Our Team

Alexandra De Luise

 

Alex is a graduate of The University of Vermont interested in narrative film, documentary storytelling, and video art. As an artist Alex aims to make work that invites contemplation, conversation, and action. Alex seeks to center pleasure, joy, healing, connection, and community, and is largely focused on reformation. 

Aylie Baker

B.A. History, Middlebury College Thomas J. Watson Fellow – Travelled to islands exploring the use of storytelling as a community-bulding tool Vermont Folklife Center Fellow – Helped coordinate statewide Irene Storytelling Project

Samuel Burriss

Sam Burriss is a Film Studies graduate of Champlain College. He is curently a filmmaker and photographer who’s inspired by simple stories and minimalist aesthetics.

Nick Losito

Nick Losito graduated with a degree in Documentary Film Studies from Burlington College in 2011. As an active musician, most of his expertise lies in using music as a window into a new culture or society.

Rahima Rahi

Rahima Rahi’s multimedia art functions as a continuous experiment with form, relationships, theory, and identity. Her work spans autobiography, collaborative social documentary, experimental video, installation, reflective/theoretical discourse, and text-based approaches. Rahi experiments with ways to effectively shift the power she holds as a filmmaker over to the community, while still offering participants the value of her creative and technical support. For Rahi, “the process is the reason for creation” of her autobiographical and biographical experimental art. When practiced in a state of heightened vulnerability, the rituals of production ignite the possibility of healing, liberation, and the reclamation of power.

Leyla Moavenzadeh

Leyla Moavenzadeh is a freelance documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Chapel Hill, NC. In addition to producing pieces for educational institutions and small businesses, she enjoys crafting intimate portrait pieces about real people. When she’s not working, she enjoys playing a variety of instruments and spending time with her growing family.

Michelle Lotker

B.S. Biology, Duke University

Certificate in Documentary Studies, The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

 

Michelle loves nature, people, science, growing food and especially discovering, weaving and sharing stories around those topics. She’s always looking forward to the next adventure, whether it’s in her own back yard or on the Open Road!

Mary Simons

Founder and Director of Conversations From the Open Road

 

Mary taught in both independent and public, middle and high school, and in Connecticut and Vermont. She started this program in 2011 in order to knit her passions together – traveling, listening and learning from and with young adults, working creatively and collaboratively, and cultivating experiences in which to challenge and expand ourselves.

Mallory Falk

BA English & Creative Writing, Middlebury College

Certificate in Radio Storytelling and Production, Transom Story Workshop

Currently working with Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools – using mixed media as a tool for empowering youth voice.