junges dokfest: A38 Production-Grant Kassel-Halle

Jana Keuchel a Leipzig based filmmaker and artist. Her documentary film „Last Year in Utopia“ premiered in the main competition at CPH:DOX, received the Basler Film Award and has been screened i.a. at Sheffield Doc/Fest and the film festival Max Ophüls Preis and „365 Tage Dokumentarfilm – Das Kasseler Dokfest das ganze Jahr präsent“. She worked as a lecturer at Bauhaus-University Weimar, Liberia Film Institute, Werkleitz Centre for Media Art, University Basel and is member of the film collective „Filmische Initiative Leipzig“.

Christian Klisan studied Culture- and Media Education in Merseburg, Saxony. After graduating in 2005 he worked as a freelance media educator and in film for German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Since 2007 he works for the Media Authority of Saxony Anhalt (MSA) organizing the project “Medienmobil”.

Armin Ruda after studying Political Science, English and Public Law he worked as a journalist, managing director and senior editor at the commercial local TV station INTV. In 1997 he took over the management of the open TV channel in Kassel. He is currently chairman of the Federal Association of Citizens Media BVBM and has been member of the jury for the German Citizens Media Award as well as for several film festivals. At the University of Kassel he teaches the practical seminar "Basics of Video Journalism".

Ben Voit studied Applied Media Sciences at TU Ilmenau and the courses Shooting Shorts and Photojournalism at LTU Melbourne. He works as a freelance filmmaker and has travelled more than 30 countries shooting photo essays. Currently he studies feature and documentary film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. His recent film NIGHT UPON KEPLER 452b is running in competition at numerous international festivals, got nominated for best short film of the year at the German Film Critics Awards and won the A38 Production-Grant of the 35th Kassel Dokfest.

Salman Aminis name of Persian origin and means something like "the peaceful one". He is 19 years old and in grade 12. He likes many forms of films and thinks it is sad that not all films get the same attention and recognition. He also complains that not all ethnic groups are equally represented in mainstream cinema. To be a juror now is an adventure for him because he admires the work of those who use images and sound to try to express their opinions and break down prejudices.

Elisabeth Rehborn is 18 years old and in the thirteenth grade at the Jacob Grimm Schule. Her main classes are art and English. She always enjoyed making things herself. Since her childhood she has been sewing and she likes to explore nature with her analog camera. The different forms of art as well as the artists themselves are of great interest to her. She finds it exciting that film combines many arts and is therefore an extremely multi-layered medium which also enables artists to work as a team.

Florentine Wiesmann is 18 years old and attending the Jacob Grimm School in the thirteenth grade. She doesn’t have much contact with many of the media, as she doesn't own a mobile phone or any other electronic device, but her interest in films and cinemas is all the greater. She loves to go to an open-air cinema in the summer evenings or to one of the cinemas in Kassel if there is a discussion afterwards. Because even more exciting for her than watching the films are the discussions about them.