Meet the Cast Members of The Third Monday In October

Vanessa Roth

Academy Award® winning filmmaker, Vanessa Roth has written produced and directed pivotal social issue documentaries for over a decade. Roth’s work has earned her dozens of honors including an Oscar, two Sundance Special Jury Prizes, Cine Golden Eagles, Casey Medals, and a Dupont-Columbia Award. Her films have been catalysts for progressive social change across the country, and have been theatrically released and broadcast nationally on PBS, HBO, A&E the Sundance Channel and Discovery, and distributed internationally. Her work is always accompanied by outreach campaigns to empower the subjects of her films to become active participants in the policies that affect them and to raise awareness and participation among the general public. Her films have screened for congress, the National Governor’s Association, have been featured on Oprah, NPR, at NBC’s Education nation at Rockefeller Center, as the media centerpiece of the Bill and Melinda Gates International Educational Summit, and at the Presidential Inauguration youth events. Some of her films include: Taken in: The Lives of America’s Foster Children, Close to Home, Aging Out, Schools of the 21st Century, 9/11’s Toxic Dust, No Tomorrow, Freeheld, Third Monday in October, American Teacher, and the upcoming Untouchables.

Kayla Bacon

Kayla Bacon graduated from Asheville School in 2009. She is now in her senior year studying Telecommunications Journalism with a minor in Theater at the Georgia State University. After graduating in May I hope to seek opportunities writing for a major music and entertainment magazine or interning at a radio station. I am passionate about so many things it’s hard to decide which I like the most. Kayla Bacon is an Atlanta native and the only daughter of a single parent–Margaret Bacon. My time is usually spent at school; work, with my friends, or in the comforts of home.

Sam Arabian

Sam Arabian is currently a junior at the University of Oregon majoring in Business Administration and Economics. I graduated from St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco where I was Student Body Vice President and played lacrosse for a nationally ranked lacrosse team. I strive to make a positive impact on my peers and found business as a natural path for me to do that. I started Arabian Nights Entertainment in High School, which is an event production company. Currently, in addition to being a student, I’m responsible for producing the University of Oregon’s Concerts. I’m also a co-founder of a clothing company that specializes in college apparel. I believe it’s important to follow one’s passion, so I still play lacrosse for the Oregon Ducks and occasionally you can also find me driving my RC car or flying my RC plane.

Mick Del Rosario

Mick Del Rosario attends University of California, Santa Cruz and is majoring in Politics. Mick is also the Porter College Senate Vice Chair and Student Union Assembly Representative.

Alexandra Dickson Gray

The first film Alexandra (Ali) directed and produced with partner Vanessa Roth was award winning Close to Home about the devastating crime of child sexual abuse. Close to Home premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, aired on Discovery Health Channel and was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Winfrey called it “important for every parent to see” while the Los Angeles Times called it “one of this year’s most interesting docs, a wrenching film, as important as it is difficult to watch.” The impact and reach of Close to Home was strengthened by a comprehensive online outreach campaign.

Ali co-directed and produced The Third Monday In October, a feature documentary that followed the presidential elections of 12-year-old kids vying to lead their middle school student councils in the midst of the 2004 national Presidential election. The Third Monday In October won several major film festival honors and aired on the Sundance Channel. In recent years, Ali has directed three documentary short films for Marion Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund, featuring Beat the Odds scholarship recipients.

Before becoming a filmmaker, Ali co-founded the Mark McGwire Foundation for Children. Ali spent five years with the foundation, four as the Executive Director. Ali also served six terms on the National Board of Prevent Child Abuse America. Along with her philanthropy and filmmaking, Ali has worked as a professional freelance photographer. Her photographs have been published in Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine, People Magazine and Child Magazine.

Ali holds a B.A. from UCLA where she was a varsity volleyball player. Ali resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three young children.

Sam Brothers

Sam Brothers was born and raised in beautiful Austin, Texas. He is a current junior at Georgetown University, where he is majoring in Government and History. He participates in competitive Model United Nations and in the Georgetown University College Democrats. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, reading, drinking loose leaf tea, and watching football–particularly the Texas Longhorns, the Georgetown Hoyas and the Dallas Cowboys.