Chris Taylor, director of Food Fight, will speak after the screening of his film. Taylor received a B.A. Cum Laude from Harvard University in Folklore and Mythology. After attending the American Film Institute in 1988, Chris began his career as a Director of Photography by working as a DP with such talented filmmakers as Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Michael Lehmann, and others. During this time he photographed six features, six MOW's, short films, TV pilots, and episodic television.  Beginning in 1998, Chris began working full time as a Director, first for the Fox Network, where he directed 26 episodes of the series Beyond Belief, and most recently for CBS where he has directed 8 episodes of The District over the past 3 seasons, ending in 2004. In 2005, Chris co-founded Positively 25th Street, a production company dedicated to creating original documentary programming with social and cultural significance. The first project, Food Fight, premiered AFI FEST LA in November of 2008. The film has been awarded the Audience Award by the International Documentary Association.

Paul Tukey will speak after the film A Chemical Reaction.  Tukey is a movie producer, best selling author, public speaker, magazine publisher and America’s 2006 Gardening Communicator of the Year. Paul was introduced to gardening during summers spent growing vegetables at his grandparents’ dairy farm in Bradford, Maine. After graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in Journalism, Paul spent nearly a decade as a reporter and editor at the Maine Sunday Telegram and Portland Press Herald.  In the late 1980s Paul followed his love of the outdoors and founded his own landscaping company, Tukey’s Home ’n Land.  In the early 1990s Paul started hearing about the links between 2,4-D, a synthetic weed killer, and numerous illnesses including cancer. Then his personal physician suggested that his recurrent headaches, nosebleeds and blurred vision were attributable to exposure to those same chemical weed killers. His transformation to organic gardening and building healthy soil was underway. 

Mark Turner will speak after the film The Green House: Design It. Build It. Live It.  Turner was born and raised in the shadows of the Tetons on his family’s fifth generation ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Mark studied at the University of Notre Dame before going on to get his Masters in Business Administration at Old Dominion University. Recently as Vice President of Construction for Abdo Development, Mark was able to be a part of the Abdo team that won the Mayor’s Award for Historical Renovation, the Delta Associates Award for Most Innovative Condominiums, the Washington Business Journal Best Multi-Family Project and was honored as one of “Top 35 Under 35” by Bisnow Real Estate. GreenSpur is the sustainable extension of Mark’s lifelong passion for building and for enjoying the greater outdoors.

Marc Villá will speak after his film Yo Soy El Otro. He is a filmmaker and sociologist at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He is a collaborator with the TV Stations VIVETV and AVILATV, as well as the CONAC, National Council of Culture, a Venezuelan government agency.  His most important previous films are La seducción tiene cara de vidrio, Petróleo Pueblo, Alegría de la Tierra, La Vega resiste and El rescate del cerebro de PDVSA.  He is also an active member of different social movements in his country like the Organizaciones Afrovenezolanas, Comisión Nacional de Desaparecidos, Telesur and Misión Madres del Barrio.

Liv Violette will speak after her film The Green House: Design It. Build It. Live It. A communicator at heart, Violette is the President and CEO of The McLean PR Group.  She founded McLean PR Group after the successful development of two high-tech corporations, Washington Laboratories, Ltd. and AmericanTCB. As President and CEO, Violette lives to make her clients happy all the while developing a team of senior filmmakers, marketing and public relations professionals equally as dedicated to her clients and her company. With more than 18 years of public relations, promotional and business ownership experience, Violette wanted to share her expertise with others looking to leverage the power of communications. McLean PR Group was established in this spirit.