Coming to Isola Cinema 2:
ROGER GNOAM M’BALA.
Born in 1943 in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast. He went to France to study at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma in Paris and later, for the same reason, also in Sweden. In 1970 he directed Kundum, his first black-and-white short documentary. In the following years he shot five short- and medium-length fiction films. Among them, Amanie (1972) received the biggest critical acclaim and numerous awards including the FIFEF award and the Silver Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival. More…
HANNY TCHELLEY-ETIBOU
Hanny Tchelley is an all-around film personality and a central figure in the cinematography of the Ivory Coast. First she got her feet wet in music and dance at the national art academy and in 1985 graduated with a degree in choreography, but even before that she had been truly intrigued by film, which she fully surrendered to after finishing her studies. She was discovered by the biggest name in film in the Ivory Coast, Roger Gnoan M’Bala, who casted her in his film Ablakon (1983). More…
MOHAMMED SOUDANI
Born on May 7, 1949, in El-Assam, Algeria. After graduating from IDHEC, he worked as a cameraman for Algerian Radio Television from 1970 to 1971. He moved to Switzerland in 1972. Since 1976 he has worked as a cameraman at Polivideo SA in Locarno. After training in the United States in 1987, he began directing. He shot numerous television programmes, filming all the Monte Carlo circus seasons from 1981 to 1988, as well as numerous operas from the Arena in Verona (Turandot, Otello, Madame Butterfly, Il Trovatore, Tosca, and Aida, among others) and various musical programmes (The Montreux Festival 1977, 1978, 1980 - Alvin Ailey, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, BB King, and others). More…
YASMINE KASSARI
She studied cinema at the INSAS in Brussels where she graduated in 1997. In the same year, she wrote the screenplay for the feature film, The Sleeping Child, which won the Trophée du 1er Scénario Jeunes Talents CNC/Paris award in 2003. Before her feature-length directing debut, she made two shorts as well as a medium-length documentary, Quand les hommes pleurent (2000), which was screened at numerous festivals. More…
MANIA AKBARI
Born in Tehran on September 22, 1974. She began working as an artist in 1991 when she participated in various exhibitions both in Iran and abroad. She made her debut in cinema as a director of photography in 2000. She was the lead in Abbas Kiarostami’s 10 (2002). She went on to direct a documentary and four art videos. 20 fingers is her first full-length film. More…
SAMAN SALUR
Born in Burujerd, in 1976. He first studied medicine, but after one year changed to film directing at Sureh College where he graduated. He began his film career making short films at the Arak center of the Young Cinema Society. He then worked as an assistant on TV serials for state television. In the late 1990s he directed several short documentaries and fiction films and was director of photography on over 30 short and medium-length feature and documentary films. He was also assistant director to Ali-Reza Amini for his three last features, Letters in the Wind (2002), Tiny Snowflakes (2003), and the Riverside (2004). More…
PABLO TRAPERO
Born in Ramos Mejía in 1971. He graduated as film director from the Universidad del cine di Buenos Aires. In 1996 together with other young Argentine directors, he organized Cinematográfica Sargentina, his first film production company. In 1999 he released his first film Crane World (Mundo grúa), which was invited to the Venice Film Festival and was awarded the Film Critics Award. His second film, El Bonaerense, was presented at the Cannes film festival in 2002. The same year, Pablo Trapero organized Metanza Cine, his new film production company which produces independent films, both locally in Argentina, as well as Latin American co-productions. More…
LISANDRO ALONSO
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He co-directed his first short film, Dos en la vereda, in 1996. After serving as assistant director on Nicolás Sarquis’s Sobre la tierra (1998), he worked as an assistant sound engineer on Pablo Trapero’s Crane World (1999) and El Bonaerense (2002). His feature directing debut, Freedom (2001), screened as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Festival de Cannes in 2001. The Dead (2004) is his second feature film. More…
ANA POLIAK
Born in Buenos Aires in 1962. She studied drawing, painting, photography and set design and graduated in film direction and film studies from the Escuela Experimental de Cine del Instituto Nacional de Cinematografia. After contributing to educational television programs she worked as assistant director and in 1989 she founded her own production company Viadas Producciones. She co-produced and edited, among others, Santiago Loza’s Extrańo, winner of a Tiger Award in 2004. Parapalos is her third feature film. More…
JOSUE MENDEZ
Born in 1976, Lima. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he helped found the college’s first undergraduate television station, and obtained double Bachelor of Arts degrees in Film and Latin American Studies. He is also a teacher of film in his native Lima. Mendez is an up-and-coming Latin American director, and was recently selected (with five other filmmakers) for the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Residence program, which provides young filmmakers with housing and a 4 ˝ months’ living stipend, to be used for completion of a new script. More…
PJER ŽALICA
Born in 1964 in Sarajevo. He was a professional musician for a number of years and studied literature and philosophy at the University of Sarajevo. He finished the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, in the department of directing. He has directed several plays, short films and documentaries and last year, his first feature Fuse was shown in Rotterdam. Recently has been teaching as Assistant Professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. More…
CLARK WALKER
Lives in Austin, Texas. His previous credits include screenwriting on The Newton Boys (1998), for which he also acted as a co-producer, laboring for over four years, from concept to completion and through countless drafts of the script. Levelland is his first film as a director and writing the script was Walker’s way of looking back on his own experiences and trying to make sense of it. Walker came to Austin, Texas, in 1986 looking to get into film school. Instead, he met Richard Linklater and became involved in the Austin Film Society, a nonprofit arts group Linklater and friends had started the year before. More…
SATTAR AND AMER ALWAN
Sattar Alwan is the producer of Zaman, the Man from the Reeds. He represents the film and his brother Amer Alwan on the Isola Cinema Festival. Amer Alwan (on the photograph) was born in Babylon, Iraq, in 1957. He graduated from the National School of Dramatic Art and subsequently the School of Audiovisual Studies in Baghdad, which entitled him to work in Iraqi television. He left his country in 1980, leaving his family behind. In Paris he studied philosophy of art and made his first short films and documentaries. Zaman, the Man from the Reeds, is his first feature film. More…
ROGER GNOAM M’BALA.
Born in 1943 in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast. He went to France to study at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma in Paris and later, for the same reason, also in Sweden. In 1970 he directed Kundum, his first black-and-white short documentary. In the following years he shot five short- and medium-length fiction films. Among them, Amanie (1972) received the biggest critical acclaim and numerous awards including the FIFEF award and the Silver Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival. More…
HANNY TCHELLEY-ETIBOU
Hanny Tchelley is an all-around film personality and a central figure in the cinematography of the Ivory Coast. First she got her feet wet in music and dance at the national art academy and in 1985 graduated with a degree in choreography, but even before that she had been truly intrigued by film, which she fully surrendered to after finishing her studies. She was discovered by the biggest name in film in the Ivory Coast, Roger Gnoan M’Bala, who casted her in his film Ablakon (1983). More…
MOHAMMED SOUDANI
Born on May 7, 1949, in El-Assam, Algeria. After graduating from IDHEC, he worked as a cameraman for Algerian Radio Television from 1970 to 1971. He moved to Switzerland in 1972. Since 1976 he has worked as a cameraman at Polivideo SA in Locarno. After training in the United States in 1987, he began directing. He shot numerous television programmes, filming all the Monte Carlo circus seasons from 1981 to 1988, as well as numerous operas from the Arena in Verona (Turandot, Otello, Madame Butterfly, Il Trovatore, Tosca, and Aida, among others) and various musical programmes (The Montreux Festival 1977, 1978, 1980 - Alvin Ailey, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, BB King, and others). More…
YASMINE KASSARI
She studied cinema at the INSAS in Brussels where she graduated in 1997. In the same year, she wrote the screenplay for the feature film, The Sleeping Child, which won the Trophée du 1er Scénario Jeunes Talents CNC/Paris award in 2003. Before her feature-length directing debut, she made two shorts as well as a medium-length documentary, Quand les hommes pleurent (2000), which was screened at numerous festivals. More…
MANIA AKBARI
Born in Tehran on September 22, 1974. She began working as an artist in 1991 when she participated in various exhibitions both in Iran and abroad. She made her debut in cinema as a director of photography in 2000. She was the lead in Abbas Kiarostami’s 10 (2002). She went on to direct a documentary and four art videos. 20 fingers is her first full-length film. More…
SAMAN SALUR
Born in Burujerd, in 1976. He first studied medicine, but after one year changed to film directing at Sureh College where he graduated. He began his film career making short films at the Arak center of the Young Cinema Society. He then worked as an assistant on TV serials for state television. In the late 1990s he directed several short documentaries and fiction films and was director of photography on over 30 short and medium-length feature and documentary films. He was also assistant director to Ali-Reza Amini for his three last features, Letters in the Wind (2002), Tiny Snowflakes (2003), and the Riverside (2004). More…
PABLO TRAPERO
Born in Ramos Mejía in 1971. He graduated as film director from the Universidad del cine di Buenos Aires. In 1996 together with other young Argentine directors, he organized Cinematográfica Sargentina, his first film production company. In 1999 he released his first film Crane World (Mundo grúa), which was invited to the Venice Film Festival and was awarded the Film Critics Award. His second film, El Bonaerense, was presented at the Cannes film festival in 2002. The same year, Pablo Trapero organized Metanza Cine, his new film production company which produces independent films, both locally in Argentina, as well as Latin American co-productions. More…
LISANDRO ALONSO
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He co-directed his first short film, Dos en la vereda, in 1996. After serving as assistant director on Nicolás Sarquis’s Sobre la tierra (1998), he worked as an assistant sound engineer on Pablo Trapero’s Crane World (1999) and El Bonaerense (2002). His feature directing debut, Freedom (2001), screened as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Festival de Cannes in 2001. The Dead (2004) is his second feature film. More…
ANA POLIAK
Born in Buenos Aires in 1962. She studied drawing, painting, photography and set design and graduated in film direction and film studies from the Escuela Experimental de Cine del Instituto Nacional de Cinematografia. After contributing to educational television programs she worked as assistant director and in 1989 she founded her own production company Viadas Producciones. She co-produced and edited, among others, Santiago Loza’s Extrańo, winner of a Tiger Award in 2004. Parapalos is her third feature film. More…
JOSUE MENDEZ
Born in 1976, Lima. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he helped found the college’s first undergraduate television station, and obtained double Bachelor of Arts degrees in Film and Latin American Studies. He is also a teacher of film in his native Lima. Mendez is an up-and-coming Latin American director, and was recently selected (with five other filmmakers) for the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Residence program, which provides young filmmakers with housing and a 4 ˝ months’ living stipend, to be used for completion of a new script. More…
PJER ŽALICA
Born in 1964 in Sarajevo. He was a professional musician for a number of years and studied literature and philosophy at the University of Sarajevo. He finished the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, in the department of directing. He has directed several plays, short films and documentaries and last year, his first feature Fuse was shown in Rotterdam. Recently has been teaching as Assistant Professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. More…
CLARK WALKER
Lives in Austin, Texas. His previous credits include screenwriting on The Newton Boys (1998), for which he also acted as a co-producer, laboring for over four years, from concept to completion and through countless drafts of the script. Levelland is his first film as a director and writing the script was Walker’s way of looking back on his own experiences and trying to make sense of it. Walker came to Austin, Texas, in 1986 looking to get into film school. Instead, he met Richard Linklater and became involved in the Austin Film Society, a nonprofit arts group Linklater and friends had started the year before. More…
SATTAR AND AMER ALWAN
Sattar Alwan is the producer of Zaman, the Man from the Reeds. He represents the film and his brother Amer Alwan on the Isola Cinema Festival. Amer Alwan (on the photograph) was born in Babylon, Iraq, in 1957. He graduated from the National School of Dramatic Art and subsequently the School of Audiovisual Studies in Baghdad, which entitled him to work in Iraqi television. He left his country in 1980, leaving his family behind. In Paris he studied philosophy of art and made his first short films and documentaries. Zaman, the Man from the Reeds, is his first feature film. More…
