The Production Team
Chris BongirneExecutive Producer
Chris over the last two years has been Executive Producer of five films - THE VIRTUOSO w/ Anthony Hopkins; two films for Hulu - THE BINGE with Vince Vaughn and PLAN B a teen road movie; 16 BARS, an urban coming of age and BASHIRA, a horror thriller in the Japanese manga style. There are also two WIP multi-part documentaries: THE LIFE OF DANTE shot in Italy/ UK as well as 49 HOURS, about TE Lawrence, the real Lawrence of Arabia, filmed in Jordan, Israel, Egypt and UK. Chris was also Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed film, MARSHALL, about the early life of Thurgood Marshall, with Chadwick Boseman playing the title role alongside Josh Gad and Kate Hudson. In the indie world, he has produced the well received, BLACKOUT with Michael B. Jordan and Zoe Saldana; MULTIPLE SARCASMS, with Mira Sorvino and Timothy Hutton; THE TENANTS, based on the Bernard Malamud novel, with Snoop Dogg and Dylan McDermott as well as the ensemble drama, ORDINARY SINNER, starring Elizabeth Banks. Major studio work includes supervising Madonna’s directing debut, W.E., and I AM LEGEND w/ Warner Bros and co-producing the ultimate big wave surfing flick, IN GOD'S HANDS w/ Sony Pictures. Other documentary work includes the PBS film THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE directed by Ken Burns and with Ric Burns directing THE PILGRIMS, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BALLET THEATER and DEATH AND THE CIVIL WAR. https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0094487/ https://smokestackfilms.com/smokestack-productions |
Stephen LeistExecutive Producer
Stephen is the CFO of COUNTABLE.COM, a software company based in San Francisco, as well as managing partner of PPGV, an Oakland-based private equity boutique, and its affiliated family office. He has been attending Knicks, Nets and Warriors games with Chris Bongirne since 1991. His roles in finance include chief operating officer at MCF Asset Management, LLC, and as managing director of Salomon Smith Barney/ Citigroup’s equity business in Asia based in Hong Kong. Prior to HK, he worked in a variety of positions in Japan for MORGAN STANLEY, Deutsche Bank and UBS for a dozen years. Stephen studied the Japanese language in the graduate FALCON Program at Cornell in the mid-90’s and attend WESLEYAN University until 1984, where he received a BA in history. His senior advisor in the history department was the legendary Professor Clarence Walker who first gave him a copy of Sacred Hunger to read twenty years ago in a restaurant in Davis, CA. He is most proud of his success as an entrepreneurial Jewish deli chain operator in Tokyo: WALL STREET SANDWICHES, KK. He has published humor and satire work in The Piedmont Post and Tokyo Journal and written features for Barron's, The San Diego Union, The Hartford Courant, and the Asahi Evening News. Over the course of his career, Stephen has developed investment products and financial strategies, and also counseled management teams in the US, UK, France, Switzerland, Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan and Thailand. https://www.countable.com/team |
Eddy Poon - Assistant
Eddy grew up in a movie industry family that specialized in distribution, subtitles and operations in Hong Kong. He is an aspiring video story teller, an accomplished technologist and photographer, and maintains a photo blog as well as a YouTube channel.
Eddy grew up in a movie industry family that specialized in distribution, subtitles and operations in Hong Kong. He is an aspiring video story teller, an accomplished technologist and photographer, and maintains a photo blog as well as a YouTube channel.