Bryan Cahill (Los Angeles, CA) was born in Massachusetts, but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was three. He received an AS degree in electronic engineering from ITT Technical Institute and a BS in telecommunications and film from San Diego State University. Since 1991, Cahill has been working in Los Angeles as a boom operator and sound mixer. His credits include The Fast and the Furious, Action and Judging Amy, to name a few. Cahill has written many spec scripts and was a finalist last year for Warner Brothers Comedy Workshop Program. He is in post-production on his first documentary, The Great Norman Bass. It is the life story of the first African-American athlete after integration to play two professional sports in the same year.

Christopher J. Keene (Los Angeles, CA) is an entertainment lawyer and producer of nonfiction television and films. His credits include the Robert Evans biopic The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), which he associate-produced. The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, was an official selection at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and, following its theatrical run, was named one of the ten best films of the year by over 50 film critics in the US. Keene recently re-teamed with The Kid Stays in the Picture 's director, Brett Morgen, to produce Facing Waves: The Mr. Sunset Story, a feature biography of legendary surfer and Quiksilver USA founder Jeff Hakman. Keene and Morgen have also partnered with The Aviator's Charlie Evans to produce Addiction, Inc., the true story of former Phillip Morris scientist Victor DeNoble's crusade against the tobacco industry. Both projects are in the final stages of development. Keene cut his teeth as a downtown Los Angeles litigator and an agent trainee at Endeavor. He is a graduate of UCLA and Vanderbilt University School of Law.

Dawn Mikkelson (St. Paul, Minnesota) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who is drawn to projects that deal with human and civil rights. Mikkelson is currently in post-production on her third independent documentary feature, Green Green Water (www.greengreenwater.com), which is being made in collaboration with Emmy Award-winning filmmaker James M. Fortier. Green Green Water is the story of indigenous communities surviving mass poverty, environmental devastation and hopelessness after three decades of governmental dam development. Now these communities face the construction of an expanded series of dams. Opposition leaders rise to protect what is left of their land and traditional way of life, but is it too late? Mikkelson's most recent completed work, THIS obedience (www.thisobedience.com), directed with Jamie A. Lee, was selected for national PBS distribution by American Public Television for fall 2005. THIS obedience, the story of the Reverend Anita C. Hill, a lesbian who was ordained by her congregation against the rules of the Lutheran Church, was the Audience Award winner at the 2003 Central Standard Film Festival and was awarded a Women in Film Finishing Fund Grant. Mikkelson's first film, Treading Water: a documentary, received the 2001 Grand Jury Prize for a Documentary in the Emerging Filmmaker category at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival. The film, a quirky story of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender life in rural Minnesota, was broadcast on local PBS affiliates in the Midwest. www.aquariesmedia.com.

Edmund A. Oliverio (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) has been a motion picture and entertainment publicist and producer in Western Canada for over 37 years, with a wide background of servicing not only film and television, but also corporate Western Canada. He is the president and CEO of Agora Films, and his work in ethics and social concerns has earned him a national reputation. He is also president of Rio Grande Motion Pictures (Canada and Mexico) and a full voting member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association, Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Documentary Organization of Canada, International Documentary Association and Canadian Film Institute. Through the years, Oliverio has worked in television and film (shorts and documentaries), as well as in new media. He was co-founder of the Canadian Film Celebration '91 and '92, which honored Canadian films and filmmakers. Along with partner John A. Labow, Agora Films has 13 film projects on its slate, including seven documentaries. Oliverio established a mentorship program at Agora Films for production assistants, which supports his view of giving back to the industry. www.agorafilms.ca

Danielle Parsons (Los Angeles, CA) is happy to join the IDA community. After graduating from Harvard University with an honors degree in social studies, Parsons moved to Los Angeles and worked in feature films for six years. Parsons gained experience as a development executive at MPCA and later as vice president of production at Orion and Destination Films. In 1998, Parsons produced the feature comedy Boardheads, which was distributed non-theatrically by MGM. In 2001, as part of a search for mental stimulation, Parsons made the leap to documentary film, working on an episode of Modern Marvels for The History Channel. She also began production on an on-going project comparing human society with that of social insects. Parsons continues to pursue an affinity for the smaller life forms by filming and editing a series of short nature films. One such short, Queen Anne's Lace, screened as part of the 2004 Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles. Parsons is currently an associate producer and field producer on History Channel programming, including specials and the Modern Marvels series. She enjoys work-related travel to such nice places as Scotland, London, the Philippines, Venezuela, Milwaukee and Mexico.  

Producer Eddie Schmidt (Los Angeles, CA) began collaborating with director Kirby Dick on his groundbreaking documentary, Sick:  The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist. He went on to produce Dick's next feature, the critically acclaimed Chain Camera, which premiered in competition at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Schmidt then produced the high-energy musical documentary Showgirls:  Glitz & Angst for HBO's America Undercover, one of the highest-rated documentary specials of that year. He also completed The End, an intimate look at patients and families in a Los Angeles hospice program, which premiered at the 2004 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival. Schmidt, who began his career at New Line Cinema, has also lent his producing talents to the TV series Blind Date and The Competition, as well as original DVD content for films such as Boogie Nights and Se7en. He has also been a contributor to National Public Radio's popular series This American Life. Most recently, Schmidt produced the documentary Twist of Faith, about a man who confronts the trauma of past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest. Twist of Faith premiered in the documentary competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Schmidt lives with his family in Los Angeles.

Cathy Zheutlin (Portland, OR). After a 15-year hiatus, Zheutlin has returned to making documentaries because she feels passionate about bringing the subject matter of The Wisdom Keepers Project to a television audience. She and her partners are planning a two-hour television show based on a gathering of some of the world's most beloved spiritual mystics and teachers exploring the common heart of all religions. They call this new vision "inter-spirituality." The teachers who have agreed to be in the Wisdom Keepers Project include Seyedah Nahid Angha, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, Joan Borysenko, Rev. Matthew Fox, Andrew Harvey, Sister Jose Hobday, Father Thomas Keating, Shah Nazar Sayed Dr. Ali Kianfar, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and a Buddhist (to be confirmed).Zheutlin's co-producers are Marcia Danab, Eliana Fromer and Rabbi Rami Shapiro. Zheutlin's background includes 20 years of producing, directing and mostly shooting social issue documentaries, followed by a decision to be a stay-at-home mom, take up massage therapy and visionary craniosacral work and explore her commitment to spirituality via the Jewish Renewal movement. She was the cinematographer on award-winning PBS documentaries, including The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter, The Other Philadelphia Story and the 1982 Academy Award nominee, See What I Say. Her 1986 documentary Just One Step: The Great Peace March led to a co-production with Soviet TV about the first Soviet-American peace walk. rest@spiritone.com.