John C. Karr

John C. Karr is the director and producer of THE OBSERVER, a film about a young Malaysian man's first experience as an election observer in Afghanistan. Having worked for over decade on a range of development issues in Asia, John's own experience as an election observer in countries like Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan helped shape his approach to developing the initial plan for the film. In 2002, he worked in Afghanistan with The Asia Foundation as a coordinator for 34 United Nations observers deployed throughout the country to monitor the Emergency Loya Jirga, the UN-mandated grand assembly that elected Hamid Karzai as the transitional leader of Afghanistan. And in 2004, John served as an observer for Afghanistan's presidential election.

While working in Afghanistan, John also helped develop a training program for Afghan women journalists, a project that led to the production of the Emmy-nominated film AFGHANISTAN UNVEILED. Other projects have taken him to North Korea, Bhutan, India, China, Mongolia, and a number of other Asian countries.

Currently, John is the Director of The Asia Foundation's Digital Media Lab. As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed numerous short films on development issues in Asia. John was born in Vallejo, California and currently resides in San Francisco. THE OBSERVER is his feature film directorial debut.

Benjamin Leslie

Benjamin Leslie is Program Officer at The Asia Foundation and a new filmmaker. For the film The Observer, Ben worked closely with the Director to oversee the complex process of documenting the observation mission in Afghanistan. As Co-Director for the film, Ben led a film crew to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to meet the ANFREL team in the months before the Afghan election. After filming their initial training, Ben traveled with the observers for their journey from Southeast Asia to Kabul. For several critical days leading up to Election Day, Ben traveled North to Shebergan to film Badrul.

In addition to his work on THE OBSERVER and other digital video projects, Ben designs and leads visits to the United States for diplomats, politicians and journalists from throughout Asia. His work for The Asia Foundation has taken him to Iowa, Georgia, and Pennsylvania as well as Afghanistan, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Prior to joining The Asia Foundation, Ben worked for Mother Jones magazine and graduated from Brown University in 2003.

Kathryn Bodle

Kathryn Bodle served as THE OBSERVER'S Associate Producer on film crews to Thailand and Malaysia, and supported the Afghanistan crew from The Asia Foundation's headquarters in San Francisco. In addition, she supervised the post-production process for the film. Kathryn is the Production Coordinator for The Asia Foundation's Digital Media Lab, where she works on production, post-production, and editing of video material to support the Foundation's programming. Her work for The Asia Foundation has taken her to Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Bangladesh, and Mongolia.