FILMMAKERS
CONNECTING ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
CHRIS MURRELL, 24
CREDIT TO THE Y: A Montclair YMCA member, Murrell noticed a nearby banner over Bloomfield Avenue advertising the film festival’ s inaugural season. The next year, he volunteered and helped out with its inventory.“ The first day, I fell in love with everything about it,” he recalls.
KEY CHARACTERS: Murrell met Dana Krieger, then MFF’ s general operations manager, of whom he says,“ I consider her my Yoda to my Obi-Wan.” He also worked with Thom Powers, the festival’ s founding artistic director; Powers invited him to work on the prestigious DOC NYC festival, where Powers is artistic director. Murrell continued to volunteer at MFF events over the years.“ I built a rapport with everyone at the office,” he says.
THE PAYOFF: A connection to the Tribeca Film Festival led to work there last April, and he eventually landed employment at New York-based Rooftop Films, where he was a production assistant.“ I did eight or nine events last year, and got paid for most,” he says. During downtime from his festival schedule, Murrell is a personal assistant to disabled kids in the Bronx.
USING MONTCLAIR RESOURCES
NICK JUZDAN, 24
THE BUSINESSANGLE: Juzdan, who’ d always been involved in theater and film, studied business at MSU. To better understand marketing principles, he watched MFF audiences as they took in movies for the first time. During MFF’ s second year, he responded to an email seeking help with event production.“ There are so many talented veterans of the industry in Montclair,” he says.“ Set designers, prop masters, all right here, and I never even knew.”
SHOWTIME: Juzdan has produced a half-dozen short films on his own, including one that was screened at MFF. Hehas also worked on production teams at other festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, Taste of Williamsburg, Super Bowl BLVD in NYC, and Thom Powers’ DOC NYC. Last year, he met MFF festival manager Laura Tressel, whose other credits include the Miss USA pageant, and told her“ Remember me.” She did. In July, he worked on the pageant in Las Vegas.
FULLTIME: In August, Juzdan took afull-time job as amarketing coordinator at the Secaucus-based Ashley Stewart, aplus-size fashion company currently developing entertainment media. He helps produce reality lifestyle content, and works with the events team.
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32 MAY 2017 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE