MATT GOLDMAN - Founder
Director Editor
Matt Goldman launched his filmmaking career in 1999 when his award winning debut short film Broke was exhibited in dozens of film festivals and licensed worldwide for television broadcast.
Goldman’s second award winning short film The Perpetual Life of Jim Albers screened at Sundance, Resfest, Rotterdam, as well as dozens of other international festivals. It too was exhibited internationally on several TV stations including The Sundance Channel and Channel Thirteen’s Reel NY. The great success of Albers landed Goldman a spot in Filmmaker Magazine’s ‘25 New Faces of Independent Film’.
Highlights of Matt’s documentary work include the TV documentary, Pay to Play; The Rise and Fall of Napster (2001). His hilarious mockumentary Sound Suit Diaries took home the Spirit Award at the Brooklyn International Film Festival in 2003.
Most recently Goldman has been making short film inserts for the acclaimed children’s show Sesame Street, as well as branded entertainment for clients like Red Bull, commercial spots for Sony Playstation and music videos which have aired on both MTV and Fuse.
When not directing, Goldman works as an editor. His clients include: Michel Gondry & Partizen Pictures, MTV Networks, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, The Sundance Channel, The E! Network, The Wayans Brothers, Moxie Pictures, The Voom Network, Matador Records, 4AD Records, Worlds Away, Goldcrest Post, Big Fuel & Roadside Entertainment.
JOSH HASSIN
Designer / Director
A Recent Akjakian, Hassin brings his art and design skills to the directing table. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in fine art, Hassin went on to design and produce video games for the Sony Playstation and Playstation 2 consoles. After working on many top titles, such as “NHL Faceoff 98 & 99” and the critically acclaimed “JetX20,” Hassin started his own freelance firm, Josh Hassin Design.
Since 2000, Hassin Design has (among other things) created packaging for McDonalds, apparel for Quiksilver, in addition to directing and producing television and internet videos for MTV and Sony.
Hassin has done album artwork and packaging for Metric, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton, Gary Jules, the Greyboy Allstars and many more…
Hassin has been nominated for various awards and in 2007 was nominated for the prestigious Plug Awards for his packaging design for Emily Haines “Knives Don’t Have Your Back.”
His initial forays in directing were in motion capture and VO directing for video games; his background in 3D modeling, animation and live action directing made him the perfect candidate to direct the multimedia spots for Sony Europe’s PSP title “Gangs of London,” and viral trailers for Sony’s PS3 fighter “Genji 2” and renegade racer “Motorstorm.”
His most recent work was co-directing with Akjak’s Goldman on the highly acclaimed all-puppet video for the Greyboy Allstars song, “Still Waiting.” The video recently aired on the MTV networks and Much Music Canada, among others....
When Hassin isn’t busy getting carpal tunnel he tries to pick up ye’ old paintbrush between baby cries and dog barks.
His past clients include: Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, MTV networks, TNT network, ABC, Metric and Last Gang Records, McDonald’s, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Quiksilver/Roxy, K2 Snowboards, Transistor studios and Dreamworks SKG.
JONATHAN GOLDMAN
Screenwriter
Nepotism aside, Jonathan Goldman is Matt’s older brother. He moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after completing his feature-length thesis film, Anytime, which traveled the country at various film festivals.
After working on several film and music video sets, Jon cut his Hollywood teeth working as a second unit director for Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American, Rabbit Proof Fence, Clear and Present Bone Collector, Danger, Patriot Games). Since then he has directed several 2nd Unit sets including on Madonna’s video Music, directed by the award winning Jonas Ackerlund.
Jonathan has several sreenplays under his belt and is considered a master at his craft even by his enemies (if he had any). He has written screenplays for several production companies including Water’s Edge, a horror/thriller for Sony-based producer Sid Ganis ("Big Daddy,” “Deuce Bigalow,” “Mr. Deeds").
The GOLDMAN BROTHERS cowrote The Kite, a satire about corporate espionage in the shaving industry and he most recently secured an option for the novel Branches, a dark tale of vigilante justice. The GOLDMAN BROTHERS plan on making Branches their debut feature project.
Jonathan currently resides in total seclusion in a Los Angeles home with his wife, daughter and dog. The white fence is on backorder.
DEVIN OLDEN
Motion Graphics
The Goldman / Olden collaboration saw its first days at CNET TV in San Francisco. Soon, they were working on other projects together such as “Pay to Play” and “The Perpetual Life of Jim Albers”. More recently they completed a series of viral videos for director Michel Gondry.
Having done the cinematics on many successful multi-million dollar game titles, he is well suited to handle the needs of Akjak. He is also a total bad-ass and one of the best guys you’ll ever be lucky enough to work with or even meet (no he’s not writing this).
Devin likes to climb really big mountains. This keeps him from going insane because the rest of his time is spent huddled over a computer screen.
MIKAL HAMEED
Production Designer/ Producer
Mikal was born the son of Jazz musician Obie Jesse and was raised in South Central Los Angeles. He was brought up in an environment that inspired much of his artistic endeavors. His uncle Dwayne Jessie was a founding member of Otis Day and the Nights, and starred in many of the classic Black-sploitation movies of the 1970’s.
Mikal gained a reputation in the Bay Area as a Storyteller/Performance Artist.
After moving to NYC, Mikal decided to make a major career change. Now, 10 years later, he is well known as a premier Production Designer for music videos and commercials and feature films.
Mikal’s clients include Nas, P Ditty, Moby, Kanye West, Jay Z, Sting, Wyclef Jean, Beyonce’, Liza Minelli, Mos Def, Mary J Blige and countless others.
STEVEN FRAILEY
Musician/Filmmaker
Aside from being the madman behind Vader Sessions, Frailey is first and foremost a musician. He is responsible for doing every piece of original score that you can find on akjak’s site. His work on The Perpetual Life of Jim Albers is of particular brilliance as is his song for Sesame Workshop’s Alphabet Town. His musical stylings range from classical to cartoon and ambient to cowboy blues.
Frailey and Goldman have been working together since shag carpeting and pong and they are continuing that tradition up to the present day.
STEPHEN BUTLER
Sound
Aside from playing the lead role in The Perpetual Life of Jim Albers, Butler also collaborates with Frailey in the scoring much of Akjak’s music.
Butler is an ethnomusicologist and sound engineer who travels the world to discover previously unrecorded music. He has spearheaded many recording projects from Native American performers, to Snake Charmers of India and Prayer Chants of Tibet.
Butler was a co-creator of Vader Sessions though he requested to remain anonymous. We’ve decide to specifically disobey his request and give credit where its due.
MARK SMITH
Cinematographer/Producer
When Mark had just moved to NYC, he met a man who was in the feature film business and he offered this advice: “Pick one thing you want to do and stick with it, it’s the only way you’ll get anywhere;” Advice, that he promptly ignored.
Mark went on to numerous lives in the television and film media world. Starting with a position at USA Networks, Mark had an opportunity to learn the media business from virtually all the points of view, as production assistant, a sound mixer, photographer, editor, director and producer.
As a DP, Mark has worked for all the broadcast and large cable networks in the US as well as independent production companies in both entertainment and documentary sides of the business. Some of his past shooting assignments include an A&E Biography, ABC News, Wide World of Sports, Food Network, NBC Olympic Unit, Olympic Winter Games Nagano Japan 1998, History Channel, PBS, BBC, feature films such as The Look, Returning Mickey Stern and Errors Freak & Oddities.
When there is spare time, he finds snowboarding and down hill mountain biking paradoxically relaxing.
MATTHEW WHITMAN
Director / Producer / Motion Graphics
Matthew Whitman has been creating award winning work for heavy hitter clients for over 10 years. Matthew’s client list in Film, Television, Advertising, Gaming, Medical, Live Event Production, and Education is simply unparalleled.
They include among others, Sony Computer Entertainment America/Japan, Fox, Namco, Novartis, The United Nations FAO division, DreamWorks SKG, Sesame Street Workshop, DEF-JAM Records, Intel, THUD RUMBLE, The Academy of Art San Francisco, Dr. Octagon, LucasFilm, and many others who have found an attraction to Matthew’s unique ground-breaking style of Filmmaking, Animation, Compositing, and Direction.
Matthew spends his time running his own media company called Studiobee (http://www.studiobee.com) based out of San Francisco and New York City.
Goldman and Whitman are longtime collaborators whose history stretches all the way back to the halcyon days of college back in Arizona. Most recently they directed a successful piece for the National Osteoporosis Foundation and completed two successful shorts for Sesame Street on Triangles, and the Brain.
They are currently four years into a feature length documentary which has yet to be announced.
RAFFI ADLAN
Producer
While cousin to the Goldmans, Raffi Adlan managed to carve out a highly distinguished film career totally unbenownst to the other side of the family for over a decade.
It all started in the summer of ‘89, when Raffi paid a visit the Goldman family in Phoenix. There he saw one of Matt’s first ‘movies’ and for some reason it left an impression on him. Raffi quickly returned home to Garden Grove and delved into the oh-so-glorious world of moviemaking himself.
Over a decade later, Raffi and Matt were reunited by accident and discovered that not only were they neighbors; but that Raffi was producing music videos commericals and feature films with renowned director Michel Gondry. Mr Adlan most recently Associate Produced Michel’s latest feature, “Be Kind Rewind” starring Jack Black & Mos Def(release date TBD).
Raffi and Akjak are now collaborating on several projects and has every intention of producing Goldman’s feature films just as soon as he has the time.
PAUL GEORGEADES
Screenwriter
Paul Georgeades is a screenwriter. His sharp wit, brilliant comic timing and sick sense of humor makes him a perfect member of the Akjak team.
His screenplay Rubberneck is a twisted and hilarious sex comedy and was written in collaboration with Matt Goldman. Rubberneck is currently in development at Akjak. Other projects Georgeades is developing at Akjak include Escort, Straight Curious and Vineyard Haven.