Cast and Crew
Sandow Birk: Art Director, Writer, Producer
Raised on the beaches of Southern California and currently living and working in Los Angeles, Sandow Birk is a product of California culture. With an emphasis on social issues, frequent themes of his past work have included daily life in L.A.’s barrios, inner city violence, graffiti, various political issues, surfing, and skateboarding. His work has been shown extensively throughout the U.S. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1996, and a Fulbright Fellow to Rio de Janeiro for 1997. In 1999 he was awarded a Getty Fellowship for painting. Birk’s epic, pseudo-historical series of the “The Great War of the Californias”, in which Los Angeles and San Francisco wage all out war for control of the Golden State, was featured at the Laguna Art Museum in 2000. His latest project, a rewriting (with co-author Marcus Sanders) and illustrating of Dante’s The Divine Comedy set in contemporary urban America has culminated in three books, currently out from Chronicle Books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. An exhibition of the project was organized by the San Jose Museum of Art in 2005.
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James Cromwell: Voice of Virgil
JAMES CROMWELL received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar © nomination for his memorable performance as Farmer Hoggett in the smash-hit, “Babe.” Cromwell’s recent motion picture work includes “The Longest Yard,” “I, Robot,” “Angels in America,” “The Green Mile,” “Snow Falling on Cedars,” and “L.A. Confidential.” He plays Prince Philip in the recently released film, “The Queen.” He is currently working on “Spiderman Three.” Born in Los Angeles, Cromwell grew up in New York and Waterford, Connecticut, and studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University (then Carnegie Tech).
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Mark McAdam: Composer
Mark McAdam is a songwriter and musician from the other side of the musical tracks. He lives in a roomful of second-hand instruments on Manhattan’s Lower East Side where he eats and sleeps. McAdam used to front the seminal Los Angeles junk rock band Sumack before setting out on his own with a solo debut, “Boy Wonder”, in 2003. His next record, “Cavalcade”, comes out in spring 2006 on March Records. He has contributed and composed music for many films including “God Grew Tired of Us” (Sundance Grand Jury and Audience Awards for Best Documentary 2006) plus television shows like “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Weeds”, and “Malcolm in the Middle”.
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Sean Meredith: Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
Born and raised in New Jersey, Sean Meredith studied film at Emerson College in Boston. His senior film won the school’s Evvy Award for Best 16mm Film. After toiling away the years as a vintage dishware expert, he has finished directing his first feature film, “Dante’s Inferno.” He directed and produced the 2003 film “In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias.” After premiering at Slamdance in 2003, the California Civil War mockumentary went on to play at twenty film festivals. It was released on DVD in 2004 and had it’s broadcast premiere in 2005.
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Dermot Mulroney: Voice of Dante
DERMOT MULRONEY recently completed work on David Fincher’s “Zodiac.” Early in his career he co-starred in Tom DiCillo’s satirical look at the world of independent filmmaking, “Living In Oblivion,” opposite Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener. Mulroney co-produced the film, which won awards at both the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. Another early standout performance was his role in "Longtime Companion." He's since co-starred with Jack Nicholson in "About Schmidt," with Julia Roberts in "My Best Friend's Wedding," with Diane Keaton in "The Family Stone," and in Nicole Holofcener's "Lovely & Amazing." His former band, The Low and Sweet Orchestra released one highly regarded album that captured the band’s mixture of American rockabilly and Irish folk rock. He currently plays in The Cranky George Trio with his brother Kieran Mulroney and Pogues accordionist James Fearnley.
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Michael Negrin, ASC: Director of Photography
As the son of an accomplished cinematographer, Sol Negrin ASC, young Michael Negrin had the opportunity to visit film sets starting at age eight. In 1984-85 he shot several videos for Billy Joel. Later he photographed Time After Time for Cindy Lauper, which earned an American Music Video Award for Michael and for the director Eddie Griles. In 1987, Negrin shot his first feature, an indie project starring Shelly Winters, titled “Touch of a Stranger.” He photographed the pilot for “Charmed” for the WB starring Shannon Dougherty. Negrin shot a feature in New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina, “Local Color” starring Ray Liotta, Armin Mueller Stahl and Ron Pearlman. He just completed photography on “Homeland Security” directed by George Gallo and stars Antonio Bandaras, Meg Ryan, and Selma Blair.
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Elyse Pignolet: Art Director, Puppet Designer
Born and raised in Oakland, California, Elyse attended San Francisco State University and Long Beach State University as an art major before hoofing it to Spain. She lived in Madrid and Barcelona studying Spanish and art in 2001, then returned to college as a ceramics major in California. Widely traveled, she has exhibited her work in several shows in the Los Angeles area. She has collaborated on several public art projects with artist Tom Barter and others, including work on the L.A. MTA Metro Orange Line and on the new Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck Station in East Los Angeles. She is currently persuing a BFA in Ceramic Arts at the University of California at Long Beach. She has had a passing interest in puppets since she met Paul Zaloom.
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Paul Zaloom: Writer, Producer, Head Puppeteer, Voices
Called “one of the most original and talented political satirists working in the theater” by the New York Times, Paul Zaloom is an OBIE-winning puppeteer and performance artist who has written, designed and performed 12 solo spectacles, including Fruit of Zaloom, Sick But True, and his latest, The Mother of All Enemies. His highly idiosyncratic work utilizes techniques such as overhead projection, government document expose, “picture performance”, and hand, rod, shadow, found object, and dummy puppets. Since 1992, Zaloom has appeared on the Emmy winning TV show Beakman’s World as Beakman, the wacky scientist who answers viewers’ questions about science, nature, and the world around us; he also tours the stage show, Beakman Live! Zaloom co-wrote and narrated an official selection at the 2003 Slamdance Film Fest, “In Smog and Thunder.” He’s played innumerable venues: Kennedy Center; Lincoln Center; Walker Arts Center; American Repertory Theater; L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art; King Tut’s Wah-Wah Hut; hundreds of others in the U.S. and internationally. His awards include: a Village Voice OBIE; an American Theater Wing Design Award; New York Dance and Performance Award (the “Bessie”); L.A. Weekly Critics’ Award; 4 Citations of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from UNIMA-USA. GRANTS: Guggenheim Fellowship, COLA Fellowship, 4 National Endowment for the Arts grants, 4 Henson Foundation grants, others.
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Cast Credits
| TONY ABATEMARCO | Lying Defendant Farinata |
| SCOTT ADSIT | Judge Minos Paolo Hirohito Copter Pilot Spiro Agnew |
| MATT BESSER | Metallica Defendant L. Ron Hubbard Curtis LeMay Airport Security |
| BILL CHOTT | Ciaccio ‘El Gordo’ Calvacanti Stalin Ulysses’ Crew |
| MIKE COLEMAN | Charon Phlegyas Senator Dick Cheney |
| JAMES CROMWELL | Virgil |
| ANDREW DALY | Lucan “Right on” Glutton Jim Jones Airport Screener Ulysses’ Naysayer |
| JOHN FLECK | Brunetto Latini |
| SEAN FORRESTER | Horace Mr. Argenti White Pimp Beating Victim Airport Security Insider Trader #2 |
| TONY HALE | Ovid Real Estate Broker Pope Nicholas 3rd |
| TOM HALLICK | George Sanders Deep Voiced Lobbyist |
| LAURA KRAFFT | George Sand Airport P.A. Subway P.A. |
| BRANDON JOHNSON | Irate Driver Mounted Policeman Pimp #1 Pimp #3 Airport Security |
| DERMOT MULRONEY | Dante |
| MARTHA PLIMPTON | Celia Lobbyist Singer Lizzie Borden |
| KIT PONGETTI | W.M.D. Defendant Francesca Marilyn Monroe Elena Ceausescu |
| TAMI SAGHER | George Elliot Greed Seductress Barbara Bates Penelope |
| DANA SNYDER | Strom Thurmond Ulysses |
| JANET VARNEY | Teacher Cleopatra City of Dis Intercom Ulysses’ Usher |
| MATT WALSH | Mussolini Fox Reporter Airport Security Pursuer |
| PAUL ZALOOM | Homer God Officer Chiron Southern Lobbyist Airport Security Caiaphas Ulysses’ Crew Macmud Insider Trader #1 Nicolae Ceausescu |
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Crew Credits
| Edited by | Sean Meredith |
| Proscenium Design | Sandow Birk and Elyse Pignolet |
| Ulysses Shadow Show | Paul Zaloom and Lynn Jeffries |
| Casting Director | Laura Krafft |
| Gaffer | Paul Lohr |
| Best Boy Electric | Adam Peabody Dave McGrory |
| Lighting Technician | Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew |
| Dolly Grip | Richard Brush |
| Camera Operators | Jens Piotrowski, SOC Denis Moran |
| 1st Assistant Camera | David C. Negrin |
| 2nd Assistant Camera | Kristy Baltezore Caddie Hon |
| Digital Imaging Technician | Philip Schwartz |
| Lead Puppeteers | Alison Heimstead Lynn Jeffries |
| Puppeteers |
Sandow Birk |
| On Set Editor | Christian Anthony |
| Set Scaling by | Alicia Meredith |
| Suicide Note | Christian Anthony |
| Additional Scenic Painting | Gregg Gibbs |
| Make-Up for Lucifer | Jeff Farley |
| Make-Up Assistant | Elena Arlotti |
| On Set Photographers | Bryan Wiley Alicia Meredith |
| Production Assistants | David Earle Cesar Delgadillo |
| Security | Mr. Jenkins |
| Truck Driver | Pablo Delgadillo |
| Dramaturgical Assistance | Lynn Jeffries |
| Sound Design | Alan Porzio |
| Voice Recording Engineers | Mark Wheaton at Catasonic Phil Vo at SonicPool |
| Final Sound Mix by Talking House Productions, San Francisco | |
| Re-recording Mixer | Dave Nelson |
| Supervising Engineer | Peter Krawiec |
| Mix Engineer | Miik Dinko |
| Digital Intermediate, Opticals & Titles | HOLLYWOOD-DI |
| DI Artist | David Miazga |
| DI Supervisor | Tyler Hawes |
| DI Project Manager | Neil W. Smith |
| HD Video Equipment | Sim Video LA |
| HD Probe Lenses | Innovision Optics |
| Music produced and performed by Mark McAdam Superhead Songs ASCAP ©2006 |
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| Additional Musicians | |
| Adam Crystal | Violin |
| Aaron Kant | Additional Drums and Percussion |
| Dermot Mulroney | Cello |
| John Natchez | Saxophones, Clarinet, and Additional Flute |
| Kit Pongetti | Vocals |
| ‘We Are the Lobbyists’ Words by Paul Zaloom and Mark McAdam Music written and performed by Mark McAdam Sung by Martha Plimpton with Eric Gilliland, Peter ‘The Baron Von’ Lindberg, and Mark McAdam |
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| The makers of this film wish to thank Track 16 Gallery of Santa Monica for generously supplying a filming location. |
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| Special Thanks Wayne Alexander Georgia Brint Greg Escalante Patricia Fitzgerald Erica Fox Janie Geiser Chris Kletzien Alicia Meredith Hilary Meredith Joe Musil Cindy Ojeda John Paulsen Tom Patchett Laurie Steelink |
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| Also Thanks to Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA Great Small Works, New York City Quiksilver, Inc. San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA South Texas Institute for the Arts, Corpus Christi, TX Trillium Press, Brisbane, CA |
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| Special Thanks to the Screen Actors Guild | |
| Sandow Birk is represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco and PPOW Gallery, New York City |
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| Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders’ books of "The Divine Comedy" are available from Chronicle Books |
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| The portrayals of persons and events in this motion picture are fictitious. This motion picture is protected under laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exhibition is strictly prohibited. |
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| ©2008, Dante Film, LLC All Rights Reserved www.dantefilm.com |
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