Soccer Fever
This photo was sent to me two hours before World Cup in football kick-off in South Africa. By Don Edkins, producer and distributor and promoter of documentary films in Southern Africa, and a dear guest of all important film events.…
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Filmkommentaren.dk
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Articles/Reviews ENGLISH
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Piemonte Doc Film Fund
There are many reasons why a documentary tradition grows or is being established. In the posting below you can read about some interesting people and companies. The one that produced the City Veins film is called BabyDoc and that characterises…
Il futuro del mondo passa da qui
… is the beautiful Italian title of a film that is about to be completed. I saw it in Turin in connection with the first session of the DocuRegio training session and it is as beautiful visually as the title…
Museo Nazionale del Cinema Torino
More than a museum. Indeed it is. It can only be described as magnificent the National Film Museum of Torino. I was there for hours and want to go back as soon as possible. To visit the fine collection of…
Ole Bendtzen: Football is God
In the name of the Father, the Son and Diego Maradona. Amen… is the subtitle of this new Danish film that for a football addict, who will spend hours watching the coming World Cup, was a gift to watch at…
Jan Tenhaven: Autumn Gold
Good subject: Old (some of them veeery old) people who are still fit for life and take part in an athletic World Champions competition in Lahti, Finland. But what about the treatment of the subject, can this sustain a feature…
Docs Online: China, Soccer, Giro d’Italia
For viewers worldwide and for free – IDFA, the biggest documentary film festival in the world, based in Amsterdam, invites you to go online with IDFA TV, where there is an excellent selection of excellent documentaries. IDFA staff is at…
MakeDox 1/Words of Documentary Enthusiasm
MakeDox is inspired and financed by people who love documentary film. People with a great desire to make their own festival, the kind of festival that I would like to visit myself. Petra Seliškar, Programme Selector.. I graduated in social…
MakeDox 2/ Words of Documentary Enthusiasm
More than 35 years ago, I broke my cousin’s Contaflex. Why? I wanted to see how that fascinating “eye” worked. I fixed it and ever since then I have been seeing with only one eye. I lived to be fascinated…
MakeDox in Macedonia/3
Wonderful. Well done and good luck are the best words to congratulate the organisers of a new documentary festival in Macedonia. It starts tomorrow. My text –The following is taken from the IDF site: As nutritious and beneficial as the…
News from Paris: Tarkovsky for children
In France kids have Wednesdays off from school. For those who have the possibility, it is a day to discover the multiple activities Paris has to offer children. Le centre Pompidou, Beaubourg to Parisians, holds every Wednesday of the school…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/6
The Danish documentary “Armadillo” which premiered in cinemas last friday is a huge audience success. 22.282 tickets have been sold in three days, which is absolutely unusual for a documentary in Danish theatres. Earlier this month “Armadillo” by Janus Metz…
EDN Online Interviews for Professionals
This is first of all information for those of our readers who are active filmmakers and producers. Given to you by someone who worked in EDN (European Documentary Network) from the beginning in 1996 until 2005, so I am totally…
A Nordic ARTE?
Under the headline “Nordic ‘arte’ Channel Closer to a “Go””, the excellent newsletter FkN Newsletter, published by Filmkonakt Nord (in English, free subscription) gives hope for quality television: The talks of establishing of a joint Nordic TV channel based on…
All Norwegian Screens Digitised in 2011
Filmkommentaren.dk has recently written about the digital plans for documentaries in Lithuania and Denmark. Now a piece of text taken from the newsletter of Filmkontakt (see above) demonstrates that some countries also have throughts for the screening of films, at…
carlthdreyer.dk
Sorry, your English language blogger goes national again… but he has to tell you that from today a website on the most esteemed Danish film director ever, Carl Th. Dreyer (1889-1968), is available. Go to the site address and check…
Waiting for Godard
Our Paris correspondent has previously (search Godard) dedicated a posting to the one and only JLG, Jean-Luc Godard, whose ”Film Socialisme” was screened in Cannes. I found this clip from an overall festival article by Jason Solomons, The Observer, May…
Lithuania: Classical Documentaries to be Digitized
Good news from one the most interesting countries for documentary cinema, Lithuania, whose post-independence documentaries have been and are awarded everywhere. Names like Sharunas Bartas, Audrius Stonys, Arunas Matelis, Rimantas Gruodis, Janina Lapinskaite and Giedre Beinoriute (photo from her 2005…
Z. Mirkovic: The Long Road Through Balkan History
… and it is a road movie that talented Zeljko Mirkovic has made. Informative and done in an unpretentious way, this tv documentary takes the viewer from Austria in the North to the border between Macedonia and Greece in the…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/5
The news agency AFP reports tonight from CANNES: A controversial Danish movie set in Afghanistan and a first feature from a Vietnamese director on Thursday scooped awards in Cannes’ Critics Week section… “Armadillo”, about the growing cynicism and adrenaline addiction…
Janus Metz: Armadillo/4
Sund fornuft sejrede: ARMADILLO FÅR PREMIERE DEN 27. MAJ – 6 UGER FØR PLANLAGT. Klip fra pressemeddelelse: Siden den overvældende modtagelse ved verdenspremieren på filmfestivalen i Cannes har Armadillo været omtalt massivt i både danske og internationale medier. Filmen har…
Boris Bertram: Tankograd/2
Russian stories… why are they so attractive, why do they travel so well? Is it because we still know so little about this huge country and its Soviet past? Is it because their stories, like Tankograd, are so much more…
Thierry Paladino: La Machina
I did not watch the final film yet but followed the film project, when it was developed at the Ex Oriente workshop in Czech Republic and when it was presented at the most important market place for new documentary projects,…
Janus Metz: Armadillo 3
Did you read the report from our Paris correspondent, Sara Thelle – see below. The core of the article is the hommage to wonderful Agnès Varda but Thelle also mentions the success of the Danish documentary, Armadillo, that not only…
News from Paris: Cannes
Every year in Cannes, at the opening of The Director’s Fortnight, la Quinzaine des réalisateurs, the international society of filmmakers, la Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF), hands out the award The Carosse d’Or to honour “the innovative qualities, courage…
Janus Metz: Armadillo 2
Take a look at the boy. Look at his eyes. See the fear of a soldier. A very young Danish soldier who has just been hit. He serves in Afghanistan, he fights Taliban. He is caught at that very moment…
Danish Access to Docs and Shorts
1000 Danish documentaries and shorts will be made available for the Danish audience. The films, all from 1975-1990, will be digitalised and made accessible through the free streaming service, ”Filmstriben”, that includes all new docs and shorts supported by the…
Berlusconi Again Again…
The headline is taken from a small report by Camillo de Marco, who from Cannes Film Festival writes for the CinEuropa website. About one more documentary that puts its focus on Berlusconi… Italian documentarians do not have so go far…
San Sebastian Celebrates the Documentary
The prestigious film festival in San Sebastian (September 17-25), one of the so-called A-festivals, has announced a special celebration of what on this site often has been called the new Golden Age of the documentary film genre, in the text…
Janus Metz: Armadillo – in Cannes
It is always to be noted that the Cannes Film Festival picks a documentary for a competition screening. This time a Danish one, Armadillo by Janus Metz, has been taken for the Semaine de la Critique. The first screening in…
MART
… stands for ”museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di trento e rovereto”. I went there to see the museum in the small and nice provincial town of Rovereto which is on the road between Bolzano and Verona. The museum…
Henri Cartier-Bresson
The legendary French photographer is always considered as the documentarian within the art of photography. Now, according to an article written by Richard Lacayo in Time (May 3) a focus is put on his short but remarkable surrealist period. Here…
News from Paris: Kitano
This spring Paris is under the sign of Kitano. Japanese filmmaker (Sonatine, Hana-bi, Zatoichi a. o.), actor, TV presenter, comedian, painter, singer, poet and writer Takeshi Kitano (born 1947 in Tokyo) is everywhere. He has a big exhibition at le…
Reflections on Festivals
The Canadian documentary film magazine POV asked me to write an article on festivals. I did so, it has been published in connection with the HotDocs festival that is running right now. You can read the article below and for…
15 Young by Young
Think Big! Is what young Latvian producer and director Ilona Bicevska is doing. For a couple of years she has been pitching a project that I have praised on this site with a simple Bravo! Now the potential directors have…
Arab Documentary Funding
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) has announced the winners of its Documentary Film Program Grants for the year 2010. The grant of a total of 300,000 USD was given to 15 winners, along with a series of…
News from Paris: Godard
This years festival Cinéma du reel had a program called Nous deux – Both of us, featuring films made by filmmakers in couples or pairs. Amongst those shown where The Old Place (1998) and Reportage amateur (maquette expo) (2006) by…
Doc Alliance: Free films
More free viewing for documentary addicts. A generous offer is given by the Doc Alliance (the four festivals in Nyon, Leipzig, Jihlava, Warsaw and Copenhagen). Below is their promotion text, and the films are available from April 21-25. When you…
idfa: for Viewers Worldwide
8 excellent documentaries can be watched for free on the net, made available for screening by idfa, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Let me just mention three of them – Florin Iepan’s Romanian ”Children of the Decree” about the atrocities…
Dokumentärer i SVT
The following text is in Danish as it includes information on the excellent documentary service that is provided by SVT, Swedish public television, that is available for viewers in the Nordic countries. There are not many broadcasters – if any…
Boris Mitic: Goodbye, How are You?
A special treat for those of us who have access to Swedish television, SVT2, that tonight at 8pm shows one of the most original Serbian documentaries from the last years. With repeats Saturday April 17 at 11.20 am, and Tuesday…
Underground Films
Indiepix, American distributor of independent films, including documentaries and experimental titles, offer their films to be bought as a dvd, to be downloaded to your own computer (pc and mac) or to be viewed as a vod (video on demand).…
Visions du Réel Nyon 1
The important documentary film festival in Nyon, Switzerland takes off in two days, April 15 and goes on to April 21. As usual a huge programme is offered, an emphasis is put on the authored documentary, a strong collaboration with…
Visions du Réel Nyon 2
Festival director Jean Perrret leaves the festival after this edition. Here are his fine words of goodbye: It is comforting to feel the quietness emanated again by the films selected for this 16th edition of Visions du Réel. Not that…
Ripping Reality
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (April 29 – May 9) has introduced an interesting category in this year’s festival programme: Ripping Reality. Ten films have been chosen that in each their own way have added something new to…
Another Planet gets Another Award
There are many films the career of which we have been following with great pleasure. Another Planet by Hungarian Ferenc Moldovanyi is one of them. The film has won the Special Award from the Ukranian Helsinki Human Rights Union at the 7th…
Soccer Cinema
Soccer Cinema is a real dream come true. A travelling cinema, bringing some of the world’s best soccer documentaries to 50 small towns, villages and townships, spread across all 9 South African provinces. The journey begins on 6 April 2010…
News from Paris: Maysles
It’s the Maysles! At this years edition of Cinéma du réel, the festival paid tribute to Albert Maysles. The Maysles Brothers: the late David on sound and Albert behind the camera, classic direct cinema. As was the case two years…
Ramallah – Documentaries from Palestine
Palestine, 4 days, end of March 2010. It’s blue sky but still a bit chilly in Ramallah, where I have been for a couple of days. Lively activity outside in the streets of a nice and calm city, 40.000 are…
News from Paris
Filmkommentaren.dk welcomes Sara Thelle as our Paris correspondent. She will (see below) keep the readers informed about film events and issues from the French capital. Sara Thelle, Danish origin, has a BA in study of Religions from Copenhagen University and…