Sandra Alvarez-Smith: Director
Sandra Alvarez-Smith has experience directing and producing a wide spectrum of television programs appearing on Sundance, History Channel, BBC America, A&E Network, Discovery Channel, and TLC. Focusing on real-life, emotional stories, Sandra served as a field producer for A&E’s Emmy winning show Intervention and The First 48. Sandra worked as a lead producer for BBC America about the obesity problem in the United States entitled, Rude Awakening. Sandra also directed a program for the Sundance Channel, Get To Work, that tells the compelling story of a unique non-profit organization that teaches job skills to “unemployables” (such as ex-convicts and recovering addicts) and gets them back into the workforce. Recently, Sandra produced a pilot for A&E, Dogs of War, about a non-profit organization that trains service dogs for military veterans with PTSD. Sandra graduated Magna Cum Laude from Cornell University, with a degree in Communications and a concentration in Business Management. Her professional reel can be found on her website- http://reelmuse.com
Sandra has a close connection to this project, as she is a first-generation Cuban-American and her grandfather was one of the veterans involved in Congo Crisis. Sandra and the entire production crew are committed to approaching this project with the utmost journalistic integrity and provide the audience with accurate and impartial information. The key personnel of A Secret Legacy has been assembled with the highest standards in mind.
Sandra has a close connection to this project, as she is a first-generation Cuban-American and her grandfather was one of the veterans involved in Congo Crisis. Sandra and the entire production crew are committed to approaching this project with the utmost journalistic integrity and provide the audience with accurate and impartial information. The key personnel of A Secret Legacy has been assembled with the highest standards in mind.
Amanda Spain: Producer
One of Amanda’s first jobs in the entertainment business was working for producing legend Robert Evans. Since that time, she has produced numerous film and television projects, with an emphasis on documentary. Recently she produced and directed a short for ESPN's acclaimed 30 for 30 series titled Wrestling The Curse about wrestler Kevin Von Erich, which will be premiering in 2015. She is currently Producing, A Secret Legacy, a documentary exploring Cuban Exiles participation in a secret CIA led war in the Congo, as well as Everything's Coming Up Profits a fun filled documentary following Letterman writer Steve Young on his journey discovering a world of lost Americana, the corporate musical! She produced and directed In Their Boots (EP Robert Greenwald), a series dedicated to showing how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan affect us here at home, which was nominated for an IDA award in the Limited Series category. Her other work has appeared on networks such as A&E, PBS, MTV,The Sundance Channel, Link and Discovery, among many others. Her films have been accepted into festivals such as Women’s International Film Festival and New Fest.
Bryan Donnell: Director of Photography
Bryan Donnell is an Emmy-nominated Director of Photography, and is frequent collaborator of prominent directors such as Morgan Spurlock and Lucy Walker. A short narrative film, Bean Cake, won the Palme d’Or for best short film at the Cannes film festival, and a narrative feature, Wait Means Never, won both Best Cinematography and Best Feature at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival. Recent work has been as series co-DP on CNN’s Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man (IDA award winner for best series) and on Ashley York and Kristina Goolsby’s documentary, Tig, which premiered at Sundance in 2015.
Dava Whisenant: Editor
Dava is an editor and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Recently, she was the co-editor of Focus Features' 3D documentary Under the Electric Sky, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and she was the editor of Merle Haggard: Learning to Live with Myself, a documentary feature honored as part of the 2011 Emmy Award-winning season of PBS’ American Masters. Dava began her work in features as an Editorial Assistant for Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris. She went on to do Additional Editing for the comedy Puccini for Beginners, in competition at Sundance in 2006, and she was the Supervising Editor for the first two seasons of NBC’s Emmy-nominated docu-series Who Do You Think You Are? Her work has been seen on CBS, NBC, CW, Bravo, MSNBC, History, VH1, Discovery and PBS, among others.
