Firdoze Bulbulia
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A film director, producer, writer and teacher from the Republic of South Africa. She studied African studies at the Ohio University, dramatic arts at the South African Wits University and in Trinity College of London. She also has the teacher’s diploma from the Transvaal College of Education (South Africa). At the beginning of her career she engaged in the artistic activity activating women and children. She organised art workshops using theatre as a medium of expression and conflict resolution. She took part in many programmes concerned with the rights of women and children in Africa. She was involved in the works on the South African Charter on Children’s Rights under the auspices of the National Children’s Rights Committee and UNICEF. Her cinema and television involvement also focuses on educational issues and emphasises the quality of programmes for children. Firdoze Bulbulia has made a number of television programmes concerning the transformation of South African apartheid into democracy, including the 13-episode series
Nation Building, as well as a series on HIV carriers and AIDS. She has also made 10 programmes about the identity of African children. They tell stories of children from different African countries and help the kids get to know each other. At present Firdoze Bulbulia is a chairperson of the Children’s Broadcast Forum of Africa (CBFA) established in 1995, protects children’s rights and promotes worthy films and television programmes for young audiences. She is also organizing the 5th World Summit on Media for Children. Moreover, she is the Vice-President of CIFEJ (International Center of Films For Children And Young People).
Florence Dupont
She was born in 1972. She comes from France. She graduated in English and her major was the organisation of culture. As a student she visited numerous film festivals and decided that festival work is what she wanted to do in life. Right after graduation in 1998 she became an artistic director of big and very famous Laon Film Festival for Children and Young People. In 2002 she undertook to create a new, unknown festival. This is how she became an artistic director of the Plein la Bobine-Sancy Film Festival which has been held in La Bourboule for four years. Yet another event was added to her calendar last year: the organisation of a new festival, Mon Premier Festival in Paris. Florence Dupont is also a member of ECFA (European Children's Film Association) and Vice-President of CIFEJ (International Centre of Films for Children and Young People).
Steven de Jong
A film and TV director, producer and screenwriter from the Netherlands. He is also active on the other side of the camera. He has extensive experience as a film, television and theatre actor. He studied acting in Leeuwarden and Amsterdam as well as the media in Hilversum. He is very versatile. He was a screenwriter, producer, director and actor in
De Gouden Swipe,
De Fuke,
Kameleon 2,
De Schippers van de Kameleon and in a number of TV series and films.
Lesław Żurek
A film, theatre and television actor. Despite his young age, he can boast broad education as well as a long list of artistic achievements. He graduated in acting from the Ludwik Solski State Academy of Theatre in Cracow. He also studied at the Wroclaw University of Economics.
While still a student, he played in
Pragmatysci by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, directed by Marcin Wierzchowski in the Theatre of the Cracow Academy; the performance was part of the French-Polish-Italian project “Il viaggio di Edgar Walpor". His performance as Mercutio in
Romeo and Juliet (dir. Ewa Kutryś) was awarded at the Festival of Drama Schools in Łódź in 2005. He has been working at the Słowacki Theatre in Cracow for a year. He has appeared there in the play
Horsztyński by Juliusz Słowacki (dir. Bogna Podbielska). Cinemagoers know him from the leading part in
The Sea segment of
Ode to Joy (dir. Anna Kazejak-Dawid, Jan Komasa, Maciej Migas, Poland 2005). Lesław Żurek took part in the film project by the Polish Television entitled
Solidarity, Solidarity (Poland 2005), where thirteen most eminent Polish directors made short films about the Polish social outbreak of August 1980. He took the leading role in the segment
A Sack directed by Aleksander Jakimowski. He has just finished work on the set of
These Times, the latest film by Ken Loach - an outstanding British director, the winner of the Palme d’Or of Cannes for
The Wind That Shakes the Barley. He played the leading male role in
These Times.
Katarína Minichová
She comes from Slovakia. She graduated in film studies from the Charles’ University in Prague. At the beginning of her career she worked as a film critic and theorist. Her specialty was productions for children and young people. She worked in Slovak Television as a producer, executive producer and screenwriter of feature and animated films well-known in her country and all over the world. She published analytical studies of film productions for children. She chaired international workshops and conferences on artistic works for children and young people. She was a member of the European Broadcasting Union for over 10 years. At present she is a lecturer at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Bratislava and a programme director of the Biennial of Animation Bratislava.
