Team
Who made the film
Production company
Five Sisters Productions
Real-life sisters Gabrielle, Jennifer, Maria, Charity, and Ursula Burton founded Five Sisters Productions in 1999, creating six films that reflect their passion for social justice and storytelling. Their work, released by companies including Ford, Sony, and MGM, spans shorts, features, and commercials.
Raised in an artistic home in Buffalo, New York, with a jazz musician father and a writer mother, the sisters grew up inspired by creativity and community building. Together they channel that upbringing into their film company, exploring powerful themes of aging, sexuality, race, and gender to create thought-provoking, socially engaged films.
Credits include the short-form comedy series Old Guy about ageism, starring Roger Burton (Baskets) and Peri Gilpin (Frasier); the nationally released Kings, Queens, & In-Betweens; Manna From Heaven (MGM/Sony); Ford’s Faces of Ford campaign; and CAST’s campaign against human trafficking starring Julia Ormond.
Director
Gabrielle C. Burton
Gabrielle C. Burton is a filmmaker in Delaware, Ohio with a passion for strong human-focused storytelling and social engagement, who was awarded the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence prize three times. Her creative style weaves complex stories and voices together to capture truths about human nature and social change.
With her sisters, Burton focuses on filmmaking that incorporates creative participation and underrepresented voices. After directing the award-winning documentary on gender Kings, Queens, & In-Betweens, she won a Wexner Center for the Arts artist’s residency for her next project, inspired by her TEDx Talk about gender, drag, and parenting (selected by TEDx for their national playlist). Her second TEDx Talk, on complexity and our “spheres of personal perspective,” was given at TEDx Tours in France.
Director
Ursula Burton
Ursula Burton is an award-winning writer and director whose work is being remastered and preserved in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives, including The Happiest Day of His Life, which she wrote and directed. That comedic short won a Viewer’s Choice Award on MTV’s LOGO Channel and qualified for the Academy Awards.
Her films We Treat Them The Same, Expiration Date and A Future Wish continue to explore her interest in women’s experience, and she is the producing director of the ongoing Half The History series. She has written and directed documentaries for Kaiser Permanente, made commercials and PSAs including the Faces of Ford campaign, and regularly directs audio dramas. As an actor her work includes Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and the BBC sitcom My Family.
A graduate of Yale with degrees in Theater Studies and English, she is a Professor of the Practice at Otis College of Art and Design, where she teaches filmmaking.
Crew
The film team
Anita Kwan
Director of Photography
Founded Reel Hoot Productions with a passion for embracing authenticity, connecting people, and helping businesses tell their stories. With more than 14 years’ experience, her mission is to hold a safe and inclusive space in production. Reel Hoot is LGBTQ-owned, WBE, MBE and EDGE certified.
Camera
Matthew Hubbard, Jennifer Burton, Maria Burton, Ursula Burton, Gabrielle C. Burton
Matthew Hubbard is an Emmy Award-winning director and editor (We’re the Shazzbots, After, The Dinosauria) whose technical expertise on films includes music, grading, effects, and title sequences. The Burton sisters shot alongside him across the six years of filming.
Mike Yearling
Sound effects
An award-winning editor, creative director and producer, working in commercials and on PBS’s Alcatraz Is Not An Island.
Eduardo Larez
Sound mix
Head sound mixer at VisionEar Studios, specialising in audio production with over 23 years’ experience as an audio recording and mixing engineer.
Robert Curreri
Color grading
Colorist at Arsenal FX, formerly with HBO, with deep experience in color grading for television, film, and broadcast media, and in film restoration.
Producers
Five Sisters Productions
Jennifer Burton, Ursula Burton, Maria Burton, Charity Burton and Gabrielle C. Burton.
The choir
About Harmony Project
Harmony Project is a non-profit service organization whose mission is to build a more connected community by breaking down social barriers, bridging community divides, and empowering the voices of the people through arts, education, and volunteer service.
People
Harmony Project is people: different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different abilities, and different beliefs, all practicing the powerful idea that the dissonance between us can be disrupted when people work together.
Art
Art is a catalyst for change: combating disinformation, shattering stereotypes, expanding cultural knowledge, and creating empathy for one another. Creativity fosters a shared space where people can embrace their differences and build social harmony.
Community
Harmony Project’s work inspires individuals to meet their own biases head-on. Members work together in public service, forging a path toward a richer and more inclusive community.
It takes more than one voice to live in harmony.
Behind the scenes
On set
