Our Team
Paola Calliari
Creator/Screenwriter/Actor
Paola Calliari is a national and international award-winning actor and dancer with established international accolades in feature films, short films, television shows, commercials, stage, live dance performance with a specialization in Gyrotonic®.
She has been involved in film, theatre and dance for twenty years and performed since 2005. Her large body of film, tv, dance and choreography work has been commended, awarded, shown in International Film Festivals and performed on national stages in the US, Italy, Israel, Germany, Latvia, Bulgaria and featured in major press in the United States and Italy.
At seventeen she received her first award as “Young Promising Actor” at the Theatre Festival Sipario D’ Oro. In 2017 she was awarded the Kineo Diamanti Al Cinema Award for “Young Talent” at the Venice Biennale Film Festival and in 2019 she won “Best Supporting Actress” for the feature L’ età imperfetta at the Kadoma International Film Festival in Japan. In both films, she portrayed a ballerina.
Some of the film directors she worked with are Alessandro D’ Alatri, Gennaro Nunziante, Gianni Zanasi and Kim Rossi Stuart, and Emanuele Imbucci. She was the co-lead in the Italian feature film “Carla” about the iconic étoile Carla Fracci. On stage she worked with directors Bob Wilson, Laura Pasetti and Anatolij Vassiliev and choreographers such as Jan Lawyers, Ashely Lobo, Adrianna Thompson and Emanuel Gatt.
Michael Sandoval
Director/Screenwriter
A filmmaker, educator, consultant, and film/arts administrator living in Los Angeles, Michael Sandoval brings over two decades of experience to his work. His films have appeared in the Berlin Film Festival (competition screening), Palm Springs, Slamdance, Toronto Short Film Fest, Margaret Meade Doc Fest, and more, winning the Audience Award (San Luis Obispo) and Best Short (Las Palmas).
Earlier in his career, Michael served as the cinematographer for projects ranging from reality TV (Learning Channel, MTV) to art cinema (Out of Home) and feature documentaries (cinematographer, writing/producing consultant Tan Antiguo Como el Mundo). He has served as a writing consultant for the animation film, Saleeg and as director for several independent music videos and narrative shorts. He was awarded the Ang Lee Fellowship, the World Studio Foundation, and several residency grants including the Ucross Foundation and the Santa Fe Art Institute.
As an educational director with a focus on collaborative media education, Michael led collaborations with cultural organizations that include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum. Michael has directed international film education programs in Beijing, Abuja, and Doha, and has lectured in institutions across the world.
Michael is a former Chair of Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy (NYFA). He holds a special interest in the responsible representation of underrepresented groups in media, and currently serves as NYFA’s Chair of Diversity - Programming. Michael has a continuing interest in both fiction/non-fiction writing (published; Topography of War; Flippin’). Michael holds an MFA in Filmmaking from New York University; an MFA in Writing from the University of Michigan; and a BA from Brown University (Magna Cum Laude).
C.C. Kellogg is a film/ theatre practitioner and researcher making work between the US and UK. C.C. is the lead producer at Valmora Productions, which focuses on supporting emerging female creatives in film and digital media. She has produced four feature films as well as numerous shorts and emerging media works, including several VR and XR projects. C.C.’s films have screened nationally and internationally at festivals including Cinequest, NOT Film Fest, Mammoth, Santa Monica, Berlinale, HollyShorts, and many others; her projects have received wide digital distribution across platforms in the US and UK, as well as coveted theatrical release. IMDb available here.
C.C.’s academic work explores live capture, mediated performance, and the collision of the filmic, theatrical, and digital spheres. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Bath Spa University, where she received an MA with distinction in Performing Shakespeare in 2018 (her master’s work focused on new media practice and Early Modern texts). C.C. also holds a BA in English and Certificate in Theater from Princeton University. She has presented original research at panels and seminars with The Shakespeare Association of America, BritGrad/ The Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, The New York Shakespeare Convention, University of Birmingham, and the Association of Adaptation Studies, among others.
As a theatre maker, C.C. has premiered and developed work with Theatre Royal Bath, The Coronet Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, The McKittrick Hotel, The Brick, , Built for Collapse, The Motor Company, Fresh Ground Pepper, Dixon Place, and NYPL, among many others, also appearing in a wide range of festivals including Exponential Fest, AvignonLeOff, PRELUDE, Elevate Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe with Volcano Theatre Wales. She is the facilitating director of Invulnerable Nothings.
Born and raised in Northern Italy, Piero Basso began his career as a Director of Photography specializing as a Steadicam operator. In Italy, he collaborated with some of the most talented directors of his generation, including Gianluca and Massimiliano de Serio and Susanna Nicchiarelli.Piero lensed Gilberto Pignatelli’s Santina (Turin Film Festival, 2008) and the de Serio’s debut feature, Sette Opere di Misericordia (Locarno, 2011).
On moving to the US, Piero served as the cinematographer for several projects (Somewhere in the Middle, Imagine I’m Beautiful, American Genius for National Geographic). In 2014, Piero returned to Italy to light the first feature of Sebastiano Riso Più Buio di Mezzanotte (the Semaine of the Critique, Cannes).
In recent years, Piero has been active on multiple fronts. He shot Min Alesh?, a feature film in Ethiopia with local creative team and talent, while working on The Independents with director Greg Naughton, Teresa Costantini on Here and Now, Marco Risi in L’Aquila Grandi Speranze, a television series on the aftermath of the 2009 Earthquake. PIero teamed again with Sebastiano Riso for Una Famiglia, in competition at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and worked for the first time with Federico Bondi on Dafne, presented in the Panorama Section at the 69th Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Fipresci award as Best Feature Film of the section. In the USA he worked with director Robert Jury on Working Man, with Peter Gerety, Talia Shire and Billy Brown as lead actors and recently lensed the first feature film of screenwriter Daniel Talbott and actress Samantha Soule, Midday Black Midnight Blue.
In 2018 he became the Chair of the Cinematography Program for New York Film Academy at the New York Campus. Piero Basso graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Turin, specializing in Cinema Studies. Piero Basso is currently based in NYC, where he lives with his wife, daughter and son.
Roya Carreras is an Iranian-Hispanic artist, choreographer, and educator who works within commercial, film, and theatrical settings from New York City to Los Angeles. As a performer, she has worked closely with BodyTraffic, Arias Company, Danielle Russo Performance Project, and Lux Boreal Danza Contemporanea in Tijuana, Mexico. Carreras holds a BFA in Dance from UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, with additional training from The Ailey School and Springboard Danse Montreal.
As an educator she has worked with Riverside Ballet Arts, Riverside City College, Inland Pacific Ballet, Pasadena Dance Theater, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (LA and NY campus), and New Canaan Dance Academy, Norwalk Metropolitan Youth Ballet, and Harlem School of the Arts. She is currently the Director of the School at Peridance in New York City and specializes in ballet, contemporary, and improvisational techniques.
Her most recent commissions include: Peridance Contemporary Dance Company, Boston Dance Theater, the Certificate Program at PCDC, and L.A Contemporary Dance Company. Film Clients include: Facebook, Spotify, THINX, and she has worked with several acclaimed music artists as a movement director and choreographer.
Carrera’s work has also been presented at the Lake Tahoe Dance Festival, APAP at The Salvatore Capezio Theater, CURRENT SESSIONS, Dixon Place, Baruch Performing Arts Center, and The Green Building in New York City; in California, she has presented at Highways Performance Space, Electric Lodge Theater, Glenn Wallichs Theatre, Diavolo, Brockus Project Space, and BRAVA. Residencies include MANCC, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts 2018 and Columbia Ballet Collaborative 2015.
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Paola Calliari
MIA
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David Ledingham
VITTORIO
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Bianca Falco
SUSANNA