Magnificent7 Diary/ 8
Take a look at the photo. It is taken at the oldest Belgrade kafana that has the name ? It is situated next to Saboma Church (The Cathedral) where the four of us always go. From left Zoran Popovic, then Tue Steen Müller and Svetlana Popovic, camera held by Ellen Fonnesbech-Sandberg. Wednesday morning there was time for a classical small tour that we have done during many years of Magnificent7: cakes at Hotel Moscow, candles at the church and this year also a small rakija kruska (pear brandy) at ?
Later that day we had lunch at the residence of the Finnish ambassador, who had invited due to the presence of the Finnish director Petri Luukkainen and his cameraman Jesse Jokinen, who back at headquarter, the Sava Center, gave a fine masterclass on their film. Luukkainen talked about the filming and the editing (they had 200 hours!) for this (the director’s word) self-reflecting film, where Luukkainen more and more felt that his presence was a kind of performative play.
EDN (European Documentary Network) director Paul Pauwels gave a motivating speech to the 30 young filmmakers present on this last day of the workshop: the media situation is changing, we need to share to survive, to make a good documentary you need a sustainable compay behind… PP responded to brief pitches give by a handful of the participants, and then we were all off to the closing ceremony in the big hall of Sava Center where the loyal audience knew how to praise Zoran and Svetlana Popovic and their team. The closing film ”Faith Connection” is magnificent – a fantastic documentation of Kumbh Mela, ”a fresco” as the Popovic’s write below, and a film where you fall in love with the kids that the director Pan Nalin so cleverly portrays – the small Babu, touching to follow the love he gets from his Baba, the Yogi who gets stoned several times per day. Not to forget Kishan Tiwari, the runaway kid who wants to be a sadhu.
Magnificent7 2014 is over. Time to go back to Copenhagen later today.
