Rees Candee (Scottsdale, AZ) has been telling stories with a camera ever since his Dad handed him the family Bolex at age 10. "There were nine kids in our family, and high production values were key to getting dibs on being the shooter," he says. A 1975 graduate of the University of Wisconsin's film school, Candee has shot documentaries, concerts, social issue docs and marketing communications. He builds programs per commission, and conceives and self-publishes independent programs. Through Candee Productions, Inc., he has written, directed and produced more than 500 programs covering a wide spectrum of subjects. His programs have been recognized with numerous awards including a regional Emmy, Telly Award, Cine, Aurora, Philo and other festival awards.

Cloud South Films (Hawkes Bay, New Zealand) is the midlife lovechild of Emmy nominated, multi-award winning Canadian cinematographer Tom Burstyn CSC, FRSA, and New Zealand journalist Barbara Sumner Burstyn. Escapees from the fantasy world of feature filmmaking and corporate media, they work from a converted shearing shed on their small acreage in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. The two describe themselves as committed to factual storytelling, and their films as personal, well researched, visually compelling and socially relevant. The pair believes change will abound when each of us works toward being the change we want to see in the world. Currently in release is One Man, One Cow, One Planet, a multi-award-winning documentary about the biodynamic revolution sweeping India, the fight of subsistence farmers for food sovereignty in the face of corporate bio-colonialism and one New Zealander's efforts to save the world. The Burstyns are currently in post-production on This Way of Life, a film about a wild Maori family, their six kids and 50 horses, and the complex relationship to the land as lifeblood. The filmmakers are in production on If Water Were God, a film about the mysteries, science and politics of water, and in development on Search for the Gentleman Racer, a film about identity and belonging that asks the question, In today's culture of reproductive technologies, what do legitimacy and illegitimacy actually mean? http://cloudsouthfilms.co.nz

Rachel Fisher lives in Maplewood, NJ with her husband and two children. She studied at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies at the University of Rochester, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on modern Jewish thought. She was the founding director of the Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and has consulted for several cultural institutions including Beth Hatefutsoth (The Diaspora Museum) in Tel Aviv, Israel. With Rachel Pasternak, Fisher produced Remembering Oswiecim, a 15-minute documentary film of Holocaust survivor testimonies for the Auschwitz Jewish Center (AJC) in Oswiecim, Poland. The film is shown daily at the AJC museum.

Rich Garella (Philadelphia, PA) is a native of Providence, RI, who has been at times a journalist, political organizer, photographer and electoral consultant. In the film community he's best known for producing Polygraph, a finalist in MoveOn.org's 2004 "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest. Garella recently formed Loud Mouth Films to work with director Bradley Cox on the documentary Who Killed Chea Vichea?. Shot in Cambodia over four years, the doc opens with the assassination of the country's most popular labor leader and then unfolds like a thriller, showing how two men were arrested, framed and imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit. Garella is now based in Philadelphia, but he lived in Cambodia for several years, as did Cox. "What's remarkable about this project is that Brad was on the scene," says Garella. "It's his footage every step of the way. It's a detective story, but it's driven by the intense social forces at work in Cambodia, which has become the world's fifth largest garment exporter partly because it's considered a model for fair treatment of workers." Garella and Cox are now seeking additional funding as the film moves into post-production. http://www.whokilledcheavichea.com

Judy Hoffman (Chicago, IL) was active in the Alternative Television Movement of the early 1970s, experimenting with the use of small format video equipment. Hoffman is a member of Kartemquin Films and played a major role in their formation. The first female film camera assistant in Chicago, Hoffman apprenticed in IATSE on feature films, but ultimately chose documentary. Her credits include numerous independent and PBS programs. A major focus of her work has been with the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation of British Columbia, producing films and videotapes about the reclaiming of Native culture. For over ten years Hoffman directed a video training program on the N'amgis Reserve so that the Kwakwaka'wakw could make their own tapes, and she continues to work with them on their projects. As the acting director of The Documentary Center of Columbia College in 1996, along with Ronit Bezalel, she developed Voices of Cabrini, about the destruction of public housing in Chicago. Hoffman directed a behind-the-scenes documentary DVD on Britney Spears, called Stages: Three Days in Mexico, which was shot by Albert Maysles. In turn, Hoffman was a cinematographer on Maysles' The Gates, which aired on HBO in February 2008. Recent productions also include additional cinematography on Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train and Sacco and Vanzetti. Hoffman is currently working on a DVD update of Voices of Cabrini, and holds an appointment at the University of Chicago on the Committee on Cinema and Media Studies and Department of Visual Arts.

Director/producer Amanda M. Mazzanti (Emeryville, CA) of Digitalady, LLC, has worked as a freelance multimedia artist for the last five years. Mazzanti received a bachelor's degree in communications from Sacramento State University. At CSUS, she directed and screened Mind, Body, and Music, raising awareness of focal dystonia, a rare disease that plagues musicians. In May 2007, she attended Berkeley Digital Film Institute's (BDFI) graduate-level directing/producing program. While attending BDFI, she became deeply inspired by a story about Erika Vohman's Maya Nut program. Subsequently, Mazzanti went to the Central American rain forests in November 2007 to begin work on her feature documentary, Seeds of Inspiration. She spent six weeks filming in three countries and is now in post-production at the Saul Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley. Mazzanti is an active member of the International Documentary Association, Media Rights Organization and Bay Area Women in Film and Television (BAWIFT). www.SeedsOfInspirationMovie.com

Katherine Pettit (British Columbia, Canada) started making documentaries while in art school. Her first film explored her position as a photographer in Africa. After completing a bachelor of fine arts degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, she then pursued three degrees at the University of British Columbia: diploma in film production, master of arts in film studies and master of fine Arts in film production. She recently produced the documentary Sand for Now, which was shot in Europe and Canada. The documentary profiles sand-carving artists from around the world and is airing on Bravo! Canada and ABC Australia. Pettit is currently working on documentaries for social change. While producing, directing, shooting and editing, she also teaches film studies and film production courses at the post-secondary level.

Michealene Cristini Risley (Woodside, CA) is an entrepreneur who has created some of the largest deals in the consumer products and entertainment industries. As vice president of licensing and character development for Sega of America, she championed the Sega Girls Task Force to create games for girls. As an executive with over 20 years of experience, Risley launched the first-ever branded maternity license in association with Adidas. As for her filmmaking career, Risley's first film, Flashcards, won a number of awards and screened in the Cannes Film Festival "Shorts Du Jour" program. In 2006, she was invited to the Sundance Producers Conference. In 2007, Risley released her first co-authored book, This Is Not The Life I Ordered, which has sold well over 35,000 copies. She also blogs for The Huffington Post about issues that provoke discussion and social change. Currently, Risley is in the midst of editing her new documentary, Tapestries of Hope, and is writing her second book. In December 2007, she was the recipient of the Award of Excellence from the Society for New Communications Research for the blogs she wrote while interrogated and incarcerated in Zimbabwe. Risley speaks publicly on subjects including Women in Entertainment, Using Your Voice for Social Change, How to Survive Your Sexual Abuse and This Is Not The Life I Ordered. In February 2008, she spoke and moderated a panel at the United Nations on "The Role and Responsibility of Men in Preventing Violence Against Women." Recently, Risley spoke in Washington, DC for the Executive Women in Government forum and at the Environmental Protection Agency.