The Filmmakers

JEFFREY SCHWARZ
Producer/Director

Jeffrey Schwarz is President & CEO of Automat Pictures, a leading producer of studio EPKs (electronic press kit), Blu-ray and DVD content, original television programming, and documentary feature films. Since the company’s founding in 2000, he has produced content for major studio releases for directors such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Sam Mendes, Wes Craven, Rob Reiner, Joe Dante, Barry Sonnenfeld, Adam Shankman, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter, Chris Columbus, Sidney Lumet, and the Coen Brothers. Television productions include Starz’s Sex and the Cinema, In the Gutter, Hitchcocked! and Shooting the Police: Cops on Film, IFC’s Reservoir Dogs Revisited and Still Swingin’, and multiple episodes of HBO First Look. In 2010, Automat Pictures provided exclusive backstage content for the Academy Awards produced by Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic. In 2008, Jeffrey premiered the GayVN award winning feature documentary Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, a portrait of adult film star Jack Wrangler. It is distributed by TLA Releasing and had its television debut on the LOGO network. Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, about the legendary Hollywood showman, won the 2007 AFI Fest Documentary Audience Award among many other festival honors. It was released in 2009 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and has aired on both Turner Classic Movies and The Documentary Channel. His latest documentary feature is HBO Documentary Films’ Vito, about the beloved gay activist and author of The Celluloid Closet. It premiered at the 2011 New York Film Festival, and made its television debut on HBO in July, 2012. He is currently in production on Tab Hunter Confidential, based on the 1950s screen heartthrob's New York Times bestseller.

LANCE ROBERTSON
Producer

Lance Robertson is a musician/performer and DJ that hails from St. Louis, MO. He is also the host of the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba! that airs on Nick Jr. A lifelong music lover, Lance took the plunge into live performing when he became a member of the technodelic band My Other Self. After he moved to Los Angeles, he once again became involved with live music as part of the electronic duo The Ray Makers. As great as his love of music, Lance is equally passionate about film - in particular the films of John Waters and his main muse, Divine. Lance continues his Yo Gabba Gabba! nationwide road tour through early 2013, after which he plans to bring more projects to the screen.

LOTTI PHARRISS KNOWLES
Producer

Lotti Pharriss Knowles is a writer, producer and partner in Weirdsmobile Productions, Inc. She co-produced Jeffrey Schwarz’s previous documentary Vito, and prior to that produced two short films with Weirdsmobile: Shadow.Net (Winner, Best Thriller—Dragon*Con Independent Short Film Festival; Golden Ace Award—Las Vegas Film Festival) and Weak Species (Winner, Best Short—FilmOut San Diego, Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival and Great Lakes Film Festival). Lotti also produced the world premiere run of her play Because They Have No Words, co-written with Tim Maddock about his experiences as a volunteer in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The play was nominated for two 2007 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards for Best Ensemble and World Premiere Play, and was published in 2011 by Northwestern University Press as part of the anthology Katrina Onstage. Lotti holds a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and an M.A. in Theatre from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current project is the horror feature film Chastity Bites, which she wrote and produced.

JON GLOVER
Producer

Jon Glover has worked on television and film documentaries for Lucasfilm, Ltd., 20th Century Fox, HBO, Nickelodeon, Discovery Channel, A&E, Travel Channel and National Geographic Channel. In addition to researching for the Emmy-winning series Biography for A&E he has produced and researched on such notable documentaries as Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, I.O.U.S.A., Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants and Where I Stand: The Story of Hank Greenspun. Jon has been involved in several projects for Automat Pictures and was an associate producer on the HBO documentary Vito.

THE MILLIONAIRE
Composer

Michael Cudahy (better known by his nom-de-showbiz, “The Millionaire”) hails from the frozen wastes of New England. He made his mark as the leader of the avatars of modern mood music, Combustible Edison. Cudahy’s tenure with CE included an unrelenting schedule of national and international touring (including the opening slot for Bryan Ferry’s 1995 tour), three CDs with Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop label and a string of TV and radio appearances. CE’s music has appeared in Sex and The City, Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Mercedes-Benz television ads. CE composed and performed the original score for Quentin Tarantino’s anthology comedy Four Rooms. The Millionaire makes his home in L.A., and has served as musical director for the Velvet Hammer Burlesque; leading a 13-piece Bollywood orchestra; recording as one half of the electronic duo SuperCasanova; and performing DJ duties at LuxuriaMusic.com, The Edison lounge and The Standard hotel. His recent work includes the original scores to the documentary Wrangler: Anatomy Of An Icon and the Women–In–Prison exploitation epic, Sugar Boxx. Cudahy is an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music.

TARYN TEIGUE
Associate Producer

Taryn Teigue joined Jeffrey Schwarz’s company Automat Pictures in 2003. She oversees many facets of production, including research, coordinating shoots and locations, travel arrangements, clearance, and countless other responsibilities. While still an undergraduate at South Carolina’s Francis Marion University, Taryn developed and produced an episode of The Focus Show for a local news station in Florence, SC. After graduating with a B.A. in Mass Communications, she has served in several different areas of the entertainment industry, including On-Set Key Production Assistant for Media Masters, Inc. Taryn has developed skills in virtually every aspect of production, giving her a broad technical knowledge she still utilizes today. She served as associate producer on Schwarz’s previous documentaries Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon, and Vito.

JOSH McCULLOUGH
Associate Producer

Josh McCullough hails from the village of Pandora, Ohio, where his family encouraged his love for art & movies despite being surrounded by sports & cornfields. He had his first art show in a 1920s single-screen movie theater and started working as a production artist for a screenprinting company prior to receiving his BFA from The Ohio State University in Columbus where he still lives and works today. In 2009, he visited Baltimore, MD to tour sites from the films of John Waters and to attend Mink Stole's cabaret performance in conjunction with Susan Lowe's Nuthouse Drawings exhibit. There, he was able to meet most of the cast & crew of regulars whom John Waters has used in his films, more commonly referred to as Dreamlanders. Inspired by this trip and knowing he wasn't the only fan to travel to Baltimore for this reason, he started a blog called Trashy Travels: John Waters Movie Locations & Other Divine Dirt. Impressing even his Baltimore friends with his research, Josh was asked to be a part of the most divine documentary in the history of filmmaking, I Am Divine.

ERIC WEBER
Associate Producer

Eric Weber is a writer and artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He has spent over eleven years working at Turner Broadcasting, seven of which were spent as Photo Researcher for Turner Classic Movies where he worked on several original documentaries for the channel as well as on TCM publishing compendiums including Picture Show: Classic Movie Posters from the TCM Archives, In the Picture: Production Stills from the TCM Archives, Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era and Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. During this time he also played a key role in the conception and development of TCM Underground, the network's late-night cult movie franchise. Other works include creating and curating the successful art show, "We Are Going to Eat You: A Collection of Artwork Inspired by the Weird & Wild World of Cult Cinema" in Atlanta for two consecutive seasons.

MICHAEL O'QUINN
Associate Producer

Michael O’Quinn is a writer, director, editor, costume designer and make up artist from the central Florida area. He has been writing and making films since he was 8 years old. Then, being a fan of B horror movies and slasher films of the '70s and '80s, he started learning special effects makeup at around 12 years old. He became a huge fan of John Waters and Divine at around the age of 14 and those films along with Russ Meyer and David Lynch had a huge influence on his writing and directing. He worked as a costume technician at Universal Studios Florida for nine years during which he met Frances Milstead, Divine’s mother, who lived in Ft. Lauderdale. They became very close friends. He traveled all over with her as she did book signings in many gay bars and book stores. His visits to Frances’ house inspired him to do a documentary on her called FRANCES - A Mother Divine, which he co-directed with Tim Dunn. This documentary would prove to be a learning process in so many ways. During shooting, Frances was diagnosed with cancer, so Michael moved to Ft. Lauderdale to be closer to her. Five years after the doc was shot, editing down over 300 hours of footage, Frances passed away with Michael at her side. Knowing that Michael felt as strongly as she did about keeping Divine’s legacy alive, she asked him to take over the estate of her son. Two years after her passing, Michael and friends Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall released Postcards From Divine, a book that they had started with Frances 8 years prior. Michael has since moved back to Orlando and is now the President of Everything Divine Incorporated and is thrilled to be a part of the making of this film.