Professors
Daniel Iftene PhD Assistant Professor
Daniel Iftene, PhD
Assistant Professor
Daniel Iftene specializes in journalism, focusing on cultural reporting and criticism.
He completed his PhD in Theatre and Performing Arts at Babeș-Bolyai University in 2015,researching the film productions made by Romanian theatre directors and the theatre productions realized by film directors in Romania between 1900 to 1989.
His research is focused on film history and theory, narrative structures and creative writing for audiovisual productions. In the past years, his film reviews and essays appeared in well-known Romanian cultural periodicals. His projects include film literacy workshops organized for various film festivals and cultural organizations, targeting the young audience.
His publications include: “Sexual monstrosity in contemporary cult TV series: the case of the American Horror Story”,Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 2016; “Imposing Audience Dictatorship on Romanian Filmmakers in the pre-Ceausescu Era”, Cluj-Napoca: Eikon, 2014; “Theatrical Influences In the Early Romanian Narrative Cinema”, Cluj-Napoca: Eikon,2012;“Portraits of the Young in the New Romanian Cinema (2000-2011)”,Proceedings of The Digital Generation: Self-Representation, Urban Mythology and Cultural Practices, Cluj-Napoca: Eikon,, 2011, etc.
He teaches courses on:
Film and Television History
Film Journalism and Criticism
He teaches seminars on:
World Film History
Romanian Film History
Film Theory
Film Aesthetics
Film Analysis and Criticism
Creative Writing for Audiovisual Media
Link:
TEACHING STAFF
Professor Rodica Mocan. Ph. D.
Rodica Mocan , Ph. D.
Professor
Rodica Mocan is Associate Professor at the Department of Cinema and Media and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Theater and Television.
She earned a PhD in Sociology, with a theme related to the impact of technology on education, and a PhD in Theater and Performing Arts, with a research on interactive digital performance.
Her research focuses on the impact of digital technology on different aspects of life, particularly the relationship between reality and digital interactive arts. She specializes in digital media practice and researches emerging artistic genres such as interactive documentary and intermedia performance.
Her publications include: eLearning – A Sociological Perspective (Cluj-Napoca, Risoprint, 2007), Emerging Media Genres – New Media Documentary(Cluj-Napoca, Risoprint, 2013) and Critical Paradigms in Interactive Digital Performance (Cluj-Napoca, Cluj University Press, 2017).
She teaches courses on:
eLearning,
Multimedia în performance,
Cinematic Sociology,
New Media Documentary
Professor Ioan Pop-Curşeu
Ioan Pop-Curşeu
Professor
ioan.pop-curseu@ubbcluj.ro, ioancurseu@yahoo.com
Ioan Pop-Curşeu is Professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
He obtained his first PhD at the University of Geneva in 2007 (De l’homme hyperbolique au texte impossible: théâtralité, theatre(s), ébauches de pièces chez Baudelaire), and the second at the Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca in 2011 (Magic and Witchcraft in Romanian Culture). In 2015, he defended his habilitation dissertation at Babeş-Bolyai University and in 2016 he became a member of Academia Europaea, section: Film, Media and Visual Studies.
His research interests are in film aesthetics, art criticism and image theory, nineteenth-century literature and culture, as well as anthropological aspects of magic and witchcraft.
He is the author of several books: Nu ştie stânga ce face dreapta. Două eseuri despre şovăielile gândirii critice (2004), Baudelaire, la plural (2008), Vasile Bologa (1859-1944), studiu monografic (2010), Magie şi vrăjitorie în cultura română. Istorie, literatură, mentalităţi (2013), Manual de estetică (2014), Iconografia vrăjitoriei în arta religioasă românească. Eseu de antropologie vizuală (2020, in collaboration with Stefana Pop-Curșeu). He wrote many articles, especially in the field of cinematographic studies, but also in literary criticism and anthropology.
He translated various volumes from French to Romanian and from Romanian to French, he took part in several research projects and he edited some scientific publications. He is the editor of the Cinemag series (Tact Publishing House) and of the CineMedia handbook series (Presa Universitară Clujeană). From 2013, he is the president of the Jury of the ClujShorts International Short Film Festival.
He teaches courses on:
Film Aesthetics
Theatre Aesthetics
Film genres: Horror and Fantasy
Chromatics: Anthropology, Aesthetics, Cinema
Links to academic profiles:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=ro&user=sUi0StkAAAAJ
Professor Doru Pop
Doru Pop, PhD
Professor
Doru Pop is Full professor at the Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj.
He recived his Master’s Degree in Journalism and Communication from Chapel Hill University, North Carolina, in 2002, and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Babeș-Bolyai University in 2003, with a thesis on the philosophy of visual culture. He was a Fulbright and Ron Brown scholarship student in 1995-96 and 2000-2002. He has taught a course on Romanian film at Bard College, New York in 2012. He was visiting professor at Columbus State University, Georgia in 2017.
Among his recent books are: The Age of Promiscuity. Narrative and Mythological Meme Mutations in Contemporary Cinema and Popular Culture (Lexington Books, 2018)șiRomanian New Wave Cinema. An Introduction (McFarland, 2014).
He teaches courses on:
Communication Theory
Visual Culture
Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Mass-media
Mass-media and Politics
Associate Professor Constantin Pârvulescu
Constantin Parvulescu
Associate Professor
Faculty of Theatre and Film
constantin.parvulescu@ubbcluj.ro
Constantin Parvulescu specializes in film and media studies. He completed his PhD at University of Minnesota with a thesis on the aesthetic discourse of interwar anarchism.
Constantin studies the relationship between audiovisual texts and politics, history and economic issues as well as film financing and its online distribution.
His publications include the monograph Orphans of the East: Postwar Eastern European Cinema and the Revolutionary Subject (Indiana University Press, 2015); the collections Global Finance on Screen: From Wall Street to Side Street (Routledge, 2017) and A Companion to the Historical Film (Wiley, 2013/ 2015, with Robert Rosenstone). He co-edited special issues of the journals Studies in European Cinema și Studies in Eastern European Cinema in 2018. Among his most recent articles are: “Beyond Postsocialist and Small: Recent Film Production Practices and State Support for Cinema in Czechia and Romania.” Studies in European Cinema (2020): 1-18 (with Jan Hanzlík); “Specters of Europe and Anti-communist Visual Rhetoric in the Romanian Film of the Early 1990s.” In Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures. Ed Aga Skrodzka et al. Oxford University Press, 2020, 345- 365 (cu Claudiu Turcuș); and “The Political and Economic Intervention of Nonfiction Money Literacy Film in the post-2008 Era.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 30.1 (Spring 2021).
Associate Professor Claudiu Turcuș
Conf. Univ. Dr. Habil. Claudiu Turcuș
Claudiu Turcuș is Associate Professor of Literary and Film studies and Vice-Dean of Research and Academic Infrastructure at Faculty of Theatre and Film. He obtained his PhD in Humanities (2011) at Babeș-Bolyai University after a fellowship research at Bard College, New York. His research interests are focused on East-Central European Literature, Cinema and Criticism. He published widely on topics such as the cultural memory of Socialism, the representation of Post-communist transition, intellectual history, or the ideology of New Romanian Cinema.His book,Norman Manea. Aesthetics as East Ethics (Frakfurt-New York: Peter Lang, 2016) is the very first monograph about life and oeuvre of this important Romanian-American writer, proposed twice for Nobel Prize. He co-authored (with Constantin Parvulescu) the chapter “Specters of Europe and Anti-communist Visual Rhetoric in the Romanian Film of the Early 1990s”, in Aga Skrodzka, Xiaoning Lu, and Katarzyna Marciniak, The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures (Oxford University Press, 2019).
He teaches two courses:
- Contemporary Critical Paradigms (MA programs: Performative Arts and Film; Documentary Filmmaking)
- Academic Writing (Theatre and Film Doctoral School, BBU)
Associate Professor Dan Curean
Dan Curean, PhD
Associate Professor
dan.curean@ubbcluj.ro
Dan Curean specializes in Film and Television Cinematography, Documentary Filmmaking and Media Formats.
PhD in the field of Communication and Culture obtained in 2012 with a thesis Text and image in mass-media.
He works in mass-media since 1990. From 1994, he works for the Romanian Public Television (TVR), the Cluj regional studio. He works within TVR as cinematographer, producer, and documentary filmmaker.
He was trained in Aristoteles Workshop, 2006 and Discovery Campus Master school, 2008. He has collaborated with a number of major broadcasters in Europe. His filmography includes documentary film productions (scenario, directing, photography) multi-awarded at festivals in Romania and Europe.
Member of the Faculty of Theatre and Film at the UBB since its founding in 2005 and coordinates the Documentary Filmmaking Master programme.
He teaches courses on:
Cinematography fundamentals
Cinematography for non-fiction
Audio-visual programmes
Documentary filmmaking
Docu-drama-Docutainment
Associate Professor. PhD, Habill. Florin Țolaș
Florin Țolaș
Associate Professor. PhD, Habill.
Florin Țolaș is a cinematographer in film and television field, where he has been working for over 35 years, and since 2011, lecturer at the Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca.
He obtained his PhD in Cinematography and Media (2009) at the National University of Theater and Cinematography in Bucharest.
He has collaborated as Director of photography at many fiction and documentary films in the studios Romania Film (Buftea), Media Pro Studios and in the national television channels TVR, PROTV, Antena 1, Digi24, making films, television series and shows (national and international productions).
In TVR he also collaborated as a screenwriter and director on the TV series “Abracadabra”, with which he had numerous participations in international and national festivals (Bratislava, Chicago, Lisbon, Munich, Plovdiv, Costinesti, Bucharest), some of them awarded interrnational.
He performed as a Lighting Designer at the theater “L.S. Bulandra ”, as well as audiovisual projects event“ Milenium 2000 ”,“ A la recherche du Brancusi ”or Live Shows.
He is the author and coauthor of some speciality books and articles.
He has been member, since 1987, of the Romanian Filmmakers Union.
He teaches courses on:
Introduction in Film Language
Audiovisual Production: Broadcast Directing
Lighting and Exposure Metering
Documentary Filmmaking
Docutainment
Docudrama
Cinematography for Film and Television
Links:
The Internet Movie Database – www.imdb.com
Linkedin, www.explore.bfi.org.uk
Cinemotions – www.cinemotions.com
BFI Film Forever – www.bfi.org.uk
ApunKaChoice – www.apunkachoice.com
Cinemagia – www.cinemagia.ro
Videofil – www.videofil.ro
Cinefan – www.cinefan.ro
TVFan – www.tvfan.ro
Filme Romanești – www.filme-romanesti.ro
Associate Professor Ligia Smarandache
Ligia Smarandache, PhD
Associate Professor
She has graduated from the University of Art and Design, in Cluj-Napoca, completing her Ph.D. thesis in 2012 with the title: “The role of Video Essay in the Postmodern Visual Communication”.
She worked in the field of graphic-design, broadcast motion-graphics and set design for television. As an independent artist she begins as a fine art printmaker, later exploring the field of experimental and documentary films as an editor and director.
She has conceived and produced a docu-fiction short film and a video exhibition as part of the project Dialogue in Agora-Contemporary Archeology, a series of cultural exchange workshops between artists from the cities of Cluj-Napoca and Cologne. Author of the short experimental animation-essay entitled Confessions which participates at 2012 Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival and at the Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival, Ireland, 2013.
In the field of documentary film, she participated to the international workshop Aristoteles Workshop in 2006, contributing to the editing and sound design of the documentary film Don’t get me wrong, but…, directed by Adina Pintilie, in 2007. The film won the Golden Dove prize at DOK Leipzig, Germany and it was selected to numerous international film festivals in Europe. In 2006, six short documentary essays entitled People of Romania where commissioned and broadcasted by the Romanian Television Corporation TVR2, winning the prize for documentary section at the Regional Televisions Festival, Târgu-Mureș.
As a printmaker she participated to international and national art exhibitions in Finland, New York, Japan, Timisoara, Bucharest, Malaesia. She received Arts Link residency grant for artists and art managers from Eastern Europe at Lower East Side PrintShop, New York, US, in 1994. Her prints were selected in the publication New Art, edited by Roxana Marcoci, Diana Murphy, Eve Sinaiko (New-York: Harry N Abrams, 1997), a book featuring works by over one hundred contemporary artists around the world.
She teaches courses on:
Motion graphics
Experimental techniques in short-films
Set design
Digital Editing
Associate Professor Horea Avram PhD
Horea Avram is an art historian, media theorist and independent curator. PhD in Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Montreal. He researches and writes about art and visual culture in relationship with media technology.
He teaches at the Department of Cinema and Media, Faculty of Theatre and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.Courses: Introduction in Visual language, Experimental Film and Video Art, Curatorial Models in Digital Media, Management and Marketing in Audiovisual Production.
He is the author of the book Perspectiva negociabilă. Eseuri și comentarii despre practici artistice actuale. [Negotiable perspective. Essays and Comments on Contemporary Artistic Practices]. Bucharest: Eikon Press, 2021.He is the editor of the book Moving Images, Mobile Bodies. The Poetics and Practice of Corporeality in Visual and Performing Arts. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.
He has contributed to: Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, (Oxford University Press, 2014), Theorizing Visual Studies: Writing Through the Discipline (New York: Routledge, 2013) and Encyclopedia of the imaginaries in Romania. Historical patrimony, and cultural-linguistic identities (Iaşi: Polirom, 2020).
He publishes essays in periodicals: CaieteleEchinox, Cultura: International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology, M/C Media and Culture Journal, International Journal of Arts and Technology, Kinephanos, Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, Idea. Art + Society, Arta, etc.
He was research fellow of the New Europe College Institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences, 2017-2018. He has presented papers at international conferences in Romania, Sweden, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Slovakia.
He is the president of AICA-Romania (International Association of Art Critics), President of the Council – Administration of the National Cultural Fund – Romania, and member of ISIS (International Society for Intermedial Studies) and UAP (Union of Visual Artists, Romania).
Independent curator since 1996. He has curated most notably for Venice Biennale in 1999. He was the project manager of the projected ECCA (European Center for Contemporary Arts) in Cluj-Napoca (2018-2019). He organizes exhibitions for: National Museum for Contemporary Arts Bucharest, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre Toronto, Society for Arts and Technology [SAT] Montreal, Art Museum Cluj, Art Museum Arad, NAG10 Bucharest, Plan B Gallery Cluj, Spațiu Intact Cluj, Jecza Gallery Timişoara, Atelier 35 Bucharest etc.
Associate Professor Ana Grgić
Ana Grgić, PhD
Associate Professor
Ana Grgić is a professor and researcher in film studies, and a film industry practitioner.
In 2016, she received her PhD in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland (UK)with a thesis on visual culture, cultural memory and early cinema in the Balkans. Prior to this, she completed a Master Research Degree in Cinema and Audiovisual Studies at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris in 2011 with a dissertation on film restoration theory and archives.
Her research is focused on East European and Balkan cinemas, film history, visual culture and film archives.She acted as Co-Chair of the SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies)Central/East/South European Scholarly Interest Group between 2016-2019. She is currently anAssociate Editor of Studies in World Cinema: A Critical Journal (BRILL).
Her selected publications include:
- Monograph, The Imaginary of the Balkans: Visual Culture, Modernity and Early Cinema, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming.
- Edited collection with Lydia Papadimitriou, Contemporary Balkan Cinema: Transnational Exchanges and Global Circuits, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Nov 2020.
- Journal Article, ‘“Regions of unthought” – The Danger and the Freedom of Film Archiving and (Trans) national Film Heritage in the Balkans’.Studies in Eastern European Cinema,11:2, pp. 119-139, 2020.
- Journal Special Issue with AdelheidHeftberger,Women Cutting Movies: Editors from East and Central Europe, Film, Media and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe No 7, 2018.
- ‘Deviating memories: Armando Lulaj’s seriously playful excursions into Albania’s history’.“Images” The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication, 23:32, pp. 49-56, 2018.
- ‘Laughter and Tragedy of the Absurd: Identifying common characteristics of Balkan comedies under state socialism’.Contemporary Southeastern Europe: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Southeastern Europe, 4:2, pp. 47- 66, 2018.
- ‘Re-discovering nationalism in the Balkans: the early moving image in contemporary memorial spaces’.Studies in Eastern European Cinema, 7:3, pp. 240-257, 2016.
- Journal Special Issue with Ridvan Peshkopia and Lars Kristensen, ‘Special Issue 16: Albanian Cinema’, Kinokultura, March 2016.
- ‘Archival Film Festivals as Sites of Memory’, in: Marlow-Mann A. (ed) The Film Festival Yearbook 5: Archival Film Festivals. St Andrews: St Andrews Publishing House, pp. 55-66, 2013.
Her current research projects include: “Globalising Malaysia: Trans-Asia Traffics in the 21st Century” with A/Prof Emma Baulch, A/Prof Andrew Ng, and Dr Ting Fai Yu, and “Food, representation and migration” with Prof Johan Höglund and Dr Vanessa Lee.
She also has experience in the film industry internationally. She worked in visual effects on severalfeature film and TV productions such asBohemian Rhapsody (2018, dir. Bryan Singer, UK/USA, Fox Productions), Rome: Season II (2007, HBO), American Assassin (2017, dir. Michael Cuesta, USA, CBS), The Hurricane Heist (2018, dir. Rob Cohen, UK/USA), The Nutcracker in 3D (2012, dir. Andrei Konchalovsky, UK/Hungary). While at the Moving Picture Company, she worked on the visual effects of several feature films including: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber from Fleet Street, The Chronicles of Narnia, 10,000 BC, andFred Clause.
Shecurrently teaches courses on Film Pre-production and Audiovisual Production: Advertising Film.
Academia Profile: https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/AnaGrgic
LinkedInProfile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anagrgic/
Associate Professor Habil. Ileana Nicoleta Sălcudean
Ileana Nicoleta Sălcudean, PhD
Associate Professor Habil
nicoleta.salcudean@ubbcluj.ro
https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/NicoletaIleanaS%C4%83lcudean
Ileana Nicoleta Sălcudean holds a PhD in sociology (2012) at Babeș-Bolyai University with a thesis entitled Cultural Policies and Identity Constructions in the European Context, and a habilitation degree (2019) in the field of Cinematography and Media with the thesis: Film and Creative Industries.
Her research interest is focused on: cultural studies, sociology of culture, creative industries.
Her recent peer-reviewed publications include (selection): ”Occhio – Human Existence in Tangible form. Portal to a Dual Chronotope”, Millennium Film Journal, 74/ Fall, 2020”; ”The Transnational Identity of European Film Festival. New Media and Cultural Branding Employed at the Transilvania International Film Festival”, Metacritic Journal of Comparative Studies and Theory, 3.1, 2017; ”Outrunning the Past: European Influences in Building Cultural Policies in Romania and the Role of the Romanian Cultural Institute”, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 46:5, 2016; ”The Convergent Motions of the Social Dimension and the Cultural Dimension. National and European Blueprints”, Studia Europaea, 60/ 2015; “Sexuality in Comedy. Controversy and Clichés”, Ekphrasis 14, 2015; “Creative Industries – Art and Commerce; Entrepreneurship and Creativity”, Ekphrasis 13, 2015; “New Aesthetics and New Technologies: Global Challenges to the Future of Cultural Organizations and Management”, Ekphrasis 11, 1/, 2014; “Art and Vandalism. Crossbreeding of Street Art: (re)Interpretation of Street Art from Sociological, Aesthetical and Interactivity Perspectives”, Journal of Media Research, Volume 5, Issue 1 (12)/ 2012 etc.
Books: Cultural Policies: from Bucharest to Brussels, Cluj-Napoca: Risoprint, 2016; Industriile creative în România. Film, video, fotografie/ Creative Industries in Romania. Film, Video, Photography, Editura Muzeului Literaturii Române, București, 2015; Handbook of Creative Writing, co-author, Cluj University Press, 2014; ‘Social’ and ‘Cultural’ in the European Context, Cluj-Napoca: Risoprint, 2013.
Awards/ Professional Associations: From 2014 she is a CreArt Ambassador, Municipal Foundation of Culture. Valladolid City Council (ES). She is a member of the European Network Association (January 2018 – present), of the Ekphrasis Research Center (2016 – present), as well as an associate member of the Center of Applied Philosophy (CAPH), Faculty of History and Philosophy, UBB (2015-present). Furthermore, she was the director of the Center for Continuous Education and Lifelong Learning, Babeș-Bolyai University (2012-2014). She holds the UEFISCDI Research Award, 2017. She has received numerous grants and research internships (Wheaton College; Venice Biennale; University of Valencia; Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg; Institute of Higher European Studies in The Hague; Sidney Sussex College Cambridge University Cambridge etc). Also, she was engaged as a project manager or a team member in national and international projects (POCU, STARUBB, AFCN, UEFISCDI, POS-DRU, Inside Europe). Additionally, she participated as a guest, trainer, expert or evaluator in important international conferences, teaching mobility, professional exchanges.
She teaches courses on:
Creative Writing
Creative Industries
Cinematic Sociology.
CV: https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/NicoletaSalcudean/CurriculumVitae
Assistant Professor Daria Ioan
Daria Ioan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Daria Ioan specializes in film and photography.
She completed her PhD in theater at Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Theater and Television, she is currently doing a second PhD in Cinematography-Photography-Media at the same faculty: An Anthropology of Transparence in Film and Photography.
Her research is focused on photography, film, performing arts, multimedia. Her artistic practice is focused on aspects of contemporary humanity at the confluence of visual arts. Her technical expertise includes photography, video, film, interactive installation and performance. As film director, her late short film “The Road to Holland”, has been recently selected to various international film festivals. She also had several photography exhibitions both personal and collective. In 2018, she was part of the production team of Rambuku, which received the prize UNITER for the best theater performance.
She is the author of Teatrul lui Jon Fosse (Cluj: Casa Cărții de Știință, 2013), Changing Faces of Witches in Contemporary Photography (Studia Dramatica, 1/2020), The Nebulous Empire. The Magic of Blur and Shining (București: Cinematographic Art & Documentation, 24/2019), Vanishing Acts in Film and Photography (București: Cinematographic Art & Documentation, 22/2018), Laurie Anderson’s “Heart of a Dog”. A post-cinematic journey through affection (Cluj: Ekphrasis, 2/2016), Diane Arbus. Întrebări deschise pentru o nouă estetică în fotografie, (Timișoara: Revart – Revista de teorie și critica artei 25/4, 2015), The hard task of the resurrected body in Leos Carax’s “Holly Motors”. A baroque organs’ space poetry in film, (Cluj: Ekphrasis, 2014) etc.
She teaches courses on photography.
Assistant Professor Delia Enyedi
Delia Enyedi, PhD
Assistant Professor
Delia Enyedi specializes in Journalism (bachelor’s degree) and Theatre and Media (master’s degree).
She completed her PhD in Theatre and Performing Arts at the Babeș-Bolyai University with a thesis on Hungarian artist Jenő Janovics, analyzed in the theatrical and film context of Transylvania during the first half of the twentieth century. She was the recipient of a doctoral research scholarship at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
Her research is focused on silent cinema, digital cinema, narrative theory.
Her publications include the textbook Structuri narative în film [Narrative Structures in Film], (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2015), as well as articles in refereed journals such as: “Janovics’ Menace: Inquieries into a Duplicated Silent Film Script”, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, 12/2021; “Voiceless Screams: Pictorialism as Narrative Strategy in Horror Silent Cinema”, Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Film and Media Studies, 19/2021; “3D Attractions: Recycling the Monomyth in Post-Cinema”, Ekprasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 2/2016.
She teaches courses on:
Introduction to Cinematographic Language
Screenwriting (2): Narrative Structures in Film
Film in the Digital Era
Link:
Assistant Professor Andrei Simuț
Andrei Simuț, PhD
Assistant Professor
Andrei Simuț teaches courses in film studies: history of Romanian and world cinema, adaptation (film and literary narratives), film genres-science fiction, screenwriting etc.
He completed his PhD in philology at Babeș-Bolyai University in 2011, on the apocalyptic narratives in film and novel after 1945.
His research is focused ona few aspects of Romanian cinema such as the relationship with communism, literary adaptations, the relation between film and other arts (literature), science fiction film and comparative narratology (film and novel). His research projects include: 2011-2016, researcher in the exploratory research projectAntiutopias. Making and Unmaking Realities; 2014-2015, postdoctoral researcher at the Romanain Academy with a project about the representations of communist past in the Romanian cinema and novel after 1989;
He is the author of the folowing books: Literatura traumei (Cluj, Casa Cărții de Știință, 2007), Calvarium (novel, Timișoara, Bastion, 2009), Romanul românesc postcomunist între trauma totalitară și criza prezentului (București, Muzeul Literaturii Române, 2015). He publishes studies in edited volumes, two edited issues of Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media and 26 articles in international publications such as: „After the End: a Post-human Dys/(u)topia?”, Transylvanian Review, No. 3/2013; “The End(s) of the Dystopian City from Metropolis to Gravity’s Rainbow”,Caiete Echinox, Vol. 25/2013; „Alternative Histories of Communist Past”,Ekphrasis. Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, No.13/2015; “The Post-human Utopian Paradise and the Impossible Gaze from Philip K. Dick to Spike Jonze’sHer”, CaieteEchinox, vol. 29/2015; “The Last Day on Earth from Feu follet to Oslo, 31 august”,Studia UBB. Dramatica, LVII,No.2/ 2012; „The Apocalypse according to Lars von Trier”, Ekphrasis, 2011; “Mapping impossible boundaries”,Ekphrasis, vol. 11/1, 2014;„Film and Political Discourse, Ways of Representing the Communist Past”,înDer Donauraum, vol. 54, No. 1-2/2014.
He teaches courses on:
-History of world cinema and Romanian cinema
-Screenwriting fundamentals
-Screenwriting for television
-Adaptation/Screenwriting for fiction and documentary film
-Film genres: science fiction.
Link:
Assistant Professor Lucian Țion
Lucian Țion, PhD
Assistant Professor
Lucian Țion is an assistant professor and researcher with experience in audio-visual media production, film and performing arts studies. His education combines a BA in video production from Middlebury College, U.S., an MA in film studies from the University of Amsterdam, and a PhD in theatre and film studies from the University of Singapore. He produced one medium-length fiction film in 2010, and won the HBO national prize for a feature-length screenplay at the Transylvania International Film Festival in the same year. He also wrote and directed several short documentaries and theatre plays which were staged at the Andrei Mureșanu Theatre in Sf. Gheorghe, the I.D. Sîrbu Theatre in Petroșani, and the Magic Puppet Theatre of Cluj. His research areas are East European and Chinese cinemas, and socialism/postsocialism studies. His publications include articles in Comparative Literature Studies, published by Penn State University Press, The Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, Senses of Cinema, and Apparatus: Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. His book contributions include chapters in Bloomsbury’s 2020 co-edited volume Third Cinema, World Cinema and Marxism; Cold War II: Hollywood’s Renewed Obsession with Russia, published in 2020 by the University Press of Mississippi; and Orientalism and Reverse Orientalism in Literature and Film: Beyond East and West published by Routledge in 2021. His book, Romanian and Chinese Cinemas will soon be published with Edinburgh University Press.
Assistant Professor, Phd. Oana Ivan
Oana Ivan
Assistant Professor, Phd.
oanaoana@hotmail.com
Oana Ivan is an anthropologist with expertise in visual anthropology and environmental anthropology. She is also a documentary director and producer focused on cultural changes occurring in the Romanian rural communities.
Oana Ivan got her PhD in Anthropology in a co-tutelage program between University of Kent, U.K. and Babes-Bolyai University, analyzing the cultural changes in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve fishing village from the Danube Delta, focusing on consequences of tourism and environmental programs.
After 7 years of field research and filming, Oana Ivan made the anthropological documentary “Lives among Waters” on the fishermen’s life in the Danube Delta, screened at various international film festivals, as well as academic conferences in Europe and USA.
She teaches courses on:
- Anthropology and visual
- Scientific and adventure documentary
- Visual anthropology and social documentary
Link: https://oanaivan.crevado.com/
Oana Ivan is consultant and contributor for National Geographic Romania and World Bank.
Assistant Professor Mihaiela Ilea
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Mihaiela Ilea
Assistant Professor
Mihaiela Ilea is specialized in journalism and visual arts. She is currently producer and senior TV journalist at TVR Cluj where she works since 1993.
She obtained her PhD in 2010 from the University of Art and Design Cluj-Napoca, with the title “The Relationship between Visual Image and Art TV Shows.”
She is a certified trainer in mass-media since 2014. As a trainer, she collaborated with Europe TV stations and she took part in international media teams within the Romanian Television Corporation (TVR), the Cluj regional studio (the projects “Journalist in Romania” and “East Reporter”,, About tolerance_Siria,,).
She was a producer for TVR CJ for national and international media events (German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Visit to Cluj ,2010; invited journalist to U.N New York, 2015)
Her journalistic practice focuses on television, especially cultural, educational and artistic programs, being the author of documentaries and TV essays, as well as a TV event producer.
She is the author of numerous TV productions broadcasted on TVR channels, some awarded internationally.
Her main interests, as a cultural journalist, are focused on: the art-television relationship, the analysis and stylistics of the image and editing, as well as the communication journalism. These subjects are explored in essays published in Caietele Echinox, Revart, Transylvania Review, Studia Dramatica, as well as in the field of television, more exactly in author segments, TV essays and video poetry.
She also participates with video artworks in national and international artistic events (Ceaţa-brouillard-fog, 2010; Nation-water-cultures / The Intercontinental Mail Art Exhibition, New York, 2013).
She teaches courses on:
Editing theory
Montage Theory
Teleplay
TV journalism
Audiovisual Productions Nonfiction
Film/Video workshop
Teaching Assistant Ion Indolean
Ion Indolean
Teaching Assistant
Ion Indolean has BA in Film Studies, MA in Film and Performative Arts. He successfully defended his PhD thesis at Babeș-Bolyai University, on a subject regarding films on contemporary topics produced during the socialist period in Romania.
He contributes with essays and reviews at cultural publications, such as Observator cultural, Tribuna, Steaua, Cultura, Dilema Veche, FilmSense, PressOne, LiterNet, Clujul cultural. He worked as a staff member of Astra Sibiu Festival, TIFF – Transilvania International Film Festival and Comedy Cluj Film Festival.
He directed his first feature film Discordia, winning the debut prize at TIFF and being nominated for the GOPO Awards at the debut section. The film was also screened internationally, at Jagran International Film Festival (India), Filmmuseum Munich (Germany), Balkan Film Food Festival (Albania) and Media Art Festival, Arad. He also co-directed the experimental short Girl Eating Pizza, screened at NeXT Bucharest, FfeST Cluj, MediaArt Festival Arad.
In 2020, he released a second feature film, Toni & Friends, with its world premiere in Warsaw.
Practical courses and seminars:
The history of universal film
The history of contemporary Romanian film
Screenwriting
Film criticism and analysis
Film theory
Film journalism
Film schools (Eastern European cinema)
Elaboration of the diploma thesis
Non-fiction film
Teaching Assistant Mihai Dragolea
Mihai Dragolea, PhD
Teaching Assistant
dragolea.mihai@yahoo.com
Mihai Gavril Dragolea specializes in documentary film. He has directed short, medium and feature film documentaries screened in some of the most important festivals in Europe (Jihlava IDFF, TIFF, Odense IFF). His documentaries focus on the world of the marginalized people and those not represented in the media, trying to bring the viewer a new version of reality.
Hisambition to improve his practice in documentary filmmaking determined Mihai to start a theoretical research that became the subject of his doctoral thesis, entitled Representations of the marginal in the Romanian observational documentary. In his research he explores and defines the mechanisms by which the observational documentary manages to actively engage the viewer in the narrative act.
Dragolea’s filmic practice aims at observational modes of expression, their use to generate empathy between the viewer and the social actors on the screen, through a direct involvement of the audience in the film. He is currently developing projects and working in the fields of cinematography and independent journalism, one such projects being focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, a web series called #EuRoPandemic broadcast on the independent journalism platform dela0.ro.
His films include: The Golden Robot(2015), produced by Vagabond Film; PhoeniXXX(2017), produced by Vagabond Film; One month of their life(2017), produced by dela0.ro and Totulpentru Riana(2020), produced by Vagabond Film and deFilm.
His films were presented in international festivals including: Astra Sibiu International Film Festival, Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival (2017),Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Belgrade(2018), Parnu International Film Festival, Riga(2018), Film broadcast at the international conference for women’s rights CREA, Kathmandu(2019), TIFF, Cluj Napoca(2018), One World Romania KineDok selection, Bucharest(2016), Film Festival of Independent Producers, Bucharest(2016).
He teaches courses and seminars on:
Film and TV Image,
Media Theory and Practice,
Audio-Visual Production: Advertising Film,
Audiovisual Production: Documentary Film.
Website link: www.mihaigavrildragolea.com
VISITING PROFESSORS
Radu Jude
Radu Jude
Film director
Associate Professor
Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. In 2003, he graduated from the Media University of Bucharest (Film Directing Department). Jude worked as an assistant director on Amen. (2002), directed by Costa-Gavras, and The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu (2005), directed by CristiPuiu. He directed several award-winning short films, among them Lampa cu căciulă (2006) – the most successful Romanian short film ever, winner of Grand prizes at Sundance, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Grimstad, Hamburg, Bilbao, Huesca, Trieste, Montpellier, Cottbus, Aspen, IndieLisboa, Brussels, Mediawave, Kraków, Almería, Valencia, Uppsala and many more. Other shorts were selected by top festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand, San Francisco, Cottbus and Oberhausen, where Radu Jude won the Grand Prix. Jude directed over 100 advertising commercials.
Cea mai fericită fată din lume [The Happiest Girl in the World] (2009), his feature film debut, won the CICAE Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, the FIRESCI Prize at the Sofia International Film Festival, the Prize for Best Screenplay at the Bucharest International Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize at Indie Lisboa. The film was selected in the ACID Programme at 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Toatălumea din familia noastră (2012) received the “Heart of Sarajevo” Award and the “Bayard d’Or” in Namur, among other awards. Radu Jude’s acclaimed historical drama Aferim! (2015) premiered at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival where he won the Silver Bear award as “Best Director”. Jude won the “Golden Bear” awardat the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021 with the film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Romanian: Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc) at its worldwide premiere. [source: imdb.com]
Adrian Sitaru
Adrian Sitaru
Visiting Associate Professor
Adrian Sitaru is a Romanian director, producer and actor.
His work as a film director, screenwriter and producer includes:
His short filmValuri / Waves (2007) has received 27 prizes, including the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival.
Adrian’s first feature film, PescuitSportiv / Hooked (2008) was selected in Venice Days, Toronto IFF, BFI London and many other festivals, being awarded 10 awards.
His short film Colivia / The Cage (2009) received 27 awards, among others, DAAD grant at the Berlinale Shorts and certificate of excellence by BAFTA/LA.
Din dragoste cu celemaibuneintenţii / Best Intentions (2011) was his second feature film; itwas awarded two Silver Leopards in Locarno – Best Director & Best Actor and 5 other awards, travelling around the world in more than 70 festivals.
His third feature, Domestic (2012) was selected in the Official Competition of Mar del Plata IFF and Slamdance.
The year 2014 added three more short films to Adrian Sitaru’s filmography: Artă / Art(selected for Venice Film Festival – Orizzonti), Excursie / Excursion (ARTE Award – Hamburg International Short Film Festival 2015) and Counterpart, his first English language film, premiered in Clermont-Ferrand.
His fourth feature film, Ilegitim / Illegitimate, premiered in Berlinale Forum 2016 and won the C.I.C.A.E Award and another 9 awards. It was distributed in France, Poland and Greece.
His feature film, Fixeur / The Fixer, was premiered in Toronto International Film Festival 2016 – Contemporary World Cinema Section and TOKYO I.F.F. – Oficial Competition and it was the Romanian proposal for Oscars in 2017.
He has collaborated with the Hungarian Theater of Cluj for the play Illegitimate, inspired from his film.He has collaborated with film director Costa Gavras for the film Amen (2002).
He teaches
Film directing and acting
Alexandru Sterian
Alexandru Sterian, PhD
Associate Professor
alexandru.sterian@ubbcluj.ro
Alexandru Sterian is a cinematographer, working in cinematography, film production and post-production. Member of UCIN (The Romanian Filmmakers Union), president of The Romanian Society of Cinematographers (www.rscine.ro) and member of IMAGO (imago.org).
In 2012 he completed his PhD in Cinema and Media studies with a thesis on the influences of new media in the feature film aesthetics, at the National University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest.
Since 2018 he’s Habilitated at UNATC IL Caragiale Doctoral Studies School and member of CSUD-UNATC
His research is focused on new media and their influences on the feature film aesthetics.He is the author of the following books:
-Digital Cinematography, UNATC Press, Bucharest 2017;
-Motion Picture Composition and Camera Moves, UNATC Press, Bucharest 2017
-The Influences of New Media in The Feature Film Aesthetics, UNATC Press, Bucharest 2016
-The Chapter: Blair Witch Project and The Mockumentary Approach in: Magic and Witchcraft, Historical, Anthropological and Artistic Perspectives, Mega Publishing, Cluj-Napoca 2020
As the president of Romanian Society of Cinematographers he organized more than 12 masterclasses with DoP and equipment manufacturers from all over the world. Among the specialists invited were: Christian Berger AAC, Javier Agguiresarobe ASC, James Chressanthis ASC, Frederic Goodich ASC, Manuel Alberto Claro DFF and much more.
His films have been presented in festivals such as: Cannes, Locarno, Berlin, Cottbus, Sarajevo, Clermont Ferrand, TIFF, Florida, Dakino, CineMaIubit, Costinești.
He worked as Director of Photography on more than 30 feature films in Romania and internationally, during his 25 years of professional career.
He teaches courses on:
-Audio-visual equipment practice
-Cinematography theory
-Optics and film equipment basis
-Exponometry and lighting theory
Links:
Adelina Laura Bulibașa,
Adelina Laura Bulibașa, PhD student
Assistant Professor
Adelina Laura Bulibașa is a multimedia artist, specialized in digital art, also working in the field of new media arts, directing and producing films, photography and theater. She also manifested an interest in different domains like robotics, human-computer interaction and light-art.
She finished her master degree in the field of Interactive Multimedia at Theater and Film Faculty, Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and her bachelor degree in Photography-Video-Computerized Processing of the Image at Arts and Design Faculty, West University of Timișoara. Now, under the coordination of Associate Professor PhD Rodica Mocan, Adelina studies to get her own scientific PhD in the area of new media arts.
Her multimedia/digital arts focused projects were exhibited at national and international festivals like Electric Castle (New Media Castle), CreArt, Cluj Never Sleeps, Amural, RADAR, eXplore Festival, +/- International, MAFA and so on. Adelina Bulibașa also worked as an assistant director for the feature film Bodrog, which was nominated for the international competition at Dracula Film Festival and as a director and co-producer for the short film Libelula which won the Best Short Film Award at altcineAction festival in Greece, the debut award at Ceau, Cinema! in Timișoara, while also participating in festivals like Fear No Film in Utah, USA; fArad; Cluj International Short Film Festival and so on.
Adelina is teaching for Digital Interactive Arts (DIA) and Documentary Filmmaking master programs the following courses: Transmedia Creative Project, Digital Technologies and Art, Interactive Movies and New Media Documentary.
Andrei Dăscălescu
Andrei Dăscălescu
Assistant Professor
Andrei Dăscălescu is an established documentary filmmaker, producer and editor.
He studied Sound and Editing at the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, graduating in 2008. During the student years, he worked as a Studio Manager for BBC World Service Romania and as an Assistant Editor to Walter Murch, on Francis Ford Coppola’s film Youth Without Youth.
His documentary debut, Constantin and Elena, won the First Appearance Award at IDFA in 2008, the Debut Award at TIFF and the Special Jury Mention at Sarajevo Film Festival, in 2009.
His second feature length documentary, Planeta Petrila, had 4 nominations at the Gopo Awards and won the Prize for Best Documentary. It also won the Audience Award at TIFF in 2017.
His third film, Holy Father, won the Special Jury Award at Sarajevo Film Festival and the Audience Award at Astra Film Festival in 2020.
Andrei created Filmlab, his film production company, in 2007. He initiated and organized 12 editions of Filmul de Piatra Film Festival. He published the photo book Planeta Petrila, in 2017.
Eugen Kelemen
Eugen Kelemen
Assistant Professor
eugenkelemen@gmail.com
Eugen Kelemen specializes in the art of film editing at I.L.Caragiale National Film and Theatre University.
His work was presented over the years at many film festivals: Locarno FF, Trieste FF, Thessaloniki FF, Tallinn Black Nights IFF,TIFF and many more.
Eugen Kelemen edited SUPERMAN, SPIDER MAN OR BATMAN, short film directed by Tudor Giugiu which won The Best European Short film Award at European Film Academy.
Eugen Kelemen is the main editor of SHADOWS, one of the most appreciated TV series produced in Romania by HBO EUROPE.
Also he is the founder of HARDCUT, a creative boutique specialised in film trailers and film posters.
He teaches courses on Fundamentals of Film and TV editing.
Cristina Pop-Tiron
Cristina Pop-Tiron
Assistant Professor
Cristina Pop-Tiron specializes in interactive digital art, interactive performance art and production of interactive digital art (artistic installations, interactive performance pieces)
She is a PhD candidate at the Theater and Performing Arts department at Babes-Bolyai University, with the theme of interactive spectatorship and intermediality in Interactive Digital Performance Art.
Her research is focused on performance art, spectatorship and interactive digital art (performance art and installation).
Her artistic practice and technical expertise are rooted in the creation of interactive installation art, interactive digital performance art and New Media curatorial projects. Her projects include production of film festivals and New Media Art.
She is the co-author of “Aurora – Connecting Senses: A proposal for a representation of an interactive art installation”, Nordlit journal, special volume Conceptualizing the North, co-author Signe Kjaer Jensen, in print 2020
Her productions have been presented in international festivals such as HÄMEENLINNA STREET AR(T) festival, Hämeenlinna, Finland; European Researcher’s Night, Växjö, Sweden; Lights On Festival, Cluj Never Sleeps Festival, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
She worked on the realization, organization and production of several festivals, events and exhibitions: New Media Castle, 2019, Cluj-Napoca; Transylvania International Film Festival, 2016-present, Cluj-Napoca; Binary Worlds Colliding, 2019, Cluj-Napoca.
She teaches courses on:
Graduate Courses
Creative Performance Art Project (semester 1, 2019, 2020)
Creative Visual Arts Project (semester 2, 2020, 2021)
Project Production Management (semester 2, 2020)
Production Management and Audiovisual Legislation (semester 2, 2021)
Directed Reading and Dissertation Writing (semester 2, 2020)
Academic Ethics and Dissertation Writing (semester 2, 2021)
Undergraduate Courses
Photography (semester 2, 2020)
Photo process – Analogue photography and the darkroom developing process (semester 1, 2017, 2019, 2020)
Link CV https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:3c6e8616-49ac-4585-9373-650fc4a2b995
IOANA LASCĂR
IOANA LASCĂR
Assistant Professor
ioana@defilm.ro , ioana_lascar@yahoo.com
Ioana Lascăr is a Romanian film producer working with the production company deFilmwww.defilm.ro. She graduated with a BA in Cinematography from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and an MA in Film Production from UNATC I.L.Caragialein Bucharest.
She’s part of the PhD programme of the Babes-Bolyai University in Film Production and Film Marketing domains.
She works in the film industry, developing and producing various types of projects such as feature films, documentaries, shorts and animations, with the support of institutions or funds like the Romanian National Film Center, Romanian Television, Creative Europe – MEDIA and Eurimages.
As producer, delegate producer or executive producer, her portofolio includes over 20 films, both national productions and international co-productions, such as the feature Marita by Cristi Iftime, the feature Story of a summer-lover by Paul Negoescu, the short Black clothes by OctavChelaru, the animation The best customer by Serghei Chiviriga, the documentary Lost kids on the beach by Alina Manolache.
Her films have been selected in festivals like Karlovy-Vary, Locarno, San Sebastian, Warsaw, Tallin Black Nights, Transylvania IFF.
She is Alumna of EAVE Marketing Workshop, APostLab, CEE Animation Workshop, Transylvania Talent Lab. She was twice awarded Best production in a Romanian film at Cinemaiubit Festival 2014 and 2015.
She teaches the courses: Film pre-production, Film management, Marketing and management in audiovisual projects, Ethics and legislation in audiovisual projects.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5991162/
Ioana Mischie
IOANA MISCHIE
Links: Website / Linkedin / Vimeo / IMDB
E-mail: ana.mischie@stud.ubbcluj.ro
Ioana Mischie is a Romanian-born transmedia artist (screenwriter/director) and transmedia futurist, awarded for filmmaking, cinematic virtual reality, and innovative concepts. Fulbright Grantee Alumna of USC School of Cinematic Arts (collaborating with the Civic Imagination Lab /Mixed Reality Lab / JoVRnalism /Worldbuilding Lab), and Alumna of UNATC, advanced the transmedia storytelling field as part of her doctoral study thesis completed with Summa Cum Laude.
After graduating UNATC’s storytelling-driven BA and MA, her cinematic projects as writer/director have traveled to more than 100 festivals worldwide (Palm Springs ISFF, Hamptons IFF, Thessaloniki IFF) and were developed in top-notch international programs (Berlinale Talents – Script Station, Sundance Workshop – Capalbio, Cannes International Screenwriters Pavilion, Locarno Academy Meetings, MIDPOINT and many more). Her interactive works were awarded by international playgrounds such as The Webby Awards, Golden Drums, South by Southwest Hackathon, The Steamer Salon. She was part of the artistic residency Forward Slash Story, organized by Columbia University.
She has successfully collaborated as a writer/director with Channel 4 in the UK (for two doc webseries with a record of views in the UK) and with the Oscars-awarded Legende Films (for the short fiction 237 Years). Her short film, Cumulonimbus, was nominated at the Gopo Awards 2018 for Best Short Film and was selected by Gus Van Sant as a finalist of the Coppola Shorts out of 1000 global entries. The expanded portfolio includes cinematic VR (The Wetland), participatory poems (Idonee), transmedia installations, web documentaries (Unsilenced Voices).
Co-founder and Head of Storyscapes, an NGO focusing on transmedia storytelling and expanded narratives initiated in 2012. In between 2015 and 2020 collaborated as an arts-based research collaborator of CINETic, an Eastern European center focusing on the interaction between neuroscience and groundbreaking audio-visual paths. Starting with 2020, the protagonist of this bio took a leap of faith to design a fresh transmedia initiative conceived as a transdisciplinary, trans-generational and trans-real hub entitled NOE-FI STUDIOS, aiming to design futures fueled by the advancement of human consciousness.
In Romania she activates as well as a transmedia futurist for audio-visual and educational entities. Initiated numerous pioneering audio-visual educational initiatives for junior cinematic storytellers such as CINE-RITM, National Screenwriting Alumni Pitch, LdaVi Worldbuilding Hub, Romanian VR Showcase in Cannes. Lead more than 20 national and international workshops and was invited as a speaker at TEDxBucharest Women Bold and Brilliant.
Member of Women in Film and Television Los Angeles since 2018 and member of Global Shapers Bucharest Hub, an initiative by the World Economic Forum since 2020.
Among her recent original transmedia franchises, she has created the project Government of Children (3D film, web, XR), a pioneering expanded franchise empowering children to see themselves as leaders and to redesign their society. Most recently, Tangible Utopias is an original VR franchise selected at Cannes XR and Venice GFM. Her cinematic paths combine long-term concepts, groundbreaking technologies, and forms of expanded artistic impact. Envisioning the world as a neo-creative playground, she deeply believes that storytellers are “the architects of the future” (Buckminster Fuller).
While in endless love with sharing good practices and collaborative learning, Ioana is teaching digital media arts, virtual reality, digital storytelling classes at both UNATC and UBB.
John Appel
John Appel
Visiting Associate Professor
John Appel is a Dutch documentary filmmaker and professor.
Appel graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy in 1987. He made his first long documentary in 1993: Johnny Meijer, a portrait of an accordion virtuoso at the end of his career. His breakthrough came with André Hazes – She Believes in Me, which won the JorisIvens Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at IDFA 1999 and became a big cinema hit in the Netherlands. His more personal film The Player (2009), about his father’s gambling addiction, was crowned best Dutch documentary at IDFA. Wrong Time Wrong Place was the opening film of IDFA 2012.
Appel is regularly mentoring at workshops, at places like Binger Doc Lab, the Film Academy, IDFA and the Greenhouse Development Program. He has also worked as a cameraman.
Raul Ștef
Raul Ștef
Associate Assistant Professor
raul_stef [at] yahoo.com
Raul Ștef is a Romanian photojournalist, videographer and editor for the press agencies Mediafax and Inquam Photos.
He is specialised in documentary photography, interested in documenting major social issues and recent history.
He graduated the MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of the Arts London (2010) as a grantee of the Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation with an essay on migration. He graduated Journalism (2005) and Sociology (2008), and a MA in Conflict Management, at the Babeș-Bolyai University.
His documentary projects were supported by grants from the Rațiu Family Charitable Foundation, Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) London, The European Cultural Foundation, Altemus International, VII Photo Agency. His work has been published by the Romanian and the international media.
He published photographs in the book On the Traces of Socialism in Serbia, Belgrad: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 2020.
He published the book Supravieţuitorii. Mărturii din temniţele comuniste ale României / Survivors. Testimonies from Romania’s Communist Prisons, București: Humanitas, 2014.
Photography exhibitions
Supravieţuitorii. Mărturii din temniţele comuniste ale României / Survivors. Testimonies from Romania’s Communist Prisons, The Comparative Art Museum Sângeorz Băi (2016)
De la Est la Vest: un portret al diasporei românești / From East to West: A Romanian Portrait, The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (2012)
From East to West: A Romanian Portrait, a project supported by the “Attic Arts” programme (2010-2011), ICR London
24h/24h, The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (2007)
Good-bye, Romania!, The Art Museum of Cluj-Napoca (2006)
Europe in 2004: Democracy and Human Rights, Warsaw, Poland (2004)
He teaches Photography (theory and practice).
www.raulstef.com