GCI Film Festival invites distinguished Georgia Film Industry Professionals to provide feedback and determine the Festival award winners. Below are our 2015 Jurors and a sneak peak into their work in the industry.
LaMont has worked in film, television & radio for more than 20 years. Genres include, indie narrative projects, documentaries, network television, and film-style music videos. Companies include: Classic Concept Productions, NY, Video Music Box, NY, CNN, TBN, ESPN, Comcast, and Positive Image Productions, NY.
His corporate & industrial list includes: Equifax, IBM, Delta, UPS FocusVision, Coca-Cola, SECME and C&S/Bank of America. As talent, Andre’ has been featured in film, stage & TV projects, along with being an emcee and host for several film and book festivals. This led LaMont to create a film & TV production company DOF in 94’ to facilitate independent projects & crews. Depth of Field Films/TV productions is now in its twenty year. Projects with companies such as, PGA TOUR Productions, Movie Guide, Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, Fahlgren, Advertising, plus educational and faith based groups.
Additionally, LaMont has been an educator and moderator, with over ten years of focus group experience. He has taught and lectured for four colleges, three state certified programs, and created courses for curriculums. LaMont brings this unique experience to any team of artist in film, TV, or radio, in pursuit of creating a once in a lifetime project.
Brent Brooks
Brent Brooks is an actor/ director based in Atlanta Georgia. He owns and operates Blank Stage Productions, manages the Blank Page Screenwriting group and is a co-founder of Get Connected. As an actor Brent uses his 20 plus years of improvisational experience and archetypal work from his studies of “The Heroes Journey” to deliver his performances.
Daniel Hirsh
Daniel Hirsh is excited to join the panel of judges for the Gwinnett Film Festival for the first time. An established film and video editor since 2005, Daniel has worked with some of the most promising up-and-coming actors, directors and technicians in the Atlanta, St. Louis, Milwaukee and New York areas. Past projects include post-apocalyptic cult favorite Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen, comedic short and Park City Music Festival winner The HusBand, and critically acclaimed documentary You’re Rejected. Current projects include Parthiban Shanmugam’s documentary Men of a Certain Age, a currently untitled instructional video on women’s self-defense taught through Defenseworks, and an ongoing documentary project called Natural Born Healers.
Jackie Goldston
Jackie holds a BFA in Performance and Film Studies from Chapman University in Southern California- one of the country’s most elite film schools. She has worked as an actress, producer, director, teacher, coach, stage manager, audio engineer, properties master, production manager, and, most importantly, stage sweep since the age of 10. She grew up in Southern California as the daughter of a hardworking hostess mom and a famed geologist dad, with whom she learned to love every bit of nature, to its fullest. With the funds from her first national commercial, Jackie founded a non-profit, community theatre that thrived in Metro Atlanta for over 6years – producing musicals, plays, a traveling murder mystery troupe, a traveling radio theatre troupe, and beginning a New Playwright’s Initiative to mentor and produce new writers and their projects. Uber-focussed, her persistence brought her to be a proud member of the professional SAG-AFTRA acting community in Atlanta. She has a heart for newbies in the industry, and has mentored a vast number of Metro-Atlantans and move-ins to help them navigate the intricacies of the Southeast entertainment industry. Currently, Jackie works as an film/tv/stage actress, a specialized headshot photographer, and an audition specialist who coaches and tapes many actors around the Metro Atlanta area, and, again, most importantly, stage/set sweep. If you look hard enough, she can currently be found in the film “Blended,” and the made for TV movie, “Drumline 2.” Her most successful creations have been her 21year marriage to her husband and her two beautiful daughters. Please visit her websites: jackiegoldston.com and jackiegoldstonphotgraphy.com and find her on Facebook at Jackie Goldston and Headshots By Jackie. Colossians 3:23.
Sonya Thompson
Sonya is known for has been her main zombie roles in the film ‘Zombieland’ and the hit TV show ‘The Walking Dead'(Season’s 1 & 2). She was a promo zombie for the TV show ‘The Walking Dead’ and those photos are some of the most seen in the world for advertisement. She has been featured on the magazine covers of Entertainment Weekly, SFX Magazine, SFX’s Ultimate Zombie Guide, SFX’s A-Z of Zombies, SFX’s A-Z of Horror, Film Ink and DVDReview. Her image has also been utilized on posters, tee shirts, bill boards, DVD/Blu Ray covers, trading cards and was also featured in the Walking Dead Comic book issue #75, along side the main cast.
One of her most loved roles was on the web series ‘Lumber Baron of Jasper county’ in which she played the role of a tomboy named Sam. Other roles include, Victoria Stubaker in the film ‘Prosper’, Flo in the film ‘This Old Machine’, Detective Chelsea in ‘Ebony Knight’, The Under the bed Patient in ‘Sick People’, Jasmine in the film ‘Sprout’, Mrs. Wilkes in ‘The Runner’, Victoria the librarian in All Hallows Evil: Lord of the Harvest and a detective in the film ‘Encuéntrate’.
