The non-profit Downbeach Film Festival will present a cultural event for residents and visitors to the communities of Margate, Ventnor, Longport, Atlantic City, Ocean City and beyond. The festival will promote new films, as well as filmmakers and actors to celebrate the art form of moviemaking. At the same time, the festival will honor thematic films about the seashore.

The inaugural festival, on August 8 to 10, will screen features, shorts and documentaries, hold cinema-related panels and host a retrospective, using locations in Margate, Ventnor Atantic City. We are an affiliate of the Margate Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3)corporation.

Executive director WILLIAM SOKOLIC served as a volunteer at the Atlantic City Film Festival and ran the screenplay competition at the New Jersey State Film Festival at Cape May. He is a reporter with The Courier Post, covering Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore. He also writes screenplays.

Filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter BRANDON E. BROOKS is a South Jersey filmmaker who runs an independent film company named SaintSinner Entertainment with writer/director Amel J. Figueroa. His other film production related work includes producing and assistant directing the independent psychological thriller The Quiet Ones, producing the award winning short film Simply Untitled, co-producing high school drama Franklin Charter. Brooks has also scripted 20 screenplays to date, including the Latin themed crime drama Sweet Fifteen, the coming of life music filled drama Soul, the psychological horror thriller Twelve of Hearts, and the action packed television pilot "Jersey's Finest".

VICTORIA CLARK directs the Ventnor Cultural Arts Center, responsible for a host of artistic activities.

HEATHER COLACHE oversees the film office for the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority, responsible for coordinating film shoots throughout Atlantic County.

THOMAS HILTNER is the city clerk of Margate, overseeing day to day operations of the city.

JOY KANTER is assistant director of the Margate Community Education and Recreation Department. She designed the festival logo.

DR. DOMINICK POTENA is superintendent of the Margate Board of Education.

SUSAN REITMEYER runs her own marketing company and handles marketing and promotion for the festival.

BEVERLY RUBIN produced and scripted educational and industrial training films as well and she leads a monthly class and discussion on documentary films.

BRENDA TAUBE served as executive director of the New Jersey State Film Festival. She also worked with the South Jersey Cultural Alliance.

DOUG WINKLESTEIN directs the Margate Performing Arts Center.
Special thanks to the students and faculty of chARTer Tech High School.