Atlanta Film Festival 365

Caroline E. Moise, Board Chair
Caroline E. Moise, Board Chair Caroline brings a diverse background in non-profit fundraising strategies to the Atlanta Film Festival 365, having served as Senior Development Director at Emory University and as a consultant to The Atlanta Women's Foundation. She serves on a number of non-profit boards where she holds leadership positions including Visiting Nurse/Hospice Atlanta, Leadership DeKalb, DeKalb Rape Crisis Center, Glenn Memorial School Board, and Georgia’s WIN List, a Political Action Committee committed to electing Democratic Women to statewide office and the state legislature. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Advancement Committee at Limestone College in South Carolina. Caroline has worked with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity: Women Build 2004 and 2007 where she served on the Steering Committee. This group raised money and built a Habitat home exclusively from and by women. She also worked with the Atlanta Olympic Games from 1994-1996. She has been a member of the Atlanta Junior League since 1984. Caroline lives in Druid Hills with her husband Phil. They have four grown children, triplet sons and a daughter.

Inger Eberhart, Secretary
Inger has over 15 years of business experience in Operations, Finance, Management, and process improvement with companies such as AT&T, IBM, and Coca-Cola. She has written numerous articles on career change, finance, human resources, and other technical articles and guides. She is the founder of SynergyInc.ws, a motivational video production company and recently founded Vsynx.tv, an internet television station featuring hypervideo. Inger has her B.S. in Psychology, an MBA and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Media Psychology from Fielding Graduate University. She is a member of The White House Project, American Association of Political Consultants, the American Psychological Association and volunteers her time for The Atlanta Women’s Foundation’s Women On Board and Destiny Fund programs and OHC 212 Productions.

John Wickson, Treasurer
John has over 16 years experience in higher education administration and international business, including over 12 years in leadership roles in financial planning, strategic planning, market analysis, alliances, sales and operations for Delta Air Lines. During this time he also served as a Board member of the SkyTeam Cargo US Joint Venture, a cargo export sales joint venture between Delta Air Lines, Korean Air Cargo and Air France Cargo. In addition, since 2005 he has served on the Board of the Alliance Française d’Atlanta, a 501(c)3 corporation and part of a worldwide network of cultural organizations promoting French language and culture. Since 2006 he has been the treasurer and chairman of the finance committee at the Alliance, and also serves on the Executive and Nominating committees. Currently, he is a consultant to the airline industry and is working on a feature length screenplay. John resides in Decatur with his wife, Gail Gunnells, and their three children.

Cindy L. Abel
Cindy L. Abel is a director and producer with additional experience in communications and political campaigns. Since 2004, her primary professional focus has been on developing her film-related experience through Atlantis Moon Productions. She has worked in a variety of roles on documentaries and feature films, including Back to Salem, a short film she directed and produced. She combines her communications experience with filmmaking to create client videos for external and internal campaigns. She is also the founder of bizvox Marketing Communications, a boutique communications firm with particular expertise in identifying needs in non-traditional segments and focusing traditional and creative resources to reach them.

In addition to Atlanta Film Festival 365, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, and co-chairs the Victory Campaign Board. She has also served as a board member of numerous non-profit organizations, including Women in Film/Atlanta, NCAA Women’s Final Four, For the Kid in All of Us, AIDS Survival Project, Human Rights Campaign, and National Philanthropy Day.

Walker Anderson
Walker currently manages cross-channel TV promotion, as well as partnership negotiations & competitive information for Comcast Atlanta. Before joining Comcast, Walker was in public relations with Music Today & the Dave Mathews Band in Charlottesville Virginia. He has worked with the Atlanta Film Festival since 2007, as a sponsor & partner. In an effort to meld Comcast & Atlanta Film Festival resources, Walker has worked with the Festival staff to offer unique opportunities for both parties, such as placing Festival films On Demand, creating and expanding filmmaker competitions, & hosting exclusive screening events.

Pete Ballard
Pete is currently Vice President and COO of LAB 601, a nationally recognized post-production company located in Atlanta, Georgia. Pete leads the finance, marketing, sales, and operations functions at LAB 601. He was instrumental in building LAB 601’s film and episodic television business by developing their investment/strategic partnership business model. Through this initiative, LAB 601 invested services in over a dozen feature film and episodic television projects including Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, The Signal, Being Bobby Brown, and Dance of the Dead. Pete holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Wake Forest University and an MBA from the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. He resides in Atlanta with his wife and daughter, and his favorite movie of all-time is Blazing Saddles.

Candace Bazemore
Candace Bazemore is President and CEO of J. Lane Media Company; an Atlanta based graphic design firm. The Newport News, Virginia native moved to Atlanta to attend Clark Atlanta University where she later received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Candace is an active member of the Atlanta business community; serving as an Ambassador for the Metro Atlanta Chamber and as a member of their Small Business Growth Council. Candace was recently recognized as Woman of the Year for her chapter of the American Business Women's Association and is an alumnus of The White House Project, an organization dedicated to getting women actively involved in leadership roles in both the business and political arena. In addition, Candace continually volunteers with the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA and the Atlanta Partners for Education.

Scott Benson
Mr. Benson's expertise as a producer, writer and director were honed during his years as Vice President of Production at Turner Home Entertainment, a post he held from 1992 through 1997. During his time at THE, Mr. Benson was responsible for producing and directing sixteen award-winning documentary films including The Making of Doctor Zhivago, The Making of Ben Hur, and You Must Remember This: The Making of Casablanca. Mr. Benson¹s documentaries have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Cine Golden Eagle and the New York Films Telly Award. In 1995, Mr. Benson was entrusted with developing and producing Turner¹s Studio Archival project. This assignment charged Mr. Benson with filming interviews with the stars, directors, artists, technicians, and behind-the-scenes artisans, all of whom worked under the Studio System at MGM, Warner Bros. RKO, and United Artists during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The Race to Save 100 Years, Mr. Benson¹s exceptional documentary film on film preservation, received a special commendation for extraordinary merit from the academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) as one seven best documentary features produced in 1997. This project was a natural outgrowth of Mr. Benson¹s work on Turner¹s Studio Archival Project and one of the first projects undertaken by The Benson Company. Mr. Benson won an Emmy Award and the New York Festival¹s World Medal for International Non-Broadcast Media and the National Education Association President¹s Award for his live-broadcast specials for Tuner Adventure Learning. For the past 14 years Scott Benson has been President of The Scott Benson Co. A full service advertising and promotion agency responsible for branding, marketing, and promotion of news and entertainment media. His company provides this expertise for clients such as Warner Bros., Turner Broadcasting, Comcast Networks, Scripts Networks, Genius Products, Sesame Street, Paramount Studios and Coca Cola. A native of Atlanta, Scott continues to be involved in all facets of television and film within the community.

Linda Burns
Linda Burns produces, line produces and production manages national commercials, industrials, webisodes, pilots and promos, music videos, television series, still photo shoots, and independent features. Credits include: award winning projects for City of Refuge and Georgia Pacific; internationally distributed features "The Signal" and "Last Goodbye"; multi-award winning featurettes "Petunia" and "Shooting Creek"; TNT LA's internationally broadcast "Academy Awards Pre-Show Live from the Red Carpet"; DBA Gold Award for the Boomerang network launch (100 promos), and PBS' "Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Bill Moyers". Linda consulted on dance films which accompany the award winning worldwide "Arts of Bhutan" exhibition, she produced Ludacris' still photo shoot for his feature article in The Source magazine, floor directed many best selling video series for Dr. Bruce Wilkinson, and production managed #1 ranked music videos for Snoop Dogg, Jagged Edge, OutKast, Bow Wow, LIVE and ATL. Linda was honored with the IMAGE Award and The Southeastern Media Award. Most recently she added director to her credits with the inspirational sports documentary "Living is Winning", and she currently has two films in development, one represented by William Morris and one by Cinetic Media.

Steve Clements
Steve Clements, an award-winning producer, writer and director in broadcast, video and industry, is both executive presentation trainer and academic professor. Through the Atlanta-based Executive Speak/Write (www.executivespeakwrite.com), co-owned with his wife Claudia Coplon, Steve enables professionals to maximize oral presentation skills for interactions with peers, stakeholders and the media. Since 1999, he has sat as Cree-Walker Distinguished Professor of Television & Communications at Augusta State University (part of the University System of Georgia). Lastly, for the past 13 years, Steve has co-owned Diamond Educational Productions, producing 30 videos for distribution to universities throughout the world. Prior to arriving in Georgia, Steve produced over 3,000 national television broadcasts (detailed in his media text book, Show Runner: Producing Variety and Talk Shows for Television). In these roles, Steve trained experts to greet national audiences, including Parade Magazine medical editor Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, chef Wolfgang Puck, fitness guru Richard Simmons, and talk show hosts Bob Goen and Pat Sajak; produced Hour Magazine with Gary Collins, the new Mickey Mouse Club for Disney, Body by Jake and others; and wrote for Welcome Back, Kotter; Three’s Company and Dinah Shore.

Ashley Epting
Ashley is the Executive Producer of THE HILL, filmed in Athens, Georgia in the summer of 2007. He graduated from the Gallatin School at New York University where he studied film production and dramatic writing at the Tisch School of the Arts. Ashley worked for Hugo Boss in NYC as the assistant to the Director of Public Relations before moving to Birmingham, AL, and serving as the Coordinator for the Sidewalk Festival, where he worked on the Academy Award® Nominated short JOHNNY FLYNTON. This facilitated his move to Los Angeles where he worked as a development assistant with Akiva Goldsman's production company, Weed Road Pictures which produced STARSKY & HUTCH, MR. & MRS. SMITH, & CONSTANTINE while he was there. Ashley currently serves as CEO for Epting Events and Center Stage Catering.

Shay Bentley-Griffin
Under the banner of The Chez Agency, Bentley-Griffin began as a talent agent, launching the careers of many recognized actors from the southeast onto national screens in soaps, television series, and feature films. In her distinguished career, Bentley-Griffin has cast over 225 television and feature film projects, including eight seasons of In the Heat of the Night and the Peabody Award-winning I'll Fly Away. In recent years, she served the State of Georgia as Film Liaison. She is currently on the executive board of the Georgia Production Partnership, an organization of film industry leaders throughout the state who work to promote Georgia on a local and national basis. She presently serves as Vice Chair to the Governor’s Film and Entertainment Advisory Board. She is an advisor to Women in Film/Atlanta and a member of WIF/Los Angeles. She was also presented Women in Film's Silver Dogwood Award in honor of her leadership and unwavering efforts on behalf of the Georgia film industry. She receive an Emmy nomination for her work on the HBO Original Miss Evers' Boys and received another Emmy nomination in 1999 for her work on the HBO Original A Lesson Before Dying. Recently Ms. Griffin received her third Emmy nomination for the 2005 Best Picture Emmy-winning HBO Film,Warm Springs, As a casting director, she is relentlessly searching for new talent, and conducting workshops and seminars to educate up-and-coming actors about the industry.

Tom Karsch
Tom is an independent media consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the former executive vice president and general manager for both Turner Classic Movies and Turner South. Karsch worked at Turner Broadcasting in various capacities from 1991 to 2007 and before that held positions at American Movie Classics, SportsChannel America and Showtime Networks, Inc. Under his watch, Turner Classic Movies grew from 6 million subscribers to 75 million subscribers, produced several EMMY award nominated documentaries, and implemented some of the networks' most popular programming programming and marketing initiatives including the Private Screenings interview series, the Young Film Composers Competition, and The Essentials film franchise. He also oversaw the expansion of the network into Home Video, Publishing, Licensing & Merchandising, and launched the popular TCM.com and TCM-on-Demand .Karsch was the Film Selection Co-Chair for the 2009 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, and also serves on the Boards of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center and the Georgia Innocence Project. He is also on the Dean's Advisory Council for American University's School of Communications and actively mentors students and former students from American University as well as Atlanta's Emory University and Morehouse College. He resides in Atlanta GA with his wife Randy and sons, Michael and Zachary.

Simon Kornblit
Simon Kornblit served as Executive Vice President and Head of Worldwide Marketing for Universal Pictures from 1987 through 1993. He was responsible for the marketing for all Universal films which included the advertising, media, research, promotion and publicity activities. Kornblit supervised the marketing of over 100 films during his tenure at Universal Pictures, including JURASSIC PARK, FIELD OF DREAMS, SCENT OF A WOMAN, KINDERGARTEN COP, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, BACK TO THE FUTURE, CAPE FEAR and TWINS. Prior to Universal, he was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the advertising firm DDB Worldwide’s Los Angeles branch. From 2001-2003 he served as Director of the Film Institute, a new program he helped establish for Continuing Education at Kennesaw State University. Kornblit has guest lectured on Movie Marketing to students at the Goizueta School of Business at Emory College, Georgia State University, UCLA and the University of Southern California, as well as college and industry sponsored career forums. He also served as a consultant to the Digital Arts & Entertainment Laboratory at Georgia State University. He has served on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences/Atlanta Chapter and the Georgia Film, Video & Music Advisory Commission. Kornblit is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of Photo Forum of the High Museum of Art. He is on the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. In 2006, he became a working actor and has stage, film and commercial credits on his resume.

Sherry Richardson
Sherry Richardson is an Atlanta based actor, writer, producer and director. She is also the founder and president of Sage Blue Films, Inc., an independent production company, which produces film, television and stage projects. She has produced award-winning videos for corporate giants such as UPS, and has produced, directed, edited music videos, local television shows and public service announcements. As an independent freelancer, her client list includes, Rainforest Films, Journey Productions, Georgia Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting Atlanta, iXL, Home Depot and Manning, Selvage and Lee. As an actor, she has starred in several independent films, commercials, and industrials throughout the southeast market. Sherry is also heavily involved in non-profits. During her tenure as President of Women in Film and Television Atlanta (WIFTA), she was instrumental in raising the profile by producing an Awards Gala honoring Jane Fonda, Cheryl Dunye (Stranger Inside), Lydia Dean Pilcher (Iron Jawed Angels, The Talented Mr. Ripley), and Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven, Fat Actress) resulting in the highest attendance and funds raised so far in history of WIFTA. In addition to ATL365, Sherry is also a board officer of Women in Film and Television international, where she has served for over five years.

Scot Safon
Scot is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for CNN Worldwide, where he is responsible for the branding, marketing and promotion of CNN’s multiple networks and services. He is based in CNN’s world headquarters in Atlanta. After joining CNN in August 2002 as its Senior Vice President of Marketing and Promotion. Since then, he has supervised the development of all consumer and trade communication for CNN US Television, CNN.com, CNN International, Headline News, CNN Pipeline and all other CNN services. His team is responsible for all audience development, trade messages and sales communications supporting CNN brands and programming. He has overseen development of campaigns on behalf of such CNN programs as Anderson Cooper 360, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Larry King Live, The Situation Room, American Morning and CNN Presents, the most-honored news documentary series on television.. His team has been responsible for handling marketing and sales communications during CNN’s award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the 2004 Presidential Election, the 2006 Midterm Election, the on-going war in Iraq and the Southeast Asia Tsunami disaster. He has also overseen development of acclaimed campaigns for the top-rated In the Footsteps of Bin Lade, God’s Warriors and Planet in Peril specias and the CNN.com “Power of CNN Under Your Command” campaign, the first-ever branding campaign for the world’s #1 news website. Scot Safon has been named a 2006 “Brand Builder” by Television Week magazine, and his campaigns for Anderson Cooper 360 and CNN=Politics have been named “Campaigns of Distinction”, the only news campaigns to be awarded the honor in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Andrew J. Velcoff
Andrew Velcoff focuses his practice on entertainment, intellectual property and media law. His practice includes a wide range of institutional and individual entertainment and media clients, with transactions involving broadcast and cable networks, film and television production companies, marketing companies, toy properties, on-screen talent, writers and other clients involved in the development, production, acquisition, financing, marekting and distribution of content for motion pictures, television, video, the Internet and other traditional and emerging media. Andrew was formerly Genearl Counsel and Senior Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, Turner Entertainment Group. He is a member of the Georgia and California Bar Associations.