Body of work across documentary and feature film projects.
Fallout from the Capitol riot, as we follow chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio leading up to the events of January 6th, and following its wake to discuss the future of the movement, and the state of the country going forward.
Field Producer
Higher Love
Documentary Feature
Producer
WINNER Grand Jury Award Best Documentary! Slamdance Film Festival
WINNER – 2x Spirit Award & Best New Director Brooklyn Film Festival
WINNER 2x Flicker’s Rhode Island International Film Festival: Best Feature Documentary, Best editor
WINNER Crossing the Screen International Film Festival: Best Feature Documentary
WINNER Atlanta DocuFest: Best Director
WINNER Stony Brook Film Festival: Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award
https://nofilmschool.com/best-documentaries-2020
Filmed over three years, Higher Love is a story of love and addiction that confronts the identity of family and virtue in one of America’s most dangerous cities, Camden, NJ.
This visceral documentary follows a young family’s pursuit of a better life while battling the harsh realities of the North American opioid epidemic.
Camden, NJ is one of America’s poorest and most dangerous cities, harboring the highest quality street drugs on the east coast.
Daryl (above) is a struggling printing press operator who leaves his job by day to search for his pregnant girlfriend Nani, who is prostituting herself to feed a debilitating heroin habit.
Adjacent Daryl’s mission are Nanni’s hometown friends like Iman (right) struggling with his fall from grace as a drug dealing kingpin early in life, now suffering from his own addiction and entering the world of recovery.
These characters embody the spirit of a hardworking city dealt a bad hand, and for Daryl, the prospect of becoming a single father to a new born baby is dangerously close, faced with a choice that may split the family forever.
Immigration under the current administration is indelibly marked by powerful media images of migrant caravans, thousands of Central American families walking hundreds of miles through Mexico desperate to attain asylum in the United States. Acclaimed filmmaker Sebastian Junger (Academy Award®-nominated RESTREPO and KORENGAL) reteams with Nick Quested (Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS) and National Geographic to chronicle the course of events that would transform Acapulco from tourist destination to murder capital in less than a decade.
As explicit in its indictment as it is in its graphic presentation of the horrors these families are desperate to escape, this documentary is a wake-up call to those who refuse to acknowledge the role the U.S. has played in allowing drugs and money to move effortlessly across the same border where endangered families are refused entry each day.
–Malin Kan
Associate Producer
HELL ON EARTH: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS
National Geographic Documentary Films
Associate Producer
Hell on Earth captures a unique portrait of life in war-torn Syria, from that of a family living under ISIS control that finally fled to Turkey, to Kurdish fighters in Sinjar and Shia militias in Iraq and even to al-Qaida-affiliated fighters in and around Aleppo and Raqqa.
Junger and Quested meticulously identify the forces that led to the deadly conflict in Syria and facilitated the rise of the radical Islamists who are now organising and inspiring terrorist operations around the world.
Directed by: Karan Choudhary
Editor / Producer: Alexander Spiess
Release 2019: 13 Minutes
Watch @ https://www.amazon.com/Timepiece-Bill-Bateman/dp/B081G9PPF2
A love letter to New York City, cinema and friendship, as a gay man and immigrant grapple with their pre-conceived notions of each other to forge a lasting friendship.
Jazz In Wakanda
Directed by: Djaka Souare
First Assistant Director: Alexander Spiess
Release 2019: 10 minutes
Streaming @ https://www.futureoffilmisfemale.com/
Set in Harlem, this colorful portrait of identity and discovery follows the growth of a young girl coming to grips with the realities of slavery and discovering what it means to be a black in America.
THE BADLANDS
Documentary Short
Co-Director
*** Trailer on request ***
America is now entering its 4th and potentially most catastrophic wave of the drug epidemic . In the 60s the GIs brought their addiction home from the heroin saturated Southeast Asian battlefields. In the 80’s and 90’s our inner cities were ravaged by crack cocaine, followed by an opioid epidemic that we still find ourselves deeply mired in to this day. However, as the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia perfectly shows, the 4th wave of synthetics –namely fentanyl–will be America’s most damaging.
In 2016, the Pennsylvania drug-related overdose death rate was 36.5 per 100,000 people, more than twice the national average at 16.3 per 100,000 people.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is merely an embodiment of American post-industrial cities taking the full tour of growth and decay. A tour that spans the entire United States, and retains some of the highest rates of opioid abuse and dependency.
Philadelphia is special however, as its street level heroin tests at 98% purity, the highest purity in North America. In order to find out why, we traveled to the most concentrated open air drug market in the US, North Philadelphia’s Kensington-Fairhill neighborhood, known by locals as; THE BADLANDS.
This project follows the transgression of money, drugs, and tragedy from the street level dealer, to the head of the DEA. The addict in the traphouse to the pill mill doctor in the strip mall. The overdosing suburban kid to the network of fentanyl importers.
WORD IS BOND
Documentary Feature; Showtime
Post-Production Assistant
Life Like
Saboteur Media, Lionsgate
– Digital Imaging Technician
– Set Photographer
– BTS – EPK Editor
A psychological sci-fi/thriller about three people in search of identity, purpose and humanity. Modern Day. Set in a dated countryside mansion, an idealistic couple acquires a stunning, life-like robot for guilt-free help. As the three grow closer, our perception of perfection is challenged, revealing the gritty truth about what makes us human: our flaws.
Premiered at the Berlinale International Film Festival; Acquired by Lionsgate Entertainment
Alexander Spiess 