Crew

Jamaad Pictures is an independent production company that produces dramatic entertainment for screen and stage by Alyssa Rallo Bennett and Gary O. Bennett.

The Bennetts—a writer-producer-director, husband-and-wife team—develop work together from script to screen, from short and feature films, to pilots and new media web-series, as well as for the stage.


ALYSSA RALLO BENNETT

Alyssa Rallo Bennett is a director/producer and the co-founder of Stonestreet Studios, an incubator for new content and talent.

The studio has been prolific and diverse in its work; claiming awards for features, shorts, pilots and since 2014, their branded MicroMovies. In 1991, Alyssa developed the Stonestreet Screen Acting & Production residency, an immersive program within Stonestreet's independent film studio walls and exclusively trains NYU Tisch Drama actors in all elements of the screen from audition to production. Many wonderful talents have developed themselves at Stonestreet, including Miles Teller (Whiplash, Divergent), Rachel Brosnahan (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Nik Walker (Hamilton), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Gil Zabarsky & Chris Modoono (Tenured, Teacher of the Year), Ashley Skidmore (Younger), Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart), Idina Menzel (Frozen) et al.

She has developed and directed high-concept features alongside her partner Gary O. Bennett: ReRUN, starring Christopher Lloyd, Rain Without Thunder starring Jeff Daniels, Linda Hunt et al, and The Pack, which stars Lucie Arnaz, Elisabeth Moss, Zach Galligan. ReRUN, now streaming in Apple TV/iTunes and Amazon Prime, premiered closing night of the Woodstock Film Festival, screened opening night of the big Apple Film festival, and was accepted into the Northeast Film Festival. The film also won Best Narrative Feature, Best Ensemble, Best Original Story, Best Featured Actor (Christopher Lloyd), Best Young Actor (Teo Rapp-Olson), Best Editing and Honorable Mention for Best Director at the 2019 Los Angeles Film Awards, and was a semi-finalist in the Sydney Independent FF. Rain was theatrically released and distributed by Orion Classics, featured in over a dozen major international film festivals from the Berlin Film Festival to the Toronto International Film Festival, distributed by Warner Brothers on available now on Amazon Prime. Originally released by FilmRise, theatrically and on multiple platforms, The Pack was just re-released on FLIXA, where many of Rallo Bennett's pilots, series and award-winning festival shorts and features can be seen. Additionally, ShortsTV has licensed over 20 Stonestreet Shorts, including, five festival shorts she directed, Oswald, Uberpool, Trudy Gets Tindered, Mia, and Can't Get Enough. They have appeared in Big Apple, Pittsburgh, Garden State, Independent Features, and Manhattan Film Festivals.

As a writer/director team with Gary O. Bennett, she directed the pilot, Videola, starring Sean Young, Gil Zabarsky, Michael Pemberton and Janet Zarish, the series Paradise by the Dashboard Light, now streaming via FLIXA, and End it all Now, featuring Zach Galligan, Jen McCabe, which is being distributed internationally by HG Distribution. Alyssa also directed the docudrama feature, Sonnets in the City, starring Joe Siravo (The Sopranos, Jersey Boys), and Jarrod Spector (Jersey Boys).

She has directed several Public Service Announcements for American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, Housing Works and a spot for Families of Freedom starring Susan Sarandon supporting children survivors of the 9/11 tragedy.

In addition to her creative ventures, Alyssa hosts the series Behind the Scenes at Stonestreet Studios. The show focuses on the process and art of filmmaking for independent and studio films. Guests have included Bryan Cranston, Aubrey Plaza, Mike Myers, Edie Falco, Kevin Bacon, James Earl Jones, and many more.

Alyssa's first training ground was as an actor working with directors such as Woody Allen, Franco Zeffirelli, Andre Gregory and Martin Scorsese. In New York she has directed plays at Ensemble Studio Theater, the Harold Clurman Theater and was accepted into Sundance Institute's Playwriting Lab here she worked as director, writer and actor. She has an MA from NYU Gallatin in Drama & Psychology and a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at Circle in the Square working with Nikos Psacharopoulos, David Margulies, Tom Fontana and others. She also studied with the Group Theater's Robert Lewis as well as the techniques of Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen and Stella Adler.

Alyssa Rallo Bennett

GARY O. BENNETT

Gary is constantly writing. Recently he finished Colorado, a full-length stage play that was produced at Playwrights Horizon in Manhattan. He also recently finished writing The Plumber, a full-length stage play in development.

Gary has written the pilots for several episodic series, including Respekt and The Chase.

Gary has written several feature-length screenplays that are in development: Boomerang, The Trainer, Who Killed Juliet Matlin?, Mentor.

The following feature-length screenplays have been written and produced as features and/or pilots: End It All Now, The Code, Videola, Nowhere Girl and Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

Gary O. Bennett’s latest feature screenplay, ReRUN, featuring Christopher Lloyd, won awards nationwide including Best Screenplay at the Los Angeles Film Awards after premiering closing night of the Woodstock Film Festival. The film is now available on Apple TV/iTunes.

Gary wrote and directed Rain Without Thunder, a feature film starring Betty Buckley, Jeff Daniels, Linda Hunt, Frederic Forrest, Graham Greene and Austin Pendleton, that was released nationally in 1993 by Orion Classics. It premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and was featured at several other film festivals, including ones located in Ft. Lauderdale, Ann Arbor, Berlin, Human Rights Watch, Dublin and Locarno, Switzerland.

Gary Bennett co-wrote The Pack with his wife, Alyssa Rallo Bennett. The Pack is an award-winning feature length film that has been screened in over a dozen film festivals including Sedona Film Festival, Hoboken Film Festival and theatrically released in NY & LA in 2009. Directed by Alyssa, it stars Lucie Arnaz, Elisabeth Moss, Roger Robinson, Zach Galligan, Ryan Homchick (a Stonestreet alum), Tibor Feldman et al.

For the theater, Gary has written Juden Rift, a two-act, full-length stage play initially showcased at The Column Theater, and then remounted in Fall 1998 at Stonestreet Studios.

Gary and Alyssa have since adapted Juden Rift for the screen, which consequently won a Fade In Magazine Awar. The Frozen Infirmary, Gary’s two-act, full-length stage play, was presented in Ensemble Studio Theater’s Octoberfest in NYC. Gary also wrote Madras, a full-length stage play, and Body Fluid, a two-act, full-length stage play, which was given a staged reading at the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 1993 Octoberfest in New York.

His short films include Dance for Me Velma, about a mysterious weekend in the Catskill Mountains spent by a hard-driving Wall Street female executive. Directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett, it premiered at the Brooklyn Film Festival. Gary also wrote The Weather Report, also directed by Alyssa, which premiered at The Santa Cruz Film Festival, and subsequently screened in Canada at the Light Plays Tricks Film Festival and the Back East Film Festival in New Jersey.

Other short films include The Pitch and Jack & Jill, also directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett. Gary wrote and directed The Butterfly Effect, a thirty-minute narrative produced in video for which he won a College Emmy Award. He also wrote and directed Twists and In the Middle.

Gary wrote the pilot, The Exchange, which was directed by Chris Lutkin in 2001.

Gary wrote all 254 episodes of the webseries The 47th Floor, featuring Miles Teller, Zach Galligan & more.

Gary holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Business from SUNY at Buffalo (1975), and a Law Degree and a Master of Social Welfare Degree from the University of California at Berkeley (1979). Mr. Bennett is a member of the American Bar Association.

Jamaad was named for the Bennetts' sons, Jack, Adam, and Max;
the title is comprised of the first two letters of each of their names.