Saturday, November 8
Sac’s Place (Kaufman Astoria Studios, Queens)
On November 8, 2025 Queens World had an engaging morning of conversation and connection at Sac’s Place, where filmmakers and representatives from diverse roles within the industry break bread together while addressing interesting topics. The #1 topic addressed the friction between making the art and financing the making of the art. It was a wonderful morning where we all shared our vision for the future of independent film.
This event was sponsored by Citi National Bank – the bank of the stars! Founded in Beverly Hills in 1954, it was established to provide personalized banking services to the entertainment industry and offers a wide range of banking and financial services, including personal and business checking, lending, and wealth planning.
Thavary Krouch serves as the Deputy Director of Film for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she supports both studio and independent productions filming across New York City. With over a decade of experience in film production and public service, she is dedicated to fostering a thriving, inclusive film industry. Before joining MOME, Thavary worked at the Chicago Film Office and built her foundation in independent filmmaking. As a writer and director, her work explores themes of family, identity, and resilience through both narrative and documentary storytelling.
As a Senior Vice President and Private Banker, Brian specializes in advising high net worth individuals, families, and institutions. He develops comprehensive wealth management strategies that integrate investment management, estate planning, tax optimization, and risk management. Brian utilizes a client-centric approach to deliver personalized solutions to meet his clients’ unique goals.
Prior to joining City National Bank in 2024, Brian was a Senior Portfolio Manager at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. He has also held roles as Vice President of Portfolio and Wealth Advisory at BBR Partners and Advisor Associate at Joel Isaacson & Co.Brian is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He graduated magna cum laude with a degree in finance and investments from Baruch College.
Brian F. Lee, CFA, CAIA, CFP
Senior Vice President, Private Banker
(917) 322-0929
BrianF.Lee@cnb.com
Samantha Light is an Australian-born, Brooklyn-based writer, director, editor and producer with decades of experience working with celebrity clients and global brands. She has managed creative teams and productions from micro-budget shoots to multi-million-dollar campaigns with international crews, children, animals, and the kitchen sink. Her directorial work dives deep into layered imagery and the intricacy of the human condition. Her award-winning music video Nautical Things, a surreal journey through growing out of one life and one love, earned Best Director and Best Music Video in Milan, Montreal and New York. Samantha is founder of Dream Beings Inc. and author of the memoir Bits and Pieces.
Katrina Medoff is the co-founder and co-executive director of Moonshot Initiative, a nonprofit that works toward gender equity in the film and television industry. She has advanced the career of thousands of creatives by spearheading major programs through Moonshot, including the Moonshot Film Challenge (formerly Women’s Weekend Film Challenge), the Moonshot Pilot and Feature Accelerators, virtual education, and networking events. She has a background as a writer, producer, and actor, and for ten years, she served as the editor-in-chief of BORO, a magazine about her home neighborhood of Astoria, Queens.
ABOUT MOONSHOT INITIATIVE
Moonshot Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works toward gender equity in the film and TV industry. Moonshot’s programs include its signature film challenge, its accelerators for emerging screenwriters, networking events, and virtual education. Moonshot has been featured on Good Day LA, NY1, Deadline, and Variety, and funders include New York State Council on the Arts, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Amplify Her Foundation, Artists Thrive, HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, ARRI, AbelCine, and many more. Moonshot Initiative is all about creating on-set networking opportunities that create a snowball effect of jobs and connections for women and gender-expansive people in the industry, as well as helping emerging writers get their foot in the door through pitch meetings with major companies including Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, and more. Follow @moonshotinitiative on Instagram for updates, including how to get tickets to Moonshot’s upcoming premiere screening in NYC.
Anita Raswant is passionate about telling stories of minorities and having their voices heard through film and art. She is currently the Lead Programmer for the Nantucket Film Festival, and curates programs for NewFest and DOC NYC. She has done stints at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Hamptons International Film Festival, and has been on juries for several festivals. Anita grew up in Rome, Italy but has been a loyal Queens resident after graduating with a B.A. in Sociology from St. John’s University.
As a Senior Vice President and Private Banker, Ena provides comprehensive wealth management strategies. These strategies encompass private banking, investment management, estate planning, tax optimization, and risk management. Through these strategies Ena provides tailored solutions to meet her clients’ unique financial goals and objectives to grow and protect their wealth.Ena began her career in the financial services industry in 2006. Prior to joining City National Bank in 2024, Ena was a Private Wealth Advisor at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management for almost a decade and prior to that she was a Trust Officer with Wells Fargo Bank. Ena has a Juris Doctor (JD) from William S. Boyd School of Law.
Ena Licina
Senior Vice President, Private Banker
(917) 322-0970
Ena.Licina@cnb.com
Marc Jacobson has been practicing film and music law for over 45 years.
Today, while still handling sophisticated music publishing and recording transactions, Marc also handles all legal aspects of filmed entertainment for films like “In the Land of Saints & Sinners” with Liam Neeson, “Lucca Mortis” with Dustin Hoffman and Helen Hunt, “The Virtuoso” with Anthony Hopkins, “Back In The Day,” with Alec Baldwin & Annabella Sciorra, “Conviction” with Hilary Swank & Sam Rockwell” and other pictures. He was Executive Producer and Production Counsel for “In the Land of Saints & Sinners,” “Lucca Mortis,” “Leaves of the Tree,” “Confidence Game,” “Hostage” and “The Last Film Festival,” Dennis Hopper’s last live action movie.
He has been listed since 2005 as one of the top 30 entertainment lawyers in NYC by Chambers USA and the only one listed in Music and Film. He has been selected by SuperLawyers since 2008 as one of the top 5% of all lawyers. He has also been selected to Best Lawyers in the USA since 2019. He is the Founding Chairman of the New York State Bar Association Section on Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law.
Ralph C. Schulz is a New York-based, quadrilingual Swiss-Peruvian-American film producer, director, actor, and distributor. His first film earned awards at festivals in NYC, LA, and Milan and gained distribution in Switzerland with Swiss Films. He is the co-founder and CEO of RISE FLIX, a distribution platform that gets independent filmmakers and their work discovered by industry professionals such as talent agencies, management companies, producers, distributors, and financiers. He has helped various filmmakers get representation and feature scripts optioned.
Mentored by an Academy Award-nominated and two-time Sundance-winning executive producer, Ralph has worked in the industry with companies such as Tribeca Film Festival, Evoke Entertainment, Amasia Entertainment, Rakoom LLC, Studio Autonomous, Beecher Productions, and JP Literary (an independent book-to-film scouting firm evaluating material for TV adaptation for several top producers in Hollywood). Finally, he is currently involved in producing six feature films at different stages of development.
Dorothea Trufelman is a video producer, editor, and creative leader specializing in music videos, artist documentaries, live performance capture, and promotional storytelling. Her recent work includes collaborations with acclaimed artists such as Ariana DeBose and Caroline Shaw, as well as major cultural institutions including the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Passionate about making the performing arts more accessible, Dorothea uses video to connect audiences with the power of live performance and creative expression. She currently serves as Director of Video at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where she leads the organization’s video strategy and production.
Katha earned a BA from California Polytechnic University in Pomona, an MFA from the University of Oregon and is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program. In the 80’s, she moved to New York with her theatre company ‘For Play Improvised Theatre’ and pioneered the Improvisational Herald format (the long form) into the NY Improv Comedy scene. Katha won a MAC Award (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) for Best Comedy, two Backstage Magazine Bistro Awards for Best Director and Best Comedy and NY Post’s Bill Ervolino named her one of the year’s ‘Most Exciting’ Improvisers. For many years she worked at Henry Street Settlement serving first as the Arts-in-Education Coordinator and then Director of After-School and Camp Services where she was responsible for six after-school sites and three camps. During her tenure she was recognized by NY State Education for exemplary After-School Programming, and she received the 2015 PASEsetter Award for her years of leadership in the field. Katha has vast experience in producing engaging events, exciting, innovative programming and has spent over thirty years developing youth and bringing people together via theatre arts, film, and video.
Karin C. Garfin is a New York–based broadcast journalist, executive producer, and founder of Broadway Broadcasting and Show Starter Studios. A member of BAFTA, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and New York Women in Film & Television, she has built a career at the intersection of entertainment journalism and talk show production. Karin develops and produces original talk series that spotlight creative voices across television, theater, and media. Her current focus is helping creators translate compelling ideas into broadcast-ready formats while maintaining journalistic integrity.
Don Preston Cato holds a Bachelor of Science (‘67) and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (‘70) from Michigan State University, while working for Lansing Parks & Recreation where he contributed to the redesign of the Lansing Zoo, Ball Fields and Public Park spaces. He joined with a former Peace Corps Volunteer to repurpose a North Lansing dilapidated warehouse space into a Youth Drop-In Center “safe space”.
After graduation, he worked as a Landscape Architect in Cambridge, MA for Moriece & Gary and then Sasaki Associates, focusing on schools, reclamation and large-scale corporate projects like Baxter International, Quail Ridge at Boynton Beach FL. While in Boston, Cato also pursued filmmaking at The Orson Welles Film School and participated in a workshop with director Paul Morrissey and Nicholas Ray.
In 1973 he became a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Oregon and earned his MLA in 1976. As a student he also entered the MFA Motion Graphics program and after graduating, he led the Eugene Filmmakers Cinematheque and worked on studio films including Animal House, Stand By Me, and How to Beat the High Cost of Living.
Sponsored by City National Bank
About Sac’s Place & Venue History
Sac’s Place is housed in the former commissary building of Kaufman Astoria Studios, a historic film studio in Queens. Kaufman Astoria Studios opened in the early 1920s as part of the Famous Players-Lasky / Paramount Pictures studio complex and has served as home to silent film stars and early Hollywood productions. Sac’s Place moved into this landmark space in 2019, with the restaurant preserving a connection to the studio’s legacy, a place where generations of film professionals once broke bread. NY1+4astoriacharacters.com+4Q Gazette+4
Queens World Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and through Discretionary Funding from Council Member Shekar Krishnan and DYCD.
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1,974 films screened from 98 nations including 31 films by NYC school children….15 years and counting! Will you be a part of it?
