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. Before Unbroken Glass, Dinesh shot parts of American Arab and The Homestretch with Kartemquin filmmakers. He also shot and is co-producing the forthcoming How to Build a School in Haiti with director Jack C. Newell. He is currently attending Stanford University’s Documentary Film and Video MFA program.

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.

R. Patrick Lile is currently producing his first feature-length documentary Unbroken Glass with Kartemquin. Following an internship with Kartemquin, Patrick was the Outreach Coordinator for the award winning documentary, The Interrupters (2011). Before coming to Kartemquin, Patrick spent two seasons as a science Segment Producer for WTIU-PBS's Regional Emmy Award winning, Friday Zone (2001-2003). He served multiple roles on the Regional Emmy Award winning documentary, Trouble No More: The Making of a John Mellencamp Album (2003), was the Video Archive Researcher on Tony and Janina's American Wedding (2010) and worked as a Production Researcher for Michael Caplan's documentary, Algren (TBA). Most recently, Patrick served as a Production Assistant and Assistant Editor on Steve James's documentary Head Games (2012). Most recently, Patrick provided post-production assistance to Life Itself.

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.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams has recorded seven albums as a leader and collaborated on over a hundred recordings. The New York Times describes his record, Represencing as "music that hints at the ceremonial without losing its modern bearings". In addition to The Trials of Muhammad Ali, he has composed soundtracks for The Interrupters and short film A Place Called Pluto. He is currently working on the music for the Kartemquin’s upcoming releases Almost There and Life Itself.

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. 

Executive Director Betsy Steinberg joined Kartemquin in December 2015 and oversees daily operations, development, and serves as Executive Producer on Kartemquin projects. Prior to Kartemquin she spent eight years as Managing Director of the Illinois Film Office where she she spearheaded Illinois’ transformation into a world class film destination. She was instrumental in the passage of the Illinois film tax credit and implemented an overall business development strategy resulting in over $1 billion in direct economic impact. During her tenure the state broke all local film industry revenues in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013 and the Illinois Film Office was recognized by the Illinois Arts Alliance with an Arts Advocate Award and Cinema Chicago's Golden Hugo. She also served on the Governor's Roundtable on the Creative Arts and the boards of Free Spirit Media, Chicago Media Project and the Midwest Independent Film Festival.

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.

Diane worked in LA for over 17 years before moving back to her hometown of Chicago. While in LA, Diane had a successful career at NBC and at Paramount Pictures where she was last the Vice President of Marketing.

Max joined Kartemquin as the Administrative and Data Coordinator in the fall of 2016, after spending the summer of 2016 in the internship program. Max’s duties include assisting our artistic director, Gordon Quinn, in managing his schedule, promoting his and Kartemquin’s media advocacy efforts, and generally coordinating his day-to-day activities. Max also supports our development director, Joanna Lakatos, by managing our databases, processing gift entry, and coordinating fundraising functions.

Nora Gully is a curious and compassionate video editor who specializes in long-form documentary films. She values the opportunity to learn about people's lives and bring their stories to the screen. Nora was most recently an editor on How to Build a School in Haiti and Unity Dinners, additional editor on Finding Vivian Maier and post production supervisor for Almost There. She spent five years as Kartemquin Films’ Post Production Associate. Her first credit was on the Emmy-award-winning The Interrupters, first as assistant editor and subsequently as post-production supervisor. She shepherded its popular festival run, its theatrical release, and delivered multiple versions to national and international broadcasters, including PBS Frontline, BBC Storyville, CBC’s The Passionate Eye and Canal Plus.

Hillary Bachelder is a former Kartemquin intern turned staff member now working as a freelance editor, producer, and director in Chicago. Hillary first began her Kartemquin staff life as a night shift assistant editor for the Emmy-award winning The Trials of Muhammad Ali. Hillary went on to become Post Production Manager and then Director of Production at Kartemquin, managing teams, collaborating with filmmakers, and ultimately earning credits on over a dozen recent Kartemquin projects.

A graduate of Columbia College Chicago, Ryan first joined the Kartemquin family as an intern of Xan Aranda and assisted in the rollout of her film Andrew Bird: Fever Year. Later, as an intern at Kartemquin, he worked on a range of tasks including contributing to outreach on The Interrupters, assisting in editing of the demo of Living Revolution, and helping with Kartemquin’s first KTQ Labs Spring Showcase.

Eugene is a Post Production Assistant. He works on various aspects in the finishing of a film. His responsibilities include media management, online editing, and creating exports for festivals and distributors. Eugene is a former intern at Kartemquin and worked extensively on the show In the Game. Before joining Kartemquin, Eugene worked in the environmental field. Seeing a need to communicate environmental issues visually, he got hooked on documentaries and filmmaking. Eugene was born in Kyoto, and raised in Manila and New Orleans. He has a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and a minor in Environmental Studies from the University of Chicago.

Prior to joining Kartemquin Films as its Director of Finance and Operations, Anthony owned and operated AJ Stoll & Associates, LLC from September 2009 through November 2015. While there, he provided an array of services for nonprofits including: creating policies and procedures including internal controls, bookkeeping services, financial statement preparation, financial and programmatic assessments and strategic planning. The nonprofit industry quickly learned about his services and as a result, AJ Stoll & Associates, LLC became the largest consultant firm in the state of Illinois working exclusively with nonprofits. Mr. Stoll provided numerous nonprofits the tools, information and resources needed to survive an ever-changing economy. He developed the skill set to provide a quick and accurate financial and program assessment to assist nonprofits to create strategic plans needed for survival.

Pedro is the Finance Manager at Kartemquin Films. He assists the Director of Finance & Operations in planning and organizing the activities of day-to-day accounting functions. His responsibilities include overseeing accounts payable, accounts receivable, monthly intercompany processes, and payroll. His interest in documentary films stems from watching Spellbound at a young age as he prepared for a citywide spelling bee. Among his favorite documentaries are Man on Wire and Kartemquin’s own, The New Americans. He is enthusiastic about being part of the Kartemquin community and looks forward to continue learning the financial and creative processes of documentary filmmaking.

Tim Horsburgh is Kartemquin’s Director of Communications and Distribution. Since 2009, he has driven marketing, audience engagement, public relations, and social media for Kartemquin and all their films. In March 2014 he began overseeing Kartemquin's distribution strategy. He is also responsible for assessing and managing potential new Kartemquin documentary projects.

Emily Strong is committed to sharing and supporting authentic and inspiring stories from diverse perspectives that stimulate conversation, unite people, and express humanity. She is grateful to have the opportunity to do this every day running the Internship, KTQ Labs, and Diverse Voices in Documentary programs at Kartemquin, cultivating and producing over 42 filmmakers each year. She is currently producing an independent documentary, Keep Moving Forward, about a veteran who uses Disney to find peace from his memories of the war.

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.

Nancy first joined the documentary community as an intern of filmmaker Xan Aranda and assisted on her film Andrew Bird: Fever Year. She then worked for several years as Production Coordinator on an educational children's television show, Green Screen Adventures. Her roles there included costume design/styling for which she was nominated for a National Daytime Emmy. Nancy is currently the Production Manager at Kartemquin Films -- a collaborative center for documentary media makers who seek to foster a more engaged and empowered society. She joined the Kartemquin family in 2014 and has since worn a variety of hats there - from development/administrative work to post production/archive management.

A recent graduate from the Northwestern University's Documentary Media MFA, Carlos joins Kartemquin seeking to take part in socially relevant and impactful filmmaking. In the summer of 2015, Carlos was an intern at Kartemquin, helping in different tasks for the communications and outreach of films like Raising Bertie, Almost There and In the Game. Before moving to Chicago in 2014, Carlos worked as an Editor and Post Production coordinator in his native Venezuela for 6 years. He assisted Brazilian editor Isabela Monteiro de Castro in the highly awarded Venezuelan film Desde Allá (From Afar), winner of the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.

Julia has served as Kartemquin’s Marketing and Distribution Associate since the fall of 2016, having interned with Kartemquin during the spring of 2016. She feels very lucky to have found the supportive and collaborative filmmaking community that is Kartemquin, and to have the opportunity to work with and learn from its talented filmmakers and staff everyday. Julia believes in the ability of documentary film to inspire empathy and create impact, and is dedicated to bringing Kartemquin’s films to as many viewers as possible. Her responsibilities include managing social media and data collection for the Communications and Distribution department, as well as assisting in the development of marketing campaigns for individual films and the organization as a whole. Julia graduated with a BA in History from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Alanna Schmelter is a film & television editor with a concentration in narrative non-fiction & documentary. After graduating with a degree in film editing from Columbia College Chicago, she started her career by cutting comedy at the world-renowned Second City. She has since edited series for National Geographic, Travel Channel, Ovation and A&E. In January 2016, she finished cutting a feature documentary titled Walk All Night: A Drum Beat Journey (Co-dir: Kate Benzschawel & Mallory Sohmer), about four teenage street musicians from Chicago who embark on a journey to Senegal to explore its culture and their connection to Africa. The film made its Chicago debut at the Black Harvest Film Festival in August of 2016.

Beth is the Director of Project Research and has been working with Kartemquin since 2005. Currently, she is the Co-Producer of In the Family, a documentary feature exploring the impact of genetic testing for the hereditary breast and ovarian cancer gene. The film will be broadcast nationally on the series "P.O.V." on PBS in Fall 2008. In addition to her production role, Beth is also coordinating the outreach and education campaign around the film. With Kartemquin, she has contributed to proposals for projects on public education and immigrant health, organizational development grants, and has overseen multimedia projects, most recently for the MacArthur Foundation. Beth has also worked as a freelance field producer, writer for a Chicago travel website, and coordinator for a 40-person educational trip through southern Africa.

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.  

Rachel Dickson is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Chicago. Before working in film, she worked as a print and radio journalist in Latin America. She is currently the Supervising Producer of The School Project, a series of short documentaries and webisodes about public education collaboratively produced by Kartemquin Films, Kindling Group, Media Process Group, Siskel/Jacobs Productions, and Free Spirit Media.

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.

Justin Williams has worked as a communications and arts management professional to enhance the outreach and impact of theaters, businesses, and individuals. He has been affiliated with Kartemquin beginning in 2014 – first as an intern then as an Associate Producer. He is glad to return to Kartemquin in the role of Diverse Voices in Docs coordinator as the company further commits and invests in documentaries produced by filmmakers of color.