Asad ul Haq

Asad ul Haq is one of the top advertising filmmakers in Pakistan and holds a bachelors degree in advertising from Ohio University, USA. He has worked with Interflow Communications, heading their audio-visual department, and later became creative group head at Spectrum Communications. In 1993, Asad established Ambience Films, a production company whose clientele includes national and multinational advertisers in Pakistan. He claims he has “not looked back since then!”

Ayeshah Alam

An actor, director and broadcast personality, Ayeshah Alam began her career in the media as a model. Having done her share of fashion and music videos, she soon moved on to more challenging assignments, directing and producing films for television and acting on stage. Her performances in avant garde fare such as The Vagina Monologues for stage and Moth Smoke adaptation “Daira” for television, won her many rave reviews, also garnering her the Ciepie for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role at the 3rd KaraFilm Festival. She currently also hosts her own radio show on City FM 89.

Daniyal Ali Khan

Daniyal Ali Khan is presently engaged in launching a four year major in Film
and Video at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, where he is also the course director of short certificate courses in filmmaking. Daniyal is an independent filmmaker who graduated from Columbia College Chicago in film and video, with a concentration in direction and a minor in cinematography. He was a member of the jury at the 3rd and 4th KaraFilm festivals. Daniyal has led delegations and attended workshops at FTII (Pune), National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), National School of Drama (Delhi) and A.J. Kidwai Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi), in India in 2004.

David Chalmers Alesworth

David Chalmers Alesworth is an artist and art educator who has been living and working in Pakistan for the past 16 years. His work addresses the aesthetic of Pakistan’s urban street culture, and speaks of the issues of nuclearisation and environmental degradation. He has been involved with shows, art activities, curatorship, sculpture commissions and publications for almost 30 years. David received his art training in the United Kingdom at the Brooklands Technical College, the Epsom School of Art and Design, and the Wimbledon School of Art. As an educator, he has worked with the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Beaconhouse National University and Ziauddin University.

Hameed Haroon

The Chief Executive Officer and publisher of the Dawn Group of Publications, and the former president of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society, Hameed Haroon is also a man of art, culture, theatre, music and film. He owns one of the most extensive collections of art in Pakistan, and co-curated the widely acclaimed retrospective exhibition in Karachi of the Pakistani master Sadequain. He has been associated with the theatre in London, and has directed stage plays in Karachi. His passion for the documentation and promotion of sufi shrine music at the Bhit Shah shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai earned him, in 1994, the Latif Award, the highest cultural award in the Sindh province. He is also currently involved in documenting and issuing the collected works of the famed Pakistani singer Noor Jehan. On the board of a number of art and culture institutions, Hameed has also served as the Chairman for the National Task Force on Culture in the Federal Ministry for Culture (1999). He has grown up watching and following Pakistani cinema and has a deep and abiding interest in international cinema.

Khusro Mumtaz

Khusro Mumtaz has degrees in computer science, creative writing, and business and finance, and works as a banker. He has written extensively on film, theatre and music for a variety of newspapers and magazines, but most notably for The Friday Times where he had a weekly movie review column for a number of years. Currently he writes weekly film reviews for The Review - Dawn newspaper's Thursday magazine - as well as a political column for The News. He also co-hosts a film review programme, "Silverscreen", on Aaj TV.

Marina Khan

Marina Khan has been active in the television industry for the last 20 years. She launched her career in 1985 with Shehzad Khalil’s “Nishaan-e-Haider”, although she is perhaps best known for her role in the serial “Tanhaiyan” the following year. Marina made her directorial debut with “Ghar Tau Akhir Apna Hai” in 1996. She then turned her attention more towards this area and has to date directed/produced a score of films, music videos and serials. In 2004, Marina became an Eisenhower Fellow and was invited to the United States to meet with media counterparts there. She has also been active in the National Academy of Performing Arts since it was established, teaching television production to students. Along with her husband Jaleel Akhtar, she runs a television production house, Fat Cat Productions.

Michael Heath

Michael Heath was born in Wyndham, Southland, New Zealand and worked as a journalist in his early years. Joining Pacific Films, he wrote and starred in a series of award-winning documentaries for television, including “Lost In The Garden Of The World”, about the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. In the ‘70s Heath lived in London, and began writing stage plays, which have been performed all over the world. In the ‘80s he returned to New Zealand and wrote the screenplays for “The Scarecrow” (director's fortnight Cannes), and two horror fantasy films, “Death Warmed Up”, and “Next Of Kin” (both Grand Prix at Sitges and Paris Festivals). His first digital experimental drama "A Small Life" won 8 Awards at the 2nd KaraFilm Festival as well as the Grand Prix at Seoul Net in South Korea and the Avanca Digital Festival in Portugal. He is currently completing a film documentary on early modernist New Zealand painter Edith Collier, and preparing a digital drama on homeless children, "This Lonely Day."

Sabeena Gadihoke

Sabeena Gadihoke teaches video and television production at the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia University in New Delhi. She is also an independent documentary filmmaker and cameraperson. Her film “Three Women and a Camera” was awarded prizes at Film South Asia in Kathmandu (1999) and at the Mumbai International Film Festival (2000). She was a Fullbright Fellow during 1995-6 and has received grants from the India Foundation for the Arts (Bangalore) and the Charles Wallace Trust (UK) for her research on photography. She has recently finished a book on Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first woman photojournalist, that is soon to be published by Mapin.

Shandana Minhas

Shandana Minhas writes for stage, screen and print. Her producer/writer credits include documentaries on urban planning and Afghan refugees in Pakistan and the short film “Doctor,” which she co-directed with Maheen Zia. A feature film based on her novella “Rafina” is currently being developed by director Sabiha Sumar (“Khamosh Pani”). Shandana is currently writing documentary scripts on a freelance basis as well as working on a TV series.

Sikandar Goldau

Sikandar Goldau was born in Pakistan near Quetta and moved to Munich when he was adopted by German parents. He studied at the Munich Film School where the short “Fragile” was his graduation film. Shot by Franz Lustig who has shot Wim Wenders’ last two films, it went on to win a number of awards at international film festivals and was also nominated for the Student Academy Awards.