NENAD PUHOVSKI
Founder and director of ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival, and director of Factum, production company from Zagreb
TOPIC: “How to make an investigative documentary film?”
Nenad Puhovski will talk about working on an investigative documentary film in an environment that does not want the filmmaker to investigate their topic, and on how to prepare, produce and go about distributing such a film in a not so friendly environment.
Nenad Puhovski is one of the key figures in the development of modern Croatian documentary film. He has made award-winning, but also fiercely contested, films and has produced more than 70 documentaries. Puhovski is the director of the biggest documentary film festival in the region, ZagebDox, and the head of the only MA programme in documentary film in South-Eastern Europe.
Nenad was born in 1949 in Zagreb, where he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and the Academy of Dramatic Art (ADU). As a stage, film and TV director (amateur since 1965 and professional since 1973), he has directed over 250 productions. He worked as an in-house dramaturge for &TD Theatre, and in 1980 started teaching at the Department of Film and TV Directing at ADU, where he is now a Professor of Documentary Film Directing. He has founded the TV Studies Section and the MA studies in documentary film at ADU. He taught and supervised projects by young professionals in Europe, Asia, South America, Near East, Africa and the USA.
In 1997 he founded Factum, the most important Croatian independent documentary production company, and has been managing it ever since. He has produced more than 70 documentary films, which were shown at over seventy festivals. In addition to numerous international awards, his films won three Grand Prix Awards and four Best Production Awards at the Croatian Film Days. In 2005 he founded ZagrebDox, the biggest international documentary film festival in the region, and has been its director ever since. He has received a number of Croatian and international awards, one of which is the European Documentary Network (EDN) Award for his work on documentary film, particularly for launching and managing ZagrebDox.
He is a member of the European Film Academy.
MARJAN ALČEVSKI
Screenwriter for documentary and feature film projects, among which is the HBO hit series “Success”
TOPIC: “Research your script!”
Marjan Alčevski will talk in detail on how to write a script for an investigative film
Marjan Alčevski is the creator and writer of the TV drama Success (2019), the first HBO Adria original production. Holds an MA in dramaturgy (ADU, University of Zagreb). Has 7 years of work experience as a writer developing film and TV projects for PlanetB and Nukleus film in Zagreb. Developed A Somewhat Better Ending through Babylon scriptwriting programme and Torino Filmlab Adaptlab 2014 programme. Developed half-hour comedy Nuts through Midpoint TV Launch programme. Participated in ExOriente and EAVE programmes with his documentary film Cash & Marry. Co-wrote the screenplay for animated-documentary Chris the Swiss, which had its world premiere at Semaine de la Critique at Cannes Film Festival 2018. Made shortlist of BBC International Playwriting Competition 2012. Awarded Best Pitch at PitchADU event, Zagreb, 2015. Won Dean’s Award at ADU, Zagreb for TV mini-series Service, 2016.
DANA BUDISAVLJEVIĆ
Director of the film Diary of Diana B, producer and co-founder of the Hulahop production company
TOPIC: “Historical investigation on film”
How to approach exploring a historical topic, which either is avoided or there is a complete and deliberate distancing from it? How to then incorporate the documentary topic and material into the fictional part of the film? And when you have successfully done all that, how to introduce your project to as great an audience as possible?
Dana Budisavljević was born in Zagreb in 1975. She holds a degree from the Department of Film and TV editing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She has worked as an editor, production assistant and film festival organiser. She made her directorial debut with the documentary film Straight A’s (Factum, 2004), but it was her family film on coming out Family Meals (Hulahop, 2012) that brought her more widespread fame. She has produced the documentary series Slumbering Concrete directed by Saša Ban, and films I Like That Super Most the Best by Eva Kraljević, Then I See Tanja by Juraj Lerotić and so on. The Diary of Diana B is her feature film debut.
RAUL BRZIĆ
MA in cinematography
TOPIC: CORPUS MEDIAE workshops
The workshop aims to explore how to use moving pictures to express yourself when given an assigned topic and how to use teamwork to come to a solution in a short time period, with an emphasis on creativity and on the process. At the same time, this workshop points to the possibilities of using modern technologies as tools for filmmaking.
Raul Brzić (Split, Croatia 1979) was, after high school, accepted as a photographer at Benetton international creative studio Fabrica. After a year of working in Italy returned to Croatia and started studying Visual Communications Design at the Art Academy in Split (UMAS). Graduated in 2005 and following his great interest in film photography, 2008 enrolled the Master of Cinematography at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb where 2012 graduated as a Master of cinematography. After a series of short films, documentaries and TV projects, he worked as a director of photography on feature films “Performance”, “Dark” and “Farewell”. Raul Brzic lives and works in Zagreb and across Croatia.
