Team

Lesya Kalynska is an award-winning director, writer, and producer. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, she currently lives and works in NYC where she is running the production company Pomegranate Studios. Kalynska earned her MFA in directing and writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the USA and received her PhD in Slavic Literatures and Languages in Ukraine. Lesya found early success in 2006-2007 with her short films Balloonist and The Debt, which she directed and produced respectively. They have been screened at the Sundance and Tribeca festivals, winning the Best Student Film Award at the Hope and Dreams IFF in NJ, as well as awards at Manheim IFF, Hampton IFF, and the Los Angeles Annual Showcase. In 2011 a widely popular Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 invited Kalynska to direct a groundbreaking four-part documentary series Top Secret Level 18, featuring high-end historic reenactments and unique archival footage to tell the unknown stories from World War II. In 2013 Lesya directed a narrative short Helen and was nominated for a Golden Duke Award at Odessa International Film Festival. She produced the feature-length documentary Salt in The Air and the short Ukrainian Lessons, which won the Fipresci Award. Kalynska is the recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Production Award (Golden Globes) for her feature length documentary in progress In the Land of The Lost Crusaders.

In November of 2013 Kalynska embarked on a more personal documentary project A Rising Fury that would take her back to her beloved city of Kyiv. She began filming the Maidan Revolution and followed several characters over the course of 8 years during the ongoing war in Ukraine. The project is supported by prominent film organizations including: the Sundance and Gotham Institutes (USA), Sorfond and Fritt Ord Foundations (Norway), IDFA Bertha Fund (Netherlands) and Bertha BritDoc Documentary Journalism Fund (UK).

A Rising Fury had a World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2022.

TJ Collins is an award-winning filmmaker producing over a dozen films including short and feature narratives. His feature film debut "WILLETS POINT" received the Audience Award at the Long Island International Film Expo and was theatrically released in the fall of 2010. WILLETS POINT was received to positive reviews in the New York Times, Nov 2010 edition.  

After graduation from the Tbilisi State University (BA in Philology), Tamara had been working as a press journalist for 8 years covering cultural and social issues for major Georgian publishers. In 2004 she was employed by the most popular Georgian TV channel Rustavi2. Having worked there for five years as a Content Producer, Tamara received valuable experience producing some of the internationally recognized game and reality shows, such as "The Brainiest" (Celador Int), "The Weakest Link" (BBC Worldwide), "The Boot Camp" (Granada Int), "The Star Academy" (Endemol Int), etc. Tamara was also one of the Creative Producers for the famous European documentary soap series "The Bar", leading the ratings for four seasons in 2004-2006. In 2010 Tamara graduated from the New York Film Academy's One year Conservatory Producing Program. Having produced short films, music videos & commercials, Tamara now continues to work in NY having several projects in development.