Meet Our Team 2020

Pearl Gluck, Founder / Artistic Director

Gluck’s work has been part of the Sundance Lab, Cannes, PBS, and won prizes such as Best Actor, Best Film, Best Debut Feature and Best LGBT Short at festivals worldwide. Her first documentary feature, Divan (2004) opened theatrically at the Film Forum in NYC and premiered on the Sundance Channel. Her award-winning fiction feature, “The Turn Out,” as well as her short films, “Summer” and “Write Me” are currently screening at festivals. She continues to make both doc and narrative films that explore themes of faith, class, and gender. She teaches Screenwriting and Directing at Penn State University.

Curt Chandler, Co-Founder / Utility Infielder

Curt Chandler lives in a century-old home in Philipsburg, which serves as his base of operations as a teacher and visual storyteller. His day job is at Penn State University, where he is an associate teaching professor in the Bellisario College of Communications. Work by his students has been featured in film festivals and journalism competitions across the country.

Cassie Ross Green, Managing Director

Cassie Ross Green is an interdisciplinary filmmaker. She has worked as a Coordinator in Worldwide Promotions for Miramax & Dimension Films (The Weinstein Company), then independently as a producer and editor with numerous productions and filmmakers from idea conception into festival circuits and distribution. Her most recent adventure is returning to her roots in Pennsylvania, teaching film at PSU University Park.

Meet Our Student Team

Sam Davey

Sam is a Senior in Film Production double majoring in Digital Art and Media Design (DAMD) in the School of Visual Arts also enrolled in the Schreyer Honor’s College. Mostly an illustrator, he has dabbled in video effects and hopes to get more into animation during his final year at Penn State. Same started working with the Centre Film Festival in May of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the Centre LGBTQA Support Network from hosting their first Pride parade. Centre Film Festival garnered with that organization to host an online PRIDE Film Festival, which Sam contributed graphic design, animation, and editing work for the promotional materials.

Joshua Hackenberg

Josh is a student filmmaker from Richmond, VA and is a senior film student at Penn State. He specializes in editing and writing, and focuses on making documentaries.

Riley Herman

Riley is a junior at Penn State majoring in theatre studies and advertising. She is actively involved on campus as a strategic communications intern for the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and an arts administration intern for Student Affairs. In addition, she is the Director of Digital Entertainment for the Performing Arts Council and a member of Disciplemakers Christian Fellowship. She is passionate about storytelling and loves to entertain groups of people from a big auditorium to her own living room.

Jack Meyer

Jack works in film as a mixed media animator, an experimental creator, a versatile and hardworking editor, and a close-up wildlife documentarian. JackGMey Website

Abbey Nicol

Abbey is a junior nursing major at Penn State. She leads a marketing team for Disciplemakers Christian Fellowship and is interested in social media advertising.

Morgan Seiff

Morgan is a senior studying Film Production and English at Penn State, passionate about storytelling in every form. She is currently writing her honors thesis, a collection of short fiction, and will graduate in May 2021.