Eight internationally acclaimed filmmakers who will present their films and take part in the People to People International Documentary Conference
Bob Coen
Director of Anthrax War
Guest of the TCFF
Bob Coen is a filmmaker, journalist and war correspondent whose work focuses on uncovering hidden truths. He was based in Africa for 15 years and, as correspondent for CNN International, received the Bayeux Prize for Best Television War Correspondent for his reporting from Liberia.
His award-winning films, which include Mozambique — The Struggle for Survival, Angola — Triumph or Tragedy? and Blood and Memory, have been broadcast on CNN International, National Geographic, PBS and Channel Four UK. He is a consultant to the United Nations in conflict zones and humanitarian emergencies.
Claus Löser
Curator of The Fall of the Wall
Guest of the TCFF
Claus Löser was born in 1962 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz). He has been working on music and films since 1980. Between 1990 and 1995 he studied film in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He has been a film critic and writer since 1992. He is also a filmmaker, curator and lecturer in Berlin, specialising in experimental/underground cinema and film culture. For the Berlinale 2009 he curated the “Winter adé” programme comprising 15 films from the former East Block. He is working on a dissertation about East German underground films and a documentary about the independent art gallery Eigen+Art in Leipzig.
Hamid Rahmanian
Director of The Glass House
Guest of the TCFF
Hamid Rahmanian holds a BFA from the University of Tehran in graphic design and earned an MFA in computer animation in 1997 from the Pratt Institute. He received the First Place College Award (a student Emmy) from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and was nominated for a Student Academy Award for his animation, The Seventh Day, in 1997.
In 1998, he was hired by Disney Feature Animation Company as a Look Development Artist where he worked on Tarzan, The Emperor’s New Groove and Dinosaur. His first 35mm film, a 19-minute short, An I Within (1988), received Kodak’s Best Cinematography Award and Best American Short from the LA International Short Film Festival. He has made three documentaries on video: Breaking Bread (2000), Sir Alfred of Charles de Gaulle Airport (2001) and Shahbanoo (2002).
In 2003 he co-established the non-profit organisation ArteEast to promote the arts and cultures of the Middle East in the United States. His first feature-length fiction film, Day Break (2005), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has received a special prize at the Fajr Film Festival in Iran, the Jury Award at Annonay International Festival of First Films and the Best of the Middle East from the Indianapolis International Film Festival. He completed his latest feature-length documentary, The Glass House, in Iran.
Holly Lubbock
Director ofFezeka’s Voice
Guest of the TCFF
For almost a decade, Holly Lubbock has been working in the British television industry as an editor with some of the UK’s top production companies. Having co-produced and edited the award-winning documentary Rave Against the Machine, about the effect of civil war on pop culture in Bosnia, in 2004, she has become committed to giving life to humanitarian documentaries. Fezeka’s Voice is Lubbock’s debut feature-length documentary.
Lucinda Broadbent
Director of Red Oil
Guest of the TCFF
Lucinda Broadbent is a founder member of the Scottish indie production company Media Co-op. Her filmmaking career began unexpectedly when she was living in Nicaragua in the 1980s and her involvement in the underground Nicaraguan lesbian and gay movement collided with Channel 4’s first gay TV slots: the result was her first film, Sex and the Sandinistas.
Since then, she’s worked as a researcher, AP, director and executive producer on TV and non-broadcast documentaries, and served on the board of the European Documentary Network. Broadbent’s awards include one from the Houston International Film Festival 2009, the Chicago International Film Festival 2007 and 2008, the NUJ/Amnesty International Asylum Awards 2005, the Bafta Scotland nomination 2004 and the Amnesty International Media Award 2004.
Pepita Ferrari
Director of Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary
Guest of the TCFF
Pepita Ferrari has been directing documentaries for over 15 years. Her films have received recognition from Le Festival International du Cinéma au Féminin de Bordeaux, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and the Columbus International Film and Video Awards. Her documentaries include By Woman’s Hand, The Petticoat Expeditions, Joseph Giunta: A Silent Triumph and The Unsexing of Emma Edmonds.
Petr Lom
Director of Letters to the President
Petr Lom is an independent documentary director and producer. Entirely self-taught, he directs, shoots and edits his own films. He is a former academic with a PhD in political philosophy from Harvard University. To anyone contemplating a career change, he says: do it as soon as possible. His previous films are: Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2004), On a Tightrope (2007), and You Cannot Hide from Allah (2007).
Sean McAllister
Director of Japan, The Story of Love and Hate
Guest of the TCFF
After leaving school at 16, Sean McAllister worked in factories before enrolling at the National Film School. He graduated in 1996.Over the past 12 years he has made films for the BBC and Channel 4, working in the UK, Israel, Iraq and Japan. His films are intimate portraits of people from different parts of the world who are survivors, caught up in political and personal conflict struggling to make sense of the world we live in. From Working with the Enemy (1997) to Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (2008) his films have received awards from the Grierson Trust, the Sundance Film Festival, the Florence Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards.