Storm Garner: writer, director, co-producer
Storm Garner is a multi-disciplined artist based in New York City, hoping to carry on the work of her father, an international political conflict negotiator, through the innovation of effective narrative strategies in the arts, especially now filmmaking. Born in Washington DC, raised mostly in Paris, trained as a classical violinist from age 3, she started a theatre company in Kraków at 20, moved to NYC at 22 to work at La Mama Experimental Theatre Company as a composer and performer... expecting to succumb to a slew of health challenges shortly thereafter. Instead, her health improved. Which has given her more time to create works that, she hopes, will increase inter-cultural empathy, provide comfort and hope, and rouse audiences to action against injustice. She's studied at the New England Conservatory, St. John's College, Georgetown University, and Columbia University, where she's grounded her new practice in the medium of film and video in theory since 2010, while constantly expanding her creative skill sets and exposures through professional collaborations in film, theatre, music, art, and in the activist landscape. She has recently earned screenwriting awards at, among others, the NY Eurasian Film Festival, the Boston International Film Festival, NYC PictureStart Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, and was a nominated finalist for Best Writing by NBC Universal Short Cuts for her work on “The Loyalist” by Minji Kang, which played over 50 festivals and won over 25 awards on the circuit in 2015-2016.
Kacey Anisa Stamats: co-producer, 2nd unit DP
Kacey Anisa Stamats is a multidisciplinary artist whose work branches into theatre, fine art and cinematography. Upcoming projects include the short film Rhubarb. Her beloved collaborators include Storm Garner, Diana Oh, creator of {my lingerie play} a series of underground installations, screenwriter Keith Eric Chapelle, and fire lyra poet-performer Emily Dawn Fournier. Her film installations have been part of SPARK: Dance Forum, seen at Greencard Wedding in Concert and included in Acts of Whimsy. Her photography has been featured in The New York Times, Time Out New York, Edinburgh Evening News, and also at Acts of Whimsy. More at www.kaceyanisa.com
Deborah Magocsi: editor
Deborah Magocsi is an award-winning filmmaker and editor whose work has been seen on television and film festivals throughout the world. She was editor and associate producer on Hank Linhart’s documentary Blissville: An Investigation (2017) as well as on his 2004 documentary Fearful Visitation: New York’s Great Steamboat Fire of 1904, featured on PBS’s Reel New York. She edited Joshua van Praag’s short film The Dig, winner of Best Short Film at the NYIIFVF events in both Los Angeles and New York 2005. She went on to edit his shorts Cairo 24, Iraqis in Egypt, and his 2012 feature-length film, The Lottery of Birth. Another film she edited, Futures (and Derivatives) by Arthur Halpern, premiered at the 2007 Hamptons IFF and had extensive festival play. Deborah spent several years editing television news and has worked as a production manager and line producer, including long-format productions for HBO, ABC, NBC, MTV, and short films for SNL.
Deborah’s full-length film Meantime (producer/director/editor) won the Thin Line Film Festival’s best feature film award. Her feature New! Improved! Real-Life American Fairy Tale (producer/director/editor) premiered at the Berlin Film Festival’s International Forum of New Cinema and was named Best Feature Film at the New Orleans Film Festival. She’s directed and edited dozens of music and corporate videos in NYC and on location around the world. She attended Dartmouth College (BA Philosophy/German) and completed a year of post-graduate study in Philosophy at the University of Tuebingen in Germany. She holds an MFA in Film Production from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
