P.H. O'Brien
Name: PH O'Brien
Company: Amber Films
Home Base: North Reading, MA
Education: UMass/Amherst
Favorite Movie: Seconds
Favorite pig out food: oreos! They're fun!
Favorite Babe: Julie Delpy. Bonjour!
Hobbies: Car crashing, barn building
Downers: Math Class - Yuk!

Amber films, PH O'Brien's film company, was named for his parents' farm in North Reading, MA which was named after a horse racing stable, that was named after a dog, that was named after the color. In the first season of Split Screen, O'Brien became the show's mascot. He was dubbed "the car crash guy" because it appeared he had purposely crashed his cars to raise money for his first feature, Asylum. "The accidents weren't my fault" he says in his defense. "All I did was make something good out of a bad situation."

O'Brien produced two segments in the first season. The first, Ducttown, was about his hometown grappling with the idea of constructing a film studio on the site of an old, abandoned mental hospital. The second, Tarenteenies, co-produced with Doug Stone, looks at a small town, home grown film festival with filmmakers all under the age of 17. "The great thing about this segment is that this little festival mirrors the big ones. One film isn't done on time. Another gets banned. The organizers are overwhelmed by the entries and the egos of the young filmmakers. It was funny to see it happen even on that scale," says an amused O'Brien.

Chris Smith
Chris Smith grew up and still lives in the Midwest. Chris is currently in post production for a documentary on the making of an independent feature film called The Making of Northwestern. His first feature film, American Job, which premiered at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, recently toured the country with The Fuel Film Tour.

Artist's Statement:
"I work with people I want to spend time with. The films I make are very much a group process rather than a calculated independent vision. I know very much what I like and want out of my actors and films, but at the same time I am working with people that I regard highly, so I am always trying to take in their ideas and incorporate them into my work. It is very much a group effort, and this closeness is what first inspired me and deeps me working today."

Sarah Price
Sarah lives in the Midwest and is currently finishing a feature length documentary on neighborhoods in Milwaukee entitled Caesar's Park. Other credits include co-editor of Chris Smith's American Job, sound/2nd camera on Michael Moore's The Big One, and tour manager of the Fuel Film Tour. She and Chris Smith are also completing a feature documentary, The Making of Northwestern.

Brian Flemming and Keythe Farley
Brian Flemming and Keythe Farley are longtime collaborators in theater, film, television and music. A recent production is the feature film Hang Your Dog in the Wind, written and directed by Brian and starring Keythe. The film, awarded the Special Jury Prize at The 1997 Florida Film Festival, has played to critical acclaim in festivals in Park City, UT, New York, Chicago, Florida and Germany.

Brian and Keythe co-wrote the book for Bat Boy: The Musical, an extravagant stage production about Bat Boy, the half-boy/half-bat popularized in the Weekly World News, the supermarket tabloid. The production premiered at the Actors' Gang Theater in Los Angeles, CA in November of 1997.

Keythe, Brian were among the founders (there were others) of The Slumdance Experience, a film festival in Park City, Utah in January 1997. Slumdance was the renegade alternative to the other, more sober film festivals running at the same time in Park City: Sundance and Slamdance. Slumdance maintains a website at www.slumdance.com.

Doug Stone
Doug Stone is a filmaker and singer living in Brooklyn, NY. His past credits include working on Michael Moore's TV Nation, several music videos, and a brief stint as Tom Brokaw's stand-in during the '96 NBC election coverage. He is currently in pre-production on a documentary about the world of competitive eaters.

Guinevere Turner
Guinevere Turner co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the 1994 independent film Go Fish. Since then, she has appeared in the films The Watermelon Woman, Kiss Me Guido, Chasing Amy, Latin Boys Go to Hell, and the upcoming Preaching to the Perverted and Dante's View. Her screenwriting includes three projects with writer/director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol): an adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, set to go into production in the spring, an as yet untitled script for Paramount and MTV, and a biopic about pinup legend Bettie Page, that Harron will direct with Turner as star. Turner also writes for various periodicals, including Glamour Magazine and the Advocate and her short fiction has been published in several anthologies.

Yvonne Welbon
Yvonne Welbon's films and videos work to create a stronger media presence for African American women. Her award winning films have been screened on cable, public television, at universities and community centers, and in festivals around the world. She has completed a number of independent productions which include: Monique; The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash; Sisters in the Life; First Love, Missing Relations and Remembering Wei Yi-Fang, Remembering Myself.

In 1997 Welbon was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Media Arts to continue her work. She is currently working on two new documentaries: Sisters in Cinema, a history of African American women directors and; Living With Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100, a film about the life and times of the oldest known "out" African American lesbian.

Yvonne Welbon received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Vassar College and a Masters of Fine Arts in film and video from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She recently completed all course work toward a doctorate in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University.

Bill Judkins
Bill Judkins interviewed Steve Buscemi and John Turturro for a profile piece during the first season of Split Screen. Bill was the co-host of the popular British TV series Manhattan Cable and Made in the USA. Bill is also a screenwriter and is the director of the award-winning short film, Lux Interior. Bill resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Pearl Lieberman
Pearl Lieberman started as a reporter and research supervisor for MTV. She went on to produce the Emmy-Award winning program Friday Night Videos for NBC, where she had the opportunity to work with a diverse list of celebrities. A carreer highlight was the time Keith Richards performed her requests live on the show.

Pearl worked for two seasons on TV Nation, Michael Moore's Emmy Award-winning comedy magazine series. She also served as archivist on Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple's two-hour ABC prime time documentary special New Passages (A Film Version of Gail Sheeh's bestseller). In addition, Pearl is a stringer for BBC Radio, filing offbeat reports about New York City.

A native New Yorker, she resides in Manhattan with way too many books, records, videos and old junk to mention here.

Daniel Race Myrick
Dan Race Myrick is a Florida native filmmaker with over 10 years experience in film and video production and post-production. He received his B.A. in Motion Picture Technology at the University of Central Florida. His awards include the 1992 Gold Alamo for music video at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, several gold and silver Addy awards for commercial production, including the national Charlie Award for work on the Bolles School documentary in 1995.

Myrick opened his own production company at Universal Studios Florida (Orlando), producing commercials and industrial projects on which he serves as director and cinematographer. In 1995 he expanded his production services to include post-production and animation. His client base includes: Universal Studios, ITEC Productions, Soundelux Florida, Coca Cola, First Union, Planet Hollywood and the All Star Cafe, among others.

Dan has been involved with other long form, low budget projects as co-producer, director, editor and cinematographer under the Haxan Films banner. He recently directed the 1997 Florida Film Festival trailer for the Enzian Theater.

The Split Screen Producing Team

Janet Pierson: Co-Creator/Executive Producer
Janet Pierson (nee Perlberg) is co-president of Grainy Pictures. Since 1986, Janet has worked exclusively with John Pierson at John Pierson & Associates, Islet, Cold Spring Film Workshop, and Grainy Pictures, in addition to raising their two children. From 1981-86, Janet was Assistant Director of Film Forum, NYC's premiere independent film showcase. From 1977-79, she ran Canyon Cinema Cooperative, a filmmakers' distribution company. Janet attended Hampshire College and earned her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Howard Bernstein: Producer
Howard Bernstein is co-president of Eureka Pictures, Inc. is the New York-based production company founded in 1995. The company is committed to producing low budget, independent feature films with unique perspectives, focusing on emerging directorial talent.

Eureka Pictures produced Bart Freundlich's first feature, The Myth of Fingerprints, starring Noah Wyle, Julianne Moore, Roy Scheider, Blythe Danner and James LeGros which premiered in the dramatic competition at the 1997 Sundance film Festival. The film was executive produced by Good Machine and was shot on location in rural Maine. Sony Classics released the film in September 1997 with Columbia TriStar Home Video handling international rights.

Eureka recently completed Alexandre Rockwell's (In The Soup) new film, Louis and Frank, featuring Tony Curtis and Steve Buscemi. Produced in association with Paris-based Why Not Productions and MK2 Productions, the film was shot in New York City.

Eureka's first feature Breathing Room, was directed by Jon Sherman, and features some of New York's best young acting talent. Released by Arrow Releasing, Breathing Room has been shown at a number of international festivals and at the Angelika Film Center in New York.

Michael LaHaie: Editor/Assoc. Producer
Michael LaHaie was born and raised in Michigan and studied film at San Francisco State University. While in San Francisco, he made the award-winning short film Critizen that played in numerous festivals including the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. LaHaie later moved onto New York and worked at Miramax Films in the Broadcast and Video Production department where he worked on original documentaries for television as well as other productions including a promotional documentary for John Pierson's book,
Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes. Eventually, LaHaie left Miramax to edit the pilot of Split Screen and is now the full-time editor and associate producer of the show.

Marina Zenovich: Associate Producer
Marina Zenovich joins the SPLIT SCREEN staff this year as segment producer as well as associate producer after having spent the last two years making her first film, INDEPENDENT'S DAY, a documentary about independent filmmakers and the changing independent film scene in Park City, Utah. INDEPENDENT'S DAY will be screening throughout the year at various film festivals including Slamdance, Santa Barbara, South by Southwest, New Haven, and the BBC Short Film Festival in London.

Before making INDEPENDENT'S DAY, Marina held a variety of jobs including: playing a studio executive in Robert Altman's THE PLAYER (the "Can't we talk about anything other than Hollywood?" scene), serving as one of Jerry Brown's press representatives during the 1992 presidential campaign, walking Kyle MacLachlan's surly dogs and answering Jimmy Caan's telephone. She has also worked at ICM, UTA, AWA, and besides starring in the never-released indie film AIMLESS, she "discovered" her co-star in the film in a deli in Soho -- the same deli she now frequents working at SPLIT SCREEN. She has written articles, acted Off and Off-Off Broadway, directed segments of REAL FILMMAKERS, IFC's original series which features highlights of IFP West's Meet The Director Series, and worked at IFC's Next Wave Films.



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[Split Screen '98 and '99]

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