Producer/Director

Christopher Upham has written 4 novels, 2 plays, a dozen stories and 3 screenplays about Vietnam. Upham is sought after for his expert story consulting by writers John O’Keefe (SHIMMER, Bronte), Lynn Hershman-Leeson (CONCEIVING ADA, TECHNOLUST) and Lewis Green (NEVER TALK TO STRANGERS). On staff at the prestigious Squaw Valley Screenwriting program, he also taught Documentary Structure and Visual Storytelling. Current fiction Feature projects include: Good Morning Afghanistan with Waseem Mahmood, Secret Soldier- a woman masquerades as a soldier in Vietnam, wine country comedy FOR THE LOVE OF ALICE, CAIRO PSALM, with Lebanese director Hisham Bizri and Cooperstown with Sundance acclaimed director William Farley.

Producer

Teri Lang has produced documentaries for over ten years. She recently produced the award-winning The Real Dirt on Farmer John, a feature documentary about a maverick Midwestern farmer, currently in US theatrical release, to be broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens. Lang also worked with husband-and-wife artist/filmmakers David and Eleanor Antin on Music Lessons, as assistant editor for celebrated film editor Ila von Hasperg (Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1978 film The Marriage of Maria Braun). Other film projects include work by documentary filmmakers Taggart and Sarita Siegel, and video artist Skip Sweeney. She also served as VP for Alchemy Films and Collective Eye.

Executive Producer

Sarah Ryan Black is a producer and principal at Grand Illusions and Operating Partner at Multicultural Entertainment. At A&M Films Sarah developed and helped produce The Breakfast Club, One Crazy Summer, Birdy and Better Off Dead. As VP, Development, Wildwood Films she worked on Robert Redford’s The Milagro Beanfield War. As Senior VP at Norman Lear’s ACT III Productions she developed Fried Green Tomatoes and Breaking In. As VP for Segue Productions, she developed Ransom and Restoration. Sarah has produced television movies for CBS and BBC. Sarah spent five years as Senior VP of Cruise/Wagner Productions in charge of Development.

Script Consultant

Thomas Schlesinger was Caroline Link’s story consultant on the scripts for her films, Nowhere in Africa, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and Beyond Silence, nominated for an Academy Award in 1998. He also collaborated with German film director Doris Dörrie on the screenplay for her film, Nobody Loves Me, which won the German Film Prize in 1996, and The Fisherman and his Wife, which is now showing in Europe. As a story consultant, his clients have included Robert Watts (who produced Star Wars), Carroll Ballard (who directed Never Cry Wolf), Marc Sotkin (Executive Producer of The Golden Girls), Buzz Hirsch (Executive Producer of Silkwood), Zoetrope Studios, Miramax, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures, Constantin, X-Filme, and numerous European studios and broadcasters.

Director of Photography

S. Smith Patrick is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in San Francisco, California. Her internationally acclaimed, award-winning first film, The Children of Ibdaa: To Create Something Out of Nothing (2002) documents a West Bank refugee camp children's dance troupe expressing the history, struggle, and aspirations of the Palestinian people. As cinematographer, her documentary films in post production also include: Singing the Milky Way, about a world renowned, bush-raised Australian aboriginal artist and Seeing Siem Reap, about Cambodian street children using a photography and dance workshop to lift them out of poverty.

Editor

Dean Mermell is a San Francisco-based digital video editor and filmmaker. His film Modern Life (2000) won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival for Best Short Film and Best Editing Award at the California Independent Film Festival. His 35mm hand-cranked film Fine Dining (2000) won best short at Moondance. He was post-production supervisor on Ellen Perry’s The Fall of Fujimori (Sundance ’05, theatrical release ’06) and the Spanish language version of The Real Dirt on Farmer John, currently in theatrical release.

Composer

Luciano Chessa is a sought after contemporary Italian composer of mostly stage, chamber and vocal works that have been performed in Europe and elsewhere; he is also active as a musicologist and pianist. Mr. Chessa studied at the Conservatorio G.B. Martini, the Universita di Bologna and holds a PhD from the University of California, Davis.

Sound Designer

JAMES LEBRECHT has supervised or edited sound on many feature films and documentaries including: DAUGHTER FROM DANANG, BATTLEFIELD EARTH, THE SKULLS, THE SINGING DETECTIVE AND THE COCKETTES. In addition, James designed and produced over 100 professional theatre productions and co-authored the book SOUND AND MUSIC FOR THE THEATRE: THE ART AND TECHNIQUE OF DESIGN.