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Kim Estes, Actor
Emmy Award Winner
Kim Estes, an Emmy Award winner for “Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series - 2017, for his role as Sergeant Amanda Smith in “Dicks.” His impressive list of TV appearances includes “Criminal Minds, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Fresh off the Boat, Pretty Little Liars, The Real O'Neals," and "NCIS". You can also see him in the season six Private Practice episode Apron Strings where he plays a mediator. This list continues with character parts in “400 Days, Crossroad, The Bachelor Next Door, 5 Hour Friends, Night Eyes, Removal and a host of other films.
While born and raised in Los Angeles, Kim has spent time in Vallejo, where he attended college at CSU, Cal Maritime Academy before continuing his post-graduate work at the University of Southern California. We are thrilled to have Kim Estes as a member of our juror panel.
George Maguire, Actor
Pursuit of Happyness,
Fight Club, True Lies
George Maguire has been a member of Actors Equity Association and SAG/AFTRA for over 50 years. His career spans both coasts and includes Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Companies and many of the top regional theaters in the states including Actors Theater of Louisville, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes, Marin, and Northshore Shakespeare Festivals, PCPA Theaterfest, ACT, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theater, Shotgun Players, Clarence Brown Theater and many more. His over 30 film and TV credits include "Fight Club, Pursuit of Happyness, Metro, The Sweetest Thing, Opal, The Dog Love," James Franco’s "Yosemite," Clint Eastwood’s "True Lies, Youth," films and pilots for NBC, ABC, CBS, and PBS and Lt. Governor Mel Wexler on "Nash Bridges". His most recent projects include "13 Reasons Why" and "Generations," which is now touring the film festival circuit, along with "Nosferatu" with "The Shape of Water" star Doug Jones.
His directing credits include CenterRep, PCPA, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, SRT Santa Rosa, New Conservatory Theater, Indra Theater Company, Broadway By The Bay, and Playground of which he is a proud member. He is Professor Emeritus at Solano College Theater where he co-founded the Actor Training Program and teaches Advanced On-Camera Acting for Nancy Hayes Casting and Academy of Art University.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0536574/
Steve Dunsky
Emmy Award Winning Filmmaker
As a documentary filmmaker, Steve Dunsky has focused on conservation issues in his work for the U.S. Forest Service and as an independent filmmaker. Along with his wife Ann, Steve has made dozens of films covering a wide range of conservation issues, for visitor centers including those at Mono Lake, California; Southeast Alaska, and Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Their films have screened across the country and internationally, in small venues and large, film festivals and television broadcasts. The Greatest Good, about the history of conservation and the Forest Service, was short-listed for an Academy Award nomination. Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for our Time won an Emmy Award for historical documentary. Butterflies & Bulldozers, about a battle inside an environmental community, is a staple in college classrooms. Their current documentary project looks at how humans are responding to an era of rapid global change.
Barbara Ann O'Leary, Filmmaker
Founder, #DirectedByWomen
Barbara Ann O’Leary is an activist, filmmaker, and catalyst for transformation. Her love of film inspired her to launch the #DirectedbyWomen Worldwide Film Viewing Party initiative in 2015 to encourage discovery and celebration of work by women directors. She created and curates a list of women who have directed film, which currently includes information for over 11,746 directors. A graduate of Indiana University in Theater and Drama, she later served as IU Cinema’s founding social media and web specialist, and she was the founding editor of A Place for Film, IU Cinema’s blog.
She has served as a member of the Ann Arbor Film Festival’s screening committee for the past three years and previously screened films and served on the World Cinema Jury for Indy Film Fest. Her online activism in support of women’s empowerment and authentic creative expression extends back to the 1990s when she founded Virtual Sisterhood, a global network of women strategizing feminist uses of emerging online technologies. This work followed her groundbreaking implementation of online communication strategies for the UN NGO Women’s Caucus led by Women’s Environment and Development Organization.
Patricia LaMarr is the Executive Producer for The Northern California Filmmakers Coalition. NCFC is a non-profit film organization whose mission is to encourage individuals in filmmaking and/or film-related areas through education by providing hands-on experience and participation in filmmaking projects. Our goal is to add value to lives and promote professionalism in the film and television industry.
Established in 2012, along with Co-Executive Producer, Gary Bell, NCFC provides opportunities for aspiring members of the performing arts community to acquire life-changing experiences, knowledge, abilities, skills; and to fully participate in the filmmaking process. Our professional team of cinematographers, lighting experts and producers work rigorously to showcase stories that are meaningful to viewers and relative to today. Recent projects include “Dr. Castillo” now on the film festival circuit, and are currently in production on “Full Circle (The Story of the New Dimensions)”. In the 1960's, a group of Beverly Hills eighth graders helped define the Southern California surf sound. The New Dimensions are the most influential surf band you've never heard of. Their four instrumental LPs provided the backbeat to surf music. https://vimeo.com/167504428
Patricia LaMarr, Exec. Producer
Northern California Filmmaker Coalition
Andrew Ching
Narrative Filmmaker/Editor
Andrew Ching, hails from Pacific Grove, CA, and has been living in San Francisco for over 20 years now. As someone who loves Cinema and who happens to be a 1st-Gen. A.B.C. (American-Born Chinese), Andrew came late to Filmmaking after struggling to overcome family career expectations and cultural-stereotyping.
As a Filmmaker-Editor, Andrew learned his craft by making short films at City College of SF’s Cinema Dept. While there, he was nominated for a "Student Eddie” by the American Cinema Editors Guild, and one of his short films, "For Cereal Lovers Only" screened at several hi-profile film festivals, including SXSW Film, Palm Springs Int’l Short Film & CA Indie Film. Three of his short films have been broadcast on PBS’ San Jose affiliate KTEH-TV.
He was also the Asst. Editor on the Sundance/Sony Pictures Classics feature film "Haiku Tunnel." Two of his short films are highly-rated on IMDb. His most recent work has screened at local film fests. As a Narrative Filmmaker, Andrew is fascinated by Film’s ability to delve into the mystery of the human psyche/behavior and to draw insights from it. He admires, in particular, the cinematic style & psychological suspense found in Hitchcock films, and the films of Welles, Truffaut & Zhang Yimou. Currently, he is developing and seeking funding for a bold and uniquely personal, Chinese-American themed film project. And, of course, he loves cereal.
Our Student Juror Participants
Morgana McKenzie
Award Winning Filmmaker
Kate Gondwe
Award Winning Filmmaker
Asha Newman
Actor, Dancer
Morgana McKenzie is a Toronto-based award-winning director and cinematographer working in both narrative and documentary film. Her shorts have won over 40 awards from international festivals, including the Canada 150 award for Best Director from TIFF Jump Cuts Next Wave. Morgana is currently shooting a number of doc projects in Toronto and Seattle and is in post-production on her upcoming narrative short “Wild”, a supernatural 1930s period piece.
Kate Gondwe made her strides into the film industry prior to graduating high school in 2017. She is a writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and award-winning filmmaker, all this prior to the age of 17. Movies were magical to her and she started making her own films at the age of thirteen. Her mediums include both documentaries and narratives, indicating that they both feed her creatively but different. “Each medium holds beauty in unique ways.”
Asha Newman is a talented young aspiring actor and dancer. Kids N Film and the Industry Network in Los Angeles, CA are contributions to her training where she was awarded in Top 10 Actress of the Year, Top 10 in Commercial category, and Best Monologue. She began acting at a local theatre camp and was cast in lead roles in West Side Story, The Wiz, and Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. At the age of 8, her love for dancing began to flourish at the Vallejo Ballet, where she received raving reviews for her leading role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Asha is currently a company member of the Benicia Ballet, where she is instructed in advance ballet classes. As a high school student, Asha has maintained a 4.0 GPA, she is a member of National Honor Society and aspires to attend Howard University to study…. upon graduating.
Diego Argueta
Actor
As a young child, Diego was interested in film. In the second grade, he was invited to act for the Marin Shakespeare Company in the summer in "Comedy of Errors", then proceeded to act for them for two more years in "As You Like It" and "Othello". He has also, participated in a screenwriting workshop in the Odyssey Program offered by Dominican University where he learned all the key points to movie structure such as plot synopsis, rising action, climax, and resolution. Diego's experience and studies have prepared him to commit to investing his full attention in making sure that the results for the film festival are fair
and honest.
Our Under Twelve Student Jurors
Masaya Farrior
An East Coast transplant, Masaya is a talented visual artist who has a love for manga, anime, and action films. He has been featured in a KidsNFilm commercial and creates original comic strip stories.
Masaya is excited to be a student juror and looks forward to being a part of the festival.
Breccan Beck Davis
Since entering his second grade school year, Breccan has become
a highly esteemed Lego, Kung Fu,
and animated film aficionado. Breccan takes being a juror very seriously and has committed to staying up past 8:30pm (on the weekend) to watch the films presented in this festival.
The International KidsNFilm Festival