Amanda M. Mazzanti, Director/Producer
Amanda Mazzanti (Digitalady, LLC) has worked as a freelance multimedia artist since 2002. Amanda received a Bachelor's Degree in Multimedia Communications from Sacramento State University. At CSUS, she directed and screened Mind, Body, and Music, raising awareness of a rare disease, Focal Dystonia, which plagues musicians. In May 2007, she attended Berkeley Digital Film Institute’s (BDFI) graduate-level Directing/Producing program. While attending BDFI, she became deeply inspired by a story about Erika Vohman’s Maya Nut program. Subsequently, Mazzanti went to the Central American Rainforests in November, 2007, to begin work on her feature documentary, Seeds of Inspiration. Today, Digitalady, LLC is producing media for a new company, She Institute, in an effort to educate women to be safer, healthier, and economically independent. In addition, Digitalady works with non-profit organizations, such as NAMI, to produce high quality media for exectution on the web and DVD. Amanda is an active member of the International Documentary Association (IDA), Media Rights Organization, and Bay Area Women in Film and Television (BAWIFT).

Ray Telles, Consulting Producer
Raymond Telles (Paradigm Productions), Producer, Director and Writer. Telles is a veteran producer of many award-winning programs including the biography of Cesar Chavez, The Fight in the Fields; In Search of Law and Order; Children of the Night for Frontline; Continent on the Move, the pilot program for Americas, and Race is the Place. Recently, he has produced Inside the Body Trade and Border Wars for National Geographic Explorer. Telles has produced and directed programs for PBS, ABC, NBC, Discovery, National Geographic and Univision. He has won numerous awards including three Emmy Awards, the DuPont-Columbia Gold Baton, two PBS Programming Awards for News and Current Affairs, The Ohio State Award, an ALMA Award, a NATAS Community Service Award, top honors in the San Francisco, American Film and Video Association, Chicago and New York Film Festivals, 2 Cine Golden Eagles, as well as numerous other awards for his work in film and broadcast journalism.

Gina Mooers, Associate Producer
Gina Mooers received a Bachelor’s Degree in Latin American Studies from Washington, DC’s Trinity College in 1996. Mooers has over 15 years of experience in and around the entertainment business. She managed the editing training center of Henninger Media Services in Arlington, VA for three years and served on the Board of Washington, DC’s Reel Affirmations film festival. She was also an actor for over ten years and worked on TV shows like, The Wire and The District, and was a principle in the independent film, Hamilton. Director John Waters listed Hamilton as one of his top ten films for 2006. Mooers moved to California in early 2003 and enrolled in the Berkeley Digital Film Institute’s (BDFI) graduate-level Directing/Producing program in May 2007. She has written, directed and produced several short films. She is an active member of Bay Area Women in Film and Television (BAWIFT).

Heather Finnecy, Director of Photography
Heather Finnecy has a Bachelors Degree in Photography from California Polytechnic University, where she worked as a photojournalist for The Tribune, received the Kodak Professional Photography Scholarship and graduated with Magna Cum Laude. She currently lives in Saratoga, California where she works as freelance photographer.

Mario Garza-Gonzalez, Composer & Sound Engineer
Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Mario Garza-Gonzalez, studied Percussion, Audio Production-Engineering and Digital Video at McNally Smith College of Music and Arts. In 2007, he premiered “Shapes and Shadows” for Percussion with the In Step Dance Company of California and has performed with The Jack Brass Band, The Honeydogs, The Vestals and Willy Weisly. In 2004, he served as Executive Producer and Sound Designer on the films Asymmetry, Stew Night and Free People. He also assisted in production and audio engineering for the 2001 Jazz Fest in Monterrey, Mexico.

Christopher Gaffga , Composer
A multi-instrumentalist from New York's Long Island, Chris has studied piano, percussion, electric bass, double bass, bassoon, voice and electric guitar. However, he found his true passion fifteen years ago with the acoustic guitar, playing both his mother's nylon-stringed Federico Garcia and his father's steel-stringed Ovation. After studying music technology and recording at New York University's Steinhart School of Education, Chris emigrated from New York to California. He currently lives in the Bay Area and records original compositions at his home studio. Gaffga is actively preparing for his return to live performances.

Dan Olmsted, Sound Mixer
Dan Olmsted's 15 years of re-recording experience span all genres, including feature films, short subjects and documentaries. He has worked along side many of cinema's most acclaimed sound designers and mixers, including Walter Murch, Alan Splet, Mark Berger, David Parker and Michael Semanick. Dan's film credits include many well-known documentary features and shorts. A few examples are: The Devil and Daniel Johnston (Jeff Fuerzig), White Light, Black Rain (Steven Okazaki, HBO), Strange Culture (Lynn Hershman), The Refugee All Stars (Banker White), The Death of Kevin Carter (Dan Krauss, HBO), The Daughter from DaNang (Gail Dolgen, Vincente Franco), and Promises (Justine Shapiro, BZ Goldberg). The last two films mentioned were nominated for Academy Awards. Olmsted also teaches film production at several Bay Area schools. For a further list of film credits please visit www.imdb.com.