Connecticut Film Festival 2009

Prof. Richard F. Hanley, Quinnipiac University

Rich Hanley is an assistant professor of Journalism and the graduate program director of Journalism in the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University, in Hamden, Connecticut. A veteran journalist, and a producer, writer and director of award-winning documentaries and Web sites, Hanley is a leading commentator on the convergence of the news media, politics, pop culture and technology. He has worked for more than 25 years as a writer and producer, including a stint at Time magazine, and has received six Emmy nominations. Among his dozen documentaries are Emmy-nominated films about the 1944 circus fire in Hartford and the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

Hanley’s career in online media began in the pre-Web period with Prodigy Information Services, where he was a contributing writer. In the mid 1990s, Hanley served as a producer with Grolier Online, where he teamed with colleagues to launch the first regularly scheduled video talk show on the Web and created the critically acclaimed interface – titled Brain Jam - to the company’s online encyclopedia for middle school students. He also produced award-winning online presentations called The American Presidency and Planet Jam. Hanley served as a senior producer for the Web site of Time magazine.

Hanley’s opinion on news media and technology is sought routinely by global, national, regional and local media in Connecticut. His comments have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Washington Post, USA Today and the Associated Press, among many others. Hanley holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of New Haven and a M.A. from Wesleyan University. He is completing his doctorate in English at the University of Rhode Island. Hanley, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, has taught at Quinnipiac since 2001.

Dave Bonan, CTFF Director of Interactive Programming

Dave Bonan is a lifelong social justice activist and has been a professional political, community and multi-day event organizer since 1997. He is a journalist and photographer for the Fairfield County Weekly and Hat City Entertainment and does part-time production work for Taunton Press. He wrote for and was one of the many founders of the Mad Hatters Independent Media Center and the Hat City Free Press; CT's first nonprofit, independent, all-volunteer newspaper.

Dave was the glue holding the CTFF together last year with Festival Director, Tom Carruthers and vows to do so as long as they pay for his room at the sanitarium post-festival.

He was one of the founders of the J.O.H.N.E.S. (Jones) Festival from 1998-2000, the northeast's premier festival, held as a warm up to the usual festival summer schedule and is a percussionist when time allows. Dave has previously worked on a reality show TV pilot for A&E as well as having been a Location Scout, First Assistant Director and Stills Photographer on an independent film, based out of Brooklyn, NY. A former bike messenger, you can spot him everywhere on his urban-road bike as he gave up his car 8 years ago to pursue a car-free life. 56,000 miles and counting.

Alfonso Robinson: HatCityBlog/My Left Nutmeg

Al has a background in journalism and politics from high school throughout college. In 2005, when the advent of blogs was simmering, he started HatCityBlog (Danbury was the hat capital of the world in the 19th and 20th centuries) as a means to inform the public about issues which were not being reported in local media outlets. Using his talent as a writer, photographer and videographer, Robinson routinely reports on issues at City Hall as well as events happening in the Greater Danbury area. In addition to running HatCityBLOG, Robinson is the owner of My Left Nutmeg, a progressive community blog.

Nikita Mikros
Bio: See "Why You Can't Control a Movie with a Joystick", and "The Life of an Indie Game Developer".

Josh Shabtai, Vringo

Josh Shabtai is an unabashed media junkie: a creative interactive marketing specialist, podcaster, amateur videogame historian and even more amateur experimental musician. At Vringo, Josh turns these passions towards bringing the company’s exciting, unconventional value proposition to consumers and business partners.

Prior to joining Vringo, Josh led Ketchum Public Relations’ Interactive Strategies Group, a marketing think tank that helps blue chip brands like Best Buy’s Geek Squad, Nokia and Dr Pepper Snapple Group listen to, develop community engagement programming around and ultimately change as a result of interaction with the voices behind the Web.

Among his team’s notable work was: using Google adwords to hijack news around the iPhone price drop with Nokia MOSH; creating one of 2008’s most explosive guerrilla marketing campaigns with Dr Pepper by challenging legendary rock act Guns N’ Roses to release its long-awaited opus Chinese Democracy; and helping Geek Squad upstage big-spending, “official” Star Wars: Episode III sponsors with an on- and off-line guerrilla campaign dedicated to helping millions of science-fiction fans call in sick on opening day.

Josh holds a B.S in Mass Communication from Boston University. In his off hours, he writes for and appears on On Networks’ Play Value, a podcast focusing on the history of videogames.

Matthew Hawkins, Fort90.com

Matthew Hawkins hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, where he was raised on a steady diet of Transformers, Marvel Comics, the holy trifecta of the NES/SNES/Sega Genesis, and Canadian sketch comedy. Perhaps all of these influences led to his talent for drawing robots and hot dogs, hence the decision to study art in New York City. Matt attended the School of Visual Arts where he produced several crappy comics and crappy short films. But not long after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in cartooning in 1999, Matt found himself fully immersed in the world of video games.

Matt's career kick-started when he was enlisted to become the head game designer at Ubisoft, one of the top names in the industry today, for their short-lived New York studio. There he designed and developed several titles for all the major gaming consoles at the time, and also conducted research into the future of gaming technology and trends. Soon after Ubi Soft New York closed its doors, Matt moved onto the independent scene, and began concentrating on the web, as well as cell phones as a platform, leading to the formation of his very own company, PixelJump, in 2002. There he focused on not only mobile games but mobile entertainment and lifestyle as a whole. PixelJump would eventually be left behind for fully independent game development once again, with the occasional title for clients here and there. Matt has also become a consultant and strategist for film studios, television studios, and other traditional media houses that wish to enter the interactive space. The list of clients include Sony Classics, Paramount, Warner Bros, and Miramax. Plus in 2004, Matt began teaching game design at his alma mater, SVA. The class, as well as his heavy involvement with the NYC chapter of the International Game Developers Association, are all part of his concerted efforts to help foster a stronger game development community in the New York City area.

But what Matt is mostly known for is his work as a writer, primarily in the field of video game journalism. Starting with Nickelodeon Magazine in 2002 as well, Matt has since contributed to numerous print and online publications on the subject of games, including GMR, insert credit, Internet Archive, Gamasutra, 1-UP MegaZine, GameSetWatch, and Anime Insider, to name a few. Though along the way, he's also reported on various non-game related topics, such as Hong Kong cinema for Inside Kung-Fu and the world of funny books for Comic Book Resources, plus was even a cell phone blogger for Zedge. Matt also maintains his own blog, which not only deals with video games, but life in the Big Apple, wacky internet hijinks, and everything else that's fit to bitch about. It's perhaps why Matt has been called "The Harvey Pekar of video game journalism."

Plus, Matt's still involved with the world of comic books via UNLUCKY, a collection of stories based on real events from his life and illustrated by a variety of comic book talents, which was recently given a honorable mention in The Best American Comics 2007. Other random odds and ends include becoming an online personality for the Weekly World News, working on a television project that he really can't talk about, at least not yet, and speaking at various shows; for years Matt has been a staple at I-CON, the Northeast's biggest fantasy/science fiction/science fact convention, to point of being featured on MTV News, and most recently spoke at the New York Comic Con. And as a supplement to his online journal, Matt also has a small but very awesome message board, with a possible cable access/internet show on the way!

Currently, Matt resides in Manhattan with his girlfriend Katie Skelly. There he spends much of his time staying up till 4 in the morning either hunting down or playing extremely obscure video games, absorbing copious amounts of cable access (in NYC, we have, I kid you not, four seperate channels of such goodness), or hanging out at Japanese bars in the East Village (to absorb copious amounts of beer and kimchee). Usually doing his best to combine at least two of three whenever possible. Plus, Matt likes to venture out to Brooklyn to scope out either indie comics or indie wrestling. And when he has the time, Matt still enjoys drawing robots and hot dogs.