Michele Ohayon Director/Producer View Filmography Michele Ohayon, an award winning director and producer, has over 15 years of professional filmmaking experience all over the world. Michele was born in Casablanca and raised in Israel, where she served in the army. She graduated in Film and Television from Tel Aviv University, with emphasis on directing. At the age of nineteen, Michele produced, directed and edited her first film, Lo Naim, followed by a variety of fiction and non-fiction films. Her work includes the critically acclaimed film, Pressure, which won the 1984 Best Israeli Film Award and aired on American and European television. Michele moved to Los Angeles in 1987, where she directed her American debut suspense thriller, Salamander (1990), which aired on ShowTime/The Movie Channel. In 1992, Ms. Ohayon directed the award winning feature length documentary, It Was A Wonderful Life, which explores the plight of upper-middle class women who became "hidden homeless" and live out of their cars. The film was narrated by Jodie Foster. In addition to worldwide television airings, it has played in international festivals and in theaters in Los Angeles and throughout the US, and aired nationally on PBS. Among the film's numerous awards is a Gold Award at the Houston Film Festival. It Was A Wonderful Life continues to garner outstanding reviews and community accolades wherever it screens. In 1996-1997 Michele directed an episode for the Warner Brothers action/adventure series "The New Adventures of Robin Hood", and two (fiction) episodes for the new ShowTime series, "Women". She also produced and directed documentary segments for the PBS children's series, "Adventures from the Book of Virtues". In 1997 Michele completed her new feature length documentary, Colors Straight Up. The film won the Golden Spire Award for the Arts at the San Fransisco Film Festival, as well as the Cine Golden Eagle Award in Washington D.C., the Silver Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival, and a Special Merit from the National Black Programming Consortium. For her body of work, Michele received the 1996 Artist Grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Michele is a board member of Cinewomen, and her goal as a filmmaker is to make films that open hearts and minds. 12; Julia Schachter Producer Originally from New York, Julia Schachter graduated from Oberlin College in 1982 with a combined degree in art and art history. Since then she has worked in many aspects of the film and television industry, with a strong interest in independent and documentary filmmaking. Julia started working in production in San Francisco. Following a move to Los Angeles 1985, Julia worked with jazz musician Herbie Hancock and his management company. Returning to the film business, Julia was story editor for independent British producer Davina Belling (Gregory's Girl, Comfort and Joy, Other People's Money,) based at Kings Road Entertainment from 1986 to 1988. As a freelance production manager and line producer, Julia worked on documentaries, commercials and music videos. She joined the staff of CBS series "Rescue 911" in 1990, where she became Associate Producer, supervising hundreds of shoots all over the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1993, Julia partnered with director Michele Ohayon to form Echo Pictures and produce the feature documentary Colors Straight Up as an independent. Produced entirely on grants and donations, Colors Straight Up won the Golden Gate Award for the Arts in the 1997 San Francisco International Film Festival, and will air this year on PBS. With partner Michele Ohayon, Julia produced the documentary segments for the primetime PBS series, "Adventures From The Book Of Virtues" which premiered in September. Theo Van de Sande, A.S.C. Director of Photography Theo Van de Sande was born in Holland and graduated from the Dutch Film Academy in 1970. He has shot over 35 feature films, 8 feature length documentaries and over 40 shorts. In addition he worked on numerous television series and commercials. In 1982 and 1987, Theo received the "Golden Calf" for Best Cinematography, the highest award bestowed upon a director of photography in The Netherlands. Included among the award-winning films that Theo has shot are The Girl With Red Hair (Dutch Film Critics Award, 1982), The Illusionist (Best Dutch Film, 1984), and The Assault, awarded both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film in 1987. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1988, Theo's American features include Crossing Delancy (Joan Micklin Silver, director,) Miracle Mile (Steve Dejarnatt, director,) Rooftops (Robert Wise, director,) Once Around (Lasse Halstrom, director,) Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris, director,) and Exit To Eden (Garry Marshall, director.) He shot the feature length documentary, It Was A Wonderful Life (Michele Ohayon, director.) This year Theo has completed principal photography on the Fox movie Volcano (Mick Jackson, director.) Edgar Burcksen Editor An Emmy award winning editor, Edgar Burcksen has over 100 documentaries, feature films, mini-series, movies of the week, shorts, commercials and music videos to his credit. A graduate of the Dutch Film and Television School on Amsterdam, Edgar was honored with the Dutch Academy Award for editing in 1985. At the vanguard of digital post production, in 1991 he designed the first completely digital post production system for television and the first digital matte painting while head of visual effects at ILM. For Lucas Film he devised the first completely digital post production for film in 1993. Edgar was Visual Effects Editor on The Hunt For Red October and Die Hard II, and Supervising Editor on an animated television series. Edgar's American television credits include "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles", for which he won an Emmy in 1992, and Editor/Post-production Supervisor on "500 Nations", an eight hour documentary series for CBS, airing in April 1995, hosted and executive produced by Kevin Costner.