Therese Shechter (Director)
is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, artist and public speaker whose films have screened on television, at film festivals and on college campuses all over the world. Her first feature,
I Was A Teenage Feminist, which premiered in New York in 2005 recently won Best Film at the Jewish Women's Film Festival (NCJW New York section) and was given a Special Mention at the Karachi Film Festival in
Pakistan. Ms. Shechter also recently completed a documentary short
entitled How I Learned to Speak Turkish which won the
Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at the Atlanta Film Festival.
After attending Columbia College Film School in
Chicago, Ms. Shechter moved to New York to work for Robert De Niro's production
company Tribeca Films. She worked with Macky Alston on his
documentary Questioning Faith, which aired on HBO
in Spring 2002, and has coordinated outreach events for PBS's Project Islam. She has also worked at the Sundance
Film Festival since 2001.
Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Ms. Shechter was a
journalist and graphic designer at the Chicago Tribune where, in her
capacity as Associate Graphics and Design Editor, she contributed
visual direction to several Pulitzer Prize-winning story packages.
Ms. Shechter writes about film and women's
issues and works as a freelance art director for a variety of publications.
She is a recipient of a 2002 Project:Involve Trainee Fellowship (for
emerging filmmakers) from IFP New York
and was selected to take part in Film/Video Arts' Artist/Mentor
Workshop of 2004. Her production company Trixie Films is based in New York.
Lisa Esselstein (Producer)
develops meaningful, marketable content for film and television. At IFC
Films, Lisa produces documentary shorts to support feature film
releases On Demand and on DVD under the IFC First Take banner, the
company's innovative day-and-date initiative. Projects include:
Sorry, Haters Roundtable, an open discussion of the film
starring Tim Robbins, Mary-Louise Parker, Julian Schnabel and others;
A Slice of Pizza, a commentary special with director Mark
Christopher; and behind-the-scenes features about Me and You and
Everyone We Know; The Baxter; and American
Gun.
Prior to IFC, Lisa coordinated two specials for
Spike TV. On Spike 52: Favorite Cars, a two-hour
clip show hosted by Tyrese, she headed the research department,
gathering and clearing license-free and archival footage. On
AutoRox,the first awards show for cars, hosted by Joe
Rogan and Carmen Electra, Lisa collaborated with executive producers on
logistical, creative and technical aspects 90-minute live-to-tape
event.
In an ongoing partnership with Max Curious
Productions, Lisa produces and edits corporate videos, DVDs and
multimedia projects for clients such as Chanel, Tiffany & Co.,
Ellen Tracy and W Hotels. In addition, Lisa develops original
content for television, such as Reality Rewind, a
30-minute weekly review of the world of reality TV, and
My Party, which whisks viewers behind the
scenes of the world's most elaborate parties.
Prior to her film and television work, Lisa spent
six years managing marketing and client services at two Silicon Valley
start-ups. Lisa studied American Studies and English at
California State University, Chico.
Anneliese Paull (Cinematographer)
is graduate of NYU’s film and television production program and has shot dozens of short
films and videos, including Liesel Davis's Under the Harlem Moon for which she won the
Nestor Almendros Cinematography award at the First Run Festival. She has worked
extensively in documentary form, including Therese Shechter's I Was A Teenage Feminist,
and has contributed to such programming as Army of One, NOW with Bill Moyers, and CourtTV's
Psychic Detectives. She has also shot two narrative features, most recently the romantic
comedy Pussyfoot.
Carole Larsen (Editor)
is a Toronto-based editor originally from Nova Scotia. For the past seventeen years she has been
editing documentaries (Things That Move, Meet the Sumdees) and fiction films (Outlaws of
Missouri, Fairytales and Pornography), and she has collaborated with award-winning
filmmakers Richard Fung (Sea in the Blood) and Therese Shechter (I Was A Teenage Feminist).
Ms. Larsen is a past member of the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto and served on the board
of Charles Street Video. She studied film at Ryerson University and was an
Editor Resident at Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre.
