Host/Moderators Include:
Aymie Majerski : Aymie Majerski is a filmmaker with an extensive background in funding, development, production and post-production spanning the past 18 years. As owner of Barking Fish, Aymie has developed and produced nationally recognized projects including 4192, the official Pete Rose documentary and 7 BELOW starring Val Kilmer and Ving Rhames.
Kristen Schlotman is the Executive Director of Film Cincinnati. She has been with the commission since 1997 and began by coordinating production. Her many credits include, The Blunderer, Carol, Miles Ahead, Ides of March, Secretariat, Dreamer, Traffic, In Too Deep, Seabiscuit and Elizabethtown.
Our Guests Include:
Gwen Bialic: Gwen Bialic has been working in film and TV for over 20 years. She moved to New York in 1997 to work on Lisa Cholodenko’s first film High Art, building a career in independent film on projects like Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight, Rebecca Miller’s Peronsal Velocity, Larry Fessenden’s Wendigo and the cult film Pootie Tang. She is honored to have worked with singular directors like John Waters (A Dirty Shame), Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers), Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind), Julian Schnabel (Lou Reed’s concert film Berlin) and Todd Haynes, with whom she co-produced the feature film Carol and a video segment for the HBO documentary Six By Sondheim. She has co-produced several feature film projects including The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as Army family notification officers, directed by Oren Moverman; Joshua Marston’s The Forgiveness of Blood, an Albanian language film about contemporary family blood feuds shot entirely in Albania; Outsourced, a feature film about call centers shot in Mumbai, India; and Little New York, a co-production with Luc Besson’s Europa Corp and the French production company Why Not. Documentary credits include Riker’s High about the high school in NYC’s detention center Riker’s Island; How Much Does Your Building Weigh, a biography of the architect Sir Norman Foster; and The Punk Singer, the Kathleen Hanna/Riot Girl music doc directed by Tamra Davis and Sini Anderson which she co-produced. Television credits include both seasons of Aziz Ansari’s Master of None for Netflix, the Judd Apatow/HBO comedy Crashing, and the extended pilot episode of Mr. Robot. Currently, Gwen produces the acclaimed anthology series High Maintenance for HBO (now in pre-production for season 4), a humanist love letter to NYC that makes her proud and thankful every day.
John Cioffi: John J Cioffi, III is Chairman of Avenue A Films Entertainment, a start-up production company based in the Midwestern United States. Designated to bridge the gap in the entertainment industry from the Coasts, John has launched the company with broad domestic and international ties. He has worked with some of the most sought after writers and directors based both here in the US and Europe, with multiple award winning feature documentary titles added to his resume. Armed with an MBA from the world’s best, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, John’s vast experience with complex and alternative funding transactions positions him uniquely with an ability to add structural value to the creative and developmental practice. Turning down a studio executive position, John has focused his energy in the world of independent production, where grass-roots passion projects require the disciplined eye of a professional, adept in connecting the two platforms of art and the business of entertainment. In a unique time where end-users digest content in ever-changing and unprecedented platforms, John aims to keep all ideas relevant and adaptable to the roving consumption habits of our collective audiences.
Sarah Lewis: Sarah Lewis counsels individuals and companies working in the entertainment industry at all stages of creative development, production, and distribution. She has extensive transactional experience in television, having served as studio and production counsel for Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc., TeleNext Media Inc. (a business unit of MediaVest Group) and others on the television network movies “Secrets of the Mountain,” “The Jensen Project,” “A Walk in My Shoes,” “Change of Plans,” “Truth Be Told,” “Field of Vision,” “Who is Simon Miller,” “Game Time: Tackling the Past,” and “Game of Your Life.” Sarah advises clients regarding a variety of guild and union issues, including those involving SAG, AFTRA, DGA, WGA and IATSE, and works with them to ensure compliance with guild regulations. Additionally, she has represented local personalities in the negotiation of their talent agreements with studios and other production entities and provides counsel to film production companies and media companies, such as Maker Studios, on talent and production agreements and copyright protection. Sarah also works with clients such as Scripps Networks on various matters involving online and social media marketing, privacy, behavioral advertising, endorsements, sponsorships, and product placement.