Author: Bijan Tehrani

Born in Hong Kong, Wayne Wang is an accomplished director of American cinema best known for exploring the issues of East Asian diasporic identity in films like The Joy Luck Club, but he is also the director of Smoke, Last Holiday, and Maid in Manhattan. His new film, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers was released in the US September 19, 2008 after premiering at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. Bijan Tehrani: Your film, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, is a film that contains many different layers. How did you come up with the idea of this film? Is…

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela tells the story of Raquela, a transsexual – or “lady-boy” – from the Philippines who dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City for a fairy tale life in Paris. In order to make her dreams come true, she turns from prostitution toward the more lucrative business of Internet porn. Her success as a porn star brings new friends, including Valerie, a transexual in Iceland, and Michael, the owner of the website Raquela works for. Valerie helps Raquela get as far as Iceland. From there, Michael offers her a rendezvous in Paris. Olaf de…

Lisa McLaughlin- Strassman spent a traditional Irish childhood in Inishowen, County Donegal, Ireland, an area rich in Celtic history. Her education led her not only to receive a degree in Philosophy but also to become an accomplished designer.  However, her overriding passion for film induced her to accept the sage advice of a veteran filmmaker who suggested that, rather than go on to film school, she should “buy yourself a car and get yourself a trainee assistant director ticket.” Lisa duly bought herself an old Citroen CV and embarked upon a career as an Assistant Director, working on numerous films…

Bernd Desinger was born in 1962 in Oberhausen, Germany. He studied German language and literature, History, Psychology and Film. Bernd Desinger joined the Goethe-Institut in 1990. After postings in Germany and Athens, Greece, he became deputy director of the Goethe-Institut Toronto. In 2000 he was transferred to Germany, where he became director of the Bonn branch of the central office, serving in a parallel capacity as head of the Department of Audiovisual Media. In this position he was responsible for the acquisition and co-production of documentary films. In addition, he produced an internationally distributed program series on German art and…

Filmmaker, college professor, wife and mother, Yael Katzir was born in Tel Aviv in 1942. Studied at Hebrew University, Jerusalem and at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA received her Doctoral Degree in History. She completed a Masters at Boston University MFA in Broadcasting and Film.(Cum Laude) Director of Beit Berl College: Communal Cable Television Center Broadcasting regularly on Israel Cable TV Channel 98, country wide.Prof. of film and history at the Art School. Independent Documentary filmmaker director and producer; she is also a published author.Her Award winning films are: Company Jasmine, Shivah for My Mother, A place for everyone. A glimpse…

Maria Repole supervises all brand marketing and product campaigns supported by print and online advertising, Public Relations, sponsorships, literature, events and trade shows, company web sites and e-commerce initiatives, market research, environmental efforts and corporate social responsibility programs.In addition to managing Toshiba’s communications team, Repole also collaborates with Tokyo headquarters to maintain a consistent worldwide message and brand image. Her involvement in communications in the consumer electronics industry extends beyond Toshiba; she serves as chair on the Consumer Electronics Association’s communications committee, participates on the Communications Committee with the Hollywood Digital Entertainment Group and is a member of the National…

Travis White serves as Senior Product Manager for the Home Editing line of products within Pinnacle Systems. Marketed throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Pinnacle products are the most widely recognized and successful home video editing software programs available today.As a product manager in the consumer video and multimedia software space for over 8 years, White has launched over 50 successful software and hardware products into world-wide markets. During his career, White has gained extensive experience in all aspects of product management and marketing for a variety of multimedia software solutions spanning from consumer home imaging and…

Darryl Macdonald is the Director of the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International ShortFest and Short Film Market. He is the co-founder of The Seattle International Film Festival, and was its Executive and Artistic Director from 1975 until October of 2003. He served as the first Artistic Director of the Palm Springs Film Festival (1989 -1993) and the Hamptons Film Festival (1993 -1996) and was the Programming Director of the Vancouver International Film Festival (1988 -1992), which he helped found in 1980. He has also served as the Director of the Goodwill Games Film Festival, the…

The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarlyclose, the time has come to ask the questions: what happened in 2000 and 2004; what has changed since; and what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008?STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S. presidential election of 2004 – plus startling stories from key races in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2006.…

While the Duplass Brothers were shooting their last feature film The Puffy Chair, a crew member raised the question “what’s the scariest thing you can think of?” Someone immediately said “a guy with a bag on his head staring into your window.” Some agreed, but some thought it was downright ridiculous and, if anything, funny (but definitely not scary). Thus, BAGHEAD was born, an attempt to take the absurdly low-concept idea of a “guy with a bag on his head” and make a funny, truthful, endearing film that, maybe, just maybe, was a little bit scary, too.MARK AND JAY DUPLASS…