Øvrigt

… at a press conference this afternoon, online, with IDFA veteran Isabel Arrate Fernandez, appointed artistic director after Orwa Nyrabia, doing the presentation together with Head of Program Joost Dammen and Head of New Media Caspar Sonnen. “As filmmakers and…

Here is a repeat of a review I wrote recently in connection with the screening of the film in Malmö at Nordisk Panorama: Sorry, dear reader, I have to go to the box with superlatives. Again. You might argue that…

… took place October 3-4 at the Filmclub Capitol Bolzano, the city where the unique Zelig-School for Documentary is to be found. I have been teaching at the school since 2007, where I had the privilege to follow students for…

24 documentary projects were pitched at this year’s Nordisk Panorama, edition number 32, with the participation of “Documentary Stakeholders” from 18 countries – broadcasters, sales agents, film institute consultants, and with a lot of potential co-producers, some observers with their…

Look at the photo… A douce painting by Edgar Degas, for me the first true documentarian? No, an edited still from a Danish documentary – coproduced with a Spanish company – directed by Robin Petré and with Ecuadorian cameraperson María…

… and the winner is, no objections from my side, from this year’s strong selection… Over to the jury: Motivation“We are living in a world on fire that keeps burning in front of our eyes. We use cinema for reflection…

Sorry, dear reader, I have to go to the box with superlatives. Again. You might argue that I always do so, and indeed this was what Allan Berg and I agreed upon, when we started this film blog: We don’t…

“I love hands, and I can’t wait for my hands to get old and have the veins out. I keep saying that hands are fascinating. It is something so tactile, so easy to hold someone’s hand to stroke their hand.…

They filmed at Malmberget before, more than 10 years ago, “The Home and the Cavity” was the title, and I know them from the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade from 2018, where they showed “Giants and The Morning After”, with Malla…

… started yesterday with – as usual – a rich programme, the 36th edition, wow, some of the festival participants who walk into the lobby of the Scandic Hotel, where the reception is, were not born when the festival started……

“Three cows – Joy, Crumb and Sweetie – live in the forest. Joy is grandma and Crumb is its child. They were both rescued to the forest pasture from the door of the slaughterhouse truck. Sweetie is Joy’s granddaughter, who…

This text is written by Emanuele Vernillo, who is Head of the Three – Years Training in Documentary Filmmaking at ZeLIG The words we most often use in times of change speak of necessity: the need to renew, to make…

From press release of yesterday: IDFA is proud to present Portuguese filmmaker, curator, and academic Susana de Sousa Dias as the festival’s Guest of Honor, with a Retrospective and Top 10 selection. Known for her singular approach to archival images…

Text from festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, Magnificent 7 festival in Belgrade: The Magnificent Seven festival, created as a cinema holiday for numerous devotees of modern European documentary film, has successfully presented top achievements and the most significant authors…

Memories… Audrius Stonys was at the Balticum Film & TV Festival in the beginning of the 1990’es. He and Arunas Matelis were the young talents, who showed short documentaries in the Kino Gudhjem on Bornholm. Films like “Antigravitation” and “Earth…

The winner of the Documentary Competition of the 2025 Sarajevo FF. I had not heard about this film before, even if it was at the Berlinale. And to be honest, when I read the synopsis, I thought “ok, here is…

From the documentary competition of the Sarajevo FF 2025 At numerous workshops in Eastern Europe I have told filmmakers from that part of the world that to call all characters or protagonists “heroes” is not a good idea – as…

I have several times on this site praised the film of Ketevan Vashagashvili, that I know – also as a project – for many years due to the CinéDoc Mentoring Program in Georgia. Ketevan came from journalism into documentary film…

The success is understandable for this well-funded super-professional production by Romanian company Manifest – producer Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan – with many co-producers, shot over a long period, with four editors on board, with a complicated structure as it takes place in…

Review written by Allan Berg Nielsen for DOX Magazine 2002, now available at Modern Times Review. In Anything Can Happen, Marcel Lozinski takes his six-year-old son to the park and asks him to ride around on his push scooter and occasionally…

Awards were given in Sarajevo for participants of the Rough Cut Boutique, which has Martichka Bozhilova and Rada Sesic as organisers and leading figures. At the photo (Sarajevo FF) the two are with microphone in hands, Martichka standing, Rada kneeling.…

Aforementioned award will be presented with the official partnership of the Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers which will be supported by the Azad Mirzajanzadeh Development Program, the Young Filmmakers Association, and the Guild of Azerbaijani Film Critics and Scholars. The award…

Programmed for the Sarajevo FF in the documentary competition. The film won main award in the regional competition of this year’s ZagrebDox, the photo shows the director with her Big Stamp as the festival calls its award. No need for…

Dealing with the Past programme continues to create space for confronting traumas, untold stories, and forgotten perspectives that shape both collective and personal histories. The programme presents feature films, documentaries, and experimental works that delve into the aftermath of conflict…

Aspiring critics and writers interested in documentary cinema are invited to apply for the 4th Verzió Documentary Film Critics Workshop, held as part of the 22nd Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The event will take place from 11–19…

I am not in Kyiv but I follow what’s going on in a festival that I have visited some times before the war. With pleasure and I have no doubt that the organisers will take good care of every visitor,…

Milit – lat. for soldier. Antropos – gr. for human: “A persona adopted by humans when entering a state of war. The chaos of war not only tears apart the physical world but also fractures the Militantropos’ sense of self”.…

If I could, I would take many images from this beautiful documentary and put them on the wall. Most of them B/W images in academy format with many of them colored in blue, yellowish for instance. All is so well…

Tonight the winners of the DocsBarcelona festival 2025 were announced at the ceremony at the CCCB, that hosted industry activities duirng the festival and some screenings as well. Here is a copy paste from the festival’s website: THE FESTIVAL SURPASSES…

Nine projects took part in this year’s edition of DocsBarcelona’s Artistic Consultancies. It was a pleasure to meet the filmmakers, who came from all over the world: Ukraine, Portugal, India, Italy, France, Azerbaijan, Chile, Uruguay, Montenegro, Colombia, Argentina, Spain! Stories…

… and goes until May 18. The opening film is “RIEFENSTAHL” by Andres Veiel, a film that premiered at the festival in Venice and goes all over, of course, praised by critics. I will not be in Barcelona for the…

Years ago I was the mentor for a film from Belarus. It takes time – and it should – to make documentaries that follow a young person, who is dealing with very hard family conditions like Katya does. She is…

I have known Heino Deckert for decades. I have a big respect for his contribution to current documentaries that have traveled the world. He has taken risks being the producer of demanding directors like Victor Kossakovsky and Sergei Loznitza, and…

To have a pitching session at The Royal Theatre at CPH:DOX with full house… Amazing! And to have the individual meetings in the afternoon at the Odd Fellow Palæet. Amazing. Atmosphere in both places and all works so well. There…

Look at the photo and the drawing… two filmmakers from Azerbaijan pitching their project “Kura”, the river that flows into the Caspian Sea coming from Turkey and Georgia. In their upcoming film the two will travel on the river and…

Jeg vender tilbage til min afdøde kollega Allan Bergs tekst om “Testamentet”, som han skrev I 2013. Her er i citat det meste af det smukt formulerede oplæg til en visning af filmen I Randers. ”Der er Andreas, Christian og…

This is not a review. The film is already known and has been shown in Denmark and came home from Sundance with an award. Adrian Horton wrote this (a quote) in Guardian to refresh your memory and for all those…

Unique access to film is what is written in the festival press about the opening film of CPH:DOX 2025. Unique access to former General Secretary of NATO Jens Stoltenberg during his last year in that position. And this is what…

Jeg har sakset lidt i en pressemeddelelse fra cph:dox for at fremhæve festivalens landsdækkende success, hvor mere and halvdelen af Danmarks kommuner er med i festivalen. Sådan skal det være skriver denne tidligere ansatte ved Statens Filmcentral, som netop var…

I was invited by Davis Simanis Jr. to come to Riga to teach documentary for a week at the new premises of the Academy of Culture, where Davis, a prominent fiction and documentary director, has signed a contract of four…

Two first names are the directors followed by the producers. I was in the multiplex cinema Palads in Copenhagen last night. The owner Nordisk Film showed the Ukrainian Oscar nominee in the documentary section, “Porcelain War”, in collaboration with Ukraine…