Scott Bloom (Los Angeles, CA) began working professionally in Southern California 15 years ago as a freelance editor for feature documentaries, situation comedies, film trailers and reality television. In 2005, Bloom began stretching as a producer and director by shooting and editing the award-winning documentary Original Pride: The Satyrs Motorcycle Club, his first independently produced feature-length film. Original Pride premiered at film festivals and on television networks around the world. Call Me Troy is Bloom's second documentary. It is his hope that the early struggles of the community depicted in this film, and one man's personal story of his civil rights journey, provide a historic foundation for textbook learning for generations to come. Bloom resides with his partner Larry and their dog Kody.

John Clark Hooser (Memphis, TN) attends Christian Brothers High School. He is currently enrolled in two film/production classes: Special Topics in Computers: Digital Filmmaking for Teens and an acting class, Wave TV, after the school’s mascot, a Purple Wave. Hooser is hoping to study either screenwriting or cinematography in college. He is currently working on two projects. The first is about the strange occurrences that happen to four people on their day off at a local summer camp. The second is about a college student who finds out he needs to finish some high school credits that have been overlooked.

Harald Himsel (Duesseldorf, GERMANY) works as a freelance photographer and documentary filmmaker. His previous assignments took him to the Caribbean and Africa, where he spent many years, during which time he produced a large number of environmental documentaries and audio-visual training materials mainly for private clients such as the European Union and other international organizations. Presently, Himsel is working on two projects: a book entitled Up to Now, with selected photographs from his 25 years of still photography, and a documentary (working title: National Parks) on the efforts to conserve biodiversity in the Southern Caucasus region. harald.himsel@the-global-net.de.

Scott Ryan (North Hollywood, CA) was born and raised in Kansas City. He spent his childhood skateboarding and nearly chose a career in the sport. Instead he forged ahead as an artist. He began his professional career as a performer and quickly realized that his desire to make films went way beyond the need to tell a story. He wanted to make films that inspired people. This need was cemented while working in various social justice movements. Ryan began directing documentaries with micro studio Zoom Culture. Many of these films were produced for the TV shows Playground Earth and Hip Hop Nation, which aired on Fox Sports Net and NBC stations. He noticed a missing element in television a couple of years ago: the desires and dreams, the very manifestos of everyday people were not being represented. His background intertwined with this deficit and inspired the documentary-based show Manifesto. The show will premiere via Digital Fountain HD and at manifestotv.com starting June 3. Ryan is the subject of the new book Nearly Famous, due for a 2008 release. He is also writing a book entitled Manifest This. The feature-length documentary MANIFESTO: Television, which is currently in post-production, chronicles Ryan's manifesto to change the future of television.

Christpher Seufert (Cape Cod, MA) is a documentary film producer/director. Through his production company, Mooncusser Films LLC, he recently produced an award-winning educational film series about the Cape Cod dayboat fishing industry and a documentary short narrated by veteran journalist Walter Cronkite about Guglielmo Marconi's Atlantic wireless stations. Seufert’s other projects include documentaries whose subjects include alterna-folk musician Suzanne Vega, the late writer/illustrator Edward Gorey and legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles. He received his BA in journalism from Trinity College (Hartford) and his MA in anthropology from California State University East Bay. www.ChrisSeufert.com.

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Elise Pearlstein (Los Angeles, CA) has been producing, writing and directing documentaries for film and television for over ten years, often working with Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning filmmakers. Her work has aired on ABC, Bravo, HBO, MSNBC, NBC and PBS and has screened in theaters and film festivals. She is currently producing a feature documentary for Participant Productions, directed by Robert Kenner, that explores the consolidation of our food system into the hands of a few corporations. With Susan West, Pearlstein produced Academy Award winner Jessica Yu’s latest documentary, Protagonist. Pearlstein and Yu are currently collaborating on a documentary about a maverick deaf educator who has devoted her life to teaching communication skills to language-deprived deaf adults. Pearlstein traversed the US for her feature documentary directing debut, The Million Dollar Recipe, which follows seven contestants through that enduring American institution, the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The film premiered on Bravo in May 2005. From 2000 to 2005, Pearlstein produced and wrote five primetime documentaries for Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings. She co-produced and co-wrote SMOKE & MIRRORS: A History of Denial, a feature documentary about the tobacco industry’s sordid history that made the short list for the 2000 Academy Awards and won the 2001 Prism Award. Her first documentary, the popular short film Pink's Famous Chili Dogs, celebrates democracy in the form of a greasy chilidog. Pink’s premiered at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, played frequently on PBS and won the Silver Apple Award from the National Educational Media Network. Prior to her nonfiction career, Pearlstein was a feature film development executive for producer Douglas Wick and for Witt-Thomas Films.

David S. Tenzer (Los Angeles, CA) is an entertainment lawyer, business consultant and content producer, with extensive experience in many sectors of the media industry. He is a partner with the entertainment law firm Raskin, Peter, Rubin & Simon. For over 20 years, Tenzer worked at Creative Artists Agency, one of the world’s leading talent agencies. He started as an executive in Motion Picture Business Affairs, eventually moving to the Television Division where he became the head of Television Business Affairs, and then a Television Packaging Agent. Tenzer co-founded and operated the agency’s Alternative Programming Department, and later its Lifestyles Department. During his stay at CAA, he also worked with the agency’s New Media, Film Financing and Marketing Departments. Tenzer has served as a board member of NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives), the Hollywood Radio and Television Society and the Banff World Television Festival. He traveled to Beijing and Shanghai with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as an entertainment delegate on the city’s Trade Mission to Asia. Prior to joining CAA, Tenzer was an attorney with IBM Europe in Paris and Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. He also worked in private practice with the law firm Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert. He has an undergraduate degree and a law degree from the University of California, and an MA in urban studies from Occidental College. He was a Coro Foundation Public Affairs Fellow, and earned a Certificate in Advanced International Legal Studies from McGeorge School of Law. Tenzer is a member of the State Bar of California and a licensed real estate broker. He is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Moises Velez (Los Angeles, CA) is currently head of development for NBC-Telemundo-owned youth channel, mun2. He established and produced the network’s documentary news series revolving around the most important issues relevant to Latino youth, which earned the network’s first Peabody Award in 2006. In addition to the documentary series, he is responsible for the development of new series and programming. Velez had just finished a round of projects as an independent producer before joining mun2 in early 2006. He recently co-produced the independent documentary Against the Grain, directed by award-winning director Ann Kaneko, based on politically active artists in Lima, Peru; the Shrek DVD game for DreamWorks, featuring John Cleese; and a series of music and brand-oriented projects, including music videos for Sony, Geffen, Univision, Universal and Warner Bros. His early experience as business manager for MTV Networks’ critically acclaimed Austin Stories series quickly demonstrated his ability to creatively manage projects both large and small. Shortly thereafter, Velez was named MTV senior analyst for West Coast development and new series programming. Velez also served as program manager for the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles and program associate for the NLCC, a programming consortium for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that produced the acclaimed documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas is my Business and the seminal four-part series Chicano: History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. In additional, as executive producer for the Dfilm Festival, Velez participated and lectured in various digital film symposia for festivals in Spain, Mexico and Venezuela. Prior to mun2, Velez co-founded Picture Road, which combines the needs of film, video and new media clients with the expertise and experience of its founding partners.