Magnificent7 has begun
… and the festival that we have been writing about on this blog every day for a week has had a magnificent start. On saturday the opening Basque film “Nomadak tx” gathered more than 600 people, accompanied by full house…
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 has begun
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 7
On this blog we have many times written about the Danish manyfold awarded film by Pernille Rose Grønkjær, “The Monastery”. You can click on the title and read all about it. Now it is to be the closing film at…
TV and Creative Documentaries
I have just left Biarritz after the final session of the archive based documentary training programme Archidoc, where 11 projects from all over Europe (5 of them from Eastern part of Europe) were presented to broadcasters from Belgium, France, Germany…
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 6
The sixth film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting tomorrow saturday, under the subtitle “European feature documentaries”, organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is …
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 5
The fifth film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting this coming saturday, under the subtitle “European feature documentaries”, organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is …
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 4
The fourth film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting this coming saturday, under the subtitle “European feature documentaries”, organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is…
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 3
The third film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting this coming saturday, under the subtitle “European feature documentaries”, organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is…
Paris Small Talk
Pollution out, pollution in. I am in Paris for one day passing to the fipa festival in Biarritz. I see all cafés having added an outdoor terrasse for the smokers. And I see – and experience – that it is…
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 2
… for feature length European documentaries For the fourth time I have had the privilege to select film for this unique festival together with the two organisers Svetlana and Zoran Popovic THE MOSQUITO PROBLEM AND OTHER STORIES Made in a…
Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 1
This is the fourth edition of a unique festival of only 7 films but with a huge audience and a warm support from its visitors. It is organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and I have had…
Wie Ich bin (How I Am)
It is one of those films that you hesitate to watch because you think that you have seen them all. So many films have been made about autistic children, young people and grown-ups. Even Dustin Hoffmann personified a grown up…
Food for thought?
Following the example of last year’s festival, the international and national competitions are now open to fiction films as documentaries. We said it last year and we repeat it again today: it is not a question of creating a sterile…
Menstruation – a film project
For a year I have been following a young Slovak woman, Diana Fabianova, in her struggle to finance a film on menstruation. Diana, who lives in Spain and has a Spanish producer, has done a huge work to promote her…
Pol Pot – Timewatch BBC – and Rithy Panh
A small intro to our foreign readers: The Danish DR/TV has always been the flagship when it comes to documentaries on television in Denmark. It might paradoxically enough continue to be so! The paradox is that a move to new…
Greetings from Saigon
Been away from Danish December weather and xmas for a long time! 30degrees here in wild Saigon where everyone seems to have a motorbike or to ride on one with the girl- or boyfriend. A lot of energy, but where…
Greetings from Hanoi
I am in Hanoi, on vacation going with wife and friends from North to South of Vietnam! Its like going to a place that you think you know a lot about and yet you know nothing. You have seen Vietnam…
Djævelens advokat/Terrors Advocate
The film has its Danish cinema premiere today, so this is a repeat of the review written in connection with the cph:dox festival. Go and watch the film! “This is the director’s point of view on Jacques Vergès which may…
Jørgen Vestergaard: Hanstholm
Jørgen Vestergaard er en af dansk dokumentarfilms absolutte hædersmænd. Det er altid i orden, hvad han leverer. Fine, varme beskrivelser af mennesker udenfor hovedstaden og af miljøer, som vi københavnere ser alt for lidt til. Nu drejer det sig om…
IDFA Forum 2007 – 2
3 project presentations were quite nicely done in terms of verbal and visual pitch – and yes, I am biased, I know the people, I hoped the best for them, but I am also sure that many other will agree…
IDFA Forum 2007
I was at the IDFA Forum as an observer. Documentary film and tv projects were presented (pitched) to a panel of so called commissioning editors. The pitching time was 15 minutes, 50% to those pitching, 50% to those responding. It…
Kossakovski at the Forum at IDFA
On the second day of the pitching at the Forum at IDFA Viktor Kossakovski, one of the few stars of the international documentary scene gave the following remark after his pitch: You know what, I remember when it started many…
Jon Bang Carlsen Før gæsterne kommer
Det var pokkers! Et af dansk dokumentarfilms absolutte mesterstykker bliver genudsendt i morgen tirsdag på DR2. Det drejer sig om Jon Bang Carlsens “Før gæstertne kommer”, en film som med succes er gået verden over for sin fine og varme…
Dokumentarfilm – Theodor Christensen
Ved at nævne navnet dokumentarisk i flæng på 117 forskellige filmformer har man skabt kaotisk forvirring. Ikke mindst for de mange nye i den hastigt voksende dokumentariske filmstab er det desorienterende. Theodor Christensen, dansk dokumentarfilms grundlægger … skrevet i 1948.…
IDFA Congratulations
The 20’th edition of the IDFA festival started yesterday and goes on until the 2nd of December. Fantastic, and what a contribution to the success of the genre, Ally Derks and her committed team has performed during these 20 years.…
Football England-Croatia
It had all that a documentary should have. Conflict, drama, magical moments, excellent observational camera work! The starting point was made clear from the very start: The Croats did not have to win, the English had to win or make…
Hospitalsbørn af Lars Bo Kimergård
Instruktøren har skrællet alt det overflødige væk. Ingen hospitalsgange eller -bygninger. Der gives ingen konkrete oplysninger om, hvad de medvirkende egentlig har fejlet, det får vi først at vide til slut. Alt er fokuseret på at skabe én lang fortælling…
DR1 Dokumentaren – Bag valget
Jeg har tidligere på denne plads reklameret for den gratis nyhedstjeneste, som DR Dokumentar tilbyder sine seere. Her orienteres om de dokumentarer, som sendes og jeg vil gerne gentage at DR sender mange gode dokumentarer, specielt på DR2, danske og…
cph:dox 9-17/11 Mechanical Love
Phie Ambo is one of the most obvious talents in new Danish documentary film. She showed great observational skills in her last film “Gambler” about the filmmaker Nikolaj Refn Winding (the “Pusher” trilogy), skills she is also using in her…
Guld Dok 2007
Ved åbningen af Københavns internationale dokumentarfilmfestival CPH:DOX torsdag den 8. november uddelte Producentforeningen for fjerde gang GuldDok-priser som en hyldest til årets danske produktion af dokumentarfilm. Det Danske Filminstitut uddelte Roos-prisen som en påskønnelse af særlig bemærkelsesværdig indsats for dokumentarismen.…
Jørgen Roos Prisen 2007
Det Danske Filminstituts store dokumentarfilmpris på kr. 25.000 blev tildelt dokumentarfilminstruktøren Steen Møller Rasmussen under dokumentarfilmfestivalen CPH:DOX’s åbningsgalla. Prisudvalget, som i år har bestået af tidligere direktør for European Documentary Network, filmkonsulent Tue Steen Müller samt direktør for European ThinkTank…
Cph:dox 9-17/11 Prisoner
Another strong story from the Iraqi war. This time about a journalist, Yunis Abbas, who was captured by the Americans accused for being part of a cell that planned to kill Tony Blair when he was to visit his war…
cph:dox 9-17/11 The Fall by Peter Whitehead
Oh, how joyful it is to discover something new, when you think that you know your documentary film history, have seen it (almost) all, at least what is considered as masterpieces and know where your priorities lie. And there comes…
cph:dox 9-17/11 Terror’s Advocate
“This is the director’s point of view on Jacques Vergès which may differ from the opinions of people interviewed in the film”. These words are to be found on screen at the start of this fascinating film about a man,…
cph:dox 9-17/11 Elle s’appelle Sabine
One of those films that are hard to watch. A beautiful young girl falls ill and turns into an aggressive young woman full of aggression to end up as a plump adult full of medication that can calm her down,…
cph:dox 9-17/11 Songbirds
Things are moving in the documentary genre. New and original ways of storytelling come out of the blue. Like in this case where British director Brian Hill went to the Downview Prison in Sutton England to make a film with…
cph:dox 9-17/11 Back to Normandy
It’s countryside again. This time Nicholas Philibert heads for Normandy, where he 30 years ago was the direction assistant of René Allio on the film “Moi, Pierre Rivière”, a “based on a true” story about a young man who in…
cph:dox 9-17/11 The Substitute
An excellent idea. A filmmaker gives a football star a camera and asks him to film from inside during the world cup championship in Germany 2006. And luckily for the film, but bad and sad for the player, he only…
Why Democracy: Bloody Cartoons
Karsten Kjær er journalist og har valgt at benytte sig af den engelske form for ”investigative journalism”, hvor journalisten beslutter sig for at tage ud i verden og stille nogle spørgsmål for at finde ud ad, hvordan tiden og hændelserne…
Why Democracy: In Search of Ghandi
Hvad betyder Ghandi for inderne i dag? Det er det spørgsmål, som instruktøren af denne dokumentar ønsker at få besvaret. Han tager på tur til steder, hvor Ghandi levede og kæmpede mod den engelske overmagt på sin egen berømte måde.…
Why Democracy: Middag med præsidenten
I februar sad jeg i Jan Vrijman Fund i Amsterdam og var med til at give støtte til færdiggørelsen af “Middag med præsidenten”. I dag sidder jeg og ser den samme, nu færdige film fra et land, som mere end…
BBC Storyville
The BBC Storyville documentary strand has been running for 10 years and is being saluted at the National Film Theatre in London in this month. As an introduction to the series of 10 films these fine words are written: “Over…
TV2 dok censurering
Jo, så var der det med TV2, som redigerede i Cathrine Asmussens film “Mig og Naser” lige før den gik i luften. Uden at diskutere de to klip med instruktøren førend klippet blev foretaget. Det gør man selvfølgelig ikke. Det…
Mig og Naser
Cathrine Asmussen er et af de mest oplagte talenter i nyere dansk dokumentar. Hun har altid noget på hjertet, noget hun vil fortælle om, hun har et synspunkt og de film, hun står bag er simpelthen bare godt lavet. De…
Documentary on Vaclav Havel
Yesterday in Prague, I attended a sneak preview of a still unfinished documentary on Vaclav Havel. The version (for cinemas and festivals) I saw was 150 minutes, for me it could easily have been longer, simply because the company of…
Zelig Film School Bolzano
I have just finished three days of teaching at Zelig, the documentary film school in Bolzano in the region of Alto Adige in the North of Italy. There are not many European film schools that specialise in documentaries, and as…
Pernille Rose Grønkjær: The Monastery
On September 21st the awarded Danish documentary masterpiece – after having toured the world – premieres in Danish cinemas. From the DFI magazine FILM (53, November 2006) we bring this extract of an article, written by blog owner Allan Berg Nielsen:…
DK4
Se engang på Poul Rudes kommentar til “DR kultur – bredt eller smalt”. Bortset fra den fornærmende bemærkning om at DK4 er tv-kulturens campinghabit – som en kolonihaveejer som jeg naturligvis føler mig ramt af – har han fat i,…
Sight & Sound on Documentaries
The good old, well esteemed English film magazine Sight & Sound has just published its September issue with a special focus on documentaries, titled “The Power of Documentary”. I did not buy it yet but will do so from reading…
Claudio Magris
There he was. Italian writer, professor, translator etc., Claudio Magris from Trieste. In Copenhagen to present his new book that comes out September 20 in a Danish translation: “I blinde”, original title: “Alla Cieca”. A gentle, smiling and passionate man…
Chantal Briet Alimentation Generale
I met Ali Zebboudj three times in the company of others. I met him on film, never personally. And yet I have the memory of him very precisely in my mind. I see him in his shop in Epinay in…