Russian

Yulia Vishnevets is a Moscow based filmmaker and journalist, with a passion for exploring society through documentary storytelling. She is a staff film director of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in Moscow. Her interests ranges from social exclusion to identities, conflicts and how people are affected by their surrounding environment. Her first full-length documentary film, A House on the Edge (2016), depicting both sides of the conflict in Ukraine, had a number of screenings in Russia, Germany and USA, including prominent Artdocfest festival in Moscow and was recently purchased for Currenttime.tv channel.

Aliaksei Paluyan was born 1989 in Belarus. In 2012 he moved to Germany and studied film and television directing at the Kunsthochschule Kassel (Academy for the Arts). In 2019, his short fiction drama Lake of Happiness, a German-Belarusian-Spainish co-production, premiered in Clermont-Ferrand, won numerous awards at international festivals, was a candidate for European Short Film Award at the 33rd European Film Awards in 2020 and also longlisted for the Oscars 2021. Courage is his documentary film debut.

Svetlana Rodina graduated in philology in Kazan and later in film directing in Moscow. She has worked as a reporter and host for various TV programmes on the RTR channel. In 2011 she became editor-in-chief of the documentary department of one of the largest production companies in Russia; United Media Group. Since 2006 she has primarily worked as a script writer and director for documentaries. Laurent Stoop has a diploma in literature and photography. Just after the end of the Soviet Union he moved to Moscow and worked as a freelance photographer with the photo agency Lookat. In 1995 he founded the production company Mayak-Film. Since then he worked as DOP for various television and feature documentaries, including the award winning and critically acclaimed Citizen Khodorkovsky.

Olga Lucovnicova is a Moldovan filmmaker based in Belgium. She studied cinematography at the Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts of Moldova, and documentary film directing at the DocNomads Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Program. As a filmmaker, Olga is particularly interested in stories which can generate social change and create a platform for discussion. Her filming style combines observational cinema with poetic elements where the key factors are human emotions and feelings. Her aim is to bring people closer through sincerity, empathy and compassion.

Maria Pronina was born in 1994 in Moscow. She first trained as a ballet dancer. Later she graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at the Moscow State University, and studied directing at the Moscow Film School. She works in the field of video production as a director, producer and ghostwriter. In 2020, she made her debut with a fiction short film Rain or Wind, selected for national and international film festivals.

Anna Artemyeva was born in Moscow. She graduated as a cinematographer and as director of animation at VGIK (Russia). She started her Masters at the DocNomads documentary directing program in 2019. Her diploma film Once upon a time there lived a mother was selected to more than 50 festivals around the world and was awarded several times. She frequently collaborates with the Russian director Elena Laskaki.

Alina Gorlova is a director and film editor. Born and raised in Ukraine, she graduated from Karpenko-Kary Kyiv National University of Theatre, Film & Television. In addition to her focus as a documentary director, Alina is also experienced in making fiction shorts, and social and commercial ads.

Yana Ugrekhelidze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1984. After graduating with a degree in translation and linguistics in Georgia, she took BA in communication design at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and a diploma in film and animation at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Her first animated film, Summer Story, premiered at the 2017 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and was a semi-finalist in the Student Academy Awards. Her graduation film Armed Lullaby premiered at the 69th Berlinale in the Generation Section. Instructions for Survival is Yana's debut film.