Elzbieta Szoka (Director) was born and raised in Lodz, Poland. She received her M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Warsaw in Poland and a Ph.D. in Brazilian Literature and Culture from the University of Texas in Austin. After a 20-year stint in academia as a literary and theater scholar, she became involved in film-making as executive producer and script advisor on the movie Screen Door Jesus. She co-wrote the screenplay for the film Welcome to Academia with Kirk Davis a few years later and is currently developing new projects with Sam Adelman for Paradox Smoke Productions, which has included getting involved with the post production of the Academy Award nominated documentary Salim Baba. She is also a translator and editor for Host Publications, an international literary press which she co-founded with her husband, Joe W. Bratcher III, in 1988. Elzbieta lives in NYC with her husband and their two sons, Adam and Ian.

Sam Adelman (Producer, Editor) has worked on over fifty feature films, starting his career in the editing rooms of such films as Easy Money, Desperately Seeking Susan, Donnie Brasco, Addicted to Love, and Practical Magic. Since 2002, he has moved on to producing the feature films Welcome To Academia and Screen Door Jesus, the latter on which he was also the editor. He was the founder of ST, a script development workshop that ran for 5 years in various New York locations, hosting over 100 readings with moderated critiques afterward. Sam is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase Film and Theater Arts program, and he currently works and lives in NYC with his wife, Jessica, and their daughter, Charlotte.

Nadia Hallgren  (Cinematographer), is from the Bronx, New York. Her camera credits include Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the Sundance Grand Jury prize winner and Academy Award-nominated Trouble the Water. Traveling across 5 continents, Nadia has worked with political figures such as Dan Rather and Desmond Tutu, as well as pop culture icons like Britney Spears and Cameron Diaz

click on any picture of the crew to enlarge