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How can creating short form work inform the creation of your features? Hear from filmmakers working prolifically in shorts, features, web and fine art contexts about how small projects enhance the creation of their features.                                                                                                                                                

Rachel Chanoff, Feature Film Program Consultant, Sundance Institute

Rachel Chanoff has been working in performing arts and film for 30 years and is the founder and director of THE OFFICE performing arts + film, a New York City-based programming, consulting, and production company. She is Consultant to the Feature Film and Theater Programs for the Sundance Institute, the Curator of Performing Arts and Film for MASS MoCA, Director of Programming of the CenterSeries at Williams College, a member of the New York Jewish Film Festival selection committee, and Curator of Music and Family programming at 92YTribeca, and the Artistic Director of Celebrate Brooklyn!, New York’s longest running free outdoor performing arts and film festival.

Nekisa Cooper, Producer, “Pariah”
Nekisa Cooper is an accomplished independent producer who most recently produced the Sundance hit Pariah, which was released by Focus Features this winter. Nekisa was one of two producers to represent IFP at the 2009 Cinemart/Rotterdam Producing Lab, was a 2009 Film Independent Project: Involve Fellow, and was selected as one of five producers for the inaugural Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab. In 2006, with award-winning writer/director Dee Rees, she co-founded Northstar Pictures Inc., a company dedicated to telling stories that inspire and motivate audiences to interpret the world around them in a thoughtful and meaningful way.

Jonathan Lisecki, Director, “Gayby”
Jonathan Lisecki is an award-winning writer and director based in New York. His feature Gayby premiered in competition at the 2012 SXSW festival. Gayby is a full-length version of the celebrated short film of the same title, which has played at over one hundred festivals on six continents since its premiere at Slamdance in 2010. The Gayby short received jury prizes at the Philadelphia, Rhode Island, Outtakes Dallas, CineSLAM, OutFilmCT, and Arizona Film Festivals. It was selected Best of Fest at Palm Springs ShortFest, Inside Out Toronto, and several others; was named an outstanding short of Outfest by indieWIRE; and was shortlisted for the Iris Prize. The Gayby short appeared on iTunes via McSweeney’s, is available on a DVD from First Run Features, and can be seen on the just-released 15th edition of the Wholpin collection. His first short film, Woman in Burka, won various awards, including the 2008 Spirit of Slamdance Award for its debut, and was featured on the 12th edition of the Wholphin DVD collection. Before turning to filmmaking, Lisecki worked extensively in independent theatre.