Join IndieFest for a hosted reception followed by a panel discussion with working writers and then a live read of this year's competition winners: Devil's Punch (Noah Weisel, Feature); North Star (P.J. Palmer, Short)
The actors reading this year's winning scripts are: Rasheed Custer, James Roop, Anna Kritikos and Anne Oxenhandler
Panelists:
Bears Fonté is a filmmaker, festival programmer, and journalist. Their feature thriller iCRIME, which they wrote and directed, was released on DVD, VOD by Breaking Glass in 2011. Their short film, Roadside Assistance, was selected for 70 festivals including Fantasia International Film Festival and Dances With Films. Bears read screenplays and wrote coverage for agencies and producers in Hollywood for three years before working as the Screenplay Contest Assistant at Austin Film Festival. After a few months they were promoted to Director of Programming for the film festival and then founded Other Worlds Austin SciFi Film Festival after he left. Bears has been programming for SF Indiefest since 2015.
P.J. Palmer is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. He has created more than 20 narrative short films, documentaries, feature films, web series and commercial projects. He is alumni to the Edinburgh Film Festival Director Lab and worked as an Artist-in-Residence with the National Steinbeck Center. P.J. was raised in the rural mountains of Northern California and has always loved the art of telling stories with motion picture. He now splits his time between New York and Los Angeles. Currently, P.J. is in active development with Netflix on his LGBTQ-history documentary series “LOST AND FOUND”, is also in development on his award-winning pilot script “ON CANNERY ROW” and is prepping to direct his short film “NORTH STAR” this spring in Alberta.
Frazer Bradshaw is a writer/director who makes his living working as a producer and cinematographer. Frazer has written eight feature screenplays and many shorts, and produced and directed two feature films of his own which have played major festivals including Sundance. Additionally, he has produced two narrative features for others, including Richard Levien’s Collisions (IndieFest 2019). As a cinematographer, Frazer has shot 16 features and countless shorts and commercial projects that have played Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and many others. Frazer is a long time Bay Area resident committed to uplifting Bay Area filmmaking
Noah Weisel is an escapee from Hollywood, where he worked on films you've all seen but which he isn't supposed to talk about. Noah has also made a number of films he'd be happy to talk about but which you've never seen -- including a feature-length Georgia noir that no one involved is permitted to show you. He is no longer an active Private Investigator and fervently denies creating an underground filmmaking cult that worships Pixelvision. Most recently, Noah may or may not be pursuing a Cinema MFA at San Francisco State University. He can sometimes be found behind the counter of a certain Bay Area cigar shop or writing in the Peninsula's darkest bars...depends on who's asking.