EXPERTS

INTERNATIONAL TUTORS

Leena Pasanen 

Director of the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (DOK Leipzig). Previously director of the Finnagora cultural institute at the Finnish Embassy in Budapest. At the Finnish public broadcaster YLE, where she was responsible for documentaries on YLE 1 and later led the cultural and documentary programming division of the special‑interest channel YLE Teema. From 2005 to 2008 Leena Pasanen was the Director of European Documentary Network.

Rada Šešić

Filmmaker, lecturer, film critic and festival programmer. She is specialized in South Asian (lived in India for some time) and Eastern European cinema. She is on selection comity of IDFA and program advisor of IFFR, on the selection of Hubert Bals Fund as well as IDFA Bertha Fund. At Sarajevo Film Festival, Rada heads the Documentary competition and co‐heads Docu Rough Cut Boutique. Teaches at the Master of film at the NFTA Amsterdam. Artistic director of the festival Eastern Neighbours in The Hague. Directed four award-winning shorts and documentaries in the Netherlands and several in Sarajevo where she lived before.

Hanka Kastelicova

The VP and Executive Producer of Documentaries for HBO Europe. She is responsible for the development and production of HBO Europe’s documentary films, focusing on feature length productions, which should have a strong connection with the countries where HBO Europe broadcasts. Many of films she co‐produces are very successful worldwide and have won many awards in international festivals. She earned a Master of Arts degree from the Faculty of Film and TV Documentary Department at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She worked in Slovenia for more than 25 years as a documentary director and producer, latterly as commissioning editor and Head of Development of documentary programming. As an experienced documentary film-maker, she has lectured on documentary filmmaking and participated in the organization of master classes, industry seminars, and courses.

Paul Pauwels

Currently: managing Director for the Belgium consulting company Congoo bvba. Has been the director of European Documentary Network (EDN) for  the past six years. Paul Pauwels 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 in France, commissioning editor for the Belgium public service broadcaster VRT/Canvas and has almost 35 years of experience with producing documentaries for the national and international market. He has been a tutor, moderator and expert at many European workshops and seminars, and one of the first Chairmen of EDN. Teaches Production at the Luca School of Arts in Genk, Belgium.

POLISH TUTORS

Lidia Duda

Screenwriter and documentary film director. Her achievements include a number of important documentaries. Twice she received the Grand Prix at the Krakow Film Festival for her film „Hercules” (2005) and „Entangled” (2012). Grand Prix winner, among others:  In Chicago, New York, Huston, Istanbul, Mexico, Moscow, Banff, Canton, Prague. Duda is a Grand Press laureate for „At us in Pietraszach”. The author of documentary series: Only Dad and Young Sharks. Has worked as an independent artist for several years. Member of the Association of Polish Filmmakers, Polish Academy of Film and Polish Documentary Film Directors Guild.

Paweł Łoziński

Polish director, cameraman and producer of documentary films. Graduate of the Directing Department at the Film School in Lodz. He worked as an assistant to Krzysztof Kieślowski on Three Colors: White. Łoziński lectures in documentary film direction at the National Film School in Lodz and Gdynia Film School. Author of more than 20 award‐winning documentary films (including Birthplace, Sisters, The Way It Is, Chemo, Father and Son and You Have No Idea How Much I Love You) at international festivals: Cinema du Reel, DOC Leipzig, Krakow Film Festival, International Film Festival in Moscow and New York Film Festival.

Bartek Konopka

Director and screenwriter. The Oscar nominee for the ‘Rabbit à la Berlin’ (2009) documentary that was shown at more than 70 festivals, received a dozen prizes and had been sold to 40 countries. The author of award-winning documents (‘The goat walker’, ‘The art of disappearing’, ‘New Warsaw’, ‘The way to be master’)  and fiction films (‘The Mute’, ‘Fear of Falling’, ‘From bed thou arose’, ‘Three for the Taking’). His latest movie – ‘The Mute’ (2018) was premiered at the International Film Festival in Moscow and received a prize for photography at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. Bartek Konopka is a graduate of film studies at the Jagiellonian University Krakow, Film Directing at the Silesian University in Katowice and a feature and documentary course at the Wajda School. Member of European Film Academy and Polish Film Academy. He teaches directing at WRiTV, gives film workshops in various countries.

Agnieszka Rostropowicz-Rutkowska

Festival and Marketing strategist. She has been working for Wajda School & Studio for 9 years. She co-run many promotional campaigns for short fictions and documentaries, such as Oscar campaign for „Joanna” by Aneta Kopacz or EFA campaign for „Paparazzi” by Piotr Bernas and EFA Winner „Communion” by Anna Zamecka in 2017. Since 2015 she also run her own company Fine Day Promotion, where she supports documentary filmmakers with marketing and festival strategies for their projects. She has been working with many independent documentary and fiction projects, such as „Call Me Marianna” by Karolina Bielawska, „Hugo” by Wojciech Klimala, „Symphony of the Ursus Factory” by Jaśmina Wójcik and currently with feature fiction project „Marygoround” by Daria Woszek. She graduated from EPI Distribution 2.0 and EAVE Marketing Workshop.

Anna Wydra

She runs Otter Films, Warsaw‐based production company, focused on art‐house fiction and documentary films for cinema and TV, with an emphasis on the international market. Togheter with director Bartek Konopka she got an Oscar nomination for the documentary Rabbit a la Berlin. She produced or co‐produced many documentary movies incl: 6 Degrees, Deep Love, Domino Effect, Art of Disappearing and Communion (European Film Award). Films produced by Anna won awards on many festivals including Locarno International Film Festival, Leipzig DOK Festival, Hot Docs Film Festival, Krakow Film Festival, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Warsaw International Film Festival. Feature film Zud by Marta Minorowicz had its premiere on Berlinale Film Festival and Ayka by Sergey Dvortsevoy was nominated to Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. Anna is a member of The European Film Academy.

Małgorzata Świderska

Film and TV director, a PhD student at the Film and TV Direction Department at Polish National Film School in Łódź. Author of documentaries, opera screen adaptations, over a thousand of movie trailers and TV commercials. She is a lecturer at Polish National Film School in Łódź, and an author of visual identification video campaign for Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa (Grand Theatre & National Opera). She directed an internationally screened documentary „Poużywajmy sobie. Historia polskiego wzornictwa” („Let’s use it. A story of Polish Design”). She is a co-founder and an activist in ”Kobiety Filmu”- an association of Polish female filmmakers. Małgorzata Świderska is currently the person in charge of multimedia and visual identification of Centrum Kultury Filmowej im. Andrzeja Wajdy (Andrzej Wajda Center for Film Culture) in Warsaw.

Agnieszka Niburska

Content & Commercial PR Director at HBO Europe and Marketing Deputy Director – Public Relations at HBO Polska. Graduated from Nicolaus Copernicus University – Sociology. She has been working as a PR Manager for more than 18 years, mainly in a media and culture field. She worked as a lecturer for sociology and public relations at Warsaw College of Promotion. Responsible for PR strategy & activities of HBO Europe in Poland and Central Europe. She has promoted already a number of HBO Original Productions – series (Game of Thrones, Westworld, The Pack, Blinded By the Lights) and documentaries (Communion, Something Better to Come), as well as licensed productions. Supports documentary projects at DOC LAB POLAND from the beginning.

Julia Płachecka, Creative Europe Desk Poland

Responsible for promoting MEDIA sub-programme and support to Polish audiovisual industry professionals applying for grants within Creative Europe programme. She provides information on the funding schemes available through the MEDIA, delivers training and consultation, organizes events and seminars aimed at Polish applicants capacity building and dissemination of projects results.

PREVIOUS YEARS

INTERNATIONAL TUTORS

Lise Lense-Møller

She is a producer and the managing director of Magic Hour Films – a Copenhagen based production company that has produced and co-produced over 60 films, many of which have received international acclaim, the top winner being ‘Burma VJ’ with 52 international awards and the Oscar nomination. In addition Lise has been lecturing and leading international workshops continuously over the last 25 years, a.o. for the MEDIA training programme EAVE. Lise also runs a small publishing house.

Brigid O’Shea

She has been head of DOK Industry Programme since 2013. She started her career at the Berlinale and went on to work for other documentary programmes including the IDF institute of Documentary Film, Documentary Campus and freelanced as a producer. Her areas of speciality include festival and co-financing strategies for new documentary projects and regularly tutors and gives workshops on these subjects.

Peter Jäger

Born in Belgium, Peter studied law and philosophy. As a young film fanatic starting for a Film‑magazine became ‘Commercial & Marketing Director’. Following his passion for film, Peter became ‘Marketing and Acquisitions Director’ for Benelux theatrical distributors and cinema‑exhibitors handling over a 100 films like ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘The Lord Of The Rings’. In 2005 Peter founded Autlook Filmsales together with Austrian producers becoming CEO. Today Autlook is a leading global distributor for documentaries and Peter is Partner & consultant for Autlook, a Jury member of the Flemish Film Fund & Vienna Film Fund, distribution/ sales expert and lecturer/tutor at Film Academies, Workshops and Festivals.

Mikael Opstrup

European Documentary Network Head of Studies & Co-production Guide Editor. A dedicated documentarist since his first S-8mm documentary in 1977.  In 1979 he graduated in film from the University of Copenhagen. Most of the 80’s Mikael worked with distribution and theatrical release of documentaries. Producer of international documentaries since the 90’s. Production Adviser at The Danish Film Institute 1998-2002. From 2002 – 2008 co-owner of Final Cut Productions in Copenhagen.

Elizabeth Radshaw

Industry Programs Director, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival . She oversees the Hot Docs Collection, a family of documentary films that have screened at past Hot Docs festivals, received financing through one of Hot Docs’ production funds or have been selected to participate in the Festival’s premium film financing programs; and directs the Corus-Hot Docs Funds for Canadian documentaries, Hot Docs-Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund for filmmakers living and working in Africa, and the CrossCurrents Doc Fund for emerging doc makers from historically underrepresented communities. At Hot Docs she curates the conference, workshops and market events. The marquee events are the Hot Docs Forum and Hot Docs Deal Maker, both unique pitching forum and work-in-progress meeting services that put filmmakers in front of financiers. She leads delegations of Canadian documentaries to festivals and markets around the world, cultivating relationships and funding opportunities for filmmakers. Prior to this appointment, Elizabeth was the Head of Acquisitions at TVF International, joining from the National Film Board of Canada, and has a history of dramatic and factual production of film and TV in North America. She was an elected member of Pact Council in the UK in 2007 and directed the Brooklyn-based Rooftop Short Film Festival at its Montreal premiere in 2005.

POLISH TUTORS

Maria Zmarz‑Koczanowicz

A graduate of the Faculty of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia in Katowice (1982). A director of the fiction film ‘Kraj świata’ (1993) and almost 50 documentaries, among them: ‘I Am a Man’ (1985), ‘The Office’ (1986), ‘The Bread Monger’ (1988), ‘I Don’t Believe Politicians’ (1989), ‘Bara, Bara’ (1996), ‘Turn Me into a Long Snake’ (1997), ‘A Night with the General’ (2001), ‘Generation 89’ (2002), ‘Dziennik.pl’ (2004), ‘The Professor – about Leszek Kołakowski’ (2005), ‘Zwyczajny marzec’ (2008), ‘Wiera Gran’ (2013), ‘Adam Michnik: Be a Realist, Strive for the Impossible’ (2015). A winner of numerous festival awards in Paris, Gdańsk, Krakow and others.

Rafał Listopad

Editor and tutor in Film School Lodz (PWSFTviT). Member of European Film Academy (EFA), Polish Film Academy (PAF) and Polish Association of Editors (PSM). Editor of numerous fiction and documentary films – awarded in Poland and abroad – including ‘Katyn’ by Andrzej Wajda, ‘Poste Restatnte’ by Marcel Łoziński, ‘Abu Harza’ by Maciej Drygas and ‘Embassy’ by Juliusz Machulski.

Mariusz Włodarski

Graduated from the Department of International Relations at the University of Lodz, with his thesis about using the marketing approach in film distribution in Poland. He completed post-graduate studies of Film Production at The Polish National Film School in Lodz. He has worked for Polish studio Opus Film and at international co-productions such as ‘Simon Konianski’ produced by Versus Production/Belgium or ‘The Flying Machine’ produced by Breakthru Films/UK. In 2010 together with three friends, he founded production company Lava Films, where he produced the diploma film of Magnus von Horn ‘Without Snow’ which premiered during Cannes 2015.

Tomasz Wolski

Graduated of the Wajda School, participant of Berlinale Talents and Berlin Today Awards, scholar of Ministry Of Culture and National Heritage, NCK Young Poland Program, leader and expert at Polish Film Institute, member of Society of Polish Filmmakers and European Film Academy. Director, editor and cameramen awarded documentaries such as ‘The Clinic’, ‘Goldfish’, ‘The Lucky Ones’, ‘Actors’, ‘Slowly’, ‘Doctors’, ‘Palace’. Director of short feature film ‘Daughter‘ awarded at Angers Premiers Plan (Grand Prix and public award). Editor of such movies as: ‘Diary of Journey’, ’21xNY’ and ‘Krzyżoki’.

Wojciech Staroń

Polish cinematographer of many documentaries and fictions, documentary director. Graduated of the Cinematography department at the Film School in Lodz. His debut ‘Siberian Lesson‘ won awards as IDFA, Krakow IFF and Paris (Cinema du Reel). ‘Argentinian Lesson‘ won many awards as Cinema Eye Honor, DokLeipzig, RIDM. He is a Silver Bear winner at the 61st Berlinale for Artistic Contribution for cinematography to ‘El Premio‘ (The Prize), dir. P.Markovitch and Bronze Camera on Manaki Brothers FF for Papusza dir. Joanna Kos-Krauze and Krzysztof Krauze.

Anna Dorota Wardęszkiewicz

Director and editor (primarily of documentaries). She graduated from Film School in Lodz and became an academic teacher in this school.  For many years she was associated with the Educational Film Studio in Lodz. She served as an expert Polish Film Institute in 2014. She has edited more than 150 films – among them Pawel Lozinski’s films, including ‘Father and Son’, ‘Chemo’, ‘Werka’ and ‘Divorce’; Krzysztof Kieslowski’s ‘Seven days a week’, Maciej Drygas’ ‘State of Weightlessness’ and ‘Hear My Cry’ Michal Marczak’s ‘Fuck For Forest’ and ‘The End of Russia’. She also directed many films, including ‘The boundary’, ‘The Scar’, ‘Seller bread’, ‘Hospodi pomiluj’ and ‘The offer’.

JAROSŁAW KAMIŃSKI

Film editor. He graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and received his Ph.D. from this school. He has won the first Gdynia Film Festival editing award for ‘Z odzysku’ (by Sławomir Fabicki) and has been awarded  Polish Film Award – the Eagle three times: for ‘Żurek’ (Ryszard Brylski), ‘You are God’ (Leszek Dawid) and ‘Ida’ (Pawel Pawlikowski). Among many films he has edited are  ‘The Lure’ (Agnieszka Smoczynska), ‘Jack Strong’ and ‘Aftermath’ (Wladyslaw Pasikowski). He edited Jacek Bławut’s documentary series – ‘I am an alcoholic’ and ‘Our general census’. Founding member of the Polish Association of Editors, its president in 2011-2013. He is a lecturer at the Lodz Film School, a member of the Polish Film Academy, European Film Academy and the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Izabela Łopuch – Head of Original Production in HBO Polska.

Szymon Lenkowski, Piotr Bujnowicz – owners of Trailer and More (trailer production).

Barbara Orlicz-Szypuła – vice-chairman of Krakow Film Fundation and Director of Programme Office of Krakow Film Festival.

Katarzyna Wilk – Head of Promotion of Krakow Film Fundation, Polish Docs Coordinator  and Industry Zone Coordinator Krakow Film Festival.

Marcin Pieńkowski– Art Director of New Horizons Film Festival and American Film Festival in Poland.

Aleksandra Drewienko – sales manager for Eastern European, Far East and Asian territories at Taskovski Films.

Joanna Pwluśkiewicz – screenwriter, producer, writer and performer at Klub Komediowy.

SPECIAL GUESTS

Tue Steen Muller –  international film consultant and film critic.

Xavier Henry-Rashid – Managing Director at Film Republic, a London-based world sales agency specialised in art house fiction and cinematic documentaries.

Sales agents:

Deckert Distribution (Ina Rossow),
Rise and Shine (Stephan Kloos),
Sideways (Kaaz Basma) ,
Magnet (Georg Gruber),
Autlook (Peter Jaeger),
Film Trasit (Jan Rofekamp),
Slingshot (Manuela Bueno),

TV: Arte France, Arte G.E.I.E., ZDF, ARD, YLE (Finlandia), ERR (Estonia), Ceske Televise, Al Jazeera, Canal+, DR (Dania), RAI, BBC, Channel 4, TV3 (Katalonia).

Selectors of documentary festivals and representatives of pitching and industry sections cooperating with festivals: IDFA, Lipsk, Hot Docs, Jihlava, Sheffield, La Rochelle, Vision du Reel, Cine du Reel, CPH Docs (Dania), London IDF, Clermont Ferrand, Zagreb Docs, Popoli, Docs DF (Meksyk), Palm Springs, AFI Docs (USA).