Jonathan Ali is director of programming for Miami’s Third Horizon Film Festival, a platform for critical Caribbean and diaspora cinema. He has curated programmes, mostly of repertory and contemporary Caribbean cinema, for the Cinemateca de Bogotá, British Film Institute and Stadtkino Basel, the DocLisboa and FICValdivia festivals and his native Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, as well as Criterion Channel, where he is a curatorial advisor. He has been a fellow of the Flaherty and Doc’s Kingdom documentary seminars. His byline has appeared in Documentary and Sight and Sound magazines, among others.

Christopher Allen is the founder and director of UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art in NYC, which produces events, workshops, artist labs, the UNDO Fellowship, and documentary projects. He was co-writer, producer, and technical designer of the Off-Broadway hit Say Something Bunny!. Collaborative productions he has initiated — including Living Los Sures, Documenting Mythologies, Capitol of Punk, and Yellow Arrow — have brought together hundreds of artists, documentarians, and community participants.

Kazembe Balagun is a cultural organizer, curator, and writer based in Harlem, New York. As Executive Director of the Maysles Documentary Center, he works at the intersection of documentary film, public history, and community engagement. Over the course of his career, he has developed programs, exhibitions, and educational initiatives that amplify grassroots voices, preserve neighborhood histories, and create spaces for dialogue across generations. Grounded in Harlem’s traditions of culture and activism, Balagun’s work explores how storytelling can strengthen civic life, deepen historical understanding, and foster collective imagination.

Juan Pablo Bastarrachea holds a Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication and a postgraduate degree in Cultural Management. Since 2004, he has worked at film festivals in Mexico. In June 2012, he and a group of friends opened Cine Tonalá in Mexico City’s Roma neighbourhood, part of a network of independent cinemas that has since expanded with sister projects in Bogotá, Tijuana, and Querétaro. He has produced documentaries and experimental works with directors such as María José Cuevas and Camila José Donoso. He has served on juries at Rio de Janeiro Directors’ Week, the Cuenca International Film Festival, and the Cinema Tropical Awards. He teaches the Distribution Seminar at the Escuela Superior de Cine in Mexico City and has been a tutor at various editions of Locarno Academy LATAM. Currently, as a producer, he is developing audiovisual projects involving adaptations of intellectual property.

carrick bell is a Berlin-based video artist, curator, and PhD researcher at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Their videos and audiovisual installations use a variety of stroboscopic editing techniques to think about time, repetition, and how overwhelming and insistent perceptual environments can help us work through the mutual embeddedness of bodies, location, consciousness, and collectivity. They were the co-founder and co-director of Berlin-based artist-run space Horse & Pony, and founder and programmer of Xanadu, a space for artists’ moving image work.

Lina Bembe is a porn performer, filmmaker, educator, and curator with over a decade of experience in the adult film industry. Throughout her career, she has appeared in a diverse range of projects, from mainstream porn to feminist-driven works, DIY queer post-porn, and explicit sex education. Currently, Lina is focused on refining her filmmaking craft to create more expansive and nuanced portrayals of explicit sexuality in cinema. Her activism spans writing, public speaking, and curation, with an emphasis on topics such as sex education, feminism, intimacy coordination, the ethical representation of BIPOC bodies in porn, and the politics of explicit sexuality. She is part of the curation team at Porn Film Festival Berlin, founded by Jürgen Brüning in 2006, which has been a long-standing platform for political and ethical sexually explicit and queer films.

Nora Bess is a Berlin-based cultural manager and marketing leader. She is a project manager for Cinema of Commoning, and leads communications and partnerships at Cinelogue. She was also a German Chancellor Fellow at Arsenal – Filminstitut, where she researched best practices to increase engagement with archival materials. Previously, Nora was a Creative Marketing manager at Warner Bros. Discovery, leading campaigns for HBO and Max Originals. She is originally from Washington, D.C., and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin.

Themba Bhebhe is an independent consultant, strategic advisor, industry programmer, talent support worker and mentor, working with a variety of film festivals, markets, funds, professional development programmes for creatives and other film organisations. With a background in international film sales and DEI programmes and programming, Themba’s work is currently located at the intersections of the African, Caribbean and global Indigenous screen industries through his continued collaborations and roles in and with organisations such as the Indigenous Cinema Alliance, Third Horizon, Durban FilmMart, Engage, the Programmers of Colour Collective, the Great Lakes Creative Producers Lab and New Dawn.

Alexa Cardaș is the co-executive director of F-SIDES, Romania’s first feminist cineclub, and over the past four years, she has helped shape F-SIDES into a multidisciplinary cultural organization working across film exhibition & experimental distribution formats, film education, industry capacity building, and professional training for emerging curators. They have a background in digital and cultural communication and also work as a communications officer at a children’s theatre.

Diana Daf Collazos is a Peruvian filmmaker, artist, and cultural practitioner. She is co-founder of elgalpon.espacio in Lima, where she develops elgalpon.saladecine, an independent cinema space, and Salvajes, a film school. She holds a Master’s degree in Creative Documentary from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her work lies at the intersection of cinema and performance, with a focus on documentary, autofictional, and expanded cinema practices. She has initiated and collaborated on pedagogical platforms, laboratories, encounters, and seminars both locally and internationally. Her practice explores the relationships between body, memory, and image, as well as the creation of non-hegemonic visualities and narratives.

Nikita Dhawan holds the Chair in Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University Dresden. Her research and teaching focuses on global justice, human rights, democracy and decolonization. She received the Käthe Leichter Award in 2017 for outstanding achievements in the pursuit of women’s and gender studies and in support of the women’s movement and the achievement of gender equality. Selected publications include: Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence (2007); Reimagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities (ed., 2019); Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical Theories of Decolonization (2026, Duke University Press). In 2023, she was awarded the Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and the Thomas Mann Fellowship, Los Angeles.

Amanda Egbe is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher at UWE Bristol. Her practice-led work spans analogue and new media, engaging Black cinema, archives, and decolonial methods. Working across film, installation, and participatory projects, she approaches cinema as a site of commoning and activism. Her work has been shown internationally and foregrounds collaborative image-making.

Amanda Egbe is an artist, filmmaker, and researcher at UWE Bristol. Her practice-led work spans analogue and new media, engaging Black cinema, archives, and decolonial methods. Working across film, installation, and participatory projects, she approaches cinema as a site of commoning and activism. Her work has been shown internationally and foregrounds collaborative image-making.

Rehana Esmail is the founder and director of Cinelogue, an independent platform for collaborative curation, streaming and critical discourse, centering cinema from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Based in Berlin, she works across film programming and acquisitions, focusing on expanding access to historically underdistributed cinema. Her work centers alternative distribution models that support filmmaker autonomy while building sustainable pathways for circulation across public, educational, and institutional contexts.

Gawan Fagard is a film & philosophy researcher and programmer. After he obtained a PhD on cinema and contemplation, he co-founded Cinemaximiliaan, a socially engaged film platform with and by newcomers in Brussels. Today he is active as a film theory lecturer at Université Libre Bruxelles and RITCS Brussels and he is developing a research project Fireplace Cinema, investigating practices of commoning in film, forging solidarities between precarious film initiatives, where cinema dreams of a coming community.

Jake Flowers (he/him) is a freelance editor and producer based in Berlin. Originally from Boston in the US, he began working there in film and the performing arts before moving to London in 2008 where he trained in Acting & Contemporary Theatre. Since relocating to Berlin in 2016 he has continued his work as a producer and editor across the industry, most recently entering a long-term collaboration with experimental porn studio Heavy Load Studio. Last year he became one of the founding members and coordinator of the Palinale Film Festival, a 10-day event of films, panels, workshops and exhibitions fostering dialogue on Palestinian liberation and the global fight against imperialism and colonialism.

Djamila Grandits is a Vienna-based curator and film programmer. Part of CineCollective and D—Arts. She is currently working on the pre-selection committee of Berlinale Panorama. She is a former member of the non-fiction commission of Zürcher Filmstiftung. Previously programmed with Diagonale, DOK Leipzig, Kasseler Dokfest, sixpackfilm, frameout and tricky women – tricky realities. Her practice is grounded in care and curiosity for (moving) image cultures, media practice, collective and speculative curatorial movements.

Karina Griffith is an artist and researcher. She is a Guest Professor of Intersectional Visual and Media Theory at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). Her PhD dissertation, “Flânoirie: The Moving Images of Black German Cinemas” (University of Toronto) was recently awarded the 2026 German Studies Canada Prize for the Best PhD Dissertation. She has shown her artistic research internationally in spaces such as Savvy Contemporary, Vila Sul, Galerie TPW, SINNE Gallery and District Berlin. In 2021, she joined the curatorial team of the Berlinale Forum Expanded and has curated film and interdisciplinary programmes for the Goethe Institute, Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Oberhausen Film Festival, DFFB, VTape and many others.

Florian Höhenstieger is a film archivist at the Bundesarchiv, where he researches, restores, and curates film history. He also works as a projectionist at SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, handling 35mm and 16mm analog projection and teaching projection workshops. He holds an MA in Film Heritage from the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and is a graduate of the Certificate Program at the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman Museum.

Okan İlhan works as an event coordinator at Kült Kavaklıdere, where he designs and oversees film programmes, screenings, talks, and interdisciplinary cultural events, including workshops, presentations, and seminars. While his programming practice primarily centres on studio films, he also has experience with independent productions. As of May 2026, he has handed over his responsibilities for film programme production at Kült Kavaklıdere. He continues to contribute to cultural production processes in Ankara on behalf of Kült, focusing on developing collaborations with local and international institutions. His primary responsibility has been ensuring the coordination and operational flow of events hosted by Kült Kavaklıdere.

Olivia Jack is a programmer, artist, and educator focused on building open-source environments for audiovisual performance and collaborative creation. Her projects include hydra video synthesizer, Wobble Web, PIXELSYNTH, and LiveLab.  Through building tools, performing with them, and sharing them openly, she explores software as both a speculative medium and a space for collective experimentation.

İlhan Kaya is a director, cinematographer, photographer, and editor. He holds a BFA from the Photography and Video Department at Gazi University (2014-2019). Working primarily within documentary cinema, İlhan combines storytelling, editing, and photographic visual practices in his work. He is also a co-founder of the independent cinema initiative Vizyonsuz, and since April 2026 has been responsible for film programming.

Angelika Kim is an anti-discrimination trainer, author, and activist. Angelika is a descendant of German and Korean expellees and people who were forcibly resettled. In her work, she explores her own intersectionality through workshops, written texts, radio contributions, and participation in and moderation of panel discussions on topics such as empowerment, anti-(East) Asian racism, feminism, East Germany and East Germans of Color, (late) ethnic German resettlers (Spätaussiedlerinnen*), also known as “Russian Germans,” and post-East Germany.

Beza Hailu Lemma is an Addis Ababa-based writer, director, and curator. He is the Co-founder and Creative Director of Videobet, a cinema space and film center in Addis. His filmography includes both documentary and fiction short films, such as Ballad of the Spirits (2016), Katanga Nation (2022), and Alazar (2024). These works have garnered international recognition, screening at prestigious film festivals globally, including Cannes, TIFF, Clermont Ferrand, IDFA and Fespaco.

Beza Hailu Lemma is an Addis Ababa-based writer, director, and curator. He is the Co-founder and Creative Director of Videobet, a cinema space and film center in Addis. His filmography includes both documentary and fiction short films, such as Ballad of the Spirits (2016), Katanga Nation (2022), and Alazar (2024). These works have garnered international recognition, screening at prestigious film festivals globally, including Cannes, TIFF, Clermont Ferrand, IDFA and Fespaco.

Malve Lippmann is an artist, curator, and cultural manager. She is co-founder and artistic director of bi‘bak and SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA in Berlin where she was responsible for various programs, events and exhibitions such as the international symposium Cinema of Commoning (2022+2024) and the documentary exhibition project Bitter Things – Narratives and Memories of Transnational Families (2018). Since 1999 she has been creating internationally designs of numerous performances, opera- and theater productions as a freelance stage and costume designer. Since 2025, she has been part of the jury for the residency programme Kulturakademie Tarabya and a member of the Berlin Council for the Arts.

Gwendolyn Lootens is a visual artist and documentary filmmaker working mainly in drawing, video, sound and performance. Her work is often immaterial, fragile, and ephemeral. Repetitive gestures and everyday objects give rise to an abstract and playful visual language. Time plays a central role. As a documentary filmmaker, she is driven to bring invisibilised gestures and experiences to the screen. She also co-founded Cinemaximiliaan, a warm and welcoming film house with and by newcomers in Brussels.

Georgiana Madin Vrăjitor (co-founder & artistic director, F-SIDES) is a film curator, critic, and cultural manager with extensive experience in curating feminist, queer, and socially engaged cinema. As a curator for F-SIDES since 2020, she has played a crucial role in developing film programs that challenge gender stereotypes and foster critical discussions on representation in cinema, while engaging audiences in rediscovering film history, genres and language through women’s artistic output.

Vo Thi Mai Trang is a filmmaker based in Berlin. She completed a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Leuphana University, focusing on cultural studies perspectives on power structures and questions surrounding the future of work. In 2019, she began studying documentary filmmaking and television journalism at the Munich University of Television and Film (HFF Munich). As a recipient of a DAAD scholarship, she studied at the Escuela Superior de Cine in Mexico City in 2025. Trang is part of the curatorial team of the Werdau Film Festival, where she advises on the film selection process.

Johanna Markert works at the intersection of curatorial and artistic practice, approaching the screening situation as both a compositional form and a social space. In long-term collaborations with artists and cultural initiatives, she develops site-specific presentations in which moving image, sound, and performance are treated as discrete elements to be assembled and brought into dialogue. Together with Lukas Ludwig, Markert has co-directed the Berlin-based curatorial collective and independent art space anorak since 2016.

Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo is a Rwandan filmmaker and a graduate of the Cinema Department at HEAD-Genève. His debut feature film, Minimals in a Titanic World, premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2025. His acclaimed short film I Got My Things and Left received the Grand Prize at the 2019 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen – an Oscar-qualifying award. Over the past decade, Philbert has directed more than a dozen short films, which have been showcased at over 50 international festivals including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Visions du Réel, Oberhausen, and Tampere Film Festival. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, the Locarno Filmmakers Academy, and TorinoFilmLab. The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen presented a retrospective of his films in 2020. Based in Kigali, Mbabazi Sharangabo is the founder of IMITANA, a production company that produces works of Rwanda’s dynamic film scene. Through IMITANA, he organizes filmmaking workshops, the Kigali Cine Junction film festival, and operates the Cine Mayaka, the only independent cinema in Kigali.

Jenny Miller serves as Co-Artistic Director of UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art. A cultural producer with a community-focus which she honed with roles at Sundance’s New Frontier, The Nightingale Cinema, Printed Matter Inc. and MoMA PS1. She joined UnionDocs in 2016 and has produced 750+ public programs, along with artist support initiatives across the workshops, fellowships, labs and research-based publications. She has guest lectured at Columbia, Dartmouth, and Bard, and served on juries for Creative Capital, the International Documentary Association, Yaddo, and the United Artists Award. She graduated from Oberlin College with a focus on DIY practices across studies in English, Cinema Studies & Art History.

Mosa Mpetha is a film curator of Black, African and Archive films. She founded Cinema Africa! a permanent programme at Hyde Park Picture House in partnership with local diasporic communities. Mosa is an advocate for DIY exhibitors, is involved in the Scalarama Leeds Film Festival and mentors new programmers. Mosa has a passion for the preservation and protection of African heritage, and distributes new restorations of African titles. She is also developing her creative archival film practices.

Mosa Mpetha is a film curator of Black, African and Archive films. She founded Cinema Africa! a permanent programme at Hyde Park Picture House in partnership with local diasporic communities. Mosa is an advocate for DIY exhibitors, is involved in the Scalarama Leeds Film Festival and mentors new programmers. Mosa has a passion for the preservation and protection of African heritage, and distributes new restorations of African titles. She is also developing her creative archival film practices.

Irit Neidhardt is an author, curator, and film educator specializing in the fields of cinema and the Arab world. She focuses on aspects of Arab societies and politics, the history of Arab cinema in Germany, and various facets of European-Arab cooperation. Since 2002, she has run mec film, an international distribution and sales company for films by Arab directors.

Irit Neidhardt is an author, curator, and film educator specializing in the fields of cinema and the Arab world. She focuses on aspects of Arab societies and politics, the history of Arab cinema in Germany, and various facets of European-Arab cooperation. Since 2002, she has run mec film, an international distribution and sales company for films by Arab directors.

Lê Ngọc Duy (b. 2000) is a filmmaker and film programmer from Da Nang exploring the politics of memory, queer expression, and Central Vietnamese heritage. A member of A Sông art collective, he organises and co-programmes the grassroots, artist-run cinema platform Cinema CNN (Cinema of Peasants). His latest short film, ‘Before the Sea Forgets,’ premiered at the 2025 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Duy was a Prince Claus Fund Seed Awardee, a Locarno Filmmakers Academy participant, and an artist-in-residence at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur in 2025.

Brigid O’ Shea is a documentary consultant, helping documentary projects and filmmakers reach their full international potential and professional goals. Her international network spans the globe with both emerging talents and industry veterans. She has worked with ARTE on projects like Generation Africa and Generation Ukraine. She helped found the Documentary Association of Europe, a members’ network and support system for documentary filmmakers inside and outside of Europe that has grown to 700 members in just three years. She currently serves as the executive director of this organisation. She was head of DOK Industry Programme at DOK Leipzig and worked for the Berlin International Film Festival for more than 10 years.

Maresa Nzinga Pinto is an Angolan-German memory worker, filmmaker, researcher, and curator. Her transdisciplinary practice explores collective memory, belonging, and resistance within neocolonial and (post-)socialist contexts. She has worked on participatory memory-educational and archival projects addressing Germany’s (post-)colonial entanglements, Black movements, and Afro-diasporic identities. Combining visual storytelling with Black Feminist Theory and Critical Memory Studies, her work reimagines marginalised histories through archival practices of care that bridge the past and possible futures.

Fransiska Prihadi is the programme director of Minikino, a Bali-based short film organisation, and co-founder of the arthouse cinema MASH Denpasar. With a background in architecture, she works across short film programming and industry initiatives, connecting films with audiences and broader social contexts. She has been involved with national and international festivals as a programmer, preselection committee member, and juror, and is actively engaged in shaping platforms that support the circulation of short films across different regions and international contexts.

Giang Quang Vinh is a Vietnamese artist based in Berlin whose practice focuses on participatory situations and collaborative learning. He creates workshops and collective experiences through drawing, cooking and fabrication techniques, often working closely with children and other artists. His projects transform participants’ contributions into sculptures, films or installations, exploring art as a space for exchange, experimentation and shared memory.

Trương Quế Chi is a Hanoi-based artist and curator with an M.A. in Film Studies from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University. She co-curates Như Trăng Trong Đêm (Like the Moon in the Night Sky), a multi-edition film program by Hanoi’s TPD Film Centre focusing on Vietnamese cinema heritage, running since 2020. She has also worked with various organisations, spaces, and festivals, such as Asian Film Archive and Objectifs, both based in Singapore, among others, in showcasing moving image works from and in relation to Vietnam. Since 2015, she has been a board member of artist initiative Nhà Sàn Collective, and also a film lecturer at Hanoi University of Theatre and Cinema.

Lisabona Rahman creates workshops, screenings and performative lectures with archival films. She has intersecting interests in cinema history, coloniality, transnational networks and women’s work. Since April 2025, she has been the Training and Outreach Coordinator of the Federation of International Film Archives (FIAF). Lisabona takes part in the circulation of knowledge among feminists through Kelas Liarsip virtual study group and the trans-local School of Women’s Thought.

Galo E. Rivera (they/he) is a Berlin-based Ecuadorian immunologist, web developer, and audiovisual artist. Galo received a doctorate in immunology for their research in the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology. Galo’s current research is concerned with the construction of identities on different levels: on a cellular basis with microscopes, on an individual basis with cameras, and on a social level through the lens of a projector. Since 2024, Galo has been project coordinator at Sinema Transtopia focusing on the continuous film series Common Visions Berlin and -Topias.

Kira Simon-Kennedy is a volunteer member of La Clef, a collectively-run movie theater in Paris. Kira is also an Academy Award nominated documentary film producer (Ascension), currently producing several other features, including Mia Bendrimia’s Magma & AX Mina’s Rubbish. She advises and builds tools for justice-oriented technology nonprofits with Data for Good.

Kira Simon-Kennedy is a volunteer member of La Clef, a collectively-run movie theater in Paris. Kira is also an Academy Award nominated documentary film producer (Ascension), currently producing several other features, including Mia Bendrimia’s Magma & AX Mina’s Rubbish. She advises and builds tools for justice-oriented technology nonprofits with Data for Good.

Can Sungu is a curator, researcher and author. He is Co-founder and Artistic Director of bi‘bak and SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA in Berlin where he curated various international programs, events and exhibitions such as Cinema of Commoning (since 2022), the documentary exhibition projects Sıla Yolu – The Holiday Transit to Turkey and the Tales of the Highway (2016-17) and Bitter Things – Narratives and Memories of Transnational Families (2018). He has served as a juror and consultant for the Berlinale Forum, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Duisburger Filmwoche, Hauptstadtkulturfonds and the DAAD Artist-in Berlin Program, among others. He has published several books, including Please Rewind – German-Turkish Film- and Video Culture in Berlin (Archive Books, 2020). Between 2020-23, he has been part of the curatorial team of Fiktionsbescheinigung at the Berlinale Forum – a film program that parries German film history with intersectional perspectives. Since 2023 he is curator for filmic practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin.

Patrik Thomas is a filmmaker and media artist working at the intersection of documentary film, expanded cinema, and public space. His projects explore cinema as a collective practice that enables participation, archiving, and political self-organization. Recent works include BOALÂNDIA on Brazilian cineclubes, CINÉ VÉLO CITÉ, a bicycle-powered urban cinema, and CINEVAN, a mobile media lab activating site-specific productions across Europe.

Nguyễn Phương Thúy is a researcher, educational facilitator, curator, and film and cultural practitioner with East German–Vietnamese connections. In 2016, Thúy co-founded the Werdau Initiative Against Racism. They work with organizations including DaMOst, ufuq e.V., mediale pfade, and LAG pokuBi Sachsen. From 2022 to 2023, they contributed to the online archive and exhibition De-Zentralbild. In cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), they curated the event series East German Migration History(ies) in four East German cities. Thúy also contributed to the HKW exhibition Echoes of the Brother Countries. Most recently, they served as a coach in the film education fellowship program at SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA.

Sarnt Utamachote is a Southeast Asian nonbinary filmmaker and curator based in Berlin. Their works span research in migration, communities, archives, and notions of queerness, shifting between mediums of cinema, visual arts, and writing. They are part of collectives such as un.thai.tled and Cruising Curators. Their ongoing exhibition In Nobody’s Service took place at Galerie Wedding Berlin (2024), Thailand Biennale in Phuket (2025), and Goethe-Institut Southeast Asia’s Dealing In Distance (2026). Their short film I don’t want to be just a memory (2022–24) had its premiere at the 74th Berlinale Forum Expanded. With SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, they have curated several film programs, such as “The past is not another country” (in collaboration with German Film Museum Frankfurt), which looks as alternative ways to deal with film archives. They work as a film programmer for XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, Short Film Festival Hamburg, and are a guest programmer for CinemAsia Amsterdam and Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 2026. They have served as jury for Fantouche, MIXCPH, London Short Film Festival, and more. Currently they are a fellow resident at Braunschweig Projects of HBK (2026-27).

Tessa van Grafhorst opened the first Kinderbioscoop, a small theatre dedicated to young children, in Amsterdam in 1999. A few years later she founded Taartrovers, a collective of designers and art teachers. It is the mission of Taartrovers to let young children (2+) play with film & imagination with all senses. Tessa works on spreading the mission. As a lecturer, she is sharing her vision and knowledge with professionals, and as a (film) art teacher, she teaches pre-schoolers and children with special needs. As a co-creative, she develops playful concepts, programs and installations for theatres, festivals and museums.

In 1999, Tessa van Grafhorst opened the first Kinderbioscoop in Amsterdam. A small theatre dedicated to young children. A few years later she founded Taartrovers, a collective of designers and art teachers. It is the mission of Taartrovers to let young children (2+) play with film & imagination with all senses. Tessa works on spreading the mission, as lecturer she is sharing her vison and knowledge with professionals, as (film)art teacher she teaches preschoolers and children with special needs, and as co-creative she develops playful concepts, programs and installations for theatres, festivals and museums.

Teresa Xie is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is currently a Young Professional Journalist Fulbright Scholar in Berlin and the editorial lead for Cinema of Commoning. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg News and NPR. She has also written for places like Pitchfork, Los Angeles Review of Books, Vox, Jacobin, The Nation, and Bandcamp. She was a 2024-2025 Bronx Documentary Center Films Fellow and a member of BRIC’s 2024 Documentary Intensive Cohort. Teresa earned her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.