THE TEAM

Michael Masarof
Writer, Director

Michael Masarof is a writer and director born in New York and residing in Los Angeles. Michael received his MFA in Film Directing from New York University's Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television’s Graduate film program at the Tisch School of The Arts, where he was the recipient of the Jane Rosenthal Scholarship and the Warner Bros. Production Grant. Michael’s short film You Should Have The Body won the first place prize at the International Munich Festival of Film Schools. It also screened as a special presentation at the Berlinale, as well as on Channel 3SAT in Germany. First Love is Michael’s debut feature.
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REEL

Romell Foster-Owens
Producer

Foster-Owens is a graduate of the prestigious American Film Institute, an Alumnus of the Producers Guild of America’s Diversity Workshop and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca All Access Program. Foster-Owens’ feature film producing credits include, It’s Not You, It’s Me, The Lonesome Trail, Pretty Hattie’s Baby, and the critically acclaimed PBS documentary, Watch Me Move and Hollywood At It’s Best.

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Anne Tolkkinen
Sound Design

​Anne Tolkkinen is a sound designer who graduated with her MA in 2005 from the Department of Film and TV at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, and currently resides in Los Angeles. After working in Finland, United Kingdom and Czech Republic, she started her US career with a bang: in 2015, two feature films she was the supervising sound editor on played at the LA Film Festival, one of them winning the Domestic Competition, playing at the Berlinale Film Festival, and receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination. In her film career Anne has always been especially passionate about great stories, and exploring how the creative use of sound can be used in telling them.

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Daga Malinska
Director of Photography

Daga Malinska is a Polish born cinematographer based in Los Angeles. Having grown up in the gritty but beautiful post-communistic Poland, her eyes opened as an adult, living in places such as Oslo, London and now Los Angeles. In 2008 she was awarded a filmmaking scholarship at London Film Academy. It was in LFA that she first connected with her on going passion and profession- Cinematography. Her work at academy gained her a selection for New British Cinematographers Night. Later on she was successfully accepted to American Film Institute MFA Cinematography Program, from where she graduated in 2014.principal photography on feature called First Love. 
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Barnaby Levy
Editor

Barnaby Levy has been making art in one form or another since receiving his MFA in Painting from UCSD in 1987. Since 2000 he has collaborated with choreographer Rosanna Gamson, making videos for live performance; and with photographer Sallie DeEtte Mackie in making video-tapes for installation and single channel videos. In 2009 he presented Accident, a four wall video installation that displays four major streets in Los Angeles: Beverly Blvd., Sepulveda Blvd., Washington Blvd., and Western Ave. In 2014 he edited his first feature, Moon Dust, for artist Scott Reeder. His collaboration with Michael Masarof marks the completion of his second feature as an editor.

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Marcello De Fancisci
Composer

Marcello De Francisci is an American composer with an Italian-Argentinean background based in Los Angeles, California. His career began as a visual artist while attending fine art school in the city of Seville (an institution founded by famed Baroque painter Bartolome Esteban Murillo) later furthering his education at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in Spain. During the course of his studies he taught himself music in addition would soon discover his true passion was to score soundtracks to films. He is a recipient of two Australian Film Critic’s Circle Awards for his work on “Balibo”, “Oranges & Sunshine”.

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Annie Heise
Rebecca

Annie Heise is an actress, known for The Good Mistress (2014), TSI: Hollywood (2013) and Madoff(2016). Attended Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, where she was awarded the Carnegie Scholarship. Named one of Backstage Magazine's 2013 Backstage30 - 30 actors on the brink of stardom.

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Aaron Costa Ganis
Matthew

Aaron Costa Ganis graduated from NYU Graduate Acting Program ‘12. He was a Tisch School of The Arts Fellowship recipient. He starred in Price For Freedom opposite Navid Negahban (Homeland), Blood, Sand, and Gold; dir. Gaelan Connell; Supporting lead in feature film 'Straight Outta Tompkins' w/ Whoopi Goldberg, Backstage Magazine & Hollywood Reporter's Backstage 30: Actors On The Brink of Stardom, 2012.

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Amin El Gamal
Kalil

Amin El Gamal was born during an earthquake in Palo Alto, California. His parents are both Egyptian immigrants - his mother came to the United States with her family at 13 to escape political persecution and his father immigrated to study electrical engineering at Stanford University. He attended Palo Alto High School, and then graduated with a bachelor's degree in Drama and English from Stanford University before progressing to the USC School of Dramatic Arts, which he left with a masters in 2011.

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Arye Gross
Richard Crest

Extremely gifted character actor whose face is readily familiar to the public but they can often not remember why. He tends to turn minor supporting roles into perfect studies in human frailty, strength, passion, avarice or anything else demanded by the role. Gross' extensive stage credits include "La Bete" for the Stages Theatre Center, "Room Service" for the Pasadena Playhouse, "Three Sisters" for the Los Angeles Theatre Center, "Taming of the Shrew" and "Much Ado About Nothing" for the Grove Shakespeare Festival, "Troillus and Cressida" for the Globe Playhouse and "Screwball" and "Let's Play Two" for the South Coast Repertory Theatre.

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