THE FILMMAKERS

PI WARE
Director/Editor/Producer

Pi Ware is an Emmy-winning filmmaker who works across several genres—from feature films to documentaries to world-wide competition shows. His work as a director includes the fictional films Solitude, My Beautiful Me, The Act and the documentary film, Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons. As an editor Pi has crafted documentaries, indie films, and such series as America’s Got Talent, Netflix’s Fastest Car, Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, World of Dance, American Idol and Q’Viva. Pi grew up in Tempe, AZ, began working in the film industry in Madrid, Spain, and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA.

LAURA STODDARD
Producer

Laura Stoddard is a nonfiction film producer based in New York City. She has worked with clients such as YouTube and National Geographic as well as numerous independent documentary projects. Laura is passionate about social issue filmmaking and the importance of storytelling.

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.

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 produced over 100 documentaries. His films have premiered at film festivals from Austin to Telluride to Monte Carlo and received a New York Film Society screening at Manhattan's Guggenheim Museum. His collections of documentaries on filmmakers George Lucas, Alfred Hitchcock, Clint Eastwood and Stanley Kubrick are often regarded as the top anthology on each of these master's works.

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.

ANDREW GROSS
Composer

After scoring his first studio feature at the age of 25 (Bio-Dome/MGM), Andrew has gone on to score over 30 features and over 100 episodes of primetime TV. Some of his credits include: The King of Queens (CBS), 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (Orion) and Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (New Line). Andrew’s music has also been licensed to numerous film and tv projects, including The Great Hack (Netflix), I Think You Should Leave (Netflix), Nacho Libre (Paramount), So You Think You Can Dance (Fox) and the trailer for Ratatouille (Disney).

In 2017 Andrew was both composer and music supervisor on the Emmy nominated series, Why We Fight (ESPN+). Recently he music supervised the Netflix series, I Think You Should Leave and Astronomy Club. Andrew teaches Music For Documentaries at New York Film Academy and is on the Board of Directors of The Production Music Association. He lives in Topanga, CA with his wife and their cats, dogs, chickens and goats.  

TOM PUTNAM
Editor

Tom Putnam’s past features and short films have played more than 500 film festivals, from Sundance to Cannes, and been released theatrically worldwide. His previous feature, the Detroit firefighting documentary BURN, received the Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Award. Prior to BURN, Tom was a producer on the documentary feature MARWENCOL, winner of two Spirit Awards and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the SXSW Film Festival.