Alive in Limbo

Erica has been working in film for more than 20 years. In addition to Alive in Limbo, Erica produced and directed My Home, My Prison (with Susana Munoz) about one of the first Palestinians to initiate dialogue with the Israelis, which premiered at Sundance in 1993. She also made a short, Victims of the Victims. Fluent in Chinese, Erica worked many years in Asia. She was the personal assistant for film director King Hu (Hu Jin Quan). She also directed a popular prime-time program on international film for Chinese television and worked for RTHK and CBS News in Hong Kong. Her film China: Ancient Rhythms and Modern Currents garnered awards at educational film festivals.

A native of Reykjavik, Iceland, Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir has worked as a director and director of photography on U.S. and Icelandic films. Her film, Straight Out, about gay youth in Iceland, shared the $10,000 prize for Best Documentary film at the 2003 San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Gunnarsdóttir's other award winning films include Who Hangs the Laundry? Washing, War, and Electricity in Beirut, in collaboration with Tina Naccache, which examines the daily struggles in post-war Beirut; and Corpus Camera, about death and grief through post-mortem photography. Corpus Camera was nominated for the prestigious Icleandic Edda Award, and invited to participate at INPUT 2000 in Halifax, Canada. Gunnarsdóttir's recent cinematography credits include work on Lourdes Portillo's Senorita Extraviada and Lynn Hershman's Teknolust. She also shot parts of Tom Shepard's Scout’s Honor. Currently Hrabba is working on a documentary titled People Like That in her native Iceland about the civil rights struggle for gay rights.

Born in 1947 in Lebanon, Naccache studied demography in Paris, became a university lecturer, and worked as an urban planner in Beirut. In 1976, war sent her to the San Francisco Bay Area as a refugee, where she is still well remembered for introducing Arabic music to an American audience on KPFA, and for organizing against the 1982 Israeli invasion of her country, Lebanon. In 1985, she returned home to give her children Lebanese roots. She still lives in Beirut and is active as a human rights advocate. She co-directed the short film Who Hangs the Laundry? Washing, War, and Electricity in Beirut, which premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2002. She also was the co-producer on Straight Out with Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir. Alive in Limbo is her second film.