Jury 2024

2024 Screening Committee & Jury

Ronda Suder

Award-winning Director Ronda Suder brings over 20 years of experience both in front of and behind the camera to the art of filmmaking. Her journey began as an actress over 20 years ago in Houston, TX, and she swiftly transitioned into screenwriting and directing shortly after. With a Master of Art in Film and Media Production, she’s worked on numerous projects, from commercials and web series to independent feature films and shorts. Her recent short film, “Back in the Saddle,” has garnered several accolades on the festival circuit, including Best Director, Best Actress, Best Romantic Comedy, and an Audience Choice Award.

With the purpose of fostering safety and expanding possibilities through stories, Ronda is also a Professional Speaker, Mental Health Advocate, Career Advice Expert, and Trauma Educator. Connect with and follow Ronda on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also follow her work and blog at www.rondasuder.com. 

Ron Hollingshead

Ron Hollingshead is an artist, curator, lecturer, and educator. He received an MFA in sculpture at West Virginia University. He has taught at WVU, Shepherd University, and in the W.A.S.H. (Workshop in Art Studio and History) program at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Using his personal experience as a springboard, Hollingshead wryly confronts the universal struggle with injury, disease, pain, and treatment. He has exhibited his work extensively in the Unites States, with shows in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia and internationally in Ireland, Mexico, and New Zealand. Hollingshead’s sculptural and mixed-media work can be found in the permanent collections of The International Museum for Collage, Assemblage, and Construction (Mexico), The Art House Gallery (Virginia), and in private collections.
www.ronhollingsheadart.com

Kerry Skarbakka

Over the past 25 years, Kerry Skarbakka has focused in finding the continuity in his work by planting himself squarely between the studio arts and performance. As the main actor and model of his work, the center of Skarbakka’s creative practice integrates physical and often daring self-performances with constructed photography and video. Set against a backdrop of concern for a struggling natural environment and the ever-shifting landscapes of social, political and economic divide, Skarbakka’s work investigates the instability, confusion, anxiety, and the existential loss of control that constantly test and challenge the human condition. A Creative Capital Grantee (2005), his works have been exhibited internationally and are held in such collections as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The North Carolina Museum of Art, and The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. He currently lives and works in Corvallis, Oregon and serves as an Associate Professor of Photography at Oregon State University.
 www.skarbakka.com

Dana Coester

Dana Coester is a Professor and Creative Director of the West Virginia University Media Innovation Center, and editor in chief of the Edward R. Murrow award winning outlet 100 Days Days in Appalachia. Coester is part of a research team examining internet and technology studies, online and offline extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns with a trauma-informed approach. Coester’s community engaged scholarship has long focused on the intersection of technology, media and communities, with an emphasis on susceptibility and resilience in rural community members. Coester directed and co-produced the documentary film Raised By Wolves, which received a 2022 JustFilms award and is sponsored by the Center for Independent Documentary. Coester has been an invited speaker on these topics at the Aspen Festival of Ideas, Newsgeist North America, the Council on Foreign Relations, Our Body Politic, among others, and her work has been cited in testimonies before two congressional committees. Coester was named a 2021-2022 Benedum Distinguished Scholar, and her work has been supported by the Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund Public Square and Just and Inclusive Society programs, the Mellon Foundation, and the Ford Foundation Creativity and Free Expression program. Coester received her Master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. 

Michael C. Schwab

Michael Schwab is an animator and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His animation journey started back in 1973 at the Kansas City Art Institute producing the “Channel 19 Auction Spot” as a senior and winning first prize Public Service TV Spot at the Long Island Intl Film Festival, 1975. From there he was hired at The Animators, a Pittsburgh, PA based animation studio, and contributed as an animation stand operator and asst. animator, 1977-1979. He moved on to co-found Kensington Falls Animation as a producer, director, animator, and production artist, 1979-present. The studio produced many successful commercials and scoreboard animations with the help of many talented artists and continues with Mike as a solo producer. Past notable works include: “Meet Your Liver”, Internet Web Series, (Feb 2021); “The Cowbell Shuffle”, Animated Short, (Sept 2020); “The Childless Woman’s Guide to Raising Children”, Internet Web Series, (Feb 2020); “Tom’s Life”, Animation Pilot, Network Cartoon Series for the FOX Network, (Feb 2011); Pittsburgh Pirates Scoreboard 2D Animation (1985-2011), Awarded Golden Matrix Award (1991); “Timmy’s Journey to Understanding MS”, AIP Production Team Project, Awarded Community Service Project  by the PA  Association of Private School Administrators, (2005); “Lou and Costa’s Burglar Welcome Mat”, debuted on MTV Cartoon Sushi (June 2000), appeared at the Sundance Film Festival (Jan 2001), and Nicktoons Cartoon Festival (Nov 2004); Pittsburgh Penguins TV Commercials, (1984-1995), Telly Award for Best Animation(1988-1989). kensingtonfalls.com. Youtube: Kensington Falls Animation, Mikey Moose Schwab, and Killer Moose Entertainment.

Jason Zeh

Jason Zeh (born in 1980, Ohio, USA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work blends influences from long-time involvement in the underground, experimental music scene with performance art and computer programming. Zeh’s work grapples with the scraps at the edge of meaning: the noise and errors that are in the margins of any message. Current performance works deal with intimacy, confession, and identity. These works employ self-designed software, machine learning algorithms, and streaming platforms to create technological systems that offer the promise of communication. However, the unpredictable behavior of these hacked tools makes communication impossible. Zeh holds an M.A. in English Literary and Textual Studies from Bowling Green State University, an M.F.A. in Expanded Media from The University of Kansas Visual Art Department and has toured extensively performing solo and collaborative works throughout the United States and abroad. www.jasonzeh.com

Student Juror:
Evan Clough

Evan Clough is a printmaker, photographer, and mixed media artist originally from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He received his BFA from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, concentrating in Printmaking and Photography; and is now currently a 1st year graduate student at West Virginia University working on his MFA in Printmaking. Evan’s abstract and digitally montaged artwork traverses multiple mediums and requires improvised digital solutions for rendering imagery with handmade printmaking techniques. He continues to explore studio and performative photography as parallel expressions of his digital montage making.  

Gerald Habarth

Gerald Habarth is an artist and animator currently serving as Associate Professor of Art at West Virginia University where he heads the Digital Art and Animation program in the School of Art and Design. He holds an MFA degree from the University of South Florida and a BFA degree from Parsons School of Design. His works have screened at numerous national and international venues and festivals including the Tampa Museum of Art, the Huntington Museum of Art, the Festival Les Instants Vidéo and the Stuttgarter Filmwinter - Festival for Expanded Media. In 2010 he founded the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival. In 2009 he founded Space: Atacama Chile, an adventure art course that takes students to the northern desert region of Chile to create works that focus on perception, experience, and multi-media art.
www.ghabarth.com