DocLisboa Diary 1

I am in Lisbon for the festival. The 6th International Documentary Film Festival. A success in terms of attendance, and a festival with an excellent programme. So much to watch. International and national competition, a competition for investigative documentaries, Frederick Wiseman, ”made in China”, ”new families, new identities”, ”fim diaries and self portraits”, Raymond Depardon, Polish short films and so forth. From all over the world.

All selected according to a high sense of quality. Artistic quality.

And this year headed by filmmaker Serge Tréfaut, on behalf of the producers association, apordoc. In the catalogue foreword, he writes:

”For someone who lives in a deeply anaesthetised, provincial country almost governed by mediocrities with no vision, doclisboa is a kind of Carnival of the Spirit. A moment of celebration when values are turned upside down and the brain and the senses receive hyper stimulation.”

Well, I saw two films yesterday… the heartbreaking observational Kim Longinotto doc ”Hold me Tight, Let me go”, what a brilliant filmmaker and fine person she is, and Avi Mograbi´s ”Z32”, a mise-en-scène film that once again shows how clever this controversial filmmaker is, in finding new ways of dealing with strong themes of the world. This time in a Brechtian musical form. Read about it on the website:

www.doclisboa.org

Still: Z32 by Avi Mograbi.

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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