ANDRA J. RUCH is the President of Elixir Consulting, Los Angeles, a full service consulting company to help documentary filmmakers with story development, marketing, distribution, festival, and outreach strategies. Ruch served as Executive Director of the International Documentary Association (a nonprofit membership organization with 3000 members that promotes nonfiction filmmaking and supports the efforts of filmmakers around the world) and Publisher of Documentary magazine from 2001- June 2008. Ms. Ruch enjoyed a wide range of responsibilities, including initiating the first IDA Pare Lorentz Film Festival. She retains the title of Director Emeritus and serves on juries and expert panels at film festivals and conferences around the world. Most recently, she was an invited guest at the 2008 Cinema Vérité Festival of Iran and served on the prestigious Joris Ivens jury at the 2008 International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA).
BILLY LUTHER studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and worked on projects for the Smithsonian Institution’s New York City National Museum of the American Indian Film and Video Center. A past honoree of Film Independent’s Project: Involve program, Luther was selected for the 2006 Sundance Institute/Ford Foundation Fellowship, Corporation for Public Broadcasting/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH in Boston, and
Tribeca Institute’s All Access Program with his feature documentary Miss Navajo. The film had its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and its national television premiere on Independent Lens on PBS, and is the winner of Michael Moore’s 2007 Special Founders Prize. He is in production on the documentaries Grab and The Untitled Indian Marching Band Project. Luther belongs to the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo Tribes.
Founder of the award-winning creator sustainability pioneer Revver.com, STEVEN STARR previously managed KPFK-FM, the largest community radio signal in the US, co-founded P2P pioneer Uprizer, user-generated platform LA IndyMedia. Prior to that, Starr was writer/director and/or producer of award-winning indie films such as Joey Breaker and Johnny Suede and co-creator/producer of The State for MTV/CBS. He headed the New York film office for the William Morris Agency with clients such as Ang Lee, Tim Robbins, Larry David, Joseph Papp and Andy Warhol, and started off as a concert promoter for Bob Marley and the Wailers.