Lainy Bagwell (Director, Blood On The Flat Track)

Lainy is a writer, filmmaker and videographer living in Seattle. Lainy has also worked as a PA and videographer for a number of local Seattle productions. In addition, Lainy, with camera in hand, has filmed local concerts and events. While not working on film, Lainy has done production and operations work for the Seattle International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival.

B. J. Bullert

B. J. Bullert is a Core Faculty member at the Center for Creative Change, Antioch University Seattle. She has a doctorate in communication from the University of Washington, a M.Litt. from Oxford University in politics and more than 20 years of experience in video production. Previous credits include Fishermen¹s Terminal, Chief Seattle, Alki: Birthplace of Seattle, Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American and Space Needle at 40. She is the author of Public Television: Politics and the Battle Over Documentary Film (Rutgers 1997), and several articles on media and social change. http://www.seattlefilms.org

Rich Cowan (Director, The Basket)

In 1990 Rich Cowan collaborated with two partners to found North by Northwest Productions, a full-service film and video production company located in Spokane, Washington and Boise, Idaho. The company currently employs 40 staffers, delivers in every format and genre-from 35mm and High Definition to streaming video, feature film to commercial-and has established client relationships with top national firms. As president and Chief Executive Officer, Rich was responsible for the creation and development of North by Northwest Entertainment which over the past 9 years has delivered 28 features and now has its own foreign and domestic distribution company.

Femme de Fabrique (Performing before The Gymnast)

Femme de Fabrique is an aerial dance theatre company based in Olympia, WA. Striving to find a link between highflying circus arts, experimental theatre and puppetry, they create highly original dynamic and contemporary performance. Femme de Fabrique's latest work will take you into a world of shadows, spinning spheres, and fields of fabric. Catch your breath as you witness these artists climb, tumble, twist and spin through the air. This unique, spellbinding event is sure to remain suspended in your memory for days to come.

Tom Gorai (Producer, Outsourced)

A graduate of Vassar College, Tom Gorai has been producing film and television in New York and Los Angeles for the past eighteen years. Among his feature film credits are Arlington Road, Going All The Way, and most recently The American Pastime. Gorai has produced documentaries - Father's Daze for PBS, Single Video Theory about Pearl Jam, and American Mullet for Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures. He is the recipient of the MTV best video award, while his other work has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy. He currently splits his time between New York, Los Angeles and Seattle after joining Shadow Catcher Entertainment in early 2002.

Thom Harp (Director / Writer, Fortune Hunters)

Thom left a glamorous career as a cinematographer for the joys of diaper changing. This left him copious time while his kids napped to turn his attention back to writing and directing. For a full time dad, he's made four shorts in as many years: Fortune Hunters (2006), Driver's Ed (2005), 8 Minutes to Love (2004), starring Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy), and Afternoon Delight (2004) which has been a featured film on IFC's MediaLab Uploads program. Plus, he can make a mean mac & cheese.

Cullen Hoback (Director, Monster Camp)

Cullen Hoback is a director with a flair for finding normalcy in the seemingly strange. His work has aired on MTV, VH1, and The Documentary Channel. His independent films (Freedom State, Monster Camp) have shown at the best film festivals around the world. Some wins include "Best Documentary," Cinequest, and "Grand Jury Prize," New York International. This summer he wrapped production on his 3rd indie feature film, and is presently co-writing a comedy with the Sundance Winner behind Brick. Mr. Hoback likes watching water boil and elderly couples hold hands.

John Jeffcoat (Director / Writer, Outsourced)

John Jeffcoat was born in New York, NY, and learned filmmaking while attending Denison University in Ohio. In 1993, Jeffcoat spent a semester abroad in a cultural immersion program in Nepal that fueled his interest in Southern Asia. Since graduating from Denison in 1994, Jeffcoat has worked within the Seattle film community as a writer, director, producer, cinematographer, and editor. In 1995 Jeffcoat helped launch The Northwest Film Forum, the region's first and only non-profit center for the film arts, serving as a founding board member and later as Vice-President. Currently Mr. Jeffcoat is in production on a feature-length documentary on the world's largest film industry in Bombay, India - Bollywood and me

Benjamin Kasulke (Cinematographer, Brand Upon The Brain)

Benjamin Kasulke is a Seattle based director of photography. He received his BS in Cinema Production from Ithaca College following additional study at the Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akadmie Muzickych Umní, Prague's National Academy of Film. Ben's professional experience includes employment as a film archivist with The Image Treasury, programmer with London's Raindance Film Festival, and staff projectionist with Olympia Film Society. While employed as the staff cinematographer for the Seattle based Film Company, he has been fortunate enough to work with award winning filmmakers Guy Maddin and Lynn Shelton. In 2006, he received two awards for his Cinematography on Shelton's We Go Way Back from the Slamdance and Torun Film Festivals. Ben was also honored to work with director Linas Phillips on his award winning documentary Walking To Werner in 2006. Currently, his work on Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain! can be seen on the festival circuit. Kasulke was shortlisted for The Stranger's 2007 Genius Award.

Lacey Leavitt (Director, Blood On The Flat Track)

Lacey is a writer, director and producer currently working and residing in Seattle. She is a producer for Seattle filmmaker Megan Griffiths' second feature, The Off Hours, scheduled to begin shooting in fall of 2007. Lacey is currently on the board of IFP/Seattle and has previously worked for the IFP Market in New York, and the Slamdance and Seattle International Film Festivals. Previously, she was the assistant to the producers on Academy Award-nominated The Squid and the Whale and co-producer for Douglas Horn's 2006 SIFF Fly Film Maura's War.

Joel Metlen and Christine Sullivan (Directors, Rain In The Mountains)

Joel Metlen, originally from Olympia, WA, and Christine Sullivan, who was born and raised in Manhattan, both graduated from the Film & TV program at The Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In 2004, Joel's script for Rain in the Mountains won the Richard Vague Production Fund for NYU Alumni, and he and Christine founded the production company Foxhall Films. They were recently married and now live in New York.

David Nelson (Filmmaker / Presenter, All Freakin' Night)

David "The Rock" Nelson, "The Ed Wood of the Future and Beyond That Even!" has been a Marine, a street preacher, and a professional boxer, but his greatest triumphs are the homemade monster films he shoots on videotape and edits on a rig made out of two VCRs, the camera, and a Radioshack f/x box. His films recall a youthful innocence obsessed with monster magazines, late night horror hosts, and classic creature features. A true independent, "Rock" has been shooting his own projects for over two decades and has innumerable films to his name.

Eric Ostrowski (Director, Magnificent Forest)

Eric Ostrowski is a freely-improvising musician and experimental filmmaker based in Seattle, WA. He played guitar and violin as one half of the legendary improv-noise duo Noggin from 1993-2006. He is a recent recipient of a GAP grant from Artist Trust.

Jon Reiss (Director / Producer, Bomb It)

Named one of "10 Digital Directors to Watch" by Daily Variety, Jon Reiss has been consistently creating films that have screened at major festivals worldwide. As an award winning music video director, Reiss has directed videos for Nine Inch Nails, The Black Crowes, Danzig, Slayer, and Kottonmouth Kings. Jon is currently developing two feature scripts: Suck which takes place in the early days of San Francisco punk rock, and From The Ashes, a moern mythical horror film set in New Orleans. For more information, visit www.jonreiss.com.

Mike Standish (Producer / Writer, Fortune Hunters)

Mike began his comedy career on the stage, co-founding the long-running Seattle sketch comedy troupe Some Kind of Cult, which played the national sketch comedy festival circuit. He's written, produced and directed content at various Walt Disney websites, and produced the Webby Award-winning Muppet project Statler and Waldorf from the Balcony. In addition to filmmaking, Mike also creates interactive content and online entertainment for MSN, Laurie David's Stopglobalwarming.org, The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and more. He and Thom Harp are currently at work on a feature script for Fortune Hunters.

Chris Strompolos (Star, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation)

Colin Stryker (Director, River Ways)

A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Miami, Colin Stryker is a computer programmer by day and an independent filmmaker by night. After completing his education, Colin became increasingly interested in environmental topics. His feature River Ways is the culmination of seven years of investigating the issue surrounding the Snake River dams in Eastern Washington. Colin lives in Portland, Oregon.

Tracy Wares (Producer / Cinematographer, Bomb It)

Tracy began her passion for documentary filmmaking at University of California, Berkeley, creating two films during her studies, Royal Drag and Shakti, which explored the role of women in Hinduism inside India and issues of power and autonomy. Since arriving in LA, Tracy has been an active director of photography. She shot Gay Republicans, a documentary about Log Cabin Republicans and their struggle for recognition and equal rights. Tracy also shot for TransGeneration, a Sundance Channel 8-part series on transgender university students. While continuing to pursue her interest in social issues, Tracy shoots interviews regularly with celebrities in the music industry for the International Music Feed (IMF).

George Wing (Writer, Outsourced)

George Wing is a Seattle-based screenwriter who creates original stories for independent and Hollywood films. He wrote the upcoming feature High T for Steve Carell and co-wrote Outsourced with John Jeffcoat. He recently adapted Billy Wilder's Avanti for MGM and he also wrote the 2004 Columbia Pictures release 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. He is currently writing two television pilots for the 2008 season. George was born in Boston and graduated from New York University with an MFA in Film and Dramatic Writing.