Cinema Without Borders has announced its jury members to decide on the winner of 2021 MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award for the Best Polish Short Film at the Polish Film Festival , LA.
Polish Film Festival LA programmers have also announced the nominees for the Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging The Borders Award sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy.
CWB Jury Members are:
Pamela Asobo Anchang, Editor, TV/Radio Host, IMpact/ Africa Speaks, The Immigrant Magazine
Pamela A. Anchang was born in Cameroon, Africa. As a child, she dreamed of becoming a journalist, a passion that she cultivated as a young child radio-host in her native Cameroon for a program called Children’s Magazine. Finding it almost impossible to pursue her dream in Cameroon, she left for the United States of America amid political upheavals.
She created The Immigrant Magazine online in 2003 as a medium to publish her articles and provide informative resources to immigrants. In 2004 she started a free print publication that grew from 4-60 pages. In 2013 for greater and national circulation the print magazine morphed into a daily web blog and weekly e-newsletter. This platform is currently being transformed into an online TV network that will aggregate and distribute compelling digital content about immigrants in the US. Her magazine has served companies and institutions such as Walt Disney, The City of Los Angeles, AIDS Walk NY/LA, The Hollywood Carnival, MoneyGram International, Los Angeles Metro, multiple small businesses, famous ethnic film festivals, and multi-cultural events in Los Angeles for outreach to immigrant communities. Today Pamela is the creator and host of IMPact With Pamela Anchang on KPFK Pacifica Radio for Los Angeles, Southern California,
Keely Badger is Executive Director of MOZAIK, a new millennial-led philanthropic organization committed to exploring and modeling new practices in philanthropy with disruptive, creative, and catalytic potential. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Keely leads the foundation’s strategic grantmaking, programs and community engagements, working with a range of nonprofit organizations in the local, national and international advocacy space.
As a millennial expert and advocate on international human rights and development issues,
Keely pioneers’ durable solutions for underrepresented voices, communities and causes by working to democratize philanthropy through participatory grantmaking praxis.
Hermon Farahi is an award-winning, first-generation Iranian Korean American filmmaker, author, scholar-activist, social impact strategist, multidisciplinary creative director, and former candidate for U.S. Congress (NV-03), trained as a cultural anthropologist and documentarian grounded in critical race theory and decolonial praxis (MA, The George Washington University). His lived experience raised in a multicultural immigrant family has deeply informed his work as a storyteller and change-agent. Faced with family separation due to the “Muslim ban”, Hermon was inspired to run for Congress, ultimately suspending his campaign to work on the Emmy-nominated, Academy Award-shortlisted Netflix Original Documentary, Knock Down The House, winner of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival Favorite Award. Genuinely committed to inclusion and antiracism, Hermon has collaborated with many impacted BIPOC communities, locally and globally. As a senior advisor to Rep. Cori Bush, Hermon’s polymathic skill-set helped propel her campaign to a historic victory over a 52-year political dynasty to become Missouri’s first Black Congresswoman. His award-winning feature debut, When They Awake, a decolonial indigenous music documentary, has screened in 50+ International Film Festivals. He has consulted for several grassroots and international organizations, including The World Bank and USAID, and even traversed Mt. Everest while filming for a cancer foundation.
Michael Franck is an internationally awarded documentarist, who has directed and produced more than 150 documentaries and fact programs for tv-networks. His films main focus are on Finnish and Nordic culture, political history and entrepreneurship and future living conditions seen from a scientific perspective. Many of his films also feature socio-political and human bridge building in the Middle East, where his family has been working and living for three generations. Many of his films have been shown also internationally. Both in Europe, the US and in the Middle East, where hos family has lived and worked for three generations.
Between 1989 and 1995 he lived and worked as producer in Hollywood, where he together with professionals from both this leading entertainment community, Iran and Scandinavia, was developing the major animated film “Sindbad. Due to the crash of the economy in his home country Finland in the early 1990-as, this project could not be completed. During this time in Los Angeles, he also participated in Rand Corporation´s Middle East and Central Asia Studies Group.
Michael Franck´s recently published documentary, featuring the 100 years history of Finland´s orden tradition, including also his interview with current President Sauli Niinistö and former president Tarja Halonen, was published and screened first time on Finlands Independence day December 6, 2019, on the Finnish public television channel YLE TV 1 as well as and Michael Franck´s film portrait “My Godfather & Kekkonen” featuring the controversial Finnish cold war time pro western parliamentarian Georg C. Ehrnrooth, the documentarist´s own godfather, whom Michael as a young politician in the 1970-ies decided to disagree with. The film opens a historic perspective on the cold war time in Finland, the role of the country´s long time President Urho Kekkonen, and his way of ruling the country. his film will be published on Finlands TV 1 on the country´s Independence day of this year, December 6.
Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, “Simin” is a multi – award- winning Iranian actress who has over 80 national & international prizes.
She started her career in theatre as a teenager and has years of experience in improvised theater performance.
She became one of the most distinguished and respected actresses from Iran.
In her career Simin has appeared in over 70 films and collaborated with some of the master directors of Iranian cinema such as Abbas Kiarostami , Mohsen Makhmalbafand Rakhshan Bani-Etemad
She has starred in films, TV series ,theaters and puppet theater
She made her directorial debut by directing a documentary about Iranian ex-president Mohammad Khatami followed by her second directorial attempt with another documentary on the subject 7 powerful women in Asian cinema!
She is a professor of cinema and theater at the prestigious university of Isfahan.
Among her numerous awards, she won the best actress award from Montreal film festival in 2011 and received the prestigious Henry Langlois prize in 2012.
best actress in Urania awards in Vienna ,BOGACICI Film Festival ,SPECIAL MENTION IN ASIA PACITIC 2015 . The best actor in Iran’s history of cinema from the critics point of view in 2017
She has Served as a Jury member of more than 60 international film festivals , she is Doing Master class & workshop around the world .
Motamed-Arya is a founding member of The Performers Society of The Iranian Cinema.
The First Female president of Iranian Actor union, still in this position from 2018
She is an ambassador of several charities in Iran and is one of the most admired personalities on the Iranian cultural scene. Fatemeh Motamed-Arya is among 15 international figures whose portraits are on display at a multimedia exhibition titled ” The Transformative Power of Art ” at the UN in New York in 2015
Bijan Tehrani a film director, film critic and writer, works as Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders while teaching Language & History of film workshops and organizes film screening events and festivals. Bijan has won several awards in international film festivals and book fairs for his short films and children’s books.
Bijan runs several events every year in order to promote international cinema in the US, including ELAC International Animation Day Festival.
For the tenth anniversary of Cinema Without Borders, Bijan received Ambassador of International Cinema Award from South east European Film Festival, Friend of the Festival Award from Polish Film Festival, LA and Gateway to International Cinema Award from Hungarian Film festival. CWB will celebrate its 15th anniversary in 2022.
MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award Nominees
The nine short films nominated by Polish Film Festival LA organizers for the MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award are: Room (Pokoj) by Krzysztof Jankowski, Venus of Willendorfu (Wenus z Willendorfu) by Zuzanna Grajcewicz, One More Time by Lukasz Laskowski, Safe Distance by Artur Wyrykowski, The Hero (Bohater) by Milena, Alice and the Frog by Olga Bołądź, One More Time by Lukasz Laskowski, Place To Be by Bartlomiej Skupien and Out of Office by Bartosz Nowacki