Festival Guests

Biographies


Akshay Shodhan Naojee
Director / Mauritius
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Annicka Spangenberg
Director / Mauritius
Sinema koltar #4

Annicka is a budding artist. Urged by her desire to understand, to capture and to free herself from society’s constraints, she explores the processes of life and learning through her art. In all humility, she unveils and questions the daily things that are often taken for granted: the inexorable passing of time, the expectations of our communities, the circular nature of love, the mechanisms of modern life.

Daughter of artists, with the head always in another world, Annicka evades “normality” and passive living. In her work, she tries to foray a path outside the everydayness of living in order to encounter the very essence of life and transformation.


Azim Moollan
Director / Mauritius
Soirée d’Ouverture 2015
La Tête Ailleurs #3
Sinema Koltar #3

Born in Mauritius in 1985, Azim Moollan is director of photography on shooting sets, artistic photographer during his free time, wannabe poet in real life, and apprentice-artist in his dreams.

In 2014, he takes part in Ile Courts Festival’s animation workshop Dessine-moi un Court (Draw me a Short). At the end of this artistic residency, his project Rod Zegwi dan Pikan is selected to be produced by Porteurs d’Images association within the framework of the 2015 Film Fabrik program.


Bertrand Rouchit
Film Curator / France
Sinema Koltar #3
Courts Toujours 2015
Culottes Courtes 2015

I was born in 1974 in Clermont-Ferrand. Father of 13-month-old twin girls. I have an educational background in law.

Before the Clermont-Ferrand Festival, I worked for the film library of the same city, and I was the founder of comme une image, an audiovisual communications and advertisement society. I have also collaborated with the Vidéoformes Festival for many years. And I’ve been a handball coach for three years… as there’s more to life than just cinema. My involvement with Clermont-Ferrand Festival dates for more than 10 years, and I’ve been active with Sauve Qui Peut le Court Métrage for five years. I manage the audiences (welcoming people, overseeing the ticket office, accommodating new audiences) and am in charge of curating our « Regards d’Afrique »/”Views from Africa” and youth programs. I’m also on the national selection board for French films since 5 years now. My involvement is also in the strategic regionalisation of cinema (eg: with the post-festival Public’s Choice screenings) and with the « Passeurs d’images » project aimed at low-income and “difficult” neighbourhoods.


Chantal Richard
Director / France
Speaker . Professional Workshops 2015

After studies at the IDHEC, Chantal Richard directs as many fiction films as documentaries. Each genre helps enrich the other, and their makings are opportunities for both literal and metaphorical travelling. Her first feature-length work, Lili et le baobab, with Roman Bohringer, took her to Senegal and Cherbourg. Whether it is in faraway countries or the Lower Normandy of her childhood, her camera likes taking its time to scrutinize the world.

She is currently working on the script of a fiction film, Le monde de Pascal, which has for setting the wooded countryside of Normandy, and is preparing a documentary entitled La ville idéale and which will take her to South Korea.


David Constantin
Director / Mauritius
Incursion de Long

David Constantin lives and works in Mauritius. After studying cinematography in France for 5 years, he settled back in Mauritius in 2003. This same year David directed and produced the short film Colas and Diego the Forbidden. Since then, he directed several films (short fiction and documentaries), such as Bisanvil (Audience Award in Amiens), Les Accords de Bella et Made in Mauritius (Fondation Pellegrini Award, Milan). He also co-directed From so Far, a series of 4 documentaries on the various origins of the Mauritian population.

In 2004, David Constantin founded the production company Caméléon Production. He is also the founder of the non-profit organization Porteurs d’Images, that has been co-organizing Île Courts-International Short Film Festival in Mauritius since 2007.

His first feature film, Lonbraz Kann, came out in theaters in 2015.


Damien Dittberner
Director / Mauritius
Soirée d’Ouverture 2015
Sinema koltar #1

A genuine wandering soul, brought up on three continents, the young director Damien Dittberner finally puts down his suitcase for good in Mauritius. Born in 1984 in Brussels, he grows up in Washington, all the while never losing sight of his ancestral island of Mauritius.

After studying Journalism and Communications at the University of Delaware and then moving to the Czech Republic to enroll in the Prague Film School, Damien joins the audiovisual scene in New York. This experience allows him to rub shoulders with highly-experienced directors and cameramen along a variety of projects: short and feature-length films, commercials, videoclips. It’s in 2011 that Damien decides to move to Mauritius, where he has set up his own production house, Mocean Film, where he is producer, director and editor.

In 2014, Damien takes part in the scriptwriting workshop Écrire Court of Île Courts Festival. At the end of this artistic residency, his project is selected to be produced by the association Porteurs d’Images within its 2015 Film Fabrik program. So, that year, Damien shoots his first short fiction film, Boutik, and a documentary about the island.

Doushan Sewtohul
Director / Mauritius
Sinema Koltar #2


Doushan Sewtohul has been an artist for more than 15 years. Passionate about all kinds of arts, he has always been on the lookout for new creative fields. Talented, he has received numerous prizes at painting, design and music contests. Today, he has turned to filmmaking so as to participate in the development of a high-quality local cinema industry.

Florent Laport
Director / Reunion Island
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Jon Rabaud
Director / Mauritius
Sinema Koltar #2

Born in Mauritius in 1990, Jon Rabaud is a director. Influenced by American, French, Scandinavian and Japanese cinema, it’s in Montreal (Canada) that he takes official film classes and shoots his first short fiction piece, Cold Blooded, in 2011. It is screened the very same year at the Ile Courts – Short Film Festival of Mauritius. He also participates in the festival’s workshop Écrire court, where he drafts his second script, La Rencontre, which is shot the following year.

A psychological thriller, it is screened at the opening of Ile Courts in 2012 before embarking upon an international journey, visiting the 24th Carthage Film Festival (Tunisia) in 2012, the 35th Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival (France) in 2013, the 66th Cannes Film Festival (France), the 34th Durban Film Festival (South Africa) and the 20th International Film Festival of Africa and the FIFAI Islands (Reunion Island). The film will also be screened outside the framework of festivals in Germany and, again, in France. After La Rencontre, Jon Rabaud makes two other short films, Waiting and It’s not a Joke, presented at Ile Courts as well in 2014 and 2015.

In 2014, he shoots Carton Rouge, which also ends up being screened at Ile Courts in addition to the International Film Festival of Zanzibar (2015), the Seoul Short Film Festival (South Korea) and the Split Film Festival (Croatia).

Gilde Razafitsihadinoina
Director / Madagascar
Sinema Koltar #2


Katia Bayer
Editor-in-Chief and Journalist / France
Speaker . Youth Workshops 2015

After studies in cultural mediation in Brussels, Katia Bayer collaborates for many years with Cinergie, an online Belgian film magazine. In 2009, she sets up Format Court (www.formatcourt.com), an online magazine dedicated to international short films, of which she is the editor-in-chief.

For three years now, she has been organizing and hosting Format Court screenings at the Studio des Ursulines, an independent Parisian theatre. Affiliated with the UPCB (Union de la Presse Cinématographique Belge), she is also a member of the pre-selection committee for short and animated films of the Académie des César.

Kamaria Hassan Ali
Director / Zanzibar
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Krishna Luchoomun
Director / Mauritius
Sinema Koltar #4

Born in 1962, Krishna Luchoomun is an artist and filmmaker. He has produced a documentary series, narrative films and experimental films.


logo_lakazanime
Lakazanimé
Anaïs and Nicolas Belloni / Directors
Culottes courtes 2015

The ‘Cinéma d’animation’ workshop is offered by lakazanimé is provided by two instructors :

– Anaïs Belloni, Audiovisual degree holder (advanced technician certificate of CADASE, Toulon, France), has studied the technics of script writing, filming and editing,
– Nicolas Belloni, DNSEP degree holder with the congratulations of the jury from the school of Fine arts of Toulon, France, has studied visual art techniques, animation (stop motion) and video. He is a plastician and has exhibited at the Art Gallery Hélène de Senneville and also the Bridge Festiva in Mauritius.

We have been instructors for four and nine years respectively for the Yenamart association (France) for which we have directed our workshops « Cinéma d’animation » in different institutions such as primary schools, colleges, outdoor centres and holiday clubs.

The workshop « Cinéma d’animation » consists in showing to the children how to direct their own animation film by going through different steps :

– choosing the story, writing their script and creating the story board,
– creating the film set and the characters needed by using different visual art techniques (drawing, painting, plasticine…etc),
– animating the characters by following the image clipping (story board),
– sound dubbingof characters if there is any dialogues,
– editing (this part however is rarely done by the children because of the complexity of the programs).

This workshop helps the children to create stories by using materials that are within their reach and at the same time teaches them the difficulties to comme to animated images.
Each participant receives an email containing theirs work and those are available on Youtube and on our Facebook page.


Laza
Film Director and Director of the RFC / Madagascar
Sinema Koltar #1

The Film director, producer and General director of festival Laza Razanajatovo, studied cinema in Paris (la Fémis, ESEC). In 2006, he created the festival Les Rencontres du Film Court de Madagascar with the support of the Institut Français, the film festival of Madagascar. He encourages with his activism the projects of a quantity of of young aspiring directors. Since 2006, he is based in Antananarivo where he directs and produces most of his films with the production Company Rozifilms.


Lorna Shalini Senivassen
Director / Mauritius
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Mahamoud Ibrahim
Director / Comoros
Sinema Koltar #4


Marius Aymart Esparon
Director / Seychelles
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Nadia Ben Rachid
Film Editor / France – Tunisia
Speaker . Professional Workshops 2015

Nadia Ben Rachid has been a head film editor for more than 25 years. Known for both her work on fiction films and documentaries, she has won multiple international awards, including the 1st Final Cut Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2013 for Le Challat de Tunis of Kaouther Ben Hanier.

Nadia Ben Rachid started her career as assistant editor to Hervé Deluze, Sam O’Steen and Yves Deschamps. This made her have hands-on learning experience with filmmakers like Roman Polanski (Pirates, Bitter Moon, Frantic), Henri Verneuil (Les Morfalous), Caude Berri (Uranus and Germinal), Agnieska Holland and Roland Joffé.

These days, she is the regular head editor of Abderrahmane Sissako’s films, for example for Timbuktu, which received the 2015 César for best editing, La Vie sur Terre (Best Editing at the 1999 FESPACO), En attendant le bonheur (2002) and Bamako (2006). She also now has to her credit many films of Anne Aghion (My Neigbour, My Killer), Yamina Benguigui (Incha’allah Dimanche, Aïcha ) and other first-rate directors.


Ahmed Nassila Thani Said Ali
Director / Comoros
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Newton I. Aduaka
Director and Producer / Nigeria
Patron of the 8th edition of the Île Courts Festival . Opening Night 2015

In 2007, with Ezra, Newton I Aduaka won the Etalon d’or de Yennenga at the 20th edition of FESPACO. Premiering in competition at the Sundance film festival, it was nominated for the Humanitas Prize, screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes and was awarded the United Nation’s prize for Peace and Tolerance and various other awards, including 6 grand jury prizes. In 2008 Aduaka was invited to speak at TED. Prior, in 2001 his multi-award winning indie film debut feature, Rage, was released nation-wide in the UK to critical acclaim. A recipient of the Carlton television multicultural award, Ford Foundation grantee, Newton was Filmmaker in Residence at the Cinéfondation and writer in residence at The Moulin d’Ande.

He was commissioned by the Society of French Directors (SRF) and Quinzaine des Réalisateurs to make a short film on “Cinema and Globalization”. The result was Funeral. His short films, have screened, in official competition and won awards at numerous film festivals such as the Mostra de Venise, Oberhausen film festival, Claremont Ferrand Intl. film festival, Uppsala Intl. short film festival. One Man’s Show, his third feature opened at Fespaco 2013, winning the Critics’ Prize. The film had its US premier at the Mill Valley Film festival. Aduaka lives in Paris.


Rathindran Rajendra Prasad
Director / India
Sinema Koltar #2


Riantsoa Randrianantenaina
Director / Madagascar
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Renaud Cohen
Scriptwriter and Director / France
Speaker . Professional Workshops 2015

After a Masters degree in Chinese, Renaud Cohen joins the Parisian film school of Fémis, from where he obtains another degree in 1992. While a film student, he shoots his first narrative short film, Réflexions d’un garçon, which wins numerous prizes. He then works on multiple documentaries, including Bienvenue au village modèle (2006), Les Petits Pains du Peuple (1999), L’Hôtel des Réfugiés (1999), Le Maître des Singes (1996) and Porteurs d’ombres électriques (1993).

In 1998, he wins an scriptwriting residency at the Villa Médicis. A fan of burlesque, Renaud Cohen cites Woody Allen, Nanni Moretti, Ernest Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin as key influences. In 2000, Renaud Cohen releases his first feature-length film, Quand on sera grand, which is selected at the San Sebastian Festival and the Premiers Plans Festival of Angers.

Eleven years later, he makes a comeback to the big screen with Au cas où je n’aurais pas la palme d’or, a comedy about a 40-something filmmaker who, discovering that he has a potentially terminal illness, decides to put his everything into the shooting of what might be his very last film.


Roman Soufflet
Director / Reunion Island
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Sandeep Mane
Director / India
Sinema Koltar #1

Sandeep Mane, the film director, was born in Dapoli, a village in Maharashtra. He perceived his Master’s Degree in drama by entering into a reputed theatre institute, Lalit kala Kendra, Pune University. During this period he worked along with some prominent theatre personalities and got opportunities of studying various art forms. After finishing it, He invested his time in acting in many plays and also assisting on a few of the short films. For experimental theatre he directed and acted in Girish Karnard’s famous play, “HAYVADANA” under his own production house called ‘Curtain Call’.

In 2013 under the same production house he written & directed “Red History”, a short film.”RED HISTORY” Won Best Music Award in 3rd my Mumbai short film festival 2014. Recently he written & directed “PAANDHRYA”, a short film. .


Sitraka Randriamahaly
Director / Madagascar
Sinema Koltar #1
Sinema Koltar #2
Sinema Koltar #4

Sitraka Randriamahaly, young Malagasy filmmaker, developed an interest in animation very early on. A lover of the graphic arts in general, he took drawing and painting courses at the German-Malagasy Circle (Goethe Zentrum) as a teenager, but it’s only after his university studies that he decided to launch himself into animated filmmaking.

Like most Malagasy animation artists, he started off as self-taught, learning through creating, enriched by workshops, exchanges, residencies and short-term programs lasting a few days to months each (Fontevraud, ILOI, EMCA, Les Gobelins…)

Sitraka Randriamahaly has many films to his credit, from « sokaky (the tortoise) » in 2009 to « rough life » in 2015, which received the prize for best pan-African animation at the 10th Rencontres du Film Court de Madagascar (Meetings of Short Films of Madagascar). Some of his work has been showcased at larger festivals like the FESPACO or Annecy. In general, his films tell short, simple and oftentimes poetic stories, but above everything else, they tell his own life story about the world in which he lives and dreams.


Sophie Robert
Director / Mauritius
Soirée d’Ouverture 2015
La Tête Ailleurs #4
Sinema Koltar #4

Sophie is from Mauritius and studied law in England. While working in the City of London, she obtained an MA in Film Culture and Industry (with Distinction) from the University of Westminster. Her penchant for writing led her to pursue several script workshops, in particular at the Script Factory in London. She has also participated in acting workshops and assisted at the Raindance Film Festival.

Back home, Sophie was selected to participate in the scriptwriting workshop at the Festival île Courts (2012), following which she directed The English Lesson, her first film.

Involving herself further in the domain of film, she joined the team of the Mauritius feature film Lonbraz Kann (2013) and was responsible among other duties for casting extras.

In 2014, Sophie takes part in the scriptwriting workshop at the heart of Île Courts Festival and, the following year, she shoots the short film Phone Connection. Sophie continues to pursue her writing and is developing various projects.


Tanveer Naojee
Director / Mauritius
Winner of the EcoClip contest
La Tête Ailleurs #2


Tim Skousen
Director / United States
Speaker . Professional Workshops 2015

Tim Skousen has won multiple awards as scriptwriter and director, notably at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2009 for his documentary series about football in schools.

His first feature film, The Sasquatch Gang, won him the audience award at the Slamdance Festival as well as the title of best director at the 2006 Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. His second feature-length production, Zero Percent, received numerous festivals prizes as well, including that for best documentary at Las Vegas, Urbanworld, Breckenridge, Vail, Arlington and Ojai Film, in addition to the Silver Heart Award at the Dallas International Film Festival.

His latest film, Thunder Broke the Heavens (2015), was showcased in various festivals. Holder of a BFA in Film from Brigham Young University, Tim Skousen grew up in the US, the Bahamas, Chile and the UK. He currently lives in Utah, in the US itself.


Yannick Durhône
Director / Mauritius
Sinema Koltar #1


This Campaign has ended. No more pledges can be made.