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SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2013 JURY

By Mark Bell | January 9, 2013

The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival, taking place January 18-24, 2013 in Park City, Utah, has announced the jury for this year’s event. From the official press release:

Slamdance announced today the Jury for the 19th Annual Slamdance Film Festival, which includes many of the minds behind SXSW, Woodstock, etc. The Slamdance Awards will be presented on January 24th during the awards ceremony.

“We are thrilled to have such independent filmmaking revolutionaries judging this years diverse slate of films,” stated Peter Baxter, Slamdance President & Co-Founder.

The 2013 Slamdance Film Festival will take place January 18 — 24, 2013 in Park City, Utah, at the Treasure Mountain Inn: 255 Main Street, Park City, UT 84060.

All Access, Industry, Locals, and Student Festival Passes are available now online, and individual tickets will be available shortly. To purchase, go to: ?http://showcase.slamdance.com/#1598746/Passes-and-Tickets

The 2013 Slamdance Competition Jurors:

Nancy Schafer is currently a consultant who works in independent film. Until July 2012 she was Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival and Executive Vice President of Tribeca Enterprises. Prior to joining Tribeca, she created and ran the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas for eight years. Schafer has worked on several films including John Sayles’ Sunshine State and Limbo and Robert Byington’s Olympia and Shameless. She began her film production career on The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Schafer is a graduate of the University of Virginia and currently resides in Manhattan.

Meira Blaustein is the Co-founder / Executive Director / Programmer of the Woodstock Film Festival, which was launched in 2000 and has quickly become one of the most respected and influential regional film festivals in the US. The Woodstock Film Festival will be entering its 14th year in October 2013. Blaustein has over twenty years of experience in filmmaking, writing, producing and directing numerous projects including her full-length documentary For Love of Julian, narrated by Susan Sarandon and distributed by Wellspring Media. She is currently in development on a number of full length fiction and non- fiction feature length films. Blaustein is a freelance writer and blogger and has served as juror, speaker, mentor and panelist at a variety of film festivals and special events in Norway, England, Texas and New York.

Dan Schoenbrun is the Communications & Programming Coordinator at the Independent Filmmaker Project, the nation’s oldest and largest non-profit for independent filmmakers. At IFP, Dan works year-round as part of the programming team, where he helps manage the organization’s Emerging Narrative screenplay program, Independent Filmmaker Labs (for filmmakers in post-production on their first feature), Festival Forum (a community-based interest group for film festival professionals), and a new partnership with Brooklyn’s rerun Theater. Dan also oversees IFP member events and screenings, and serves as the Associate Editor of Filmmaker Magazine. In addition to his work at IFP, Dan has served on programming committees for several film festivals, included the Hamptons and Nantucket, and recently was on the jury for the 2012 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Brian? Knappenberger a Director, Writer and Producer has created numerous documentaries and?feature films for the Sundance Channel, PBS FRONTLINE/World, The Travel Channel, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. He is also Executive Producer of the 23 part Bloomberg Television documentary series Bloomberg Game Changers. His films have explored the changing politics and tensions in post- 9/11 southern Afghanistan in Life After War and abuses of power and freedom of speech with the killing of a journalist in Ukraine in A Murder in Kyiv.

Sheri Candler is a digital marketing strategist who assists filmmakers in building an engaged & robust online community for their work. She directs digital marketing strategy for non profit film distribution & filmmaker education organization The Film Collaborative; she co-authored a book of case studies for filmmakers called Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul, and she regularly speaks about using social media on panels and workshops at industry events including AFM, DGA, NSI Canada, & Danish Film Directors Association. She can be contacted on Twitter: @shericandler, Facebook: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity, & Google Plus.

Daniel J. Harris produced the documentary collective feature I Want to be an ?American for Slamdance Film Festival 2013. He originally trained in animation and worked on shows like The Simpsons and The Ren & Stimpy Show and produced the documentary Kurt and Courtney for Nick Broomfield. He wrote and directed? Slamdance/Locarno jury winner The Bible and Gun Club. He is working on The Fabulous Las Vegas, a feature documentary about a Kaapse Klopse (Cape Town Minstrel) troupe based in Lentegeur, Mitchell’s Plain, as it attempts to beat the competition in this year’s carnival season best-of-show. He’s also working on Meet Julie Wilson, about the legendary cabaret singer, currently shooting in New York. www.danieljharris.com

Eleanor Burke and Ron Eyal are a filmmaking team who use actor centric methods. Their debut feature Stranger Things won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival, as well as Best U.K. Feature at the 2011 Rain- dance Film Festival. They are currently developing their second feature, Bright As Day, which was a selection of the 2012 Sundance Creative Producing Lab.

Chris Gore, is a comedian, writer, and regular on G4TV’s “Attack of the Show”, hosts his own groundbreaking podcast called PodCRASH. He likes Batman, zombies and long walks on my back. The founder and longtime editor-in- chief of the seminal magazine Film Threat, Gore is also a critically acclaimed film director, writer and producer. He is the author of Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, currently in its fourth edition, and has served on countless festival panels and juries. Chris is also a founding co-host of Slamdance’s annual Hot Tub Summit.

Skizz Cyzyk is a filmmaker/writer/musician/artist who has held positions at MicroCine-Fest, Maryland Film Festival, Atlanta Film Festival, and has served on juries at many other festivals. This is Skizz’s 17th year as a Slamdance projectionist, tenth year on the Slamdance advisory board, and sixth non-consecutive year on the Slamdance jury. He has been making films since 1983, currently in various stages of production on? documentaries about Rev. Fred Lane, the Catonsville Nine, and a 1981 “music war.” He also writes for music and film magazines, is on the Board of Directors for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, plays punk rock ukulele with Go Pills, and plays drums for indie-pop sensations The Jennifers, surf/garage band Garage Sale, and Mink Stole & Her Wonderful Band.

Paul Rachman is a founding filmmaker, programmer and east coast director for the Slamdance Film Festival. From a successful music video career he went on to direct his first feature film Four Dogs Playing Poker and in 2006 American Hardcore is his first documentary feature film premiered at the Sundance film festival and was released by Sony Pictures Classics. He is currently finish a new feature documentary Lost Rockers.

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