Meet the CIRCLE 2023 Experts
Brigid O'Shea
Documentary Association of Europe (DAE)
Brigid O’Shea is an Australian native who has worked for European film festivals and documentary organisations since 2008. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts obtained in Melbourne and Berlin, she started as an intern at the Berlinale Talent Campus. She worked for various Berlinale departments as a freelancer until 2014, including the EFMand also Co-Production Market, until taking a more focused approach on creative documentary. This came from coordinating the DOK Industry Programme from 2009-2015, which allowed her to also freelance for the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague, for Documentary Campus Masterschool, and Berlin-based production companies. She was appointed Head of DOK Industry Programme in January 2015. She regulary tutors on topics like European co-financing, cultural management and festival strategies in places like North America and East Europe. In February 2020 she co-launched the Documentary Association of Europe.
Diana El Jeiroudi
Director, producer, scriptwriter
Diana's films encapsulate sociopolitical tensions and contradictions and extend well over time. She is best known for her Dolls - A Woman from Damascus (2007) and Morning Fears, Night Chants (2012). As producer, her filmography includes the award-winning Silvered Water -Syria Autoportrait by O. Mohamad & W. S. Bedirxan (Cannes 2014), and The Mulberry House by Oscar-nominated Sara Ishaq (IDFA 2013). Her efforts in supporting and advancing the documentary community and culture, notably through establishing DOX BOX as Syria’s first documentary film festival, and then as the Berlin-based documentary film support organization, has earned her various awards, including the EDN Award, The Katrin Cartlidge Award, and The Heart of Sarajevo. She is a member of the American Academy of Motion Pictures, the Deutsche Filmakademie, and the Asia-Pasific Screen Academy. She served on several committees and juries, most notably Cannes Film Festival Golden Eye Documentary Award, Sundance Documentary Program, IDFA, AFAC, and APSA Awards. Diana supported many careers and tutored talents through the professional training initiatives and workshops of DOX BOX, EuroDoc, Ex-oriente, IDFA, and Story Doc. Her most recent film Republic of Silence (2021) premiered in the official selection at Venice Film Festival.
Joanna Solecka
marketing expert, Alphapanda
Film Marketing, Social Media & Audience Design strategist with extensive experience of working for film producers and cultural institutions. Lecturer, mentor and speaker at the international training workshops for fiction and documentary filmmakers such as CIRCLE – Women Doc Accelerator, Impakt, Torino Film Lab, Moving Docs, DOC.Incubator. Member of the Advisory Board of DAE - Documentary Association of Europe. Between 2004 - 2015 Joanna worked as Head of PR, Festivals and Sales at Wajda Studio & School, Warsaw, Poland. Since 2015 Joanna has been working for Alphapanda, a European film marketing agency based in Berlin, Geneva and Warsaw, founded in 2011. Alphapanda specializes in the development of marketing strategies and the implementation of social media campaigns for the film industry. Alphapanda’s clients list includes the European Film Awards, Warner Bros, Under the Milky Way as well as many European sales agents, distributors, VOD platforms and production companies. As a mother of three daughters, Joanna especially enjoys working on young audience and women empowering stories. Among recent titles Joanna handled campaigns for are films like: THE SCARS OF ALI BOUALA (Tribeca ’21), STOP-ZEMLIA (Berlinale ’21), NINJABABY (Berlinale & SXSW ’21), THE WALL OF SHADOWS (Hot Docs ’20), BEWARE OF CHILDREN (Venice ’19), ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE (Cannes ’18).
Module 01
Gianluca Matarrese
Director, editor, actor
Gianluca Matarrese (1980) was born in Torino and moved to Paris in 2002 to study cinema and theater. He graduated in History and Critique of North American Cinema at the University of Torino and Paris VIII, also graduating at the Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Between 2008 and 2012 he worked in French television as a writer and director. Later, he worked as author, reporter, artistic coordinator, segment producer for more than 25 programs and various French networks. He is also an actor, both for cinema and theater. He started by directing two short-films, in 2013-14. In 2019 his feature documentary Fuori Tutto won the award for Best Italian Documentary at the Torino Film Festival, while The Last Chapter had its world premiere at Venice International Film Critics’ Week 2021, winning the Queer Lion Award. Fashion Babylon (Bellota Films & France Télévisions) premiered at CPH:DOX and Hot Docs and more than 20 festivals around the world. Il Posto (A Steady Job) (Altara Films, Bocalupo Films & ARTE / NDR), co-directed with Mattia Colombo premiered in Vision du Réel and Hot Docs and it’s currently touring in several international festivals. His short film Pinned Into a Dress co-directed with Guillaume Thomas opens the International Critics' Week in Venice 2022. Two of his new films - Les beaux parleurs and L’expérience Zola are about to premiere in the main international summer festivals.
Hubert Sauper
Director and producer
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Born in Austria, Hubert Sauper has lived in France for twenty years, after living in Great Britain, Italy, United States, Tanzania, Congo and South Sudan. Sauper is known for his socio-political documentary films that have won over fifty international major awards, including those in Berlin, Venice, Sundance, as well as the Prize of European Cinema, the Austrian Academy Award, and the Caesar Award. Sauper was an Oscar nominee for Darwin's Nightmare (2004), a documentary that highlights the impact of the fishing industry on the fragile Tanzanian ecosystem. His film We Come as Friends (2014), centered around the armed conflict between Sudanese, was awarded with the Special Jury Prize at Sundance. Sauper was a guest professor in a large number of film schools and universities around the world, among which are Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Columbia University, Colorado University, Universidad de Caracas, Universidad de la Havana, FEMIS, the Moscow International Film School, Istanbul University, Film School of South of the Mediterranean, the International School of Cinema of Marrakech (ESAV), the Academy of Austrian Film and the International School Havana Cinema in Cuba (EICTV). He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Film Academy and l’Académie française du cinéma.
Salomé Jashi
Director
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Salomé Jashi was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. She first studied journalism and worked as a reporter for several years. In 2005 she was awarded a British Council scholarship to study documentary filmmaking at Royal Holloway, University of London. Salomé’s Taming the Garden [2021] premiered at Sundance and Berlinale Forum. Her The Dazzling Light of Sunset [2016] has been awarded the Main Prize at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competition as well as at ZagrebDox, Jihlava IDFF, FIC Valdivia and several other festivals. Her earlier work Bakhmaro [2011], made in co-production with ma.ja.de. filmproduktion and MDR/Arte, received an Honorary Mention for a Young Documentary Talent at DOK Leipzig, was awarded as the Best Central and Eastern European Documentary at Jihlava IDFF, and was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Silver Eye Awards. She was a fellow of Nipkow Scholarship in 2017 and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2020.
Selin Murat
Industry expert, Markets Manager (IDFA)
As co-founder of Canadian based Parabola films, Selin Murat started her career as a creative producer, producing author-driven documentaries for festivals, theater and broadcast. In 2017, Selin became film programmer and head of Industry at Montreal's RIDM where she created strong relationships with European festivals and markets. Since summer 2021, she is Markets Manager with the Forum team at Amsterdam's IDFA, and continues to consult, lead workshops and support international non-fiction talent.
Module 02
Charline Branger
Editor
Born in Berkeley, California in 1970 and raised between Berkeley and Tel Aviv, Jones is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on Israel/Palestine. She has a BA in Race, Class and Gender Studies and an MFA in Documentary Media Arts. Her directing credits include: 500DUNAM ON THE MOON (2002) commissioned by France Channel 2; ASHKENAZ (2007) commissioned by Israel Channel 8; TARGETED CITIZEN (2010) commissioned by Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; and GYPSY DAVY (2012) commissioned by Israel Channel 8 (Sundance 2012). In addition to making her own films, Jones has produced extensively with others, e.g. WALL by Simone Bitton (Cannes 2004; Special Jury Prize Sundance 2005) and has been affiliated with progressive media outlets such as DEMOCRACY NOW! in New York.
Rachel Leah Jones
Director and producer
Born in Berkeley, California in 1970 and raised between Berkeley and Tel Aviv, Jones is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on Israel/Palestine. She has a BA in Race, Class and Gender Studies and an MFA in Documentary Media Arts. Her directing credits include: 500DUNAM ON THE MOON (2002) commissioned by France Channel 2; ASHKENAZ (2007) commissioned by Israel Channel 8; TARGETED CITIZEN (2010) commissioned by Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel; and GYPSY DAVY (2012) commissioned by Israel Channel 8 (Sundance 2012). In addition to making her own films, Jones has produced extensively with others, e.g. WALL by Simone Bitton (Cannes 2004; Special Jury Prize Sundance 2005) and has been affiliated with progressive media outlets such as DEMOCRACY NOW! in New York.
