the filmmakers

Cinequest Film Festival 2020

Dir. Melody C. Miller

DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHER, EDITOR
​Melody is an award-winning filmmaker who works to make a positive impact in the world with her projects. ​​She's worked on films across the United States, Asia, and Europe.​ Her favorite poem by ruth weiss is "TEN TEN".

SEE HER WORK

ruth weiss 91st Birthday

Dr. Elisabeth P. Montgomery

​EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Elisabeth has produced documentary films in Asia, South America, and the United States for the last 30 years. ​ She has been a long time friend of ruth weiss and a huge fan of The Beat Generation. Her favorite book by ruth weiss is "DESERT JOURNAL".​

SEE HER WORK

Melody C. Miller and Elisabeth Montgomery at the premiere of ruth weiss, the beat goddess documentary at the Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy 2019

ruth weiss, 92, passed on July 31, 2020 in Albion, California. She had no surviving children or family so her work is what will continue her line. The Director of the documentary Melody C. Miller and Producer Elisabeth P. Montgomery created a 501c3 non-profit called the "ruth weiss Foundation" to create opportunities aspiring and underserved poets and artists through an annual grant and scholarship. www.ruthweissfoundation.org 

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Eric F. Martin

CO-EDITOR
Eric edited the feature documentary SHE’S THE BEST THING IN IT for Academy Award nominee Ron Nyswaner, and YouTube Red’s first virtual reality series and Hulu’s first comedic virtual reality series.

Ketzi Rivera

ANIMATOR
An Animator currently based in Los Angeles, originally from Veracruz, Mexico. Graduated from the Art Institute of California.  

Jerry Heverly 

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Jerry is an English Literature Teacher of  three decades  who is always generating new ideas on how to educate youth. In addition to this documentary he has also produced California's Forgotten Children, a feature documentary about child trafficking directed by Melody C. Miller. 

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Ida Nowakowska

DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER 
Ida is a Polish actress for film, musicals, and a professional dancer. She is a soloist of the Musical Theater Roma in Warsaw, and has appeared in the musicals such as Peter Pan , Dance of the Vampires , Cats, and Phantom of the Opera. In 2016 she was jury judge of the show "You Think You Can Dance"

Brennan Wall

DANCER, CHOREOGRAPHER 
Brennan studied with Andrea Paris-Gutierrez, Artistic Director of Los Angeles Ballet Academy, and became a Trainee at Silicon Valley Ballet where she danced in Alicia Alonso's Giselle and Karen Gabay's The Nutcracker. She currently dances at Corps de Ballet with Ballet de Monterrey  in Mexico.

Isabel T.

DANCER
Isabel is an aspiring ballerina who loves nature. She dances to ruth's poetry in the redwood forest. She is the granddaughter of the producer Elisabeth Montgomery.
​Her favorite poem is "the children yes".

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Stephen Spies

MUSIC COMPOSOR
Stephen started playing violin at the age of 5, and grew up largely surrounded by a family of folk musicians.  He’s scored over 200 visual media projects including commercials for companies such as Mattel, Samsung, and more. He plays music for an orchestral, pop-rock band called ​Hello Noon spreading a message of positivity and inclusion through social activism.

Bill Jackson

SOUND MIXER AND DESIGN
Bill has been mixing sound for most of his life. He devotes much of his time to television and earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for HBO's Entourage. Jackson was a musician in his youth and during his early career worked as a recording engineer on gold and platinum records for such artists as Los Lobos and Sheila E. 

Jason Knutzen

CAMERA OPERATOR, COLORIST
Jason has lensed feature documentaries such as Netflix film MUDBLOODS, human rights film CALIFORNIA'S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN, and nature film WILD ONES. As a colorist Jason has over twenty feature films under his belt that have premiered at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and have been distributed by Universal Studios, Disney Studios, Vice Media, Lionsgate, and more.

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Katherine Quinn

DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER & SOCIAL MEDIA DESIGNER 
A person who loves writing and listening to stories. A full time mother and an animal lover.

Nate'Eya Kahsai

ASSISTANT TO PRODUCTION
Nate'Eya's desire is to make films about ordinary people and to educate the next generation about the joy of making art. She works for Sony Pictures as a Television Assistant to Productions. 

Minmin Tsai

1ST ASSISTANT CAMERA
A professional camera assistant and grip/electric working on a variety of feature, short, and documentary projects. Most notable film project from Martin Scorsese, Silence (2016).