The Team
Sam Mestman
Founder/CEO
Sam Mestman is the CEO and one of the founders of We Make Movies. A graduate of NYU Film in 2002, Sam has dedicated himself to a career in the film business, working in as many different production environments and in as many roles as possible to give himself the most comprehensive view of the film industry he could get. Whether it was working in a broadcast truck for ESPN at the NBA finals, in the editorial department on the hit TV show Glee, as the producer, editor, and colorist for the award winning Indie feature How I Got Lost, for Mochary Films as director and editor of the feature doc The Gloves, or currently as an editor for Break.com, the largest comedy site on the internet, Sam has always been focused on learning about the business, sharpening his skills, and preparing for the time when he would get the chance to shape the industry on his own terms, making the projects that he wanted to see made. He founded We Make Movies in 2009, along with Joe Leonard and Tara Samuel, out of the sense the film industry was rigged, too many voices weren’t being heard, too many projects were being ruined by traditional industry practices, and that something needed to be done about it. He is looking forward to the day when he gets to fix the film industry as his full time job.
Joe Leonard
Founder
Joe Leonard is a founding member of We Make Movies, and works as an editor in the industry while remaining a prolific director and dreamer of new projects. His editing credits include 3 seasons (20 episodes) on Fox’s hit show Glee, as well as assistant editor credits on films such as Eat Pray Love. Joe graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts film program in 2002. In New York, he worked at The Criterion Collection restoring classic films for DVD. He wrote and directed his first feature, “How I Got Lost,” in 2008, which won numerous festival awards. “How I Got Lost” was also selected for Scott Macaulay’s IFP Directors Lab in New York, and won the prestigious Richard Vague Production Grant. He is proud to have helped found We Make Movies, and looks forward to seeing the amazing work that will be developed through the workshop and the creative partnerships that it fosters.
Élan O’Connor
Casting Director
Élan is a classically trained actress with stage and screen credits from the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and is a co-founder of the longest lunch theater company. She has recently taken on the role of Casting Director for We Make Movies.
Tara Samuel
Founder
Tara Samuel is an award-winning Canadian actor; classically-trained at the renowned George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. Stage performances across Canada & the US. Beloved internationally as “Tara Williams” on the critically-acclaimed t.v. series Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye which continues to air in the US and around the world. Samuel has also been professionally producing theatre and film for fifteen years. She wrote, directed and starred in FIND which screened at festivals around the world; nominated for ‘Best Narrative Short’ at the Oscar-qualifying Austin Film Festival. Produced the feature film Ruby Booby, and starred as Ruby. As producer-lead, Tara has several feature films in development. As story-consultant, Samuel is the owner and CEO of ScriptKicker.com. Samuel is a very proud co-founder of the notorious L.A. indie film collective We Make Movies, and of Busterhouse Films with co-producer Matt Flugger.
Chad Kukahiko
Director of Interactive
A Hawaiian writer, director and performer, Chad has spent over half his life performing in more than fifty plays including two years traveling the world with STOMP. As an actor, Chad’s film and television appearances include ‘Charmed’, ‘Killian’s Chronicle’ and ‘Mid-Century’ with John Glover and fellow Boston University alum Faye Dunaway. Since becoming a writer/director he’s launched a production company with his brother Denny and long-time girlfriend Kendall Kanoa Hawley with whom he’s completed a number of pieces, the most recent of which were a motion comic, a transmedia piece that was recently featured on Wired.com and a one-man show. Chad’s love affair with computers helped him create this web site you’re looking at as well as the movie site and he’s developing another idea or two to help make the We Make Movies online experience as sweet, productive and helpful as possible.
Jennifer Flaks
Social Media Director
Jen is an actor by training but has worked professionally as an investment banker and, most recently, in website design, branding and marketing, which she has discovered is her real passion. And that’s what she brings to We Make Movies as the Social Media Director, working to not only expand our outreach globally, but also bring our amazing community of artists closer together through interactive media.
Amanda Lippert
Public Relations
Amanda is an actress that produces (somebody’s gotta get things done). She was raised on a river in Ohio, trained at a conservatory in New York, and resides near a chicken coop in Los Angeles. Her deepest passion is communication in all of its many forms. She speaks (albeit poorly) English, French, Spanish and Swedish. She is also the in-house publicist at WMM, making it her personal mission to let the world know what a phenomenal organization this is.
Christopher Frederick
Actor. Designer. Event Producer.
Christopher Frederick likes to make things. That’s why he’s so excited to be a part of We Make Movies. We get stuff done. Part of what he gets done at We Make Movies is making Improv Night happen – from accepting writer submissions and casting improvisers to moderating the event itself. He also acts as event producer for many We Make Movies programs. Along with Chad Kukahiko, he does a lot of design for the group. He is incredibly grateful that Joe Leonard cast him in the WMM production Snuggle Bunny. He has performed for theater, tv and film since he was a kid, with a nice chunk of his early adult life focused on a fine art career. He has a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an MFA from Syracuse University. He has also trained at Upright Citizens Brigade, Comedy Sportz, and the William Esper Studio in New York City.
John Sandel
Writer/Director
John Sandel wrote features for a living, for clients like the producers of Revenge of the Nerds, Tom & Viv and Arlington Road. Since the writers’ strike of ’07, he’s been producing and directing small projects, including his own. He also has worked as a graphic artist, cartoonist and an animator for Superfreako Prods., Ampco and Vertical Response. John joined the WMM management team to consult on business strategy, but he stayed for the collaboration. He’s convinced that independent filmmakers can carve retail channels to their audiences—and profit as though Hollywood never existed.
