CREW
The Crew of Ruchiki is a youthful, polite, easy-going bunch. Their work strives to be none of these things.
Matt Paley (director/executive producer - 映画製作者/製作責任者) is the co-founder of Saint Eliot and Company, a Boston-based film collective. He’s also an Associate Director of Film and Video at Improv Boston, an Assistant Editor at Verrisima Productions, and the editor of sainteliotandco.com. His Bard thesis film, Bullseye, which he both wrote, directed, and produced (a mistake he’s not likely to repeat) premiered at the Historic Brattle Theater last July. Most recently, Matt completed Ain’t That The Way, a music video for folk singer/songwriter Devon Sproule, and The Greening of Blue Hill Ave, a short documentary concerning the devastation caused by decades of discriminatory banking and insurance practices in the greater Boston area (all can be watched online: sainteliotandco.com).
In Ruchiki, Matt found a project that contains all of his favorite things: rites of passage, public humiliations, private successes, and moments of unlikely communication.
Peter Warren (screenwriter/executive producer - シナリオライター/製作責任者) is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright. He has worked extensively in production and development for film, television, and media, interning at Focus Features, The Colbert Report, Original Media, and The Webby Awards. Several of his feature screenplays are in various stages of development, with One and Only currently being adapted for the stage. When Matt asked him for a daring script with no regard for feasibility, he gave him Ruchiki: the film contains a Japanese-pop concert, an underwater music video, Tokyo’s electric district at night, and a pony.
Brian Barth (director of photography - 映画撮影技師)—Although many people will contribute to Ruchiki, it is through Brian’s eyes that people will see it—and a good thing, too. His extraordinary cinematography—whether the medium be film, digital, or video—graces over half of Saint Eliot’s collective work, and nearly every one of Matt’s previous projects. Brian recently completed his thesis film, Part II, which will be making its debut at Lexington MA’s Flick later this spring.
Once principal photography for Ruchiki is completed, Brian plans to get on his motorcycle and make his way across the country. Expect the most beautiful travelogue you’ve ever seen in six to eight months.
Elizabeth Phelps (producer - 生産者〔プロデューサー〕) is a writer, producer, and filmmaker based in New York City. Her written works have been staged at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, Magic Theater, and other independent venues. She has worked in all areas of production, from development and pre-production to marketing and distribution. Her film experience includes both small-scale independent projects and Academy Award-nominated pictures. Her most recent project, “MWM” (Married White Male), is now appearing at film festivals nationwide. No jokes here; Liz is as all-business as her bio.
M. Fletcher Deitch (producer - 生産者〔プロデューサー〕) is Ruchiki’s marketing, branding, and business guru. At 17, Fletcher (temporarily) became the youngest stockbroker in the country. Sic Transit Gloria. Now an associate account executive at Grey Advertising New York, he has worked for Commonwealth Financial Network, Southworth Development, and Porter, LeVey, & Rose. He has also helped produce a number of successful broadway plays, most recently Twyla Tharpe’s critically acclaimed Come Fly Away.
Jake Teresi (producer - 生産者〔プロデューサー〕) brings to Ruchiki a taste for the obscene, the sensational and the bizarre (lucky for Eat It!). A prolific filmmaker and playwright, he has written (and directed) a number of short plays, a full-length screenplay, and had several short stories published in the literary magazine Verse Noir. His documentary Lake Monster was featured at the Northampton Film Festival, and his short Solipsistic Solstice debuted at the FAMfest Film Festival.
Sasha Winters (art director - アートディレクター) is an actor, a theater director, and a filmmaker. Her thesis project, The Blushing Players Present: Cheeks or I Don’t Think So, debuted at Bard College in 2008. The Blushing Players subsequently mounted The ‘How To Say No’ Workshop and The Womb in the summer of 2008. Most recently, she co-directed the short documentary The Greening of Blue Hill Ave. She can often be seen at ImprovBoston, both in sketch comedy (with The Latchkey Kids) and filmed comedy (as part of the IB Filmcore). She brings to Ruchiki her sense of color, style, visual flair, and a sharp eye for detail, and knowledge of how to tie an ascot.
