Daniel M. Kalai earned his B.A. in Film and Media Arts with a minor in Journalism, PR, and Advertising from Temple University in February 2005.

The 4th Dimension, his first Independent feature film, was shot in the Philadelphia area in February 2005. It World premiered at Cinevegas film festival where it won honorable mention in June 2006. The 4th Dimension has received critical acclaim in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, and Film Threat. Kalai finalized distribution for April 8. 2008 for DVD release in North America with TLA Releasing/TLA Video.

Since 2001, Kalai worked freelance for 7 consecutive ESPN "X Games" for 5 years as a runner working his way up to Associate Producer. For his work on Winter X games IX in February 2005, he received the prestigious Live Event Turnaround 2005 Sports Emmy, which aired live on ABC and ESPN. He has also worked on The Road to XL for Super bowl XL, the feature film Shooter, the Discovery Health show Twins, Twins and More Twins, and The Coors light Maxim Model Search.

Kalai wrote a short film he is currently producing and directing on HD format for 2008Fest Circuit. He is also in the early stages of developing his first feature screenplay Drew Love, which he will produce and direct. He plans to shoot in the fall/winter of 2008 in Philadelphia.

www.dankalai.com
www.4thdmovie.com

María Teresa Rodríguez is an award-winning filmmaker and teaching artist whose work has screened both nationally and internationally. Her work includes "Mirror Dance/La Danza del Espejo" which was broadcast on the PBS Series Independent Lens and received a LASA Award of Merit, a Cine Golden Eagle Award, a First Place for Television Documentary award from the Society of Professional Journalists (Philadelphia Chapter) and was an Imagen Award documentary finalist. Other work includes: "From Here to There/De Aquí a Allá" which received a First Place Award for Short Documentary at the XVII International Film Festival of Uruguay, played at the Smithsonian Institution and was acquired by WGBH’s Lwa Plaza. Ms. Rodríguez has produced for public television, most recently working with Vital Pictures and California Newsreel on the series: "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" She has facilitated community media projects with seniors, high school youth and Mexican migrant workers through Scribe Video Center, and was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College. Ms. Rodríguez is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and an Independence Foundation Fellowship. She recently received a 2007 Transformation Award from the Leeway Foundation, which recognizes the work of women artists engaged in social change.

Louis Massiah is an independent documentary film maker whose films often explore historical and political subjects. His works include W.E.B. Du Bois - A Biography in Four Voices (producer/director) and Louise Alone Thompson Patterson: In Her Own Words (producer/director), an oral history portrait of the political activist and Harlem Renaissance cultural worker. Currently he is executive producer of Haytian Stories, exploring the history of the 200 year relationship between the United States and Haiti.

He is the producer/director of The Bombing of Osage Avenue, on the 1985 Philadelphia police bombing on the MOVE organization. In 1990, Massiah co-produced, directed and wrote Power! and A Nation of Law?, for the landmark PBS series Eyes on the Prize II.

Massiah is the founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts organization that provides low-cost workshops and equipment access to emerging video/filmmakers and community organizations. At Scribe, he has facilitated over 200 videotapes, including a variety of tapes documenting major issues and concerns facing urban communities, produced collaboratively with community members. A current project, the Precious Places Community History Project, is a citywide oral history portrait designed by Massiah that is composed of 50 short documentaries produced with 50 neighborhood organizations in Philadelphia, as well as Chester, PA, Ardmore, PA and Camden, New Jersey.

Massiah is the recipient of a five year MacArthur Foundation fellowship for his documentary filmmaking and received the Paul Robeson Award for Social Justice from Philadelphia's Bread and Roses Community Foundation.

Massiah received a B.A. (College Scholar) from Cornell University and an M.S. in documentary filmmaking from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aside from teaching regularly at Scribe, he has also been an artist-in-residence and on faculty at City College of New York, Princeton University, Ithaca College, the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and American University. For the 2007-2008 academic year he is the Distinguished Artist in Residence at Haverford College.