JOHN KIRBY - DIRECTOR
John Kirby makes his feature directorial debut with THE AMERICAN RULING CLASS. He has produced and edited for major broadcasters, including many projects for the award-winning Blowback Productions. His editing credits include the HBO America Undercover documentaries Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder and the Emmy-award winning Thug Life in D.C. With his production partner Libby Handros, he recently completed The Good Fat Diet, a ground-breaking study of the role of Omega-three fatty acids in human nutrition, to be released this year on public television.

LIBBY HANDROS - PRODUCER
Libby Handros joined The Press & the Public Project twenty years ago. She began her career working on the critically acclaimed series Inside Story. Since then, as the company’s lead producer, she has been responsible for documentaries on a wide range of subjects for PBS, ESPN, Showtime and Fox. Recent credits include, Legacy of a Kidnapping: Lindbergh and the Triumph of the Tabloids, The Good Fat Diet, The Future Belongs to the Educated, Trump: What’s the Deal? and Baseball From the Inside Out.

MARK BENJAMIN - DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
A veteran cameraman, Mark Benjamin most recently completed The Protocols of Zion, which debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. He produced, directed and shot Going Home currently airing on Cinemax. Additional credits include shooting and co-directing with Marc Levin the Robert Downey Jr. feature documentary The Last Party. Other recent films include: Slam, (Sundance, Grand Jury Prize, Cannes, Camera D’Or) Jails Hospitals and Hip Hop, CIA: America’s Secret Warriors for Discovery Channel (Columbia DuPont Award), Prisoners of the War on Drugs for HBO, Gang War-Banging in Little Rock for HBO (ACE Award for Best Documentary), and Thug Life in DC for HBO (1999 National Emmy Best Documentary).

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

STANLEY F. BUCHTHAL
Stanley F. Buchthal has Executive Produced or Produced numerous feature films including Hairspray (John Waters, 1987 cult classic), Spanking the Monkey (David O. Russell, Best Sundance Film Audience Award, 1994), Somerset Maugham’s Up at the Villa, staring Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas (Phillips Haas, 1998), The Party is Over (Philip Seymour Hoffman, 2002), and Poster Boy (Regent Entertainment release Spring 2005). Current projects include Executive Producing Sydney Pollack’s Sketches of Frank Gehry in partnership with American Masters. Projects in development include Fugitive Days and the miniseries Chasing America, both with Barbara Kopple, a two-time Oscar-winning director. With Clearchannel Communications, Inc. and Miramax Film Corporation, Buchthal is a Producer of All Shook Up, a Broadway musical based on Elvis Presley’s music, which recently opened at New York’s Palace Theater.

CAROLINE CAMOUGIS
Caroline Camougis, an Executive Producer, has served in many capacities in television and film, from production work at WGBH-TV, Channel 2 in Boston, to strategic planning for VTM Television in Brussels. An expert in strategic growth initiatives, she has consulted both domestically and abroad for media companies. As an advisor to nonprofits, she has been recognized for her work with President Bush’s Volunteer Service Award in 2003 and 2004. Her first association with The Press & The Public Project, Inc. was Legacy of a Kidnapping: Lindbergh and the Triumph of the Tabloids, named “the best documentary of 2000” by Newsday.

NICK FRASER
Nick Fraser is editor of Storyville, BBC Television’s program of documentaries from all over the world. Two years ago there were eight Storyvilles on BBC TWO; now up to 50 Storyvilles are shown each year on BBC FOUR and BBC TWO. Storyvilles films are purchased, pre-bought or commissioned jointly with other broadcasters. The films have won a number of international prizes, including an Academy Award and the prestigious Grierson International trophy in Britain. Before working at the BBC Nick Fraser was a commissioning editor at Channel Four, and before that ran his own successful company, Panoptic Productions. He writes regularly for several British broadsheet newspapers and Harper’s Magazine in New York. He also works as a reporter and presenter for the BBC. Recent films include profiles of Jacques Chirac, and former Director General of the BBC, John Birt.

CHRIS HILTON
Chris Hilton is one of Australia’s most prolific and award-winning documentary producers. He has made films on a broad range of subjects for the world’s major broadcasters. His credits as director/producer include Dealing with the Demon (3 x 1 hour), The Serpent and the Cross, and most recently Shadow Play, a feature-length film on the Indonesian massacres for SBS, BBC, PBS and Arte, which, along with Advertising Missionaries, was selected for the Joris Ivens competition at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. As producer and executive producer Hilton’s recent credits include: Year of the Dogs, Renzo Piano - Piece by Piece, The Irish Empire (5 x 1 hour), Bondi (6 x 30 min) and Drama School (9 x 30) min.

CACTUS THREE
Cactus Three executive produces high-end documentary films and non-fiction programming. Cactus Three offers a unique blend of production and co-production expertise, creatively developing projects as well as securing both funding and distribution. Recent productions include the IFC co-production PUNK: attitude, the acclaimed HBO series Family Bonds, Toronto Film festival stand-out Three of Hearts (Think Film and NBC/Bravo), and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the award-winning film based on Peter Biskind’s best selling book. Films currently in production include Sydney Pollack’s Sketches of Frank Gehry for PBS/American Masters and Alexis for A&E and Channel Four. Cactus Three was founded in 2003 by Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens.

PAULA SILVER
Paula Silver is the former President of Marketing and Publicity at Columbia Pictures and the marketing visionary behind such recent feature film hits as My Big Fat Greek Wedding. As the President/Founder of Beyond the Box Productions, Silver utilizes a multi-media approach to develop, produce and promote socially conscious projects through popular culture. A few of the award-winning campaigns that Ms. Silver has directed include, Altered States, Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing, Ghandi, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Prince of Tides, and Tootsie. In 1989, Silver produced and directed in collaboration with Robert Redford a film about the Sundance Institute, and most recently she was the executive producer of Lohas 8, Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability Meets the Media. Silver speaks frequently on the role of women in media. A member of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ms. Silver sits on many boards among them The White House Project and was recently appointed a fellow by the MIT Media Lab for 2004/2005.