Luigi Acquisto has worked as a filmmaker for twenty years. He has produced over thirty short films, directed television drama and is one of Australia’s leading documentary producers.His work is committed to exploring confronting social justice issues in an original and cinematic way. It is often groundbreaking.Acquisto’s first film, Spaventapasseri, was one of the first of a new wave of films made in the 1980’s that explored post war migration from Europe.Trafficked was the first Australian film to deal with sex slavery in Australia. It is the highest rating ‘Storyline Australia’ program for SBS TV.Acquisto has made four documentaries about East Timor since the country’s historic vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999. The three part series East Timor: Birth of a Nation – Rosa’s Story & Lu Olo’s Story (2002) and Rosa’s Journey (2008), is the first longitudinal documentary series tracking the emergence of a new nation.A Guerra Da Beatriz is East Timor’s first homegrown feature film. It has laid the foundations for a future Timor Leste film culture and industry. Lurdes Pires and her family fled East Timor in 1975 during the Indonesian invasion and settled in Darwin, Australia. Lurdes started working with filmmakers Luigi Acquisto and Stella Zammataro in 2001 on the landmark documentary series East Timor: Birth of a Nation. She was an associate producer on the series, and on the 2008 sequel, Rosa’s Journey. Lurdes is a producer of Beatriz’s War as well as the script advisor and language consultant.