CAST AND CREW

is a documentary film producer and director. In 2001, she founded Displaced Yankee Productions, an independent film company dedicated to using film as a platform for raising social awareness and activism through entertainment. She is a graduate of Salem University.

Heather is known for her award-winning documentaries. Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children followed the struggles of the street and garbage dump children of Cambodia through the personal stories of five children and their journey toward education and Forget Us Not, which follows the stories of some of the five-million non-Jewish Holocaust survivors and is narrated by golden globe winning actor Ron Perlman.

Shortly after filming Small Voices: The Stories of Cambodia’s Children, Connell founded Safe Haven in 2010 in memory of her beloved Cambodian foster son Sumnang who passed away at age 5 from complications related to epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Safe Haven’s family centered, multi-disciplinary approach to providing therapeutic rehabilitation, facilitating access to medical services and providing training/education to parents/caregivers aims to provide children with disability the opportunity to reach their full potential and highest level of personal independence and health.

Heather is passionately dedicated to a life of philanthropy with the goals of building sustainable programs that not only serve children with disabilities and their families but aim to provide professional opportunities and education for local staff. She is a David Chow Foundation Humanitarian Award Recipient. The David Chow Humanitarian Foundation recognizes, and rewards dedicated and caring humanitarians found among charitable, religious, scientific, literary, and educational organizations worldwide that promote man’s humanity towards man whose service of unselfish giving might otherwise go unnoticed.  In 2013, she was one of GO Magazine‘s “100 Women We Love 

In 2019 she was honored to be asked to be a contributing writer for the book Art from Trauma: Genocide and Healing beyond Rwanda. This powerful collection of essays examines the role of aesthetic expression in responding to discrimination, tragedy and violence and questions how gender shape responses to both literal and structural violence, including implicit linguistic, familial, and cultural violence.

Megan Follows left Green Gables a long time ago, but the legacy that is Anne lives on in the hearts and imaginations of fans, young and old, around the globe. A consummate actress hailing from Toronto, Canada, Megan has the rare ability to move seamlessly from stage to television to feature films, domestically and internationally. That’s the way it’s been for this award-winning actress since she left Avonlea. Her four Gemini Award nominations, including the 2004 CBC drama, Open Heart, includes two wins for the Anne of Green Gables series. Follows has also been nominated for a Genie Award (Alan King’s Termini Station), an Ace Award, and most recently, an ACTRA award for her portrayal of Sharon Twain in The Shania Twain Story.   From 2013 to 2017, she starred as Catherine de’ Medici, Queen of France, in the television drama series Reign. She was nominated for a CSA for Best Actress for this role 2015, 2016 and 2017.  The series ran for four seasons.  In 2018, it was announced that Follows would be the lead director on Held, a psychological web series produced by Marblemedia. She also has a recurring role as the mother of the titular character on Wynonna Earp.

Arthur Yee is a Director of Photography with a strong career emphasis in documentary production. In his eight years of experience, he has filmed worldwide, shooting in various geographical locations – from desert valleys to mountaintops. He brings a creative passion to every shoot, and uncompromising quality to every project. He has worked with such distinguished clients as: A&E, Discovery; MSNBC; National Geographic; NBC, and NASA.

Brian Espinoza is a native of Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Los Angeles Recording School, where he majored in Audio Engineering. Brian devoted most of his life to writing and recording music. He is currently recording a new album of original songs, and composing a score for an upcoming short film. Small Voices is Brian’s first documentary feature audio project.

Jason Rosenblatt is the editor at Displaced Yankee Productions after his film school documentary about a Chicago area rugby team impressed Heather E. Connell. Since 2008 he has kept busy as a screenwriter and director based out of Portland, Oregon. In 2016 his short film For Dad earned him Best Oregon Based Filmmaker at the McMinnville Short Film Festival. In 2017 his feature film Vicious earned him awards for Best Director at the Oregon Independent Film Festival and Indie Auteur of the Year at the Bare Bones International Film and Music Festival. He adapted the true crime novel The Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison which starred Robert Patrick and Heather Graham. Following his divorce, he stayed active creating the YouTube web series Ted Tantrum: The Self Reliant Man (played by Alan Burrell) about a fictional divorced buffoon of a man trying to provide advice to divorced men about adapting to life after divorce. The pilot premiered as part of a collection of Jason’s worked titled Struggles to Connect that screened at the Northwest Film Center in 2018. He has continued to write and direct short films, many of which premiere at the McMinnville Short Film Festival where he has screened eleven films over seven years (and counting) including his own documentary short The Michelle Experience about violinist Michelle Alany. While being one of the most prolific micro-budget filmmakers of the Pacific Northwest, Jason is also a father of two, a part time dog caretaker and has worked the same full time day job for a dozen years (and counting). His short films can be found on Vimeo while Ted Tantrum (and sometimes the feature Vicious) can be found on YouTube.

Sherene Strausberg has been writing music for more than ten years. She has written music for film, television, and radio. Since moving to Los Angeles five years ago, Sherene has worked on several independent films. Many of the films have been screened in Los Angeles, the DGA Theater, the Egyptian Theater, Cinespace, as well as many fesivals including: The Tribeca Film Festival and the Cleveland International Film Festival. You Can see samples of her work at www.sweetnotes.com.

Theresa Kennedy has satisfied her craving to get behind the camera is a variety of locations, including: Cambodia, London, Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia, Big Sur, New York, Venice, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and San Francisco. She works in both film and digital media, with a special enthusiasm for experimenting with night photography. For several years,has satisfied her craving to get behind the camera in a variety of locations, including: Cambodia, Viet Nam, Cuba, Paris, Vienna, London, Prague and New York. She works in both film and digital media, with a special enthusiasm for experimenting with night photography. She followed up a 10-year stint as Director of Print Production for the Fox Kids Network by building out and running a professional digital photography studio in Los Angeles for several years. Theresa also co-founded and produced (it) magazine, a site that spotlighted people and organizations making a difference, and more recently served as an Executive Director of Booxie, a photo sharing and book-making app. Theresa serves on the Board of Safe Haven Medical Outreach, has begun to learn to paint, and volunteers her time as a photographer for several non-profits in the LA area.