DocuDays UA 2015
“May you live in interesting times.” This Chinese curse pops up in my mind when I think about you, Ukrainians. To a documentary filmmaker, times like these are not only a curse, but also an opportunity. After all, we are witnesses to change and movement: in society, its consciousness, individual fates and emotions. It is all about movement: the word ‘emotion’ is derived from the Latin emovere, ‘movement in a certain direction’.”
Words from Aliona van der Horst, Dutch director of Russian origin, going to Kiev to be in the jury of the DocuDays UA and to hold a class on ”Tone, sound, music and ”libretto” in the film ”Voices of Bam” – a film she made in 2006, followed by ”Boris Ryzhy” (2008), both of them part of a retrospective tribute to the director.
Ukranian DocuDays – I was there two years ago – is a wonderful festival to be at because of its generosity, the commitment to quality and the filmmakers who run it and who know how to put together a programme that is appealing – competition, non-competition in themes or around a director and the so-called Docu/Class that is like a small documentary university for the audience and the visiting guests. Apart from the class with van der Horst, Askold Kurov is there – he was part of the team who made ”Winter, Go Away!”, he made ”Leninland” and ”Kids 404”, and is at the moment making a film on the
imprisoned Ukranian director Oleh Sentsov. If I was in Kiev I would also go to the class of Artchil Khetagouri and Ileana Stanculescu, who present their works under the captions ”from the idea to the film”, ”finding the right protagonists”, ”storytelling structure and interaction with protagonists”, ”interviews or discussions in front of the camera” – or to the conversation with Danish cinematographer Lars Skree, who filmed ”Armadillo”, ”The Act of Killing” and ”The Look of Silence”. It has been said about him that he ” is yin and yang, a toughie and a poet, a soldier and a graceful dancer”.
Or why not go to listen to experienced Martichka Bozhilova, who speak about ”European Co-production and Ways to Go to the International Film Market” or to watch the results of the work done by Ukranian Ella Shtyka and Dmytro Tyazhlov 1): ”Members of documentary film laboratory LabDOCUTOLOKA will present their projects to the board of Ukrainian and international experts, including the honored guests of the festival. At LabDOCUTOLOKA, young documentalists were working on the improvement of documentary films’ concepts, trailers, and synopsis. The training pitching session provides a unique opportunity to learn how to present a project within the framework of world famous format, as well as to learn about the novelties of Ukrainian documentary cinema.”
3 days to the opening of the festival – wish you all the best Dar´ya, Darya, Gennady, Roman and the rest of the team.
