Our Team
Founders
Jess Rowen
Jess Rowen is a writer, director, and producer from New York, now based in Los Angeles. She is a mixed-race Indo-Caribbean Italian American Yorker Angeleno who is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts. She holds a B.F.A. in Film and Video.
Jess’ short film Terry Fitz, SAG Eligible—which she co-wrote and directed—premiered at the Portland Film Festival and screened at the inaugural LA Rich & Successful Film Fest in 2021. The film was also selected as a launch title for the Vidiverse streaming platform created by Alex Proyas (The Crow & I, Robot)
In addition to her independent work, she has produced content for major networks including Amazon, NBC, MTV, Netflix, and VH1.
Current collaboration includes Secret Movie Club, a Los Angeles-based repertory cinema, as a special events staff.
As the founder of the Fairfax Film Festival, Rowen continues to champion creative voices and community-driven cinema in Los Angeles.
She is currently—and always—in pre-production.
Tom Rowen
Tom Rowen is a filmmaker and actor based in Los Angeles, California. Born and raised in Washington State,
Tom cut his teeth on storytelling long before he ever stepped in front of a camera. After moving to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he spent his early years performing in Off-Off-Broadway theaters, learning the craft the hard way — night after night, stage after stage, chasing truth through sweat and cigarette smoke.
When Los Angeles called, Tom found a second home behind the bar at the Kibitz Room on Fairfax, where the mix of musicians, hustlers, and dreamers became his new classroom.
Current collaboration includes Secret Movie Club, a Los Angeles-based repertory cinema, as a special events staff.
Those years poured grit into his perspective and gave him the soul of the Fairfax Film Festival — a celebration of independent voices, working-class creativity, and the raw poetry of real life.
David Finch is a Visual Artist based in Los Angeles. He worked in the film industry for ten years as an award-winning Actor, Writer, and Producer. He released his first collection of artwork, “Coffee Table Book,” in 2020 and has generated increasing sales alongside viral success on TikTok and Instagram.
His new book, “Output of a Perfectionist,” contains artwork created from 2021-2023 and reflects the transformational changes in his personal and professional life since becoming a full-time Artist. He endured the dissolution of a long-term relationship, the loss of many close friendships, and the culmination of a drug and alcohol addiction that has (thankfully) resulted in newfound sobriety. The intensity of these experiences proved to be potent material for drama and comedy that manifested as hundreds of drawings and paintings which vibrate through line-work, color, and words.
He is currently is the Creative Director of the 1st Annual Fairfax Film Festival and also serves as a film programmer for the festival.
Creative Director
Meet the Programmers
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Liz Part
PROGRAMMER
Liz Part is an artist and filmmaker born and raised in Los Angeles with a B.A. degree in Film Production from California State University, Northridge. She has coordinated for the Emmy Award-winning television series “The Masked Singer” and has recently volunteered for the official Beyond Fest Discord. She is always in search of the best and most interesting screenings she can find – no matter how big or small.
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Zack Vasquez
PROGRAMMER
Zach Vasquez is an author and critic from Los Angeles. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Noir City, Fangoria, Crooked Marquee, Little White Lies, and more. He has also been part of the marketing team for such feature films and documentaries as God & Country, Going All the Way, The Dead Center, and Murder By Proxy.
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Ash Moon
PROGRAMMER
Ash Moon is a West Coast writing-and-filmmaking cryptid. Their first short horror film At Home is currently doing the festival circuit. They are currently in pre-production for their new short film The Cleaner, a genre-bending supernatural action thriller that is centered around a non-binary protagonist.
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Arya Govil
PROGRAMMER
Arya Govil is a multi-talented television and short film producer with various credits under her belt. Her television credits include Busy Tonight, A Little Late With Lilly Singh, The Break with Michelle Wolf, E!’s Live from The Red Carpet series, Inside Amy Schumer, The Other Two and more. She produced Chan is Fishing which was an official selection at CAAMFest 2024 and at the Oscars-qualifying Palm Springs International Shorts Fest as well as Wight which was an official selection at the 2025 New Filmmakers Los Angeles Festival, 2025 Vancouver Horror Show and at the 2025 Big Bear International Film Festival.Arya explores trauma through a comedic lens in the work she produces. She champions female-driven stories and coming-of-age narratives. The films she is drawn to tend to center on BIPOC or LGBTQ+ characters. She also has a background in musical theatre and dance, both which she studied for 15 years.
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Daniel Talbott
PROGRAMMER
Daniel Talbott is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and co-curator of THE BLACK CAT Cinema Series. His first feature film, co-written and co-directed with Samantha Soule – Midday Black Midnight Blue –premiered at SIFF in Seattle and was released by Good Deed Entertainment. His feature script, Gray, is in active development in Denmark with Motor Productions, and his horror drama pilot, Rome, Georgia (starring Mary-Louise Parker), is also in development. He is working with the wonderful folks at Saga Film on the limited television series To the Light and is also co-directing the doc film Welcome to Tool Shed. He created and is co-showrunning the LGBTQ+ drama Born Again with Stephen Laughton. Other TV writing includes The Mist, based on the Stephen King novella, and The Conners on ABC. He is a graduate of Juilliard.