TAPESTRIES OF HOPE TEAM

MICHEALENE CRISTINI RISLEY (PRODUCER / DIRECTOR)
Michealene Cristini Risley was born and raised in Michigan and is a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in telecommunications. She has over 20 years experience in the entertainment and consumer products industries. While working at Mattel and Sega, she was responsible for some of the largest licensing deals in the history of the consumer products and entertainment industries, including projects with renowned sports figures Tiger Woods, Michelle Kwan, and Ronaldo. Michealene spent a dozen years in Hollywood garnering experience with companies such as Disney, Amblin, Hollywood Pictures and Marvel Productions. She has an extensive background in film production and development.

In 2006, Michealene was invited to the Sundance Producers’ Conference for her Untitled Jackie Speier Documentary. Michealene’s most recent directing project was Flashcards. This short film on child sexual abuse has won numerous awards including ‘Best Short Film’ for the NY Film and TV Festival, and was screened in the “Shorts Du Jour” program at the Cannes Film Festival. Flashcards was distributed by American Public Television for airing on PBS stations. (www.freshwaterspigot.com)

Michealene has a number of film projects in development, including “Bullet the Blue Sky” with award-winning writer, Susan Black. In addition, she is co-founder for Women’s Independent Cinema. (www.womensindependentcinema.com)

In March of 2007, Michealene, along with three co-authors, published the book “This Is Not The Life I Ordered” with Red Wheel/Weiser. In less than a week, the first printing was sold out. The book has sold over 36,000 copies. (www.thisisnotthelifeiordered.com)

Michealene continues to speak around the country; she has recently spoken at Executive Women in government, Amnesty International and The United Nations.

ANAND CHANDRASEKARAN (PRODUCER)
Anand Chandrasekaran is an entrepreneur and marketing executive with a successful track record. A native of India, he is a trained engineer and marketer from famed institutes including the Indian Institute of Science and Stanford University. His passion lies in creating films that make audiences question the status quo.

Anand co-founded Aeroprise Inc. out of Stanford University in 2000. He has been instrumental in building the business through bootstrapping to profitability and raising venture financing from vSpring Capital as Head of Marketing and Evangelism and as a member of the Board of Directors. In 2004, MIT recognized Anand as one of fifteen Global Technovators of the year.

The first film Anand executive produced is the critically acclaimed “Carma.” Directed by Ray Arthur Wang, “Carma” features Academy Award Nominee Karen Black and includes off-camera contributions from Jeff Dowd and Finn Taylor. Palo Alto Daily News calls the film “Pulp Fiction meets Psycho.” “Carma” recently made film history, becoming the first feature-length film to be exclusively distributed through an online pay-per-view platform.

RAY ARTHUR WANG (PRODUCER)
Ray Arthur Wang (pronounced Wong) is a self-taught director/writer/producer/composer. Having traveled to 41 states in the U.S. and 54 countries all over the world, RAW finds his greatest passion in making movies. Bare Bones International Independent Film Festival (one of the “Best Truly Independent Film Festivals,” Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide) recently declared his feature directorial debut Carma “Best Picture” and Ray Arthur Wang “Indie Auteur of the Year.” “Wang is a director to watch,” claims Film Threat.

No stranger to acclaim, RAW has received accolades for his winning performances in numerous major piano competitions, including a solo performance with full orchestra at the age of ten. He holds a Ph. D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with music minor from UC Berkeley, and the 1999 National Electrical Engineering Honor Society's Most Outstanding EE Student in the Nation Award.

CHRISTOPHER BANKSTON (LINE PRODUCER)
Christopher Bankston brings more than twenty years of entertainment production experience to the Tapestries of Hope team. Chris has worked in all capacities of producer on more than 100 successfully released projects in Film, Games, Music, and Television worldwide. Production experience ranges from teams of a half dozen people on a shoe-string budget to crews of 150+ with multimillion dollar budgets. During his career, Chris was represented by the William Morris talent agency. Many of his projects have been Top-10 best sellers with strong ROI.

SUSAN BLACK (WRITER)
Susan Black has been addressing social ills in her work for years. Her first job for Emmy award winning, "A Year In The Life" addressed union issues. Her hospital expose, "State of Emergency" (HBO) garnered Cable Ace and Humanitas nominations as well as the Pen Literary Award.. She developed, "Hiroshima Maidens" with Disney, about the preteen girls physically ravaged by the atom bomb then shunned by their families, as well as ABC's, “Atomic Harvest” based on the government's cover up of nuclear testing which left children with life long physical problems from playing in the radioactive fields. Her short, "Passions" explores the effects of a priest's sexual encounter with an innocent girl and her play, "Rations" about hunger and homelessness benefiting the non profit hunger organization LIFE toured in schools in both Spanish and English....Political comedy, “Running Mates" which Ms. Black re-wrote and co-produced with Laura Linney was ambitiously conceived, shot and broadcast in time for elections in a year when campaign finance reform desperately needed to be brought to the fore of discussion. Ms Black adapted "Atlas Shrugged", for TNT, as well as myriad other projects both television and feature.

JESSICA SISON (EDITOR)
In film school, Jessica Sison decided to rebel against the stereotypes placed on Asian-American females by making a parody of Hong Kong action films as well as an homage to Jean-Luc Godard. That film, Newton's Law, was chosen as the closing film of San Francisco State University's Film Finals Festival and has gone on to screen at several other festivals. After graduation, she spent 3 years of post-production work in film, television, and corporate projects before focusing her editing talent on documentaries. Her broadcast work has shown on PBS, the Oxygen Channel, the WB, ImaginAsian, and The Filipino Channel. Her documentary directorial debut, “Kuna Ni Nanang (My Mother Said),” screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Athens International Film & Video Festival, and the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Her next documentary is about her family’s unusual participation in the Bataan Death March during WWII.

ROBIN CHIN (EDITOR)
Social justice has been the common thread through Robin Chin’s filmmaking career over the last decade. As a documentary editor, Robin has honed her craft on award-winning documentaries with Frontline, Frontline/World, and Bill Moyers. As a social activist, Robin produced, directed and co-edited the highly-acclaimed, nationally-broadcast film “There’s Something About W” about the 2004 elections. She has edited the Emmy Award-winning Frontline pieces “Fooling with Nature” and “Justice For Sale,” and also the films “Sing Faster” and “Rabbit in the Moon,” both of which screened at Sundance in 1999.