THE CREW BEHIND THE CAMERA

Our team is dedicated to bringing the story of the firefighters of North Riverside to a large audience.
They bring to the table years of experience in both documentary and narrative film and can't wait for you to see the finished picture.

COLIN C. HUGHES

DIRECTOR
​
Colin, born a Chicagoan, has worked on multiple internationally recognized films over the course of the last few years. Most recently, he was the editor of "Hominidae" (2020), a short film that premiered at Sundance Film Festival. As a director Colin has had critical success with his short film "Clarity" which took home an honorable mention at the 2015 After Hours Film Festival. After finishing up a degree in Film & Television Production at DePaul University, Colin went on to work for Light Iron, a Panavision Company. There he works as a dailies colorist for many of today's most talked about shows, including "Emily In Paris" — sorry France.  Today he lives in his parents basement in Riverside, Illinois — still waiting for that pandemic ending miracle that was promised for last April. ​

CALEY FOX SHANNON

PRODUCER
​
Caley Shannon is an award winning producer and a Chicagoan with deep roots in the communities where our story takes place. Caley co-produced the short documentary “A Concerto Is A Conversation,” which premiered at Sundance in 2021 and was nominated for a Best Documentary, Short Subject at the 2021 Academy Awards. Caley also produced “The Beauty President,” which premiered in March 2021 at SXSW. She has been at the helm of brand films for noted clients like Charles Schwab, Unity Technologies, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is currently a freelance producer based out of Washington, D.C.

---

MICHAEL X. FLORES

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
​
Michael X. Flores has worked on several award-winning films since graduating from the University of Southern California (USC), where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema-Television Production. While studying at USC, Michael edited the Student-Emmy-winning TV pilot, “Cost of Living” and wrote and directed an award-winning short film called “Esperando (Waiting/Hoping)”. After graduating from USC, Michael worked as an assistant editor on Tamra Davis’s documentary “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” (2010), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and on Bess Kargman’s documentary “First Position” (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He then edited Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival; Lisa and Laura Wilson’s documentary “Last Will. & Testament” (2012), which was executive produced by Roland Emmerich; and Kimberly Bautista’s documentary “Justice for My Sister” (2012), which won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. He also worked on Neil Berkeley’s documentary “Harmontown” (2014), which premiered at South by Southwest; Tommy O’Haver’s narrative feature for Netflix, “The Most Hated Woman in America” (2017), which premiered at South by Southwest; and Jason Kohn’s documentary for Showtime, “Love Means Zero” (2017), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In addition to working on these feature-length projects, he has also worked on a variety of other projects including narrative shorts, music videos, and commercials, and currently teaches film at DePaul University.

GREG CORNER

COMPOSER
​
​Greg got his start in the music business in 1997 as the bass player of Chicago alternative rock band Kill Hannah. They released two albums on Atlantic Records and toured around the world for 15+ years. In 2000 he started DJing and throwing club nights around Chicago and in 2005 became part of the DJ trio Dark Wave Disco (one of the first Indie Electro parties in the country). The group went on to perform with Justice, Mstrkrft, Digitalism, Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris and many others along with performing at Lollapalooza in 2008. In 2011 he was asked to DJ President Obama's 50th Birthday party in Chicago for his eclectic music taste and knowledge in all different genres of music. Later that year he would DJ for First Lady Michelle Obama and President Bill Clinton. From 2012-2019 Greg became the Music Director and Talent Buyer for JBTV Music Television in Chicago. At the time he was booking all these smaller up and coming acts (The 1975, Phantogram, Tame Impala, Charli XCX and Imagine Dragons to name a few) on the live performance show and months later would become huge artists. Since 2017 he's been DJing and hosting Indie-Pendent a Indie Rock & Indie Dance radio show on 101.1 FM WKQX in Chicago every Saturday night.

---

SCOTT LUCAS

COMPOSER
​
Scott Lucas is an American musician, who is best known for being the guitarist, bassist, and lead vocalist for Local H, as well as the lead vocalist and guitarist of Scott Lucas and the Married Men.

BRENDAN DEANE

CINEMATOGRAPHER
​
​Brendan has been a lifelong lover of storytelling through film. He is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Cinematography. He continues to work in Chicago on many television shows including "Chicago Med" and "Lovecraft Country".

JJ EVANS

EDITOR
​
​JJ has been editing a wide variety of film and video work over the past 15 years, continually sharpening his skill to tell stories through film.  After getting his start working in TV and docs in NYC, he’s since relocated to Chicago and been busy editing a wide-range of content from TV to shorts to feature-length documentaries, music videos, live events, and a wide variety of artistic and corporate work.  Recently he produced, edited and co-scored “Belonging in the USA: The Story of Michael D. McCarty”, which won Best Documentary at the Borderscenes film festival.