David Novack
Director/Co-Writer David Novack is the director, and a writer/producer of Finding Babel. Prior to his work with Finding Babel, Mr. Novack wrote, produced and directed the film Burning the Future: Coal in America, which opened in theaters, aired on international television, and won awards at numerous festivals in the US and Europe including the prestigious IDA Pare Lorentz award for social documentary filmmaking. Mr. Novack toured with Burning the Future to China and Ukraine with the American Documentary Showcase, sponsored by the US Department of State. With the program, Mr. Novack lectured extensively at universities and film festivals and was profiled in magazines and television programs. Mr. Novack produced Kimjongilia, a documentary about N. Korean refugees that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and enjoyed a theatrical run at the International Documentary Association’s Docuweeks Theatrical Showcase. Kimjongilia aired in the US and abroad. The film won the 2010 best human rights documentary award from the One World Brussels Film Fest of the Human Rights and Democracy Network. In audio post production, Mr. Novack has enjoyed a successful career as a re-recording mixer/sound designer, recently adding a major new opera by Roger Waters to his credits. Mr. Novack received an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a degree in music from Berklee College of Music. In additional to making films, Mr. Novack is a Professor of Film at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design where he enjoys mentoring a new generation of filmmakers. |
LIEV SCHREIBER
Voice of Isaac Babel Heralded as “the finest American theater actor of his generation” by the New York Times, Liev Schreiber’s repertoire of resonant, humanistic and oftentimes gritty portrayals have garnered him praise in film, theatre and television. Schreiber stars as the title role of Ray Donovan in Showtime’s critically-acclaimed hit series alongside Jon Voight. This powerful family drama centers on Ray (Schreiber) as L.A.’s best professional fixer – the go-to guy in Hollywood who deftly solves the complicated, controversial and confidential problems of the city’s elite. Schreiber’s riveting performance as ‘Ray’ garnered him two Golden Globe ® Award nominations in the category of ‘Best Actor in a Television Series Drama.’ Moviegoers will next see Schreiber in Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, as real-life Soviet chess master Boris Spassky, alongside Tobey Maguire, who plays American chess champion Bobby Fischer. The film will be released by Bleecker Street Media in 2015. He will soon star in The Good Lord Bird, the film adaptation of the 2013 National Book Award winner by James McBride. Schreiber will portray another real-life figure, radical abolitionist John Brown, who unites with Henry “Onion” Shackleford, a young slave to be played by Jaden Smith; he is also producing the film, alongside James McBride and Brian Taylor. Schreiber most recently completed production on Sony’s The 5th Wave, adapted from Rick Yancey’s science fiction novel, directed by J Blakeson and with Chloë Grace Moretz, and in the Open Road feature, Spotlight, as former Boston Globe editor Marty Baron, who uncovered an unimaginable citywide conspiracy to cover up clergy child abuse with his investigative team. Schreiber's many feature credits include Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Larry David’s Clear History; Fading Gigolo; The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Salt with Angelina Jolie;X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Defiance with Daniel Craig; Repo Men; The Painted Veil; The Manchurian Candidate, opposite Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington; The Sum of All Fears; Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock; Kate & Leopold; Goon; Every Day; Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet;Spring Forward; The Hurricane; A Walk on the Moon with Diane Lane; The Daytrippers; Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts; and Wes Craven's Scream trilogy. His portrayal of Orson Welles in Benjamin Ross' RKO 281 brought Schreiber Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award nominations. His other telefilm credits include George C. Wolfe's Lackawanna Blues and John Erman's The Sunshine Boys, opposite Woody Allen and Peter Falk. As one of the documentary medium's foremost narrators, he has lent his voice to such works as Mantle, :03 from Gold; A City on Fire: The Story of the ‘68 Detroit Tigers; Nova; and Nature. In 2010, Schreiber received his third Tony® nomination for his role in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge alongside Scarlett Johansson. His performance as Ricky Roma in the 2005 Broadway revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by Joe Mantello, earned him his first Tony Award. He was again a Tony nominee for his portrayal of Barry Champlain in the 2007 Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, directed by Robert Falls. Other stage work includes the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Macbeth, in the lead role opposite Jennifer Ehle, directed by Moisés Kaufman; Othello; Hamlet; Henry V; and Cymbeline. In 2005, Schreiber made his feature directorial debut with Everything is Illuminated, which he also adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel of the same name. The film, starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hutz, was named one of the year's 10 Best by the National Board of Review. |
Andrei Malaev-Babel
Actor/Co-Writer Andrei Malaev-Babel is the Head of Acting at the Florida State University’s Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training in Sarasota, Florida – one of the US’ top-ten graduate theatre programs. His recent productions, directed for the FSU/Asolo’s Cook Theatre, include Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Anouilh’s Antigone, Shaw’s Candida, Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea and Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Professor Malaev-Babel is also a principle teacher of theatre at The New College of Florida. He is on the board of the Michael Chekhov Association in New York City, and on the advisory board of the Stanislavski Centre (UK). He is also a Member of the International Scientific Committee for Arti Dello Spettacolo-Performing Arts (Italy). From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Malaev-Babel served as the Producing Artistic Director for the Stanislavsky Theater Studio (STS), an award-winning company and conservatory in Washington, DC. For STS, he co-adapted, directed and/or played leading roles in productions such as Goethe’s Faust, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Chekhov’s The Seagull, Brian Friel’s Fathers and Sons, Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire, Gogol’s Dead Souls and Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. In 2000 he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Director for the STS production of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. Mr. Malaev-Babel’s productions were presented at The Kennedy Center and The National Theater in Washington, DC, where he also appeared as a performer. He has also served on the faculty of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Mr. Malaev-Babel’s reputation as one of the leading experts on Russian theater and acting techniques, have brought him special engagements and commissions from institutions such as The World Bank, The Smithsonian Institution, The Keenan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Russian Embassy in the US. He is working nationally and internationally, conducting workshops, presenting and performing for conferences, festivals and theater programs, including the St. Petersburg Institute of Stage Arts (Russia), Stanford University, The University of Windsor (Canada), International Volkov Theater Festival (Russia), the Latin American Film Festival (Brazil), The Odessa Philharmonic (Ukraine), Young Vic Theatre and Rose Bruford College (UK) and The Arena Stage Theater (Washington, DC). In 2011, Mr. Malaev-Babel’s one-man show Babel: How It Was Done In Odessa (directed by Sarah Kane) was presented by the United Nations in Moscow in support of the Red Ribbon AIDS Russia and CIS – Entertainment stars against AIDS campaign. In 2007, Mr. Malaev-Babel’s production of My Mocking Happiness, based on Anton Chekhov’s original correspondence, opened the program of the 8th International Volkov Theater Festival in Yaroslavl, Russia. Professor Malaev-Babel is the author of the Guide to the Psychological Gesture Technique published in the 2003 Routledge edition of Michael Chekhov’s seminal book, To the Actor. Mr. Malaev-Babel’s groundbreaking volumes on Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s heritage, The Vakhtangov Sourcebook and Yevgeny Vakhtangov: A Critical Portrait, came out from Routledge in 2011 and 2012. He has co-edited and co-translated an English-Russian simultaneous release of Nikolai Demidov’s theatrical heritage, scheduled for release in the summer of 2016. Andrei Malaev-Babel is a graduate of the renowned Vakhtangov Theater Institute in Moscow, Russia. He trained and worked under Alexandra Remizova, co-founder of the Vakhtangov Theater, Stanislavsky’s student and Vakhtangov’s protégé. In 1985, he co-founded the Moscow Chamber Forms Theater, one of the first private professional theater companies in Russia. |
Alexis Zoullas
Producer For over a decade, Alexis Zoullas has been an producer of both documentary and feature films. Mr. Zoullas’ films include: “William Eggleston in the Real World”, “Burning the Future, Coal in America”, “The End of the Line”, and “Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film”. Focusing on environmental and social issues, Mr. Zoullas’ films have been in numerous film festivals globally and some have gone on to win prestigious awards, including: the IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award, presented to the filmmaker whose documentary best represents the activist spirit and lyrical vision of the acclaimed Pare Lorentz; the George Foster Peabody Award, which recognizes distinguished and meritorious public service by American radio and television stations, networks, online media, producing organizations, and individuals; and the Puma Creative Impact Award, given to films that have made the most significant positive impact on society. Mr. Zoullas’ involvement with film and entertainment began during his law school career at the law firm of Rudolf and Beer. While at the law firm, he worked on film, licensing, and product placement deals. Mr. Zoullas then went on to become head of business development at The Shooting Gallery, for their online division. From there, his next post was as Chief Strategy Officer at Kaufman Astoria Studios. While at the studio, Mr. Zoullas founded Filter Partners, a branding and licensing agency. Filter Partners main focus was connecting large, corporate international brands with major music, film, and television celebrities. Many of Filter’s corporate clients had an interest in sponsorship opportunities in film, which is how Mr Zoullas began his producing career. Outside of film, Mr. Zoullas is primarily engaged in the shipping business, with particular expertise in the dry bulk sector. His family roots in shipping go back 150 years and have given him a global perspective on major issues . Most recently, he was C.O.O. of a publically listed company, where he was responsible for offices in New York and Singapore which jointly oversaw a fleet of almost 60 vessels. Mr. Zoullas is a graduate of Harvard College and Fordham University School of Law. |
