KEY CREATIVE PERSONNEL

Ashkan Soltani, Producer/Director
After studying theater and German language at the Free University of Teheran, Iranian-born Ashkan Soltani emigrated to the US and gained his MFA in film production from the University of Utah in 2007. Soltani’s films have screened in several film festivals, winning awards and nominations including Best Documentary at the Miami International Film Festival and Columbus International Film Festival. He is a member of University Film and Video Association, International Documentary Association, and The Society for Cinema and Media Studies. He is currently Professor of Film Studies on the faculty of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles.

Rex Weiner, Producer/Writer
Journalist Rex Weiner’s 2004 article for the Los Angeles Times, Weaving Havoc, about Afghan war rugs serves as the inspiration for this documentary film project. A member of the Writers Guild of America since 1982, Weiner’s screen credits include Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files, starring Ron Silver and Hector Elizondo, among the first of TNT’s original feature-length movies. As one of the first writers brought on board to launch the TV series Miami Vice, Weiner wrote the now classic 9th episode, “Glades.” As a journalist, Weiner’s feature articles have appeared in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, LA Times Sunday Magazine, the New Yorker and LA Weekly, and is currently Hollywood correspondent for Rolling Stone Italia. He is co-author of the book The Woodstock Census – A Nationwide Survey of the Sixties Generation (Viking), one of the key texts measuring the social impact of the era. His publishing company, Great Circle Books, publishes award-winning books of fine-art photography.

Khalid Yagobbi – Consultant
Khalid Yagobbi is the Los Angeles-based proprietor of Baker Rugs Inc., one of the industry’s leading Oriental Rug wholesalers and manufacturers of fine handmade rugs. With its roots in Mazar E Sherif, and outlets in Peshawar, London and LA, Baker Rugs is a well-established family-owned business that has been producing hand-knotted rugs for the past three generations. Mr. Yagobbi is an expert on rug weaving, history, and economics. He will accompany the filmmakers on their journey to Afghanistan, connecting the filmmakers with the rug weavers’ world, providing expertise on the subject.

Julie A. Faherty – Producer
As a Coordinating Producer, Julie Faherty has handled all aspects of production for sixteen documentaries about cinema and filmmakers, including In the Master’s Shadow: Hitchcock’s Legacy (2009), The Business End: Violence in Cinema (2008), Peeling the Orange: Making LA Confidential (2008), and The Visions of Stanley Kubrick (2007). For ESPN, Faherty was Broadcast Center Coordinator covering the X Games Summer/Winter 2005-2006 seasons. From 1993-1994, she was on the News Production Staff of KRQE-TV (NBC affiliate) in Albuquerque, NM.


Eva Gardos – Editor
After coming to America as a Cold War refugee from Hungary, Eva Gardos established a career in America as an award-winning film editor (Barfly, Mask, Bastard Out of Carolina), working with distinguished directors such as Hal Ashby, Francis Coppola, Barbet Schroeder and Anjelica Huston. Gardos’ screenwriting and directorial debut, An American Rhapsody, was distributed by Paramount Classics in the fall of 2001, starring Nastassja Kinski, Tony Goldwyn, and rising new actress, Scarlett Johansson. Gardos lives in Los Angeles and is a member of the Editors Guild, the Directors Guild of America, The Writers Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Robert Gardner – Director of Photography
Robert Gardner has produced and shot videos, training films and feature length documentary films in countries around the world including Nigeria, West Africa, Cyprus, Kuwait, Germany and the UK. His producers have included Channel 4, Revolution Films, the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, Screen Yorkshire/UK Film Council, and Sofia Media Group and Channel 2 in Kuwait.