Magnificent7 – Asylum Seekers
Take a look at the photo. The young woman leaning forward is Caroline. She is a social worker at a reception centre for asylum seekers in a municipality of Paris. The woman with her back to the camera is Zaleh,…
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & 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.
Read MoreMagnificent7 – Asylum Seekers
Magnificent7 – Striptease
Eric Cardot is in Belgrade because of his co-direction of ”Kill the Referee”. At a session with young filmmakers from Serbia, he revealed how the film came about. It was the football association UEFA, that wanted the film and addressed…
Magnificent7 – Finnish Living Rooms
Jukka Kärkkäinen (JK) and his cameraman J-P. Passi (JP) are in Belgrade to present their film ”The Living Room of a Nation” that has been highly praised on this site several times. The JK presentation of the film and himself…
Magnificent7 – Opening Night
The Sava Center in Belgrade hosted two films for the opening of the 6th European Feature Documentary Festival, Magnificent7. The big hall made last night room for around 1500 spectators for each of the two films, that were introduced to…
Magnificent7 – a Sexy Festival
The 6th European feature Documentary Festival opens tonight in the big hall of the Sava Centre in Belgrade. My guess – based on ticket office information and on experience from previous years – is that more than a thousand spectators…
TV3 Awards
The Catalan public broadcaster TV3 has since 1990 performed a very honourable competition for reports and films that ”raise a voice against the violation of human rights. The goal is to defend the rights of individuals and democratic values such…
Kalandia – a Checkpoint Story
This is one of those films that stays in your mind. Not because it is a high-quality visual experience, not at all, almost on the contrary, but because here is a filmmaker, who has committed herself to act by doing…
Cinéma du Réel
The 32th (!) edition of the festival in Paris takes place March 18-30. Both bloggers of this site will be there to report in Danish and English. Here is an overview of what the programme includes, taken from the site…
Jarmo Jääskeläinen: Marcel Lozinski
This text about Polish master Marcel Łoziński is written by grand old man in Finnish documentary, for many years a producer, director and commissioning editor at YLE, Jarmo Jääskeläinen. The text is taken from the site of the international film…
Nicolas Philibert: Imagination takes flight
This text is taken from the site of the Finnish documentary film festival Docpoint, that goes on 26-31.1.2010: I never made the decision to become a documentarian, to place myself in some fixed category. I don’t even like the word…
Forgotten Transports to Göteborg Film Festival
”What an achievement! I don’t recall, when was the last time that I witnessed so captivating a historical documentary, here told by Czech Jewish survivors of the holocaust. They were interviewed between 2000-2006 by Lukas Pribyl, the researcher, writer and…
Zelig
… does not only refer to the fictional documentary, mockumentary, of Woody Allen, but is also the name of the film school in Bolzano in the Alto Adige region of North Italy. Documentary films are being taught and made here…
Lars von Trier in St. Petersburg
Yes, it is him on the small poster, that advertises a fine programme to be performed by The Danish Institute in St. Petersburg. For four days a Film Festival Denmark will take place showing an excellent programme of films from…
Shalva Shengeli: Unknown Soldiers
Recruit training in Georgia. From Recruit Gurchiani to Private Gurchiani. A symphathetic young man from Upper Abkhazia is the main character in this documentary from Georgia. He is followed through some months in 2008 that leads up to the Russian-Georgian…
Georgy Parajanov: I died in my Childhood
This is the second impressive documentary that I have seen ABOUT Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) (the first one by Vartanov is previously written about on this site), this time made by his nephew, who gave the film to me when we…
Dhondup Wangchen
Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen has been sentenced to six yearsʼ imprisonment. This is a press release from the site “Leaving Fear Behind” where clips from the film of the same title is to be found. Zurich, 6. January 2010. Dhondup…
Monique Mbeka Phoba: Between Cup and Elections
In two days the big football event Africa Cup of Nations 2010 will kick off. DR Congo did not qualify even if they were close to get there and do what they did in 1968, when they won the tournament,…
Alina Rudnitskaya
At the DoxPro workshop in November 09 in St. Petersburg I met many talented Russian documentary directors, who deserve more attention from Western European broadcasters and festivals. I took several dvd’s back home to watch and comment, and I still…
Salome Jashi: The Leader is Always Right
The title of the film indicates where the director stands. As does the building of this observational documentary from one of the patriotic youth camps in Georgia. With a fine eye for details young director Salome Jashi (previously written about…
Lida/Miso Suchy:Pictograph.Portrait of a Village
I got this dvd by Slovak Marek Sulik, the editor of the two original documentaries by Peter Kerekes, ”66 Seasons” and ”Cooking History”. Sulik has obviously enjoyed this new job of making the impressive b/w photos of Lida Suchy into…
Cayan Demirel: Prison Nr. 5 1980-84
The director of the banned film ”38” (see below) touches upon another black spot in newer Turkish history with this enormously touching documentation of the horrible atrocities that took place in the Diyarbakir prison in the military coup period 1980-84.…
Cayan Demirel: 38
The old man asks for the camera to be turned off. He has a lot to say but he is worried. No broadcasting, he almost shouts loudly… no broadcasting, the voice behind the camera assures him, but turn it off,…
The 10 Best Documentaries 2009
Here follows what were the best 10 documentaries in the world according to what I saw and reviewed in 2009. In alphabetical order. All reviews can be found by writing the titles in ”search”. Happy New Year! Cash and Marry,…
Magnificent7 Prologue 2
A quote from my welcoming words for the Magnificent7 Festival: What is a good film festival? You will not be surprised when I answer that question by saying: Come to the 6th edition of Magnificent7! Again we – Svetlana and…
Magnificent 7 Programme Published
January 21-25 2010 are the dates for the 6th edition of Magnificent 7, the European Feature Documentary Film Festival. A unique festival with a selection of only 7 films that are shown once in the Sava Center in Belgrade, Serbia.…
Erik Norsker: Vin og Vrøvl
På dette sted anmeldes der som regel film ud fra filmiske kvalitetskriterier. Det er ikke muligt med Erik Norskers produktion, der har en undertitel ”The Movie – Filmen bag bogen”, som henviser til at Roald Als og Carlo Merolli for…
Merry Christmas 2009
There are many ways to greet each other. Some fine documentary filmmakers in Ukraine sent me this spelling of Christmas – thank you Ella Shtyka and Dmytro Tiazhlov from New Kyiv Production: C – Creative directors H – Human rights…
Uzbek Documentarian in Trouble
The prominent Uzbek documentary photographer and director Umida Ahmedova has been charged with defamation and damaging the country’s image because of the content of her photos and videos, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports. (RFL/RL = Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). Ahmedova took…
Max Kestner: Drømme i København 1
Kære læsere. Filmkommentarens to skrivere var i biografen sammen. De så Max Kestners nye film, der får biografpremiere straks i det nye år. De var ret uenige om filmens kvalitet. Se nedenfor.
Max Kestner: Drømme i København 2
Henrik Ipsen hedder fotografen og det er ham, der skal have ros for sin indsats i en film, som ellers set ud fra sin ambitiøse præmis er mislykket. Ipsen har blik for København og har komponeret billeder, som er frapperende…
CMCA Celebrates the Documentary and Reportage
The CMCA (Mediterranean Centre for Audiovisual Communication) has finished its 14th festival edition, and the publicity around the awards, the juries (2, one for documentary, one for reportage) and the films have never been bigger. The awards were given in…
Istanbul International 1001 Doc Film Festival/1
The 12th edition of a festival that has grown in volume and importance. You felt it immediately when you were with the Turkish organisers and their young group of volunteers – all together people from or linked to the Association…
Istanbul International 1001 Doc Film Festival/2
Learning by watching – still the key quality challenge for the documentary film maker. At the festival in Istanbul your film-journey constantly took you to places, where you could not go yourself or where you would never dream of going…
Istanbul International 1001 Doc Film Festival/3
“VTR Film Directing Research Production” is run by director Enis Rıza and executive producer Nalân Sakızlı. Husband and wife. Around them they have young committed and skilled women – the festival director of this year, Bahriye Kabadayı, the conference director…
Istanbul International 1001 Doc Film Festival/4
In the framework of the festival a Congress was organised on the Saturday December 12 at the Galatasaray University that is situated wonderfully at the Bosporus. The Congress, organised for the 9th time (the festival for its 12th time), had…
… and the Winner is
no-one, when it comes to the exclusivity rules of film festivals! There is nothing new in the fact that major festivals insist on having premieres (world, international, European or whatever they want to call it) and therefore block for screenings…
Jørgen Roos – et liv som dokumentarist
Bogen om en af dansk dokumentarismes fornemste repræsentanter, Jørgen Roos, kan erhverves for en absolut rimelig pris. I næsten 60 år virkede Jørgen Roos i dansk film. Det blev til godt 160 kort- og dokumentarfilm. Jørgen Roos var selv med i…
New Photos
My co-blogger Allan Berg has put on three new photos, as our loyal readers might have discovered. The actuality comes from the publishing of a beautiful new book, amazingly well illustrated, as the book is about 100 years of Danish…
Tbilisi International Film Festival/6
The premiere of a new documentary by Nino Kirtadzé, ”Something About Georgia”. High expectations after her award-winning documentaries ”The Pipeline Next Door” and ”Durakovo: Village of Fools”. And big disappointment, I have to say. Pure propaganda for the politics of…
Tbilisi International Film Festival/5
The Pitch.Doc day included 10 projects to be pitched after a couple of days of training done by Georgian filmmaker Salome Jashi and me. The public pitching panel, arranged and organized by Anna Dziapshipa, had around 10 people to react…
Tbilisi International Film Festival/4
The short name is ”Nationality: Human”, the long one is the South Caucasus Documentary Film Festival of Peace and Human Rights. The festival is supported by the Open Society Georgia Foundation (Soros) and partners and the woman running it is…
Tbilisi International Film Festival/3
The Pitch workshop has started. 10 projects have been selected from 5 countries: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbjadan, Ukraine and Moldova. A diversity of themes were presented by filmmakers with a different background. They met each other, heard about the state of…
Tbilisi International Film Festival/2
Arrived early morning in Tbilisi coming from Copenhagen via Istanbul. Turkish Airlines, to be recommended for its service. Drove on George Bush Street to the hotel, yes, George Bush Street! Says something about in which direction Georgia wanted and wants…
Tbilisi International Film Festival
It is the 10th edition of the international film festival that starts tomorrow in Tbilisi, capital of Goegia. And goes on until the 6th of December. Mike Leigh is guest of honour and makes a masterclass and there is an…
MOMA Celebrates Lithuanian Cinema
MOMA in New York needs no further introduction as the museum of modern art. Less known – at least in Europe – is it that this museum, often much more precise and professional than festivals all over, put together interesting…
Idfa Volume and Main Award
From the press release of idfa, impressive numbers, yes, the interest in documentaries is huge, bravo: Although the festival runs until Sunday, we can already cautiously say that the festival has once more received more visitors than last year… If…
Gibney: Gonzo:Life and Work of Hunter Thompson
For our Danish and Swedish readers, be aware that this film will be shown on SVT1 monday November 30 at 10pm. Here is a re-post of our review from a year ago: I had hoped for more from this film…
Catherine Villepoux: Ariane Mnouchkine
”L’aventure du théatre du Soleil” is the subtitle of the film on Ariane Mnouchkine, the founder of Théatre du Soleil (in 1964), indeed an adventure it is, and very competently conveyed through wonderful archive from her work as the innovative…
Idfa 4/09
There you go, a real camera stylo personal essay film with an original, personal style. I was completely taken in by the beauty of the film, “The Edge of Dreaming”, of Scottish filmmaker Amy Hardie. It touched me, made me…
Idfa 3/09
I saw two films supported by the Jan Vrijman Fund. ”For Home Viewing” by Mikhail Zheleznikov is a half hour, wonderfully controlled, cinematically original and funny first person story by the director, who tells about his view from his home…