Moscow Film Diary/2

Second day. Press conference in a cinema. There seems to be a huge interest in the fact that a documentary competition has been included in the MIFF (Moscow International Film Festival). I do not recall having seen so many  people attending a festival press meeting on documentary films. A good moment for stating that the documentary film genre experiences an international popularity, but also the moment to say, as did Alexander Gutman (photo) (juror together with Michael Apted and me), that the conditions for documentarians in Russia are far from being perfect. There are seldom documentaries in the cinemas, the film support system does not encourage coproductions with other countries, and apart from the tv channel Kultura Russian television has no interest in showing artistic documentaries.

The first screening of the seven films in competition took place in the evening in the multiplex cinema ”October”. Quite a big number of spectators came to watch ”Czech Peace”, the one hour version, directed by Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak.

The day ended with the celebration of Sergey Miroshnichenko’s 56 year’s birthday. As it was said, he could get no better present than seeing his dream come through on that very same day – having a documentary competition at the MIFF this year. Miroshnichenko is currently working on the completion of ”Born in the USSR – 28”, a series he started following the model of the British 7Up, directed by Michael Apted. Miroshnichenko filmed the kids, born in a country that no longer exists, when they were 7 and 14 and 21. The 28-version is planned to come out at the end of this year.

Photo: cinedoc.ru

http://www.taskovskifilms.com/film/czech-peace/

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/

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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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