Anna Shisova: The New Greatness Case
One of my Russian friends wrote this to me not long ago: “A few days ago…Two women and their five children aged 7 to 11 were detained at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow yesterday. The children drew a poster “No…
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.
Læs mereAnna Shisova: The New Greatness Case
Sarajevo Film Festival/ 2
It was presentation day for the four stories at the TSM, True Stories Market. It took place at the Atrium of Hotel Europe; four people, two women, two men on stage and a full house of interested people, among them…
Sarajevo Film Festival/1
After two years I feel privileged to be back to a festival that has given me so many fine moments. The atmosphere in the city of course, a city that celebrates cinema with its many genres, a festival that greets…
Film Talks
On August 10, 17 and 24, you can enjoy three pre-recorded IDF Industry Sessions which we have prepared in collaboration with CinéDoc-Tbilisi. Watch them on our Facebook page and YouTube channel! August 10 at 6 pm (CEST)Protagonists in Fragile Situations – Extended Q&As about I’ll Stand by…
Niewiera & Rosolowski: The Hamlet Syndrome
… first names Elwira and Piotr, Polish directors, awarded for previous works “The Domino Effect” and “The Prince and the Dybbuk”, both praised on this site for their originality and professional skills. The same goes for this new film that…
Docu Talents from the East 2022
This is a copy paste of a text from the Sarajevo FF site, an event organised by the Jihlava FF. High quality projects, know some of them and know talents like Goran Devic, Vlad Petri, Diana Fabiánová and Lesia Diak.…
Baltic Sea Docs 22
The projects to be presented in the yearly documentary gathering, number 26, since 2005 held in Riga Latvia, have been selected with Latvian Zane Balcus as the head of the Forum, she rightfully describes in the following way: “This international…
Turkan Huseynova: Papanin
Turkan Huseynova is a young filmmaker from Baku. Last year she took part in the Jihlava FF with her documentary “Papanin”, Which appeared in the “Joyful Section”. Well placed even if the film refers to a district in Baku that…
Sarajevo FF Documentary Competition
1. DIARY OF A BRIDE OF CHRIST / TSCHODENNYK NARECHENOI CHRISTA, Marta Smerechynska (Ukraine, 2021, 90 min.) – World premiere 2. LIGHTS OF SARAJEVO / SVJETLA SARAJEVA, Srđan Perkić (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2022, 68 min.) – World premiere 3. LITURGY…
Robert Kirchhoff: Dubcek
This is a copy paste of an article at FNE from yesterday: Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff is currently in postproduction with his creative documentary All Men Become Brothers / Všetci ľudia budú bratia. The film is produced by Kirchhoff´s atelier.doc and coproduced by the Radio…
DANISH DOC FILM HERITAGE
The Danish Film Institute is launching another large-scale effort to make the Danish film heritage widely available, this time focusing on the key period of documentaries from 1960-1990. Danish documentaries are on a roll, both at home and abroad. Real…
Rue du Premier Film
Lyon. June 2022. Rue du Premier Film… a visit I had been looking fwd. to, the museum of the Lumière Brothers in the villa of their family, the Cinema on the same side of the street, the café on the…
Alexandru Solomon: Cold Waves
The Romanian director – and cinematographer – and producer – and festival organizer of One World Romania – Alexandru Solomon is being celebrated at the Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj that runs now and until the 26th of June. I…
DOK Leipzig News
DOK Leipzig will host its 65th edition in local cinemas and venues once again — a decision that signals the festival’s continued commitment to bringing back cinema culture and shared festival experiences. From 17 to 23 October, DOK Leipzig will…
AWARDS of the 62st Krakow Film Festival
DRAGON OF DRAGONS AWARD for the contribution into development of the world animated film JARMO JÄÄSKELÄINEN (Finland) KFF RECOMMENDATION to the European Film Award in a documentary category BOYLESQUE, dir. Bogna Kowalczyk (Poland) INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION Having watched all the competitive films the International…
Pere Puigbert: El Vent Que Ens Mou
The google translate of the Catalan title goes like this: “The Wind that Moves Us” for the film, that won the first prize in the DocsBarcelona Latitud category. And I don’t hesitate to say that this was so well deserved,…
DocsBarcelona – Films
There is quite a distance from “The Territory” by Alex Pritz to “Maija Isola” by Leena Kilpeläinen. Both are films that have seen selected for the Official Panorama competition program of this year’s DocsBarcelona. “The Territory” is a product made…
Sara Dosa: Fire of Love
Katia and Maurice. Volcanologists. Scientists and Filmmakers. A couple. Married in 1970. Decided not to have children. That would have prevented them to do their work or with a better phrase: to Live their Passion. The dangerous passion that killed them. A quote…
DocFests in Belgrade and Warsaw
Beldocs in Belgrade started two days ago, Millenium Docs Against Gravity takes off today. The latter in 8 cities and with an online version from May 24. Both have industry sections and both have a focus on Ukraine. In Belgrade…
Marusya Syroechkovskaya: How to Save a Dead Friend
Filmed by Kimi Morev and Marusya Syroechkovskaya Edited by Qutaiba Barhamji Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, 103 mins., 2022 I have previously posted a beautiful text by Marusya – where she writes about her film. I write this using her first name.…
Sidabrinė gervė 2022
The national award ceremony in Lithuania takes place 6th of June. With many categories and a lot of nominations attached. I take a look at the ones for Best Documentary that has a very strong line-up. I had seen four of…
DocsBarcelona 2022
The programme is out for the 25th edition of DocsBarcelona. Twenty-five editions!!! Which means that I have become 25 years older as has the founder of it all Joan Gonzalez, who back then in a workshop in Granada proposed to…
Marusya Syroechkovskaya: How to Save a Dead Friend
Filmed by Kimi Morev and Marusya Syroechkovskaya Edited by Qutaiba Barhamji Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, 103 mins., 2022 With the subtitle … a message from a silenced generation here is the director’s personal statement: ”On the 24th February 2022, Putin and his government…
Marusya Syroechkovskaya: How to Save a Dead Friend
Filmed by Kimi Morev and Marusya Syroechkovskaya Edited by Qutaiba Barhamji Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, 103 mins., 2022 Kimi passed away on the night of November 4th, 2016. He wasn’t just my lover and husband, he was also my best friend, my…
Rita Baghdadi: Sirens
”With jet-black hair, leather boots and an uncompromising sound, metal band Slave to Sirens smashes every obstacle to pave the way for other female musicians in Lebanon. In Rita Baghdadi’s instant Sundance audience favourite, we follow the band’s five young…
Daniel Roher: Navalny
Det er jo ikke fordi historien om Navalny ikke er kendt og fortalt igen og igen. På nettet, i tv-reportager og i dokumentarer. F.eks. har BBC i 2021 produceret ”Manden Putin ikke kunne dræbe”, som kan fanges på Det er…
Michael Graversen: Mr. Graversen
Ærlig, følsom, kærlig, oprigtig. Ord der karakteriserer filmen om Michael, hans far og hans mor. Svend-Aage og Astrid. Forløsende, aldrig anklagende… for Svend Aage var der jo ikke, da Michael som barn fik kræft og var gennem mange års behandling.…
One World Film Festival Prague
It was sunny in Prague. It was the first time for me to be able to follow the One World Festival as I have always been (with pleasure) linked to the East Doc Forum of IDF (Institute of Documentary Film)…
East Doc Platform 2022 Awards
The East Doc Platform Award went to the Polish project The World is not (a) Mine by Natalia Koniarz about inhabitants working in inhuman conditions mining metals on the Cerro Rico mountain. The Ukrainian project Up in the Air by…
Simon Bang: Kaptajnens Hjerte
Der sidder han, kaptajnen. I sin dejlige stue på Østerbro i København, en stue med tre vinduer, to på skrå, et i midten som stævnen på det skib, han styrer. Han sidder med sin tegneblok og med skiftende hovedbeklædning. Han…
Oeke Hoogendijk: The Treasures of Crimea
I have a lot of respect and admiration for the work of Oeke Hoogendijk. In 2020 we played “My Rembrandt” in Belgrade at the Magnificent7 Festival and five years earlier her “The New Rijksmuseum” opened the same festival. Hoogendijk has…
Antoine Cattin: Holidays
I know Antoine Cattin from his “The Mother» and other films he made with Pavel Kostomarov. I don’t know if the Swiss director still lives in St. Petersburg but the film that he presents at CPH:DOX takes place in the…
Olha Zhurba: Outside
… She has been following Roma from meeting him on Maidan in 2014 until today, where the boy has grown to be a teenager turning 18 very soon. He was living on Maidan, he was in an orphanage, he has…
Roy Andersson
Yesterday afternoon my wife and I visited Cinemateket in Copenhagen to watch “Being a Human Person”, a portrait of Roy Andersson (made by F. Scott, 2020, 90 mins.). We have been fans of the Swedish auteur (here the French word…
Lina Lužytė: Blue/Red/Deport – Picnic in Mori
The point of view of the director, Lithuanian Lina Luytė, is clear from the very beginning. A boat with refugees is approaching the coast of Lesbos, the island where the infamous refugee camp Moria is situated. The one that burned…
Myanmar Film Collective: Myanmar Diaries
From the website of the film (link below): A hybrid film about life under the regime of terror in Myanmar in the aftermath of its military coup of February 1st 2021, told through personal stories by a group of anonymous…
Kostas Spiropoulos: Arcadia, Champagne d’Orient
A film about wine and greed… is the subtitle of this film that in many ways is closer to a fiction film than to a documentary. It is grandiose in its set-up and although it’s not always succesful in mixing…
Ivars Zviedris: See You Never Ever
I am a big fan of Ivars Zviedris, Latvian director and cinematographer. His «Documentarian» and «Latvian Coyote» are films that I think high of and now there is his new work that was awarded at the National Cinema Ceremony, where…
The 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
There are many excellent documentary film festivals in Europe. The one in Thessaloniki is one of them. It runs until March 20 with a very rich program including tributes to Latvian director Laila Pakalnina and Finnish Virpi Suutari. Voices from…
Docudays UA at the Krakow Film Festival
08.03.2022news The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is the largest documentary film festival in Ukraine. This year’s edition was to begin on 25 March in Kyiv. It’s no longer possible due to Russia’s brutal attack and the…
Artdocfest/Riga 2022
Press Release: The 2nd International Documentary Film Festival Artdocfest/Riga starts this Thursday, March 3rd. As a sign of solidarity with Ukrainian colleagues and the people of Ukraine, the festival program includes a special selection of documentaries dedicated to Ukraine and telling about…
Tomasz Wolski: 1970
Wolski is one of the excellent documentary film directors from Poland, together with Pawel Lozinski and Wojciech Staron and many many others. I say so from having seen ”Ordinary Country” ( now ”1970”. Poland has a long tradition for documentaries…
IDFA Docs for Sale – Films
I have for years (decades?) benefited of having access to the Docs for Sale catalogue of IDFA to be kept up to date on new films as a programmer and first of all as one, who writes on this site,…
Magnus Gertten: Nelly & Nadine
“This is a film reel from April 28 1945…” beautiful material, black & white… of people arriving with the “white buses” to Malmö from German concentration camps. The third film by Swedish director Gertten digging into the 35mm footage…
Docpoint Finest Market 22
The festival in Helsinki is running until the 6th of February with a national and international competition, a Finnish and an international selection, a retrospective of the master Pirjo Honkasalo – it’s all very good in terms of films to…
Hugues Le Paige & Jacques Bidou
A tour down memory lane together with important names in modern documentary history. 10 years ago – on this site – I wrote about Belgian writer, director and journalist Hugues Le Paige : ”The director of this film (Le Prince et son…
Andreas Koefoed: The Lost Leonardo
Hun kigger dig lige ind i øjnene. Hun har lige forklaret, hvorfor hun mener at maleriet som hun restaurerer er malet af Leonardo da Vinci. Hun har peget på det sted, hvor Leonardos teknik er tydelig, på samme sted som…
Saeed Taji Farouky: A Thousand Fires
Let me start with a quote from a mail sent to me by good friend, excellent French producer Estelle Robin You, who has been working with the director for years to make this film meet the audience: ”A Thousand Fires”…
Vareikyte & Dejoie: I’ll Stand by You
Their full names being Virginija Vareikyte and Maximilien Dejoie, a Lithuanian and an Italian, who is also the cinematographer, which makes me start by praising the camerawork for a film that is so much subject-related: It tells the story of…
Laila Pakalnina: Homes
”I call my method of work “Fishing in the river of time”. As life is extremely talented, we just put camera, set composition and wait. And life happens. So film happens…” From an interview with Laila Pakalnina in connection with…