VIPAL MONGA, WRITER, PRODUCER & DIRECTOR
Vipal is a filmmaker and journalist living in Brooklyn, NY. His earlier, shorter video and film work has been showcased across the United States and internationally. His short documentary about Christian street preachers, Word on the Street, was featured at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2003. Down, a dance-film collaboration with former Dance Theatre of Harlem and Boston Ballet principal dancer Tai Jimenez, was chosen as a festival favorite at New York’s Rooftop Films summer series in 2004. In 2002, he worked with former Ballet Frankfurt principal Francesca Harper on The Fragile Stone Theory, which premiered at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow dance festival. He’s collaborated with Butch Morris and theatre director Scott Cohen on My Great Descent, which premiered at Mythic Journeys 2004 in Atlanta. He edited Personality, a feature-length documentary about Bollywood dancers, directed by Vinay Chowdhry, and has filmed videos and a concert for celebrated rock group Arcade Fire. Black February is his first feature film.

ZACHARY LUDESCHER, EDITOR
Zachary is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and co-founder of Dakoit Pictures.  Zachary has edited numerous shorts, commercials, and documentaries, including the Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award-winning documentary LifeLinkPSU: A Road to Independence.  In addition to his work on Black February, he produced and shot the web-series Brooklyn is for Lovers, a sex comedy following five loosely connected Brooklyn residents.  He is currently producing Beer Nation, a web series that follows the craft beer renaissance from the brewery to the pint glass.

 

VINAY CHOWDHRY, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Vinay’s first feature film, Personality, provides an acute glimpse into the lives of Bollywood background dancers. Personality has been exhibited at the MIACC, San Joaquin, and Bahamas International film festivals and will screen later this year in Bombay. A faculty member of the New School University’s Media Studies Program and Media Arts Director at Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School, he holds an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts and a BA in Film and Video from Pennsylvania State University. Vinay’s work also includes a 2002 short dance film on the partition of India and Pakistan, Line of Control, which expresses narrative through hybridized eastern and western dance styles. In 2009, he launched Dakoit Pictures, a full-service production and post-production company. Dakoit has recently produced the popular web-based series, Beer Nation and Brooklyn is for Lovers. Vinay lives in Brooklyn, NY.

CRAIG BONHEUR, CAMERA
Craig graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and got his Masters in Media Studies at The New School for Social Research. He started his career shooting breaking news and feature stories and later formed Guerilla Video, a full service production company based in NY.  His work has taken him to Dubai to document the labor rights movement, Azerbaijan to cover their parliamentary election, New Orleans to spotlight relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, and most of the 50 United States on various other assignments. When he isn’t working, Craig enjoys spending time at his home in New York shooting independent films, documentaries and live music.

ERIKA BIDDLE, CAMERA
Erika lives in Toronto where she is working on her PhD in Communications and Culture at York University. She is a member of the Autonomedia editorial collective and an independent media artist. Her video and installation-based works have shown at venues including: EMC2, Retort Projectruimte, White Box, Capsule Gallery, Artists Space, Diorama Arts Center, Rooftop Films, Lincoln Center, Ocularis, Collective Unconscious, The Kitchen, Festival Cinema Nouvelle Generation, Guestroom, the DUMBO Short Film & Video Festival and the Future Cinema Lab. She has provided video content for a diverse group of artists and performers, including Negativland, Michael Rakowitz, HR Britton, Butch Morris, Kristin Jones and Vinay Chowdhry. She is currently exploring the concept of affective experience and the aesthetics of embodiment via techniques and technologies of immersive cinema.

ANDREW MUNSEY, SOUND DESIGN
Andrew Munsey is a Brooklyn-based production/postproduction sound engineer and musician. Through an informal apprenticeship in high school, he spent his time recording music, which eventually led him to a more professionally collaborative relationship with his former teacher, the recording and broadcast engineer Szilard Boros. He received a BFA in Jazz Studies from California Institute of the Arts as a drummer, where he also began his work in postproduction sound for film.  Works in film include contributions to Trickster (Eliza Hittman, 2008) and Storm Tiger Mountain, (Scott Cummings 2008).  His most recent studio releases as a mixer include When a Duck Loves a Jellyfish (Dirty Squid, 2009) and Oven Fresh (Adam Bravo, 2010). In 2005, Andrew began working in television production as an audio tech and now works as a national network broadcast sound mixer.

LINDA PENG, ART DIRECTION
Linda is a graphic designer and photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. She studied graphic communications at New York University and has since worked on several commercial projects, including design and photography work for Corcoran and Vichy Cosmetics. Her photography has been published in several leading magazines and on the web. Linda’s prior work in film includes set design for Sherman Lau’s independent film Zooey.