Yuri Rutman
started making home movies at a young age believing he could recreate scenes from “Stars Wars” and “Taxi Driver” using old VHS cameras. When reality sank in, he alternated between studying film, creative writing, and communications in college, along with participating as an actor in such noted programs as Chicago’s Players Workshop Of Second City, Act One Studios, and others. Between his left brain and right brain adventures, he ended up producing and directing his first film “Mr. Id” and then went out to write, develop, direct, and produce numerous film & television projects for such companies as Fremantle Media North America, Spike TV, and others. Most recently he wrote, produced, and directed the independent film thriller “TRAINED”, in Chicago which is in post-production. He is also an actor’s director being on the other side of the camera and can currently be seen as a Russian Astronaut in a national commercial for www.letgo.com. The spot was produced by MJZ and Crispin Porter Bogusky, and, directed by Craig Gillespie. Yuri’s strength has been to scale and to evolve conceptualizing original productions for the rapid acceleration and distribution of both traditional and digital technologies. Yuri currently resides in Los Angeles, speaks fluent Russian, speaks English with no Russian accent, and keeps his sanity by training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu where he is a blue belt under Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles, along with days of Muay Thai and Astanga Yoga.
Scott Drucker is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Chicago. He has created works of non-fiction on such themes as memory, Jewish identity, conservation, and socioeconomic sustainability. His first documentary film at USC received a third place prize at the Jewlicious Film Festival, and his next project, an interactive cinema installment utilizing eye-detection, earned him an official selection at the First Look Interactive Festival. His thesis film, Between the Harvest, an exploration of the controversial community harvest of sea turtle eggs, has screened at more than 20 film festivals in 10 different countries, including the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Doc NYC, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Uppsala Short Film Festival, and Flickerfest in Australia. Since graduating, Scott has created documentary content for Showtime, ESPN, MSNBC, Hulu, US Soccer, and Liberty Skis. He has also worked on a wide range of feature docs, and has shot a number of Vice shows including: Motherboard: Season 1, Huang’s World, Munchies, and American Obsessions. Before settling in Chicago, he previously lived and worked in Argentina, Colorado, and Los Angeles. He is currently editing a film he wrote and directed in Serbia, along with the final stages of editing “Who Is Arthur Chu?”