About the filmmakers
Leslie Buchbinder
Pentimenti founder and Artistic Director, Leslie Buchbinder (Director), began her career as a professional dancer with companies in Chicago and San Francisco, prior to working as an Account Executive in the arts public relations firm, The Kreisberg Group, (New York City). Ms. Buchbinder thereafter established her own arts communications company in Chicago. For over ten years, LB-PR specialized in local & international communications for clients including Sara Lee Corporation, (sponsor of a series of art museum exhibitions); The Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Arts Club of Chicago; among many others. In 2011, she was nominated to the Committee on Prints and Drawings of The Art Institute of Chicago, & to the Advisory Board of the Chicago Film Archives in 2012. Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists is her film directorial debut.
John Corbett
Since 1988, John Corbett (Writer) has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Associate Professor, Painting and Drawing, Sound). He is the Co-Owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, with business partner, Jim Dempsey. Exhibitions co-curated by Corbett include Painthing on the Möve: Chicago Imagists 1966-1973 (Thomas Dane gallery, London, 2011); Christina Ramberg: Corset Urns and Other Inventions (David Nolan gallery, New York, 2011); Touch & Go: Ray Yoshida & His Spheres of Influence (SAIC Sullivan Galleries, 2010); and Big Picture: A New View of Painting in Chicago (Chicago History Museum, 2007). He was recently profiled in the Chicago Tribune.
Brian Ashby & Ben Kolak
Brian Ashby and Ben Kolak (Producers/Cinematographers/Editors) are Chicago-based filmmakers, and Co-Directors of the award-winning documentary feature Scrappers, one of Roger Ebert’s Best Documentaries of 2010. They co-direct two documentary web series, The Grid, featured on Gaper's Block, and Central Standard, a co-production with WTTW11 premiering in 2014 with the support of PBS Digital Studios. Ashby and Kolak are the principals of Scrappers Film Group, producing a wide range of video content for clients including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Expo Chicago, NYSE / Euronext and Vogue.
Cheryl Lynn Bruce
Cheryl Lynn Bruce (Narrator) is an award-winning actress and singer for stage and screen. She has performed in productions at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Court Theatre, and Northlight Theater, as well as throughout the U.S. and Europe, from La Jolla Playhouse to London’s National Theatre. Film and television credits include Prison Break; There Are No Children Here; Separate But Equal; To Sir, with Love II; Stranger Than Fiction; Daughters of the Dust and The Fugitive. Ms. Bruce was inaugural fellow of the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago. Additional distinctions include the 2010 Jane Addams Hull House Association’s Woman of Valor Award and a 3Arts Award and unrestricted grant in 2011. Ms. Bruce was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Head of Passes at Steppenwolf Theatre in 2013.
Lilli Carré
Lilli Carré (Animator) is an interdisciplinary artist and illustrator currently living in Chicago. Her animated films have shown in festivals throughout the US and abroad, including the Sundance Film Festival, and she is the co-founder of the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation. She has created several books of comics, most recently the short story collection, Heads or Tails, published by Fantagraphics. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times, Best American Comics and Best American Nonrequired Reading, amongst other places. Her solo exhibition is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago until April 15, 2014.
Tomeka Reid
Tomeka Reid (Composer) is a Chicago-based cellist, composer and educator, who has been commissioned by the Assocation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Chicago Jazz Festival and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, and has had several opportunities to showcase her work abroad at festivals such as Umbria Jazz, An Insolent Noise, and Vignola Jazz. Ms. Reid has been nominated and awarded residencies for composition with the Ragdale Foundation, the 2nd annual Make Jazz Fellowship hosted by the 18th Street Arts Organization and the Herb Alpert Foundation, and the University of Chicago. She was recently featured in the Chicago Reader's 2013 People issue. Ms. Reid’s original music for Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists is her first composition for film.
Mike Nussbaum
Mike Nussbaum (Voice-over) has directed and acted in Chicago theaters for more than 50 years, originating roles in David Mamet’s American Buffalo, Life in the Theatre, Glengarry Glen Ross and others. He has worked on and off Broadway, and in Dublin, Vancouver, with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and theaters across the US, including Hartford Stage, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater Company, Theater J and Second Stage Theater. Mr. Nussbaum has appeared on film in House of Games, Fatal Attraction, Field of Dreams and Men in Black. His work has been honored with an Emmy and a Drama Desk Award, and by the Joseph Jefferson Committee, DePaul University, the Illinois Legend Award, the University Club of Chicago and the Sarah Siddons Society.
Josephine Ferorelli
Josephine Ferorelli (Assistant Editor) is a writer and illustrator living in Olympia, Washington. She has written for Cine-File, Occupy, and grandgather.com. This is her first documentary experience.
Susannah Ribstein
Susannah Ribstein (Archivist) is an historian living in Chicago, specializing in the art and architecture of the 20th century. She has a BA in Art History from the University of Chicago (2005) and an MS in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013). She was the director of Corbett vs. Dempsey gallery in Chicago from 2007 to 2012. In 2010, she authored a successful nomination to place the Roger Brown Home and Studio on the National Register of Historic Places.
Josephine Murphy
Josephine Murphy is Pentimenti's Office Manager and Events Coordinator. A native of County Kerry, Ireland, she has been with Pentimenti since its inception.