Groundbreakers Archive

Dean Dyson

Dean Dyson currently resides in Melbourne, Australia, where he continues to pursue and develop his architectural interests, in both conceptual studies and built works. In 2011, his entry “The Renaissance Tower of Brisbane” won the Brisbane Ideas Competition and forwarded his vision of making architecture far more recognizable, approachable and understandable. The project recognized that […]

Melanie & Adam Hall

Sudden Death!, the film that brought Melanie and Adam Hall to HATCH 2010, has won more than 10 awards and has been nominated for more than 20. Since it’s premiere in August of 2010, it has played in more than 30 film festivals around the world. While adding their talents to various major motion pictures […]

Marcus Stokes

Marcus Stokes started his filmmaking career as a visual effects artist at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). After several years creating effects for films such as Star Wars Episode I, The Matrix II & III, and I Robot, Marcus began his career in directing. He joined the Director’s Guild of America after completing […]

Leif Christian

Leif Christian gets his distinctive sound from a variety of backgrounds, but always stays true to the origins of blues, rock, folk, and soul. Classical piano at a young age ignited his passion for music, and he began playing guitar at age 16. A variety of influences and ideas infused with his own originality and […]

Courtney Yovich

Courtney’s a singer/songwriter from Bozeman, Montana who released her first album “Waiting to be Told”, in July 2012 and has already won several songwriting awards (the first at age 8), including a Top 20 finish in last year’s CMT/NSAI Song Contest. Since appearing at HATCH in 2011, Courtney continues to create and impress with her […]

John Adam Smith

John was raised at the base of the mountains bordering Missoula, MT. His father bought him his first drum when he was two years old. Inspired by his father and artists like Duane Allman, Jerry Garcia, and Jimmy Hendrix, John started playing guitar at 12 years old, filling notebook after notebook with songs. When he […]

Brion Riborn

A singer and songwriter from the Great Lakes State, Brion Riborn grew up with a young heart, an old soul, and a guitar. Both thoughtful and reckless, his music has been described as John Mayer meets Tom Petty with a dash of Nirvana. He’s played everywhere from arenas to house-shows to funerals to coffeehouses, and […]

Jonathan Langager

Jonathan Langager is a filmmaker, animator, visual artist, composer, musician, and alum of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. After studying piano, violin and composition at Carleton College, he worked in politics and film for several years in New York City before moving to L.A. At USC, he has directed numerous short […]

Yuta Okamura

Yuta Okamura is a young filmmaker who was born and raised in Japan. He now lives and works in Los Angeles. At the age of the 3, Yuta saw Godzilla for the first time, and became fascinated with the magic of cinema. Without access to a camera, he began painting his own one-frame monster movies, […]

Li Lu

Li Lu is a Los Angeles based director and producer. She was born in Suzhou, China and moved to the United States at the age of five. Daughter of two physicists, Li discovered her passion in prose. This quickly transitioned into a visual medium through photography, then ultimately into filmmaking. Raised on all three coasts […]