Laurence Asseraf
Founder and Director of Be Film The Underground Film Festival

Laurence Asseraf founded the festival in March 2004 in her gallery "A Taste of Art" in Tribeca, focusing on short films and allowing the vibrant New York City community of filmmakers to use her space as a forum to show their films and discover shorts from all over the world.

Due to the growing interest in the event, and the need for a place where shorts could be seen on a regular basis, in September 2004 she created the Short Screening Series allowing filmmakers to put together a program of shorts, and invite the directors and other participants to come to the screening of their films, and interphase with the public in a Q & A session.

The festival has grown and is now in its fifth year, showcasing the best national and international short films in animation, documentary, experimental, and narrative categories. Focusing on the fact that "Shorter is Better" the festival even opened a new category of possible submissions in 2006 with Spec Commercials.

It provides a cultural and entertaining forum while recognizing and honoring independent emerging filmmakers through a panel of judges from the entertainment industry who reviews the films and gives the awards.

Dimitris Athos was born and raised in New York City in a Greek-American family, and is an alumnus of the United Nations International School. While attending New York University, he became a U.S. correspondent for the Greek film magazine CINEMA. He subsequently worked for a talent agency in the casting process for feature films, television, and New York theater. In 1999, Mr. Athos began to allocate his time between New York and Greece, where heís worked as a script consultant and producer for several Greek box-office hits. In addition,he also wrote "Homage To Callas" a theatrical presentation about the opera Diva under the musical direction of renowned opera conductor Eugene Kohn. Current projects include a documentary currently shooting in India. Also a published photographer, Mr. Athos has branched out into 3D photography/video and is a member of the National Stereoscopic Association and New York Stereoscopic Society.
Over the years, Dimitris Athos has worked as producer and co-writer on more than thirty short and feature films. In the fall of 2004, he joined BEFILM The Underground Film Festival team as Program Director. Mr. Athos is devoted to identifying the best and most interesting short films from around the world. His passion is to program films that can serve to entertain a wide audience as well as to engage the most demanding cinephile.

CONTRIBUTORS & CONSULTANTS INCLUDE

FREDERIC COLIER

Frederic Colier is a playwright, novelist, director, and musician. Until the early nineties, he was the bass guitarist, founder member, with the British pop band, Dodgy, which hit the world charts in '95 with their third album "Free Peace Sweet" (A&M Records).

Following an accident that put an end to his musical career, Frederic segued into films and graduated from the Digital Film Academy, NY. He has since produced and edited a dozen projects. He has also penned and directed the shorts, Of Wanderlust (2003), Desert Weeds (2004), which screened nationally and internationally and won awards on the festival circuit (Clermont-Ferrand, France; Izmir, Turkey; WorldFest Houston, Fire Island, NY). Bounce, shot last month, is in post-production. His next short, In the Ecstasy of the Void, will begin production in June 06. Frederic has written and directed a music video, Once Again, for the album of the Kenyan soul/funk artist Shu Nyatta. He hopes to make his directorial feature debut next Winter with M & N, a psychological drama based on his script.

Over the years, Frederic has also compiled a voluminous body of work in theater and literary fiction. He has written, produced, and directed fourteen plays on both sides of the ocean, notably Barbed Wire Hearts, Heartbreak Tango; two novels, Barabane! Barabane!; Tra_te d'Union; and the short story collection, T_moignages Cr_pusculaires. He is the author of Playground for Talking Heads (Luminous Press, March 2005) and the novel, In the Valleys of Green and Gray, as well as the short story collection, A Memoir of Absence, both of which he hopes to sell soon. He is already at work on his next novel, A Rainbow in Your Breath. He received a MA in International Literature and Film Studies.

CSABA LUCAS

Csaba S. Lucas was born in a small Hungarian town, Mosonmagyarovar. He started acting at the age of 8. While studying at a university in Budapest, Csaba won a teaching scholarship. This gave him the opportunity to travel to Canada and teach children acting and art classes.

After the scholarship program was completed; Csaba was accepted at the Vancouver Gastown Actor's Studio. He studied under the direction of Mel Austin-Tuck, Canada's leading acting coach. Csaba began winning roles in Vancouver in small theater productions, independent films, episodic television series and feature films. He also became the billboard man for the Mini Cooper Canadian ad campaign. In 2002, Csaba participated in an American filmed documentary TV series and moved to the United States.

In the past five years, Csaba has also been working on the other side of the camera. He has written, produced and directed short format films. His latest project is an international independent feature film.

MEGAN SANCHEZ-WARNER

Megan's experience spans the realms of Television, Independent Feature Film, Commercials, as well as Theater on both the production and the creative sides.

In television, Megan has served as Producer on numerous primetime reality/documentary series. In 2005, Megan served as Series Producer on the series "The House of Fatty Koo" for SONY/BET for 13 episodes; in addition, she Produced a series pilot for VH1, Ego Trip's "The White Rapper Show".

In 2004 Megan held the position of Senior Producer on TLC's hour-long business reality series, "Taking Care of Business" for Granada Television USA; she also served as Senior Producer on BRAVO/NBC's one-hour reality gameshow "Things I Hate About You" for Wall to Wall Media. Previously, Megan also served as Supervising Producer on the documentary series "The It Factor" for 2 seasons with Zanzibar Productions for BRAVO/NBC.

Prior to entering the realm of television, Megan freelanced in-house at indie stronghold Killer Films, working on such films as "The Grey Zone" as Production Supervisor, on "Series Seven" as Production Manager, and additionally on "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "Women in Film." In addition, Megan spent time freelancing in the commercial and studio film realms, doing projects with numerous companies, including a position in-house at New Line Cinema.

Megan has Produced spots for Repertorium Films/Pinnacle Pictures such as "The Gift of New York"/ NY Giants, "The Agent" for A Taste of Art's Short Film and Video Festival, "Quisqueyana" for Quisqueyana Cigars, and others.

Megan has also Directed projects through her company Pinnacle Pictures such as the Tribeca Underground Film Festival jury award-winning short film "THE STREAM"; her personal film work has shown at festivals such as Woodstock, Women in the Director's Chair, Festival of Festivals, Female Eye and others. Megan is also an award-winning writer on various other film projects (Winter, The Stream, Side Effects).

LEANDRO SANCHEZ

Leandro, primarily a Director of Commercials, has directed numerous advertising spots/campaigns worldwide, including recent spots for clients such as: Samsung, Pantech/Cell phones, Qwest Telecom, McDonalds, Velocifero, etc. as well as music videos.

Leandro's visual-storytelling and subtle comedy style has earned him collaborations with such agencies as FCB, TBWA, DDB, DRM/DDB, SMC-Group, Cheil Communications, Leo Burnett, etc. In addition, Leandro's work has been featured twice in Boards (online.) Leandro is represented in advertising by such production companies as: Washington Square Films/USA, Spank Films/Canada, @radicalmedia/Paris, Cinismo Films/Mexico, DreamTeam/Spain, SpotsNetwork/Europe and others around the globe.

Leandro has Directed spots for Repertorium Films such as: "The Agent", "Cigarmaker", and "Change Perspectives" in addition to documentary segments for "The Gift of New York." Leandro completed in 2005 his short film "Side Effects" through Repertorium Films/Pinnacle Pictures, which has shown at the Tribeca Underground Film Festival, was popular online at iFilm, and has screened at other festivals such as The Woods Hole International Film Fest.

Background:
Leandro, a native of Venezuela, moved to Paris at 18 to study French and French civilization at La Sorbonne, as well as Music (percussion). Leandro then attended film school in Paris E.I.C.A and then gained experience on news shows in the USA. He acquired much of his experience in film production in Paris, while working on numerous international productions, with Directors such as Tarsem, Joe Pytka, Frederic Planchon, Samuel Bayer and many others.