PEGGY RAJSKI:

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, BEE SEASON

Producer Peggy Rajski has collaborated with a wide array of gifted filmmakers on both studio and independent fare. She produced Jodie Foster's directorial debut Little Man Tate as well as Foster's second film, the comedy Home for the Holidays, starring Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft, and Robert Downey, Jr. Rajski worked with director Stephen Frears on the modern noir classic The Grifters starring John Cusack, Annette Bening, and Anjelica Huston. The Grifters garnered four Academy Award nominations and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. Rajski began her producing career with writer/director John Sayles and made three critically-acclaimed pictures with him: The Brother from Another Planet, Matewan and Eight Men Out. In addition, she produced Used People, The Scoundrel's Wife, and most recently served as Executive Producer on Fox Searchlight's Bee Season, starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. Rajski is currently in production on Oscar and Emmy-winning Alan Ball's feature directorial debut, a coming of age story about a 13-year-old Lebanese-American girl set in 1990 in Houston, Texas. Peggy Rajski's own directorial debut, the comedy/drama Trevor, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and is currently being developed as a television series. Other directorial outings include the long-running hit television series ER and second-unit photography on several of the feature films she produced. In addition, Rajski served for many years on the board of Film Independent and is a past board member and MUSE Award recipient from NY Women in Film and Television. As an outgrowth of her short film Trevor, Rajski also co-founded The Trevor Project, a not-for-profit organization that created and oversees the country's first and only toll free 24-hour suicide hotline for gay and questioning youth.

Panelists:

The current list of 2006 Filmmaker Forum speakers:

• Stephanie Allain (producer, Hustle & Flow)
• Aric Avelino (director, American Gun)
• Peter Broderick (Paradigm Consulting)
• Effie T. Brown (producer, Real Women Have Curves)
• Caldecott Chubb (ChubbCo) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Howard Cohen (Roadside Attractions)
• Patrick Creadon (director, Wordplay)
• Eric d'Arbeloff (Roadside Attractions)
• Mark Damon (Foresight Unlimited)
• Neill dela Llana (co-writer/co-director, Cavite)
• Kirby Dick (director, This Film is Not Yet Rated)
• Michael Donaldson (lawyer and author, Negotiating for Dummies) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Lindsay Doran (producer, Stranger Than Fiction)
• Dan Dubiecki (director, Thank You For Smoking)
• Udy Epstein (Seventh Art Releasing) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Mesh Flinders (lonelygirl15)
  
• Ian Gamazon (co-writer/co-Director, Cavite)
• Richard Gladstein (FilmColony)
• Micah Green (CAA)
• Rebecca Green (Linda Obst Productions) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Callum Greene (co-producer, Marie Antoinette)
• Matthew Greenfield (Fox Searchlight)
• Robert Greenwald (Director, Iraq for Sale )
• Greg Harrison (director, November) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Preston Holmes (producer, Waist Deep)
• Craig Kestel (William Morris Agency) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• Sam Kitt (executive producer, Sucker Free City)
• Richard Klubeck (UTA)
  
• Ted Kroeber (producer, American Gun)
• Linda Lichter (Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, and Goodman)
• David Magdael (TC:DM & Associates)
• Gail Mutrux (producer, Kinsey)
• Christine O'Malley (producer, Wordplay)
• Joe Pichirallo (Overbrook Entertainment) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• John Pierson (keynote speaker)
• Mark and Michael Polish (The Astronaut Farmer)
• Rich Raddon (director, Los Angeles Film Festival)
• Peggy Rajski (executive producer, Bee Season)
• Ben Rekhi (producer/director, Waterborne)
• Danielle Renfrew (producer, November)
• Kendall Morgan Rhodes (producer, Southland Tales)
• Rena Ronson (William Morris Independent)
• Ted Sarandos (Netflix)
• Jeff Schenck (Regent Studios)
• John Sloss (Cinetic Media)
• Victoria Thomas (casting director)
• Nancy Utley (Fox Searchlight)
• Cameron Watson (writer/director, Our Very Own)
• Eric Watson (producer, The Fountain)
• Lance Weiler (producer/writer/director, Head Trauma)
• Wash Westmoreland (co-writer/co-director, Quinceañera)
• Greg Whiteley (New York Doll)
• Caveh Zahedi (director, I Am a Sex Addict)
• Amotz Zakai (Echo Lake Entertainment) [Indie Community Lunch Hour host]
• David Zeiger (producer/director, Sir! No Sir!)