Argot Pictures was founded by Jim Browne in the fall of 2005.

Jim Browne has been programming and producing film and video projects in New York City for the past 18 years He’s worked with venues such as the IFC Center, The Two Boots Pioneer Theater, Symphony Space, Ocularis, The JCC, Makor, Anthology Film Archives, Galapagos Art & Performance Space, Cinema Warsaw Exit Art and Performance Space 122. He is currently Associate Programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival. He is also the curator for Divine Lens, an on-line film series where he promotes the work of women documentary filmmakers.

In 2004, he produced and programmed the film component of the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues & Ideas, a city wide cultural festival in 9 locations around NYC. He conceived and produced the Films To See Before You Vote Tour, a "film festival in a box" that traveled to 14 states before the 2004 presidential election.  He is the former Director of Theatrical Distribution for Plexifilm.

Tarek Salem moved to Brooklyn in 1999, after graduating from the Great Books program at St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He earned a J.D. from Fordham Law School in 2004, having focused on Film and Intellectual Property and thereafter worked in International Commercial Arbitration in Cairo, Egypt.  He was a managing partner of both a retail clothing company and a property management venture from 2000 to 2006. He is currently a degree candidate at NYU's Media Management program.  His favorite director is Werner Herzog.