… and in Haïti
On the plane yesterday from Paris to Lisbon, I read the editorial of Le Monde (October 16). A strong humanistic appeal to us all to remember what happened very shortly ago in one of the world´s poorest countries. I translate…
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 More… and in Haïti
DocuRegio- Second Edition
You might sigh when you hear about another training programme for documentary producers in Europe… but this one is different and adds to Discovery Campus, Ex Oriente, Eurodoc and many others supported by the EU MEDIA Programme. In a very…
Picasso and Artistic Variation
Picasso was obsessed with Manet´s painting from 1863, “Lunch on the Grass” (“Déjeuner sur l´herbe”). This may be witnessed in the great exhibition that just opened in Parisian Musée d’Orsay. Until February 1st 2009, more than 40 of the variations,…
Festival dei Popoli 2008
It’s festival time. And classics change leadership. Since 1986 Mario Simondi was the symbol of the documentary festival in Firenze, always searching for the high quality and hosting his guests perfectly. I can witness this as can Allan Berg, my…
Scottish Film Institute: Latest News
I promoted the possibility of watching short documentaries from the Bridging the Gap series a couple of weeks ago. This very active documentary institute in Scotland also publishes a newsletter that you can subscribe to for free, see site below.…
Frederick Wiseman on Festival Tour
Lucky you who have yet to discover the work of Frederick Wiseman. Lucky us who again get the chance to watch them on the big screen. A quote from the site of Wiseman’s Zipporah company: “… his cameras have observed…
Pernille Rose Grønkjær: The Monastery
The best – according to this blog writer – Danish documentary for years, “The Monastery”, is now to be seen or re-seen on French/German cultural channel arte on the following days: 9/10 (22.25), 21/10 (01.20), 24/10 (09.55) arte has changed…
Jørgen Roos in Paris
10 years have passed since the death of Jørgen Roos (1922-98), who for decades was THE Danish documentary and short film director. He was – as Hans Christian Andersen, subject for several films by Roos – a brilliant storyteller, who…
Louisiana Museum Behind Film on Per Kirkeby
Danish artist Per Kirkeby exhibits more than 100 of his paintings, 50 of his sculptures and works in other genres at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark – until 11/1 2009. My colleague Allan Berg praises below a film…
Cahiers du Cinema
The world’s most famous film magazine, a piece of film history in itself, founded by André Bazin, influenced directly or indirectly by Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and other nouvelle vague people, is in danger again. The…
Doc Lounge Malmö
Something to be copied. And easy to do so… Just came back from Malmö from a visit to a so called Doc Lounge. Which is ”the soft hang-out spot for documentary film lovers in Malmö, (where you can) meet the…
Poul Martinsen and DR
The article below includes words about one of the most prominent Danish tv documentarians, Poul Martinsen, employed at DR for decades as the director of documentary programmes and films that are still remembered by the Danish viewers. Both because they…
Monopolets Helte – Poul Martinsen
At Poul Martinsen er en fin og klog dokumentarist, som har lavet et væld af seværdige dokumentarprogrammer og – film for Danmarks Radio vidste vi jo godt. Os der har alderen til at have været tv-seere tilbage fra tresserne eller…
Scottish Film Institute: Bridging the Gap
Here is another fine initiative that enables you to watch documentaries from the UK online. Let the Scottish Film Institute make their own presentation: ”SDI is an internationally recognised documentary research centre at Edinburgh College of Art specialised in documentary…
DOK-Leipzig Programme Ready
A festival that is very dear to me has made its selection. I am working as a scout for Leipzig festival director Claas Danielsen and his team, when it comes to films from the Baltic and other Eastern European countries.…
Don Edkins: Why Democracy
Its been an interesting weekend, politically speaking, in South Africa. I had been away travelling for a week and came back on Saturday to find out that the President of South Africa – Thabo Mbeki – had been deposed. He…
Gibney:Gonzo:Life and Work of Hunter Thompson
I had hoped for more from this film about a journalist legend that I had heard so much about, read so much about, but never seen a film about. A journalist whose work I had read only a little of,…
Audrius Stonys Interview
I have written – and so has Allan Berg – many times about Lithuanian documentary poet Audrius Stonys, who by the way is a big admirer of the films of Jørgen Leth, who is on the cover of filmkommentaren.dk for…
BFI: Documentary Film History
The BFI (British Film Institute) celebrates its 75th birthday by publishing a collection of dvd’s including one of documentaries from the golden period 1930-1950. What a discovery for those who dont know about it, and what a revisit for us,…
Riga Diary…tv and Artistic Docs 2
I (Tue) wrote from Riga about the theme in the headline after a pitch at the Baltic Sea Forum. I made Iikka Vehkalahti comment on it and now there is a contribution from Marje Jurtshenko at Estonian Television, who was…
Geoffrey Smith: The English Surgeon
Three persons are presented in a parallel montage. An Englishman in his garden preparing for his trip to Ukraine. Henry Marsh is the surgeon, as is the man he is to visit in Kiev, Igor Kurilets, and the patient to…
Anders Østergaard om sandfærdighed
På dokumentar-branchetræffet i Ebeltoft for et par uger siden præsenterede Anders Østergaard sin ufærdige film om videoaktivisme i det turbulente Burma. Lars Movin var udsendt reporter fra FILM, som nu udkommer elektronisk. Movins artikler kan findes på FILMupdate, se nedenfor.…
Albert Maysles Interview
Take 5 minutes break and go to the website of British newspaper Guardian and watch an interview with good old observational documentary hero Albert Maysles, this mild man who is a true believer of the classical approach to reality. This…
Riga Diary… tv and Artistic Docs
Iikka Vehkalahti, YLE Finland had this comment to Riga Diary 5: “Dear Tue. I have to admit, that we (YLE TV 2 Documentaries) have a slogan: ” don´t look at tv, look at TV 2 Documentaries”. It´s implement is actually…
James Marsh: Man on Wire
It is more than 30 years ago. I remember it vaguely. I remember that he did it. The tightrope walking between the the twin towers in New York in 1974. But I did not remember the story behind it. That…
British Documentary History Online
Need to brush up your documentary film history? If so, the BFI (British Film Institute) can help you. I have just spent a little hour in company with two brilliant British actors, Derek Jacobi and Malcolm McDowell, who have introduced…
Carlo Lo Giudice: Padre Nostro
Scratch me! Hug me! Don’t act stupid! The father is 90 and the son around 50. They live together, they sleep in the same bed. They caress each other in the bed. The son constantly scratches the father´s back and…
Riga Diary 5
I attended the first handful of projects that were pitched at the Baltic Sea Forum. Before I had to leave back to Copenhagen. Again I heard a sentence that is often expressed at pitching sessions by the commissioning editors present.…
Riga Diary 4
The Boy from Riga: Sergei Eisenstein. Born in 1898, son of Mikhail and Julia. Lives in the city until 1915 where he goes to St. Petersburg to study. His father becomes the architect of beautiful Jugendstil buildings that are still…
Riga Diary 3
Salome Jashi is from Georgia. She is here for the Baltic Sea Forum. She has an interesting documentary project called ”Restaurant Bakhmaro and Those Who Work There” that is to be pitched in this coming weekend to television editors and film…
Riga Diary 2
Guard dog or lap dog? Seems to be a very actual and relevant question that journalists in Belarus (and other countries as well) have to ask themselves. In the country of Lukashenko no criticism of the President and his regime…
Riga Diary 1
I am writing this in my room on the 8th floor at Hotel Albert (Einstein) in Riga, where the Baltic Sea Forum and the ”Is it Easy to be Different” mini festival starts today. Yesterday I had time to take…
Doc Air Impressive Online Catalogue
If you want to make your own festival, faced in front of your computer, Doc Air offers you quality. Check it yourself, and be aware that here you find an excellent selection of Czech directors to be carefully studied –…
Documentaries in Riga
Riga hosts two important documentary events this coming week. On wednesday, September 3rd, a small festival opens for everyone under the title: “Is it Easy to be Different”, a reference to the Juris Podnieks perestroika classic, “Is it Easy to…
Cinemateket September 2008
Nick Broomfield besøger Cinemateket den 12. og 13. September i forbindelse med at 10 af hans film vises i Filmhuset i København. Flot. Jeg skrev her på bloggen en kritik af Cinematekets trykte program. De svage tekster og det falske…
Gary Hustwit: Helvetica
Why is it that I – without really reflecting upon it – always choose helvetica as my font when I write emails or write a text on this site? Why don’t I take Lucida Bright or TrueOfficinaSansBooKItalic or Times New…
Anne Andreu: Isabelle Huppert
Normally documentaries about actors are built around anecdotes, told by the actor in question him/herself or by people with whom the actor has been working. With Isabelle Huppert it is different. She says herself in this tv documentary that she…
Odense Film Fest Documentary Prizes
The festival has finished and prizes have been given:Grand Prix: “Milosevic on trial” by Michael Christoffersen.Best Danish Documentary: “Kun med hjertet kan man rigtigt se” by Ulla Boye.Audience Award: “Fra Thailand til Thy” af Janus Metz. All three films have…
Yang Fudong
I went to an art exhibition in Copenhagen. It was a wonderful, surprising experience. I am normally not into video installations but here I met an artist, who has entered film and photography from painting with a subtle sense of…
Ben Kempas:Upstream Battle:The Story
This is one of those films that you can only appreciate: It takes you to a place in the world that you (I) don’t know anything about. It has some charismatic characters who fight for a cause. You get to…
MandagsDokumentar – turné
Vi har tidligere rost Ebbe Preisler og hans formidlingsinitiativ, forevisningerne af nye og gamle dokumentar- og kortfilm i PH Caféen i København. Vi vil gerne fortsætte i samme spor og gøre opmærksom på det flotte tilbud, som Preisler videregiver: at…
Sally Mann
Copenhagen, The Royal Library, The Black Diamond: I went to see the exhibition with photographs by Sally Mann. Wonderful experience. Made me think about her approach to her work. I found an article by Richard Woodward from NYTimes, who calls…
Kites 3
If you search “Kites” on this site, you will find both a salute to a very fine film and a warm congratulation because of the selection to take part in the prestigious Locarno Film Festival – that has just ended.…
Odense Film Festival Anmeldelser/Reviews
Hvis du er interesseret i at læse flere anmeldelser af danske dokumentarfilm fra Odense Film Festivals program, så kan du søge følgende titler på denne hjemmeside. De har alle været bragt i årets løb: If you find interest in reading…
Paradise
Three Danish male directors stand behind this reflecting impressionistic collage on Life and Death, joy and pain, sorrow and happiness. The background is Denmark in this beginning of a new century, a country that is at war in Iraq, a…
New Wave of British Feature Documentaries?
A week ago British newspaper The Independent brought an interesting optimistic article about the return of feature lenght documentaries to the cinemas. Read yourself the article that I found through the website of the Sheffield Doc Fest: https://sheffdocfest.com/ under “Latest…
Enemies of Happiness
At the tv festival in Copenhagen, organised by Danish Producers, there was again a prize for “Enemies of Happiness”, directed by Eva Mulvad. We have before pointed to the excellent dvd sales site initiative of directors Mulvad, Pernille Grønkjær and…
Solange on Love
They have the same name. One lives in Santiago, the other in Valparaiso at the coast. One has a hard life as a parking guide in the big city, with a drug addicted husband and two small children totally dependent…
Gonzo
Wow, that sounds exciting, a film about the reporter legend Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005). Has been released, at least in connection with the Sundance festival, link below. I met it on the fine film website of Guardian, where the director…
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema 1,2,3
… presented by Slavoj Zizek, Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst, is simply a gift to all film teachers. In three parts Zizek takes us on a Freudian, but not only, trip through wonderful clips that he comments on from his point…