| ABOUT THE CAST
Mia Ford – “Rachel Weiss”
Within marks the spectacular feature-length acting debut of 9-year-old Mia Ford. Director Hanelle Culpepper admits it was a bold decision to cast an inexperienced actress of Mia's caliber for a starring role. However, when casting the film, Culpepper could not ignore the genuine combination of originality and the effortless approach Mia commanded in screen tests.
Daughter of Ailleen Ford, a noted jazz musician and singer, Mia Ford is no stranger to films with a supernatural element having starred in Imaginary Friend (2006). Mia Ford is also the sister to actress Madison Ford and is a native of Dallas, Texas.
Sammi Hanratty – “Michelle Lowe”
Born on September 20, 1995, in Scottsdale, Arizona, Sammi Hanratty is the youngest in a family of five girls. At age six, her mom met with an agent in Los Angeles, and the next day, Sammi had six jobs lined up! Her first commercial was for Oil of Olay, which aired for two years.
An avid swimmer and biker, Sammi has built an impressive feature-length resume including: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Magic, and The Santa Clause 3: Escape Clause. The 10-year-old sensation has made an even more prominent mark in television, working on TV projects such as: The Unit, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Mad TV, Passions and Fox’s House M.D.
Lori Heuring – “Abby Miller”
Lori Heuring has been a presence in the filmmaking world for over 10 years. During her career she has acted alongside some of Hollywood's biggest names including: Gene Hackman, Harvey Keitel, Tom Berenger, John Cusak, Naomi Watts and Kathleen Quinlan.
Heuring made her way to Los Angeles via Austin, Texas. Although she was born in Panama, her family relocated shortly thereafter to Austin, the city the actress fondly calls "home". With the support of her family, she began spending summers studying with an acting coach. After co-starring in her first movie, Animal Room, with Matthew Lillard and Amanda Peet, Heuring graduated from the University of Texas with an Honor's Business degree.
Always the outdoor enthusiast, Lori Heuring lives on the West Coast with her dog, Stan Musial. Her film credits include: 20th Century Fox's hit thriller, Runaway Jury, Anger Management, Mulholland Drive and The In Crowd. Her television credits include: Walker, Texas Ranger, CBS' Early Edition and 7th Heaven among others.
Sam Jaeger – “Nathan Weiss”
A seasoned performer, Sam Jaeger's extensive acting credits include televisions' Scrubs, The West Wing, Commander in Chief, ER, and CSI. Hailing from Perrysburg, Ohio, Sam made his television debut with a small role on the show Law and Order. His film credits include: Catch and Release, Lucky Number Slevin, and Behind Enemy Lines.
Brent Sexton – “Steven Lowe”
Brent Sexton has been a staple among some of the most memorable shows in television history from the X-files to ABC's Grey's Anatomy and a recurring role on HBO's hit series Deadwood. His film credits include: The Specialist, Vanilla Sky, Enough, and Flightplan.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Hanelle M. Culpepper - Director
Hanelle M. Culpepper is an award-winning writer/director based in Los Angeles. She previously directed episodic television with a one-hour episode of Discovery Channel's scripted crime anthology series Guilty or Innocent in 2005. She has directed five short films and an educational video.
Culpepper's directorial debut was The Wedding Dress, a romantic comedy short about a carefree bachelor who finds a wedding dress in his girlfriend's closet. The Wedding Dress premiered at the 2002 Pan African Film Festival, kicking off an award-winning trek through film festivals worldwide.
Culpepper's filmmaking career began in 1997 when her first screenplay earned her admission into Bill and Camille Cosby's prestigious screenwriting program for African-American writers. She is a graduate of Lake Forest College in suburban Chicago also earning a Master's Degree at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.
Jacques Thelemaque - Producer
In 1993, Jacques co-founded Filmmakers Alliance with his wife, Diane Gaidry, and as president, has built the grassroots collective from a loose-knit group of eight filmmakers into an important independent filmmaking resource with over 400 members. He has overseen the production of hundreds of films and videos, set up important vendor deals, built resource and crew databanks, and facilitated a regular series of seminars and workshops covering all aspects of filmmaking.
His impressive writer-director history includes Infidelity (in equal parts) (Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival), The Dogwalker (Los Angeles Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Best First Feature - Cinequest Film Festival), Egg (Mill Valley Film Festival, Best Comedy Short - Cinequest Film Festival, Jury Award for Best Short - Methodfest) and Love Without Socks (AFI International Film Festival), as well as several other films which he wrote, directed and/or produced.
Liam Finn - Producer
In 2004, Finn, along with partner Jacques Thelemaque, established FA productions, Inc., a fully financed production company seeking to produce low budget independent films with emerging filmmakers. As a freelance producer, Finn produced a variety of projects including features, short films, commercials, music videos, electronic press kits, film website promotions, filmmaker events and an all-digital film festival, Digidance 2001. As a filmmaker, Finn has written, produced and directed several short films and penned several feature screenplays. Hired as a creative consultant on the academy award winning Warner Bros. feature film, Training Day, starring Denzel Washington, Finn created a pre-visualization of the film. Finn also began working with Jeffery Silver of Outlaw Productions in 1997 to fulfill the company's slate of Warner Bros. feature films: Dennis the Menace Strikes Again, Three to Tango, Ready to Rumble, and Gossip. Finn previously worked at Warner Bros. Studios as a management trainee in the Feature Production Department, which oversaw the logistics of making studio movies. He was later promoted to work with the head of World Wide Feature Production for the entire studio, the liaison office between studio executives and movie producers. Other films he is proud to have worked on are the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy, Another You and Oliver Stone's JFK.
Jerry Jacobs - Producer
Jerry Jacobs has served filmmaking in a plethora of categories ranging from writing and producing to directing. His credits include Producer on over 30 films since 1993 (Ghost Dog, Cloud 9). He has also been listed as production manager, 2nd unit director, director, writer and actor.
Tirsa Hackshaw - Film Editor
Film Editor and Screenwriter Tirsa Hackshaw was born in Westchester County, New York. Hackshaw attended the University of California (UC)- Berkeley studying both Pre-Med and the History of Drama. Shortly after earning a B.A. degree, she landed a job at Lucasfilm, one of the most successful independent production companies in the world.
After attending Summer Film school at the University of Southern California (USC), Hackshaw completed her MFA in Film Editing at the American Film Institute (AFI) as one of only six fellows.
Apart from being a Class-A editor, Hackshaw is also a screenwriter, having written five feature screenplays and several short scores. Most recently, she edited the big budget thriller Edison, (starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, LL Cool J and Justin Timberlake); the critically-acclaimed indie hit Jam (starring Gina Torres, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Jonathan Silverman) and, last season's VH1 series So Notorious.
Michael Gleissner - Executive Producer
Michael Gleissner has served as Executive Producer on movies such as 3 Needles (Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh), Shanghai Kiss (Kelly Hu), Falling For Grace (Margaret Cho, Gale Harold, Cindy Cheung) and The Curiosity of Chance (Tad Hilgenbrink, Chris Mulkey). Gleissner also made his directorial debut with the feature film Irreversi, which was shot in Hong Kong in two language versions - English and Mandarin (Hui Lu). Gleissner is currently directing his second feature film project, Deep Gold, which is being shot entirely on location in Cebu, Philippines.
Kacy Andrews- Executive Producer
Kacy Andrews is CEO of Bigfoot Entertainment and has been actively involved in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. She spent nine years in both production and project development at Hyperion Pictures where she was one of the producers on Miramax's Playing By Heart (Sean Connery, Dennis Quaid, and Angelina Jolie). Her portfolio also includes work on the feature Tom's Midnight Garden; BoneChillers, an ABC children's television series; and numerous animated projects - FOX's Life With Louie; HBO's Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (Denzel Washington, Robert Guillaume and Whoopi Goldberg); and Paramount Pictures' The Oz Kids. Kacy was the executive producer on the teen comedy The Curiosity of Chance and the documentary USS Cooper and producer on the psychological thrillers Irreversi and Hui Lu, which were shot concurrently in Hong Kong. She recently produced Midnight Movie, a horror film that will be released in early 2008.
Rebecca Sonnenshine - Writer
Hailing from Los Angeles, Rebecca Sonnenshine is a three-time award-winning writer. In 1999, Sonnenshine was the recipient of the coveted Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting award presented by the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her feature length screenplay, Mermaid Dreams.
Since then, Sonnenshine has gone on to pen over six feature length screenplays and several short films including Happily Even After (2004) which made its world premier at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.
Jeffrey Toyne - Composer & Music Supervisor
Jeff Toyne is quickly emerging as one of today's most promising composers of film, television and concert music. His feature film credits include The Third Eye (2007), a dark psychological thriller; Shadow in the Trees (2007), a sentimental thriller featuring the voices of Canada's premier women's choir, Elektra; Midnight is Coming (2002), an urban drama with Ethiopian overtones; and Maxwell's Demon (1998), a film noir in the crime jazz tradition. Among his other film credits, Mr. Toyne counts over 30 short films, including two Academy Award nominees.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Mr. Toyne was one of eight musicians recently selected from across North America to write new film music for the Victoria Symphony's Reel Music 2 concert competition (February 2007). His score for the Buster Keaton film clip, Steamboat Bill Jr. won Best Score in the Action-Comedy category. In addition, he was commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to write a work in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Mr. Toyne's kaleidoscopic orchestral palette has also earned him international recognition as an orchestrator of several Hollywood releases including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007), 16 Blocks (2006), The Celestine Prophecy (2006), The Skeleton Key (2005), and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). Within the realm of television, Mr. Toyne has recently been named composer for the much-anticipated show, The Two Coreys (A&E 2007), featuring Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. He also composed the theme for CTV's The Daily Blade, and has contributed to many Discovery Channel and Fox Kids programs.
Mr. Toyne's talents have also been commissioned by organizations such as the Canadian Armed Forces, for which he composed Splendor Sine Occasu, the Official March of the British Columbia Brigade. Born and classically trained in Canada, Mr. Toyne divides his time between Los Angeles and Vancouver.
Craig Siebels - Production Designer
Designer Craig Siebels works in a wide spectrum of media. His early career includes numerous awards for set and lighting design in theatres across the country, including the Long Wharf Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Madison Repertory Theatre, the Pearl Theatre in NYC and the Black Dahlia Theatre in LA.
His architecture work includes the renovation of the Marilyn Monroe Theatre in West Hollywood, where he designed the inaugural season of productions. Craig is also one of the founding designers of the furniture company, "Mark Craig."
In addition to his feature film credits, Craig is also credited as Production Designer on the Possum Death Spree series of webisodes on Atom Films. And he works in television as the Art Director of Burn Notice on USA network.
ABOUT BIGFOOT ENTERTAINMENT
Bigfoot Entertainment’s mission is to create an innovative, profitable and socially responsible organization and learning environment that provides quality content, products, and services for our stakeholders and the global marketplace.
Based in Asia, Bigfoot Entertainment is the parent company of Bigfoot Productions, Bigfoot Production Services, the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT) and Bigfoot Partners. Through all of its divisions, Bigfoot Entertainment recognizes a global competitive organization that provides critically acclaimed and commercially viable content as well as providing training, facilities and services to international filmmakers.
Bigfoot Entertainment - leaving lasting footprints in the world of entertainment!
For more information, visit www.bigfootentertainment.com |
