Aquariums:
The Dark Hobby
Crew
Martin Sheen
Producer
Born and raised in the United States to immigrant parents, a first-generation Irish mother and a Galician father, Ramon adopted the stage name Martin Sheen to help him gain acting parts.
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez, better known as Martin Sheen, is best known for his performances in the films Badlands (1973) and Apocalypse Now (1979), and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006. In film he has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands. His portrayal of Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.
Sheen has worked with a wide variety of film directors, such as Richard Attenborough, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and Emilio Estavez. As a successful television star, he has won both a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989.
He has also narrated, produced and directed documentary television, which earned him two Daytime Emmy awards in the 1980s. While the Camino de Santiago was already a world famous pilgrimage before The Way starring Martin Sheen and Directed by Emilio Estavez came out, the movie certainly helped the Camino de Santiago become a household name. Martin considers The Way a "perfect film.’ For many pilgrims along the Camino, it was this film that was their inspiration. The sequel to The Way is currently in production. In addition to film and television, Sheen has also become notable for his activism in liberal politics.
Martin Sheen is one of America’s most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen’s acting range is prominent and luminous.
Paula Fouce
Producer, Director, Writer
Paula produced and directed No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story, (ro*co films) based on the recently discovered letters of Otto Frank, Anne Frank’s father. No Asylum was screened at the United Nations, Geneva by Cine–ONU. Academy Award winner, Maria Florio is Creative Producer.
Paula produced and co-directed with Academy Award nominee William Haugse (Hoop Dreams), Song of the Dunes: Search for the Original Gypsies; (PBS stations). She directed and produced Not in God’s Name: In Search of Tolerance with the Dalai Lama, (PBS stations); and authored the book, Not in God’s Name: Making Sense of Religious Conflict. Paula directed and produced Naked in Ashes, a critically acclaimed theatrical documentary on India’s yogis, edited by William Haugse. She produced and directed Origins of Yoga: Quest for the Spiritual, and co-authored the book, Shiva (1996, White Orchid Press).
Paula grew up in in Los Angeles in her family's historical movie palaces. Her grandfather and father were pioneers of Spanish language entertainment in the US, and two of the founders of Spanish International Network, now known as Univision. At Pitzer College, Claremont she studied in Nepal, then worked throughout the Himalayas and South Asia. Paula was Vice President and Director of KRCA, a Los Angeles TV station from 1990 -1997 (now under new management). She is President of Paradise Filmworks International and served as Co-Chair of the Southern Asian Art Council at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
William Haugse
Editor, Co-Producer, & Writer
In his editing career, Bill Haugse has been nominated for an Oscar for Hoop Dreams, and an Emmy for The Last Days of Kennedy and King. He has received the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award among many other prizes.
Sunset Story, an ITVS/PBS documentary was the winner of a special jury prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, & the Audience Award at the L A Film Festival, (PBS). Recent editing includes Naked in Ashes; a feature about Yogis in India, which according to the LA Times, was “beautifully crafted”; Stevie (Lions Gate), directed by Steve James; and Unprecedented, about the 2000 Florida presidential election.
Other works include Cattle Annie and Little Britches featuring Rod Steiger and Diane Lane and Paul’s Case starring Eric Roberts. He credits include scores of shorter films as director and editor, including Breakfast in Bed starring John Ritter. Bill edited with Orson Welles and John Cassavetes, and Bill is a member of the professional honorary ACE.
Tim Kettle
Editor, Co-Producer
Tim Kettle has worked in the entertainment field for over 40 years. He earned a Masters Graduate Degree from The University of Texas, Television and Film School and spent four years working with PBS in Texas. He has been a member of the Directors Guild of America, as a director, for over 30 years.
Tim has served as Producer, Director, Associate Director and Editor in Hollywood since 1980. Some of his shows include, That’s Incredible, Those Amazing Animals, In Search of…, Circus Of The Stars, The Academy Awards, Prime Time Emmys, Daytime Emmys, The People’s Choice Awards, The Kennedy Center Honors, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Comedy Central Roast, CNN Heroes, Dr Phil and Oprah Winfrey, BET Honors, Critics Choice, Psychic Chronicles, Home for the Holidays and many more.
His film producing credits include Not in God’s Name (PBS), Origins of Yoga, Naked in Ashes, theatrically released, and Song of the Dunes (PBS) and No Asylum.
Luciano Storti
Composer
Luciano Storti is an Italian-born, Award-Winning Composer. He was awarded a Swiss State Scholarship, obtained Diplomas in Pianoforte Performance from the Konstanz Music Conservatory, Germany and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude in Film scoring & Songwriting at the renowned Berklee College of Music, Boston. After relocating to LA, Luciano studied contemporary composition under Daniel Kessner and Liviu Marinescu at Cal State Northridge, obtaining a Master of Music in Modern Classical Composition.
He has scored numerous films, including the multi-award winning underwater TV series Water Colours and The City under the Sea, for National Geographic Television. He scored the documentaries Song of the Dunes, Not in God’s Name, and The Dark Hobby, and the feature film, Cold Cabin. Other media includes trailers for all books in the acclaimed, New York Times best-selling series, The School for Good and Evil, by author and Filmmaker Soman Chainani, as well as many contributions to the promotional campaigns of many films.
Stephen Nemeth
Executive Producer
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up Rhino Films, the independent film company that originated as a division of iconoclastic record label Rhino Records. He has produced and executive produced dozens of films including THE SESSIONS, C.O.G., FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, WHY DO FOOLS FALL IN LOVE, RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, SPACEMAN and the upcoming FEAR AND LOATHING IN ASPEN. Nemeth's documentary credits include DOGTOWN AND Z BOYS, WARDANCE, FUEL, ROBERT WILLIAMS MR. BITCHIN’, GOOD FORTUNE, LOGAN’S SYNDROME, KISS THE GROUND, 137 SHOTS and HIGHER LOVE. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and on the board of numerous non-profit organizations including Friends of the Earth and the International Documentary Association.
Maria Florio
Executive Producer
Producer/Director Maria Florio, President of EARTHWORKS FILMS, INC., has been an unstoppable force in the documentary world since BROKEN RAINBOW, the film which Maria co-directed and co-produced with Victoria Mudd that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Her award-winning documentary, TIBET: CRY OF THE SNOW LION, had theatrical, domestic and international releases, and won numerous festivals. The film exposes the truth about the crisis Tibetans are facing at the hands of the Communist Chinese. BIG RIVER MAN, (2010), garnered four stars from the New York Times and won several awards at Sundance and other international festivals. Maria produced and Olivia Newton-John and Amazon John Easterling executive-produced. Directed by John Maringouin.
A lifelong activist, Maria co-produced MURDER SPIES & VOTING LIES, an expose on voting fraud, was Creative Consultant on PROJECT RETURN; and on NAKED IN ASHES and NOT IN GOD’S NAME for Paradise Filmworks Int. Maria co-produced/creative-produced THE LAST DAYS OF EXTRAORDINARY LIVES, and MAN UP AND GO, with Bacon/Murphy Films, DREADLOCK ROCK, and NO ASYLUM: The Untold Chapter of Anne Frank’s Story with Paradise Filmworks Int.
Benjamin Zuckerman
Co-Producer
Benjamin Zuckerman is an astrophysicist and an emeritus professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at UCLA. His work focuses on formation and evolution of planetary systems around various types of stars. He developed and taught a UCLA Honors course entitled "The 21st Century: Society, Environment, Ethics". Ben has co-edited six books; these include, "Human Population and the Environmental Crisis" (Jones & Bartlett 1995).
Ben has been a member of the Board of Directors of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Sierra Club and the Board of Advisors of the Wildlife Waystation. He has been awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy and Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, US & Canada. Ben graduated from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Michael X. Flores
Michael X. Flores has worked on several award-winning films since attending USC where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema-Television Production. Michael was awarded the John Frankenheimer Directing Scholarship for merit in directing and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Entertainment Scholarship. He was also selected as a fellow in Film Independent’s Project: Involve, in which he was mentored by Jeffrey Blitz: director of the Academy-Award-nominated documentary Spellbound (2002). He edited the Student-EMMY ™ winning TV pilot, “Cost of Living” and wrote and directed an award-winning short film, Esperando (Waiting/Hoping). Michael worked as an assistant editor on Tamra Davis’s documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010), which premiered at Sundance; on One Lucky Elephant (2010), which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival; and on First Position (2011), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. He edited Nick Broomfield’s documentary, Sarah Palin: You Betcha! (2011), which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival; Sweet Talk (2012); Last Will & Testament (2012), executive produced by Roland Emmerich; and Justice for My Sister (2012) - Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. He also worked on Tapia (2013), which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Harmontown (2014), which premiered at South By Southwest. He has also worked on several narrative shorts, music videos, and commercials.
George R. Pierce
Co-Producer
George R. Pierce was noted in Forbes as a Top-10 Financial Advisor in the United States. He has served as a former member of the Board of Directors for The Morris Foundation as well as The Gorillas in the Mist Foundation. A lifelong conservation and wildlife enthusiast, George lives in the Pacific Northwest.