Module 02
Meet the CIRCLE 2020 Experts
Aleksandar Govedarica – sales agent, producer, consultant
Aleksandar Govedarica was born 1987 in Sarajevo, graduate of University of East Sarajevo as well as Vancouver Film School. He started working as a film programmer at Kriterion Sarajevo, the only art house cinema in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Aleksandar was part of the organizing committee of the Serbian Film Festival in Vancouver. With three years of previous experience in sales and distribution, Aleksandar runs the Toronto based world sales and production company Syndicado. He produced two documentary films and has experience in all aspects of filmmaking including directing. Aleksandar is tutoring at workshops like Dok Incubator, Baltic Sea Docs and Duna Dock.
Brigid O’Shea – head of DOK Leipzig Industry
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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 EFM and 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.
Suzy Gillett – writer, director, consultant
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A Londoner Suzy Gillett studied filmmaking at Central St Martin's College of Art. She has been empowering international independent cinema for over three decades in various capacities: Curator of film festivals: Mosaïques, Film Africa, Women’s Cinema from Tangiers to Tehran, Marrakech Biennale. Producer of international film script development labs: Low Budget Film Forum, Making Waves, Film Garage, BFI & BBC’s iFeatures and Les Arcs Talent Village.
Consultant for Swiss Films, First Cut Lab, French Film Festival Namur, Open City Doc Festival, Torino Film Lab, Lagos Lab. Jury member for Ciné Maubit, Bucharest, Cap Spartel, Tangiers, Lago Film Festival, Italy, Gabes Cinema Fen, Tunisia. Teacher of Film curating at the Barbican Centre, London and experimentation in documentary at ESAV Marrakech. Script consultant, fixing structural issues in treatments and giving “empathetic and relevant” notes to final scripts prior to production funding applications.
Writer/Director of films about historic marginal pioneers: Sylvia [17 mins, B/W, 16mm 1984] about Sylvia Pankhurst, the socialist suffragette and artist, Epiphany [36 mins, digital, 2013] about the 17th century Fifth Monarchists and the Muggletonians. Developing Chéramy her first feature, inspired by Frédéric Bazille, the forgotten impressionist, pioneer of Queer Art, which has received funding from France : CNC, Région Nouvelle Acquitaine and Procirep-Angoa.
Phil Jandaly – senior editor
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Phil has been an editor for the last 20 years, starting in fiction before firmly landing in documentary. Part of award-winning international productions such as Prison Sisters, Killing Time, and I am Samuel, he also works as a rough-cut consultant and has been part of the films Liberation Day, Home Games, How Big is the Galaxy, and more. Working out of Sweden, his projects have originated in places as far afield as Serbia, Kenya, France, Russia, and beyond. He has travelled the world as a tutor with EDN, B2B Doc, and independently, helping filmmakers develop their projects and giving master classes on pitch pilot trailers, the craft of storytelling through scripting and editing, and the genius of sticky notes. Phil blogs about documentaries and technology on his Storysmith blog, and hopes to one day bike across Europe .
Joanna Solecka - publicity & film marketing strategist
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Polish citizen, based in Warsaw. Film Marketing & Social Media strategist with over 15 years of experience. Head of Alphapanda Warsaw – a Polish division of an international film marketing agency specialized in digital campaigns for films. Formerly Head of PR, Festivals and Sales Department at Wajda Studio & School. Additionally, Joanna works as a film marketing and audience design tutor for training programs such as Torino Film Lab Dok.Incubator or Circle – Women Doc Accelerator. What she is most passionate about film marketing nowadays is the strategic approach to build different audiences for films at an early stage. Being a mother of three daughters, she recently enjoys a lot working with family and young audience films.
Erick Stoll – filmmaker, cinematographer
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Erick Stoll is a non-fiction filmmaker and cinematographer in Cincinnati, Ohio. Working across diverse documentary forms, their work has focused on gentrification, gendered labor, and left and right populist movements. Erick co-directed the feature documentary América, which was nominated for the Peabody and Independent Spirit awards. They were cinematographer on the Academy Award winning feature documentary American Factory, among others.
Elsa Kremser – directress and producer
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Born 1985 in Austria, Elsa Kremser studied Film at the University of Vienna and the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg. As an author and producer, she realized several documentaries that were shown worldwide. Her diploma film NEBEL premiered at the Berlinale. She was a jury member of Visions du Réel and several other film festivals and participated in the Nipkow Grand and the EuroDoc program. In 2016 she founded the Vienna-based production company RAUMZEITFILM together with Levin Peter. As a directing duo, they are currently working on their first fiction feature, THE GREEN PARROT, which received the Berlinale Kompagnon Script Award. Their recent documentary SPACE DOGS premiered at Locarno IFF where it received two special jury mentions. It was presented at over 50 festivals worldwide and awarded as the "Best Austrian Film" at the Viennale.
Jelena Mišeljić - producer
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Jelena graduated in production from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje, where she currently works as a teaching assistant. She is completing her PhD in Interdisciplinary studies of contemporary arts and media. She was the producer on films Shelters (I. Salatić), A Matter of Will (D. Kasalica) and Lowdown (P. Simonović).
She had also worked as programme manager for film and performing arts festivals, and most recently was a programming director of Herceg Novi Film Festival. Sarajevo Talents and Berlinale Talents alumna. Member of European Film Academy and EWA network.
Paula Vaccaro was born in Argentina and emigrated to the UK in early 2000 with a British Council Scholarship to pursue an MA in Documentary by Practice at the University of London. She is a journalist, producer and scriptwriter with over two decades of experience in film, radio and TV in Europe/UK, US and Latin America. In 2009, she founded Pinball London, a production company with an independent-cinema spirit at the heart using shorts, animation, tv series, long feature films and documentaries to tell stories from an international perspective with a special emphasis on storytelling that focuses on gender, LGBT, human rights, immigration, minorities, class, and our planet. She has worked with in co-productions with the US, Latin America and Europe with established filmmakers such as Sally Potter, Emir Kusturica and Guillermo Arriaga and with emerging talent such as Victoria Solano, Ana Rocha, Agustina Figueras, Edoardo de Angelis, and Aaron Brookner. Since 2004, she has provided training in pitching, production, impact producing, gender and unconscious bias for various national and international organisations such as British Council, Eurimages, Docs Montevideo, GoodPitch, Impact Lab DocsMx, Thessaloniki, ProPro Austria, Los Cabos FF, BAM, Documentary Campus, and DokLeipzig. Within Pinball London, she leads Pinball Audiences, providing impact producing consultancy, strategy and training. She has trained herself as an Impact Producer with Britdoc (Doc Society) on their 1st Impact Producer’s retreat in 2012, and has continued her training with Julia Middleton/Common Purpose (Cultural Intelligence), George Kohlrieser (Hostage negotiation) and Nova Reid (Anti-Racism). She is a member of PACT, BECTU, DPA (Documentary Producers Alliance), and the European Film Academy. She is also a mentor and member of EWA (European Women's Audiovisual Network), and a current Vice-president of EPC (European Producers’ Club).
Yael Bitton has been making films for over 20 years, as an editor, director, tutor andscript supervisor. She currently works as an editing tutor at DokIncubator, and tutors students at the HEAD / Cinéma du Réel in Geneva. She is a consulting editor for the Rough Cut Service, hosted by Ikka Vehkalahti. Some of her recent credits as an editor include: Advocate by Philippe Bellaiche & Rachel Leah Jones; Los Fantasmas des Caribe by Felipe Monroy; Machines by Rahul Jain; The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev by Noam Pinchas and Tal Barda; Muchachas by Juliana Fanjul; as a editing or script consultant: The Edge of Democracy by Petra Costa; Thy Father’s Chair by Antonio Tibaldi and Alex Lora; as a script supervisor: Lisbon Story by Wim Wenders.
Diana El Jeiroudi is a Syrian filmmaker and screenwriter, Diana 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.
Rebecca Day is a qualified psychotherapist and freelance documentary producer. She founded Film In Mind in 2018 to address mental health in the film industry and has spoken at festivals such as Berlinale, IDFA, Getting Real Documentary Conference and Sheffield DocFest on the issue. She offers therapeutic support to filmmakers working in difficult situations and with vulnerable people, as well as consultancies and workshops on mental health in the film industry.
GiedrÄ— ŽickytÄ— is an award-winning Lithuanian director and producer. Her films have been selected at numerous film festivals including IDFA, Hot Docs, Visions du Reel, Sheffield, Rotterdam, winning over 20 international awards, and theatrically distributed. I’M NOT FROM HERE was nominated at the European Academy Awards. MASTER AND TATYANA won 4 Lithuanian Academy Awards, including awards for Best Director and Best Documentary. She produced THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE that premiered in Sundance 2020 World Documentary Competition premiere and received the Best Directing Award.
Simona Nobile is an international script consultant, screenwriter and trainer. Her credits as story editor/creative consultant/production supervisor include among others: feature film “Entwined” (2019, directed by Minos Nikolakis, TIFF 2019), HBO documentary feature “Agnelli” (2017, directed by Nick Hooker); documentary feature “Another Me” (2016, directed by Claudio Casazza – Festival dei Popoli), feature film “Romeo & Juliet” (2013 directed by Carlo Carlei, written by Julian Fellowes and produced by Amber Ent./Echolake/Svarovski Ent.), TV miniseries “Il Generale della Rovere” (2011, RAI Uno) and “L’Aviatore” (2008, Mediaset) both directed by Carlo Carlei and produced by Rizzoli Audiovisivi. As screenwriter she’s currently developing the TV series “Babyland” (production: Agitprop selected by Berlinale Coproduction Market 2020), “Five Minutes Before” (production: Panama Film) and “Beauty Hunters”. Simona is also a Script Consultant for Eurimages, MEDIA Development Program; EWA, Doc Circle, European Genre Forum. From 2014 through 2017 she was a Member of the Italian Ministry of Culture’s Selection Committee responsible for awarding national development, production and coproduction funding for feature films. She is currently Member of the Selection Committees for the ‘Minority Coproduction Fund’ of the Italian Ministry of Culture (Mibac). She selects and consults for Piemonte Film/TV Fund, Friuli Venezia Giulia Fund, IDM Film/TV Fund, Apulia Film/TV Fund and Campania Film Commission. She’s lecturer at the Università La Sapienza of Rome and member of EWA Network and of the European Film Academy.
