Paul Rachman:

• Began film career making underground hardcore punk films and music videos
• Became one of the industry’s top music video directors at Propaganda Films in Los Angeles
• Worked with such artists as Alice in Chains, Roger Waters, Joan Jett and Kiss
• One of the founding filmmakers of the Slamdance Film Festival
• Made his feature film directorial debut in 2000 with Four Dogs Playing Poker starting Forrest Whittaker, Tim Curry and Olivia Williams
• Studied International Relations at Boston University

Steven Blush

• Former punk show promoter in Washington DC
• Wrote for Interview, Village Voice, Spin and The Times of London
• Currently serves as contributing music editor at Paper Magazine
• Founded Seconds Magazine in 1996, published until 2000

Andrea Nix Fine has produced, directed and written films for National Geographic on the world's most remote cultures and scientific explorations, from Inuit hunting rituals in Greenland to Nile croc research in the swamps of Botswana. She was a key producer on “Songs From the Source,” a documentary celebrating the musical roots of Peter Gabriel’s Real World record label.

• Had rheumatic fever in the 7th grade. It kept him hospitalized for a month and bed-ridden for four months. He had to take regular doses of penicillin until he was 18
• Learned to speak German to prepare for his part in the Pat Benatar video, “Shadows of the Night”
• At 18, he began working for director Roger Corman as a set designer on his films
• He and Andrew Todd formed a punk band back in 1988
• Paxton was in the crowd waving when President Kennedy emerged from the Hotel Texas in Ft. Worth the morning of Nov. 22, 1963. There are pictures at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas proving this, as an 8 year old Paxton can clearly be seen hoisted on the shoulders of an unidentified man

Derek Fordjour:

• Earned a B.A. degree from Morehouse College and an Ed. M. degree from Harvard
• Married to Tony Award winning LaChanze Sapp
• Worked as a painter before he began producing documentaries

Jamar White:

• Earned a BFA from Pratt Institute School of Art and Design
• Began his career in special-effects

• Started his first animated film at age 11, finishing it two years later
• At age 14, he was mentored by Milt Kahl (IMDB), on of Disney’s legendary animators know as ‘The Nine Old Men”
• Executive consultant to the hit animated television series, King of the Hill and The Simpsons
• His son’s Nicholas and Michael Bird provide voices for characters in his movies Finding Nemo and The Incredibles
• Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year in 2004

• SYNECHDOCHE, NEW YORK is directed by Charlie Kaufman and stars Philip Seymour Hoffman Catherine Keener and Michelle Williams
• The film follows the professional and personal life of a regional theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Schenectady, New York
• Kaufman is a critically acclaimed, award-winning, TV and screenwriter whose resume includes BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, ADAPTATION, and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
• SYNECHDOCHE, NEW YORK marks his film directorial debut
• Listed in TIME Magazines 2004 issue of the Top 100 most powerful people in Hollywood

• Began as a playwright and took classes at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco
• Produced first film The Poor & The Hungry with his $20,000 inheritance.
• Began using the emerging "Digital Video" technology in 1998 to minimize his production costs.
• Hustle & Flow was partly inspired by the hardships and collaborations it took to get his first film made.
• Believes he is a true southerner, and prefers to set his films in Tennessee

• Studied film at Harvard University
• National Student Academy Award finalist for senior thesis entitled Supermarket Sweeps
• Graduated with an M.F.A. from the American Film Institute Conservatory
• Engaged to British actress Rachel Weisz (IMDB).
• Won the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival for his film Pi