Workshop mentors, lecturers and speakers

Appel

John Appel

film director and producer

John Appel is a film director and producer born in 1958 in Wognum, Netherlands. He graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 1987. Author of more than 40 films for cinema and television, he is well known for his personal style in documentary filmmaking, coming close to his protagonists, based on what he calls "emotional research." In 1993. he made Johnny Meijer, his first feature documentary. Award winning André Hazes – She Believes in Me (1999) was a big cinema hit in the Netherlands. The Player (2009) was awarded best Dutch documentary at IDFA. Award winning Wrong Time Wrong Place screened at 2013 ZagrebDox, while The Magic of Editing (2015), a film about the artistic and ethical dilemmas in the documentaries editing room, screened at the 2016 festival edition and Appel held a masterclass on the same topic. He has collaborated as a mentor at many international workshops, gives masterclasses all over the world and was a jury member at major festivals.

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Nedžad Begović

Nedžad Begović was born in 1958 in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is a film director and scriptwriter. He has made 20 animated, documentary and short films, as well as 30 episodes of a TV series for children. In 2005, he finished his first feature film Totally Personal, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. The film won the Audience Award at ZagrebDox in 2006. His film A Cellphone Movie (screened at 2012 ZagrebDox) won the Heart of a Sarajevo for best documentary film in 2011. ZagrebDox screened his latest documentaries Everywhere (2017) and Two Shoelaces Under One Roof (2012). Currently he is working as a documentary film director at Radio Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

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Jon Bang Carlsen

Jon Bang Carlsen was born in 1950 and he graduated from The Danish Film School in 1976. From 1971 to 1978, he has worked with the theatre group Solvognen. He has written and directed more than thirty films. His signature hybrid style combines documentary and fictional interpretations, and many of his documentaries are visually and symbolically powerful, often staged portraits of marginal figures and milieus. Some of his most important films are Jenny, A Rich Man, Hotel of the Stars, Phoenix Bird, Before the Guests Arrive, and Just the Right Amount of Violence. He won the My Generation Award at ZagrebDox 2017 with his film Déjà Vu. He has also published poetry, essays and novels.

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Aleksandra Derewienko

Sales and Acquisition, CAT&Docs

Aleksandra Derewienko holds a Master’s degree in psychology from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She also completed postgraduate studies in TV and Film Organization at the National Film School in Lodz and the MEGA Plus course in Spain. In 2016, after working as a sales manager at Taskovski Films for four years, she joined CAT&Docs in sales and acquisition. She has participated in many festivals and markets, and was a member of the pitching panels at: Baltic Sea Docs, Visions du Reel,Krakow Film Festival, Doc Lisboa or ZagrebDox among others.

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Hans Robert Eisenhauer

producer, Ventana Film

As a commissioning editor for ZDF, and Deputy Programme Director and Head of Theme Evenings for ARTE, Hans Robert’s commissions include: Buena Vista Social Club, Oscar-winner Taxi To The Dark Side, Peabody-winner Why We Fight, Sundance winner The House I Live In, and the acclaimed Up The Yangtze and Mama Africa. He has also served as head of the Berlin Film Fund. Hans Robert is member of the European Film Academy, which he helped to create in 1988, a member of EDN and honorary member of the German Film Academy. After his retirement from ZDF/ARTE he is living in Berlin and running the film and TV-production company Ventana Film, focusing on international documentary films. His recent co-production Return to Homs has received the Grand Jury Prize for the best international documentary film at Sundance Film Festival 2014. Ventana Film is also co-producer of the Finnish-German documentary Emergency Call which had its premiere at IDFA 2014. Currently Hans Robert is working on his next feature documentary Fathers and Sons about the German secret service BND and, among others, a current affairs doc on European returnees from Jihad. He is also working as a tutor and expert at the Greenhouse-Workshop for young filmmakers from the Southern-Mediterranean region. 

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Peter Jäger

Born in Belgium, Peter studied law and philosophy. As a young film freak, Peter created a new film magazine with fellow university students and became the Commercial and Marketing Director. Following his passion for film, Peter became Marketing and Acquisitions Consultant for several major independent theatrical distributors and film exhibitors with films like Festen, Mulholland Drive, The Lord of the Rings trilogy etc. In 2005 Peter founded Autlook Filmsales GmbH, a worldwide distribution company for documentary films. Today Autlook is six-people strong and a leading global distributor for documentaries. Peter is a distribution expert consultant of MEDIA Programme, a jury member of the Flemish Film Fund, Vienna Film Fund and a distribution-marketing-sales lecturer for Film Academy Vienna, Donau-University Krems, Film Academy Berlin, Eurodocs, Cine Regio, MAIA workshop and national film institutes and festivals (such as IDFA, Hot Docs, Berlinale, Cannes).

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Catherine Le Clef

Founder and CEO, CAT&Docs

In November 2009, Le Clef started a documentary distribution company, CAT&Docs. In January 2007, she joined Fortissimo Films as Senior Vice President – TV and Ancillary Sales from the Paris-based Doc & Co. Prior to this, she was with Films Transit International in Canada. She began her career at Unibelfilm in Belgium, promoting Belgian films internationally.

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Paul Pauwels

Before becoming the EDN Director, Paul Pauwels was the Managing Director for the Belgian production company Congoo bvba. Paul has a long track record of working with international documentary co-productions from both a commissioning and production point of view. He has been the managing director of the media academy ETMA, commissioning editor for the Belgian public service broadcaster VRT and has almost 30 years of experience with producing documentaries for the national and international market. In addition to these positions Paul Pauwels has been a tutor, moderator and expert at many European workshops and seminars, member of Eurovision Documentary Workgroup and one of the first Chairmen of EDN.

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Martina Petrović

Head of Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office Croatia

Martina Petrović has a major in International Relations and a minor in Psychology. Martina has gained most of her working experience at the Ministry of Culture, De- partment for International Cultural Cooperation, being responsible for various cultural exchange programmes between Croatia and other countries; among many activities, she was responsible for the organisation of Croatian film presentation during international film fe- stivals in Berlin and Cannes. From 2008, she has been actively involved in establishing the Croatian Audiovi- sual Centre, where she has stayed, after being chosen by the European Commission as the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia. Following immediate and successful re- sults in terms of ensuring the financing by the MEDIA Programme, working thoroughly on the promotion of the Croatian film, resulted in receiving the first Albert Kapović Award by the Croatian Producers Association, given at the opening of Zagreb Film Festival in 2010. As the Head of MEDIA Desk Croatia (today’s Creative Europe Desk – MEDIA Office), she has been actively involved in organising innovative and active presenta- tions/workshops – important tools for education and networking – between Croatian but also European film professionals.

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Charlie Phillips

Charlie Phillips is the Deputy Director for Sheffield Doc/Fest, working across all departments – programming, marketplace, conference, digital and year-round training. Prior to this he was Marketplace Director, co-ordinating the MeetMarket, a unique opportunity for filmmakers and digital media producers to present their most innovative and passionate ideas to commissioners, buyers, funders and distributors. He still oversees many marketplace activities at Sheffield Doc/Fest, including public pitches, industry meetings, matchmaking and mentoring sessions, and year-round workshops. Before that, he was the Editor of FourDocs, Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning online documentary channel, and he continues to bring an interactive and cross-platform perspective to Sheffield’s marketplace activities.

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Rada Šešić

Head of Documentary Competition, Sarajevo Film Festival; Co-head, Docu Rough Cut Boutique SFF; IDFA Amsterdam, IFFR Rotterdam, Eastern Neighbours FF

Rada Šešić is a festival programmer, film lecturer, critic and film director. Head of the documentary competition at Sarajevo FF and co-head of the Docu Rough Cut Boutique-SFF. On the selection committee of the IDFA official competition. Head of Last Stop Trieste at WEMW. On the selection committee of the DOHA Film Fund.

Lectures and is a mentor at the Master of Film at the Netherlands Film and TV Academy in Amsterdam. Taught South Asian cinema at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Media and Culture for eight years. Director of the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival launched in The Hague 13 years ago. Selector of the DOKUart festival in Bjelovar. On the EFA documentary jury. Documentary mentor and consultant at various international workshops/pitching sessions in Europe and Asia. She was a lecturer at the Dutch Institute for Film Education (NIF) and advisor at STIFO, where she evaluated Dutch documentary projects for six years. Member of the board of the Balkan Documentary Center and NETPAC. Lived in India and taught two semesters at the Srishti Institute, Bengaluru. Lectures at the Croatian Film Association’s “Dr. Ante Peterlić” School of Media Culture. As a film critic, she collaborated on the book of Dina Iordanova (UK), as well as on Aitken’s Encyclopaedia of the Documentary Film, writing several parts on Eastern European Documentary authors. She also collaborated on 3 books in India: on directors Bimal Roy, Mani Kaul and Girish Kasaravalli. Regularly publishes her writings on cinema in Dutch publications Skrien and Filmkrant, USA Animation Magazine, Croatian Hrvatski ljetopis and Bosnian Sineast.

Directed several short films in Yugoslavia, a. o. LAM ARABI (1990), was assistant director to Vesna Ljubić’s fiction feature films, in the Netherlands directed four films – Room without a view (1997), Soske (2001), In Whitest Solitude (2002), On the Way to School (2007). Her films were screened at 60 festivals, won awards and are archived by MoMA, New York, and EYE, Amsterdam.