Takis Bardakos is a cinematographer and filmmaker who studied at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos. With a long-standing career as a Director of Photography in film and TV, he has also directed and lensed numerous cultural documentaries for ERT and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the founder of "Squarefilms," a cultural association dedicated to the production and promotion of Greek documentary filmmaking. His work has been featured and awarded at multiple international and domestic film festivals.

Since 2002, Victor Quijada and RUBBERBAND have not only redefined the codes of breaking within an institutional context and enlivened the Quebec dance scene, but have opened the way for new creators fascinated by this dance form. Armed with a technique he conceived for dancers, the RUBBERBAND Method – an electrifying vocabulary combining the energy of hip-hop, the refinement of classical ballet, and the angular quality of contemporary dance – and some 40 creations and collaborations in Canada and abroad behind him, Victor Quijada has always continued to evolve and innovate throughout his prolific career. Born and raised in Los Angeles, the child of Mexican parents, Victor first danced in the b-boying circles and hip-hop clubs of his native city. He performed with Rudy Perez from 1994 to 1996, then moved to New York City to join THARP!. After spending three years with that company and following a stint with Ballets Tech, in 2000 he came to Montreal to join Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. In 2002, he founded RUBBERBAND, throwing himself into deconstructing the choreographic principles he had learned by blending them with the raw ideology of his street dance origins. His creations – numerous short works and 15 full-length productions – are distinguished by a powerful theatricality, the energy of improvisation, and certain codes of film language, the whole sculpted with an incomparable precision of movement. For several years now, Victor has taught the RUBBERBAND Method throughout the world in workshops and internships for many dance companies, dance schools, and universities, as well as on a yearly basis in RUBBERBAND’s workshop for professional dancers, the Summer and Winter Intensive in Montreal. As guest choreographer, he has created new works for dance and circus companies; notably in return commissions for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Scottish Dance Theatre. Besides his stage productions, Victor has been involved in almost a dozen dance films, as director, choreographer, or dramaturge. His short film, Hasta La Próxima, was a finalist at the American Choreography Awards in 2004. He also choreographed the music videos Man I Used to Be by k-os, La garde by Alexandre Désilets, and Elton John’s Blue Wonderful. His Gravity of Center – The Movie won Best Experimental Short at the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival of 2012, among other awards, and was shown at several exhibitions and national and international festivals. In the area of peer recognition, Victor Quijada was artist-in-residence at Usine C (2004 and 2006) and at Place des Arts (2007-2011), and has won many awards, including Britain’s National Dance Award for Outstanding Modern Repertory (2003), the Bonnie Bird North American Award (2003, U.K.), the Peter Darrell Choreography Award (2003, U.K.), the International Touring Award of the Canadian Dance Alliance (2012), and two awards from the Princess Grace Foundation-USA (Choreography Fellowship, 2010; Work in Progress Residency, 2016). In December 2017, Victor Quijada received the award for Cultural Diversity at the Prix de la danse de Montréal and was, in 2019, one of the finalists for the 34th Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal as well as among the four finalists for the 2019 Charles-Biddle Prize, instigated by Culture pour tous and the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation and Inclusion (MIFI). In 2024, Victor has been named Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for his choreographic work, a prestigious recognition for all his achievements. In 2025, Victor received the Charles III Coronation Medal and became a Companion of the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec.

Pascale Abou Jamra is a Lebanese filmmaker, director, and producer based in Qatar, known for her work in documentary and short film production, as well as cultural and museum storytelling projects. She has a background in film studies and began her career in Lebanon before moving into regional and Qatar-based productions. Over the years, she has directed, written, and produced a range of films and documentaries that often explore identity, memory, and social narratives in the Arab world. Some of her notable work includes the short film Behind Me Olive Trees (2012), which was selected for Cannes Cinéfondation and received international recognition. More recently, she has worked in Qatar Museums’ digital production team, contributing to cultural documentaries such as From Here to Anywhere: The Story of Football in Qatar, which highlights Qatar’s heritage and was internationally awarded. Alongside filmmaking, she is also active in cultural content production and storytelling for institutions, including museum-related projects and digital narratives that support Qatar’s contemporary arts scene.

Collective Director Bio Days of Extraordinary People is a 23-minute short documentary created collectively by the participants and facilitators of the Cinema Workshop of the Lucien Bonnafé Adult Day Center, a mental health service operated by AmKE Symvallein, a non-profit organization based in Athens, Greece, in collaboration with PLOES Social Cooperative (KoiSPE PLORI). The filmmakers are people with lived experience of mental health challenges, many of whom had no previous filmmaking experience. Through a participatory creative process, they took on every aspect of the production—including directing, cinematography, sound recording and set design—to create a documentary that gives voice to their own experiences. Rather than being filmed by others, the participants became the storytellers themselves, using cinema as a means of expression, empowerment and social participation.

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Jake grew up with a dream to be the general manager of the New York Jets. He wanted to lead them to a Super Bowl for the first time since 1969. That dream got him all the way through college with a sports management major, but it ended there. He soon realized that dream was always a decoy for his real passions, storytelling and using his imagination. That's why he started taking "film certificate classes" on the side while at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Jake always had an interest for fun people and places. That continued while caddying during the summers, working 4 years in the Rutgers student centers, and waiting tables for 2 years. After graduation he spent 9 years at the production company, Malka Media. Starting out as an intern and working his way up to Senior Cinematographer, Editor, and Director. He has multiple cinematographer and producer credits on broadcast work. Some of the clients included Showtime Sports, Showtime Boxing, and the WNBA. Years of combat sports work convinced Jake to start training Muay Thai himself since 2023. When he’s not training or studying French on Duolingo, Jake is an avid local NYC sports fan. Career wise, Jake is finally where he always wanted to be, an independent filmmaker. He's using his 10+ years of trained production experience, combined with his vast human experiences, to tell the stories he's always wanted to tell.

George Georgakopoulos was born in Athens, Greece. He started an academic career at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where he finished his doctorate in the department of Civil Engineering. But his passion for motion pictures led him to enrol in the School of Film at the Aristotle University. So far, he has participated in a number of film and stage productions, undertaking various crew positions. He has also written and directed three short films. Currently, he is writing a script for a feature film with the financial support of the Greek Film Center.

Dr Ismini Sakellaropoulou is a movie and theater director, she works as a member of the Educational Television and Digital Media Division of the Greek Ministry of Education (2023–present) and has contributed to national and international theatre education programs. Her film work includes The Delusion of the Mind (2015), the award-winning short Fragmenta (2016), and the feature film Baboushka – The Last Living Doll (2019). She has also written and directed the feature documentary Justification 3,368 (2021) on the Kalavryta Holocaust, and the acclaimed short documentary Kalavryta–Guernica (2022), co-produced by the Peloponnese International Documentary Festival, Zinebi Bilbao, the Region of Western Greece, and ERT, which received the Audience Award for Best Short Documentary at the Chania Film Festival.

Filmmaker and Doctor of Philosophy in Film Studies. Graduated with first-class honours from the department of Philosophy & History of Science at the University of Athens, parallel to studying Film & TV Studies at New York College Athens. Among other films, he is the co-writer, director and co-producer of the first Greek docudrama trilogy regarding Scientific Revolution. His first feature script won an honorable mention by the Scriptwriters Guild of Greece in 2021. He works as a post-doctoral researcher at NCSR Demokritos, creative director at AiTHERION and adjunct lecturer at NKUA & HOU.

I was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1981. I have studied sports journalism, cinema and documentary film. I have filmed, edited and produced eight short documentary films (98, The Crossing, The Collector, The Port, The Picket Line, I Sometimes Maybe, When I die let the Universe burn, Trash Walk). My first ever feature-length documentary film (Freedom through Football) was the outcome of my PhD research project at Newcastle University looking at football fan activism in Greece. After finishing my MA degree in Sport and Media at the University of Brighton, I wanted to explore the documentary film genre even further. I have always been fascinated by the way, filmmakers could research sociological and political issues through sport themed documentaries.