Jackson Allers Director

Jackson is an English language Editor, TV producer and Middle East correspondent based in Beirut since early 2006. He has worked as a media specialist in areas of high diplomacy [Chief of Radio for the UN Mission in Kosovo and International Media Adviser for the Kosovo Ombudsman], has reported for Al Jazeera International, Democracy Now!, CNN, National Public Radio, Free Speech Radio News and written extensively for print sources as diverse as The International Herald Tribune, Urb Magazine and the LA Weekly. Specifically, Jackson has been organizing and writing about hip-hop for nearly 20 years — from Durham, NC to Los Angeles to Houston to New York City to Kosovo to Beirut. He’s currently working on a book about the rise of Arab hip hop in the 22-Arab speaking countries and Diaspora (Edited by Brian Cross aka B+), and has spent the last three years in Beirut focusing particularly on the Lebanese hip hop movement.

Elie Habib aka Siska Camera/Co-Director

Elie Habib, aka Siska, is a former member of the oldest Beirut-based hip-hop crew – Kita3 Beirut. A distinguished graduate of Academie Linanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA) in Beirut, Habib is an accomplished cinematographer who has worked on film and video projects throughout Lebanon and abroad. Elie’s own movies have concentrated on the Lebanese rap scene and its evolution, and he has produced music videos for several of Lebanons hip-hop heavyweights like RGB (LCI Entertainment), and Lebanese turntablist/DJ/producer Lethal Skillz – both videos featured on MTV Arabia. Habib has been Jackson Allers’ main DP and has the trust of hip-hop heads from Lebanon to Morocco.

Wissam Charaf Editor/Camera

Wissam Charaf is a Lebanese/French director of photography and film editor based in Paris since 1998 where he began working as a journalist/editor/videographer with the French/German network ARTE. For over ten years he has covered major conflict areas ranging from Lebanon to Darfour, Afghanistan to North Korea. During that period, he also worked as an assistant director on music videos for artists such as Sinead O’Connor, Asian Dub Foundation or Noir Desir, as well as feature films and documentaries. In 2004, he directed his first short feature film, « Hizz Ya Wizz », a story about the boredom of a young man in a modern city.In 2006, while he was covering the Israeli agression on Lebanon, he filmed his second short film, « A hero never dies », about the endless waiting of a young artist during wartime. This was followed in 2007 by « An army of ants », his 3rd short film, that followed a group of 3 young men in their quest for a Kalashnikov, in  a menacing pre-war atmosphere. This film competed in the Locarno Film Festival, and obtained the Jury prize in the Lunel Film Festival in France.Today, he is the Beirut correspondant for ARTE and is preparing his first full-length feature film, « Fallen fron the sky ». As a musician and lover of hip-hop, Charaf's attention to rhythm and detail helped give "Life from the BBC"its special edge that helps combine classic film editing with a hip-hop sensibility.

Toni Oyry Producer - Coming documentary feature version

Toni Oyry is a Finnish journalist and  a documentary filmmaker. Following two years at Al Jazeera English in its flagship and award winning documentary film program Witness, in August 2009 he began to work as an independent documentary filmmaker and a producer. In addition to producing LIFE FROM THE BBC (the coming documentary feature version), he recently produced a documentary for Al Jazeera English about life of the Palestinian teenagers in Ain Al Helweh, the largest and most violence ridden Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.  In 2008 he directed a documentary that went inside the underground communities of Iraqi refugees in Lebanon hiding from the authorities. This was broadcasted at Al Jazeera English internationally and later at Link TV in the US. Prior to Al Jazeera English, Toni worked at Reuters (now Thompson Reuters) as a journalist and communications consultant.