Irene Vélez-Torres is currently attached to the University of Valle as Full Professor and specializes in socio-environmental conflicts and ethno-racial inequalities. While engaging in research she frequently applies audio-visual technology as a research methodology or as a means to present her findings and experiences to a broader audience rather than just an academic one. In 2015 she produced two mid- length documentaries as part of a broad and international research project about environmental conflicts in the Cauca province. Her latest production is called ‘Voces de Guerrilla’, which she produced together with Sjoerd van Grootheest.

Eric Daniel Metzgar is an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker and two-time Sundance Documentary Lab Fellow. He directed, shot and edited REPORTER about New York Times journalist Nick Kristof, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, aired on HBO, and was nominated for an Emmy Award. He produced and edited CRIME + PUNISHMENT (Executive Produced by Laura Poitras), which won a Grand Jury Award for "Social Impact" at Sundance, won an Emmy Award, and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. He also directed, shot and edited LIFE.SUPPORT.MUSIC., which was broadcast on POV (PBS' prestigious documentary showcase), and THE CHANCES OF THE WORLD CHANGING, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and broadcast on POV. Metzgar also edited GIVE UP TOMORROW (Emmy nominated, POV), MAYOR (POV), and ALMOST SUNRISE (Emmy nominated, POV).

Ameen Nayfeh was born in Palestine in 1988. In 2012, he graduated with an MFA from the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts in Jordan with the goal of telling authentic stories from his region. He has written, produced and directed award-winning short films, and has been freelancing for film and TV production for the past six years.

Elena is a young German filmmaker who started her career as a media psychologist researching the framing effects in the news coverage of the Iraq War in the US, Britain and Sweden. Today she is working as a story producer for ARTE, WDR, RTL and SPIEGEL TV Wissen, New York Times. Elena’s films focus on questions around education, migration, working culture, love and ethnic conflict, employing visual inspirations from the world of music and dance. As a director, Elena is a fellow of the Logan Non-Fiction Program in New York. Her short documentary “Pizza, Democracy and the Little Prince’’, co-directed with Alessandro Leonardi, earned the ‘’Best Short Documentary Award 2019’’ at the Sedona Film Festival.

Jennifer Abbott is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and media activist who for the last 25 years has been making films about some of the most urgent social, political and environmental issues of the day. Born in Montreal, she pursued an education dedicated to radical political thought, women’s studies and deep ecology, which are at the centre of her beliefs today. She is best known as one of the Directors & the Editor of 2003’s breakthrough documentary, The Corporation. This year will also see the release of her feature documentary, The Magnitude of All Things, about ecological grief in the era of climate change. Jennifer is a mother of three and lives in Vancouver.

Joel Bakan is professor of law at the University of British Columbia, and an internationally renowned legal scholar and commentator. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004), electrified readers around the world (it was published in over 20 languages), and became a bestseller in several countries. Bakan wrote and co-created (with Mark Achbar) a feature documentary film, The Corporation, based on the book’s ideas and directed by Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The film won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and was a critical and box office success. The New Corporation, a sequel to that film, is based on Bakan’s book of the same name and directed by Bakan and Jennifer Abbott. Bakan’s scholarly work includes Just Words: Constitutional Rights and Social Wrongs (1997), as well as textbooks, edited collections, and numerous articles in leading legal and social science journals. His award-winning book, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children (2012), has been translated into several languages. A recipient of awards for both writing and teaching, Bakan has worked on landmark legal cases and government policy, and serves regularly as a public speaker and media commentator. Also a professional jazz guitarist, Bakan lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife Rebecca Jenkins.

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.

Sjoerd van Grootheest (director/producer), graduated in Cultural and Media Studies (MA) and Anthropology (Bsc.), is currently active as an independent documentary director in Colombia. His latest production is called Voces de Guerrilla that depicts the year of demobilization of the 6th front of FARC-EP in a rehabilitation camp in the North of Cauca province. It has been selected by international film festivals in Europe and the America’s, received several special mentions and won the price for best feature documentary at the Festival for Human Rights in Bogotá 2018. He is especially interested in the representation of stigmatized and/or marginalized communities. 

Patricia Wiesse Risso, Social Communicator graduated from the University of Lima. She has worked in various NGOs and development projects, specializing in communication in rural areas, which is why she has traveled throughout Peru, acquiring knowledge about different Peruvian cultures. She has more than thirty years of experience in the areas of video, television, radio and written journalism, training for journalists, project development, program evaluation, script production, article writing and television reporting on social issues, human, cultural and agricultural rights It has developed training and advisory projects for rural residents in the use of the media. Seven years ago, she worked at the Legal Defense Institute, where a different television experience was started, which presented alternative topics to commercial television. Thus, it specializes in the work of reporting on human rights understood in its broadest sense, including social and cultural aspects. During this time he has produced around two hundred television reports and has won five awards She is a member of Buenaletra Producciones SAC where she directed the documentary feature film “Todos Somos Estrellas” which in 2017 received two honorable mentions in the official section of the 21st Lima Film Festival and in the 2017 Ulima Film Festival. At the 8th Cinesuyu Festival de Cine de Cusco, was the winning documentary feature film. Currently she has just finished her second feature film "Soldier's Woman", awarded by DAFO - Minister of Culture of Peru in 2018.