is a half-Greek and half-German Berlin-based actress, born into a Greek artist family and raised on the beautiful countryside in the north of Germany. At the age of 16, Sandra left home to go to school in London. She continued her graduate education in modern history, history of art and cultural sciences at the Humboldt University, Berlin. After graduating Sandra went back to London to fulfill her passion in studying drama. In 2013 she once more returned to Berlin which she continues to call home. Sandra has been acting in several German and Greek-German film productions, such as “Toleranz”, “Berlin”, “The Penal Colony”, “Dance Love Fight Die – With Mikis on the road “. Acting is her main focus, however, Sandra also aims to write her dissertation and currently applies for a phd program.

sandravonruffin.de

Creative Director APASSIONATA

Holger Ehlers started his professional career in 1983 when he followed his passion for art and decided to study opera singing at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Hamburg.

Nowadays Holger Ehlers can look back on around a quarter of a century of work in international opera, musicals and theatre – from Hamburg and Berlin to Moscow and Shanghai. Among other productions, he has featured in the “The Magic Flute”, “The Barber of Seville”, “The Marksman” and “Evita”. He has already received numerous awards for his performances on stage.

Since APASSIONATA was founded in 2001, Holger Ehlers has played a huge role in the fantastic success of the family show. He has produced the show‘s music from day one, which still enchants audiences across Europe and has clocked 14 gold and platinum disks from the German Phono Association (Deutscher Phonoverband). He has also received other top awards from the record company Edel Records and the company PRG (2010: “Best German show”).

He also became involved in the conception of the family entertainment show at an early stage and in doing so laid the foundations for his current role: He has been responsible for the overall artistic coordination since his appointment as Creative Director in 2006.

What he says about his own work: “APASSIONATA offers me new challenges every year – presenting the beauty of the horses in a unique way and capturing the imagination of audiences with moments they have never seen, heard or felt before.”

is a Berlin-based german Film – director, – author and – producer.

Born in 1941, he began his career making documentaries in 1972 after finishing his studies in sociology and social-psychology. From the beginning, his films focused on cultural and social issues. Among his numerous films are:

Mikis Theodorakis – The time is against tanks and for music (1974, with D. Schubert, the first concert of Theodorakis after the dictature in Greece in Karaiskaki – Stadium, Piraeus);
The brief life of Chris Gueffroy (2011); Mikis Theodorakis.Composer (2010, with Asteris Kutulas ); A blonde Province (with Jacek Kubiak / Best German/Polish TV-Film Award, 2010); Yellow Cake (2003-2007, Dir. J. Tschirner, Co-Producer); The days between (Fiction / Dir.: Maria Speth / Producer, Tiger Award, Rotterdam, 2001); Mikis Theodorakis – Sun & Time (1999, with A. Kutulas).

www.novemberfilm.de

is a filmmaker from Athens Greece, currently based in Berlin.

She studied media and film in England, and since then she works in the Greek and international film and TV industry as director, casting director and assistant director.

Being involved in the industry for almost 15 years, she has collaborated with many successful Greek Filmmakers as well as the ‘elite’ of mainstream and legendary Greek actors.

Marsia moved to Berlin in 2011, and since then she has been involved in a number of German projects, having the chance to intergrade in the German film industry and expand her horizons.

She is a film activist interested in Human rights, member of the German film collective

Ak-Kraak, and she is involved in documentaries and activist videos on social and political issues in Germany and abroad.

At the moment, she is on a festival circle with the Greek-German documentary film ‘Burning from the inside’, which has already attributed international recognition and awards, while on development for her upcoming film project.

www.linkedin.com/in/marciatzivara

www.burningfromtheinsidedoc.com

Adam Adamopoulos, (Ph.D.)², is a Assoc. Professor of Medical Physics at the Department of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Hellas. He was born in Patras, Hellas and studied Physics at the University of Crete, at Heraklion, and European Cultural Studies at the Hellenic Open University. He carried out a Ph.D. dissertation in Medical Physics on neural network models of epilepsy at the Department of Medicine of the Democritus University of Thrace and a second Ph.D. dissertation in Computational Intelligence and Artificial Life, at the Department of Computer Enginnering and Informatics of the University of Patras, Hellas. His work is mainly focused on Medical Physics, medical applications of Biomagnetism, Computational Medicine and Computational Intelligence. He has attended seminars, conferences and festivals on arts, cinema and philosophy and writes articles about films and books.

is an English actress and director. Her mother is Greek and her Father is English. She grew up in both England and Greece. She started performing in a very young age,in many highly regarded productions, portraying leading parts from the classical repertory. Chawishe was soon noticed by the critics for her talent, especially after playing Medea in the J. Gielgud Theatre (RADA) and the Abbey Festival. Rafika Chawishe made her professional debut in 2006 with the National Theatre of Greece at the theatre of Epidavre, playing Cassandra (graduating performance) in The Trojan Women. Over the following few years she played several of William Shakespeare’s plays in such roles as Immogen in Cymbeline, Juliet in Romeo and Portia in the Merchant of Venice. She collaborated with Bruce Myers twice. The first time they worked together on an adaptation titled, Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare. They tried to stage this adaptation in Greece however they never managed to do that.

The second time they worked together was in the play “The Maids” staged at the National Theatre in 2015. Rafika Chawishe has also staged her own productions in London. She staged three different versions of Medea. In 2007 directed and acted in a short film that was screened in the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival Cannes Film Festival. In 2008 she directed another short film that participated in the International Film Festival of Seoul and in the Palm Springs Festival. In 2009 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association invited her to make her debut appearance in Golden Globe Awards as a newcomer.

She is exceedingly well-schooled in her profession with training from some of the most important and distinguished drama institutes in the world, including: The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(Bronze, Silver, Gold Certificate in Acting Shakespeare), the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Greece, and a second Bachelor Degree in classics and linguistics from the National University, School of Philosophy.

Coming from a traditional Fine Arts background in Greece, Achilleas studied Post Production and Film Design in the UK, receiving distinction in both degrees. He has worked in the Art Department of major films such as “Harry Potter”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “The Fifth Estate” and “Two Faces of January” as well as numerous BBC and ITV TV productions. Achilleas has also provided set and motion design on various events for big clients ranging from Mercedes Benz, HUGO BOSS, Jimmy Choo, O2, Samsung, Selfridges and Vodafone to Stolichnaya, Jameson, Absolut Vodka and more. Finally, he has also directed numerous music videos and created video content for various music artists ( e.g. Pet Shop Boys, James Blunt, FAUN, Erick Morillo, SKIN(Skunk Anansie) etc). He lives and works in Berlin since 2009.

www.hypnagogia.com

Advertising agency founded in 1992 and located in Prenzlauer Berg Berlin. Team structure: 6 full-time employees and 8 freelancers/specialists.

www.peppermint.de

was born in Athens into a german-greek family. She grew up in Greece and graduated from the German School of Athens in 2003. She then went to Berlin to study Social and Economic Communications at the Unversity of Arts and received her diploma as a Communication Manager in 2008.

Whilst studying and after her graduation Elisa gained working experience as an assistent next to film directors and producers on film and tv sets and production companies in Berlin and Athens.

Since 2013 Elisa works as a Project Manager for the german advertising agency peppermint werbung berlin GmbH.

Born in 1974 and raised in Athens. Argyro has studied French Language and Literature in the Kapodestrian University of Athens. During her studies she has attended cinematography, photography and theater seminars. In 1996, a scholarship initiates her her ongoing connection with Spain. She has worked as a journalist in Athens for five years (up until 2003) and then decided to return to Madrid in order to pursue her graduate studies (Masters degree) in Cultural Management. While in Spain, she has contributed to several cultural events, such as the ARCO Modern Art Exhibition and the PhotoEspaña Photography Festival.

She lives and works in Berlin since 2004. This is where she gave birth to her daughter in 2005 and, 16 months later, to her son.

Argyro has collaborated with various organizations and magazines, including the Cultural department of the Cervantes Institute in Berlin and Highlights magazine.

She is the founder of Mixing Roots Productions, a company which focuses on the organization of concerts and cultural events both in Berlin and other european towns.

http://mixingroots.net/

She was born in Alexandroupoli, Northern Greece. She finished her Abitur at the Greek High School in Nuremberg, Bavaria. She studied Classics, at the National Kapodistrian Universiity in Athens and took classes of Film and Communication in Athens and Cologne. She’s been a Film Professional for more than 15 years, specialised in Press, Publicity and Media. Among others, she has worked for several years as a Press Officer and later as Communications Manager at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (Greece), as Press and Publicity Manager at the Panorama of European Cinema, as a Press Office Manager at Odeon Film Distribution (the biggest distribution company in the Balkans, Greece), as well as a Film Sales and Acquisitions Executive at m-appeal world sales (Berlin). Since 2012 she is based in Berlin, working as a freelancer film executive and coordinator.

Nora Ralli was born in Athens, Greece, 33 years ago. She studied at the Department of Physics at the University of Patras, Greece and European Cultural Studies at the Hellenic Open University. She has worked as a journalist in many magazines and newspapers, at radio and tv shows. For the last five years she lives in Athens, currently working at the Science and Arts Sector, also at th Politic Sector of the greek daily newspaper “Efimerida ton Syntakton” (Journalist’s Journal), www.efsyn.gr.

Born in Athens/ Greece, of German-Greek origin.

Since 2005 – Event Operations Management, Marketing/PR activities, Sponsoring and artistic direction at different festivals: Jazz-Meeting Berlin, Young Generation Jazz, Music ‘n’ Migration – A European Jazz Odyssey. Participation in other Event projects.

Co-organizing a Music Film Festival www.musik-film-marathon.de

Till 2005 Marketing, European project management and PR activities at different institutions: Berlin Partner, InfoBox Berlin and IBA Berlin.

Since 1996 Organisation of concerts and CD-productions as member of different band projects.

Currently lecturer at different universities and adult education centres in Berlin teaching: Event Management, Cultural Management, Marketing, Project Management and Public Relations. Membership at Berlin Music Commission.

Elina Foteinou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. She studied Political Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and did her MA in Visual and Media Anthropology at the Freie University of Berlin.

She has worked as a translator of political theory in Greece.

“THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE”, her first feature documentary was nominated for Best Feature Documentary in Social Impact Media Awards in the USA.

Since 2010, Elina has been living and working in Berlin in documentary, fiction film and TV shows  in the field of production, research and editing. She also worked as the assistant director in the Greek-German documentary “Burning from the Inside”, which is on its festival circle at the moment.

Born to greek „Gastarbeiter“ in Germany in 1971 in Western Germany he lived both in Germany and Greece. After graduating he moved to Cologne to study political sciences and history. By that time he started working at the German TV Broadcast Company WDR. Working at VIVA Music TV as a production manager gave direction to move to Berlin in 2000. In Berlin he started at DoRo Music Videos and Commercials to produce +150 Music Videos.

The next steps were Markenfilm Berlin and United Visions. The finishing step for high class commercials and corporate films for „all screens“ he earned as an international executive producer at Chimney Berlin.

Berlin based Greek producer and consultant for advertising, corporate and music videos.

is a cinematographer and visual director. He studied audio-visual media and photography in Stuttgart and Athens. Since his first visit to Greece in 1990 he has always had a special connection to the greek culture and the people and has been travelling and working all around Greece. Her learned to speak the greek language throughout the years, especially after studying audi-visual art and photography between 2010 and 2011 at the T.E.I. Athens.

After graduating in Stuttgart he returned to Greece working as the assistant DP for the documentary “Project A” as well as working as a german-greek translator.

In 2013 Demian worked as the director of photography for the greek-german documentary “Burning from the inside” (director Marsia Tzivara) as well as for the german film “Mädchen im Koffer” by director Albrecht Hirche.

www.vonPrittwitz.de

is a half Greek half German actress based in Berlin. She was born in Frankfurt and raised in Athens. After her graduation in 2012 from the well-known drama school Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich, she continued her studies at New York Film Academy in New York City. Besides her passion for acting her interest in the production side of film increased and so she started working in the biggest extra agency in Bavaria. Since 2014 she is studying film science and communication studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin. At the Berlinale festival in 2015 she worked in the press office. The following summer, she was hired as a consultant by Campo Bahia film in Brazil to attend the Film Festival and the Youth Academy as a PR and event consultant. Giannina is still working as an actress, but is also intensively involved in the production side of film festivals.

was born in 1974 and raised in Esslingen, Germany. Since her childhood she has been travelling and living between Germany and the north of Greece. She studied sociology and history in Tübingen and Athens.
Eva has always been engaged in Greek affairs and has been working as a journalist for the bilingual journal for politics and culture called Kassandra and the independant channel Wüste Welle.
Furthermore Eva co-directed, acted and danced in several theatre productions shown at theatres such as a the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens.
Since 2004 she was working as an assistant director a the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin and from there moved on to working at the Berlin based radio channel called radiomultikulti.
In 2008 Eva gave birth to her son and started working as a freelance author. She then  presented and edited the greek show elliniko randevou at Funkhaus Europe RBB channel.
Until now she is travelling and living between Greece and Germany.
Eva is also co- founder of the New German Mediaproducers.

is one of the initiators of HELLAS FILMBOX BERLIN.

She was born in Magdeburg (Germany) in 1965. During her lengthy stays in Greece (1992-1996 and 2005-2006) she developed from a poet to composing prose. So far two of her books (the poem edition “Herbstzeitlose” and the novel “Maybe Athens – Berlin Maybe”) were published as well as a variety of adaptions of Greek poetry in German magazines and books (for example Elytis, Engonopoulos, J. Khaleed, Karatzas, Karyotakis, Cavafy, Neophytou, Polydouri, Ritsos, Seferis, Theodorakis). Currently Ina Kutulas focuses on the writing of essayistic texts.

She worked together with Asteris Kutulas and Klaus Salge on the film projects “Sun and Time” (1999) and “Mikis Theodorakis. Composer” (2011) and on making the book “Mikis Theodorakis – A life in pictures” (2010). Ina and Asteris Kutulas were the editors of Wallstein’s journal for literature and arts “die horen” number 249 which was dedicated to Greek literature and was published in 2013.

Ina is co-author of the feature movies “Recycling Medea” (2014) and “Dance Fight Love Die” (2015). She currently lives in Berlin as a freelancing author and publicist.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_Kutulas

http://ina-kutulas.de