The Teacher

Sawsan Asfari is a British-Lebanese seasoned producer and executive producer. She is the founder of Cocoon films, a UK production company originally co-founded as Cactus World Films in 2007. She is also a partner in the production company Louverture Films, founded by Danny Glover and Joslyn Barnes, a company whose values are aligned with those of Cocoon’s in terms of producing films that deal with social justice, human rights and other such issues.

She has been involved in the production and co-production of several critically acclaimed and award-winning films, including Salt of this Sea, Wajib, When I Saw You, Aqualera and The Idol. Sawsan’s involvement in civil society is reflected in her choice of features and documentaries that are produced at Cocoon. Sawsan is also co-founder of two education and civil society foundations: the Asfari Foundation and the Galilee Foundation.

Mohannad Malas is a Lebanese-American real estate investor based in Irvine, CA. Mr. Malas supports education, innovation, and film making. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Claremont Graduate University (CGU), and on the Board of Trustees of the University of California Irvine Foundation (UCI). He also serves on the UCI Law School Board of Visitors, and is a founding board member of the UCI Beall Applied Innovation.

Mr. Malas has executive produced films and documentaries having a strong social message including: On Common Grounds, AmericanEast, The Game Changers, and 1948: Creation & Catastrophe amongst others.

Ossama Bawardi is an Oscar-nominated independent producer working in Palestine and Jordan. Bawardi was involved in various productions including Salt of this Sea, Paradise Now and Waiting for Salah Al Din, before focusing his work more on producing. He produced Annemarie Jacir’s feature film When I Saw You, which won Best Asian Film at the Berlin International Film Festival in addition to nine other awards. He produced Horizon, In Overtime, Mare Nostrum and The Present. He also directed and produced the short film Haneen.

He was the line producer of (No) Laughing Matter, A Stone’s Throw from Prison, Amin Matalqa’s The Rendezvous starring Stana Katic, Mai Masri’s 3,000 Nights and Barbara Eder’s Thank You for Bombing, as well as numerous other fiction and documentary films. Bawardi produced Wajib, winner of thirty-six international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Dubai International Film Festival, Amiens, Washington DC and Kerala. Most recently he produced The Translator by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, as well as the new Jim Caviezel film.

Bawardi is a member of the EAVE Producers Network and the Asia Pacific Screen Academy.

Gilles Porte is a seasoned Director of Photography with nearly fifty feature films under his belt. Filmmakers he has worked with include Mai Masri (3000 Nights), Jacques Audiard (Look at the Men Falling), Raoul Ruiz (3 Lives and Only One Death), Xavier Durringer (The Conquest), Safy Nebbou (The One You Believe), Frédéric Beigbeder (The Ideal), Xavier Gens, (Farang) Abbas Fadhel (The Dawn of Fashion) and Marc Dugain (The Exchange of Princesses).

In 2004, he co-directed When the Sea Rises with actress Yolande Moreau, which won many international awards including the César Award for Best First Work, the César Award for Best Actress and the Louis-Delluc Prize for First Film.

In 2010, Gilles directed the documentary Dessine-toi and a series of short films entitled Portraits/Self-portraits combining live action images, drawn by children from around the world, and animations.

In 2017, he co-directed the powerful documentary The State Against Mandela and the Others which was in the official selection at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary in 2019. The film went on to win thirty international awards including the Audience Prize at the Dakar (Senegal) and the Durban (South Africa) Film Festivals as well as the SCAM Prize.

Gilles Porte is President of the AFC (French Association of Directors of Photography), President of ACID (Association of Independent Cinema). He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Clowns without Borders.

Alex Baranowski is a composer based in London. He recently scored the eight-part series Rain Dogs for Sid Gentle / HBO and his ballet Legacy Variations with choreographer David Dawson premiered at the Dutch National Ballet in December 2022.

Recent film scores include A Gaza Weekend directed by Oscar-nominated Basil Khalil for Film 4 and Ruth Wilson and Jude Law produced True Things (The Bureau / BBC Films) directed by Harry Wootliff, which won Best Original Score at Les Arcs Film Festival; as well as three series of hit BBC One comedy Staged starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen; BAFTA nominated The Windermere Children for Wall to Wall / Warner Brothers (with a soundtrack released by Sony Classics), and Burial, a WWII Drama for Altitude Film starring Harriet Walter.

He recently collaborated with Oscar-winning Taika Waititi for The Letter, a two-and-a-half-minute film for Coca-Cola Christmas.

Alex has previously been nominated for a Tony Award for Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan on Broadway; has won Music + Sound Awards including Best Feature Film for McCullin (which was also nominated for two BAFTA’s) and his ballet adaption of 1984 for Northern Ballet won the South Bank Award for dance after a sold-out run at Sadler’s Wells.

After graduating in 2010 from the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey, Mike has worked for a variety of businesses, individuals, and brands across the globe. The breadth of his work is extensive: projects range from feature films, short films, promos, music videos and documentaries. His films have been screened at various festivals around the world, including: ​Toronto​, Cannes​,​ East End, Sankofa, Hong Kong Art House, Tribeca​, and​ Raindance.

Past projects include Megatopia film feature The Flood, starring Lena Headey and Iain Glenn. This challenging project explored the humanitarian and political morass of the immigration crisis in Britain. The feature length Palindrome won nearly 20 awards at various international film festivals. Six Rounds was nominated for the Independent Best Film Award at the 12th Screen Nation Awards Film & TV Awards (2017).

Previously Mike’s short film, Love, inc., won the Royal Television Society Southern Award for Best Drama (2010). A short film, Add Me, was made for the Colchester Film Festival 60 Hour Film Challenge and was screened as one of the top 15 out of 1,400 applications. Snare was awarded the Director’s Choice Award at the Manchester Indie Film Festival 2015. More recently the short film Maya’s Moment, which was shot on an Xiaomi 12 series phone, has had over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

When Mike is not working, he can be found in the gym enjoying his other artform, boxing, and curating his encyclopaedic film collection.