Participants 2009

I am a cultural anthropologist turned filmmaker. Since 2004 I’m working as a freelance director & cameraman. My interest as a filmmaker are mainly social and cultural subjects/issues, predominantly in Africa. I’ve worked in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Senegal. I am very passionate about story-telling. As a director I made it my trademark to work as an one-man team and to spend lengthy periods of time in the field to tell compelling stories in a creative way and with visual flair. My work with the Loita Maasai in Kenya illustrates that. In 2005 I directed and filmed ‘The Eunoto Ceremony’, an ethnographic registration of a rite de passage, which is held only every 14 years and it involved 800 warriors. At the same time I started with the still ongoing documentary project ‘Maasai Brothers - A Greek family tragedy in Africa’. The protagonists are three brothers. Maasai men are divided in age groups and every 7 years they progress to a next stage in life. When the brothers progress to another stage, that will mean the end of this documentary and the beginning of a new one.
In the documentary ‘The voice of Ile à Morphil’ (2008), on a development aid relationship between farmers from the Netherlands & Senegal, highlighted by a nocturnal concert of Baaba Maal, it becomes clear that any development project which ignores culture is doomed to end up as another ‘white elephant’.
As a cameraman I successfully handled productions from A to Z single-handedly but I also have a lot experience as a straight cameraman in a production crew. Besides being able to see things accurately (not looking!), I can listen very carefully. That is, I believe, the most important feature for a cameraman to give the image emotional and relational depth. What I see and hear, I capture, with eye for detail, into a visually strong narrative.
Clients of Weijs Film, my company, are various broadcast and production companies, directors and NGO’s & NPO’s. I am partly based in Nairobi, Kenya.

I studied Rhetorics & Documentary Film at the University Institute of Walter Jens in Tübingen (1986-90) and was trained as a professional journalist at a left-wing German newspaper (1990-92). Worked as a freelance print journalist on social issues in Germany, Guatemala etc. and other countries until 1995. After being trained at a Public Broadcasting Company (SWR = part of the ARD) I was working for various German Public Broadcasting TV Companies (SWR, WDR, NDR etc.) and for Arte. From 2000-2007 I was with the SWR a) as SWR- Comissioning Editor for talk shows on social and psychological issues for 5 years and  b) produced ca 25 documentaries and reportages (30-60 mins) for them: portraits of unknown people including a discussion of a current social problems; documentaries (ethnological and other issues) in East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya) and Guatemala. 2007 - 2008 I was employed as Nonfictional Producer of BREMEDIA. Part of my filmmaking has always been: bringing back the films to my protagonists in original language. 2. Produce & spread DVD-editions with my films & additional material to support the protagonists social aims (work of NGOs like AMREF; fight for Landright Issues of the Hadza Hunters in Tanzania; etc.)

I am a director and producer of documentaries, dividing my time and work between Finland and the UK. With several years of filmmaking and TV production experience behind me, I have been focusing on development, human rights and women’s empowerment topics. Recently, my films have taken me to countries such as Palestine and Ethiopia. I am particularly interested in making films that portray positive stories from the developing world. In addition to making films, I also teach filmmaking and lead participatory video workshops in marginalized communities.

Wiktoria  Szymanska was begotten in Gdansk. Having passion for art, she went to the musical school and then Art College. At the age of 17, she moved to St Andrew University where she obtained a scholarship in Literature, Studied script-writing in Camerimage film school in Poland, where she also obtained BA and MA in Anthropology in UMK. Wanting to be the citizen of the world, she worked and travelled to New York and in beloved Mexico. In 2004 and moved her way to Paris to graduate film and Art & Film studies at the Sorbonne.
Since 2005, Wiktoria worked in film production, in development of international film project with Parisian film houses also worked as director assistant on short and documentary films. In 2006 she started a work in TV, ARTE collaborating on the CHIC, to eventually work with VIASAT as a promo director. After completing a documentary course, ARCHIDOC at LA FEMIS in Paris, which directed her into the archive based creative documentary. Recent collaboration:  ARTE, AVRO, BBC4, TVP.  At present lives in London, where she volunteers in hospices for children and works on documentary projects with Africa, Mexico and Poland.
Her Themerson &Themerson co-produced by ARTE, premiered in Vision du Reel.

I'm graduated and currently PhD student in Social Policy Institute, Warsaw University. For many years connected with various NGOs (social, cultural, infrastructural). Production manager in Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing (2005-2006). Independent filmmaker, director. Awarded in polish public TV contest for independent directors. Since 2008 co-founder and vice-chairman of  Cotopaxi  Film Workshop Association.

After obtaining her university degree in Economics (major in development and international economics), gains some professional experience working with an NGO in international economic cooperation matters.
She then moves to Barcelona to attend several courses and workshops in documentary making, where she also gets the chance to learn video camera techniques and video editing.
While in Barcelona, Francesca works at her first projects as a documentary video maker: Zapato verde, zapato rosa, Rromia e El miedo e nel cuerpo. These works received consistent attention by specialized festivals and TV companies.
At the moment Francesca works for a small production company as post-production expert and camera operator.

I'm working in filmbusinness since about 10 years now. I was always fascinated by the whole process. So that I'm now working: as an editor for documentaries; as a director for short-movies, corporate-films and web-based platforms; and I also work as a cameramann for other colleagues.
Since a year I'm working on two longterm projects for my first 60/90 minutes movie. Here you'll get introduced in one of them.

Since 25 years I work in the filmindustry.
Mostly as a creative assistant director on long feature films and since a few years  regurly as an editor on documentaries as well.
I worked as production manager also on foreign documentaries shot in Amsterdam. Since I have less of a financial responsabillity nowadays  I am actually mostly focussed on developping and directing documentaries and I am active in few development aid programs
So today I have 2 documentary filmprojects and I finished the research for them. So next step is we (producer and I) apply for subvention from the Dutch Filmfund for shooting and post-production and parallel we contact TV channels for a letter of intent to be broadcasted.
If I do not get financial aid I will still realize one of my projects. It will be very very low budget but with little help and imagination it's possible.

With a Geography degree and a PhD in Human Geography, during his thesis researches in South Africa he shot his first social documentary “L’altra faccia di Egoli” (The other face of Egoli) that won the Public prize at the Roma Doc Festival ‘03. In ‘04 with other colleagues he founded the Esplorare La Metropoli research and film making association in Rome. In ‘05 he collaborated with the Multimedia DerHumALC Institute of Buenos Aires getting involved in the straggle for rural population land rights against the illegal expanding GM soy based monocultivation. Here it born The soy road documentary project. Then he collaborated as a film maker and communication for development expert with Universities and Ngos in Europe and PVS.

I am a documentary film director, journalist, photojournalist and editor-in-chief in a magazine that concentrates on documentary photography and photojournalism. Currently working on a human right film that illustrates the lack of freedom: It is a story of two oppressed and landless groups of bonded labour in Nepal. Last year I was working for YLE, where I was directing a science program. Then I started  developing a production and a publishing company. All together I have done 10 films and currently doing my second book. I have received much acknowledgement and some awards - for the best magazine and a television show both in Finland.

I was working in television for 5 years, time in which I worked also in fiction and documentary production. I discover that I am especially interested in documentary filmmaking. In 2007, I participated at Discovery Campus 3rd Open Training Session from Timisoara and last year, I’ve participated at Aristoteles Workshop organized by ARTE. This year I decided that it’s time to develop my own project. I don’t have experience in producing documentary but I have all the skills and passion to do this. Please, give me the chance.

I decided to become a reporter and a director because of my passion for writing and telling real life stories.
I carried out several investigations that lead to documentaries about Africa, Latin America, minors and psychiatric illness, and Romany people. For RAI UNO in 2003 I was in charge of documentaries on crisis in Latin America, in Africa and in 2006 in Lebanon.
To work with more freedom I have left the employment of Rai Uno staff and now I am a director and freelance reporter.
My documentary on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was awarded several prizes among which, the Italian Oscar David di Donatello nominee. It was also broadcast in Usa, Sweden, Finland, Japan and in November 2008 at the European Commission in Brussels.

The thread that runs through the broad range of subjects I choose for my films is that of identity. I am most interested in both the conscious and unconscious ways in which we carve out individual identities whilst being citizens of a global world, and to what extent the media influences this construct. In my films I seek to capture slices of time during which the places and characters will not only reveal physical landmarks but emotional ones too.
In 2008 I directed Anyway, Who Are You?, [included in this application]a short documentary commissioned by Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. The brief was to produce a film using archival material that would make a statement about contemporary Britain. I wanted to make a film that would show refugees and asylum seekers in a way they are not traditionally presented. I wanted to focus more on the experience of being a displaced human being, something any person around the world could relate to, rather than focus on the hard statistics of asylum and the legal points of each case. Because immigration is such a divisive issue in the United Kingdom I felt strongly that too often individual stories get obliterated by political rhetoric and that this short film could be a small antidote to that. Anyway, Who Are You? was broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) in May 2008 along with 3 others in the ‘Britain Recut’ series.
Currently I am directing an independent feature length documentary about middle age and how men living in the UK are experiencing it. I am also directing a short film about the 2008 American presidential election as told through the eyes of a British political activist who travelled to America to campaign for Obama and later returned to attend the Inauguration.
In 2000 I directed a short documentary – New York Before The Bomb -  about the pre-millennial media maelstrom in New York City and how ordinary New Yorkers and tourists were responding to it.
For the second year I am co-programming the documentary strand of the London Independent Film Festival, and prior to moving to London I associate produced a 14 hour documentary series about World War II for American public television [The War, directed by Ken Burns] which was also an official selection at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.I studied documentary film and American history at New York University where I received a BA. In 2006 I received an MSc from The London School of Economics in Imperialism, Colonialism and Globalisation.

An anthropologist by training, I have been working with NGOs in central and eastern Europe (CEE) for nearly four years.
Currently I am Coordinator of New Media for one of the strongest networks of environmental organizations operating in twelve countries of the CEE region.
My primary responsibilities include coordinating video advocacy to support campaigning objectives - including all phases of production and dissemination of products to appropriate audiences - and the strategic development of web-based information and communication applications to further these efforts.

I was trained as a photo journalist and am a voluntary NGO field worker since many years. I started working with film in the context of a participatory video project with unattended minor refugees during my studies of visual communication at FHTW, Berlin. Over the years, my focus has shifted from photography to film. My films are mainly applied in political education. Producing most of them independently, I am well experienced in the whole process of the realization of a documentary, from researching to directing, from camera work to editing. My last two films and three of my photo essays were released as a mixed media publication by Pro Asyl, a German human rights NGO.

I am an experienced Producer/ Director with a track record working on high profile and award winning documentaries and factual content for British broadcasters. My work has been BAFTA and RTS nominated. My film A-Z of Your Head for Channel 4 won a Mental Health Media Award. Last year I was awarded a bursary by Screen South to attend the prestigious Fast Track Series Producer Course and secured £10,000 of development funding from Wellcome Trust for my Brighton to Lusaka Project.
I am passionate about story-telling, and about telling extraordinary stories with visual flair and creativity.

After the master in Environmental studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland, I enrolled at the Vancouver Filmschool and graduated 2001 with a documentary on women with breast cancer, winning the price “Best documentary of the year”. After returning to Switzerland, I started working for different TV stations and gradually building up my own firm, ALOCO GmbH, a multi-media agency, together with my partner. Our focus lies on cross-media productions and human right issues.

As a German design graduate, I spent the final year of my degree in England and have since been based in London as a director, designer and photographer.
Entering the media industry as a freelance designer, I have continued to independently explore filmmaking and photography. Recently I've joined a production company in East London as a director and designer.
My passion and creativity lies within art, photography and film and I'd like to utilise these to create documentary projects.

I am a documentary filmmaker that focuses on political, global and social themes. Currently I am working for the German Amadeu-Antonio Stiftung on a project about Anti-Semitism in the former German Democratic Republic.
Besides working as a director, I am also active as an editor for documentaries and background projection screenings.

After literature and language studies in Riga and Duesseldorf I studied film history, producing, directing and editing at European Film College in Denmark. During her my studies I was scriptwriter and director of several student films.
I acquired overall knowledge of local and international film scene while working at the International Centre of Cinema, 2002-2005. I did select film program and organized Riga International Film Forum Arsenals, Nordic Film Days and Fantasy Film Festival. In order to carry out the film selection and ensure international cooperation visited the most important European film festivals on regular basis.
2006 I turned to film production and joined the Production Company Ego Media as producer, production and location manager. The company’s profile is the production of fiction and documentaries for local and international audiences. 2008 I was EAVE participant.
Recent productions of our company are documentary films My Mother’s Farm, IDFA Silver Wolf Completion 2008, Walter Zapp: The Minox Was My Life, fiction film The Hunt – in post-production.
My filmography as a producer includes documentary films Olympic Man – in post-production, Girls Don’t Cry – in development, fiction The Enthusiast – in development.

- graduate in history of cinema at the DAMS of Bologna
- she worked as director of backstage for the Filmaster and Colorado Sudios in Rome
- she worked as director of the programme "Action" for the sat tv TELE+ in Milan
- she created and directed the series tv "Art Stories" (produced by Culture Department of the Bolzano Province)
- she wrote and directed social documentaries "Pakistan Avenue" (with RAI3) and "Sidelki-Caregivers" (produced by Culture Department of the Trento Province)
- she wrote and directed historycal documentaries "Zum Tode", "Giannantonio Manci" and "Sloi" (produced by Culture Department of the Trento Province)

I graduated in 2002 in Sociology. Then I went to Paris where I’ve been living for five years. I worked in a documentary production company, Peignoir Production, since 2004 to 2008. In 2008 I decided to be a free lance editor and director.