Executive Producer
Jeremiah Birnbaum is the Co-Founder and President of Fog City Pictures. A native New Yorker, Jeremiah has worked as a director, producer, editor and educator in filmmaking for over twenty years. He holds Bachelor degrees in Film and Philosophy from Wesleyan University, and attended the filmmaking program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Jeremiah’s filmmaking credits include writing and directing the feature TWO MOTHERS, starring John Heard, Dendrie Taylor and Faran Tahir – currently in post production. He produced the feature film, AROUND JUNE, a love story and family drama set in the shadows of the shipyards of San Francisco. The film, which premiered at the 2008 Mill Valley Film Festival and was released theatrically in summer 2010, stars Samaire Armstrong, Jon Gries, and Brad William Henke. In 2006, Jeremiah produced PRESQUE ISLE, a feature written and directed by Sundance & Cannes-winning filmmaker Rob Nilsson, which also premiered at the 2007 Mill Valley Film Festival.
In addition to his feature film work, Jeremiah was a founding partner of Detour Pictures, a music-video production company specializing in rap and R&B artists, and has collaborated with many accomplished filmmakers, including Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple. As an educator, he taught editing and media literacy to teenagers at the Urban League of Newark, and in 2005, co-founded the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking (SFSDF). More info
Producer
Irma Kollar is a creative TV and Film producer with over 8 years of local and international experience. Throughout her career she has worked on TV shows, documentary movies, commercials, music videos and news. In addition to working as a Producer, she has worked as a Production Manager, Production Coordinator, Postproduction Supervisor, and a Props Specialist. More Info
Writer / Director / Producer
Matt Szymanowski is a media instructor and filmmaker, a Berlinale Talent Campus 2012 participant and MacDowell Colony Fellow. Matt studied film and theater directing at The National Polish Film School in Lodz, Poland. In 2003, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities, with an emphasis in history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. At the time, he also interned on the TV shows Boston Public and The Practice at David E Kelley Productions.
Matt’s short film, History of Solitude, played international festivals in Poland, France, Albania and North America, winning the Jury Award in Paris (ECU) and screening in competition at the International San Francisco Film Festival in 2009. Matt’s worked as a producer on short-form European co-productions, including German and French films. He was field director for the feature documentary Nine Days That Changed the World about Pope John Paul II. Since 2009, Matt’s produced award winning online video content for the CBS Interactive company CHOW.com; He’s directed music videos for local musicians Jhameel and The Holdup, which were featured on notable blogs, including The Pier and Live105.radio.com; his video Summertime Baby aired on cable’s Fuse TV. Matt’s contributed as creative director and producer for media agency MKSHFT. Since August he’s a video instructor at San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. The Purple Onion, is his debut feature film for which he’s successfully crowdfunded $20K. More Info
Actor / Story
Edwin Li‘s worked as a comedian since the age of 16. He’s appeared in San Francisco’s premiere comedy festival SketchFest twice, Las Vegas Comedy Festival, Asian Week, and is a regular at all A List Bay Area clubs. Edwin is a first generation Chinese American. More Info
Cinematographer
Bartosz Nalazek assisted the Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski on numerous projects including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Lincoln. Bart’s shot over 30 short fiction and documentary films, many on 35mm, shown at national and international film festivals, including Seattle International, Vivir de Cine in Spain, and The Polish Film Festival in LA. He participated in the prestigious Scholar program at The Budapest Cinematography Master class in 2009 led by Vilmos Zsigmond ASC and Elemer Regalyi HSC, studied cinematography at the Polish Film School with writer, director Matt. More Info
Song Man
Larry Krone, artist/entertainer and singer/songwriter, is known as much for his understated sad songs as for his overwrought hand-sewn stage costumes. Based in New York Larry has performed at art and music venues around the world including The Whitney Museum in New York, The Project Gallery, PS 122, and Otto’s Shrunken Head and often performs at Joe’s Pub in the monthly variety show “Our Hit Parade.” His frequent collaborators include Jim Andralis, Janet & Randy Kennedy, Pablo Helguera, Kenny Mellman, Bridget Everett, Neal Medlyn, Clint Michigan, and Amy Bezunartea among others. A full length CD of Larry’s music was commissioned and published by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis as part of the multimedia limited edition box set accompanying the 10 year retrospective of his visual and performance work held there in 2006. Larry and director Matt first met at the MacDowell Colony in 2012. Larry’s breakout hit at the colony, the ballad, Tears Tell the Story of Me, was so moving that right away Matt knew it had to have a place in The Purple Onion movie.
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Script Consultant
Marcel Sawicki‘s second film, The Loneliness of the Short-Order Cook, was produced by the Polish Film Institute and garnered awards at Poland’s premiere festival in Gdynia and the Grand Prix at the Santiago International Short Film Festival. His work has been exhibited at NY MoMA and has been distributed internationally through Best Shorts DVD collections and television channels. He divides his time between San Francisco, Los Angeles and Poland. Marcel graduated with a degree in directing from the California Institute of the Arts in 2002. More Info
Legal Representative
George M. Rush is an attorney who has practiced law since 2001. George received his JD from University of California Hastings College of the Law (2000) and received his undergraduate degree in English from University of California at Berkeley (1996). He is dedicated to supporting independent filmmakers, stewarding them in the business and legal issues to make films both commercial and artistic successes.
George recently represented several films at various major festivals including Michael Tulley’s Septien (Sundance 2011), Megan Griffith’s The Off Hours (Sundance 2011), Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke’s Stranger Things (Slamdance 2011) Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvath’s Entrance (LA Film Festival 2011), Sofia Takal’s Green (SXSW 2011) Cherie Saulter’s No Matter What (SXSW 2011) Kyle Smith’s Turkey Bowl (SXSW 2011) David Robert Mitchell’s The Myth of The American Sleepover (SXSW 2010), Jim Guyer’s For Once In My Life (SXSW 2010) Frazer Bradshaw’s Everything Strange and New (Sundance 2009), Barry Jenkin’s Medicine for Melancholy (SXSW 2008) Jennifer Kroot’s It Came From Kuchar (SXSW 2009) and Geralyn Pezanoski’s Mine (SXSW 2009). More Info
Consulting Producer
Andrew Trapani, from Nine/8 Entertainment, is an entertainment producer who has worked on numerous high profile video game, television and film projects. Andrew, with his partner Brian Gilbert, is preparing a historical drama series Wallace, an international co-production backed by Scottish Television and Digital Rights Group, based on the life and times of famed freedom-fighting Scotsman, William Wallace. Andrew and Brian are also currently in development on The Untitled Winchester Mystery House Project, a film about the history and mythology of the “world’s most famous haunted house.” Nine/8 is producing the film with Imagination Design Works for Exclusive Media under its “Hammer Films” label.
The Haunting in Connecticut, also produced by Andrew and Brian, opened in the #2 slot at the box-office and is amongst the highest grossing films in Lionsgate history. The Nine/8 development slate includes The Untitled John DeLorean Project, a biographical drama to be directed by Josh Stern, who is currently in production on the ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic, and Deth County, an action horror film to which acclaimed Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura is attached.
Prior to Nine/8, Andrew was a founding partner at Integrated Films & Management where he spearheaded the management for the screenwriters of such films as Live Free or Die Hard, The Core, Deep Blue Sea and Enemy of the State. Andrew managed the creator of the hit franchise Final Destination. Andrew began his entertainment career as a producer and designer of next generation video games for Crystal Dynamics, Inc where he oversaw the development and production of 1st generation Sony Playstation games.