Matt Pillischer (WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER) is a revolutionary organizer, a filmmaker, an artist, a JD, and a Dad of a 6yo (being a father drives him to leave a good world for his son). He is creator of the acclaimed documentary, Broken On All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration & New Visions for Criminal Justice in the U.S. Matt successfully crowd- and self-funded Broken On All Sides, which he went on to tour coast to coast and internationally, from inside prisons to governmental agencies to high schools & universities. He is currently Logistics Coordinator for Poor People’s Army (also known as Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign), whose mission is “to build a nonviolent Poor People’s Army to keep people alive and to build a cooperative economy and society.” For many years, he was on the Advisory Board for The Center for Returning Citizens and has collaborated with many criminal justice reformers and abolitionists, including Michelle Alexander, Five Mualimm-ak (below), Pastor Keith Collins, and Jondhi Harrell. Previously, Matt was Director of Racial & Social Justice at YWCA Delaware, creating rapid response networks against hate and programming with and for returning citizens. Matt was trained as a lawyer and has worked with legal aid services and as a mediator. For his whole life, Matt has been a visual & performing artist and musician. He fell in love with filmmaking at Bennington College as a way to bring together all the arts. Since then, he became a socialist and an activist, was in the International Socialist Organization from about 2003-2016, and has used filmmaking as a tool for social justice. He is now focused on organizing and education, led by poor people to keep ourselves alive and fight to reorganize society at this crucial moment in human history.
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Five Mualimm-ak (ASSOCIATE PRODUCER), a film Producer, Consultant, and Writer, has worked on documentaries such as Rikers an American Jail, America Divided, and many other productions using his direct experience to guide filmmakers to understanding the conditions of confinement & the collateral consequences of incarceration for millions of Americans. Five served 12 years incarcerated & several of those in solitary confinement. Born in Ethiopia, he came to this country at a young age, lived in different cities across the country with his family, who were committed activists in the Civil Rights era. Born into a family of abolitionists, Five’s activism & film production has led him to receive international attention.
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Evariste Gindrey (EDITOR, CAMERA, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER) is a film student at Emerson College.
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Nicky Steidel (CREW, CONSULTING PRODUCER) is a human being currently based in Philadelphia, PA. He founded the Young Democratic Socialists chapter at Princeton University and is a semi-active member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In addition, he has been a DJ of punk rock and other eclectic sounds at WPRB 103.3FM and a research assistant for the author/activist Michelle Alexander.
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Phoebe Titus (ANIMATOR) is an artist & animator, currently based in Vancouver, BC. She has brought her talents to award-winning feature and short films as well as animated backgrounds for live-action productions (including a production of The Hobbit, which required each image to gain approval for licensing through Middle-earth Enterprises.) She has worked with Matt Pillischer multiple times over the years on film & social justice projects.
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Alex Vittum (MUSICAL COMPOSER) is an electronic musician and percussionist based in Oakland, CA. His work combines electronic and acoustic percussion as well as synthesized and sample-based sounds. His solo project Intervales is a collection of ambient techno songs that evoke the experiences of his New England ancestors. He also composes music for TV and Film and has been working with Matt Pillischer for over 20 years.
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Fe Echavarria (CONSULTING PRODUCER) is a Latinx anarchist, community activist, and organizer born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. She is the daughter of immigrants from Colombia, South America. Her activism is focused on CPTSD awareness, cannabis reform, addiction, criminal justice reform, and food insecurity.
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James Sacco (CONSULTING PRODUCER), a Latino from Miami, FL, based in San Francisco, works as a biomedical researcher. During his graduate studies he was an organized socialist activist, reporting on and participating in efforts to keep majority black and Latino Philadelphia public schools open, against austerity measures. He was active in queer activist and artistic circles in Miami, promoting transgender anti-discrimination protections at the grassroots level. In San Francisco, he is involved with queer-focused HIV/AIDS organizations working with vulnerable and underserved populations.
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Andrew Friend (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) shot & edited documentary features Workers Republic (2010) and Schoolidarity (2015); has been an independent cinematographer in advertising, short films, and public television; and has been Producer (since 2006) on the Chicago TV show Labor Beat, a grass-roots journalism effort covering working class struggles. See his IMDB profile here.
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Darla Max (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) has had a wide and varied career in theatre including owning a theatre company, performing as an equity actress and teaching drama to students at Germantown Friends School, Abington Friends School, Wilmington Friends School, Tower Hill School, Camden County College, Temple University, and Villanova University. In addition to her theater work, she is a big supporter of the arts and thoughtful living. Darla was also theater teacher to Matt Pillischer (End of Daze’s Director) in High School!
END OF DAZE 