Berrin Avcı was born in Eskişehir and graduated from Anadolu University, Department of Cinema-TV in 1987. Between 1992-2001, she worked as a production assistant, cameraman, script writer in various educational, promotional and commercial programs at Anadolu University Open Education Faculty’s Education TV. In 1996, she received a master’s degree from Anadolu University, Department of Cinema-TV. Between 2001-2007, she gave lectures on cinema at Marmara University and Beykent University. Her published works are “Belgesel Sinemacı Yönüyle Sabahattin Eyuboğlu” (Anadolu Uni. Press, 1999) and “Yaşamı ve Belgeselleriyle Suha Arın” (Table Publ., 2006). Her documentary films supported by the Turkish Ministry of Culture are “Bir Türkiye Sevdalısı Suha Arın” (2008) and “Nağıl Neneleri” (2010). Between 2012-2014, she had worked as the Head of Visual Communication Design Department at Doğuş University. She continued teaching at at Giresun University in 2014-2018, then retired. She has been currently serving as a jury in various national and international film festivals, and continuing to make documentary films.

Ebru Thwaites Diken has been working as an assistant professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, Department of Cinema and TV since 2018. She holds a BA in Economics from Bogazici University and an MA in Sociology from Lancaster University. Her research interests include film and social theory, essay film and documentary film, directorial ethics, gender, Scandinavian cinema and digital visual cultures. She has an international publication record, including books and journal articles. Her book is titled “The Spectacle of Politics of Politics and Religion in Contemporary Turkish Cinema” (2018, Palgrave Macmillan), which was supported by the TUBITAK Return Scientist Support Fund. She also edited the book “Female Agencies and Subjectivities in Film and Television” (2020, Palgrave Macmillan) and published several articles in international refereed journals. She teaches courses on film cultures, film theory, transnational cinemas and film, society and ideology.

María Garzón Molina holds a BA in Advertising and Public Relations and an Executive MBA. She is also an Equality Agent and currently studying for an Official Master’s Degree in Prevention and Action in Gender Violence, focusing her research on the impact of Social Networks in the Culture of Rape. She is president of the Baltasar Garzón International Foundation, a non-profit organization that works for the promotion of human rights and universal jurisdiction through the implementation of comprehensive projects that include educational aspects, establishment of public policies, and communication strategies. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the “El Club de las 25” whose objectives include the fight for real equality, the visibility of outstanding women in all sectors, and the work on issues that especially affect women. She is a founding partner of the agency iMades Communication, which specializes in risk analysis, crisis management, and the promotion of women’s leadership through support programs; a founding member of the Platform of the Truth Commission of the Francoist Crimes; and a part of “Te Estamos Buscando” which seeks to force the Spanish State to react to the crime of forced disappearance of babies.

Özge Nilay Erbalaban Gürbüz, lisans eğitimini Ege Üniversitesi Gazetecilik Bölümü’nde, yüksek lisans eğitimini aynı üniversitenin Radyo, TV ve Sinema Programında, doktora eğitimini ise 2018’de Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Film Tasarımı Bölümünde tamamladı. Her thesis, which explores the market economy and the paradigm of progress through films and critiques the ideology of labor, has been published as a book titled “Sinemada Tembellik Hakkı” (Ütopya Publ., 2019). Her publications mostly focus on the relationship between cinema and modernity, cinema and gender, cinema and ideology, and cinema and ecology within the scope of film studies. She approaches films as sign structures encompassing topics of nature/culture investigations and views them as a unique form of thought where dominant and critical paradigms intersect. Since 2019, she has been working as an Assistant Professor at Çukurova University Radio, TV and Cinema Department. She is the founder of the Cinema and Ecology master’s program at the same university and the instructor of the Eco-cinema and Ecocriticism undergraduate courses.

Victor Candeias has been a member of the Academic Board of the DOC NOMADS Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Documentary Filmmaking since 2012, also serving as holds the course director in Lisbon, one of the curricular instructors and mentor of graduation projects. Beside, He teaches documentary and fiction courses at undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Lusófona and has been involved in training programs and workshops for various schools and organizations since 1990. He holds a Master in Film Studies concluded with the project MultiFilme and the thesis “A Model to Produce Multi-variant and Multi-linear Films” (UL, 2011). He is currently doing his PhD in Art at KU Leuven in Belgium. Besides his academic activities, he has both a producer and a director for fiction shorts, commissioned documentaries and commercial videos. His film “Night Story” (2005) funded by ICAM was received Don Quijote Award in the fiction short category and presented in festivals and markets in Portugal, Spain, UK, France, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Japan and USA.

Wolfgang Kissel studied Communication Studies at the University of Munich and Visual Communication at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Then, he directed with a DAAD scholarship at the University of Film and TV in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He worked as a host for North German Television “Kunstproben” (Art Samples), also as author and director for film and TV including the feature film “Kinder, Kader, Kommandeure” (Strictly Propaganda) for DEFA Dokfilm and Wesnigk/Kissel Film Production. Between 1993-1997, he worked as a lecturer in the Art and Design Faculty at Weimar’s Bauhaus University; as a professor for video/digital moving image at the Harz University of Applied Sciences in 1997-2000. Since then, he works as a professor for media events at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (selected projects: short film magazine “Unicato” for Central German TV – MDR, video journalism blogs for newspapers, digital showroom: “Fashion Clips” for the Apolda European Design Award). He has been also jury member at various film and media festivals since 1995.

He was born in Istanbul in 1968. He graduated from Galatasaray High School in 1987, started studying Turkish Language and Literature at Boḡaziçi University and carried out Photography Club and Student Association activities there. In 1991, he started studying at Mimar Sinan University, Cinema and Television major. Lütfi Ö. Akad and Duygu Saḡıroḡlu are his mentors. Between the years of 2000-2020, he directed many series like “Yeditepe İstanbul”, “Sultan Makamı”, “Ihlamurlar Altında”, “Dila Hanım”, “Benim için Üzülme” on national TV channels. He has been the director, scenarist, producer of the cinema movies “Bașka Semtin Çocukları”, “F Tipi Film”, “Benimle Oynar mısın”. These films have won many awards on national and international festivals. He worked with the Association of Documentary Filmmakers for a while in the field of documentary film and shot two documentary films named “İlhan Amca” and “Gazi Mahallesi”. In 1996,“Gazi Mahallesi” received awards at the 8th Ankara Film Festival, the 17th İfsak and the 5th Nuremberg Turkish Cinema Days.

Kathryn Gohmert (1983) is a visual artist and lecturer whose work focuses on initiating and marking connections and interaction with the outside world. Her installations, sound instruments, and objects draw individuals into intentional focus in the present, with many of her works incomplete until activated by a participant. Her paintings and recent video works especially focus on interactions related to the brain, highlighting the power the mind plays in forming its own reality.
After receiving a BA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007, Gohmert lived in Shanghai from 2008 – 2013, where she realized numerous projects and exhibitions, receiving various awards and project grants. In 2014 she moved to Berlin and in 2017 founded Gonzomechanics, an artist collective whose aim is to build new forms of behavior and thinking as a result of viewer participation. In 2019 she received an MFA in “Public Art & New Artistic Strategies” from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, where she leads a yearly course on Bauhaus influences in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis.

Selen Çatalyürekli is an Istanbul-based documentary filmmaker and social designer, working as a part-time lecturer at Kadir Has University, Faculty of Art and Design. She holds a BA in Social and Political Sciences from Sabancı University and an MA in Industrial Design from Istanbul Technical University. Her work focuses on participatory design for public space, ecology and urban struggle, social rights, migration, and visualization of memory spaces.