Lights, Camera, Action!
Featuring Highlight Screening of
"The Curious Incident of Everett Wilder"
Ben Tobin, Director
Juror's Choice Featured Award Winner
Ben Tobin
Director, Writer, Producer
Ben Tobin is a filmmaker from Western Massachusetts. A graduate of Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, NY, Ben returned to Massachusetts to make documentaries about various local artists living and working in the Hilltown region. Ben is also on the film festival committee of the Ashfield Film Fest, which was established by Back to the Future Editor, Harry Keramidas.
NATE RUTH
as Everett Wilder ( child)
Nate Ruth is a young artist with a knack for sculpture, photography and drawing. He is a big fan of movies, and the craft behind them. Nate was making connections between Kirusowa's Seven Samurai, and Pixar's A Bug's Life by third grade. He is also a big fan of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Coming from a
home with two working artists, acclaimed graphic novelist Greg Ruth, and master jeweler, Jen Smith,
Nate has spent his entire life immersed in the arts.
This is Nate's short film debut.
A young boy discovers a jackalope at his birthday party in 1952.
Everett Wilder [Nathaniel Ruth] discovers a jackalope at his birthday party in 1952. With the help of his friend, Lucy Hayworth [Ripley Dresser], Everett discovers what it truly means to capture the uncatchable horned rabbit.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
This film has been a labor of love from day one. It faced enormous odds getting completed as a short that hinges on the presence of a digital character, one with fur no less. The story weathered COVID and multiple other animation challenges.
Ultimately, Everett Wilder is a story about friendship and seeking out the extraordinary. It's about the things that bring us closer together, rather than what keeps us apart.
RY ARMSTRONG
as Everett Wilder (adult)
Ry Armstrong is an American, genderqueer actor who was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest surrounded by nature and the arts. Their upbringing, which did contain both white and male-presenting privilege, was full of arts education and ultimately compelled them to follow a career in storytelling. Shortly after finishing an undergraduate degree in theater arts, they moved from Emerald City to the Big Apple and quickly became involved, as an actor, in productions Off-Broadway and in regional houses across the country. Complementary to
their acting, their focus lies on their international creative endeavors of producing and writing new works of art to be experienced on stage and screen.
VANESSA LIBBEY
as Lucy Hayworth (adult)
Vanessa Libbey is a classically trained singer and actress from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She holds a bachelor's in vocal performance from Luther College (2014). In addition to Classical music, she regularly performs Broadway and Jazz. She recorded the premiere of Denice Rippentrop's album If: What do I Know About Calvary Love?, a song cycle based on the poetry of Amy Carmichael. In addition to singing, Vanessa is an actress whose work spans comedic and classical endeavors. She works in film and voiceover, and is an avid storyteller. Vanessa puts her storytelling to good use, volunteering in NYC public schools, where she teaches kids the joys of reading.
RIPLEY DRESSER
as Lucy Hayworth (child)
Ripley is an avid actor/dancer who performs regularly. She is currently studying dance at the Boston Conservatory. She previously starred alongside Nate Ruth as Alice Carter in A Home for Curiosities. She has also appeared in sveral music and dance videos. Ripley enjoys commercial dance and her favorite style is hip hop.
K.M. Glass, Producer
K.M Glaess is a producer, writer, and oil painter. She is originally from Northwest Florida. She seeks to tell unheard stories that can impact the widest possible audience. She prefers working with documentaries, period pieces, and science fiction.
Shannon Ryan, Associate Producer
Shannon Ryan has produced the award-winning A Home For Curiousites, Andy & Kaliope (currently streaming on the Olive Branch Roku Channel and Reel Abilities Stream), Unlucky In Love, the award-nominated Best Friends Forever, and, most recently, The Curious Incident Of Everett Wilder. A Development Fellow of Disability Belongs & Netflix's 2022 Children's Content Lab for Disabled TV Creators, and the inaugural BAFTA Woman Her Word Scholar, she seeks to use her voice to bewitch, empower, and ignite conversation on- and off-screen.
Mushflca Masud
Musifhica Masud. Editor, is a filmmaker and picture editor from New York. Mushifca has her Master's Degree in Post-Production from Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. Along with several other projects, she's edited this amazing short film directed by Ben Tobin. She's also working on her upcoming short film,
A Barber's Story, that she's directing and shooting in India.
Andres Soto
Andres Soto, Composer, is a Costa Rican composer based in Los Angeles with an active career in both film and concert music. He has written music for several feature films, documentaries, shorts, trailers, and video games, as well as numerous concert works performed by orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Juilliard, and the Nashville Symphony, among others.
He has written 4 albums for Universal Production Music, which have been featured in TV broadcasts around the world on networks such as ABC, CBS, ESPN, and the BBC, among others.
Christopher Herrick
Visual Effects and Animation, is a CG Supervisor, VFX Generalist and Character Artist who has worked on films such as Godzilla X Kong, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Ant Man and the Wasp and Black Panther. He is known for creating highly complex and realistic 3d assets for film at vfx studios such as DNEG and Method. He also has extensive experience in lighting, comp, fx, animation, rigging, tracking and many other disciplines.
