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Alexandra
Berger - Senior Director and Short Film Curator
Alex began working with the program in 1996 as Literary Manager
after returning from a year and a half of traveling in Asia.
She became the co-director in 1998. Her labour of love through
the ranks has included spearheading and initiating many wonderful
outreach projects, including one which she is currently producing
(creating a format to turn The Fifth Night into a weekly radio
show). In January 2000, she took over as the programs' sole
director. In her tenure at The Fifth Night, she has procured
grants from The New York State Council of the Arts, The Andy
Warhol Foundation as well as other smaller organizations.
She has judged short films for several festivals including
The New York Short Film and Video EXPO, and The New York International
Short Film Festival. She is currently working on her own screenplay
and raising money for her documentary project, "A Story".
Alex is a graduate of New York University's, Tish School of
the Arts Film Program. |
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Scott
Castle - Publicity/Fundraising Coordinator
Scott worked as the Assistant Editor at The Independent
Film and Video Monthly and presently is working with The Fifth
Night as Publicity/Fundraising Coordinator. He likes blended
drinks and greyhound racing. |
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Lisa
Lu - Screenplay & Short Film Archivist / Selection
Committee
An LA native and UCLA graduate, Lisa moved to New York
two years ago and has been involved with Fifth Night on their
Selection Committee since arriving. Most recently, Lisa worked
at New York University for several departments, including
the newly launched Albert Vilar Global Fellows in the Performing
Arts program. Prior to coming to New York, Lisa worked in
Chicago for five years in arts and entertainment. In the field
of filmmaking, she worked with various Chicago organizations,
most notably CineStory and FilmBureau 606. For CineStory,
she began as a reader for the CineStory Screenwriting Awards,
then went on to membership, fundraising, and events coordination.
For FilmBureau 606, she also served as a reader and assisted
in events coordination. During this time, she became involved
in the feature-length In the Dark, and eventually was added
as a co-producer to the project. In additions to having read
scripts, Lisa is also a screenwriter and script consultant.
Outside of film, Lisa worked in fundraising at Steppenwolf
Theatre, and other prominent arts organizations in special
events. At PerformInk Newspaper, the Midwest's film and theatre
tradepaper, and Studio Film & Tape, she worked in sales. |
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Patricia
J. Schneider - Selection Committee
Pat is a playwright and screenwriter whose work has been performed
at the Circle East Theater Company, the Circle Repertory Company
LAB, New York Stage and Film/Vassar College, the Shooting
Gallery Playwright's Lab, the Westbeth Theater Center, the
West Bank Cafe and the Tribeca Lab, among other places. her
short film, "Love Bites" was screened at the Nuyorican
PoetsCafe as part of the 5th Night Short Film and Screenplay
Series, and at both the Santa Fe Film Festival and the Angel
Citi Film Festival in February 2001. Ms. Schneider has also
written for MTV, VH1 and HBO, and has worked as a director
at the Shooting Gallery Playwright's Lab, Labyrinth Theater
Company and New York Stage and Film/Vassar. She was a finalist
for the 1999 Chesterfield Film Company Writer’s
Film Project. Pat is the Publicist/ Staff Writer for the Rivertown
Film Society, which is based in Nyack, New York. She is currently
working on a new screenplay, and hopes to shoot her short
film, "Shite Talking," which she co-wrote with Honour
Kane. Pat received her BFA from the University of Southern
California.
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San
Tong - Selection Committee
San is an artist currently living in New York City. Currently
she is the Visual Director for Theater Group called Mango
Tribe. Mango Tribe Productions is an APIA women's theatre
production group, founded on the belief that collective creation
is often the most powerful form of art. Sisters in the Smoke
is the 2002 original theatrical production from the cast and
crew of Mango Tribe and will be appearing at the Chopin Theatre
in September. She also helped produce a multimedia production
called "The Bigger Thing" which played at the Red
Room in early May. She also stage managed a play called "Cowboy
Mouth" written by Sam Sheppard and Patti
Smith that performed at the CBGB Lounge and Surf Reality in
the Lower East Side.
Lately, she was part of the "OpenHumanMinds" crew
that did "How the WEF was Won" a documentary about
the protests against the World Economic Forum, and has been
involved with the NYC Indy Media Center. Currently she is
working on a documentary about women in prison. Oh, and she
likes fiery dragons. |
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Cindy
Pierre - Selection Committee
Cindy, being of not so sound mind and reasonably sound
body, had never imagined that she would dive into the unstable
whirlpool of the creative arts industry, for as a child,
she dreamed of conquering the world with her law practice
or being a pioneer in the field of neuroscience. As she
grew older, she felt compelled to exorcise her
anguish with feverish writings that, up until recently,
consisted of scribblings on napkins with crayons. She has
since upgraded to a notepad and pen. When she is not overpowered
by her Rain-Mannish sensibilities, she is able to communicate
coherently and often times manages to be brilliant. She
has had several small productions since graduating from
New York University with a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing. She
is currently working on finding a home for her new full-length
play, THE BURROWS OF DOES, and is set to begin work on her
new full-length, THE CRUTCHFIELD SACK later this summer.
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Bob
Giovanelli - Selection Committee
Bob Giovanelli is a five year member of the Fifth Night reading
committee. He often can be seen at various film festivals
as a manager/coordinator (Hamptons, Sundance, IFP, Tribeca,
Nantucket, Gen Art) when he's not freelancing in film/video
production, either as a casting director or as a P.A. He's
currently looking into doing voiceovers, and is rewriting
his first screenplay. |
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Marie
Griffin - Selection Committee
Marie spent ten years of her youthdom acting in film, tv and
stage. A graduate of Vassar College, she presently works in
consulting, specializing in management and labor issues. Marie
was recently spotted as the confused lover in the French short
"Non, Pas Maintenant (No, Not Now)," by Olivier
Lecot. But she'd really rather direct. |
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Trish
Dalton - Selection Committee
Trish moved to Brooklyn three years ago, from Toronto, Canada,
to persue her interests in filmmaking. Working to foster her
skills, she has studied film by taking classes at New York
University and DCTV. She has volunteered and worked for a
number of film collectives and organizations, including: Paper
Tiger TV, Global Action Project, Reel Sweet Betty, DCTV, and
the Indy Media Center, NY. In addition to her interests in
narrative films, she makes documentary films that focus on
social and
political issues, while telling peoples stories. She was one
of the founding members of the documentary film collective,
Open Human Minds. Trish was the enthusiastic
Literary Manager at the Fifth Night from September 2000 –
February 2002, and is a current member of the Fifth Night’s
Reader’s Committee. |
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John
Stewart - Selection Committee
I love studying how screenplays are constructed, seeing and
analyzing films, reviewing screenplays and writing my own
stories more than anything else I've
done creatively. It's great to experience a story as
written and then have it transformed into images. I Grew
up in east Tennessee, have a BS in Electrical Engineering
from University of TN, Knoxville. I studied poetry and fiction
at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond VA under writers
such as Larry Levis, in the early 90's. I Studied film, story
construction, novel writing, and fiction at Gotham Writers
Workshop in Manhattan. I am also Firm believer in the principles
put forward in the books Story(McKee) and Screenplay(Field).
I Completed my first novel in 2000, and am currently working
on my second screenplay. |
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Michael
Simses - Selection Committee
Michael is a screenwriter and has reviewed Fifth Night submissions
for the past year and a half. He attended Oxford University
and the University of Michigan. |
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Tom
Moore -
Selection Committee
As a NYC playwright from 1987 to 1991, I was represented
by Writers &
Artists Agency and Bertha Klausner Literary Agency. My credits
include:
Edward Albee Foundation and Blue Mountain Fellow; Drama League
of NY 'Best Play-in-Progress'; Playwright's Horizons Theatre
School Scholarship. My
plays were a finalist at New Dramatists, Mixed Blood Theatre
Company, and
Virginia Beach One-Act Festival. Showcases and readings include:
Playwright'
s Horizons Theatre School, Drama League of NY, The Barrow
Group and Circle
Repertory Company's Lab. I began concentrating on screenwriting
last year
and have been consulting with Susan Kouguell at Su-City Pictures
East - a
motion pictures consulting company. I am a licensed, clinical
social worker
in private practice in Manhattan (where everyday is a film
festival). |
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Eddie
Gilbert-Herch
- Script
Editor/Dramaturge
Eddie is an alumni writer at The Fifth Night Screenplay Reading
Series and has worked with The Fifth Night as Script editor/dramaturge
since 1998. |
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Roland
Legiardi-Laura - Director Emeritus, Founder
Roland is a filmmaker and poet. His documentary Azul, a study
of Nicaragua’s people and history through their poetry,
won nine international film awards and three ACE Cable nominations
for Best Film, Best Director and Best Editing. Mr. Legiardi-Laura’s
poetry has been widely published and anthologized. He founded
Words To Go and P.O.E.T., America’s first traveling troupes
of performance poets. He served as Chairman of the Board of
Directors of The Nuyorican Poets Café 1998-2000 and
is a lifetime member of its board, He is the founder of its
Fifth Night Screenplay Reading and Short Film series. He is
the editor of Poetry-in-Translation at Bomb Magazine. He has
been a nominator for the Rockefeller Media Arts Program. Mr.
Legiardi-Laura is also a member of the Board of Governors
of the New York Foundation of the Arts. He has been awarded
numerous grants and fellowships from the New York State Council
on the Arts, NYFA, The New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Arts. He is on the board of Advisors of the Nantucket
Film Festival, The New York Comedy Film Festival and The East
Village Parks Conservancy. His current documentary film project
is a three part series entitled: The Fourth Purpose: The Enigma
of Compulsory Schooling |
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