Cinema Without Borders is proud to present Bridging The Borders Award for the 16 year at the prestigious SEEfest, South East European Film Festival LA. Bridging The Borders Award offered by Cinema Without Borders goes to a feature film that helps bringing people of our world closer together. Winner will be announced on May 8th during the closing ceremony of the 19th Edition of the festival at the Fine Arts theater. SEEfest will run from May 1th to May 8th.
Jury members for MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award are:
KEELY BADGER
Keely Badger is the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of 360 MEDIA Consulting; a woman-owned, woman-led digital marketing agency for storytellers, changemakers, and brands working on the frontlines of social impact and innovation. Her high-performance multimedia campaigns have attracted influential clients such as The Sundance Institute, The Redford Center, Human Rights Watch, KPJR Films, and over 50 award-winning indie films.
Developing a love for the transformative potential of documentary film to bridge communities and awaken critical consciousness, Keely has worked in the public and private sector over the past 15 years, using social impact cinema as a tool to inspire audiences to meaningful action. With a background in helping produce, brand and market films by providing strategic audience engagement models, impactful multimedia campaigns and community partnership-building, Keely has successfully helped independent filmmakers galvanize social change in both grassroots and international arenas.
360 MEDIA is proud to serve as a presenting sponsor of the 2024 Bridging The Borders Award.
Susan Morgan Cooper
Susan Morgan Cooper is a Director/Producer/ Writer and her credits include:
To the Moon and Back, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2016 (A cinematic act of love and courage’ … Broadway World) – Hopper [In his own words] Documentary, Producer/Writer 2013 (“I was moved to tears” Mike Medavoy) – Mulberry Child, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2012 (‘A powerful and touching film’… 31/2 stars. Roger Ebert) – An Unlikely Weapon [The Eddie Adams Story]..Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2008 ( ‘A terrific documentary’ The Hollywood Reporter) – Making Of Shadows in The Sun, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 2005 – Heroes And Sheroes. Television Series, Director/Producer/Writer 2000
Mirjana: One Girl’s Journey, Documentary, Director/Producer/Writer 1997 – Stringers, Narrative Short Director/Producer/Writer 1990 – Hadley’s Rebellion, Narrative Feature Associate Producer 1989
Vazrik Der Sahakian
Vazrik Der Sahakian was born 1948 in Tehran, Iran, and graduated from the Film and TV School in 1972, worked as assistant cameraman and cameraman till 1978, later switched to translation since 1980 with 26 books in various categories: movies, theater, history, novels and short stories.
Ali Murat Erkorkmaz
Ali Murat Erkorkmaz , born in 1948 in Istanbul, Turkey, studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University. Besides his career as an architect, he worked on various subjects both on art and technology. He released a daily newspaper, several books and produced 63 animated TV series of 52 half hours till 2023. Besides animation he also produced several documentaries and 3 feature films. He produced more than 4300 TV commercial films internationally. In the past 20 years he’s been working on artificial intelligence programming and robotics. www.alimurat.com
Vladek Juszkiewicz – Born in Glasgow, Poland. He graduated from the Szczecin Technical University with a degree in Engineering. While attending the University he became a member of The Szczecin Technical University Choir, serving as a President and manager of the group. His travels with the choir to 18 counties including United States where he visited the White House.
When he moved to Warsaw, he became the manager of the Polish international star singer Maryla Rodowicz.
After immigrating to the United States, he worked on 11 films with the late Paul Leder.
In 1999 he founded the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles and served as a director till 2019. Now is serving as the Festival’s Programmer.
Served on the juries of the Los Angeles Hungarian Film Festival, the Los Angeles South East European Film Festival, New York Polish Film Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Awarded by Polish Government with the Cavalier & Officer Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and Gloria Artis for promoting Polish culture abroad.
Houshang Golmakani
Houshang Golmakani is an Iranian journalist, film critic and director. He was born in Gorgan on March 23, 1954. Houshang Golmakani started his professional career in 1972 as a journalist and film critic for Tehran Economist. He graduated in cinema and television from the College of Dramatic Arts of Tehran in 1982.
He is one of the three founders of Film (Iranian magazine), the oldest post-revolutionary film magazine in Iran (founded in 1982 with Massoud Mehrabi and Abbas Yari). In 1993, Film (Iranian magazine) began to print an English version of the magazine for its international readers, FILM International, the only English magazine solely about Iranian cinema. Houshang Golmakani is also a writer and a director. He directed a documentary about the life and works of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, STARDUST-STRICKEN; Mohsen Makhmalbaf: A Portrait (1996). He writes books about cinema and translate screenplays. In 2021 Houshang Golmakani and Abbas Yari stablished Film-e-Emrooz (Film Today) monthly. In 2023 Golmakani made his first feature film Gazelle (Ahoo)
Arati Misro
Arati just wrapped a feature film as a Producer called Designed by Preeti and was a consulting Producer for the TV show Meet the Drapers. Arati is developing and producing several other IPs and Properties in Feature films and TV.
Arati Brings 20 years of experience in the Entertainment, Tech, Education & lifestyle business from a global perspective. Her expertise includes Feature films, TV, product sales & startups. She thrives on recognizing & prioritizing short and long-term goals to greenlight a show or scale a business from a holistic approach. Worked with Sony Pictures Fox, Netflix, Paramount and Apple to name a few. She has also worked in Operations for theatrical distribution for several studios including Sony, Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal Pictures & celebrities, brands such as Lady Gaga, NFL, Kevin Hart, Jamie Fox and others. Her experience chairing Women in Film International has allowed her to home in on her passion for mentoring and giving voice to countless women worldwide who strive to pursue their goals. Chairing is one of her most meaningful accomplishments. She has programmed and produced multiple events for the Los Angeles film community and was recognized by President Obama. Partnerships and Brands include Universal Pictures , MAC , NewFilmmakers LA, BMW, MAX MARA, CAA, Kodak. She holds an MBA and holds an MFA in Producing from the prestigious American Film Institute. . To learn more about Arati, check out her work here. https://linktr.ee/aratim
Chale Nafus was born in Dallas during World War II, he attended public schools, spent summers on his sister’s ranch in Comanche County in the 1950s, learned Spanish from schoolmates, and dreamed of getting out of Dallas. After getting through freshman year at SMU, he worked at Texas Instruments before realizing he really needed a college education. After attending the University of Texas at Arlington (B.A., English), La Universidad Autónoma de México, and UT Austin (M.A., English/RTF), he began a long college teaching career at Texas Southmost College (Brownsville), La Universidad de Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Kingsborough Community College (Brooklyn), and finally Austin Community College (1973-1998). At the latter, he founded the Department of Radio-TV-Film, taught classes in film studies, and for seven years served as Chair of Humanities (Northridge Campus). Retiring in 1998, Chale spent 4 years traveling and writing before joining the staff of Austin Film Society as Director of Programming (2002-2015). He is now totally retired and happily serving on the boards of Austin Film Society and OUTsider Fest as well as the advisory committees of IndieMeme (South Asian film organization) and Cine Las Americas.
Nominees for 2024 Bridging the Borders award at SEEfest 2024:
Motherland
As young Nikita apprehensively enters his military conscription, and Svetlana travels the country looking for justice for her dead son, activists rage in the street against state-led violence rooted in dedovshchina, the cruel abuse that turns boys into soldiers and is the very mechanism of fear and violence Belarus uses to control its populace.
Clara
Set on the background of economic migration, the film tells the story of Clara, a divorced Romanian mother in her thirties who needs to work abroad in Ulm, a German Town by the Danube River. She is as a babysitter for a little girl that is very fond of. At the same time, she had to leave behind her own 12-year-old son who is now in the care of his grandfather. They live in a poor Romanian village also by the Danube river. Feeling abandoned by his mother, the boy runs away from home in an attempt to reach his mother by traveling on a small boat upriver. In this context, Clara has to come back home and face the life she left behind: her responsibility for the actions of her son. She is torn between the love for her son and the maternal feelings for the little girl she babysits in Germany. This screening is supported by the Blue Heron Foundation and UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies.
Q&A with director Sabin Dorohoi, and composer Eduard Dabrowski following the screening!
The Trap
Yovo lives in harmony with nature on the banks of the Danube. A wild boar has been brought to the island near his house and trapped in a fenced area, where it is to be killed in exchange for a bribe. An important foreign investor and hunting enthusiast is due to arrive in Yovo’s village to authorize a dump for highly radioactive nuclear waste. The boar turns out to be bigger and wilder than expected and kills the hunting dogs. The only way the hunt can continue is if Yovo lends them his well-trained dog.
Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels
NON-ALIGNED is a documentary that takes us on an archival road trip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Tito. NON-ALIGNED retraces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image
Libertate (Freedom)
In the chaotic days of the December 1989 revolution that overthrew the Communist regime, the Transylvanian city of Sibiu becomes the scene of a violent assault on a Police unit that quickly escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, policemen, civilian protesters, and representatives of the secret police. In a desperate attempt to escape the siege, Police Captain Viorel is captured by the army and thrown into an empty swimming pool along with hundreds of prisoners accused of being terrorists.
El Shatt – Blueprint for Utopia
Hundreds of frozen and starved people floating on boats in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea fleeing from the war… Familiar scenes that we are used to seeing in recent times. But the year is 1944, and the refugees are traveling from Europe to Africa. After the Italian capitulation, and before the arrival of the German army, 28,000 Dalmatian Croats left their home villages and towns to live for two years under tents in the middle of the Egyptian desert, in a kind of communist model village that was formed to show the Allies how the new Yugoslavia will look like when the war ends. This is a story about them.