THE FILMMAKERS
MEGAN BROTHERTON
Writer/Director/Producer/"Maggie"
Megan is a director-writer-actor originally from Seattle. She earned her MFA from Harvard, which included a 3-month residency at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia. She writes and performs sketch and improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade and directs shorts for Funny Or Die.
Megan’s short films EVERYBODY DOES IT and BUTTERCUP have screened at Austin Film Festival, Napa Valley, and Bentonville among others and won awards including Audience Choice, Best Comedy, and Best Narrative Short. BUTTERCUP was selected as one of nine films to tour the US and Canada as part of LunaFest 2018 and one of five films selected to screen in Beijing.
Women in Film chose Megan to direct the PSA “I Don’t Know How” for Access Books, which won a 2018 Bronze Telly award. Megan is also a board member of the Hollywood Women’s Collective and volunteer for the Downtown Women’s Center.
ELIZABETH BATES
Producer/"Janie"
Elizabeth Bates is an LA based producer/actor. She hails from Saratoga Springs, N.Y. where all the horse movies are filmed. Elizabeth attended Emerson College where she studied theatre and film production, graduating with a BA. Additionally she holds an MFA in Acting from the ART/MXAT Institute at Harvard, wherein she studied and performed for three months at the Moscow Art Theatre School. Previously, she was an Apprentice at The Williamstown Theatre Festival, and has also worked as an events coordinator volunteer at The Sundance Film Festival.
Elizabeth started her producing career with "Buttercup", a narrative dramatic short film written and directed by Megan Brotherton. "Buttercup" played Cleveland International Film Festival, Lunafest and Bentonville Film Fest, among many others.
Elizabeth also produced Writhing, an LGBTQ narrative short film shot on 16 mm which premiered to a sold out house at Outfest this past July.
Additionally, she's worked with Women in Film on a PSA for Access Books- "I Don't Know How" as a producer and post producer. Elizabeth also produced alongside up and comer Minhail Baig for her short "Pretext" which premiered on VICE. Most recently, she associate produced "Spin", a short that's part of AFI DWW and directed by Marielle Woods.
Elizabeth freelances at Prettybird and can otherwise be found devouring the Sunday New York Times and pancakes, usually at the same time.
MAX MONTEL
Producer
Max Montel is a graduate of Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon School of Drama with an MFA in directing. He produced Natural Insemination, which premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and won 4 Best Comedy awards at Rincon, Laughlin, El Dorado, and Austin Revolution Film Festivals. He has worked in development and production with Michael Tollin Productions, Romark Films, and Michael Brandman Productions. Currently, he is developing and producing two features, and is a creative executive at Pretty/Orphans Productions.
As a theater director, he received the Off-Off-Broadway Review Award for Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. Most recently, he directed the world premiere of Linthead at the Santa Monica Playhouse. Other credits include Kind Lady, The Sunshine Boys, Lemon Sky, and the premiere of Ax of Love, by Academy Award winning writer Ernest Thompson.
KEVIN SCHLANSER
Director of Photography
Kevin grew up in a small town in Northern California where he inherited a love of photography from his father. He moved to Los Angeles and attended the New York Film Academy, where he directed The Utopian starring Guillermo Diaz and Richard Riehle, which was an official selection at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He subsequently began shooting and editing the acclaimed Internet series lonelygirl15 in 2006 followed by a companion series to the CBS show Harper's Island.
Kevin works predominately as a cinematographer and several of his recent projects of note include a narrative feature directed by Lindsey Haun, a music video for the band Will and the People, The Ashley Bouder Project for the New York City Ballet and a feature documentary called The Ataxian which is currently in festivals and has won three audience awards for best documentary feature. He was also the Director of Photography on Megan's pilot, Last Night.