Ally Derks Goes to New Zealand

… to be honoured for her work at The Documentary Edge International Documentary Festival in April. Director of the festival, Alex Lee, asked filmkommentaren to convey the news, which we do with pleasure. Some clips from the press release:

“We want to honour Ally for her enduring legacy as well as to introduce her to great New Zealand films and filmmakers. We hope she can help us inspire our city officials, government and business why it is important to support documentary and our vision to be the largest and most important documentary festival and industry event in Asia‐Pacific. And that this is do‐able” says Alex Lee, director of Documentary Edge. “She is the highest international documentary figure to ever visit New Zealand”.

“Called a “High Priestess of Documentary” (IndieWire) and arguably the world’s most passionate and influential documentary voice, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) Founder and Director Ally Derks will attend the Documentary Edge International Documentary Festival 2013 (Documentary Edge) –to make a keynote speech at the Screen Edge Forum and receive the inaugural 2013 Documentary Edge International Documentary Super‐Hero at the annual awards ceremony!”

“Derks has been a champion of documentary fighting for its existence and passionately nurturing its growth. She has been mentor to many filmmakers and festivals worldwide. She has been a key figure and advisor in helping and inspiring Documentary Edge’s work.”

Maybe you smile a bit of all these big words, but they are well placed, indeed!

www.documentaryedge.org.nz.

Photo by Bert Nienhuis / Courtesy IDFA, taken from press release.

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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