ZeLIG - School for Documentary, Television and New Media

Born in Erfurt in 1953. Following military service, studied camera at East Germany’s Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen, and with Deutsche Film AG. Left East Germany with his wife and daughter in 1982 for India, and the following year began work as a freelance cameraman in West Berlin. Further training led to work in documentary and docufiction. Teaches at film schools in Germany, Italy and Myanmar, where his focus is on fine-tuned observation of reality.

Author, Film Editor, Sound Designer, Berlin (DE)
Born in Berlin in 1955. Attended the Music School 1965-1970 (which included a 1969 European tour, with orchestra); attended DFFB (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie) in Berlin, 1988-1989. Assistant sound designer under Alan Splet, 1985-1986, for the film ‘Blue Velvet’, directed by David Lynch (USA). Guitarist in the band MUTTER, Berlin, 1986-2002; manager of art brut artist Klaus Beyer, 1988-present. Has held conferences on the art of David Lynch, 1991-present (in London, 2007; at the International David Lynch Conference, Berlin, 2012). In 2015 Quiqueg Verlag published his novel ‘Ich, Medea’. Works as a writer, film editor, and sound designer; teaches sound, editing, and sound design at film schools in Münster, Berlin, Bolzano, Potsdam. He lives in Berlin.

Director of Photography (A. I. C.), Rome (IT)

Born in 1961 in Tunisia. Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, University of Tunis. Studied photography at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome, 1988-1990. Works as Director of Photography, and teaches at several film schools.

Films:
‘Esercito più piccolo del Mondo’ (2015) and ‘Sul Vulcano’ (2014), directed by Gianfranco Pannone; ‘Kaspar Hauser’ (2012) and ‘Beket’ (2008), directed by Davide Manuli; ‘Palestine Stereo’ (2013) and ‘Laila’s Birthday’ directed by Rashid Masharawi, selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival (2008); ‘Riparo’ (2008), directed by Marco Simon Piccioni; ‘C’è n’è per tutti’ (2009) and ‘Gas’ (2005), directed by Luciano Melchionna; ‘Pouppées d’Argile’ (2002), directed by Nouri Bouzid; ‘Latina – Littoria’ (2001), directed by Gianfranco Pannone, winner: Best Documentary at the Torino Film Festival; ‘Crudo’ (2000), directed by Irma Immacolata Palazzo, nominated for a European Golden Globe Award; ‘L’America a Roma’ (1998), directed by Gianfranco Pannone, selected for the Locarno International Film Festival; ‘Giro di luna tra terra e mare’ (1997), directed by Giuseppe Gaudino, selected for the the Venice Film Festival.

director of photography

Thomas Bresinsky was born 1962 in Munich. 1984 after highschool and civil-service he studies philosophy in Munich. He meets a filmstudent and helps him out. This experience triggers his interst in camerawork. He starts to work for 4 years professionally as gaffer, cameraassistent and stillphotographer for various commercials and feature film productions. (Among others he worked with Kay Gauditz, Pascal Hofmann, Walter Lindenlaub, Thomas Mauch)
1990 he studies at Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film/München in feature film department. As director he had done two shortfilms “THE KISS” and “FAST FOOD” and a documentary “FUN AND BOREDOM”, 87 min., about a probation officer working with “right wing” youths.
Since 1991 he works professionally as director of photography for documetaries, commercials and feature films.
Shooting documentaries he gatherd experience in Italy, USA, Poland, Romania, Turky, India and North-Africa. He speaks fluently English and Italian. In workshops with Carlo di Palma A.I.C. (D.o.P. of Woody Allen and M. Antonioni) and Billy Williams B.S.C. (academy award for best photography for “Gandhi”) he expanded his knowlegde of lighting and camerawork. Working for Michael Ballhaus A.S.C. and Eduardo Piotraszeewski A.S.C. as camera operator he got his skill for feature film photography.
As director of photography he is shooting film 35mm, Super 16 as well as Digital-Beta and HDCam.

films as director of photography:
Se Non Mi Vuoi – Wenn du nicht willst!, Germany/Italy. fiction, 35mm, 80 Min., dir.: Miriam Pucitta
– Prädikat wertvoll, best 1. film Biberacher Filmtage –
Magic Love, Ger/Chin. fiction, Digital Beta 16:9, 24 x 45 Min., dir.: Alex Lau Kok Ho, für CCTV (China)
Julia & Ahmed – commercial, 35mm, 1 Min., dir.: Emil Hye-Knudsen, cinema
– Prädikat besonders wertvoll –
Das Klassenbuch, documentary, Super 16, 60 Min., dir.: Astrid Gabler, BR
– noinated for european documentary prize
Die letzten Reiter, documentary, Super 16, 70

Commissioning Editor ZDF/ARTE, Head of Studies ESoDoc, Mainz (DE)

Sabine Bubeck-Paaz is commissioning editor at German public broadcaster ZDF for various documentary slots on ARTE, the European Culture Channel. At ZDF/ARTE, where she is deputy head of the department ‘Thema’, they are coproducing one offs, Theme Evenings, documentary series and cross-media projects.
The topics Sabine Bubeck-Paaz is handling, range from culture, science and history to current affaires, human interest and sociopolitical issues Her list of projects include award winning films like ‘The Act of Killing’ and ‘The Look of Silence’, ‘Drone’, ‘netwars’, ‘Claude Lanzmann – Spectres of the Shoah’, ‘Ingrid Bergman in her own words’…
Sabine Bubeck-Paaz started her career as a print journalist. As a tutor for documentary projects, she has been participating since many years in international pitching and training workshops.
Since 2015, Sabine Bubeck-Paaz is next to her job at ZDF/ARTE also Head of Studies of ESoDoc – European Social Documentary, the training initiative for cross-thinkers and media professionals, who want to increase impact and outreach of their documentary projects.

Indipendent filmmaker, Toronto (CAN)

Katerina Cizek is a two-time Emmy-award winning, internationally recognized director and writer in the digital space. Her media work has documented the Digital Revolution, and has itself become part of the movement. She has built collaborations with a diverse range of community, academic and media partners to co-create media. She works across many media platforms: digital media, broadcasting (radio and television), print and live presentations/installations. She is the director of an award-winning digital documentary media project at the National Film Board of Canada, called HIGHRISE. She realized the acclaimed NFB Filmmaker-in-Residence program, winner of a Webby Award, among others. Her media projects have instigated criminal investigations, changed UN policies, and have screened as evidence at an International Criminal Tribunal. Cizek’s Films include the Hampton-Prize winner ‘Seeing is Believing’: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (co-directed with Peter Wintonick), and ‘The Dead are Alive: Eyewitness in Rwanda’, the First global television documentary (1995) made about the genocide. Her work has been seen by millions around the world, through TV broadcasts and publishing on the web. She has travelled the world with her projects, teaching and mentoring with her innovative approaches to the documentary genre, community-based collaborative practices and digital media. She is currently a Visiting Artist at MIT, completing her Final iteration of the NFB HIGHRISE documentary.

Director, Producer, Antelope, London (UK)

He has directed more than 100 documentary productions while executive producing a further 600 productions for TV and cinema. The majority of his productions have been in the areas of human stories, biography, history, current affairs, music and arts for the UK and international markets.
He works as a freelance writer / director / producer / cameraman and as an executive producer, while also running his own independent production company Antelope.

Filmmaker, Festival consultant, Leipzig (DE)

Claas Danielsen, born in April 1966 in Hamburg, is a filmmaker, producer, lecturer and festival director living in Leipzig/Germany. He made seven documentaries of which several did an extensive festival tour, won international awards and were sold to European broadcasters. In 1997 he became assistant to the professor in the documentary department of the Munich Film Academy where he built up a new chair for TV-journalism. In 1999 Danielsen became Head of Studies of Discovery Campus (nowadays Documentary Campus). From 2004 till the end of 2014 he was Artistic and Managing Director of DOK Leipzig, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films, which he developed into one of the leading international doc festivals. Claas Danielsen was board member of the German documentary filmmakers’ association AG DOK and the European Documentary Network EDN for several years. He is a member of and an advisor to the European Film Academy, board member of the Balkan Documentary Center and has served on many international festival juries and the selection committees of different German film and media funds.

Director, Broadcast Development,
Northern Light Productions, Bosten (USA)

is an American documentary filmmaker whose films have aired on PBS, National Geographic, Discovery, Arte, Channel 5, NHK, Canal Plus, Sundance, Showtime, and television channels worldwide, as well as theaters and festivals.  She has a masters degree from the Columbia School of Journalism and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  Her films have won the best of Input, the Prix Europa, and (controllare) and nominated for the Adolph Grimme Award. She is a dual American/Italian citizen and teaches documentary writing in Italy and the United States.

Professor of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture, Berlin (DE)

Graduated from the University of Utrecht, and published her dissertation ‘Aller Anfang’ on screenwriting and cognitive dramaturgy. Professor of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture at the University of Bonn. Was an assistant for the research project entitled ‘The History of Documentary Films in Germany, 1945-2005’. Visiting professor of Film and Media Theory at the University of Vienna, 2011-2012. Co-edited (along with Christine N. Brinckmann and Ludger Kaczmarek) ‘Motive des Films. Ein kasuistischer Fischzug’ (2012). A member of the editorial staff of the magazine ‘Montage AV’. She lives in Berlin.

Lorenzo Hendel was born in Florence on December 1950. At the end of the Seventies he moved to Perugia, where he worked in RAI regional studios for a documentation project on the local social reality.

In 1988 he moved to Rome, and kept working in RAI3 as television director. Meanwhile his job as a documentary director led him around the world on travel. He directed “Tepuy, viaggio alle origini del mondo (“Tepuy, a Travel at the Origins of the World)”, shot in Venezuela (1997), “Groenlandia, il lungo tramonto (“Greenland, the Long Lasting Sunset”)” (1998), and “Akha, quando il vento soffiava (“Akha, When the Wind Blew”)”, shot in Thailand (2000).

In 2003/2005 he directed his first fiction feature film for cinema, “Quando i bambini giocano in cielo”(“When Children Play in the Sky), completely shot in Greenland. This film won several awards, as best Feature Film at Ischia Film Festival, Maremetraggio Festival in Trieste and Festival Cinemountain in Cervinia, and further awards in Sulmona Film Festival, Autrans Festival (France) and Bellinzona Festival “Castellinaria” (Switzerland).
In 2006 he realized “Giò Marrazzo, l’amore per la verità” (“Giò Marrazzo, love for truth”), “Quando le mani si parlano” (“When the hands speak”), and in 2007 “Pio La Torre, il figlio della terra” (“Pio La Torre, the Son of the Land”).
Since 2007 up to June 2013 he was in charge of DOC3 (Rai Tre). He selected the documentaries to buy and co produce, and together with the authors he followed all the projects in their development.
He was a member of many Commissioning Editors Panels in the most important International Pitching Forums, such as: IDFA in Amsterdam, Hot Docs in Toronto, Barcelona Pitching Forum, Doc Edge in Kolkata (India), Thessaloniki (Greece), Below Zero Pitching Forum (Tromso, Norway), Doc Meeting Argentina (Buenos Aires) Sunny Side of the Doc, La Rochelle (France), Sheffield (United Kingdom), Asian Side of the Doc (Tokyo, Japan), Document

After completing his degrees on Magister Artium (M.A.) in Sciences of Communication, Journalism, History of Art and Dramatics at the University of Munich Bodo Klemz became manager film&videoproduction and postproduction for a famous advertising agency of political communications and a well-known bavarian media company for nearly 20 years. In 1994 he established his own Munich-domiciled certified training center for digital nonlinear film&video editing, named interBasics. Bodo Klemz was among the first ones of german editors who was awarded as Avid Certified Instructor (ACI) by Avid Technology, Inc. Since 1994, he was assistant lecturer for digital film&video editing, montage, composition and supervising at Munich University for Television and Film (HFF), Bavarian Academy for Television (BAF) and ZeLIG. Bodo Klemz is member of the Bavarian Association of Journalists (BJV) since 1980.

Pitching Expert, Erbach (DE)

Communication skill trainer, specialized expert in ‘The Art Of Pitching’ since 1995, focussed on project presentation, proposal development and personal coaching. Working in the media- & publishing-industry, for universities, film-schools, media-institutions and creative talents of ‘Arts & Culture’ all over Europe.  A merchant by training with academic background in media- & communication science, psychology her experience in ‘The Art Of Pitching’ is a result of more than 15 years in acquisition, distribution and co-production of all av-rights at a distribution company. She published her book PITCH IT in its 3rd edition in 2015. Her motto: Walk as you talk!

Documentary director, AMREF, Rome (IT)

As a PhD fish biologist he worked as researcher at the University of Rome. In 1996 he co-produced Emanuele Crialese’s first feature film, an experience that made him drop a promising university career to jump into the uncertainty of filmaking. Since then, he’s been working in directing social documentaries (among others, the feature length ‘Black Pinocchio’ and ‘An Italian School’). Starting from 2000 he collaborates with AMREF (the African Medical and Research Foundation) where he promoted, along with Giulio Cederna and John Muiruri, a participatory video (PV) training within the AMREF street children rehabilitation project in Nairobi, Kenya. Here he directed several awarded participatory films for national and international TVs (such as TV Slum, African Spelling Book, Millennium News, The Turkish Glance). Besides Nairobi, he has been running PV workshops in Italy, France, Switzerland and Morocco.

Postgraduate Diploma in Cinema with specialization in Editing from Film & Television Institute of India, Pune.

Presently working as Professor and Head, Department of Editing, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, the premier film school under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India.

Head of Docedge the annual Asian Documentary Training and Pitching Forum organized by Satyajit Ray Film &Television Institute in association with European Documentary Network.

Recently concluded two-year ‘Senior Fellowship for Outstanding Artiste’ on Factual Narrative with relation to other indigenous narrative traditions of India awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India.

Apart from writing short stories in Bangla, I do also write articles on cinema.

Have been making documentary and fiction films since 1990 and participated in various international film festivals.

Awarded with National Award for the film Metal Storm’96 in 1997.

Director of a short fiction film (30 minutes) produced by Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (2009).

Freelance Film Editor and Script Consultant, Cologne (DE)

Studied theater, cinema and television, German Literature and Philosophy in Munich and Cologne, where she earned her Master of Arts degree. A freelance film editor and script consultant since 1991. Visiting professor at the Filmuniversität in Babelsberg, where she teaches editing, 2014-present. She also teaches at ZeLIG, the Baltic Film and Media School, and the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. She is a member of the European and German Film Academies; VeDRA, the Screenwriters’ Association for Cinema and Television; and BFS, the German Association of Film Editors. She is a founding member of LaDOC, a network of documentary filmmakers. She lives and works in Cologne and Berlin.

Editor, Director, Rome (IT)

She attended Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where she studied audiovisual creation and editing. Works as film editor and director in Europe. Has worked with Vittorio de Seta, Citto Maselli, Paolo Virzì, Helga Reidemeister, among others, on films selected for film festivals in Venice, Berlin, Locarno and many more. She has directed documentaries about Italy, immigration, and music videos for Italian and international artists (Paolo Fresu, Omar Sosa, The Sessions Voices). She has taught dramaturgy and editing since 2000, and has been at ZeLIG since 2003. She has worked as script supervisor and editor on over 100 feature-length and short films. In 2008 she co-founded ‘Sorandaye’, a multiethnic theater and dance company, which performs in Rome and Senegal. Beginning in 2016, she, along with 5 collaborators from different European countries, heads a film workshop supported by the Ayudh Foundation and the European Union, which works with young people 15 to 30 years of age from all over the world.

I do presentation and media coaching with a range of professionals from politics, business and culture in Berlin, individually and also with groups. This includes formulating core messages and storytelling as well as body language, voice training, managing the emotions, working on beliefs and attitudes.
All of these have a huge impact on the impression you make on stage and on the relationship you establish with the audience. Moreover, it is something that you can practice and learn.
As a journalist by profession I know how important it is to stay connected with yourself and your enthusiasm about the story and transmit it to the audience. This connection enables you to feel comfortable while talking and profit from the opportunity in a very unique, natural and convincing way.
I have a university degree in Journalism, having studied in Dortmund, Berlin and Brussels, and worked as writer and presenter for Deutsche Welle, WDR, ZDF and Deutschlandradio Kultur.
I am also a certified systemic counselor, business coach and communication, voice and speech trainer and have further qualifications in hypnosis and breath therapy, which can be helpful for preparing to pitch a project.

Born 1940 in Halle/Saale. In the 1960s studied art at the University of Fine Arts; in the 1970s studied directing at the dffb in Berlin. She realized feature-length artistic documentaries for ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel and ARTE. Since 1988 teacher in Germany and abroad; since 1994 teacher at Film Academy of Ludwigsburg.
Awards: Bundesfilm Award – 1979, for Von wegen Schicksal and 1983, for Mit starrem Blick aufs Geld; Friedensfilm Award – 1992, for RODINA heißt Heimat. 1. Price Cinéma du Reél, Paris 2001 for Gotteszell.

Cinematographer

Leonard Retel Helmrich is a Dutch cinematographer and film director of Indo descent. He was born the 16th of August 1959 in Tilburg, Netherlands and has lived in Amsterdam since 1982.

Movies: Position among the Stars, Shape of the Moon,
Siblings: Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Anton Retel Helmrich
Nephews: Jasper Naaijkens
Awards: Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: World Cinema Documentary

Helmrich is famous for perfecting the ‘Single Camera Shot’ filming style and his related technical camera innovations. “…you can move inside an event and go with your camera to the right spot, at the right moment,… That’s what the whole single-shot cinema is about: trying to think of the world as a kind of clockwork, a machinery, with everything interrelated. The bigger and smaller things are just as important. In a clockworks you can’t pull out a little gear because the whole thing jams. The solution is to become one of the clockworks.”

Cinematographer, Lisboa (PT)

A cinematographer working in documentary, and in feature length fiction film. Since 1993, he has made the photography of more than forty films, including several co-productions between Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, Guinea, Sweden,USA., Russia, Ukraine Serbia, among others. His name is linked to a new generation of directors who developed Portuguese documentary film in the beginning of the 90s. He co-directed and was the cinematographer of his first documentary ‘In Between Walls’, selected for several festivals (Cinéma du Réel, Festival Dei Popoli, among others). In 2003, he received the Best Cinematography Award at Doc Lisboa for the film ‘Restless’, by Catarina Mourão. In 2007, he was attributed two more awards of Best Cinematography (VIII European Cinema festival, Lecce/Italy and Cineport Festival – João Pessoa/Brazil). ‘A Corte do Norte’ by João Botelho, was selected for the New York Film Festival, and won a Special Jury Award at Rome Film Festival. His last feature, ‘Letters from War’ (by Ivo Ferreira), was in the program of the Berlinale 2016.

Director, Rome (Italy)

Born in Padova in 1963. Studied cinema and anthropology in Bologna and Paris. Screenwriter, director, director of photography, and cameraman, Rossetto is considered one of the leading documentary makers of his generation. He is also a producer and teaches cinema. His films – distributed internationally and selected at a host of prestigious film festivals – include: ‘Il Fuoco di Napoli’, ‘Bibione Bye Bye One’, ‘Chiusura’ and ‘Piccola Patria’, which was selected for the Horizons section at the 2013 Venice Film Festival.

Writer, Speaker, Documentary Doctor, New York (USA)

Internationally renowned writer and speaker Fernanda Rossi has collaborated for 15 years in more than 500 fiction scripts and documentaries, including two documentaries nominated for the Academy Award®. The grant proposals and fundraising samples she contributed to received funding from ITVS in the Unites States and the National Film Board of Canada. She has given her lectures in more than 12 countries and at film festivals and markets, such as Hot Docs and Sheffield Doc/Fest. In addition, she’s is a trainer for special programs and a grant evaluator for foundations. Her book Trailer Mechanics: ‘How to Make Your Documentary Fundraising Demo,’ 2nd Edition, is according to industry professionals the bible on demo production.

Editor and Director, Berlin (DE)

Following studies in Film Direction and Psychology, he received a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He has worked as a film editor and screenwriter since 1973, for documentaries and experimental films. He has conducted important research and written extensively on the esthetics and theory of editing and more, including the book ‘Der Film verliert sein Handwerk’, and co-authored with Hans J. Wulff, ‘Film und Psychologie’. He’s taught at many film schools, including HfbK, Hamburg; UdK, Berlin; FHSS, Berlin; FU, Berlin; HU, Berlin; Vienna Film Academy; HFF, Potsdam; ZeLIG, Bolzano; Filmarche, Berlin.

Free lance film consultant and film critic, Copenhagen (DK)

Born 1947. Danish. He worked with short and documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TVFestival, Filmkontakt Nord and Documentary of the EU. Has given documentary courses and seminars in more than 30 countries. From 1996 until 2005 he was director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 he has been a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, ZeLIG school for Documentary, Caucadoc as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig.

Director, Producer, Head of Development Stefilm International, Turin (IT)

Born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1955, he studies Architecture in Torino – Italy and founds film production company Stefilm in 1991.
He directed ‘A World of Pasta’, ‘Doctor Ice’ (Science Film Festival 2009) and the series Food Markets –  In the Belly of the City (10×52). He produced ‘Mostar United’ (IDFA 2009), ‘Vinylmania’ (IFF Rotterdam  2012), ‘Char, no man’s island’ (Berlinale Forum 2013), ‘The Queen of Silence’ (IDFA 2014, ‘Silver Horn’, best feature length doc Krakow FF 2015, Golden Nanook – Flahertiana IDF Perm 2015. He tutors for: Biennale Cinema College Venice, Cinema do Brasil, Cannes Film Market, Documentary Campus, EDN, Films de 3 Continents – Produire au Sud, Media Business School, Med Film Factory, Scuola Holden, TFL-Torino Film Lab, Film Garage, ZagrebDox Pro, ESoDoc/ ZeLIG school for Documentary Bolzano.

CEO of RCS ( Rough Cut Service), Helsinki (FI)

Executive Producer in IV Films Ltd, Rough Cut Service and Dare To Dream
Consultant for Steps and AfriDocs. Commissioning Editor for the Finnish Broadcasting Company Finland 1998-2015. Executive Producer for Steps For The Future and one of the Series Producers for Why Democracy. He has been involved or supported numerous international well known documentaries like Three Rooms of Melancholy, Act of Killing, Armadillo, Happiness, Don´t Breath, Lakshmi and Me, Placebo; Viva les Antipodes etc. Steps by Steps is one of his books.

Consultant, publisher, London (UK)

After studying Electronic Engineering and Acoustics, John Watkinson joined the Digital Equipment Corporation where he discovered a flair for writing and training in digital technology. He worked for Sony and Ampex before forming his own consultancy. Since then he has been involved in many of the phases of the digital revolution: first digital audio, then digital photography, digital video and digital cinema, finally fly-by-wire. In addition to lecturing world wide, he has written over 25 books, many of which have won awards.

Television Audio Producer and Trainer, Maribor (SI)

Chris Wherry is an independent sound engineer and trainer. Starting his sound career in television in the UK and becoming Head of Sound for Television South West. The work included all types of studio and outside broadcast programming.
He later became freelance, working on a wide range of documentary and drama productions for ITV, Channel Four, Discovery and the BBC and in 2000 was a co-author of the reference book Multi-Skilling Television Production.
He has carried out a range of audio and production-based training for television companies around the world and his goal is to ensure attention to the fine detail in order to produce the most artistic audio to tell the story.
He is currently living in Slovenia and also makes shows for Radio Slovenia International.