Floanne Ankah (One Way) is  a multidisciplinary artist born in France and working in the New York City performance and film industry, (www.floanne.com). She founded “simple production” in 2006 with the mission to unite the performing and multimedia arts. Her works are a collaboration of talents from various cultures. Floanne resided in Sunnyside for two years!

Tom Bartos (Cover Me) is an actor with a website in need of a facelift – tombartos.net. He also created the TV show, Señor Nugget, which debuts on the GameplayHD channel September 7th.

Santiago Caicedo (Galaxy) a Colombian filmmaker and visual artist, returns to us this year. He studied Arts in Colombia, filmmaking at the NYFA in New York and currently lives in Paris. We hope to be able to show his films next year in 3-D! Save your glasses from that Journey movie! He is also the brand new father of Manuel.

Irina Chernikina (Circulus Initium) is a producer/director/writer as well as the founder of Circulus Initium, Inc., a film and video production company. She was born in the communistic Soviet Union, grew up in the newly independent Russia and finally came to the U.S. to follow her dream of becoming a filmmaker.

Matthew Fabiano (Blazing Big Wheels of Fire and Cover Me) Matthew Fabiano has been writing and directing his own material since that fateful day in 1982 when the family television broke and his father declared that they would not be getting a new one.  When he’s not writing or making movies, Matt enjoys drinking scotch, smoking his pipe and sitting in a rocking chair.  He is essentially an old man in training.

Gokcen Ergene (Mirrorless) works mainly in film, video, and animation, as well as theatre. Gokcen has taught film and audio production at Bennington College and Syracuse University and is currently working on a feature film. He has screened at Resfest ’07, Astoria Moving Picture Fest, AvignonNY Fest, The Tank NYC, and other festivals.

Ivano Fachin (Vox Rerum) Ivano spent the spring of 2008 in Sunnyside, and introduced himself to us. From Sicily, Ivano trained in Rome and “Vox Rerum” has been shown at the Collecchio Video Film Festival 2008, the Fatfilmfest, et al.

Kevin Kolack (Always a Puppet to Me) is an actor and filmmaker residing in Sunnyside since 1999. Not content to wait for roles, he writes, directs, and edits his own projects when necessary. Kevin loves the collaboration inherent in filmed entertainment and plans to drag all his talented friends with him to the top!

Katya Knoll (Beneath) Katya was born in Berlin, Germany and lived there for the past 20 years. In 2003, she came to the United States to participate in an au pair program, and decided to stay here and study film. She plans to return to Germany and begin her master’s in non-fiction filmmaking.

Julia Kots (Naturalized) emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1989. Her work has screened on PBS and at dozens of renowned festivals worldwide, including Slamdance and Chicago Int’l. She has received grants from New Line Cinema, Women in Film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women, among others. Julia has an MFA from Columbia University Film School and a BA from Yale University.

Za Matohardjono (Five Haikus and Nomad) Za is a Brooklyn-based, Queens-raised video artist and documentary film student at the City College of New York.

Taylor Pisani (Forever Young) Taylor is a 16-year-old student at a local Queens high school. Her interest in film began when she took a Mass Media class in her freshman year. Since then, she has been creating film, and developed “Forever Young” with the help of her two teachers, Mr. Eddelson and Ms. Purpura.

Shawn Slevin (Inspiring Messages) Shawn is herself a product of St. Sebastian’s swim team in Woodside. She was inspired by her former coach and mentor, Helen Coyne, to lead this program for the past 37 years. She continues to volunteer her time there and is determined to inspire more kids across the globe to get up and off the couch to swim for their safety, health, and fabulous life lessons.

Yolanda Pividal (Two Dollar Dance) is a graduate in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and MFA in film from CUNY. Yolanda has been granted the Emerging Latin Filmmaker Award (IFP ‘07) and nominated for best documentary by IDA (International Documentary Association) and Student Academy Awards for her work in progress “Tijuana, Nada Más.”  Two Dollar Dance won best documentary in Downtown Short Film Festival 2008.