Production Team
CHRIS HALEY — Host
​Chris is the Director of Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland at the Maryland State Archives, and a leading member of the Maryland Truth and Reconciliation Commission created by the State of Maryland. Haley is a member of the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, Historic London Town Foundation, Annapolis Arts Alliance Foundation and the Annapolis Film Festival. In addition to his genealogical and academic work, Haley was the co-director of the award-winning Unmarked, which explored historic African American cemeteries and efforts to restore their place in the historic landscape.
​
ANDREA KALIN — Creative Director / Producer
​Andrea is founder and Executive Director of Stone Soup Productions, as well as its production arm, Spark Media. Her projects have been funded by the NEH, CPB, PBS, HBO, NBPC, Smithsonian Channel and the humanities councils of Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC. Andrea Kalin directed Soul of a People and twelve other award-winning feature documentaries. Her awards include a Prime Time Emmy, Golden Globe and WGA nominations. Her work explores contemporary and historical topics. Before becoming a filmmaker, Kalin began her career in radio, contributing reports to the AP, Mutual Radio, 2 GB Australia, CBC, NPR and Israel Radio. Kalin, a member of the WGA and PGA, oversees the creative direction of The People’s Recorder.
​
DAVID TAYLOR — Producer / Writer
​David is an award-winning author who collaborated with Stone Soup as the lead writer and co-producer on the Soul of a People documentary. He wrote that documentary’s companion book, as well as four other books on historical topics. He has organized events at the Library of Congress and book festivals, has participated as a speaker at the National Book Festival, the FDR Library and Museum, the Smithsonian, and in podcasts, conferences and articles for the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and the Chicago Tribune. He teaches at Johns Hopkins University.
​
JAMES MIRABELLO — Producer
​James has worked with Spark Media since 2000 as production manager and producer, helping shepherd projects to completion. In addition to co-producing The People’s Recorder, he was co-producer and lead researcher on Soul of a People and its accompanying outreach campaign, and has fulfilled the same role on Spark Media’s other projects, including First Lady of the Revolution, which won over ten awards on the festival circuit and was broadcast on public television as part of Reel South.
​
ETHAN OSER — Editor
Ethan has a decade of experience telling perspective-shifting stories. With Spark Media since 2013, he’s helped bring many of the company’s award-winning productions to life. Beyond editing The People's Recorder, he was most recently a producer and director of photography on Public Defender. Oser’s work has screened at international festivals and been broadcast and streamed worldwide on PBS, HBO, The New Yorker, Amazon, Apple TV, National Geographic, Tubi and FreeSpeech TV.
​