Theodore Boborol

Filmmaker, TV Director
Philippines

Theodore Capistrano Boborol is a Filipino film and television director in the Philippines who started as a Creative researcher for Star Cinema in 2000. Boborol made his directorial debut with the teen romantic comedy-drama film Just the Way You Are (2015). He rose to prominence for directing his second feature film, Vince and Kath and James (2016), which was a commercial and critical success. His third film Finally Found Someone, is one of the highest-grossing films of 2017 in the Philippines.

Boborol was born in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines.

Leïla Ghandi

TV Host, Producer
Morocco

Leila Ghandi is a French-Moroccan award-winning TV host, journalist, producer, author, photographer, and civil society activist. She produces and hosts a monthly prime-time television show broadcast on the most popular Moroccan TV channel (2MTV and 2M World). Viewed by over two million people each month, episodes are filmed internationally with guests that include presidents and women activists.

Through her work, Leila promotes the representation of free Arab Muslim women, women’s empowerment, human rights, and aims to build and promote dialogue between cultures. She holds a Master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris (France), an Executive Program from Harvard (USA), and a B.A. in European Management from the University of Portsmouth (UK).

Leila works actively with NGOs, state agencies and international Foundations such as Drosos for Human Development, Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and the Department of International Cooperation of Monaco.

Idil Ibrahim

Filmmaker
USA-Somalia

Idil Ibrahim is a Somali-American award-winning filmmaker based in New York but working worldwide. Idil has worked on and produced film projects that have gone on to screen at the top international film festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Toronto International Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel in Paris, and Sundance Film Festival, among others.

A graduate of UC Berkeley, her work has led her around the world and extensively throughout Africa. She is a recipient of the prestigious 92Y’s Extraordinary Women Award for 2017 and was selected as one of OkayAfrica’s “100 Women” for 2018.

Teymour Ghaderi

Filmmaker, Screen Writer
Iran

Teymour Ghaderi, born in Iran, graduated in screen writing and photography. He has written the short stories The Address I’m Lost and Summer Cold. He has directed three short films: Pomegranate is the Fruit of Paradise, Picking the Down and It Hit Upon the Roof. Winner of 18 national and international awards (Canada, South Korea, Czech Republic, Turkey, Finland, France, USA, Bangladesh, Iran, Spain and UK) for the films Pomegranate is the Fruit of Paradise and Picking the Down.

Teymour is a PLURAL+ 2016 award recipient.

Márcia Mayer

Filmmaker
Brazil

Márcia Mayer is a Brazilian Film Independent Spirit Award nominated producer dedicated to producing exciting, emotionally engaging, feature films that expand audiences’ capacity for empathy and understanding across different cultures. She just wrapped Mountain Rest, starring Natalia Dyer and Frances Conroy, and which was awarded the Film Independent AbelCine Feature Film Grant.

Previously, Márcia produced Manos Sucias, a US-Colombia co-production directed by Josef Wladyka, which was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards (Best First Feature and Best Editing), and won Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Colombian Academy Awards.

Márcia was Associate Producer of Reaching for the Moon, directed by Academy Award nominee Bruno Barreto, and starring Miranda Otto; and Production Coordinator for the Academy Award nominated documentary, Restrepo. Márcia was a producing fellow in the inaugural year of SFFILM’s KRF-sponsored Producer’s Initiative.

Letitia Zwickert

Educator
USA

Letitia Zwickert has devoted her life’s work to cross-cultural understanding and local and global learning opportunities. She is an American high school social studies teacher, a current Fulbright Specialist in Education for 2017-2020, and the co-founder and director of MENTEE, a non-profit organization in Chicago that that connects immigrant, refugee, and low-income high school students with mentors.

She was the first K-12 educator to receive a Fulbright-Schuman Scholar award for doing research on education for underserved and refugee youth in Europe, in 2016. Letitia presented her philosophy of “engaged teaching” to the OECD’s Education Team in Paris, in 2017. In New Brunswick, in May of 2018, she will speak at the OECD’s Fourth Education Policy Forum, Strength Through Diversity, “SEL and a Sense of Belonging,” for immigrant and refugee students.

She is a Transatlantic Core Group Fellow, with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the BMW Foundation, and is helping develop a Connected Cities program between the US and Germany to foster civil society networks and focus on those unconnected or underrepresented. Her volunteer work as an Education Advisor for the International Outreach Council for the University of Illinois supports educators throughout the state and helps bridge the gap between K-12 and higher education. She holds an M.A. in International Relations and an MAED in Secondary Education.

PLURAL+ 2018 Pre-Selection Committee

  • Margot Amram
  • Dogan Asik
  • Coralie Bru
  • Francesca Carini
  • Regina Casale
  • Thibault Chareton
  • Edward Dioduargi
  • Rebekah Fisk
  • Lewis Freeman
  • Anne-Sophie Fernandes
  • Deysi Carina Flores Vigo
  • Xin Guo
  • Hannelore Gomes
  • Nuha Hamarsha
  • Suzanne Harvey
  • Paloma Haschke-Joseph
  • Elena Maria Hernandez Martinez
  • Matthew Hoddes
  • Ibrahim Khazzaka
  • Efrain Joselo Lucero
  • Julie Ann Ladanan
  • Avery Leigh White
  • Joana Malta Gomes
  • Amira Nassim
  • Abdirahman Olow
  • Sara Onvani
  • Mohamed Osman
  • Mohammed Osman
  • Anna Pavlyuchenko
  • Jennifer Pro
  • Caroline Quigley
  • Harut Sarian
  • Matteo Sestito
  • Jessica Sirico
  • Rahma Soliman
  • Vanessa Suen
  • Jordi Torrent
  • Mariam Traore Chazalnoel
  • Bram Van Haver
  • Emmanuelle Wiley
  • Xiaopan Ye