We Aim to Impress

FOUNDEr/creative directoR

Julia Pelosi

Julia has devoted her career to the art of designing rich, unforgettable experiences for every kind of audience. Having produced hundreds of illuminating programs for the Smithsonian Institution and other cultural presenters — Julia brings her unique, strategic insights to content design, newsworthiness, and technical innovation. She now enjoys incorporating those same insights into the development of cultural programs, films, exhibitions, books, new product offerings, and audience strategies on behalf of Eyeline’s individual, business, and institutional clients.

Julia sparked her reputation as an innovative producer by working with iconic artists, scholars, and innovators to design public programs of consequence. She spent six years at the Smithsonian producing signature events intended to explore a broad swath of the arts and sciences. To that end, she produced live presentations illuminating her guests’ heartfelt interests, including:

• Steven Spielberg on capturing the oral histories of Holocaust survivors

• Sir Edmund Hillary recounting his conquest of Everest

• George Lucas on the genius of his lesser-known collaborators

• Walter Cronkite sharing his enduring fascination with the Space Race

• Vanessa Redgrave reading favorite passages from Virginia Woolf

• Dr. J. Craig Venter on his historic success unraveling the human genome

• Sir Kenneth Branagh and Sir Derek Jacobi analyzing the dynamics of adapting Shakespeare to film

Other guests she has presented during her career include Susan Sontag, Gore Vidal, Errol Morris, John Lasseter, Geoffrey Gilmore, Sylvia Earle, John Pierson, Laurie Anderson, Piers Handling, Liv Ullmann, Chuck Jones, Norbu Tenzing Norgay, Richard Peña, Mark Pauline, Bette Gordon, David Breashears, and Fay Wray.

Julia’s work has garnered coverage from NBC Nightly News, CNN, IFC, ET, National Public Radio, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Variety — and won her a reputation for astute professionalism with collaborators such as Lucasfilm, Warner Bros., Dreamworks SKG, Discovery Channel, Digital Domain, Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Explorer’s Club. Over the course of her career, Julia has particularly enjoyed pushing the boundaries of traditional presentational assumptions— both with innovative program formats and fresh approaches to shaping content.

Prior to her Smithsonian tenure, Julia curated film for museums, festivals, and municipalities, bringing the beauty and intimacy of the art form to a wider public. While scouting films for the Baltimore-Washington area, she served as a delegate to major film festivals including Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, Telluride, Berlin, New York, and London. She credits her decade spent on the international festival circuit — and its never-ending dialogue between directors, critics, actors, curators, and trade press — with fostering her love of designing rewarding, intelligent content for each intended audience.

PRODUCER/marketing communications

VeTalle Fusilier

From presidential inaugurals to cultural events on the National Mall, VeTalle has unparalleled senior level experience in producing high-visibility gatherings with attendees numbering in the hundreds — or the hundreds of thousands. As a former Managing Director for the international public relations firm, Qorvis Communications, he is also dedicated to the realization of the clients’ vision across traditional and digital media platforms.

VeTalle’s impressive senior management roles on high-visibility events within the U.S. include:

• National Site Manager for the Black Family Reunion from 1988-1990

• Production Manager for the 1996 Washington, DC Olympic Torch Ceremony

• Event Producer for the 100th Anniversary Celebration of the Girl Scouts of America in 2012

• Event Manager for the Smithsonian’s “Look to the Future” program, in connection with the America’s Millennium on the Mall celebration

• Production Manager for America’s Reunion on the Mall in connection with President Clinton’s 1993 inauguration

• Consultation on President Obama’s 2009 inaugural

• Senior Producer for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference from 2007 to 2019

• Producer of the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcaster Awards from 2003 to 2011

• Producer of inaugural editions of the John Hope Franklin Awards and the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival

• Director of Production, and later, Festival Director, for Taste of DC, Washington’s premiere food, music, and tourism festival

VeTalle’s broadcast and international production experience includes:

• Senior management roles on the USO’s 2005 Hope & Freedom Holiday Tour in Afghanistan, Iraq & Kuwait

• Concert Producer for the 12th Festival Internacional Del Nuevo Cine in Havana, Cuba

• Producer for the 2009 St. Lucia Jazz Festival

• Location management for ESPN Goes to Washington, a 4-night broadcast of SportsCenter from atop the DC skyline

• Producer for a live, tri-continental broadcast from the Apollo Theater in Harlem

VeTalle received an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and a prestigious publishing fellowship from Harvard. He was a columnist for EbonyJet.com. He has taught at Cornell, the University of the District of Columbia, and The George Washington University’s School of Business in the Master’s of Tourism Administration (MTA) program and in the Event Management Certificate program — the world’s first post-graduate event management certificate — which recognized VeTalle as Instructor of the Year in 2003. In 2010, VeTalle established the Event Management Certificate Program at Montgomery College (MC). In 2018, he was recognized by MC for excellence in teaching.

FILMMAKing

Martin Davies

UK-based film director, Martin Davies, has demonstrated an uncommon range of talents in his more than 20 years of making live-action and animated films. In addition to working at the cutting edge of the stop-motion industry, Martin has been centrally involved in countless commercials and music videos — as well as the Oscar-winning films, Peter and the Wolf (2006) and Chicken Run (2000), and the Oscar-nominated Ma Vie De Courgette (2016). In 2000, Martin was invited by the Smithsonian to curate and present an evening of seminal animated short films from around the world. His writing talents have also been recognized — his 2005 screenplay, Scattered Showers, was selected by BBC Writersroom from over 10,000 scripts.

In 1998, Martin made himself known on the international film festival circuit with the animated film, Keep in a Dry Place and Away from Children, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win nine international awards, including prizes from major festivals in Berlin, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago. Martin’s films and music videos have drawn comparisons to Czech animation pioneer, Jan Švankmajer, and French director, Michel Gondry.

Martin has long stood apart for having the artistic and intellectual independence to ask tough questions like: Why do so many bad films get made while fresh ideas face endless hurdles? In 2001, he delivered his own answer to that conundrum with the creation of Razrez Films, a director-led collective that became a magnet for free-form talent — like-minded artists with plenty of big-name features, music videos, and commercials under their belts — who wanted to work outside the echo chambers of large production houses and risk-averse television executives.

Often performing the dual roles of producer and director, Martin has become adept at the art of squeezing maximum production value out of modest budgets, keeping the process lean and efficient — without compromising artistic integrity.

A passionate music fan and a musician of sorts, Martin’s eyes and ears are in tune when it comes to the making of promotional films, especially in the editing stage where the internal rhythm of sound and vision is so important.

research & outreach associate

Christopher Jones