9 best public elementaries

About the Actor

Zoe Lister-Jones grew up in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of two artists. She graduated with honors from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at the Atlantic Theatre Company Acting School. Lister-Jones wrote and starred in her critically acclaimed one-woman show entitled Codependence is a Four Letter Word, which premiered at NY's P.S. 122, in November 2004. Additionally, she has completed her first screenplay, entitled Dolly, which is in the midst of pre-production. For a number of years, she toured the city with the glam rock art band, Maxi Geil, playing at venues such as Joe's Pub, Luxx, and Galapagos, for which she was heralded by Culture Bunker Magazine as Olivia Newton-John on glue.

Francis Benhamou was born in Uruguay and raised in Miami. Her film credits include Lead roles in Arranged and Noah Buschel's Neal Cassady. She played the title character in Lucia which won BEST SHORT FILM in the 2006 Charlotte Film Festival. Other credits include: The ESPN mini-series Bronx Is Burning. She gets her exotic looks from her Eastern European mother, and Moroccan father. She attended New York University, graduating with a minor in Acting and studied Meisner Technique with Maggie Flanigan.

About the Director

Diane Crespo was born and raised in Queens. Drawn to the dramatic arts at a young age, she received a B.A. in theatre from Roger Williams College, and studied at the graduate level at the London School of Dramatic Arts. Following a brief stint in L.A., where she worked at Canon and New World Pictures, she returned to New York to work in theatre. She met Stefan working off-off Broadway, where she directed a series of one-act plays he had written. They went on to form the production company Cicala Filmworks, where their initial focus was creating short documentaries for clients such as the Guggenheim Museum, the NYC Department of Education, and Roundabout Theatre. As the company grew, she also produced and directed numerous music videos and commercials for clients such as Ben Folds Five, 1-800 Flowers, Virgin Records and 97.9 La Mega. Documentary credits include: CONTESTED STREETS, TAKING A RISK IN EDUCATION, a two-part film on educational reform; and RISE TO THE CHALLENGE, a three-part documentary on successful parenting created for the College Board.

Stefan Schaefer was born in Boston, spent his childhood in Sussex, England, and his adolescent years in Detroit and New York. He graduated from Wesleyan University with degrees in political theory and theater. Following a year and a half in Germany - where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar and worked as a journalist - he returned to New York and founded Cicala Filmworks with Diane Crespo. Over the past ten years he has written, directed and produced feature films, documentaries, music videos and TV commercials. CONFESS, his debut narrative feature, premiered at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival, where Stefan won the Best Screenwriter award. In 2006 he directed and produced the one-hour television documentary CONTESTED STREETS, which looks at what New York City can learn from London, Paris and Copenhagen in terms of organizing its streets and public spaces. The film will be broadcast nationally via FreeSpeechTV in 2007. In April-May 2007 he was on location in Iceland, where THE HIGHER FORCE, a feature he co-wrote, co-produced and acted in, was helmed by Olaf Johannesson. The film stars, among others, Michael Imperioli from the SOPRANOS.