JFilm 2026 Guests

Author, recording artist, and internationally renowned concert pianist, Mona Golabek learned to play the piano from her mother, Holocaust survivor Lisa Jura, whose stories inspired the critically acclaimed book, The Children of Willesden Lane. Her father, Michel Golabek, fought valiantly in the French resistance and received the Croix de Guerre. In 2012, Mona made her stage debut in The Pianist of Willesden Lane, adapted from the book. The production, directed by Hershey Felder, has been celebrated by critics and audiences with sold-out theatrical runs in New York, London, and many other cities. Mona has received Best Actress nominations from the New York Drama Desk and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. A Grammy nominee, Mona is a prolific recording artist and has been the subject of several documentaries, including Concerto for Mona with conductor Zubin Mehta. Through all of her work, Mona holds on to the music that saved her mother’s life, fulfilling the promise Lisa made to her mother.

Event: HOLD ON TO YOUR MUSIC — A MOTHER'S LEGACY

Randall Halle is Distinguished Faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, where he regularly teaches courses on the Third Reich and film. He currently also serves as director of the European Studies Center/Jean Monnet European Union Center of Excellence.

Event: DISPOSABLE HUMANITY

Randy Kovitz is a filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician with a career spanning Broadway and regional stage, television, and feature films. An award-winning writer/director, his short films—including The Specials, Lightweight, and The Beat Goes On—have earned accolades at festivals nationwide. His portfolio also includes the interactive film 17 Days and his solo COVID-era project, Into the Breach. Beyond his creative work, Randy serves on the faculty at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, where he teaches acting for the camera and produces the video portion of the showcase material for his students. He plays drums for the Funk Band The Froods who perform and record in Pittsburgh and will be performing at the Three Rivers Arts Festival on June 13th. His extensive background also includes work as a fight director and stunt coordinator, notably serving as the fencing double for Raul Julia in The Addams Family. randykovitz.com

Event: VALIDITY

Dr. Hilla Nehushtan is a medical anthropologist and Teaching Assistant Professor in Jewish Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examines body size, weight stigma, and health through cultural, ethical, and institutional lenses, with a particular focus on medicine and Jewish contexts. Drawing on ethnographic methods, her work explores how bodies, morality, and care are negotiated in clinical and everyday life. Her work has been published in leading journals in medical anthropology and health research.

Event: HOLDING LIAT

Karen Ranucci has been involved in the field of independent video and film production and distribution for decades. Working at Downtown Community TV Center (DCTV) in New York, she taught video production workshops to community groups, started its documentary distribution and education departments, and co-produced the documentaries DCTV made for PBS. For nearly a decade, Karen freelanced as a reporter/producer/camera operator for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show and won a National Emmy for Best Investigative Reporting. Later, she founded the Latin American Video Archives, a non-profit organization dedicated to the distribution of Latin American-made film/video to the US educational market. Karen joined the Democracy Now! team in 2001 to help transform the daily radio news program into a simultaneous television and internet broadcast. She continued to work there in a variety of capacities for the next 12 years.

Event: STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!

Camila Rivera-Tinsley (she/her) has spent her career advocating for people and the environment. As CEO of the Women and Girls Foundation, she drives systems change to improve the lives of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals. Previously, she served as Director of Education for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, where she led the Frick Environmental Center—the first publicly owned Living Building in the United States. For 14 years prior, she stewarded environmental programming, mentored hundreds of students and early-career professionals, and co-founded a small nonprofit focused on people of color. With expertise in advocacy, environmental education, horticulture, permaculture, and urban agriculture, Rivera-Tinsley serves on numerous boards and coalitions. Her 20-year commitment to community service through her profession and volunteer work stems from a passion for empowering people to shape a more verdant, inclusive future. Above all, she is motivated by creating opportunities for leadership and civic engagement for all young girls and gender-expansive youth.

Event: CUZ YOU'RE UGLY

Stephanie Strasburg is a photo and video journalist with the independent newsroom Pittsburgh's Public Source, where she is dedicated to community journalism and trauma-informed reporting. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and Mid-Atlantic Emmy winner for reporting on abuse in Amish and Mennonite communities, she was also part of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette team that won the 2019 breaking news Pulitzer for coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue attack. Stephanie worked on staff at Pittsburgh's two daily newspapers from 2012-2022 and her recent freelance clients include ProPublica, The New York Times, The Guardian, and other international news outlets.

Event: STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!

Kate Vargish is a Los Angeles-based (by way of Pittsburgh) writer and producer. Her stories center around disenfranchised voices and dramatizing historical events. As a producer, she is proud to have brought life to a myriad of both student and professional projects. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and has produced numerous film and web projects in Seattle, Los Angeles, and the Pittsburgh area.

Event: VALIDITY

Jacob Yoffee is a composer and music producer whose work spans film, television, and some of the biggest trailer campaigns in Hollywood. He recently arranged and conducted the new Warner Bros. logo with a 55-piece orchestra and has scored NBC's hit series Bel-Air, Vampire Academy, ABC's The Wonder Years, Netflix's Chef's Table, Kevin Hart's Don't F*ck This Up, Ingress: The Animation, and Robert Downey Jr.'s Age of A.I. His trailer credits include campaigns for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, Ready Player One, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, Marvel's Secret Invasion, The Adam Project, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, among many others. Ethan Bloom marks his latest work as a feature film composer, a timely story that he's proud to help tell.

Event: ETHAN BLOOM