Michael Obert
Michael Obert is an award-winning German book author and journalist who has been compared with the likes of Bruce Chatwin, Jon Krakauer and Ryszard Kapuscinski.
He reports mainly from Africa and the Middle East and writes for National Geographic, GEO, Sueddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, DIE ZEIT and ZEIT Magazin, and many other prestigious periodicals in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, as well for Sunday Times Magazine, GQ France, The Journal (New York), Dagens Næringsliv (Oslo) and Himal Southasian (Katmandu).
Song from the Forest, Obert’s movie debut as a director, had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2013 where it won the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. The movie was considered for the Oscars 2016.
As an Africa expert, intercultural trainer and coach, Michael Obert advises politicians, professionals and organizations and gives the African continent a voice in the Western media. In 2017 he founded the Reporter Akademie Berlin.
Michael Obert was selected for the 2013 European Press Prize shortlist with ‘War Report from Somalia’ and for the 2015 European Press Prize shortlist with ‘Boko Haram’.
He won the 2018 Distinguished Reporting Award with ‘The human catcher‘.
Emilienne Malfatto
Emilienne Malfatto is a freelance journalist and photojournalist covering the Middle East and Latin America. She studied in France and Colombia and graduated from Sciences Po Paris journalism school in 2013. She then worked two years for AFP (Agence France Presse), in France and on the Middle East regional desk. In early 2015 she moved to northern Iraq as a freelancer. She covers conflict related themes but also in-depth stories, with a social and gender focus. She recently reported in eastern Turkey, Caucasus, Ethiopia and Venezuela. She won the 2015 Reporting prize organized by French media Revue XXI and radio France Info. She was shortlisted for the European Press Prize that same year. Her photos were exhibited in the Kurdish Institute in Paris in December 2015. She attended the 2017 New York Portfolio Review. She is a member of Women Photograph and Frontline Freelance Register.
Emilienne Malfatto was selected for the 2015 European Press Prize shortlist with ‘La femme est un homme comme les autres’