Director – Daniel F Cardone
Born in Australia, Daniel F. Cardone worked on critically acclaimed productions such as The Home Song Stories, Animal Kingdom, and the Emmy award-winning The Pacific. Daniel was also an Associate Producer on the Australian sitcom Outland. After moving to the US, Daniel was a contributing director to the feature documentary Still Around (2011), in addition to writing and directing the short film Incident, which premiered at Palm Springs Shortfest 2012. Daniel also directed the second unit sequences for the feature-length documentary The Life & Crimes of Doris Payne. In 2015, he completed his first feature film, the documentary Desert Migration. The film premiered at Frameline Film Festival, San Francisco, and has since screened at over 50 festivals and events worldwide. Since 2019, Daniel has been employed with Film Independent, Los Angeles, where he currently serves as Manager of Nonfiction Programs and Fiscal Sponsorship.
Producer - Dani de Jesus
DANI DE JESUS (she/her), CNN Original Series + Film Independent Docuseries Fellow, is an award-winning educator, facilitator, and filmmaker from Los Angeles, CA. As the director of development at Craig Anderson Productions, she helped bring movies (On Golden Pond, Meltdown, For the Love of a Child, The Christmas Blessing) and series to the small screen. She then became a social studies high school teacher in Maui and was a National Education Association/Teach Plus Fellow and was named the 2011 Hawai’i Economics Teacher of the Year. After returning back to Los Angeles and film/tv, Dani has focused on telling stories that elevate and engage, highlighting underrepresented communities. She’s currently in pre-production on The Cassandra Project, a trilogy of short films about the consequences of women not being heard. She is also a co-producer on the upcoming feature film East of Western featuring Dante Basco. Dani has produced the short films A Cohort of Guests starring Sarah Drew, Adult Night with Kevin Alejandro and Lesley Ann-Brandt, the award-winning A Woman Reported with Moira Kelly, and various music videos, including the recent Asian American Pacific Islander anthem Gold by Ella Jay Basco, featuring Ruby Ibarra. Currently, Dani is a producing partner of Alejandro Films, serves as Chair of the Historic Filipinotown Coalition, and recently was named the 2022 UCLA Graduate Mentor of the Year.
Producer – Tiffany Fisher-Love
Tiffany Fisher-Love is a queer, Brooklyn-based producer who straddles the worlds of both fiction and documentary, believing that filmmaking is less about the genre and more about the ability to listen and tell a good story. Current projects include Producer, Storming (2019 Nest Knight Fellow, Declare Creative), Associate Producer, Boycott (2021 Doc NYC premiere), and Producer, Hawaiian Vacation (Color Sift Films). Previous projects range from Co-producer, United Skates (HBO 2019), Producer, Barista (Solipsistic Productions), and Co-Producer for Vimeo 2015 web series, Going Homeless. With more than a decade of experience in social impact video production for Upworthy, Brut, Peoria Project, and Incite Studio, Tiffany is also the Managing Director of New York Madness, promoting new BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ works. She holds a Guinness World Record as the Youngest Female Technical Director in Outdoor Theatre History (MPP, 2013) and was an NC Arts Council Fellow.
Cinematographer – Wenting Deng Fisher
Wenting Deng Fisher is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer and director. Using her mind’s eye, she’s always ready to capture precious moments or a unique perspective. Her photography work is seldom staged and captured in the verité style. She has worked in camera departments in Asia, Europe, and the USA and has collaborated on shorts, features, documentaries, and everything in between. She is traditionally trained in both Chinese watercolor and western oil painting, which shapes her composition and lighting in cinematography. Her MFA thesis film Empty Skies (as director) from Ohio University School of Film was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards and was featured in a write-up by the American Cinematographer magazine. It was shown at the CAMERIMAGE in Poland and won awards worldwide. Wenting is a recipient of the American Society of Cinematographers’ Master Class Vision Scholarship. She recently completed principal photography on two feature films, and is a Fellow of Film Independent’s highly regarded Project Involve program for 2023.
