Soundhunters

Filmmaker and writer Beryl Koltz has dual citizenship from Luxembourg and France with family roots ranging from England to Egypt. She writes and directs feature films, documentaries and music videos. Her most recent work includes a clip for Matthieu Chedid’s (-M-) single Mojo, which was nominated for the 2013 French Music Awards (Victoires de la Musique). Her short film Starfly has been screened at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art of New York in 2006 and awarded a dozen times at international film festivals (Canal+ award at Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival, Golden Mélies for Best European Short Film).

Beryl Koltz directed her first feature HOT HOT HOT in 2011. The film won for Best Film at the Luxembourg Film Prize 2012, Best Actor (Rob Stanley) and Best Director at Tirana International Film Festival 2011 and was officially selected at numerous film festivals such as Festival du Film de Cabourg 2012, Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil 2012 (Opening film), Gotham Screen International Film Festival New York 2012, Mostra São Paulo International Film Festival 2012, European Union Film Festival 2012 in Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, Busan International Film Festival 2011 and Filmfest Hamburg 2011. HOT HOT HOT was released in theaters in several European countries.

Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blies (Blies brothers) are two French filmmakers and digital artists who create their works together.

In 2015, they conceptualized the documentary music transmedia Soundhunters in co-production with ARTE. Soundhunters was imagined to transform the world into an infinite musical instrument. The transmedia is released in 2015 in collaboration with many international artists including Jean Michel Jarre, Simonne Jones or Blixa Bargeld. In 2016, the Blies brothers are invited to present their work at Lincoln Center during the New York Film Festival. The project is placed in 2016 under the high patronage of UNESCO.

In 2019, they wrote and directed their first feature film Zero Impunity about the impunity of sexual violence in wartime (Thessaloniki IFF, Annecy IFF, Moscow IFF, Mostra de Sao Paulo, Guadalajara IFF, Palm Springs IFF...). Hybridizing animation and live action, the film is considered one of the precursors in the field, particularly for its ability to « Figuring the unmentionable ». The Blies brothers were invited by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to participate in the traditional “Cinema Masterclass” of the festival to talk about the issue of “sexual violence in animation”. In 2021, the film was nominated for the Trophées Francophones du Cinéma in the “Best Documentary” category.

In 2024, the Blies brothers released the digital art installation This Is My Heart (Ceci est mon coeur), about the reconciliation of a child with his body, mixing video-mapping and connected clothing. Following Zero Impunity, here again they hybridize animation and live action. For the first time, they also use a technique akin to “Spoken Word”. Combining Stéphane’s poetic writing with Nicolas’s musical creations, they explore a fusion of words and rhythms at the service of storytelling. The World Premiere of This Is My Heart take place during the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

The Blies brothers decided to pursue their research into Spoken word and visual hybridization in the development of their first feature-length film Maman Sopra.

Jury

In 2020, the Blies brothers are members of the feature film jury section “Contrechamp” of the 44th International Animation Film Festival of Annecy. In 2018, Nicolas Blies is a member of the jury section “National Documentary” and Stéphane Hueber-Blies member and president of the section “Innovation Award” at the 31st International Festival of Audiovisual Production of Biarritz (FIPA).

PEDRO WATANABE

Pedro Watanabe is a Brazilian director. He studied creative documentary at Lussas (France) and works in São Paulo as director, editor and cameraman for production companies such as Big Bonsai and Conspiração Films. He directed the film about street artist Alexandre Orion for webdocumentaire Défense d’Afficher, France 24 - RFI at Visa pour l’Image Festival 2012. "Orion, the film" also received the first prize and the audience award at the 1st Street Art Film Festival in Paris.

LUCAS BONOLO

Lucas Bonolo is a Brazilian-Italian photographer and filmmaker. His last work, the short film “Fragments of a Lovely Reality Televised”, was selected to participate at Cannes SFC 2013, Havana International Film Festival and Biarritz Film Festival, in both official competition. Another short, “Estonia” (29 min, 2012), was also at Cannes, Biarritz (in competition), Havana (in competition), FID Marseille and Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, where got the Audience Award for best film in Spanish. Born in São Paulo (Brazil) inside an immigrant Italian family, Lucas studied theater and music in his youth, at Macunaima School of Drama and Free University of Music Tom Jobim (renamed Emesp-SP). After graduating as a professional actor, he was admitted at University of São Paulo (USP) at the career of Journalism. Through USP, he attended exchange programs at universities of Granada (Spain) and Genova (Italy), in Sociology and Arts departments. Back to America, he was admitted at Cuba International School of Cinema (EICTV), founded by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, where he frequented the 3-year course with master in documentary film-making. Lucas has also worked as film photographer, film editor, photographer and journalist at press agencies (as BBC and Italian ANSA), television producer, and recently as fashion photographer and assistant for Fashion market and magazines (as Vogue and Elle).

NORA MANDRAY

Nora is an award-winning French filmmaker based in Berlin. She crafts stories for both old and new media. Her films have screened at major international film festivals, including Berlinale, Hot Docs, and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She holds a double-Master degree from UCLA Film School and the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris. She works with Jason B. Kohl as MAKO.

JASON B. KOHL

Jason is a half Austrian but mostly American filmmaker. His films have played SXSW, Los Angeles, Locarno, BFI London, been finalists for the Student Academy Awards, and Vimeo Staff Picked. Jason is currently financing his first feature film, with production planned for 2016. His first nonfiction book, Film School; A Practical Guide to an Impractical Decision, will be published by the Focal Press in 2015. He has an MFA in Directing from UCLA Film School. He works with Nora Mandray as MAKO.

Emeka Ogboh (born 1977) is a Nigerian sound and installation artist best known for his soundscapes of life in Lagos. Trained as an artist, he began working with sounds that characterize cities following an Egyptian multimedia art program. He presents unmodified field recordings from Lagos city life—for instance, its danfo share taxi system—in gallery installations with headphones and speakers. His non-audio work uses iconography from Lagos city life. He participated in the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program and 2015 Venice Biennale, and received the 2016 Bremen Böttcherstraße Art Award. His work has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, American National Museum of African Art, Menil Collection, Casino Luxembourg, and Kiasma. Critics noted his soundscapes' chaos and complexity, and his focus on recontextualizing rather than transforming the city's sounds.

Antonino D’Ambrosio is an American-Italian author, filmmaker and visual artist based in Brooklyn, NYC. His books include A Heartbeat and A Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears and the upcoming Where the Future Comes From: The Art of Creative Response in a Time of Conflict. 

D’Ambrosio’s films have played theatrically here and abroad and have been broadcast on BBC, RAI, Sky, SBS, ARTE, CBC, Sundance Channel/AMC Networks, RTL, CBC and more around the world. His latest film Frank Serpico, recently premiered in the Spotlight section of the Tribeca Film Festival and has been screened at dozens of film festivals around the world. The film was released theatrically in the US by IFC Sundance Selects. D’Ambrosio has been awarded the Pillar Award from the Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights for the film. He’s the first artist ever to receive this award.

He is the founder of the nonprofit La Lutta NMC, selected by The Nation as one of the top independent media groups. D’Ambrosio’s writing appears in The New York Times, The Nation, Moviemaker, Huffington Post. D’Ambrosio was New York University’s Gallatin Lecturer, an honor bestowed upon a contemporary artist creating innovative and socially engaging work.