Participants

Carlo Lo Giudice – (IT)

From 1990 he realizes short films, documentaries, video for theatre. He is a free-lance documentary trainers for the Department of Foreign Languages and Letterature and for the Department of Leterature and Philosophy of the University of Catania. From 2004 to 2006 he  the responsable of the cinema workshop of “Opera Universitaria” Catania. From 2009 he teach multimedial language at the Academy of the Fine Arts of Catania. From 1999 to 2003 he has been working on a serial documentary project about the perception of the urban space in European cities (Catania#01, Lisbona#02, Atene#03).
In 2003 he got the fellowship “Movin’up” from G.A.I. (Giovani Artisti Italiani) for international mobility of the artists. Important for him also the projects realized in Bosnia, Palestine, Egypt and in 2006, the partecipation to the Esodoc - European Media Programme Workshop. He’s member of the Italian documentarists association doc/it.

Christiam Jamin – (CH)

I work in the areas documentary film, social media work and video art. At the documentary section of 3SAT/WDR I was able to gather professional experience. I just completed a three year project in Zurich in which I have trained unemployed people to organise, prepare and carry out a short documentary report. As co-director and co-producer I have made a low budget movie about the theme “working poor”. “The last haircutter” premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival and had several screenings on Swiss National TV. My next movie will deal with the challenges of social entrepreneurship.

Christopher Malapitan – (CY)

Christopher Malapitan is a freelance media artist living and working in Cyprus providing creative offline and online commercial solutions. A Graphic Designer having gained experience in producing video-promos, training/educational videos, TV commercials, documentaries as well as short films at an audiovisual studio. Last year he produced a short video diary portraying an anonymous young lady from Africa living in Nicosia and is currently producing a documentary that will investigate the labour exploitation of female foreign domestic workers in Cyprus.

Daniel Banaczek – (PL)

By education I am philosopher, artistic animator, art manager, director. For the past 8 years I have been conducting artistic and social projects for association which I am president of [Artistic and Educational Association in Cracow). We conduct theatrical performances, and site specific multi-media projects. For the past 2 years I have been working as a director on documentary films on the topic of modern immigration as well as social exclusions. The films that I am realizing now is about young prisoners from Silesia and second one about postindustrial cities in Europe (Donbas-Ukraine, Essen-Germany and Nowa Huta in Poland) I cooperate with Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych w Warszawie [documentary and film studio in Warsaw], Polish Public Television (TVP1) and start cooperation with Media Desk program and Wajda School in Warsaw..
Since 1998, along with my Association, I have carried out artistic as and theatrical projects as well as documentaries in Poland, Eastern and Central Europe as well as the countries of the EU. The participants of these projects are usually the socially oppressed groups – prisoners, emigrants, socially underprivileged youth, or emigrants from Kosovo. Our projects focus on the creation of a free space for the process of free creation for the target groups. We use techniques ranging from theatre to new media, video art and documentary films. We hale also carried out international artistic festivals on the topics of the current social and political issues. The most recent was entitled „Achtung! Polen Kommen”, which was carried out in 2005 in Eastern Germany and “New Art in Nowa Huta” (documentary film about revitalization of postindustrial district of Cracow in Poland).

Eszter Hajdú - (HU)

Education
2005 - University for Theatre and Screen, Budapest – Television director and presenter faculty
2004 - 2005 Central European University, Nationalism Faculty - MA diploma
2003 - 2004 Paideia – European Jewish Cultural Institute, 1 year scholarship, Stockholm
2000 - 2006 ELTE Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences, Budapest, Sociology Faculty
1998 - 2003 Szegedi Tudományegyetem, Szeged, Communication Faculty, Radio - Television and PR specialisation Work-experience
2005 - PAX Television, Budapest – director (“My own private, Tarnabod”)
2002 - 2004 Editor-reporter, Hungarian Television (MTV1)
Galéria, Jelentés, Provokátor – weekly cultural, social magazine-program
2002 - 2003 Editor-reporter, presenter, Klub Radio
2001 - 2003 Researcher, cultural columnist, Kurt Lewin Foundation (civil organisation for human rights)
szochalo.hu, Social Science Online journal columnist
2001 - 2003 Journalist, Sikeres Nk, Kozmetikai Piac, Házak, Pretty Woman magazines

Friedrich Ofner – (AT)

At present I work as a researcher for Austrian documentary film production company Mischief Films.
Before I worked as a freelance journalist on development topics. I directed two short docs that were commissioned by an Austrian NGO. Furthermore I made two small docs in Colombia about human rights issues.
I wish to participate at EsoDoc to refine the script I am working on. It is a documentary about indigenous people in Colombia working with participatory video.

Hugh Hartford – (UK)

I am a professional director, cameraman and editor. I have worked freelance for companies including Two Four Productions, National Geographic, Artificial Eye, and Tartan Films as well as producing films for Banyak, an independent documentary production company I founded in 2005. Banyak clients include BBC, Channel Four, Demos, FORWARD, UCL, Lancaster and Manchester University, ESRC, and the Environment Agency. With a background in anthropology at UCL and in film and anthropology at Manchester, I am now developing uses for film as both research and documentary for broadcast and development organisations. I am a founding member of PocketVisions a company set up to form links between the media and academia.

Isabel Kreisler – (ES)

My current professional position is "Research officer" at the Campaigns and Policy Department of Intermón Oxfam (Spanish member of Oxfam International). Oxfam is a coalition of 12 NGOs working to combat poverty around the world.
Within the Campaign´s department I am in charge of research dealing with different companies’ operations in developing countries, and their impact on development. Former research I led focused on working conditions of Spanish garment companies operating in Morocco. I am currently undertaking a research on social and environmental impacts of tourist resorts on communities’ development.

Kaspars Goba - (LV)

Kaspars Goba is a film director, producer, photographer and journalist whose last documentary Seda. People of the Marsh. was co-produced with filmtank hamburg GmbH for ARTE/NDR.
His carrier in film making industry started in 1996 and he has been working as a director, producer and cameraman on 9 films focusing on social and environmental issues. In 2005 he established his own film production company Elm Media Ltd.
Being a contemporary artist during the last two years he has participated in 16 contemporary art exhibitions around Europe, including Europart. 25Peaces in Vienna, Austria.

Klára Trencsényi – (HU)

Is a freelance director and cinematographer doing creative and social documentaries. In 2005 she graduated from the Hungarian Film Academy, Budapest as Director of Photography.
She directed two mid-length documentaries (A Chance, 2007 and Birds Way, 2009), and a short documentary (3Weddings – Elena&Leo, 2009), and has worked in various international productions as cinematographer, with Dutch, American and Hungarian directors (e.g. the IDFA awarded The Angelmakers, dir. Astrid Bussink, 2005). She has done extensive social and voluntary work with Roma, Irish travelers, and a photography course for Romanian orphans.
She participated in A Sunday in the Country in 2008, Berlinale Talent Campus 2008 and EsoDoc 2006. Currently she is working on her fourth creative documentary...

Krista Vvere – (LV)

I have worked in the television industry for 14 years – initially as a reporter for the News Department and then as the host of live broadcasts. For nine years I have worked on journalistic broadcasts. For three years I produced a weekly show on people with various disabilities. I have produced films about various social problems, and I have been commissioned to do work for non-governmental organisations, as well.

Lisa Glahn - (DE)

1982.87 Theatrestudies in Germany, France and Italy
1987.92 Working as an Attrice with Teatro Nucleo, Ferrara, Italy
Since 1992 Director of theatreplays in Germany and Italy
1990.93 Filmschool Ipotesi Cinema in Bassano del Grappa, Italy
Since then long documentaries about mostly social issues, some of them for German TV (3sat and WDR); and shortfilms
Featuers and reportages for pubblic radiostations in Germany
Pedagogical medienwork with young people from social borderland (in prison, psychiatry…)
Publication: (book) Frauen im Aufbruch – Geschichte und Gegenwart der Frauenhäuser Münster, 1998

Lucian Muntean – (HU)

I graduated from University of Film and Theatre, Department - Director of Photography in year 2000, in Bucharest, Romania. I have a Degree in Cinematography. During my studies I had the opportunity to shoot a great number of short films, exclusively on 16mm and 35 mm, both in black & white and colour. Since I graduated I’ve been working as director and cinematographer for Production houses and TV networks in Romania, Serbia and Hungary. I also work as a freelance cinematographer and documentary filmmaker.

Ma Shumin – (FR)

I studied TV-Film at Syracuse University (New York) with a summer at Université de Bourgogne (France) and University of California, Berkeley where I studied Asian American film/video. I also studied Asian Cinema in City University of Hong Kong.
I’ve worked as an assistant editor at a small independent documentary production company in New York City and San Francisco. I was a co-producer and reporter of two weekly 30 minute news program at Radio TV Hong Kong. The past three years I have worked as a freelance DP, editor and writer in Paris and New York. I can communicate in three languages (English, Chinese and French). I have some experiences in producing short documentaries from a concept to a final film.
I am dedicated to improving my skills of making quality films about people, culture and our society.

Maciej Grabysa – (PL)

I am independent director of documentaries in social themes which try to show situation in Poland after 1989 year; in cooperation with Polish public TV (TVP), for which I’ve made four docs:

2006 - “ARTS ARE BEAUTIFUL” a story about homeless people working as a models on Academy of Fine Arts;
2005 -  “LAND OF FORGIVENESS“ -Judaism, Orthodox Church, Catholicism in Tunisia
2004 - “RECEIPT FOR LIFE story about unemployed people who are testing drugs for pharmaceutical concerns;
2002 - “THE DAMNED” “a shocking record of one “normal” day at an institution where drunks are detained until they sober up”

Now I’m very interested to show and describe situation of the people who live in Karpathian Mountains in Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and Romania.
It is very origin place where live a lot of interested the minorities with their origin practices (habits and faiths)
I know many themes from these lands (I am member of Karpathian Association, Polish_Romanian friendship association).
I cooperate with Institut of Ethnology at Jagiellonian University in Cracow.
Citizens of this region are in a very interesting period of their life: they are after “communist time” and before global transformation. These two realities are mixed, which is very fine subject for a doc movie.

Maria Rinaldo – (SE)

Maria is a professional independent documentary filmmaker who has directed and produced more than ten documentaries for Swedish national TV (SVT1, SVT2, TV4). Several of the documentaries have been co-funded and broadcasted internationally. Maria has run a production company with her husband and partner Peter Rinaldo since 1990. She is one of the founders of Documentary group where five independent directors/producers today work together producing documentaries for Swedish National TV. After graduation Maria started working with National News at the main national TV News desks parallel to producing documentaries but from 1996 she has worked full-time producing, directing and editing documentaries. Her focus has been issues related to the developing world and not seldom in combination with war. From 1994 and onwards Maria and her husband have worked in Rwanda with three documentaries for SVT1 (broadcasted 1995, 2001 and 2004). Earlier work has also included documentaries from the civil war in Liberia 1990 and Structural Adjustment Program effects in Jamaica 1991. My last documentary "Suzana – I have a dream" won the international award from IAWRT for best documentary 2005. I have together with Peter Rinaldo received Swedish awards for two documentaries about the genocide in Rwanda, "Blodsarvet" (1995) and "In The Name of God" (2004) and one Swedish award for the creative documentary "Glesbygdsfolk (2002). The last years Maria has held courses in editing and with Peter Rinaldo held seminars around the film "In the Name of God".

Mark Aardenburg – (NL)

Mark is an independent documentary producer with fourteen years experience producing documentaries about developing countries and social subjects. With his company MovieTron he made, besides institutional films, eight international documentaries, which are still being broadcast worldwide. As an independent producer, he has had vast experience working in all aspects of production, including story development, research, writing, directing, editing, audio, fund-raising and distribution. Just recently he started giving lectures in documentary making in Amsterdam.

Marko Popovic – (CZ)

Studied film and TV direction at Prague Film Academy (FAMU) and at Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade (FDU). Directed more then 30 short feature and documentary films (“Unknown people”, “The Killers”, “Species”, “The Picnic”, “The Gift”, “Intolerance” - documentary series in 10 episodes, “Top Secret”… ) Some of them were shown at various film festivals and reviews, such as festivals in Prague, Kosice, Glasgow, Toronto, Belgrade. Directed several promotional clips and campaigns and two theatre performances. Program manager of Belgrade Human Rights Film Festival

Nadia Pisetta – (FR)

Graduated in sociology of development at the political science university of Bologna (Italy), I have continued with a Master in “Development's social practices” at the Sorbonne University of Paris (France).
Since 2003, I work as a voluntary with “BLOK”, a French association involved in audiovisual and intercultural projects.
I worked in Morocco and West Africa for french NGOs “Migration & Développement” and “G.R.D.R.” on the capitalization of their local development's projects (audio/photo report, guide and video documentary).
With “BLOK” I have also realised a participatory video project with palestinian children in Hebron.

Rajesh Paul Thind – (UK)

I am a professional writer, artist and documentary filmmaker based in London who has produced and directed films for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and the Arts Council of England, as well as making films and consulting for various NGOs and arts organisations (PhotoVoice, Barnardos, Cancer Research UK, SPACE). I work through OpenCircuit, the network of creative collaborators I founded in 2004, which is committed to developing ways of making socially engaged creative work effective on an international basis. I spent my 20s studying (economics, anthropology, sociology, communications, cultural theory), travelling (South and North America, Africa, South and South-East Asia, Europe) and involved in various forms of activism (environmental, social justice, debt relief). I have previously worked professionally as a radio journalist, publisher and university tutor (and as a chef in Italy when I was 18). My work is concerned with bridging cultural divides and attempting to forumulate creatively-based vernaculars and forms of address that enable the development of post-national modes of identification and communication.

Roderick Agius – (MT)

Graduated in Social Studies from Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy.
With over 14 years experience in print and broadcast journalism, Roderick Agius is one of the leading journalists in Malta. Received training and attended courses in broadcast journalism organized by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the International Television School of London, United Kingdom.
As senior journalist and producer at Net Television (Malta), Roderick Agius has followed the conflict in the former Republic of Yugoslavia and the political crises in neighbouring Albania late in the mid 90’s.
He is the producer and the script writer of various television documentaries featuring the aftermath of the conflict in Bosnia, the Kosovo war, the Russian Orthodox Church, the living conditions at the Russian orphanages, the Beslan tragedy, the tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka and survivors from Auschwitz concentration camps.
Roderick Agius also produced and presented various discussion programmes dealing with social and international issues on both radio and television.
In 2002 he was awarded for the best programme in the documentary section organized by the Broadcasting Authority in Malta. Two years later, he received the award for the best use of Maltese Language organized by the Institute of Maltese Journalists.
For these last years, Roderick Agius has received honours from the Ministry of Education and the Institute of Maltese Journalists for significant contribution to professional journalism in Malta.

Rosa Rogers – (UK)

Producer/Director with an eight year track record in developing and making innovative, original and challenging programmes for a range of terrestrial and digital channels, many of which have been nominated for/won awards and been shown at film festivals around the world. I’m interested in making engaging and thought provoking films across a range of subjects, from observational social documentary to arts programmes. My primary interest is in bringing marginalized experiences and social injustice to the screen and a wider audience in an informative, accessible and compelling way.

Sonia Sapienza – (IT)

Beginning as academic researcher in comparative literature, she has then been working i multimedia publishing and environmental media activism. From 2000 she has been working with the UN and the EU and collaborating with NGOs for long and medium term field missions in the humanitarian field as Public information Office, Civic Education, Electoral and Communication expert, while carrying on her own work as social photoreporter.