Joni DeRouchie - Director - Bio

Joni's background in photography and visual arts prepared her for the natural progression into motion pictures. A self-taught screenwriter, Joni first received attention as a semi-finalist in the first Project Greenlight competition in 2001 with her feature length script The Frank Principle.

In the summer of 2001, Joni made her foray into directing with a 20-minute short film adaptation of scenes from The Frank Principle, which premiered in January of 2002 at the Split.ID Film Festival in Hollywood.

Joni's Filmography

The Frank Principle - Short Film - 2001 - Writer/Director
Bigger Than Jesus - Theater Production, Feature-Length Film - 2003, 2004, 2005 - Director
Remote Control - Short Film - 2004 - Director
I Was a Teenage Dirtbag - Documentary Film - 2005 - Director
Rock Roundtable - TV Show - 2005 - Producer/Director

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Rick Emerson - Writer/Producer/Actor - Bio

Since the age of 14, Rick has made his living through words. Both as a radio personality and as a stage and film artist, his love of language permeates all he does.

Beginning as a music-radio DJ, Rick quickly grew constrained by the "less talk" format, and moved into talk radio. In a medium long dominated by political discourse of the basest variety, he instead turned his focus towards pop culture, music, movies, and a general discourse on American mass-market attitudes and consumptions.

Ratings success followed, as well as a nationally syndicated version of the program, which aired on stations across America through 2001. A local show in Portland followed.

Rick's Filmography

Bigger Than Jesus - Theater Production, Feature-length Film - 2003, 2004, 2005 - Writer/Producer/Actor
Remote Control - Short Film - 2004 - Writer/Producer/Actor
I Was a Teenage Dirtbag - Documentary Film - 2005 - Producer
Rock Roundtable - TV Show - 2005 - Producer/Host

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The Rick & Joni Collective

Early 2003 saw Rick Emerson author the one-man show Bigger Than Jesus: The Diary of a Rock and Roll Fan. While searching for someone to film the performance, Rick met filmmaker and cultural scribe Joni DeRouchie. Complimenting Rick's high-octane, thesaurus-enhanced outrage with her flair for visual storytelling, Joni took the project to new creative heights, and together, they debuted Bigger Than Jesus to a sold-out, standing-room-only crowd in the summer of 2003. It was later brought back for a successful two-week run in Winter 2004.

Following Bigger Than Jesus' 2003 production, Rick immediately began work on the short thriller Remote Control, with Joni once again directing. In addition to writing the screenplay, Rick also took an on-camera role as protagonist Danny Atkins. The initial DVD run of Remote Control sold out within a matter of weeks and received favorable press coverage from Oregon to Montreal. Remote Control played at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in Los Angeles in October 2004, and the Portland Underground Film Festival in December 2004.

In 2005, Bigger Than Jesus was performed before a live audience and filmed for release on DVD.