About Us
Valerie Bischoff - Writer/Director
Valerie Bischoff spent most of her impressionable life Reno, Nevada although filmmaking lured her to many corners of the globe including Denmark and Southeast Asia. After receiving her B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Valerie began working as a video journalist in Reno (NBC) and Sacramento (ABC). In 2006, she was awarded the Fulbright Grant for filmmaking in Estonia. She is currently a M.F.A. candidate at Columbia University where she has been awarded several outside scholarships including the 2008 Leopold Schepp Foundation Scholarship and the 2008 Phi Delta Theta Educational Foundation Scholarship.
Her most recent short, Veterans won the Adrienne Shelly Award for Best Female Director, Best Cinematography by a Film Program Student and Faculty Selects at the 2010 Columbia University Film Festival. She is currently developing her thesis film Derby Kings, a short film set in the world of demolition derby drivers.
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Mayuran Tiruchelvam works as a filmmaker, community organizer, and human rights observer in New York and around the world. As a Producer and Screenwriter, Mayuran recently completed production on his feature length film debut -The Girl is in Trouble - for Executive Producer Spike Lee and Director Julius Onah. The film is a New York based thriller starring Columbus Short (Death at a Funeral), Vilmer Valderrama (Larry Crowne, That 70s Show), Jesse Spencer (House, MD), Alicja Bachleda (Ondine) and Paz de la Huerta (Boardwalk Empire). He is currently producing the feature length documentary Farewell Ferris Wheel, funded by ITVS and Latino Public Broadcasting, which explores the decline of the American carnival.
He has produced several narrative and documentary short films including Domestic (producer/screenwriter), The Dowser (producer), and The Boundary (producer, Amnesty International Movies that Matter, 2009 broadcast on HBO). He founded the volunteer organization Regeneracion Childcare NYC – which provides educational programs and childcare for children and parents involved in social justice movements. As a MFA candidate at Columbia University, Mayuran received the prestigious Arthur Krim Memorial Award for excellence in Producing. He also received the 2009 Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship in recognition of his work with children and media. Derby Kings is his producing thesis film, and he is very excited to crash cars into things.
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John Foss – Co-Producer
John Foss is currently associate producing Truth and Treason, a feature film that is slated to shoot in Budapest in late 2011. Most recently, Foss’ award winning short film Kofi was a finalist in the 2011 Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the American Pavilion in Cannes. His feature length screenplay Brandits & Robbers was among the final projects considered for the Sundance Sloan Commissioning Grant in 2010. Earlier this year Foss produced the short Dear Dog, I Love You with Sundance finalist short film director Jed Cowley. He has also produced and directed two other short films, Play (2009) and Red Victory (2005) that played in the festival circuit. Before moving to New York City Foss produced half-time programming for the Utah Jazz, and produced and directed an hour-long documentary entitled A Day in the Life of the Newspaper for local cable television.
Foss studied at Colorado Film School, and participated in the Sundance Directors Lab as an actor. He is a student member of the Producer’s Guild of America and is currently pursuing his MFA in producing at Columbia University’s Graduate Film Division. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children
Winter Carrera – Co-Producer / Production Manager
Winter Carrera is an associate producer, image-maker, and community volunteer. She received her B.A. in Anthropology and the special related field of Videography at the University of Nevada, Reno. Notable productions she has directed include the competitive cycling documentary Biking (2008) and the University of Nevada 48 Hour Film Festival Grand Prize winning short The Rivalry (2008). In other media, she was a fellow winner of the Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker for The Nevada Sagebrush (2007-08 edition). Shortly after graduating, she was awarded the Nevada Commission on Tourism Grant for photography in 2010. This enabled her to document the rural Nevada landscape and its inhabitants. As a filmmaker, she has been working in the documentary film world for projects exclusive to National Geographic TV’s Naked Science: Earthquake Swarm/Ancient Sea Monsters (assistant camera/production assistant) and Discovery Studios’ upcoming Curiosity (lighting production assistant). Most recently, she completed work as a field associate producer for the Travel Channel program Food Wars (2010). She is excited to continue working on Derby Kings.
Ryan Baker – Director of PhotographyAndrew Ellmaker – Production Designer
Andrew Ellmaker was born in Portland, Oregon. After studying film and photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston he went on to create work that showed in the Oregon Biennial, SXSW film festival, and the Northwest Film and Video Festival. Ellmaker is currently an MFA candidate at Columbia University Film School and is planning to spend the next year developing a feature length script, working on an IFC television show, and collaborating as cinematographer and production designer on three short films.
