Facilitators and lecturers

Leena Pasanen started her carrier as a journalist in 1988 at the Finnish News Agency, first as a reporter and later on as a political commentator in the Parliament house. In 1993 she joined YLE, Finnish Broadcasting Company, where she worked as a reporter, political commentator, subeditor and TV presenter for the current affairs magazine programme on YLE TV1. After that she was the head of documentaries for YLE TV1 years 1999-2000.

When YLE launched new digital channels, she was chosen as the Head of Programmes responsible for cultural, factual and fiction programmes in YLE Teema, a channel focused on culture, science and education. She stayed with the channel until November 2005 when she started her work as the director of EDN, European Documentary Network in Copenhagen.

In November 2008 she returned to YLE in Finland as Coordinator of Programmes at YLE Fact and Culture and was leading a two-year pilot project on 360 degree commissioning. In 2011 she was appointed as Coordinator and Senior Advisor at YLE Media and Customer Relations. She is currently the director of Finnagora, the culture and science institute of Finland in Budapest, Hungary.

She has been a regular expert, tutor and lecturer for several training programmes, for example EDN, Discovery Campus, EURODOC and Television Business School. She is a EURODOC graduate year 1999 and a member of the international advisory committee of Hot Docs. She has also been a member of the board of IDFA Forum, INPUT and the Bonnier’s Journalistic Award in Finland and served as a jury member for several international festivals, among others Sundance and IDFA.

Born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1955, Stefano Tealdi studied architecture in Turin – Italy. After graduating he was responsible for film and TV production in the audiovisual laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino working as the head of production. In 1985 he co-founded Stefilm, working as a director and producer. Since 1988 he has directed and produced documentaries on various issues, mainly concerning Africa and Italy. His international co-productions have involved over 40 European and North American broadcasters. In 1992 he graduated at the MEDIA training course “EAVE – European Session”. He is a founding member of the Associazione FERT (Filming with a European Regard in Turin), and directed the first fourteen editions of the annual Italian workshop Documentary in Europe. He chaired EDN (European Docuemntary Network) and is the national coordinator in Italy for INPUT, Television in the Public Interest.