VALÈRIE FORTIN
PLays “Helen” in Rice (lead role) / USA
Valérie is a performer from Quebec. She has been cast for the roles in a number of plays, many short films and two features. An accomplished dancer, VALÈRIE was a member of the celebrated Brazilian dance troupe “Carnaval De Rio”, touring through Canada. In 2011 she moved to the US, settling in San Francisco where her theater work includes “The Sister” directed by Joel Heinrick as well as “Sam Martlowe” for director Edward Nattenberg. Her film credits include: “Maidens of the Sea” and “Rice” directed by Alex Vargas which won best film at the SSIFFF film festival (2019) and earned VALÈRIE the best actress award. She is now based in Mexico where She has recently been featured in her first Mexican short film, Belle by Alejandro Trigos and debuted as Marilyn Monroe in the original production of the rock opera “Sounded Out”, which premiered in early 2019. Today she splits her time between San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (where she studies Flamenco dance and singing) and the US East Coast. The director’s comment was: “out of 70 submissions for this role, I knew it was VALÈRIE within the first minute of our first talk.”
TATJANA DZAMBAZOVA
plays “Giselle” in rice (lead role) / USA
Tanja was born to a family of actors in Macedonia with many years of acting on TV. She also has an extensive career on stage with six leading roles in Paris and Vienna and more later in California. Her latest lead roles were in Witness 11, a short film by Sean Mitchell, and RICE. ASIDE FROM ACTING, TANJA’s creative side includes 12 years of work as an architect and 20 years in Digital Design technology. She is based in the San Francisco bay area, speaks 8 languages and visits Africa regularly to spend time with large cats.
The director’s comment was: “impeccable and outstandingly reliable work beyond professional expectations.”
Alex Vargas
plays “Sebastian” in rice (lead role) / USA
Executive Producer
Writer, Producer, Director & CINEMATOGRAPHER for RICE.
a natural born storyteller who handles every facet of movie making from script through special effects and sound, to final post production. He has been an actor for the Uruguayan national theater and a professional musician / recording artist in Denmark, among other things. His artistic medium of choice is motion PICTURE, where his canvas allows him to paint layers of vision, movement, words, color and sound, all from his own hand, to DELIVER his PERSPECTIVE.
Katie McFadden
Assistant Director / Executive Producer / usa
Katie has always had a fascination with other cultures that drove her to eventually live abroad in Spain, Argentina and south Africa. years ago she landed in San Francisco where she has been cycling, cooking, rock climbing, composing piano music and mentoring international students, Until she changed lanes professionally into the world of efficient databases. Currently the founder of “common voyage”, she builds technology solutions with salesforce to help nonprofits do more. As assistant director, camera operator, make up artist, script supervisor, stunt double and stand in where needed, Katie has been involved in nearly every shoot for RICE the movie, including three scenes in Buenos Aires, an underwater shoot in Santa Clara and an aerial shoot over the San Francisco Bay Area. Katie’s interest and contribution to this project has been thoroughly organized and delivered with sincere passion, dedication and complete reliability.
Dr. Elizabeth Hayes
Executive Producer / USA
Aside from her practice, where she has dedicated a lifetime helping people find their way, Beth is a long time musician and very appreciative of all that involves the arts. Her valuable participation directly contributed to the completion of the bulk of post production, both at local and remote locations, as well as to all work done during the period of selection and submission to international film festivals. post production alone took over two years, one of which was in a cabin in northern Denmark where Beth visited. the rest was in California. Beth and Alex also traveled to a film festival in Mississippi in the start of 2019, where RICE was awarded ”Best of Festival”, as well as “Best cinematography” and “Best Lead Actress”. Beth’s support, valuable artistic view, LOVE and FRIENDSHIP, has been received with open arms during her participation in this production and continues today as a solid and loving friendship.
Iván Helbling
Producer / Buenos Aires
Iván Helbling is a film producer and video journalist based in Barcelona. He started working as a producer for independent films and as video journalist for media companies in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Madrid and Barcelona. His involvement in ‘RICE’ was his first feature film as a local film producer. With a bachelor in International Relations (Universidad Torcuato diTella), a Diploma in Filmmaking (New York Film Academy) and a Masters Degree in Journalism (El País Newspaper- Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), his most important journalistic pieces were published in the Spanish global newspaper El País. - for rice, Iván gathered local crew members, organized meetings with local cast, secured main locations and assisted on set with excellent manner and dedication. A real trooper.
Viggo
Supporting role / USA
After the death of their dog Jasper, In 2009 LisA rescued another little white poodle named Viggo who became new family to Alex and later played a supporting role in this movie. Viggo accompanied Alex during Christmas days and other holidays, daily walks, hikes, jeep rides to the beach, a few shoots, and hundreds of hours in pre-production and editing. Lisa agreed for us to use space for editing, casting auditions, shoot preparation and shoot sets at the blue house she shared with Alex from 2003 to 2020. IN 2019, LISA also allowed the USE OF an empty office space in her care, to set up an audio studio for the initial portion of the resulting Soundtrack album for rice. Lisa hasn’t seen the movie, but she might when it gets online, And she was kind to enable space at their home to help it come to completion. we are forever grateful.
in 2020, viggo left the world as we know it 🧡.
ricethemovie© - by alex vargas - a cutcreek film production - all rights reserved - 2025
