BESTIES MAKE MOVIES

Besties is in an independent production company born in NYC. We focus on telling stories that give voice to those that Hollywood has left behind while employing inclusively in all departments.

Writer/Actor/Producer

Marzy Hart is a Russian/Jewish award nominated actor and award-winning filmmaker. Her hunger to tell stories and her exasperation at the lack of representation of women/POC/queer in entertainment pushed her to expand her skill set to include writing and producing. In addition to starting Besties Make Movies, Marzy has co-founded Wildfire Film Initiative with Victoria Negri to celebrate risk-taking films and ignite conversations around them.





Director

Victoria Negri is an award-winning writer/director/producer/actress. Her feature directorial debut, Gold Star, which she wrote, directed, produced, and starred in, alongside Oscar-nominated actor Robert Vaughn in his last on-screen performance. The film won the Audience Award at the Buffalo International, Best Feature at the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, and Victoria won the Lisa Blount Memorial Award for Acting at the Oxford Film Festival. Gold Star was selected by incubator Big Vision Empty Wallet as an Inaugural Kickstart Diversity Film. Additionally, Victoria has directed and produced numerous short films, music videos and web series featured at the Lower East Side Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival Cleveland Film Festival, Nitehawk Shorts Festival and more. She’s acted in award-winning features, shorts and web series featured at Cinequest Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand, Tribeca and more. Additionally, Victoria has written pieces on film for NoFilmSchool, BitchFlicks, and The Talkhouse. She is a proud member of The Film Fatales, NYWIFT, and The FilmShop.

Producer

Stacey Maltin wrote, produced, and acted in her first feature film “Landing Up” (Dances With Films, SOHO Film Festival, Best Feature and Best Actress Nominee.) The film was recently acquired for distribution and will be available worldwide in May 2018! She directed the short film “HEAD” (New Fest 2016 Official Selection / Lower East Side Film Festival Official Selection). She wrote and directed the short film Stronger Together which is premiered at NewFest 2017! Her script, “The Other Side” was selected by THE BLACKLIST as a Finalist in the Hasty Pudding Fellowship for a screenwriter focusing on social commentary. It was produced by Franklin Leonard as a podcast starring Darren Criss, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Jerry Adler. She recently produced the web series “Royally” which won the Critics Choice award at the 2017 NYTVF. She produced the short film "Sunshine" which is having its world premiere at Cinequest Film Festival 2018.

Executive Producer

Richard A. Stein grew up and was trained as a physician in Romania, and subsequently completed a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Over the past two decades, he has written extensively about epidemic and pandemic preparedness and the cross-species “jump” of microorganisms. At the interface between biomedical and social sciences, Richard has explored HIV/AIDS and trafficking-related stigma in victims of human trafficking. Over the years, he has served on the editorial boards of several international journals, and recently wrote his first book about microbial transmission in populations and co-edited the 3rd edition of a landmark textbook about foodborne diseases.

Richard’s work on human trafficking inspired his passion for storytelling through film. In addition to pursuing a screenwriting certificate at The New School, he is currently involved in several film projects as a screenwriter and as a producer or associate producer. A narrative feature film for which Richard wrote the script, INVISIBLE DESTINIES, is currently in pre-production. It is a story about victims of human trafficking that are rescued and subsequently return to trafficking on their own, as a result of the stigmatization and marginalization they face in society. Another script that Richard is writing for a feature film, a dramatic narrative about ancestry genetic testing, explores the way in which people’s lives and family dynamics may be impacted when they inadvertently learn about genetic predispositions that they never intended to find out. The first movie for which Richard was an executive producer, a virtual reality short drama, HOW YOU SEE ME, premiered at the Chelsea Film Festival in October 2017. Richard lives in New York City.

Actor (Corey)

Jenilyn Noelle Rodriguez is an American actress, singer, model, writer and producer from Buffalo, New York. She earned a BFA in Music/Theatre at Fredonia State University and moved to NYC where she began her career in television, theatre and print modeling. Jenilyn studied at UCB and has been in multiple sketch-comedy shows around New York City. Her acting coach and mentor Richard Kline helps her to keep her skills sharp. She is also working as writer/producer for her production company: Jen X Productions.

Costume Designer

Keriann Correia has been working in fashion since graduating from New York City's FIT. She started her own line, House Of Correia, making clothing & accessories for the daring young starlets of the world. Her love of collaboration and building characters has led her into the world of costume design/styling in the entertainment industry. Recent projects include Working on It, Stronger Together, Pair of Normals, & Linked.

Editor

Cath Gulick is a filmmaker based in New York. Her previous short film world-premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival. Film Threat applauded the film as "very funny and well-acted." She helped produce the burlesque shows GUILTY PLEASURES and THE BLUSHING DIAMOND REVIEW as featured in New York Magazine, and also worked assistant camera on Jeremy Saulnier’s MURDER PARTY. Most recently she wrote, produced, directed, photographed, and edited her first feature film, THE FEVER AND THE FRET.

Co-Producer

Carrie Radigan is a filmmaker from New Jersey. A background in theater, Carrie received her Bachelor of Arts in Theater and Psychology with a focus in Stage Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. During her time there, she produced The Importance of Being Earnest, The Diary of Anne Frank and Next to Normal for the UMass Theatre Guild. Since freelancing in theater, Carrie has worked on Off-Broadway productions including Sex of the Baby (Access Theater), Informed Consent (Primary Stages), as well as other projects such as Then She Fell (Third Rail Projects), The Mostly Mozart Festival (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts), and CODA (FringeNYC).

Carrie was the Client Services Coordinator at Light Iron New York, a post-production house focusing on features and television until December 2017. She most recently produced The Invaders, a short film focusing on Islamophobia in the United States. She is a member of the New York Post Alliance, Blue Collar Post Collective and Ladies Get Paid.

Carrie is excited to continue her filmmaking career with 2 Weeks and collaborate with badass women who start dialogues focusing on the societal issues of our world. @scarrrie

Associate Producer

Elroy Martinez Jr. was born in Brooklyn, NY. He first pursued acting, by taking a 4 week workshop class taught by actress Lori Kee. During that time, his fellow classmates were part of a community theater group in Harlem. He'd further train and get comfortable to perform by joining the group and being on stage in front of an audience. While being part of the theater group, he befriended many, which opened an opportunity to audition for the indie short film, The Things Left Behind. Only going for the masked man role, the director of, The Things Left Behind, preferred to see him audition for the lead role, which he achieved.

Since his first lead role in the indie short film, he'd take more classes with actress Lori Kee & Victor Cruz, he's worked on his own indie short films, and pursued auditioning for other projects. Aside from indie films, Elroy has taken part in an Off-Off-Broadway show, called The Boogeyman Diaries, for the Thespis Play Festival in 2014 as well as a One-Act as one of the leads for a Blue Pearl Theatrics show, Shattered! starring as Ricco in Al & Ricco in 2016. Elroy lives in New York and looks to continue and acting on both the small and big screens.

Social Media Marketing

With over ten years of social media marketing experience, and even more time spent learning about the inner workings of social media in general, Stephanie Cole, CEO of 131 Consulting and 2108 Media, has seen everything when it comes to the rise and fall of all things social. She has developed brands from scratch to be major powerhouses in their field, created and launched viral campaigns, and boosted the market awareness of such outlets as online magazines, trade shows, clothing and beauty brands, apps, music and entertainment professionals, independent films, web series, and TV shows.

Stephanie has an undergrad degree in Radio/TV/Film, and an MBA in Marketing, both from Cal State Fullerton (GO TITANS!). She spends most of her spare time binging Netflix, working out, writing short stories, and spouting the virtues of all things Star Wars and Marvel.