Our Staff

Paolo Davanzo, Founder/Executive Director
Paolo Davanzo was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States with his family at age 7. Paolo started EPFC in honor of his parents, social justice activists who passed away early in his life. An Associate Professor in the Film & Video Department of College of the Canyons, Paolo holds a BA Degree in Visual Arts & Political Science from UC San Diego and a Masters Degree in Film from Humboldt State University. He is the founder and programmer of the Human Rights Film Festival, the EPFC Youth Film Festival and the Polyester Prince Road Show.

Ken Fountain, Founder/Technical Director
A former freelance animation artist with a degree in commercial art, Ken Fountain oversees EPFC’s film equipment and services department. In 1999 Ken started Super 8 Stuff, a small business dedicated to vintage film equipment repair and restoration. Ken was recently hired as a cinema technician by the University of Southern California.

Lisa Marr, Operations Director
Lisa is an award-winning filmmaker, musician and writer. After moving from Vancouver, Canada to Los Angeles in 1997, Lisa worked at several local museums including The Autry Museum of Western Heritage where she was part of the curatorial team for the acclaimed exhibit Jewish Life In The American West. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

Lee Lynch: Youth Film Instructor
Lee grew up Redding, California, where he began making movies at the age of 13. He recently graduated from the California Institute for the Arts’ film/video program with a BFA degree. His work has screened at Rotterdam International Film Fest and the New York Underground Film Festival. Lee has been a volunteer instructor at Echo Park Film Center since 2003 and teaches film and video at the California State Summer School of the Arts.

Shauna McGarry: Youth Film Instructor
Shauna graduated from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Film and Television and a minor in Gender and Sexuality Studies. While in New York, she developed and taught a media workshop for middle school girls in East Harlem.  In addition to her volunteer youth instructor position at EPFC, Shauna works as a writer’s assistant on the young adult drama South of Nowhere.

Matthew Weathers: Youth Film Instructor/Retail Staff
An alumni of the EPFC Youth Filmmaking Class, Matthew Weathers currently studies film and philosophy at Los Angeles Community College. Matthew shared top prize at the 2007 Bresee Youth Film Festival for his film on high school dropouts; he hopes to find new and exciting ways to get his imagination on film and plans to make many fulfilling films in the future.

Dino Everett: Film Archivist/Librarian
Dino is an award-winning musician and writer and a professional archivist at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. He has a BA in Critical Studies from USC and is currently finishing up an MA at UCLA.  Known as the punk archivist, his material has been used by The  Avengers,CRIME,FEAR,Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, VH1 and many others. His research interests involve silent cinema and the preservation of film on film culture, especially with discarded formats such as 9.5mm.

Leila Kaas: Outreach Coordinator
Leila has an MBA in Project Management and a BA in Communications – Radio and TV. She has worked extensively with audiovisual documentary production as well as with non-profit organizations to achieve social accountability goals. In 2005, Leila founded the Núcleo Audiovisual Comunitário (Audiovisual Community Center), in Penha, an underprivileged community of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The center is dedicated to democratizing media communications and strives to focus the local community’s unique view.

Thea Pueschel: Teaching Assistant and Fundraising Assistant
Thea worked in television news as a camera operator, set director and chyron operator on California’s Central Coast for three years before moving to Los Angeles to complete her Bachelors Degree in Film Production from CSUN. She has also worked in the film industry and produced two independent films. Thea currently works at an independent post-production company.