NELSON G. NAVARRETE (Director/Producer) was raised in Caracas, Venezuela, until the age of 15, when his family fled the country in the face of mounting political upheaval. He went on to study at San Francisco State University, where he received a B.A. in cinema. After graduating, Navarrete returned to Venezuela, where his groundbreaking music videos and short films helped shape the visual aesthetics of his generation. Collaborating with some of the most influential Latino rappers, including Canserbero and Lil Supa, he built an expansive network of creative partners including directors Scott Lazer and Miguel Ferrer and photographer Claudio Napolitano. Navarrete has filmed in numerous international locations including Cambodia, Japan and Venezuela. He is the co-founder of digital production company Vitamin, whose clients include Samsung, Skype and Universal. A La Calle is Navarrete’s first feature documentary. Given the political nature of the film and the impending threat of the Venezuelan military and government, he is currently unable to return to his family in Venezuela.

Suhaib Gasmelbari was born in 1979 in Sudan. He studied Cinema in France at the University of Paris VIII. He has written and directed several short films, both fiction and documentary. Talking About Trees is his first feature film. He is also a researcher with a special focus on audio-visual archives. Through his research he was able to find some long-lost Sudanese films, and actively participates in international and local projects for saving and digitizing Sudanese films, including those of Ibrahim Shaddad, Suleiman Mohamed Ibrahim and Altayeb Mahdi.

Carl is a baby boomer, a product of the Sixties. He was born in Boston, as was his grandmother, father, two daughters and a grandson. His ancestry is Black, Indigenous American and western European. He made the calculation early in life that he did not want to be a full participant in the so-called "American dream" since he felt that his people were not respected or embraced by America. As a consequence, he feels his education was incomplete. His lifestyle choices did not include lots of money. Originally poor by choice, then by necessity, he sees himself as poor but not impoverished. Throughout his life he has been able to give lectures and presentations on Indigenous culture in southern New England, which he believes is a small contribution to young people’s education. When his youngest daughter went away to college, he struggled with what to do next. A year later he found the Clemente Course in the Humanities. There, he received a first-rate education and a new direction in his life. He was elected class graduation speaker, and this honor confirmed to him that he should speak to the positive impact Clemente has on a person’s life. He has spoken in videos, public forums and small classes. This is his first film.

Kafi has been employed as a gravedigger, fishmonger, retail merchant, Boston bus driver, community organizer and mother of three. She is certified as an urban farm by the City of Boston. Kafi, a former Clemente Course student, worked closely with the film’s director James Rutenbeck for the last four years. She is currently lead organizer for the Common Good Project, and urban farm and cooperative for poor and working-class women of color in Dorchester, Massachusetts. This is her first film.

James Rutenbeck’s nonfiction films have screened at various forums including Cinema du Reel, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery and the Flaherty Film Seminar. James is a two-time recipient of the Alfred I. du Pont Columbia Journalism Award for his work as producer of the PBS series, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? (2008), about health disparities in the U.S. and Class of ’27, which he executive produced, directed and edited, about the lives of young children in rural America, is streaming as an Editor’s Pick at The Atlantic. His film Scenes from a Parish aired on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2009. James’ films have been funded by the Sundance Documentary Fund, LEF Moving Image Fund, Southern Humanities Media Fund and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His broadcast editing credits include Zoot Suit Riots, Jimmy Carter and Roberto Clemente for the PBS series American Experience and the Peabody Award-winning DEEJ for Independent Lens. James studied filmmaking with Richard Leacock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Loira Limbal is an Afro-Dominican filmmaker and DJ interested in the creation of art that is nuanced and revelatory for communities of color. She is the Senior Vice President of Programs at Firelight Media. Limbal’s current film, THROUGH THE NIGHT, is a feature documentary about a 24 hour daycare center. THROUGH THE NIGHT is a New York Times Critics’ Pick and was selected for a world premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. Her first film, ESTILO HIP HOP, was a co-production of ITVS and aired on PBS in 2009. Additionally, she co-produces and helms the popular Brooklyn monthly #APartyCalledRosiePerez. Limbal received a B.A. in History from Brown University and is a graduate of the Third World Newsreel's Film and Video Production Training Program. She is a Sundance Institute Fellow, a DOC NYC Documentary New Leader, and a former Ford Foundation JustFilms/Rockwood Fellow. She lives in the Bronx with her two children.

Ramona S. Diaz is an award-winning Asian American filmmaker whose films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, Tribeca, the Viennale, IDFA, and many other top-tier film festivals. All of Ramona's feature-length films—Imelda (2004), The Learning (2011), Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey (2012) and her latest film, Motherland (2017)—have been broadcast on PBS, on either the POV or Independent Lens series. Motherland won an award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and had its international premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. It was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best Documentary, a Peabody Award, and a Gaward Urian Award from the Filipino Film Critics.

Peter Murimi is a multiple award-winning Kenyan TV documentary director focusing on hard-hitting social issues, from extra-judicial killings to prostitution. He recently won the 2019 Rory Peck award for news feature camerawork. His first win was the CNN Africa Journalist of the year award for his intimate documentary about Female Genital Mutilation among his Kuria community, “Walk to Womanhood” (2004). Another ground-breaking project was the film “Slum Survivors” (2007) which won an award at the Czech Tur Ostrava film festival. Peter was a producer/ director for Al Jazeera's Africa Investigates strand exposing crime and corruption, including "Spell of the Albino" (2011) and "Zimbabwe's Child Exodus" (2011). "Kenya's Enemy Within" (2015), also for Al Jazeera, revealed the terror threat posed by homegrown al Shabaab Somali militants to Kenya. "I am Samuel" is his feature directorial debut, filmed verite style for five years in his home country of Kenya.