About the Filmmakers
Jeff Lanctot (Right): Director, Cinematographer/DP, Editor, Original Music/Composer, Producer, Sound Editor, Writer
Jeff Lanctot has been an obsessed movie junkie for most of his life... A fact that many of his friends find to be quite insufferable as he tends to have (as his wife is fond of reminding him) a mind like a steel trap for useless movie trivia that no one cares about but him.
While he has always had a passion for film, initially his career ambitions were to become a world-famous rock guitar player after seeing Guns N' Roses play in 1989. He independently released an album in 1996 entitled ‘A Musing’- A collection of almost listenable acoustic guitar-driven tracks. He is pretty-sure that the Private Detective that he hired has managed to destroy all existing copies of the album to save an unsuspecting public from a fate worse than death… Being forced to listen to the album in its entirety. An unfortunate consequence of his ability to play many instruments and his outrageous claims that he can write and record music in his home studio has been that Manny has forced him to compose the music and write the lyrics for all of their productions together.
In the mid-90's, while studying in the drama school at the University of Washington he wisely dropped out of school and switched his focus to film because he knew that he'd have a much better chance of becoming a world-famous movie director than a world-famous rock star. Seriously. Jeff was a bit of an idiot in the mid-90's, much to his mother’s embarrassment.
Jeff's directorial debut came in 1998, when he wrote, produced, and directed the short film spoof 'Charlie's Angels Save Christmas.' The short film screened to a sold out audience at the 911 Media Arts Center in a companion short-film festival to the Seattle International Film Festival. He didn’t win any awards, but is pretty-sure that most of the audience clapped politely after watching it. After all, they were watching a Christmas-themed short-film in May. Harry Christmas is his feature-length film directorial debut.
He interests include long walks on the beach, romantic dinners, and puppies. In his spare time he lives in Spokane, WA with his wife and two dogs, enjoys personally saving rain forests from untimely destruction and rescuing stranded kittens from trees. Actually, he just watches a lot of the Discovery channel. Jeff has just finished post-production for Harry Christmas, and is now knee-deep in pre-production for his next film.
Manny Trembley (Left): Cinematographer/DP, Digital Effects, Editor, Lead Actor, Producer, Story, Writer
Manny Trembley began his illustrious career in film making by first drawing comics and producing musicals. While this may not seem like the obvious path towards film making, it is in fact how it all began. Having produced comics independently since '94, he recently published multiple comic books through Image Comics, one of the big 3 publishers. His books include: Sam Noir- Samurai Detective (3 issue arc), Sam Noir- Ronin Holiday (3 issue arc), and the all ages graphic novel PX! Book One- A Girl and Her Panda- a book nominated for two Eisner Awards.
Through his friendship with co-producer Jeff Lanctot the two crafted the hit musical called The Gift, an adaptation of the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy. This show ran for two Christmas' and was well received. This led the two to embark on what they both have been preparing for all their lives; to make movies.
Manny lives in Spokane, WA with his wife and dog Kody. He continues to publish books for fun and is prepping the next movie to be produced. No rest for the insane.