Directors

  • Alisar Hasan (Syria)

    Alisar Hasan is a director and writer, born in Syria in 1983 and currently based in Berlin. In 2014, she founded Radio Sout Raya in Turkey, a radio station for Syrian refugees. She produced and directed for Radio Sout Raya until ISIS cyber-attacks forced its closure in 2017. For her work on the Oscar-nominated documentary THE CAVE, she won the IDA Best Writing Award and was a Creative Emmy nominee for Outstanding Writing. BEHIND THE LINES, co-directed with Alaa Amer, is her first feature film.

  • Alaa Amer (Syria)

    Alaa Amer is a director and journalist born in Syria in 1983, currently based in Istanbul. She is a founding member of the Syrian Feminist Lobby and has published several investigative articles on violations against women and human rights. She has produced and directed many investigative TV shows and wrote the script for the short film GOAL TO SYRIA, which was selected at Cannes in 2014. BEHIND THE LINES, co-directed with Alisar Hasan, is her first feature film.

  • Karen Vázquez Guadarrama (Mexico)

    Karen Vázquez Guadarrama was born in Mexico City and studied film at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. Her short film Mont d’Or, her short documentary FLOR DE MIL COLORES and her feature film WHEN THE BULL CRIED were selected at various important international film festivals. Karen won the prestigious Camerimage 2018 for her work as a DOP. Besides directing the film WE ARE FIRE about Mexican cartoonist Maremoto, she was also the DOP for the Egyptian episode about Doaa El-Adl.

  • Ana Mosienko (Russia)

    Ana Mosienko is an award-winning filmmaker from Russia, currently based between France and Belgium. Her first documentary WINTER, GO AWAY! (2012) premiered at Locarno and received a number of prestigious awards, a.o. the Russian film critics award “Discovery of the Year," Best Film (Textura Festival) and Best Debut (Lisbon & Estoril Film Festival). Her films S.P.A.R.T.A. (2013) and SONGS OF ABDUL (2017) were also well-received at international festivals and achieved wide theatrical release.

  • Sama Pana (India)

    Sama Pana is a pseudo for an independent documentary filmmaker and producer from India. She studied documentary film making abroad before returning to her homeland to pursue her passion for character-driven documentaries with a political context. One of Sama's previous films was widely praised for its sensitive and empathetic portrayal of marginalised communities in India.

  • Nada Riyadh (Egypt)

    Nada Riyadh is a film director/producer based in Cairo, Egypt. Her debut documentary film HAPPILY EVER AFTER premiered at IDFA in 2016. Her short fiction FAKH (The Trap) was selected for Semaine de la Critique at Cannes. In 2016, Nada co-founded the Cairo-based production company Felucca Films, aiming to help filmmakers from the MENA region explore and shape their own personal voices. She is now in post-production of her second feature documentary, LAND OF WOMEN, co-directed with Ayman El Amir.

  • Laura Nix (USA)

    Laura Nix is an award-winning director, writer and producer based in LA. Her short WALK RUN CHA-CHA was nominated for a Best Short Documentary Oscar in 2020. Other critically acclaimed titles include: INVENTING TOMORROW (premiered at Sundance 2018, was broadcast on PBS and won several awards including the Peabody Award in 2020), THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING (Toronto Film Festival 2014, Berlinale 2015), THE LIGHT IN HER EYES (premiered at IDFA 2011 and was broadcast on POV and Al Jazeera).

CONCEPT,CO-WRITERS & SHOWRUNNERS

As we began conceptualising this project in 2018, there were numerous global events that had a significant impact on us.The #MeToo movement went global, while at the same time a misogynistic populist was president of the United States. Populism and nationalism had driven people to vote for the Brexit and now it became clear that this was a terrible mistake. In this world where male autocrats solidified their powers and algorithmic driven populism was reshuffling the cards, who were the people that could make a difference? 

Vincent Coen

Vincent Coen is a writer-director living and working between Brussels and Jerusalem. After obtaining a graduate degree in Social and Political sciences at University of Ghent, Vincent studied film directing at RITCS School of Arts. He made two documentary features “Cinéma Inch’Allah!” and “Nothing is forgiven”. His fiction short “Heartbeats” premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and won several awards. Vincent has also written for television and works as a script editor on fiction scripts.

Guillaume Vandenberghe

Guillaume Vandenberghe has been working as a filmmaker in Brussels for 20 years. Together with Vincent, he co-directed the documentary features “Cinéma Inch’Allah!” and “Nothing is forgiven”. Besides these, he has also made art films that have been shown in museums and art galleries such as the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Maison Rouge (Paris) and Hauser & Wirth (New York).

PRODUCERS

  • Hanne Phlypo

    Clin d'oeil films

    Hanne Phlypo is a Belgian producer. Her latest productions DRAW FOR CHANGE (2023), DREAMING WALLS: INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL (2022) and BY THE NAME OF TANIA (2019) premiered at leading festivals and won multiple awards worldwide. Hanne trained as director at the Belgian film school INSAS. In 2010 she founded Clin d’oeil films and has since then produced over 30 films.

    The company focuses on creative documentaries and author-driven film with a clear preference for films with a social or political statement by innovative filmmakers. Today, Clin d’oeil films is one of Belgian’s most prominent documentary production companies, famous for cinematic films and local stories with a global impact. Hanne is an alumna of EAVE, Eurodoc and a member of the European Film Academy.

  • Estelle Robin You

    Grande Ourse films

    Estelle Robin You is CEO and producer at GRANDE OURSE films, a company she founded in February 2023 in Nantes (France). Between 2005 and 2022 within Les films du balibari, Estelle produced more than thirty documentaries that travelled to festivals and were broadcasted on television channels throughout the world. VILLAGE WITHOUT WOMEN (ARTE/ZDF), THE LAST SHELTER (DOX:AWARD 21), A THOUSAND FIRES (Locarno's Marco Zucchi award) are among the films she has produced and were selected at festivals such as IDFA, VISIONS DU REEL, HOT DOCS.

    Estelle is a graduate of the Ex Oriente and EAVE Producers Workshop. She is a group leader at EAVE CHANGE and Eurodoc and a member of the European Film Academy.

  • Marion Guth

    a_BAHN

    Marion Guth cofounded a_BAHN in 2011. a_BAHN produced a.o. the highly-acclaimed ZERO IMPUNITY by Blies Brothers (2019, Annecy, Sao Paulo IFF, Moscow IFF, Thessaloniki IFF, Amiens IFF, Guadalajara IFF...), Blies Brothers’ transmédia SOUNDHUNTERS (ARTE - 2016, nominated for the Prix Europa), VR films like 7 LIVES (2019, Tribeca Film Festival) and COSMOS WITHIN US (2019, Mostra di Venezia), or more recently ARTE’s documentary MONK, PANNONICA, AN AMERICAN STORY and the immersive experience SEX, DESIRE AND DATA. Marion recently created an association for better representation on screen and inclusiveness in the audiovisual sector: Fraen Am Bild - Women in Motion. With the association WIDE (Women in Digital Empowerment), she is a consultant in training for women artists around digital art and web3/NFTs practices. In partnership with the Ministry of Equality between Women and Men (MEGA), she develops an observatory of diversity in the film industry.

  • Heino Deckert

    ma.ja.de. filmproduktion

    Heino Deckert founded Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktions GmbH in 1991. For 30 years now, the German film-production company ma.ja.de. has consistently delivered documentaries and feature films selected at international festivals and securing worldwide distribution. Heino has produced over 130 films to date with filmmakers like Sergei Loznitsa, Victor Kossakovsky, Ai Weiwei, Thomas Heise and Feras Fayyad. Heino is a member of the German and European Film Academy and a member of Ampas.

  • Sigrid Dyekjaer

    Real Lava & Executive Producer

    Sigrid Dyekjaer has produced more than 30 documentary films during the last 22 years. She is the producer of the Oscar nominated film THE CAVE (2020) by Feras Fayyad, for which she won an Emmy for best producer, a Peabody Award, best producer at Cinema Eye and was nominated for Producers Guild of America in 2020. She premiered her first documentary film in her new company Real Lava at Sundance 2022, THE TERRITORY by Alex Pritz, which won 2 Awards at Sundance and has just picked up its 24th award already this year.

    Amongst her other films are MERKEL by Eva Weber, premiered at Telluride Film Festival 2023, INNOCENCE by Guy Davidi at Venice Film Festival 2023, Oscar-nominee Hanna Polak’s SOMETHING BETTER TO COME, LOVE CHILD by Eva Mulvad, AQUARELA by Victor Kossakovsky, shortlisted for on Oscar in 2020, and Ulrich Seidls film SAFARI.

  • Julie Goldman

    Motto Pictures & Executive Producer US episode

    Julie Goldman is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer of documentary feature

    films and series. Julie is the first documentary producer to receive the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer’s Award and the Cinereach Producer’s Award. She recently produced THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER (SXSW Film Festival 2022) and Nanfu Wang’s film IN THE SAME BREATH (opening night 2021 Sundance, DuPont Award, nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary and shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary).

    She produced THE VELVET UNDERGROUND by Todd Haynes, which premiered at Cannes, was released on Apple TV+ and was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Academy. Other acclaimed titles include: THE MOLE AGENT, Tribeca Grand Jury Prize winner, SOCKS ON FIRE, Gotham and IDA Award winner A THOUSAND CUTS, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar-hortlisted ONE CHILD NATION, among numerous other films.