In its 12th edition, the Documentary film workshop started on Monday, July 3 in Bata Village, Arad County.

“Make all the mistakes you have never allowed yourself to make until now. This will lead you to another level.” (Dan Nuțu advised all the 12 participants)

After a selection process, 12 young filmmakers having audio-visual experience were chosen at the beginning of June to participate in Aristoteles Workshop. The annually programme is  dedicated to film directors, DOPs and editors interested in creating documentary films under the guidance of professionals from the film industry. The workshop has been organized for the last 12 years by actor Dan Nuțu, together with Cristina Hoffman, who was part of the selection committee of Berlin and Cannes film festivals. Applications were submitted from all over the world, including New York, Tel Aviv, North Africa, Mexico and Vietnam.

Here is the list of participants in this year’s edition: Jasmina Beširević (Croatia, directing), Ștefan Pavlovic (Serbia, directing), Omar Shami (Lebanon, directing), Iulia Stoian (Romania, directing), Aylin Gökmen (Turkey, DOP), Michal Shanny (Israel, DOP), Bahar Shoghi (Iran, DOP), Marianna Vas (Hungary, DOP), Hedda Bernaszky (Romania, editing), Miruna Minculescu (Romania, editing), Rareș Hantiu (Romania, editing) and Hong Nguyen Quan (Vietnam, editing).

The experts that will coordinate the students are: Thierry Garrel (France), Nino Kirtadze (Georgia) and John Appel (Netherlands).

Until now, the participants of Aristoteles Workshop have met French expert Thierry Garrel, former director of the documentary film department of ARTE France, who has over 40 years of experience in the field.

Until 5 August, the participants will go through all the stages of the making of a documentary film. During the first week, they went through the theoretical part, delivered by Thierry Garrel and they explored the area in search of subjects. Four practical work weeks will follow, during which the four teams formed of a director, a cameraman and an editor will go through all the stages of the process – from finding the subject, to filming and editing – under the guidance of the tutors Nino Kirtadze and John Appel.

In the end, the projects developed within the workshop will be presented at Cinema Arta of Arad to a jury made of international professionals, and the best documentary will be rewarded with a prize amounting to 1.500 EUR.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.