I have known Filip Remunda since he and colleague Andrea Prenghyova around the turn of the century came to an EDN workshop in Bardonecchia Italy to get advice on how to set up what became brilliant IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) and the Ex Oriente that I had the privilege to work for – for many years. Filip is still with Ex Oriente, he is a teacher, organisor, producer and director. Some years later he and Vit Klusák made the huge success ”Czech Dream” that went all over the world. This docu-comedy was followed by ”Czech Peace” in 2010, again by the two, who fully demonstrated their satirical talent for clever comments on the Czech society. It was praised by their soul-mate in humourous filmmaking, Michael Moore. The present Czech society and its xenophobia is also going to be the subject of the next film to be directed by Klusák, pitched at CPH:DOX recently by its producer Filip. I wrote the following:

”The White World According to Daliborek” to be directed by Vit Klusak is described as ”… a horror movie about the Czech desire for a white Europe…” Remunda was powerful and engaged on stage and the trailer was indeed a scary meeting with Dalibor, who says that he was ”looking for warmth and found it in a nazi group”.

On that occasion I asked Filip for a link to the film that he and Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff had made and that is still waiting for an international premiere. ”Steam on the River” (photo) is the name of 

the sketchy jazz film that – again – has the characteristic unpretentious, original, why not call it crazy, narrative structure in its depiction of old Czech musicians, shot in the US, France and Czech Republic. You feel that it must have been fun to make that film about ”trumpeter Laco Deczi, saxophonist Ľubomír Tamaškovič, and contrabass player Ján Jankeje, who fled from the Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia to the West, where their stars shone alongside those of the world’s famous musicians.” (Clip from the Jihlava Festival website).

Filip sent me another link: ””Czech Journal: Near Far East” filmed over last year at Ukraine. It is my personal road movie where I follow the story of my UKR friends in a search for the behind the scenes of the conflict.” He goes with Tanya, who works as a cleaning lady in Prague, to visit her family in the West and in the East of Ukraine, he goes with wonderful journalist Viktoria, who has moved from Donetsk area to Kiev for safety reasons, he goes with journalist Dasha, who works in the East – to get to hear from the local people, to ask questions as an outsider, to try to understand the complex situation, to catch daily situations. He has made his own reflective commentary, it is excellent, the film is excellent, the look from outside increases my understanding of Ukraine today. It is made in a series “Czech Journal” for Czech television.

http://www.dokument-festival.com/  

Luckily, they are not all American, the 14 which are now left for later to be taken down to 5 in January… but the new Michael Moore is there, “Where to Invade Next” as well as Alex Gibney’s Scientology-film and the fascinating “Listen to Me Marlon” by English director Stevan Riley, and ”Amy” by Asif Kapadia, not to forget Danish company Final Cut for Real’s ”The Look of Silence” by Joshua Oppenheimer. Are these the five to be nominated? Anyway, here is a copy-paste of the list:

Below is the complete list of pics that will vie for nominations for the 88th Academy Awards, whittled down from 124 entries. Noms will be announced January 14, and the trophy will be handed out during the Oscarcast on February 28 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Amy, On the Corner Films and Universal Music

Best Of Enemies, Sandbar

Cartel Land, Our Time Projects and The Documentary Group

Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief, Jigsaw Productions

He Named Me Malala, Parkes-MacDonald and Little Room

Heart Of A Dog, Canal Street Communications

The Hunting Ground, Chain Camera Pictures

Listen To Me Marlon, Passion Pictures

The Look Of Silence, Final Cut for Real (photo)

Meru, Little Monster Films

3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, The Filmmaker Fund, Motto Pictures, Lakehouse Films, Actual

Films, JustFilms, MacArthur Foundation and Bertha BRITDOC

We Come As Friends, Adelante Films

What Happened, Miss Simone?, RadicalMedia and Moxie Firecracker

Where To Invade Next, Dog Eat Dog Productions

Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, Pray for Ukraine Productions

http://deadline.com/2015/12/oscars-documentart-feature-going-clear-amy-where-to-invade-next-among-1-1201648214/

When in Minsk for the Listapad film festival, I met with several filmmakers, who presented their projects to me to seek advice. One of them was Volia Chajkouskaya, who provided me with a link to “Crossroads”, the winner of the 2014 Belarussian National Documentary Competition, a film in which she was the assistant director. She sent this text to me about the theme and its main character:

“The film “Crossroads” was conceived as a charity project to help the homeless artist Valery Liashkevich. It became a discovery to me that a person deprived of basic comforts of life can strive to his goal so persistently, remain a philosopher, be thoughtful about his actions, preserve kindness to others. I was not alone in this discovery. The character charmed all members of the crew. No one questioned investing time and their own money (the documentary was created without financial support of any organization) into the production. Art historians joined our work. The National Art Museum of Belarus organized an exhibition of Valery Liashkevich’s works; it lasted three weeks and became a huge success. Another exhibition was held in Gomel, the native city of our character. “Crossroads” became a project, which continues even after the work on the documentary is complete. I hope that the life of the character is changing to the better with our help. The proceeds of the sale of his paintings went on to his bank account and we hope that in the very near future Valery Lyashkevich will have a place he can call HOME…”.

So, call that a commitment! I watched the film and can only second, what is written above. Valery Liashkevich is a sweet, modest man, a fine artist, who sells his works in the streets and tells people that they can get them cheaper if they wish! You see him at the railway station in Gomel during winter and spring, he works and sleeps there, you see him in St. Petersburg (photo) on Nevsky Prospekt, you see how he finds a place to sleep at night, you listen to his wise words and watch him fall asleep among his works. He is weak, I am getting older he says. A small film with a big heart!

Belarus, 2014, 62 mins.

Extensive and valuable information was sent to me by Russian Georgy Molodtsov, energetic filmmaker and promoter of documentaries from his country – together with Sergei Kachkin, Alisa Stolyarova and Vlad Ketkovich, contact persons for Moscow Business Square, Documentary Film Center and the Russian Documentary Guild.

43 pages, editor-in-chief Konstantin Nafikov, captions: Festivals, Cinemas, Producers, Distributors, Sales Agents, tv channels.

There is a detailed description of how to get support from the Ministry of Culture through obtaining a status of ”National Film”, there is a statistic of how many admissions foreign films have made in Russian cinemas with ”Citizen Four” (Laura Poitras) and ”Amy” (Asif Kapadia) in the top with 33.000 and 24.000. A list of production companies, of international film festivals, tv channels, and first and foremost the films with credits, links to trailers, information on where to watch the full films – many of the are right now at IDFA’s Docs for Sale and at East Silver run by IDF in Prague. Director names – Alina Rudnitskaya, Tatiana Soboleva, Denis Klebeev (photo from his succesful ”Strange Particles”), Viktor Kossakovsky, Ivan Tverdovsky, Vitaly Mansky, Sergei Miroshnichenko… to mention a few.

At this very moment where the IDFA Forum is running and where projects are presented that have budgets around 250.000€ or more, it is interesting to read the budgets of the Russian documentaries, very few of them exceed 100.000€.

Thanks for doing this big work, I say as one who is always interested in what happens in the big country – and thanks for including the controversial films as well, which are ”only” shown outside Russia.

http://rgdoc.ru/en/