DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER: KAREN SEVERNS
Karen Severns received an MFA in Film from Columbia University. She also has an MS in Journalism, and has worked in both New York and Tokyo as a filmmaker, film critic, journalist, author and advertising executive. She has produced dozens of music/specialty videos and short films, including 2001 Academy Award nominee One Day Crossing and, the acclaimed feature-length documentary Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings and Legacy in Japan (2005). Karen teaches film at Waseda University, and curates the film program at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Japan.

PRODUCER: KOICHI MORI
Koichi Mori holds an MBA from Thunderbird and has produced dozens of industrials and promotional films for a leading US multinational, as well as honing his expertise in marketing, sales promotion, brand management and new business development. For KiSMet Productions, he has created architectural films, short films and specialty videos, as well as the feature-length documentary Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings and Legacy in Japan (2005). Koichi co-curates the film program at the Foreign Correspondent Club of Japan.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: JONATHAN M. HALL
Jonathan M. Hall is an Assistant Professor of Japanese film and media at the University of California Irvine, where he teaches in the programs in Visual Studies and Film & Media Studies. He has also taught film studies at San Francisco State University, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo International University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California Berkeley. Hall also works as a film critic and curator, has published on sexuality and cinema in popular and academic contexts, and has served as a juror for film festivals in Tokyo and San Francisco.

WRITER: DONALD RICHIE
Donald Richie received a BA in English from Columbia University in 1952 and returned to Japan, where he began his writing career in 1947. He has served as an arts critic for The Japan Times for 60 years, as well as writing over 40 books on Japan and Japanese film, including the seminal Ozu, The Inland Sea, Japanese Film: Art And Industry, 100 Years of Japanese Film, and The Japan Journals 1947-2004. His screenwriting credits include: The Inland Sea (l99l), Akira Kurosawa (l975), Five Filosophical Fables (l967), Dead Youth (1967) and War Games (1962).