Jury of TIDF 2012

International Feature Length Competition Jury

Micha X. PELED

Micha X. PELED was born and raised in Israel before immigrating to the U.S. His career has included work as an importer, a prison guard, freelance journalist, political campaign manager and adventure tour guide. He founded Teddy Bear Films in 1999. In 2000 he completed STORE WARS: WHEN WAL-MART COMES TO TOWN, which won Best Documentary at the San Francisco IFF. Since then he started working on The Globalization Trilogy aiming to explore the layers of the production- consumption chain. Trilogy films won 20 international awards, aired on over 30 channels and screened in more than 100 film festivals.

Tammy CHEUNG

Tammy CHEUNG was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong when she was three. She studied Sociology at a local college and Film Studies at Montreal’s Concordia University. In 1986, she founded the Chinese International Film Festival in Montreal. She moved back to Hong Kong in 1994. Cheung made her directorial debut in documentary filmmaking in 1999. Her works include INVISIBLE WOMEN, SECONDARY SCHOOL, RICE DISTRIBUTION, MOVING, WAR, JULY, SPEAKING UP, VILLAGE MIDDLE SCHOOL, SPEAKING UP 2, ELECTION and AFTER THE QUAKE.

WU Yii-Feng

WU Yii-Feng is a veteran of filmmaking. He was graduated from film school at Chinese Culture University and established Panoramic Image Studio in 1988. His documentary series include the EARTHLY LIGHTS series and the LIFE REFLECTION series; documentary works include MOON CHILDREN, NEIGHBORS OF CHEN TSAI GEN, and GIFT OF LIFE. After 921 Earthquake occurred in Taiwan, he moved into the affected Nan-Tou area and completed his work GIFT OF LIFE in 2003, winning Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival Excellence Award and French Nantes Film Festival Audience Choice Best Documentary Award. In 2005 he was recruited as a judge for the Yamagata International Documentary Film.

International Mid-Length & Short Competition Jury

Janne NISKALA

Janne NISKALA is a media graduate from Kemi-Tornio University in Applied Sciences. He's the managing director and a producer for production company Vaski Filmi ltd. He has worked as a freelance cameraman in and one of the Directors in award winning film REBELS WITH A CAUSE (2008). He has participated in many documentary developing projects and workshops and worked in the international Feature films, mainly as a fixer, location scout and location manager in Northern Finland area. He's also been a teacher in various media schools since 2003. He is the chairman and set up member for the Film Producers and Professionals association of Northern Finland (Pava).

KUSAKABE Katsuyoshi

KUSAKABE Katsuyoshi is Assistant Festival Director and PR Manager of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. He was born in 1976, Yamagata, Japan. After receiving BA in Education from Yamagata University in 1998 and working with a local cinema house, he joined YIDFF in February 2007. He has served as a PR Manager as well as a member of selection committee for the International Competition program since then. With the recent worldwide development of digital cinema, he has been engaged in a research project on creating/screening high-end digital materials in order to support independent documentary filmmakers technically.

Leh-Chyun LIN

Leh-Chyun LIN is the Director of International Department and Chief of Documentary Platform of Public Television Service of Taiwan. Mr. Lin received his Master’s Degree from University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism; he began his career as a print journalist in New York and Hong Kong. In the past 20 years, he has worked as producer, program director, production director, news director and content director for the commercial and public television, as well as Internet industry in Taiwan. He is also an Adjunct Professional Expert of the Graduate Institute of Journalism, National Taiwan University.

Asia Vision Award Jury

Ange WIEBERDINK

After her study, Ange Wieberdink started working at the University of Amsterdam, in development cooperation. In her work social change and the interests of minorities have always been the focus. After the university she joined an organisation with the objective to support independent media in ‘the South’. She was the coordinator of the programme in Latin America. More than fifteen years ago she decided she wanted to make films herself. Through her academic work she is more aware of her own ‘cultural luggage’. This enables her to look at ‘others’ with an open mind. She was one if the founders of ZieZo, a foundation producing films to support intercultural communication (among others As she is 2009 and A New Day 2012). With personal stories in her films she presents social issues in a natural way. Escaped has been nominated in the category Social and Humanitarian Documentaries of Banff 2012/Canada.

YI Si Cheng

YI Si Cheng was born in Yunnan, China in 1976. He graduated with a Bachelor in Chinese Language and Literature and a Master’s in Visual Anthropology from Yunnan University. He completed his PhD in Chinese Studies at Kiel University, Germany. Since 2003 he has served as a coordinator for the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival (Yunfest). Currently he is the Program Director of Yunfest. He has been the jury for Hong Kong International Film Festival in 2009 and Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival in 2011.

HSIAO Chu-Chen

HSIAO Chu-Chen is a Taiwanese documentary maker. Her works include BLOOD STAINED YOUTH, THE RED LEAF LEGEND won her Best Documentary Film award at both the Golden Horse Awards and Taipei Film Awards in 1999. In 2000, GRANDMA’S HAIRPIN won Taiwan Award at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival and the Best Documentary award at Golden Horse Awards. WHITE DOVE PROGRAM-THE REVIEW OF TAIWANESE NEW MOVIES IN 20 YEARS was chosen as the closing film of the 2002 Golden Horse Film Festival.

Taiwan Award Jury

Giona A. NAZZARO

Giona A. NAZZARO (Zurich, 1965) is a film critic, journalist and a writer. He currently writes for the Italian weekly Film TV and is part of Filmcritica’s editorial committee. He has been a member of the selection committee for the Torino Film Festival, programmer for the Festival dei Popoli (Florence - Italy) and works for the Festival Internazionale del Film di Locarno. He was a correspondent for Extra L’altro cinema directed by Mario Sesti. He is now currently working in the selection committee of the Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma and programs for Visions du Réel (Nyon - Switzerland).

CHO Young-Jung

CHO Young-Jung studied Film Studies at the University of Iowa and received Ph.D. from Chung-Ang University in Korea. She was a part-time instructor at the various colleges and involved in the Busan International Film Festival since 1998. In 2002, she started as a program coordinator in charge of Korean Cinema Retrospective. In 2007 she was appointed to be the chief manager of Asian Film Academy (AFA) and consequently led her to a position of a programmer for Asian Cinema Section which is mainly responsible for the special program, shorts and documentary. She is now a selection committee member for Asian Cinema Fund supporting independent feature films and documentaries from Asia.

Wei-Ssu CHIEN

Wei-Ssu CHIEN is an independent filmmaker, an adjunct assistant professor in National Chiao Tung University, the Chairwoman of the board in Taiwan Women’s Film Association and that of Women Make Waves International Film Festival. She has been involved in documentary filmmaking regarding women’s issues interwove national and historical issues; such as ECHO WITH WOMEN’S VOICES: THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL MOVEMENTS (1997), Public Television documentary series: The Pioneer Women of Taiwan in the 20th Century (1999), SHADOW DANCING AT MA TSU (2000). In 2003, her documentary film VIVA TONAL-THE DANCE AGE, co-directed with Chen- Ti Kuo, won the Best Documentary Award in 2003 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. She is currently working on the Doctoral Program in Art Creation and Theory at Tainan National University of the Arts.