Yara is the director of the Academy of Cooking & Other Pleasures in Paraty, Brazil, where she organizes gastronomy tours and teaches Brazilian Cuisine classes to visitors from over 60 different countries around the globe. 

She was the host for the PBS-WGBH series “Cooks Tour” directed by Laurie Donnelly, focusing on cuisines from around the world giving special attention to their culture and traditions. The series received two “Emmy” nominations. Yara was also featured in a segment for Canadian television (more…)

Vivian Orni is an executive-producer and director based in São Paulo, Brazil. She graduated from the School of Film and Television at New York University and later moved to Boston where she worked as an editor for Interlock Media Associates and Cultural Survival. Still in Boston, she  was appointed visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab where she assisted Professor Goldman-Segall in the creation of Constellations, a pioneering interactive database system.

In Brazil, Vivian worked for Imagem Video directing several commercial video programs for companies like Varig Airlines and VASP.   (more…)

For over 10 years, filmmaker Gerson Damiani, aka JAY, has been working as director, producer, cinematographer and consultant for Documentary Films, TV Series, Commercials and Reality TV shows around the globe.

A graduate of UCLA Film, TV and Digital Entertainment programs, Damiani is co-founder of D&D Films, operating out of Berlin, Los Angeles and São Paulo. D&D Films has undertaken a myriad of documentary, commercial and industrial productions since 1999. (more…)