Sam lived and worked for a total of a year inside Rocinha favela during the making of More Earth Will Fall. He speaks fluent Portuguese. He is a documentary maker focussed on social conflict, mainly in Brazil, Sierra Leone, and Israel and Palestine. His work from Sierra Leone includes Lady P and the Sex Worker Sisterhood (BBC Africa Eye) Standing Among The Living (BBC Africa Eye) and The Husband School (Al Jazeera Witness). He's currently making a feature documentary about global land grab for resources in Sierra Leone and how a team of local paralegals are fighting back. 

Lee has over 15 years experience as a professional editor in the independent, commercial and broadcasting filmmaking industry and the participatory media sector (Channel 4, BBC, Current TV, SKY Sports, Burberry, Telfar, Marni). He edited Bafta-winning BBC drama film Sitting in Limbo, and two episodes of the last series of Killing Eve. Starting his career in 2002, he worked with Hi8us-South, an award winning media production company based in East London, working with young people to facilitate the creation of their own films. Lee has worked on various projects as an editor, tutor and producer. 

Derek is an award winning producer and media-artist. As an independent producer and leading his own digital media company, HyperJAM between 1997 and 2006, Derek's work includes designing Channel 4's first website (for Broadcast Support Services) in 1996, producing and directing the first "transatlantic jam session" using teleconferencing technologies, and delivering award winning film, interactive and cross-platform projects for the BBC, the National Theatre, Rambert, Arts Council England, Film Four, the Science Museum, NESTA and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music among others. Between 2009 and 2013 Derek ran the three-times-BAFTA-award-winning film and media production company Hi8us South, which focused on film made with, by and for young people and local communities. He has consulted on and delivered outreach and impact campaigns for Dogwoof, Met Film Production, the British Council, People's Palace Projects and the Brazilian cultural NGO AfroReggae among others. Derek is currently Head of Broadcast & Digital at London's award winning Roundhouse venue and youth arts & media centre and lectures video design, prodsuction and technology at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Andy is an independent film maker who works across broadcast, cinema and community-based media, writing, directing and producing documentary and drama. He was founder member of Hi8us, where he developed a series of innovative and award-winning camcorder dramas for Channel 4, made with young people from across the UK. He went on to set up Hi8us South in East London, working for ten years with young people to create their own documentaries, dramas and music videos. He was a founder member of APT Film and Television, for whom he produced and directed a number of documentaries. He was executive producer on Paul Morrison’s Oscar-nominated feature Solomon and Gaenor, and won the Kodak/BAFTA producer’s award for Yousaf Ali Khan’s short Skin Deep. He is co-writer and development producer on Giantland – a feature directed by Yousaf, currently in post-production. His work is informed with a concern for issues of access, getting new voices and faces onto the screen.

Achieving the unique access the filmmakers had to the community in Rocinha began with a series of workshops Sam and Lee ran in the favela in 2009 and 2010. This enabled the cast to continue filming - including some deeply personal moments - while the crew were back London between shoots. It's this process that has provided the film with its authenticity of voice and intimacy.