Aristoteles Workshop 2011 welcomed Dutch filmmaker Jeroen Berkvens today, marking the beginning of the second stage in the five week intensive film training program taking place in Vama, Bucovina.

Jeroen Berkvens is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, film professor and member of the Dutch Film and Television Academy, recipient of numerous awards for his films about music, love, and both. Taking over from Thierry Garrel, Jeroen will spend the next 5 days teaching the teams about the importance of choosing and developing a narrative style suited to their own common values and world view.

His class will combine some very practical storytelling exercises with night screenings of several feature length documentaries, including his very own Jimmy Rosenberg - The Father, The Talent & The Son and A Skin Too Few - The Days Of Nick Drake.  Each screening will be followed by a Q&A where Jeroen will share tips on everything from light placing and sound design to dealing with confrontational situations, budgeting and other production issues.

Jeroen will also guide students on their first days of scouting for subjects, in a 20 square km area around Vama.

Aristoteles Workshop students have to form teams, find subjects, research, film and edit a documentary in just 5 weeks, under the guidance of several established European filmmakers. "There are all these difficulties", says former ARTE/France director and first week tutor Thierry Garrel, "which they need to learn to turn into advantages. If they can do so, they will end up making films they wouldn't have been able to produce in 5 months!".