A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Max Tuula and Maria Gavrilova from Marx Film in Estonia sent this important report: We address you because this situation does not only concern Russia and Russian politics, but also the freedom of expression and the rights of the artist…
Michael Haneke’s ”Amour” has Jean-Louis Trigtignant in the leading male role. In connection with the opening of that film in New York, the art cinema house Film Forum is running a retrospective of films with the actor. A unique chance…
Does it need an introduction this magnificent achievement in the history of documentary cinema and television? Lucky you who have not seen the series that started in 1964, when the children were 7 and have continued every 7 years until…
Legendary underground filmmaker and tireless defender of the independent cinema Jonas Mekas turns 90 years old and is of course celebrated in New York in the Anthology Film Archives with a small retrospective that runs December 17-23. Here are some…
The Treason Trial 1956-61 (photo), The Sharpville Massacre 1960, the Soweto Uprising 1976… it is all in its immense brutality very well documented in ICP (International Center of Photography) in New York – runs until January 6 2013 – there…
118 black and white works by Picasso at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The exhibition runs until January 23 and is highly recommended. As the curators put it on the site of Guggenheim: the first exhibition to explore the…
DFP stands for Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and Fund and has existed for 10 years which is the reason that realscreen, the fine trade magazine that calls itself ”the best in non-fiction”, brings an interview with the director Cara…
For one who was around 20 in the short lifetime of Cream – 1966-68 – with ”White Room”, ”where the shadows run for themselves”, as one of their songs that still gives you the chills when you hear it, and…
… were announced three days ago. 15 films that later will be taken down to 5 nominations that are made by January 10. 126 films qualified to be considered. Have chosen to take text clips from Variety to mention the…
Pleased to recommend a new offer from the vod DocAlliance, this time related to Austrian documentarian Geyerhalter. Here is a slightly edited version of the promotion text from the vod site: We offer a selection of the best films by…
Samer lives in Ramallah, his mother is Safa, who lives with his father and siblings in Gaza. Mustafa lives in Gaza, his mother, Hekmat, and his sisters live in Ramallah. The distance between Gaza and Ramallah is around one hour’s…
The Museum of Modern Art north of Copenhagen is of course a must for all art lovers, who visit Denmark. A new web-initiative by the museum deserves to be promoted. Here is the text from the museum: “Louisiana Channel delivers…
It was one of those nights – the premiere of Mila Turajlic’s ”Cinema Komunisto” – that will be remembered. A totally packed Sava Centre in Belgrade were present for the closing film of Magnificent7 Festival 2011. Standing ovations. It was…
Sometimes you are lucky because normally you leave a festival having NOT seen the winner. Not this year where this blogger was privileged to take part in the idfacademy where the first point on the agenda was a screening of…
To be repeated: You can watch 7 of Jørgen Leth’s films for free on the vod Docalliance (link below), a – too use one of the director’s favourite words – generous offer to film lovers all over to see ”A…
Danish text to inform the Danes where they can watch the series of films ”Why Poverty”, see more below in previous posting: Det danske Filminstitut (dfi) har sammen med DR støttet produktionen af serien og DR står bag kampagnen, der…
Today, Idfa guests and idfa audience had the chance to watch the eight long films in the long awaited and now well promoted series “Why Poverty?” – with four days to go before the worldwide launch that you can read…
Emotional moment when Emma Davie welcomed her audience at the premiere of the film at Munt cinema. She stressed how much her main character, Neil Platt, who died three years ago, wanted the film to be made, to have a…
Yes, see previous posting, there are more and more funds which invest in documentaries, most of them in docs with a social content, but some also stressing that they want cinematic quality. Let me make a commercial for the organization…
… edition Number 20! In itself a marvellous event where filmmakers from all over the world meet to present their projects, catch up on professional and private matters, it is indeed a clear sign of the both warm and professional…
… was the headline of the afternoon session that I attended, run by EDN’s Mikael Opstrup with a (maybe too) small introduction by Jesper Osmund on the nature of what he (good choice) calls pitch trailers. Osmund, who has edited…
Was it because people were a bit tired hearing about crowdfunding that there were less people in the auditorium this morning. Or because of all the parties that are offered from the side of idfa? To idfacademy participants who are…
The programme is ”an intensive four-day training program for emerging filmmakers, producers, and film students”. As coach for the group of filmmakers from the Black Sea Docstories workshop I am there as well and have enjoyed the well composed and…
Famous for his film about his father, ”Nobody’s Business”, clever and funny with an excellent, playful montage, it was simply great to watch the newest documentary by Alan Berliner, also with a family member as main protagonist, also with a…
The opening ceremony of the 25th edition of idfa took place in the Tuschinski theatre close to Rembrandtsplein in Amsterdam. The mother of the festival, as she is called, flamboyant Ally Derks made the opening speech full of passion and…
Mid wednes(day) off from Copenhagen with troubled SAS to Amsterdam to attend the 25th idfa (International Documentary Film Festival). On board is also Jørgen Leth on his way to idfa as several times before. This year to be in the…
”Celebrating 40 Years” is the title of the 3 mins. montage done by Peter Symes and Mandy Chang. A montage because of the 40 years since the death of John Grierson, the father of documentary, and the setting up of…
Sean Farnel, former programming director at the festival Hot Docs, and one of the few North American with a deep knowledge of the European documentary scene, has written an interesting and refreshing article that touches upon many essential questions about…
DOX:AWARD The act of Killing af Joshua Oppenheimer. Special mention til Tchoupitoulas af Bill og Turner Ross . NEW:VISION AWARD Leviathan af Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verana Paravel. NORDIC:DOX AWARD Searching for Bill af Jonas Poher Rasmussen. SOUND & VISION AWARD Beware of…
Have you ever thought about becoming a doctor or a nurse on a Bulgarian ambulance? Well, as this little marvel of a film suggests, there might be an opening or two coming up. It’s technically an observational film, but what…
It is quite an achievement, this film by Marco Gastine, French-Greek filmmaker, based in Greece, a film about the campaign that led up to May 2012 parliamentary elections in the country with a crisis everyone still talks and writes about.…
The IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) in Prague publishes a very actively edited website with information and facts about filmmaking in the Eastern part of Europe plus a series of interviews conducted to celebrate the10 Years of the training programme…
For the 13th time the French launch their Month of Documentaries all over the country. More than 1700 films, new and old, are being screened in what can only be seen as the most effective promotional tool to create interest…
Behind the scenes, the making of.. a film. We have seen them lots of times, following how the actors prepare for their roles, how the shooting was done, how the director directed. This is exactly what ”The Act of Killing”…
The 10th Copenhagen documentary film festival runs until sunday. Filmkommentaren will review some of the films and recommend Copenhageners and festival guests, what should be watched. A must of course is Oppenheimer’s ”The Act of Killing”. The film still has…
To be honest, I did not have high expectations. I knew that Dan Curean had worked 4 years on his film about wild horses in the Romanian Danube delta, but I had no idea that he had done so to…
Yes, it is literally a film about a prisoner, Piotr, who gets out for three days to get a taste of the life outside that he knows nothing about since he has been inside for 15 years. His leaving is…
Romania. Countryside. Village name Grojdibodu. Main character, the mayor of the village, Nitulescu Tudorel. Theme: Election is coming up, the mayor seeks to be elected for his third term. Focus on him and his campaign. Who cares? Well, you care…
DOK Leipzig winners have been announced to night. For this filmkommentaren correspondent it was a surprise (see post below) that the Swedish ”Colombianos” by Tora Mårtens got the first prize, the Golden Dove, whereas the Silver Dove to Ilian Metev…
Had an interesting conversation with Polish filmmakers last night at a dinner reception held by the good and always active people from Krakow Film Foundation and Festival. Two of their compatriots, members of juries, had to leave early for an…
The festival in Leipzig also hosts several workshops, where documentary projects are being developed. Andrea Prenghyova, one of the founders of the IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) in Prague, presented for the second year, in collaboration with the festival, projects…
The Doc Alliance vod that characterises itself ”your online documentary cinema”, and has over 700 quality films in the catalogue, that can be streamed or downloaded for a prize between 0,50 to 5€ – also takes part in the DOK…
Any films that we must see, film students and others who enter the festival centre ask me. Many, I answer, because there are many that have high quality. The problem in my answering is that many of the films I…
Time for a small report after three days at a festival that it is always pleasant to visit in a city, that it is always pleasant to visit. Eine Kulturstadt, that has developed immensely since the days around 1990 where…
The headline of the interview in Realscreen is “Mixing the real and the surreal” and the first lines go like this: “In time for its presentation as the cph:dox (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival)’s opening film, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer tells…
Wang Bing got one more prize added to his impressive filmography through the ”Grande Prémio Cidade de Lisboa”, the first prize at the DocLisboa that ended sunday. The film in question is ”Three Sisters” (153 mins., France Hong Kong, 2012).…
Opening nights can be very long with speeches and introduction of juries and honorary guests. DOK Leipzig is no exception. It took looong time to get people seated so the ceremony was delayed up front, and it did not help…
As a festival guest and reporter for this blog you receive loads of mails about what is to happen. Of course. The Leipzig festival sustains a good tradition for press releases that – unlike others – refrain from saying ”we…
They kiss and embrace. I watch through the window, out in the yard. It’s a ritual. Indeed, it’s love, the terminal behaviour of a marriage in an erotics of thrift. They undress. The camera tracks him. He brushes his teeth.…
Long time since filmkommentaren has written about Syria. We followed the news about filmmaker and festival organiser Orwa Nyrabia, who was set free, but everyone knows that lots of artists and non-artists are kept detained. The UN keeps sending diplomates…