feature film editing credits include Danny Hoch and Mark Benjamin's Jails, Hospitals, and Hip-Hop; Julie A. Lynch's Getting Off; and Ela Troyano's Latin Boys Go To Hell. Prior to this, he was an avid editor on Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and the associate editor of Jim McKay's Girls Town. As assistant editor, Kates worked on such acclaimed films as Todd Haynes' Safe, David Riker's La Ciudad, Robert M. Young's Caught and Martin Bell's Hidden in America.

Kates received the Best Editing Award at the 1994 First Run Film Festival for Natalia Lazarus' short film Dark Room. He has edited numerous short films and videos, among them Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon's Domestic Violence; Michael Stipe's Orange; and the award-winning shorts My Polish Waiter by Terracino and Tree Shade by Lisa Collins.

As a composer, producer and arranger, David Friedman has worked in virtually every medium of entertainment, from film and television to concerts and musicals. He was conductor/vocal arranger on the Disney animated films Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and went on to write songs for Aladdin and The King of Thieves and Barney, The Movie.

Friedman's television credits include scoring and writing songs for the animated series "Happy Ness," "Sky Dancers" and "Dragon Flyz," all of which have been syndicated worldwide. His music has also been featured on numerous television series and specials, including "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Touched By An Angel," "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee," "Good Morning America," and "The Miss America Pageant."

Among the artists who have recorded Friedman's songs are Diana Ross, Barry Manilow, Laura Branigan, Kathie Lee Gifford, Cris Williamson, Petula Clark, and the late Nancy LaMott (whose seven CDs he produced on his label MIDDER MUSIC). In 1995, Friedman released the album "David Friedman - I'll Be Here with You," and he is currently working on a new collection of songs entitled "Trust the Wind - The Inspirational Songs of David Friedman." His work as a songwriter has garnered him three MAC Awards, as well as the 1994 Johnny Mercer Award for Composer of the Year. Along with his collaborator, Deborah Baley Brevoort, Friedman received the Dramatist's Guild Award and Frederick Loewe Award for their oratorio "King Island Christmas." Friedman is currently at work composing the scores for two new musicals.

Jody Asnes' recent credits include such upcoming films as Chris MŸnch's Backwards Looks, Far Corners, John Scott Matthew's Back Story and Lisanne Skyler's Getting To Know You. Besides being active in the American independent film world, Asnes has worked as an art director and production designer on films in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador.

Asnes began her career in the fine arts, working for several years at the New York Gallery of Contemporary Art before moving to Buenos Aires to continue her studies in studio arts and photography. After living for some time in Brazil and following a stint farming on Martha's Vineyard, she returned to New York City, launching her film career with a job building bedroom sets for a Marilyn Chambers video.