Production Team

Andrea E. Leland - Director, Producer, Camera
Andrea Leland is an independent filmmaker and artist. She has produced and directed award winning documentaries focusing on Caribbean and Latin American cultures. In Haiti, Belize, Chiapas, and several Caribbean islands, she works collaboratively with community members providing a forum to voice their untold stories, personal challenges and compelling triumphs. Social, artistic or political actions are placed within context of their culture, imploring the viewer to confront old myths and discover a new perspective. These documentaries are successful tools for cultural preservation.

Titles include: Jamesie, King of Scratch (2006), The Garifuna Journey (1998), The Long Road Home (1991), and Voodoo and the Church in Haiti (1989).

These films have won numerous awards and have screened at museums, conferences and festivals throughout Europe, Latin America and the United States. Selected invitational screenings include: American Museum of Natural History, New York; 18th Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, France; Pan African Film Festival, Los Angeles; and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Indian, New York.

All unedited raw footage, transcripts, project notes and other materials from her Caribbean collections are available for research purposes in the Center for Black Music Research library archives. The material is available free to the public for any person interested in doing further research. http://www.colum.edu/CBMR/library/archives/other/index.php

Andrea is a member of Newday Films. She is the co-founder of the St. John Film Society which presents independent films free to the public on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands.

Tom Shepard - Editor, Consulting Producer
Shepard has produced and directed Scout's Honor, a PBS-funded documentary about the anti-gay policy of the Boy Scouts of America and the grassroots campaign to overturn it. Scout's Honor won the Audience Award for Best Documentary and Freedom of Expression Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS' POV series in the Summer of 2001. 

In 2006, Shepard co-directed and produced the documentary, Knocking with Independent Television Service (ITVS) —a film about Jehovah's Witnesses and their contributions to medicine and civil liberties. Knocking aired nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens in May of 2007. Shepard has worked as an editor at National Public Radio for Linda Wertheimer and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer where he co-produced Listening to America, an audio documentary on the history of public radio in America.

Fabian Guerra - Camera
Guerra was born and raised in Trinidad and has worked independently as a producer, editor and videographer with various news and cable television outlets including; TV6 (Trinidad) and K45 Karib Kable (St. Vincent/Grenadines).  He has worked as a videographer and co-editor on numerous feature and series documentaries including; Haiti: Myths, Perceptions, Reality (2010) and the docudrama Home.

Dr. Cadrin Gill - Consulting Producer
Dr. Gill is from the reservation of Sandy Bay on the main island of St. Vincent. He currently serves as the United States Honorary Consul General to St. Vincent & The Grenadines. He completed his undergraduate work at Columbia University and studied medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He practices family medicine in Los Angeles where he lives with  his wife and children.

Empress Modupe Olufunmi-Jacobs -
Consulting Producer
Ms Jacobs, born in Haiti, is a visual artist and has a BA in History and Africana Studies from Brooklyn College and a Master of Science from the College of Mount St. Vincent in Riverdale , NY. Born in Haiti, Ms. Jacobs taught school in NYC for over 25 years, and upon retirement relocated to St. Vincent. She wrote, produced and directed Haiti: Myths, Perception, Reality, a 55 minute documentary which toured the Caribbean. Most recently, Ms. Jacobs is the producer and director of a television show that features local culinary artist of St. Vincent and the Grenadines entitled We Cookin'.

Laurent Bernard Jacobs - Consulting Producer
Jacobs was born and raised on St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He is a self taught local historian with extensive knowledge of Vincentian and Carib history. He lived and worked in New York City as a taxi driver for over 30 years. After 911 he returned to his home on St. Vincent where is presides as public relations officer for the Devine Order of Nyahbingi. He is also a member of the Garifuna Heritage Foundation. Jacobs introduced the Leland to tradition bearers and to the history and culture of St. Vincent.

Kingsley Roberts - Still Photographer
Born in Sandy Bay on the Island of St. Vincent, Roberts is of Carib descent and has been working as a professional photographer in the region of the Caribbean for the last 30 years. His photojournalism has been featured in the Barbados Advocate and the Nation Newspaper. In his recently published book, A Taste of the Caribbean, Roberts elegantly documents everyday life and practices of multi-aged Caribbean people in a photo collection titled Dawn til’ Dusk. He currently lives and works in St.Vincent and The Grenadines.

Goro Toshima -
Additional Camera
Goro Toshima is an award winning documentary filmmaker.As a cinematographer. Goro's work has aired on HBO, PBS, the Sundance Channel and Bravo. He has DP'ed numerous documentaries and docu-reality shows. Goro received a Masters Degree in Documentary Filmmaking from Stanford University.

Ashanty Crisanto Peralta -
Garifuna Dancer

Greg Palacio - Artist
Palacio is a renowned Garifuna artist from Dangriga, Belize and has exhibited his work in both Belize and the United States. Palacio currently lives in Los Angeles where he is studying animation, game art and design. He is simultaneously pursuing a teaching degree so that he may return one day to his native country and work with underprivileged artistic youth.

Hussein Castillo - Social Networking
Born in Dangriga, Belize, Hussein Castillo has been with Garifuna Flava Caribbean Restaurant: A Taste of Belize since its inception in June 2008. This family owned and operated restaurant is the Midwest’s only Garifuna restaurant, serving indigenous cuisine from a Central American ethnic group of only 500,000 individuals. Garifuna Flava's unique blend of Belizean and Central-American cuisine has been featured on various media & print, including the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives", WTTW Chicago's "Check, Please", WGN's "Chicago's Best," and ABC7's "Hungry Hound.”

Prior to Garifuna Flava, Hussein was involved with: Peace & Leadership Council, which helped students participate in their schools decision-making processes ; and the New Voter Initiative, a one of a kind program that registered voters ; the Mikva Challenge, a non-profit organization named after former U.S. Representative & White House Counsel Abner Mikva, that works with high school students to develop the next generation of civic leaders, activists and policymakers.

Rhodee Castillo - Contributing Musician
Rhodee is a proud Garifuna raised in the coastal Garifuna community of Hopkins Village, Belize. Inspired to be a musician by family members and local Garifuna musicians, Rhodee developed his own distinct style. After graduating from Belize College of Arts, he immigrated to Chicago where he received a BA from Chicago State University. Rhodee co-founded the Progressive Garifuna Alliance, an organization dedicated to the preservation and advancement of Garifuna culture worldwide. With a humanitarian concern for social issues affecting the Garifuna people, he has created a compilation of music Garifuna transition with punta rock reggae and a pinch of soul. His most recent CD is entitled IN EXILE. He and his family spend much of their time at their restaurant Garifuna Flava, located in Chicago.

Jim Klein - Consulting Editor
Jim Klein has been active in the American independent film community since 1969 and today directs, edits, consults, and teaches film at Wright State University. Klein extensive filmography includes Oscar-nominated Union Maids, Growing Up Female; Methadone: An American Way Of Dealing; and Oscar-nominated Seeing Red.

George Patay - Media Manager, Tech Advisor
Patay is a professional video editor and post production specialist with skills in story editing, finishing, color work, DVD authoring, and video compression.  George is the owner of Patay Post, a boutique edit facility with full HD monitoring. He has over 20+ years of experience in broadcast, documentary, music video, and corporate genres. His Broadcast editing work has appeared on CBS, WTTW, ESPN, the BigTen Network, MOJO, CSTV, and TLN.  He has a rare blend of creativity and technical knowledge. When other editors have questions, they frequently call me for the answers.

Tracy DeMarco - Graphic Artist
Tracy is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she received a B.A after studies in both Art History and Fine Arts. Tracy is based in the MidWest where she has an interdisciplinary arts practice - Cool Cat Media - which includes; computer-based print and web design, 3D animation, hand-drawn illustration, watercolor paintings, mixed media drawings, hand-builtand thrown clay and pottery sculpture. She is also a musician/harpist in the Chicago area.

Charlie Corriea - Animator
Corriea was born and raised in San Francisco, California and has a formal training in both fine art and animation.  He is the recipient of the Gordon Thomas Memorial Scholarship in Animation and the Princess Grace Award in Film. In 2011, he was honored with the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Mendocino Film Festival for his short animation Fu-de and has since been working independently as a freelance motion graphics artist, animator and editor in San Francisco.