Youth Mentors
Youth Mentors
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Ana Chubinidze
Ana Chubinidze is Georgian author, illustrator and animation filmmaker...
Read More...Ana Chubinidze is Georgian author, illustrator and animation filmmaker. She graduated from Tbilisi state Art Academy with BA in architecture and MA in Printmaking. She has worked in several Georgian publishing houses as an illustrator and pop-up book designer. Ana has done various workshops for children and adults about pop-up book techniques in different countries. She was a member of the Book Art Center Tbilisi and worked as an organiser and curator of Tbilisi Book Days Festival.
In 2016, she directed her first animation short film ‘The Pocket Man’, with the co-production of Folimage, Nadasdy and Kvali XXI. ‘The Pocket Man’ was selected on 130 different international animation film festivals and received 18 awards. In 2017, Ana with her colleague Elene Chichashvili opened the Pocket Studio in Georgia, Tbilisi. The studio organises public events for children and adults connected to the animation and illustration field and creates artistic projects. -
Afef Ben Mahmoud
Youth Acting Workshop
Tunisian director and actress Afef Ben Mahmoud began an artistic career at the age of 12...
Read More...Tunisian director and actress Afef Ben Mahmoud began an artistic career at the age of 12, when she joined theatre clubs; the same year, she won her first Best Comedian Award.
At 14 she joined the Sihem Belkhodja Contemporary Dance Company, where she was trained by well-known choreographers, including Stephanie Nataf and Selma and Sofiane Ouissi. She toured Tunisia and Europe with numerous shows, then, at 17, under Belkhodja’s supervision, Ben Mahmoud ran the Tunisian National Ballet for Kids, where she gave dance courses, and created and directed performances.
For several years, she danced in musical shows by Tunisian theatre director Fadhel Jaziri, co-founder of the renowned Nouveau Théâtre de Tunis. At 20, she co-directed for Jaziri the dance ensemble in his major show ‘El Hadra’, and was selected to be part of ‘The Actor Studio’, run by renowned theatre director Fadhel Jaibi. She had her first international role in ‘Les Bacchantes’, with which she toured for three years with the French company La tour de Babel. In Tunisia, she had lead roles in Zahira Ben Ammar’s 'Trectic’ and ‘Al Moutachaâbitoune’ by Mohamed Idriss, then also the director of The Tunisian National Theatre.
Ben Mahmoud then dedicated herself to her acting and filmmaking career. Her television series credits include ‘Ya Zahratan Fi Khayali’, ‘Sayd El Rim’, ‘Maktoub…’ and numerous video clips, including ‘Madinat Al Hob’ with Kadhim Al-Sahir. She had her first big-screen role in Jilani Saâdi’s ‘Khorma’, participated in several Italian productions, and played the lead in Ibrahim Letaief’s ‘Flous Academy’ and Nouri Bouzid’s ‘Making Off’, which won awards at several international film festivals. She has directed three short narrative films and a documentary, and is currently developing her first feature-length film, ‘Backstage’.
Ben Mahmoud holds a B.Sc in Economics and Management, a BFA in Film Directing and Screenwriting and an MA in Art and Design. -
Alex Bushe
Alex Bushe is a Los Angeles-based editor and assistant editor, who has extensive experience in both documentary and narrative filmmaking...
Read More...Alex Bushe is a Los Angeles-based editor and assistant editor, who has extensive experience in both documentary and narrative filmmaking. He has worked with editor Joe Bini for eight years on more than a dozen films, most notably on several films with director Werner Herzog. Other notable films he has worked on include Nick Broomfield’s “Tales of the Grim Sleeper”, Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey”, and Lynne Ramsay’s recently completed noir thriller “You Were Never Really Here”. In 2014, Bushe was invited to participate as an assistant editor at the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Edit and Story Labs.
Bushe currently divides his time between editing “Guangzhou Love Story”, an observational PBS documentary about an African-Chinese family navigating China’s xenophobic society, and directing the film “Nomansland”, a documentary about a mysterious uninhabited island off the northeastern coast of the United States. -
Allegra Hamilton
Camera Kids: Make Your Own Short Film
A graduate of Harvard University, Allegra Hamilton-Brooksbank spent a number of years in Los Angeles...
Read More...A graduate of Harvard University, Allegra Hamilton-Brooksbank spent a number of years in Los Angeles as a script doctor and writer, working with many industry luminaries including Samuel Jackson and John Travolta, while working alongside Christopher Keane, the author of numerous best-selling how-to books on screenwriting. Most recently, Hamilton-Brooksbank wrote and directed ‘Longing’ for Image Nation Abu Dhabi’s Arab Film Studio Short Film Competition, for which she garnered a coveted award. Hamilton-Brooksbank’s knowledge, drive and passion are some of Handheld's greatest assets.
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Bayan Dahdah
Youth Summer Camp
Bayan Dahdah is a multidisciplinary artist, interested in fusing the realms of digital and physical art in order to tell stories effectively...
Read More...Bayan Dahdah is a multidisciplinary artist, interested in fusing the realms of digital and physical art in order to tell stories effectively. Using the tactile touch of ‘physical’ art (sketchbooks, memorabilia), and the freedom/accessibility of digital art (graphic design elements/photographs) she aims to retell her memories and document her journeys. Although hailing from an architectural background, she has dabbled in the fields of photography, graphic design and film. Her experience with filmmaking, having written and directed a short film titled ‘Shishbarak’ with the Doha Film Institute, which screened at the Malmo Arab Film Festival and the Chicago Palestine Film Festival, has allowed her to understand the fundamentals of narrative storytelling, as well as how to manifest this visually. She is also the designer and founder of ‘Sarj’—a mobile seat made for sketching, with which she gives travelling observational sketching workshops in groups. She currently works as a freelance graphic designer for various companies and magazines.
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Fadi Syriani
Youth Animation Workshop
Born in Beirut, Fadi Syriani is an animation and comic artist,...
Read MoreBorn in Beirut, Fadi Syriani is an animation and comic artist, and a holder of a Master’s degree in Architecture. His work has been screened in several film festivals in Lebanon, Europe and Canada. He is currently working on a short-animated film and has been recently awarded an AFAC grant for cinema. The film was nominated for the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Prize for International Cooperation in 2015. In 2016, he founded the Youth Animation Platform.
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Guy Brooksbank
Camera Kids: Make Your Own Short Film
An award-winning educator in media production, Guy Brooksbank's career began decades ago...
Read More...An award-winning educator in media production, Guy Brooksbank's career began decades ago in public television in the USA. More recently, he taught media production and filmmaking at Dubai Men’s College, where he was awarded the Nikai Award, which is presented to one faculty member each semester (from more than 17 campuses across the UAE) who consistently demonstrates great aptitude, creativity, innovation and dedication to their students. Brooksbank’s students went on to win numerous national and international awards and now form the heart of the media industry in Dubai.
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Ida Gron
Ida Gron is a Danish documentary director. She attended The National Film and Television School in England (2009) and holds a BA in art history from The University of Copenhagen (2006)...
Read More...Ida Gron is a Danish documentary director. She attended The National Film and Television School in England (2009) and holds a BA in art history from The University of Copenhagen (2006). Ida has worked with documentary films since 2003, where she had her first short films selected for the Berlinale Talent Campus and shown on Danish national TV. She was a part of the artist-driven independent TV station TVTV, in the editorial group Chamber of Public Secrets (2004-2006) in Copenhagen. Since then her documentaries 'Klara - Thoughts from the Taiga' (2004), 'The Kid and the Clown' (2011) and 'Stay Behind - My Grandfather’s Secret War' (2017) have been broadcasted on various national and international TV channels as well as acclaimed international film festivals. As co-founder of the artist-curator group Tagging Art, Ida has exhibited a VR/real-life video installation on the National Gallery of Denmark. Besides directing her own documentaries Ida works as a freelance TV-content producer and VJ, currently on a series for the Danish national youth channel DR3. She also regularly gives hands-on workshops in poetic documentary to school students.
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Mahmoud Al-Hourani
Mahmoud Al-Hourani is a British-Palestinian actor and playwright, and a graduate of the Royal Central London School of Speech and Drama...
Read More...Mahmoud Al-Hourani is a British-Palestinian actor and playwright, and a graduate of the Royal Central London School of Speech and Drama. He is the director and founder of the Arab Puppet Theatre with a mission to revive and develop the use of puppet theatre in the Arab world. Since establishing the Arab Puppet Theatre Foundation in 2008, he has been directing theatre performances while also conducting residencies and workshops.
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Mohammed Al-Suwaidi
Youth Animation Workshop: Cut-Out Animation
Mohammed Al-Suwaidi is a Qatari artist, animator, character developer and graphic designer who is known on social media as @WisdomSeven...
Read More...Mohammed Al-Suwaidi is a Qatari artist, animator, character developer and graphic designer who is known on social media as @WisdomSeven. He has worked on several projects, such as Wathiq, an online platform for storytelling and heritage preservation produced with Qatar Museums; the short animated film ‘Rain’ with the Doha Film Institute; and the television series ‘Mandoos’, for which he served as the character developer. Currently, Al-Suwaidi is working on a short animated film.
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Marcus Zaiser
Make Your Own Short Documentary Workshop
Marcus Zaiser has been working in the world of movies since 1998, and during this time has participated in more than 100 productions...
Read More...Marcus Zaiser has been working in the world of movies since 1998, and during this time has participated in more than 100 productions. From 2000 until 2006, Marcus studied Film and Media with a focus on Cinematography at the German film school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Marcus finished his studies in 2007 with his diploma film 'The Edge of Hope' and went on to work as a freelance cinematographer for cinema and TV in a wide variety of genres. Since 2010, Marcus also works as a consultant for stereoscopic film projects and since 2012 as a stereographer too. In addition to his practical work on film sets, Marcus loves to share his knowledge and experience in carefully designed workshops and is also a member of the German Society of Cinematographers.
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Nathan Otano
Youth 2D Animation Workshop
Nathan Otano graduated in 2017 from the Character Animation and Animated Film Making course at Gobelins...
Read More...Nathan Otano graduated in 2017 from the Character Animation and Animated Film Making course at Gobelins, l’école de l’image—a four years Master of Arts degree. During his scholarship and internships, he endeavoured to explore as much areas as possible in the realm of 2D and 3D animation. Since his graduation, he has primarily worked as a director, story boarder and animator, pitching animation projects to companies and festivals.
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Sally Connie
Sally Connie Todd is a visual artist, puppet designer and theatre-maker...
Read More...Sally Connie Todd is a visual artist, puppet designer and theatre-maker. As co-artistic director of Indefinite Articles, she has devised/performed in all of their productions, including the award-winning show 'Dust’with her sand drawing and 'The Magic Lamp', conjured up with her oil projections and paper puppets. The theatre company's highly successful production 'Claytime' animated with clay figures, grew from her artist's residency with three to five-year-old nursery children. Sally trained as a sculptor at Chelsea School of Art, London, and works with installation and film. She is a member of Neuf film collective, a founding member of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination and an experienced creative facilitator working with all ages to support and enable creative learning; including in nurseries, schools, University of Cambridge, as well as Fitzwilliam Museum and the British Museum.
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Tanya Habjouqa
Born in Jordan and educated in the United States, Tanya Habjouqa is a member of NOOR...
Read More...A photographer, artist, and educator—her work stems from long-term investments and collaborative methodology, blending ethnographic research and investigative reportage. Examining details of conflict in the Middle East, Habjouqa addresses the presentation of these conversations by western media outlets.
In recent years, her projects have been commended by the likes of TIME, Smithsonian and World Press Photo. She is a mentor for the Magnum Foundation initiative, “Arab Photography Documentary Program” and teaches workshops internationally. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the MFA Boston, Institut du Monde Arab, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.