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Persona 2007

About the Artists

Peter Bielunas was born in Poland on April 3rd 1984. He lived there for eleven years at which point he immigrated with his parents to the United States. They settled in Bayonne, NJ which is where he currently resides. He finished fourth grade in Poland and after moving to the U. S. he resumed his education at Midtown Community School in Bayonne. Peter completed the English as a second language program there within two years and transferred to Phillip G. Vroom School. He graduated from Vroom School and went on to Bayonne High School. Peter enrolled at NJ City University in the fall of 2003. He will graduate with honors, in the winter of 2007 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Media Arts. His work ranges from experimental to documentary to narrative.

Janine LaShelle Delaney was born in Newark, NJ on April 30, 1985. She received a full scholarship to attend NJ City University after her graduation from Arts High School in Newark, where she majored in fine art. She received her first taste of media arts as a member of the video club at her high school and developed a passion which carried over into her college career. In her years as a Media Arts major, Janine has produced a number of exceptional short works. She was recently honored as a "University Achiever" for her high academic standing and she plans on graduating in May 2008.

Barry Goldman hails from Bayonne, NJ, was born on June 22, 1979, and has always been drawn to the arts. He began music lessons at the age of nine and became interested in photography when he was given his grandfather’s trusty old Nikon FE2 camera. Once enrolled at NJ City University he discovered a new love - the moving image. It was there he learned to appreciate the fine art of film editing and cinematography, applying the skills of composition he learned through years of photography. After graduating from the Media Arts Department in 2002, he concentrated on music production primarily with an artist from South Africa who was subsequently signed to Verve Records in the U. S. Wielding the saxophone he, along with his long time friend and music partner, has just completed the music production work on a new Nike commercial for the up and coming basketball star Lebron James. He is currently working on producing more of his own music as well as future commercials and collaborative projects with his fellow musicians.

Daniel Bryan Hendlowitch was born in Old Bridge, New Jersey on November 6th, 1984. He currently resides with his family in East Brunswick, NJ. His education has been a maze of isolated classrooms, and different reform and special education schools. He is hitting his stride now as a Media Arts Department major at NJ City University and demonstrates much promise as an emerging artist.

Stephen Leon was born in December 1973 and raised in Jersey City. Over the years, Stephen has worked his way up the food chain in media production from storyboard artist to director of photography to producer/director. His work was screened at the Landmark Loew´s Jersey Theatre in Jersey City in 2003 and 2005. He has collaborated with many of his fellow artists on projects including documentary shorts, narrative shorts and graduate thesis films. He is in great demand as a storyboard artist, and has an impressive list of productions that he has worked on in this capacity including the independent feature film "The Pack." He is currently in the post-production stage of his film "The Muster Zone," a documentary short about the struggles of immigrants to support themselves and their families as day laborers. Outside of his film career, he is an electrician by trade. He moved to Freehold, NJ in 1995 and has been living there ever since with his wife Maria and their two-year-old son Cameron. He graduated from NJ City University in May 2007 and plans to enroll in a graduate film program thereafter.

Louis Libitz was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and now resides in Syracuse, New York. He is an award-winning videomaker currently studying for his Master of Fine Arts Degree in Art Video at Syracuse University, where he received a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. His work has been screened at Anthology Film Archives and the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema in NYC; the Loew´s Jersey Theater and The Jersey City Museum in Jersey City, New Jersey; and at the Hoboken Historical Museum in Hoboken, NJ. Recently, his work has been screened at the Fine Art School of the Aristotelian University in Thessaloniki, Greece; at the 7th Biennial of Video and New Media of Santiago, Contemporary Museum of Art, Santiago, Chile; and at the York Arts Gallery in York, PA. He received an Honorable Mention at the 24th Annual Black Maria Film/Video Festival. Louis designs and creates DVD´s for other artists/filmmakers, and is highly sought after as a video and audio post-production engineer. Upon graduation from New Jersey City University, he was awarded the prestigious Dr. Joseph Drew Award for Excellence in Production. He taught as an adjunct professor of video production in the Media Arts Department at New Jersey City University, and teaches advanced post-production at the Department of Transmedia at Syracuse University. His work was featured at the Cape May Film Festival, SPEMA (Society for Photographic Education Mid-Atlantic Region) at the University of Pennsylvania, at the Red Saw Gallery in Newark, NJ, and at the Athens Film and Video Festival. He recently received the prestigious Shaffer Award from the graduate faculty, College of Visual and Performing Arts, and graduated with his M. F. A. from Syracuse University in May 2007.

Yutaka Ueda is a native of Japan who came to NJ City University to study media arts production. He graduated with a B. A. in Media Arts in 2003. Yutaka won many awards for his unique productions during his tenure in the Media Arts Department. His piece, "Heritage," which is part of the "Persona" showcase premiered at the 25th Annual Asian Cinevision Film Festival in NYC, and screened at the Asian American Film Festival in Chicago, in 2002. He designed digitally animated credit sequences for numerous video screenings produced by the Media Arts Department of NJ City University, including URBAN IMAGE; the Fort Lee Film Commission; the Womenswork Media Collective; and for Jane Steuerwald’s film "Rocket Experts" which screened at MoMA in 2002. His piece, "Kagome," was nominated for the Best Experimental Short in the Dahlonega International Film Festival in 2003, and was selected by the Downstream Film Festival and the San Diego Asian American Film Festival also in 2003. Yutaka is currently studying for his M. F. A. at City College of NY.