Repass Crew

Rae Shaw
Writer/Director

Rae Shaw is the award-winning writer/director of the film, Soap and Roses. “Soap and Roses” is an award-winning film that explores the topic of sexual assault from the perspective of the perpetrator.

In 2008 Rae founded her production company, Wicked Lovely Films, LLC. She also completed a stage production with Write Act Repertory in Hollywood. Currently Rae is seeking financing for her feature project, “Repass” and its educational component, “The Effrayant Grief Project.”

“Repass was a finalist in the 2008 Austin Film Festival Heart of Film Screenplay competition. “The Effrayant Grief Project” is a documentary, website, and curriculum that explores the stages and hierarchies of grief in children and is fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society.

Rae is a graduate of the University of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Miami Motion Pictures MFA Program and has explored unconventional stories told from unique perspectives. She has a background in education as an instructor and counselor and has married her interests in teaching and creativity by pursuing a filmmaking career.

During her career Rae has received numerous awards. Rae is a recipient of the 2007 Francis E Williams Artist Grant, 2005 Guy Hanks and Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship and Delaware Division of the Arts 2005 Emerging Artists Fellowship. Previously she was also awarded a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship at the University of Chicago and also received funds from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Leander Morris Memorial Music Scholarship Foundation, Social Science Research Council and Andrew Mellon Foundation which funded production of her film short “Soap and Roses,” shot on location in Chicago.

“Soap and Roses” has appeared in a number of festivals including the 2007 (Best Narrative) Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series, 2005 Reel Women International Film Festival (Best Student Film), 2003 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, 2003 Wilmington Independent Film Festival (Favorite Student Film), and 2003 University of Miami Canes Student Film Festival (Best Cinematography and Best Actor).

Peggy Bruen
Producer

Peggy Bruen is an award-winning writer-producer of multimedia shorts and feature films. Bruen has a strong background in marketing and fundraising for such notable organizations as the Music Center of Los Angeles. Bruen raised over 2 million dollars in small gifts over 2 years for the Music Center and attained sponsorships from such companies as Jetblue and Southwest Airlines for Open Charter Middle School.

Bruen has worked in entertainment for almost a decade and received international acclaim for her award-winning short, “Diversions” which screened at the Berlinale and Slamdance 2009. She also produced “Blood Ties,” and feature film, “An Existential Affair,” executive produced by Martin Landau. Bruen negotiated brand opportunities with such companies as Chanel Inc., OB, Jack Daniels and Seagrams for “An Existential Affair.” “Affair” premiered at the Malibu Film Festival and is distributed globally through Maverick Entertainment.

Bruen co-owns and operates Hydra Films, a production services company which produces independent media and music videos. Bruen later joined the Los Angeles International Shorts Film Festival as a programmer. With several projects in development, Bruen’s most recent projects include mini-series “Sacajawea” and feature, “Little Saigon.”

Milena Merrill
Executive Producer

Milena Merrill is the principal for Isis Films, a Louisiana-based company which has distributed feature films, documentaries and television programs. Ms. Merrill has produced eight independent feature films, including “Other Voices” (starring Peter Gallagher, Stockard Channing) that competed at the Sundance Film Festival, “It’s About Love” (starring James Brolin and Joanna Cassidy), shot in Natchitoches immediately after Hurricane Katrina, and “Mel” (starring Ernest Borgnine). Many continue to appear on HBO and all have been globally distributed.

Before permanently relocating to New Orleans, Ms. Merrill was a senior level entertainment executive in Los Angeles where she was responsible for generating tens of millions of dollars of revenue from the global marketing of independently produced programming for Omega Entertainment, Redwood Communications and its successor company, Blue Vision Media.

Prior to her career as a producer and distributor of feature films and other programming, Ms. Merrill was a journalist as the chief financial writer for The Hollywood Reporter, general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and Billboard Magazine.

Isis Films enjoys a preferential relationship with Advance Internet that owns and operates Nola.com, the service that puts the Times-Picayune on-line with more than 3 million viewers to the site each month with astronomical peaks in viewing during Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and during hurricane season every year. As a primary producer of multimedia product to Nola.com, Isis Films is poised to optimally utilize the Nola.com infrastructure to create and sustain viral awareness of any project. The Nola.com relationship is only one of several enhanced media relationships enjoyed by Isis Films, globally.

Isis Films is strongly supported by the Department of Economic Development and is represented in Hollywood by talent agency, International Creative Management.

Mark Napier
Line Producer

Mark Napier is an experienced line producer and production manager for feature films. Napier graduated from Occidental College with a degree in Diplomacy & World Affairs. He has approximately 20 years of business and project management experience in consumer marketing research and corporate Information Technology.

As a Producer he's shut down the 2nd Street tunnel in Los Angeles (the same location used in Blade Runner and Demolition Man) and shot the ultra-modern CalTrans Headquarters (also used in The Island) and the USS Lane Victory (used as well in Letters from Iwo Jima and Thin Red Line).

Recently he was the Production Manager for the Los Angeles portion of a Polish-American co-production with a $3.5 million budget that premiered in Warsaw on Feb 29, 2008 and in Los Angeles on April 29, 2008. "Expecting Love" received a 1st place award for box office receipts from the Polish Theater Owners Association (translating loosely).

In addition to his involvement in "Repass," he is currently in development with "Ward6," a political biopic lensing in Cleveland fall of 2009.