José has a doctorate in Social Sciences – Anthropology and completed higher Studies in Film and Video at the Arts School of Porto. He’s a Professor at the School of Visual Arts, University of Goiás and a Researcher at the Migration Studies Center and Intercultural Relations from the Open University, where he is responsible for the Media Research Group and Cultural Mediations. He’s conducted field work in Cape Verde and in the urban peripheries of Lisbon and Porto, Brazil, Cuba and Argentina. Co Organizer of the Viana do Castelo International Film Conference, the International Seminar Images of Culture/Culture of Images. Coordinator of the Images of Culture/Culture of Images network. Collaborator with DIVERSITAS-USP. Visiting professor at European universities and Latin America.

PhD in the Postgraduate Program in Sociology and Anthropology – PPGSA / UFPA, Master in Social Anthropology by the same Program (2014), and Specialist in "African Education and Knowledge and Law Enforcement 10.639" by the Federal University of Pará (2012). He holds a degree in Social Sciences from the same university (2005). He works as a Teacher (Class II) at the State Department of Education (SEDUC / PA) and as an external teacher at UFPA. Founding member of the Research Group in Visual Anthropology and Image – Visagem / PPGSA, and editor of the Electronic Magazine Visagem. Alessandro also works as a curator of the Ethnographic Film Festival of Recife and coordinator of the Ethnographic Film Festival of Pará.

PhD in Sociology, Master’s in Education, degree in Visual Arts. Professor at the Faculty of Visual Arts at the Federal University of Goiás and at the Postgraduate Program in Art and Visual Culture. Researcher at CNPq. Author of the books "Saudades do Futuro: science fiction in cinema and the social imaginary about what's coming", and "Waste pickers of the cultural industry".

Bernard has graduated in Law and Political Science. Amongst other roles, he was a Professor, Director of the Art and Culture Department of the Institut Français du Portugal; responsible for the organization of the French Film Festival in Porto, co-founder of the Alliance Française de Porto (Board member), collaborator with Jean-Loup Passek in the creation, and later in the management of the Melgaço Film Museum, Executive Producer of the film En une poignée de mains amies by Jean Rouch and Manoel de Oliveira.

Bernard Surugue, then a 20-year old engineering student and pianist, commits as a music teacher in Nigeria where he meets Jean Rouch in 1966. The famous filmmaker-ethnologist invites him to share his own research field to study the music of the Songhay possession dances. Together, crossing village after village, they observe and collect the ritual representations of Songhay mythology. In 1973, Surugue presented the first thesis at the Sorbonne based on a film. As a filmmaker, he is the author-director of about sixty films that have earned him many international awards. With Jean Rouch, his master and friend, he co-directed "The dream is stronger than death", selected at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. Former WHO International Officer, Honorary Research Director at the IRD, where he founded the audiovisual department, he taught scientific cinema at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University and was an advisor to the president of the Academy of Sciences and vice-president of the Jean Rouch Foundation.

Protagonist in the film The Cambridge Squatter, is one of the founders and the main leadership of the Downtown Rootless Movement (MSTC), in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. With an ample history of struggle for housing and alongside other relevant Brazilian social movements, such as the Fight for Housing Front (FLM) and the Central of Social Movements (CMP), the MSTC currently leads 11 of the 21 buildings occupied by these entities in the city of São Paulo. Overall, the more than 20 occupations represent around five thousand people fighting for a dignified and definitive dwelling.

Denise Machado Cardoso is an anthropologist and historian, currently living and working in Belém do Pará, northern Amazonia. She is a PhD (2006) in Social and Environmental Development and holds a Masters (2000) in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Pará. She is a member of the Research Ethics Committee at the same university and coordinates the Arthur Napoleão Figueiredo Laboratory of Anthropology (LAANF) developing studies about social relations on gender, ethnomuseology, indigenous health, education and cyberculture. Coordinator of the Visual and Image Anthropology Studies Group (VISAGEM) and the Group of Studies on Indigenous Populations (GEPI).

Isabella holds a degree in Radio and Television from the University of São Paulo (1991), a master's degree and a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Brasília. She is currently an assistant professor IV of the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), a member of the Brazilian Association of Anthropology (ABA), member of the ABA Heritage and Museum Committee. She has experience in the area of Anthropology, with emphasis on Cultural Heritage and Urban Anthropology, Anthropology of the Place, Cultural Performances.

In 1981, took part in the creation of Ateliers Varan. Between 1985 and 1988, within the Ateliers and with the support of the Foreign Office, he has taught and formed young south African filmmakers in Documentary Film at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. In 1998, with André Van In, he has oriented said filmmakers in the directing of a collective film: Chroniques sud-africaines (110 min., JBA production, ZDF, Arte). After 1991, he collaborated mainly with the ARTE channel, for which he has directed a series of documentaries:

• 1991-2000: Paysages (20 X 26 min. JBA Production, INA, Arte)
• 2000-2010: Les Foyers de création (7 X 52 min. 13 Production, Arte)
• 2005-2010: Les Arts du mythe (5 X 26 min. Program33, Arte)

• 2011 : L’Energumène (77 min. JBA Production, Arte)
• 2013 : Braddock America (103 min. Program33, avec Gabriella Kessler)
• Festival de Cannes 2013, Festivals de Thessalonique, Three-Rivers (Pittsburgh), La Rochelle, Cleveland, Alger, etc.

Since 2014, Jean-Loïc has been setting up a filmmaking workshop in Johannesburg (South Africa) produced by JBA Production e Arte. In 2015, the workshop will direct the documentary Born Free.

Founder and President of the Jean Rouch Foundation.

Mina Rad holds a degree in Communication and History from the University of Paris. She was an international journalist, radio and television presenter and cultural reporter. She has been a documentary filmmaker since 2013 after having attended the Ateliers Varan. In 2017, she directed her tenth film "Jean Rouch, Regards Persans". She is the founder and president of APRESVARAN, an alumni association of Ateliers Varan created in 2013. She is co-director of the APRESVARAN Documentary Film Festival. Mina also coordinates the Women's Film Festival for Women's Day. A Frenchwoman of Iranian origin, she’s lived and worked in Europe and in different parts of the world: USA, Central America and Asia.

Tiago graduated in Cine-Video at ESAP, trained at atéliers Varan workshops from the Creativities and Artistic Creation Gulbenkian Program, followed the Jean Rouch Seminar in "Anthropologie et Cinema" at the French Cinematheque and completed an MA in documentary filmmaking at ESMAE-IPP. His main activity is the realization of documentary-oriented cinema, having made films about intervention and political reflection, but also works of autobiographical and experimental nature. He´s also carried out several works of installation-video. Collaborator whilst working as a technician (cameraman, sound, editing) in other director’s films - Rodrigo Areias, Regina Guimarães, Ricardo Leite, Catarina Alves Costa, Saguenail, André Gil Mata, Paulo Abreu, Amarante Abramovici ... Teacher in the Audiovisual Communication and Multimedia BA’s Degree at Lusófona University in Porto, in addition to guiding intensive training in the fields of introduction to film language or direct-cinema (documentary). He also works frequently with theater companies. As a programmer, on top of several thematic cycles of cinema, collaborated with the 5th Panorama of Portuguese Documentary and integrates the programming team Taste of Cinema, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Serralves.

Graduated in architecture in 2004 and holds a Master on Creative Documentary at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain, in 2012. Is partner of the production company TERRATREME. Lectures at the master DOCNOMADS - European Documentary Master Course. Member of LES ATELIERS VARAN, since 2014. Directed the films: Industrial Revolution, co-directed with Frederico Lobo (2014 - World Première at Visions du Réel, Nyon, Switzerland), Guided Tour (2009 - Audience Award at Indielisboa), The Gift From Afar (2008 - part of the collection "So close, so far" distributed by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), Ground Glass I, II (2007 - Award of International Microfilms Festival of Lisbon), Show Room (2007), Quinta da Curraleira (2006 Primeiro Olhar Award for best film in Encontros de Cinema de Viana do Castelo).