STRANGE GIRLS: THE MOVIE

RONA MARK
Rona Mark grew up in Pittsburgh in the 1980’s- a dismal time in the Pennsylvania rustbelt city from which she couldn’t wait to escape. So she did, and went from frying pan to fire when she moved to Jerusalem in 1988 at the beginning of the first intifada. She studied Literature and History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she earned a BA and was begrudgingly drafted into political life, representing the Civil Rights/Socialist Workers’ Party in the student government. She suspects she has been on the FBI watch list ever since.

Rona graduated with honors from Columbia University's MFA Film program where she was a directing concentrate. While at Columbia, Rona directed several films including The Final Days of the Ministry of Tea, which won the Filmmaker Magazine Audience Choice Award and the Faculty Choice for Best of the Night at the Columbia University New Works Festival of 1998.

Rona’s thesis film, Finbar Lebowitz, which she wrote, directed and edited, was the recipient of the HBO Producers’ Development Award and The Polo Ralph Lauren Award for Best Comedy. Finbar was also a regional finalist in the Student Academy Awards in 2001, played widely on TV (Cinemax, HBO, SkyMovies, IFC and Sundance Channel) and was featured in numerous film festivals worldwide.

Strange Girls is Rona’s first feature length film and, after 20 years, marks her return to the Steel City. She currently lives in Queens and teaches a class on video production at Sarah Lawrence College.

JULIAN RUHE
Julian and Rona met while film students at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers school. Since then, Julian has been a working Location Scout and Manager in both the Pittsburgh and “Philly-wood” scenes. He has recently relocated to Brooklyn.

Julian Ruhe’s latest credits include Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, Our Lady of Victory, Rocky Balboa, Shooter, Annapolis and seasons one and two of the CBS TV series Hack starring David Morse and Andre Braugher.

Other films Julian has worked on include: M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, and “The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan” for the Sci-Fi network, Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, Keith Snyder’s Killing Emmet Young and Melissa Martin’s The Bread, My Sweet among others.

STEPHEN CHBOSKY
Stephen Chbosky is a screenwriter whose recent credits include Rent and the CBS TV series Jericho. He recently was the executive producer on the Dowdle Brothers production of The Poughkeepsie Tapes and Jericho. Stephen and Rona are old high school buddies from Pittsburgh.

DAVID WEINSTEIN
David Weinstein’s work as location manager includes Homecoming, The Bread, My Sweet; The Mothman Prophecies; and The Que Creek Miners’ Story as well as several commercial shoots (UPMC, Children’s Hospital, Apple Computers, State Farm Insurance and The Pennsylvania Lottery to name just a few). David has worked as an assistant director on innumerable films and commercials such as; Lift, 84 Lumber, Chevy Trucks, Iron City Beer, and several regional campaign ads. He was also Second Assistant Director on such major motion pictures as Wonder Boys, Inspector Gadget, Fakin’ D’ Funk, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and Terminal Velocity. He also produced the TV mini series I Remember Chloe.

RICK LOPEZ
A former cinematography instructor at Columbia University, Rick López has filmed more than 80 features, shorts, commercials, and documentaries including Swedish Auto, Filmic Achievement, El Coyote, and XY. Variety magazine has described his work as "expert." His work has screened at festivals around the world including the Berlin Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, the Hamptons Film Festival, CamerImage: the International Festival for the Art of Cinematography, and countless others.

REED ROBINS
Reed Robins has scored films such as Tommy's starring Steve Buscemi, ]ack and the Northwest Wind, The Boyfriend, Luna, Coming to Town, Gary Auerbach's The Painter, Sweater Yarn, Finbar Lebowitz and others. He has composed for theater productions such as the New York premiere of Clive Barker's Crazyface, Yeat's The Hawkes Well, Mike Bencivenga's Single Bullet Theory, The King Stag, In the Place Where We Live, The Eye Generation, Ingress, Crosswalk, Court of Conscience and many more. His musical compositions and arrangements include "Mnemosyne" for Orchestra, "Earthward", a choral cantata, "A Short Adventure" for piano, "Oscillations" for Flute, "A Vision in a Dream" for three players, and an orchestration of the Prokofieff piano piece "Diabolical Suggestions". Songs of Jimi Hendrix for Solo Jazz Piano is a special of project of Reed's- cd released by Changing Tones Records.

STEVE TOLIN
Steve Tolin began working on movies while a student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (The Murder; Greg Rempel Productions, The Bread My Sweet; Who Knew Productions). It was also at AIP that he began an internship with a Halloween mask making shop called Spector Studios. In 2001, Steve started his own FX shop, TolinFX, for the movie Project Valkyrie. TolinFX has since gone on to do the artwork on several local film projects (Playhouse; Yeti Brothers Productions, Swarm of the Snakehead; Little Grey Productions, and The Traveler; Black Boot Productions.) He was also the production designer on the TV mini series I Remember Chloe.