Ben Braun (director) is a New York City-raised and Los Angeles-based producer and director. He is Senior Vice President at Submarine Deluxe where he oversees the company's development and production slate. He executive produced Crip Camp, Fire of Love, The Devil Next Door and produced Gamestop: Rise of the Players. AUM: The Cult at the End of the World is his feature directorial debut. 

Chiaki Yanagimoto (director) is a Japanese born, Los Angeles-based producer with award-winning features. After producing a series of genre films, she switched gears to documentaries, including “KAMPAI! For the Love of Sake” which premiered at San Sebastian International Film Festival and was released by IFC Films/Sundance Selects. She is also a founder of SAKKA, a US-based distribution hub for Japanese independent films. As a unique multicultural creative force, she began her career working for Taka Ichise (“Ringu,” “The Grudge”) and is currently developing international documentaries and scripted films under her own Synepic Entertainment. The 2023 Sundance Film Festival competition documentary “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is her first directorial work. 

Keita Ideno (editor) is an Emmy-nominated film and TV editor, currently based in Los Angeles. Ideno was born in Osaka, Japan, and later moved to Singapore when his father became a foreign correspondent for a Japanese TV station. He continued his education in the U.S. where he studied TV broadcasting and Film production at San Diego State University. In his senior year, Ideno edited a short film, “Last Swing Dance” which caught the attention of Steven Spielberg's longtime producer, Kathleen Kennedy, and premiered at the Directors Guild of America (DGA). Early on, Ideno worked as an assistant editor on Gaspar Noe's “Enter the Void” and Isabel Coixet’s “Map of the Sounds of Tokyo,” which were both nominated for a Palme d’Or, the highest prize award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2018, Ideno edited and co-wrote a documentary feature “Kusama - Infinity” which was the world premiere in the US Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2021, Ideno edited the Netflix original series, “Cat People” and his episode “Copy Cat” was nominated for a 49th Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Camera Editing. “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is his second Sundance Film Festival nomination in the US Documentary Competition. 

Andrew Marshall (film subject and co-author, “The Cult At The End of The World”) is an investigative journalist for Reuters and the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes in International Reporting. He has spent most of his career covering conflict, human rights, natural disasters and political upheaval. He is the co-author of “The Cult at the End of the World,” about Japan’s homicidal Aum cult, and the author of “The Trouser People,” about soccer and dictatorship in Burma. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. He has won three Pulitzer Prizes with his Reuters colleagues for reporting on the violent persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Burma and the murderous “war on drugs” in the Philippines. He has co-produced three documentaries for Al Jazeera - on cholera epidemics in Bangladesh, military torture in Thailand and heroin rehab in Malaysia - and acted as a consultant on a fourth for Channel 4, about apocalypse culture in Israel, Japan and the U.S. He is based in London. 

David E. Kaplan (film subject and co-author, “The Cult At The End of The World”) is executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, which serves as the international hub for the world’s investigative reporters, providing resources and assistance in a dozen languages. He has worked as an investigative journalist for more than 40 years, reported from two dozen countries, and won or shared more than 25 awards. During the 1980s, at the original Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, Kaplan and his colleagues developed the model of a nonprofit investigative news enterprise. In 2008, he became director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), where he tripled its funding, expanded its reach into 20 languages, and oversaw acclaimed investigations into the tobacco, asbestos, fishing, and energy industries. Kaplan is a four-time winner of the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, including three medals, IRE’s highest honor. His work has also been honored four times by the Overseas Press Club. From 2003-07, Kaplan worked as chief investigative correspondent for US News & World Report, then a two-million circulation newsweekly. His US News stories included exposés of racketeering by North Korean diplomats, Saudi funding of terrorist groups, and the looting of Russia. His books include YAKUZA, published in 12 languages and widely considered the standard reference on the Japanese mafia, and The Cult at the End of the World, on the doomsday sect that nerve-gassed Japan's subway. 

Shoko Egawa - Shoko Egawa is a journalist and a specially appointed professor at Kanagawa University. Egawa's work covers a wide range of social issues, including disasters, wrongful conviction, and politics. Her reports and stories on cult issues including Aum Shinrikyo and the Unification Church are highly acclaimed. After graduating from the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University, Egawa started her career as a reporter of the Kanagawa Shimbun before becoming an independent journalist. She has a regular column on multiple newspapers, is featured as a commentator on Asahi Shimbun Digital, and writes columns and reports for other digital media including Yahoo! and Business Journal. She also writes essays on classical music. Egawa has numerous publications in Japan, including “Kyuuseishu no yabo: Oumu shinrikyo wo otte (The Ambition Of The Savior; Chasing Aum Shinrikyo)”, “Daikasairyu ni kiyu (Disappearing Into The Unzen Volcanic Flow)”, “Rokuninme no giseisha; Nabari doku budoshu satsujin jiken (The Sixth Victim: The Nabari Poisoned-Wine Murders)”, “Zenshinso Sakamoto bengoshi ikka rachi satsujin jiken (Truth Of The Abductions And Murders Of The Lawyer Sakamoto's Family)”, “'Karuto' wa sugu tonari ni; Oumu shinrikyo ni hikiyoserareta wakamono tachi (‘Cults’ Are Next To You: Young People Who Were Drawn To Aum Shinrikyo)”, and many more. 

Dan Braun and Charlie Braun (Composers) first collaborated professionally on the 2018 Sundance competition film Kusama Infinity for which they composed and performed two original songs. The music composed for AUM: The Cult at the End of the World is their first original score. Dan is an Emmy Award winning film producer, musician, composer and songwriter who most recently won Best Song in a Documentary Series at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for The Andy Warhol Diaries. He started his music career in New York City in the late 1970s and played with numerous punk and avant- garde bands. Charlie is an active, multi-instrumentalist composer who has been playing music for over a decade. He specializes in lead electric guitar and plays in a wide range of styles but specializes in late 80s-90s progressive metal and classical guitar composition. Though both are primarily guitarists, their approach to composing AUM: The Cult at the End of the World’s score is primarily influenced by ambient and experimental synthesizer-based music. 

Dan Braun (Producer) is the co-founder and co-president of New York based sales, production and distribution company Submarine Entertainment. Mr Braun most recently produced the Sundance Competition documentary AUM: The Cult at the End of the World, and The Jewel Thief (a Hulu Original documentary), as well as Kusama-Infinity, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy and Fire Music. Mr. Braun executive produced documentary series Evil Genius, The Keepers, Pick of the Litter, The Devil Next Door, The 12th Victim (a Showtime Original doc series), The Sons of Sam: Descent into Darkness and Wild Wild Country for which he won the Emmy for Best Documentary Series; and feature documentaries Fire of Love, Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill, Tom Petty Somewhere you Feel Free, Echo in the Canyon, Bill Wyman: The Quiet One and Joan Jett: Bad Reputation. Mr. Braun co-produced Todd Haynes The Velvet Underground and Bombshell: The Hedy LaMarr Story and his second Emmy nomination was for the Netflix series The Andy Warhol Diaries. 

Josh Braun (producer) is the co-president of Submarine Entertainment, a hybrid sales, production and distribution company. Mr. Braun recently produced the 2023 Sundance competition documentary AUM: The Cult at the End of the World, The Jewel Thief (a Hulu original documentary) and recently executive produced the Emmy nominated Netflix documentary series THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES, the Netflix Pamela Anderson documentary Pamela, A Love Story, the Showtime docu-series The 12th Victim, the 2022 Sundance feature competition documentary FIRE OF LOVE and the feature documentaries Circus of Books, Crip Camp and Apollo 11. Other docu-series executive produced by Mr. Braun include Lenox Hill, Sons of Sam, Evil Genius, The Keepers, The Devil Next Door and WILD WILD COUNTRY for which Mr. Braun won the Emmy for best documentary series in 2018. 

Rick Brookwell (producer) has over 25 years of experience in filmed entertainment production. From 1996-2010 he was the Chief Financial Officer of Greystone Television and Films. During that time he was involved in the financing, budgeting and production of almost 1,000 hours of documentary programming. Mr Brookwell is the Chief Operating Office of Submarine Deluxe, the production entity of Submarine Entertainment. He most recently produced the 2023 Sundance competition documentary AUM: The Cult at the End of the World, and executive produced upcoming Hulu documentary The Jewel Thief, the Sundance competition documentary Blackfish, Fields of Freedom and We Fight to be Free. For Submarine Deluxe he was a production executive on the Netflix series The Andy Warhol Diaries and The Devil Next Door. He received his AB degree from Brown University and his JD from Southwestern University School of Law. 

About Submarine Deluxe: Submarine Deluxe is the production division of Submarine Entertainment, producing premium nonfiction content across all platforms. Recent titles include AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD, THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR, GAMESTOP: RISE OF THE PLAYERS and THE ANDY WARHOL DIARIES. Submarine Deluxe is in development, production and post- production on numerous upcoming projects. 

About FIFTH SEASON: FIFTH SEASON (formerly Endeavor Content) is a global leader in the creation, production, and distribution of feature films and premium television series. Known for producing and distributing award-winning content that engages audiences and moves culture, the studio’s film titles include the multi-Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Bay’s Ambulance, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy, the Book Club franchise, and recent Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner Cha Cha Real Smooth. Documentary feature 2nd Chance premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by Showtime. The studio produces premium TV series, including the 14 Emmy-nominated Severance, See and Truth Be Told for Apple TV+, Wolf Like Me for Peacock, Life & Beth, Nine Perfect Strangers, and McCartney 3, 2, 1 for Hulu, Tokyo Vice for HBO Max, and Scenes From A Marriage for HBO. FIFTH SEASON also handles global distribution for dozens of hit series in addition to its own studio productions, including Killing Eve, The Morning Show, Normal People, and The Night Manager.