DOK Leipzig Highlights
As advisor for the festival (that starts on monday the 29th), when it comes to films from the Baltic countries I was happy this morning to see that the festival on their site put a focus on 9 films with…
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A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
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Read MoreDOK Leipzig Highlights
The Act of Killing – Interview with the Producer
Signe Byrge Sørensen is CEO and producer at Final Cut for Real, which is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been a producer for 14 years… This is how an extended interview with the producer of the opening film of…
Klara Trencsenyi: Corvin Variations
I met Hungarian Klara Trencsenyi at the Astra Film Festival, where her newest work “Corvin Variations” was screened. Two years ago Trencsenyi organised a project development workshop for creative documentaries in Budapest that I took part in. Since then the…
Hybrid Films?
What is the future of hybrid films?… is one of many interesting debates that are to take place during the upcoming cph:dox in Copenhagen, November 1-11. It is the tenth edition of the festival with five international competition programmes, more…
Astra Film Festival/ 3
The festival in Sibiu ended last night with a very professional international orientated prize ceremony, held in Romanian and English languages. The Grand Prix went to ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Polish director Pawel Kloc, who with this film has made…
Goran Radovanovic: With Fidel Whatever Happens
The Serbian director held an inspiring and entertaining masterclass after the screening of his film at the Astra Film Festival in Sibiu in Romania. Radovanovic was one of the tutors at the DocStories Black Sea workshop session that includes filmmakers…
Doc Stories Black Sea/ 5
The first session of the DocStories Black Sea was held in Tbilisi, Georgia, the second one here in sunny Sibiu in Transylvania, Romania within the framework of the 19th edition of the Astra International Documentary Film Festival. Which has a…
DOK Leipzig
This is the press release from the upcomoing DOK Leipzig. Of course there is a lot of publicity words in this but figures are impressive and interesting, and the quotes of he director document that the political engagement, and the…
Doc Festivals All Over
Tomorrow I am going to Sibiu in Romania, to a workshop that takes place within the Astra Film Festival, that runs until the 21st, whereas DocLisboa with its new leadership started on the 18th and runs until the 28th, overlapping…
Messi Messi Messi Messi/ 2
Yes, here we go again with some football, four times Messi/ 2, explanation will follow. But look at the two old boys on the photo, to the right one half of the directorate of the yearly Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade,…
Serbia – Moments of Beauty and Joy 6
In between the yearly Magnificent 7, The Popovics (Svetlana and Zoran), the organisers of the festival, that takes place every year in January in Belgrade, and has done so for seven years, with my privileged post as co-selector of the…
Astra Film Festival 2012/ 1
“Eighty films produced in twentyfive countries to be screened in seven days”, this is the way that the Astra Film Festival (October 15-21) in Sibiu, Romania introduces itself. The festival has an international competitive programme of 9 films (see below),…
Astra Film Festival/ 2
As stated above10 films are listed in the international competition of the Astra Film Festival in Sibiu in Romania. Among them are films that have made an impression on this blogger at other festivals like Petr Lom’s ”Back to the…
Kristina Lindström & Maud Nycander:Palme
This is a review of the biographical film about Olof Palme, a theatrical success in the country, where he lived from his birth in 1927 until he was shot down in a street in Stockholm on his way home from…
New Executive Director of Flaherty
This blogger worked with Anita Reher for a decade at EDN (European Documentary Network) in Copenhagen, now she has a quite an important job in the US, carrying the name of one of the founders of the documentary genre, Bravo:…
Zeljko Mirkovic: The Second Meeting
This is what I wrote less than four months ago about Zeljko Mirkovic: “Two of his films have been reviewed on this site (”I will Marry the Whole Village” and ”The Long Road Through Balkan History”). I have known him…
Documentary Pearls at Copenhagen Cinematheque
From the site: “The Cinematheque in the heart of Copenhagen offers a rich programme of more than 60 films every month, many of which are in English or with English subtitles. In October, we present roadmovies, East by Southeast, women’s…
Message to Man 2012 Winners
The St. Petersburg festival ended with several awards as the tradition goes at the festival that covers documentaries, long and short, animation, short fiction and experimental films. Headed by Austrian director Michael Glawogger the international jury gave the main prize,…
St. Petersburg Syndrome
The famous Stendhal syndrome is normally (due to the French author, of course) connected to Florence. For me it happened (again) in St. Petersburg. Several days of intensive driving around in the city with the consequent beauty bombardement of the…
Collective Work: Winter, Go Away
This is how the film was described at its international premiere in Locarno a couple of months ago: “Ten director graduates from Marina Razbezhkina’s School of Documentary Film and Documentary Theatre lived with a camera for two months in order to chronicle…
Sergey Miroshnichenko: Born in the USSR: 28 Up 1-2
Based on the original idea of Michael Apted – the 7UP series – Sergey Miroshnichenko has filmed a group of Russian kids when they were 7, 14, 21 and now 28 years old. The two-part series (each of them around…
Mika Ronkainen: Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart
This morning, my daily newspaper reminded me of a John Cage-quote: “I like to be moved, but I don’t like to be pushed”. Two days ago in Oulu, Finland, I found myself in a situation which I liked. It might…
James Marsh: Project Nim
I guess that most readers know that James Marsh ”Project Nim” is about the dramatic life of a chimpanse… nevertheless read how Peter Bradshaw precisely introduced the film in Guardian August 11 2011: “Project Nim was a sensational Pygmalion-type experiment…
Nordisk Panorama 2012
Awards were distributed at the Nordisk Panorama festival in Oulu. The best documentary prize went to the succesful Danish documentary “Ballroom Dancer” by Andreas Kofoed & Christian Bonke. The jury motivation: “The Nordic Documentary Award goes to a perfect example…
Kossakovsky on “Why Poverty”
Viktor Kossakovsky was on his way home from Vilnius Documentary Festival, where he presented a retrospective of his films from “Belovs” to “Vivan las Antipodas”. I was on my way to the 22nd edition of St. Petersburg festival “Message to…
Crossroads Film Workshop Cairo
No, I did not see the pyramids or the Egyptian Museum. Yes, I saw the Nile from my hotel and had a quiet wonderful boat trip late night on the river. Yes, I crossed the Tahrir Square every morning on…
RIDM 2012
A press release from Montréal, where the RIDM Festival resides, this year from November 7-18. The festival has chosen to celebrate its 15th edition with a “special anniversary program, 15 Years, 15 All-Time Favourites”… “to mark our first 15 years,…
DOK Leipzig
Crisis… maybe, but films are made, just received this press release from DOK Leipzig: Some 2,850 films from 77 countries were submitted to this year’s International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, among them 2,200 documentaries and 650 animated…
Message to Man St. Petersburg
There are 11 feature length documentaries in the international competition of the Message to Man festival that takes place September 22-29. There are well known festival hits and winners like ”Bad Weather” (Giovanni Giommi), ”The Collaborator and His Family” (Adi…
Viktor Kossakovsky: My Top 10
Every year the film festival in Amsterdam, idfa, asks well known filmmakers to pick their favourites. This year Viktor Kossakovsky has made his choice. This is a text taken from the website of idfa: According to Kossakovsky, the films in…
Orwa Nyrabia Free
It is pouring in from all sides, the wonderful news about the release of the dear friend and colleague Orwa Nyrabia. Without knowing his situation and what he has experienced after being in prison since August 23 there is only…
Baltic Sea Forum 2012/ 4
A kind of summing up after 5 intense days of Baltic Sea Forum in Riga Latvia, the16th edition. The reader should know that I have been part of the event from the very beginning, where it took place on the…
Baltic Sea Forum 2012/ 3
Second and last day of the pitching forum in Riga, sunday, sunshine and good atmosphere from the very beginning where ”Babushki, Go, Go!” was the first project to be presented. Young director Maria Miro and producer Georgy Molodtsov showed a…
Baltic Sea Forum 2012/ 2
First day of pitching at Baltic Sea Forum in Riga taking place at the Albert Hotel on the top floor of the hotel, that has Albert Einstein quotes everywhere (!) – and a beautiful view to the city of the…
Orwa Nyrabia Arrested/ 5
The film magazine realscreen writes today in its newsletter: The International Documentary Association (IDA) and the Sundance and Tribeca Film Institutes are among nearly 30 organizations and festivals calling for the release of missing Syrian filmmaker and festival director Owra…
Baltic Sea Forum 2012/ 1
It is the third day of the Baltic Sea Forum 2012. A workshop goes on during the day, where 24 projects are being evaluated, trailers and teasers are being adjusted, wordings discussed – in order to have the filmmakers be…
Bonke og Koefoed: Ballroom Dancer /2
… Slavik, who corrects her at the same time as he declares his love to her. One-dimensional, the film is, and mid way through the story, the film goes dead, for a long period, coming up again with a beautiful…
Orwa Nyrabia Arrested/ 4
Big names are of course important, the French have commented, here is what Martin Scorsese says: “I was alarmed by the news that the Syrian actor and producer Orwa Nyrabia has been arrested by the Syrian regime, held in an…
Orwa Nyrabia Arrested/ 3
Respect for the French filmmakers, who – initiated by Nicolas Philibert – have launched a petition for Orwa Nyrabia: De Wes Anderson à Jet Li en passant par Elia Suleiman, la Société des réalisateurs de films (SRF) a lancé une…
Border Crossing – an Exhibition on Migration
For a documentary person, who normally sits in a cinema or in front of a tv/computer screen, when he watches – it is something special to visit an art exhibition that has its focus on a theme that is regularly…
Dokumania: Senna
Danish Dokumania, the Tuesday creative documentary tv slot of DR, broadcasts Asif Kapadia’s great archive based documentary tomorrow, August 28th. To be highly recommended. Here is a repeat of one of many previous texts about the film: In a report…
Orwa Nyrabia Arrested/ 2
While waiting for further news about the detaining of Orwa Nyrabia, and while international media like al jazeera and France24, as well as documentary organisations and festivals like EDN, idfa and DOKLeipzig spread the news and concern – a facebook…
Orwa Nyrabia Arrested
Shocking news! This text came in 5 hours ago from Diana el Jeiroudi, filmmaker, producer, co-founder of the Dox Box Film Festival in Damascus and partner of Orwa Nyrabia: “Syrian film producer Orwa Nyrabia disappeared this afternoon on on his…
Erika Hníkova: Matchmaking Mayor/ 2
Det er mildest talt ikke hver dag at en tjekkisk/slovakisk dokumentar finder vej til en dansk biograf. Men her er én, takket være de brave folk fra Øst for Paradis og Gloria i Aarhus og København. Den har premiere i morgen,…
Punk Syndrome and Other Master-Docs to Riga
The Baltic Sea Forum in Riga – September 5-9 – includes several interesting film projects from the Baltic countries, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine plus some Western producers with themes relating to the East. The 16th edition of this classic forum that…
Kaspar Astrup Schröder: I Want to Cheer Up Ltd.
The Danish director behind ”The Invention of Dr. Nakamats” and ”My Playground” was praised by filmkommentaren last year through the words:”A multi-artist, an original talent, who also makes films… definitely a refreshing new talent in Danish documentary”. In his new…
Learning Through Film: Human Rights in Scotland
The text about Docs for Education (see below) made Scottish filmmaker Nick Higgins draw attention to a Scottish initiative that could inspire filmmakers in other countries to do the same. Here are some text clips from the website: … This…
Jean Rouch Tribute
Icarus Films in New York has a strong, high quality catalogue, including several works by Chris Marker, who died end of July this year. This week the company pulished the good news that it has acquired North American distribution rights…
Lussas 2012
Every year late August the French documentarians go to Ardèche to discuss and to watch, and have a good time. This year (August 19-25) the seminars include themes like ”The Necessity of Criticism?” and how to ”build a Political point…
Docs for Education
Israeli director and editor Erez Laufer gave me a link to his father’s film website, Docs for Education, an amazing initiative, in Nahum Laufer’s own words ”devoted to distributing high quality creative documentaries suitable for educational purposes”. For those of…