Jaka Bizilj
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Jaka Bizilj grew up in Slovenia, Libya, Tanzania, Malaysia and Germany and passed his university entrance exams in 1991. Through his high school and university years, he reported as a journalist for international print and broadcast media. In 1991, he began studies in politics, literature and film at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Jaka Bizilj lives in Berlin with his wife and a daughter.
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[edit] Promoter and Producer
Jaka Bizilj works as promoter and producer. He began organizing concerts in 1995 with artists such as the Backstreet Boys, Andrea Bocelli, Bryan Adams, Montserrat Caballe, Max Raabe, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras. Since the end of the 1990s, Jaka Bizilj has worked internationally as a producer and was the largest presenter of open-air opera in Europe for some years. Jaka Bizilj stages approximately 500 concerts and live productions a year, and following successful runs of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita", 2008 he has recently also produced Elton John's musical "Aida" and the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde" as open-air-productions. Moreover, he has launched a number of festivals. Since 2007, Jaka Bizilj is also involvend in the production of films, with “Suddenly Gina” and the documentary “Letter to Anna” belonging to his range of work in this area.
[edit] Goodwill Efforts
Jaka Bizilj is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and collaborates with and supports, among others, Unicef, Unifem, Amnesty International, DATA, amfAR and Richard Gere's Foundation, which has been initiated especially through a meeting with the Dalai Lama. After visiting Nelson Mandela in November 2006, he began working closely with the "Schools for Africa programme", a joint initiative of UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Since 2002, Jaka Bizilj has raised more than two million Euros for a variety of charitable causes.
Jaka Bizilj launched Cinema for Peace in 2001, following the tragedy of 9/11. The annual Cinema for Peace Gala is a platform for communicating humanitarian, political and social issues through the medium of film and has the attention of well over a billion media hits, making it one of the most-followed film galas in the world. Among other projects he distributed the Bosnian movie "No Man's Land". Ahead of the G8 Summit in Germany he produced at the initiative of Bob Geldof and Richard Curtis a remake of the Golden Globe-winning film "The Girl in the Café" with Iris Berben, Julia Jentsch, Jan Josef Liefers and Catherine Deneuve in 2007. He also made Bob Geldof the editor of Europe's biggest-selling newspaper BILD for a day in order to publish an issue solely dedicated to Africa. Geldof described the awards gala as "the Oscars with brains". George Clooney said to have found inspiration for his Oscar-nominated film "Good Night and Good Luck" in the Cinema for Peace initiative.
Previous hosts and speakers include Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone, Catherine Deneuve, Forest Whitaker, Clint Eastwood and Hilary Swank. The gala in 2009 saw Mikhail Gorbachev, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Ben Kingsley and Catherine Deneuve honouring the award-winning films and discussing solutions for current social, humanitarian and environmental challenges, initiating new valuable projects to further a more humane, more peaceful and more just world. Leonardo DiCaprio was presented the first "International Green Film Award" by Mikhail Gorbachev. On the eve of this year's gala Jaka Bizilj co-chaired the "Cinema for Peace" committee dinner together with German Minister Sigmar Gabriel, focussing on the issue of climate protection.
Jaka Bizilj is currently engaged in developing further global projects. During the 12 IAAF World Championships in Athletics he initiated together with Gerhard Janetzky the new initiative "Sports for Peace" in Berlin. Sports idols Dr. Edwin Moses and Sergej Bubka received the first "Sports for Peace" awards on this occasion, as well as the players of the Iranian national football team, who wore a green ribbon at their last game against South Korea to express their support for the democracy movement in their home country.
[edit] Productions
- since 1996 - The Black Gospel Singers
- since 1997 - Nabucco, Aida
- since 1998 - Carmen
- since 1999 - Magic of the Dance
- since 2000 - Romanza with Helen Schneider, Königstein Castle Festival, Nahe-Festival (until 2005)
- since 2001 - Stardance, Dancing Queen/Abbafever
- since 2002 - Evita, Cinema for Peace
- since 2003 - The Vienna Johann Strauss Waltz Gala, Festival under the Stars (Herrenchiemsee Castle)
- since 2004 - The Magic Flute, Jedermann
- since 2005 - Last Night of Spectacular Classic, Arena di Bavaria, Wörthersee Festival, Long Walk to Justice/Live 8 Germany,
- 2006 - The World Football Concerts at the FIFA World Cup, Jesus Christ Superstar, Galanacht des Musicals, Mozart Gala
- 2007 - The Lord of the Rings in concert, Queen - a ballet homage by Ben van Cauwenberg
- 2008 - Aida, the musical by Elton John and Tim Rice
- 2009 - Jekyll & Hyde
[edit] Film Productions
- "Not the same procedure as every year - Dinner for All" with Bob Geldof and Katja Riemann (2007)
- "Suddenly Gina" with Iris Berben, Julia Jentsch, Jan Josef Liefers and Catherine Deneuve (2007)
- "I don't feel like dancing" short film (2008)
- Eric Bergkraut's documentary "Letter to Anna" about the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (2008) [1]
[edit] Awards
- Václav Havel, the former Czech president, in 2008 committed the audience award for "Letter to Anna" at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival. The Prague festival uses international documentary films to highlight opportunities for individuals to champion human rights.
- "I don't feel like dancing" received the award "Best Short Fiction Film" by the "GoEast Festival" in April 2008
[edit] External links
- www.cinemaforpeace.com
- www.star-entertainment.org
- www.sportsforpeace.de
