Guests

Daria Akimenko

Daria Akimenko is a researcher, artist and film producer based in Bolzano (Italy), where she produces socially engaged documentaries at Helios Sustainable Films. She holds a Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Lapland (Finland) on narrative identity and place, and has over a decade of participatory, arts-based work with communities, from the Arctic to South Australia. Most recently she produced Rage Rage Against the Dying of the Light (2026) by Nuno Escudeiro co-authored with Kouassi Evraid Amoussou, set in Grand-Popo (Benin) a coastal community grappling with erosion and state-led demolitions.

Patricia Aufderheide

Patricia Aufderheide is University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. She was on the board of Independent Television Service, part of U.S. public broadcasting, from 2013-2025. Aufderheide is author of, among others, Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction (2d ed., Oxford U Press, 2026) and Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy (U of Chicago, 2025).

Grace Anglin

Grace Anglin, MPH, is a strategic research and evaluation consultant and the founder of Grace Anglin Studio. She served as Senior Director of Research and Strategy at the Independent Television Service (ITVS), where she established and led the organization's first evaluation and learning function and served as the Principal Investigator on the filmmaker-participant study. Prior to joining ITVS, she was a Senior Researcher at Mathematica where she directed large-scale health and social policy evaluations for government agencies and foundations.

Matthew Levitas

Matthew Levitas is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. He entered academia as a scholar of Japanese studies. After working for the Embassy of Japan for a decade, he came to AU to study the influence of Japanese popular culture on internet communications and emerging technology. His scholarly interests include semiotics, visual cultures, and imaginaries.

Helen Lo

Man Yun Lo (Helen Lo) is a master’s student in the Global Communication and Innovation Technology program at National Chengchi University in Taiwan and a documentary filmmaker. Her research combines practice-based research with documentary production to explore documentary storytelling and ethics through creative practice. Her documentary After Her Shift, which explores the experiences of Taiwanese nurses across different career paths, serves as the central case study for her research. She has previously worked in documentary production and international distribution at TaiwanPlus, Thai PBS World, and the Singapore Film Society.

Rand Beiruty

Rand Beiruty is a writer, director, creative producer and the co-founder of Shaghab Films. She holds a practice-based Ph.D. from Film University Babelsberg and is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Rotterdam Lab, Tribeca Film Institute and Villa Aurora, among others. Her debut feature Tell Them About Us premiered at CPH:DOX and won the 2025 German Documentary Film Award. Her animated short Shadows premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and went on to screen at 100+ festivals, winning over 25 awards, and was shortlisted for the 2026 César Awards.

Emma Marková

Emma Marková is pursuing a PhD at Tomas Bata University in Zlín, where her research focuses on the intersection of film and social sciences. Her short film Far from the Tree (2023) screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival, while her following short film Dizziness (2026) premiered at Finále Plzeň. Alongside fiction film, she also works on documentary projects and is one of the creators of the documentary series Status: Loneliness (2025) for the streaming platform iVysílání, which premiered at Ji.hlava IDFF.

Karina Gaibulina

Karina Giabulina holds BA and MA degrees in Polish Culture from the University of Warsaw and a PhD from the University of St. Gallen. Her master’s thesis was published as the book Adolf Januszkiewicz. 24 lata zesłania na Syberii: pomiędzy «cywilizacją» a «światem półdzikim» (2014). Her doctoral dissertation, Antropologowie z przymusu. Polscy zesłańcy w służbie kolonialnej Imperium Rosyjskiego (2022), examined Polish exiles in the Russian Empire. She co-directed the documentary Adolf Januszkiewicz, Among Dear Kazakhs (2019) and co-organises the Spotlight Summer School on audiovisual methods in the humanities and social sciences, which held its 5th edition in 2026. She is currently an MSCA Seal of Excellence researcher at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, leading the piARTkz project on contemporary art in Kazakhstan.

Ivan David

JUDr. Ivan David (b. 1985) holds degrees in Law and Legal Science from the Faculty of Law and Film Studies from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. He works primarily in legal practice, focusing on intellectual property law and related legal disciplines. Over the past decade, he has been systematically involved in academic research on copyright law applications in the film and media industries, and regularly lectures on film law at universities as well as to the general public. Currently, he is also a member of the Arts Council at FAMU. In October 2026, the 3rd edition of his publication Filmové právo (Film Law) was published, featuring updated information on relevant legislation and case law alongside new analysis on the use of artificial intelligence in the film industry.

Martin Páv

Martin Páv graduated in fiction directing from FAMU and holds a PhD from Metropolitan University Prague, where his research focused on postcolonial theory and informal urbanism in cities of the Global South. In his films, he explores the relationship between humans and the landscape (Wolves at the Border, 2018) as well as the lives of marginalized communities (Dajori, 2024).

Martina Čurdová

Martina Čurdová is a certified intimacy coordinator and acting coach for film and television projects. She studied at DAMU and at theatre schools in Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. As a theatre director and performer, her work focused primarily on community and documentary theatre. She has experience in acting coaching and intimacy scene coordination across Czech and international productions (Sex O'Clock, Sbormistr, Kamarád, V zájmu dítěte, Láska, Hriech, and others). She completed certified training with the Intimacy Professionals Association (IPA), an organization accredited by SAG-AFTRA. She is also dedicated to education and developing intimacy coordination methodology within the Czech audiovisual industry.

Seg Kirakossian

Seg Kirakossian is a doctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, examining documentary film aesthetics through Armenian and Luxembourgish cinema. Presented papers at academic conferences in Armenia, Australia, USA… He has lectured in the history of documentary cinema at two universities, and serves as a trainer in non-formal education, combining artistic methodologies with human rights education. He was involved as a jury member and decision-maker for Armenian and international film festivals and funding bodies, including as an external expert for the Eurimages fund.

Markéta Ekrt Válková

Markéta Ekrt Válková is a Czech documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. She graduated from the Zlín Film School and the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU. Her feature documentaries cover a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from portraits (Mára jde do nebe) to longitudinal documentaries (Amiřiny děti) and socio-environmental themes (Hasit ohněm). For Czech Television, she frequently focuses on cultural and social issues. She has also contributed to two docusoaps (two seasons of Čtyři v tom and Provedu! Přijímač!). As an assistant director and second unit director, she worked on films such as Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (Jiří Menzel), Year of the Devil (Petr Zelenka), and Return to Paradise Lost (Vojtěch Jasný).

Hanga Tóth

Hanga Tóth is an artist and filmmaker based between Paris and Budapest. Through experimental films, video installations and research, she explores different modes of attention to the lived environment and mental spaces. Her process-based and collaborative practice engages with questions of care and subjective experiences of perception.

Yohana Benattar

Yohana Benattar is a filmmaker and independent researcher holding degrees in filmmaking and anthropology. Working between France and Algeria through a hybrid practice combining visual arts and social sciences, she explores the notions of encounter, transmission and care, interrogating embodied memories and colonial legacies. She recently completed her first feature-length documentary, Bedeau camp de passage produced by Paper Moon with the support of Arte (La Lucarne).