Nicolae Pojoga
Moldova

Filmmaker, photographer

Photojournalist for local and international media; stringer for Reuters, AP, EPA, BBC, Rompres; regional expert on press freedom and ethics, specializing in journalism in extreme situations. Founder of the „Argus” photojournalism agency which, from 1991 to 1993, has operated in Riga, Vilnius, Nagorno-Karabakh, Moldova and Russia. Personal and group exhibitions in Sibiu, Bucharest, Iași, Moscow, and New York. Currently a senior lecturer at the Multimedia Department of the Academy of Arts. Member of the Press Freedom Committee, the Union of Moldovan Filmmakers, and the Association of Photographic Artists.

Christian Frei
Switzerland

Director, producer

He studied visual media in the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Fribourg. He made his first documentary in 1981. Since 1984 he has been working as an independent filmmaker and producer. 
In 2001, his documentary War Photographer is nominated for Oscar in the category of «Documentary Feature» and receives 12 international awards. Between 2006 - 2009 he was president of the Documentary Film Commission of the Swiss Ministry of Culture. Since August 2010 he is President of the Swiss Film Academy.

Christoph Brunner
Austria

Director, editor, cinematographer

Before studying film directing and cinematography at the Vienna Film Academy, Christoph Brunner graduated from the Graphische in Vienna. Beyond the work for his own film projects he worked as an editor and cinematographer for directors like Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger. For the treatment Constantin Nikolaus Bickermann he won the Carl-Mayer-Script-Award in 2012.

Aurelian Nica
Romania

Producer, Original Production Manager HBO Romania 

EMMY Award winning producer and experienced Communication professional, with 21 years’ experience in the electronic media, Aurelian supervises all of HBO Europe’s original productions in Romania, including, so far, 100 episodes of drama, 11 documentaries and 27 episodes of stand-up comedy shows. His productions – The World According to Ion B., Visiting Room and Toto and His Sisters – are winners of GOPO Awards (the Romanian equiv. of the OSCARS) for the best documentary in 2010, 2012, 2015.

Alex Shiriaieff
Sweden

Director, producer

His latest film, The Gas Weapon (2014), produced for the Swedish Television (SVT), describes how Russia is using its gas exports to exert political influence on European countries. 
Alex is currently working on the project of setting up an informal network of documentary filmmakers from Scandinavia, the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia – the Baltic to Black Sea Documentary Network (B2B Doc) which is meant to influence and support the co-production of documentary projects run in these countries.

Alecu Deleu
Moldova

Stage director, scenarist, producer

Student of History and Social Sciences at the Lomonosov University in Moscow. Producer of documentary and fiction films at „Moldova-Film” Studio, “Viaţa” and “Phoenix-M”. Participant in advertising projects, cinema, video and TV projects in Moldova, Romania and other countries. Executive director of Deleu-Delev since 1996, a company that works in the area of culture, sport, media and events.

Alexandru Canțâr
Moldova

Journalist and media manager

Graduate of the Faculty of Journalism at the State University of Moldova. He worked as an editor in chief at the news agency BASA-PRESS and also at the office of the international broadcasting company BBC Word Service in Moldova. 
Founder, in the `90s, of the Press Freedom Committee, whose main achievement was drafting the law on access to public information, subsequently adopted by the Moldovan Parliament. In 2004 he was nominated by the Chisinau Press Club as one of the decade’s top ten journalists.

Nicoleta Zagura
Romania

UNESCO Expert for cultural heritage

Studied at Poliacov School of Art from Chisinau. Graduated from Babes-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of History and Philosophy, took the title of Doctor in Philosophy at the same University in 2001, specialization in Hermeneutics.

Since 2001 is implementing various UNESCO projects connected to preservation and promotion of cultural sites, museums and collections.

From 2003 Nicoleta is the president of Art&Heritage Association. The association is implementing projects on the Artistic Education for the Heritage inside the museums                                          and cultural sites.

George Agadjanean
Moldova

Filmmaker, producer Publika TV

Born in 1986 into a family of filmmakers, who graduated from the Moscow Cinema Institute. 
In 2006, he graduated the Academy of Music Theatre and Fine Arts, Faculty of Film/TV Directing.
Since 2002, he has been working in various TV and film projects.
Member of the Filmmakers Union of Moldova.

Sergiu Bezniţchi
Moldova

TV presenter

Graduated the Finance Faculty of the Moldovan Academy of Economic Sciences. Begins his radio career in 1998. Started as TV presenter in 2009 at Jurnal TV. Nowadays he is TV presenter at Moldova 1. Also he is events producer. In june 2014, together with Igor Guzun, he launched a book called ”La Blog”. The book is about world word war. Sergiu is a man who loves to dream, who likes ambitious people and who loves life.

Iulian Foișor
Romania

Writer, director, filmmaker and TV producer

During his professional activity, he directed and produced more than 40 documentary films, winning numerous national and international awards at various film festivals.
He owns many national awards for excellence in culture, prizes given by the Association of Television Professionals in Romania, International Film Festival Dakino, Eco-Ethno-Folk Festival, Document.Arts Film Festival etc.

Anastasia Organ

16 years old, 10th grade student, "Mihai Viteazul" Lyceum in Chisinau. 

My undying passion is music, reading and blogging, where I`m trying to catch and fit into words my soul-searching. Recently, this list of hobbies has grown bigger, embracing the beauty of the  documentary film. It was a serendipitous discovery. My soul received a shock at the very first screening—and I tend to give importance to things that turn my world upside down forcing me to find my way to inner peace afterwards. I understood at that screening that a short interval of time can not only comprise a human destiny, a social problem, a life’s drama or someone’s view of the world, but it can also embrace art’s most undistorted aspects.

Igor Zaharov

19 years old, 12th grade student, ‘’Mihai Eminescu’’ High School in Falesti.

The documentary film is a small universe that conveys the most serious and current problems of mankind. This type of film is a way of increasing awareness of these problems. Maybe documentary films won’t make you laugh, but they will certainly awaken other feelings, and most importantly, they will transform your attitude and sense of responsibility.
My main passion is volunteering. In my spare time, I like to make short films on different topics. Sometimes, I try to combine my two great passions. In this way, I try to make our world a little bit better.

16 years old, 10th grade student, Theoretical Lyceum “Mihai Eminescu” in Chisinau.

I’ve always been interested in documentary films, such as Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild documentaries or other films found on the internet. I understood early that documentary films educate me without any reserves and that due to these films I’ve grown up nurturing a love for nature, tolerance and compassion.

Cezar Prodan 

16 years old, Xth grade student, Theoretical Lyceum,,Orizont”

I’ve spent my childhood in my parents’ studio, where I had the opportunity to watch the work of the world’s greatest filmmakers from an early age. At the same time, I was able to enter ‘the film’s kitchen,’ as much as it is possible in a child’s conception. That made me love film. Filmmakers express their thoughts, message, and sentiments through film, the same way musicians do through sound, painters and sculptors through images, and writers through words. Movies are a mix of all these arts, so filmmakers have even more ways of expressing themselves through images, sound, and text. In my opinion, film is the culmination of art’s development through centuries. Maybe art won’t stop here.

Natalia Ţurcanu 

18 years old, 12th grade student, Lyceum “Spiru Haret” in Chişinău. 

I like film because it has the capacity of creating a new world, in which one can experience an immense range of emotions, from love, passion, friendship, and joy to tension, indignation, hatred, and fear. I discovered the genre of documentary film due to my need to widen my cultural horizons beyond that of books. A documentary is more than a set of statistical data announced by an impersonal voice in the background of some rolling images. I found out that a documentary can brim with poetry, emotion, thoughtfulness, and can, most of all, bring to life profound truths.