Short

About the Director

California native Hank Friedmann is an accomplished director of music videos, and editor of commercials and the television show Comedy Bang! Bang!. An alumnus of UCLA, Friedmann received a degree in Russian Studies, melding an international sensibility into his work. Collaborating with Annapurna Pictures, Funny or Die, Interscope, Microsoft, Universal, Ford, History Channel, American Idol, and IFC, Friedmann has developed a range of skills that give him a unique perspective into the storytelling process. His passion for practical effects and a hand-made aesthetic give Friedmann’s work a quality that stands out. With Black Sugar, Friedmann combines an indie, handheld style with the monstrous elements of supernatural horror, creating a world that is uniquely terrifying.

Andre LeBlanc began his filmmaking career in 2D animation with 'Captain Special', a short film about a mental patient who thinks he's a superhero. From there, Andre was hooked, becoming engrossed in both CG animation and live action. His award winning CG/live action short 'Parallel', about a cyborg coming to life on the manufacturing line, garnered Andre enough attention to work as a visual effects artist for Dreamworks, where he made contributions to films such as 'How to Train your Dragon' and 'The Croods'. After directing a handful of live action shorts, Andre left the visual effects world in 2013 to pursue a crazy dream of directing a feature film.

About the Director

Gavin Williams is an award-winning writer and film maker based in the North of England. As a writer he has been commissioned by Yorkshire TV, Channel 5, Carlton, Penguin, HTV, Corgi/Transworld, Lego and Ubisoft among many others. In 2009 Gavin began to direct and SLEEPWORKING is his second film as a writer-director. SLEEPWORKING won both the Prix du Meilleur Film and the Quiet Earth Prize at the Festival du Film Merveilleux & Imaginaire in Paris, France, and the Audience Award for Best Short at the Full Moon Horror and Fantasy Film Festival 2013 in Romania. The film has screened at or is an official selection for over fifteen international film festivals. Gavin won a Northern Promise Award in 2011 and his apocalyptic supernatural horror novel, HUSH (written with Tim Lebbon- buy here http://amzn.to/17ekuYZ) was short-listed for a British Fantasy Society award for best novel. In 2010 Gavin penned an original novel, DRIVER: NEMESIS (under the name Alex Sharp) set in the universe of Ubisoft's best-selling Driver videogame franchise for Random House and Ubisoft. He is currently developing a scifi horror feature, FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS, with Shudder films and director Johnny Kevorkian (THE DISAPPEARED), and his own debut feature, BEHIND THE EYE.

About the Director

Erlingur Thoroddsen is a writer and director born and raised in Reykjavik, Iceland and currently based in New York. He is a recent graduate from Columbia University's MFA Film Program. A devout horror movie fanatic, Erlingur spends most of his free time dreaming up terrifying situations for his protagonists. He also likes pop music, 24/7 daylight and chocolate. He has read all of Stephen King's books and sometimes DJs under a pseudonym.

About the Director

Isabel Peppard is a multi-talented filmmaker who has co-written, directed and designed 2 short animated films. Butterflies, her most recent collaboration with producer / co-writer Warwick Burton won Best Short Animation at Cinequest, San Jose, 2013, making the film eligible for Academy Award nomination.

Peppard began her career as a prosthetics makeup artist, drawn to the industry by her love of horror and movie monsters. Over the years Isabel used the skills associated with SPFX makeup to explore a wide range of creative practices from sculpture to performance art to stop-motion animation.

Isabel expresses her story though the use of symbolism and visual metaphor as well as conventional narrative, using horror movie and steampunk imagery as an analogy for existential suffering.

Isabel is drawn to film because it gives her the opportunity to create a magical immersive universe from which complex emotional experiences can be visually communicated.

About the Director

Niav studied acting at Skidmore College, then moved to France where she began making films and videos. In France, she participated in workshops with renowned filmmakers Boris Lehman and Pedro Costa. She was also oscarized filmmaker Joseph Strick's personal assistant for many years. She has had several shorts in festivals worldwide, and her first feature Un peu plus d'éternité, recently came out on DVD with L'Harmattan Vidéo. Currently back in New York with an MFA in filmmaking from CCNY where she studied under Chantal Akerman, she has received the Kodak Award for cinematography, as well as the NYWIFT scholarship, and is a 2013 Princess Grace Award winner.

She is pursuing a career in narrative filmmaking and cinematography.

About the Director

FA program and received his B.A. in English from Yale. After college, he co-wrote, directed, and edited the internet sitcom, Inconvenient Molly, as well as a short documentary about his 101-year-old great great aunt who discovered six million dollars in her husband’s will. His short film, Newsworthy, won the Audience Award at the 2011 LA Comedy Festival. As a teenager, he performed close-up card magic at birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs.
Robbins is a graduate of Columbia University’s Film M