Today we’d like to introduce you to Paola Baldion.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My passion for acting and storytelling began at a very young age. When I was four years old, I started performing with my parent’s marionette’s theater on the streets of Italy.
Later on, when we moved to Bogotá Colombia, I began my training in Theater, and at 17 I nailed my first TV series as a regular. After being on the show for two years, I moved to New York City to further my studies. Here I realized that in order to make it in such a competitive industry I had to create my own content.
Shortly after I moved to Montreal Canada and I enrolled at Concordia University where I graduated with a BFA in Theater and Film Studies. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to get to work regularly as an actress and also to be able to create my own content.
A couple of months ago, I teamed up with my husband, lover, and partner in crime Jamie Toll and we created Dos Almas Films, an art and film production company based in Los Angeles California. The first project we did together its called I Am Migration, a Multimedia Campaign/Art Project dedicated to encouraging the media to stop portraying immigration as a threat.
Our Viral video #IamMigration was the first step of the campaign followed by I Am Migration documentary where Jamie and I traveled across the USA providing free DNA tests to the people we encountered in order to show them their true migrant roots.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The hardest part about filming I Am Migration was to find people willing to participate in our project and to take the DNA test. We tried to pre-cast prior to the shoot, but that didn’t work out, so we end up finding our subjects along the road.
Most of the people we found randomly on the street, at a restaurant we were having lunch, at a music venue, gift shop, bakery and even at a gas station! A lot of people were skeptical at first, and some didn’t wanted to be on camera, but after two months of traveling across the US, we were lucky enough to find a variety of subjects with different backgrounds and ethnicities that represent the beauty and diversity of the American people.
Please tell us about Dos Almas Films.
Dos Almas Films is an art and film production company based in Los Angeles California. We are artists and storytellers dedicated to create content across all platforms.
We specialize in video production, fiction film, documentary, sculpture, virtual reality, street art, muralism, art programs, and social awareness. We are currently working on a TV series to be shot in South America and finding a distributor for our I Am Migration documentary.
So far what we are most proud is definitely our #IamMigration viral video. This is actually what started this project and production company as it was our first collaboration together. We shot and edited the 1-minute video on our iPhones and uploaded on Facebook.
A week later we had reached 17 million views and were offered sponsorship for our documentary. This meant a lot to us as we just had an idea, but we didn’t know how powerful it was until we shared it with the world. It also reinforced my longtime belief that in order to express yourself you don’t need to have fancy equipments or to spend thousands of dollars… if you have a strong concept you can express it with what you have. 🙂
Personally, what I love the most about our company is being able to create across different mediums. As an actress and producer myself I love fiction and Jamie being an artist thrives with street art, painting, and sculpture. So not to limit ourselves to one form of expression has brought us a lot of opportunities to create, collaborate with other artists and push our own boundaries.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Performing with my parents marionette’s theater on the streets of Florence, Italy. I was a child, so I never saw it as work. The streets were my playground, the marionettes the siblings I didn’t have and the audience a cheerful group of strangers who clapped at our shows and provided a steady income for my family.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dosalmasfilms.com
- Email: info@dosalmasfilms.com
- Instagram: @i_am_migration @paolabaldion @mrtoll
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iammigration/
- Twitter: @iammigrationusa
Image Credit:
Lucas Cristo
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
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