Income inequality has hit the highest level since the U.S started tracking it five decades ago. Our country is at a tipping point. 47% of American jobs are at high risk of being lost of automation by the mid 2030s
Over the past few generations millions in the middle class have been pushed to the edge and even into poverty. Shamed into believing that if they tried harder things might work out, the middle class has been silent. No more. Americonned exposes the inside story, showing how corporations have wormed their way into government, laying out why the middle class should rise, and how it should do it.
Director / Producer
Sean Claffey has more than 25 years in the film industry spanning feature films, industry documentaries and commercials.
Sean is drawn to emotionally compelling projects and embraces the rigors of getting the story right, even under the most challenging circumstances.
Producer/Writer
Dave Pederson has been an entertainment professional for over 20 years with expertise in Film & Television production, development, sales and distribution.
Dave’s successes include the first internet to television show with MTV’s “I Bet You Will”, producer of the Oscar nominated film “Super Size Me”, and the Cannes Award winning “The Third Wave”.
producer/executive producer
Jillian Hurley is a media consultant with over 25 years of experience maximizing exposure and optimizing messaging for clients.
Jillian is also a long-time activist for the working poor, focusing her efforts in areas including affordable housing, middle class healthcare, childcare reform, racial equality, and children’s rights.
Jillian’s previous production experience includes field producer and casting for National Geographic, CBS News, ABC News,Oprah! & news magazines.
Her social justice work includes advising clients in Black Lives Matter, Ground Level Support to assist in framing public messaging for police reform and efforts throughout the country to finance Habitat for Humanity homes.
producer/executive producer
An amatuer economist Jeff Mann has 25+ years in the corporate and entrepreneurial world.
His interest in America’s economic bubble and the disparate fates of the very rich, the middle class and the working poor led him on an autodidactic journey studying economic theory.
Jeff’s research and economic experts not only define America’s current dangerous economic situation but provide the viewer with a clear understanding that destruction of the middle class is not fate but a clearly defined path designed by big business and their influence on both parties.
Jeff’s production experience includes logistics, casting experts, interviews and fact-checking.
expert/executive producer
Len Monfredo is an entrepreneur, business owner and humanitarian. In 1994 started his film career building and designing sets. Len is passionate about making the world a better place and is committed to working on projects that help lift the human spirit.
Editor
Marissa Gouverne is a New York City based documentary and commercial video editor. Hailing originally from Corpus Christi, Texas, she studied story structure and technique at the University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in topics ranging from arts & culture to social justice, having worked on such documentary productions as Finding Babel, Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death, Like Any Other Kid, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, and Lenox Hill. When she’s not at her computer, she is almost certainly watching a movie, enjoying a cold beer with her partner, or absolutely crushing at karaoke.
Editor
Meghan Sims is an award-winning editor and filmmaker whose work has been recognized by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Midwest Film Festival, NY Times Op-Docs, and Vimeo Staff Pick’s Best of the Year Awards. Her feature film credits include BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME
(SXSW 2012), as well as TICKLING GIANTS (TriBeCa 2016) as an assistant editor. She also assisted Academy Award-winning director Laura Poitras (CITIZENFOUR) and editor Melody London (STRANGER
THAN PARADISE, HEART OF A DOG) on RISK, Poitras’ film about Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2016. In 2020 she edited
OUT OF DARKNESS for director Tanaz Eshaghian (BE LIKE OTHERS, Sundance(2009). In 2021 she edited AMERICONNED, a feature documentary about income inequality in America from The New Deal to today, working closely with story consultant Christopher Seward (FAHRENHEIT 9/11,ONE CHILD NATION). Starting in January 2021 she has been working with Nadav Kurtz on UNTITLED SAM PROJECT.
Art Director
Graduating from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Massachusetts born Joseph Guillette began
working in publishing and package design in 1996. He began his career in TV and Film in 2000 by helping start a dot-com company that produced web content with hopes to turn it into television programming. They managed the very first web show on TV, I Bet You Will, with Joseph as art director and co-host. A year later the company made the Academy nominated, Super Size Me with Joseph as its art and animation director.
Since then he’s worked as a storyboard artist for film, TV and commercials. Having many skills he also does graphic design and original art for production companies, musicians, and festivals, his illustrations and graphic design regularly appear on Law & Order SUV.
He continues to package concepts for TV and Film with several production
companies and individual writers. He also regularly publishes his own online comic
strips. Joseph resides in Connecticut painting, drawing and signmaking.
Shine the Light Films is committed to producing quality documentaries that illuminate and confront injustice without yielding to fear, corporate coercion and political pressures. Our movies are about humanity, about the herculean challenges of survival and the disease of corruption.
