Team

THE SMALL WORLD FILMS TEAM

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

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," she says. "At the root of them, there's usually an injustice waiting to be uncovered." An anthropologist, writer, and documentary filmmaker, she has spent the past decade living between the US and Africa. As a leading expert on international human rights, immigration, and refugee & asylum law, Isabella has embedded with smuggling rings and hidden brotherhoods across North Africa and is among the first to conduct undercover research in North African detention centers and migrant camps hidden at the southernmost borders to the EU. She has written extensively on Europe’s unfolding migrant & refugee crisis and is a regular contributor to PRI, CNN, and BBC. When not on the ground filming, she is a Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Film & Media Studies at Emory University in Atlanta and is inspired by the power of film to educate broad audiences. "I always aim to communicate my research in diverse formats," she says, "so I can reach scholars and students, but also policymakers and popular audiences across linguistic divides." Earning her Doctorate in Cultural Anthropology after completing the 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 individuals she is filming and encourages their active roles in shaping every project she takes on. She is thrilled to see an incredible community of supporters come together around THE BURNING who, like her, believe in the power of stories to create lasting change for those who have been marginalized. You can learn more about Isabella here.

FACT: Among Africa's hidden brotherhoods, Isa is better known as "Sister Boza."

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 reminds me of myself when I was first beginning my career. This film is set to expose the human side of the largest crisis in our world right now. It hasn't been seen before." You can learn more about Joe here.

FACT: Joe's films are so good, one of them released two men from life sentences and another from death row.

ROSTAM ZAFARI | Associate Producer, THE BURNING

Rostam’s work spans the sectors of health, education, and sustainability, but at the heart of all of his social enterprises is his ability to bring people together to support projects with a mission. He first gained a name for himself in the start-up world when he invented a solution to the Ebola outbreak in 2014. After months in the lab, he created Rapid Ebola Detection Strips (REDS) to identify the virus in record time, increase the accessibility of testing in remote areas of Africa, and reduce the cost of each test from $50,000 to less than $50. His work was recognized with the Cyrus Prize - a genius grant awarded annually to one outstanding Iranian-American - and landed him an invitation to the White House to meet with Obama about the future of social entrepreneurship in America. He has since moved on to new roles, serving as the Director of Entrepreneurship at The New School and founding Thirty Birds, an Atlanta-based consulting firm that is about the change the way we all think about plastic. In his role on the THE BURNING, he brings an entrepreneurial spirit to organizing and inspiring communities to create social change. You can learn more about Rostam here.

FACT: Rostam has a verse for every scenario and more poems committed to memory than we can count.

HADRIEN ROYO | Editor & Post-Production Supervisor, THE BURNING

Hadrien grew up in Paris, where he earned his Law Degree shortly before deciding to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a filmmaker. While completing the Master's program in Film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, he was awarded the prestigious Maurice Kanbar & Leo Rosner Scholarship and exhibited his early multimedia work at shows in 80WSE Gallery (NYC), the Cornielius Caffé Gallery (NYC), and the International Festival of Photography in Pingyao, China. His subsequent project was supported by a grant from the Carla-Bruni Sarkozy Foundation. Writing and directing The Hodag, a narrative short about one girl's experience with magic, refined his skills as a storyteller and lead to his role as editor and post-production supervisor on Yomeddine, a feature-length film by Egyptian director A.B. Shawky that premiered at Cannes in 2018. In his roles on THE BURNING, he brings his passion for storytelling and raw talent for creating complex, relatable, and unforgettable characters. You can learn more about Hadrien here.

FACT: Hadrien does color correction like you do yoga. It's his meditation.

ANDREW BERENDS | Camera, THE BURNING

Andrew is 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 other subsequent include When Adnan Comes Home, Urk, and Delta Boys, which was supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Fund, the Gucci/Tribeca Documentary Film Fund, and Cinereach. His most recent project, Madina's Dream, takes audiences inside of a forgotten war between rebels and refugees fighting to survive in Sudan's Nuba Mountain region. Behind the camera on THE BURNING, he brings an unflinching approach to humanizing even the most brutal political crises. You can learn more about Andrew here.

FACT: When given the choice between a shoot with no cold beer or one with a little prison time, Andy will hesitate in answering. We've tried.

ANDREW COLELLA | Software Engineer, SMALL WORLD FILMS

Andrew is the founder of Juice Boxer Media, an Atlanta-based design and development firm specializing in custom web and mobile applications. His clients range from large firms like IBM to promising start-ups aiming to make a social impact, and he brings the same level of energy and talent for re-imagining the digital experience to every one. A trained engineer and musician with a Master's Degree in Music Technology & Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Andrew connects the mission of SMALL WORLD FILMS to audiences around the world by capturing the emotions our films create and funneling them into concrete change through digital social impact campaigns. You can learn more about Andrew's work here.

FACT: In his previous life, Colella played strings for Janelle Monae.

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 with an interest in the arts the chance to develop their skills, build out their individual portfolios, and create meaningful relationships in Atlanta's growing film industry through our internship program. Every year, we select an exceptional class 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, Graphic Design, Marketing, Grant Writing, Public Relations, Event Planning, Software Engineering, Community Organizing - and prepares them for careers of socially impactful work. In six months, our interns touch thousands of lives.

Our 2018 class of interns is a truly global group of young change-makers coming from Ghana, El Salvador, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Egypt, Guinea, India, Haiti, China, and the US, and 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.