Down East Flick Fest Filmmaker’s Café Moderator

Donna Kain

Donna has many gifts, is well-published, and has won many wards as an academic. She has made enormous contributions to DEFF, especially as our resident Director of our annual Filmmakers Café. She will moderate this FB live event on Sunday, November 19th, followed by our DEFF 2021 Awards ceremony later that evening.

Here’s a link to DEFF 2023 Filmmaker’s Cafe featuring the panelists below.

Academic Bio

Donna Kain, Associate Professor, joined the ECU faculty in the fall of 2004. She teaches courses in rhetoric, technical communication, writing for business and industry, discourse analysis, visual discourse, theory and practice of new media, risk communication, editing, and project management. Her research focuses on risk communication and natural hazards including severe weather, climate change, and sea level rise; information technology applications for the classroom; and the uses of genres in professional settings. Dr. Kain is also Assistant Director of the Center for Natural Hazards. Related positions have included editor of Technical Communication Quarterly, the journal of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (2013-2018); Director of Outreach and Communication for the ECU Renci Engagement Center; senior staff analyst for Compuware Corporation, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and technical writer/editor for Engineering Animation Inc., Ames, Iowa. Dr. Kain served as Secretary and then Vice Chair of the faculty from 2015 to 2018.

Rick Kain

Organizer and Panelist

A Maryland Native, Kain is a veteran actor, stuntman, and stunt coordinator with over 150 film and television credits to date. His most recent work can be seen on Jack Ryan, Mind Hunter, DC Noir, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Bone Collector. He has just completed production of two festival bound short films — Unheard Melodies and The Elephant Spiel — and is currently in post-production on his first feature documentary film. Rick is President of RSK Productions LLC., a Baltimore/Washington-based film production company that specializes in narrative and documentary film, video interviews, and multi-camera coverage of live stage shows and events.

Kiyoka Rhodes

Emmy nominee and award-winning filmmaker Kiyoka “Kex” Rhodes is a writer, producer, and director of films, commercials, and branded content for multi-screen platforms. Her television producing and directing credits have been with networks such as The CW Network (DCW50), Comcast, BBC Studios, and online with 60 Second Docs. In 2019, Rhodes received a Capital Emmy nomination for a suicide/ substance abuse prevention PSA campaign titled, “BTheOne”. Celebrities such as Denzel Washington, Mandy Moore, Don Cheadle, Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga and more have also been featured in her work.

Stephen Suettinger

R. Stephen Suettinger is a writer/producer/director who premiered his narrative feature directorial debut entitled ‘A YEAR AND CHANGE,’​ (IMDB – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3339354) starring Bryan Greenberg, Claire van der Boom, T.R. Knight, Marshall Allman, Jamie Hector, Kat Foster, Natasha Rothwell, and Jamie Chung, at the Dances With Films festival at the famed Hollywood Chinese Theaters. A YEAR AND CHANGE was quickly picked up for distribution by Vision Films and is available on iTunes, Amazon, Directv, Hulu, and many other VOD platforms. After a ten-year stay in Los Angeles, he moved home to suburban Maryland and started a production company, Pebble Hill Films.

Anthony Greene (A.M. Greene)

Anthony Greene is a native Washingtonian DMV based writer, filmmaker and multi-festival founder whose work can be found worldwide and through his latest venture Film Village. He’s a self-proclaimed “old man” and “art lover.” Anthony Greene is a writer, director, and producer with projects including Frights and Fears Vol. 1, American Comic television series, and The Henchman’s War.

Adam Rodgers

Adam is a Baltimore native and graduate of Duke University, where he studied politics, theater and philosophy, and of New York University’s Graduate Film Program. Adam’s short films have played at festivals worldwide, earning numerous awards. Since moving to Los Angeles, Adam has co-written (with Glenn German) and sold spec feature scripts and pitches to Sony, Universal and Fox, among others. In 2014, Adam co-wrote and directed the indie romance At Middleton, starring Academy Award nominees Vera Farmiga and Andy Garcia. The film won multiple festival awards, was released theatrically in the U.S. and internationally, was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and debuted in the top 10 (Art House) On Demand releases. Adam teaches screenwriting and chairs the Program in Film and Media Studies at The Johns Hopkins University. A member of the Writers Guild of America, Adam continues to write, direct, and produce for film and television through his production company, 8th Day Pictures. His latest project, the award-winning digital comedy series Turf Valley, is currently streaming on YouTube