CREATIVE TEAM:
Doug Roland (Director) Doug is an independent filmmaker from NYC residing in LA. He has a passion for telling stories that focus on those in society who are normally forgotten or overlooked.
Doug's collaboration with the Helen Keller National Center on The Feeling Through Experience marks the first time ever a DeafBlind actor has been featured in a film. The screening event is currently traveling around the country, and has been featured in the NY Times, Fox 5 News, and Newsday.
His short film Jada played in over 2 dozen festivals around the world before becoming a viral sensation with almost 20 million views on YouTube, garnering thousands of comments and emails from viewers deeply moved and inspired by it.
Doug produced the feature film Life Hack which received 16 awards on the festival circuit, including "Audience Choice" at the San Diego Film Festival.
He studied film at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and FAMU in Prague.
PHIL NEWSOM (Producer) NYC-based Producer, feature film credits include April Flowers, starring Celina Jade (Arrow) & Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey); I Can, I Will, I Did, starring Mike Faist (Dear Evan Hanson *Tony-nominated) & Selenis Leyva (Orange is the New Black), Alina, directed by the late great Ben Barenholtz ( producer of: Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Requiem for a Dream), the horror film Central Park Dark, starring Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), Snakehead, starring Sung Kang (The Fast & The Furious), Albanian Gangster, starring Ashley C. Williams (Human Centipede) and Every Time I Die, starring Marc Menchaca (Ozark). Phil just completed principal photography on the horror feature, The Unborn for Mila Media, where he is the Head of Production for their micro-budget horror division. He’s also produced many award-winning short films and stage plays.
Luis Augusto Figueroa (Producer) Born in Panama and raised in Washington, D.C., Luis's bicultural upbringing informs his storytelling. Throughout his career, he has performed in the Tony Award winning productions of 42nd Street and Wicked while helming projects on both television and the silver screen. A graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City and student of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Luis draws from his experiences maturing as an artist in the Big Apple, Los Angeles, and touring the globe on stage. Expanding his craft, Luis has found writing and producing as way to his speak his voice and mold his vision using film as the medium to express the unique and vulnerable human condition.
Eugene Koh (Director of Photography) Born and raised in South Korea, Eugene obtained her MFA in Film Production, specializing in cinematography from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She was the finalist in the 2009 Kodak Student Scholarship for her work on The Sun Rising, and nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2011 Singapore International Film Festival for the feature film I Have Loved.
She’s worked on numerous shorts, including Sing Along, starring Uzo Aduba, Alice Ripley and Myles Erlick and Love Songs for Vogue. She also produced Teleglobal Dreamin’, which premiered and was a runner up for the Best Narrative Short at SXSW.
The feature she shot, I Can I Will I Did, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2017 AAIFF and has been showing around the Film Festival circuit.
For the short film H’mong Sisters, shot in Vietnam, Eugene was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, and won the Nestor Almendros Award for Excellence in Cinematography in 2013.
Currently, she finished production of 'Variables', Sloan Foundation-funded project, 'Dead Beats' and 'Malady' and waiting on the feature film, April Flowers starring Celina Jade and John Fletcher, to be released in the China market.
Robert Tarango (Artie) - Robert is the first DeafBlind actor to star in a film. Both Robert and his sister, who is also DeafBlind, grew up in Arizona where Robert attended the School for the Deaf in Phoenix. In the 1990s, Robert attended HKNC’s Comprehensive Vocational and Rehabilitation Program after which he was hired by the Center to work in the food services department. Robert has worked with HKNC for over 20 years.
STEVEN PRESCOD (Tereek) Steven was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Though he found himself in trouble with the law at a young age, Steven was fortunate to participate in an alternative to incarceration program, CASES, that placed him in a six-week internship with the CityKids Foundation, where he met his mentor, Moises Roberto Belizario. After his time at CityKids, Steven and Moises developed a theatrical piece telling the story of his life, which ultimately became A Brooklyn Boy. Steven's stage credits include Accept/Except at the National Black Theatre and 2x2. On film, he has been featured in Blind starring Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore, and The Private Life of a Modern Woman featuring Sienna Miller and Alec Baldwin, along with numerous short films.