Special Guests!

To make the film festival a unique and entertaining experience, we are planning to host a number of film directors, producers, and other guests at the festival this year.  Below is a list of our expected guests this year.

	Casper Andreas - A Four Letter Word
	(Writer / Director / Producer) Casper grew up with his parents and sister in the small town of Tibro, Sweden.  At the age of 19, he came to the US for the first time as a college exchange student in Chicago.  Soon thereafter he moved to New York to study acting, including two years at the Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute and numerous performances in Off-Broadway plays. Casper wrote, directed, and produced a couple of short films as well as his first feature, the multi-award winning romantic comedy Slutty Summer in which he also stars.  Also in 2005, Casper premiered his short film Mormor's Visit (which showed at the CT Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in June 2006). A Four Letter Word will be shown Thursday, 5/31 @ 8:00.  Click here for details.
	Gene Graham - The Godfather of Disco
	(Director / Producer / Editor) The Godfather of Disco marks Gene Graham’s directorial debut. Prior to directing and producing Mel Cheren’s documentary, Gene has (and continues to) enjoy a busy and successful editing career, working on feature length independent movies as well as cutting material for the advertising community. In the spring of 2006 Gene cut and co-produced writer/director Maurice Jamal’s second feature, Dirty Laundry. Shot and edited in just over six weeks, it went on to screen at 2006 editions of Urban World/Vibe, Frameline, and Outfest. At the American Black Film Festival this past summer the movie won the Audience Award for Best U.S. Feature and Loretta Devine (Crash, Waiting To Exhale, Boston Public) won the Audience Award for Best Performance by an Actor. Code Black, a subsidiary of NBC Universal, has purchased the movie and it will hit US screens in the spring of 2007. The film will be shown Saturday, 6/2 @ 4:00 p.m.  Click here for details.
	Chris Diani - Creatures from the Pink Lagoon
	(Director / Co-writer / Co-producer) Chris got his start in the entertainment business as a child actor, performing in musical theatre and student films in his native state of Massachusetts from the age of 10. Moving to Seattle in 1993, he switched to behind-the-scenes work, stage-managing and directing at various fringe theatres, including AHA! Theatre, City 3, and Open Circle Theater. He joined the staff of web radio pioneer Stellar Networks in 1999, where he served as Executive Producer and on-air talent at GAYBC, their wildly popular queer channel. In 2003 Chris graduated from Seattle Film Institute's Total Immersion Filmmaking Program and was immediately tapped to write and direct the "I Scream Pride" series, a quartet of short films promoting the Seattle Pride Festival. In 2005 Chris' short western, Bob Hope's Miracle Cure For Incarceration, was featured in the inaugural Seattle True Independent Film Festival (STIFF), and his production of that film was highlighted in a feature about STIFF on Karl Krogstad's TV show The American Avant Garde. Chris returned to STIFF in 2006, garnering an audience award for his political horror short Rabbit's Foot. Creatures from the Pink Lagoon is Chris' first feature film.  The film will be introduced by Chris on Saturday, 6/2 @ 10 p.m.  Click here for details.