Experts

 Maziar Bahari
Maziar Bahari is an award winning documentary filmmaker and journalist. He was born in Tehran in 1967 and started film making at the age of 16. He moved to Canada in 1988 to study film and political science. Since then he has made feature documentaries and news reports for international broadcasters. His films include The Voyage of the Saint Louis, Targets: Reporters in Iraq, Football, Iranian Style and Along Came a Spider, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 2005. He is also one of very few journalists who have worked in Iraq consistently since the invasion in 2003. Bahari is the Newsweek correspondent in Iran. He has produced a number of documentaries and news reports for Channel 4 and BBC on subjects as varied as Ayatollah Sistani, Muqtada al-Sadr and human rights in Iraq.  Bahari was the guest of honour at 2007 International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam where a retrospective of his work was shown.

 Tolga Esmer
Born in Istanbul in 1966. Having graduated as a civil engineer in Bogazici University he received his Master in International Economics and Management degree from Universita Bocconi in Italy. He has been working in Italy and in Turkey as a management consultant for the past sixteen years as well as teaching management of organizations in Istanbul Bilgi University. “Oyun”, directed and produced by Pelin Esmer, winner of thirteen international awards, is his first experience in cinema where he acted as executive producer. Recently he produced Aysim Turkmen’s documentary “23 Tower Street”.

 Max Kestner
Born 1969. Graduated from the National Film School of Denmark, 1997 in documentary and television studies. Lecturer at the National Film School of Denmark. Worked for DR TV,
where he made "Partiet" / "The Party" (2000) and "Supergeil" (1997-1998). Other works: the television documentary series "Nede pa Jorden" (2002);
The film "Nede Pa Jorden" / "Blue Collar White Christmas"; "Resjen Pa Ophavet" / Max by Chance" (2004) selected for first appearance
at IDFA Amsterdam and received a GulDok for Best Short Documentary at cph:dox, 2004

 Dunja Gry Jensen
Dunja Gry Jensen was educated as a screenwriter at the National Danish Film School, 1996. She's been working as an episode writer and a script editor on three prime time television series and has been the writer and co-writer of several features and shorts. Dunja's writing credits include Emmy award winning crime series "Unit One"; "Faith, Hope and Batman", winner of best short at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival; the internationally acclaimed documentary "Blue Collar White Christmas" and recently "Istedgade" produced by Nimbus Film and New Danish Screen. Dunja is highly regarded as a teacher of screenwriting and development, and frequently teaches at the National Danish Film School. Currently Dunja is developing a new television series for the National Danish Broadcasting Cooperation

 Pelin Esmer
Born in 1972 in Istanbul. She majored in sociology at Bogazici University. After graduating,
she took lessons at Z1 film workshop. She was assistant director in a number of Turkish and foreign projects, including documentaries, features and commercial.
Her first film, the documentary "The Collector" (2002) received the Best Documentary Award at Rome Independent Film Festival and won the third place at the Ankara Film Festival. It is also included in the Harvard Film Archive. She gave lectures at Kadir Has University Film Radio and TV Department. In 2006, she received the Best New Documentary Filmmaker
Award in New York Tribeca Film Festival with "The Play", as well as other international awards. 

 Steven Seidenberg
Steven is a producer, director, developer & script editor in the field of documentary filmmaking. Steven has wide experience in all documentary genres. As a producer he has worked in history programming (e.g. THE TRIAL OF GEORGE WASHNGTON, HITLER'S DEATH,
and NAPOLEON'S OBSESSION), the sciences (e.g. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, with Stephen Hawking, directed by Errol Morris, creative director Steven Spielberg),
as well as examinations of ethical and moral issues (e.g. HYPOTHETICALS, with Arthur Miller). Long before the term "reality programming" had even been invented,
Steven was quick to realize the potential of new DVcam technology co-creating the genre-bending 12-part NIGHTS OUT AT THE EMPIRE and the 26-part travel-adventure series, THE $100 TAXI RIDE. For seven years Steven was Head of Development at Café Productions.

 Antonio Saura
A film producer Owner and Director of ZEBRA PRODUCCIONES and founding partner of Sales Company LATIDO FILMS.  Credits include award winning films such as “En la ciudad sin límites” by Antonio Hernández, “Rencor” by Miguel Albaladejo, “Salomé” by Carlos Saura;  box office successes like “Dos Tipos Duros” by Juan Martinez Moreno,“Di que si” by Juan Calvo , and  experimental movies like “Síndrome” by Liberto Rabal . Recently he produced “Oculto” by Antonio Hernández and is currently working on “Miguel and William” by Ines Paris and on the pre-production of “Fados” by Carlos Saura. Antonio Saura was named “Producer to Watch” by Variety, and was selected “European Producer in the Move” 2003.  He has made substantial contribution to film training, having been one of the establishers of the Media Business School and was also one of the establishers of MEDEA (Mediterranean Development Agency), acting as Director of the Selection Committee for two years.

 Laura Poitras
Laura Poitras received an Academy Award and Independent Spirit Award nomination for her 2006 documentary My Country, My Country (90 min. 35mm).  Laura spent 8 months working alone in Iraq following the story of Dr. Riyadh, a Sunni doctor and father of six. Since completing My Country, My Country, Laura has been put on a watch-list by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Laura received a Peabody Award and Independent Spirit Award nomination for her previous documentary, Flag Wars (2003, 87 min.), which launched the 2003 season on P.O.V./PBS.  Laura studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute and the New School for Social Research. Before making films, she worked as a chef in several five star French restaurants.  She lives in New York City and is a recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.

 Dora Bouchoucha
A prominent Tunisian producer, head of Nomadis Images in Tunisia, producer and line producer for several international productions.
Educated in Tunisia and in the Sorbonne in Paris, in English Literature and Film, Dora has been producing and directing films since the early 1990s. She is a member of the international board of advisors of the CINEMART (Rotterdam film festival) and of the Claus Fund Film Grant and has sat on the juries of several international film festivals (Valencia, Mons, Namur, Montpellier, Premiers Plan Angers etc.). Dora also has experience in film training at several workshops, including teaching young Algerian filmmakers writing for short films in the framework of Fenecs d'Argent (Algerian TV). She is a partner of the MEDA Film Development Project, a part of the EuroMed Audiovisual II Programme, in which she also acts as head of studies and expert.

 Sylvia Stevens
Producer / director, of over 30 documentaries; Co-Founder and Director of Faction Films Ltd. 1982; Co-Founder Mondial Online & Mondial Television with Alan Fountain 1995 – 2000; Board Member of London Film and Video Development Agency 1995 –2003 ; Director of The Other Cinema 1982; Member of BAFTA. Currently directing (2006/7) Che – a feature documentary on Korda’s Guerillero Heroico for ARTE, NetFlix and Fortissimo. 


 Paul Pauwels

Paul Pauwels studied at RITCS film school in Brussels where he got his degree as director and producer. He worked as production manager and unit manager in feature film production until 1987, when he founded his own production company: Periscope Productions. The company produced commercials, short feature films and documentaries. Paul Pauwels sold the company in 2005, to become programme manager at VRT, the Flemish public broadcaster. He left this position in December 2007 and is now the project manager for the EUROPEAN TELEVISION MANAGEMENT ACADEMY in Strasbourg, France.
Paul Pauwels has been the chairperson of the European Documentary Network (EDN) for the maximum period possible, and also, he is a member of the General Assembly of the new Flemish Film Fund (VAF).