BOAZ DVIR

Boaz Dvir is an award-winning filmmaker. He is the writer, director and producer of "Jessie's Dad" and the writer, director and producer of Discovering Gloria, (discoveringgloria.com), which paints the portrait of Gloria Jean Merriex, a highly innovative inner-city teacher.

Dvir teaches storytelling and documentary filmmaking at the University of Florida. He's led groups of UF journalism and telecommunication students to Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Dvir has written for several publications, including the Jerusalem Post, New York's Newsday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the St. Petersburg Times, Scripps Howard's Treasure Coast Newspapers and Explore magazine.

Dvir served as editor of the Jacksonville Business Journal and managing editor of the South Florida Business Journal, which are part of the Newhouse-owned American City Business Journals. He was a regular commentator on "Week in Review" and wrote commentaries for WJCT, Jacksonville's NPR/PBS station.

Dvir has won six Florida Magazine Association awards and numerous awards from the Florida Press Association, including first place for his Business Journal column. He also received a Lilly Endowment grant from the Religion News Service to research spiritual aspects of the Holocaust.

Contact the Filmmaker: Boaz Dvir

REBECCA GOLDMAN

Goldman, who earned her master's degree from UF's Documentary Institute in 2008, is the co-producer of "Jessie's Dad", an hour-long documentary about Mark Lunsford.

Goldman is working as a production assistant at Pink Sneakers Productions in Orlando. After receiving her degree in magazine journalism from UF in 2006, Goldman entered the Institute in hopes of channeling her voice as a writer into that of a documentary filmmaker. She continues to freelance, writing features for The Gainesville Sun.

Through her coursework, Goldman has become proficient in the language of shooting, writing and editing for documentary. She recently worked as a production aid on an educational film designed to facilitate better teaching strategies among Florida science teachers. The project was funded by a state educational grant.

Goldman wrote and researched for the Independent Florida Alligator, Travelhost Magazine and the Sun. In 2005, she worked as an intern under the Senior Fashion Editor at Conde Nast's TeenVogue.

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Jessie's Dad

"Jessie's Dad" tells the story of Mark Lunsford's transformation from an uneducated truck driver to a savvy activist after losing his 9-year-old daughter to a convicted pedophile.

A blue-collar "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "Jessie's Dad" follows Mark as he visits Capitol Hill and state capitals to urge lawmakers to wise up and crack down on child predators. The film, which won Best Documentary at the 2011 ITN Distribution Film & New Media Festival in Los Angeles, offers a behind-the-scenes look at a single father haunted by the knowledge that a child molester held his daughter within earshot for three days.

Mark channels his anger toward making a difference for all American children, pushing for the passage of Jessie's Law, which toughens penalties against sex offenders.

Winner of the Direct Cinema Outstanding Documentary Award, the CINE Special Jury Award and a finalist for the International Documentary Association's David L. Wolper Award, "Jessie's Dad" explores the public and private personas of a complex, candid and controversial character.

After John Couey kidnapped, raped and buried his daughter alive, Mark embarks on a turbulent journey to pass Jessie's Law around the country.

"When I lost Jessie, everything in my life changed," he says. "I mean everything, from the grass being green to the sky being blue."

Before the murder, the tattooed, longhaired Harley rider drove a dump truck, lived with his Bible-thumping parents and spent most of his free time with Jessica Marie. Jessie, as everyone in the West Florida town of Homosassa called her, loved going to karaoke nights with her dad and playing outside in their quiet mobile-home neighborhood.

At around 3 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2005, Couey broke into Jessie's bedroom and took her across the street to his trailer. Citrus County Sheriff's Office detectives and FBI agents ignored several leads about Couey, instead zeroing in on Mark and his father, Archie, as the suspects.

On March 19, 2005, Mark watched as deputies dug his daughter's corpse out of a grave in Couey's back yard. In his confession, Couey described telling Jessie that he'd take her home if she hid in a garbage bag, then lowering her into the ground and sealing her fate with a shovel.

To turn his potentially debilitating anger into a constructive force, Mark devotes his life to saving other children. He's convinced more than 40 states to pass Jessie's Law.

Thanks in large part to his efforts, Americans think differently about how to protect children from predators. "Jessie's Dad" aims to keep this issue on their minds and in their hearts.