BEVERLY SECKINGER—Producer/Director/Camera
Beverly is a filmmaker based in Tucson, Arizona, and Professor in the School of Theatre, Film & Television at the University of Arizona. She is also a longtime Tucson musician, whose band the Wayback Machine has been playing for the greater hippie diaspora of southern Arizona and New Mexico for nearly 20 years. Her 2004 diary/documentary Laramie Inside Out, about the aftermath of Matthew Shepard’s 1998 murder in her hometown community, won the Best of Arizona award at the 2004 Arizona International Film Festival, and had its US broadcast premiere on PBS in June 2007. Laramie Inside Out is distributed by New Day Films, Filmoption/Canada, and American Public Television. It has been featured at dozens of universities, conferences and community events across the country, and purchased for the permanent collections of nearly 400 colleges and universities, as well as public libraries, high schools, church resource centers and community education programs. Seckinger’s other films have been screened at international festivals in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America. Seckinger is currently developing a film about four longtime leaders in the immigrant justice movement in Southern Arizona, and providing media support for the Pima County Justice for All campaign. She was a founding member of the UA Committee (now Institute) for LGBT Studies, and since 1993 has directed the annual Lesbian Looks Film Series. She is in the process of establishing a Center for Documentary at the University of Arizona, and co-directs the DocScapes screening and workshop series. Seckinger is a longtime member of the University Film and Video Association, and a member-owner of New Day Films, the leading filmmaker-owned distribution company for social issue documentary films.

JIM KLEIN—Editor
Jim has been an independent filmmaker since 1970. With his partner, Julia Reichert, he created such innovative documentaries as Growing Up Female, the first documentary about women from a feminist perspective which was selected for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress; Union Maids, one of the first oral history films and an Academy Award nominee; Methadone: An American Way of Dealing, which challenged government policies on heroin addiction; and Seeing Red, a film about American communists that was nominated for an Academy Award. Klein has also had a distinguished career as a film editor in the independent film community, including Scout’s Honor, about gay discrimination within the Boy Scouts; Lion In The House, about kids and their families fighting cancer and a prime time Emmy winner; and the Academy Award nominated The Last Truck, about the closing of a GM truck factory. He is a founder of the social issue documentary film distribution co-op New Day Films, and retired Professor in the School of Theatre, Dance and Film at Wright State University. »Learn more about Jim on his site

MITZI COWELL—Original Music
Tucson native Mitzi Cowell is a singer, songwriter, bandleader, session and performing lead guitarist and bassist, producer, recordist, visionary, visual artist, writer, gardener, and contemplative. Mitzi’s music is intelligent, revealing, imaginative, playful, and spiritually uplifting, with a rhythmic and aesthetic grounding in blues, R&B, and other American roots music, and the high-bar musicianship of a session player. Imagine Lyle Lovett on mushrooms, or Jane Siberry if she were born in Clarksdale, Mississippi and hired the Meters as a rhythm section. Mitzi originally learned folk-blues fingerpicking as an adolescent from master Ken Tucker, and honed her electric chops gigging and recording with numerous blues, R&B, classic rock, funk, variety, and original projects. She learned New Orleans-style sensibilities and groove through immersion, gigging and recording in the Crescent City in 1989-90, and brought all it back to the desert to create a style of her own.

VICTORIA WESTOVER—Executive Producer
Vicky has worked in non-profit arts management for over 26 years. She has directed numerous repertory seasons of cinema, international film festivals, competitions, and special programs with noted filmmakers, including Tucson Cine Mexico. Since 2004 Vicky has served as the Director of the University of Arizona Hanson Film Institute, which offers programs for students, faculty, filmmakers, and members of the community. She occasionally serves as adjunct faculty in the UA School of Theatre, Film and Television. Vicky is the Founding Producer of Independent Eye (Maryland Public Television) and has produced short and feature length independent films, including the documentary Apache 8, which was broadcasted on public television stations nationally and is distributed by Women Make Movies. Vicky was the Arizona unit producer for the Mexican film 600 Miles, which won the Best First Feature award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015. She is serving as the Executive Producer for a documentary project about the Camino de Santiago in Spain, directed by Eren McGinnis/Ari Palos (Precious Knowledge). Vicky has served on numerous non-profit boards, committees, and panels, including for the AFI in Washington and HBO/NALIP Documentary Awards.