David Riker is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his award-winning film The City (La Ciudad), a neo-realist film about the plight of Latin American immigrants living in New York City. Riker is also the writer and director of The Girl (2012), and the co-writer of the films Sleep Dealer (2008) and Dirty Wars (2013).
Born in Boston, Riker moved to Brussels, Belgium, at the age of five, where he attended a French-speaking school. In 1973 his family moved to London, where he studied at The American School. [1]
Riker is a graduate of New York University's Graduate Film School where, in 1992, he made his first fictional film, The City (which became "The Puppeteer" story in the feature The City (La Ciudad) (1998)). The short received critical acclaim and, among other accolades, won the Gold Medal for Dramatic Film at the Student Academy Awards and the Student Film Award from the Directors Guild of America.
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Neil N. LaBute is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter. He is best known for a play that he wrote and later adapted for film, In the Company of Men (1997), which won awards from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. He wrote and directed the films Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Possession (2002), The Shape of Things (2003), The Wicker Man (2006), Some Velvet Morning (2013), and Dirty Weekend (2015). He directed the films Nurse Betty (2000), Lakeview Terrace (2008), and the American adaptation of Death at a Funeral (2010). LaBute created the TV series Billy & Billie, writing and directing all of the episodes. He is also the creator of the TV series Van Helsing. Recently, he executive produced, co-directed and co-wrote Netflix's The I-Land. He also directed several episodes for shows such as Hell on Wheels and Billions.
Lourdes Portillo was a Mexican film director, producer, and writer. The political perspectives of Portillo's films have been described as "nuanced" and versed with a point of view balanced by her experience as a lesbian and Chicana woman. Portillo films have been widely studied and analyzed, particularly by scholars in the field of Chicano studies.
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector.
Maria Maggenti is an American film director and screenwriter, who has traditionally created independent films. She was the script editor for the American television series Without a Trace (2003) and has written many episodes for the show as well, but is perhaps best known for the feature film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995). Her film Puccini for Beginners was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006. She was also an activist with ACT UP for many years.
This Is That Productions was one of the leading independent feature film production companies. Established in 2002, and based in New York City, the company was founded and fully owned by Ted Hope, Anne Carey, Anthony Bregman, and Diana Victor. The four partners previously worked together at the groundbreaking Good Machine, which Ted Hope co-founded in 1991.
The City (Spanish: La ciudad) is a 1998 American neo-realist film written and directed by David Riker, his first feature film, and shot in grainy black-and-white film stock. The drama features actor Joseph Rigano and, in neo-realist fashion, an ensemble cast of non-professional actors. The film is also known as: The City (La Ciudad).
Sleep Dealer is a 2008 futuristic science fiction film directed by Alex Rivera.
Nanette Burstein is an American film and television director. Burstein has produced, directed, and co-directed several documentaries including the Academy Award nominated and Sundance Special Jury Prize winning film On the Ropes.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival was held during January 15, 2009 until January 25 in Park City, Utah. It was the 25th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival.
Paul S. Mezey is a New York-based independent producer and founder of Journeyman Pictures. He has produced a number of critically acclaimed films including Maria Full of Grace which received a 2005 Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling which received a 2007 Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Mezey also worked as a producer on the 2021 film Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, alongside Elisabeth Holm. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival takes place every January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres. Many films premiering at Sundance have gone on to be nominated and win Oscars such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn are TV and film directors and producers from Argentina. They began their career in TV in 1999, when they created and produced Televisión Abierta, an innovative and interactive TV show where the viewers created the content by requesting a cameraman to visit them to record a short clip. They both won the Konex Award Merit Diploma in 2002.
Alex Rivera is a Sundance award-winning American film maker and MacArthur Fellow, best known for his films about labor, immigration, and politics.
Sarah Green is an American film producer. She currently sits on the National Board of Directors for the Producers Guild of America. On January 24, 2012, she was nominated for an Academy Award for the film The Tree of Life.
Joe Brewster is an American psychiatrist and filmmaker who directs and produces fiction films, documentaries and new media focused on the experiences of communities of color.
Dirty Wars is a 2013 American documentary film, which accompanies the book Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield by Jeremy Scahill. The film is directed by Richard Rowley, and written by Scahill and David Riker.
Josh Mond is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for producing the feature films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) and Simon Killer (2012), and for writing and directing James White (2015).
Andrew "Andy" Cohen is a three-time Emmy nominated independent filmmaker and journalist whose recent film, To Kill a Tiger, is nominated for a 2024 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Antonio Méndez Esparza is a Spanish filmmaker based in the United States. He teaches at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts.