The International Crews

CHINA - Kai Liu shoot, 2008

 


Ya-Hsuan Huang, Director/Producer/Camera

Ya-Hsuan Huang is a documentary filmmaker and graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. Design clients include Goldman Sachs and Columbia University. Through the Negev, her recent documentary short on Sudanese refugees in Israel, has been screened in venues around the world. Ms. Huang is a graduate of Yale University and is currently a graduate student in Media Studies at the New School in New York City.

 

Yi Han, Producer/ Co-director

Yi Han is an independent filmmaker who just came back to her hometown Sichuan, China after she graduated from Carleton University, Canada with a Master’s in Journalism. She has worked as a reporter, editor and news anchor in Sichuan TV station for four years before she went to Canada. She is now working on a feature-length documentary Last Train Home directed by Lixin Fan and supported by Sundance Fund and Jan Vrijman Fund.

 

Nobuhiro Awata, Camera

Nobuhiro Awata is an experienced video producer and director, photographer and audio technician. Born and raised in Japan, Nobuhiro lived in New York City for three years and now is living in Taipei where he is studying for a degree in Computer Science.

 

Bastien Robilliard, Camera

Bastien Robilliard is a French engineer, with a degree in Computer Science, who has worked in Paris at the National Institute of Audiovisual and Canal+, developing applications for audiovisual contents description. He arrived in Shanghai in 2004 and started working on video production, camera operating and editing. Bastien works on corporate and training videos for international groups and video reports for press agencies and institutions and has shot all over China.

 

Fang Liang, Still Photographer

Fang Liang went back to journalism school as a 2nd career, and interned at various newspapers in the States, such as the Weekend Pinnacles at Hollister and at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He started a freelancing career soon after, with some local papers in the Bay Area, and some overseas papers. He is currently based in Hong Kong and Beijing.

 

David Evan Harris, Still Photographer

David Evan Harris is the Executive Director of the Global Lives Project and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. David lived in Brazil from 2004-2007 and has experience in print and video journalism work. He holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA in Sociology from the University of São Paulo.

 

Chieko Kato, Still Photographer

Chieko Kato is from a small, traditional city called Takayama in the mountains of Japan. From a young age she was eager to see the world, and has made it her mission to travel at every chance she gets. In between extended bouts of travel, she has studied commercial photography and worked for 5 or so years in New York as a freelance photographer, photographer's assistant, and photo retoucher. In 2007, she returned to Japan and has been keeping himself busy as a freelance photographer, producer and interpreter for small video shoots, and as a studio assistant. She participated in the Tokyo Global Lives shoot in 2007, as a still photographer and production assistant.

 

Major Tian, Production Assistant / Translation

Major Tian is a junior studying Legal English (English language in the context of law) in Southwest University of Political Science and Law. He worked as a part-time translator for the Ted Koppel Group of Discovery Channel last year to make a documentary on the city of Chongqing and China: The People's Republic of Capitalism. He also did a volunteer job for 2008 Global Sourcing Fair in Chongqing, working as a translator and receptionist and has once served as a tour guide for a group of social workers from the US visiting Chongqing.

 

Pengfei Wang, Translation Coordinator

Pengfei Wang is the Vice-Dean of Communications at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu. Pengfei teaches 4th level English translation to seniors in the department.

 

Christina Liu, Production Assistant / Translating Assistant


Christina Liu is a graduate of Southwest China University, majoring in English and currently a translator in a foreign-funded company investing in steel and oil. After living in Chongqing for 4 years, she is happy to be back in Sichuan, where she was born.

 

 


INDIA - Muthu Kumar shoot, 2009

 


Rahul V Chittella, Director / Executive Producer

Rahul V Chittella is a filmmaker who has been active in the process of empowering the youth with media in Mumbai. Academically speaking he is an engineer, an Urdu poet at heart; Rahul has been part of the filmmaking process since the age of 19. He has also been active in the theatre sector of Mumbai. His documentaries, Drishti and Advitya have won many awards in the film festivals across India. He also owns and runs the website www.bombayclicks.com, a website which encourages photo journalism amongst the young photographers of Mumbai. He has worked on projects in Netherlands, France and Germany. He has also directed a film on Alliance Francaise de Bombay, the cultural wing of the French Embassy in India. He was the co-director for I, a short film which was screened at various international film festivals. Currently, Rahul is working as a Creative Director for Mam Movies, an international organization which seeks to use media for social issues. With Mam Movies he has been the producer of I am That, a short documentary on the eunuch community of India, which was made as a part of the sole Indian representative documentary for the Elevate Film Festival and was screened at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. This film was written, shot and edited in 48 hours. He is also the producer for the Seva Journals Project under which filmmakers make videos for non-profits at an economical amount of money. Under the Seva Journals Project, he has directed videos on NGOs - I Volunteers, Rang De, Centre for Development Finance (CDF) and USHA.
 

 

Srikumar Venkatraman, Producer / Still photography

Srikumar Venkatraman is a professional photographer and a software engineer with Siemens. He has won many accolades for his photography skills. He was also the co-producer for I am That, and the producer for a short documentary on Rang De, a social organization which works on Micro-credit amongst low income households. He was also one of the executive producers for the projects – SHE Creates and I am the CHANGE film project. SHE Creates was a unique event where 25 girls from various backgrounds were given workshops in film-making, and at end of which they made 5 films on women’s issues, written shot and edited completely by themselves.
 

 

Meghna Agrawal, Director of Photography

Meghna Agrawal is a highly qualified cinematographer, editor and graphic designer. After finishing her Bachelors in fine arts from Raheja School of Arts, Mumbai, she did her bachelor’s in Cinematography and Editing from the Academy of Arts University for Motion Pictures and Television in San Francisco. She went on to be the D.O.P and editor for Khwaab, a feature film shot on 35mm film camera in San Francisco. She has also worked as an editor in the reality show, Indian Idol (The Indian Version of American Idol). Since her return to India, she has co-founded Mam Movies. She has also worked on a number of short films and documentaries related with social issues with different organizations like Friends Without Borders, Centre for Development Finance and Institute for Financial Management and Research. She was also the Cinematographer for I am That. She has just finished a shoot for Richfield productions, a production house based in Washington D.C., USA.
 

 

Vishal Gupta, Executive Producer / Co-director / Assistant Editor

Vishal Gupta is a very popular face in the young media enthusiasts of India. He is a trained sound engineer, but has been effective as a director of a few short documentaries on NGOs like IVolunteers, Jan Jagruti, IFMR B-School, FINO, CDF and USHA. He has also been responsible to mobilize filmmakers and NGOs for the I am the CHANGE film project, a unique filmmaking project where 101 filmmakers made films on 101 NGOs within the time span of 101 hours. He also conducts filmmaking workshops for women in Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, so that they can use films to make their voice heard.

 

Ruhie Kumar, Co-producer / Still Photography

Ruhie Kumar has recently completed her Bachelors in Mass Media with her specialization in Journalism. She is a freelance writer and her articles have been published in various newspapers and magazines. She has also directed a couple of documentaries including one on The Samaritans, a Mumbai based NGO working for the betterment of the mentally challenged. She has also volunteered with Mam Movies on several projects like SHE Creates and I am the CHANGE film project. Ruhie is a freelance producer for short films and documentary films and is currently working on a documentary film based on the theme of national oneness.

 

Deepa Bhat, Co-Producer / Accountant

Deepa Bhat is working with the financial firm, Deloitte. She is a qualified MBA and is also pursuing her CA currently. She is also an active volunteer in the social sector of Mumbai having worked with several NGOs. She was actively involved in the Reach Out Project which deals with the inclusion of special children in the mainstream society and ‘normal schools’. She has been in the editing department of many publications.

 

Akash Mohimen, Editor / Camera

Akash Mohimen is a documentary filmmaker who has been working in this sector for the past 4 years. He is a published writer of fiction stories. He has also completed a feature film screenplay. He is a professional editor who has worked on a children’s TV show. He has also edited the award winning documentary, Drishti. He is also the post production supervisor for Mam Movies. He has edited films on I Volunteers, Natueco Farming Science, FINO, IFMR B-School, Alliance Francaise de Bombay, CDF and IFMR Trust. As a D.O.P he has shot films on Natueco Farming Science, Alliance Francaise De Bombay, FINO and I. He has also directed and edited a number of promotional videos and ads for the projects of Mam Movies.

 


Brijesh Matalia, Production Manager / Technical Adviser / Still Photographer

Brijesh Matalia is a regional manager of marketing in Godrej, one of the leading business houses of India. He has always been an active volunteer with NGOs which has given him great expertise in handling different kinds of people. He is also an excellent photographer. Whenever free, he makes sure he travels across rural India to interact with the children of each region and to teach them the basics of certain languages.
 

 

Himir Shah, Volunteer

Himir Shah is an MBA student from KJ Somaiya College in Mumbai. He is an active participant in all developmental activities. Having traveled across rural India, he is very familiar with the geographies and locals of South India.
 

 

Zainab Burmawalla, Volunteer

Zainab Burmawalla is currently pursuing her MFA in Film Production from the Chapman Film School, LA. She has been producing short films and documentaries since she was 21. She loves to do exciting freelance projects as it “keeps her creativity intact”.

 

 


INDONESIA - Dadah shoot, 2008
 

 

Endah WS, Director/Producer/Back up for making-of camera

Endah WS is a producer for the news features department of the RCTI television station. She brings 10 years of journalistic experience to the table. Among her awards for documentary filmmaking are: First Prize at the 2007 Documentary Film Script Development competition of the Jakarta International Film Festival, for a project on layar tancep (makeshift pole film screening); a nomination for Best Documentary at the 2nd Al-Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival, for The Unbreakable Mosques of Tsunami, Aceh; and the 2006 Panasonic Award for Best Television Documentary Series for Gapura, a program on nature and culture in Indonesia.
 

 

Rian Suryalibrata, Producer/Back up for making-of camera

Rian Suryalibrata has worked as a journalist since 1996. He has created a number of documentary films over the last 3 years, including the Gapura and Treking television series on Indonesia’s cultural and natural heritage, Urban, a series about urban lives, and Delik, a documentary series on criminal cases in Indonesia.
 

 

Khairani Barokka (Okka), Producer

Khairani Barokka (Okka) graduated with a BA in Sociology/Anthropology in 2006 and has worked with the United Nations as a field assistant, and with BBC News as fixer/producer in her native Indonesia. She is currently working for a capacity-building organization, and has a passion for storytelling and collaboration in the arts.

 

Carita Chandra, Camera/Photographer

Carita Chandra graduated from the Film Department of the Jakarta Institute of the Arts in 2006. She has extensive experience as a photographer and videographer, having worked since 1996. Her portfolio includes documentaries, feature and short fiction films, advertising, music videos, and underwater shoots. Carita also teaches at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts, and instructs in Capoeira at Sinha Bahia, Jakarta.

 

Ratih Prebatasari, Camera

Ratih Prebatasari is an undergraduate student at Yogyakarta’s Indonesian Institute of the Arts, majoring in Television. She is an experienced cameraperson, researcher, producer and director, whose documentary film work includes directing ‘Waiting for Nothing’ (on the East Java mud flow disaster, caused by the Lapindo Corporation) and producing ‘The Show Must Go On’, about the Ramayana Ballet. She is also an art director assistant for the film ‘Bumi Manusia’ (‘This Earth of Mankind’), which is currently in preproduction, based on the novel by Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

 

Yufik, Making of camera

 

 

Antonius Riva Setiawan (Riva), Photographer

Antonius Riva Setiawan (Riva) was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. He studied industrial engineering before discovering his passion for photography. For the past 4 years of shooting professionally, he has mostly focused his work on features and stories about poverty, social issues and youth at risk in Indonesia. He learned more about photojournalism at the Panna Institute of Photography in Jakarta. And his work for NGOs and publishers includes shoots on the marasmus problem in Sumba Timur and Sumba Barat, Aceh, Sirombu-Nias, and the Jogjakarta earthquake.