Film Forum

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Lisa Hurwitz grew up in the storied Laurel Canyon neighborhood. She received a liberal arts degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and went on to work at arts organizations in Washington including The Olympia Film Society, where she directed The Olympia Film Festival, having started her affiliation there by volunteering as a 35 mm projectionist.  Lisa helped oversee The Arts + Ideas Stage at The Stroum Jewish Community Center of Greater Seattle and The Seattle Jewish Film Festival.  She later moved to New York City where she worked as a publicist at an Italian public relations firm.  Her first feature film THE AUTOMAT premiered at The 2021 Telluride Film Festival.  Her next project, a narrative romantic comedy film set in Italy, is currently in development.  She resides in Manhattan's Upper West Side.

David Freeland is the author of the book Automats, Taxi Dances and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattan’s Lost Places of Leisure. His other books include American Hotel: the Waldorf-Astoria and the Making of a Century,and Ladies of Soul. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York History, American Songwriter, and other publications.

Steve Stollman was an architecturals dealer who bought, sold and restored antique commercial wood bar fixtures, which led to preservation of original Automat equipment and provision to exhibitions at the NY Public Library and Museum of the City of New York. Currently living Upstate, with lifelong companion, Melissa, Steve currently is designing and building prototypes of enclosed, human/solar/electric pedicabs.