Monica Lazurean & Andrei Gorgan: My Vote

Romania. Countryside. Village name Grojdibodu. Main character, the mayor of the village, Nitulescu Tudorel. Theme: Election is coming up, the mayor seeks to be elected for his third term. Focus on him and his campaign.

Who cares? Well, you care because it is a good film, well done, it can create atmosphere and make us discover the similarities that are quite as many as the differences. Glimpses of life, a charismatic chain-smoking mayor, who speaks well and makes sure that people, who can not come on their own are being picked up and taken to the voting booths, where many old people insist on entering the same booth as a couple, which is not allowed… I don’t care, is a reaction often heard. The mayor is a popular man, who of course is also the coach for the local football team, and dance and drink with his people. Cable television, electricity and a cultural house is wanted by the population, and the social subvention from the state must come before the election. And it does.

A Mini-The-War-Room (Pennebaker’s film on the Clinton-campaign) but as that one fine observational cinema of a small society, where the mayor needs 940 votes to be elected. He made it.

Romania, 2010, 42 mins

http://www.4prooffilm.ro/

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Tue Steen Müller
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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