Spoiler Alert Radio

This was recorded from the 12th year of the Rhode Island International Film Festival, or RIIFF, bringing in talented visiting filmmakers from across the globe.We spoke with creators of the short films: Hakim, Under My Garden, Gone Fishing, Hold On, and Ikigai.

Dominic Musacchio is a producer at Northern Light Productions in Boston, MA and who has co-produced the powerful documentary, Killer Poet.

Killer Poet is about Norman Porter, a controversial Massachusetts prisoner with 2 life sentences who spent 25 years in prison, escaped and lived in Chicago for 20 years as a poet/intellectual under a fake name, and then was caught in 2005 by the Mass State Police and is back in max-security prison.

It won Best Documentary in the Boston International Film Festival and screened in Hot Docs.

The Rauch Brothers, Mike and Tim Rauch, are independent animators out of Brooklyn, NY.In 2007, they formed Rauch Brothers Animation, a studio that collaborates with visionaries in literature, music, performance, and other creative arts through character design, animation, and visual storytelling.The Rauch Brothers have recently teamed with David Isay, five time Peabody Award-winning radio documentarian and founder of StoryCorps, to create an animated documentary of the piece from StoryCorps about a World War II veteran Joseph Robertson who recalls shooting a young German soldier at The Battle of the Bulge, his "saddest memory”, called Germans in the Woods.

Germans in the Woods has one 2nd place in the ASIFA-East Animation Festival and is screening at film festivals worldwide including the Animation Block Party and The Palm Springs International Shorts Fest.

Simon Rouby is a French animator who completed his studies at Gobelins L' Ecole de L'Image in partnership with the California Institute of the Arts.Simon's films include the animated shorts Blind Spot and Le Presage/The Omen.His films have screened in many film festivals including: Animafest, Cannes, Imagina. His films have one several festival awards and Blind Spot was selected for Mike Judge’s The Animation Show.Le Presage/The Omen is about a man leaving his hand-made dwelling that treks out in search of food into the wilderness where things are not what they seem.

Documentary filmmaker Renee Brown tells great visual stories through her work. She has made several short documentary films that have been featured in a variety of film festivals nationally and internationally including:The New Beijing International Movie Festival, The Nashville International Film Festival, The Dingle International Film Festival in Ireland, and the Short Shorts Film Festival Asia. One of her documentary shorts is called Katy Sullivan. This short film shows the inspirational Katy Sullivan as she trains in her carbon fiber running legs.

Born in St Petersburg, Russia and having lived in New York City since the mid 1990s, Alex Budovsky is well known for his distinctive style of animated music videos. These include Bathtime in Clerkenwell for The Real Tuesday Weld and Return I Will to Old Brazil from Geoff Muldaur. His videos have won a number of awards including from the KROK International Animated Film Festival in Ukraine in addition to Sundance Online and the Ottawa International Animation Festival.He has also worked on a number of other commercial and educational animation projects for Sesame Street and Greenpeace.

Trevor Jimenez is an animator and an alum of the prestigious Sheridan College Animation Program in Oakville, Ontario.Trevor is the creator of a uniquely drawn 2D animated film, Key Lime Pie. It is a 2D animated spin on the noir genre, and the story basically revolves around this character who is obsessed with key lime pie.Key Lime Pie has been screened in many film festivals including Toronto After Dark, The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and The Animation Show.

Cecily Gambrell began performing at the age of six, born from a theatrical family, and whose great aunts were Gypsy Rose Lee and June Havoc.Some of Cecily's other work includes acting on Desperate Housewives, and High Hopes for which she wrote the shooting screenplay and co-stars with Edward Furlong, Lacey Chabert, and David Faustino. She wrote and produced award-winning documentary Champion, profiling the life of actor and ex-convict Danny Trejo with director Joe Eckardt through The Film Emporium. Also featured are Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper, Steve Buscemi and Robert Rodriguez. Cecily also collaborated with Joe Eckardt on High Hopes which was released on Lion's Gate on DVD.

Since receiving his B.F.A. in Drawing from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Joel Trussell worked as an animation director in Seattle, animating online projects for clients including Disney, Napster, and the band Devo. Joel has also directed animated television commercials for companies including Esurance and Nicorette.Joel has also directed several music videos for popular artists such as M.Ward, Morcheeba, Coldcut, and Jason Forrest, for which he won a number of awards, including the Ottawa International Animation Festival's Best Music Video. His music videos have been featured in dozens of film festivals and have been featured on MTV2, MuchMusic, and MTV Europe.Joel Trussell recently made his television directorial debut with three segments for Nickelodeon's hit kids’ show YO GABBA GABBA! He has created the intro to The Animation Show.

Kevin Watkins is a freelance art director, editor, and motion graphics designer in advertising and filmmaker from NYC originally from South Africa.Kevin has worked as both a Associate Creative Director and Senior Art Director for a variety of major clients including: American Express, AT&T Wireless, Heineken, Lego, Sprite, and RCA. He has won awards for his artistic work in advertising including the Cannes Silver Lion and Best of Show at the New York Advertising Festival. He has directed several award winning short films including String, You Were Perfectly Fine, and Hose, an animated film about a garden hose.Hose is screening at several film festivals including the Historic Digital Cinema Festival, The Kids First! Film Festival, and the Nantucket Film Festival.