Global Cinema Meetup: Directing Duo THUNDERLIPS on Going From Short to Feature

THUNDERLIPS is a writing and directing duo forged over a decade of creating music videos on tiny budgets in Auckland, New Zealand. Sean and Jordan now apply their doubled emotion and intellect to long form projects that feature unforgettable characters, striking visuals and joyfully bombastic climaxes, favouring in-camera trickery and practical effects. Their super power consists of reaching elbows deep into the horror and absurdity of contemporary life, and bringing forth comedy.

Hannah Herchenbach is a writer and actress based on the South Island of New Zealand who embodies Tom Wolfe's saturation reporting ethos and Hunter S. Thompson's tendency to throw himself into the story. Born in Illinois, in 2010, as a freelance music writer, she moved to Dunedin, New Zealand to find Peter Gutteridge, an indie rock musician who had gained notoriety as a founding member of legendary Flying Nun bands in the 1980s but little had been heard from since. A few hours after arriving, she befriended him in the supermarket and began what has now been more than a decade of immersion in the South Island rock music scene, completing a PhD at the University of Otago in 2022. In the process, she formed her own indie rock band, PGX, whose debut EP Naive came out in February 2020 and debut album, White Suit, will be released on the Christchurch indie label Melted Ice Cream later this year. 

She was cast as a lead in Martin Sagadin's Spring Interlude, a 2019 independent film. Currently, she is developing a television series about the steep and hilarious learning curve of forming your first rock band in your 30s. She was in the Christchurch City Council's inaugural Toi Otautahi Filmmakers Incubator programme in 2022 and belongs to Te Puna Matarau, a committee advocating for filmmakers in the region. She is elated to be a Sundance Community Leader, as her passion lies in encouraging and nurturing fresh talent transitioning into the industry alongside her. 

Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN.

Elson joined the Sundance Collab team in October 2021 and produces courses, Master Classes, and events in the areas of screenwriting, television writing, directing, producing, and documentary filmmaking. She has moderated conversations with Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Susannah Grant, among others.

Prior to Sundance, Elson was the Thesis Production Supervisor at the American Film Institute for five years. She oversaw several award-winning graduate thesis films, notably the 2021 BAFTA student film winner APART, TOGETHER and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival short WE WERE MEANT TO. While at AFI, Elson developed a passion for sustainable production and created the Green Film School Alliance, which includes forty schools on four continents. She holds a BA in Communication and Film Studies from Concordia University and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.