AMY GRAPPELL – DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Grappell holds a BA in film from New York University and is a graduate of the acting program at The North Carolina School of the Arts.  She has produced written, directed and acted in feature-length documentaries, narratives and shorts. In 1997 she produced, co-wrote and acted in SHADY GROVE, an independent feature film that and won the audience award at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the Czech Republic and Best First Feature in Portugal.  Amy worked as a producer and casting director with Richard Linklater's production company Detour Films and on the critically acclaimed MTV television series Austin Stories. She is currently working on a follow-up documentary shot during her return trip to Ukraine in 2004. The film re-visits the original characters and issues of freedom a decade later, exploring the transition from communism to democracy.

CHRISTIAN MOORE- DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAHY / PRODUCER
A graduate of NYU Film program, made his first feature film Shady Grove with collaborator Amy Grappell while still in college.  Shady Grove won numerous awards and recognition in the film festival circuit throughout Europe and the United States. Christian has worked as a freelance editor for the last ten years with directors such as Mike Judge and Richard Linklater and recently edited the Grammy Awarded band Los Lonely Boys music video, "Heaven"..  After starting his own production company, Strike Productions, Christian and partner Kevin Pruitt have been collaborating on documentaries and feature films. Christian most recently shot and produced the documentary Viva Les Amis which was released on The Criterion Collection Slacker DVD.

MICHAEL BLEYZER - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1951, Michael Bleyzer was raised and educated in the Soviet Union, graduating from the Kharkiv Institute of Radioelectronics with a Master of Science in digital electronics and quantum physics. His career took him to Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, before coming to the US in 1978 where he became an American citizen. Mr. Bleyzer then embarked on a career in finance and management holding senior positions at Exxon and Ernst & Young before founding SigmaBleyzer in 1994. In 2001, the Bleyzer family established The Bleyzer Foundation to help the countries of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in their transition to a market economy. Mr. Bleyzer is a member of the Global Council for Thunderbird Garvin School of International Management and a board member of Holocaust Museum Houston. He is a frequent guest of CNBC, CNNfn and other media outlets as an expert on the region.

NATASHA BLEYZER - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1953, Natasha Bleyzer was raised and educated in the Soviet Union, graduating from the Kharkiv Institute of Radioelectronics with a Master of Science in digital electronics and quantum physics. When she immigrated with her family to US back in 1978 she started work as an instrument and electrical contact engineer at Exxon Baytown refinery and further developed her career as process control specialist for the petrochemical industry. She joined SigmaBleyzer in 1995 as the Houston office manager. In addition to office responsibilities Natasha concentrates her efforts on not-for-profit projects such as cultural programs for orphaned handicapped children in Ukraine, restoration of the heritage of prominent Ukrainian painter, Vasyl Krychevsky, and the Drobitsky Yar Memorial in Kharkiv, which is a memorial to the  thousands of Jews killed by Nazis in Ukraine during World War II.

KYLE HENRY-EDITOR
Kyle is the editor of the Sundance, Tribeca award winning film MANITO (‚02), the PBS docs ARE THE KIDS ALRIGHT (‚04) and the upcoming LEARNING TO SWALLOW (‚05).  Henry was a 2004 Rockefeller Media Artist Fellowship nominee and is currently a 2004 Creative Capital Fund finalist for his feature film directorial debut, ROOM ('05), produced by Michael Stipe's company C-Hundred.

LEAH MARINO – EDITOR
Leah Marino recently completed editing IMELDA, a feature documentary on Imelda Marcos that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and recently opened theatrically nationwide. She worked as an editor for numerous programs, which have been aired on PBS including The Great American Footrace.  She completed post-production on The Forgotten Americans, a one-hour documentary for Galan Productions, Inc., which premiered at the Smithsonian Institution and Winter Texans, which received an Emmy award as part of the two-hour PBS series The Border. She has edited numerous documentary shorts, as well as a variety of music videos and educational films.  

ERIC FRIEND – SOUND DESIGNER
Eric Friend has been living and working on feature films in Austin TX for the last 12 years.  He started working for the director Richard Linklater in 1993 at Detour Filmproduction, and soon after he worked with Tom Hammond doing sound editing for Linklater’s films Plow, Suburbia and The Newton Boys. In 1995 Eric started recording Mike Judge’s voice for the animated TV series Beavis and Butt-Head. He has worked as a foley editor for Danetracks on such feature films as Tom and Huck, Bound, Gunfighter’s Moon, and Boogie Nights. Eric continues to record for Mike Judge on the Emmy award-winning TV sitcom King of the Hill.