About

DIRECTOR

Zahra is a Moroccan/American Dancer, Choreographer, filmmaker, teaching artist and curator. She received her BFA in Dance and Choreography from CALARTS in 2010, went on to co-found Subrosa Dance collective and made her way to Berlin in 2014. In Berlin, Zahra co-founded PAUL Studios Berlin and created works with the PAUL Kollektiv. She now works as a teaching artist, co-owns Mijas a shop of things in Kreuzberg & co-directs Berlin Dance Film Festival.

DIRECTOR

Zee Hartmann’s career spans three continents over 20 years. Besides co-directing the Berlin Dance Film Festival with Zahra Banzi, Zee makes and sells handbound, riso-printed notebooks in Berlin at Mijas gift shop and the popular bookstores She Said and Love Story of Berlin under the name Dyke City Press. Zee is currently working towards becoming a registered psychologist with a practice that combines their background in dance with feminist and sex-positive therapeutic modalities.

JUDGE

Joni Barnard is a queer interdisciplinary artist and educator from Johannesburg, South Africa, currently based in Berlin. Working across dance, performance, film, poetry, rap, music and embodied activism, Joni is passionate about trickster methodologies, radical connection, and collaborative play. Joni co-directed the Detours: re-routing movement composition festival (2012–2016) at WITS University, which featured a dance film program and experimental movement practices. Recent screen work includes co-directing Burning Rebellion (2025) - an ecological protest poem that Joni directed and co-wrote with the Well Worn Theatre company -  and choreographing for Die Schlangenknaben’s music videos. Joni has performed at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, DOCK 11, Uferstudios, and Oldenburg Staatstheater, supported by grants from Flausen+, Fonds Darstellende Künste, and the Berliner Senat. Their ongoing project, The Body Autonomy and Consent Methodology, is a dance improvisation workshop exploring consent, co-regulation and social transformation through learning ensemble performance and improvisation skills.

JUDGE

Mmakgosi Kgabi (they/she, a.k.a. Ouma) is a multidisciplinary artist, actor, and founding member of Motherbox Organisation for Co-Operation in the Arts. Based in Berlin, they are part of the PSR Collective, curating at Heizhaus, Uferstudios. Holding an MA in Solo Dance and Authorship from HZT/UdK and HfS Ernst Busch, their research explores language as choreography. Kgabi’s practice spans acting, dramaturgy, voice artistry, physical theatre, improvisation, and DJing. They’ve trained with Causing a Scene (JHB), POAL (NYC), and CWBSA, and studied Economics and Theatre at Rhodes University. Their stage and screen work extends across South Africa and Europe, with collaborations including HAU Berlin and Tanz im August. They host Homegrown on refugeworldwide.com. Writings include Catch Me If You Can and M.E.T.S.I; a fisherman’s friend. Residencies: East African Soul Train (2023), Artist Village (2023), and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg Talent Lab (2022). More at www.mmakgosikgabi.com.

JUDGE

Enad Marouf is a Syrian-German performance and video artist based in Berlin. He completed his Masters in Choreography and Performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Gießen. He works with movement, text, video and installation, focusing on the fragmentary nature of memory, loss, and desire—their temporality and how they are embodied through poetry, image, and choreography. His works have been shown at the Athens Biennale, Centre Francais de Damas, Sophiensæle Berlin, Shedhalle Zurich and Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, among others. In 2023, he was awarded Will Grohmann Prize in visual arts at the academy of arts Berlin.

JUDGE

“Your painting is not you, your painting is something that belongs to my world.” – Time to Love, Metin Erksan

I wanted to start with Sevmek Zamanı (Time to Love), which Metin Erksan brought to the big screen...

Metin Erksan’s Time to Love portrays love not as attachment to a person, but to an image held within — a feeling that transcends reality. Likewise, cinema offers more than visuals; it reflects our dreams, emotions, and the stories we escape into.

I studied Radio, TV, and Cinema, and served as an academic jury member at the 4th International Goldenhorn Film Festival. I’m currently a jury member at the Eichsfelder Film Festival and work on the social media team of the Oberursel Film Festival.

For me, cinema, as in Time to Love, what we see on the screen is not reality itself, but something that belongs to the inner world of the viewer.

JUDGE

  Edegar Starke is a Brazilian-born, Berlin-based artist and graduate actor from FURB, Brazil. With a strong physical background, he developed dance/theatre projects for public school youth. Since 2013, he has trained in Butoh with masters like Minako Seki and Daisuke Yoshimoto, fueling his movement-based research “Moving Memories.” In 2016, he co-curated the Moving Bodies Butoh Festival and premiered his solo The Childhood I Kept to Myself. In 2018, he joined The PAUL Collective Berlin, curating and directing community-centered art initiatives. Since 2019, he collaborates with Israeli choreographer Tomer Zirkilevich as performer, assistant director, and vocal coach. Together, they co-produce SpeeDance, a pop-up choreography project fostering creative exchange. Edegar also performs with queer collectives PORNCEPTUAL and GEGEN, and with the music project KORO. Since 2022, he has assisted and performed with Minako Seki, contributing to her workshops and Seki Method Teacher Training.