Our Team
Max Brinson
President
Max is native of Texas and a graduate of Baylor University, and has lived in the northeast since 1985. He earned his Master's degree in Studio Art from New York University and has taught high school and college math for over 30 years. He lives in Dingmans Ferry with his wife, Johanna. Max has leading Black Bear Film Festival’s executive board as president since 2019.
Barbara McNamara
Vice President
Barbara McNamara, CSA, is president of Barbara McNamara Casting, which she established in New York in 2005. For the past 17 years, she has been casting actors for numerous television shows and feature films, including HBO’s Sex and the City, The Devil Wears Prada, and 30 Rock.
She started her principal casting career with Rob Burnett’s We Made This Movie and continues to cast many mini-series such as History Channel’s The Food That Built America, and most recently cast Go For Grandma, starring Amy Madigan and Justine Lupe.
Prior to her casting career, Barbara directed and produced fashion shows and major ad campaigns and holds multiple degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.
Barbara and her husband, Dan, have been part-time residents of Milford since 2011.
Veronica Coyne
Executive Director
Veronica Coyne has been a Board Member at Black Bear Film Festival since 2017 and now serves as Executive Director. Veronica has an M.A. in Literature/Rhetoric and is an Adjunct Professor of Composition and Effective Speech at Sussex County Community College. She is a published writer and poet. Veronica also coordinates Black Bear’s Screenwriter’s Collective, a table read group that meets monthly.
John DiLeo
Director
Film historian John DiLeo is the author of eight books on the subject of classic movies, including his latest: Not Even Nominated: 40 Overlooked Costars of Oscar-Winning Performances (2024).
He has been an annual participant in the Black Bear Film Festival (Milford, PA), conducting onstage interviews with such notables as Farley Granger, Arlene Dahl, Marge Champion, Keir Dullea, Jane Powell, Rex Reed, Tab Hunter, Lorna Luft, Jane Alexander, and Illeana Douglas. DiLeo spends most Sunday afternoons introducing classic movies (and leading post-film discussions) at the historic Milford Theater in Milford, PA.
Elias Noel Almeda
Director
Elias Noel Almeda is a local screenwriter and film director. A New York City native, he is trained by the NY William Esper Studio in the Meisner acting technique, and has worked as an actor and director on several productions from Hollywood to Indie level. He is the CEO of Polyphony Films and known for his short films The Overpass (2012) and Tobi in Flight (2023). Currently developing a feature film set to shoot in Milford, PA, Elias has joined Black Bear Film Festival to help foster the art of filmmaking in Milford and the greater Pocono area.
Darian Rivera
Director
Darian Rivera is the Event Planning Specialist for the U.S. Forest Service at Grey Towers National Historic Site. Darian’s specialty with events is in media production. Darian coordinated several Ken Burns events from 2009-2014 surrounding the promotion of the documentary mini-series The Roosevelts. From 2020-2022, Darian was the lead event and virtual production coordinator for the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, and assisted in virtual event production for the annual National Book Festival and the Library of Congress’ monthly virtual education productions. He has also worked with student filmmakers from the Next Generation Angels, National History Day, Pare Lorentz Film Center, and Children’s Media Project.
Over the last twenty years, Darian has also coordinated events with documentary film festivals in upstate New York and Durham, North Carolina. and worked on documentaries for the television show Learning in Progress.
Currently, Darian enjoys creating music, traveling, and studying film.
Tom Bongiovi
Treasurer
Former high school teacher and superintendent. In addition to his service to the Black Bear Board of Directors, Tom stays busy serving his community. He is a former Girl Scout Leader, a volunteer at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a 4th Degree member of the Hawley Council of the Knights of Columbus,
Chelsea Komorowski
Secretary
Chelsea Komorowski started off as a volunteer for the festival in 2021 and has worked her way up to board member. She graduated from Northampton Community College in 2021 with a degree in Media Production and has done videography work and has worked for various film festivals. In her free time she writes and aspires to be a screenwriter and have her own TV show one day.
Join us.
The Black Bear Film Festival exists and functions because of the contributions of an amazing team of volunteers who contribute their time, energy and diverse range of talents. We welcome help for a day, a week, a month or a season!