Zdeněk Chaloupka (Czech Republic)

Born in 1988 in Nymburk. After graduating from high school, he has focused on media work. Aside from producing a wide range of commercial projects (presentation videos, theatre performance and concert recordings) he has contributed as an editor to two TV documentaries reflecting on the social reality in Mongolia. Films Ulan Bator – the Red Hero and Czech Footprint in the Land of Eternal Blue Sky were shown on Czech Television, and Z1 TV.
During his university years, he started to take interest in issues related to migration, refugees and human rights. He stood at the cradle of the Prague university branch of Amnesty International for which he was shooting debates, happenings and spots. In 2010, he directed a short film entitled Elena about a Russian migrant, which won in the international competition organised by IOM Budapest. A year later, he completed his film Occupy and Live! exploring the phenomenon of squatting in the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. At that time, he also started to take interest in documentary photography and he took part in a one-week course led by reporter Patrick Chauvel. After completing his bachelor degree, he was admitted to study documentary filmmaking at FAMU and is now in the third year of the programme. His latest film Kostelec Castle portrays the life of refugees in the asylum-seeker camp in Kostelec nad Orlicí. At the end of 2014, he joined a group of journalists on their trip to Ukraine organised by UNHCR that served as an inspiration for his bachelor film focusing on the events in this region. In the course of his studies, he has continued to work as a freelance filmmaker. He has been making reportages, spots and debates for magazine Respekt, organisations such as Automat and People in Need, and for the Archa Theatre.