Max Asaf | Director & Producer
Max Asaf graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in both English, with a focus on screenwriting, and Cinema Studies, with a focus on documentary production under the tutelage of original Kartemquin Films collective member, Judy Hoffman. Max became a Kartemquin Intern immediately after graduating during the summer of 2016, and soon after was hired to work as an impact coordinator on the KTQ films Unbroken Glass and Saving Mes Aynak. In the fall of 2016, Max joined KTQ’s staff, first as an assistant to Artistic Director Gordon Quinn and then as KTQ’s development coordinator until the summer of 2019. Since then he has been hired as a fundraising consultant and associate producer on documentaries directed by first-time filmmakers and Emmy-nominated directors alike. Within the Box is his first feature documentary and an early short cut of the film screened both at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner and the 2016 KTQ Fall Festival.
Ingrid Roettgen | Editor
Ingrid Roettgen has worked in the post-production department at Kartemquin Films for the past three years, having been hired immediately after completing her Kartemquin Internship in 2016. At Kartemquin, Ingrid fills many roles, from assistant editing to print traffic coordinating, and has logged credits on award-winning Kartemquin films such as the Oscar nominated Abacus: Small Enough to Jail and Minding the Gap. Ingrid recently served as the assistant editor and associate producer of The Marshall Project’s We Are Witnesses: Chicago and will also be assistant editing Kartemquin’s upcoming Left-Handed Pianist. Ingrid also serves as Kartemquin’s archive project manager, handling the preservation of more than 18,000 elements that span 50+ years of independent documentary filmmaking. In her assistant editing and archival work, Ingrid has come to develop and appreciation of not only how to best preserve archival materials but how to best make those archival materials come alive in service of a film. Ingrid studied public communication and journalism at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, which along with her love of film, inspired her to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking as an editor.