FYI 2007 Competition
Winners Circle 2006 Jurists
Gabriel Veenendaal
My name is Gabriel Veenendaal. I am 26 years old from Salt Lake City, Utah. I am the 3rd oldest in a family of 4. I recently graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. I am married with no children.
I believe that film is a great media outlet to cause social change within our society. It provides an opportunity for our culture to evaluate their behavior, and then choose to make productive changes.
One of the biggest problems in our society today is the destruction of the family. There are many things that contribute to this growing problem. One in particular is child molestation (or sexual abuse) this has a huge effect on the immediate family, but also tends to cause a cycle effect for future families of those who have been victimized in the past, allowing the problem to repeat over and over again.
During my senior year at the University of Utah I received an email from my professor about a national film competition called Film Your Issue (FYI). The idea of the competition was to inspire young people to make a 60 second film on a social issue they felt needed attention.
This presented a wonderful opportunity for me to make a film about child molestation, and allow people to get an inside look of the devastating effects that it has on individuals and families. Putting the film together was a wonderful experience. I was fortunate to find actors who like myself were strong advocates against child abuse. After nearly six weeks the film was finished and submitted.
Being selected as one of the winners has been a wonderful experience, as an aspiring filmmaker I have had the opportunity to meet many professionals in the industry, and be interviewed by television, radio, and newspaper agencies. These opportunities have been great in advocating against child abuse and furthering my career as a filmmaker.
Recently I was approached by the local law enforcement in Salt Lake to direct a Public Service Announcement. The experience gained from FYI has been invaluable in advocating great causes, both social and personal.
Brian Gonzalez
Brian Gonzalez was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1987. He began his film career as a sophomore in high school and as an active member of the San Antonio SAY Si Media Arts program. At age 16, he received a spot at the Austin Film Festival for Best Youth Film, and a year later also received a spot at the CineFestival for Best Experimental Film.
While under the mentorship of filmmaker Michael Verdi, Gonzalez was one of the first to take on videoblogging, gaining him the attention of director Pablo Véliz. Gonzalez's first feature film as Director of Photography was Véliz's La Tragedia de Macario, which received acclaim at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Clemente is the second feature film that Gonzalez has photographed for Véliz and is currently running the festival circuit.
Recently, Gonzalez was a winner of the FYI Film Your Issue contest for a short he directed called It's the Buzz, which exposed the harsh truths of the ever-present threat of AIDS as well as the dangers of impetuous indulgence. The film also went on to be featured on IFC as part of the Media Lab Shorts Series. Currently, Gonzalez attends School of Visual Arts in New York City where he is a sophomore year studying cinematography and has just finished directing a short film entitled, Eyes of a Blue Dog, based on the short story by Gabriel García Marquez.
Molly Conners
Molly Conners' short film, Strike It Up, won her national acclaim as a winner of Film Your Issue 2006. Premiering at Maui Film Festival, Strike It Up be featured in Park City, Utah at a Film Your Issue screening sponsored by Yahoo! and STARZ.
Molly has since produced two additional short films and a feature-length psychological thriller directed by Sam Zalutsky, starring Patti D'Arbanville (World Trade Center, Personal Velocity) and Daniel Sauli (United 93). Prior to working as an independent film producer, Molly was a registered lobbyist in New York and produced political commercials for state and local races. She is presently in development on two feature-length projects and holds a B.A. from George Washington University.
Kurt Lustgarten
Director Kurt Lustgarten holds a degree in Film and Philosophy from American University in Washington, DC. His final student film, Jakub Zvejkal is Les Boogie, was produced while studying Directing under Academy Award-winner Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains) at the prestigious Prague film school, FAMU. The film received the program's top honors before going on to win several awards, among them "Best Musical" (Georgetown Independent Film Festival 2002), "Director's Award" (Ivy Film Festival 2002), and two "Best Picture" awards (American University Visions Festival 2002; Ed Wood Film Festival 2004).
Upon graduation, Kurt began working in Manhattan as an assistant director. He is credited on numerous features, including such Sundance selections as Lonesome Jim, Book of Love, and Brother to Brother (Special Jury Prize 2004). In 2004, Kurt returned to directing as a commercial director. His most recent work since Strike It Up was a national spot for I LOVE NY featuring Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Kurt continues to direct commercials and aims to move into feature films.
Benjamin Snow
Many young people think the world is such a big place that they don't think they have the ability to make a difference in people's lives. My experience with Film Your Issue in 2006 had a tremendous impact on my life. At the same time, I found out that I could do something that had an impact on our world.
I have always liked the movies, and when I was a teenager I decided on a career goal: To be a film critic like Roger Ebert. When I watch films I often focus on how people are portrayed onscreen. I am now a journalism major in college. I hope to minor in film, and take Roger Ebert's job someday.
I saw the announcement for Film Your Issue and immediately decided that I wanted to let people who make the movies, such as directors and actors know that when a performer plays a character with a disability, they often play the character as being an unproductive person with a lousy life. I have a disability, and my life is nothing like the Hollywood stereotype.
The title Thumbs Down to Pity was my way of grading how Hollywood portrays characters with disabilities, and it was also a kind of salute to my hero, Roger Ebert and his classic trademark of reviewing the new movies of "Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down." My film was judged as one of the 2006 Film Your Issue winners and I was flown to New York City for an awards ceremony at the United Nations.
In the months since I made my film, I have seen firsthand what an important experience is provided by Film Your Issue and I've learned about how things can change when you speak up on something that concerns you. People who have seen my film often comment on how it causes them to think about something they really hadn't thought much about before.
Over 100 organizations, agencies, and schools are now using Thumbs Down To Pity for training purposes and in seminars. They range from an advocacy group in New Jersey to the Ohio Real Estate Association to UCLA Medical School to the United States Department of Labor.
To continue my effort to get movie people to think about my issue, I have submitted Thumbs Down To Pity to several film festivals. It won a national education award in Canada, was a winner in the Focus Film Festival in California, and was selected by the jury for the 2007 Chicago Short Film Festival.
Several organizations have commented about what an honest message my film conveys and I have been invited to be keynote speaker at some national conferences. In June 2007, I will be on a presentation panel on assistive technology for people with disabilities at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
I have been interviewed by several newspapers about my involvement in the FYI contest as well. My college newspaper created a special section about my Film Your Issue experience. When I went to my first meeting of the college film club, everybody there already knew who I was. I feel like a rising star.
I intend to continue my education in film studies. Another happy result of Film Your Issue is that at least two universities that I had not previously known about have been interested in having me transfer to their film studies program after I have completed my community college years.
In the FYI experience, I have befriended many truly good people that I probably would have never met or known about had I not entered this terrific contest. I am very much looking forward to participating as a judge in the 2007 Film Your Issue program.
All of these things have happened because of Film Your Issue. This continues to be an exciting and important chapter in my life. It has made a difference for me, and other people and it has shown me that I can have an impact on society.
Humphrey Bogart's line from Casablanca may be most fitting for Film Your Issue: "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Tim Leaton
Tim Leaton will be graduating from Virginia Tech in May of '07, with dual Honors degrees in both Communications and Business Management. He plans on a career in film and would eventually like to direct. Leaton realized in high school that making movies was a career that he wanted to pursue, although he began making music videos for fun long before then. While a student at Midlothian High School, he created sports music videos for the school's athletic teams. Then at Virginia Tech, Tim won the award for Best in Festival for "Fruitopia" at the Progeny Student Film Festival.
In the summer of 2005, Tim traveled to an orphanage in Uganda as part of a mission team from Richmond, Virginia. During his two-week stay at the orphanage, he taught at village schools and used his free time to shoot video footage. After returning to the U.S., he made a half hour documentary of the trip for his church. This short film, Uganda, can be viewed online at Leaton's website, TimLeaton.com. In 2006, Leaton then made a one-minute cut of Uganda for submission in the nation-wide Film Your Issue competition. This one-minute version, Orphans in Africa, was selected as one of the five winners in the contest.
In addition, Leaton was selected to receive Film Your Issue's grand prize of an eight-week paid internship at Disney's movie studios in Los Angeles. While there, he gained firsthand experience on feature films and saw the different steps of the filmmaking process, from pre-production to theatrical release. He met with the heads of various departments at Disney to get a crash course on the kinds of things they do, and to see everything that makes up Disney's motion picture division. His mentors included some top executives at Disney, and a few of the features he was involved with included Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At Worlds End and The Santa Clause 3. He also served as a Production Assistant on The Guardian.
So far, Tim has served as the cinematographer, editor, and director for all of his student works. His belief is that this basic experience and appreciation for all aspects of the process are essential to future success. Upon graduation, Tim will seek further experience as a Production Assistant on feature films and music videos.
