Reuben Atlas is a New York based producer, director, and entertainment lawyer. He directed videos for many artists including Pyeng Threadgill, Luthea Salom, Jon Skerik, Peter Afelbaum, Eric Deutsch, the SF Jazz Collective, and Charles Burnham. Brothers Hypnotic is his first feature length documentary. He has received support for the film from ITVS, the Jerome Foundation, the National Black Programming Consortium, the New York State Council on the Arts, and NPS Dutch TV. The project was also selected to participate in the IFP Independent Film Week 2009 “Spotlight on Documentaries.” His mother was a documentary filmmaker and he grew up learning from her. He has also worked in counseling at a maximum-security prison, taught English in Costa Rica, and lived and worked in Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles.

Sam Pollard is an Academy Award nominated and multiple Emmy winning producer, director, and editor. His professional accomplishments span almost thirty years. He has directed and produced an accolade of noteworthy documentaries, such as Brother Outsider, Eyes On The Prize II: America at the Racial Crosswords, I’ll Make Me A World: Stories of African-American Artists and Community, and Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun for American Masters. Pollard has also worked extensively on Spike Lee’s films, including editing Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers, Bamboozled, and When the Levees Broke. As well, Mr. Pollard and Mr. Lee co-produced a couple of documentary productions for the small and big screen: Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson, and Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1965 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award. His productions have won multiple Emmy Awards, George Foster Peabody Awards, the George Polk Award, the NAACP Image Award, and the Pare Lorentz Award from the International Documentary Association. Pollard is also a Professor of Film Studies at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Keiko Deguchi has edited award winning documentary films such as Jeremiah Zagar’s In A Dream (HBO), Linda Hattendorf’s The Cats of Mirikitani (POV), John Valadez and Cristina Ibarra’s The Last Conquistador (POV), and most recently, To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks On America (Sundance Film Festival, 2010). Deguchi’s narrative film credits include Patrick Stettner’s The Business of Strangers (IFC Films); Steven Shainberg’s Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Of Diane Arbus (Sundance Channel). She received the James Lyons Editing Award at Woodstock Film Festival in 2008.

Sean Porter’s crafted and personal style is a culmination of over 10 years of cinematography, lighting and storytelling experience. His latest feature film, “Bass Ackwards,” directed by award-winning director Linas Phillips (Walking to Werner) premiered at Sundance 2010 and received nationwide distribution. His work on the international award-winning documentary “Sweet Crude,” which premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Festival, earned him accolades in the Variety. Sean has photographed music videos for artists such as The Blakes, Laura Veirs, and The Saturday Knights and his short films have been screened at SXSW, Palm Springs, Toronto, LA and Seattle. On the commercial side, Sean has shot for Superfad, Microsoft, GLG, Three on the Tree, ZAAZ, MTV, and MSN. Sean graduated from the University of Washington with a BFA in Media Production and Design, where he returns to teach master classes on cinematography and lighting.

Ari Issler has a shot both narrative and documentary feature films including The Hip Hop Project (THINKFilm), which was released nationally in theaters in 2007. He has also shot commercials, PSAs, and music videos for clients such as Sony, Delta Airlines, and BET. Ari has also worked extensively in live music, shooting concert films for Dave Mathews, My Morning Jacket, Sara Bareilles and the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Ari has shot and produced commercials for clients such as MTV, BET, Sony, Delta, LG, American Express, and I Love NY.

Bio coming

David Van Taylor is Vice President at Lumiere Productions and has written and directed for PBS, HBO, Discovery, Court TV, Logo, MTV and public radio’s This American Life. His first film, Dream Deceivers, was honored by the International Documentary Association. His theatrical feature A Perfect Candidate was nominated for an Emmy. He executive produced Ghosts Of Attica, which was awarded a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton. Van Taylor graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Sociology and Afro-American Studies.

Jamin Mendelsohn is a New York based producer who previously was the production coordinator for Morgan Spurlock on Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and What Would Jesus Buy? She was also the production manager on Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, a documentary directed by Joe Cross, about juice fasting.

Doug Pray is a documentary director who often explores unique subcultures in his films. His work includes Surfwise (2008, HDNET) a portrait of the nomadic, 11-member Doc Paskowitz family; Infamy (2005), a documentary about graffiti culture; Scratch (2001), about DJ culture; and his first feature, Hype! (1996), a documentary about the exploitation of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90s. His most recent film Art & Copy (Arthouse Films, 2009), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and will be broadcast on PBS in 2010.

St. Clair Bourne was a prominent independent documentary filmmaker whose work focused largely on black social and political issues and cultural figures such as Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes. Over 36 years, he produced or directed about 45 works, including documentaries for HBO, PBS, NBC, CBS, BBC, Sundance Channel, and National Geographic. Among his most notable films was Half Past Autumn: the Life and Works of Gordon Parks (2000), an Emmy-nominated, feature-length documentary about the renowned photojournalist.