Guest Biographies

Katrina Deaton

Writer / Co-Director / Actress
Underneath

A Philadelphia native, she attributes her passion for flmmaking to divine intervention. Although writing screenplays is her true love, Katrina claims poetry and song writing are her mistresses. She recently fnished writing her second feature Kathy’s Daughter, an autobiography, along with a few shorts and TV pilots she’s working on distributing.

Nimrod Geva

Nimrod   Geva Writer  /  Director
3   Good   Things

An SABC commissioning editor for comedy, his cartoon ‘Ja-Nee’ appears weekly in The Weekender, and his  work has appeared in the M&G, Sunday Independent and The New Yorker. 3 Good Things was made as part of his MFA in Film Production at Columbia University.

Lisa Gornick

Writer  /  Director Tick  
Tock   Lullaby

London born, her first job was a Russian Chanteuse cabaret act where she philosophised about life in the UK amidst a set of improvised songs. She wrote several plays including Only Men Need Apply about trying to get into politics, and My Daughter Carries the Gun about women’s role in resistance. Her first feature, Do I Love You? (2003), a philosophical comedy about love and its labels, won 3 awards at international festivals.

Matthew Griffiths

Director/Co-Producer
Farm

Matthew was born in 1986 and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. He started studying Music and Art in school, specializing in Guitar. He first started using film as a medium in art at school before attending AFDA where he currently specializes in Directing, Writing and Visual Effects.

Always pushed to excel Matthew started up Echo Ledge Productions with Producers Ben Kaufman and Rafeeqah Galant as a means of gaining extra experience outside of AFDA’s curriculum. Farm is the fourth short film he has written and directed as a member of this production company.

Lodi Matsetela

Writer / Director
BFF

A graduate of the AAA school of Advertising, Lodi worked for top advertising agency Net#work BBDO. Three years ago she quit advertising and dedicated her time to becoming a fulltime scriptwriter. Her credits include Felas TV, Home Affairs, The LAB, Rhythm City and City Ses’la for which she won a South African Film and Television Award (SAFTA). Lodi contributes editorial to the online magazine www.rage.co.za, her poetry has just been published by Tracce Diverse in the poetry anthology Peo Tsa Rona. With her Puo Pha Productions partner, Mak Mamabolo, she is in development with the next 26 episodes of Society.BFF, a short film which she also wrote and co- produced, is her directorial debut. 

Walter Naegle

Brother Outsider

Rustin’s partner for the last decade of his life, Naegle serves as Executive Director of the Bayard Rustin Fund, promoting his vision of a more peaceful and equitable world. An accomplished photographer, he accompanied Rustin on a visit to SA in 1983 to assess the prospects for nonviolent, democratic change.

Musa Ngubane

Producer
Beyond Hate Crimes

A 27 year old writer and LGBTI activist, passionate bout mainstreaming and advancing LGBTI rights in Africa, working with Behind the Mask.

Bennett Singer

Producer / Director
Brother Outsider

Bennett Singer, a New York-based filmmaker and writer, produced and directed Brother Outsider with Bay Area filmmaker Nancy Kates. His previous documentary credits include the Emmy- and Peabody-winning Eyes on the Prize II; With God on our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America; and The Question of Equality, a public television series on LGBT rights. Among his writing/editing credits are Growing up Gay/Growing up Lesbian, an award-winning anthology for young people; 42 UP, the companion book to Michael Apted’s documentary series; and The Student Boy, a novel of suspense published by Random House. Bennett served for eight years as Executive Editor of TIME Magazine’s education program and is currently at work on a new documentary that takes an irreverent look at America’s dysfunctional system of voting.

Staninimir Stoykov

Direcor
Snake

Bulgarian born Stanimir Stoykov has been living in South Africa since 1993. He attended the National School of the Arts where he studied art and then completed his BA in Dramatic Art at the University of the Witswatersrand.
 
Since 2002 he has produced and directed a number of indipendent short movies (Leaps Ahead, Thrush, Pussy, Lesbian Braai, Fannie). His style of movie-making has been described as "trashy", but Stoykov prefers to describe it as "no budget glamour".Over the past few years he has collaborated with some of South Africa's greatest talents like the late Patrick Mynhardt, veteran actor Robert Whitehead, singing and dancing sensation Amra Faye-Wright, disco diva Tamara Dey and many more. Stoykov references influences such as John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, Bruce LaBruce and Alfred Hitchcock.
 
Stanimir Stoykov works as a casting director and has also appeared in a number of local TV and film productions(Straight Outta Benoni, Footskating 101, Izoso Connexion).

Lisa Thrasher

Producer
Itty Bitty Titty Committee

A law school and fine arts (film and photography) graduate, she has orked in many spheres of the film industry.

Currently an Independent Film Producer and President of Film Production & Distribution for POWER UP (Professional
Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching UP) the non-profit film production company & educational organisation – where her responsibilities include all spects of film development, production & distribution.

Kali van der Merwe

Director
W-hole

Artist, award winning filmmaker, photographer, sound designer, drummer, skills trainer and honours graduate (sculpture). Her artistic practice uses the body, her own as well as others, to explore the hidden, the taboo, the unmentionable, the unwatchable - yet also to celebrate sensuality and erotic expression. Her search is for the ambiguous and the contradictory - where things are not what they appear to be.