Filmmaking Team

 

AVI ZEV WEIDER – Director + Producer + Editor
Avi’s award-winning short film, I REMEMBER, premiered at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. With his company, Loop Filmworks, Avi produced over fifty spots for clients like HBO and Bravo. Avi is also the producer of the documentary, DANLAND and was the associate producer on the films SCOTT WALKER: 30th CENTURY MAN and CINEMANIA. Additionally, Avi is the award-winning writer/director of the Sloan Foundation and Sundance Institute supported project ZEROES AND ONES.

Avi is the recipient of a 2008 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) fellowship in screenwriting as well as a 2009 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) individual artist grant. He was also selected as a 2011 Emerging Artist by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), as part of their their Emerging Visions program.

DEREK WIESEHAHN – Director of Photography
Derek  is a New York based director of photography with 23 years of experience in film and television. Recent documentary DP credits have included the 2010 Academy Award winning documentary short film Music By Prudence, the 2012 Sundance selected documentary feature How To Survive A Plague, and a camera operating credit on the 2011 Sundance winner, and Academy Award nominated documentary, Restrepo. Derek has also shot over 100 music videos, as well as numerous commercials and promos for such clients as HBO, Showtime, McDonalds, Adidas, Fedex, Napa, Haagan-dazs, Columbia Records, AOL, MTV, and Nickelodeon. His work has also won several New York Festivals Awards as well as BDA, Addy and headliner awards. Narrative credits also include several feature films, shorts, which have been well received at Sundance, the Tribeca Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.

ANN HUSAINI – Editor
Ann is a film editor and writer in New York City. Her career began in 2000 with director Ruth Leitman’s (Lipstick and Dynamite) feature documentary Alma, which follows the relationship between a country singer and her mentally ill mother. Her short films The End of Magic and Broccoli were screened in the US, Canada, and Latin America; she also was an editor on the feature documentary Carnival Roots, which was selected for the Whitney Biennial in 2006. Ann is also the editor on the narrative comedy feature, Gayby, directed by Jonathan Lisecki. Her extensive television career has included work for MTV, AMC, VH1, Lifetime, Travel Channel, and National Geographic.

MICHAEL MONTES – Composer
Michael began teaching himself to play the piano at age seven and later dropped out of medical school in order to pursue composition as his life’s work. In 1995 he opened the now legendary commercial music company Sacred Noise and is considered one of the top composers in the field. Several of his pieces are included in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Subsequently he has composed scores for numerous films including The Windmill Movie directed by Alexander Olch and Joan Stein’s Oscar® nominated One Day Crossing. He is the composer of choice for the TED Conference, the World Science Festival and the AICP Show. He lives in New York City with his son Mario.