Team

THE SMALL WORLD FILMS TEAM

DR. ISABELLA ALEXANDER-NATHANI
Founder & CEO, SMALL WORLD FILMS | Director, Writer & Producer, THE BURNING

An award-winning writer, filmmaker, educator, and human rights activist, Isabella isn't interested in a story unless it's hard to tell. "I've always been drawn to the stories that have been hidden or silenced by those in power," she says. "At the root of them, there's an injustice waiting to be uncovered." Earning her Doctorate in Cultural Anthropology after completing the prestigious Master's program in Film at the Spéos Institute in France, Isabella believes that in order to tell someone's story well, you have to live it. She lives alongside the communities she films and encourages their active roles in shaping every stage of a project. Over the course of this project, she spent 18 months embedded with African smuggling rings and migrant brotherhoods and was among the first to ever conduct undercover research in North African detention centers and migrant camps hidden at the southernmost borders to the EU. Her work has been featured on BBC, CNN, NPR, PRI, and Al Jazeera, and she is a regular contributor to SAPIENS, where she writes a monthly column called “Borders.” When not on the ground filming, she has held faculty positions in the Departments of Anthropology and Film Studies at Emory University and the Department of Social Sciences at Morocco's national university. She is committed to sharing her research in diverse formats in order to reach the widest possible audience, and her latest book on our global migrant crisis, Burning at Europe's Borders (Oxford University Press, January 2020) was released just months before the completion of this film. Isabella is thrilled to see the incredible community of supporters that have come together around THE BURNING. It is a community of individuals who, like her, believe in the power of stories to create positive and sustainable change for those whose voices have been silenced. You can learn more about Isabella here.

FACT: Among Africa's hidden brotherhoods, Isa is better known as Sister Boza. To learn the meaning behind "Boza," you'll have to watch THE BURNING!

JOE BERLINGER | Executive Producer, THE BURNING

A seven-time Emmy and Academy Award nominated and Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker, Joe has been one of the leading voices in film and television for over two decades. His films include the landmark documentary Brother's Keeper, the Paradise Lost Trilogy, which led to the release of the wrongfully-convicted West Memphis Three, and Crude, which exposed oil pollution in the Amazon Rainforest, winning 22 human rights, environmental, and festival awards and recently triggering a high-profile First Amendment battle with oil-giant Chevron. Five of Joe's films, including his Emmy-nominated 2012 documentary Under African Skies, have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, earning three Grand Jury Prize nominations. He has won multiple awards from the Directors Guild of America, the National Board of Review, and the Independent Spirit Awards. According to Joe, "Isabella brings a courage, a determination, and a natural storytelling ability that remind me of myself when I was beginning my career. This film is set to expose the human side of the largest crisis our world has ever seen." You can learn more about Joe here.

FACT: Joe's films are so powerful that one of them released two men from life sentences in prison and a third man from death row. What will the next one do?

REGINA SCULLY | Executive Producer, THE BURNING

An award-winning producer, Regina is the Founder and CEO of the Artemis Rising Foundation, which supports and promotes films that lead to meaningful policy change. Throughout her career, she has produced an astounding slate of 100-plus films, including some of the most impactful documentary films of the past decade from The Hunting Ground and The Invisible War to Miss Representation and Won't You Be My Neighbor? In addition to the Artemis Rising Foundation, she sits on the boards of Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy & Civil Society, The Representation Project, Harvard Women’s Leadership Board, Women’s Media Center, and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security. An education reformer, she has launched some of the most successful charter schools in the US and is committed to developing a diverse new generation of storytellers. According to Regina, "Isabella is doing the most courageous and compassionate work of any contemporary filmmaker. THE BURNING is only the beginning of her career as a powerful new voice in documentary film." You can learn more about Regina and her organization here.

FACT: Regina built her career supporting women and other marginalized voices in the film world. If there's a female filmmaker who you love, we're willing to guess that she played a role in their success.

ERIC ESRAILIAN | Producer, THE BURNING

In addition to being a leading gastroenterologist, professor at UCLA's School of Medicine, and appointed member of the Medical Board of California, Eric is an Emmy-nominated film producer and human rights activist. His passion lies in supporting stories that have the power to bring policy change and throughout his career, he has produced The Promise, starring Academy Award winner Christian Bale, Intent to Destroy, nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary, and I Am Not Alone, which was the Audience Award winner at DOC NYC this year. Eric is on the Motion Picture & Television Fund Foundation Board of Governors, the Hammer Museum Board of Directors, and the Armenian General Benevolent Union Central Board. In 2017, he founded The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA'S School of Law, which is committed to making Los Angeles the epicenter of human rights education, research, and advocacy in our country. According to Eric, "THE BURNING is the kind of story that will not only move audiences, but will move the world to action." You can learn more about Eric and his institute here.

FACT: Eric is so committed to the power of film to bring policy change that his latest project pushed the US Senate to pass a resolution officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide for the first time.

ANDREW BERENDS | Director of Photography, THE BURNING

Andrew was a highly acclaimed documentary filmmaker with a history of work in active war zones from Iraq to Sudan. He was awarded the prestigious “Courage Under Fire” award by the International Documentary Association for his first film, The Blood of My Brother, about an Iraqi family who lost their son during the American invasion. His subsequent films included When Adnan Comes Home, Urk, Delta Boys, and the last film that he directed, Madina's Dream, which took audiences inside of a forgotten war between rebels and refugees fighting to survive in Sudan's Nuba Mountain region. When not directing his own projects, he collaborated with other filmmakers as an editor and cinematographer, including his role on Free Solo, which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2019. Behind the camera on THE BURNING, Andrew brought his unflinching approach to humanizing even the most brutal political crises.

Our team was devastated by the loss of Andrew on March 1, 2019, at the age of 46. This will be his final film. You can learn more about his legacy of work here.

FACT: When given the choice between a shoot without cold beer or one with a little prison time, Andy didn't hesitate in answering. We tried.

E.K. Goldwasser | Editor, THE BURNING

E.K. has edited two Academy Award nominated documentaries, Speaking in Strings, which was also a Grand Jury nominee at the Sundance Film Festival, and Artists and Orphans. She edited the acclaimed documentary Mule Skinner Blues, which was the first theatrical release for The Sundance Channel, and was lead editor on Anatomy of Hate, which is a multiple festival winner and was nominated for Documentary of the Year by The Documentary Channel, and lead editing consultant for the popular Netflix documentary Vegucated. In addition to her documentary work, she has edited multiple feature-length dramas and comedies, hundreds of promos and interstitials for major television networks, and programs for HBO, Bravo, The Discovery Channel, Cinemax, CBS, NBC, TBS, CN, and SHOWTIME. E.K. is an honors graduate of New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, where she was the first woman to win the Best Director award for Undergraduate Narrative Film. You can learn more about E.K. here.

FACT: When not in the editing room, E.K. draws inspiration from the natural world and can usually be found sailing, swimming, hiking, or watching thunderstorms roll in from the beach she calls home.

SMALL WORLD FILMS Internship Program

At SMALL WORLD FILMS, we think it's important to give back. We're committed to being active givers in communities around the world, as well as those close to home. One way we give back in our own community is by giving young people from backgrounds that have traditionally been underrepresented in the film industry the chance to develop their technical skills, build out their individual portfolios, and create meaningful relationships with mentors through our internship program. Every semester, we select an exceptional group of interns from a highly competitive group of applicants who all share a passion for work at the intersection of the arts and activism. The ideal candidate believes in the power of stories to create change, brings a high level of motivation to individual and team work, and is ready to make the most of the opportunity. The SMALL WORLD FILMS internship program provides college-aged students and recent college graduates with the chance to work side-by-side with professionals on a variety of teams - Film Production, Community Engagement, Human Rights - and prepares them for careers of socially impactful work. In six months, our interns touch thousands of lives.

Our recent interns have been a global group of young change-makers including individuals from China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guinea, Haiti, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, and the US. We couldn't be prouder to call them part of the SMALL WORLD FILMS team!

If you're interested in applying for our internship program, please send us a message at contact@smallworldfilms.org with the subject line "Internship" and we'll get back to you shortly.