Little Taoist Films is a collection of very gifted and talented individuals. Some of us are full time filmmakers, others combine it with other work, all of us are friends and compatriots.

Moses Ma

Director/Writer/Producer
Moses has a rich and diverse background spanning academia, science, technology, philosophy and business. Schooled in theoretical physics (Caltech/BS and UCSC/PhD candidacy). During his life, he has participated in many exciting intellectual adventures – dug ditches near the Grand Canyon with the noted astro-geologist Gene Shoemaker, attended the lectures of the Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman, investigated sensory isolation with John Lilly, spent six months in Asia researching psychic phenomena, designed an AI-based wargame for the military, designed two of the world’s best selling computer games – including the world’s first commercially successful Internet game, built an uncapitalized high tech startup into a Top 100 software publisher, co-developed the Universal Identity specification for the Internet with IBM, and has been noted as a leading Internet visionary by Time Magazine, the New York Times and other publications.

Recently, Moses furthered a lifelong goal to begin the work of filmmaking, by forming Little Taoist Films. Prior to this, he prepared by taking various filmmaking workshops and acting classes, including the Squaw Valley screenwriting workshop and at Rob Reece Actors Studio. The script refined at the Squaw Valley workshop was submitted to and became a finalist in the Sundance/Sloan screenwriting competition. Also, he produced the world’s first videogame to contain integrated live action video, and directed the filmed footage for that game.

He explains his philosophy of visual grammar, “I believe that filmmaking, like sculpture, is a subtractive medium for creativity. We must cut and cut, to the core of the story, until it hurts. Film is like an artificial dream, a natural flow of dreamlike images, and we must do nothing that will break the spell.”

Of his actors and crew, he simply asks for the best they can give, “What I ask of from each of you... is the best work of your life. In order to do this, we will all need to work very hard. I have only one goal... when we finally wrap a project, I want each and every member of the crew and cast to think, man, that has gotta be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”

Paul Nordin

Director of Photography
For Paul, a varied and accomplished past including being a Dot.com/bomb survivor, Silicon Valley software company executive, outdoor adventurer & photographer, competitive athlete, schooling in photo-journalism, cinematography and computer science, has led back to the place he started: a lifetime passion for filmmaking. Since 1998 Paul has focused his energy and creativity into both a professional career as a Cinematographer, and building artistic community-focused media companies. He provided the initial vision & wherewithal to found the no-holds-barred recording studio & film production company that is El Mundo Bueno Studios (EMBS), and is a partner in the alternative indie-record label Trance Jam Records.

With his love for creating compelling images with light and motion, Paul has married a formal background in photography/film, with 12 years of work on music videos, commercials, live music performances, industrials, short and feature-length films both as director and cinematographer to head the film and Imaging activities at EMBS.

As a Director of Photography for the last 8 years, Paul has amassed a large body of creative and commercial work including 8 feature films for the San Francisco Bay Area & LA independent film communities, where he fiercely pursues & expands his craft and art of cinematography and telling stories with image. “As a cinematographer, it’s the artful blend of wielding complex technology to send controlled photons down a lens, and the resulting beauty of the well framed image, which forms one of the most powerful and simple joys of the work. As DP, the work also involves being one of the leaders of a large team, and for each film the crew and the cast become a creative community with a single charter to tell a story with pictures and sound beautifully and powerfully and originally and on-budget and on-schedule. When working perfectly together, films can step outside the talents of individuals and transcend to glorious art. Its times like those which keep me forever in love with the craft of filmmaking.”

Ehren Koepf

Associate Producer/Assistant Director

Ehren is a seasoned filmmaker with an extremely diverse background that encompasses over nine years of experience in film work. He has worked on productions that have grossed over half a billion dollars, in over 20 independent and Major Studio films in various capacities. Some of his credits include Mission: Impossible 2, We Were Soldiers, Timeline, The Haunting, and the TV show, “Popular.”

On the independent film front, Koepf recently wrote, produced, and directed the film 4u, which has been accepted to nine film festivals, including Cinequest, ranked as one of the top-10 film festivals in the world.

Koepf is a member of the Screenwriter’s Guild of America. In 2006 he formed the production company, Fighting Ant Productions, Inc.

Other profiles are under construction...