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.

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

Zak is an Emmy and PGA award-winning documentary filmmaker who has made films for over 15 years.

Currently, Zak is producing several feature films: City So Real with producer/director Steve James; Until the Lion Speaks (working title), for Concordia Studio, with co-directors Bing Liu and Joshua Altman; and The Ants and the Grasshopper (working title), a film he is also co-directing/producing with Raj Patel and producer Rachel Wexler.

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.

Tristan Hanson is a documentary director, producer and grant-writer. With Kartemquin Films she’s currently Co-Producer on Almost There and American Arab (2013). Previously she’s worked as Associate Producer for On Beauty and The Homestretch.

Dinesh Sabu made his first feature documentary Unbroken Glass with Kartemquin. It played at numerous film festivals and was broadcast on America ReFramed’s 5th Season in May 2017. Dinesh was awarded “Best Director” at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival in 2017 for his debut feature.

​Ryan Gleeson is a documentary filmmaker based in Chicago, Illinois. After cutting his teeth on his parents' VHSC camcorder and spending a summer editing Hyphenated Humor with the late Jerry Blumenthal, Ryan spent half a decade at Kartemquin Films involving himself in a variety of ways, including but not limited to film production, workflow planning, tape archiving, event planning, and gallery curation. He rose to be Kartemquin's Post-Production Manager.

Matt Lauterbach is a documentary filmmaker and editor, an educational media developer, and an advocate for accessible media. He crafts engaging non-fiction content for classrooms, museums, and the big screen.

Hillary Bachelder is a documentary director, cinematographer, and editor. She is the former Director of Production at Kartemquin Films and earned both editing and production credits on over a dozen of the company’s critically acclaimed films and series, including the Emmy-award-winning Trials of Muhammad Ali, POV’s Raising Bertie, and Oscar nominated Minding the Gap. In 2015, she was selected to participate in the prestigious Sundance Documentary Edit and Storytelling lab as an up-and-coming editor of promise.

Rachel Dickson is an independent filmmaker based in Chicago with a background in journalism and Spanish translation. She produced ‘63 Boycott with Kartemquin Films, which was named on the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Documentary Short Subject, won the Jury Award for Best Short Documentary at the Nashville Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, and was an official selection of the Museum of Modern Art Doc Fortnight and the DOC NYC Short List.

Tim Horsburgh is an independent producer and consultant dedicated to the development, production, marketing, distributing, and impact of award-winning, impactful documentary films.

Serving on Kartemquin staff from 2009-2021, he was most recently Kartemquin’s Director of Film Strategy, leading the organization's original documentaries through their collaborative production model; industry outreach, strategic initiatives, and brand-building; and serving as the point of contact for Kartemquin Producers and Associates.

Suzanne, the Vice President of Finance & Operations at Kartemquin, is a non-profit finance, operations and accounting expert dedicated to building stronger non-profit organizations through better fiscal management and organizational efficiency. Suzanne has a decade of professional experience focused on strengthening the internal capacity of charitable organizations. She believes that navigating the financial challenges unique to non-profits requires a high level of financial accountability, transparency, and integrity. In her role at Kartemquin, Suzanne is responsible for all aspects of the organization’s financial management, general operations, human resources, compliance, information technology, legal affairs and risk management.

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.

Ian Robertson Kibbe is a freelance filmmaker, writer, producer and musician with over 10 years experience as a producer, director and editor. Ian was the engagement coordinator for the award-winning PBS documentary, The Calling, and its companion campaign, What’s Your Calling (The Kindling Group) and also the engagement coordinator for the Emmy nominated, designer cult hit, Typeface (Kartemquin Films). Ian is currently working on the upcoming Kartemquin documentaries, Raising Bertie and Unbroken Glass. Ian's work has appeared on PBS, CNN, G4, The Health Care Blog, Billboard Magazine and the Huffington Post.

Alex Kotlowitz is perhaps best known for the bestselling There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America. The book, which was published in 1991 and has since sold over half-a-million copies, was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Helen B. Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Carl Sandburg Award and a Christopher Award. The New York Public Library selected There Are No Children Here as one of the 150 most important books of the century.

Elspeth Revere is the founder and CEO of Ravenswood Consulting Group where she advises donors and nonprofits on effective philanthropy, strategic planning, and nonprofit management. Her recent clients include Chicago Public Media, Albany Park Theater Project, the Richard H.

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.

Dan Rybicky is an award-winning filmmaker and tenured professor in the Cinema and Television Arts Department at Columbia College Chicago. He produced and co-directed ITVS/Kartemquin Films' critically-acclaimed feature documentary Almost There, which screened at over thirty festivals before being distributed theatrically, digitally, and on public television in 2016.

David E. Simpson is a documentary filmmaker with over three decades of experience. Films he has produced, directed or edited have garnered three national Emmys, a pair of Peabody awards, two DuPont-Columbia batons, an Oscar nomination, a Sundance jury award and best in category at countless festivals. He has worked in close association with Kartemquin Films since 1997.

An experienced director/producer, David deems editing the heart of documentary-practice and spends the bulk of his time in the cutting room crafting impactful works with talented collaborators. 

Aaron Wickenden is a multiple Emmy and ACE Eddie nominated editor with extensive professional experience in many aspects of the independent filmmaking process. He is regarded for bringing a tireless work ethic and playful spirit to each of his creative collaborations... including the Oscar nominated film Finding Vivian Maier.