PAUL RACHMAN began his film career making underground punk films and music videos for bands such as the Bad Brains and Gang Green in the 1980’s. He later rose to become one of the of the industry's top music video directors at Propaganda Films in Los Angeles where he worked with Alice in Chains, Roger Waters, Joan, Jett The Replacements and the Pearl Jam / Soundgarden collaboration “Temple of the Dog”. By 1999 he had directed several award winning short films and made his feature directorial debut in 2000 with Four Dogs Playing Poker starring Forrest Whittaker, Balthazar Getty and Olivia Williams. In 2006 his seminal punk documentary American Hardcore premiered at Sundance and was theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics. Paul is also one of the founding filmmakers of the Slamdance Film Festival.

STEVEN BLUSH has written three books on the subject of Rock: American Hardcore (2001), a history of the early-80s Hardcore Punk scene; American Hair Metal (2006), a visual tribute to big-haired rockers; and .45 Dangerous Minds (2005), a collection of interviews with Pop Culture's most notorious. His writing has appeared in over 25 publications, including Spin, Details, Interview, Village Voice, and The Times Of London. For 15 years, he published the cult magazine Seconds, and now serves as contributing editor at Paper. He is writer/producer of the documentary film American Hardcore, inspired by his book of the same name.