Santa Barbara filmmaker Levi C. Maia's first documentary feature will premiere as a one-hour special on PBS stations in May. “Pathways to Invention,” which won numerous “best” awards on the film festival circuit, will be available to stream on his PBS app starting May 1.
This program delves into the world of entrepreneurial inventors. Funded by the Lemelson Foundation and the University of California, Berkeley, and produced by Maaia Mark Productions in partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, this documentary features a variety of people working in fields as diverse as biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, and software development. We shine a spotlight on ingenuity.
Through a series of close-up profiles, Maaia explores the contributions these inventors make across fields as diverse as biotechnology, medical diagnostics and prosthetics, sustainable agriculture, food production, software development, and advanced mechanics. Verify specific impact.
“We all have the power to shape the world in our hearts and hands,” says Maia Mark with award-winning Los Angeles-based showrunner, producer, writer, and director Noah Mark.・Maaia, co-founder of Productions, said:
“The goal of Pathways to Invention is to inspire others to think of new ways to create solutions that benefit their lives and humanity as a whole,” Maaia said.
Pathways to Invention won Best Documentary Feature at both the Southern California Independent Film Festival and the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards (LAIFFA). At LAIFFA, Mark and Maia were named Best Producers, Maia won the documentary feature director award, and composers Michael Mark and John Cobert won the award for best original score.
Maia began her media career in FM radio and cable television, where she became fascinated by the potential of technology to educate and open windows to the world. From 2008 until 2015, she developed and taught a high school STEM program at Santa Barbara's Anacapa School. He received his Ph.D. He is studying Maker Culture and STEM Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Maia is an instrument-rated landplane and seaplane commercial pilot who serves on the Santa Barbara Airport Commission and the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club Board of Directors. He was a founding member of the ARISS-USA Education Committee, a NASA-sponsored assistance program on the International Space Station.