Erin Persley | Director
Erin Persley combines her passion for documentary film with her interest in teaching students the tenets of film production and cinema studies. She just completed her latest film, Living Inside Out, which explores the psychological and emotional effects on three women transitioning back into society after spending time in prison. Her previous films (Empowering the Yard, 2008) and (Please Report Any Suspicious Activity, 2007) have screened in 17 festivals covering 11 countries. Erin has also worked with the U.S. Department of State and the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to design and teach 10 workshops on scriptwriting, digital filmmaking and post-production in Kenya and Uganda. With her deep commitment to provocative documentary filmmaking and education, she intends to change how people interact with their community, other cultures and one another.

Silvia Turchin | Cinematographer
Silvia Turchin is head cinematographer at Sleeping Tree Pictures.  With over ten years of experience as a documentary filmmaker, she brings a knowledgeable, creative, and collaborative approach to all her projects. Silvia has an ongoing love affair with her camera — together, they seek and find beauty in the world. She has shot and edited award-winning short documentaries and has a wealth of experience in creating web-based mini documentaries for a broad clientele.  Silvia’s most recent experimental documentary 131 Russ won the John Gutman Filmmaker Award of Excellence and the Leo Diner Memorial Scholarship. It has shown at the Pacific Film Archive and was given an Honorable Mention at the Fargo Film Festival.  She is now in post-production on her first full-length documentary, Dogs of the 9th Ward. Silvia received her B.A. in Creative Writing from USC, completed post-graduate work in film editing at the Centre d'Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya in Barcelona, and is currently teaching film production and studies classes at San Francisco State University while finishing her MFA in Cinema.

Anastasia Pahules | Associate Producer
Anastasia Pahules is an emerging producer, who has recently refocused her attention from film theory and criticism to production. She has presented her writing on film around the country at conferences, such as the CUNY Conference on Cinematic Desire and the 2010 Midwest Pop Culture Association / American Culture Association Conference. Anastasia received her MA in Cinema Studies from San Francisco State University. Her studies focused on documentary and experimental film. Her thesis explored the use of found footage, particularly footage from Triumph of the Will, in anti-Nazi propaganda during World War II. Anastasia is currently an assistant to the Curator of the Visual Arts Exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She resides in Oakland, CA.