Julia Poplawska | Documentary filmmaker & TV journalist

Julia Popławska is documentary filmmaker and TV journalist graduated from Wajda Film School in Warsaw and Journalism at Warsaw University, Poland. Her graduation film Oh God, Dear God was awarded at Guia de Isora MiradasDoc in 2011. In 2016 she won Best Newcomer Award at DMFF for her documentary The Place. The film premiered at Hot Docs Canadian IDF, Toronto, Canada 2015 and was selected in competition for more than forty film festivals around the world. In 2021 she was also part of the jury during the DMFF. For many years she worked for Polish National Television TVP, TVN, and Canal+ in Warsaw. She is fascinated by connections between art and science. Now she co-operates with The Botanic Garden of The Warsaw University where she graduated from.

To participate in the masterclass Storytelling in Documentaries, please send an email to [email protected].

Tristan Visser

Tristan Visser (Director, Musician) is a filmmaker from the Netherlands. When does sound become music? What place holds humanity in the natural soundscape? Exploring the ocean and the aquatic soundscape is the main source of inspiration in Tristan his work. He focusses on audiovisual performances and multichannel sound installations. In his film ‘Onder Water - De zoektocht naar het geluidslandschap in zee’ he is questioning the option the communicate with a whale with his guitar. He wants to raise curiosity and a questioning spirit amongst his audiences for topics such as noise pollution in the ocean. In the summer of 2022 he sailed from Greenland to Alaska through the Northwest Passage for recordings of his upcoming album and documentary ‘Arctic Mirage’. This project is set to be released in 2023.

Line van den Berg

Line van den Berg (Filmmaker, Professional Mountain Climber) from The Netherlands started climbing in her early twenties and has since then collected a long list of technical routes, a.o. first ascents in Kyrgyzstan and the Eiger north face. She has been mentioned on the Piolet d’Or long list of new ascents, a remarkable achievement for an alpinist from a country without any mountains. She has been awarded the Herman Plugge Engagement Award and has competed in multiple Ice Climbing World Cups. Line is well-known for her unstoppable enthusiasm and enormous drive. Line lives and works in the Alps, where she focuses mainly on technical winter alpinism. She has published multiple stories of her adventures. My Phantom is her first film production.

Mahmut Taş

Mahmut Taş (Director, Screenwriter) is a filmmaker from Türkiye. From an early age his passion for cinema led him to write scripts and shoot films. In this context, he received various cinema training and film shooting techniques training from private courses between 2015-2018. Between 2018-2019, he received screenwriting techniques training. In June 2018, he shot his first short film, Pain, of 6 minutes and 30 seconds. At the beginning of 2021, he completed his film called Cracked, and in the middle of the same year, his short film called The Return, a joint production of Türkiye-Uzbekistan. Again, at the end of 2021, he released his movie called E-Happiness.

Kesang Tseten

Kesang Tseten has been making documentaries about the Himalayan region for over two decades, which have been regularly screened at international film festivals. His films include the award-winning Who will be a Gurkha, Trembling Mountain and Saving Doma, a trilogy about Nepalese immigrant workers in the Gulf States (In Search of the Riyal, The Desert Eats Us), We Corner People and On the road with the red god: Machhendranath. He received grants from Jan Vrijman, IDFA Bertha Fund and the Sundance Documentary Institute. He was a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College and New York University. He wrote the original screenplay for the feature film Mukundo, the first Nepali entry to the Academy Awards, and Karma, and is currently working on a Nepali adaptation of Les Miserables. He is a graduate of the Dr. Graham's School in India, Amherst College and Columbia University.

Nadine Bemelmans

Nadine Bemelmans studied Arts and Culture at the University of Maastricht. Within the company Elbe Stevens Film she produced the documentary It’s Dutch Design (2019). Nadine worked on the experimental film Souvenir (2019, premiere at IFFR) of the filmmakers Lina Sieckmann and Miriam Gossing. The hybrid documentary Sirens Call, another film of Lina and Miriam, in co-production with Filmfaust, Elbe Stevens Films and ZDF, is currently in production in the USA. Nadine Bemelmans was also closely involved in the production of the documentary A World to Shape, directed by Ton van Zantvoort and produced by Elbe Stevens Films. The documentary was broadcasted on Dutch national television.

Awesta Mahani

Awesta Mahani is raised and based in a small town in Limburg. Her multilingualism helps her with helping others with the Dutch language and therefore, she has been tutoring university students, high school students and immigrants since 2014. After completing her Bachelors in Communication Management, she worked as store manager in the Luxury Fashion Industry. She is a Master of Science in Communication and Information Sciences with a specialization in Business Communications and Digital Media, recently graduated from the University of Tilburg. Her master thesis on Time and Space in Visual Narratives (comics and films) will also be published in a series of research papers supervised by Dr. Neil Cohn. Her passion for film brought her to CineSud in June 2022, where she has been working since for Marketing, PR & Communications. Recently she also started pursuing acting.

Finn van Drenth

Finn van Drenth (Director, Photographer, Dancer) is a 21 year old Dutch Filmmaker who expresses herself in various mediums such as directing, photography and dance. She works with many dancers/creatives and company’s from all sized that have passion, purpose and a story to tell. Currently located in the Netherlands but more often than not traveling as much as possible to explore and create stories around the world with the people around her. Finn has gained on-set experience in front and behind the camera, having knowledge of both worlds creates a deeper understanding of the filmmaking process that triggers her love for film.

Ben Lardinois

Ben Lardinois (Director, Designer, Music Producer) is a filmmaker from Limburg. Out of the urge to express our creativity, individuality and a hunger for independence, Ben and his partner Bashar have slowly but surely gotten a design agency off the ground since 2016 with no entrepreneurial experience or active network: jongens en co. Besides small own initiatives and commissioned work they have collaborated on about 5 film productions and fulfilled various roles: Varying from Production(-assistance), to scenario, casting, sound design, graphic design, production design, editing, special effects and co-direction. With Thuisland they would like to finally create something personal and original, in the way they think films should be made.

Lieke Anna Haertjens

Lieke Anna Haertjens (Photographer, Selfportrait Artist) has been working as a creative for over a decade. In 2011 she graduated from the School of Arts in Tilburg. Afterwards she worked hard at developing a personal style in photography where story, emotion, concept and aesthetics come together in painterly and emotive artworks. In her journey as a creator she does not fear to get personal and vulnerable, in fact, those things are what drives her. Showing vulnerability as a way to portray strength. And shining a light on subjects, we don't like to talk about. To create meaningful conversations. Her thoughts and feelings are the red threat in her work. She makes tangible what isn't, through the art she creates. The photo camera has always been her tool, until now. Until this story. With this story she knew. This has to be a documentary.

Line van den Berg

Line van den Berg (Filmmaker, Professional Mountain Climber) from The Netherlands started climbing in her early twenties and has since then collected a long list of technical routes, a.o. first ascents in Kyrgyzstan and the Eiger north face. She has been mentioned on the Piolet d’Or long list of new ascents, a remarkable achievement for an alpinist from a country without any mountains. She has been awarded the Herman Plugge Engagement Award and has competed in multiple Ice Climbing World Cups. Line is well-known for her unstoppable enthusiasm and enormous drive. Line lives and works in the Alps, where she focuses mainly on technical winter alpinism. She has published multiple stories of her adventures. My Phantom is her first film production.

Jack Goessens

Jack Goessens (Writer, Director) is originally from Maastricht, but now living and working in the UK. He’s a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he studied filmmaking. His short film ‘Everyman’ (2021) was commissioned through the Scottish Documentary Institute Bridging the Gap program. The film screened at over a dozen BAFTA and Academy qualifying festivals and traveled to Cannes this year as part of CineSud’s annual Talent to Cannes program. The film was shortlisted for a Grierson award and won Best Film at both the Euregion Film Festival in 2022 and the BAFTA qualifying SQIFF in 2021. It’s currently nominated for the prestigious RTS award (Royal Television Society, outcome November 3rd). Day to day Jack works as an editor in high-end drama, editing shows such as Outlander and the new Netflix series The Fuck It Bucket. Jack is currently receiving support through the Channel 4 RI:SE program for emerging disabled/neurodiverse talent.