Miceal O'Donnell / Line Producer and Director of Photography
New Orleans filmmaker Miceal Og O’Donnell received his BA in fine arts at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.  Following graduation, Miceal worked for several years as a studio assistant under Ron Klein, an internationally acclaimed sculptor. He also studied writing under Pulitzer Prize winning author Stephen Dunn. 

Miceal served in the United States Coast Guard from 2000-2004.  During that time his primary responsibilities included Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, Boat Coxswain, Training Petty Officer, Helo tie-down, and supervisor of Deck Department, to name a few.  He has earned the Achievement Medal, and multiple other medals and awards during his service. 

While stationed in Oregon, he studied screenwriting at the Northwest Film Center with a retired NYU screenwriting professor. After being transferred to New Orleans, LA, where he served at a small boat station, he enrolled in classes in film production at the University of New Orleans, where he took screenwriting workshops with Mari Kornhauser and Henry Griffin.  He worked on many short films as a PA, grip, gaffer, camera operator, First A.D., boom operator, among many other positions.

In 2005, Miceal started an MFA program in film production, which was quickly cut short by Hurricane Katrina. Realizing that he learned more working on movies than in the classroom, he wrote and produced the feature Jack and the Dead Girl . . . , directed by Mike C. Ryan.

Miceal immediately followed this producing experience by getting behind the camera in an attempt to learn directing hands on. At several 48 Hour Film Festivals his films, produced and photographed by his wife Eileen O'Donnell, have won: second place audience award, best use of dialogue, best special F/X, and best actress ensemble at the Berlin festival in 2007. 

He has written more than twenty feature length scripts and dozens of short scripts.  A recent short that he wrote for Director V.K. Shah, The Nice Girl, premiered at the L.A. International Short Film festival, and has since played at The Other Venice Film Festival, and the Sun Screen Film Festival in Tampa Florida.  The Independent Critic has stated in their review of the film, “While the film’s budget is a tad obvious in a couple of spots, Shah clearly knows his strength lies in Miceal O’Donnell’s solid script and giving his cast room to flex their muscles.”

His last producing and directing effort was the feature film The Jack of Spades, featuring actors Joseph Meissner, Dan Deluca (from HBO’s The Wire,) Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler’s Mom from American Pie,) Marc Macaulay (Bad Boys, Monster) and Lance Nichols (Benjamin Button).

Miceal is currently leading an acting workshop drawing on the techniques of Meisner, Stanislavsky, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman.

Kathleen Ledet /  Assistant Director
Kathleen is a documentary filmmaker, with a BA in film and communications from the University of New Orleans. She co-directed and produced the award-winning short documentary, Weeding by Example, which tells the story of the City Park ‘Mow-Rons,’ a small group of New Orleanians who came together after Hurricane Katrina to bring their park and community back.

Kathleen worked with Glen Pitre and Michelle Benoit of Cote Blanche Productions on two documentaries: Air Racers for the State Aviation Museum in Patterson, LA, and Harvest to Restore: America’s Coastal Heartland, which aired on LPB in 2008.

In 2009, Kathleen worked with acclaimed documentarian Rebecca Ferris of Cottage Films as producer on Turning the Tide, a short documentary about the volunteer effort to use discarded Christmas trees to help save Louisiana’s wetlands. The film was produced for the City of New Orleans and NOVAC. Kathleen worked as associate producer on Miller’s Tale, a Cottage Films feature documentary about the life of actor Jason Miller (Father Karras in The Exorcist).

Kathleen’s 37-second short documentary Snowball Season won NOVAC’s 37th Anniversary Short Film Contest.

Kathleen is currently working with Cottage Films on a documentary about the small Native American community of Isle de Jean Charles, which is rapidly disappearing due to subsidence, hurricane damage, and lack of levee protection.
 
Rob Hebert / Editor

Josh Johnston / Sound Mixer