Bios
Talia Lugacy - Director/writer/producer
Talia Lugacy co-wrote and directed the feature film "Descent" starring Rosario Dawson, which premiered in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically by Warner Independent. Despite an NC-17 rating "Descent" was championed by The New York Times as "essential to see, a vividness never seen in an American film."
Talia is a full-time Assistant Professor of Screen Studies at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, in NYC. She is also a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights & Directors Unit, and began studying filmmaking at NYU Tisch at the age of 15. She has directed numerous short films as well as directed environmental PSAs with Frack Action, Water Defense, Mark Ruffalo and Food & Water Watch.
Noah Lang - Producer
Noah is an independent producer based in Los Angeles and New York. He got his start in the management and sales groups at Cinetic before moving into the finance and consulting departments.
As a freelance producer, Noah has produced films that have been distributed and broadcast worldwide with partners such as DirecTV, Netflix, Hulu, Universal, and Sony. Festival screenings include Sundance, Cannes, Telluride, TIFF, Deauville, American Film Festival Wroclaw, San Sebastián, Tribeca, Los Angeles, Woodstock, New Orleans, Champs Elysees, Melbourne, San Francisco, and numerous others.
His films include THE STRANGE ONES (SXSW - Jury Prize), HERE ALONE (Tribeca - Audience Award), DIVERGE (Top Prize - US in Progress Paris), BAND OF ROBBERS (LAFF - Zeitgeist Nominee), SUN BELT EXPRESS (Newport Beach Film Festival - Filmmaking Honors), and RED, WHITE & WASTED (Tribeca - Viewpoints).
He recently premiered THE CLIMB at Cannes where it won the Coup de Coeur Prize and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.
Ryan deFranco - Director of Photography
Ryan is a filmmaker based in New York. His narrative and documentary cinematography has premiered at Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance, HotDocs, and MoMA PS1. He is most at home when out of his element, in unfamiliar landscapes, amid stories of community and uncertainty.
On television, Ryan's work includes productions for AMC, Viceland, History, CNN, and IFC.
Commercial clients include AMEX, Kenzo, Puma, MAC, L'Oreal, Spotify, Intel, Comcast, Madewell, Uniqlo, Modelo, Chandon, and Amazon.
Rosario Dawson - Executive Producer
Rosario Dawson was discovered at age 15 and cast in the edgy 1995 flick Kids, about teens indulging in sex and drugs. She's gone on to star in a wide spectrum of independent and feature films, including Sin City, Rent and Grindhouse. Also an outspoken activist for various causes, Dawson co-founded Voto Latino to encourage Latinos to register and vote.
For her role in Rent, Dawson won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture; for her role in Top Five, she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Awardfor Best Actress in a Comedy.
Sam Adegoke - Actor / Co-Executive Producer
Sam Adegoke is a Nigerian-American actor best known for his portrayal of Jeff Colby on CW's Dynasty. He has appeared in a host of TV role's including ABC's crime thriller Wicked City, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Code Black, NCIS LA, Murder in the First, and Switched at Birth. In 2017 he co-starred in the Michael Jackson feature biopic "Searching for Neverland.”
JULIAN WEST - PRODUCER
Julian West is an artist and filmmaker based in New York. He has co-produced a number of indie features and short films in the last few years, including ONCE UPON A RIVER, directed by Haroula Rose, OXALIS directed by Brian Gottlieb, and the award-winning short GRETA, directed by Sparkman Clark. He has also directed TV commercials for 30 years, represented by Assembly Films in NYC.
Frances Fisher - Actor
Frances Fisher began by apprenticing at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. She spent 14 years based in New York City, playing leads in over 30 productions of plays by such noted writers as John Arden, Noël Coward, Emily Mann, Joe Orton, Sam Shepard, William Shakespeare, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams. She won a Drama Logue Award - Best Ensemble for the American Premier of Caryl Churchill's "Three More Sleepless Nights", played in the American premier of Judith Thompson's "The Crackwalker" and originated roles in Elia Kazan's "The Chain" and Arthur Miller's last play "Finishing the Picture". She studied with Stella Adler and became a lifetime member of the Actors Studio by actually "walking up the stairs" and auditioning for legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg. Ms. Fisher recently completed The Host (2013), Love on the Run (2016), Red Wing (2013) and worked with Catherine Hardwicke in her film Plush (2013) in August 2012. Ms. Fisher was honored for a Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 in her old hometown of the Pacific Palisades, California.
Danny Ramirez - Actor
Danny Ramirez made his television debut on Showtime's, The Affair followed by roles on NBC's Blindspot and the feature film, Rapid Eye Movement while attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
He then reoccured as Wes on Fox's The Gifted and as Mario on the hit Netflix series On My Block. He also guest starred in Orange Is The New Black. His first notable film credits came shortly after graduating in: Sam Levinson's Assassination Nation which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and then as Chip shortly after in MGM's Valley Girl musical remake.
Recently, he has wrapped director Katharine O'Brien's, Lost Transmissions opposite of Simon Pegg, Juno Temple and Alexandra Daddario, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019, Richard Bates Jr's Tone-Deaf which premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in 2019 and David Raboy's The Giant, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival September 7th, 2019.
BRIAN DELATE - actor + veteran
Brian Delate is an actor and Vietnam veteran from New Jersey. After graduating from Rider University, he moved to New York City as a working actor. Delate has had the privilege to work with some of the most talented and creative directors and actors in the industry. Delate has spent the last two years writing, directing and acting in, his first indie feature, Soldier's Heart (with James Kiberd and Cady McClain), which takes a promising look at the prolonged effects of PTSD caused by war, and the healing that's possible. Now near completion, Soldier's Heart will soon be making the rounds of the film festivals.
Noa Bricklin - production designer
Noa is a NYC based designer whose career spans many different forms of visual media.
Prior to working in film she helped to curate shows at Salon 94 Freemans and The Rogue Gallery. Her projects have been recognized at numerous festivals including SIFF, Women+Film, Napa Valley Film Festival, and the Social Justice Film Festival. Her work can also be seen on the History Channel and A&E Network.
She is inspired by innovative methods of storytelling and gravitates towards projects with high social impact. Her next project Follow Her (2021) from director Sylvia Caminer explores the nature of surveillance, privacy and sexuality in the digital age.
Noa has an MA in Art History and Social Anthropology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.