Zin Haze Productions

Zin Haze Productions is a seasoned, professional team of passionate film-lovers with strategic planning, marketing, operations, event production, and filmmaking experience and expertise. Zin Haze Principals Brenda and Marc Lhormer, who each have over 25 years of business, marketing, PR and event production experience, took a struggling film festival in Sonoma and turned it into a top-tier destination event, growing attendance by a factor of 10 over a seven-year period (2001-2008). They also produced the feature film Bottle Shock, about Napa Valley's historic upset victory over the French in the 1976 Judgment of Paris. Currently, Brenda and Marc will lead a small team of year-round professionals whose ranks will grow to over 500 with seasonal staff and volunteers for the actual production and presentation of the new Napa Valley Film Festival. Zin Haze Productions will also continue to development and produce films as well as seek new projects for the future.

To find out more, contact us at: brendalhormer@sbcglobal.net or marclhormer@sbcglobal.net

Marc Lhormer

Marc Lhormer, Producer, is a native of Pittsburgh, PA who attended Yale University (BA and MA in Economics, 1982) and Stanford's Graduate School of Business (MBA 1986). In between, Marc worked for Bain & Company in Boston, where he wrote the business plan for Bain Capital's original startup venture in 1984. While Marc has helped run startup companies with a social change agenda, he is even more excited about his direct civic involvement. Committed to helping young people develop into globally aware and locally involved citizens, Marc led the effort to bring the award-winning City Year program to Seattle. Marc was also a Founding Partner with Social Venture Partners in Seattle, a progressive venture philanthropy fund, and co-founded SVP in the San Francisco Bay Area. Marc lives with his wife, Brenda, in Sonoma where they co-directed the Sonoma Valley Film Festival from 2001 through 2008, successfully raising the quality of the film programming, increasing the audience tenfold, and attracting national-level sponsors such as Mercedes, Food & Wine Magazine, Starbucks, LG Electronics, MBT Footwear and Entertainment Weekly. In 2006, Marc was awarded the Best Director of a Regional Film Festival at the International Film Festival Summit in Las Vegas. Marc is now collaborating on screenplays, producing new film projects and developing the new Napa Valley Film Festival.

Brenda Lhormer

Brenda Lhormer, Producer, is an experienced marketing executive who has promoted food, wine, travel, film and non-profit organizations that work to improve the lives and prospects of youth. Brenda is a Bay Area native and attended Stanford (BA Journalism, 1983). She also earned a certificate in documentary filmmaking at the University of Washington in 1997. Brenda's marketing career has included handling public relations for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, running seminar-marketing programs at both Oracle and Microsoft, and helping launch a new cross-platform venture, NapaStyle, for acclaimed Napa Valley chef Michael Chiarello. While co-directing the Sonoma Valley Film Festival, Brenda produced several short films, including many of the promotional trailers for the festival. After producing Bottle Shock with her husband Marc, Brenda focused on identifying new film projects and is currently in development with several, as well as co-founding the new Napa Valley Film Festival.