The Filmmakers
BIOS
Award-winning filmmaker Janice Engel’s feature-length documentary Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins premiered at Sundance in 2019.
After winning the Audience Award at SXSW and garnering awards at numerous festivals, it was released by Magnolia Pictures at more than 1,000 theaters and had an 18-week nationwide run from Alabama to Alaska. It premiered in the UK and Ireland via Modern Films. In 2022, Rotten Tomatoes selected it as one of the Best Movies Directed by Women in the 21st Century.
Other credits include Jackson Browne: Going Home (Cable Ace-Award), Ted Hawkins: Amazing Grace (Rose D’Or Special Jury Prize), and the docu-series, Addicted (Prism Award). Under her own banner, she co-created What We Carry, an ongoing multi-media documentary series dedicated to preserving Holocaust survivors’ stories. The series is housed in the permanent collection at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
Janice is a Professor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where she teaches film production. She is a member of the International Documentary Association and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
James Egan is a veteran independent producer whose narrative and documentary films have won numerous awards at film festivals such as Sundance, SXSW, and SFFF and have been distributed worldwide by Sony, Sony Classics, Magnolia, HBO, Kino Lorber, Visit, Paramount, Apple TV, Hulu/Disney, and more. James was the on-set producer for Wild About Harry, a film released on Apple TV in 2021.
Working with Director Janice Engel, he was lead producer for Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, which premiered at Sundance 2019 to rave reviews, won the Audience Award at SXSW, was released by Magnolia Pictures theatrically nationwide and is available on multiple streaming platforms.
James founded Wild at Heart Films to create “Media that Makes a Difference.” The first project under the Wild at Heart Films banner was the critically acclaimed independent film Jackpot, winner of the John Cassavetes Spirit Award and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.
Other credits include Angels in the Dust (co-produced with Participant Media), Executive Producer on Kimjongilia, and Sound of Redemption where he partnered with international bestseller Michael Connelly. James was the editor of “John Waters Interviews,” a book in the prestigious series, Conversations with Filmmakers.
Since his 1997 feature debut, Thom has won over two dozen international awards including the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award (Genie), The FIPRESCI European International Critics’ Prize, The Emerging Master Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, and the Reader Jury of the “Siegessäule” Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.
He won both the Best Canadian Film Award and the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Thom is a three time premiere guest of The Sundance Film Festival, and has been lauded abroad with the City of Grandola Prize at the Troia Film Festival in Portugal, and the Best Screenplay Prize at the Mar del Plat Film Festival in Argentina.
He was awarded both the Best Screenplay Award and the Most Popular Film Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Thom was cited as “One of the top 100 filmmakers in the world” by Screen International and “One of the Top Ten of the Next Generation” by the Hollywood Reporter. Thom was nominated for The Directors Guild of Canada Award and won the Best Director Award at the Atlantic Film Festival for “3 Needles”.
In 2012 Thom was awarded the prestigious Portia White Prize which is the highest honor awarded to an artist by the government of Nova Scotia recognizing artistic excellence. For his theatre work he won the Merritt Award for Best New Play (CLOUDBURST) and was nominated for Outstanding Set Design. CLOUDBURST was also nominated as Outstanding Production of 2010.
Neal Ludevig is a 1st generation American film producer, director and entrepreneur focused on challenging dominant systems in today’s world through storytelling. With more than a decade of experience in the non-profit and for-profit sectors, Neal’s work has been covered in nearly every (inter)national media outlet including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Time Out, NPR, and more.
As a film producer, Neal is most known for producing and documenting the 50th Year Anniversary of Black Woodstock, connected to the award winning “Summer of Soul” documentary, his work with Anderson .Paak on Quincy Jones’ Network, “Qwest TV”, and the acclaimed mini-series “Insomnia”, on the Revry Network. His project “Rangoli” was awarded the prestigious Rainen Grant by SFFilm, a top 10 finalist of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival “Untold Stories” Competition, and was a finalist for the 2022 Sundance Producers Fellowship. Most recently, he produced and directed the Juneteenth Honors on Fuse TV with Ashanti, Ja Rule Toosii, and Lalah Hathaway, and is currently developing two feature films addressing the intersections of identity, race, the artist experience, and mental health.
Neal is currently the Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Snarky Elephant Productions, a company whose stories “address the elephant in the room”, the CEO of Moon31, an experiential media and consulting agency, and is currently the Executive Producer for the Revive Big Band’s 1st album, a 20+ piece big band with a collective 27 Grammy nominations and 13 Grammy wins between its members, led by the current MD for Ms. Lauryn Hill. He also hosts and executive produces “Leave Looking Up”, a “how-to” podcast series that interviews a diverse roster of guests from Grammy Award-winning musicians, to Emmy Award-winning producers, to internationally recognized activists and influencers, with the intent to humanize heroes through uplifting conversations about the state of the world.
Neal is a professional member of the Grammys, has been named an Emerging Leader by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), awarded a Congressional Proclamation for his non-profit work via Harlem Arts Festival (HAF), and launched the national CPG company Enlightened Ice Cream.
You can find more on his website www.nealludevig.com, or on all social channels at @misternealio
Andy Bailey is a military veteran who commanded an Air Force ICBM launch crew and was a long-term federal employee with a career in large-scale website management.
After early experiences in theater, he largely put his creative pursuits on hold until he joined the Lillian, Next Door team. He’s excited to bring this story to life. Andy is a member of Veterans in Media and Entertainment, The Gotham and Film Independent.
Andy is a graduate of Penn State University and completed the New York Film Academy’s 15-week Filmmaking program. One of his student films was an Official Selection at the Minute Madness Toronto Film Festival. Along with writer Tim Atkin, Andy is a partner in 40 Years Running Films.
Tim is a military veteran who commanded two Coast Guard cutters. As a White House Fellow (1994-95), he served on the National Security Council staff at the White House. In the Coast Guard, he earned numerous unit and personal awards for search & rescue and law enforcement operations.
At the White House, he focused on our nation’s response to international crises — the Cuban and Haitian migration crises, the post-genocide recovery in Rwanda and Burundi, and the destruction caused by international organized crime and drug trafficking.
Beyond his career in public service, Tim’s lifelong passion has been storytelling, which led him to begin writing screenplays and to start 40 Years Running Films. In 2021, Tim completed the New York Film Academy’s 15-week Filmmaking program. Since 2022, he has collaborated with director Janice Engel to further develop his screenplay Lillian, Next Door.
Tim is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He and his husband live in South Florida.
Bianca Butti’s work has premiered at numerous festivals around the world including Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance, New Horizons Film Festival in Poland and the Scenecs Film Festival in Holland.
Bianca recently wrapped production on Lovers, an indie feature directed by Taylor McFadden. She is known for The Uncanny, released in 2023 and An American in Texas, directed by Anthony Pedone. The feature Hank and Asha, directed by James Duff, won her the Director’s Award for Best Cinematography at the Woods Hole Film Festival.
As an “A” Camera Operator, Bianca has worked on the last three Luca Guadagnino films, Bones and All, Challengers (2024), and Queer (2025). Bianca has a BA in Cinema from San Francisco State University.
Phyllis Housen, ACE, has been a feature film editor for more than 30 years.
Her impressive list of credits includes editor of Clemency, which won the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at Sundance in 2019; editor of the audience award-winning Adam & Steve; assistant editor on Tarantino’s Kill Bill films (Volumes 1 and 2); and assistant editor of Beverly Hills Cop III. In addition to feature films, Phyllis also edits for TV and documentaries.
Phyllis graduated from Tufts University where she studied film theory and English literature and she earned a Master of Fine Arts in cinema production from the London International Film School with a distinction in editing.
Richard (Dick) Clarke served for thirty years in national security policy roles in the U.S.
Government.
First in the Pentagon, then the State Department, Dick later served in the White House for an unprecedented period of continuous service during the administrations of four Presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
An internationally renowned author, his eleven books include the #1 New York Times bestseller Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror.
Dick was an on-air analyst for ABC News for fifteen years. A graduate of Boston Latin School, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, Dick is a resident of Virginia.
Casting Director Kate Geller is one of the foremost casting directors of indie films.
Kate has worked on more than three dozen features, many of which have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca and TIFF. Many of those are award-winning films that have received accolades such as the Grand Jury Award at SXSW 2024 for Bob Trevino Likes It, the Grand Jury Award at Los Angeles Outfest for Shiva Baby (2020), and the National Board of Review Top 10 Independent Films (2021) as well as the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for Shiva Baby (2022).
Kate is a four-time nominee and two-time winner (2022 and 2023) of the CSA’s Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting.