Documentary in Europe
For the 13th time the small mountain town Bardonecchia in Piemonte hosts the Documentary in Europe, 4 days of market talks, case studies, film screenings, pitching, a matchmaking seminar for directors and debates around documentary matters. Dates: July 8-11.
There is for instance a meeting with two succesful producers from the Eastern part of Europe, Uldis Cekulis from Latvia and Martichka Bozhilova from Bulgaria. They are to talk about ”humour in documentaries” and indeed they are qualified to do so. Cekulis production, directed by Laila Pakalnina, ”Three Men and a Fish Pond”, is one of these tongue-in-cheek observations of silent men and their way of being together. And Bozhilova and her company Agitprop launches two of the most recognized films from the last years – both of them are surprising, non-formatted creative documentaries that show new ways for the documentary genre: Andrey Paounov’s ”The Mosquito Problem and other Stories” and Boris Despodov’s ”Corridor #8”.
Other films to be shown are beautiful ”On the Way to School” (photo) by Turkish Orhan Eskiköy and Özgür Dogan and the masterpiece ”Rabbit à la Berlin” by Bartek Konopka. I met the director in Vilnius this week and he gave me the 40 minutes version of a film that has had a long journey to completion, and I would say to high quality surprise and originality. I will review the film asap on this site where you can find more about many of the films from Bardonecchia. For one who has been to this fine summer event 10 times it is a pleasure to see that it still is very much alive with a big and interesting programme. Enjoy!
