About Collaborators

Elena Taurke Joseph (aka TaJo) is a videomaker, a practicing clinical psychologist, a sometime performer, and the director of OGReHome.com.  Belonging has eluded Elena for as long as she can remember. She has tried to contort herself, tried to find the right label, tried to learn the rules of the group, and she still doesn't fit in. She is an outsider's outsider and yet many would consider her an insider. A fruitful conundrum.
 

• Outsider Outsider Credentials:  Childhood disability meant no gym class, no teams--only the company of other rejected bodies. And being a child of Russian immigrants whose father was in the Army during the cold war meant certain rejection by the other army brats. But there was no category to cling to. Not Jewish enough to be part of the club. Not Black. Not Queer, ok a little, but not enough. ADD but not enough for special help. And not enough Ethnic, not enough Cynical, not enough Naive, not enough Hip, not enough Suburban, or Urban, not enough Not Enough.
   
• Professional Credentials:  Elena has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from NYU, and completed a Fellowship in Family Systems Medicine. Now in private practice in downtown NYC, she previously worked at Beth Israel and Columbia  teaching medical residents 'psychosocial skills.'  LONG BEFORE all that, Elena made her first attempt at a performing career, but had to become a shrink to overcome her fear of auditioning. She has nailed it now though, and is just waiting for the call. MEANWHILE, when not practicing Shrinkhood or Motherhood, she dances and makes videos.

Collaborators:

Matthew Polis is a sound designer and mixer in New York who specializes in working creatively with independent filmmakers and producers.  Matthew's work with narratives, documentaries, and television has been seen at festivals such as Sundance, Tribeca, GenArt and SXSW and on television stations including CBS, Discovery, OWN, and PBS.  Matthew teaches sound mixing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where he also went to school. When not in front of a mixing board, matthew is most likely holding a camera taking photos of his wife and two daughters.

Molly White is a producer and musician.  She is the director of the whimsical-torch-song-pop band B is for Baroness and a founding member of the Brooklyn based old-time-orchestra Kotorino.  Molly started playing Suzuki violin at six, and moved on to classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz.  She earned a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology from UT Austin and has spent over ten years studying musics from different parts of the world including Indonesian Gamelan, Latin American folk music, and Eastern European singing.  She has taught small ensembles at UT Austin, Latin American music appreciation at the University of New Mexico, and music theory and world music at LA Trade Tech College and guitar at the Brooklyn Guitar School.  In her spare time she busks in the subways, writes poetry, blogs about creativity, travels, and meditates at the Village Zendo and the Interdependence Project on Bowery.

Janet Hamlin graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in 1987, moved to New York City, working with a range of clients that include Time Warner, Universal Studios, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, IBM, HarperCollins, and most recently she covered the tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as the sole courtroom artist for the Associated Press in 2006 and 2007 with award-winning artwork that was produced world-wide in every media format for the David Hicks tribunal. Working in either traditional or digital media, she loves making art - narrative, conceptual, or just for the beauty of it.