DOCA Documentary Association Georgia

… was founded one year ago, November 2022. And has since then performed an avalanche of activities, first of all protesting against the Ministry of Culture and its Reorganization at Georgian National Film Center followed by demonstrations outside the Center and outside the Ministry together with other parts of the cultural sector, whose independence of political influence was equally threatened, I posted on this: https://filmkommentaren.dk/documentary-association-georgia-protests/

A month ago – at the festival in Batumi – DOCA held a well attended meeting “How to Navigate a politically charged environment”. Filmmakers discussed the boycott of the Georgian Film Centre, here are quotes of a statement: …More than 200 people working in cinema – directors, actors, scriptwriters, cameramen, film studios, etc. – signed a statement boycotting the Georgian National Film Center. This came after the Minister of Culture, Tea Tsulukiani, controversially reorganized the Center and appointed her loyal cadre to direct it… “As a sign of protest, we will no longer participate in the competitions and projects announced by the seized film center; we refuse to be members of the competition commissions because we do not want to become a formal participant in the process that leads to the destruction of modern Georgian cinema, culture, and science,” – reads the statement.

DOCA has established a Film Club as well to SHOW the strength of the Georgian documentary right now, where it wins awards at numerous festival around the world but also to invite the audience to explore high quality international documentaries like “Workingman’s Death” by late Michael Glawogger. Furthermore seminars are set up and of course it is a good idea to have the CEO of the Danish Film Institute Claus Ladegaard come to talk about how that state institution is organised and runs. It takes place next week, November 10 in Tbilisi and the IMS has helped financially.

… and one more thing – take a look at my FB page – PEN America has published “Taming Culture in Georgia” with an elegant reference to the film of Salomé Jashi, “Taming the Garden”…

https://pen.org/report/taming-culture-in-georgia/?fbclid=IwAR0cdA34xXVA7d14FcdVahXna0R6_rbgPecgPCFrAz4zJodZ9d8wEQjSg1E

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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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