Alexis Neophytides | Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Alexis Neophytides is a documentary filmmaker and educator based in New York City. Her work centers around community and how we find meaning in people and place. She is the co-creator, co-director and producer of Neighborhood Slice, a public television documentary series that tells the stories of longtime New Yorkers who've held onto their little corner of the city despite fast-growing gentrification. She produced and directed the series 9.99, for which she won a NY Emmy. Her first feature-length documentary, Dear Thirteen, premiered at DOC NYC in 2022 and is distributed by Grasshopper Films and Journeyman Pictures. Her second feature, Fire Through Dry Grass, co-directed with Andres “Jay” Molina, documents Jay and his fellow Reality Poets’ art and activism inside their nursing home during the COVID 19 pandemic. FIRE premiered at BlackStar in 2023, where it won the jury award for best feature documentary, and was broadcast and is currently streaming on POV/PBS. Her work has been supported by ITVS, the Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, IDA, Perspective Fund, Fork Films, the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Women’s Fund. She is also a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Grantee. Over the past decade Alexis has developed filmmaking programs, implemented curricula and taught students all around NYC, including The Video Lab at The New School, The TEAK Fellowship and OPEN DOORS. She holds a BA from Brown University and an MA in Media Studies from The New School. 

^–– Alexis at 13. She wears a maroon mock turtleneck and runs towards the camera smiling, her long brown hair suspended In air.

Trina Rodriguez | Editor, Producer

Trina Rodriguez is a filmmaker living in Queens. She is the co-creator of the documentary series Neighborhood Slice, which spanned three seasons and was broadcast weekly on public television. As the program's co-director, producer and editor she has explored the evolution of NYC’s unique immigrant neighborhoods through the lives of long-time residents. Trina produced the feature-length documentary High Tech, Low Life, about citizen journalists in China that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired on the acclaimed PBS series, POV. She edited Black in America: Black and Blue, a feature documentary about the impact of aggressive policing tactics on the lives of young black men, which aired on CNN. Her short documentary Our Lady Queen of Harlem which she filmed, directed and edited, premiered at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight and is distributed by Third World Newsreel. Most recently she has edited films that tell stories about LGBTQ+ rights and the struggles of young women in Baltimore City, and produced a series on the choreographer Alvin Ailey for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, New York Magazine, on PBS and a variety of nonprofit and documentary broadcast platforms.

^–– Trina at 13. She sits In a large rattan chair with a smile on her face, Her hand Is resting under her chin in a playfully pensive pose.

Alex Murawski | Co-Producer

Alex wrote and directed the short films Kiss, Ari, Frail, and Snow which have screened at 90 film festivals, including Berlin and TIFF, and have won multiple awards worldwide. Together they have 7 million online views. He is a winner of the Lexus Australia Film Fellowship and is mentored by Academy-nominated director Bruce Beresford. His feature scripts have placed as Finalists in several screenwriting competitions, including the Nicholl Fellowship. Dear Thirteen is his first feature documentary production.

<–– Alex at 13. He has short dark brown hair and a big grin on his face. He’s wearing a blue robe with red piping, giving off Superman vibes.

Dan Deacon | Music

Dan Deacon is a Baltimore-based recording artist and performer renowned for his five studio albums of innovative electronic music, his live performances in both contemporary and classical settings, and his extensive body of work in film scores. Deacon has premiered compositions at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and collaborated with artists and institutions including Kronos Quartet, Sō Percussion, The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the LA Philharmonic, and Justin Peck with the New York City Ballet. Deacon has also toured internationally with popular recording artists including Arcade Fire, Miley Cyrus, Future Islands, and The Flaming Lips. His albums Spiderman of the Rings and Bromst were both named Best New Music by Pitchfork, and his album Gliss Riffer received 4-star reviews from outlets such as AllMusic and The Guardian. Three of his film projects as composer—Strawberry Mansion (Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley), Philly D.A. (Ted Passon and Yoni Brook), and All Light, Everywhere (Theo Anthony)—premiered at Sundance 2021, and a fourth, Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension, won Best Feature Documentary at Tribeca 2021. His most recent studio album is 2020’s Mystic Familiar.

<–– Dan at 13. He's seated at a table in front of a Heineken, grinning at the camera, surrounded by fellow party goers.