Writer/director Rose Troche grew up in the Midwest suburbs as part of a large Puerto Rican family, which may be related to her knack for ensemble casts. After making short films and videos, she made her feature debut with the romantic comedy Go Fish, which she co-produced and co-wrote with lead actress Guinevere Turner. Shot in 16 mm black-and-white around the Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park, the film premiered at Sundance and has become something of a lesbian cult hit. In 1998, she directed the British romantic comedy Bedrooms & Hallways about gay men in London. She focused on the heterosexual suburbs her 2001 feature The Safety of Objects, an adaptation of several short stories by A.M. Homes starring Glenn Close and Dermot Mulroney. Moving over to television, she directed an episode of Six Feet Under for HBO. Her latest project is a series about the lesbian community in L.A. called The L Word, which premieres January 2004, on Showtime. (Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide - http://movies.nytimes.com/person/166476/Rose-Troche)

Maryam Keshvarz is a New York born Iranian director receiving her MFA in film direction at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts. She has directed four films; the documentary styled Rangeh eshgh (2004), two shorts in 2006, Not For Sale and The Day I Died. Her film Circumstance (2011) won the Audience Award at Sundance. Her newest project is called The Last Harem. http://www.stardustbrands.com/directors/maryam-keshavarz/bio

Campbell’s previous films include the award-winning BD Women about Black lesbian lives and history; Legacy which explores the lasting impact of slavery on Black families; and Fem, a butch homage to queer femininity. Campbell curated No Heroes as part of the Progress Reports 2010 at Iniva. They have written published short stories and articles on film, sexuality and gender for Diva Magazine, Feminist Review, The Pink Paper, Critical Quarterly, Chroma Magazine, BFM Magazine, Luxonline, and BFI Screenonline.

Rea Tajiri is a Japanese American video artist and filmmaker. She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Tajiri attended California Institute of the Arts and worked as a producer on various film and video projects in Los Angeles and New York. Tajiri's video art has been included in the 1989, 1991, and 1993 Whitney Biennials. She has also been exhibited at The New Museum for Contemporary Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Walker Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archives.  -"in.com"

Lourdes Portillo is a Mexican-born Chicana director, producer, and writer, who first came into contact with film making in Hollywood at 21 years of age while assisting a friend in making a documentary. Portillo apprenticed at San Francisco National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians which  She received her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1978. She specialized in documentary style and has directed several films—After the Earthquake (1979), Las Madres: The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (1986), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (1988), Vida (1989), Columbus on Trial (1992), Mirrors of the Heart  (1993), Sometimes my Feet go Numb (1993), El Diablo Nunca Duerme (1994), Hoy es tu Dia (1998), Corpus: A Home Movie About Selena (1999), Conversations With Intellectuals About Selena (1999), Culture Clash: Mission Magic Mystery Tour (2001), Señorita Extraviada (2001), My McQueen (2004), Al Mas Alla (2008).   http://www.lourdesportillo.com/films/films.php?category=films   http://www.lourdesportillo.com/about/about_bio.php

Liz Garbus graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University in 1992 and is a Fellow of the Open Society’s Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture. In 1998, Garbus achieved international public and critical acclaim for her Academy Award-nominated film, THE FARM: ANGOLA, USA. Garbus has also spoken at a number of film-related events, including the 1999 and 2000 Independent Feature Film Market, panels and workshops at the Sundance Film Festival, as a Guest Lecturer at NYU, and she has served on juries at several major film festivals. SOURCE:http://www.sfjff.org/film/biography?id=4696&last=Garbus&first=Liz&role=Director

JENNIFER PHANG wrote and directed the award-winning feature film HALF-LIFE, which premiered domestically at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and internationally at the 2008 Tokyo International Film Festival as a Grand Prix Nominee. LOOK FOR WATER, Phang’s follow-up project, was selected for the 2008 Sundance Screenwriters Labs, won the L’Oréal Woman of Worth Vision Award at the Tribeca All Access, and received both an Annenberg Film Grant and a Cinereach Grant from the Sundance Institute. - http://urbanworld.org/narrative-shorts/advantageous/

Writer and director Najwa Najjar has worked in both documentary and fiction. Previous work includes several award-winning films including Naim & Wadee'a (2000), Quintessence of Oblivion, Blue Gold (2004) and They Came from the East (2004). In 2009, she produced a collective of short films: Gaza Winter. Her debut feature film Pomegranates & Myrrh (2008) picked up 10 international awards; was sold worldwide and released theatrically. Najjar has been a speaker on numerous panels about cinema and a jury member at several international film festivals.   -Festivalscope.com

Carmen Marron had no desire to ever become a filmmaker. She was a guidance counselor in south Phoenix, and was working with kids; in an area similar to the community she grew up in- a rough neighborhood in Chicago. She met kids who reminded her of her friends growing up; who kept making the same choices that ruined their lives. Seeing that film and television was a way to reach out to kids, she decided to write a script about characters that mirrored their lives and hopefully inspire kids to make better choices. http://movieline.com/2011/05/09/meet-carmen-marron-hollywoods-most-improbable-auteur/

Gurinder Chadha is one of Britain’s most proven and respected filmmakers. She began her career as a BBC news reporter and directed award-winning documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC, and Channel Four. Her first feature, Bhaji on the Beach, was nominated for a BAFTA and won the Evening Standard British Film Award for best newcomer. What’s Cooking?, which opened the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, was the first British script invited to the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab. Bend It Like Beckam was an audience favorite at Sundance in 2003 and was nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA; it remains the highest-grossing British film ever in Great Britain. http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/itsawonderfulafterlife_sundance2010