filmmaker BIOS

Hilari Scarl
Executive Producer/
Director

Jeff Gatesman
Director of Photography/

Paul Lucas
Producer

Karen Ballard
Photojournalist

Kubilay Uner
Composer

Karen Ballard is an award-winning photographer based in Washington, D.C.

She recently completed work as Steven Spielberg’s photographer for Munich.  Her recent assignments have ranged from accompanying the victorious General Tommy Franks into Baghdad during his first visit after the fall of Saddam Hussein, to photographing a humanitarian aid mission a few weeks later as they airlifted 90,000 pounds of relief aid into Iraq.  Ms. Ballard is a contributor to TIME, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and other major publications. Her portrait of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on the cover of U.S. News & World Report under the headline, “Rum Punch.” Ballard’s dramatic picture of a B-2 bomber appeared as a double-truck in the new book, A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces. 

In the summer of 2002 she spent almost two months in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf documenting the American military fighting the war on terrorism for ABC Television’s Profiles from the Front Line.  Ms. Ballard has traveled and photographed extensively around the world, including assignments in India, Vietnam, China, and Europe. She also served in the first months of the Bush administration as Vice President Dick Cheney’s personal photographer.  She attended the University of Kentucky, during which time she interned at the White House, The Eugene Register-Guard, The Louisville Courier-Journal, and at the Washington Post. Ms. Ballard won the William Randolph Hearst Competition as best college photographer in 1994.  Ballard’s professional launch was in the nation’s capital at The Washington Times. She covered some of the world’s biggest stories while there, including the impeachment of President Clinton. 

Ms. Ballard has received numerous awards in the annual White House News Photographer’s competition including three first place's, as well as citations in the National Press Photographer’s (POY) Competition, and the Associated Press Awards. Her exclusive picture of President Bush, Vice President Gore, and President Clinton on Inauguration day, 2001 won a 1st place in the White House contest.  In 2002 Ballard was presented with the “Rising Star˜ award from the Palm Beach Photographic Center’s Fotofusion Festival, which honors the most promising new photographer in the business.  Ballard was recently selected for a Knight Fellowship from the International Center for Journalists.