Maria Finitzo is a two-time Peabody award winning social-issue documentary filmmaker. She has been producing and directing documentary films for network television, public broadcasting, cable TV and the Internet for more than 25 years. Her body of work has been honored by every major broadcast award granted to documentary films. Ms. Finitzo’s films demonstrate a depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise, tackling a wide variety of subjects including the controversial science of stem cell research, the command and control of nuclear weapons on an international level, and the complex psychology of adolescent girls.

Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 50 years. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his first film Home for Life (1966) "an extraordinarily moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon established the direction he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people. 

From 2008-2015, Justine led Kartemquin Films as Executive Director as well as being an Executive Producer on each new film. She was responsible, in concert with the Board of Directors, for creating and implementing the strategic vision for Kartemquin. Justine successfully transitioned to the ED role in a historic founder-led organization, and made major strides in building a foundation for long-term sustainability.

David E. Simpson is a highly-awarded filmmaker who brings to his projects a collaborative spirit, proven storytelling chops and formidable attention to detail. Films he has produced, directed or edited have garnered two Emmys, two DuPont-Columbia batons, a pair of Peabody awards, an Oscar nomination, a Sundance jury prize and best in category at countless festivals. He has worked in close association with Kartemquin Films since 1997.

For over thirty-five years, Jim Morrissette has had extensive experience as both a professional videographer and teacher, supporting his conviction that sharing and access are instrumental to the vitality of the independent production community. Jim has been the director of photography on numerous productions including: the award winning PBS documentary A Still Small Voice dealing with spiritual thought and mystic understanding, five episodes of Bill Kurtis' New Explorers, two episodes of Discovering Women for WGBH Boston, and Shadow Over Tibet, a documentary featuring the Dalai Lama. He was the principal videographer on the highly acclaimed six hour Frontline documentary The Farmer's Wife, which aired twice nationally on PBS.

Ines Sommer is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker, who frequently collaborates with other filmmakers as a cinematographer. Ines' camera work has been featured in several productions for Chicago's legendary Kartemquin Films, including Maria Finitzo's Peabody Award-winning Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and Joanna Rudnick's Emmy-nominated In the Family. She shot on two PBS Frontline programs directed by Marian Marzynski and a number of Kindling Group documentaries: A Doula Story: On the Frontlines of Teen Pregnancy, "The Calling" , and the forthcoming @home. Other recent credits include Mary Fishman's A Band of Sisters, Ethan Bensinger's Refuge: Stories of the Selfhelp Home, and Pamela Sherrod Anderson's award-winning The Curators of Dixon School, which Ines shot and co-produced.

Zak is an Emmy-winning Documentary Producer who previously served as Director of Production at Kartemquin Films for more than a decade. Most recently, he produced Saving Mes Aynak, which follows an Afghan archaeologist as he and histeam race to save a 2,000-year-old Buddhist archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition by a Chinese copper mine. Zak also produced the critically acclaimed film Life Itself.

Adam D. Singer began working with Kartemquin Films in 1989 spending 5 years on the critically acclaimed documentary Hoop Dreams and has continued his association with them for the past 19 years. He has worked on various productions, both nationally and internationally, as a producer, cameraman and sound recordist. With Kartemquin and director Steve James he produced No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival and aired as part of ESPN Films' 2010 International Documentary Association award-winning series "30 for 30." The film was selected for the IDOCS International Documentary Forum in Beijing, and also played at the Cleveland, Full Frame, Dallas, Nashville and Atlanta film festivals, among others. In 2011, No Crossover was selected by the U.S. Department of State for the American Documentary Showcase.

Liz Kaar is an independent documentary filmmaker, working in Chicago and Latin America. She edited Kartemquin’s feature-length documentary Typeface, as well as a slew of shorts, demos and trailers for the company.  She’s also produced and directed non-profit videos for the Illinois Department of Public Health, CDC, and The Newberry Library.  Most recently she edited and associate produced the feature-length music documentary Andrew Bird: Fever Year.  

Steve James' affiliation with Kartemquin began in 1987 with the start of production of Hoop Dreams, for which he served as director, producer, and co-editor. He has since then become one of the most acclaimed documentary makers of his generation, with noted works being Stevie, The New Americans, The War Tapes, At the Death House Door, The Interrupters, Life Itself, and most recently the 2018 Academy Award®-nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.

Joanna has worked as a producer, director and a former Director of Development for Kartemquin over the past decade. No matter where life takes her, she will always consider Kartemquin her filmmaking home! Currently, living in the Bay Area with her husband and two little girls, Joanna is finishing the Kartemquin film On Beauty about former fashion photographer Rick Guidotti’s campaign to change the way we see the beauty in difference told through the stories of three women with genetic syndromes living in Africa, Upstate New York and the Middle East.

Leslie Simmer is Kartemquin's Director of Editing as well as Senior Editor on staff.

Yvonne P. Afable was Kartemquin's Director of Finance from 2004-2012, before transitioning to the Board of Directors. A graduate of DePaul University, Yvonne has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting & Finance. She is a Certified Management Accountant with 16 years of accounting experience. She was an auditor for two years before beginning her career in the not-for-profit industry. She monitored the budget and assisted with investments for the American College of Surgeons before becoming the Assistant Accounting Manager. Then she joined the Corporate Reporting Department of Rotary International as the Accounting Manager before working on the PeopleSoft upgrade and Business Process Redesign. She started her own business in 2001, Afable ACS LLC, offering accounting services to nonprofit organizations and small businesses.

Beckie is responsible for managing the professional development programs and outreach initiatives of the organization including Diverse Voices in Docs, KTQ Labs, the KTQ Internship program, and classroom, media advocacy, and production outreach initiatives. Additionally, she works to build successful strategies for providing producers with critical advice and support around audience engagement, social impact, and fundraising throughout the production and distribution process. Beckie has led strategy for over 10 social impact and audience engagement campaigns for award-winning documentaries.