MA Clinical Psychology, Registered Drama Therapist (NADTA), Board Certified Trainer (NADTA), Founder of Catharsis- Lebanese Center for Drama Therapy
Zeina Daccache is a Lebanese actress, theater & film director, clinical psychologist & drama therapist. She is the founder and Executive Director of the first Arab Center for Drama Therapy: Catharsis, and works as drama therapist in different settings (prisons, refugee camps, etc.). She produced the pioneer theater production and film “12 Angry Lebanese”, which led to the implementation of Law 463 in 2009 (the reduction of sentences for good behavior). She also directed the play “Scheherazade in Baabda” with women inmates of Baabda prison where they shared their personal stories in an attempt to heal their wounds and hold up a mirror to Lebanese society about the oppression of women. Her 2nd feature documentary “Scheherazade’s Diary”, wins 10 international awards. She then directed the play “Johar… Up in the Air” with the documentary “The Blue Inmates” emerging from the process, conveying the voice of mentally ill offenders, accompanied by two draft laws presented to the Lebanese Parliament. She is the recipient of many awards given for her distinguished contributions to the field of social initiatives and services.
Arto Halonen
Arto Halonen is an internationally awarded documentary and fiction film director, screenwriter and producer, who is known for subjects that contain a strong social stance. Halonen has won several domestic and international awards: the Finland Prize (2005), the Humanitarian Award of the European Union (1998), the Cultural Prize of the City of Helsinki (2010) and the Finnish National Mental Health Prize (2010). His best-known documentaries include e.g. Ringside (1992), Karmapa – Two Ways of Divinity (1998), The Stars’ Caravan (2000), The Tank Man (2004), Pavlov’s Dogs (2005), The Shadow of the Holy Book (2007), When Heroes Lie (2012), White Rage (2015) and the most recent Back Towards Light (2018). Halonen’s work - including The Shadow of the Holy Book - toured around various festivals and across the globe. In 2008 Halonen received the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Halonen’s first fiction feature film Princess (2010) followed by A Patriotic Man (2013), and his latest international co-produced psychological thriller The Guardian Angel (2018) that was awarded as Best Feature Film at the Gold Movie Awards in London 2020. Halonen is also the founder and the first festival director of Helsinki Documentary Film Festival DocPoint.
Ketil Magnussen
Director of the Human IDFF Festival, Norway
Ketil Magnussen founded The Oslo Documentary Cinema in 2003 and the Human International Documentary Film Festival (idff) in 2008. The Oslo Documentary Cinema is a forum for political documentaries and debate with event screenings around the year in selected cinemas in Oslo. Human idff started as a Human Rights Film Festival with the name Human Rights Human Wrongs. Human idff takes place in Oslo every year in March. The festival is created in a collaboration with a large number of human rights organizations, research institutes, universities, film organizations and other institutions. One of the main goals for the festival is to engage a broad audience in human rights issues by showing great films and organizing interesting talks and debates. The festival also includes theatre plays, performances, art exhibitions and concerts.
Ketil has a broad professional experience spanning from carpentry to social work, in Norway and abroad, and 10 years experience as advisor and project manager for private companies and public organisations working with strategic use of Internet technology. He has an MA in Innovation studies from the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands, and a BA in History and Political Science from the University of Oslo.