International Jury ENVIROFILM 2012
Janka Mesiariková
Slovak Republic
Janka Mesiariková has been working in the Radio and Television of Slovakia, Banská Bystrica TV Studio as a dramaturgist of the Regional Broadcasting Department. In the Slovak television she has been working since 1989. She started as a journalist and presenter at the TV News Studio in Banská Bystrica (1989-1996). From 1997 to 2003 she had been working there as an editor and presenter at the Journalism and Documentary Department; from 2004 to March 2006 as an editor, dramaturgist and presenter in the Regional Broadcasting Department. She devotes herself to screenwriting and introducing of the programme about tourism and mountaineering Televíkend currently known as Tourist Inspirations.
She was introducing the discussion programme Evening Dialogues and participated in the preparation of the documentary series Necelebrity. From 1998 to 2000 she was a spokesperson of the Slovak Tourist Board. From 2006 to 2010 she was the Head of the Regional Broadcasting Department of Banská Bystrica TV Studio and in 2011 the Head of the Department of Programme Development at the TV Studio in Banská Bystrica.
She has several years of journalistic practice, specializing in news, tourism, national minorities and members of other nations living in Slovakia, issues of education, social affairs and environment.
Ferenc Varga
Hungary
Ferenc Varga was born in 1954 in city of Békes in Hungary. He graduated in 1978 with degrees in Biology and Geography from the Lajos Kossuth University in Debrecen. In 1989 he received a degree in Environmental Engineering from the Agricultural University in Gődollő. After finishing his studies Varga worked for three years as a scientific assistant in the South-Danubian Institute at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Pécs. Within the Environmental Programme of the southern part of the Danube River he participated in projects of nature protection, environmental and landscape protection. Since 1981 he has worked in various capacities in the Service of Bükk National Park including Park Vice-Director and Director where he was responsible for strategic planning, development and implementation of projects for nature protection. For several years Varga managed the Ecology, Cave and Water Protection section and later became head of the Nature Protection section. At the time he also managed and organized expert field team projects in protected areas within the national park and its departments.
Kateřina Javorská
Slovak Republic
Kateřina Javorská graduated with a degree in Screenwriting and Dramaturgy from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She was working as a dramaturg in the Slovak Television where she mainly focused on productions for children and youth. Her signature can be found on hundreds of programmes, the most successful of which are the series „Poďte s nami“ and „Od Kuka do Kuka“. She also made the first ecological-entertainment TV series for children called „Tak i Tak“. As a screenwriter she has written bedtime stories, magazines and screenplays of documentaries and feature stories. Kateřina Javorská focuses also on the theory of film making. She has organised and run many seminars and workshops dealing mainly with audiovisual production for children and youth, as well as environmental programmes. She was a jury member of several well-known festivals (Ekofilm – Český Krumlov, TSTTT – Uherské Hradiště; Festival filmow przyrodniczych – Lodž, Poland; Ecomove – Freiburg, Germany; Filmák – Plzeň; Prix Danube – Bratislava).
She is a member of the Slovak Syndicate of Journalists - the Film Journalists Club and for 10 years she was the Chairwoman of the Union of Slovak Television Programme Makers. At Envirofilm 2003 Kateřina Javorská was awarded the Prize for a Long-term Contribution to Audiovisual Environmental Production. She is the Head of the Department of Film Dramaturgy and Screenwriting at the Academy of Arts.
František Palonder
Slovak Republic
After completing his secondary education František Palonder worked for Slovak Television (STV) as a camera assistant. In 1976 he attended the VGIK Moscow Film School at the Institute of Cinematography, Department of Feature and TV Directing, graduating in 1981. In the years to follow he was employed in STV as a film director and cooperated with Jozef Bednárik and Juraj Jakubisko as an assistant director. He continued his cooperation with STV 1980 to 1992, working as a free lance artist, director and scriptwriter. Since 2008 he has worked at STV as a dramatic adviser in the Department of Music and Entertainment and has produced 500 films for Slovak Television. For many he was both the scriptwriter and the cinematographer. His productions cover a wide range and include movies, documentaries, musical and entertainment programmes, sports, education and children’s programmes.
František Palonder is the member of the Union of Slovak Television Programme Makers and the Slovak PEN Centre.
Iwona Siekierzynska
Poland
Iwona Siekierzynska was born in 1967 in Gdynia, a city in the north of Poland. She graduated in 1990 with a degree in psychology. Then she studied directing at the National Film School in Łódź. In 1996 she was nominated for the Student Academy Award for her film “Pańcia” made under Krzysztof Kieślowski’s supervision. Afterwards she worked for seven years at the National Film School as an assistant professor at the Department of Directing. In 2002 she made a TV feature film “My Roasted Chicken”, which won many awards, among them the Golden Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival. In 2005 she made a documentary about her brother, titled “Obcey”. Since then she has been working for the Polish Television directing TV series. At the moment she is working on her next documentary about Rudolf Laban, a Slovak artist and preparing a long feature film about Katarzyna Kobro, a Polish avant-garde sculptor .
