Meeting the Film Makers

You might say that the films should be able to stand on their own. And right you are. You should be able to understand and sense a film without any introduction or comment or explanation. To watch it on your own on your computer or tv set, or together with others in a cinema.

Nevertheless, what a pleasure it is to meet a filmmaker, who can give us, the spectators some background, some motivation and some inside info on how the film was born in his or her mind.

I write this after Magnificent7 in Belgrade and on the last day of DOCSBarcelona. In both festivals the meeting of an audience with the filmmakers have played a key role for the success of both festivals. Both festivals are actually built up around this concept. The audience will have the chance to ask questions or give comments, the filmmakers will profit from the reactions they get. They will discover weaknesses in their work or see that the intentions were fulfilled. And they will have the chance to express again and again that a documentary is a Film and that the word documentary does not really make sense! This is what Peter Entell and Gideon Koppel did in Belgrade, and what Avi Mograbi did yesterday here in Barcelona. And what they and other filmmakers have done again and again when travelling around. Full respect for the directors who take their time to accept the many invitations to go and meet an audience and colleagues, and eventual investors in the next film. It is in most cases a not paId job they do. More about some of the meetings will follow.

Photo: Shake the Devil Off by Peter Entell.  Magnificent7  DOCSBarcelona

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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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