Born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ian Iqbal Rashid grew up in Toronto, Canada. His first feature film, Touch of Pink (2004), which he both wrote and directed, was partially filmed in Toronto. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was distributed internationally by Sony Picture Classics. Prior to that, Rashid’s only directorial experience had been two short films, but he’d also written for British television, including the critically-acclaimed TV Drama, This Life, for which he shared a Writers Guild of Great Britain Award. He returned to Toronto to film his second feature, a dance film called How She Move (2008), penned by Canadian screenwriter Annmarie Morais and featuring a cast of newcomers. Rashid, the author of three award-winning collections of poetry, lives in London with his Australian partner Peter Ride. http://www.tribute.ca/people/ian-iqbal-rashid/12785/

“A Bronx native born to a single mother, Martin developed an interest in filmmaking when she attended Sarah Lawrence College…while working at a camera store, Martin met [Ernest] Dickerson, who offered her a dream job: second assistant camera on an Anita Baker music video…Dickerson made Martin a production assistant for [Spike] Lee’s groundbreaking 1989 feature Do the Right Thing…it was [at New York University] that she wrote her first feature.”   -“I Like It Like That ,” Separate Cinema, accessed December 8, 2012, http://www.separatecinema.com/exhibits_behindthelens.html

Julie Dash is a renowned African-American filmmaker, born and raised in New York City. In the 1970s, she studied film at the American Film Institute and attended the film school of UCLA. Dash was a major aspect of the L.A. Film Rebellion, a new generation of filmmakers who attended UCLA film school between the late 1967 and 1989 whose films created the genre of "Black Cinema". Dash is also known for her critically acclaimed short film Illusions (1982). Illusions won the Jury Prize for the Best Film of the Decade from the Black Filmmakers Foundation, while the debut of Daughters of the Dust earned Dash the title of being the first African-American woman to have a full-length theatrically released film in America. Dash has directed television films and music videos and has found the time to lecture at many universities across America. 

SUZI YOONESSI received the Jerome Foundation's NYC Media Arts Grant for Vern (2004), which she wrote, directed and produced. She associate-produced the award-winning Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and coproduced Miranda July's Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody (2005), which screened in the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Yoonessi received her BFA from San Francisco Art Institute, and her MFA from Columbia University where she received the FMI Directing Fellowship.

Cherien Dabis was born in Omaha, Nebraska to a Palestinian father and Jordanian mother. She grew up in Ohio and Jordan. She received her B.A. with honors in creative writing and communication from the University of Cincinnati and her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2004. Her first short film Make a Wish premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. She was a writer for the L Word TV series  (2006-2008). Amreeka is based on her childhood in Ohio and Jordan and is her first feature film. Dabis was name one of Variety magazine’s 10 Directors to Watch in 2009. Dabis is the writer, director, and star of her newest film, May in the Summer, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Julia Query made her directorial debut on Live Nude Girls Unite! As performance artist and comic, she wrote and toured three solo hour-long performance pieces. She established a video collective in 1993 that produced short documentaries. She founded the University of Oregon Queer Film and Video Festival. She supports herself as a stripper at the Lusty Lady. Vicky Funari is a film and videomaker whose work focuses on women's stories and questions of cultural and gender identity. Most recently she produced, directed, and edited “Paulina,” a non-fiction feature film about the life of a Mexican maid; the film premiered at the 1998 Sundance film festival. Funari began her film work in 1985 as Assistant Director of the fiction feature "Working Girls" directed by Lizzie Borden. Live Nude Girls, Unite! Accessed December 2 2012. http://www.livenudegirlsunite.com/film.html.

Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1973, Gina Kim moved to the US after completing her BFA degree in Seoul National University, School of Fine Arts. Using video diary format, she explored her identity while studying at Cal Arts where she received her MFA in Film/Video. Her works have been widely screened, at Berlin International film festival, Vancouver International film festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, short film festival Oberhausen among many others. She directed first feature film Invisible light about two Korean women struggling with their identities. She has directed 4 other films Never Forever, Cooktails, Faces of Soul and Gina Kim’s Video Diary.  "Gina Kim." n.pag. Hancinema: The Korean Movie & Drama Database. Web. 7 Dec 2012. .

Ava DuVernay made her feature directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed 2008 hip hop documentary, "This is The Life". Winner of Audience Awards in Toronto, Los Angeles and Seattle, the film was released theatrically and debuted on Showtime in April 2009. The Los Angeles Times raved, "This Is the Life vaults into the upper echelons of must-see hip-hop documentaries."In 2010, she wrote, produced and directed the feature, "I Will Follow," starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Omari Hardwick and Beverly Todd. Released theatrically in 2011, the family drama was hailed by critic Roger Ebert as "one of the best films I've seen about the loss of a loved one."DuVernay directed and produced three network music documentaries in 2010. "My Mic Sounds Nice" is a definitive history of female hip hop artists and holds the distinction of being BET Networks first original music documentary. "Essence Music Festival 2010" is a two-hour concert film for TV One chronicling the nation's largest annual African-American entertainment gathering. "Faith Through The Storm" is a documentary for TV One about women in New Orleans who have reclaimed their lives after personal devastation during Hurricane Katrina.Most recently, DuVernay completed principal photography on her second feature, "Middle of Nowhere". The film will be released in 2012. -The Huffington Post, 2011

Aurora Guerrero is a queer-identified Chicana raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Guerrero wrote and directed Mosquita y Mari, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT category. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in psychology and Chicano studies and CalArts in directing. From Seattle International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival webistes

Zeina Durra is a writer/director. She received her BA in Oriental Studies from Oxford University and MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Film Programme. Her directorial debut, THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!, starring the French actress Elodie Bouchez premiered in US Competition at Sundance 2010. Sundance called THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! " an exceptional work and heralds the arrival of Durra as an exciting new directorial talent" and Movieline labeled her, " Sundance's most fascinating filmaker, ". Warsaw also awarded THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! Best First Feature. Durra is currently working on her second feature and other art projects. "Filmmakers." THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. .