Avni Mustafa is born in Kosovo/Plemetina back in 1987, Plemetina is a small multiethnic village. As a young activist he started to work as a manager for local NGO Romano Resaipe. During his work on Romano Resaipe he publish a book called “The needs and problems of Romaa Ashkalis and Egyptians in municipality of Obilc”. Avni is human rights activist, trainer. For the moment he is working as Excecutive Director at Roma Versitas Kosovo NGO, he was working as a journalist for Public Service of Kosovo, he is also involve on the BSF/K (Balkan Sunflowers Kosovo is a Non-Governmental Organization that is helping Roma, Ashkaly and Egyptian children on Education)
Sami is an Independent film maker that gives opportunity to young Roma people to learn and to express other Roma lives, experience and identity through artistic methods, producing documentary films. Sami made his first film as a trainee in 2003 in Plemetina village in Kosovo, where the native of this town learned the techniques of film making with Balkan Sunflowers NGO. Sami has produced more than twenty-five documentaries, docu-fiction, and music videos on Roma culture, art, human rights and social life in Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, France and Slovenia in cooperation with partners Balkan Sunflowers, Luksus Produkcija, Koperativa, NISI MASA, Local Democracy Agency Nis Serbia, Local Democracy Agency Gjilan Kosovo, Dosta Campaign, etc. One of his films “Road to Home”, was screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2007; it was the only Kosovar film presented.
In 2007, Sami founded Romawood, a production house focusing on Roma issues and population. Later that same year, he initiated the “Jekh Kham Jekh Sel/One Sun One Nation” project, which has made the most indelible impact on his life and work. “Nachi Palem Khere/Never Back Home”, his last documentary, has been develop seven years. Sami captures the stories, and the changes of living conditions of families from different parts of Kosovo who are “internally displaced” in his hometown in Plemetina. Sami also took the initiative to one of the greatest Roma event in Kosovo as an artistic director of Rolling Film Festival – films made by and about Roma around the world. Sami is also a film tutor and has been tutoring for for more than 30 films, mostly short documentaries or fiction. Many of these films have won international pricess in Film Festivals. He is also a one of founder of upcoming new Romani Film Commission to support Roma Films around the world.
Denis was born in 1996 in Kosovo, is filmmaker. He made his first film as a trainee when he was 11 years old. He and his older friends made "Jekh Kham Jekh Sel / One Sun One Nation”, a film, that was shown in more than twenty film festivals in Europe, US, and Latin American. In 2010, he made another short film for Rolling Film Festival called "The Dream Power" and won the Audience Award. The film "TOXIC FUN", he made in a workshop in Plemetina, Kosovo, where this film was awarded at the DEPOK festival in Budapest. Denis Mustafa sees his future in making documentary films about Roma people. He wants to show his capacities and to be example for other young Roma filmmakers. With his films he wants to portray the life of Roma in different perspectives and on stories of success.
BA Culture and Media Education, born in 1993 in Hildesheim, Germany, studied in Merseburg, Germany. Here she learned, amongst other things, the basics of Intercultural Communication, Culture, Media and Society and Culture Management. She got the chance to put her knowledge into practice, for instance by writing a business plan and participating in the organization of the Fête de la musique in Merseburg. Lately she has been working with kids and families in the fields of theater and adventure education in Halle. Requirements such as guiding people and coordinating the needs and skills of different groups of people intrigued her and she decided to dive deeper in the field of management. Since some of her favorite modules in Merseburg included film, she can combine some of her greatest interests with the coordination of the Rolling Film Festival. In the future she would love to go more into managing and be able to use her skills of efficient communicating, unconventional thinking and fast learning.
Ms Dorela Limanaj is born in Kline on 13.05.1993, she finished primary and secondary school in Kline. Bachelor studies finished at the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Economics, Marketing Department, she have completed master studies at the University of Prishtina, Faculty of Economics, Department of Marketing. From January 2018 she work’s for Roma Versitas Kosovo as Finance and Admin Manager.
RFF provides this opportunity for a number of different groups that will become involved in the project. Firstly, through RFF young Roma volunteers will be giving something to the society that they live in providing them with a sense of social responsibility. Secondly, volunteers from other communities taking part in the project will also be giving: They will be giving their time, energy and commitment towards an integrated Kosovo. These two groups will help to make the story of Roma communities more real to the society around them. Thirdly, young filmmakers of “Integration of the Roma trough Human Rights perspective” will be offering their own personal vision, their social realities and an insiders view on their culture to external audiences.