Chris Farina’s first award-winning documentary, Route 40, was a portrait of the roadside community along Pulaski Highway, a five mile stretch of urban highway in east Baltimore near where he was born and raised. His second film, West Main Street, explored the Main Street community of Charlottesville, Virginia, where Farina moved for his undergraduate education at the University of Virginia and still resides. Both independently-produced films portray people living and/or working in familiar American settings who receive little media attention, each guided by the principle of respect for the individuals portrayed, allowing them to tell the story of their lives and their community.

His feature film World Peace and other 4th-Grade Achievements, had its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and has garnered awards at several film festivals, including the Best Film-Audience Award at the Bergen International Film Festival in Bergen, Norway. This film portrays John Hunter, a 4th-grade public school teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia, and creator of the World Peace Game and his 4th-grade class as they participate in this innovative and challenging exercise. The film was aired across the US on public television from 2012-2014, and has also been broadcast in several countries. It also has had
special screenings at the Pentagon, the United Nations, the Aspen
Institute’s Ideas Festival, and several educational conferences and schools throughout the world.
Farina’s award-winning short film Holistic Life Foundation: breathing love into a community, portrays the work of the three founders of
The Holistic Life Foundation, who have dedicated their lives to bringing the benefits of mindfulness and meditation to the inner-city neighborhoods of Baltimore where two of the founders were born and raised.
Farina also made another feature documentary film on another innovative educational program, University of Virginia Professor Andrew Kaufman's Book Behind Bars class. This program brings together university students with incarcerated youth of a juvenile facility through the study of classic works of Russian Literature. These interactions become the catalyst for both groups to learn from one another, forming powerful connections that break down the initial stereotypes they have as they begin this class. Strong personal relationships are formed as they discuss their lives, hopes and regrets. The lives of both sets of students are transformed through this experience.

Farina’s recently completed film A Bridge To Life: The Bridge Ministry will be released in 2024. This is a portrait of an organization which for years have been changing and saving the lives of people dealing with life-threatening drug addiction issues. The mission is to create true impact with this film as we have done with our past films.

For more information, please visit www.rosaliafilms.com