One of the IDA's primary goals is to develop a robust community of documentary filmmakers and supporters. To further this effort, each month we'll be spotlighting a group of new(ish) members in the Welcome New Members column.

If you're a new member and would like to be included (or an "old" member who hasn't been featured yet), please send your bio (250 words max) to associate editor Tamara Krinsky at krinskydoc@ca.rr.com. You must include "Welcome New Members" and your name in the subject line of the e-mail. Bios should focus on your filmmaking background, interests, experiences, education, accomplishments, etc. If you're a student, tell us about where you're studying. If you're a film fan, tell us what you love about documentaries. Please also include the city, state and country in which you reside.

Since 1993 Cynthia Close has been the executive director of Documentary Educational Resources (DER; http://www.der.org/), a Watertown, Massachusetts-based nonprofit film and video production/distribution company founded in 1968. DER distributes over 800 titles worldwide and currently acts as fiscal sponsor for over 40 documentary projects in production. Close serves on the board of directors of the Society for Visual Anthropology and the Margaret Mead International Film and Video Festival. She is on the advisory board of Women in Film and Video New England Chapter, The Camden International Film Festival, ARTVISION, INC., The Do It Your Damn Self Youth Film Festival and AmericanInsight, Inc. Close teaches a course in Funding and Selling the Documentary at the Maine International Film and Television Workshops, and has been a guest lecturer at the Boston University Program in Digital Media Arts, Emerson College, Harvard University, Lesley University, Temple University, Primary Source and the University of New Mexico Center for Documentary Film. She has curated and sponsored film retrospectives at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and has curated and presented programs at film festivals in Boston and New York; Taipei, Taiwan; Tartu, Estonia; and Paris, France. She reviews book manuscripts on documentary film for Focal Press. She has juried the documentary awards for the Chicago International Film Festival and served as a panelist at SILVERDOCS Forum, RIFF Forum, the Roxbury Forum and Woods Hole Film Festival. She has published articles in The Independent, Imagine, NewEnglandFilm.com and is a contributor to The Encyclopedia of New England. She has been a blogger since 2003.

Scott Liggett (Los Angeles, CA) was born in Detroit and raised in San Marino, California, where he studied classical and popular music. He spent four years at the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and later studied film scoring at UCLA. He was one of the original founding members of the IDA in 1982 and was the Networking Chairman as well as editor of the first issue of the IDA's Documentary magazine (then called Doco). Liggett spent many years as a musician in the '70s, playing in bands and casino show orchestras in Northern California, Lake Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas. He then formed a live-stage production company and wrote and produced shows in LA, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Dallas, etc. Moving back to Hollywood, he started working with Alan Ett and in 1991 became co-founder of the Alan Ett Music Group. In 1996, Liggett was awarded an Emmy for his work with Robert Goulet on ESPN's NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship campaign. Last year he scored the show Centered in the Universe at the new Samuel Ochin Planetarium at the Griffith Observatory. He is currently working on the new theme for the Unsolved Mysteries TV series, which will begin airing this coming fall. Liggett also composed the music for current IDA logo.

Denis McKeown (Manhasset, NY) began his documentary work as an AT&T Executive-On-Loan to the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) for their 75th Anniversary film documentary Jubilee!, which was narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. It was presented to Corporate Executive nationwide as part of a Corporate Donations program underwritten by AT&T. His next documentary as an AT&T Executive-On-Loan was for the Archdiocese of New York. The documentary was for the noted cancer hospice, Calvary Hospital in The Bronx, New York, and received the Grand Award--Multi-Image from the New York International Film and Television Festival. These experiences led to 26 hours of documentary and news footage with Santa Fe Communications--NY on a cable series The Family Today. McKeown is now executive- producing a documentary called Imperial Jesus, about the Catholic Church.

David Randag (Gainesville, FL) is a master's student of documentary filmmaking at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is currently co-directing the film Standard Deviation with Christopher Brannan. The film is the story of a troubled but brilliant physicist, Billy Cottrell. It attempts to reveal the inner workings of Billy's mind by exploring the events of his childhood and his eventual incarceration. Billy's arrest made international headlines in 2003 after the Cal Tech PhD candidate sent e-mails to the Los Angeles Times claming responsibility for a series of environmental terrorist acts. Randag came into the documentary world in early 2002 in New York City, where he began assisting director Rob McGann in the post-production of his film Oracles and Demons of Ladakh. Shot in remote parts of India, the film explores shamanistic rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. In mid-2002, Randag moved to Miami, where he worked at a youth hostel for a year before taking up residence in Cordoba, Argentina. After two years in Argentina, he found himself living in Rio de Janeiro for a number of months before returning to Florida. Randag was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois and, at heart, considers himself a Midwesterner. In 2001, he received a BA in writing and philosophy from Marquette University. Says Randag, "As a filmmaker, I hope to tell character-driven stories from all parts of the globe. I hope to make films that entertain as well as enlighten audiences."

Filmmaker Stefan Sargent (San Francisco, CA) has had a range of documentary experience. He was employed at BBC as cameraman, film editor and sound recordist. He founded and was CEO of Molinare in London, UK. He won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film and Australian Film Institute Award for Best Achievement in Editing, and is a fellow of The Royal Television Society. Sargent is a contributing editor at DV Magazine. For more: www.stefansargent.com.

Dhera Strauss (Kalamazoo, MI) is a media producer and teaches Introductory and Advanced Documentary Production at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Currently she is producing a documentary with WGVU-TV about jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris. Over the years, she has also produced her own documentaries, the most recent of which is Donut Day. She and co-director Amy Levine spent 24 hours interviewing everyone in front and behind the counters of a local donut shop (donutdaydoc.com). Prior to that, Strauss produced and directed Los Bandits: More Than a Tex-Mex Band, which tells the story of musical partners and how they brought their talents, creativity and mission from Mexico and Texas to Western Michigan. Other documentaries include Neighbors in The Square, a program that highlights the community within a HUD building in a transitional neighborhood in Kalamazoo; The Early Bird Gets the Wild Double, about life in a local bingo hall; and The Birth of a Dance, which follows the choreography of a new modern dance by a local professional troupe. Strauss also does video art productions, including Of Course, a tribute to 9/11 victims; Inheritance, a meditation on her mother; and Under Watchful Eyes, a portrayal of the Virgin of Guadalupe. A graduate of Earlham College with a BA in English literature, she has also worked as a freelance producer/director.

Abraham Valdez (San Antonio, TX) was born and raised in Harlingen, Texas, a small town 30 miles north of the Mexican border. His interests in television evolved when he became involved in media through his local church, where he learned to operate cameras and the master control room. In 2004 he moved to San Antonio, where he has lived with his wife and three children for four years. The most important thing in his life is spending time with his family. Valdez has been producing and editing programs for television for two and a half years. He has produced his own television program, which airs on Channel 20 Time Warner Cable (PATV). He is in the process of obtaining an associate of applied science degree in the Radio and Television Program at San Antonio College. Valdez is also in the pre-production stages of producing his first documentary, and is excited with the challenges that he has met through this project. Valdez has owned and operated his business, Av Productions, for three months, and plans to continue doing what he loves best.