As a filmmaker, Anne Aghion has been drawn to places as far-ranging as rural Rwanda, the ice fields of Antarctica and the slums of Managua. She has been praised by critics, both as a director of unique and poetic vision, and a documentarian who conveys a strong sense of the people and places she covers. Her work has also earned her, among other honors, a UNESCO Fellini Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, an Emmy, and the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival's Nestor Almendros Award for courage in Filmmaking.

Her new feature documentary My Neighbor My Killer caps nearly ten years of filming in post-genocide Rwanda, where a daring experiment in reconciliation and justice—the Gacaca Law (pronounced ga-CHA-cha)—has been put in place. There, over time, Aghion charted the emotional impact of a system of local open-air courts that adjudicates genocide crimes, and returns killers to their homes in exchange for confessions.

My Neighbor My Killer is one of the rare documentaries to be accepted as an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The only non-competition film in the festival's history to have been honored with two screenings, it played to overflow audiences and powerful reviews. It has also been honored with invitations to screening across the globe, with a partial list including the Human Rights Watch International Film Festivals in London and New York, SILVERDOCS film festival in the Washington, D.C. area, the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Ojai International Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, the second edition of the Galle International Film Festival in Sri Lanka, the inaugural DMZ Korean International Documentary Festival (DMZ Docs), the Festival des Libertés in Belgium and the Tri-Continental Film Festival in South Africa.

Journalist Philip Gourevitch, author of "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, Stories from Rwanda," has said of Aghion's work that it "captures quite precisely much of what is most compelling and unsettling about Rwanda's quest for justice after genocide."

Two of her previous films on the subject, Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda? and In Rwanda We Say... The family that does not speak dies, are hour-long works which aired on the Sundance Channel and ARTE among other networks around the world. Both films have been used by peace-building organizations as a tool in understanding "heart and mind" issues in societies recovering from strife. They have also been screened in Rwanda—by NGOs as part of their training, and most remarkably, to tens of thousands of confessed genocide killers before their release from prison.

(The two hour-long titles are the first installments in the Gacaca Trilogy. Its final chapter, The Notebooks of Memory, has also just been completed.)

Earlier in 2009, Aghion released the feature documentary, Ice People, which explores the physical, emotional and spiritual adventure of doing science in Antarctica, the earth's most challenging environment. Described by Variety as "staggeringly beautiful," Ice People conveys the vast beauty, the claustrophobia, the excitement, and the stillness of an experience set to nature's rhythm. When it opened in New York, the film was a critic's pick in Time Out New York and New York Magazine, which called Ice People "immersive, mesmerizing," The New York Times wrote that it was "instantly compelling. Ice People sticks in the mind."

Aghion's first film, "Se Le Movio el Pisò" ("The Earth Moved Under Him—A Portrait of Managua") was the winner of the Havana Film Festival's 1996 Coral Award for Best Non-Latin American Documentary on Latin America. That film explored how slum dwellers in Nicaragua's capital had survived a series of natural and political disasters.

For most of her life, Aghion has been a dual resident of New York and Paris. She spent the first eight years of her career in both editorial and administrative capacities at The New York Times Paris bureau, and at the International Herald Tribune. Moving into film, she worked in a variety of capacities including videographer, production and post-production manager with filmmakers such as Richard Leacock & Valérie Lalonde, and Judith Abitbol, and for documentaries aired on major cable networks such as Canal+ and ARTE.

Aghion was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, and has received repeat grants from the Soros Documentary Fund, the Sundance Documentary Fund, and the United States Institute of Peace. She also received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Compton Foundation, and the Peter S. Reed Foundation. In addition, she was able to generate funding for the Gacaca Trilogy from the Austrian Development Agency, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Development Cooperation, and Oxfam Novib thanks to the significant impact of GACACA.

Anne Aghion holds a Bachelor of Arts Magna Cum Laude in Arab Language and Literature from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York, and following her studies, spent two years living in Cairo.

Ice People is editor Nadia Ben Rachid's third collaboration with filmmaker Anne Aghion, following their work on Emmy-winner "In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies," (2005) and the UNESCO Fellini Prize-winner, "Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?" (2003)

With the rare talent to work equally well with documentaries and features, Paris-based Ben Rachid has amassed dozens of film, television and commercial credits since 1997. She has edited all the films by the world-renowned director Abderrahmane Sissako, the latest of which is the 2006 feature, "Bamako," which played at major showcases around the world, including the Cannes and New York film festivals. Following its stellar box office performance in France, the film was distributed to critical acclaim worldwide, including in the U.S. via New Yorker Films. In 1999, her work on Sissako's "Life on Earth" earned Ben Rachid the Editor's Award at FESPACO (Ouagadougou Pan African Festival for Film and Television). The film premiered at Cannes and went on to collect numerous awards at festivals around the world, including the Golden Spire at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Ben Rachid also works regularly with noted French director Yamina Benguigui, including on her 2002 feature "Inch'Allah Dimanche"; the documentary "The Perfumed Garden," which won Best Documentary for that year at the African and Caribbean Film Festival (Vues d'Afrique) in Montreal; and a segment of the acclaimed 1998 documentary "Mémoires d'immigrés."

Among numerous other projects, she edited Michka Saäl's 2005 "Beckett's Prisoners" for the National Film Board of Canada; the 1999 documentary "Woubi Cheri" for award-winning documentarians Philip Brooks and Laurent Bocahut; which garnered Best Documentary awards at the New Festival in New York, the Turin Festival in Italy, and the Transgender Festival in London; and Rachid Bouchareb's first feature,"My Family Honor."

Ben Rachid's commercial work includes the trailer for The Michael Jackson Tour, for legendary producer Tarek Ben Ammar. Among her credits as assistant editor are Roman Polanski's "Bitter Moon," "Frantic" and "Pirates"; Claude Berri's "Germinal" and "Uranus"; Roland Joffe's "City of Joy"; Jacques Perrin's "The Children of Lumière"; and Agneska Holland's "The Conspiracy."

A top Franco-Canadian cinematographer, Sylvestre Guidi has amassed more than 20 years of documentary production experience, filming from the top of the world—on the 2005 award-sweeping series 'Arctic Mission,' by biologist-filmmaker Jean Lemire—to the bottom on Ice People. Based in Montreal, he has collaborated repeatedly with noted directors including Michka Saäl and Patricio Henriquez, and works regularly on films for the National Film Board of Canada, which air on ARTE, BBC, Discovery and other top television networks across the globe. Guidi spent ten years living in Mexico City as a cameraman and editor for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, covering South America and the Caribbean.

Guidi has earned four nominations and a 1993 win for the Gémeaux—the Canadian Academy awards for French-language television. A graduate in film from Concordia University in Montreal, Guidi also studied television production at the Université de Québec & agrave; Montréal. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Since 1990, Richard Fleming has traveled to the farthest reaches of the globe. In addition to camping in the frozen deserts of Antarctica, he has accompanied Kofi Annan around the world, flown missions over Kandahar with the U.S. Army Reserve, followed Imelda Marcos on the presidential campaign trail in the Philippines, and sweltered on the decks of a nuclear aircraft carrier plying the waters of the Persian Gulf.

Among his numerous credits are the documentaries 'From Kansas to Kandahar,' by noted director Cal Skaggs for the PBS series 'America at a Crossroads,' Show of Force's "Carrier Project," and 'Kofi Annan : Center of the Storm,' by renowned filmmaker David Grubin, both for PBS; 'Sumo East and West,' by Ferne Pearlstein, and 'Iron Butterfly, The Story of Imelda Marcos,' by Ramona Diaz, both for ITVS. Other credits include "Les Illuminations de Madame Narval,' by Charles Najman, for the Franco-German television channel Arte, and work as both a writer and recordist on Alex Wolfe's 'Santo Domingo Blues.' His dramatic credits include the multiple award-winning theatrical feature 'La Ciudad,' by David Riker. He rejoins director Aghion on Ice People, following his work on Emmy-winner 'In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies.'

Fleming is also an accomplished writer, photographer, and amateur musicologist. His blog, A Brooklynite on the Ice, features the filmmakers' adventures during the four-month shoot in Antarctica. His first book, Walking to Guantanamo, already garnering glowing critical praise, chronicles Fleming's year-long walk across the island of Cuba. The Road to Guantánamo was just published on October 1st by Commons books.

A prolific composer, recording artist, arranger, performer and actor, Laurent Petitgand's work has been featured in a long list of films by internationally recognized directors.

A seven-time collaborator with Wim Wenders—both on his own and with his band Dick Tracy—Petitgand composed for the films "Tokyo-Ga" (1985), "Wings of Desire" (1986), "Arisha, The Bear and The Stone Ring" (1992), "Faraway, So Close!" (1993), "Beyond the Clouds" co-directed with Michelangelo Antonioni (1995), and "Lumière and Company" (1996). Wenders and Petitgand also worked together on a musical stage version of "Lumière and Company."

In addition to Ice People, recent film projects include "The Inner Life of Martin Frost" by Paul Auster, "Les Gueules Noires" by Rodolphe Bertrand et Marianne Tardieu, "La Sieste" by Laurent Halgand, "Ferrari 49" by Michael Klier, "Le Dernier Silence" by Damien Boyer, "Cowboy Angels"–a second collaboration with Kim Massee, and "Sunday in Winter" by Hella Wenders.

Petitgand has worked with filmmakers including Pascal Rémy, Philomène Esposito, Christophe Le Masne, Solveig Dommartin, Philippe Niang, Sébastien Régnier, Dan Mestanza, Jan Schütte, Carole Tresca.

Among many other musical accomplishments, Petitgand has composed for theatre and dance, particularly for choreographer Angelin Preljocaj's ballet company, where he met his wife, the dancer and actress Katia Medici.

A self-taught musician who plays guitar, piano and saxophone, Petitgand was raised in a family of nine children. He performed in his church choir from the ages of 7 to 14 before launching his professional career, first as a solo artist and then with several bands.

Petitgand has also acted in some dozen productions, including many of the films that he scored. His first role was that of the Alekan Circus conductor in "Wings of Desire', and he appeared subsequently in the movies of Solveig Dommartin, Kim Massee, Pascal Rémy, and Christophe Le Masne, among others.

An independent film producer with an extensive background in the financial and production ends of the industry, Benoit Gryspeerdt joins Anne Aghion as a producing partner on Ice People, following his work as production manager on her previous award-winning films, "In Rwanda we say... The family that does not speak dies," and "Gacaca, Living Together Again in Rwanda?"

Until recently, Gryspeerdt was Director of Finance and Administration at Ardèche Images which, among other activities, runs the Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire, one of the leading documentary festivals in France.

He spent 2001-2005 at Dominant 7, a Paris-based production company responsible for a long slate of internationally distributed, award-winning films. Joining the company as production manager and moving up to line producer and member of the senior management team, he worked on over a dozen projects in collaboration with major production companies, broadcasters and funders, including ARTE, Canal + and Studio Canal, BBC, the Soros and Sundance documentary funds, and more. In addition to Aghion's films, which were co-produced by Dominant 7, Gryspeerdt's credits include the massive international co-production, "Steps for the Future," an 8-hour package of programming about HIV/AIDs in southern Africa that crossed seven countries, and involved 14 international broadcasters and numerous organizations including UNICEF and NORAID; director Karim Aïnouz's 2002 feature biopic about eponymous Brazilian cultural hero "Madame Sata," which premiered at Cannes and went on to win 21 international awards, with nominations for 14 more; and the critically acclaimed 2005 BBC film, "Don't F*** with Me, I have 51 Brothers and Sisters."

Prior to Dominant 7, Gryspeerdt was Financial Director for MK2, one of Europe's leading film companies, where he oversaw reporting in areas including feature and television production and distribution, international sales, home entertainment and theatrical exhibition. He started his work at the company as internal auditor, working on the catalogue acquisition of important libraries including CIBY 2000 and François Truffaut's former company, Les Films du Carosse. He began his career at the television- and film-acquisition arm of TF1, where he helped develop rights management software.

A native of Lille, France, Gryspeerdt is a 2005 graduate of the highly competitive producer-training program, Eurodoc, which he attended with Ice People. He holds a Masters of Science in Personnel Management and Business Administration from France's Edhec Business School.

He is currently developing additional projects with award-winning filmmakers Michka Saäl and Aldo Lee.