A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
In my sculpture, I attempt to detach myself from the subject. Although my earlier works were rather expressionistic with oubursts against war, crime and violence in general, I now find my most successful pieces are less topical and idiographic. They…
In documentary workshops and film schools all over I have forbidden the participants to use the term ”poetic” talking about films. It’s banal, over-used and what does it really mean? Nevertheless this is the only word to be used for…
First I have to make a confession, I didn’t make it to the end of the 5 hours long film! Not because I was bored, I just had a painful neck. But I did see about 240 minutes and I…
After five days of watching documentaries on a big screen in Palm Springs, USA, back to the MacBook Pro screen to promote another fine offer from the unique DocAlliance, this time linked to the Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel…
Marseille. The city of Zinedine Zidane. A multicultural melting pot with areas/quartiers, where violence is a daily menu with gangs operating, murders and huge social problems. If Zidane is an icon for football fans, Yvan Sorel is it for practioners…
Esther’s father married and divorced 5 times. Why? And how might that influence my life, the director wants to find out and makes a film that ends with footage from her own marriage, where she is walking the aisle with…
Peter Bogdanovich joked about himself, ”I master the namedrop”, he said, referring to his enormous knowledge of films and film stars, actors and directors. What I am about to do now is precisely the same, namedropping, films and directors, which…
Sunday morning in the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs. The headline of the morning discussion in the festival’s panel series is ”The Mating of Documentary & Narrative Cinematography”. And the panelists are ”Award winning D.P.’s Haskell Wexler ASC, Joan Churchill…
A morning seminar moderated by English film critic Neil Young. Subject: International Film Festivals. What to remember if you go to them as an American documentarian. 20 people listening, asking questions. Basic information was given, especially from Neil Young, who…
Ohhh, film history and personal history for me as for many others, I am sure. Let’s get the last matter settled first: When I was studying at the Library school in Copenhagen in the beginning of the 1970’es, my teacher…
Had they pitched this project in Europe, producers and financiers would have hesitated committing themselves as the brothers are debutants. And would have continued ”don’t start before you have all the money”. In this respect there is a difference between…
So there he was, Peter Bogdanovich, conceived in Serbia, born in the US – as he has put it himself – 75 years old, still a great storyteller and imitator of voices, which was proven when he gave us in…
It all started at 10am Wednesday March 26 with the Film Fund Competition (with around 15.000$ awards to be distributed) in the Camelot Theatres, the main venue for the festival. Moderated by Teddy Gruyoa, festival director, 12 projects were presented…
After 10 hours and 40 minutes of flight Copenhagen to Los Angeles and a good night’s hotel sleep off to Palm Springs for the fourth edition of the American Documentary Film Festival that opens tomorrow March 26 and goes on…
You must have a passport or an id, the woman at the desk said. Mikael Opstrup from EDN and I were at the entrance of the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest an early morning and we wanted to enter to…
We normally do not promote individual film projects on this site but exceptions were invented to be done… Yesterday in Bucharest, Adrian Pirvu, at the One World Romania’s “Cooking a Doc” went on stage to present (photo by Adi Marineci)…
Went to watch ”Queen of Silence”, full house, a film directed by Polish Agnieszka Zwiefka, her first film, produced by Heino Deckert and shown at this festival as one of four films in a well deserved homage to Deckert as…
I arrived a couple of days ago to Bucharest for the One World Romania. Together with EDN’s Mikael Opstrup we were taken to the hotel, I was given one of those rooms, where you can not open the window so…
Realscreen News publishes today (editor Manori Ravindran) a tribute to Albert Maysles, who passed away on March 5. We take the liberty to bring to you what colleague and cinema vérité pioneer as well D.A. Pennebaker wrote: “I was on…
In the middle of all (the necessary) documentary films about wars and conflicts, going on now and/or some decades ago, it is nice to receive a newsletter from the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, with a report from a press conference on…
“May you live in interesting times.” This Chinese curse pops up in my mind when I think about you, Ukrainians. To a documentary filmmaker, times like these are not only a curse, but also an opportunity. After all, we are…
For those of us who were not able to visit the documentary film festival in Amsterdam, the good news is that the festival (link below) is bringing out videos from the festival. You can watch the opening and closing ceremonies…
Denmark has a new festival. The first Copenhagen Architecture Festival took place last year and the second edition is coming up soon and has spread to the city of Aarhus as well. More than 70 events in 19 different venues:…
Why not? Yes, why not activate us frequent flyers and all the others, who sit up there in the air for hours? Why not give us passengers quality (short) documentary and animation to watch and ask us to vote. Three…
Voilá – 5 films for free taken from the upcoming festival programme of One World Romania (see post below)… words from the site of DocAlliance: …For the eighth time, the international festival One World Romania brings a critical voice as…
… or to take the long version: One World Romania International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, taking place March 16-22. 35 films in 10 categories – like ”Agents of Change” (with films like ”Citizenfour”, ”Euromaidan.Rough Cut” and ”Iranian”, ”Comrade Capitalism”…
The press releases from the festival in Prague are comprehensive and informative so here is a copy-paste of the one about the awards to be given at… the closing ceremony of the festival in the Lucerna cinema in Prague on…
French journalist and documentary maker Manon Loizeau has made a remarkable film about todays Chechnya that premiered on Arte last week and just received the Grand Prize of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) at the International Film Festival and…
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder, legendary filmmaker Albert Maysles. Albert was a loving husband, father, brother and friend to many. For more than five decades, Albert created groundbreaking films, inspired filmmakers and…
The French love the Israeli film artist Avi Mograbi – and do so this film blogger, who has followed his carreer with great enthusiasm. From March 14 the prestigious museum Jeu de Paume has invited Mograbi to meet the audience,…
The following is a text excerpt from the site of Human Rights in Ukraine: In a wonderful show of solidarity, members of the Polish Film Academy have called on Russia to release Crimean film director Oleg Sentsov and have promised…
Yesterday Guardian brought an article on the official Russian film political line for 2015. It was taken from “The Calvert Journal” that is (taken from its site) … a daily briefing on the culture and creativity of modern Russia. From…
In the mid 1980’es I fell in love with the French film ”Thérèse” by Alain Cavalier. Like many others did. Let me refresh your memory and let newcomers know about it – The back cover of the dvd, according to…
The Danish film critics yearly ceremony took place last night and Joshua Oppenheimer, director and Signe Byrge, producer were on stage to get the statuette, named after the two important actresses in Danish cinema Bodil Kjer and Bodil Ipsen, an…
Awards were given out last night in Zagreb. ”Virunga” (photo) by Orlando von Einsiedel got the Big Stamp for best film in International Competition with mentions to Finnish ”Garden Lovers” by Virpi Suutari and Polish Hanna Polak for ”Something Better…
I have often been calling for festival criticism coming from outside the festivals themselves. The site Festivalists is a place to check once in a while. Here is what it is – quote from the ”about” on the site: …Festivalists…
News about festivals and their selection are pouring in to the mailbox. Yes, it is indeed festival time now for documentaries as well, after the Berlinale that is strong in documentaries nowadays and “steals” a lot of attention and people.…
At the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade two weeks ago I had the pleasure to make a short class about football documentaries. I did so as a follow-up to the showing of “Messi” by Alexis de la Iglesia, enjoyed by more…
In its important tour around the world, to festivals but also to a theatrical release in some countries, the film by Wiam Simav Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed was at the Istanbul Independent International Festival to get a big award. The…
På fredag viser Cinemateket i København – i forbindelse med Jewish Film festival – ”The Green Prince”, her anmeldt på engelsk. In 2010 Mosab Hassan Yousef wrote a book, ”Son of Hamas”. A feature film adaptation of the book is…
I have been there before. Danish director Janus Metz went to the Helmand Province in Afghanistan to make ”Armadillo” about ”our” soldiers on mission. After more than a decade in the country, the NATO troops have withdrawn leaving the job…
… is the headline of an article written yesterday by Cara Mertens from Fordfoundation. Read the whole article, here is a quote: …CitizenFour reflects the historical moment in which it was made, and influences it at the same time. It…
Ok. if you say A, you have to say B as well: Let’s make a conclusion to the award postings we have made on this site: Olga by Miroslav Janek won the Czech Lion, Joanna by Aneta Kopacz did not…
Of course it is difficult to write about a film on the for me unknown singer, composer, poet and actor Arsen Dedić, who is very well known in the ex-Yugoslav countries, 76 years old and still going strong, as the…
Knowing that many of our readers are looking for ways to improve their skills, meet colleagues, develop their documentary projects… here is (below) a link to a very useful Guide to “Training and Networks”, published by Creative Europe MEDIA, giving…
Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado were given the French Documentary César at the ceremony last night in Paris for their film on photographer Sebastião Salgado, ”The Salt of the Earth”. The film competed with Stéphanie Valloatto’s ”Cartoonists – Foot…
I subscribe to the Realscreen trade magazine, which gives sometimes very valuable and reflective articles, among many others that line up who has left Discovery Channel and who comes, and who has bought the rights for that series etc. The…
Energetic Andrea Pruchova from DocAlliance invites you to watch 5 new Czech documentaries that compete for the Czech Lion, read what she writes: “Already this Saturday, February 21, the statuettes of the major Czech film award, the Czech Lion, will…
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is one of the best when it comes to communication – and programming. This text is taken from the website, a very well deserved tribute to Alexandru Solomon is planned for the festival, that takes place…
… in NY is running now and until February 27 with many interesting titles, like ”Of Men and War” by Laurent Bécue-Renard, ”Domino Effect” (photo) by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, and ”Around in the World in 50 Concerts”, the…