A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Andriy, Liza, Lera, Ruslan, Illia. Ukrainian protagonists in this heartwarming and also touching documentary from the village Stanytsia Luhanska near the frontline, which after February last year is occupied by Russia. They are teenagers, they have hope, they have dreams, they…
I have already posted the list of films in the main competition of CPH:DOX – here comes the other competition films listed one after the other taken from the website of the festival… NEW:VISION AWARD 16 films (shorts and…
Vesi Vuković won the award endowed with prize money amounting to 10,000 euros for the story “The Hero from Arena” As part of the special edition of the “Dealing with the Past” programme held in Sarajevo and online at Ondemand.kinomeetingpoint.ba,…
Below you find the 13 films that have been picked for the DOX:Award 2023 competition, but first some introductory words from the festival: ”Marking the 20th anniversary of the International Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX, the 2023 edition will offer an…
The following are quotes from an interview I made for the IDF in December 2021, with Alisa Kovalenko and Stéphane Siophan, producer of the film: What do you learn about yourself from filmmaking? A: We learn to know ourselves through the…
The second edition of CHANGE is now ready to reveal its 2022/2023 lineup. CHANGE is a collaboration between CPH:DOX, EAVE, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, Europe’s leading training, development, and networking organisation for producers, and IMS, International Media Support, promoting journalism and documentary film to strengthen…
First some introductory words: A filmmaker, Doug Aubrey, who has had a camera in his hands since he was a teenager, gets thyroid cancer. More than five years ago. He decides to turn the camera towards himself, he who his…
One more documentary film from which I learned – this time about the koli fishing community in India close to Bombay. And one more documentary film where beautiful friendship is conveyed and forms the foreground of extremely difficult life conditions…
It’s a beautiful and elegant website to enter, the one from FipaDoc in Biarritz that introduces itself like this: “We believe in true stories. Stories from here and there, of laughter and tears, stories simple but extraordinary, brave and surprising.…
In 2011 I attended a Summer School in Neringa Lithuania for film students. A film by Mantas Kvedaravicius was shown, his first. ”Stasys Baltakis, teacher at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the film school of the Country, introduced the…
Love that film! Because of its surprising, fresh approach to its protagonist Jan Kapr (1914-1988), a composer unknown to me. Until now, at least I know a lot about him, as a text in the beginning of the film indicates: “Sometimes, we…
Memories… Names, film projects, episodes. 30 years of IDFA Forum! Actually I don’t remember the first time I was there. Was it the first edition? At the time I worked at the National Film Board of Denmark and had a seat in…
dok.incubator is a think-tank founded in 2010 by experienced training providers to help documentary filmmaking survive the current media crisis. We strongly believe only the productions with high quality development, which can take advantage of new opportunities and master new market strategies…
This text is written by filmmaker Maxi Dejoie: On December 10th, Mariupol 2, the last documentary by Mantas Kvedaravicius and Hanna Bilobrova, rightfully received the award for best documentary of the year at the European Film Awards ceremony. After it was…
Always a fine experience to attend the yearly presentation of upcoming documentaries developed at the dok.incubator workshop that has its address in Prague due to its Czech founder and manager Andrea Prenghyova. There was a presentation at IDFA this year,…
Filma Film Fest Ukraine: WHEN TREES BLOOM AT HOME AGAIN migration as a result of military conflict After February 24 we all began to live in a new reality shaped by the full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. The…
The Russian massacre in Bucha in Ukraine is well known and talked about. This film documents the cleaning up after the Russians left. It’s not nice to look at. Corpses in black plastic bags being collected and transported, names spoken…
Serbian director Mila Turajlic is my cinematic historian, when it comes to tell me about the history of Yugoslavia and Serbia. At IDFA she presented her two new films “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels” and “Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the…
Main award at IDFA 2022 for Danish director Lea Glob for a film she has been working on for 13 years. A huge achievement to say the least. I saw the film two days ago at home online and was…
I am often asked how boycotting the protesting Russian cinema will help win the war. I found a good example to talk about it with. I came across the project of a documentary film by a Russian director, which is…
When you have been watching scenes and footage from 8 projects at the Verzio DocLab Budapest last week there are moments of what you could call authentic truth that stay in your mind. Let me mention 4 of them: A…
From tuesday till saturday 8 film projects were being worked on in Budapest as part of the Verzio Human Rights Film Festival. The filmmakers came with their material and were met by mentors and colleagues, who gave them feedback in…
The International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival starts tonight. The director Oksana Sarkisov writes the following strong welcome words with the headline “Taming the Fire” In 2022, the phrase “world on fire” is more than a metaphor or a reference to some…
Click above and you will see the shortlisted documentaries for the European Film Award in the documentary category. Today the nominations for the award to be decided in Reykjavik on the 10th of December were announced: The House of…
The award for the most notable international documentary film was granted to 07:15 – Blackbird by Judith Auffray, the best Czech documentary is Kapr Code by Lucie Králová. The award for the best Central and East European documentary and for the best sound design went…
What is a documentary At my first day in Zelig Film school i met a man named Tue Steen Müller that immediately asked us to present ourselves and talk about a documentary we saw. I briefly explained what brought me…
Here is how the director Kyrylo Naumko introduces his film “Dear Odesa” on the website of Zelig (): I did not notice exactly how and when life in Odesa became unbearable. But, probably, last 2 years I had a terrible…
Zelig Film Fest Bolzano 10 films, 28 graduates… 5 films were shown last night, 5 will hit the screen tonight. I am not here to review the films but I will not refrain from saying that the general quality is…
The Best Foreign Film Award of 1.000 euros. Shared equally to: Maija Isola (Finland), Leena Kilpelainen. and Looking for Horses (Bosnia-Herzegovina/France),Stefan Pavlovic Best Greek Film Award of 1.000 euros with the support of Greek Film Centre: The Bet (Greece)Maria Leonida. The Award…
While in the Greek island: Two mornings with film students from Romania, organised by Ana Vlad, documentary teacher at the university and a film director I have known for many years. Pleasure to work with her. I asked the students…
An important film was programmed last night in the cinema in Myrina: A Jewish Life Direction Team: Christian Krönes, Florian Weigensamer, Christian Kermer, Roland Schrotthofer. Israel, Austria, 114 mins. 2021. Annotation: Marko Feingold, born in 1913, grew up in a…
It’s your night, Kostas Spiropoulos, the director of Aegean Docs, said to me. He knows that the two films shown last night are very much appreciated by me, and written about on www.filmkommentaren.dk They are “Looking for Horses”, quote: “Stefan Pavlović…
Lucky us, my wife and I, to be invited to Aegean Docs on the island of Limnos. The 10th edition of a special documentary film festival that takes place in 9 (nine!) islands in the North Aegean Sea: Lemnos, limnos, Ikaria,…
Total trust can only come from curiosity and love, Heddy Honigmann said in an interview. The director who passed away this year continued by saying that she loved the people, she films. That is so obvious in her “Oblivion” from…
The 29th edition of the Forum for Co-Financing of Documentaries. I was there for the two days, where 24 projects were pitched to a panel of TV-editors and Film Fund/Institute consultants with another 22 listed in the catalogue as observers,…
Nordisk Panorama in Malmø. In Sweden. Sunday. Had our passports ready in the train for border check. But no check. 5 minutes to the Scandic Hotel and voilá you are at the very well organised Nordisk Panorama with a fine…
This text is written by Magnificent7 directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Austria, 2022 110 minutes director: Nikolaus Geyrhalter A grandiose fresco about the state of our planet. After extraordinary films Homo sapiens and Earth, the great Austrian documentary filmmaker once again shows…
This text is written by Magnificent7 directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Austria 2022 73 minutes director: Andreas Horvath This is an exciting visual adventure by an exceptional Austrian photographer and filmmaker who exclusively introduces us to the world closed behind the long-locked…
This text is written by the Magnificent7 directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Netherlands 2021 82 minutes director: Oeke Hoogendijk The work of a prominent Dutch director famous for her magnificent films dealing with the world of art, which introduce us to the…
This text is written by Magnificent7 festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Bulgaria, Germany 2022 102 minutes directors: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva This film begins its festival life right after its premiere at the big festival in Karlovy Vary, as…
This text is written by Magnificent7 directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Ireland, Great Britain, France, Belgium 2021 102 minutes directors: Neasa Ní Chianáin and Declan McGrath A remarkable continuation of dealing with school and growing up problems from creative and life tandem…
This text is written by the festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic. Spain 2021 78 minutes director: Pere Puigbert This film with its beauty has conquered the whole of Spain going from festival to festival. Awarded as the best Spanish film in…
This text is written by the festival directors of Magnificent7, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: Poland 2021 101 minutes director: Pawel Lozinski The work of one of the most important European filmmakers, the masterful cinéma vérité as a direct embodiment of the legendary…
I Have No Idea How Much They Loved It – but I think they did, the audience for the masterclass with Polish Pawel Lozinski. We (Lozinski and I as the moderator) enjoyed a lot what we were asked to do: Choose 7 shots/sequences…
Heddy Honigmann died May 21 this year 70 year old. Some of her films have been shown at Magnificent7. On Sunday the 18th at 6pm one of her masterpieces, “Oblivion”, from 2008 will be shown for us to remember a magnificent…
“We haven’t seen so poetic documentary for a long long time! Beautiful shots, true beauty of the nature and people, true beauty of the documentary!” A visit “behind the scene” is this email text from from Svetlana and Zoran Popovic…
Baltic Sea Docs 2022: Four films were screened made by Ukrainian directors and/or about Ukraine directly or indirectly. And at the pitching forum there were projects like “Little People” by Ivan Sautkin, “Iron Man (One Day I Wish to see…
… in the Times of War” was the title of a seminar at the Baltic Sea Docs. Including as moderator Rebecca Day, Ukrainian filmmakers Roman Bondarchuk, Ivan Sautkin, Anna Machukh, CEO of Odesa International Film Festival and Latvian producer and…
Monday morning. Copenhagen ariport. Departure for Riga. Beautiful weather. Arrival one hour later at 9am, 20 minutes ahead of time. Hugging friends upon arrival at the hotel, shaking hands with newcomers. Lovely to see – after years – Ukrainian Darya…
Life People Reality Subjectivity Perspective Rhythm Observation Truth Poetic World Imagination Discovery Unfiltered Raw Story Real Unique Relationship Experiences History Time Communication Values Changes Memory Passion Revelation Era Generation Commitment Achievement Care Psychology Environment Makedox What are the three words…