Filmmakers Rajeev Dassani - Director As an identical twin, Rajeev figured out from an early age that life is about standing out and screaming “I am different!” even as his parents dressed him and his brother exactly the same. As a kid he did this by writing intense short stories and painting and drawing anything and everything he could. But he soon discovered his true passion, a way to mix all his artistic pursuits – directing film. First came studying under the Emmy award winning director Joan Darling in his home state of North Carolina, then working in development on “The Antwone Fisher Story” directed by Denzel Washinton and “Bruce Almighty” directed by Tom Shadyac. Rajeev subsequently took the plunge and studied film at the University of Southern California, picking up an MFA as well as winning numerous awards for his films including the Barbara Corday Scholarship, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Award, and the the James Bridges Award for excellence in directing. His thesis film at USC, “A Day’s Work” has already won the Fotokem Grant for Excellence, received a film grant from Kodak, Producer Robert Lorenz, Director Clint Eastwood and the production of “Flags of Our Fathers”, and won a finishing grant from the Caucus Foundation. It will be shortly be running the film festival circuit, and will have its world premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January. Rajeev plans to continue writing and directing intense, dramatic, hilarious, adventurous and heart-stopping pieces of film, though he wants you to know he and his identical twin (whom he often co-writes and directs with) are very different people. Charles Uy - Producer CHARLES R. UY is currently attending the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television for his MFA. He graduated with a BFA degree in film making from New York's School of Visual Arts with directing as his major. His short thesis film, WAITING IN THE WINGS garnered Charles numerous awards which include: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Silver Medal Award Winner for Drama - 24th Annual Student Academy Awards Directors Guild of America Directors Guild of America Student Academy Award Television Academy of Arts & Science Regional Award Winner Drama Directors Guild Of America Best Student Minority Filmmaker Award INTERCOM (International Communications Competition) Gold Plaque: Student Short Subject School of Visual Arts Dusty Awards Outstanding Film & Direction Michael Tringe - Producer CMichael Tringe graduated from Harvard, where he studied History and Science and worked on several short films. He then taught high school English, drama, and film at the American School of Tangier in Morocco, before enrolling as a film student at USC. He has worked on several short projects, including "Dirty Love," "The Gift," and "El Chisme," and he looks forward directing more of his own work in the future. Julie Sifuentes - Producer Julie is a native of Southern California and has a BA in Communications from CSU, Long Beach where she graduated top of her class. She is in her third year at USC where her emphasis is on producing. Julie's taste in films is eclectic, ranging from classic American cinema to the French new wave to earlier works of Latin cinema. Understanding that a film starts and ends with a producer, Julie vows to only make films she is passionate about—films with originality and character—films that affect people in a meaningful way. This is Julie's second time teaming up with director Lindsey Shockley, as she produced LUCKY, directed by Lindsey Shockley in 2005. Nicola Marsh - Cinematographer Nicola Marsh grew up in London, England. She first moved to the US to work as a news camerawoman for NBC. After three years of covering burning buildings, household germs and Laci Peterson, she moved to Los Angeles in search of something deeper. Luckily she found USC, where she completed the Masters' Film Production Program. While there, she won a $40,000 scholarship from the David Lean Foundation. In 2006 she directed "Last Exit" which won third place at the PlanetOut Short Film Awards, which is being distributed by Logo Television. In that same year she shot and directed a music video for Bright Eyes' beloved indie hit "First Day of My Life" (Official Selection Outfest '06). She also co-directed a documentary for the Victory Fund, profiling Congresswoman Heather Mizeur. She was accepted into the Film Independent's prestigious Project Involve program, and her mentor is the award winning director Jamie Babbit (But I'm a Cheerleader, Alias). She has shot an array of USC thesis films, including the award-winning documentary "Walk in the Light" about a gay black church in South Central Los Angeles. Nicola currently works in Los Angeles as a freelance cinematographer. Her clients include, CBS (The Tyra Banks Show), TLC, Logo, the Discovery Channel and MTV. Toby Chu - Composer Toby Chu is a film and television music composer, currently based in Los Angeles. Recently, he composed the score for The Riches, a critically-acclaimed television series currently on the FX Networks. He has collaborated with the Grammy-nominated composer Harry Gregson-Williams for over seven years. Chu has been credited as a composer for additional music on the movies Déjà Vu (2006), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Domino (2005), and Team America: World Police (2004) among many others. In addition, he has worked on the Metal Gear video game series. Chris Brenner - Sound Designer Paul Fonarev - Sound Designer Clem Darling - Production Designer Paul Barnaby - Production Designer Kristoffer E. Luna - Still Photographer For more information on Kristoffer and his excellent work, see his website at http://www.kristofferluna.com/