Kum-Kum Bhavnani (Producer and Director: bhavnani@soc.ucsb.edu) is a scholar, writer, and cultural critic who has worked periodically with broadcast media in the UK in the 1980s, before coming to the USA in 1991. She created radio programs for her trades union organizations interviewing organizers such as Arthur Scargill (Leader, Mineworkers Union). She was also the initiator and billed as researcher for Resist and Survive (30 minutes: directed by Dee Dee Glass and broadcast on Channel Four on 16th February 1983). That programme followed three black women’s groups in Manchester who worked on economic (employment co-operative), health (challenging white-defined notions of sickle cell anemia) and cultural/sexual (hair and sexuality) aspects of black women’s daily lives in the UK.

Sheena Malhotra (Associate Producer) is Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies at California State University, Northridge. Her career traverses the film and television industries. Prior to earning her doctorate in 1999, she was Executive Producer and Commissioning Editor of Programs for Business India Television (1994-1996), which included foreign program buying for the network. She has also worked in the Indian film industry as an Assistant Director to Shekhar Kapur (director of Bandit Queen and Elizabeth). In 2002 and 2003 she was Co-ordinator and Prop Master for Easy (Over Easy Productions) as well as for Island of Brilliance (working title: Brilliant Productions), and is currently Creative Producer on Tavishi Alagh’s documentary film Bollywood Crossings.

Johanna Demetrakas (Editorial Consultant) was a nominee for an EMMY award (Outstanding Craft of Editing, 2004) for Amandla: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony which has won, amongst others, the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, Audience and Freedom of Expression Award, and the International Film Critics Documentary Award. Ms Denetrakas also edits with the director Renee Tajima. Examples of those works include My America Or Honk If You Love Buddha, The Last Beat Movie, and the 2003/4 PBS documentary Special My Journey Home. In the past she has worked with Haskell Wexler (Bus Riders Union), Philip Rodriguez (God is my Co-Pilot) and directed/edited Right Out of History: The Making of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.

Rachelle Dang (Camera) is a videographer and editor (A Vermont Story – screened in October 2003 in New York City) who has also worked as an editor (Ruptures), production assistant and assistant editor (The Power of an Illusion: broadcast PBS 2003) and instructs students in camera techniques. She was the camera operator for The Shape of Water footage shot in Senegal and Israel/Palestine in February 2003, in Brazil, October 2003, and India, November 2003.

Sarah Levy (Camera) has received the 1999 American Society of Cinematographers Student and the Kodak Emerging Film-maker (2001) Awards. She shot interviews for Tell Them Who You Are (Dir Mark Wexler: 2004 official selection Toronto and Venice Festivals). Her work has been screened on PBS, Showtime, ABC, CBS, NBC. She also co-directed and shot Tak for Alt: Survival of a Human Spirit screened as part of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Contemporary Documentary series for 2000 – “A survey of outstanding recent work in the documentary field”.) and was the DP on the independent feature The Graffiti Artist (which premiered at 2004 Berlin Film Festival).

Bo Anderson (Sound) is a music producer and recording engineer based in Rio de Janeiro. He has done location sound recording, post-production and sound design on numerous documentaries, short films and multimedia projects in the USA and Brazil. He has produced music for release in a variety of mediums (his most recent release is Tudo Bem on Tru-Thoughts Records). Currently, he produces a modern global music radio show for Anti-Combate FM in Rio de Janeiro. He worked on the Brazil, India and some Senegal footage for The Shape of Water, and has composed the original music score for the documentary.

Monique Zavistovski (Editor and Story) has an MFA in Cinema-TV Production (2001) from the University of Southern California. She has edited a number of feature-length and PBS documentaries, These include Mboutoukou (2000), about a young boy’s quest in Cameroon (official selection 2002 Venice International Film Festival and over 30 other festivals worldwide), A Sound Education (1999), a 30 minute documentary about music education for Korean and African-American youth in South Central Los Angeles (winner, Best Short Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival), and Roam, a short narrative about two homeless Latino boys trying to survive in Los Angeles (official selection 2002 Sundance Film Festival).

Ryan Pettey (Additional Editing and Story) graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in Film Studies. He has worked as an editor for the past 6 years, working on everything from commercials to short films. On the side, Ryan has also produced nationally distributed ministry video. Ryan currently resides in Portland and is working on his first feature documentary.

Matthew Harnack (Additional Editing and Story) is a recent graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Film Studies. As a student he focused on new media, digital post-production and image mastery. Presently, he shares his time as the Senior Artist for both the Center for Film, Television and New Media and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at the University of California Santa Barbara.

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