The Premiere Short Film Festival
of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.
Join us ~ Sept. 25th, 2025
Meet our 2025 Screening Committee
We are excited to experience your work!
Chantal House
Committee Member
​Chantal is a brand consultant, poet, and screenwriter, who writes from her perspective as a mother, creative, and second generation immigrant. Representation on- and off-screen is her life's work.
Her second chapbook 'My Hope Is Not A Wish' is published by Bottlecap Press, and her poems have been featured by Silver Birch Press and WNYC radio. Her screenplay 'A Creative Life' is a quarterfinalist of The Writers Lab 2025 program, a program supported by Meryl Streep. Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey and Natalie Portman.
Rebecca Paley
Committee Member
Rebecca Paley is a New York Times number one best-selling author of more than a dozen memoirs and other books. Her work has also appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Mother Jones, and ARTnews. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.
MEGAN TEFFT
Festival Director
Megan is a writer, actor, director, activist, producer and secret pop star based in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Her short film collaborations include The Garden Party (2024), The Hatching (2024), Freeze Response (2025), and Man on the Beach (post-production, 2025), all created with her film partner, G.G. McKay.
Megan founded Ditmas Shorts Fest because she’s most interested in bringing people together and creating cushy, safe spaces for folks to share their work and to inspire others to make weird things.
BILL HILFERTY
Committee Member
​Bill is a key grip, working in the NY film industry since 2010. He holds a degree in Film and Video from Penn State University. Some of Bill’s favorite projects over his career have been “Remember This” (2022), “The Card Counter” (2021), “Jackals & Fireflies” (2023), and several on location episodes of “Sesame St.” (2020-2022). As a big fan of the Muppets, this was a real highlight.
Bill has lived in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn for the last decade. He will soon be moving to Ithaca NY, to work in the organic food industry, as a flour miller.
SASKIA RIFKIN
Committee Member
Saskia is a director and producer, with over 20 years of experience working in independent film, television, and contemporary art. For the past decade, she has partnered with the internationally renowned artist Gregory Crewdson to produce his critically and commercially successful, major photography projects. She has also supervised production of numerous films and TV shows for prominent producers and directors, such as Mark Burnett and Abel Ferrara.
A native New Yorker, Saskia began her career by pursuing a degree in Film and Culture Studies at Barnard College; during that time she worked in the studio with seminal visual artist Robert Longo. Can Hitler Happen Here (2017) was her feature film directorial debut.
MICHAEL SLADEK
Committee Member
Michael is a writer, director, producer, editor, cameraperson and actor based in Brooklyn. His feature length credits include CON ARTIST, BAM150, and DEVILS ARE DREAMING.
Michael has made numerous shorts, videos, and branded content series as well as live theater productions.
He is the NY Consultant for SAGindie, and he teaches in the film department at Wagner College.
Michael is a member
of SAG-AFTRA.
