Alicia Dwyer's Page

THE CALLING is a four-hour series in two parts following seven seminary students in different religions around America as they struggle to heed their calls and live their faiths in the modern world.  It was an incredible experience directing the Evangelical stories for this piece, following Jeneen Robinson and Rob Pene from their seminaries to churches, homes, prisons, tattoo parlors and the jungles of Samoa in the South Pacific.  THE CALLING premiered nationally on Independent Lens on December 20 and 21, 2010!  You can check out scenes on my website at www.veracityproductions.com.

Fellow Workshopper Yoni Brook directed the two wonderful stories of rabbis in training.  We were joined by Musa Syeed who directed the two Muslim stories and the Catholic stories were directed by Maggie Bowman and Executive Producer Danny Alpert of The Kindling Group.

___________________________________________

XMAS WITHOUT CHINA follows Tom Xia, a young Chinese immigrant full of pride and mischief, as he battles American fears of China. When Tom challenges his American neighbors to do Christmas without any products from China, he meets the Jones family, who just responded to toy recalls by having their son lead-tested. As Tom endeavors to break down stereotypes, he realizes he’s on a journey into the complex relationship between the US and China that will define the 21st century, and a search for his own place between those worlds.

• The Hollywood Reporter 
• KTLA
• The China Press
• El País

_________________________________________________

BIOGRAPHY

Catch director Alicia Dwyer's work in “The Calling,” a four-hour series produced by The Kindling Group with ITVS, premiering nationally on PBS in December 2010, following Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Evangelical students through seminaries around the country as they struggle to lead in their faith.

Alicia is currently at work on a documentary "Xmas Without China," following a Chinese immigrant who challenges his American neighbors to try celebrating Christmas without any Chinese products. Alicia co-wrote/directed and edited “Holy Land: Common Ground,” a feature documentary about Israelis and Palestinians who are grappling with history, homelessness, and how to live peacefully as neighbors (2008).

Alicia was an associate producer on the 2001 Academy Award-winning documentary “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport,” and an editor and associate producer on Rory Kennedy’s feature film and Emmy Award-nominated HBO series, “Pandemic: Facing AIDS,” about families dealing with HIV/AIDS in five countries (2002). Also as an editor, Alicia worked on Participant Productions’ “The World According to Sesame Street,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006.

Alicia and her brothers have formed Veracity Productions, where in addition to larger documentary projects, they make media for a variety of clients including Sid The Science Kid/The Jim Henson Co., The New York Times Magazine online, Dove/Oprah.com, The California Endowment, The Salvation Army and The Red Cross.

Born in Santa Cruz, CA, Alicia grew up in Australia, New York and Berlin. She studied German and Politics at Princeton and received her MFA in Film Production from USC. At USC, she directed “Me, Mom & God,” a documentary about her hippie parents joining a church, and was a cinematographer on a student Emmy Award-winning comedy short, “Sway.”

Alicia has received special recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives for work on the issue of HIV/AIDS and has been a Distinguished Visitor in Global Studies at UC Santa Cruz and a guest instructor in UCSC’s Social Documentation program, where she teaches documentary filmmaking.