Hot Docs: Made in Italy

Conversations with documentary filmmakers from Italy is always full of head shaking over the situation in Italian television, which is basically run by the main character in Italian documentary of today: Silvio Berlusconi. There are public funding mechanisms, and they do what they can for very limited budgets, and there are production companies, who know the international market possibilities, out of necessity! But still documentary filmmaking, in terms of financing, in Italy, compared to other Mediterranean countries, is more a nightmare than a profession!

Nevertheless, it is very positive to see that there is talent around that deserves attention – as you can see at the ”Made in Italy” section at the Hot Docs festival that are about to start in Toronto. There are films by established names like Gianfranco Rosi (”El Sicario”, photo) and Sabina Guzzanti (”Draquila – Italy Trembles”), but also two Zelig film school graduation films, ”Guanape Sur” by Janos Richter, and ”Heart-Quake” by Mark Olexa.

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/search/search&film_programcategories=%22Made%20In%20Italy%22

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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