PI WARE
Director
Pi Ware is an Emmy award-winning editor, a Sundance filmmaker, and a former board member of the International Documentary Association. Pi has created documentaries and narrative films for Warner Bros., Universal, Fox Searchlight, Disney and Sony Pictures Entertainment. From American Idol to independent films to massive multi-camera concerts like HBO’s Rock and Roll of Fame Induction Ceremony, Pi has edited for every major network and cable channel in the United States. He lives in Hollywood and works at the post-production facility, Chainsaw.
PATRICK BELTON
Producer
Patrick Belton is a music supervisor and DJ who has worked in the entertainment industry for over 15 years. Originally from the cornfields of Indiana via Chicago, he arrived in LA in 1999. Since then, he has built one of LA’s most prominent DJ and entertainment companies (Dubgypsy), as well as spun tunes for red carpet events and helped place music for some of the hottest shows on television. He is also an independent film and commercial actor.
After receiving a BFA from Depaul University in 1997, and then studying music supervision at UCLA in 2008, Patrick joined Gary Calamar (KCRW) and the Go Music team. Here he has worked with Gary on True Blood, Dexter, House, Men Of A Certain Age and the feature film, “I Love You Phillip Morris” (Jim Carrey/ Ewan McGregor).
In early 2010, Patrick began Off The Record Music with his partner/ co-supervisor Sanaz Lavaedian. Since then, Patrick and Sanaz have completed two films including Some Guy Who Kills People (John Landis/ Kevin Corrigan), The Giant Mechanical Man (Jenna Fischer/ Topher Grace/ Chris Messina), After Words (Marcia Gay Harden), and Animals (David Dastmalchian). Patrick and Sanaz are currently working on a documentary feature called Killer Bees.
LAURA STODDARD
Producer
Laura studied Human Rights and International Studies at the University of Iowa. She began her career in nonprofits in the Bay Area, where she worked on issues such as incarceration and homelessness. Laura has since moved her career in the direction of documentary production. She is currently an Associate Producer on three feature documentaries and has coordinated and field produced many projects such as CNN’s Death Row Stories, The Girls of Summer feature documentary, as well as various editorial and commercial still photography campaigns.
PJ RAVAL
Cinematographer
Named one of Out Magazine’s “Out 100” and FILMMAKER Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” PJ is an award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer whose credits include TRINIDAD (Showtime, LOGO) and BEFORE YOU KNOW IT, his latest documentary following the lives of three gay senior men, described as “a crucial new addition to the LGBT doc canon” by indieWIRE. BEFORE YOU KNOW IT screened theatrically both nationally and internationally and broadcast premiered as the season finale of AMERICA REFRAMED on PBS World. Also an accomplished cinematographer, PJ shot the Academy Award-nominated Best Documentary TROUBLE THE WATER and is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow.
SHELBY HADDEN
Co-Producer
Shelby Hadden is a documentary filmmaker whose films explore issues of gender and identity. Most recently, she’s directed “Her & Me” a short film about identical twins Allie and Gabby Byers who live identical lives, and “Ms. Texas Senior,” a short documentary that follows a beauty pageant for women 60 years and older. Her films have screened at various film festivals including the Nashville Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, and BEA Festival of Media Arts. She is also a producer at Bring Light & Sound, a film production and creative agency in Austin, TX, and a lecturer in the University of Texas at Austin Radio-Television-Film department. Shelby holds a B.A. Comm. from the University of Alabama and an MFA in Film and Media Production from the University of Texas at Austin.
SAM PRICE-WALDMAN
Cinematographer
Sam Price-Waldman is a cinematographer and documentary director with a love for cinematic, verite storytelling. He has followed environmental activists in redwood trees, gold miners in Ghana, and wildland firefighting crews around the U.S. His films have screened on PBS and film festivals including AFI Docs, Full Frame, and the Los Angeles Film Festival, and his work has been recognized by the American Society of Cinematographers, the National Magazine Awards, and Vimeo Staff Picks. Formerly, Sam was a senior associate producer for The Atlantic magazine. He is a graduate of Chapman University, with a B.F.A. in Film Production.
LEV MERGIAN
Producer
Lev Mergian is an award-winning short film and music video director. He currently works in Hollywood as a reality TV producer where his work has been featured on NBC, ABC, FOX, and MTV. Lev’s credits include Dancing with the Stars, MasterChef, America’s Got Talent, American Idol and more. When Lev is not directing films or producing competition reality shows, he is developing new and engaging programs with the Warner Bros. creative arm, Warner Horizon.
GARY LEVA
Producer
Filmmaker Gary Leva has distinguished himself as the creative force behind scores of documentaries. His internationally acclaimed film, Old South, New South, explores the Deep South’s anguished history and the legacy that slavery continues to exert on the region’s psyche. His feature documentary, Fog City Mavericks, highlights 100 years in the history of San Francisco’s vibrant filmmaking community. His award-winning A Legacy of Filmmakers premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, received a New York Film Society screening at Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum, and is now a part of the curricula at several top universities. He is an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts as well as Pepperdine University.
ALEXANDRE NAUFEL
Cinematographer
Alexandre Naufel is a Brazilian-born, award-winning director of photography whose recent projects include the launch campaign for the FOX series Gotham, the acclaimed HBO documentary Sand and Sorrow, produced by George Clooney, and the ongoing documentary Once I Was about legendary director Hal Ashby. Other credits include music videos for the critically acclaimed band Califone, independent features, numerous commercials, and a campaign highlighting Intel’s pursuit of a Conflict-Free Chip. A graduate of AFI’s cinematography program, he moves easily from genre to genre. He is a longtime resident of Venice Beach, where he lives with his family and their growing menagerie of animals.
