Guests
Daniel Abma was born in 1978 in Westerbork, Drenthe, Netherlands. After a degree in primary school education, he moved to Berlin to be a youth media worker. Then he studied film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, where he realised the feature-length documentaries Beyond Wriezen (Nach Wriezen, Grimme Award, 2012) and Transit Havana (2016), The Family Approach (2024). His documentary films about social themes are observatory and based on people. Since 2017, Abma has taught documentary film directing. He also tutors pitching workshops at European film festivals and is still a freelance youth media worker.
Director and photographer Zaradasht Ahmed, born and raised in northern Iraq, is a Kurdish–Norwegian filmmaker. His previous work includes the award-winning documentary Road to Diyarbakır. He has many years of experience working with documentary filmmaking in the Middle East, North-Africa, and Asia, as well as with training local people in documentation. His film on the topic of illegal immigration to Europe, Fata Morgana, has been screened at several prestigious film festivals. Nowhere to Hide, on the death triangle of Iraq, was the opening film at Verzió 2017.
Bipuljit Basu, a Sundance Institute and IDFA Grantee, is an aspirant filmmaker in Indian Factual cinema/Reality cinema and documentaries. Postgraduate in Social Development, Bipuljit finds out the unexplored stories which have a social significance in popular culture, creating some impact values in the broader social spectrum. He believes in showing Inclusion, which is an instrument for social change.
Jan Bodnár is a Czech independent producer and journalist. As a producer, he has worked on several award-winning documentary films — How I Became a Partisan (dir. Vera Lacková, 2021), The World According to My Dad (dir. Marta Kovářová, 2023), and Dajori (dir. Martin Páv and Nicolas Kourek, 2024). He is the founder of the production company Safe Place Production. He has participated in numerous international training programs and workshops, including IDFAcademy, Dok.Incubator, Ex Oriente, ACE Training Days, and Move It On, among others. Between 2016 and 2019, he worked as a programmer for the queer film festival Mezipatra.
Tetiana Dorodnitsyna is a film director, editor and visual artist. Graduate of the Directing Faculty at the I. K. Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kiev. She is the director of the short films 'Wolves' (2023) and 'Who Is Kaya?' (2019). She has worked for television channels, production companies and Kyivtelefilm film studio. She is the editor of the feature-length documentary 'Roses. Film-Cabaret' (2021) by Irena Stetsenko and 'Askania Reserve' (2019) by Andrii Lytvynenko. 'Everything Needs to Live' is her feature-length debut.
Liubov Dyvak is a Ukrainian Producer, journalist and researcher based between Berlin and Kyiv. Dyvak’s early research examined the tension between modern-day Ukraine’s pursuit of its own cultural identity with the inherited trauma of its post-soviet existence. She has completed research fellowships and scholarships at several major institutions, including Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. More recently though, Dyvak’s work has been directed towards the cultural and psychological impact of Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She co-produced the award-winning feature-length documentary, The Longer You Bleed, and now develops a subsequent film exploring mental health innovation amidst the war.
Sofia Fischer has made her commitment to women's causes the driving force of her professional and personal life. At Le Monde and in other publications, where she has been working as a journalist for eight years, she documents the fractures within society. Mothers Without Parole is her first film. Over the course of three years, she traveled across France, visiting prison visiting rooms to listen to the stories of mothers who had killed their children. Her aim was to better understand her own story, as well as those of all these women whom society continues to overlook.
Two years after enrolling in a Documentary Filmmaking Master's Degree at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Ion Gnatiuc has decided to return to Moldova, his homeland, and chase the stories it had to tell using a camera. In Moldova he is building HaiDOC Productions, a platform dedicated to film production, as well as ethically connecting international film companies with local talent and film infrastructure. He is reshaping the local filmmaking landscape through his involvement in ALTFilm, an NGO committed to training, production and distribution for an emerging generation of filmmakers in Moldova, becoming their voice in the film industry worldwide. Simultaneously he is freelancing as a DoP or Producer for international broadcasters such as The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, ARTE. Ion Gnatiuc is following his dream of putting Moldova on the filmmaking map of the world, and strongly believes in the power of documentaries to generate change where other instruments might have failed.
Alina Gorlova is a Ukrainian film director. She graduated from Karpenko- Kary Kyiv National University of Theatre, Film & Television. She co-founded a production company, TABOR. Her documentary, No Obvious Signs, won the MDR film award for Best Eastern European Film at DokLeipzig.
Sári Haragonics earned her BA degree in media studies from the University of Bedfordshire, in England, in 2007, then completed her master's degree in documentary film directing at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest, in 2015. Her graduation film, Coming Face to Face, won the grand prize in the ZOOM-IN section of the Verzió International Documentary Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary, Her Mothers (co-directed with Dér Asia), premiered in 2020 at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival, in Canada. Don't Worry Sári!, her second feature-length film, is a personal story about her own family.
Csaba Hernáth, a cinematographer and editor, is co-owner of the Speak Easy Project. He was a key member of the crew on the film Ultra (cinematographer, assistant editor), and worked as editor on the film Ghetto Balboa. His directorial debut is Veteran Film.
Matevž Jerman is a film director, film curator, and film critic, co-founder of the Kraken Association for the Promotion of Short Film, and Programme Director of FeKK – Ljubljana Short Film Festival. Since 2009, he has been working with the Slovenian Cinematheque’s programming department, where in recent years he has been curating short film programs and researching special Avant-Garde collections in the cinema archive.
Rachel Leah Jones is an Emmy-winning nonfiction filmmaker whose trajectory in the field — from producer to director to editor to writer — has spanned three decades and three continents. Her work has been nominated for the PGA Awards, the IDA Awards, selected by the European Film Academy, awarded by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, honored by Cinema Eye, and shortlisted for the Oscars. A three-time Sundance Festival and Institute alumna, her critically-acclaimed films
— ADVOCATE (2019); GYPSY DAVY (2012); ASHKENAZ (2007); 500 DUNAM ON THE MOON (2002) — have screened in festivals worldwide such as IDFA, True/False, Visions du Reel, Sheffield, CPH:DOX, DocNYC, Hotdocs, and aired on dozens of channels including PBS; BBC; ARD; France Television; RTS; YLE; DR; SVT; 2M; Radio Canada; and HBO. In addition to maintaining a prolific career as an activist-artist, Jones, a Documentary Branch member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has collaborated extensively with other filmmakers and worked as a story consultant, directing mentor, and curator.
Director Jueun Jang pays attention to expanding the subject starting from the inner story of humans to social messages through documentary. " Still Waiting at Paengmok" (2024) focuses on observing the daily lives of the bereaved of the disaster, exploring the nature of separation, and raising public awareness of social issues.
Jeroen Kooijmans is a Dutch artist. In 1995 he graduated at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Since then he has lived, worked and exhibited in many places all over het world.The fundamental nature of Kooijmans’ work is optimistic, yet the dark side of life is not ignored. Wonderfully simple films exist alongside complex installations of video projections combined with sound and architectural elements. In 1998 Jeroen Kooijmans was awarded the NPS Cultuurprijs and in 2007 he won the Impakt Beam System Award. In 2001/2001 he was part of The International Studio Program of the PS1/MoMa in New York. As artist in residence Kooijmans was associated with the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture in 2010. In 2013/2014 he worked as artist in residence with the Instituto Buena Bista Curaçao.
Anita Korn works as creative producer in television, is a design manager and the owner and content creator of the YouTube channel Ruhastory. She earned her master’s degree in design and art management at MOME, writing her thesis on sustainable fashion.
Jasna Krajinovic was born in the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia, in Yugoslavia. Before studying at the Academy for Theatre and Cinema, she studied French and English literature at the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. Moving to Brussels, she studied film directing at the National Institute of Performing Arts. Since graduating in 1999, she has devoted her life to independent filmmaking. Her films were produced by the Dardenne brothers for 13 years, and she still works with their production house Dérives. She has received numerous awards. Following Damian’s Room (2009) and Summer with Anton (2012), Rashid, the Boy from Sinjar (2025) completes her series of portraits about teenagers transcending the limits of complex life conditions.
Margit Lillak, the director, graduated from Estonian Academy of Arts majoring in scenography (1999) and worked in animation studio Multifilm after that. In 2002, she received her MA degree in Royal Holloway College majoring in feature screenwriting. After that, her co-operation with production company Allfilm started. Margit has made several short documentaries, such as Beebilõust (2009), Ars Longa (2008) and Pastacas (2009). The latter was awarded Grand Prix in EstDocs film festival in Toronto (2010). In 2012, Margit made her first full length documentary 40+2 Weeks, focusing on her own pregnancy and preparations for home birth, followed by The Circle (2019), her second full length documentary.
Andrii Lytvynenko is a film director and producer. He graduated from the Kiev National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television named after I. K. Karpenko-Kary and the Documentary Studio at the Wajda School. He is the director of the documentaries ‘Fantastic Ukrainians. Fine Art' (2020) and “Askania Reserve” (2019), which received awards from the UA Docudays and Pelicam festivals. He is the co-author and one of the co-directors of the film ‘Euromaidan. Rough Cut' (2014), which won a Special Mention at the Ji.hlava IFFD, as well as a Ukrainian producer and one of the authors of the idea for ’Trial: Russian Federation vs. Oleg Sencov' (2017) by Askold Kurov.
Vibeke Løkkeberg (b. 1945) is one of Norway’s most profiled filmmakers, authors and cultural icons. Married to producer Terje Kristiansen and mother to Tonje and Marie, Løkkeberg created a unique concept of blending her personal life with her filmmaking, often working with her family. Known for groundbreaking and often controversial films, such as Løperjenten (The Story of Camila) and Hud (Skin), the director brings her uncompromising vision and storytelling prowess to this project. Løkkeberg is also a prolific novelist, with works including Leoparden (1989), Jordens skygge (1994), Purpur (2002), Brev til himmelen (2004),. Allierte (2008) and Frokost på stupet (2018). In 2005, Løkkeberg was appointed Cavalieri by the Italian President, and in 2015, Løkkeberg was the recipient of the Honorary Amanda Award for her contribution to Norwegian Cinema.
Jurij Meden is a curator and head of film program at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna. Previously, he worked as head of the program department at the Slovenian Cinematheque in Ljubljana and as curator of film exhibitions at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.
Simon Mozghovyi is a Ukrainian film director. He studied Cinema and Television Arts at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, and then went on to study an advanced-level course in dramaturgy in Kyiv, where he began acting.
Arum Nam is a documentary director based in Seoul, South Korea. Currently pursuing a master's degree in documentary at the Korea National University of Arts. She directed a short documentary called Pink Femi, which tells the story of a feminist mother, and co-directed Teleporting with Japanese directors during the pandemic. K-Family Affairs is her first feature documentary.
Gar O’Rourke is an award-winning Irish documentary filmmaker. His debut feature, Sanatorium, balances humour and tragedy in the stories of staff and guests staying at a unique Soviet-era health resort in southern war-torn Ukraine. The film will premiere in Spring 2025 and was recently acquired by Oscar and Emmy-winning BBC Storyville for their prestigious documentary film strand. His debut short film, Kachalka, also filmed in Ukraine, went on to win awards and screen in some of the world’s top film festivals along with receiving a Vimeo Staff pick and being acquired by some of North America and Europe’s biggest broadcasters. He is currently in pre-production on his second feature documentary, titled The Siege of Paradise, which takes place on the northern Italian Riviera and begins filming in Spring 2025.
Juanjo Pereira is a filmmaker, researcher and producer whose work highlights interdisciplinary research through the creation of essay films and video installations. He is dedicated to researching the Paraguayan film archive, and his projects also use the dérive to examine modern infrastructures and everyday built landscapes. He serves as the artistic director and co-founder of the Asunción International Contemporary Film Festival. He has participated and won awards at festivals and markets such as: Hot Docs Forum, IDFA Bertha Fund, ARCHÉ, among others.
Robin Petré is a Danish film director and artist. In her work she explores human-animal relations and our co-existence with nature. Her feature-length debut FROM THE WILD SEA (2021) premiered at the Berlinale and received the Grand Prix at Global Science Film Festival among other awards. The film was nominated for the Danish Film Critics Award and has screened at festivals such as Zürich Film Festival, Krakow Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, CPH:DOX, and True/False. Her short film PULSE (2016) was awarded the Silver Dove for An Outstanding Artistic Contribution at DOK Leipzig. She holds an MA in Documentary Film Directing from Doc Nomads. She’s an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Sundance Institute, Nordic Film Lab, and IDFAcademy. Her new film ONLY ON EARTH (2025) celebrates its world premiere at the Berlinale. The film previously received the Cannes Marché du Film Docs-in-Progress Award 2024.
Lea Podhradská graduated from the University of Theatre and Film Budapest as a documentary filmmaker. Before that, she studied interdisciplinary social research at the doctoral school of ELTE. The film My Father's Daughter is her first feature film. She is motivated by the art of experimentation in filmmaking. Lea is a Talents Sarajevo scholarship holder.
Dorian Rivière is a French director based in Brussels. Currently part of the European filmmaking program Docnomads, he also works as a professional editor and cinematographer. His next project is a Transylvanian documentary about vampires.
Danial Shah is an independent documentary photographer and filmmaker from Pakistan currently based in Brussels. He is interested in issues related to human condition and the environment they interact with. He works on commission and on editorial assignments. Danial's work has been published in The New York Times, The Times London, The Daily Telegraph, Dawn (Pakistan), Herald (Pakistan), Express Tribune Magazine (Pakistan), The Wire (India), Scroll.in (India), Himal SouthAsian (Nepal), Dawn Urdu (Pakistan), and Trek&Mountain (UK). His work is represented by Getty Images.
Miles Shebar is a New York–based editor, motion-graphics artist, and art director appearing at Verzio on behalf of the team behind Monk in Pieces, a feature documentary about visionary artist Meredith Monk. Beyond his involvement with the film, Miles collaborated with Monk as a technical creative on a series of virtual concerts in 2020. Other recent projects include serving as Head of Video on Dear New York, a large-scale installation that transformed Grand Central Terminal with multi-channel video, photography, and stories. Miles’s editing and motion-graphics work has appeared on Hulu, Max, and Discovery; at Berlinale, Tribeca, Telluride, and DOC NYC; and in commercials for major brands. Additional credits include Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, Humans of New York: The Series, and all 110th Street Films productions.
Martin Trabalik is a Czech documentarist based in Prague. In his work, he focuses on social, humanitarian and environmental issues. In January 2016 he volunteered during the European refugee crisis in Greece becoming interested in photography in the process. Since then he has worked on several projects in Nagorno-Karabakh, Donbas, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other areas. In the year 2018, he was awarded UNHRC and Czech Press Photo prize in the category Problems of our age for covering the Rohingya's expulsion from Myanmar. In 2021 he directed and produced documentary movie Incendios about forest fires in Bolivia which was awarded Best Documentary Feature at the International Film Festival in La Paz. Beside documentary projects he enjoys also other fields of creative expression. Feature documentary What about Petey? is his second feature lenght film.
Julianna Ugrin – The EFA nominated producer is the founder and owner of Éclipse Film, an independent film production company founded in 2011. She develops and produces films on an international level for more than ten years. Films produced by her, as A Woman Captured, Easy Lessons, or The Next Guardian were screened, nominated, and awarded at festivals like EFA, SUNDANCE, IDFA, LOCARNO, DOK Leipzig, Hot Docs, Sheffield, or Sarajevo IFF. Since 2013 she teaches at the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Documentary MA studies and is a doctoral student there. In 2019 she was selected to Producers on the Move in Cannes. She is EURODOC and an EAVE graduate. She is an organizer of DunaDOCK Master Class & Pitching series, member of MADOKE, DAE, IDA, of the Hungarian and of the European Film Academy.
Ketevan Vashagashvili is a documentary filmmaker based in Tbilisi. She is a Chevening alumna with an MA in Digital Documentary from the University of Sussex (UK). Her main interest lies in social and human rights issues. Ketevan has 14 years of experience working at various Georgian TV channels and online platforms, directing and producing TV documentaries and programmes.
Márton Vízkelety is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with a degree in Cinematography from the University of Theater and Film Budapest. Among others, he photographed the documentaries Keep Quiet (TriBeCa, CPH:Dox, Astra FF etc.), Train to Adulthood (DOK Leipzig, ZagrebDox) and Ultra (Sarajevo FF, San Sebastian FF). His debut as a director, together with Julianna Ugrin, Holy Dilemma, has won the Hungarian Film Critics Prize in 2022 for the best documentary, and won the main prize at the Verzió Film Festival, Budapest. My Chemical Information System is his second feature documentary.
Ewan Waddell is a Berlin-based director whose debut feature, The Longer You Bleed, premiered at Hot Docs 2025. His style blends mixed media and experimental approaches to examine the modernity crisis. Waddell now develops his second film, exploring the therapeutic use of psychedelics in war-torn Ukraine.
