Filmmakers & Contributors

Negin Farsad, Director/Executive Producer/Producer

Negin is currently producing/directing (and even making a small appearance in) the Comedy Central web series, “The Watch List”. She originally earned her film chops as a producer and story editor on the film A Cricket in the Court of Akbar where she managed an 8-week shoot on location in Rajasthan, India. Her short film Iran-ing on Empty, which she wrote, directed and appeared in, has been a selection in comedy festivals as well as the off-Broadway show, Laughing Liberally.

As a standup comedian she has opened for the likes of Al Franken and Bobby Lee (Mad TV) in venues ranging from the Laugh Factory in New York, the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, and Town Hall on Broadway. Negin has provided original comedy content for Pacifica and Sirius Radio stations. She has been an active comedian and producer for over 10 years with sketch comedy groups Madame Funnypants and Three Jews and a Persian, earning a nomination for the Emerging Comics of New York Awards. Her solo show Bootleg Islam, which she wrote and performed, has appeared in the DC, Dallas, and Chicago Comedy Festivals among others. Her work has been called ’smart, funny, and fascinating’ by the Wall Street Journal, a Critic’s Choice by the Chicago Tribune, ‘a shining exception,’ by the Dallas Morning News, and Backstage cheered that it ‘doesn’t get much funnier than this!’ And, randomly, she has two master’s degrees from Columbia University where she studied public policy and race relations (degrees that now collect dust – ha ha).

Kimmy Gatewood, Producer

Kimmy Gatewood (www.kimmygatewood.com) is an award winning performer, director, writer, and producer in New York City. Originally from Spencerville, MD, Kimmy came to New York via Syracuse University. Kimmy sings funny songs with her guitar in New York City and all over the nation, notably opening up for Sarah Silverman and Wendy Liebman. Some fancy accolades include: ECNY Best Musical Act nominee, finalist Battle of the Funny Bands, Andy Kaufman Semi-Finalist and Best of Musical Act by TIME OUT NY. As a director, Kimmy has worked with Kirsten Ames (HBO, Aspen Comedy Festival) and has directed many solo shows including Negin Farsad’s highly acclaimed Off-Broadway show Bootleg Islam. Her television/voice over credits include Mastercard, Stuff It, AT&T, MTV, Showtime, Trojan Condoms, TGIFridays, Dunkin Donuts, TBS, VH1 and Comedy Central. Kimmy is currently the host of the webshow Midtown Comics Live! Writing credits include: Oxygen Network (with Canedy Knowles), IO Media, Idiots Guide to Joke,  SCarrie: The Musical. Kimmy can currently be seen at the People’s Improv Theatre (The PIT), performing every Wednesday with the Faculty, hosting the “Break Up Show,” and teaching her sold out “Characters and Dialects” class.

Kimmy has a kind of nudie calendar that her mom hangs proudly on her fridge. Kimmy and VQ pal Negin are proud owners of a company and have no idea how it happened.

Andrew Mendelson, Producer

Andrew has been working in television production in New York City for over eight years. A talented editor and graphic artist, his broadcast credits include national series for The Style Network, E! Entertainment Television, Fuse, TMC, Court TV, Lifetime, and BET Networks. One episode, Stories of the Innocence Project: Broken Words, which Andrew edited for Court TV, was recently awarded the CINE Golden Eagle Award. Andrew is also directing, producing and editing an independent documentary entitled A Cricket in the Court of Akbar. He has also edited several series for web broadcast including The Watchlist for Comedy Central’s Motherload, Our Bodies, Myself for Oxygen.com, V.I.D.S. for E! Entertainment, and Vaguely Qualified Productions’ hit podcast Nerd of the Week.

Andrew is a founding member of Sleeping Hero Productions, a New York City based independent film company, and served as producer for an animated short film, The Story of a Mother. Andrew also directed and edited a short documentary chronicling the creation of the film that recently screened at the NAT Film Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Story of a Mother joined forces with Storm Studios in Norway last fall and is currently in production.

Andrew Mendelson is a devout student of Indian classical music and has been playing the sitar for over 10 years. He is currently a disciple of renowned sitarist Pandit Krishna Mohan Bhatt.

Brendan Kennedy, Director of Photography

Brendan Kennedy’s current production Vids is slated to appear on the web everywhere and it’s associated with some extremely awesome network that shall remain nameless. And he’s done a bunch of work for MTV and other big ol’ impressive network names so deal with it.

Marcelo Duar te Alfaro, Director of Photography

Marcelo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After graduating from the prestigious University of Buenos Aires, with a degree in cinematography, he started working in commercials and features in Latin America. He is currently based in New York City, where he works on features, commercials and documentaries.

His commercials have enjoyed national primetime broadcast. These include: Budweiser, Coca Cola, Exxon, Ericsson, Fiat, Ford, Marlboro, Nickelodeon, Shell, Sony, Starbucks, Subway, Telecom, Trio, USA Network, Verizon, and Visa among other Fortune 500 businesses. One of his most recent documentaries Trajedy was an official selection at the Slamdance Film Festival. Vote For Me premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, while Jelly Smoke took home the prize for best feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Another recent project One of a Kind was featured at the preeminent Sundance Film Festival while his TV cinematography credits include a series that airs on the Sundance Channel.

Daniel Short, Animator

Dan loves textures, layers, colors, true 3D environments, and pixels that take flight. He’s worked here, there, and everywhere because he is the ultimate motion graphics guy.

Torrey Townsend, Associate Editor

Torrey has worked with DCTV as an editor and camera guy. He’s also worked for HBO and Spike Lee (maybe you’ve heard of them?). He is currently editing the Comedy Central web series The Watch List and is slated to do mondo work on Nerd of the Week and Nerdcore Rising until his eyes turn into Final Cut slugs. (extra points if you know what that means).

Adam Barton, Associate Editor

Website – http://nativeresonance.com/

Florence Holdeman, Associate Editor

Website – http://www.wishingwellfilms.com/

Marisa Macner, Post-Production

Millie Li, Post-Production

CONTRIBUTORS

The entire film – the totality of the nerd adventure that this film is trying to capture – would not be here without the people listed below. These contributors are the OG of nerds, the alpha geek, the beginning and the end – the zero and the one. And we heart them, immensely.

Here they are in no particular order:

Golnaz Farsad
Reza Farsad
Ted & Lauren Lanzi
Hossain Sahlolbei
Danny Thomases
Cheryl Hess
Bryan Conner
Rishi Nangalia
Jack and Shirley Owens
Diana Gatewood
Penny Arcade
Emily Epstein
Alan Meigs
Albert Christy III
Andrew Fontana
Andrew Garbade
Anne Carlson
Benjamin Bernard
Brett Green
Brittany Bruno
Chris Higgins
Daniel Dreg
Daniel Wheeler
StankDawg
David Magallon
David Smith
Desiree Burch
Eileen Kelly
Gene Griffith
Isaiah Frantz
Jason Pierce
Jaylyn Coffin
Jeremy Deverell
Jocelyn Goldfein
John Blackman
John Cochrane
John McKeown
John Osmon
Jonathan Sachsman
Shawn Sancha
Karl Sears
Kurt Von Tiehl
Llywelyn Graeme
Manfred Stienstra
Michael Rolins
Zachary Long
Jason Reich
Kristofer Seims
David Badolato
Sean Kirchhoff
Gerrit Rabenstein
Jennifer Dudley
Rachael Rettinger
The Crafty Hedghehog
Michael Styne
Nathaniel Engelson
Neil McKeeman
Nicholas Anderson
Phil Wyman
Paul Canniff
Paul Harbison
Paul Schreivogl
Paul Smeddle
Robert Cooper
Rober Kinosian
Ron Bassilian
Scott Moore
Sean Murphy
Sean ODell
Shawn Gagne
Stephen Heskett
Steven Kohler
Susan Zekanis
Ted Infinity
Thomas Nessiage
Timmy Brady
Will Richards
William Arcand
widescreengamingforum.com
William and Judity Reinsberg
Kimberly McFarland
Martin Dinstuhl
Steve Wohlman
Christos Dritsas
Eric Wagoner
Matt Rowland
Keith Huang
Melinda Duvall
Michael Williams
Kembrew McLeod
Carrie Donovan
Margaret Mary K Bell
Carol DeVan
Angela Reiner
Sean Kirchoff
Esteban Rodriguez
Paul Maniaci
Greg Triggs
Jane Borden
Chris Noble
Elia Shehady
Ivy Barger
Kira Talbott
Deepa Ghosh
Christine Sciacca
Sitharthan Sriharan
Robert Fidler
Mike Schroll
Jennifer Einstein
Jay Stern
Viveca Kinsdvatter
Jerry Miller
Farinaz Sahba
Annette Guarrasi
Matt Balaun
John Nolt
Matthew Morrison
Nick Amento
The AE Hilton Office Building
Steve Cox
Andrew Holt
Dean Obeidallah
JR Havlan
Anne Swan
Snorre Bryne
Melanie Wing
Dmitriy Kumets
Stefan Schick
The Organization
Jake Polatty
Drue Jones
Kyle Walker
Justin Fink
Henry Aird
Alexander Ingram
Kristin D. Lindsay
Kristofer Seims
Ted Delorme
Edward Morgan
Jason Lawer
Erick Blandin
Eric Gillingham
Chad Smith
Kiran Jain
Jordan P Munday
Maninder Kahlon
Colette Marine
Dan Biegner
Jack Packard
Paul Simpson
Anna DeBush
Phil DeBush
Jason Scott
Dan Biegner
Alex Farlow
Dustin Hovatter
Brian Courtney
Shervyn von Hoerl
Ashley Hamm
Andrew Allen
Cynthia Boucher
Jason Kingdon