Judges

The ARCLight Student Film Festival is proud to have a select panel of industry professionals and film lovers to serve as judges for our film festival. Each entry will be judged by the panel and awarded points based on the following categories:  

The Judges

Eric Anderson and his wife, Amelia Dellos, founded Corn Bred Films, a Chicago-based production company.  They have written several screenplays together, including the romantic comedy Other Plans, directed by Joe Eckardt and released in 2014. Currently, they are working on Oriole Park, which is based on Amelia's experiences growing up in the neighborhood of John Wayne Gacy. In addition, Eric has written several books and screenplays, including the indie comedy Zompocalypso. Amelia recently wrote, directed and produced Love Under Fire: The Story of Bertha and Potter Palmer which aired on WTTW.

John Bottiglieri taught film study at Elk Grove High School for 30 years, building a program that was known throughout the district. He writes and records podcasts for the website F This Movie.  His columns have included "Movies is Good," "I Stream, You Stream" and "Thrills, Chills and Spills."  He is literally a walking encyclopedia of movie history. Although he now lives in California, he will still be judging through this new fangled thing called the "internet."

One last thing you should know about JB:  He is the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Jordan Graves is the head of production and the co-founder of Chicago-based Talus Films. He has served as producer and director on several films and music videos.  In addition, he has produced and directed several tv commercials as well. Beyond making movies, Jordan likes being outside. Oh, and he is a cat person. 

Check out his production reel here.

Mark Heintz is a social science teacher at Elk Grove High School. Tallish and feisty, he is a movie-lover and brings a unique perspective to the judging panel at the ARCLight Student Film Festival.  When he is not blogging about teaching and learning at The Learning Giant, he is most likely multitasking while watching some movie on some streaming service.  It is unknown whether or not he even sleeps.

The Festival Director

Bruce Janu has been an educator for more than 30 years. Currently, he is the head librarian at John Hersey High School. He started the cinéStudent Film Festival at his previous school in 2015. He also runs a production company called Bell, Book and Camera Productions. After years of wedding videography, he ventured into movie-making by releasing Facing Sudan in 2008. This documentary about the genocide in Darfur won Best Documentary at the Illinois International Film Festival. Other films include Crayons and Paper, Bearing Witness to the Holocaust and This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts. In addition, he runs an internet radio station called Vinyl Voyage Radio.  Often he can be seen hanging out with his puppet-friend, Mr. B.