DAVID COURIER
David Courier is a Senior Programmer for the
Sundance Film Festival. His focus is both US
and World Cinema documentaries. He was
the Co-Director of Programming at Outfest in
Los Angeles. Prior to film festival programming,
Courier worked in film development for
a number of production companies including
Paramount’s Wilshire Court Productions. A
former actor, he spent years doing theatre in
New York as well as various films and guest
starring roles on television shows. He has
served on the Advisory Board for the IFP in
New York City and is on the Board of the Buffalo
International Film Festival. Courier has
been on the nominating committee for the
IDA Awards, the Cinema Eye Honors and the
Gotham Awards and has been a juror for a
number of film festivals. A native of Buffalo,
NY, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Columbia
University with degrees in both English
and Theatre. He lives in Los Angeles.
ELDA GUIDINETTI
Elda Guidinetti was born in Chiasso, Switzerland
and is a graduate of both the University
of Pavia, Italy and the University of New Mexico,
USA. In 1989 she won the Schiller Prize
for her debut collection of short stories. In
1991, she founded Ventura Film with Andres
Pfaeffli, a company which produces documentaries
and feature films noted for innovative
form and content. In recent years, Guidinetti
has produced works by Pedro Costa, Lisandro
Alonso, Paolo Franchi, Fulvio Bernasconi, Elena
Hazanov, Djamshed Usmonov, and Philip
Groening. She also has worked as a scriptwriter
with Frank Daniel, Claire Down and
Pascal Lohnay. Guidinetti is currently working
on a novel and researching for a documentary
which will be filmed in the USA. No Quarta da
Vanda (2000), Juventude em Marcha (2006),
L’ange de l’épaule droite (2000), Los muertos
(2004) and Die grosse Stille (2005) are some
of her best-known projects.
GONZALO ARIJÓN
Gonzalo Arijón was born in Montevideo,
Uruguay but has lived in France since 1979.
After studying films and anthropology, he
began making documentaries for major television
channels worldwide. He has directed
numerous TV documentaries including: Lula,
Managing a Dream; Far, Very Far from Rome;
The Dark Side of Milosevic; Rio de Janeiro –
A Vertical War; and Massaï: The Secret of
the Volcano God. His first narrative film For
These Eyes (1997) received the Coral Prize
at Havana and the Grand Prix at Montecarlo.
Stranded (2007), his most recent film, won
the top prize at the prestigious International
Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and
was also nominated for awards at Sundance,
the European Film Awards, and the Director’s
Guild of America Awards; it received a MIFF
2008 Audience Award for Best Documentary
Feature.