Water t-shirt design contest to support @WellDone & their work in #Africa. Love it! http://t.co/ndiZQVYT #water #contest
Mikki Willis is the founder and CEO of Elevate Films.
Art and entertainment have always been the heartbeat of Mikki Willis’ life. At the age of 25 he founded his first business endeavor, The New York/Los Angeles Theater of the Arts. “NYLA” became home to many Southern California artists who, like Mikki, were driven to push the envelope. As Theater Director, Mikki wrote, produced and directed countless experimental productions. This is where he learned the rules, and how to skillfully break them.
In 1996 Mikki made his directorial debut with the independent feature film Shoe Shine Boys. Academy Award winning actor Martin Landau signed on as Executive Producer, traveling with the film as it toured the festival circuit, winning numerous awards and praise from top critics. But it was radio personality Howard Stern’s continued on-air support that made Shoe Shine Boys an underground hit. The films innovative visual style attracted the attention of major record labels and launched Mikki’s career as a music video director. His first video was nominated for a Premio lo Nuestro, the Latin equivalent of an MTV Music Award. From there, Mikki went on to direct more than 45 breakthrough Spanish language music videos.
September 11th, 2001 marked the turning point in Mikki’s life and career. Having been inside the twin towers just hours before they fell he helped to organize and lead a group of civilians who risked their lives to aid rescue workers. Mikki was one of a handful of people allowed to remain at ground zero to aid in search and rescue efforts. It was on the ruble of the World Trade Center that his life was forever changed. On his return to Los Angeles he began laying the foundation for his life’s mission by founding Elevate Films, Elevate Foundation, and Elevate Film Festival, which challenges the international film community to create works of social and global importance. For this, Mikki Willis received the 2008 Conscious Life Humanitarian Award.
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up Rhino Films, the independent film company that originated as a division of iconoclastic record label Rhino Records. He has produced ten films and executive produced fourteen others. He is also working with Amnesty International through Artists for Amnesty on developing and producing human rights related motion picture and television projects. His Producer credits include The Surrogate “2012 Sundance Winner” Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (starring Johnny Depp and directed by Terry Gilliam), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (starring Halle Berry), Dogtown and Z Boys, What We Do Is Secret, the upcoming Radio Free Albemuth (the last Philip K. Dick novel), and You and I (starring Mischa Barton and directed by Roland Joffe). He is in pre-production on Snake and Mongoose about a legendary drag-racing rivalry.
Nemeth executive produced the documentary War/Dance about Ugandan child soldiers which was nominated for a 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary and which won the Director’s Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival; Fuel about alternative energies, which won the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festivall; Flow about the world’s water crisis, which also competed at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival; Climate Refugeesabout mass migrations due to global warming which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival; Mr. Bitchin’ about artist Robert Williams which had its world premiere at LACMA in 2010; Under the Boardwalkabout the game ofMonopoly, and Pick Up The Mic, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. Nemeth is in production on numerous other documentaries including Beisbol,chronicling the rise of Latin Baseball; A Walk on Water about the connection between autism and mercury; White Man’s Burden based on the book by William Easterly; and films about George Plimpton and Budd Schulberg.
Steve Michelson is the Executive Producer for Specialty Studios and the Video Project, the nations oldest environmental educational distributor celebrating its 26th year in 2010. He has functioned as the Executive Producer on many award-winning films involving environmental and social justice issues including Climb Against the Odds (1998), Oil on Ice (2004), Crude Impact (2006), Burning the Future (2008) River of Renewal (2009) and Power Paths (2009). Two new films in production that he is Executive Producing during 2010 are This is Our Land, about the Tongass National Forest and Epidemic?, a study of the rise in autism and related disorders affecting nearly 30 million children.
In 2001 he opened the Studio at Lobitos Creek Ranch that specializes in providing production and completion services for documentary producers.
He has served four terms as a Governor with the National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and is the recipient of the Gilbert Award from the San Francisco Bay Area film community for his contributions to the industry. Steve was the co-founder of One Pass Inc., San Francisco’s largest production service from 1975-1988.
Steve is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he attended The Annenberg School of Communications and the Wharton School of Business.
Marlene Velasco Begue is an independent producer and documentary consultant. Currently, she is the producer for “Latin Pulse/Pulso Latino,” a bilingual English/Spanish news magazine on Link TV covering relevant news from Latin America, now in its third season. Marlene has over 20 years of international experience working as a producer, consultant, programmer and film and video trainer for youth and adults. She has seved as a juror, panelist and screener for numerous organizations including SF International Film Festival, Latino Public Broadcasting, SF International Jewish Film Festival, SF Latino International Film Festival, and El Salvador Second Video Festival.
As a long time film programmer and writer, Zoë Elton serves as Director of Programming for Mill Valley Film Festival, California, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the United States. Since the festival’s inception, she has distinguished herself by pioneering the exhibition of new and digital media in the ‘80s; initiating the festival’s Active Cinema program–a forum for connecting the dots between films on activist issues and the causes they represent; and conducting interviews with artists such as Ang Lee, Helen Mirren and Alejandro González Iñárritu, both onstage and in print. Zoë is film critic for KVOT radio in New Mexico, has been a programming consultant for the Rwanda Film Festival, and has served on panels for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Haas Foundation’s Creative Works Fund and the Independent Spirit Awards. She is a graduate of New College of Speech and Drama in London.
Craig is a Co-Founder of Specialty Studios, a distribution and outreach studio for conscious media. Specialty Studios supports sustained outreach efforts around media and seeks to provide engaged viewers with a clear path to gettig involved with the issues and organizations that inspire them. In his role as head of Business Affairs and Strategy, Craig develops collaborative partnerships and distribution channels for media campaigns built around compelling cause-related feature films. He is currently leading a few Specialty Studio projects that have captured his personal interest including So Right So Smart, a film featuring Ray Anderson that makes the business case for sustainable business and Coral Sea Dreaming that makes the connection of our global ecosystems through the stories of our oceans and coral reefs.
Craig has worked in the area of “media convergence” for over 15 years as a media transactions and IP attorney, consultant, and business executive. He specializes in building intellectual property portfolios around media, and crafting deals that more fully leverage the rights of content owners and their ability to direct distribute to support their social and economic goals. He is a fierce advocate for independent film makers and seeks better markets and models for them and their important work.
Drop by Drop: Water Stories, a video contest for youth created by the Social Change Film Festival & Institute (SCFFI), Channel G and EarthvisionZ, is now accepting submissions.
