Mads Brügger is a Danish filmmaker, journalist, TV host and author who is renowned for his distinctive methods of “performative journalism”. His feature-length documentaries include Sundance winner The Red Chapel (2009), and The Ambassador (2011) and Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019), which were also selected for Sundance. His feature fiction debut The Saint Bernard Syndicate (2018) won two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Speakers
- Mads Brugger, director, Denmark
Moderated by
- Damir Šagolj, photographer, journalist and teacher, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mads Brügger is a Danish journalist, television host, author and filmmaker. He has written several books, worked for magazines and newspapers, produced award-winning radio programmes and hosted critically acclaimed late night television shows. Brügger is renowned for his distinctive methods of "performative journalism" as he infiltrates various milieux. He has created and featured in satirical docu-series such as Danes for Bush (2004) as well as in feature-length documentaries like his Sundance Film Festival prize-winning The Red Chapel (2009). The Ambassador (2011) and Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019) were also selected for Sundance. He made his feature fiction debut with The Saint Bernard Syndicate (2018), winner of two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2011, Brügger became Director of Programming at the public service channel Radio24syv.
Damir Šagolj, born in 1971 in Sarajevo, is a Bosnian photographer, journalist and teacher. He completed power engineering studies in Moscow and Sarajevo but the Bosnian war and its total destruction meant a change in career for Damir. From 1992 he was in Sarajevo as a member of Bosnian army, until the end of the country's war four year later. In 1996 he briefly joined Paris based SIPA-press and then Reuters news agency as their Bosnia based photojournalist. For next 24 years Damir travelled the world and reported on major news stories for the agency – mostly on conflicts, civil and other disturbances and natural catastrophes, but also on contemporary issues, sport and other events. He lived in Russia, Thailand, China and spent many years in the Middle East. His work was recognised with industry’s major awards – the Pulitzer prize, World Press Photo, multiple POYi and SOPA among many others. He holds a master degree from the University of Arts in London. Currently, Damir lives in Sarajevo and teaches photography and contemporary documentary approach at the Sarajevo’s Academy of Performing Arts. He regularly holds lectures, masterclasses and workshops at various educational and professional organisations around the world, curates exhibitions and shoots movies. Damir also serves as the director of the WARM Foundation.