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Bio

Rachel Earnest
Writer/Director

Rachel Earnest is a writer, director and producer whose credits include the short film LE RETOUR, which premiered at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and has played in 50 films festivals both domestically and abroad. Trevor Groth, the Director of Programming at the Sundance Film Festival, called LE RETOUR, “intelligent, emotional and truthful.”

LE RETOUR has won numerous awards including Best International Short (Kerry Film Festival), Best Short (SENE Film Festival), the Silver Lei award for excellence in film-making (Honolulu Film Festival), Silver Ace Award (Las Vegas Film Festival), Platinum Award (Worldfest), Best Director and Best Film Nominee (Cecil Awards).

Recently, Rachel has produced several short films, spec commercials and a feature film entitled MARY MARIE. Rachel has lectured on ﬁlm-making at schools and colleges in the US, Canada, and the UK and has been interviewed by magazines such as European Weekly, Music and Fashion, and Riviera. Additionally, Rachel did pre-production work at Muse Films for the feature THE KILLER INSIDE ME starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. She has also worked for Radical Media and on the television shows HEROES and C.S.I. LAS VEGAS.

Kate Nelson
Producer

Kate was born in Northern California but spent the majority of her
life in the Los Angeles suburbs. She graduated from Chapman University in 2007 with a BFA in Film Production and a minor in French. She spent the fall semester of 2005 studying at the Sorbonne in Paris and fell in love with French culture and history. She has produced numerous student films and several music videos. She also had the opportunity to attend the 2006 Cannes Film Festival where she learned a great deal about the business side of show business. She plans to continue producing films and eventually wants to branch out into producing and directing documentaries. This fall she will be returning to Paris to achieve complete fluency in French.

Kristina Lechuga
Cinematographer

Kristina Lechuga is a first generation Mexican-American striving to become a successful Cinematographer. She grew up around art finding exposure and encouragement through painters and sculptors like her father, Gerardo Lechuga. By expressing herself through ballet and modern dance during her childhood and teenage years, Lechuga broadened her views in life and art.Lechuga continued in the arts and began her film studies at Orange Coast College's Film and Video department. After obtaining an Associates of Arts degree, she transferred to Chapman University, where she earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film Production with an emphasis in cinematography. Kristina has shot and continues to shoot various projects including commercials and short films in a range of mediums consisting of High Definition video, 35mm and 16mm film. Lechuga, still young in her profession, is vast and talented in her field and hopes to fulfill her goal of photographing films and bringing the beauty and romance of film to the
screen.

Zara Ahmed
Editor

Zara Ahmed was born in Karachi, Pakistan and moved to Southern California with her family at a young age. She grew up in Orange County and currently attends Chapman University, where she is studying to earn a BA in Film Production, with a double minor in French and Women's Studies. Zara plans on studying in Cannes before graduating and pursuing her goal of working as an editor after her four years at Chapman. She was also discovered by the editors guild for her work in the award winning short Le Retour which at first was overlooked because it was in French. Then when people actually saw it, they were blown away by how super cool it was and decided to give all of the filmmakers well paying jobs. Zara worked in film for a while but after cutting some high grossing features, she decided she was tired of movies. What she really wanted to do was be a rockstar. So she went on tour and drummed for a band called Tabla Posse. All before her 20th birthday.

Hannah Reilly-Kiefer
1st Assistant Director

Additional Crew:
Viktoria Ershova, Brianne Hunt, Spencer Seibert.Craig Duffy, Carly Pandza, Lauren Jackson, Nick Nelson, Yuki Noguchi, James Campbell, Cris Moris, Alexander Brown, Thomas Carpenter, David Stack, Nick Olszyk, Alex Alvarez, Daniel Leyva, Eliot Murray, Leann Mobley, Tara Hernandez, Mike Horton, Elizabeth Burbach, Dana Chambers, Courtney Bell, David Nelson, Judy Lee