Michael York

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With an impressive body of work over the past 45 years on screen, stage, television and with audio recording, Michael York retains the enthusiasm for the actor's life he first experienced growing up in England. Joining the National Youth Theatre, he played Shakespeare in London and Europe, and went on to perform extensively at Oxford University, graduating with an MA in English.

He joined Laurence Olivier's new National Theatre Company in 1965 and a year later made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli's "The Taming of the Shrew" with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. He was also Tybalt in Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet," and John the Baptist in his "Jesus of Nazareth."

York's more than 60 other screen credits include memorable roles in such films as Joseph Losey's "Accident", Bob Fosse's "Cabaret" with Liza Minnelli; "Something for Everyone" with Angela Lansbury; the all-star "Murder on the Orient Express"; "The Last Remake of Beau Geste"; as D'Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers"; the title role in "Logan's Run;" and opposite Burt Lancaster in "The Island of Dr. Moreau." He even played himself in Billy Wilder's "Fedora." He was in all three "Austin Powers" movies and in both "Omega Code" films. He recently finished filming "Mika & Alfred", and "The Mill and the Cross" with Charlotte Rampling.

His television work comprises over 80 credits, including "The Forsythe Saga", "Great Expectations", "Space", "The Heat of the Day", "A Knight in Camelot", "The Night of the Fox" , "The Lot" (Emmy-nomination) and Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm". He played a guest character in "The Simpsons", and in the 100th episode of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent". He has just finished "The Four Seasons".

Broadway and regional theater credits include "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me," "Bent", "The Crucible", "Ring Round the Moon", the world premiere of Tennessee Williams' "Outcry" and the title role in "Cyrano de Bergerac". He was in the musical of "The Little Prince" and recently toured the US in "Camelot", playing King Arthur.

York's distinctive voice can be heard in over 90 audio book and film narrations as varied as "The Book of Psalms," "Memories, Dreams, Reflections", "The Vampire Lestat", and his own children's book, "The Magic Paw Paw." Grammy-nominated for "Treasure Island", he won awards for "The Fencing Master", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", "Creating True Peace" and "Goodbye to Berlin". Recent recordings include "How Do I Love Thee?" as well as "Peter and the Wolf" and "The Carnival of the Animals". Currently the narrator of "The Word of Promise" Audio Bible, his latest recordings are "Cry The Beloved Country" and "Alice in Wonderland".

In addition to performing with music at the Kennedy Center, the Aspen, Bard and Ravinia Festivals, and the Hollywood Bowl, he has starred in William Walton's "Henry V" and in the first concert performance of his "Christopher Columbus." He was Peer in a concert version of "Peer Gynt", and Salieri in a special version of "Amadeus", also at the Bowl. His recording of the Tennyson/Strauss "Enoch Arden," was followed by several international concert performances. He recently headlined "Strauss Meets Frankenstein" and "Intimate Letters" with the Long Beach Opera.

York also enjoys writing. His latest (2005) book is "Are My Blinkers Showing?" ("What a delight. Ahh, the actor's life, well used." LA Times). "Dispatches from Armageddon"(2002) was reviewed by Prof. Richard Brown as "One of the most readable, literate, and insightful works ever written on the process of making movies." York also co-authored "A Shakespearean Actor Prepares", a finalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2001 and hailed by the 'Spectator' as "A triumph... It deserves to become a classic." In 1991 he wrote an autobiography, "Accidentally on Purpose"("Travelling Player" in the UK) about which the Associated Press enthused, "Michael York inherits the mantle of his fellow countryman, David Niven, as a premiere storyteller."

York's wife is Pat, a celebrated photographer. The two met in 1967 when she was assigned to photograph him. Married a year later, they have made their home in Los Angeles since 1976. Pat has exhibited all over the world - in Moscow, New York, Paris, Belgium, London, Washington, Cologne, Basel and Zurich. "Imaging and Imagining: the film world of Pat York" opened at LA's Motion Picture Academy, subsequently traveling to Prague, Mannheim and Hong Kong. Her latest book is "Fame and Frame".

York also lectures internationally -- on Shakespeare and the history and art of acting. His contribution to his profession has been recognized with the award of Britain's OBE, France's Arts et Lettres and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Michael York's official website is www.michaelyork.net

Pat York Photographer, Author: Fame and Frame

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Pat York is a celebrated photographer who has exhibited her images all over the world - in Moscow, New York, Paris, Belgium, London, Washington, Cologne, and Zurich. Imaging and Imagining: the film world of Pat York opened at LA's Motion Picture Academy. Her latest book is Fame and Frame.

Ms. York lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Michael York. The two met in 1967 when she was assigned to photograph Mr. York, an accomplished actor - they married a year later.

Nick Clooney Film Historian, Journalist, Author: The Movies that Changed Us, Former Host, AMC Movie Classics.

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Mr. Clooney has been a journalist since he was a teenager. But it was his appearance in 1994 as host of the cable channel American Movie Classics that brought his likeable visage and immense movie knowledge to the attention of the nation.

He was already well-known in the Cincinnati area, where he appeared in many forms: working as a radio host and a TV news anchor and hosting an early TV talk show, The Nick Clooney Show. He also hosted the syndicated game show The Money Maze from 1974-75 and wrote a column for the Cincinnati Post from 1989 until the paper closed in 2007.

Mr. Clooney is the father of actor, director, writer and producer George Clooney, and the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney. He published the book The Movies That Changed Us in 2002.

Nick Clooney was inducted into the Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2001. A Democrat, Clooney ran for Congress in Kentucky's 4th district in 2004, but was defeated by Republican Geoff Davis.

In the past few years, Mr. Clooney has been a Distinguished Journalist in Residence at American University's School Communication and The Newseum in Washington, D.C. Since 2006, he and his son George, have been raising awareness of the suffering in Sudan through lectures, public appearances and a recent film: A Journey to Darfur.

C.O. "Doc" Erickson Unit Production Manager, Producer Credits: Vertigo, Chinatown, Rear Window, Blade Runner, Groundhog Day

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Mr. Erickson has more than 50 years experience as a producer and production manager on many of Hollywood's biggest films. He began his career at Paramount Pictures, serving as production manager on five Alfred Hitchcock films: Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Vertigo.

He left Paramount to become John Huston's associate producer on The Misfits, Freud and Reflections in a Golden Eye. He was production manager on Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra. He spent three years supervising film production for Brut Productions and later became associated with the uber-producer Robert Evans, working on Chinatown, Players, Urban Cowboy and Popeye.

Other producer and production credits include Nicolas Ray's 55 Days at Peking, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, Harold Ramis' Groundhog Day as well as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Magic and The Lonely Guy.

Bart Weiss Educator, Founder of the Dallas Video Festival and Video Association of Dallas.

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Mr. Weiss is an award-winning independent film and video producer, director, editor and educator and consultant, who has lived in Dallas since 1981. He has been an associate producer at Vatican II Productions, as well as teaching film and video courses at Texas A&M's Visualization Lab, Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin and Arlington, and West Virginia State College.

Mr. Weiss is a Co-President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers (AIVF), past Vice President of the Texas Association of Film and Tape Professionals (TAFTP), founder and past President of the West Virginia Filmmakers' Guild, and co-founder of the Dallas Video Festival and the Video Association of Dallas. He is currently the producer for "Frame of Mind" a monthly show of independent film and video for KERA /KDTN Public Television in North Texas.

He has been a video columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald, United Features Syndicate, and KERA Radio (Dallas).

Mr. Weiss received an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University in 1978 and a B.A. from Temple University in 1975.

Charlie Palafox

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As the grand film Titanic was nearing the end of production twelve years ago, Charlie, a native El Pasoan, jumped on board to work as an intern for director James Cameron's Feature Film Production Company Lightstorm Entertainment. Since then, he's worked on larger-than-life projects, led by the brilliant director. These films include the underwater 3D documentaries Aliens of the Deep and Ghosts of the Abyss and the upcoming Avatar.

From the time his father gave him a Leica 35mm still camera and a Bolex 16mm film camera - with lessons on light and lenses - Charlie has been fascinated with the photographic medium. He first studied photography at the University of Texas at El Paso. He moved to Los Angeles to complete his education, attending Loyola Marymount University where he earned a BA in Film Production.

An exciting and exhausting last couple of years, Charlie has been working on Mr. Cameron's much anticipated, large-scale 3D Live Action and CG film Avatar. Charlie's production work on Avatar included shooting all of the behind the scenes footage on location in New Zealand and working as a camera operator on the Motion Capture Performance Stage in Los Angeles. For the past 4 years, Charlie and the production department at Lightstorm has overseen and managed all of Avatar's 3D Digital Cinema assets.

As Avatar receives the finishing post production touches, Charlie has been traveling the world - Europe, Australia, Latin America and South America - presenting preview footage of the film to theater exhibitors and corporate and promotional partners.

Rod McCall Writer, Director, Producer, Professor, Creative Media Institute, NMSU

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Rod McCall came to the world of independent filmmaking by way of writing, architecture, animation, Madison Avenue and, presently, academia.

Mr. McCall has just completed post-production on his film feature Becoming Eduard (starring Julian Alcaraz, Elizabeth Pena and A Martinez) which he directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay. He is currently an adjunct professor at New Mexico State University's Creative Media Institute.

Mr. McCall is developing Traveling Salesman, a comedy fable about two Iowa guys, who, desperate to save their small town from bankruptcy, go on the road to raise money in an ice cream truck to raise money in a very unorthodox manner (creating a traveling sperm bank). McCall will write & direct. He has another project in development, 8 American Buildings that Changed the World, an 8-hour TV series about the history of 20th Century architecture, with Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic for The New York Times and The New Yorker.

In 1993, McCall's debut feature film, "PAPER HEARTS" (aka "CHEATIN' HEARTS"), a drama starring Sally Kirkland, James Brolin and Kris Kristofferson, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. His second feature, Lewis & Clark & George, a pitch black "trash noir" comedy starring Rose McGowan also premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. The urban ensemble film, Bite, was his third feature film and was shot on Hi-8 digital video and blown up to 35mm. His film shave been shown on HBO, Cinemax and various other cable channels and are available on home video through Blockbuster Video and Tri-mark Video.

Mr. McCall has written several scripts produced and directed by others, principally Ivan Passer's Pretty Hattie's Baby and Luis Puenzo's With Open Arms, based on a hit Brazilian play.

Before McCall got into movies, he directed TV commercials for a long list of international clients at Midocean Motion Pictures, where he received seven CLIO nominations. He supervised sequences for NBC's "SATURDAY NIGHT, LIVE!," most notably the familar SNL "Subway" opening. McCall then established McCALL/COPPOLA at FILMFAIR, with studios in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and London. Again, many of the spots he created were nominated for and won numerous major international awards.

Mr. McCall's writing and directing for cable TV started with the 30 minute A&E Network's Sally & Buddy & Buddy and Loretta. He also authored two episodes of Zalman King's hit Showtime Cable show, Red Shoe Diaries.

Before Rod McCall became involved with advertising he studied architecture in Oregon (The University of Oregon) and Japan (Tokyo School of Art, Department of Architecture), worked in New York as an animator (for the likes of R.O. Blechman, Sesame Street and Electric Company), directed and produced documentaries for CBS, NHK (Japan), RAI (Italy), and even directed for the Off-off Broadway stage (at La Mama).

Rod McCall resides in a newly constructed house--of his own design--on a mountain top in rural New Mexico where he rides horses, cooks, writes, entertains--and, from which, he travels frequently to Hollywood.

Zach Passero Co-director / Co-writer / Co-producer / Actor "Lee"

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Zach Passero was born and raised in the west Texas desert town of El Paso.

From a young age he knew he wanted to make visual stories -- an inkling fueled mainly by influences of The Muppets and Jim Henson. Following the typical story of aspiring film types, Zach made home movies throughout his childhood, enlisting his sisters and neighborhood kids. Later, Zach attended USC Cinema School, where he met collaborator and fellow goof Justin Stone. Together, they found solace away from the film school curriculum through independent films of the 1960's and 70's. These counterculture influences would later stew into what would become part of the driving creativity of Motel, Glimpse.

Upon leaving school, Zach decided to pull all of his influences and interests into his first 35mm feature film, The Big Weird Normal. What resulted was a modern-day fairy tale that fused his love of 70's road movies and classic Universal monster movies. He utilized live action, animation, and storybook elements to weave the narrative. In the end it proved to be a true schooling in filmmaking, with many lessons learned to put toward the next.

Passero has directed and animated numerous music videos for bands such as Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Jim White, Preston School of Industry and Sparta. His animation sequences have been featured in "Sick Girl", Lucky McKee's contribution to Showtime's Masters of Horror, and in Angela Bettis' directorial debut Roman. As an actor, Zach played Vic Dario in Chris Sivertson and Lucky McKee's first feature film All Cheerleaders Die as well as designing and doing make up for the film's zombie cheerleaders. In 2008, Passero's own horror feature film Wicked Lake was released. A horror film with a true gonzo rock 'n' roll spirit, Wicked Lake hearkens back to the grindhouse films of the 70's.