Founders and Staff

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Founder, Co-Executive Director/CFO Owen Brainard is a native Arkansan, and a graduate of Little Rock Central High School.  He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, as well as the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, and is currently the President of Brainard Capital Management, LLC.  His interest in bringing more film related events to Arkansas dates back to his time living in both New York City and Austin.  Both cities have thriving film festival scenes that helped nurture their creative strengths, so when Owen began spending more time in Little Rock, he wanted to help the city develop its own film identity.

Founder, Marketing Jamie Moses lives in Little Rock with his wife Memory and their two children. Jamie was educated at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the London School of Economics, and has 9 years of sales and leasing experience with Moses Tucker Real Estate in Little Rock, Arkansas. As part of the Moses Tucker team, Jamie has been intimately involved with the redevelopment and expansion of downtown Little Rock, including the River Market district. Jamie’s vision for the Little Rock Film Festival is to invigorate more arts and culture into the downtown Little Rock scene.

Founder, Co-Executive Director/Artistic Directors Brent and Craig Renaud were raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. They started working in film 10 years ago in New York, and have produced films for HBO, Discovery, PBS, CBS, MTV and ESPN in places like Kosovo, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Bolivia, China, Pakistan, and Iraq. Their most recent films OFF TO WAR and DOPE SICK LOVE have earned the Renaud brothers an Emmy and Director’s Guild nomination, an Overseas Press Club Award, an International Documentary Association Award, and top honors at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Tokyo Video Festival. They currently have a film showing on HBO about the 50th Anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

Co-Festival Coordinator/Filmmaker Liaison Vone Nantharangsy is currently an International Studies major at the University of Arkansas Little Rock. She worked in New York City with Legacies of War project advocating and educating the public about unexploded ordnances (UXO) left from the aftermath of war, especially the secret bombings in Laos. She also advocates for the education of ending global warming and is active in her community on environmental issues. In her spare time, she designs clothes and jewelry.

Assistant Coordinator Amman Abbasi is a young independent filmmaker, whose short films have been played at a few international film festivals, including the Toronto Film Festival. He is an active artist who is currently working on a feature length film with his brother, Yousuf Abbasi. Aside from film, he makes music and recently landed a record deal with a California-based record label.

Shorts Programmer Eddie Stein is a New Yorker born and raised in Long Island. Since earning his B.A. in Film from Hunter College, Eddie has worked on numerous film projects as an editor, cameraman, and graphic artist.  Eddie is the award-winning editor of the 10 Part Television Series Off to War, and teaches editing in his spare time.

Graphic Designer Rubin Polizzi is a freelance editor and graphic designer who has been working in post-production for the past 5 years in New York City. Over those years, Rubin has worked on many award-winning programs for networks such as HBO, Discovery Times and MLB.com. Rubin is also a media instructor at the Downtown Community TV Center where he teaches post-production to aspiring community and youth filmmakers.