DOK Leipzig – Films/ 1

Any films that we must see, film students and others who enter the festival centre ask me. Many, I answer, because there are many that have high quality. The problem in my answering is that many of the films I have not seen yet, as they are world or European or National premieres, but after three days at the video library, see below, I have tips to pass on. Some of these will later on have a review on this site, some will not.

A film that I keep on recommending is the masterly done ”Sofia’s Last Ambulance” (photo) by Ilian Metev, as well as ”The End of Time” that I have not seen yet, but Peter Mettler is a unique film essayist, so for that it is a must. As is the opening film of the festival that I also screened in the video library, ”Are You Listening” by Kamar Ahmad Simon from Bangla Desh, a classic humanistic, cinematically brilliant work that character-wise brings back memories of the Apu-trilogy of Satayit Ray when it comes to the film’s boy and his parents.

The Latvian ”Documentarian” by Inese Klava and Ivars Zviedris is of course a must for all who work with documentaries, it has humour and a fantastic character, who loves and hates to be filmed at the same time as she is building a friendship with the cameraman/ director who comes to see her.

Another character who is charismaric in his old, grumpy age is Pablo, a pensioned miner, whose daily life is followed by director Chico Pereira in ”Pablo’s Winter”, a warm film that perfectly catches the rythm of moving slowly around, having time to argue with the wife and teach a kid how to bicycle.

Finally, ”Tea or Electricity” by Jerome le Maire, from a village in the mountains of Morocco, just nominated for the European Award as best documentary, is a film to be enjoyed for its way of treating the theme of, yes, do we really need electricity?

www.dok-leipzig.de

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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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