Germán Labrador Méndez is a Distinguished Researcher (ATRAE) at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid, attached to the Institute of Language, Literature and Anthropology at the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities in Madrid (CSIC-ILLA-CCSH). He was a professor at Princeton University until 2024 and Director of Public Activities at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. He is currently developing a research project on the relationship between culture and democracy in Spain (1868-2024). He recently curated Esperpento. Arte popular y revolución estética (MNCARS, 2024-2025) and Ollos de vidro. As formas doutra historia de Galicia (Auditorio de Galicia, 2025). His publications include Culpables por la Literatura. Contracultura e imaginación política en la transición española (Akal, 2017). He is an expert in the fields of cultural studies, memory studies and modern and contemporary Spanish literature. As a cultural historian, he works at the intersection of aesthetics and politics in relation to cultural traditions that have been marginalised, erased or suppressed in the Iberian world.

Jean-Jacques Martinod (Guayaquil, Ecuador, 1990) is a filmmaker, artist, film curator, abyssal researcher, and clandestine anarchivist. He obtained his master’s degree from Concordia University (Montreal), where he was a member of the Centre for Expanded Poetics, The Global Emergent Media Lab, and the Fabrique-mondes Research Group. He is currently pursuing his PhD in the Emergent Technologies and Media Art Practices programme at the University of Colorado, where he continues to research the intersection between technology, ecology and artistic expression. His work addresses the relationships between the human and the non-human, exploring popular mythologies, anaemic memories and supra-regional biomes. As a curator, he has worked with Cámara Lúcida (Ecuador), V-F-X (Slovenia), and Xinema (Canada), among many others. He is currently the programmer and coordinator of expanded documentary at the Mimesis Documentary Festival (USA). As an artist and educator, he extends his practice beyond the realm of film, creating environments where media experimentation and community engagement converge. In 2025, he published the experimental novel Arkta Cirklo in collaboration with artist Paulus van Horne. His films have been screened at festivals, museums and film libraries such as IFF Rotterdam, FIDMarseille, Sheffield Doc/Fest, CIFF Camden, PHI Montreal, Cineteca Nacional de México, Cinemateca do MAM Rio de Janeiro and Cinemateca de Bogotá, among others.

Mariana Hristova is a Bulgarian film critic, cultural journalist and programmer based in Barcelona, interested in cinema from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus, as well as avant-garde, amateur and underrepresented cinema. She is a regular contributor to publications such as Cineuropa, Modern Times Review, The New Arab and the Bulgarian magazine KINO. She is a member of FIPRESCI, FEDEORA and the European Film Academy. She is also on the selection committee for Sheffield DocFest.