Biographies:
CEVIN SOLING
Cevin Soling wrote, produced, and directed Ikland, which documents his trip to northern Uganda to rediscover the lost Ik tribe who were famously disparaged in the early 1970s as the worst people in the world. He is also completing work on John Frum, He Will Come, a documentary about a tribe in Vanuatu who worship America.
Soling produced and directed The War On Kids, which illustrates how American public schools are now modeled after prisons and why they cannot be reformed. The film was honored as the best educational documentary at the New York Independent Film and Video Festival and received accolades from The New York Times, Variety, and The Huffington Post.
Soling wrote, produced and directed The War on The War on Drugs which also received high praise from the New York Times and won awards from High Times, Winslow International Film Festival, and the New York Independent Film and Video Festival. Soling produced the documentary A Hole in the Head which examines the efficacy of trepanation and aired on Discovery and the Learning Channel. He executive produced Relax, It’s Just Sex starring Jennifer Tilly, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was seen on HBO and Showtime.
Soling produced and directed Bigger than Jesus! a documentary on the Beatles’ controversial observations on religion and racism during their tour of the South in 1966. He also produced and directed the eponymous music video for his band, The Love Kills Theory.
Soling is the author of “The Rumpleville Chronicles”, an irreverent series of ten illustrated books. He has also written programming code and was published in the computer journal On Three magazine.
He has been a guest on numerous radio shows including “The Lionel Show” (Air America), “The Joey Reynolds Show” (WOR), and “The Leonard Lopate Show” (WNYC). Additionally, he has nationally televised on “The Dr. Nancy Show” (MS/NBC), and as a featured guest on “The Colbert Report”.
Cevin is currently enrolled in graduate school at Harvard University. He lectures on his films at various colleges and universities, and has received security clearance by the U.S. Foreign Service, for which he is awaiting appointment to a diplomatic post.
David Hilbert (Director/Editor)
David Hilbert is a New York based writer, filmmaker, and motion picture editor.
He discovered the world by driving away at 17, two weeks after finishing secondary school. His first stop was Los Angeles, where introductions to people he’d previously read about made a lasting impression. He spent time in Orange County with former Hells Angels, then studied mathematics.
He switched coasts to pursue writing but discovered cinema instead – prompting an immediate return to LA, where he had the privilege of directing a series of experimental films.
After a year of foreign travel, Hilbert wittingly moved back to New York, where his work aired on CBS, ABC, MS/NBC, BBC, CNN, The History Channel, and Syfy. He cut commercials for an array of clients before returning to film in the late 2000s.
Hilbert’s projects use odd scenarios and irony to reveal more about ourselves than most of us normally do. Sometimes his stories are real, and sometimes they are surreal. He believes objectivity is a myth and that authenticity is important – and that remembering this keeps us alive.
He believes such things as “reality” or “facts” or “truth” are subjective.
He is the director and editor of the award-winning film IKLAND, which documents the rediscovery the lost Ik tribe, who were famously disparaged as the worst people in the world. The film was honored as the Best Documentary of the Boston International Film Festival and has been critically praised by The New York Times, Variety, Indiewire, and The Final Call.
He has lectured for Harvard University, the Institute for Community Living, and has been a guest on WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show.
Hilbert is currently producing HUNTERS+GATHERERS, a short about the time in our lives when we’re asked to give up our ideals, and completing the screenplay for NOWHERE MEN, a picaresque narrative of catharsis and discovery.
David Pluth (Cinematographer)
David Pluth had more than thirty years of experience behind the lens. He was one of a small number of artists called on by both government organizations and established wildlife and tourist books to photograph and film within hostile and remote environments.
His work was featured in such magazines as Newsweek, National Geographic, Travel Africa, New Scientist, Harpers & Queen, Scienza Nuova, Traveler, Business Traveler, Africa Environment and Wildlife, Adventure Travel, World Press Review and Odyssey. Pluth also contributed primary photography to such ethnographic books as: Kilimanjaro, Journey to the Roof of Africa (2002, National Geographic) and Eye of the Storm, a Photographic Journey Through Uganda (2001, Camerapix International Publishers).
Nichole Smaglick (Production Manager/Second Camera Operator)
Nichole Smaglick founded Another Land, which creates opportunities in partnership with African villages based on authenticity, access, cultural innovation and responsibility. Another Land does so through travel, media and fair-trade fashion. Her travel division offers meaningful wildlife and cultural experiences that benefit remote African villages. Nichole’s Amias Project, a fair trade fashion line, designs and sells fairly traded handbags and jewelry made by the Barabaig tribe in Africa.
Nichole has worked as producer, production manager, camera operator, creative director and presenter for several media projects in Africa, including Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, wildlife and cultural video and photography projects for African governments, cultural documentaries for National Geographic, and multi-Grammy winning Throw Down Your Heart, by Bela Fleck. Nichole also has consulted African governments in developing their cultural tourism programs and fair-trade exports.
Israel Byaruhanga (Production Manager)
Israel Byaruhanga (Byaruhanga Masereka Israel) is a Mukonzo tribesman from the Kasese District in western Uganda, and a Kampala-based guide who specializes in visits to risky and hard to reach areas. His clients have included Swiss photography studio Coyote Fotografx, among many others.
He is married and has three children: Patricia (age 14), Donaldson (age 10), and Daniel (age 4).
Sacha Lucashenko (Original Music)
Sacha Lucashenko is a Tasmanian-born, New York City-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer.
Co-founder of the Australian-formed, now-based-in-America music group, the morning after girls, he has also performed on other artists recordings and sometimes goes under the title Bipolar.
Lucashenko began playing music early in his life, and cites the small island off southern Australia as an early influence. It was there, while in primary school, he began to learn cello and piano and later became interested in guitar and exploring his vocal ability. After being involved with a number of Tasmanian-based musical groups, he relocated to the mainland Australian city of Melbourne in his late teens. After some years experimenting with a variety of musical styles and other people, it was in early 2001 that he formed an important relationship with Martin B. Sleeman. There, he had found the right partnership to create and execute the musical vision they’d both been striving for.
Martin Trum (Sound Design/Mixing)
Martin Trum has been making noise since the early 1990s, and he rather enjoys it. The noise he makes includes music, sound design, recording, mixing, restoration, forensic audio, and foley.
He has composed music and designed audio for several Discovery Channel series, NatGeo, MTV, Science Channel, PBS, and numerous independent films.
In addition, Trum has recorded, mixed, sang, played guitar, keyboards, drums, and other noise making devices for musical artists, bands and projects – including Ani Difranco, Saving Abel, Don Ho, Jackie Chan (yes, that Jackie Chan), Herman’s Hermits, and many other independent artists.
He has lived and worked in a number of places including New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and various parts of Northern and Southern New Jersey. He is currently off-leash, working mostly unsupervised from his home studio in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia.