KAREN CRESPO

Karen Crespo's interests in film as a career started after her first short films for HSC Drama and Art were selected to screen at the 2005 OnStage/OnScreen Performance and Art Express Regional tour. After she graduated from high school, Karen went straight to studying film at Sydney Film School, where she engaged in experimentation with dance for film, an area that she continues to explore in her artistic endeavour. She made Liminal with the Secret Film Society.

Gustavo Faraco was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1980. His passion for photography and filmmaking made him go out into the world. People and real life were always his biggest interests. During his journeys, filmmaking and photography were his ways of documenting and connecting to people and experiences. He has lived, worked and studied in Brazil, California, New Zealand and Australia. While in Australia he studied at Sydney Film School. He has many short films, including the award-winning 4 Rolls (2009), a film of portraits captured on black and white, 16mm film. He has continued to explore this unique form of narrative in Still, which he made with the Secret Film Society.

BRIAN LIEN

Brian Lien is a graduate of the UNSW College of Fine Arts and Sydney Film School, where he received the coveted Chairman's Award. He has made several short films including 7:23, which won the Grand Prix at the 2008 One Take Film Festival in Zagreb, Croatia. 7:23 has also screened at numerous Australian and international film festivals and has been included on a number of DVD compilations. Brian wrote and directed TGIF as his Secret Film Society film.

GIOVANNI C. LORUSSO

Giovanni C. Lorusso was born in Sardinia, Italy. He has worked and studied in Italy, Australia, UK, Sweden and Denmark, graduating in Arts (Rome), Literature (Rome, Copenhagen), Cinematography (Sydney) and Philosophy (London). Probably due to his religious and philosophical education, he won't rest until he is able to reproduce the image of God through his cinematographic work. While in Australia he studied at the Sydney Film School. He has written and directed a number of films, including Plato's Phaedrus, which received an ATOM Award for Best Experimental Film in 2007. He made Augustine Confessions with the Secret Film Society.

BRIAN LYE

Brian Lye was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1980. His love for filmmaking grew when making skateboard movies with his friends in high school.  He has worked, studied, and shot in Canada, Japan, Uganda, Australia (where he attended Sydney Film School), and the Czech Republic.  As a filmmaker he uses imagination and humour to reflect on his life experiences. He has written and directed many award-winning films, including the most recent Love Birds, which was officially selected for competition at Sundance in the International Short Film (drama) category. He made Carry Me Home with the Secret Film Society.

MICHAEL MCLENNAN

Michael McLennan is a Sydney-based writer/director. His short film Go Quickly was awarded the Best Film at the 2007 Australia-Japan Student Film Forum, and was commended by the Dendy Film Awards. In 2010, his short film Small Things premiered at the Zagreb One Take Film Festival. Other credits include a range of assignments as producer, editor (Rapt, TGIF), sound designer (Tree of Hurt), director of photography (Liminal, Carry Me Home), and music editor (the feature film Penelopa). Since 2008, Michael has served as supervisor in the thesis film program at Sydney Film School, and also lectures in sound design and music for film. He is the only graduate of the school to have twice won the prestigious Chairman's Award. In 2009, he founded the Secret Film Society. His films in the Society as director are Why We Trade and Magpie. 

JUHYUN PAK

Juhyun Pak was born in Seoul, South Korea and raised and educated in Sydney. He has a background in political science, international relations and law. He is a graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (Directing, 2010), where he will also complete the Producing and Screen Business degree in 2011. He is also a graduate of Sydney Film School (2008). He joined the Secret Film Society in 2009 and is responsible for The Fall, which was selected for competition at the 2010 Sandfly Film Festival. He has written and directed a number of other shorts, including Stanley (2011), Still Life (a short documentary) (2010), and I Have No Regrets (2010).

KATHARINE THORNTON

Katharine Thornton currently manages distribution at Sharmill Films, one of Australia’s oldest and foremost art house distributors. She studied filmmaking at Sydney Film School and completed a Masters of Film and Digital Image at the University of Sydney. She has worked as distribution manager for Sydney Film School, and has also worked for both Anvil Films and Sherman Pictures (now See Saw Films) during the release and distribution of Candy and the pre-production and production Disgrace. Prior to that she worked as an editor at Film Edit Copy. She has produced and directed several films and documentaries that have screened around the word, including Go Quickly which was commended at the Dendy Awards, and her documentary Suicide Towers which recently won Best Film at the 2010 Indian International Film Festival in Goa.

DAVID YOUNG

David Young was born in a rural part of Queensland in 1986. His interest in film was sparked by a pioneering film and television teacher at an otherwise conservative private Catholic school. After moving to Sydney in 2008 David graduated from Sydney Film School after directing two short films shot on 16mm. His films focus on family, relationships and the inner workings of how we all react to one another in our everyday lives. He works as a freelance director's assistant. He made Pacifica with the Secret Film Society.