Meru Movie with Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker & Renan Ozturk.

JIMMY CHIN
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, CINEMATOGRAPHER

Jimmy Chin lives a life of art and adventure, combining a career as a photographer, documentary filmmaker and a 14-year veteran of The North Face Athlete Team. In the past decade, Chin has collaborated with, filmed and photographed some of the world’s most progressive athletes and explorers while participating in breakthrough expeditions around the planet. He has made notable first ascents in the Karakoram, traversed the Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet on foot and skied first descents in the Himalayas. He is one of the few people to ski Mount Everest from the summit. Chin shoots for a wide variety of commercial and editorial clients. His photography has graced the cover of National Geographic and garnered recognition from Photo District News, Communication Arts, the American Society of Magazine Editors and the Lowell Thomas Journalism Awards. Chin has shot and directed documentaries, television and commercial projects for The North Face, Pirelli, Apple, National Geographic, Working Title and RSA Films. As a professional athlete, he has been featured in National Geographic, Outside, People and Men’s Journal. He splits his time between New York City and Jackson Hole, Wyoming with his co-director and wife, Chai Vasarhelyi, and their daughter Marina.

ELIZABETH CHAI VASARHELYI
DIRECTOR, PRODUCER

Elizabeth “Chai” Vasarhelyi’s films as a director include Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (Oscilloscope, 2009), which premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals; A Normal Life (Tribeca Film Festival, Best Documentary, 2003); Touba (SXSW, Special Jury Prize Best Cinematography, 2013) and the upcoming Incorruptible (2015). Vasarhelyi has participated in the Good Pitch and received grants from the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bertha Britdoc, the William and Mary Greve Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and lives between New York City and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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RENAN OZTURK
CINEMATOGRAPHER, ADDITIONAL EDITOR

Renan Ozturk is an expedition climber, filmmaker and landscape artist. His cutting edge first ascents, mountain murals and short films have taken him from the high Himalayas to the remote jungles of Burma. Ozturk has pushed the art of filmmaking in extreme locations in particular through his use of lightweight technology. His video “dispatches,” produced during expeditions, bring the adventure to a worldwide online audience in near real time. Through digital recognition and top film festival awards, Renan’s visual storytelling style is on the cutting edge of the outdoor industry.

BOB EISENHARDT, A.C.E.
EDITOR

Bob Eisenhardt is a three-time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominee. With over 60 films to his credit, he has edited documentaries for Barbara Kopple, Maysles Films, Susan Froemke, Matt Tyrnauer, Marc Levin, David Grubin and Alex Gibney. Recent films include Wagner’s Dream, which received an Emmy nomination for editing, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing, Living Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders and Dancing in Jaffa. He is currently editing the HBO film Everything Is Copy on the life of Nora Ephron.

J. RALPH
COMPOSER

J. Ralph is an Academy Award nominated composer and producer from NYC whose music has sold more than 10 million records worldwide and reached the No.1 spot in over 22 countries. His career began with the signing to Atlantic Records as a recording artist and since then J. Ralph has written and produced the music for numerous Grammy Award winning artists, symphony orchestras, The United Nations, The President of The United States and more Oscar winning/nominated documentaries then any other composer in the history of the Academy Awards. Such films include Man On Wire, The Cove, Hell And Back Again, Chasing Ice, Finding Vivian Maier and Virunga. He is widely regarded for the original songs he writes and produces for these films such as the Oscar nominated “Before My Time” performed by Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell, “Hell & Back” performed by Willie Nelson, “We Will Not Go” performed by Youssou Ndour, Salif Keita & Fally Ipupa and “Until The End” performed by Liza Minnelli & Wynton Marsalis. J. Ralph is the only composer to win two consecutive A.I.C.P. awards. Several of Mr. Ralph’s works are included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection of film and media in New York City.

SHANNON ETHRIDGE
PRODUCER

Shannon Ethridge has worked in the entertainment industry as a producer of commercial and branded campaigns for almost 15 years. Her clients range from Fortune 500 companies to startups, and her content experiences scale from passionate social issues to risky outdoor pursuits. She embarked into the world of documentary filmmaking through this expansive network with the cause-related film Summit On The Summit with MTV.

3. The scariest part is watching Renen doing successive deep knee bends with a kettlebell--I took Aleve for a full week.