Beyond Borders

 

 

 

 

 

 

The preselection committee of the 6th edition of «Beyond Borders» International Documentary Film Festival of Castellorizo island, Greece, this year is made up of distinguished representatives of the arts and letters. Please see below all the relavant information.

 

 

Markus Nikel - Senior Advisor at International Coproductions RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana), International Advisor, GZDoc International Documentary Festival, Creative Consultant for Development of International Coproductions, BB Film Productions, Rome

After graduating in Philosophy from the University of Hamburg, Germany, Markus has been working as a producer and editorial supervisor of educational and factual television programs and multimedia productions at RAI. He has worked on a variety of programs for RAI and websites for youngsters and school education as well as for adult education, dealing with subjects like Philosophy, History, Art History, Citizenship and Language Learning. The EBU, the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, has appointed him twice as Executive Producer for co-productions of TV series. Markus is representing RAI as an active member and currently Vice-Chair of the EBU’s Science and Knowledge Experts Group.

Alexia Papakosta – Member of the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME)

Alexia Papakosta was born in Athens. She studied theatre and cultural management. She has been involved in several projects of digital collections development for cultural and media organisations (Greek Film Centre, Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation – ERT S.A., National Theatre of Greece, Onassis Foundation, Thessaloniki Film Festival). Currently, she works at the Audiovisual Archives and Education R&D Directorate of the National Centre of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME).

 

 

 

Jean Louis Gonterre- Film Director

Jean Louis Gonterre was first a photographer in advertising and then a reporter for NGOs in Latin America, Africa and India. His books and exhibitions were presented in France and abroad in museums, galleries and art centers. Since 2012, he has been making creative documentaries: portraits of artists or various social events. An engaged filmmaker, he sees his films as political gestures. It’s about questioning the world we live in. His latest film « A village in the wind» is a portrait of a small French village where he believes he has discovered some ingredients for other possible worlds. This documentary participated at 18 festivals including Cannes 2019, in the positive documentary section.

Natasha Bozini - Screenwriter, Journalist

Natasha Bozini was born in Thessaloniki and since 2000 lives and works in Athens. She began her professional work as a journalist in newspapers and radio stations and then in Greek private television. She works as a screenwriter, researcher and designs audiovisual productions and series for private and for public television. As a screenwriter, researcher, narrator, director and editor-in-chief, she has created and participated in more than 180 documentaries of historical, cultural, educational, environmental and tourist content for Greek television, for festivals, public and private institutions. As a journalist-researcher specializing in history, she gathers, studies, manages archival material through audiovisual productions, exhibitions and museums.

 

 

 

 

Alexander Papaeliou - Film Director

Born in Athens. Studied Economic Science at the University of Athens (1976 – 1981) and Cinematography (1979 – 1982)A.Papaeliou has worked as an operator, operator’s assistant , director’s assistant in feature films, TV programs, series and advertisements. He's been involved as a director in the theater. He has an ongoing freelance cooperation with newspapers and magazines in the Arts and Communications columns.Ηe publishes the film magazine " CONDUCT zero". He was vice president and is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Greek Directors. He was a member in previous years of the Committee for the Award of State Quality Awards for Cinema. He teaches at IEK AKMI and DOMI Directing and Editing. His films have participated in many festivals, the Thessaloniki festival (b. documentary directing award in 2003), the Patras International Festival (first directing award in 2008) and the Kalamata documentary festival (production award in 2001). His most recent documentary «The East Has Set» won the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 13th Halkida Greek Documentary Festival (2019) and participated in the Official Programme of the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

 

 

Katerina Tzigotzidou - Photographer

Katerina Tzigotzidou was born and raised in Stockholm and is living in Athens since 1994. She is a graduate from the Department of Photography and Audiovisual Arts of the University of West Attica and is working since 2006 as a photographer. Her work has been published and exhibited in Greece and in Sweden. During the last six years she has been working as a director of photography in documentaries as well as in music videos. Meanwhile she continues studying film and screenwriting at the Linnaeus University in Sweden.

 

 

 

Guelfo Ascanelli – Film Curator - Italy/France

Born in Bologna (Italy), he studied Classical Philology and Cinema. In 2003, he moved to Paris where he received his Masters on Film Heritage.Afterwards, he worked in the Programming Department of Filmoteca Española, Madrid (2005-2012). In 2010 he was awarded a scholarship from the MoMA Film Department, New York. At 2011 he worked for the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival and in 2013 as programming assistant at Festival Lumière (Institut Lumière de Lyon, France). From 2015 to 2018 he lectured about Curating and Film Programming at the University of Paris 8. Since 2014 he has been in charge of programming at the Cinémathèque française, where he curates and organizes thematic and retrospective film seasons.He is currently studying Modern Grec Language and Civilization at Sorbonne University.

Tasos Giapoutzis - Film Director

Born and raised in Kavala, Greece. Tasos Giapoutzis lives and works in London as a freelance filmmaker and lecturer in film theory and practice at the University of Bedfordshire. In 2017 he was awarded full scholarship from the University of York to carry out his doctoral studies in Film by Creative Practice. His films have participated at more than 100 film festivals worldwide. In the past he worked on Distribution and Sales at the Feature Films Department of Red Bull Media House in Salzburg, Austria. His training as a director includes participations at the Go Short Talent Campus in Nijmegen, the Talent Development Campus in Cork as well as the Reykjavik Talent Lab.Reykjavik Talent Lab.

 

 

 

Ruggero Calich - Documentary Critic, Senior Advisor

Born in Istanbul of mainly Greek and Italian ancestry. Graduated from Bosporus University, department of English Language and Literature. He started working for the Istanbul Film Festival in the mid 80's as a guide and interpreter for guests and jury members. His collaboration with the festival continued as catalogue writer; at present he is a moderator and senior documentary advisor. He writes articles about cinema and especially about documentaries for internet sites and magazines like Express, Bir+Bir and the newspaper Agos. He is also an advisor for Ege Documentary Days and Ege Human Rights Documentary Days organized by the Aegean University of İzmir. In the year 2015 and 2016 he curated Art.Mov Minifest for the art gallery Trieste Contemporanea in collaboration with Virginia Dordei.

 

Nick Zappas - Film Director

Nick Zappas was born in 1970 in San Jose, California from Greek parents and comes to Greece in 1979.In 1992 he returnes to America to study directing at the U.C.L.A. Extension Film School / 1992 -1993 and at the same time works as a correspondent for Sky 100.4.In 1993 he decides to return permanently to Greece.Since 1993 he maintains his personal production company which begins with his first short film "Amore Verite" taken with 16mm film. In the period that follows, he works as a director mainly of commercial orders for private television. At the same time he works for the commercial theatre.In 2010 begins a new period where he normally turns to directing documentaries of his own initiative but also in collaboration with the Society of Greek Directors and state television.Today his company Pointer Pictures specializes in the creation of history documentaries. Since 2012 he has created an online radio station Athens jazz Radio while since 2018 he has been writing on SLPress. His latest works, "The Greek Tale", "A Teenager in Possession", and the documentary series "The Revolution 1821-1831" broadcast this year 2021 on the channel of the Northeast Aegean Homeland TV.

 

Giorgos Mantas - Film Director

Giorgos Mantas lives in Athens. He graduated from New York College, Department of Film Studies. He has worked in cinema, theatre and television productions. He currently works as a documentary editor. He specializes in history documentaries and has been a member of the organizing committees of several documentary film Festivals.