Cinedoc Tbilisi

The 1st international documentary film festival in the Caucasus runs from 15-20 October. The organiser is the Noosfera Foundation supported by – among others – the Idfa Bertha Fund and Georgian National Film Center.

The festival has an International Competititon section as well as a Focus Caucasus, a Georgian Panorama and a CinéDoc Young.

For the International section 10 films have been picked. According to the organizers, they are ” artistic, inspiring, daring in form and storytelling”. I would add that the list of films (check the website) is wonderfully different from the usual documentary festival programmes, spreading from the original ”The Other Day” by Chilean Ignaciao Agüero to heartbreaking Russian ”Linar” by Nastia Tarasova and the impressive, by the bigger festivals, overseen no-Lukashenko-in-picture-documentary from Belarus, ”Igrushki” by Lina Luzyte from Lithuania. More known in the festival circuit are titles like Moroccan Karima Zoubir’s strong ”Camera Woman” and Polish Pawel Kloc’s masterpiece ”Pnomh Penh Lullaby”.

The Caucasus Focus offers 8 films including Georgian ”The English Teacher” by Nino Orjonikidze & Vano Arsenishvili, Armenian ”The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia” by Arman Yeritsyan & Inna Sahakyan, Russian ”Two sides of One Horse” by Tatyana Soboleva – to mention those I have seen or heard about in beforehand.

A workshop runs parallel to the festival, DocStories Georgia, a continuation of the initiative from 2012, DocStories BlackSea. 10 Georgian projects, represented by directors and producers, have been selected to meet and be tutored by experienced filmmakers and consultants like Peter Symes UK, Uldia Cekulis Latvia, Hans-Robert Eisenhauer Germany, Irena Taskovski UK, Isabel Arrate Holland, Goran Radovanovic Serbia, Paul Pauwels Belgium and the one who writes these lines – who with Pauwels and Victoria Belopolski Russia will form the jury of the festival.

Exciting initiative in beautiful Tbilisi, and those who have been there before know what I mean, when I don’t say Hurra but ChaCha!

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

http://www.docstories-blacksea.com/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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