About Rosalia Films

Director Chris Farina’s films specialize in telling the stories of individuals whose profound contributions to their community have often gone unnoticed, expanding the audience’s notion of what it means to be human. His work is guided by the principle of respect for the individuals portrayed, allowing them to tell the stories of their lives and their community.

SEATS AT THE TABLE - PRESS KIT

About Chris

Chris Farina was born and raised in Baltimore, one block away from Pulaski Highway, which was the subject of his first award-winning independent documentary Route 40, made with Reid Oechslin. He continued this focus on roadside communities with his second film, West Main Street, another collaboration with Oechslin, telling the stories of individuals who lived and worked along this street in Charlottesville, Virginia where Farina moved for his undergraduate education at the University of Virginia and still resides.

After obtaining an M.A. in Communications at American University, he made another award-winning film, World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, which had its world premiere in 2010, and has garnered awards at several film festivals, including the Best Film-Audience Award at the Bergen International Film Festival in Bergen, Norway, and the Youth Vision Award at the United Nations Association Film Festival. This film focused on public-school teacher John Hunter and his World Peace Game, which was the subject of a very widely seen TED Talk by Hunter in 2011. In 2012 the film began a two-year run on public television, reaching over 85% of the US population, and has also been broadcast in several other countries.

Farina’s award-winning short film, The Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community, focused on HLF’s work primarily focused on the youth of the impoverished neighborhoods in west Baltimore. His most recent film, Seats at the Table, presents another educational portrait of a class which connects university students with residents of a maximum-security juvenile correctional center through the study of great works of Russian literature.

Selected Filmography

Producer, Director, Writer – Seats at the Table (2018)

Producer, Director, Writer – The Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community (2015)

Co-director – Remembering Normandy (2015)

Producer, Director, Writer – three short films on resident artists of the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection:
a) Stars Over the Sea (2014)
b) Coloring the Landscape (2014)
c) Making the Spirit Visible (2015)

Producer, Director, Writer – World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements (2010)

Assistant Director – Angels (2005)

Co-producer – The James River (2003)

Co-producer, Director, Writer – West Main Street (1995)

Producer, Co-director, Writer – Route 40 (1986)