FILMMAKERS

ROBERT-CARNILIUS is a filmmaker, animator, and graphic designer. As a proud feminist and LGBTQ activist, Carnilius often portrays uncomfortable subjects and marginalized identities in his films. His short film Jaspa’ Jenkins was recently nominated for a Student Academy Award and screened at the Chicago International Film Festival. Carnilius’ latest project, McTucky Fried High, is a comedic animated web series that tackles subjects such as gender identity, coming out, and bullying.

FRED FREDERIKSEN & DYLAN JONES have been making music and films together since they met as youths in Lombard, IL. Their collaboration is marked by a distinctive sense of the absurd. Jones has a BFA from SAIC with a focus in sculpture and is currently earning his MFA at University of Texas in Dallas. Frederiksen graduated with a BFA in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently working in film production.

LYDIA FU is an artist and illustrator working to blend old school and new school. Her unique aesthetic combines the melancholic with the colorful to incisively interpret the world.  She loves to tell stories, draw them and sometimes make them move. Fu's work focuses on identity and how identities shape our world and our relationships to each other. She has been featured in gallery exhibitions in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and of course, Chicago and has won numerous awards for her short film, Permute.

AMIR GEORGE is a motion picture artist and film curator from Chicago. His video work and curated programs have been screened in festivals and galleries across the US, Canada, and Europe. In addition to founding Cinema Culture, a grassroots film programming organization, George is also the co-curator of Black Radical Imagination, a touring experimental short film program. He currently teaches and produces media with youth throughout Chicagoland.

FAWZIA MIRZA is an actress, writer and producer splitting her time between Chicago and Los Angeles. She uses performance, personal storytelling, and comedy to break down stereotypes across a multiplicity of identities. Her work seeks to challenge the mainstream stereotype of the “model minority." Her talent defies genre as she wows audiences with one-woman shows like Me, My Mom, and Sharmila, and web series like Kam Kardashian, about a long lost lesbian Kardashian sister. Fawzia was recently named among the "Top 10 Creatives" in 2015 by Indiewire.

RYAN LOGAN is an award-winning short film director who recently relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles. His work has screened at over 100 festivals, museums, and universities throughout the world including at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival, Outfest, and Frameline. His work has been programmed in diverse venues ranging from the Director's Guild of America to the British Film Institute. Logan and Mirza have collaborated on a number of projects, including Queen of My Dreams and the web series Kam Kardashian.

VALIA O'DONNELL is an artist and animator with a longstanding love of the wacky and weird. Her work explores the confluence of place, experience, and memory through a personal engagement with spaces familiar and foreign. O’Donnell recently graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago. 

EUGENE SUN PARK is a writer, director, and producer working in both traditional narrative and experimental forms. His projects have screened at festivals, micro-cinemas, and on broadcast television, including New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, Anthology Film Archives,  Portland Art Museum, and on Time Warner Cable.

MIKE PAULUCCI is an independent filmmaker with an MFA in Film from UNC Greensboro. Paulucci's first narrative feature, Tasmanian Tiger, is currently on the festival circuit. It recently won best Narrative Feature award at Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival, and is a Crossroads Nominee at the RxSM Self Medicated Film Expo. When Paulucci isn't making his own films, he is the Manager of Video and Multimedia at the Erikson Institute, a non-profit geared to improving the lives of children and their families.

AMANDA TAVES is a photographer and filmmaker currently attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Through her art practice, Taves investigates the outside forces that shape memory and the autobiographical nature of objects and locations. Taves’ work is included in various permanent collections and her most recent exhibitions include Gallery X in Chicago and Black Hills State University in North Dakota