BIOS & CREDITS
Kimberly Green
director/writer
Kimberly Green, writer/director, who is currently working on Once There Was A Country, is the president of the Green Family Foundation, established by former U.S. Ambassador Steven J. Green. Her work focuses on private and corporate sponsorships for grass roots arts programs, education, homeless assistance, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, disaster relief, and early childhood development and health care infrastructures in developing nations.
Ms. Green serves on the boards of the American Red Cross of Greater Miami and the Keys, Miami International Film Festival Advisory Board, Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc. Advisory Board, and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Through the Green Family Foundation’s initiative on Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health, located at the University of Miami, Ms. Green has established strong ties with the international community in global health. As the spokesperson for the initiative, Ms. Green’s access to various forums, seminars and conferences pertaining to global issues, and their policy makers provide an ideal opportunity for networking and event screenings for the film.
Ms. Green has taught cultural and racial tolerance through diverse religious traditions at a juvenile correctional facility. Ms. Green has worked for the Virtual Trade Mission’s @APEC program, an educational documentary showcasing e-commerce and global technologies to American students by traveling throughout Asia Pacific on global government trade missions.
Ms. Green has worked as a freelance writer, a special events director, project coordinator for the Head Start Program on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and an arts teacher in a home for abused children. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Central America, Africa, and the Caribbean. In addition, Ms. Green is a frequent attendee of the President’s Renaissance Weekend retreats, has interned for two U.S. Senator’s, and has a degree in religious Studies focusing on Liberation Theology. Ms. Green currently lives in Miami Beach.
Wassim Serhan
producer/ still photographer
Wassim Serhan, producer/still photographer, has a background in investment banking where he was involved in executing debt financings for corporate clients in New York and London for JP Morgan Chase and Co. Mr. Serhan has over seven years of financial services experience with expertise in analyzing financial statements, structuring transactions and developing business plans.
Wassim is a photographer and has exhibited his work about the people of Haiti in Miami. Mr. Serhan holds a B.S. in Business Administration in Finance from the George Washington University.
Juan Carlos Zaldivar
co-producer, co-writer, outreach coordinator
Zaldivar completed both his BFA and a Masters Fine Arts at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he has also taught as an adjunct faculty. Mr. Zaldivar's work is often interactive and crosses boundaries in mediums and disciplines.
His work has been screened at many festivals worldwide and has received awards from The Jerome Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, Tiger Tail Productions and has been commissioned through initiatives of The National Endowment for the Arts, The Florida Dance Festival, The Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, among others.
His student film works received kudos from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Mr. Zaldivar has served as a Juror for the Sundance Film Festival and for The Miami Int'l Film Festival and has served in several boards of directors for arts organizations. He is a Sundance Film Institute Fellow. He is an experienced media outreach strategist. He is the co-founder and programming director of The Florida Room Documentary Film Festival, an event solely dedicated to social issue documentaries. He is currently developing a "social network for local change" entitled ART TRIBES (www.ArtTribesNetwork.com).
His directing credits also include "90 Miles" a feature documentary airing on PBS's award-winning series, "POV"; "The Story of the Red Rose" (Showtime), "Palingenesis" and the controversial "Soldiers Pay," co-directed with David O. Russell and Tricia Regan, which was aired by the Independent Film Channel (IFC) and is being distributed by Cinema Libre. His art work has been exhibited at Scope Miami, Deluxe Arts Gallery, Marina Kessler Gallery, Dot Fiftyone Gallery and Chelsea Art Space in London, among others.
Other credits include:
• Award-winning sound design work on Academy Award nominated feature films such as
Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" and Nanette Burstein and Bret Morgan's "On the ropes"
• An Emmy nomination for his sound design work on an HBO special about the war on drugs,
• Prime-time television directing credits on ABC network and WE (Women's Entertainment Network) among others
(from left to right:) Wassim Serhan, Kimberly Green, Maya Angelou (sitting) Rhonda L. Mitrani and Juan Carlos Zaldívar
(from left to right:) Juan Carlos Zaldívar, Rhonda L. Mitrani, Guy Johnson, Kimberly Green and Wassim Serhan.
Dr. Maya Angelou
narrator
Maya Angelou is a multi-talented woman, with several “firsts” to her credit. She was the first black woman to have a screenplay produced; it became the film Georgia, Georgia, which she also direted. In 1970, she was the first black woman to have a non-fiction book on the bestseller list, the first volume of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She was even the first black woman to be a conductor on a San Fransisco street car.
The granddaughter of a slave, Angelou found unlimited ways to express her freedom and her talents. She has been a nightclub singer, a professional dancer, a poet, a university professor, a civil rights activist, a journalist in Africa, an actress, playing Junta Kinte’s grandmother in the TV dramatization of Alex Haley’s Roots. She was the first African American to read a poem at a presidential inauguration, Bill Clinton’s in 1993.
Born in St. Louis in 1928, Angelou grew up in her grandmother’s store in the tiny town of Stamps, Arkansas. Emotionally withdrawn as a child, she did not speak from the age of seven until she was twelve. Her grandmother never stopped believing in her. As a result, Angelou has written, “All my work is meant to say, ‘You may encounter many defeats, but you MUST not be defeated.’”
Rhonda Mitrani
co-producer/ editor
Rhonda Mitrani, editor/co-producer, completed her first documentary film ‘Cuba Mia’ in 2002 about a group of Cuban Jews who return to their home after being away for 40 years. The film premiered at the Miami International Film Festival and garnered the award for ‘Best Documentary’ at the Rewind Fast Forward Film Festival by Wolfson’s Florida Moving Image Archive. Ms. Mitrani began her film career at Miramax Films in New York as a postproduction coordinator. She worked on films such as ‘Marvin’s Room’ and ‘Robinson Crusoe.’
As an editor, Ms. Mitrani assisted on the indie documentary film ‘Modulations’ and worked as a principal editor and post supervisor on the award winning comedy ‘Hit and Runway’ (Lot 47 Film). Ms. Mitrani graduated University of Michigan with a BFA.
She continued her education at The Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. For the last six years, Ms. Mitrani has been working as an avid editor for places like ABC News Productions, Oxygen Media in New York City and MTV Latino in Miami. Rhonda is on the board of directors for the national organization IFP/South (Independent Feature Project) and started a production company called The Florida Room in order to develop independent films in Miami.
A launching program for The Florida Room is a three-day documentary film festival event highlighting films for a social cause. Ms. Mitrani has served as a juror and panelist for festivals such as the Miami Int’l Film Festival and the Braxillian Film Festival. Ms. Mitrani is also working on a documentary film that is in development on endangered marine life and a fiction film that is a coming of age story about women, love, and balancing career and family.
CREW
Executive Producer
Steven Green
Directed by
Kimberly Green
Written by
Kimberly Green
Juan Carlos Zaldívar
Produced by
Kimberly Green
Wassim Serhan
Co-Produced by
Juan Carlos Zaldívar
Rhonda L. Mitrani
Production Manager
Ellen Powers
Production Coordinator
Nick Boushehri
Consultant and Advisor
Ellen Powers
Director of Photography
John Beattie
Additional Footage
John Whalan
Gaffer
Romel Celestin
Production Assistant
Jennifer McCormack
Translators
Phillip Chammy
Jamie Olsen
Editor
Rhonda Mitrani
Assistant Editor
Alicia Dean
Transportation Coordinator
Baron Decker
Franz Gabriel
Jean Robert
Re-recording Engineer
Quentin Chiappetta
Composer
Kavaya
Musical Coordinator
Soulflower
Music Consultants
Timaj Sukker for Nomadic Inc.
Mike Rosenfeld
Nicole Rose
Animation
3rd Eye Design Group
Manny Gonzalez, Design director
Alex Rivera, 3d/special FX
Alex DiMella, Creative Director
Graphic Arts
Ashley Swanson fro Crop Circle Studio
Legal
David Marko
Accountant
Carl Stoops
