Dear Frankie

Megan Marie Connelly

Claudia Krogmeier
Megan Marie Connolly, Claudia Krogmeier
Director
Born and raised in Chicago, Megan Marie graduated from Northwestern University with a BFA in Television and Film. She is an editor/assistant editor and works on everything from commercials to independent films. Cuban and fluent in Spanish, she especially enjoys working on Spanish-speaking spots and films. Megan Marie also has an extensive background in production and works on set as well as writes and directs her own independent shorts.
Videographer, editor, and virtual reality researcher, Claudia especially enjoys when she can write/direct surrealist and experimental short films and music videos. Thanks to several great adventures, she has recently filmed in Haiti and Kenya, and loves working with passionate, creative people. A native of West Lafayette, Indiana, Claudia is a graduate of Indiana University and is currently pursuing her masters degree at Purdue University.
Film Information
Director: Megan Marie Connolly, Claudia Krogmeier
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 4 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Producer: Nate Gilbert, Megan Marie Connolly
Writer: Megan Marie Connolly, Claudia Krogmeier
Director of Photography: Mark Charles Davis
Composer: Darrell M. Hunt
Editor: Megan Marie Connolly
Principal Cast
Engage Earth
James Choi
Director
James Choi is a prolific, award-winning filmmaker with over a decade of film industry experience in Los Angeles having worked in representation, production and digital media.
As an independent producer, James has produced two feature films from first time directors that have premiered and won at South by Southwest. Grand Jury Award for Best Feature winner “Made in China” which was distributed by IFC Films and “Saint Frances” which won the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize and distributed by Oscilloscope.
James was selected as one of Newcity’s Film 50 – the leaders of Chicago’s film culture of 2018/19. Having been in the forefront of the micro independent film movement in the last decade, James has produced and directed numerous films that have screen widely all around the world, winning awards and receiving distribution.
James has a deep passion for independent films and constantly working to break new ground in our digital age.
Film Information
Director: James Choi
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 16 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Producer: James Choi, Denise Milan
Music: Clarice Assad
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Farfalle Bianche
Neil Brookshire
Director
Neil has been an actor on both stage and film for over twenty years. He lives in Wisconsin.
Film Information
Director: Neil Brookshire
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 4 min.
Rated: G
Credits
Producer: Neil Brookshire, Assya Dimova
Writer: Kaila Conley-Conversi
Key Cast: Kaila Conley-Conversi
Go Go, Boy!
Oriana Oppice
Director
Born in Sicily and raised in Chicago, Oriana is an award-winning independent film and commercial director, writer, producer, and actor based in Chicago. Her experience as an immigrant has influenced her work as she focuses on outsider characters and circumstances. She tells the stories of big things happening to little people, both in comedy and drama. She is committed to elevating the visibility of women in front of and behind the camera, and is the Director of Programming & Communications for Women in Film Chicago.
Film Information
Director: Oriana Oppice
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 6 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Producer: Oriana Oppice, Jane Barbara
Writer: John W. Bateman
Cinematography: Derek Cox
Editor: Aleksander Vasic
Principal Cast
Punch Me
Tim Schwagel
Director
I’m a filmmaker based in Eau Claire WI and i’ve loved movies ever since my dad took me to see “Dinosaur” when i was three years old. Eau Claire doesn’t have a large film community, but it is strong and i feel lucky to be able to do what i love right in my home town.
Film Information
Director: Tim Schwagel
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 6 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Producer: Kyle Lehman
Writer: Tim Schwagel
Director of Photography: Nick Houchin
Principal Cast
Stolen Apes
Colin Sytsma
Director
For the last eight years the focus of Colin Sytsma’s work has been documentary filmmaking that contributes to the universal good. While giving a platform to ordinary people who express a specific socio political concern his work strengthens community and informs audiences of actions and consequences at the ground level. Originally trained as an experimental storyteller and cinematographer at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts his work has been shown on PBS, Al Jazeera, and in film festivals around the world. Colin co-directed the feature documentary From Mass to the Mountain, a story of one man’s journey of protecting rainforest and freshwater sheds in the neglected Eastern Panama. Right now Colin is the director of photography on the film When Claude Got Shot, an ITVS funded feature film following a horrific gun violence incident and its aftermath. Previous to the two feature films Colin produced Wisconsin’s Mining Standoff for the television show Fault Lines on Al Jazeera America and Al Jazeera English. Colin sits on the executive committee of the Milwaukee Filmmaker Alliance and is also a board member of the newly created Freeland Film Festival, which is based around the concept of a world free of human and wildlife trafficking. Colin’s vision is to create intimate and impactful storytelling that evokes empathy and incubates change for the greater good of our world.
Film Information
Director: Colin Sytsma
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 18 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Producer: Colin Sytsma
Writer: Colin Sytsma
Key Cast: Daniel Stiles, Allie Russo, Raha Moharrak, Stephan Ngulu
Tuesday
Caitlin Raether
Director
Tuesday is Caitlin Raether’s first film that was written, produced, directed, and edited by her. The short was a Senior Thesis for her BFA in Film/Video at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Caitlin’s main goal for the story in Tuesday was to show true love between a brother and a sister by acts of liberation and sacrifice. Working in the setting of her small hometown of Shawano, Wisconsin, Caitlin included details within the production design that speak of her family. Many of the props and furniture were borrowed or built by family members and the old photos are of her Mother’s family on their farm.
Caitlin had a great team of cast and crew that truly helped make this film a reality. The group really bonded as they worked inside of a cold farmhouse for five days. The entire process was an important learning experience for Caitlin as a filmmaker and also as a person of faith:
“From the very beginning of the process, I gave everything to God and did everything through Him. There were constant and countless moments where His presence and intervention was clearly seen and felt. I learned that through God, anything is really possible, even making a movie. My only hope going forward is His continuing guidance and that those involved can also be witnesses to His greatness”.
Film Information
Director: Caitlin Raether
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 12 min.
Rated: PG
Credits
Producer: Caitlin Raether
Writer: Caitlin Raether
Cinematography: Derek Schmitt
Music Composition: Graham Hartlaub
Connect With This Film
Principal Cast
Will
Rick Rose
Director
Rick Rose is an Emmy award winning producer and director who has worked over two decades in television, stage and film. He is also a social activist and entrepreneur. His vast professional experience includes development, directing, writing and producing in cities he has lived in including New York City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Hannibal, Mo. During his 8 years in Shreveport, Rick owned and operated Twine on Line, voted Southern Hospitality’s Best Restaurant of the Year, managed Suddenlink Media overseeing advertising on cable networks as varied as HGTV, CNN, ESPN and BET and recently served as Community Engagement Manager at the Shreveport Times. Rick worked on community connections across Northwest Louisiana building out relationships with such wonderful organizations as Shreveport Opera, Symphony and Metropolitan Ballet, SRAC, Strand Theatre, Community Renewal and Foundation, United Way, Philadelphia Center, Providence House, RFC, Holy Angels, Susan G. Komen and Advocates for Youth Justice for whom he serves as a CASA, Mentor and a Member of the Board of Directors.
Over the last couple years, Rick directed and produced the short films KEEPING ON and THE ORTON EFFECT and the web series THE BURKE SISTERS in North Louisiana. Rick’s greatest professional accomplishment was overseeing all creative, production, web and social media elements for four concurrent television series: DISCOVER WISCONSIN, PACKER REPORT TV, AMERICA’S DAIRYLAND and INTO THE OUTDOORS while directing the documentary RICHARD BONG: AMERICA’S ACE OF ACE earning his team and him numerous awards including the EMMY AWARD for production achievements and performance excellence.
Prior to this, Rick had been Performing Arts Manager for Pentacle/Danceworks and Playwrights Horizons in New York, working directly with teams that moved stage productions of dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov to PBS and the off-Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning HEIDI CHRONICLES to Broadway. Rick was later hired by Warner Bros. Television in Los Angeles to oversee a myriad of talent including actors, producers, writers and composers, his first being the Olsen twins, Ashley and Mary Kate.
While in Los Angeles, Rick launched the Donald O’Connor (of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN fame) Family Theatre in Burbank, California, serving as its Planning and Development Director for the life of that theatre. He was also co-creator and co-host of SOAPTIME, the first cable talk show devoted to daytime drama. Rick has been a freelance journalist, contributing to SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, SOAP OPERA UPDATE and DAYTIMERS magazines and continues to write for publications such as IN TOUCH, OK! Magazine and THE WORD IN SEASON, a devotional of the ELCA Church which is translated into 30 languages. He is also co-host of THE TWIST PODCAST along with longtime collaborator Mark McNease of NYC where he expresses himself openly about political and social issues affecting the world, something Rick is very passionate about. Rick was named as a 2016 HIV ADVOCATES TO WATCH by popular blogger, Mark S. King of MyFabulousDisease.com.
Rick is proud of his work with the Miss America Scholarship Program and has coached three state title holders in winning the Miss America crown. He has also trained a Miss Costa Rica, Miss Louisiana, and a first runner-up to Mrs. World, all of whom remain dear trusted friends of his and fellow community activists. Born, raised and educated in Wisconsin, Rick is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Beloit College, after starting his college career at Bennington College following his senior year of high school in Osaka, Japan. Fluent in Japanese, German and English (sometimes!), he is an active fighter for equality, children’s and women’s rights and against AIDS, addiction, abuse and cancer.
Film Information
Director: Rick Rose
Country: USA
Language: English
Runtime: 15 min.
Rated: PG-13
Credits
Producer: Rick Rose, Pamela Brown
Writer: Mark McNease
Cinematography: Brandon Keim
Editor: Eva Contis
Music: Tony DiMito