Dorothy Lyman - Director

Dorothy Lyman began her acting career in New York in the late 1960s as a member of Joseph Chaikin’s innovative Open Theatre. She won her varied and challenging roles in London, New York and Los Angeles theatrical productions, including Shrivings with Sir John Gielgud, Fefu and Her Friends, House of Mirth and Niagara Falls.

Moving to television, she earned two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of the flinty but engaging Opal Gardner on the ABC daytime drama All My Children. Her 15 year stint on various daytime dramas led to 136 episodes on the Lorimar sitcom Mama’s Family portraying Vicki Lawrence’s sartorially spirited daughter in law, Naomi. She has appeared in numerous feature films, winning praise for her work in such movies as Victor Nunez’ Ruby in Paradise, and appeared in Ted Demme’s Blow, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. She continues to guest star in episodic television in such shows as Reba, Judging Amy, The Practice, CSI Miami, Law and Order SVU, and Battlestar Galactica.

Ms. Lyman plunged into directing early in her career, bringing the work of our generation’s most noteworthy playwrights to the American stage, including the original off-Broadway production and subsequent national tour of John Ford Noonan’s offbeat A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking and Snoo Wilson’s Loving Reno at New York Theatre Studio. Her startling 1984 production of Vicious, a meditation on violence, drugs, love and rock and roll, stirred Los Angeles critics and audiences alike. As director of Jane Chambers’ ensemble piece, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, Ms. Lyman took on the subtleties of same-sex relationships with openness and wit. Other Los Angeles directing credits include A Month in the Country at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Thomas Babe’s Taken in Marriage and A Prayer for My Daughter, performed in repertory at ITA Stage. Always endeavoring to extend her creative reach, Ms. Lyman wrote and starred in A Rage in Tenure, an unflinching look at marriage and identity. The play, produced at Los Angeles’ Theatre Geo, was a critical and box office success, earning Ms. Lyman and her play four Dramalogue Awards.

In 1990, Ms. Lyman was tapped to direct the NBC daytime drama, Generations. In 1995, her considerable gifts as a comic actress and her reputation as a “can-do” director came to the attention of Fran Drescher, who brought her on as a producer-director of the hit CBS comedy, The Nanny. Other television directing assignments included The Simple Life for Sternin and Frasier Ink Inc. and the recent CBS four-camera film comedy, Payne starring John Laroquette and JoBeth Williams. In 2001 she adapted Betty Fussell’s acclaimed memoir, My Kitchen Wars, for the stage. The one-woman show premiered at Los Angeles’ Second Stage Theatre in February, 2001 and ran at the 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York City in 2004.

The Northern Kingdom, written by playwright Nancy Fales Garrett, was Ms. Lyman’s feature film directing debut. The film has garnered awards at the San Diego Film Festival, River’s Edge Film Festival, Wild Rose Festival, and was an official selection at the Syracuse International Film Festival, the Fallbrook Film Festival, The Buffalo-Niagara Film Festival, and the Los Angeles FAIF/IndieFest. It will be distributed in late 2008 by Vanguard International Cinema.

Split Ends marks Ms. Lyman’s return to comedy. The film is currently in post production.

Jendra Jarnagin — Director of Photography

Jendra Jarnagin’s early expression of photographic talent garnered her an invitation to participate in a professional video program at the age of twelve, and by age fifteen she was confident that her calling in life was to be a Cinematographer. After attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Jendra’s passion and aptitude for lighting led her to begin her professional career as a Gaffer. She lit many diverse projects, including commercials, documentary television for National Geographic and The Discovery and History Channels, and many studio pictures and episodic TV series such as Sex & the City and Law & Order. Jendra has shot a wide variety of projects. Notable films include Jason Koffeman’s Polaroid, which was lauded for its cinematography in IndieWire and Ain’t it Cool News, and EXIT, starring Tony LoBianco and Jack Scalia, winner of several awards including the Platinum Award and Best Director at Houston-WorldFest.

Bill Cunliffe — Composer
Emmy® and Grammy®-nominated Bill Cunliffe is providing a witty and moving score for Split Ends. After Mr. Cunliffe won several Down Beat Awards as an Eastman student, he taught at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. His first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Woody Shaw and James Moody.

Mr. Cunliffe was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National Endowment for the Arts. A number of his jazz instructional books are published by Alfred Publications, his big band compositions are published by Kendor Music and Otter Music; his choral music is self-published on his website www.billcunliffe.com and by Santa Barbara Music Press. Mr. Cunliffe was Marian McPartland’s guest on her famed “Piano Jazz” radio show in June 1998.

Mr. Cunliffe has released a dozen CDs as a leader. His latest, which spent a month in the #2 position in the JazzWeek radio polls, is Imaginacion on Torii Records.

As a composer/arranger, Mr. Cunliffe has been nominated both for two Emmys® and two Grammys®, and has composed extensively for big band, chamber groups, choir and orchestra. In addition, his performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, featuring jazz trio improvisation, have won public acclaim. According to the Wellington, New Zealand Times, Cunliffe’s recent concert at the Wellington Jazz Festival was “Best jazz piano since Oscar Peterson.” The BBC Review recently said that “Bill Cunliffe is one of the great players of the day.” The Atlanta Jazz Journal gave his album A Rare Connection five stars.

He recently formed Metre Records with collaborator Melissa Sweeney to provide outlets for creative musical projects in which they are involved, both individually and together. These projects often fall outside the normal boundaries in which traditional record companies operate. The first project to be released on this label, now available worldwide as physical product and download is the Bill Cunliffe/James Walker/All Saints Choir collaboration, Transformation, music for chorus, jazz band, and orchestra.

Anisha Tomlinson – Editor
Anisha Tomlinson began her editing career with the independent film, Kids in America, which was released in theaters nationwide in 2005. This paved the way to her work on a number of television series, including Lifetime’s FBI drama, Angela’s Eyes, USA’s television adaptation of Steven King’s The Dead Zone, and the CW’s Life is Wild, a family drama set in South Africa.

Since moving from Los Angeles to New York in late 2007, Ms. Tomlinson has continued her work in television and returned to editing independent films, including the award-winning short, The Assasstant, and most recently, Split Ends.

Ms. Tomlinson grew up in New Delhi, India. She moved to the United States to attend Brown University, where she graduated with a BA in Modern Culture & Media (or more simply, “film theory”) and Ethics & Political Philosophy.

Justine Franko — Production Designer
Justine Franko is a New York based Production Designer who began working in the independent film community of San Francisco over 15 years ago. Concurrently she was shooting her own award winning films that have had world wide festival play and working with indie notables Jay Rosenblatt, Christian Bruno, and Larry Clark. In 2003 Franko received her MFA in Film Production from the prestigious Film Studies Program at Columbia University, immersing herself in all three of the offered concentrations, Directing, Screenwriting, and Producing.

Franko Production Designs and is an art team member for award-winning music videos, commercials, and feature films. She owns and operates Franko Designs Interiors, as well as the home furnishings and housewares shop, Om Sweet Home in Brooklyn, New York.