Away from Home – After DocsBarcelona Thoughts

It was quite moving to be an observer outside the Aribau Club on the closing night of the DocsBarcelona festival. Syrian refugees lined up to hug the director Talal Derki, who got the main award for his ”Return to Homs”. Many of them were from Homs, you could see their emotions and gratitude towards the director, who had documented and interpreted. They wanted to have photos taken together with him holding the sculpture of the DocsBarcelona winner. A souvenir, a memory coming from the heart.

The night before in a restaurant after the screening of ”Return to Homs” this photo was taken. Talal Derki to the left, your reporter to the right and in the middle Adam, son of Talal, 18 months, away from home as his father and mother, impossible to really understand what it means to be an exiled filmmaker.

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Tue Steen Müller
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.

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