The Great Kate

In the middle of all (the necessary) documentary films about wars and conflicts, going on now and/or some decades ago, it is nice to receive a newsletter from the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, with a report from a press conference on a film on ”Katherine Hepburn – The Great Kate”. I share the words of the report:

Andrew Davies, who directed Katharine Hepburn – The Great Kate along with Rieke Brendel, spoke first (at the press conference, ed.). As the director explained, inspiration for the movie came from a tribute that the TV channel ARTE showed to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the passing of the great actress. “With the help of Hepburn’s nephew Mundy, we discovered how important a part her family had played in her life. The experiences of her childhood years were incredibly important. Her mother was an activist, who fought for human rights and women’s right to birth control. Hepburn grew up going to demonstrations. As a child, her parents would tell her that she could do anything she wanted, but that she wouldn’t get anywhere if she didn’t try hard.“ With regards to her long career, Davies thought that the secret of her success was “a product of hard work and a creative working ethic”. Answering the question of whether or not he thought Hepburn would like the documentary, Mundy told him that he “thought Hepburn would have liked the documentary more than anything else that had been written or filmed about her life, because she didn’t like biographies.”

Photo of Hepburn and Spencer Tracey – I remember how my mother talked about the two and how she adored to watch her films as I have done and do – remember Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant!

DocuDays UA 2015

“May you live in interesting times.” This Chinese curse pops up in my mind when I think about you, Ukrainians. To a documentary filmmaker, times like these are not only a curse, but also an opportunity. After all, we are witnesses to change and movement: in society, its consciousness, individual fates and emotions. It is all about movement: the word ‘emotion’ is derived from the Latin emovere, ‘movement in a certain direction’.”

Words from Aliona van der Horst, Dutch director of Russian origin, going to Kiev to be in the jury of the DocuDays UA and to hold a class on ”Tone, sound, music and ”libretto” in the film ”Voices of Bam” – a film she made in 2006, followed by ”Boris Ryzhy” (2008), both of them part of a retrospective tribute to the director.

Ukranian DocuDays – I was there two years ago – is a wonderful festival to be at because of its generosity, the commitment to quality and the filmmakers who run it and who know how to put together a programme that is appealing – competition, non-competition in themes or around a director and the so-called Docu/Class that is like a small documentary university for the audience and the visiting guests. Apart from the class with van der Horst, Askold Kurov is there – he was part of the team who made ”Winter, Go Away!”, he made ”Leninland” and ”Kids 404”, and is at the moment making a film on the

imprisoned Ukranian director Oleh Sentsov. If I was in Kiev I would also go to the class of Artchil Khetagouri and Ileana Stanculescu, who present their works under the captions ”from the idea to the film”, ”finding the right protagonists”, ”storytelling structure and interaction with protagonists”, ”interviews or discussions in front of the camera” – or to the conversation with Danish cinematographer Lars Skree, who filmed ”Armadillo”, ”The Act of Killing” and ”The Look of Silence”. It has been said about him that he ” is yin and yang, a toughie and a poet, a soldier and a graceful dancer”.

Or why not go to listen to experienced Martichka Bozhilova, who speak about ”European Co-production and Ways to Go to the International Film Market” or to watch the results of the work done by Ukranian Ella Shtyka and Dmytro Tyazhlov 1): ”Members of documentary film laboratory LabDOCUTOLOKA will present their projects to the board of Ukrainian and international experts, including the honored guests of the festival. At LabDOCUTOLOKA, young documentalists were working on the improvement of documentary films’ concepts, trailers, and synopsis. The training pitching session provides a unique opportunity to learn how to present a project within the framework of world famous format, as well as to learn about the novelties of Ukrainian documentary cinema.” 

3 days to the opening of the festival – wish you all the best Dar´ya, Darya, Gennady, Roman and the rest of the team.

1) Dmytro Tyazhlov: Link 2  Link3

http://docudays.org.ua/eng/

Leslee Udwin: Indiens døtre

… Vidnesbyrdet i litteraturen er altså mere end blot en afslørende beretning. Den adskiller sig i føste omgang gennem to afgørende tilskyndelser: at give stemme til dem, der er gjort tavse og at bevare ofrenes navne. (Horace Engdahl)

Det jeg husker fra filmen, er Jyoto Sings fortvivlede mor, som så mærkelig afklaret vidner om, hvad hun ved om forbrydelsen og i samme interview suppleret af sin mand, som helt tilsvarende afklaret rolig fortæller om datteren. Sådan var denne unge kvinde. Filmen indeholder en række vigtige interviews, nogle meget chokerende og nu vidt kommenterede over alt, hvor filmen har været vist. På DR1 blev den præsenteret således: ”Voldtægten der rystede verden. Dansk/indisk dokumentarfilm fra 2015. 23-årige Jyoti Singh er på vej hjem en tidlig aften efter et biografbesøg med en ven. De overfaldes af seks mænd bevæbnet med jernstænger. Jyoti voldtages og maltrakteres for til sidst at blive smidt nøgen på gaden. 13 dage senere dør hun af sine kvæstelser. For første gang i en dokumentarfilm fortæller Jyotis forældre og en af voldtægtsmændene om, hvad der skete og hvorfor disse brutale voldtægter finder sted i Indien.” (DR)

Det er alt sammen rigtigt, sådan er det journalistisk og historisk antropologisk betragtet,  og det er vist også, hvad Leslee Udwin vælger som sin histories fokus. Moderens vidnesbyrd flytter det imidlertid for mig til hendes datters lidelses historie. Det vil mærkes længe. Jeg var i dyb forvirring efter at have set filmen, kunne ikke finde ord. Kunne ikke være alene med den film, gav mig til at læse om den. Den første forfatter havde som jeg i første omgang måttet give op inden en halv time:

”I tried to watch the BBC documentary India’s Daughter on Sunday, but I switched it off after 25 minutes. I found it too painful to watch, and too familiar. The hour-long film is about the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student. Twenty-four minutes and 10 seconds into the film, a list of physical injuries a woman endured through rape are read out to one of the men responsible for inflicting them. He sits there and says nothing. There is no reaction…” (Pavan Amara in The Independent)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/indias-daughter–a-reaction-from-a-victim-of-sexual-assault-in-britain-how-can-a-man-rape-a-woman-and-then-say-its-her-fault-10106871.html

“… Filmen er stilfærdig i al sin gru. Den jagter ikke sensationen. Den fortæller om et syn på kvinder helt underlagt manden og med fast plads i hjemmet. Bundet til en tilværelse hvor de ikke må leve frit, vælge frit, uddanne sig frit, gå ud med hvem de vil og søge en fremtid på lige fod med mændene. Så kan vi godt diskutere, hvor mange kvindelige topledere, vi har herhjemme, men i verdens største demokrati og det økonomisk fremstormende Indien såvel som mange andre steder i verden, ejer kvinderne ikke de mest basale frihedsrettigheder og udsættes for vold og undertrykkelse.” (Lisbeth Knudsen, Berlingske)

http://lisbethknudsen.blogs.berlingske.dk/2015/03/07/kvindekampdag-og-jyoti-singh/  

”… Listening to Mukesh Singh (one of the convicts), I wasn’t surprised. Listening to the defense lawyers, I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or vomit. Listening to the judges on the Verma Committee, a special government commission set up after Ms. Jyoti Singh’s death to enhance punishments for sexual crimes, I felt pride. Listening to the victim’s relatives, I tried to imagine their anguish and couldn’t. Listening to the rapists’ relatives, I tried to imagine their anguish and couldn’t. But I could, and I did, listen to all of them. And everyone should be able to. “(Sohaila Abdulali, a columnist for the Indian newspaper Mint, in New York Times)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/opinion/banning-indias-daughter-is-a-terrible-idea.html?_r=0

Jo mere jeg læste, jo mere forfærdet og magtesløs blev jeg. Ved et tilfælde læste jeg også den dag, jeg så Indiens døtre, de sidste afsnit i Horace Engdahls Arret efter drømmen og i det allersidste, Philomelas tunge, som er en undersøgelse af vidnesbyrdets rolle i litteraturen fra oldtiden til nutiden, gav mig perspektivet, jeg måske kunne bruge for at fatte filmens erfaring: ”… Hvordan skal en kvinde, i en kultur hvor kvinders menneskeværd ikke tages alvorligt, gøre sine mandlige tilhørere begribeligt, hvad hendes krop er blevet udsat for? Det forekommer så trivielt, de forstår ikke, hvad hun mener. Kroppen mumler mærkeligt, ligesom Philomelas afskårne tunge.”

Indiens døtre / Indias Daughter, Danmark/Indien/England 2015, 54 min. Produceret af Plus Pictures ved Mette Heide for DR ved Mette Hoffmann Meyer og BBC Storyville. Sendt på DR1 8. marts, kan NB ses til 9. april på

https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/indiens-doetre/indiens-doetre

SYNOPSIS

“India’s Daughter is director Leslee Udwin’s stirring documentation of a crime that triggered what she has described as “an Arab Spring for gender equality” in India.

The December 2012 Delhi bus gang rape resulted in the death of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh at the hands of six men. The men threw Singh and her male friend out of the bus before gleefully divvying up the pair’s belongings. One rapist got a pair of shoes, another scored a jacket. There was, however, an item that Singh had left behind which the men didn’t want. So they wrapped the innards they had wrenched out of her in their frenzy of violence in a piece of cloth, and pitched it through the window. “They had no fear,” Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus and one of four men to be convicted for Jyoti’s rape and murder, tells Udwin.

The interview with Mukesh Singh, whose death sentence is currently in appeal, is a coup for Udwin, who is the first journalist ever allowed to talk to him, or any of the men. She will likely be the last. Yesterday the authorities banned the film in India after claiming that Udwin had failed to get the requisite permissions. Shortly afterwards the parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu described the film as “an international conspiracy”…

Leslee Udwin spent two years making a documentary on the horrific rape and killing of young medical student Jyoti Singh. And it asks, has the attack really spurred a sea change for gender equality in India? ” (From Sonia Faleiro’s review in The Guardian)

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/mar/05/indias-daughter-review-this-film-does-what-the-politicians-should-be-doing

 

PS:

JURIDISKE OG JOURNALISTISKE INDVENDINGER

Jeg er senere blevet gjort opmærksom på specielt to kritiske artikler om filmen, en juridisk, etisk og en journalistisk, etisk:

THE FILMMAKER IN THE POSITION OF AN INTERROGATOR

“Nowhere in the world would a convicted prisoner, whose appeal is still pending, be allowed to confess on national television that he was part of a gang which raped and fatally injured a young woman, that the juvenile was the one who committed the most brutal violence and that he was only driving the bus. That apart, the Indian Constitution in Article 20(3) provides a guarantee against self-incrimination. Even during investigation, the investigating authority is not permitted to question a suspect in a manner that would incriminate him. Yet, investigating agencies continue to hold suspects in custody and employ third degree methods to get information. So routine has it become for the police to hold press conferences incriminating suspects on national television before trial, that we the people now think it is fine for us to do the same. Something similar has happened with the BBC 4 film India’s Daughter on the Nirbhaya case. The filmmaker has put herself in the position of an interrogator.

And how do we know that the convict Mukesh is telling the truth? How do we know that he is not performing for the benefit of the filmmaker or a larger audience on a predetermined script? There is no way of knowing, which is why the interview with the convict is legally, and morally wrong. There is no transparency in the making of the film…” (Indira Jaising, the former Additional Solicitor General of India. She is currently the Director of the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative)

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/indira-jaising-/documentary-violates-the-_b_6862010.html

STING STRATEGY

“… He also said that the interviewed convict, Mukesh was not comfortable talking to the TV crew, though, he had given a consent letter to the film makers, including Bhushan. When they started, they noticed that nothing much would be forthcoming from Mukesh since he was only replying in monosyllables – ‘yes’ and ‘no’. They crew decided to resort to the ‘sting strategy’.

It is learnt that a cameraperson was asked to roll the camera but pretended that it was switched off. The rapist was inveigled into an informal chat. Unaware that he was being shot, his ugly, unrepentant mindset came to the fore and Udwin could get the sensational quotes, which were used in the film. “He was not speaking, so it was decided to do a sting and use the entire set up to look like a proper interview. It was a long informal interview in which he had mentioned so many things. The crew also interviewed a few other convicts, but till that time Tihar authorities did not know the contents of Mukesh’s bytes. They saw it last year and raised objections,” said an official privy to the developments in the ongoing probe. The official also pointed out that the clothes Mukesh wore during the interview indicated that rules were violated. “If he had been convicted, he would have been wearing prison clothes,” points out a Tihar Jail official. (Yatish Yadav, filminstruktør, New Delhi)

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Deception-Lies-Behind-Making-of-India%E2%80%99s-Daughter/2015/03/09/article2704869.ece

IDFA Offers Video Reports

For those of us who were not able to visit the documentary film festival in Amsterdam, the good news is that the festival (link below) is bringing out videos from the festival. You can watch the opening and closing ceremonies but more important is that there are small interviews with directors whose films you might have seen on other occasions.

Three films that I like a lot are there: Maite Alberdi talks about her wonderful ”Tea Time” (photo), you can meet the winner of the festival with ”Of Men and War” Laurent Bécue-Renard and there is a more than one hour long registration of a masterclass with Heddy Honigmann, who had a retrospective at the festival, had chosen her 10 favourite documentaries to be screened  AND showed her ”Around the World in 50 Concerts” as the opening work of the festival. I am looking forward to watch that masterclass – Honigmann is a master and (by the way) her ”Forever” was the first film reviewed here on the filmkommentaren, August 2007… Nostalgia.

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/daily/2014/video-reports.aspx

Copenhagen Architecture Festival x 2015

Denmark has a new festival. The first Copenhagen Architecture Festival took place last year and the second edition is coming up soon and has spread to the city of Aarhus as well. More than 70 events in 19 different venues: Seminars, exhibitions, conferences, debates, urban walks, and plenty of interesting film screenings!

Behind this great initiative are Josephine Michau (festival director), architect Peter Møller Rasmussen (responsible for the program) and Ph.D. in landscape architecture and film Mads Farsø (chief of development). Josephine Michau has played an important role in promoting documentary film in Denmark for the past five years. She is the co-founder of DoxBio, a national distribution-network that has, literally, been pulling out the red carpet for documentary films released in theatres across Denmark. Earlier this year, CAF received the prize Lille Arne (“Little Arne”, named after Arne Jacobsen of course) from the Danish Association of Architects for its ability to “rethink the promotion of architecture, emphasize its qualities and diversity, and create a relevant debate”.

Film and architecture are a good match. The themes can be bend in multiple directions and perspectives. And this might be a way to get an audience for a film program that could be seen as somehow audacious – which should be applauded!

This is where I have put my red marks in the program:

A world premiere of Jonas Mekas’ latest film, Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham (2015), a portrait of an architect. The festival also shows As I was moving ahead occasionally I saw brief glimpses of beauty (2000), one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.

Dyrehaven, Den Romantiske Skov (1970), Jørgen Leth and Per Kirkeby’s examination and depiction of Denmark’s oldest nature park.

Jean Rouch’ classic Petit à petit (1971) and Raymond Depardon’s Afrique: Comment ça va la douleur ? (1996). Both films are a part of the two themes related to Africa screened at the museum of modern art Louisiana.

Le Cabanon by Le Corbusier (2010) by Rax Rinnekangas, the story of a small cabin Le Corbusier built for his wife in 1951 that became an important part of his life.

And I might have to see French photographer Françoise Huguier’s beautiful film Kommunalka (2008) again, about life in a traditional communal apartment in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

As goes for the feature films: Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia (1983) screened in a church, Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978) and Rohmer’s Les nuits de la pleine lune (1984).

If I were in Aarhus, I would go see The New Rijksmuseum (2014) by Oeke Hoogendijk about the restoration of the Dutch museum followed by a debate on the subject. This takes place at the cultural history museum Moesgård that has recently been rebuild by Henning Larsen Architects.

The New Rijksmuseum

There is much more and as I get started, I might venture into some of the more experimental architecture films, this year the focus is on Johann Lurf…

CAF is also cooperating with the Danish culture tv channel DR K that will be tuning in on architecture from March 17-22 (Tuesday you can watch Jytte Rex’s portrait of Henning Larsen and Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice).

The Danish minister of culture, Marianne Jelved, will be opening the festival on Wednesday night with a gala screening of Barbicania (2014) by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, a video diary of life in the notorious Barbican Centre in London (PHOTO).

So don’t miss it if you are in Copenhagen or Aarhus, or pay a visit if you’re abroad. Enjoy this goody bag of high quality screenings!

Copenhagen Architecture Festival x 2015 March 19-22

Check it out:

http://copenhagenarchitecturefestival.com/

Flying Film Festival!

Why not? Yes, why not activate us frequent flyers and all the others, who sit up there in the air for hours? Why not give us passengers quality (short) documentary and animation to watch and ask us to vote.

Three young filmmakers – all graduated from the Zelig Film School in Bolzano Italy – got this fantastic idea, went to the air company of their country, Swiss, who said yes to this initiative, made the selection of the films, cleared rights and all that, totally con amore, and there you are:

”The festival will start beginning of March and run until end of April. The 30 longhaul aircraft  (A330-A340) of the SWISS are loaded (with films) within the first week of March, it serves all SWISS destinations around the world non-stop…

These are words from the website, link below: Welcome to the “Flying Film Festival, the first festival taking place entirely in the air. It will be “flying” in the months of March and April 2015 with the aim of promoting to a wider audience short documentaries with a strong cultural connotation and emerging directors.

It is created by le Système D, a non-profit cultural association, in partnership with SWISS…” Système D consists of the artistic directors Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa, Stefania Bonia has made the graphic booklet of the association.

The winners of the Flying Film Festival (9 short films) will be chosen by a jury of experts and by the passengers of SWISS, who can cast their vote on this website until the beginning of May. The jury and the guests of SWISS will award a prize consisting of two airline tickets for a trip within Europe or one to an intercontinental destination.”

As a jury member I will get back to you with a review of this FFFF: Fantastic Flying Film Festival.

http://www.flying-filmfestival.com

Ulrich Seidl: I kælderen

Denne bistre herre har tilsyneladende indrettet en skydebane i sin kælder til seriøs træning i pistolskydning. ”I kælderen” er en film om det, folk foretager sig i deres kælder, og det er ikke ligeyldige småting. Den østrigske instruktør Ulrich Seidl tager publikum med på en rejse ind i det ubevidste og åbner op for en verden fyldt med skydevåben, slanger, sexlegetøj og nazi-tilbagelængsel. Filmen observerer nøgternt disse meget private rum i smukke, stramt komponerede billeder. ”Det er absurd, chokerende og grænseoverskridende, men også virkelig sjovt”, skriver Katrina Schelin i sin pressemeddelelse om DOXBIOS næste premiere, og hun anfører her, hvad instruktøren blandt andet siger om sin film:

”Østrigere tilbringer ofte deres fritid i kælderen. Dernede kan de – mænd, fædre, husmødre, par eller børn – være, hvem de vil. Dernede kan de dyrke deres lyster, hobbyer, lidenskab og besættelser. Kælderen er et sted til fritid og det private. Men for mange mennesker er kælderen også et sted for det ubevidste, et sted fyldt af mørke og frygt.”

Tue Steen Müller, filmkommentaren.dk, er både enig og forbeholden. Han så filmen på filmfestivalen i Leipzig i november og skrev blandt andet: ”… the start of Ulrich Seidl’s ‘Im Keller’ (‘In the Basement’) where a snake slooowly moves towards the mouse for attack, you know what is to happen, and yet you are jumping in your seat when it happens, as you are shaking your head when the nice Austrian Bürger enters his basement rooms full of Hitler and Nazi trophies. Not to forget the chained naked man, who licks the toilet clean on demand from ‘die Herrerin’. One scene after each other, tableau-like, a pity they do not become a whole.”

Ulrich Seidls filmværk består til nu af ”Good News” (1990), “Animal Love” (1995), “Models” (1998), ”Hundedage”, som vandt Venedig festivalens special jury price i 2001, ”Import Export” (2007), ”Paradis-trilogien” med ”Kærlighed”, ”Tro” og ”Håb” (2012), hvor de tre film havde premiere i konkurrencerne på filmfestivalerne i Cannes, Venedig og Berlin.

”I Kælderen” (2014) er Seidls nyeste film. DOXBIO og Øst for Paradis præsenterer filmen i Danmark, der er premiere onsdag den 8. april 2015 i 50 biografer i hele landet. Filmen distribueres endvidere herefter i samarbejde mellem DOXBIO og Øst for Paradis.

SYNOPSIS

”… Seidl has persuaded another range of Austrian hobbyists and weirdos to show us what they get up to in their cellars, and he often uses the technique of getting them to stand uncomfortably stock-still, as if for a photo.

Some are innocuous: a teen plays drums, a guy has a model railway, another has a tiny swimming pool. But then there’s the S&M mistress with the love slave, the masochist, the fetishist. A deeply odd woman cooes over a lifesize latex model baby. And, inevitably, Seidl’s star turn is a brass-player in an oom-pah band who has an extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia in the cellar where he likes to relax.

But so what? Is the Nazi memorabilia enthusiast an unpleasant but harmless oddball or is he part of something much darker, and if so, what does this say about other interviewees who appear to be presented far more leniently?

It’s difficult to say – but it seems disconcertingly likely that Seidl’s grotesquerie is a mannerism which is becoming an artistic cul-de-sac. There are intriguing moments, certainly. The manager of a shooting range in a cellar reveals his secret – he longs to be an opera singer. Is that ambition absurd or redemptive?” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/29/in-the-basement-ulrich-seidl-venice-film-festival-review

Trailer: http://www.doxbio.dk/?movie-archive=kaelderen-8-april

Liste over premierebiografer: http://www.doxbio.dk/?page_id=2040

Facebook: www.facebook.dk/dokumentar

DocAlliance Offers Kino Maidan Online

Voilá – 5 films for free taken from the upcoming festival programme of One World Romania (see post below)… words from the site of DocAlliance:

…For the eighth time, the international festival One World Romania brings a critical voice as well as a rich film programme to Bucharest. For the third time, you can watch a selection of the best films online. This year, too, we will present films dealing primarily with the questions of democracy, observance of human rights and reflection of various forms of public protests. One of these protests, held at Maidan square in Ukraine, gave the name “Kino Maidan” to this year’s festival edition. As the festival’s director Alexandru Solomon points out in an exclusive interview, the festival celebrates all the Maidans across the world as well as documentary film as one of the best tools to fight injustice…

The films are ”Vitosha” (Bulgaria, Lyubomir Mladenov), ”Waiting for August” (Romania, Teodora Ana Mihai), ”Naked Island” (PHOTO) (Croatia, Tiha K. Gudac), ”The Serbian Lawyer” (Serbia, Aleksandar Nikolic) and ”Outside” (Germany, Romania, Andrei Schwartz).

These films can be watched for free until March 15. Read the descriptions, read the interview with Alexandru Solomon.

http://dafilms.com/

One World Romania.. Festival

… or to take the long version: One World Romania International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, taking place March 16-22.

35 films in 10 categories – like ”Agents of Change” (with films like ”Citizenfour”, ”Euromaidan.Rough Cut” and ”Iranian”, ”Comrade Capitalism” (with ”Cardiopolitika”), ”Focus: Africa” (with ”Democrats” and ”Beach Boy”), ”Traumas” (with ”Night Will Fall”, ”The Missing Picture” and ”Naked Island”), a tribute to producer Heino Deckert (well deserved!) (with four of his productions including wonderful ”Julia’s Madness” by Hannes Schönemann from 1999)… take a look at the impressive programme that also includes a fine series of panel discussions and lectures that focus on content, narratives, funding, webdocs etc.

Words of welcome from Alexandru Solomon, the director of the festival: In 2015, for the 8th edition of One World Romania, we decided that we would gather on the “kino-maidan.” That’s because the word maidan has changed meaning: it no longer describes a mere feature of urban geography, but, rather, a public space where people gather to discuss their problems and to be together. We want One World Romania to become a meeting place where people come to see great documentary cinema, and where ideas are freed from the structures of the status quo. On our maidan, we are guided by our empathy for our fellow human beings and the freedom to be ourselves. Our program of films and side events opens our eyes towards maidans on five continents…

Well thought by Solomon… I will post texts from the festival, where I am invited to be tutoring at a three day workshop.

http://oneworld.ro/2015/l/en/

One World Festival Prague The Winners

The press releases from the festival in Prague are comprehensive and informative so here is a copy-paste of the one about the awards to be given at… the closing ceremony of the festival in the Lucerna cinema in Prague on Wednesday, March 11.

The award for Best Film this year went to The Look of Silence by American director Joshua Oppenheimer, who took home the same award at One World 2013 for his film The Act of Killing. Both documentaries deal with the same topic: the mass murder of accused communists in Indonesia in the 1960s.

One World this year screened a record number of films: 114 documentaries as well as a screening of Winter, Go Away! in response to the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, which occurred two days before the start of the festival. The number of festival guests was also significantly higher, with exactly 100 filmmakers and protagonists coming to Prague to present their films. In total One World invited 234 foreign guests, including human rights activists and film festival organisers.

Attendance this year was at the same level as last year. Despite the sunny weekend, 24,864 spectators visited afternoon and evening screenings in the first week of the festival. School screenings in the first festival week (five weekdays) were attended by 6,433 pupils and students and 365 teachers. Afternoon screenings for schools will continue until Friday, March 13.

Grand Jury

The Grand Jury granted the Best Film Award, Best Director Award and Special Mention. It selected from among 15 documentaries in the Main Competition.

The Best Film Award went to Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence (Denmark, Indonesia, Great Britain, Norway, Finland / 2014 / 99 min.). The film was represented at the festival by producer Signe Byrge Sørensen, who during an extended Q&A presented the campaign with which the filmmakers are trying to open a debate in Indonesia about a taboo chapter in the country’s history.

„The Best Film Award goes to a film that had a strong directorial vision, sustained a years-long focus on its subject and told a story that defies expectations while directly confronting a lingering legacy of genocide in Indonesia,“ reads the jury statement.

The jury granted the Best Director Award to Democrats by Camilla Nielsson (Denmark / 2014 / 108 min.), who came to Prague to present her film.

„This film stood out for its raw portrayal of the struggle to write a new constitution in a country ruled with an iron fist by the brutal dictator Robert Mugabe. The director of this film told this complex story by following two adversaries who embodied the stark conflicts inherent in building a new country from scratch. Their process was messy and often dangerous, but it also raised serious questions faced by everyone around the world who aspire to have a say in how they are governed,“ reads the jury statement.

Special Mention went to director Judy Rymer for I Will Not Be Silenced (Australia / 2014 / 84 min.).

„We award a Special Mention to a film whose main character undertook a gruelling 7 year battle. After a nearly unspeakable crime, Charlotte challenged a biased system to find justice for herself and set an inspiring example for other women in the Kenyan slum of Kibera,“ reads the jury statement.

Grand Jury members: Anna Har, director of Freedom Film Fest, the only human rights festival in Malaysia; Brian Knappenberger, director, screenwriter and producer, who presented his new documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz at One World; Liz Rosenthal, founder and CEO of Power to the Pixel, an organisation that focuses on interactive projects; Lise Birk Pedersen, a Danish filmmaker, whose documentary Putin’s Kiss won the Student Jury Award at One World 2013; and Radim Procházka, Czech producer, director and teacher at FAMU.

Václav Havel Jury

The Václav Havel Jury awards the prize to a film that makes an exceptional contribution to the defence of human rights. They also decided to award a Special Mention. The jury selected from among 11 documentaries in the Right To Know category.

The award for a film that makes an exceptional contribution to the defence of human rights went to Those Who Said No by director Nima Sarvestani (Sweden / 2014 / 89 min.) (PHOTO). The award will be collected by a protagonist and an initiator of the Iran Tribunal Iraj Mesdaghi who is coming to Prague.

„This documentary is first and foremost a message to whoever commits human rights violations: they will be held accountable. Impunity for human rights violations is intolerable for victims, their relatives, and for the society as a whole. Even years after the violations occurred, Iranian victims and their relatives had the power to join forces to reclaim justice – ignoring how much control one might have over State mechanisms or how powerful one might be. The perseverance of those victims and their relatives deserves the highest recognition, because in the spirit of Vaclav Havel they are the proof that one person can make a difference,“ reads the jury statement.

The Václav Havel Jury granted Special Mention to A Quiet Inquisition by directors Alessandra Zeka and Holen Kahn (USA, Nicaragua / 2014 / 66 min.).

„One´s personal beliefs or religious views are not the subject of this documentary; the theme is rather the politicians who adopt a law ignoring medical realities and needs of women and girls. Such legislation inscribes in stone discrimination against women, depriving thousands of critically needed medical help, causing deaths and creating illegality for those providing medical care. (…) We aim at recognising the bravery of the medical staff filmed in the documentary and at highlighting an issue unknown to many. We further hope that the authorities of Nicaragua will recognise the need to provide medical care to those in need and change its legislation accordingly,“ reads the jury statement.

The members of the Václav Havel are: Larysa Artiugina, film and television director and scriptwriter from Ukraine; Florian Irminger, head of advocacy at the Human Rights House Foundation; Alfredo Romero, Venezuelan lawyer and executive director of the NGO Foro Penal Venezolano, which helps victims of torture and arbitrary detentions; Mona Seif, Egyptian activist and founder of the “No To Military Trials for Civilians Group” initiative; and Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, director of the Russian branch of the non-profit organisation International Crisis Group.

Czech Radio Jury

The Czech Radio Jury grants an award for the innovative use of music and sound in documentary film.

This year the award went to The Queen of Silence by director Agnieszka Zwiefka (Germany, Poland / 2014 / 83 min.). The director will return to Prague to collect the prize.

„The Queen of Silence provides a unique insight into the interior world and sense of sound of a girl with a severe hearing handicap. The jury particularly appreciated the fine balance achieved between the use of sound, music and silence. In this documentary, the role of sound is as important as the image, and at times even more important. The music used in the film subtly underscores the parallel worlds of the central character, Denisa, a dancer,“ reads the jury statement.

The members of the jury were sound engineers from Czech Radio: Tomáš Zikmund, Jiří Litoš and Jiří Slavičínský.

Student Jury

The Student Jury selects from a school film collection. Its members are mainly high school students and organisers of the student film clubs of the One World at Schools project.

The Student Jury Award went to Warriors from the North by directors Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah (Denmark, Somalia / 2014 / 58 min.). The director will come back to Prague to collect the prize.

„The Student Jury awards a prize to a film looking at a pressing issue from a non-traditional perspective. The film gives students the opportunity to reflect on the questions of social inclusion and the unwillingness to accept religious or cultural differences. We also appreciate the fact that the documentary is not judgmental and does not jump to simplistic conclusions. The student jury also commends the authors’ ability to create an authentic and totally absorbing atmosphere,“ reads the jury statement.

There were four members of the Student Jury: Karolína Blaková, Jan Novotný, Rebeka van Overloop and Nikola Voráčová.

http://www.oneworld.cz/2015/