KEY PERSONNEL

JOE MAGGIO, writer/director - Joe Maggio’s first film, VIRGIL BLISS (2001), was nominated for two 2002 Independent Spirit Awards -- The John Cassavetes Award (for best feature under $500,000) and Best Debut Performance (for actor Clint Jordan.) VIRGIL BLISS was purchased for theatrical distribution by First Run Features, and for North American cable by The Sundance Channel. VIRGIL BLISS was also theatrically released to critical acclaim throughout the United Kingdom. Joe’s second film, MILK + HONEY (2003) premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. It won a Special Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the 2003 Atlanta Film Festival and was acquired by Wellspring Media. PAPER COVERS ROCK, Joe’s third feature, premiered at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival and was purchased by IFC Films for worldwide VOD and DVD distribution. His fourth feature, BITTER FEAST, will premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2010. He is currently in post-production on his fifth film, THE LAST RITES OF JOE MAY.

LARRY FESSENDEN, producer - Winner of the 1997 Someone to Watch Spirit Award, writer, director and editor of the award-winning art-horror movies HABIT (Nominated for 2 Spirit Awards), WENDIGO and NO TELLING. His most recent film, THE LAST WINTER (Nominated for a 2007 Gotham Award for best ensemble cast), starring Ron Perlman, Connie Britton and James Le Gros, premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival, was distributed by IFC FirstTake. Fessenden recently directed SKIN AND BONES, starring Doug Jones, for NBC TV’s horror anthology show FEAR ITSELF. Fessenden has been a producer on various projects including Kelly Reichardt’s WENDY AND LUCY (nominated for two 2009 Spirit Awards and on over 60 “Top 10 Movie of the Year” lists), Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, James McKenney’s SATAN HATES YOU, JT Petty’s BLOOD RED EARTH, Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID, Douglas Buck’s remake of DePalma’s SISTERS, Jeff Winner’s SATELITE and David Gebroe’s ZOMBIE HONEYMOON. Under his low budget horror banner ScareFlix, Fessenden has produced Ti West’s THE ROOST and TRIGGER MAN, and James Felix McKenney’s THE OFF SEASON and AUTOMATONS, Graham Reznick’s I CAN SEE YOU, Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD starring Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Angus Scrimm, and Fessenden. I SELL THE DEAD opened the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival where it won awards for best cinematography and best actor (Fessenden).

BRENT KUNKLE, producer – recently produced a slate of “pulp” horror films with Glass Eye Pix and Dark Sky Films. The pictures include Joe Maggio’s BITTER FEAST, starring James LeGros, Joshua Leonard; Jim Mickle’s STAKE LAND, starring Nick Damici, Michael Cerveris, Danielle Harris and Kelly McGillis; and James Felix McKenney’s HYPOTHERMIA, starring Michael Rooker. Brent began his career assisting at IFP then joined Iridium Entertainment for a short period as a producer’s and development assistant to Marisa Polvino and Michael Corrente (THE DOOR IN THE FLOOR, THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS). He later transitioned into film production as production coordinator and music supervisor on LIBERTY KID, winner of Best Picture at the ’07 NY Int’l Latino Film Festival, produced by Mike S. Ryan (PALINDROMES) and Larry Fessenden (HABIT). In 2007 Brent began working full-time for Fessenden at Glass Eye Pix. There he has served as line producer on I SELL THE DEAD starring Dominic Monaghan (LOST) and Ron Perlman (HELLBOY), production supervisor on Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, and production manager on James Felix McKenney’s SATAN HATES YOU. He co-produced JT Petty’s short film BLOOD RED EARTH and produced GRAHAM REZNICK’s 3D short film THE VIEWER.

PETER PHOK, producer – Born in NYC and graduate of the School of Visual Arts started producing with Larry Fessenden’s production company Glass Eye Pix in 2006 and put out Ti West’s TRIGGER MAN, Graham Reznick’s critically lauded I CAN SEE YOU, J.T. Petty’s short, BLOOD RED EARTH, and Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD which was distributed by IFC Films. Phok also produced Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL which Magnolia Films theatrically distributed. Phok is currently producing new films with Glass Eye Pix and MPI Media Group which include Jim Mickle’s STAKE LAND and Ti West’s THE INNKEEPERS both scheduled to be released in 2011.

MICHAEL McDONOUGH, director of photography - Scottish born Cinematographer Michael McDonough, studied art at The Glasgow School of Art and The Royal College of Art in London, developing an interest in film during a Prix de Rome scholarship and receiving a Master’s from NYU’s film program. WINTER’S BONE (Grand Jury Prize, Sundance 2010) and DOWN TO THE BONE (which won the Dramatic Directing Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival), were both collaborations with director Debra Granik. His other work as cinematographer includes NEW YORK I LOVE YOU with Allen Hughes, Randy Balsmeyer and Shunji Iwai, QUID PRO QUO and RAVENOUS with Carlos Brooks and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE with Michael Moore (winning the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary). He recently finished THE MORTICIAN (in 3D) directed by Gareth Roberts and BITTER FEAST with Joe Maggio.

BECK UNDERWOOD, production designer – Underwood has been a frequent collaborator with Glass Eye Pix as a production designer (NO TELLING, BITTER FEAST, HOLLOW VENUS – DIARY OF A GOGO DANCER); art director (I SELL THE DEAD, STAKE LAND); and as a producer (The Creepy Christmas Film Festival). She also wrote NO TELLING, in collaboration with Fessenden. Her own short films are animated fantasies, (THAT CREEPY OLD DOLL AND PHANTOM LIMBS). Currently she is working on a stop motion music video.

BRIAN SPEARS, special effects make-up – Brian Spears is a special effects make-up artist who has been providing zombies, vampires, and all around gore for the past ten years to projects up and down the east coast. Brian has supplied effects to several feature films, award winning shorts and countless music videos. After working on I SELL THE DEAD he’s had the opportunity to work on several projects with the emerging production company GLASS EYE PIX. He’s contributed plenty of nastiness to many of their new slew of pictures such as BITTER FEAST, STAKE LAND and HYPOTHERMIA. Other credits include PLAGUE TOWN, BURNING INSIDE, SLEEPAWAY CAMP IV, SHADOW DEAD RIOT and the currently lensing THE INKEEPERS. Spears enjoys long walks on the beach with a fine wine and a good book but relishes the chance to dismember, disfigure and pore gallons of blood on a film set.

GRAHAM REZNICK, sound design – Graham Reznick is a sound designer and director. He created sound design for Ti West’s THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL, THE ROOST and TRIGGER MAN; Glenn McQuaid’s I SELL THE DEAD; James Mckenney’s AUTOMATONS; and the upcoming STAKELAND (Jim Mickle) and BITTER FEAST (Joe Maggio), among others. Graham recently directed the critically acclaimed feature film I CAN SEE YOU (under Larry Fessenden’s Scareflix banner), as well as the stereoscopic 3D short film THE VIEWER.

JEFF GRACE, composer – Jeff Grace is a composer working for film, concert and stage. His work has been performed by Flux Quartet, Bulgarica Philharmonia, Lucia Micarelli, Valentina Farcas (Berlin Comic Opera), Marcus DeLoach (New York City Opera), Kenny Barron and members of the Metropolitan and New York Philharmonic orchestras.Jeff’s recent film credits include Larry Fessenden’s THE LAST WINTER, Ti West’s THE ROOST and TRIGGER MAN, and Ilya Chaiken’s LIBERTY KID, as well as NBC’s Fear Itself episode SKIN & BONES. From 2001 to 2004 Jeff was an assistant to Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore working on the three films of Peter Jackson’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, Martin Scorsese’s THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, David Cronenberg’s SPIDER, David Fincher’s PANIC ROOM, and Frank Oz’s THE SCORE. Through that association, Jeff worked with such artists as Renee Fleming, Annie Lennox, Enya, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Kronos Quartet, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Terry Edward’s London Voices, and top studio orchestras and musicians in London, Los Angeles and New York.

SETH ANDERSON, editor – Seth Anderson has edited feature length and short films to much acclaim. His work as editor on SPEED FOR THESPIANS helped earn the film an Academy Award nomination in the Best Short Film category. He edited GINA, AN ACTRESS AGE 29, which won Best Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. The feature DOUBLE PARKED, also cut by Anderson, won the Moviemaker Breakthrough Award at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2000. He started his career working for Hal Hartley’s company Spin Cycle Post working on the features THE BOOK OF LIFE and HENRY FOOL and editing Hartley’s short THE OTHER ALSO. More recently Anderson edited the features PAPER COVERS ROCK, SNIPES, and PAPER SOLDIERS (Universal Pictures), and the THE UNDESERVED. He has also edited television, including series for ABC, Bravo, Style, HGTV, Discovery, and TLC. A graduate of NYU, Anderson’s first film job was working as an apprentice editor for Ang Lee on SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES

About Glass Eye Pix
Glass Eye Pix (“one of the indie scene’s most productive and longest-running companies” --Filmmaker magazine) is the fiercely independent NYC-based production outfit headed by art horror auteur Larry Fessenden (THE LAST WINTER, WENDIGO, HABIT, NBC’s Fear Itself). Fessenden (winner of the 2009 Golden Hammer Award) has operated the company since 1985, with the mission of supporting individual voices in the arts. The company has produced numerous critically acclaimed films in and out of the horror genre, including 2009’s WENDY AND LUCY (Kelly Reichardt), THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (Ti West), SATAN HATES YOU (James McKenney) and 2008’s LIBERTY KID (Ilya Chaiken).
Glass Eye Pix’s low budget horror banner, Scareflix, was designed to exploit hungry new talent and inspire resourceful filmmakers to produce quality work through seat-of-the-pants ingenuity. Lean budgeted auteur driven pulp pictures that nurture emerging talents of the genre, Scareflix offer faces both familiar and new in chilling tales that celebrate the diversity of the horror movie-- from creature features to tales of psychological dread. Glenn McQuaid’s gently macabre I SELL THE DEAD is the sixth Scareflick in the series that began in 2004 a series already populated with killer bats, Robot wars, ghost stories, psychedelic brain melts, sniper rampages, grave robbers and zombies in the films THE ROOST and TRIGGER MAN (Ti West), THE OFF SEASON and AUTOMATONS (James Felix McKenney), and I CAN SEE YOU and THE VIEWER by Graham Reznick. In 2010 the Scareflix library will se the addition of Joe Maggio’s BITTER FEAST, Jim Mickle’s STAKE LAND and James Felix McKenney’s HYPOTHERMIA.

About MPI Media Group
The MPI Media Group is a leading distributor, licensor, and producer of films, home entertaiment, historical footage and more. Founded in 1976, Chicago-based MPI Media Group remains one of the largest independent entertainment companies offering a compelling slate of the world’s most respected cinema, documentaries, performances and television series. MPI’s wholly owned subsidiaries include MPI Home Video, Dark Sky Films, and the WPA Film Library programs. In North America, product is released via the company’s subsidiary labels; MPI Home Video and Dark Sky.