JOE SWANBERG / AKIN
Prolific American filmmaker and actor. Known for microbudget dramas, which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the so-called mumblecore film movement. His directing credits include Happy Christmas, Drinking Buddies, Nights and Weekends and Hannah Takes the Stairs. Josephine Decker has acted in three of his films: Uncle Kent (Sundance 2011, IFC), Art History (Berlinale 2011) and Auto-Erotic (IFC). Swanberg acts in his own films, but was seen recently at the Toronto International Film Festival as a main character in You’re Next, by director Adam Wingard.
SOPHIE TRAUB / SARAH
Sophie Traub is an actor and performing artist from Toronto, now living in Brooklyn. She recently completed a nine month training program with the SITI company, a rigorous and philosophical training program, marrying classicism and postmodernism as a framework for collaborative theatre making. Her growing film career has included roles in such American feature films as the Interpreter, Tenderness, and Thou Wast Mild & Lovely. In 2013, she had her directing debut of the Beach Eagle (an adaptation of the Seagull by Matheson Westlake) at the Works in Development series at Dixon Place in the Lower East Side. Her explorations as a performance artist have included pieces in the DUMBO Arts Festival, the Norman Felix Gallery and ARTSCAPE in Toronto. She also performs as a musician and vocalist in such projects as LCON and LUKA, as well as her solo work. Sophie is also an alumni and facilitator of the artist's residency program, The School of Making Thinking.
ROBERT LONGSTREET / JEREMIAH
Robert Longstreet is among the most celebrated actors in independent film, having acted in over 40 features including Sundance favorites Take Shelter, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Septien, The Oregonian, The Catechism Cataclysm, and This Is Martin Bonner. In 2011, Robert was nominated for the Gotham Award, along with the ensemble of Take Shelter for Best Ensemble Cast.
He acts in two films coming out this summer: Ping Pong Summer, in which he plays Amy Sedaris' husband, and The Signal, in which he plays a truck driver being hunted by Laurence Fishburne.
He is a cat lover and a pyromaniac.
KRISTIN SLAYSMAN / DREW
Kristin Slaysman is a Los Angeles-based actor, writer and director. As an actor, she's appeared in Gus Van Sant's Promised Land, This is Martin Bonner (Chad Hartigan, Sundance '13), Pilgrim Song (Martha Stephens, SXSW '12) and Save the Date (Michael Mohan, Sundance '12). TV: Masters of Sex (Showtime), American Horror Story (FX) and Vegas (CBS). Kristin is a graduate of Northwestern University’s theater program and onstage she specializes in ensemble-devised theater, performing at venues like NYC's The Public Theater, P.S. 122, St. Anne’s Warehouse, Ars Nova as well as Long Wharf Theatre, Portland Center Stage and Quantum Theatre. As a member of Dan Jemmett's international theater collective, Le Comité des Fêtes, she adapted a book of poems by Michael Ondaatje called The Collected Works of Billy the Kid which played at the Festival de Otoño in Madrid and, recently, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. Her microshort film project is available on explosivebolts.tv.
GEOFF MARSLETT / RICHARD
Geoff Marslett screamed and moaned for Josephine as an actor, but he knows her through their cross- ing paths along the festival circuit. Geoff Marslett has directed twenty short films and segments of longer projects. His critically acclaimed short film Monkey vs. Robot screened at over 25 festivals worldwide, was distributed theatrically and broadcast on HBO, PBS, and Univision. In 2010 he com- pleted his first feature film, MARS, an animated, sci-fi, romantic comedy starring Mark Duplass. MARS premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival. He followed this up with a live action feature film Loves Her Gun, which won the prestigious Louis Black Lone Star Award at SXSW 2013 and received a critic’s pick from The New York Times as well as great reviews from the Village Voice, Variety, Salon, Think Progress, and Slant. Geoff was recently named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine.