DOKLeipzig 2014/ 7/ Polina Kelm: Positive

Allow me to be nostalgic – this film brings me back to my days at Statens Filmcentral (National Film Board of Denmark), where brave women were sitting in a row, repairing the 16mm copies that had been returned from screenings. Very often with scratches or torn apart with the need to be spliced. Wearing white gloves they did, what the Ukrainian ladies do in this sweet homage to Film and to those behind the scene. Who are in this documentary the protagonists in front of the camera – in their cosy working place next to piles of film cans, with a cat running around, with a window view to the world outside, they eat next to the editing table and they are a bit shy but of course they love for once to be in front of the camera. There are some fine montaged music-born sequences (mostly from Ukrainian chronicles) in the film, whereas I am not sure it was the right decision to bring them to watch a 3D film.

Watched at DOKLeipzig 2014.

Ukraine, 2014, 29 mins.

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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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