Profession: Director, Writer, Producer

Years Experience: 10

Biography: On his 12th birthday, Jesse Barack was given a digital video camera. By the time he was 15, he had created his own show on public television. Barack, 22, is now the Executive Producer and CEO of Films Royale, an independent production company. He has created multiple short films, and has been interviewed by several publications regarding his work.

In 2005, Barack became acquainted with Aaron Fradkin and Jackson Adams while attending an advanced young filmmakers’ seminar at the Maine Media Workshops. A week into the program, they wrote and directed “The Long Road to Gary,” a mockumentary on the making of a zombie film.

Completed in less than a week, the film was featured at the 2005 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, the 2005 Northampton Independent Film Festival, where it was awarded “Best Student Film,” the 2009 Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, and the 2009 UVC-TV 19 Film Festival at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where it won the top prize of "Best Overall."

Barack founded Films Royale in college, where he met Daniel Forberg. In 2008, they produced satirical crime thriller "Wet Foot Duck," and following this, the absurdist "Fritz, Francis and Frederick" – Parts One and Two in "Death of a Neuron," an anti-drug trilogy. Currently in post-production is Part Three, titled “The High Society.”

In the fall of 2009, Barack and Forberg founded Popular Campus Entertainment, a talent agency through which they created the ZooMass Calendar. What was started as an entrepreneurial project grew to a public event when they added a competition element. Barack employed student photographers, videographers, and promoters to help aid the production process. He then went to local sponsors and raised funds for the calendar’s construction. The product exploded with popularity, and they ran out of stock within weeks.

Barack and co-writer Kyle Barry are now the Executive Producers of The Polypore Promenade, a feature film which takes place in Manhattan, Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles. The project is sponsored by the UMass Independent Film Production Club and currently in production. With Cory Reed Smith as Producer, the Associate Producers include Ethan Siegel, Nick Di Bella, Kristin Vaselacopoulos, Ken Wong, Lauren Brooks and Nick Ruccione.

Spoken Languages: English

Source: http://filmsroyale.com