Crew

Shant Mardirossian is the Executive Producer of They Shall Not Perish: The Story of Near East Relief. In his professional life, Mr. Mardirossian is a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer at a leading U.S. middle-market private equity firm. He is a graduate of the Lubin School of Business at Pace University and holds a B.B.A. in Public Accounting and an M.B.A. with dual concentration in Investment Management and Strategic Management. His grandparents were all survivors of the Armenian Genocide and his paternal grandmother sought refuge in an American orphanage. They were the inspiration for the film.

George Billard is an award-winning producer, writer, director and cinematographer. To date he has helmed productions in over forty countries. His work includes commercials, television, documentaries and film. In addition to They Shall Not Perish, he is currently in production on Amateur, a documentary film about amateur cagefighters in New York, and They Call Me Killer, a documentary about an unusual state executioner. His original screenplay, Dispossessed was awarded the Grand Prize for Best Screenplay at the 2015 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Alicia Sams has extensive experience in both documentary and feature films as both producer and director.  She has produced award-winning documentaries for theatrical release and for broadcasters including HBO, IFC, the Sundance Channel, AMC, PBS, Bravo, and TBS.   Currently, she is producing and directing White House Ghosts, about presidential speechwriters.  Other recent films include: Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay, which aired on American Masters in January 2015; “The Battle for Kansas,” a series of short films for Al Jazeera’s flagship show America Tonight; Arab American Stories, an Emmy-Award winning 13-episode public television she conceived, produced and directed for presenter Detroit Public Television.  She produced and directed (with Amy Rice) the Emmy-Award winning film By The People: The Election of Barack Obama, which premiered on HBO in 2009.  Also in 2009, Sams was executive producer of Cherien Dabis’ award-winning debut feature AMREEKA, which premiered at Sundance and won the Critics Prize at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival.  Past films include: Toots, Wanderlust, Grateful Dawg, Hello He Lied: And other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches, Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s, and the series Keeping Time: New Music from America’s Roots.

Vito DeSario is  a creative storyteller of narrative film who could safely say, “I’ve cut it all”, be it comedy, dramatic dialogue, a simple montage of beautiful images or a fast paced action sequence and everything in between.
Throughout his career he has worked with most of the top directors in the commercial and feature world and has edited more commercials than can be named for a diverse range of industries and products. Vito has edited short films, trailers, main title sequences, music videos and art films.

Most recently, he’s  been focusing on Indie films and has edited four dramatic features in the past couple of years, two of which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival

Raffi Simonian is the Executive Creative Director of Nau. He is an accomplished designer and director for screen and print. He has created countless advertisements and main title designs for feature films and television. Raffi has created content for clients including MTV, Lexus, Toyota, Hewlett-Packard, FOX, Discovery, the U.S. Air Force, the 78th Academy Awards, among others. Raffi’s work has been featured in several publications such as IdN, Stash, and Step Magazine.

Peter Nashel is a composer and music producer who works extensively in feature film, documentary, television, advertising, and all forms of new media. Some of Peter’s original scores for feature film and documentaries include:Bee Season/Fox (Richard Gere and Juliette Binoiche, dir. David Seigel and Scott McGehee), Peabody Award-Winning Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream/BBC (dir. Alex Gibney), Win Win/Fox (Amy Ryan and Paul Giamatti, dir. Thomas McCarthy) and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer/ Jigsaw (dir by Alex Gibney)!

Peter’s work in television includes scores and themes for Younger (Darren Star Productions/TV Land), Marco Polo(The Weinstein Company and Electus/Netflix), Rubicon (Warner Bros/AMC), NYC22 (Tribeca/ CBS), Lie to Me(FOX), Dirty Sexy Money (ABC), and the critically acclaimed remake of the British series Life on Mars (FOX/ABC).