BLEED OUT

Steve Burrows is a comedic storyteller.

This award-winning writer/director/performer has been reinventing stereotypes and challenging expectations in film, television, commercials and theatre for over two decades. His original voice - coupled with his edgy, character-driven humor - has made his work a favorite around the world, where his range in comedy is as diverse as the locations of his shoots - London, Rome, Tokyo, Bangkok, South Africa and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to name a few.

After graduating from The University of Wisconsin, Burrows began his career in Chicago joining Second City Director Del Close as a member of the critically acclaimed, groundbreaking improvisational comedy group, Baron's Barracudas.

He then moved behind the camera, relocating to Los Angeles and making his first film, The Soldier of Fortune - a short about his actual appearance and subsequent humiliation on The Wheel of Fortune game show. The film went on to win a slew of festival awards. From there, Burrows became a writer and performer for the famed comedy troupe, The Groundlings, leading to stints on everything from Seinfeld to America's Funniest Home Videos to over 200 TV spots - including a litany of appearances on the Super Bowl.

After writing an original screenplay for 20th Century Fox, Burrows made his directorial feature film debut with Chump Change, bowing at the prestigious AFI Film Festival to rave reviews. It then played to sellout crowds at the HBO Comedy Fest in Aspen, winning the Audience Award / Best Feature. It is there Miramax Films acquired Chump Change for distribution.

Burrows then went on to win over 75 awards for writing/directing television commercials on over five continents - including the Cannes Lion, a plethora of Addy and Telly awards - not to mention the New York Festivals Grand Gold for the iconic Accuserv "Paper Tray" - a spot which now resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

Currently working on several feature film projects, including a comedy and a drama, Bleed Out is Burrows first feature documentary.
 

Ilan is the producer and co-founder of CreativeChaos vmg.  His latest film, This Changes Everything will be in theaters this summer.  At the company, he has been the primary producer on the award-winning films, Casting By (HBO, Netflix), Thank You For Your Service (GATHR, Hulu, Amazon), Bleed Out (HBO), and Davi’s Way.  In addition to his duties as the primary producer, Ilan oversees all creative development, business development, finance and operations for the company.  He was also a producer on the breakout hit film, Kedi, one of the highest grossing foreign language documentaries of all time.  

Ilan was previously COO and Executive Vice-­President for three years at Go Go Luckey Entertainment, a television production company with more than two dozen series and hundreds of hours of programming on networks both in the US and abroad. There, he also oversaw strategy, digital content, international sales, and the film division. 

From 2003 to 2009, Ilan was the managing director at Cinapse, where he developed funds, slate funds, and produced one-off films in the US and in several other countries.  In 2005, Ilan was a co-founder of Dynamo Capital, which today is Colombia’s largest finance and production company.    
 
Ilan’s films have appeared in over 50 film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Miami and New York and have been released in over 60 countries around the world.  He holds a degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Donahue’s latest film as director is This Changes Everything, an investigation of systemic gender discrimination in Hollywood (including interviews with Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes, Cate Blanchett, Taraji Henson, Reese Witherspoon, Natalie Portman and many others).  The documentary received much critical acclaim film earning descriptors such as "searing" (Washington Post) and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2018. It will be released in theaters in the first half of 2019 by Good Deed Entertainment. Donahue’s Thank You For Your Service ("Gut wrenching... important" - The New York Times) examines the failed mental health policy in the military with interviews including General David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and General Loree Sutton.  It premiered at DOC NYC in November 2015, was released theatrically by Gathr in 2016 and acquired by Hulu in 2018. In 2014, Donahue’s Emmy-nominated HBO feature documentary Casting By was hailed as one of the Top Five Documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review and hailed as “Outstanding” by Leonard Maltin.  That year, it also won the Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary of the Year from the National Alliance of Women in Media. 

His other directorial works include the darkly comic documentaries, Davi's Way (“a raw portrait of the underside of the entertainment industry.” -Movie Guide) and Guest of Cindy Sherman (“A work of art” -Variety; 5 Stars -Time Out) for the Sundance Channel.  His work as producer include the recent HBO documentary, Bleed Out (“Brutal, unmissable viewing” -Paste Magazine), and critically acclaimed projects such as Man Push Cart (Official Selection - Sundance 2006 and Venice 2006), Nick Sandow’s Ponies (New York Times Critics Pick) and the feature documentary, Highway Courtesans (Official Selection - International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam and SxSW). In 2003, Donahue produced and edited Alfredo de Villa’s acclaimed debut feature, Washington Heights, winner of five Best Picture awards at festivals worldwide. He also has extensive experience as a creator, producer, director and editor in television and is a founding partner of the New York-based production company, CreativeChaos vmg. He holds a degree in Film Directing from SUNY Purchase College in New York.