DocsBarcelona Notes on Films

Thanks to Filmin I could watch some more documentaries that were shown at DocsBarcelona from a soft armchair in a town at Costa Brava. After the festival. All good, some better than the other of course, some more artistic, some gave me information that I did not have in beforehand. That’s what documentaries can do.

Requiem for a Tribe by Iranian Marjan Khosravi impressed me because the protagonist Hajar is a strong old woman, who fights for her right to stay, where she is and as she is, a nomad taking care of her sheep as she has been doing her whole life. Her sons want to take her to the city, “what should I do there”, she says. The film includes archive from when she was 8 years ago. The tribe is the Bakhtiari from SouthWest Iran, according to the catalogue. Photo: Seven Springs Pictures.

Monk in Pieces by David C. Roberts and Billy Shebar portrays the now 82 year old American performance artist Meredith Monk, who through a long career has composed, directed (opera for instance), mixed the art forms, including films, extraordinary character, avant-gardist and much more, staying with her own signature, a true artist especially when she conveys to us how magnificent an instrument the voice is. Happy to have met her!

Poirot, The Last Witness by Francesc Relea also gives a fine portrait of a photographer, Chilean Luis Poirot, who was there at the Presidential Palace Moneda in Santiago de Chile on the 11th of September 1973. Who made portraits of Victor Jara and continued his work in exile in Spain. The director takes him back to Chile to meet Isabel Allende and to the house of Pablo Neruda at the Pacific Coast – wonderful memories, I was there as well thanks to Alexandra Galvis, Chilean producer and film promoter.

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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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