STONE READER is Mark Moskowitz’s first feature film though he’s not a novice filmmaker. For over twenty years, Moskowitz has produced and directed commercials and short films for a clientele that includes agencies, corporations, government and non-profit organizations, and the television networks.

Moskowitz specializes in real people and subjects that matter shot in a documentary style. Working with small crews, he’s developed a carefully honed approach that permits him to capture his subjects with complete spontaneity. His innovations were employed during the production of Stone Reader to create a film that happens in real time. For example, when shooting Moskowitz quick-zooms to multiple focal lengths within the scene to allow him to edit the scene together with continuity. Some of his other innovations are intended to make the process of production as transparent as possible so real people can remain real. He uses custom-designed remote circuitry for 16mm cameras and digital sound acquisition which eliminates a lot of equipment and the necessity to stop and slate every shot.

Moskowitz has managed budgets in excess of $5 million and filmed in 44 states. His work has been the subject of national television programs and he’s been featured in diverse publications from Sports Illustrated to The Wall Street Journal.

STONE READER won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film (a first for a nonfiction narrative) and Special Grand Jury Honor (the festival’s top prize) at the 2002 Slamdance Festival. The International Documentary Association (IDA) nominated STONE READER, for its highest honor, the Distinguished Achievement Award in the Feature category. IDA is the largest association of nonfiction filmmakers in the world and this recognition is one of the most prestigious honors a nonfiction film can receive. Mark Moskowitz was a 2003 Independent Spirit Award Truer than Fiction nominee for STONE READER.

Moskowitz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, is married, and lives with his family in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

Joseph Vandergast "captures the moment" in a way few can match. While working as a news cameraman in the mid-seventies, he filmed the commercials for Jimmy Carter's fledgling campaign, and the success of his work defined the way political ads have been made ever since. Joe specializes in a spontaneous documentary form that brings STONE READER alive. He has a knack for anticipating the action and getting the camera to the right spot at the right moment. Besides political work, he has established himself as a top-flight commercial cinematographer, shooting hundreds of national commercials and television shows, and continues to film a broad range of important issue-oriented productions.

Jeffrey Confer has been shooting film for nearly thirty years, and for every type of production imaginable. His documentary work has a flair for strong compositions that also capture the scene. He's put that talent to work in award-winning films for National Geographic, network television, and hundreds of commercials, documentaries, and interview segments.

Kathleen Soulliere has over 25 years' experience editing film and television. Credits include many nationally and internationally televised documentary and arts programs. Her work has won numerous Emmy awards, been screened at INPUT, and acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and the Louvre. Recent national PBS broadcasts include "An Angel in the Village," which won Outstanding Documentary from the Philadelphia Chapter of Professional Journalists and was praised in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and "Landowska," which received critical acclaim from the Dallas Morning News, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

Robert Goodman is an Emmy-nominated director and award-winning writer/producer with 20 years of experience in documentary, feature, and commercial production. He’s also the coauthor of Editing Digital Video, a best-selling book, published by McGraw-Hill, about how to tell stories using any editing program, and one of the authors of the American Society of Cinematographers Video Manual. Goodman has presented workshops on digital filmmaking at many of the major film festivals in the United States and was featured on John Pierson's Split Screen, a show about independent filmmakers that airs on Bravo and the Independent Film Channel.

S. Damon Sinclair's work on STONE READER covered all the bases. He has broad experience in many media forms and in STONE READER he helped in various roles, from filming to editing to promotion. Damon has had a long and varied documentary career. He has directed numerous short works. His first documentary feature, The Last Hunt, which he produced and directed, his is scheduled for completion in 2003. Sinclair often applies the latest technological achievements to his filmmaking, sometimes inventing ways to achieve new shots. In The Last Hunt, he worked with his longtime friend, Oscar award winner Garret Brown, to develop a camera mount for a lightweight miniature SteadiCam. He has also assisted in the production of several Hollywood feature films.