Eric Juhola founded the film and television production company Still Point Pictures and produced the Gotham Award-nominated documentary Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa, winning 8 best documentary prizes at festivals around the world, followed by a theatrical release and US broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Eric is also the producer of the ITVS/PBS documentary Broken Heart Land which premiered at the Frameline Film Festival and aired on PBS WORLD Channel’s series America ReFramed in 2014. 

A multifaceted documentary filmmaker, Craig Atkinson is a notable producer, editor and cinematographer. Most recently, Craig was an additional cinematographer on the documentary Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You. Craig also produced and was the co-cinematographer on the feature-length documentary Detropia, a lyrical exploration of the city of Detroit trying to reinvent itself in a post-manufacturing United States. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the Editing Award for U.S. Documentary. Detropia went on to win 10 additional awards worldwide and was short-listed for an Academy Award. While in Detroit, Craig was also a cinematographer on The Education of Muhammed Hussein, a 40-minute short documentary exploring the Muslim population in the Detroit area. The film, made for HBO, was short-listed for an Academy Award in 2012. Earlier in his career, Craig was Enat Sidi’s (The Wolfpack, Jesus Camp) assistant editor during 12th and Delaware, an HBO film that takes a compelling look at the ongoing abortion debate in America. The film was an official selection at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Craig holds an MA in Visual Media Arts from Emerson College.

Michael Collins is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and the founder of Thoughtful Robot, a production company specializing in documentary films. His​ film​ Give Up Tomorrow won the Audience Award and a Special Jury​ Mention for Best New Director at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a 2013 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Jamal Joseph is a full Professor of Professional Practice and former chair of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program. He is the Executive Artistic Director of New Heritage Theater and Films and the Founder of the acclaimed Impact Repertory Youth Theater of Harlem. He is an alum of the Sundance Directing Lab and the Third World Newsreel Film and Video Workshop. He serves on the advisory boards of the Tribeca Film Institute, Imagenation, the Ghetto Film School and the Maysles Film Institute.

Ryan Wehner is the Founder and Creative Director of LA based Animation Studio Digital Twigs. He is a visual artist focused on design-driven storytelling. He is most proud of his continued partnerships with filmmakers and non-profits telling stories that are important to the human race and to making the world a better place. He has worked with a broad range of film and commercial clients including Disney, FOX, MTV, and NBC, and has worked as lead motion designer to create the worlds within movies like Transformers & Guardians of the Galaxy.

Mariana Blanco is an editor, cinematographer, and filmmaker. She has worked on dozens of projects on a broad range of subject matter from music, to sports, to geopolitical issues and war. Most recently she worked on “Shake the Dust,” “The Barkley Marathons,” and ESPN’s 9 for IX shorts. 

Jonathan’s films as a director and/or producer have been supported by BBC, PBS, NHK Japan, Ford Foundation, and Sundance Institute. Personally or through his company Changeworx, he has worked on documentary features that follow people from five continents for multiple years. Jonathan's latest directing project, Follow the Leader, was featured on C-Span, CNN and Fox; released by PBS stations and Cinedigm; and was the only documentary to premiere during both the 2012 Republican and Democratic national conventions. His first feature, Sunny Intervals and Showers (Director, Producer, Editor, Camera, 2003), screened at Sheffield Doc/Fest, Chicago and One World; aired as part of the BBC Storyville documentary strand; and was nominated for Grierson (British Documentary) and Mental Health Media Awards. Jonathan was a Fulbright Scholar at the UK’s National Film & TV School (NFTS) in 1999. He has been based in Brooklyn since 2008.

Rothna Begum is the women’s rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Rothna worked for Amnesty International where she acquired five and a half years’ knowledge and experience of researching human rights in the Middle East and North Africa region. She gained expertise on the Gulf primarily specializing in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, and Oman, but has also spent some time working on Iran, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. She researched and campaigned on a whole host of human rights issues in such countries including on freedom of expression, association and assembly, counter-terrorism, women’s rights, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, corporal punishment and the death penalty. Rothna holds a LLB in Law and a LLM in Legal Theory from the London School Economics and Political Science. She speaks Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic.

Gini Reticker is the Oscar Nominated and Emmy Winning Producer and Director of Pray the Devil Goes Back to Hell, Asylum, and the celebrated PBS Television Series, Women, War & Peace. She is the Executive Producer of The Trials of Spring, and directed the feature documentary layer of the series.

Jonas Carpignano spent his childhood between Rome and New York City and attended Wesleyan University. His work has been shown in prestigious film festivals including Cannes, Venice, and the New York Film Festival. His two short films A Chjàna (2011) and A Ciambra (2014) has been honored with the Controcampo Award at the 68th Venice Film Festival, The Discovery Prize at the 53rd Semaine De La Critique at Cannes, a Nastro D'Argento special mention and the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami International Film Festival.