Shari Frilot:

Shari Frilot has been working for over a decade in the film industry. She began her career in her senior year at Harvard/Radcliffe working with the Boston CBS affiliate program “Higher Ground.” She eventually produced the first television show to air in the New England Area about AIDS in the Black community. Frilot subsequently moved to New York to produce public television at New York’s WNYC and WNET for the news & culture series “New York Hotline” hosted by Bob Herbert and “Thirteen Live,” as well as the science program “Innovation.” In 1992 she began making her own independent films, the first being the experimental documentary, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality (1992) which toured the queer film festival circuit. In that same year, she assumed, along with filmmaker Karim Ainouz, the helm of the New York Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival, which she re-invented as the MIX festival. She was Festival Director for the 1993-96 MIX festivals and co-founded MIX BRASIL and MIX MEXICO. During this time she also produced the short film, What Is A Line (1994) during her residency at the Whitney Museum ISP, as well as the Ford Foundation funded feature documentary, Black Nations/Queer Nations? (1995). She then moved to Los Angeles and was appointed programmer for the Sundance Film Festival (1998-present) as well as Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (1998-2001). In February 2003, she completed the award-winning film Strange & Charmed, which is presently touring film festivals around the world, including TriBeCa Film Festival, CineVegas, Los Angeles Film Festival, and Africa In the Picture, Amsterdam.

Shari has been the recipient of multiple awards including fellowships from the New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), the New York Foundation For the Arts (NYFA), the Ford Foundation, the Independent Feature Film Market Fellowship for Latino Filmmakers, and the Astraea National Lesbian Action Foundation. She has also been a nominee for the 2003 Rockefeller Media Artist Fellowship and has just been named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces in Independent Film” (Summer 2003 issue). Frilot is currently developing a very provocative digital feature film project and quietly nursing a documentary about the entwined development of Newtonian scientific theory and racist attitudes in America and the West.

David Jensen's 15 years of experience in the delivery of information, interactive media and entertainment has made him a leading member of many industries. Most recently in the consulting world, he built and led Razorfish's Broadband/Future Television practice, in addition to managing Razorfish's Media and Entertainment practice for North America. Under his leadership, his team helped more than 100 media companies with technology, strategy and branding solutions. Clients included: DirecTV, Sony, Columbia Tri-Star International, I-Blast, News Corp, Fox, HBO, RAI, BSKYB, Arte, ZDF, Tivo and Vivendi/Universal.

Prior to Razorfish, Mr. Jensen worked in the education sector creating interactive and community network initiatives for the world's largest operating foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust. Projects ranged from building community networks to launching broadband and interactive television channels for education. Partnerships included working with Library of Congress, California Arts Council, American Film Institute, Xerox PARC, GTE, NEC, Oracle, Liberate, PBS, Time Warner Music and Disney.

Trained as an architect and media-maker, Mr. Jensen previously worked as a designer for architectural firms Richard Meier and Partners and Kohn, Pederson and Fox, New York; Zaha Hadid, London and Frank Israel, Los Angeles. He has also produced and designed films, music videos, interactive media and television for HBO, MTV, Universal, PBS, Fox and Alive, among others. Mr. Jensen holds a B.S. from the University of Houston and a M.Arch. from Harvard University.

Jay Levin:

Mr. Levin is the Founder and Managing Director of the media development company, TN Media, LLC, whose mission is creating high-quality progressive media and entertainment in all media forms. He is also president of the non-profit Share With the Other L.A. Campaign, an effort of the Community Media Project to mobilize L.A. County residents to take action against mass poverty and hunger in the county. He is also the steering committee chair of Media Challenge!, a project of various peace and social justice coalitions to re-democractize electronic media in the U.S. and break up the monopoly stranglehold of a few corporations on TV and radio.

One of the pioneers and leaders in the independent media industry, Mr. Levin has extensive experience in starting and developing media properties. Prior to founding the Company, Mr. Levin was CEO and founder of Planet Central Television, a startup independent cable network that suspended broadcast and Internet operations in 1997 because of lack of TV channel space availability. Earlier, Mr. Levin was the Founder and President of the Los Angeles Weekly, which under his editorial, marketing and sales leadership, became the largest circulation and most advertising-rich weekly newspaper in the country, drawing considerable attention from the business press. The paper also won numerous journalism awards and was widely regarded as the most dynamic if not "best" weekly newspaper in the country - and indeed, as one of the most innovative U.S. publications overall.

While he was at the Weekly, the paper founded the magazine L.A. Style, which was subsequently sold to American Express. Prior to this, Mr. Levin had an extensive and successful career in print journalism. He has been the Publisher and Editor of the Los Angeles Free Press, and was an award-winning reporter for ten years at the New York Post and a freelance writer for many publications. He was one of the first writers in the country to cover the human development psychology movement regularly as it emerged in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and the L.A. Weekly under his editorship was the first major general U.S. publication to routinely cover developments in the field as well as in holistic health.

Mr. Levin is noted in the industry for his general editorial, business and marketing creativity and for his experience as a leading independent culture and news specialist with an extensive range of contacts throughout numerous communities, including the human potential, creative, journalistic, grassroots, non-governmental organization, political and environmental communities.

He holds a BA in English Literature from Queens College, N.Y. and completed the coursework for an MA in spiritual psychology at the University of Santa Monica. He utilizes his counseling training devoting some amount of his recreation time in assistance of others.

Mr. Levin has served on the boards of Wave Publications, Inc., in Los Angeles and Metro Publications, Inc. in San Jose, California. Among his philanthropic and civic activities, has served on the advisory boards of Liberty Hill Foundation, The Labor Community Strategy Center and Amazon Watch. He was the founder of the Remaking L.A.. organization and of the Committee of Concern For Central America. He is a former member of the Social Venture Network and of Conscious Business Alliance, and the company, TN Media, is a member of Business for Social Responsibility.

Carmi Zlotnik is Executive Vice President, HBO Creative Operations and New Business Development. Zlotnik is involved in all aspects of strategy and implementation of original programming objectives, as well as the operation and administration of the department. In addition, he is responsible for leading the work of HBO’s New Business Executive Group. He was named to this position in February 2003. As part of his responsibilities in original programming, Zlotnik also manages the programming efforts related to the Internet and new technology, and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Zlotnik joined HBO in August 1987 as Director of Production for Original Programming, and was responsible for overseeing all west-coast production. In 1991 he was named Vice President, West Coast Production for HBO Original Programming and Senior Vice President of HBO Independent Productions, giving him the responsibility for overseeing production on movies, miniseries, specials and series. In 1996 he was named Vice President, Original Programming, Creative Operations (a newly created position) and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Original Programming, Creative Operations in January 2000.

Prior to working for HBO, he supervised production on numerous entertainment specials and television series for HBO and broadcast networks. His production experience includes features, commercials, and special effects for numerous companies. In 1989, Zlotnik received a Cable ACE® Award and an Emmy® nomination for his work as co-producer on the HBO Comedy Special “Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow.”

LA Freewaves is a nonprofit media arts network that produces festivals, workshops, curriculum materials and a web site to encourage artistic and social expression, serving the needs of artists and audiences alike. Probably best-known throughout LA and the global media arts community for their month-long, bi-annual media art festivals which take place all over Los Angeles County. Next festival: November 2004. While the panel discussions are ultimately focusing on launching a Culture Channel, each bi-annual LA Freewaves’ festival presents various innovative works that could potentially air on such a Channel.