ALIVIA TAGLIAFERRI, Director/Writer/Co-Producer

Alivia Tagliaferri, directed, wrote and produced Beyond The Wall: Homeless Zone as part of a comprehensive series exploring the ramifications of post-combat issues in America.  An alumnus of Pennsylvania State University, Tagliaferri is engaged in how we as as a society can best support returning warriors.  She is the author of Beyond the Wall: The Journey Home (formerly titled, ‘Still the Monkey, What Happens to Warriors After War’) and founder of Ironcutter Media, LLC.  The company blends socially conscious themes with traditional and new technologies to create ‘media that matters.’  Look for the upcoming Mrs. Pea Children’s Book Series, authored and illustrated by Kat Parrish, and other works from Alivia and Ironcutter Media this year.

Read the Director’s Statement!

NANCY E. MANTELLI, Co-Producer

A member of Women in Film and Video (WIFV) since 2001, Nancy is founder of WHI Productions LLC, a turnkey production company with clients such as Gold’s Gym, HUD, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Procter & Gamble and Cisco Systems. She now teaches all aspects of video production from an industry standard perspective to provide career pathing, professional mentoring and experience to high school students at West Potomac Academy in Alexandria, VA, as part of Fairfax County Public School’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum.

JON SONNHEIM, Associate Producer/Editor/Camera Operator

Earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature at the Miami University of Ohio, Jon recently completed his Master’s degree in broadcast journalism at Northwestern University. Prior to that, Jon worked as a general assignment reporter at a television station in Kentucky shooting, editing, writing and fronting daily stories, several of which were picked up nationally by CBS NewsPath. With a mastery of Avid, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Elements, Jon’s creative storytelling assisted the 60 Minutes crew with a human-interest story that aired March, 2007.

CORY JONES, Assistant Director/Camera Operator

Winning writing competitions hosted by the Arena Stage Playwright Competition, the Northern Virginia Writing Program, and Maine Photographic Workshop for Best New Screenwriter, Cory Jones is a talented and budding writer who handled Assistant Director and camera operator responsibilities. Cory also assisted with the marketing plan, co-developing strategic outreach to advertisers, sponsors, partnering organizations and target markets. Cory is now a freshman at Columbia College of Film with an emphasis in script-writing.

MARCUS CLARKE, Camera Operator

A graduate of Hayfield High School, Marcus was recently honored at the Cinema City Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA, as winner of Casting Hope’s challenge to produce a public service announcement on a charity of choice. Clarke won for his Public Service Announcement (PSA) supporting Best Buddies. Marcus lent his talents as camera operator and trailer editor before entering the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking.

NATHAN BAER, Camera Operator/Grip

An award-winning student filmmaker and international traveler, Nathan joined the crew as b-roll camera operator and grip. A film-noir aficionado, Nathan is pursuing his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia College in Chicago, IL, a comprehensive college for the visual, performing and media arts.

MARK RASCATI, Composer

Mark Rascati is a graduate of Hayfield Secondary School and presently attends Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky as a Music Technology major. His musical influences range from modern and classic rockers such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Weezer and Radiohead to composers such as Mozart, Sondheim and Bernstein. Mark has post-college plans of pursuing a career in composing and/or music production. 

Director’s Statement

After learning that nearly one in four homeless persons is a veteran, I wanted to go beyond the headlines and explore the root of what causes homelessness among veterans in a raw and non-biased, non-exploitive manner. Most veterans do well after their service, but in order to better provide support for our returning troops, I sought to not only understand the contributing factors that lead to or increase to the risk of homelessness, but understand who the people and organizations are providing support and what we can learn from them.

My philosophy as a director was to waste nothing, harking on the American Indian mentality of making resourceful use of everything laid upon the proverbial table, I wanted to not only share the stories and images selected for the documentary itself, but share the knowledge and insights we learned along the way.

To that end, the documentary anchors a media awareness campaign that hosts a Digital Library with clips and sound-bites collected from interviews with officials, experts and service providers. Part of my personal journey has been to continue raising awareness post-production, and align it with my company’s Beyond the Wall Series, exploring the ramifications of post-combat issues in America to foster discussion of how our nation can best support our veterans.

My vision and goal is for Beyond the Wall: Homeless Zone, a social documentary to be utilized as a valuable resource in every classroom and library across America.