Filmmakers Collaborative | Film Status

The Reinvention of Chad Marks is a powerful new documentary currently in production that offers an intimate and unfiltered look inside America’s federal prison system through one man’s extraordinary transformation.

After receiving a 40 year federal sentence and spending nearly four years in solitary confinement, Chad Marks began an unexpected journey from inside prison that would place him at the center of a compelling legal and human rights story. His experience reveals the psychological toll of incarceration, extreme sentencing practices and the crippling challenges of re entry into society, while offering a deeply human portrait of accountability, resilience and hope.

This is more than a film. It is a profound reminder that hope can survive in the darkest places and that one story can ignite real change.

**Along with Executive Producers, MaryBeth Stanley and Margie Sullivan, we are honored to have team members, Attorney Lisa Parlagreco as legal expert for The Reinvention of Chad Marks and Ellen Lacey Wallett as film and video editor.

From 19th-century New England transcendentalists, to a pioneering, self-sufficient Black town established by the formerly enslaved right after the Civil War to modern intentional communities, “Still Seeking Utopia” reveals how visionaries and marginalized communities have persistently reimagined America by creating alternative societies when America failed to deliver on its promises, and offer a blueprint for how communities create dignity and possibility when the system fails them.

The documentary chronicles America’s hidden tradition of utopian experimentation by centering the voices of those typically erased from history: women and Black Americans who transformed exclusion into creative acts of community building.

Through intimate interviews with leading historians, observational footage of historic utopian sites, and carefully curated archival material, the film examines how these experimental communities – even those that “failed”- influenced broader social transformation and continue to offer inspiration for contemporary struggles.

This feature-length documentary rectifies the omission of marginalized perspectives from popular American narratives, reframing the fight for justice and change not as naive idealism but as practical, necessary work. At a moment of widespread despair and disconnection, “Still Seeking Utopia” offers historical validation and contemporary hope, proof that creating beauty, dignity, and alternative possibilities is an American tradition as old as exclusion itself.

As This Leaves Me Here is a feature-length hybrid historical, biographical, and war documentary made for the big screen. It follows the filmmaker’s journey to uncover the life and legacy of Patrick “Bob” Gallagher, a young man from rural Ireland, and her elderly mother’s former classmate, who in 1966, heroically dove onto a Vietcong grenade to save his fellow U.S Marines.

Patrick was awarded the Navy Cross for this selfless act. Three months later he was tragically killed in action. He was one of at least 31 Irish born servicemembers who died serving in the Vietnam War. Today, his legacy endures both in Ireland and across the Atlantic, with the USS Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127) scheduled to enter service in 2026.

Beyond Patrick’s sacrifice, As This Leaves Me Here explores the broader experience of Irish-born and Irish-American veterans of the Vietnam War. Through firsthand interviews and personal testimony, the film reveals why these men enlisted, the realities of combat they faced, the brotherhoods forged and the enduring impact of war on their lives and families. Their stories also illuminate the lives of working-class Irish immigrants navigating identity, duty, and belonging in 1960s America.

Rooted in care, observation, and a strong sense of place, the film begins with a personal moment, the filmmaker’s elderly mother showing her, a faded black-and-white photograph of a boy named Patrick, a former classmate. This spark of curiosity leads to a deep, transatlantic investigation into his life, legacy, and the circumstances that leads to a US Naval ship to be named in his honour.

Blending archival letters, interviews, and atmospheric re-creations filmed in Super 8, the film evokes both nostalgia and raw emotion. Personal letters from Patrick and his comrades, original press photographs, and unseen archival footage help reconstruct the man behind the heroic act and the era he lived in.

Ultimately, this documentary delicately explores service, sacrifice and remembrance, the effects of combat on veterans and their families, the enduring bonds of brotherhood forged in conflict, and a legacy that resonates profoundly in today’s world.

The filmmaker previously produced a radio documentary about Patrick’s story, broadcast on RTÉ Radio One and CBC Radio in Canada.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/835992-mayo-boy-vietnam-hero

BLUE COLLAR is a feature documentary that follows Sudheer Rajbhar, a low-caste artist from the slums of Mumbai who makes sleek bags and shoes from waste rubber. Sudheer named his business, a collective of cobblers and leatherworkers, Chamar Studio, reclaiming’chamar’, a caste slur, as a symbol of luxury, skill, and craftsmanship. Chamar products sell in European markets and to India’s elite, but Sudheer’s vision extends beyond commercial success. His bigger plan is a school where ‘untouchable’ artisans can experiment with upcycled materials and train as designers, not expendable labour for the global fashion market.

When Dior staged a fashion show at Mumbai’s Gateway of India in 2023, turning a public monument into a temporary runway for haute couture, Sudheer saw possibility. If luxury brands can claim public space, why can’t he? Inspired, he began to plan a runway show of his own, byworkers for workers, calling it Blue Collar. At 3 am on a weekday morning in Mumbai’s grandest colonial station, shoe polish boys who work on the platform will stroll down it as a runway, wearing blue suits and sandals made from discarded inner tubes. No applauding crowds, no fanfare. Just workers in blue, the colour of Dalit pride. Livestreamed on social media.

For Sudheer this is not a stunt, and it’s more than a fashion show. It is a protest against caste and global fashion’s unstainable practices, and proof of concept for a school that will train ‘untouchables’ to become creators in the eco-fashion movement.

But nothing about Blue Collar is certain. If the event is leaked, there will be trouble. Given the chaos of Mumbai’s busiest station, anything could go wrong. Permissions will be sought but can’t be guaranteed. An angry mob could form in the blink of an eye, even at 3 am. The models are nervous about the risks of visibility; they may not even show up. As the date approaches, Sudheer grapples with his own hard questions. Is this solidarity or simply spectacle? Does he belong in the same space as Dior? And can fifteen minutes shift how the world sees caste, fashion, and labor, or will it simply expose the distance between his own success and the workers who are destined to remain exactly where caste has placed them?

FINAL WARNING unfolds as a triage report from hell, told by doctors who know what a nuclear detonation would do to a body, a city, and the planet itself. In seconds, fire hotter than the sun vaporizes everything within miles; those who survive die slowly, their bodies burning from the inside out as the world descends into darkness and famine. Across continents, physicians are uniting again—the heirs of the Cold War doctors who once pulled humanity back from the brink. They know what will happen to the body, to the earth, to everything alive—and that knowledge terrifies them. Their mission is to warn the world while there’s still time to stop it.

West Coast Cool Jazz explores the musicians, artists, producers, photographers, club owners, and cultural innovators who shaped a defining era of American jazz between 1949–1969. With aging archives, shifting ownership, and dwindling first-generation voices, this history faces a real risk of disappearing without dedicated preservation.

From Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ groundbreaking 1949 Birth of the Cool collaboration to the vibrant Black music scene on Los Angeles’s Central Avenue… and from the bebop fire of Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk to the spacious, modern California sound of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Chico Hamilton, Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, and Dave Brubeck, the film traces how these creative worlds influenced one another.

This is not only a jazz story—it is a portrait of a cultural moment when music, design, photography, fashion, and a new West Coast “cool” sensibility converged into a Californian identity admired around the world. Despite segregation and unequal access to venues and recording opportunities, collaboration and innovation still emerged across communities, shaping an era of creativity that continues to influence American culture.

CURRENT STAGE OF THE PROJECT

We have completed an early-phase, public-facing trailer developed specifically for donor outreach. Because the project relies heavily on licensed music and archival materials, as well as interviews this version does not yet include full period recordings or full archival footage. It introduces the tone, vision, and direction of the film while we raise funds to produce the fully licensed fundraising trailer required for major grants, broadcasters, and cultural partners.

PRESS, COMMUNITY, SUPPORT & CRITICAL ATTENTION

We would like to sincerely thank our supporters to date for their early generosity and for the many enthusiastic comments we’ve received about the importance of preserving and documenting this cultural history. Your encouragement has helped move this project forward at a critical stage.

We are also honored to have recent press attention from Ted Gioia, one of the most respected voices in jazz history and cultural criticism.

Gioia is the founder of Stanford University’s Jazz Studies Program, an internationally recognized jazz historian, author of 12 books, jazz pianist, and lecturer. His influential works include The History of Jazz, The Jazz Standards, and West Coast Jazz, widely regarded as a definitive study of the movement.

In his recent article, “Will West Coast Jazz Finally Get Some Respect? I intend to find out.”, published on his Substack The Honest Broker, Gioia highlights the importance of this project and the urgency of documenting an overlooked chapter of American cultural history.

Read the article:
https://www.honest-broker.com/p/will-west-coast-jazz-finally-get

URGENT FUNDING GOAL FOR SPRING PRODUCTION

We are raising $100,000 by the end of January to secure the next phase of West Coast Cool Jazz and move confidently into anticipated spring (April/May) production.

These funds are needed to:

Secure music rights and clearances
License archival photographs and footage
Lock in production dates, personnel, equipment, and interviews, travel arrangements for crew and personnel
Film on Central Avenue in Los Angeles and other locations, with musicians, historians, and scholars
Shoot at the Beat Museum in San Francisco and other key locations

Having these funds in place by the end of January allows us to finalize logistics and produce a fully licensed final fundraising trailer, which is essential for obtaining final completion funding for the film.

IMPACT AND EDUCATIONAL VALUE

The film will:

Preserve a vital, at-risk chapter of American jazz history
Highlight the contributions of Black musicians whose influence is often under-documented in West Coast narratives
Illuminate the movement of ideas between East and West Coast musical communities
Provide educators, students, and institutions with a deeply researched cultural resource
Connect younger audiences to the sounds that shaped film, television, and modern jazz
Celebrate resilience, creativity, and collaboration in a transformative era

Educational materials will include classroom modules, educator guides, and community-programming tools.

DISTRIBUTION AND OUTREACH STRATEGY

Phase 1 — Festival Circuit (Following Completion of the Film)

Telluride, Sundance, SXSW, SFFILM, DOC NYC, Monterey Jazz Festival Film Series, and select international festivals.

Phase 2 — Cultural and Institutional Partnerships

SFJAZZ, LA Jazz Institute, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Monterey Jazz Festival, National Jazz Museum in Harlem, universities, conservatories, libraries, and art and design centers. Includes educator guides, classroom modules, and historical context materials.

Phase 3 — Broadcast and Streaming

PBS member stations, public-media partners, and select streaming platforms.

Phase 4 — Community, Library, and School Engagement

Community screenings, jazz-club salons, library programs, and cultural dialogues. Impact will be measured through attendance, educator feedback, media engagement, and digital reach.

CREATIVE TEAM

Sandra Evans — Creative Producer / Producer, Wire Notebook Films

Sandra Evans is a creative director and producer with extensive experience shaping visual stories across nonprofit, commercial, and arts-driven environments. Her background includes work in corporate and commercial video, design direction, brand development, and managing creative workflows from concept through post-production. West Coast Cool Jazz draws on her long-standing interests in cultural history, visual storytelling, and research, bringing a thoughtful and well-organized development approach to the documentary.

Frank Zamacona — Executive Producer / Director, Zamacona Productions

Frank Zamacona is an executive producer and director with an extensive background in documentary, broadcast, and arts programming. His work includes television specials, cultural programming, and long-form projects for PBS, ABC, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, and Link TV, as well as theatrical and syndicated releases. He has received multiple Emmys, a Clio, Promax, CINE Golden Eagle, and other national awards. Frank is a longtime member of the DGA, NABET, and AFTRA, and previously served on the Board of Governors for the NATAS San Francisco/Northern California Chapter.

SPECIALIZED DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS

As part of the development phase, West Coast Cool Jazz collaborates with leading specialists in editing, cinematography, music rights, and archival research:

T.M. Christopher — Editor / Editorial Consultant

Tom Christopher brings extensive experience in documentary, feature, and effects-driven filmmaking. Credited as the Co Producer and editor of Facing Fear — an Academy Award–nominated documentary short — he contributes editorial leadership and narrative shaping to West Coast Cool Jazz. His earlier career included work on major studio blockbuster productions, providing a strong technical foundation that supports the project’s creative vision.

Steve Condiotti — Cinematography Consultant / Director of Photography

Award-winning cinematographer with extensive experience in documentary and nonfiction storytelling. His work spans broadcast, feature documentary, and cultural programming, bringing a refined visual approach to the project.

Eli Adler — Cinematography Consultant / Director of Photography

Documentary cinematographer known for visually driven nonfiction work, contributing camera direction and visual strategy to the development of West Coast Cool Jazz.

Blanche Chase — Archivist & Archival Research Consultant

Archival sourcing, collection research, and early-stage identification of film, photography, and ephemera essential to the project’s development.

Brooke Wentz / The Rights Workshop — Music Rights & Clearances

Management of music rights and clearances for West Coast Cool Jazz. With deep experience in music licensing for film and television, The Rights Workshop plays a critical role in securing and protecting the film’s archival and recorded music assets.

These partnerships strengthen the film’s development and ensure a well-supported transition into full production.

PHOTO CREDITS

FISCAL SPONSORSHIP

West Coast Cool Jazz is fiscally sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative under Wire Notebook Films (Sandra Evans, Producer). All donations are received, managed, and disbursed by Filmmakers Collaborative for the development of this project.

CALL TO ACTION

SUPPORT THE WEST COAST COOL JAZZ FILM

Your support today plays a direct role in preserving and illuminating a defining chapter of American cultural history.

Every contribution to this $100,000 development phase funds the urgent archival licensing, music clearances, interviews, and early production work required to create the fully licensed fundraising trailer — the essential bridge to full production financing.

As we move into the year-end giving season, early support carries exceptional impact. Donations made now help establish crucial momentum, demonstrating confidence in the project and enabling us to secure key materials and partnerships at this pivotal stage.

NEW — Year-End Donor Recognition

To honor this community and encourage deeper support, we are offering special film credit recognition for donors who give during the year-end window:

$500+ — Listed under Special Thanks in the film’s end credits
$1,000+ — Listed as Production Supporter in the film’s end credits
$2,500+ — Listed as Associate Supporter + recognition on our website
$5,000+ — Listed as Associate Producer (Development Phase) in the fundraising trailer and final film
$10,000+ — Listed as Co-Producer (Development Phase) in the fundraising trailer and final film

Now is the time to contribute and make your tax-deductible Year-End Donation.

Your gift helps protect an extraordinary piece of American music history before it disappears — and brings this story to life for future generations.

A stubborn daughter and her equally steadfast immigrant mother argue over dreams versus stability after a recent career switch.

Though Brownies is a comedy, it quickly becomes clear that this argument has high stakes in the lives of the Kumar family. Through the humor, wit, and pacing of this argument, we learn about the wounds and the deep motivations of both mother and daughter.

We learn about:

deep seated fears (financial insecurity, womanhood, unfulfillment)
childhood wounds (feeling enough)
what an intergenerational diasporic mother-daughter duo must do to meet in the middle

Two people unwilling to be vulnerable with each other, two people who for decades thought they had to only be ‘strong’ for one another, begin to let each other in. Though this argument won’t fix twenty-seven years of tension, it may lead to tomorrow’s argument. and tomorrow’s argument may well lead to next year’s solutions.

Much of this film is a conversation that takes place between rooms. We want our audience to know the space as if it were their own, to hear the natural reverb of the living room hardwood or the harsh stillness of the kitchen tile. We want our audience to feel the deadened thump of the dropped groceries, to be aware of just how far Sarita walks away when the argument continues to heat up. We want audiences to hear Tara’s held breath as Sarita listens to Tara’s compositions, to hear Tara run her fingers over her mother’s palms.

There are few things more colorful or chaotic than a diaspora household. This is a house caught between places – generations. We want to emphasize every detail. The aging steel pressure cooker and steel cups look out of place in the architecture of the Glendale kitchen, as do the Bandhani pillowcases in the Glendale living room, but in its infinite contradictions, the house makes sense. The Kumars try their hardest to stay grounded in a foreign land, reminding themselves of what is important, of why they left home in the first place. But Tara is emboldened by these colorful, loud, unapologetic reminders of home to follow her dreams, not to be sated by notions of stability.

I want to shed new light on the conversation, to explore our togetherness, collective experiences, and healing. Our parents are doing this whole life-thing for the first time too. I wanted to start a raw, honest conversation about this all-too-familiar tension. I hope this film invites mothers and daughters from across the diaspora to start communicating openly, honestly, and vulnerably. And even more so – I hope this film invites mothers to join their daughters on their quests for their dreams.

This one’s for mothers and daughters.

The Quiet After is a real-life love story set against the backdrop of the catastrophic wars that continue to define the present moment. We’ll see our subjects, Alex Potter (a war photographer) and Pete Reed (a humanitarian medic), travel the world and take us into thematic territory we know well from tragic love narratives that have resonated across time.

Between our couple, colleagues, friends, and family, we have a unique collective experience in conflict-zone filmmaking and access to hours of intimate, first-person, archival footage. We’ll juxtapose these personal moments of their love story with present-day scenes of Alex as she grieves, heals, and rebuilds her life anew after Pete’s untimely death in the line of duty, using a striking parallel narrative technique to heighten the deep feeling and transformative power at the heart of our film.

This film is an intimate portrait of our subjects as feeling, loving, imperfect humans, coming together in the midst of the most demanding circumstances imaginable. Despite the tragic events of the film, it is not a tragedy. Our tone is courageous, human, and deeply inspiring — showing moments of love, laughter, and connection in the most dangerous and unlikely places.

The world has never seen a love story like this firsthand, where love and war intertwine, both in metaphor and heartbreaking reality.

The Beginning: In 2010, our dear friend and visionary entrepreneur Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos.com, set out to transform downtown Las Vegas into a cultural oasis of art, music, and community. A serendipitous corner of this “Downtown Project” blossomed into a whimsical village of Airstreams, tiny homes, shops and eateries, not to mention five dogs, four chickens, three cats, two llamas, and one three-toed sloth. We locals dubbed the area Llamalopolis – a living, breathing experiment in creativity and connection. One day, while walking its colorful streets, Ashton remarked how Llamalopolis felt exactly like a kids’ animated show. Tony not only agreed, but encouraged Devin and Ashton to begin development on an animated series celebrating these colorful characters, vibrant vistas, and the magical music behind it all!

The Series: Llamalopolis is a living, breathing canvas of creativity – where residents live, work, and play. Some of the ordinary goings-on in this not-so-ordinary village include charity crawl-a- thons, community mud puddle splashes, and 85-foot pancake flips! Aspiring music duo, DEAN (a big-dreaming Slow Loris) and SANDLER (an overly cautious Puffin), are recruited by a wise- minded CABOOSE to lead the “music scene” in the eccentric Llamalopolis, where anything and everything is possible. Jumping at the chance to play music for a living, the two bestie bandmates quickly discover the significant impact their songs have on the whimsical residents there. Dean and Sandler’s music effectively solves their community’s issues from the simple to the absurd and everything in-between.

The Tribute: Since Tony’s untimely death in 2020, our series has become an endearing tribute to his vision – an animated representation of the unforgettable place he worked to build and the one- of-a-kind residents that inhabit it. At its core, Llamalopolis is a playful animated series with heart, harmony, and humor. It celebrates the power of the two “T’s”: COMMUNITY and POSSIBILITY – the beliefs Tony held closest to his heart. Our sincere hope is to create a living legacy through this series that furthers Tony’s mission to deliver happiness. Just like Dean, Sandler, Caboose, and the outlandish residents of Llamalopolis.

-Ashton Allen & Devin Moore — aka the band Rabbit!

Discover our Llamalopolis pitch bible by clicking HERE!

Produced by Verloren Productions

A contained, character-driven drama set entirely in a cramped studio apartment.

This short film explores the world of sports betting through the eyes of Guy, a man whose life revolves around the constant battle between prediction and risk. Alone and obsessive, he spends every waking moment buried in screens—tracking injuries, stats, weather patterns—anything that might give him an edge.

Then, one day, he pulls off the impossible: a 16-leg parlay. A long-shot bet that lands him nearly $140,000. It should be the end of the story. A win. An escape. But when a new live bet flashes across his screen, he’s faced with a decision that tests the very core of his addiction.

Tense and intimate, the film unpacks the highs of luck and the lows of compulsion—revealing the quiet devastation of chasing certainty in a game built on chance.

Visual / Style Outlook

16 Legs explores the psychological toll of addiction, the illusion of control, and the tragic cycle of self-sabotage. Set entirely in one studio apartment, the film will use claustrophobic framing, screen-lit shadows, and immersive sound design to mirror the isolation and volatility of Guy’s world. With an intimate tone and a darkly ironic edge, the story captures the emotional highs and crushing lows of gambling—and the quiet devastation of losing everything in a single moment.

Fiscal Goal

This film’s funding goal is $7,639.00 ! All donors will be acknowledged in the official film credits and there is further opportunity for sponsorships and underwriting credit. 16 Legs is partnered with Filmmakers Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) organization. This means any donations made to the project are tax deductible.

Contact writer/director Em Wood anytime for more details: woode592@gmail.com