DAVID MUNRO (Writer / Director)

Director David Munro is “one of 25 new indie faces” according to Filmmaker Magazine. His short films Bullethead, First Love Second Planet, and Compulsory Breathing have screened at festivals worldwide, from Sundance to Berlin. Critics have praised his work as “visionary” and “tour de force,” with First Love touted by the SF Weekly as “the single best film of 1996” and Bullethead as “one of the best shorts in the last ten years” by Sundance programming director John Cooper. David’s first screenplay, Life For Beginners, was a finalist in the Nicholl Screenwriting Competition. David and his partner Xandra Castleton co-founded Grottofilms, a San Francisco-based production company. They are currently developing their next project, a graphic novel adaptation called "The Inferiors." Full Grown Men is David’s first feature.

XANDRA CASTLETON (Writer / Producer)

Xandra Castleton writes, develops and produces films through Grottofilms, the company she runs with her husband and partner, David Munro. Her first two narrative productions were the award-winning short films Compulsory Breathing and Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, which she co-wrote. Prior to founding Grottofilms, Xandra was the series producer of Independent View, a public television show about independent film, which earned her an Emmy award for her portrait of director John Waters.

BRIAN BENSON (Producer)

Brian Benson’s first feature, Haiku Tunnel, premiered at Sundance in 2001 where it was picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics. Brian received the Sundance Mark Silverman Producer’s Fellowship in 2002 and attended the Sundance producer’s lab with Dopamine, which premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Channel released Dopamine theatrically in October 2003. Brian’s third film, Red Diaper Baby, was one of a select few films to be financed by the Sundance Channel.

PAUL ZAENTZ (Executive Producer)

Paul Zaentz recently finished director Milos Forman’s new film, Goya’s Ghosts, starring Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman, on which he is an executive producer alongside his uncle Saul Zaentz, the producer. Paul has been a key producer on such outstanding films as director Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain, Peter Weir’s The Mosquito Coast, Phil Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, Hector Babenco’s At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, Anthony Mingehlla’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, Milos Forman’s Amadeus, and Anthony Mingehlla’s The English Patient.  

FRANK G. DEMARCO (Director of Photography)

Frank DeMarco recently completed Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell, with whom he also made Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig garnered top prizes at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, earning a Best Cinematography nod at the 2002 Independent Spirit Awards. Frank has worked on dozens of other features, television shows and documentaries, including Larry Fessenden’s Habit, also nominated for an Independent Spirit Best Cinematography award; James Marsh’s Wisconsin Death Trip, Best Documentary Cinematography winner at the 2001 BAFTA/British Academy Awards; and Katja von Garnier’s Iron Jawed Angels, nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2004 Emmy Awards and starring Hilary Swank.

AFFONSO GONÇALVES (Editor)

 In 1996, after studying at the London Film School and the American Film Institute, Affonso Gonçalves began editing features, including Ira Sachs’ The Delta. He went on to edit Trans, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Tully, The Door in the Floor, and The Mudge Boy, as well as contribute to Robert Altman’s The Company.  Goncalves won the Best Editing Award at the 1992 Fuji Film Scholarship Awards and served as Editing Fellow at the Sundance Filmmaker Lab from 1999-2002. His work has consistently been shown in recent years at The Sundance Film Festival; including Editor credits on Doug Sadler’s Swimmers, Julian Golberger’s The Hawk is Dying (starring Paul Giamatti, Michael Pitt and Sarah Polley) and Ira Sach’s Forty Shades of Blue, which won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize.  This is his second collaboration with Director David Munro, for whom he edited Compulsory Breathing.

SUSAN BLOCK (Production designer)

Susan Block brought sensitivity and subtlety to the settings of The Guys, starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia.  She gave a stark chill and beauty to the Mafia underworld of Edward Burns’ Ash Wednesday.  And she created the antiseptic school and bleak home that permeates the darkly comic Welcome to the Dollhouse.  Susan’s numerous credits include Tom Cairns’ Marie and Bruce, starring Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick, and David O. Russell’s Spanking the Monkey.

CHARLIE CAMPBELL (Composer)

Charlie Campbell was the lead singer and guitarist behind the ‘90s indie darlings Pond (Sub-Pop/Sony) before undertaking his now legendary under-underground solo project, Goldcard, featuring members of Granddaddy, Sleater-Kinney, and Quasi. Goldcard’s sad, orchestral pop has been praised by critics worldwide for its “otherworldly luminosity” and “bittersweet brilliance”. Charlie's music can be heard in the film, Winter Passing, starring Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, Ed Harris, and Sam Bottoms.

SUSAN SHOPMAKER (Casting Director)

Susan Shopmaker has cast dozens of projects of all sizes, from award-winning independent films such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Series 7:The Contenders, to director Robert Altman's television mini-series, Tanner on Tanner. She was the casting director of Party Monster, with Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Chloe Sevigny, and Marilyn Manson, and the New York casting director for Mean Girls and Something's Gotta Give.