Writer • Speaker • Documentary Doctor, New York (USA)

Internationally renowned writer and speaker Fernanda Rossi has collaborated for 15 years in more than 500 fiction scripts and documentaries, including two documentaries nominated for the Academy Award®. The grant proposals and fundraising samples she contributed to received funding from ITVS in the United States and the National Film Board of Canada. She has given her lectures in more than 12 countries and at film festivals and markets, such as Hot Docs and Sheffield Doc/Fest. In addition, she’s is a trainer for special programs and a grant evaluator for foundations. Her book Trailer Mechanics: 'How to Make Your Documentary Fundraising Demo,' 2nd Edition, is according to industry professionals the bible on demo production. www.documentarydoctor.com

Director, Rome (Italy)

Born in Padova in 1963. Studied cinema and anthropology in Bologna and Paris. Screenwriter, director, director of photography, and cameraman, Rossetto is considered one of the leading documentary makers of his generation. He is also a producer and teaches cinema. His films – distributed internationally and selected at a host of prestigious film festivals – include: 'Il Fuoco di Napoli', 'Bibione Bye Bye One', 'Chiusura' and 'Piccola Patria', which was selected for the Horizons section at the 2013 Venice Film Festival.

Cinematographer, Lisboa (PT)

A cinematographer working in documentary, and in feature length fiction film. Since 1993, he has made the photography of more than forty films, including several co-productions between Portugal, France, Belgium, Germany, Guinea, Sweden, USA, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, among others. His name is linked to a new generation of directors who developed Portuguese documentary film in the beginning of the 90s. He co-directed and was the cinematographer of his first documentary 'In Between Walls', selected for several festivals (Cinéma du Réel, Festival Dei Popoli, among others). In 2003, he received the Best Cinematography Award at Doc Lisboa for the film 'Restless', by Catarina Mourão. In 2007, he was attributed two more awards of Best Cinematography (VIII European Cinema festival, Lecce/Italy and Cineport Festival – João Pessoa/Brazil). 'A Corte do Norte' by João Botelho, was selected for the New York Film Festival, and won a Special Jury Award at Rome Film Festival. His last feature, 'Letters from War' (by Ivo Ferreira), was in the main competition program of the Berlinale 2016.

Editor, Director, Rome (Italy)

She attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the italian national film school, where she studied audiovisual creation and editing. She works as film editor and director in Europe. Has worked with Vittorio de Seta, Citto Maselli, Paolo Virzì, Helga Reidemeister, among others, on films selected for film festivals in Venice, Berlin, Locarno and many more. She has directed documentaries about Italy, immigration, and music videos for Italian and international artists (Paolo Fresu, Omar Sosa, The Sessions Voices). She has taught dramaturgy and editing since 2000, and has been at ZeLIG since 2003. She has worked as script supervisor and editor on over 100 feature-length and short films. In 2008 she co-founded 'Sorandaye', a multiethnic theater and dance company, which performs in Rome and Senegal. Beginning in 2016, she, along with 5 collaborators from different European countries, heads a film workshop supported by the Ayudh Foundation and the European Union, which works with young people 15 to 30 years of age from all over the world.

Freelance Film Editor and Script Consultant, Cologne (Germany)

She studied theatre, cinema and television, German Literature and Philosophy in Munich and Cologne, where she earned her Master of Arts degree. A freelance film editor and script consultant since 1991. Visiting professor at the Filmuniversität in Babelsberg, where she teaches editing, 2014-present. She also teaches at ZeLIG, the Baltic Film and Media School, and the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. She is a member of the European and German Film Academies; VeDRA, the Screenwriters’ Association for Cinema and Television; and BFS, the German Association of Film Editors. She is a founding member of LaDOC, a network of documentary filmmakers. She lives and works in Cologne and Berlin.

Documentary director, AMREF Rome (IT)

As a PhD fish biologist he worked as researcher at the University of Rome. In 1996 he co-produced Emanuele Crialese’s first feature film, an experience that made him drop a promising university career to jump into the uncertainty of filmaking. Since then, he’s been working in directing social documentaries (among others, the feature length 'Black Pinocchio' and 'An Italian School'). Starting from 2000 he collaborates with AMREF (the African Medical and Research Foundation) where he promoted, along with Giulio Cederna and John Muiruri, a participatory video (PV) training within the AMREF street children rehabilitation project in Nairobi, Kenya. Here he directed several awarded participatory films for national and international TVs (such as TV Slum, African Spelling Book, Millennium News, The Turkish Glance). Besides Nairobi, he has been running PV workshops in Italy, France, Switzerland and Morocco.

Director + Broadcast Development, Northern Light Productions, Bosten (USA)

Susan Gray is an American documentary filmmaker whose films have aired on PBS, National Geographic, Discovery, Arte, Channel 5, NHK, Canal Plus, Sundance, Showtime, and television channels worldwide, as well as theaters and festivals.  She has a masters degree from the Columbia School of Journalism and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  Her films have won the best of Input, the Prix Europa, and (controllare) and nominated for the Adolph Grimme Award. She is a dual American/Italian citizen and teaches documentary writing in Italy and the United States.

Engineer and Photographer, Cologne (Germany)

Achim DUnker works as a cameraman, director and film editor, and is the owner of the Zwo-Filmproduktion production company. He has written extensively on lighting and camera technique. His books include 'Die chinesische Sonne scheint immer von unten' (Lighting in Cinema, 6th editione) and 'eins zu hundert' (a photography manual, 2nd edition). Teaches seminars and workshop on cinema and lighting.

Filmmaker, Festival consultant, Leipzig (DE)

Claas Danielsen, born in April 1966 in Hamburg, is a filmmaker, producer, lecturer and festival director living in Leipzig/Germany. He made seven documentaries of which several did an extensive festival tour, won international awards and were sold to European broadcasters. In 1997 he became assistant to the professor in the documentary department of the Munich Film Academy where he built up a new chair for TV-journalism. In 1999 Danielsen became Head of Studies of Discovery Campus (nowadays Documentary Campus). From 2004 till the end of 2014 he was Artistic and Managing Director of DOK Leipzig, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Films, which he developed into one of the leading international doc festivals. Claas Danielsen was board member of the German documentary filmmakers’ association AG DOK and the European Documentary Network EDN for several years. He is a member of and an advisor to the European Film Academy, board member of the Balkan Documentary Center and has served on many international festival juries and the selection committees of different German film and media funds.