Sandrine Orabona has worked professionally for over two decades as a director, producer, camera person and editor enhancing her storytelling skills in the non-fiction genre.
She began her career in Miami working on music-driven documentary shows for networks HTV and MTV Latino, creating pieces for artists such as Tito Puente, Maná and Shakira, and helped develop the La Otra Cámara series for MTV Latino.
In Los Angeles her work has focused mainly on long and short-form documentary content for Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, HBO, CBS, Leo Burnett, ABC Networks, HBO, FUSE and Mun2. Featured projects include Person of Interest, The Good Shepherd, and Rango. She spent three years heading the team that produced the creative content for the first three installments of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean home video campaign.
In 2009 she was hired by AEG on Michael Jackson’s concert tour to document the artist, cast and crew as they prepared for their run of shows in London. The material eventually became the documentary feature This Is It.
She recently co-directed a documentary feature for CNN Films entitled Lady Valor, a film about Kristin Beck – a 20-year decorated Navy SEAL who in 2013 came out publicly on CNN as a transgender woman. The film premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest film festival and was featured at Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival, the Human Rights Campaign Film Festival and Frameline.
Sandrine was selected by Toyota as a featured director for their 2013 SCION FRS digital campaign and has created long and short form pieces for artists Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews’ Band, Little Dragon, KCRW’s Garth Trinidad and The Foreign Exchange.
SANDRINE ORABONA
DIRECTOR
KRISTIN BECK
MARK HERZOG
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Kristin Beck, born Christopher Beck in 1966 in Long Island New York, is known to be the first transgender US Navy SEAL. She distinguished herself in her 20 years of exceptionally meritorious service with Special Operations Forces at SEAL Team One, SEAL Team Five, Naval Special Warfare Development Group (SEAL TEAM Six) and the Headquarters at SOCOM. Her achievements in the military are many with awards including the Bronze star with Valor, Purple Heart, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and many others.
In the spring of 2013 “Christopher Beck” announced the to the world that Chris was to become Kristin, a female living a life of peace and happiness. After this announcement, Kristin started working to bring together over a dozen journals collected over years into a comprehensive “picture” of her life to have her story and not a work of fiction out in the public. That book is yet to come to fruition....
The book "Warrior Princess" that was published is an inaccurate psychological intrigue that is to be replaced soon by a more complete picture and in "first person." She was interviewed by Anderson Cooper in June of 2013 and quickly became known throughout the world. Soon after, she became an activist for Human rights, going before Congress and Senators with her personal story and dynamic personality making headway in the March to Equality for all humans. Many other interviews and speeches can be found online. She speaks at various government functions, LGBT conferences and events around the country. For more of Kristin's story, visit www.ladyvalor.com.
Mark Herzog serves as Director (along with Sandrine Orabona) and Producer on “Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story.” He is the founder and CEO of Herzog & Company/HCO, an Emmy-Award-winning television production company and entertainment marketing firm based in Los Angeles.
HCO recently completed production on "The Sixties,"a 10 part documentary series on which Herzog serves as Executive Producer along with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman and their company Playtone. The debut two hour Special "The Assassination of President Kennedy" premiered on the network in November of 2013, and was nominated for 2 Emmys® including Outstanding Documentary or Non Fiction Special and Outstanding Picture Editing Non Fiction Programming. The full series of "The Sixties" launched on CNN in May of 2014.
Last year, he executive produced “Killing Lincoln” for the NatGeo Channel and the award-winning “Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope” for PBS. Earlier projects include the Emmy Award-winning “Gettysburg” for the History Channel. Nominated for 8 Emmys, the film won four including Best Non-Fiction Special. Herzog directed “David McCullough: Painting with Words” for HBO and Playtone and directed with Ken Burns “The Work to Come,” a Tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy, which was broadcast at the 2008 National Democratic Convention.
"Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story" is a Herzog & Company/HCO production in association with Easy Day Media Group. The documentary is part of CNN Films and premiered on the network in September of 2014.
CHRISTOPHER COWEN
PRODUCER
Cowen is an Emmy® award-winning producer who is responsible for the development, production, and delivery of all HCO original programs. Cowen served as the producer on the feature-length special Gettysburg for History, garnering seven Emmy nominations and winning four—including Outstanding Nonfiction Special. Cowen has also helped lead the way for HCO with other successful collaborations including On Freddie Roach and The Fight Game with Executive Producer Peter Berg's Film 44, both of which received 2012 PGA nominations. Other recent productions include the award-winning documentary "Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope" and National Geographic’s record-breaking, first scripted special "Killing Lincoln." Cowen is currently in production on a ten part series "The Sixties" for CNN, and the multi-part series State of Play for HBO. He is a native Californian, and a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University.
RYAN ROTHMAIER
EDITOR
Rothmaier is an NYU graduate and fifteen-year industry veteran, Ryan has edited, produced and written several narrative features, including "Smiling Fish," "The Movie Hero," "Brooklyn Lobster" and "The Fifth Patient." His recent documentary credits include "Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope" and "Mind Zone." He is currently developing feature film projects with Mar Vista and Plan B Entertainment.
White has been running around with a camera stuck to her face since the age of twelve while earning a photography badge in Girl Scouts. Her love of film led her to study cinematography at Columbia College Chicago and she has been shooting films, music videos, commercials and documentaries ever since. When she is not traveling, she is based in Los Angeles and can usually be found listening to Pearl Jam or worshipping Roger Deakins.
JEN WHITE
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Lisa Davidson is an Executive Producer for Easy Day Media Group. She is a 19-year film industry veteran who worked her way up the film production ranks on movies like Matilda, The Rock, and Anna and The King, among others. Davidson is currently working in physical production management on such award-winning features such as Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law; I Am Legend from director Frances Lawrence, starring Will Smith; Baz Luhrmann's 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan; and the upcoming dramatic thriller The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, slated for release October 2014.
Davidson also produced a three-part documentary series, Ivory Wars, chronicling the horrors and the business of elephant poaching in Kenya, set to air on The Animal Planet in late 2014.
She currently has several scripted projects in development.