14th Annual City of the Angels Film Festival

Use this menu to explore the 2007 festival.

Another collection of the best and brightest (panelists listed in alphabetical order)...

Bella
	Ali Landry (Actor) Raised in a small Cajun town in Louisiana, Landry graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a degree in Communications. She entered the Miss USA pageant in 1996 with the hope of launching a career in broadcasting or entertainment and her win brought her to the attention of a major Hollywood talent agency. The popular host of such television shows as “Prime Time Comedy” and “Americaʼs Greatest Pets” then signed with Frito Lay for an acclaimed Doritos campaignn that debuted during the 1998 Super Bowl telecast and gained her instantaneous fame. Landry soon made the transition to acting with a variety of film and television roles, including a co-starring role in UPN's “Eve” which has recently completed its third season. She has made guest-starring appearances on such episodic series “Felicity,” “Pensacola” and “Popular.” In 2000, she had a featured role in the motion picture “Beautiful,” directed by Sally Field.

	Ana María Montero is an anchor and correspondent for CNN en Español. She is the host of the network’s entertainment show, Escenario, and is based in Los Angeles, California. Since joining CNN en Español in 1997, Montero has covered as covered the Oscar, Grammy and Emmy Awards, as well as the Golden Globes and the recently established Latin Grammy’s. She has also reported on the death of the legendary Frank Sinatra. In addition, Montero has covered the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Sundance Film Festival in the U.S., and the Rock in Rio for a Better World music festival in Brazil. Montero has interviewed many of Hollywood’s hottest movie stars, including Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Matt Damon, Penélope Cruz, Benicio del Toro, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan and Antonio Banderas. In addition, she has interviewed musicians Jennifer López, Ricky Martín, Shakira, Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias, Julio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, Fito Páez, Rubén Blades, Jon Bon Jovi, Maná, Miguel Bosé, Alejandro Sanz and Gilberto Gil, among others. Before joining CNN en Español as a presenter, Montero served as a correspondent in Madrid for the Telemundo’s entertainment program Edición Especial. Montero also worked with the International News department of Agencia EFE in Madrid. Prior to this, she worked with CNN as a production assistant for their Spanish-language newscasts and as a producer for CNNRadio Noticias. Montero graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with a master’s degree in International Relations and Communication. She also holds a marketing degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

	Alejandro Gomez Monteverde (Writer, Director, Producer) was born and raised in the Mexican town of Tampico, Tamaulipas. In 1999, he entered the University of Texas film school, where he went on to win an unprecendented number of film festivals for a student filmmaker while still an undergraduate. Monteverde's first film, Bocho, shot in 16mm with no budget in Aljendro's spare time as a student was recognized with the most prestigious of all Kodak Awards for Excellence in Cinematography and won awards at several international film festivals. His student demo reel was impressive enough that Kodak and Panavision both awarded him with sponsorships to shoot his first 35mm short, Waiting for Trains (filmmed in New York the week of 9-11), which subsequently won major awards in several different festivals and networks. Following his graduation from UT, Monteverde produced several award-winning short films, commercials and music videos. In 2004, he moved to Los Angeles and partnered with actor/ producer Eduardo Verástegui and producers Sean Wolfington, Leo Severino & Eustace Woldfinton to make Bella and to form Metanoia Films, a company committed to projects that entertain, engage and inspire.

	Leo Severino (Writer, Producer) graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1999 and started his career as a young lawyer in one of the world's largest law firms (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) prestigious Los Angeles and London offices. He quickly found his niche in the firm's Latin American Corporate Transactions department, but his heart had been set on Hollywood since his 1997 summer internship with 20th Cerntury Fox. He stayed with the law firm for a little over 2 years before transitioning to entertainment law. In 2001, he moved the Fox Networks Groups where, a Director of Business Affairs, he was the youngest exectuive in the department and worked for 3 years with the company handling the national programming division. A chance meeting with Eduardo Verástegui in 2004 resulted in Leo's departure from 20th Century Fox to beocme a partner and producer in charge of Business Affairs.

	Eduardo Verastegu (Actor, Producer) Born and raised in Xicotencatl, Tamaulipas, a tiny village in Northern Mexico, Verástegui was the son of a sugar cane farmer. At the age of 18, he left his small town and headed to Mexico City to pursue a career in entertainment. Twelve years later, Eduardo had toured the world as a singer in the Mexican pop sensation Kairo and as an acclaimed solo recording artist, performing sold-out concerts in over 13 countries. Sarring in five highly-rated Spanish soap operas for Televisa (broadcast in over 19 countries), he has also been featured on hundreds of international magazine covers including People En Espanol which voted him on of 50 most Beautiful People. In 2004, following an inspiration to transform his image, Verástegui left his agency and management and teamed with director Alejandro Monteverde and producers Sean Wolfington, Leo Severino & Eustace Wolfington to make “Bella” and to form Metanoia Films, a company committed to projects that entertain, engage, and inspire.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt
	Craig Detweiler Craig is a filmmaker, author, and cultural commentator who's been featured in The New York Times, CNN, and NPR. Films he has written include The Duke (1999) for Disney's Buena Vista and the comedic road trip, ExtremeDays (2001). His one-hour documentary, Williams Syndrome: A Highly Musical Species (1996), premiered at the Boston Film Festival, won a Cine Golden Eagle, the Silver Award at WorldFest Charleston, Best Documentary at the Carolina Film and Video Fest, and the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. Craig co-directs the Reel Spirituality Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. His first book, A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, connects the dots between movies, music, TV and the divine. It has been adopted as the standard text in the field of theology and pop culture on college campuses around the world. Craig grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Davidson College and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Southern Californiaʼs School of Cinema/TV. Craig just completed his Ph.D. in Theology and Culture from Fuller Seminary. His dissertation, Soul Meets Body: Faith in the Internet Movie Database, will be published in 2008. Craig and his wife, Caroline, live in Los Angeles, with their children, Zoe and Theo.

	Ricki Stern (Writer, Producer, Director) Stern is a documentary producer and director whose films have shown on HBO and PBS. Stern is the co-producer and director of the award winning In My Corner, a documentary film on the world of amateur boxing and the lives of the young men who train in the South Bronx. The film was nationally broadcast as part of PBS' award winning documentary series P.O.V. (Point of View) in 1999. The film has played at over nine festivals, winning four honors including a Golden Apple Award from the National Education Media Network, with the European premiere at Visions Du Reel, Switzerland. She produced and directed the EMMY nominated Neglect Not The Children, a documentary about a Harlem based youth program. Neglect Not The Children was hosted by Morgan Freeman and nationally aired on PBS. Stern's producing credits include HBO's series on forensic science "Autopsy I, II, III" and "Murder 9 to 5," on workplace violence. Stern is the co-author of a three-book series for children titled Beryl E. Bean: Mighty Adventurer of the Planet, published by HarperCollins.

	Ralph Watkins Ralph Watkins is the assistant dean for the African-American Church Studies Program and associate professor of society, religion, and Africana studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is author of I Ain’t Afraid to Speak my Mind and The Gospel Remix: Reaching the Hip Hop Generation.

Norma Rae
	Monica Ganas, Ph.D is an associate professor in Theatre, Film & Television at Azusa Pacific University and a 20-year-veteran of the entertainment industry, performing as actor, writer, and occasional producer/director, principally in satirical comedy.

	Dr. Thom Parham is a writer, producer, and script consultant whose television credits include the CBS dramas JAG and Touched By An Angel, and the Family Channel sitcom Big Brother Jake. His film production company, Dos Negros Entertainment, recently released the short films, Jaded and Someone Else. Thom is also an Associate Professor of Theater, Film, and Television at Azusa Pacific University.

	Rev. Alexia Salvatierra is the Executive Director of CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), an organization of religious leaders throughout Los Angeles county who come together to respond to the crisis of working poverty by supporting low-wage workers in their struggle for a living wage, health insurance, fair working conditions and a voice in the decisions that affect them. Rev. Salvatierra is also the co-chair of a new statewide alliance of interfaith worker justice groups, CLUE California. CLUE California is currently organizing new chapters in Orange County and the Inland Empire. Rev. Salvatierra is an ordained Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with over 20 years of experience in interfaith and community ministry, community organizing and legislative advocacy. She has directed organizations focused on helping the homeless, migrant farmworkers and inner city youth, in addition to providing consulting services in the areas of program/resource development, strategic planning and evaluation. In addition, she has worked on projects in the Philippines, Central and South America, and Northeast Africa.

The Devil Came On Horseback
	Raymond Bonniwell was born in South Africa, and grew up in various places in Southern Africa including a number of years in Swaziland. He is a qualified as a Civil Engineer and has numerous diplomas and certificates in theology. Ray was conscripted into the South African Defense force where he served as a combat engineer attached to a parachute regiment. Ray then became a licensed minister in the Anglican Church. When he was a minister, he began working with refugee camps. Ray has worked as a humanitarian aid worker and as a security advisor in many extremely difficult and dangerous conflict environments, including nearly every political clash and upheaval in Africa since the early 1990’s. Ray has been passionately involved in the Sudan for many years where he has been involved in peace building projects in the south and then security for aid workers and as security Advisor in Darfur. Ray joined World Vision International in 2001 and worked as part of UN Security on the back up team for the hostage negotiations on the release of WVI staff in South Sudan. Later he became one of World Vision International’s first Field Security Officers and spent the following year in Iraq. Ray has one son. Ray then served as the security advisor to World Vision’s Global Rapid Response Team (GRRT), which is a group of highly skilled professional relief practitioners from within the World Vision Partnership who can be mobilized & deployed in teams within 24 to 72 hours of the onset of a disaster or emergency anywhere in the world. He is currently the Security Training Director and Associate Director of World Vision’s Global Centre Office of Corporate Security. Ray is dedicated to help manage the safety and security of both humanitarian aid workers, and those whom we serve and work alongside in the field.

	Rabbi Lee T. Bycel is Senior Advisor to Global Strategy of International Medical Corps. He also moderates senior leadership seminars for the Aspen Institute and the Federal Executive Institute, and offers seminars on ethics, leadership issues and strategy for a variety of corporate and non-profit organizations. During the past year and a half he has made three humanitarian trips to Darfur and Chad where he visited several refugee camps and has raised over a million and a half dollars for medical supplies, food and basic services for refugees. In April he was in Rwanda for the twelfth commemoration of their genocide and also visited IMC projects in the slums of Nairobi. For several years he served as president of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a national conference and retreat center located in Southern California. For fifteen years he was dean of the Hebrew Union College– Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles where he was the senior academic and administrative officer of the campus. Lee is an active member of the Los Angeles community where he is involved in a variety of interfaith, social justice and educational organizations and activities. He served as president of the County of Los Angeles Commission on Human Relations. He is a member of the California Taskforce on Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance Education as well as a Board member of MAZON: A Jewish response to Hunger. He has a number of publications to his credit and has been the recipient of many awards including the National Conference of Community and Justice (NCCJ) Humanitarian Award.

	Brian Steidle grew up living around the world as the son of a naval officer, including two years in the Philippines, which greatly influenced his desire to work on a global scale helping the less fortunate. Brian graduated with a B.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in 1999 and received a commission in the US Marine Corps as an infantry officer. He completed my service with the USMC at the end of 2003 as a Captain. In January 2004 Brian accepted a contract position with the Joint Military Commission in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan working on the North-South cease fire, now peace treaty. Within seven months he worked his way up from a Team Leader to the Senior Operations Officer. In September 2004 Brian was invited to serve in Darfur as an unarmed military observer and U.S. representative with the African Union. He was one of only three Americans serving with a coalition of African countries monitoring the cease fire between the two African rebel groups and the Government of Sudan. Brian was armed only with a pen; his reports were his ammunition. While conducting investigations, Brian observed villages of up to 20,000 inhabitants burned to the ground, hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians and the results of violent atrocities including the rape of women, the torture of men and the murder of children. In February 2005, convinced that he could be more effective by bringing the story of what he witnessed in Darfur to the world, Brian returned to the United States as a witness to genocide. He now works with his sister, Gretchen Steidle Wallace, founder of Global Grassroots, to raise public awareness about the atrocities in Sudan and seek international support for the African Union in stopping the violence.

	Ricki Stern (Writer, Producer, Director) Stern is a documentary producer and director whose films have shown on HBO and PBS. Stern is the co-producer and director of the award winning In My Corner, a documentary film on the world of amateur boxing and the lives of the young men who train in the South Bronx. The film was nationally broadcast as part of PBS' award winning documentary series P.O.V. (Point of View) in 1999. The film has played at over nine festivals, winning four honors including a Golden Apple Award from the National Education Media Network, with the European premiere at Visions Du Reel, Switzerland. She produced and directed the EMMY nominated Neglect Not The Children, a documentary about a Harlem based youth program. Neglect Not The Children was hosted by Morgan Freeman and nationally aired on PBS. Stern's producing credits include HBO's series on forensic science "Autopsy I, II, III" and "Murder 9 to 5," on workplace violence. Stern is the co-author of a three-book series for children titled Beryl E. Bean: Mighty Adventurer of the Planet, published by HarperCollins.

Unforgiven
	Jerry L. Jackson Jerry is a dad and an Elder in the Disciples of Christ church. His professional career began in college as the 1st A.D./Second Unit Director on Donald Thompson's seminal Rapture film A Thief In The Night (1972) which has been seen by over 350 million people worldwide, spawned 3 sequels and inspired the Left Behind novels. On graduating, he went mainstream, coming to Hollywood as Sydney Pollack's assistant with primary responsibilities in development. Since then, he has become an award-winning feature writer/producer/director, cinematographer/videographer (CINE Golden Eagles, New York, Chicago, and Houston International Film Festivals, CINDY Awards, Excellence in Media Angel Award, C.V.M. Crown Awards), new media designer/consultant/journalist, published photographer, and founder/owner of Water's Edge Communications. Jerry is an active member of the Writer's Guild of America where he is a founding member of the Writers Education Committee, chairs the New Members Committee, and has served on the Committee Advisory Panel, the New Media Committee and two Board Nominating Committees. He has developed curriculum and taught for UCLA Extension as a member of their Curriculum Advisory Board. Jerry was the Executive Director of the groundbreaking Refocus International Film Festival in the mid '70's, VisionFest in the mid 80's and co-produced/hosted the first Interactive Summit Awards in the 90's. He has also served as a finals judge for Excellence in Media's Angel Awards and The Gabriel Awards.

	Jeffery Overstreet composed his first fantasy novel on a black Royal typewriter when he was seven years old, and heʼs been writing stories for all ages ever since. Since 1996, his film reviews, music reviews, and interviews have been regularly posted at his website, LookingCloser.org. His perspectives are frequently published at Christianity Today's website, and in many other periodicals including Paste, Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion, and Risen. His “travelogue of dangerous moviegoing,” Through a Screen Darkly, was published by Regal Books in February 2007. Jeffrey and his wife, a poet and freelance editor named Anne, spend time writing in the coffee shops of Shoreline, Washington, every week. He works as a contributing editor for Seattle Pacific University's Response magazine. And now he is hard at work on many new stories, including three more strands of The Auralia Thread.

Invisibles
	Dr. Paul Begin is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Pepperdine University, where he teaches Spanish language, literature, and cinema. He has most recently published academic articles on subjects such as the transnational character of contemporary Spanish youth culture and theoretical writings of Luis Buñuel.

	Jeffery Overstreet composed his first fantasy novel on a black Royal typewriter when he was seven years old, and heʼs been writing stories for all ages ever since. Since 1996, his film reviews, music reviews, and interviews have been regularly posted at his website, LookingCloser.org. His perspectives are frequently published at Christianity Today's website, and in many other periodicals including Paste, Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religion, and Risen. His “travelogue of dangerous moviegoing,” Through a Screen Darkly, was published by Regal Books in February 2007. Jeffrey and his wife, a poet and freelance editor named Anne, spend time writing in the coffee shops of Shoreline, Washington, every week. He works as a contributing editor for Seattle Pacific University's Response magazine. And now he is hard at work on many new stories, including three more strands of The Auralia Thread.

Water
	Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP, is the director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, California. She has a M.Ed in Media Studies from the University of London. Her primary work is media literacy education for parents and teachers within the context of culture, education and faith formation. A great fan of the movies, she is the Film/TV columnist for St. Anthony Messenger Magazine (americancatholic.org). With Peter Malone, MSC, she is the co-author of the series Lights, Camera ... Faith! A Movie Lover's Guide to Scripture. She is a popular speaker at media conferences throughout the country. Some of her presentation titles include: Character Education and Media Literacy: One Calls for the Other; How to be a Media-Savvy Religion Teacher/Youth Minister in 10 East Steps; Globalization, Catholic Social Teaching & Hollywood: A Media Literacy Response; Media Saints: the Human Face of Technology; Healthy Families: How to use Television & Movies to Build Better Relationships.

	Jeanette Reedy Solano, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Religion at California State University, Fullerton. Before this she taught at USC's School of Religion. Jeanette is a second-generation Hollywood-born girl (her great grandmother Mimi & daughter Nancy came out to Hollywood in 1921!) She grew up at Hollywood Pres and graduated from Occidental College. Jeanette earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Religion at The Divinity School, University of Chicago. She has long been concerned with the intersection of religion, social justice, and gender. In fact, her dissertation, “But Women Will Be Saved through Childbearing”: A Cross-cultural Comparison of Traditional and Feminist Christian Visions of Motherhood in Brazil and the United States, reconsidered traditional roles for women proscribed by a religious tradition. She has been increasingly drawn back to her Hollywood roots and has taught Discovering the Divine in the Dark, a religion and film course, for several years. She has written on redemption in film and recent documentaries on religion. Jeanette moved from critic to creator with the production of her first documentary on Latina/o popular religion in 2004: Transnational Jesus: A Salvadoran Jesus Reunites with His People in the U.S. which has been screened at universities and scholarly conferences throughout the nation. Beyond scholarship and film, Jeanette's life is blessed by her husband Narciso and her children, scene-stealer, Rory, and future director, Dante.

What Would Jesus Buy?
	Savitri Durkee (Producer) Savitri D is the director of "The Church of Stop Shopping." She was raised on a commune in Northern New Mexico and earned degrees in performance and philosophy. Savitri has worked in the theater for her entire adult life and aspires to a new American radicalism. She lives in Brooklyn.

	Fr. David Guffey Father Guffey is a Catholic Priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross, presently serving at St. Monica Parish in Santa Monica and at Family Theater Productions. He is also studying for an MFA degree in Film Production at The School of Film and Television at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Before taking on full-time media studies in Los Angeles, Father Guffey worked among poor and homeless people in Phoenix, Arizona and spent many years teaching and doing spiritual direction in seminary and religious formation programs at The University of Notre Dame and at the Holy Cross Novitiate in Colorado. He grew up in rural Illinois and earned a BA in American Studies and a Masters of Divinity, both at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

	Rob VanAlkemade (Director) WWJB? is Rob's 3rd outing as a director. A Teaneck, New Jersey native, Rob now lives thirteen miles to the southeast in Astoria, Queens. Rob was an interviewer and videographer for Steven Spielberg’s Visual History Foundation from 1995-98 while earning an MA in media studies from the New School for Social Research. He has since been a director, producer, cinematographer, sound recordist and/or editor on a variety of broadcast and independent documentary productions. Recent projects have addressed autistic children and schools, Kosovar refugee teens, Tibetan monks in India, Black Panthers in Cuba, UN weapons inspections in Iraq, Special Forces imprisoned in Afghanistan, and inevitably, an activist church with a rap sheet for exorcising cash registers.