Mina Chow

Mina Chow FAIA NCARB is an award-winning interdisciplinary filmmaker, licensed architect, Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Architecture, and a Faculty Fellow at USC Annenberg Center on Public Diplomacy.  She is the founder of multimedia firm mc² SPACES.  Through her filmmaking, public scholarship, and interdisciplinary teaching, Mina communicates important underlying relationships between design and culture.  She has written on identity and cultural issues between media and architecture including for The Architect’s Newspaper’s “Suspended in a Spectacle:  Public Diplomacy at Expo 2020 Dubai,” “With the Media Burning and a Virus Raging, Should We Look to Architecture?” and “Delinquent in Dubai:  We Need to Tell America’s Best Story in the Middle East.”   

In 2021, she was elevated to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for outstanding public service and documentary filmmaking.   Since 2018, she's served as a design history consultant for the U.S. Department of State Expo Unit.  Her 2022 PBS documentary “FACE OF A NATION: What Happened to the World’s Fair?” continues its impact including recent citation in Smithsonian Magazine and international screenings on Emirate Airlines ICE, and at the 2022 International Communications (ICA) Conference in Paris.   The film connects the erosion of the country’s international image to the decline of U.S. participation at overseas World Expos.  It is recognized by the U.S. Department of State Expo Unit website.

She has directed and produced films for the American Institute of Architects, and the University of Southern California. In 2014, she directed USC School of Architecture's "100 Years of Architecture" short film. In 2011, she created a pilot BRAVE NEW WORLD for the LA Mayor’s office about innovative architecture for the city of Los Angeles.  Select awards include an Arnold W. Brunner Grant from the Center for Architecture, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the California Architectural Foundation, multiple grants from USC’s Architectural Guild, US-China Institute, and the Ambassador's Fund. She was also on the award-winning U.S. Pavilion team "Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good" at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Mitchell Block

Mitchell Block has marketed and distributed numerous acclaimed films since the late 1970s including 60 Academy Award nominated or winning documentaries, shorts and animated films. He handled the primary marketing for numerous PBS classic works including all of the Ken Burns films prior to the Civil War, DeGrassi Jr. High and the DeGrassi High series, the Anne of Green Gables series and numerous American Masters and Experiences works. He is president of Direct Cinema Limited in Santa Monica. Block is producing the recently NEH funded Women of the Gulag with its director, and Vessel, produced by Block is being completed in 2014. This is feature length documentary filmed over the last seven years about Dr. Rebeca Gomperts, and her organization, Women on Waves, who sail a ship around the world to countries where abortion is illegal to confront their blocking choice for women. The film has received support from Chicken and Egg Pictures and Impact Partners. Block produced the 2011 Academy Award and multiple Emmy nominated documentary film Poster Girl. Block conceived, co-created & is an executive producer of the 2008 PBS Emmy Award-winning 10-hour documentary series Carrier the companion documentary feature. He was a consultant on short & feature nonfiction projects for HBO/Cinemax from 1998-2005. He’s been teaching independent film producing at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts since 1979. He was an executive-producer on HBO's 2001 Academy Award-winning film Big Mama. No Lies, produced & directed by Block, was selected in 2008 for the National Register of Historical Films, films selected from 1973 include: American Graffiti, Badlands, Mean Streets and The Sting. It won an Emmy in 1975. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-LA, and a life member of the UFVA & IDA. Block holds a BFA and MFA from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, MBA from Columbia University and did his doctoral studies at UCLA in film history, criticism, theory and business. He was also a founding producing fellow at the AFI.

Alessandra Pasquino

Alessandra Pasquino, Producer graduated in Fine Arts (Middlesex Polytechnic, London) with a focus on Performance and Video Art. Her collaborative video work and still photography have been featured in the NEW CONTEMPORARIES SHOW at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She has over 20 years of experience as a producer in California working on TV commercials and advertising. She was a founder member of PAVLOV, a boutique commercial production company backed by Sony Pictures Imageworks, where she produced commercials for Kelloggs, McDonalds, Nabisco, Chrysler, Range Rover etc… Alessandra has managed a diverse range of independent projects at varying stages of development for Oliver Stone, Leonardo Di Caprio, Wayne Wang, the USC School of Architecture, Suzanne Kiley, Ashes and Snow, Klaus Kinski, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, CBS, ABC and Disney. Currently Alessandra is a freelance producer, dedicated to content development and ‘on the ground’ production for various clients. She works for ELEMENTAL Productions, a company committed to exploring and making documentaries on the effects of globalization on culture and health in various developing countries. Alessandra is also the founder of dZi Media Ventures, a collaboration devoted to developing and producing Alessandra’s own fiction and documentary projects. Throughout her life Alessandra has maintained a strong bond and passion for the outdoors and for mountain cultures. She has climbed widely in the Alps and Sierras. Her mountaineering endeavors in the Himalayas have included climbing on the Tibetan side of Mt. Everest with a non-commercial expedition.

ORIGINAL MUSIC