Meet the Team

Director

Chiara Clemente

Director Chiara Clemente has spent the past two decades making films primarily as a documentarian. She has gained a reputation for creating intimate and revealing portarits of creative people from diverse backgrounds. She was born in Italy but grew up in New York City in the 1980’s tiptoeing around her father’s painting studio and playing in her mother’s closets, always surrounded by a community of artists that Ruben and Isabel were a part of.

Clemente’s critically acclaimed feature documentary, Our City Dreams, premiered at the prestigious Film Forum in New York City, was screened in more than 30 cities worldwide, and was broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Chiara’s experience interacting with audiences of Our City Dreams enhanced her desire to make work that encouraged people to follow their dreams. Shortly afterwards, she created the Sundance Channel Award winning film series Beginnings as well as four seasons of MADE HERE featuring performers such as Bill T. Jones, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Cherry Jones. Clemente has directed films for Christy Turlington’s foundation Every Mother Counts and Screen Stories, a film inspired by Letters to Andy Warhol that has been part of a world wide traveling exhibition. As well as the series Broken Glass for Artsy about the Importance of Women mentorship in Arts and Tech. She is a consistent collaborator of both museums and art galleries, making films on artists and exhibitons. She aslo teaches a masters filmmaking class at the School of Visual Arts.

Executive Producers

David Dinerstein & Robert Fyvolent Mass Distraction Media

Mass Distraction Media is the Academy Award winning media company that collaborates with storytellers to produce premium non-fiction and narrative film and TV.

David Dinerstein is an Academy Award winning producer and accomplished media executive. He produced the “Summer Of Soul” directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson which won the 2022 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Dinerstein won numerous other awards including the Grammy, BAFTA, Film Independent Spirit Award, PGA, Peabody, AFI, Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award and six Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

He has been involved in the production, marketing or distribution on over 200 movies including “Pulp Fiction,” “American Hustle,” “Her,” “A Private War,” “The Illusionist,” “The Full Monty,” and “Hustle & Flow.” He helped launch the careers of numerous iconic filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Justin Lin, Sofia Coppola, Baz Luhrman, Jane Campion, and Kevin Smith. His films have garnered over 100 Academy Award Nominations and 17 Academy Awards. Dinerstein co-founded the movie studio Paramount Vantage, and he was one the original architects of Fox Searchlight Pictures. Dinerstein has a broad range of experience in entertainment production, programming, acquisitions, finance, international sales, marketing, and distribution. He served as the Executive Producer of the Academy Award nominated, Netflix documentary “Winter On Fire,” for which he was also nominated for an Emmy Award. He also served as the Executive Producer on the HBO documentary “Cries From Syria.”

Robert Fyvolent is an Academy Award winning producer as well as a credited screenwriter and established entertainment attorney. The documentary entitled Summer of Soul (Or...When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) directed by Ahmir “Questove” Thompson won the 2022 Oscar for Best Documentary, as well as numerous other awards, including Audience and Grand Jury Prizes at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, 2022 Grammy for Best Music Film, New York Critics’ Choice Award, Independent Spirit Award, BAFTA, Peabody Award and Best Documentary from the Producers Guild of America. Fyvolent began his career as an attorney for The Walt Disney Company and Sony Pictures Entertainment. As the Head of Business and Legal Affairs at Newmarket Films, he helped build a library of over 250 films and worked on the acquisition and distribution of such diverse films as Memento, Donnie Darko, Whale Rider, Monster, The Prestige, Boondock Saints and The Passion of Christ. In private practice, he’s handled production legal work for numerous independent films in addition to representing writers, producers, directors, and distributors. He worked for more than 10 years as outside counsel for Pantelion Films, currently owned by Univision. As a screenwriter, Fyvolent was a credited writer on the original screenplay, Untraceable, which stared Diane Lane and was released theatrically by Sony Screen Gems. He’s also written for Dreamworks and other independent studios. Fyvolent has regularly attended film markets around the world and has been invited to speak at industry invents including the Rio Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival; Fyvolent graduated with a B.S. degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans and was awarded a Distinguished Alumni award in 2022.

He earned his JD degree at South Texas College of Law in Houston, completing the final year of his legal education at Loyola University School of Law in Los Angeles.

Bells Collective

Kim Hastreiter, Paige Powell, Cecilia Dean & James Kaliardos

The Bells Collective are Executive Producers that came on board early on in the project, and are committed to telling this awe-inspiring story of struggle and triumph. They consist of renowned fashion journalists, artists, and icons who knew Isabel and Ruben personally since their early days in New York City where their story began.

Kim Hastreiter was born and raised in New Jersey, and moved to New York in 1976 to become an artist. To pay the rent, she sold clothes at a Madison Avenue shop, and began designing their window displays that caught the attention of the creative set. In 1979, the photographer Bill Cunningham recommended her for a job as the style editor of the Soho Weekly News, jump starting her career in journalism. At Soho Weekly News, Kim met David Hershkovits, and in 1984, they founded PAPER magazine. Kim met Isabel and Ruben when Ruben was working at the iconic Soho store Parachute in
the early 1980’s, and featured Isabel’s designs in the earliest editions of PAPER Magazine, and is one of the creative duo’s earliest and greatest champions.

Paige Powell began working for Andy Warhol and Interview magazine in 1981, eventually becoming Associate Publisher. She quickly became a close confidante of Warhol’s inner circle, developing friendships with the likes of Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente and Jean-Michel Basquiat. From the moment she landed in New York, she documented the extraordinary everyday life that surrounded her—including pivotal moments of art, culture, fashion, and nightlife—with 35mm and Polaroid cameras and video camcorders.

Powell’s photographs have been published in Interview, New York Times, Vogue, AnOther Magazine, The Guardian, as well as numerous art books and catalogs. Paige met Isabel and Ruben at the first Museum of Arts & Design Ball in 1989 and were good friends by 1990, remaining close throughout Isabel’s life.

Cecilia Dean & James Kaliardos founded VISIONAIRE in 1991 (in the Toledos studio!) as an experiential publication. VISIONAIRE has collaborated with thousands of contributors including artists (Cindy Sherman, Maurizio Cattelan, Kehinde Wiley); actors (Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong’o, Julianne Moore); directors (Pedro Almodovar, Wong Kar-Wai, Spike Jonze); pop stars Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Drake); fashion brands (Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior, Gucci); auto brands (Lexus, Mini, Cadillac); jewelry/watches (Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef Arpels); and many more. In 2013, VISIONAIRE expanded into conceptualizing and producing film, public art, immersive installations, interactive activations, and branded content all curated through the lens of art, fashion, and contemporary culture.

Cecilia and James collaborated with Isabel and Ruben in the early days of Isabel’s career, Cecilia modeling in all of Isabel’s early fashion shows, and James doing makeup for those same shows. Both maintained close friendships with the Toledos throughout their lives.