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DIRECTOR / PRODUCER

Taylor Taglianetti is the Founder and President of the National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television (NOIAFT). She is also a producer, director, and celebrity interviewer. What's Next? is Taylor's feature documentary debut. 

Under her production company, Half House Productions, Taylor also produced the short documentary Heirloom (2022), starring Isabella Rossellini, which premiered at the Los Angeles-Italia Film Festival in March 2022. The film, directed by Emmy-nominated Michela Maria, is about a mother and daughter who set out to discover why Italian Americans continue to have a deep connection to gardening. The film received a grant from the Russo Brothers and was an Official Selection in numerous film festivals worldwide. Taylor continues to collaborate with Michela Maria on her next project, The Eel, an upcoming narrative feature about Italian superstitions, for which Taylor is currently seeking investors.

Taylor’s career in filmmaking began at the age of 15 when she directed her debut short documentary Generation Hollow. The film, which won the Juror’s Choice for Outstanding Filmmaking at the 2014 Women of African Descent Film Festival, eerily foreshadows the current crisis of how AI is challenging humans in the arts.

In 2018, she helped cast Shiva Baby (SXSW Film Festival) starring Rachel Sennott.

Taylor is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

In October 2024, Taylor was one of the honorees at the Italian Charities of America’s 88th annual Dinner Dance Gala where she received the Italian American Ambassador Award.

To learn more about her organization, please visit: https://noiaft.org/

PRODUCER

Austin Tucker currently works in Business Development & Operations at Paramount. Additionally, he is the lead singer and keyboardist for the Brooklyn-based rock band, Sweet Sienna, signed to Cleopatra Records.

As a musician, Austin has supported, performed, and recorded with numerous national acts such as George Lynch, Sebastian Bach, Warrant, Jack Russell, and others. He recently supported Ace Frehley at his New Haven performance.

A graduate of NYU Stern School of Business, Austin is the Executive Producer of Heirloom (2022) starring Isabella Rossellini and volunteers his time as Director of Business Development at the National Organization of Italian Americans in Film & Television (NOIAFT). He has also worked on many short film projects and previously worked at Universal Music Group, NBCUniversal, Warner Music Group, and AEG Presents.

PRODUCER

Stephanie Walter is an award-winning writer, producer, and director whose credits include television, radio and theater. Stephanie’s television credits include documentaries for Lifetime, MSNBC, CBS, and Viacom, as well as her own independent work. Stephanie has created original programming for a variety of broadcasters, and spent a chunk of her career documenting roots music around the U.S.

After studying writing in New York and the U.K., Stephanie moved to Manhattan and opened her own theatre company, The Black Market. There she developed new voices from around the country and presented readings, and staged productions out of an old garage in the LES.

Stephanie holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University, where she created a series of lectures that examined Race and Justice, working with students using Socratic methodologies. She is currently the Executive Producer and Director of the Emmy Award-winning production company, The Studios at Reel Works, training students to enter the film and television workforce.

EDITOR

GAYLEN ROSS has directed, produced, written and edited award-winning documentary films for over 25 years, premiering in national and international film festivals, premiering on PBS as part of the prestigious POV series, A&E Television, and The Learning Channel, and for England's BBC's "Storyville," and Channel4; and shown in Israel, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, Japan, and Canada.

Her films have also been official selections of the Berlin Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, Heartland Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Haifa Film Festival (Israel), Cinema du Reel at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Nyon Documentary Festival (Switzerland), Encontros Inernacionais (Portugal) the Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York, Williamstown Film Festival, Santa Fe Film Festival, and Jewish Film Festivals in New York, Vienna, San Francisco, Boston, London, Berlin and Brazil.

In front of the camera, as an actress, Gaylen Ross had a very brief but distinguished career as the star of two George Romero classics, Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow.

CONSULTING EDITOR

Sabine Krayenbühl is an award-winning filmmaker with over twenty theatrical documentaries and narrative features to her credit. She co-directed and edited Letters from Baghdad about Gertrude Bell, sometimes referred to as the female "Lawrence of Arabia."

Her editing work includes Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominated My Architect for which she received an American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddie Award nomination and the Emmy-winning The Hunt for Planet B. Additional credits include Mad Hot Ballroom, one of the top twenty highest grossing documentaries, The Bridge produced by IFC, Picasso and Braque go to the Movies, produced by Martin Scorsese, Virgin Tales, Ahead of Time, Jennifer Fox’s Emmy nominated My Reincarnation, Salinger on which she consulted and most recently HBO’s The Price of Everything.

Krayenbühl has a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of NYWIFT and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

DIRECTOR OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

Caleb Crossen is a cinematographer based in Cleveland, Ohio. His work includes commercials for national brands like Reebok, The Cleveland Cavaliers, Flexjet, Progressive, and Vitamix; documentaries, including features Burn The Ships and A More Civil War; and music videos for a variety of artists including Machine Gun Kelly and Cloud Nothings.

COMPOSER

Emmy Award-winning, Michele Josia's work encompasses film soundtracks, choral and orchestral works, and, far more than merely a composer, he's also a well-known choir conductor. With his ensemble, he won several first prizes and special awards in national and international choral competitions (Skofja Loka, Maribor, Bad Ischl, Riva del Garda, Bratislava) as well as getting official awards from the government of Slovenia. He was assistant conductor of Fabrizio Barchi, Stojan Kuret, and Ursa Lah and co-founder with Mauro Marchetti of the Italian – Slovenian choir “Vocalkor”.

With a background experience gained in more than 20 years, Josia has assets of more than 190 concerts in Europe, including the direction and performances of his compositions in renowned international competitions (Maribor, Varna, Tolosa, Vittorio Veneto) as well as in important concert halls such as the Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, the “Cankariev Dom” in Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the Mozarteum Concert Hall in Salzburg. With his ensembles, as conductor and assistant conductor, he recorded 20 CDs.

He is often appointed as a jury member in national and international choral and composition contests, invited as a lecturer for workshops and masterclasses for choir conductors, and lectures on film composing.

A polyhedric and multi-talented musician, Josia combines his academic knowledge of orchestration, composition, human voice, and choirs, with today’s new technology of digital instruments, which perfectly match visual images.