Silenced
Logline
Following the trial of the ex-CIA agent who exposed the use of torture and the stories of three other high-profile Federal whistleblowers, SILENCED reveals the escalating crackdown of those who challenge US national security policy, the devastating personal costs paid, and the dissolution of civil liberties in post 9/11 America.
James Spione
Director
Academy Award® nominee James Spione is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. His most recent work, the powerful Oscar-nominated war film Incident in New Baghdad, premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won Best Documentary Short. The film went on to screen at many other festivals, winning top honors in its category at Rhode Island, Boulder, and Tallgrass, and winning Best Picture at the 2012 Fargo Film Festival. In February 2012, Incident in New Baghdad was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject. The film premiered on the Documentary Channel in May 2012.
Mr. Spione’s first documentary feature, American Farm, detailed the demise of his family’s fifth-generation homestead in central New York State. The film played theatrically from New England to the Midwest, and was subsequently released on DVD by Passion River Films.
In conjunction with the Barrier Island Center and Museum, Spione next created the poignant portrait film Our Island Home, about the last surviving denizens of a vanished settlement off the coast of Virginia. The movie is part of a planned trilogy on the Eastern Shore region, and the director is currently in production on the second film in the series.
Jim Spione has also made a number of fiction films. Perhaps his best-known work was the eerie Sundance favorite Garden, a suspenseful drama starring Oscar® winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and veteran character actor Matt Malloy (Six Feet Under); the film screened at festivals worldwide. His next movie, The Playroom, starring Pamela Stewart (The Reception), was shown at New York’s Walter Reade Theatre as part of the “Independents Night” series, and was featured on the national cable program Reel Street.
His first film Prelude earned a Student Academy Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was seen at numerous international film festivals. Mr. Spione also produced the acclaimed independent feature Parallel Sons (Sundance ’95), directed by John G. Young.
Daniel Chalfen
Producer
Daniel is a producer at and co-founder of Naked Edge Films. Daniel’s most recent documentaries include State 194 (for Participant Media, World Premiere TIFF 2012); The Revisionaries (Special Jury Prize at Tribeca 2012, Hot Docs 2012, released by Kino Lorber); Code of the West (SXSW 2012); and Pretty Old, executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker and Joe Berlinger, which had its World Premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January 2012, where it won the Jury Award for Best Documentary.
Daniel’s earlier credits include Donor Unknown (produced with ARTE, More 4 and VPRO), which premiered at the 2010 Sheffield Doc/Fest then went on to screen at IDFA, Tribeca and Silverdocs (the latter two at which it won an Audience Award), and broadcast in the U.S. on the PBS series Independent Lens; GONE, which premiered at Tribeca in 2011, and was broadcast on Discovery ID in the U.S.; War Don Don, which premiered at SXSW, where it won a Special Jury Mention, and was broadcast in the U.S. on HBO, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards; and Budrus, which premiered at Dubai, then screened at Berlin, Tribeca and Silverdocs, among other festivals, each of which where it won an award. Other producing credits include Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle, The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan, executive produced by Danny Glover; Meeting Resistance, which won the Golden Award at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Festival; Encounter Point; 39 Pounds of Love, which was produced with HBO Documentary Films and was short-listed for an Academy Award; and Pulled from the Rubble, which became an ABC Special. Daniel’s non-fiction television series include Happy France for ARTE and Ordinary People.
Daniel has also worked in positions including Producer, Line Producer, Location Producer and Production Manager on travel series, behind-the-scenes shows, and news and current affairs programs.
Daniel is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Cinema, Television, and Theater, Los Angeles, (Professional Certificate in Producing); the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (MA Israeli Politics and Society); and the University of Leeds, England (BA Honours, Politics and Religious Studies). Daniel is a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).