Cinessential Films has been producing award-winning films for over thirty years.
As partners in work and life, Phyllis Koenig and Reuben Aaronson combine their creative disciplines to explore the world through film.
Phyllis is an executive producer of award-winning television commercials with a career leading commercial production companies and producing national campaigns.
Reuben is a veteran documentary filmmaker whose work has received Emmy and Academy Award-winning recognition.
While Phyllis brings a production expertise and visual discipline from commercial filmmaking, Reuben brings a documentary filmmaker‘s eye for people and their stories. Together, they use those the unique strengths to create feature-length and short films with emotional impact and visual power and grace.
A Filmmaker's Journey
Reuben's filmmaking has taken him around the world, from remote communities to the frontiers of scientific discovery. He has filmed U.S. presidents, documented environmental catastrophes, and explored deeply personal stories of loss, courage, and survival.
Throughout his career, he has been drawn to stories that reveal something essential about he human condition,
What Others Say
"Every documentary Reuben has produced, directed and/or shot requires trust, respect, and the utmost care for those who allow him into their lives.”
Peter Schnall, Producer, Partisan Pictures
18 Emmy Nominations, 7-wins, Peabody Award
“Reuben’s superpower is putting people at ease, allowing them to trust him within minutes of meeting him.”
Timothy Marx, Producer
Young Sheldon, American Playhouse, Entourage, Arliss
“Filmmaking demands integrity, discipline, and the ability to bring people together under pressure. Reuben brings all of that.”
John Mankiewicz, Executive Producer/Writer
House of Cards, Bosch, House M.D..
A Few Selected Projects
A sampling of films from across the years, reflecting a range of subjects, places, and approaches.
THE COST OF SILENCE
A feature documentary twelve years in the making chronicling the health consequences in the wake of the BP oil disaster, the worst human-caused environmental castrophe in U.S. history. It follows ordinary citizens fighting for their lives, taking on the world's fourth largest corporation.
”Those who ignore the film’s message do so at their peril..” —The Hollywood Reporter
Nominated Grand Jury Prize at The Sundance Film Festival. (Producer, Cinematographer). Trailer
HELLO CUBA!
After more than 50 years of embargo and isolation, the everyday lives of Cubans have remained largely unseen by Americans just ninety miles away. Hello Cuba! captures the spirit of the country through a group of neighbors living along a quiet street in Havana, revealing Cuba through the rhythms of ordinary life. (Director, Cinematographer, Editor. Producer: Phyllis Koenig.) Trailer
RIVER OF GOLD (AMAZON GOLD)
The disturbing account of a clandestine journey into Peru’s Amazon rainforest, where illegal small-scale gold mining is rapidly transforming one of the world's richest and most fragile ecosystems. Two journalists known for covering war and human rights travel along the Madre de Dios River to reveal the damage being done to the forest and to the people whose lives depend on it.
Winner Best Documentary, Arpa International Film Festival. (Producer, Director, Cinematographer). (Producer: Phyllis Koenig). Trailer
STRANGERS IN TOWN
At a time when immigrants are being plucked off the street, this film looks at how the choice to embrace diversity reshaped a small town in red-state Kansas. For the students growing up there today, diversity isn’t a question — it’s simply the world they know.
Winner, People’s Choice Award, Borrego Springs Film Festival. Trailer
SELECTED ADDITIONAL WORK
LORDS OF THE GARDEN
A journey into the rainforest of Irian Jaya to film the Korowai, a semi-nomadic, virtually untouched tribe still using stone tools.
Winner, Gold Medal for Cinematography, Houston International Film Festival; Best of Festival, CINE Film Festival. (Co-Director, Cinematographer)
THE LAST FROG
A National Geographic film exploring the mysterious world of frogs and the global decline of amphibian populations.
Winner, National Emmy for Cinematography. (Cinematographer)
INSIDE THE VATICAN
A National Geographic Special offering a rare behind- the-scenes look at daily life behind the walls of the Vatican.
(Cinematographer)
THE GROUND TRUTH
A documentary following American soldiers returning home from the war in Iraq and the difficult realities that awaited them. Kenneth Turan of the LA Times called it “thoughtful, sensitive, perhaps the most emotionally wrenching of all the Iraq documentaries.”
Sundance Film Festival. Oscar short list for Best Documentary. (Cinematographer)
HOTEL TERMINUS
Marcel Ophuls' Academy Award-winning documentary examining the life and legacy of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie.
Winner, International Critics Prize for Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival; Winner, Academy Award for Best Documentary Film. (Cinematographer)
THE THIN RED LINE
Terrence Malick’s meditation on war and human nature.
Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Cinematography. (Anthropological Unit Director/Cinematographer)
Explore Reuben's film credits on IMDB
A Producer's Vision
It wasn’t due to “luck” that Phyllis Koenig was one of the first women to found and own a production company at a time when commercial production was dominated by men.
With a special eye for talent, she discovered and supported directors early in their careers, including Theodore Melfi, who went on to direct Hidden Figures, and Lucia Aniello, whose work includes her multiple Emmy Award winning show, Hacks.
Phyllis’ company Über Content was named among Creativity’s top production companies of 2015. And she served for several years on the board of the AICP - Association of Independent Commercial Producers.
Phyllis’s longtime love of documentary film drew her beyond advertising. She was an executive producer of I Am Comic, which aired on Showtime, and collaborated often with her husband, filmmaker Reuben Aaronson, on documentaries that took them to Cuba, Italy, Israel, Peru, and the Solomon Islands.
Across these projects, she’s brought the same instinct: finding talented people, supporting their vision, guaranteeing that the work gets done.
”When I need good advice, guidance and her expertise, I call Phyllis.”
Paula Cohen, Executive Producer goodstory films.
Explore Phyllis’s film credits on IMDb
IN DEVELOPMENT.
BORN AGAIN
A unique feature screenplay in development about the possibility of the Second Coming in the modern world. A story of faith, doubt, science, and the human need to believe.
For inquiries or to request a copy of the screenplay, please contact us here.