Mauricio Baiocchi - Director / Writer

With an animation and feature film resume spanning 24 credits and 15 years, Mauricio Baiocchi left the agency market in 2009 to focus on his love of puppetry and independent filmmaking. His resulting effort, Cicada Princess, has charmed audiences around the world with its fantastic universe of puppeted miniatures, bittersweet narrative, and formidable technique. Narrated by Stephen Fry, the film has played the festival circuit around the world and taken home many prestigious awards. Mauricio feels at home working in both traditional and digital mediums, marrying old and new technologies in service to his unique vision.

Born in London, he is currently a resident of Berkeley, California where he is closely involved with raising his two sons and doing his best to make a positive impact on people’s lives through the arresting beauty of moving images.

Vincent Beggs - Executive Producer

Vince has been involved in the creation, development, fabrication and administration of hundreds of museum exhibits and educational programs both as a full-time staffer and as a consultant. With extensive experience in Latin America the Middle East and the US he has worked with a variety of institutions including: The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, The Illinois Holocaust Museum, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and The United States Marine Corps Museum.

Not limited to traditional museums he worked on the King Abduhlaziz Cultural Center in Saudi Arabia, and visitor centers for the Petra Archeological Site in Jordan the Hanford Reach Nuclear Facility and Preserve and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

His resume includes museums and exhibits for Warner Bros. Studios, Turner Entertainment, Paramount Studios and Sony Pictures.

Vince received his BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, studied in the School of Architecture at UCLA and holds a Certificate in Management from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is an active member of the American Alliance of Museums, an award winning documentary filmmaker and producer of AR, VR, and Mixed Reality content.

Rick Hirschhaut - Senior Advisor

Rick Hirschhaut is a Jewish communal and humanitarian leader who has served both the Jewish community and the broader American public with passion and integrity for over three decades. He has held senior executive roles with the Anti-Defamation League, Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center. Hirschhaut led the creation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, as its founding executive director from 2004-14. The museum opened in 2009 to international acclaim and the participation of President Bill Clinton, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, and an audience of 13,000. Under his leadership, the museum hosted more than half a million visitors, including heads of state and other dignitaries, and spearheaded a myriad of public programs. In 2013, Hirschhaut received an Emmy Award as co-producer of the nationally broadcast documentary, Skokie: Invaded but Not Conquered. In 2014, he was honored with the museum’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award.

Hirschhaut enjoyed a 21-year tenure with the Anti-Defamation League, including a decade as Midwest director. His work included building bridges between Jewish and African-American communities and collaborating with law enforcement on issues of anti-Semitism and extremism. His achievements were recognized with the FBI’s Community Leadership Award in 2000 and the City of Chicago’s Human Relations Award in 2003.

In 2014 Hirschhaut served as International Consultant to Aegis Trust, a UK-based NGO dedicated to the prevention of crimes against humanity. As Director of Outreach for Kwibuka20, he built support for the 20th Commemoration of the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In his service to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center, Hirschhaut raised awareness and support for their humanitarian and relief work. He has led missions to Israel, Ukraine, Georgia, Ethiopia and Cuba.

Hirschhaut lives in New York with his wife Susan and their two children. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Judaic studies from Tulane University, and has studied at Hebrew University’s Rothberg School for Overseas Students. He grew up in upstate New York and Knoxville, Tenn.

Ray Gilberti - Director of Photography

Ray Gilberti's career as a cameraman began in 1980 at Lucasfilm. Since 1988, he has been the Effects Director of Photography on some of the most notable films of the last three decades including Star Wars Episodes I & II, Back to the Future II & III, Planet of the Apes, Pearl Harbor, The Mummy Returns, Space Cowboys, The Hulk, Joe Versus the Volcano, and many more. In 1993, Ray began working with Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Nightmare Before Christmas) as a lighting and camera operator. In addition to his feature film work, Ray is also an accomplished Commercial Director of Photography. Ray and Mauricio have been working together since the early days of Cicada Princess.

Randy Gaul - Production Designer

In 1998, Randy Gaul joined Industrial Light & Magic as a concept designer. Prior to joining ILM, he worked for seven years as a freelance storyboard and concept artist for such companies as Wild Brain, MTV and Disney, specializing in creature and character designs as well as environments, costumes and props. Since joining ILM, Gaul has lent his visual eye and creative hands to such productions as Despicable Me, Rio, Peabody and Sherman, Madagascar 3, Penguins of Madagascar, Cicada Princess, Legend of Tembo, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Mummy Returns, Star Wars: Episode II “Attack of the Clones.” Madagascar 3, Peabody and Sherman: Rio, Despicable Me and many more. Zeke the Odd, the Next Great Maker is his latest co-written project in development.

Robert E. Barnes - Art Director

Robert E. Barnes is a character designer, illustrator and sculptor who got his start working on the Star Wars series in Doug Chiang’s art department at Lucasfilm. He later joined the team at Ice Blink Studios, Disney’s ImageMovers Digital, and has contributed designs and art direction to Charlotte’s Web, Spiderwick Chronicles, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, Mars Needs Moms, and Yellow Submarine. Robert was the Art Director for the second half of Cicada Princess.

Jenn Emberly - Animation Director

Jenn Emberly has over 25 years of experience in traditional and digital animation for major motion pictures. Her recent experience includes creatively overseeing the performance divisions at Atomic Fiction and Disney’s ImageMovers Digital. She managed artist-centric teams to realize stunning performances for feature films such as A Christmas Carol, Mars Needs Moms, and Robert Zemeckis’s remake of Yellow Submarine. An alumni of Industrial Light & Magic, Jenn served as Animation Director on films such as Peter Pan, War of the Worlds, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Jesse Solomon Clark - Composer

Jesse is a composer, music producer and multi-instrumentalist working in film, TV, physical installations, advertising, interactive games, animation and an ongoing series of concept albums. In addition to utilizing orchestra and production techniques, Clark is known for using a unique palette of idiosyncratic instruments such as Optigan, bowed vibraphone, prepared piano, and waterphone. Crickets Would Sing is Jesse's fourth film with Mauricio.

Jeremiah Moore - Sound Designer

Jeremiah designs, edits, and mixes sound for films and other projects at Jeremiah Moore Sound, his San Francisco studio. He has collaborated with filmmakers Ellen Bruno, Bob Talbot, Mark Shelley, John Korty, and Roman Coppola, artists Rene Yung, Su-Chen Hung and Bruce Odland, jazz trumpeter Derek Banach, and radio producers The Kitchen Sisters. His commercial clients include Nike, Microsoft, Toyota, Palm, AMD, SEGA, Levis, Adobe, Jawbone and Google. He recently performed a live mix of The Residents' seminal experimental album Eskimo in 100+ channel Meyer Constellation surround system at the Exploratorium's Kanbar Forum. His collaborative side company momentaudio designed and installed sound systems for Ai WeiWei's "@LARGE" on Alcatraz island. He freelances at Pixar on occasion.

Justin Kohn - Lead Animator

Justin Kohn has been involved with three-dimensional animated effects work since 1979. His animation film credits include The Nightmare Before Christmas, Robocop Two, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone, The Life Aquatic, Disaster the Movie, Coraline, and numerous other films, television shows, educational films and commercials.

Additional Teaser Credits