VTIFF Program Guide 2025 - Flipbook - Page 6
MEET THE FILMMAKERS AND OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS
BEN AYERS
Filmmaker Ben Ayers is known
for documenting isolated and
threatened cultures across the
Himalayas. He started his career
studying (and carrying loads
with) Nepal’s mountain porters,
eventually starting the advocacy
organization Porters’ Progress
that worked to reduce fatalities
for expedition workers across
the world. Currently, Ben directs
programs for the dZi Foundation, which focuses on
long-term, community-driven development in Nepal. His
commitment to sustainable development and his ability to
build trust with local communities are key to the
foundation’s effectiveness. His film The Last Honey Hunter
won 17 international awards, including the Cartel Award
for Best Documentary at the Camden International Film
Festival.
RICHARD GUAY
Richard Guay is an independent
producer, writer, and consultant
based in New York. He began
his career as a CPA and has
worked for 37 years as a
producer, writer, studio
executive, and production
accountant. True Love, Guay’s
first producing effort which he
also co-wrote, won the Grand
Jury Prize at Sundance. He has
been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards—two
for Best Feature Film (True Love and Ghost Dog: The Way
of the Samurai) and one for Best Screenplay (as co-writer
of Household Saints). He was also nominated for a Writers
Guild of America Award for Best Long Form Original
Teleplay as co-writer of Dirt. Guay has worked with a range
of directors, from first timers to industry veterans Nancy
Savoca, Jonathan Demme, Bill Condon, and Jim Jarmusch.
Guay was a Vice President at Entertainment Partners for
five years. He has also conducted producing workshops
around the world, as well as at NYU, Columbia, and City
College of New York, where he currently teaches in the
MFA program.
MYLES AND ALEXANDRA
JEWELL
Myles and Alexandra Jewell are
partners in all things, building
both a life and a creative
practice together in Burlington,
Vermont. Alexandra (she/her)
runs Armadillo Collective, a
production company she
founded to center collaboration
and care. She’s intentional
about crafting filmmaking teams
that respect boundaries, honor consent, and create the
conditions for stories to unfold with authenticity. Myles (he/
him) runs Pennington Productions and teaches film and
video at the University of Vermont. Moving between
non-fiction, experimental, and narrative work, he sees
filmmaking as a way to connect people and build
community. Together, they balance their own practices
with shared projects, always looking for the space where
contradiction and connection meet.
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HEIDI LEVITT
Heidi Levitt is an acclaimed
casting director whose career
spans over 100 feature films,
from the Academy Awardwinning The Artist to Michael
Bay’s The Rock. Widely
respected for her discerning eye
and deep commitment to
independent cinema, she has
collaborated with a diverse slate
of visionary filmmakers,
including Oliver Stone, Wayne Wang, Sally Potter, Wim
Wenders, Rodrigo García, Haifaa Al-Mansour, Mark
Pellington, and Victor Nuñez, among many others. Heidi
has won four Artios Awards for excellence in casting. Walk
With Me, her directorial debut, premiered at the Hamptons
International Film Festival in October 2024, where it
received a Special Jury Prize for Directing. The film has
played numerous film festivals both in the United States
and abroad, and will play in Washington DC on Capitol Hill
in November in support of the Credit For Caring Act. She is
a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and
the American Film Institute, where she is a senior lecturer
in the directing department. Heidi has also guest lectured
at University of Vermont and is proud to present Walk With
Me at the Vermont International Film Festival.
feature films. She has directed two short films, Chloe and
Half-Light. Her first feature length effort is The Many
Miracles of Household Saints, a documentary about the
making of the 1993 independent film by Nancy Savoca,
which was released theatrically by Kino-Lorber in 2024.
STEVE WOLOSHEN
Steve is a Canadian film
animator and a pioneer of
drawn-on-film animation. Born
in Montreal, Quebec, he
attended Vanier College, where
he worked with Super-8 film and
video, then specialized in 16mm
independent film techniques at
Concordia University in
Montreal. Woloshen is heavily
inspired by music, particularly
jazz, and has made numerous short abstract works in
which the images are created in synchronization with a
music track.
ALZHEIMER’S PANEL
Following Heidi Levitt’s Walk With Me, there will be a panel
discussion about Alzheimer’s, caregivers, and local
resources. The panel includes Levitt (see: bio, above),
Megan Polyte, Deb Chisholm, and Charlie Hess. MEGAN
POLYTE, policy director of the Vermont Chapter of the
ANGELO MADSEN
Alzheimer’s Association, supports federal policy objectives
Angelo Madsen is a multiand develops and implements state policy that supports
disciplinary artist, filmmaker,
Vermonters with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. She is
and educator. His projects
also responsible for building and supporting a team of
consider how human
advocates who share their stories to raise awareness,
relationships are woven through destigmatize dementia, and drive policy priorities. DEB
personal and collective
CHISHOLM is a professionally recognized life coach,
histories, cultures, and kinships, school counselor, educator, parent educator, and
with specific attention to
facilitator who dedicated her 40-year education career to
subcultural experience,
helping people of all ages recognize and assert their
phenomenology, and the politics positive personal power. She designed and recently
of desire. Madsen’s works have
launched a caregiver self-empowerment course that helps
shown at Berlinale, Sundance, Toronto International Film
manage stress and cultivate resilience. CHARLIE HESS is
Festival, New York Film Festival, Tribeca, and numerous
an award-winning graphic designer and photo editor. He
festivals, theaters, and museums around the world. He is a was the creative director of the iconic Los Angeles city
Creative Capital Fellow (2025), a United States Artists
magazine Buzz Magazine, the Los Angeles non-profit
Fellow (2023), and a Guggenheim Fellow (2022). His film
BigSunday.org, and UCLA’s flagship alumni magazine.
North By Current (2021) aired on season 34 of PBS’ POV,
Charlie’s work as an illustrator has been published in the
was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and won
Los Angeles Times, Utne Reader, and Mother Jones.
the Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award, Best Writing
award from the IDA, and numerous festival jury prizes.
LIBRARIES PANEL
Madsen is currently releasing A Body To Live In (2025),
Following the screening of Kim A. Snyder’s The Librarians,
about the world of body modification as documented
there will be a panel discussion, featuring local/regional
through the lens of photographer and performance artist
librarians grappling with these issues. Those panelists are:
Fakir Musafar. Madsen is an associate professor of
MARY DANKO, director of the Fletcher Free Library in
Time-Based Media at the University of Vermont and lives
Burlington. She is currently the past president of the
between Burlington, VT, and New York, NY. His friends call
Vermont Library Association (VLA). She has also served on
him “Madsen.”
the VLA Intellectual Freedom Committee. KELLY McCAGG
is director of the Burnham Memorial Library in Colchester.
MARTINA SAVOCA-GUAY
She is a former president of the Vermont Library
Martina Savoca-Guay has
Association. Kelly received her Master of Library Science
worked in film and television
from the University at Albany. AMY OLSEN is director of
production for 11 years for such the Lanpher Memorial Library in Hyde Park. She is a former
companies as Vice Media,
president of the Vermont Library Association. She recently
Vayner Media, Killer Films
received the Sarah C. Hagar Award for outstanding service
Media, and Scripps Network.
in the field of librarianship in Vermont.
Martina has also worked in
post-production, post
coordinating, and post
supervising for independent
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
