DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: GABOR KALMAN is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. He is adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena (1984-present) and formerly at Occidental College (2007-2010) and USC School of Cinematic Arts (1987-2007). He is a founding member of the International Documentary Association and served on its board for nine years. He created the prestigious David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Awards. As a Senior Fulbright Scholar he taught at the Academy of Theater and Film Arts in Budapest, Hungary and most recently as a Senior Fulbright Specialist. He is a frequent lecturer, panelist and juror at various national and international film festivals, conferences and universities in countries including Israel, Turkey, Germany, Hungary, and Canada.

Gabor was ten years old when Hitler marched into Hungary and he was forced into hiding. He survived the War, the Holocaust, and Soviet occupation. He continued his studies, but his academic career was constantly interrupted by rapidly developing political events. As a university student he participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and subsequently fled Hungary for the United States. He received a BA in Physiology from the University of California Berkeley and an MA in Communication Film and Television from Stanford University. Over the years he has produced and directed numerous award-winning documentary films, including “Fifteen French Architects in Los Angeles,” and “We Are All One People.” His program segment “Now I Am a Man” for KCET’s documentary series “Turning Points,” received an Emmy nomination. He is currently working on the completion of a feature documentary “Keepers of Memory: Stories of Hidden Children.”

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Zsolt Tóth is a graduate of the University of Drama, Film and Television, Budapest and a member of the Hungarian Society of Cinematographers (HSC). Zsolt is one of Hungary’s premiere cinematographers with dozens of credits both in narrative and documentary film. Including:

• Execution, Dir. Tamás Buvári. 37th Hungarian Film Festival: best feature film award 2005
• Lucky Man, Dir. Tamás Keményffy. Crested Butte Festival, U.S.A. Best cinematography award 2004
• Post-soldier, Dir. Tamás Buvári. Mediawave Festival the best short film, best cinematography, KODAK award 2002
• A Matter of Life and Death, Dir. Tamás Buvári. Kamera Hungária Fesztivál: Best Cinematography 2000

And numerous others.

In December 2005, Kate Amend received the International Documentary Association’s inaugural award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing for her work which includes two Academy Award®-winning documentary features: “Into the Arms of Strangers,” and “The Long Way Home.” Amend also received the 2001 American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Award for “Into the Arms of Strangers,” and edited the 2001 Oscar-nominated documentary short, “On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom.” Her collaboration with Michele Ohayon, “Steal a Pencil for Me” (2007), screened at the United Nations, SXSW, Berlin and Kagali Film Festivals. “Man from Plains,” also released in 2007 and directed by Jonathan Demme, was a triple-award winner at the Venice Film Festival. “The Brothers Warner” aired on PBS’ American Masters in 2008. Her recent collaboration with Johanna Demetrakas, “Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Times of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche,” premiered at the 2011 Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Since 2004, Amend has been an advisor at the Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab. She was a juror at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival for the International Documentary Competition and a juror at the 2010 RiverRun Film Festival. She has also served as a mentor at the NALIP Academy since 2006. She is on the faculty of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University.

Susan Metzger grew up in Marietta, GA, earning a degree in journalism from the
University of Georgia. After college, she worked as a producer and editor for Chet Burks
Productions, an Atlanta-based production company with programs on FOX, ESPN2, and
the Speed Channel. In 2003, Susan moved to Los Angeles to begin her MFA in film
production at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Susan's
thesis film, The Red Ace Cola Project, was the recipient of the prestigious Charles and
Lucille King Family Foundation Fund and has been recognized by the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts and KCET-LA. Susan works as an editor in the Los Angeles
area and is currently producing an independent feature film, Democracy at Work.ork.

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Mark So grew up in Syracuse and has lived in Los Angeles for the past ten years. He is a prolific and eloquent advocate of the experimental tradition after Cage. His works uphold, through every conceivable strategy, the delicate boundary between restriction, chance, aesthetic beauty and imperceptibility, often demanding great attention through changing experiences of silence. Over the past ten years, he has created an astonishing collection of scores, numbering in the hundreds, including a vast cycle of pieces around the poetry of John Ashbery. The works are typically performed in anonymous, open environments with little or no fanfare. His 'Heliogabalus trilogy' of operas (2009-10) for 1, 2, and 3 amplified reading voices took place last February at the wulf. in Los Angeles. His self-published book BANGS (2009) chronicles Manfred Werder's ongoing performance of So's piece BANGS [to Manfred Werder].

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Theo is a motion graphics designer who consistently freelances in the Los Angeles area with design studios, film makers and other new media creators. He has worked on projects for a variety of clients, including Google, Sony, Johnson & Johnson, Art Center, Logan, SDF-1 and Shadowplay. His short film "Preparedness Now" depicts the effects of a large earthquake in Los Angeles through graphics and typography and was featured on Motionographer.com. Theo has an MFA from the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

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