Directors

Jasmila Zbanic

Born in Sarajevo in 1974, Jasmila Zbanic is a graduate of her native city's Academy of Dramatic Arts, in the Department of theater and film directing. Zbanic began making films in 1997 when she founded the artists' association Deblokada, through which she produced, wrote and directed numerous films. She has now completed two feature-length narrative films Grbvica: Land of My Dreams (which took the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival) and On the Path. In 2008 she was a finalist for the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award. Zbanic belongs to an important group of filmmakers who as very young art students experienced firsthand the war against Bosnia-Herzegovina and against the capital city of Sarajevo in particular. While the war was still waging, they decided to begin making films. Her short documentaries have won numerous awards at international film festivals.

indieWIRE February 16, 2007.
NYC Film Forum interview [mp3 direct link]

Sheila Sofian

Sheila M. Sofian's independent films are a hybrid of documentary and animation. She recently received a grant from the National Video Resources Program for Media Artists, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship, for production on her upcoming film, "Truth Has Fallen". Sofian has previously received grants from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Women in Film Foundation, a Roy W. Dean Film Grant, and a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Her films have been televised on WHYY's "Independent Images" in Philadelphia, WYBE's "Through the Lens" in Philadelphia, and WTTW's "Image Union" in Chicago. She is currently an Associate Professor of Animation at the University of Southern California.

Roberto Forns-Broggi

Roberto J. Forns-Broggi was born in Lima, Peru, in 1962. He has taught literature in Peruvian high schools and universities until 1991, when he left to study in the US. He obtained a Ph.D. in Spanish at Arizona State University in 1995. He writes poetry, literary essays, and film reviews, and his research/teaching interests are several (Teaching literature & culture through film; Ecology in Latin American Literature). Currently he is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Metropolitan State College of Denver, and has been working with non-Hollywood films, short films, and videos to teach cultural issues in classes and workshops at different educational institutions for the past 12 years in Colorado. Recently in September 2007 he received the Golden Key Honour Society -Outstanding Researcher/Scholar Award in recognition of eco-critical publications, designing a new film course, and incorporating films in grammar, culture and literature classes. All his teaching experience can be considered as artistic terrain where he improvises and tests different intersections of art, film, culture, and emerging media technologies in the classroom. His active filmmaking started to be imperative when he visited Sarajevo in 2005. Roberto participated at the 29th SFFD with an earlier version of The House of Wisdom.

Corinne van Egeraat

Corinne van Egeraat began her career as an actress in theater and television. In 2000 she founded the production ZINdocumentaire and made its first low budget documentaries' Lord of the Jungle 'and' Cowboys in Kosovo. "She started as a freelancer working in the television and made productions for various (non-) profit organizations. She began working as a freelancer in television productions and made for various (non-) profit organizations. With producer / presenter Cindy Pielstroom thought they Globalicious.org in 2003, an internet platform in collaboration with MTV.

During the Dutch Film Festival 2004, she won the NFTVM Award for best new film and televisiemaker. Speeding Her documentary on the Virtual Highway about Micha Klein was first shown at IDFA 2007. Speeding Her documentary on the Virtual Highway about Micha Klein was first shown at IDFA 2007. film Bridging the Gap, premiered at the end of 2008. The film Bridging the Gap, premiered at the end of 2008.

Zelimir Gvardiol

Zelimir Gvardiol graduated in Film and Television Department from FAMU (Prague). In 1991he founded Spesfilm, an independent production company in Belgrade. His creative documentaries focus on human rights, freedom of expression, social justice and civil liberties have appeared and were awarded in many international film from Finland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Hungary to Greece, Italy, Poland, Australia, Yugoslavia and the U.S.