Guest Filmmakers Additional Speakers
BALTHAZAR, NIC – Writer/Director, Ben X.
NICK BALTHAZAR Balthazar took his first steps on the international stage staring in children’s musicals. Before graduating from university he became a theatre- and later a well known film critic. Then came a successful television career as a cultural journalist, director, presenter and talkshow-host. He is the author of Niets Was Alles Wat Hij Zei (Nothing Was All He Said) and its stage adaptation, the multi-media play NIETS (NOTHING).
EDGAR, JUSTIN – Director, Special People.
JUSTIN EDGAR Edgar began his film career directing the short comedy Dirty Phonecalls for Carlton’s First Cut scheme. It became a worldwide festival hit and won the 1998 BBC Drama Award at the Birmingham Film Festival.
At age of 26, he made his first feature film Large, making him the youngest director ever to direct a major UK feature. His 2005 short Special People won Best Film at the 2005 Chicago Film Festival, Best Drama at the 2006 Royal Television Society Awards, the 2007 BBC New Filmmakers Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Oscars, BAFTAS and Turner Classic Movies Prize Shorts. Also shot in 2005, The Ends won Best Short at the 2005 Raindance Film Festival in London. In 2004, Edgar started his own production company, 104 Films.
FRASER, MAT – Actor, Every Time You Look At Me.
MAT FRASER Mat Fraser (born 1962) is a rock musician, actor and performance artist. As a live artist he was a member of the performance art group The DHSS in the early 1990s. He was included in Manuel Vason's book "Exposures" and has performed at numerous internationally renowned venues. He received considerable critical acclaim for his one-man show "Seal Boy". As an actor he has performed with the "Graeae Theatre Company," Europe's leading disability theatre company. He is the creator and main performer in a new play called Thalidomide!! A Musical, and has appeared on television both as a presenter and as an actor, in a variety of productions.
GORDY, GRAHAM – Screenwriter, War Eagle, Arkansas.
GRAHAM GORDY Graham Gordy, a native of Conway, Arkansas, completed his M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he received the Goldberg Award for Playwriting. He is a member of the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writer's Programme in London, as well as being an American Delegate to Australia's Interplay Young Writer's Conference. His plays have been performed by Naked Angels, The New Group, and New York Stage and Film. Graham's screenplay credits include "War Eagle, Arkansas" and "The Love Guru." Graham recently relocated back to Arkansas with his wife and new daughter, Lilla Bird.
INSALACO, VINCENT - Executive Producer, War Eagle, Arkansas.
VINCENT INSALACO Insalaco has worked for many leading national and state political leaders and produced hundreds of projects, festivals and documentaries including the world premieres The Hunting of the President and HBO’s Back in the Hood. Vincent also built and owned the largest independent video rental chain in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.  “War Eagle, Arkansas ” is his first feature narrative movie.
KLEIN, BONNIE – Director, SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability.
BONNIE SHERR KLEIN Bonnie Klein has worked as director and producer for the National Film Board of Canada, Operation Boule de Neige and Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography. She co-directed and co-produced Speaking Our Peace, and co-produced Dark Lullabies. She is the writer of the radio documentary Finding My Place: A Journey Into the World of Disability and author of Slow Dance: A Story of Stroke, Love and Disability. Klein currently serves as artistic advisor and board member of the Society for Disability Arts and Culture (S4DAC), which she co-founded, and actively advocates for access for media-makers with disabilities.
WEAVER, SIGOURNEY - Actor, Snowcake.
SIGOURNEY WEAVER Sigourney Weaver made her film debut as the iconic Officer Ripley in Ridley Scott's "Alien". Since then she has captivated audiences with a succession of leading and supporting roles in film and theater, winning enthusiastic reviews in comedy and drama. In the last two years her work has ranged from playing a woman with autism in the comedy "Snow Cake" with Alan Rickman, to the fashion plate Babe Paley in "Infamous", to an outrageous television executive in "The TV Set." Other recent films include “Vantage Point” with William Hurt, "The Girl in the Park", written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, "Baby Mama" opposite Tina Fey, and “Wall-E,” in which she voiced the ship’s computer. She recently worked with James Cameron ("Titanic", "Aliens") on his new sci-fi film, "Avatar,” and with Tim Allen on his directorial debut, “Crazy on the Outside.” The organizations she works for include The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, The Natural Resources Defense Council, Human Rights First, The Flea Theater in downtown Manhattan, and the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership (GRASP), who gave Sigourney their Divine Neurotypical Award in May.

Additional Speakers

  • Ellie Argilla, LMSW, Riverdale Mental Health Association
  • Christine Bruno, Disability Advocate, Alliance for inclusion in the Arts
  • Michael John Carley, Executive Director, GRASP
  • Jonathon Cooper, Director of Inclusion and Community Services, KULANU
  • Heidi Landis, Program Director, CANY (Creative Alternatives of New York)
  • Lawrence Carter Long, Director of Advocacy, Disabilities Network of NYC
  • NY Special Olympics athletes; Jesse Mojica
  • Commissioner Katherine Oliver, Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting
  • Pam Rogers, Director, Pure Vision Arts, The Shield Institute
  • Arthur Strimling, Direcot, Haym Salomon Division of the Arts, F*E*G*S

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