PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR

BRIGID MAHER is a filmmaker and tenured, associate professor of Film and Media Arts Division inthe School of Communication at American University.  Her recent documentary, Veiled Voices, focuses on the phenomenon of Muslim women religious leaders in Islam. Veiled Voices is distributed by Typecast Releasing in the United States and has screened on over 150 public television stations and three national networks. Al Jazeera Network recently acquired the film for broadcast in the Middle East and North Africa. The film has additional international distribution through TVF International and has screened in numerous international festivals in the United States and abroad.  Maher won a Fulbright Senior Award to teach broadcast media in Lebanon in the spring of 2005.

CO-PRODUCER AND WRITER

KARI BARBER is a journalist-turned-filmmaker, who travels the globe in search of stories that inspire and unite us.  She has worked on documentaries that have shown on public television and in festivals around the world.  After some exciting years covering elections, upheaval, progress and everyday life across Africa, Kari returned to the U.S. to live in Washington, D.C. where she is completing an MFA in Film and Electronic Media at American University.  Equally comfortable behind the camera, writing or producing, Kari believes in the power of documentaries to search for truth and help us find common ground.

GRAPHICS AND BRANDING

SAMER CHEHAB created the branding for Veiled Voices.  Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, he’s a self-taught graphic artist and has worked on experimental and commercial projects with several clients throughout the Middle East. He enjoys working with print and web media and lately has been trying to experiment with the fusion of oriental and minimalist design trends. He previously worked with Maher on the graphic design and as production designer for her film short A.W.O.L. When he’s not globe-trotting, by virtue of his daytime corporate job, he enjoys a strong cup of espresso in a foreign city with interesting company and daydreams about typography and other creative stimuli.

EDITOR

ALEX PERRAULT is an Emmy-nominated editor who has worked in film, TV, and web for more than 15 years. His clients include National Geographic, Discovery, PBS, A&E, TLC, Animal Planet, Bungie, Microsoft, and the Gates Foundation. His work was nominated for a Golden Needle at the 2005 Seattle International Film Festival, and has shown at Hot Docs, Newport Beach Film Festival, and won Best Documentary at the 2012 Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival. He has also lectured at the University of Washington, American University, 911 Media Arts Center, and the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival.

MUSIC COMPOSER

PAUL A. OEHLERS is most recognized for his “extraordinarily evocative” film scores. (Variety) Films incorporating his music have screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, the Indiefest Film Festival of Chicago, and the Hamptons International Film Festival. His compositions have been performed in the United States and abroad including performances at the Society for Electro-acoustic Music in the United States national conferences, the International Computer Music Conferences, the Gamper New Music Festival, the Seoul International Electro-acoustic Music Festival, the Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung in Darmstadt, Germany, and the VII Annual Brazilian Electronic Music Festival, as well as a 1987 command performance for former United States President Ronald Reagan. Paul was named the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellow by the MacDowell Colony for the year 2006. He is currently Assistant Professor and director of the Audio Technology program at American University in Washington, DC.

OUTREACH AND PARTNERSHIPS DIRECTOR

JENNIFER GOLDSMITH is a DONA-trained postpartum doula, infant care provider, and aspiring documentary filmmaker. She sees her current role as a nurturer of mothers and babies as a great privilege and finds other birth workers to be among the warmest, kindest, people on the planet.  Prior to becoming a postpartum doula, Jennifer graduated with a degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University.  She lived in Paris for 3.5 years where she studied French at The Sorbonne and worked as a bilingual assistant for a film distribution company at the American Film Festival in Deauville and in Paris, France.  Jennifer earned a M.Ed. at Xavier University and went on to teach high school French and English as a Second Language, in her native (not-so-exotic) Indiana during which time she won the Teacher Creativity Fellowship through Eli Lilly Endowment.  Jennifer is honored to play a role in expanding awareness on women’s choices in maternity care.