Dokufest Prizren/7/ Johnson/ BDC Pitch/ Kiarostami

Of course it’s not only about film screenings here in Prizren. There are masterclasses, pitching, koncerts, photo exhibitions…

Kirsten Johnson arrived to have her ”Cameraperson” shown and to do a class that was led by Pamela Cohn, and expectedly turned out to be 90 minutes full of energy and encouragement towards the young filmmakers present. The ethical questions, the relationship between the one behind the camera and the one(s) being filmed, her work with a director, her work with an editor, with examples from her film. Inspiring to be with the tall, elegant New Yorker, who never hesitates to share her experience of more than 20 years with documentary filming… and longs to get back to her sweet twins Viva and Felix, who you see in the film.

Martichka Bozhilova, Bulgarian producer of a long list of award-winning documentaries, is also the woman behind the Balkan Documentary Centre and its workshop for producers and directors from the region. The second session including a pitch (photo) of seven projects were held yesterday with an hour delay as the electricity went off – and that was needed for the showing of trailers! ”Happens often in Prizren”, one of the local organizers said with a smile, ”it will come back”! And it did and a fine morning it became with a huge panel that during a magnificent lunch afterwards with a couple of raki’s, decided the Best Pitch project to be ”Teach” presented by Romanian director Alex Brendea and producer Irina Andreea Malcea. Oana Giurgiu, also Romanian, received an honorary mention for her historical film, ”Occasional Spies”. The representative of DOK Leipzig Brigid Oshea, with suggestions from the panel, picked two projects to be invited to the Industry Coproduction Meeting parallel to the festival: ”Birdless” by Serbian Dragan Gmizic and Biljana Tutorov, and ”Prisoners Without Prison” by Albanian Verjana Abazaj and Artan Malaj.

And finally a ”cadeau cinéphile” from artistic director of Dokufest, Veton Nurkollari, ”Taste of Cherry” by Kiarostami. Thank you!

www.dokufest.com

Share your love
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.

Articles: 3933