East Doc Platform Development Award:

WHEN THE WAR COMES

(dir. Jan Gebert, prod. R. Síbrt, V. Hozzová; Czech Republic)

Photo Viktoriá Hozzová receiving the award from Luke Moody, Britdoc.

Czech TV Postproduction Award:

RUSSIAN VIEWFINDERS

(dir. Alexander Abarutov, prod. O. Mille; France)

HBO Europe Co-Production Award:

PRISONERS WITHOUT PRISON

(dir. Verjana Abazaj, prod. Artan Malaj; Albania)

The Golden Funnel Award:

FOR MOTHER’S SAKE?

(dir. Nikola Ilić, C. Schwingruber Ilić; prod. F. Sonder; Switzerland)

IDFA Forum Award:

PLANETA PETRILA

(dir. Andrei Dăscălescu, prod. A. Antoci; Romania)

DocsBarcelona Award:

OCCUPIED CINEMA

(dir. Senka Domanovic, prod. Snezana Penev; Serbia, Croatia)

DOK Leipzig Co-Production Market+ DOK Preview Awards:

AVTOVAZ

(dir. Petr Horký, prod. Martin Jůza; Czech Rep.)

and

OVER THE LIMIT

(dir. Marta Prus, prod. Maciej Kubicki; Poland, Germany)

id w | interactive documentary workshop Award:

THE FUTURE OF FOREVER

(dir. Ana Brzezinska, prod. Lukasz Borzecki, Poland)

www.webdok.net

The One World festival in Prague, number 18, will have its award ceremony on Wednesday; the winners, however, have already been announced. I mention, via the press release of today, the winners of the main competition, for the whole list, please go to the website:

The Grand Jury conferred awards for Best Film and Best Director, selecting from among 12 documentaries in the Main Competition category.

The award for Best Film went to “A Syrian Love Story” by British director Sean McAllister (UK / 2015 / 75 min.), who attended One World together with Raghda Hassan, a protagonist in the film. Three years ago the festival presented McAllister’s documentary The Reluctant Revolutionary.

“ The jury was impressed by the radical approach the director has chosen in the storytelling and by the braveness of the protagonists who allow the audience to experience an intimate story bringing out the human factor and an honest picture of a family in crisis amidst the political larger one,” the jury said in a statement.

The award for Best Director went to Zhao Liang, the Chinese director of “Behemoth” (France, China / 2015 / 90 min.), which is one of the most visually interesting films in this year’s festival.

“Liang Zhao is able to creatively craft a complex beautiful yet devastating image, mirroring the dialectic of the concrete to the basic values where he advocates for the fragile human and environmental state of our world. A director who manages with artistic precession and outstanding imagery to paint a loud and clear statement against violations caused by greed and illusions,” the jury said in its decision.

The Grand Jury consisted of: Polish documentary filmmaker Hanna Polak, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut, Syrian independent documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Berlin-based non-profit association DOX BOX Diana El Jeiroudi, director of the ZeLIG School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano Heidi Gronauer, and Czech documentary filmmaker Bohdan Bláhovec.

http://www.oneworld.cz/2016/

”It is too artistic for our audience”… he said so, Erkko Lyttinen from YLE, the Finnish broadcaster that has always defended the artistic documentaries… has the last bastion fallen? I had heard that remark before, but from less important broadcasters in the documentary world. The project that was referred to was ”Aleph” by Iva Radivojevic, Croatian director living in New York, at the pitch accompanied by a Canadian and Croatian producer. Yes, it is cinema, inspired by a short story of Borges, ”a cinematic experience that contemplates the question of what we center our lives around”… a travelogue with a title that refers to Jewish mysticism. A hybrid, very inviting, to be finished in 2018. Another film in the auteur tradition is ”D is for Division” by Latvian Davis Simanis, to be produced by Guntis Trekteris, a personal essay by the biggest talent in Latvian cinema, but what does that matter if almost noone around the table knows him… Simanis and Trekteris had problems in conveying what they want with this film about inner borders with photographs as the starting point. No surprise that tutor, Czech/French director Stan Neumann, was a good sparring partner, Neumann being a master in the essayistic genre.

It is a silent film, the Bosnian director Marko Sipka said about ”The Land”, that reminded me a lot of the Baltic documentary tradition: old woman in the countryside living alone in a remote mountain village, ”a meditative visual contemplation about loneliness and an old-fashioned life style that is about to disappear”. I talked about it with Danish director Jens Loftager and we both remembered names like Sergey Dvortsevoy and Swedish Nina Hedenius, who made a film, where there was almost no dialogue. It became a hit on television. Those days are probably over, this film will be for festivals and it will be strong I would think judging from the charismatic director’s presentation.

The same goes for the Romanian director Andrei Dascalescu, who charmed us with ”Constantin and Elena” in 2008 and who is now back with ”Planeta Petrila” (Photo: producer Anamaria Antoci with director), presented with passion and humour, the director said it to be a rockn’roll film, about a mine to be closed and an artist fighting to keep the old buildings and make them into art. A Don Quijote, the director asks? The trailer was unconventional, hopefully the film will be the same. HBO Europe supports – as they do with many films, among the present commissioning editors – she calls herself executive producer – Hanka Kastelicová was the absolute star, and so much welcomed as the public broadcasters in general fail to support the creative documentary.

www.webdok.net

… having said so, I hurry to say that the films that I mention in this post are also creative, but they have in their presentation thought of television as the channel to an audience, at the same time as many presented their projects  to be made in two versions, one for cinema and festivals and one for television.

Let me begin with a story that includes retro dancing in Moscow, a warm film in a cold city, with old women who go to dance, who want to live even if the conditions age-wise and socially are difficult. Director is Tatyana Soboleva (photo from the pitch together with her French producer), I have had the pleasure to know her and her films for some years, is the right one to do this film called ”Open Air”, she has an eye and a heart for people, 52 mins. long it will be. Equally ”For Mother’s Sake” by Serbian Nikola Ilic will be an audience hit judged from the trailer. Three generations: the director, his mother and his grandmother. HE is married to a Swiss woman, they live in Switzerland and what to do, when grandmother dies and there is noone to take care of the mother, who had a stroke when a child? She dies and the son must take care of her but how – when he lives in another country but comes from a country with a strong family feeling, where you don’t send mothers to homes? I put this in the television category even if tv people in the round table session hesitated! Come on, this is universal.

More obvious chances for these two: ”Avtovaz” with Czech journalist Petr Horky, who went to Russian Togliatti, that used to be a super Soviet city with a famous car factory that produced Lada but now suffers from the crisis. A Swedish manager was called in to modernise, he sacked thousands of people, wanted to change the working culture – and was himself sacked some days ago. A fascinating trailer with Bo Andersson, as his name is, was shown plus some other material with workers and sacked workers, but how do the filmmakers cope with the new situation? And – we stay in Russia – ”Over the Limit” by Polish Marta Prus, who in terms of quality of cinematography came up with the best trailer and a story that must be something for television: the competition of three Russian gymnasts to go to the Olympics in Rio this summer. They are friends but only two will be picked, who? They are beautiful and innocent these girls, whereas the coach, a woman with a hat, seems to be a good bitchy character.

Let me finish with the award winning ”When the War Comes” (again supported by HBO Europe) directed by Jan Gebert, the most actual film in its description of nationalism and refugees in Europe today, read this short text: Hundreds of teenagers join the paramilitary grup in Slovakia to get ready for the final clash of civilizations and to fight whoever intrudes their country… It will go to festivals and television in long and short versions.

www.dokweb.net

I know that the headline is mixing harsh reality and entertainment but this is actually how it is to be at EDP, East Doc Platform, here in Prague. During the days I have been giving feedback on documentary projects that deal with global problems or stories from family life, personal stories and stories of a more investigative nature. And during the evening relaxing, last night with football on television.

And I have met the “Ukrainian Sheriffs” and their mayor, who were invited by the Ukrainian filmmakers Darya Averchenko and Roman Bondarchuk and their powerhouse of a producer, Uldis Cekulis from Latvia – to attend two screenings with full houses and to give the audience answers to their questions. But they had also time to go to a demonstration in Prague! At the photo they carry signs saying “Free Nadia” with reference to the Russian Imprisonment of Ukrainian helicopter pilot Nadia Savchenko, who is now on her 45^th day of hungerstrike and according to Radio Free Europe considered seriously ill. Savchenko is in jail because of Russian suspicion of her being involved in the killing of two Russian soldiers.

Photo from left sound engineer and co-editor of the film Borys Peter, senior sheriff Viktor Kryvoborodko, junior sheriff Volodymyr Rudkovsky, mayor Viktor Marunyak and director of the film Roman Bondarchuk. The sheriffs and their mayor went back to Stara Zburjivka this morning. Photo Darya Averchenko.

And a few words about last evening that was spent in a sportspub watching Paris Saint Germain beat Chelsea and qualify for the next round of the European Championship. English newspaper Guardian calls him “a superhero”, and indeed he was yesterday, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 34 years old, the leader of the Paris team, in total control of his players and with one assist and one scored goal, the one who defined the result of the match. Amazing he is, as you can see in the film by the Brothers Gertten from Malmö, where Zlatan was born. I will review that film tomorrow. One of the brothers, Magnus, saw the film and smiled, this can only increase the sales of the film and the cinema attendance in Sweden where 55.000 have seen it so far.

http://project20406.tilda.ws/#rec3016831

The Copenhagen Architecture Festival opens this Wednesday March 9th for the third time. The festival has grown rapidly and is now the biggest festival of its kind (I guess we like it big here in Copenhagen), focusing on architecture and film: 150 events, 90 films and 35 venues in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg.

Themes this year span from gentrification, sound and space, the life and poetics of the architect, past and future urban planning, to co-creation, Chinese megacities and transformations of Copenhagen. There will by lectures, talks, radio cinema and podcasts created for specific walks, lots of possibilities to discover unknown spots around the city and a fine program for children as well.

I won’t miss out on the screening of Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (1977), her New York tableaux accompanied by her reading letters from her mother – Cinemateket will also be showing her last film No Home Movie (2015) in March, so that’s two Akerman films in a month. I look forward to the program curated and introduced by Danish sound engineer Peter Albrechtsen, in particular Blade Runner, the 2007 final director’s cut with an optimised soundtrack. Then there is old punk portrayer Julien Temple’s collage London, The Modern Babylon (2012) and a Danish premiere of Mark Cousins’ I am Belfast (2015). Documentary directors Kaspar Astrup Schröder and Michael Madsen give us a chance to follow their current projects: Astrup Schröder by showing a work-in-progress version of Big Time, his portrait of Danish superstar architect Bjarke Ingels, and Madsen will do a talk about his next film/philosophical experiment Odyssey that involves spaceships and the future of humankind. Oh and then I have to see L’Inhumaine, Marcel L’Herbier’s 1924 French avant-garde science fiction, a silent movie masterpiece with a set design by Robert Mallet-Stevens and Fernand Léger, screened with a new electronic live soundtrack on Sunday March 20.

The opening film is the award-winning Concrete Love: The Böhm Family (2014) by Maurizius Staerkle Drux, a portrait of Germany’s most prominent architect Gottfried Böhm and his family (PHOTO). Love, art and architecture! Take a look at the trailer: https://vimeo.com/117273601

CAFx March 10-20 in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg.

Check out the program: http://cafx.dk/

I am at EDP – East Doc(umentary) Platform – in Prague, that provides ”training and networking for projects, workshops, promotion, financing and awards”. It takes place at the Cervantes Institute and runs parallel to and in collaboration with the One World Festival. Lots of people are here, those with projects and those, like me, to give feedback on the projects. A fine chance to have a week in Prague and to meet friends, those who built all this, like Miriam Ryndová, Veronika Liskova, Ivana Pauerová Milosevicova, Masa Markovic, Filip Remunda and Andrea Prenghyova, the latter now responsible for the DokInkubator program.

Like on many occasions with people from Czech Republic, those of us who have children to take care of, quickly get to talk about the Krtek (the mole) series of animation films for children. What is your favourite, the film consultant from Denmark asked. ”The Mole and the Eagle”, Ivana said, we join her in that, but it could also be ”The Mole and the Rocket” as said Myriam, or ”The Mole and the City”, mentioned by Veronika, ”but it is very sad”, right she is, Zdenek Miler, the master behind these films, was a true ecologist before that word was invented.

Yesterday was the big day for the team behind the film ”Ukranian Sheriffs”, Roman Bondarchuk, Darya Averchenko and Uldis Cekulis. They had organised that the sheriffs and the mayor came to Prague to watch, for the first time, the film where they are the protagonists. It became a memorable evening with a full house in the cinema of Institut Francais, flowers to the Ukrainians on the stage, questions to them about how it was to be filmed, whether they thought that what they saw was giving a credible picture of their lives, the situation now in Ukraine, where the war of course also affects the life in the village. Reinhart Lohmann from ZDF Arte, one of the financiers, was there, and there was Czech beer and becherovka after the screening. ”Yes, this is how it is”, said one of the sheriffs, ”there is no acting in that film”.

www.dokweb.net