Parvez Sharma
Parvez Sharma (Director/Producer) is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. He directed and produced the multiple award winning A JIHAD FOR LOVE, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and opened the prestigious Panorama Dokumente section of the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival. The film went on to screen for over eight million people in 51 nations and was theatrically distributed in the US and Canada. He was named one of “50 Visionaries who are Changing your World,” in a list headed by the Dalai Lama. His writings on Islamic, racial and political issues have frequently appeared on The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast and The Guardian, to name a few. He has become a prominent speaker on Muslim issues speaking at hundreds of live events around the world and conducting workshops with the US State Department and Department of Homeland Security. Parvez’s full bio can be read here.
→ THE NEW YORK TIMES PROFILE ON PARVEZ
Andrew Herwitz
Andrew Herwitz (Executive Producer) is President of The Film Sales Company. Prior to establishing the Company, Herwitz worked at Miramax for six years, where he ran the Acquisitions department. He previously practiced entertainment law at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP in New York City. Herwitz is a graduate of Harvard College, Columbia Business School and Harvard Law School. His long list of credits includes Academy award winning films like Born into Brothels, Oscar nominated films including My Architect, Iraq in Fragments, and War Dance and the record breaking Fahrenheit 9/11.
Alison Amron
Alison Amron (Editor and Co-producer) is an editor and producer based in New York City. She was part of the editing team on Showtime’s critically acclaimed series on climate change Years Of Living Dangerously, which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series. Alison was co-editor of Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2010 and was nominated for three Emmys, including Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing. She edited and co-produced the surprise hit-film Fat Sick & Nearly Dead (2010), which won Best Documentary at the Iowa Film Festival, as well as the Audience Award at the Sonoma Film Festival. Alison edited the 2007 Bill Moyers documentary, Buying The War, which won an Emmy as well as numerous other awards. She has also done work for Human Rights Watch, putting together powerful films for their yearly campaigns as well as films on human rights issues around the globe.
Sajid Akbar
Sajid Akbar (Co-Editor, Music and Opening Title Design) As a specialist in post-production, Sajid Akbar started his career at ESPN Star Sports, an international broadcast network based in New Delhi. Since 2006, he has been a freelance media professional who has worked with several prominent television broadcasters, multinational corporations and independent filmmakers. He has been involved in projects such as The Indian Premiere League, The Cricket World Cup, The Commonwealth Games, “Oh My Gold,” a long format lifestyle program for the Discovery Network; conducted training workshops for editors at various broadcast networks; designed a video art installation; and been the South Asia editor for Global News Canada. He decided to return to university in 2012 and recently completed an MA in Sound Arts from The University of the Arts, London, for which he was awarded a fully funded scholarship. This degree further refined his aesthetic sensibility through an introduction to the conceptual practices of several contemporary artists. Being a professional musician for longer than he has been an editor gives him an inherent understanding of rhythm and meter that has always complemented his editing decisions. He is based in New Delhi.
M.E. Manning
M.E. Manning (Music and End Title Design) M.E. Manning played the first guitar she ever saw at the age of five and never wanted to let it go. Her diverse music can be heard on feature & short films and in television productions around the globe. M.E. has worked with talents including Todd Rundgren, Bill Moyers, Alex Gibney and FinaLOutlaW. Highlighted credits: Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story; [re]production by Todd Rundgren; Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer; Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead; Human Rights Watch, 30 for 30; Pit Bulls & Parolees; Last American Cowboy; Long Island Medium; UJA Federation Films; and Moyers on America. M.E. is also a producer, engineer and songwriter. The Human Rights Watch film she composed for won a Peabody Award and her songs are Billboard and SGA Songwriter Circle award-winners. When not composing music, she can be found doing her second love: graphic & creative design. M.E. is based in NYC.
Van Maximilian Carlson
Van Maximilian Carlson (Additional Editing including Trailer), is a filmmaker based in LA. His work includes numerous projects including documentaries, commercials, trailers, and several original films. His documentary, Bhopali, has won seven awards, including the “Best Documentary” award at the 2011 Slamdance film festival, and has been broadcast in over 20 countries. His work has garnered over 15 awards and his short film, Ninth November Night, was called “one of the outstanding documentaries of 2004″ by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Husain Akbar
Husain Akbar (Cinematography—India) is a New Delhi-based cinematographer with a penchant for adventure. In the 15 years of his professional career, Husain’s work has sent him hiking across glaciers in southern Patagonia, filming under the midnight sun in the Norwegian Arctic for the National Geographic Channel, capturing Afghanistan’s unpredictable yet starkly beautiful landscapes and shooting ice hockey in Ladakh in sub-zero temperatures. His journeys have brought him face-to-face with fascinating people and their stories.
Martin Pieper and Kathrin Brinkmann
Martin Pieper and Kathrin Brinkmann (ZDF-Arte) Martin is Commissioning Editor—Culture & Science programs ZDF/ARTE. Since 2000, Martin has been the Commissioning Editor/Head of the Department Culture & Science Programs/ARTE, which supplies programs for mostly all single documentary slots aired on ARTE. Kathrin, who is the Commissioning Editor on this film, has been commissioning editor for Das Kleine Fernsehspiel/ZDF and ARTE Development of new program formats for Quantum, the television workshop of Das Kleine Fernsehspiel for the German culture channel 3sat. Since May 2000, she has been commissioning editor in the new department ARTE THEMA within ZDF. A SINNER IN MECCA will be aired to wide audiences in Europe and beyond on these two networks, with Europe’s largest broadcast footprints.