THE CREW

Driver, Babacar Troure; Production Assistant/Translator, Bakary Bayo; Leslie Saltus and Malang Bayo

Seated: Joyce Guy and John Njaga Demps

 

JOYCE GUY (Director/Producer), is an actress, solo performer, playwright, director and director. Although born in Montgomery, Alabama, Joyce is a “military” brat raised in various places within and outside of the U.S. Joyce has been a constant face on film, television and commercials.  Screen credits include Eye of the Hurricane directed by Jesse Wolfe, Moneyball starring Brad Pitt, The Green Hornet, and The Santa Clause. Television roles include Enlightened, Parenthood, Brooklyn 99, Hart of Dixie, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, Raising the Bar, The Closer, Nip/Tuck, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, The West Wing, Chicago Hope, One Life to Live, Sunset Beach, Boston Legal to name a few and was a series regular on Monty starring Henry Winkler.

Her solo theater works have been performed at LACE, LATC, Watts Towers, Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, Highways, at the Dance Place in Washington, DC, the L.A. Festival, A.S.K. Common Ground Festival at UCLA, Theater @Boston Court, 2100 Square Feet, Theater 150 in Ojai, CA, the New Los Angeles Theater Center and St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, NY.

Joyce is a Los Angeles local delegate of SAG/AFTRA, a member of AEA, the Television Academy, International Documentary Association (IDA); and a founding member and treasurer of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest) in Los Angeles. Dancing Like Home is her first directorial effort.

LESLIE SALTUS EVANS  (Producer/Cinematographer) Leslie Saltus Evans, a first generation Bermudian was born and raised in New Jersey.  Over 25 years ago, she started in the film and television industry working as a camera operator at a local cable station.  While attending NYU’s, Tisch School of the Arts, she began her Director of Photography career shooting student films, low budget projects and worked on her first feature, Spike Lee’s, Do the Right Thing as a camera intern.  In 1990, she joined IATSE Local 644 as a camera assistant and worked on a host of feature films, commercials, music videos, and documentaries for Cinematographers such as Ernest Dickerson, ASC, Fred Elmes, ASC, Robert Wagner, Bobby Shepard, Lisa Renzler, and Woody Omens, ASC.

In 1993, Leslie established her production company, Camera Goddess Productions, Inc. and forged full steam ahead as Producer/Director of Photography.  The company has produced projects for clients such as Urbanworks/Ventura Distribution, Lifetime Television, Motown Records, Warner Bros. Records, and No Limit Films to name a few.  As a Director of Photography, she has shot all genres of film and video from commercials to even having several feature films under her belt. Leslie’s work has been awarded by the Broadcast Designers Association and has graced numerous film festivals all over Europe and in the U.S. such as Slamdance and Boston Film Festival.

In 2000, Leslie was Producer/Director of Photography on the short film, Next Afternoon starring rapper/actor, Heavy D.  This film was screened at the Pan African Film Festival and aired on Showtime’s 8^th Annual Black Filmmakers Showcase and the film won the “Pick a Flick Contest”. It was an IFP/Gordon Parks Award Finalist. In 2003, she had two films in the Bermuda International Film Festival, a Documentary Feature, When Voices Rise… which won the People’s Choice Award and a short film, Royal Flush, which received accolades from juror and film critic, Rex Reed.

Leslie was the Director of Photography for Walking on a Sea of Glass, documentary about Kingsley Tweed, carpenter, preacher, social and political activist, who was a leader of the Theatre Boycott in 1959 that led to the desegregation of Bermuda, which premiered at the Bermuda Int’l Film Festival in 2006.  In recent years, she has worked on projects with Bill Cosby(OBKB), Mo’Nique(Hair Show), Erykah Badu, MTV’s MADE, and OWN’s Welcome to Sweetie Pies to name a few.  Recently, Leslie has opened a new company, LivingStone Entertainment, which has several projects in development.

MALANG BAYO  (Featured Artist) is a Master dancer, teacher and choreographer.  Former member of the National Ballet of Senegal, his entire career has been devoted to teaching the wonderful art of African song and dance.   He is well versed in folklore and dance of the Wolof, Mandinka, Djola and Bambara people of Senegal. .  He began performing with Ballet Fore Sacret of Senegal, 1984 and performed with the Great Ballet D’Afrique Noir of Mansour Gueye, 1985-86.  Graduated to and began performing with the National Ballet of Senegal, “Sore La Liguere”, touring throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Yugoslavia.  Performed at the Seoul, Korea Olympic Games, 1988.  Malang’s dance company, Mussekeba Sane West African Ballet was formed in 1992, performing West African dance and song throughout Southern California in various celebrations and festivals.  His teaching experience includes UCLA, Orange County School of Performing Arts, Los Alamitos High School of Performing Arts, Lula Washington’s LA Contemporary Dance Studio, The Dance Collective, Alley Kat Studios, Universal Dance Designs, Main Street Aerobics and Dance Studio and Santa Monica Dance Studio to name a few.  He has choreographed for Djembe West African Drummers and Dancers, Teye’ Sa Thiosanne African Dance Company of San Diego.  He has also conducted dance workshops in San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Oakland and New York.  He also can be seen in “Poetic Justice, Congo, and Amistad.

JOHN NJAGA DEMPS  (Director of Photography) photographed his first feature the critically acclaimed mockumentary, Fear of a Black Hat. Since then he has photographed both studio and independent features like The Inkwell, The Walking Dead and more recently The Visit and The Annihilation of Fish directed by the MacArthur “Genius” Award winning director Charles Burnett.  Since then, John has worked with the veteran director on the PBS Blues Series Divided Souls produced by Martin Scorcese, the PBS documentary Nat Turner:  A Troublesome Property, the documentary For Reel? and is currently in Namibia working a feature film with Mr. Burnett.  Other documentary films include The Secret Passage: A Journey of Black Women and Depression and Asthma: Fighting to Breathe narrated by Louis Gossett Jr.   Demps has shot documentaries in South Africa, Japan and most recently Iceland.  John is a frequent visitor to Senegal and is fluent in Wolof.

LILLIAN BENSON (Editor) Her professional body of work as a television, video and feature film editor spans almost thirty years. In 1990 the native New Yorker was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the acclaimed Civil Rights series Eyes On the Prize II. She contributed to films that have garnered five Emmy nominations, four Peabody Awards, and numerous other honors. Recent films she edited include two episodes of Frontline’s series God In America and Wounded Knee, the closing episode of We Shall Remain, a series on Native American history produced by WGBH.  Benson made her directorial debut with her first production, All Our Sons-Fallen Heroes of 9/11, a half-hour documentary about the firefighters of color who died at the World Trade Center. The film was broadcast nationally on PBS in 2004. Lillian Benson is the first African-American female member of American Cinema Editors, an honorary editing society, and is a member of their Board of Directors. She also serves on the Editing Peer Group committee for the Television Academy.

 

TIMOTHY PYLE (Composer)

Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter

Tim became interested in music at an early age. The first time he heard “Papa–Oom-Mow-Mow” that crazy doo-wop song by The Rivingtons he started jumping around and a light went on. Didn’t know at the time what was going on but something was, then the British invasion, Stax, the Blues, Muscle Shoals, Jimi Hendrix, well you get the idea.

Tim started playing in his first band and writing original music at the age of nine with some of his grammar school pals. Studied music at Albertson College and after the first year of College, he got an offer to play guitar for Salem Mass, a Hard Rock Band in the Pacific Northwest, when their guitar player couldn’t go on tour to support their record. The band subsequently skyrocketed to obscurity, but the lessons learned on the road would last a lifetime. 1975 Moved back to L.A to attend UCLA. Then it was time to hit the road with various bands and session work for assorted projects in town. In the 80’s he became immersed in the Hollywood Club Scene with numerous bands most notably the pseudo punk band The L.A. Slugs, and later Good & Twisted. Members of the L.A. Slugs went on to write and produce the movie “2 Idiots in Hollywood” and Tim played guitar for the soundtrack. After breaking his left hand in a car accident on the way home from the studio, playing guitar was difficult and frustrating, so Tim worked pre-production as a lighting and soundman for various major recording artists. Then he got out of the music business worked a “day gig” and raised a family, still writing & playing music in a variety of bands from bluegrass to reggae, to funk to worship bands. After the kids grew up, both of whom became quite proficient musicians and played on the DLH soundtrack, the time was right to get back into the music business. Tim is currently writing & recording and culling through his songs for his forthcoming CD at his studio Tribal Knowledge Productions in West Hills, California.