Team
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Writer/Director - Raina Yang
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Raina Yang (she/her) is a Chinese writer and director based in New York City. Her short films highlight female and Asian perspectives, and have been selected by Asian American International Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival and so on. She also received support from Panavision New Filmmaker Program, NYC Women’s Fund, and the Sloan Foundation. She was a TV writing fellow in Soo Hugh’s Thousand Miles Project launched with UCP. As a bicultural filmmaker Raina seeks to explore the fluidity of social definitions, to investigate the repressed and the unspeakable. She has BA degrees in Cognitive Science and Film from UC Berkeley, and love to read and create sci-fi stories in her free time. She is currently an MFA candidate in Film Directing at Columbia University.
Producer - Jean Chapiro
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Jean Chapiro is a Mexican filmmaker and journalist. She won a Student Academy Award in 2023 for her short documentary “Hasta Encontrarlos” and was named a Pulitzer Center Post-Grad Reporting Fellow in 2022. Jean graduated from The University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a triple major in Cinema Studies, Communication, and Visual Studies. She holds an M.S. in Documentary Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is currently completing an MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. Through filmmaking, Jean seeks to bridge the gap between journalism and entertainment and explores subjects such as embodiment, memories, transgenerational trauma, and displacement.
Science Advisor - Dr. Valeria Vergara, PhD
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Senior Scientist and Cetacean Conservation Research Program Director, British Columbia
Dr. Vergara holds a BSc in Biology and a Masters in Behavioral Ecology, both from Trent University in Ontario, and a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. She co-directs Raincoast’s Cetacean Conservation Research Program.
She is particularly interested in the communicative and perceptual capacities of marine mammals and the conservation implications of such capacities. In the last two decades, she has participated in a diverse array of cetacean field studies, including humpback whales, killer whales, Guiana dolphins, narwhals and beluga whales in various areas of Canada.
Her doctoral research was the first to document how beluga calves develop their rich repertoire of vocalizations, and to identify contact calls used to maintain group cohesion and mother-calf contact, critical in an underwater environment where animals cannot rely on vision. More recently, she paired underwater recordings with aerial drone footage to provide preliminary evidence that beluga contact calls may be individually distinctive and function as “acoustic name tags” and she is currently working in the St Lawrence Estuary to corroborate this finding. Her study on impacts of underwater noise on mother-calf acoustic communication showed that masking of the quiet, underdeveloped calls of neonates by noise can impair mother-calf contact.
Her work continues to address the challenges that sound-centered species face in their increasingly noisy environment, and has been featured in various documentaries, magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, The Nature of Things, New Scientist, The Globe and Mail, and CBC Radio.
Writer/Director - Raina Yang
Raina Yang (she/her) is a Chinese writer and director based in New York City. Her short films highlight female and Asian perspectives, and have been selected by Asian American International Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival and so on. She also received support from Panavision New Filmmaker Program, NYC Women’s Fund, and the Sloan Foundation. She was a TV writing fellow in Soo Hugh’s Thousand Miles Project launched with UCP. As a bicultural filmmaker Raina seeks to explore the fluidity of social definitions, to investigate the repressed and the unspeakable. She has BA degrees in Cognitive Science and Film from UC Berkeley, and love to read and create sci-fi stories in her free time. She is currently an MFA candidate in Film Directing at Columbia University.
Producer - Jean Chapiro
Jean Chapiro is a Mexican filmmaker and journalist. She won a Student Academy Award in 2023 for her short documentary “Hasta Encontrarlos” and was named a Pulitzer Center Post-Grad Reporting Fellow in 2022. Jean graduated from The University of Pennsylvania in 2021 with a triple major in Cinema Studies, Communication, and Visual Studies. She holds an M.S. in Documentary Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is currently completing an MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. Through filmmaking, Jean seeks to bridge the gap between journalism and entertainment and explores subjects such as embodiment, memories, transgenerational trauma, and displacement.
Science Advisor - Dr. Valeria Vergara, PhD
Senior Scientist and Cetacean Conservation Research Program Director, British Columbia
Dr. Vergara holds a BSc in Biology and a Masters in Behavioral Ecology, both from Trent University in Ontario, and a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. She co-directs Raincoast’s Cetacean Conservation Research Program.
She is particularly interested in the communicative and perceptual capacities of marine mammals and the conservation implications of such capacities. In the last two decades, she has participated in a diverse array of cetacean field studies, including humpback whales, killer whales, Guiana dolphins, narwhals and beluga whales in various areas of Canada.
Her doctoral research was the first to document how beluga calves develop their rich repertoire of vocalizations, and to identify contact calls used to maintain group cohesion and mother-calf contact, critical in an underwater environment where animals cannot rely on vision. More recently, she paired underwater recordings with aerial drone footage to provide preliminary evidence that beluga contact calls may be individually distinctive and function as “acoustic name tags” and she is currently working in the St Lawrence Estuary to corroborate this finding. Her study on impacts of underwater noise on mother-calf acoustic communication showed that masking of the quiet, underdeveloped calls of neonates by noise can impair mother-calf contact.
Her work continues to address the challenges that sound-centered species face in their increasingly noisy environment, and has been featured in various documentaries, magazines and newspapers including National Geographic, The Nature of Things, New Scientist, The Globe and Mail, and CBC Radio.
Producer - Joyce Xing
Born and raised in Hangzhou, China, Joyce Yueyi Xing is a creative producer now based in New York and Hangzhou. She has an MFA in Film Creative Producing from Columbia University and a BS in Neuroscience from UCLA. Her earlier producing works have been selected by the Atlanta Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and many other Academy-qualifying festivals, as well as supported by NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre. Produced fashion films have been selected by SHOWstudio, VOGUEfilm, NOWNESS China, and Fashion Film Festival Milano. Feature film My Heavenly City was featured in 2023 Hawaiian International Film Festival and nominated for NETPAC award.
Cinematographer - Michael Cong
Michael Cong is a Chinese filmmaker based in New York. He is a passionate cinematographer working with narratives and commercials. With respect and dedication, Michael creates a sensitive world of cinematic wonders.
Communication and integrity are important to Michael’s filmmaking process. He is an experimental filmmaker by heart and loves collaborating with creatives form all around the world.
Lead Cast - Sam Xu
Sam Xu (She/Her) is an actor, singer and model based in New York City. Born in Shanxi, China. Sam grew up around the globe before she made Brooklyn their home. Sam is bilingual in Mandarin, English and speaks fluent German. Sam studied acting under Susan Batson since 2016. As a singer, Sam performed singing pieces in Whitney Museum of American Arts, Queens Museum and ICA Miami. She has starred in award-winning short films as well as acted in features such as Challengers.
Executive Producer - Rob Blackie
Rob is a graduate of Columbia University with an MFA in Film, and is an award winning filmmaker. He co-created and was co-showrunner (along with brother Peter) of the Netflix series FRONTIER. Rob also was director / producer / writer of the CBC series REPUBLIC OF DOYLE. An avid science fiction fan, Rob wrote and directed the award-winning sci-fi short DEATHSQUAD and he also directed the award winning short, QUIET AT DAWN.
In 2021 Rob (along with Peter) created and wrote the sci-fi comic series CLANS OF BELARI for AfterShock Media, which is currently being developed into a TV series.
Other recent projections include SURREALESTATE (NBC/Syfy), SON OF A CRITCH (CBC) and the feminist sci-fi one-hour series ASTRID & LILLY SAVE THE WORLD (NBC/Syfy). 2023 marks the return of SURREALESTATE for Season 2, as well and SON OF A CRITCH Season 3.
In 2004, he joined Granada America New York, post-producing and supervising the hit television series, The First 48. Rob’s career in the film and television industry began in 2000 as the Production Supervisor with Halifax-based production company IMX Communications Inc. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University, in Halifax.