BOARD OF ADVISORS

Maia Cybelle Carpenter

Maïa Cybelle Carpenter is a moving-image artist and curator. Her films and videos have been exhibited internationally, and selected exhibitions have included: Arts Electronica, Pacific Film Archives, Ontario Cinematheque, Anthology Film Archives, Exit Art Gallery NY, The British Film Institute, Telluride International Experimental Film Festival, The Taiwan Cinematheque, and PBS Television. She has served as visiting curator for the Pleasure Dome in Toronto, Ontario, was the Programming Coordinator for MIX NYC at Anthology Film Archives and has subsequently curated programs for this festival, SF Cinematheque and SF International Film Festival. . She has a BA in Women's Studies/Film Theory from Barnard College, Columbia University (1997), and has a MFA from the Film/Video/New Media Dept. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2001), she currently sits on the Board of Directors of Canyon Cinema and works for an emerging biotech company called Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Brenda Chapman

Brenda Chapman joined Pixar Animation Studios in September 2003 as a Senior Story Artist on Cars. She is now Pixar's first female Director and is in production on her original feature, The Bear and the Bow. Chapman earned a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and went on to start her story career at Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios. She worked as a Story Artist on Disney's Little Mermaid, Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Fantasia/2000 and was the Story Supervisor on The Lion King. After eight years at Disney, Chapman left to help launch a new animation studio DreamWorks Feature Animation. There she co-directed the 1998 release The Prince of Egypt, which marked the first time a woman directed an animated feature film for a major Hollywood studio.

Emily Doe

Emily Doe is the Associate Editor/Producer of Wholphin, a quarterly DVD magazine of short films published by McSweeney’s.

Cathy Fischer

Cathy R. Fischer has a varied background in independent film, non-commercial television and new media. As senior producer for the Independent Television Service’s interactive division, she launched the online presence for ITVS in 1998, creating companion websites for films on ITVS.org and PBS.org. Cathy oversees the ITVS.org institutional site as well as the series and companion sites for the PBS film anthology Independent Lens. She edits the online magazine Inside Indies and oversees the Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival. Cathy was senior project producer for the six Electric Shadows Web-original projects, each garnering numerous accolades and awards. Her earlier experience includes stints as director of PR and marketing for the San Francisco International Film Festival, media and outreach manager at HBO and publicity intern for director Robert Altman. Cathy is the creator, contributor and editor of the women’s blog Fifty is the New…

Bridget Maria Goodman

Bridget Goodman is a Senior Viewpainter (3D Texture Artist) with George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic in San Francisco. Her career in film began in 1994 as a Rotoscope Artist on Casper and Forrest Gump. In 1996 she began Viewpainting. Her works include Pirates of the Caribbean, at Worlds End, Transformers and currently, The Spiderwick Chronicles. In addition, Goodman is an accomplished painter and photographer. Her work has been published in Cinefex, TV Guide, Fast Company, Breakthrough, and German Art Zines. Bridget has exhibited photography and paintings yearly since 1991. A graduate of Art and Film Studies from San Francisco State University, Goodman studied abroad at the famed Braunschweig School of Art, in Germany.

Julie Homan

Julie Homan has spent the past five years as the Senior Cause Marketing Coordinator for the Breast Cancer Fund. She is enthusiastic about helping to prevent breast cancer by eliminating the environmental causes of the disease. She believes in the power of public outreach and education and knows that the Breast Cancer Fund’s relationship with LUNA Bar is helping to influence positive social change in this world. Her interests include listening to music, watching movies, hiking, snowboarding, mountain biking, and she is a member of Team LUNA Chix Bay Area Mountain Bike.

Justine Jacob

Justine Jacob is an independent filmmaker in the San Francisco Bay Area. She produced and co-directed Paper or Plastic? which premiered at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival (www.paperorplasticmovie.com) and Runners High (2006) which played at SF International, Hot Docs, Atlanta, Cleveland, Austin, DOCNZ and other film festivals worldwide (www.runnershighfilm.com). She is currently working on her new film about commitment, passion and food and three individuals using chocolate for world change (www.chocolatedocumentary.com). She participated in the 2006 Sundance Producers Conference and recently served two years as President of Bay Area Women in Film and Television. A former attorney, she changed careers to fulfill her creative passion and desire to make a difference through films.

Joanne Parsont

Joanne Parsont currently serves as a consultant with the San Francisco Film Society’s Education Program, helping to expand its year-round outreach efforts in the Bay Area educational community. As a film festival programmer, she spent more than a decade specializing in films for and by children and youth for the Mill Valley Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Pacific Film Archive and Boston Museum of Fine Art and continues to curate festival programs for MVFF, SFIFF and SF IndieFest. As a managing and copy editor of festival publications, she has also worked with Frameline, SFIFF and San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. She currently offers additional consulting services to independent filmmakers in fundraising, publicity, marketing, distribution and festival strategizing. With a BA from Duke University and a Masters degree in Mass Communication Studies from the University of Michigan, Joanne worked in Washington, DC for both the Public Broadcasting Service and the Learning Channel before arriving in the Bay Area in 1994.

Sapana Sakya

Sapana Sakya’s background is in independent documentary and journalism. She produced and directed, “Daughters of Everest”, an award winning film about the first Nepali women’s Everest expedition. Her other works have included portraits of some rarely seen communities from Asia and Asian America. Sakya was born in Nepal, grew up in Bangkok, and now lives in the Bay Area. Sakya is currently the Media Fund Director at the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) where she manages CPB funding initiatives that support independent filmmakers.

Casondra Sobieralski

Casondra Sobieralski is an artist and storyteller via video, web and performance work. She has shown in Western Pennsylvania, Bing Gallery in Oakland, StartSOMA Gallery in San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Center, and does site specific work outside the gallery system. She has worked with CNRS/the Louvre doing digital reconstruction work and documentation for French archeologists in Egypt. She has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, JUST THINK, the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland (MOCHA), and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Her art production credits include Three River’s Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and several independent films. Casondra holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Pittsburgh, an MFA in Conceptual and Information Arts from San Francisco State University.

Ruthe Stein

Ruthe Stein is the movie correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle. She has been covering movies for the Chronicle for 20 years, writing reviews, celebrity profiles and industry trend stories. As movie editor for five of the years, she made all the decisions about film coverage for the daily and Sunday paper. She regularly covers the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. She recently produced her first film series, “Mostly British,’’ showing new films from the U.K., Australia and Ireland in conjunction with the Vogue theater and the California Film Institute (backers of the Mill Valley Film Festival.) Her annual Oscar prediction story has been on average 95 percent accurate. Ruthe wrote a syndicated singles column that ran in 30 newspapers. She also produced the Chronicle Film Series which brought Kevin Costner, Janet Leigh, Ed Harris and Geoffrey Rush to San Francisco to talk about their work.

Beth Strachan

Beth Strachan has served on the LUNAFEST Board of Advisors since 2005. She brings nearly 20 years' experience in marketing communications and fund development within the world of nonprofits and socially responsible businesses. Currently, she is Vice President with the Metropolitan Group, a full-service agency that crafts and integrates strategic communication, creative and resource development services that empower social purpose organizations to build a just and sustainable world. She has also held director-level positions at leading institutions including VolunteerMatch.org, the Breast Cancer Fund, Earth Island Institute, and Working Assets. She holds a degree in creative and technical writing. When she’s not in front of a film screen or with her nose in a book, she can be found enjoying the outdoors.