John Painz

John Painz started his filmmaking experience with "8 for Vegas", a 9-episode web series that he wrote, directed, produced, shot, and edited. What started as a fun project soon turned into a career. He was hired to shoot and edit three other web series, produced a TV pilot (Untitled Zombie Project), and, in 2013, produced, shot, and edited his first feature film, Enchantments, for director Kelsey O'Brien.

In February of 2014, John and Julie Sisson embarked on their first feature film, Stuck, with producer Lynn Mancinelli. The film premiered at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival and was accepted into the Newport Beach Film Festival, The Soho International Film Festival, the Long Island International Film Expo, the Hell's Half Mile Film Festival, the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival, and the Milledgeville Film Festival.

It was nominated for a number of awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Katie Howe), Best Script, and Best Feature. John won the Soho International Film Festival Carbon Award for Most Creative Filmmaker, and Stuck won the Programmer Award at HHM.

Their second feature film, Four Bottles, is out at festivals and will premiere in mid-2017.

Their third feature film, See You Next Week, is in pre-pre-pre-production.


Julie Sisson

Julie Sisson has been with Words From Here since 2011, when she developed 8 For Vegas with John Painz. Since then she has gone on to produce all of John's work.

Julie has also worked as a Producer and Production Manager for a dozen plus television shows. She was an Associate at Norman Twain Productions, developing numerous scripts for film, television and film over the course of four years. Somewhere in there she also fit an 18 month stint at Playbill Magazine, working directly for the CEO & Publisher, Philip Birsh. She currently is a Production Manager at Blackfin in New York City.