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.

BLIESBRO, originally from the Rhine basin, is a duo of poets, musicians, digital artists, directors, screenwriters, and film producers. With a multidisciplinary artistic approach, they seek to develop a form of “social poetry,” a way of inhabiting the world poetically.

In 2015, BLIESBRO conceptualized the musical documentary transmedia project Soundhunters in co-production with ARTE. Soundhunters was conceived to transform the world into an infinite musical instrument. The transmedia project was released in 2015 in collaboration with numerous international artists including Jean Michel Jarre, Simonne Jones, and Blixa Bargeld. In 2016, the duo was invited to present their work at Lincoln Center during the New York Film Festival. In 2016, the project was placed under the patronage of UNESCO.

In 2019, the duo wrote and directed their first feature-length documentary, Zero Impunity, on the impunity of sexual violence in times of war. Combining animation and live action, the film is considered one of the pioneering films in this field, particularly for its ability to “depict the unfilmed.” BLIESBRO was invited by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to participate in the festival's traditional “Cinema Masterclass” to discuss 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 duo released the immersive poetry installation Ceci est mon cœur about a child's reconciliation with their body. Combining video mapping and connected clothing, the duo used spoken word technique for the first time. Ceci est mon cœur made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and was then selected out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2025, the project was honored at the prestigious Breakthroughs in Storytelling Awards at Columbia University in New York City.

Wishing to continue its artistic research into the hybridization of forms and the use of spoken word, BLIESBRO is developing, in line with Ceci est mon cœur, the immersive poetry artwork Les Gens de la Pluie, scheduled for release in 2027. BLIESBRO is also developing its first animated feature film, Lyra et Armin.

Jury

In 2020, BLIESBRO is member 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.