Meet the Team

Guinevere Thomas

writer/director

Guinevere Thomas is an LA-based writer/director from Austin,Texas in her 2nd year as a Directing Fellow at The American Film Institute Conservatory. Prior to AFI, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication with a specialization in Documentary and Video Journalism from George Washington University (GW). During her time at GW, Guinevere was the President of Black Heritage Celebration committee and the Showrunner for Rough Cut Productions, GW’s student-led production company. In addition to her studies at AFI, Guinevere currently works as an intern in the Crew department at Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY. Being raised in Texas to Creole parents, Guinevere has always allowed her cultural roots to influence and guide her work. In her films, she explores growing pains, family, and the southern Black American experience through Comedy, Drama, and the Southern Gothic genre.

Lauren Milan Rausaw is a Producer of films and animated content based in Los Angeles. Rausaw received her BFA in Film, Animation, and Video from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and is currently pursuing her MFA in the Producing program at the American Film Institute (AFI). In addition to working in development at The Gotham (formerly IFP) and writing script coverage for Lulu Wang and Dani Melia's (Local Time), Rausaw has worked as a Production Manager for Nike's Chicago Home Court Campaign. In recent years, she has worked on sets for Adobe, Beats by Dre, Emerald Pictures, MassAppeal Productions in Chicago and New York. More recently, Rausaw has worked with the post production team on 'Expats' a new series Directed and Executive Produced by Lulu Wang starring Nicole Kidman and Brian Tee. 

Chiara is a screenwriter born and raised in Rome, Italy. She is currently a Screenwriting Fellow at AFI and graduated from the London Film School with an MA in Screenwriting in 2021. Even before getting her MA, Chiara had always been passionate about writing for cinema and theater and obtained a BA in Cultural Heritage, focusing on Writing for Cinema and Theater in 2020. More recently, she gained valuable experience as a story development intern for feature films, TV shows, and stage plays at Faster Horse Pictures and MANAGE-MENT.

Matt Kleppner is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer completing his second year at the American Film Institute. Prior to AFI, Matt worked as a cinematographer, camera operator, and lighting technician on short films, music videos, and branded/commercial content in and around Los Angeles. His most recent horror short Return to Sender, directed by Russell Goldman and produced by Jamie Lee Curtis and Jake Katofsky, is playing this year at over twenty festivals across the U.S. including Fantastic Fest, Portland Film Festival, and opening night at Hollyshorts Film Festival. The grandson of Caribbean, Chinese, and Jewish immigrants, Matt has always held a special affinity for intimate stories about personal and cultural identity in the U.S. Matt holds a degree in Film Studies and American Studies from Wesleyan University where his undergraduate thesis film Moving Day received honors and the NNK Award for best screenplay.

Jolien Louis is a LA-based, New York-raised designer wrapping up her second year at the American Film Insittute. Her life before filmmaking centered on design in theater, crafting both light and scenic design while also studying performance practices at the George Washington University, in Washington D.C. After completing her BA at GWU, Jolien moved to California in order to expedite her MFA in design. Storytelling, whether through theater, dance, or the literary arts has been a facet of Jolien’s life since childhood. The most fulfilling aspect of this work for her has been able to help people share their stories and learn how the arts improve human development. At GWU she started organizations that centered the voices of POC students and enacted community engagement through the school’s theater work. Moreover, as a freelance artist, she has had the fortune of participating in dynamic works that can be found on her website: jolienlouis.com

Sam Vallone is a graduate of Tulane University, with BAs in Digital Media Production and Environmental Studies. While at Tulane, he worked as a videographer for the Critical Visualization Media Lab to document environmental injustice in Louisiana. Sam loves music, movies, hiking, strange sounds, and weird facts about all manner of things. Oh, and He’s editing this film. Sam loves putting the pieces of a film together like a puzzle. Trying to find the best match, The best way to tell the story. Sam can’t wait to start editing our film. To see all of the hard work the team has done come together into a single thing. To show everyone what we can do. And he can’t wait for all of the fun and creepy sound effects he’ll get to make while doing it.

Melisande McLaughlin is a writer and filmmaker driven by the arts’ power to address contemporary human and environmental rights-based issues in intimate and nuanced ways. She has co-created VR films on Kenya's Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement with FilmAid International and on Puerto Rican artists' responses to Hurricane Maria with support from the Flamboyan Arts Fund. Most recently, she graduated from UPenn with a BA in Cinema Studies, and the short documentary she co-produced on Ethiopia's Jewish Community's decades-long struggle to make Aliyah premiered on Discovery+. While Canadian, she was raised in Thailand, France and Wales; and is now based in the US, where she is a Screenwriting Fellow at AFI.