ORNA RACHOVITSKY

Orna was born is Seattle, raised in Dayton, Ohio, and lived in Boston before finally making Los Angeles her home. As a young child, she studied piano. At the age of nine, Orna did her first audition ever to become a member of her synagogue's choir. Music became and still is an integral part of her life providing a foundation for both her technical and artistic inclinations. It was music that led her to acting and filmmaking.

One year after graduating from Brandeis University, Orna realized one of her greatest dreams since childhood: to finally start studying acting. After studying with various teachers in Boston, participating in theatre, film, and commercial projects, Orna finally packed up an 11-foot Budget rental van with her belongings and drove cross-country in eight days to move to Los Angeles. Her dear friend Yael Irom helped get her a job at the Los Angeles Film School where Thom Mount, former President of Universal Pictures, hired her full time to manage the Admissions Department outreach efforts. While there for a year managing the school's student recruitment, Orna participated in student films and took classes in editing, film analysis, and producing.

She left the school to produce her first feature film, "Sex Guns Money @ 20." This experience proved to be her greatest technical and artistic challenge, which laid the foundation for the next movie "In Plain View." Another feature followed, "Joshua Tree," starring Michael Madsen, Vincent Pastore, Steven Bauer and Emilio Roso. Just after filming on "Joshua Tree" was completed, Orna began producing "Two de Force."

Throughout the creation of these independent productions, Orna produced a feature documentary of legendary conguero and bata master, Francisco Aguabella, whom she also managed for ten years until his passing in May 2010. The final production is scheduled to be released in early 2012 and will support the Francisco Aguabella Music Scholarship at UCLA, where he taught in the Department of Ethnomusicology for fourteen years.

With several features under her belt, Orna is developing new projects, and continues to combine her passion for music with film.

ORESTES MATACENA

Orestes decided to move on into films so he wrote and starred in two pictures he helped to produce. Soon after, he went behind the camera to direct his first film"Fatal Encounter" which he also produced, wrote and acted in.

Then, Orestes went to live for a while in Hendersonville, North Carolina so he could raise the capital to produce and direct his next movie from a screenplay he had written called "Tainted". A year and a half later the movie was completed. Orestes then returned to New York to plant the seed for the greatest production of his life, Lawrence Rafael, his beloved son.

Finally, Orestes arrived in Hollywood for the first time. It was a little disappointing for him. He had imagined Tinsel town to have a greater nightlife than Paris and New York put together, filled with movie stars and beautiful people getting in and out of limousines until dawn. He was astounded to see the entire city of Los Angeles getting ready for bed by nine o'clock at night.

Always an optimist, he concluded that movie stars aren't stupid, so, like them, he should delay the wrinkles on his face by going to bed early and having a good night's sleep. He says it didn't work for him, unfortunately.