4th Annual Lady Filmmakers Film Festival
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The Lady Filmmakers Team!

Patricia DiSalvo Viayra

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Executive Director & 
Co-Founder

Patricia has been entertaining people her whole life. At the age of 2 she began dancing on stage and later developed a love of theatre. Patricia earned a BA in Theatre from George Mason University. She also attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California. 

She comes from a family of successful small business owners and has the same entrepreneurial spirit as her parents. She has taken her experiences working in various capacities for family companies and since mid 2008 she now dedicates her business & artistic skills to her film and performing arts endeavors.

Patricia translated her passion for performing arts into her pursuit of filmmaking. After hosting, writing, producing, and directing local South Carolina commercials & tv shows, she turned to writing, directing, and producing her first short film Naked Sushi (completed in January 2009). "Naked Sushi" screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner, Italy, Australia, US and has nationwide distribution with the largest college campus tv network. Her second short film completed in Spring 2010 premiered at the Cannes SFC and has received distribution offers. Patricia will be taking "LAFS" to the Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival in April 2011 and looks forward to many more festivals. Currently she has a TV Pilot Lovers Lane in development and short film "A Good Day Today" in post production. She is developing feature film scripts in various stages.

In addition to being a Co-Owner of Lucky Bag Films, Patricia is the Festival Director and Co-Founder of Lady Filmmakers Film Festival currently in its 3rd year.  

www.patriciadisalvoviayra.com

Mike Viayra

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Co-Founder & Head Programmer

Mike graduated from the United States Naval Academy and after completing his active duty service attended UCLA School of Law.  He  practiced at a major international law firm for several years and now is the legal manager of a billion dollar corporation.

Mike enjoys collaborating with his favorite Lady Filmmaker, Patricia, to produce film festivals and short and feature length films.







Sherry Sims

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Artistic Director, Programmer, Moderator
Sherry Sims, a veteran casting director and independent producer, has been involved in the entertainment industry since 1986, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Casting Society of America.  As a Casting Director, she specialized in casting children and hard-to-find characters.  Because of her reputation for discovering unique talent, she was hired by Oliver Stone as part of his casting team on the Oscar-winning feature film ‘Born on the Fourth of July’.

 In 1989, after completing the casting on the Universal film ‘Problem Child,’ Sherry relocated to Los Angeles at the urging of the late actor, John Ritter.   There she worked in the casting department of Stephen J. Cannell Productions on shows such as ‘21 Jump Street,’ ’Broken Badges,’ ‘Hunter’ and ‘Booker,’ as well as numerous MOWs.   A year later, Sherry was casting feature films for independent production companies such as Aurora Productions and Motion Picture Corporation of America which led her to becoming a Production Coordinator and eventually a Production Supervisor.  She was then recruited by Greenwich Films and Allied Cinema Corp to run their West Coast office.  Under their banner, Sherry headed the development and production of several feature films, including the Emmy nominated “The Bulkin Trail,’ and producing one of the first reality series, MTVs ‘Real Models.’

 In 2005, Sherry returned to casting with Goldwasser/Meltzer Casting.  The team won 2 Artios awards in 2007 and 2008 for Best Casting for Disney Channel’s ‘Hannah Montana.’   She has since cast numerous projects with Goldwasser/Meltzer Casting such as Nickelodeon’s ‘The Troop,’ SyFy’s ‘Estate of Panic,’   The N’s ‘Queen Bees,’  Disney Channel’s ‘Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!’ ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ Joel Surnow & Fox’s “The ½ Hour News Hour,’ and the Emmy Award nominated ‘Deal Or No Deal.’

Sherry is currently serving as the President of The Sims Film Company which is focusing on historically based Feature Films and has partnered with Ron Gilbert Associates on several projects. 

Jenny Lax

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Programmer and Advisor

At New York University’s Film School, Jenny Lax had the opportunity to make her own short films, and become familiar with all aspects of film craft. Post graduating, she co-wrote and co-produced, and shot films for both documentaries and PBS arts programs.

Since the late 1970s Jenny Lax has primarily worked in the design field for film and television. After 15 years in film production in New York City, she moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990's and continued in the design field for the film studios. 

From 1995 to 2005, Jenny helped establish kidZtv, a non-profit, television workshop for ‘special needs’ kids. The program continues as a supplemental teaching aid in several elementary schools in the Los Angeles, CA area.

Chris G Vass

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Programmer

Christos is originally from Greece new to the States. He is a famous A-List Actor in Greece for his various starring roles in various TV Shows, Films, and Commercials. For four years Christos was a part of the National Theatre of Greece. He completed his first feature film this spring and is currently studying with famous acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. He is currently filming his second US feature film now.




Hammad Zaidi

Juror/Panelist

Hammad is the founder and CEO of Lonely Seal Releasing.
CEO and Principal of Lonely Seal Releasing

Lonely Seal Pictures and Baby Seal Releasing

Hammad Zaidi is the CEO of Lonely Seal Releasing, an international film and television distribution company. Lonely Seal Pictures is the production company and Baby Seal Releasing is the children’s division.

At Lonely Seal Releasing, Zaidi has served as the international distributor for several award-winning films worldwide, including Whaledreamers, produced, narrated and composed by Julian Lennon and Dalai Lama Renaissance, narrated by Harrison Ford. With a travel schedule north of 100,000 miles per year to the world’s most significant film festivals and film sales markets, and a list 7,000 international buyers deep, Lonely Seal Releasing blankets the Earth to showcase its product to qualified buyers.

At Lonely Seal Pictures, Zaidi is currently developing and producing several film and television projects, including The Fate Escape, a feature film he wrote, produced and directed. The comedy was shot throughout the Canadian Yukon, Guatemala, Los Angeles and Carmel. Academy Award winning actress Olympia Dukakis appears in the film.

Hammad has also executive produced award-winning feature films and documentaries, including The La Mastas (1998), The Stone Cutter (2001), Shades of Gray (2003), American Stag (2006), and The Men Who Fell (2007). In addition, Zaidi has produced two concert documentaries: Peter Di Stefano: Loyalty (2007) and Stephen Pearcy: Defending The Faith (2008).  

At Baby Seal Releasing, Hammad Zaidi executive produced Monkey Presents, Kid Smart Classics (2009-2012), a TV/DVD children’s series that recreates world literature classics, as told by hand puppets, for children.

Hammad Zaidi writes Going Bionic, a weekly columnfor Film Threat.com. Going Bionic publishes its 75th consecutive weekly article on October 18, 2011. Furthermore, a few of Zaidi’s articles are being published as chapters in the second edition of the book, An Independent’s Guide to Film Distribution (2012).

Zaidi’s screenplays have also garnered notoriety. Get A Life was a winner Telluride Indiefest, (2002), and a national finalist at Practical Paradox (2004). The Brotherhood of Invisible Men was a national semi-finalist in both action adventure and comedy at the Screenplay Festival (2004).

Hammad has written several National Public Service Announcements, including Champions of Hope, (2002) a September 11th related piece endorsed by the White House, Ogre Achiever, (2004-present), a Shrek-based national billboard campaign to encourage children to achieve and Generosity, (2007), which won Hammad a Telly Award for writing.

Hammad Zaidi also created Script Accessible, a screenwriting contest that promotes writers with disabilities as well as non-disabled writers who write about characters with disabilities.

As a director, Zaidi helmed Champions of Hope; which was released theatrically on over 5,000 screens as well as on major TV and cable networks. As a result, 650,000-1,000,000 children across the United States were called to action in their communities. Zaidi also directed Pet Divorce Court, his TV series, The Fate Escape, and Baptized at Lucky Lube, a short film that played in twenty-six film festivals in six countries (USA, Australia, England, France, Canada and Mexico).

Hammad has been a judge, panelist and or sponsor at fifty film festivals worldwide. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the UCLA Summer Producers Program from 1995-1997, the Chapman University Graduate School of Film in 1998, the Watkins Film School in 2001, and the Avila University School of Visual and Communication Arts from 2006-2008. Zaidi has also lectured at several universities nationwide, including but not limited to UCLA, Vanderbilt, The University of Kansas, and San Diego State.

Hammad Zaidi received his Masters of Fine Arts from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in 1994.

Steve Gilbert

Programmer

Steve has been in the industry for over thirty years in the production side of things. He appreciates what it takes to get an awesome Dolly Shot!
A Celebration of Lady Filmmakers, Artists, and Musicians