Movies on War Festival

I have copy-pasted from Modern Times Review this intro to a festival in my neighboring country Norway – a festival that starts today and lasts until November 17 with an impressive collection of films (alas!) that deals with conflicts and wars in the world we live in:

“Movies on War is a film festival devoted to films about war and conflict, peace and reconciliation. The films we screen in our programs cover the full range of armed conflicts, regardless of geography, and provide insights into social movements, cultural events, popular uprisings, and political change, both in the past and in the present. Since the very beginning, filmmakers have used the language of the cinema for reflection on world wars and conflicts. They have worked for a better understanding of the human, political, military and social driving forces behind these conflicts, and through this contributed to the work for peace.”

The intro praises the filmmakers as you can read, and I have no reservations, when I see that films like “Hollywoodgate” by Ibrahim Nash’at is there (theme: Afghanistan) as well as the film that is all over and is a candidate to win the EFA award (theme: Israel/Palestina) “No Other land” and my favourite as film of the year Olha Zhurba’s “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” (theme: Ukraine) and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat by Johan Grimonprez (Congo/Patrice Lumumba) – are in the program. Not to forget the film by Askold Kurov & Anonymous 1 “Of Caravan and Dogs” that I saw in Budapest at the Verzio Festival, a strong documentation of the implementation of the “foreign agent” law in Russia that led to the closure of important opposition media in the country, having the chief editor Muratov of Novaya Gazeta leave the country among many others.

The festival takes place in Elverum 1,5 hour by car North of Oslo.

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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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