Georgia

Salomé Jashi was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. She first studied journalism and worked as a reporter for several years. In 2005 she was awarded a British Council scholarship to study documentary filmmaking at Royal Holloway, University of London. Salomé’s The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016) was awarded the Main Prize at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competition as well as at ZagrebDox, Jihlava IDFF, Valdivia IDFF, and several other festivals. Her earlier work, Bakhmaro (2011) received an Honorary Mention for a Young Documentary Talent at DOK Leipzig, and was awarded as the Best Central and Eastern European Documentary at Jihlava IDFF. Salomé is the founder of two production companies: Sakdoc Film and Microcosmos, both producing documentaries and fiction of high artistic quality. She was a fellow of Nipkow Scholarship in 2017 and of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2020. The Dazzling Light of Sunset screened at Verzió in 2019.

Mari Gulbiani is a Georgian film director and screenplay writer. She studied philology at Tbilisi State University, and film directing at the Theatre and Film State University. From 2006 until 2010, she fine-tuned her experience at the Parisian film school, ‘Ateliers Varan’. In 2007, she founded the production company, Midifilm. She has worked in the program department of the CineDoc Tbilisi documentary film festival, and for CineDoc Young as a section coordinator.

Before studying documentary filmmaking at the University of London, Salomé Jashi studied journalism and worked as a reporter in Georgia. Returning to Georgia, she founded the production company, Sakdoc Film. Jashi was also part of Caucadoc, a project supporting the development of documentary films in the South Caucasus.

Alexander Kvatashidze was born in 1977 in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1996 he graduated from Nikoladze Art College with a qualification as a sculptor. In 2001 he earned his BA degree in Art and Humanities at Tbilisi State University. In 2005-2006, Kvatashidze studied at the film department of California State University in San Jose. Since 2006 Alexander has worked as a director, DoP or producer on various projects, most of which were documentaries. He founded Lokokina Studio in 2009.

Shorena Tevzadze graduated from Shota Rustaveli Theater and Georgian State Film University with a MA in Film Direction, and Ilia state University with an MA in the Art of Dramaturgy. She also studied at UCLA. She has participated in international film festivals and workshops including: TIFF, Berlinale, Sarajevo FF, Lisbon docs, and Eurasiadoc. Didube, the Last Stop is her first feature-length documentary. It premiered in Visions du Reel and won the award for best film in Cinedoc, Tbilisi (in the Focus Caucasus section).

Rati Oneli was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and lived in New York from 1999 to 2014, after which he returned to Georgia to make his documentary, City of the Sun. Oneli specialized in Middle East Studies, as well as International affairs, at Free University Tbilisi and Columbia University in New York. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at the European Graduate School. In 2014, he produced and co-edited Invisible Spaces, a short film that premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival, and which was nominated for the Palme d'Or. His next production, Lethe, premiered in 2016 at the Director’s Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival. City of the Sun is Oneli’s first feature-length documentary.