It was one of these pleasant surprises. Last summer I got a FB message from a Teddy Grouya, who invited me to come to his festival in California. The surprise was double as he wrote to me in Danish (well not perfect but totally understandable). We met in Leipzig, where the kind and committed man told me more about his festival and revealed that he had been in Denmark in his youth as a student. And there we are – I will be in Palm Springs March 27-31, where the festival runs its third edition. In the following I have taken quotes from the website of the festival that shows documentaries, short and long, and animation films from the US and the rest of the world.

“This year, the American Documentary Film Festival and Film Fund will screen over 100 films over its five day run at three Coachella Valley venues. “We’re utilizing six screens this year,” said Festival Director and Founder, Ted Grouya. “It will be our largest festival ever.””

My visit to AmDocs include three elements. I am going to be a juror for 10 American feauture docs, I am to be on a panel with critics and film writers and I am invited to observe the Film Fund Pitch Competition.

Some words about the latter first: “In addition to our annual 5-day film festival, we are proud to share the American Documentary Film Fund with independent American filmmakers who will participate and compete for financing for new projects as well as works in progress.  An amount up to $50,000 may be awarded or distributed in any given year. A panel of film industry professionals will review a select group of documentary filmmaker projects for funding consideration. Filmmakers will provide detailed story outlines and budgets for their works in progress or new projects. Filmmakers will screen a five (5) minute preview of their film projects before the industry panel and take part in a 10 minute Q&A.” It sounds like the way we do it in Europe, but is there an American touch?

And words about the films at the festival that The MovieMaker Magazine nominated the festival as ”one of the world’s coolest documentary film

festivals”: ”Opening night gala includes the screening of Julie Cohen’s ”I Live to Sing” with in-person vocal performances by the film’s cast and a Q&A with the director.” The film “is a documentary and performance film following three of the opera school’s top students through a year in the program. Cohen & her team travel with the students from their townships, where they’ve faced financial hardship (and, in some cases, health struggles) to Cape Town, where they perform in the city’s Opera Hall (once a flash point in the anti-apartheid movement), and to New York, where they sing at the prestigious Glimmerglass Festival.”

Actuality – “On March 2, 2014, Academy Award®-winning director Malcolm Clarke won a second Oscar® for the moving, uplifting, and brilliantly-told story of Alice Herz Sommer, the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor.  Alice, at age 109 during filming, has been a pianist and teacher during her extraordinary life, and — in the film — still treats her neighbors almost daily to the same beautiful piano music she’s been playing for over a century.” “The Lady in no.6” will be shown at Amdocs, PHOTO. 

And many many more films that (especially the Americans) I have not seen, including ”two episodes of Oliver Stone’s series ”Untold History of The United States”… Here is a re-examination of some of the under-reported and darkest parts of American modern history using little known documents and newly uncovered archival material.  We see beyond official versions of events to the deeper causes and implications, and explore how pivotal moments from the past still have resonant themes for the present day.” 

From abroad – there are pretty many German films but also films from Iran and China. There is the Polish ”Deep Love” by Jan P. Matuszynski, ”Before the Revolution” (in Iran) by Dan Shadur and Babak Heymann, ”Chimeras” on two Chinese artists by Finnish Mika Mattila, Stefan Tolz film from Georgia ”Full Speed Westward”, ”Normalization” by Robert Kirchhoff from Slovakia, three Danish films– many filmmakers are present and the films run from morning till night.

http://www.americandocumentaryfilmfestival.com/

I have copy pasted the list of winners from the website of the  festival, that cleverly brings forward the jury motivations as well. The following films have been written about/reviewed on filmkommentaren: The Last Station, Return to Homs, Ne Me Quitte Pas, Stories We Tell.   

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

International Jury
Damir Čučić, director and editor
Jean-Pierre Rehm, FIDMarseille managing director
Josh Gibson, director

BIG STAMP FOR THE BEST INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FILM

THE LAST STATION
dir. Cristian Soto & Catalina Vergara, Chile

The jury is pleased to award the Zagreb Dox Big Stamp Award to “The Last Station”. In quiet dignity this film reveals the lives of those discarded by society and their families. But the elderly become not so much the subject as the metabolism of the film. The rhythms of their lives pulse through and render the filmic world.  Sounds are alchemized into forgotten memories. The jury would like to congratulate the filmmakers for finding the nuanced frequency and pacing that permits us to experience the humanity at the end of life.

Special Mentions

RETURN TO HOMS
dir. Talal Derki, Syria, Germany

It’s in the human nature to leave and to return to our hometowns, but to constantly keep returning to madness of a town caught up in war is an especially courageous act. Striving for freedom can sometimes get euphoric and close to a romantic rapture, even if the price we pay is death. The courage which the protagonists, cameramen and director embedded in the film “Return to Homs” is unutterable. With their devotion to the idea of freedom, they showed us that nothing in this world is impossible.

NE ME QUITTE PAS
dir. Niels van Koevorden & Sabine Lubbe Bakker, Netherlands, Belgium

For its impressive ability to dive into the lives of its characters, for its subtle

way to constantly shift from comedy to pathos, for the time the film allowed itself to take and to share with us, the jury wishes to give a special mention to “Ne me quitte pas”..

REGIONAL COMPETITION

Regional Jury
Charlie Phillips, Sheffield Doc/Fest deputy director
Ryan Harrington, documentary section head at the Tribeca Film Institute
Youlian Tabakov, director

BIG STAMP FOR THE BEST REGIONAL COMPETITION FILM

SACRO GRA
dir. Gianfranco Rosi, Italy

This example of master filmmaking feels almost perfect, exploring how diverse parts of humanity deal with daily existence. Beautifully crafted, the filmmaking shows real skill – and the filmmaker’s hand is always present, contemplative and humanising those on screen.

Special Mentions

LIFE ALMOST WONDERFUL
dir. Svetoslav Draganov, Bulgaria, Belgium

With brilliant characters that feel almost fictional, this family story proves that even in the most trying periods of our lives, life goes on. We identified with this inspiring story of being able to face life, and its demonstration that no matter how different you grow from your family, you can always come back together.

STREAM OF LOVE
dir. Ágnes Sós, Hungary

This film approaches the topics of love, sexual identity, human closeness and sexual health from a new and fresh angle focusing on the elderly, with reflections that feel light and fresh. The film allows us to relate to a serious topic through a cheerful and new tone.

BEST FILM BY A YOUNG FILMMAKER UP TO THE AGE OF 35

Young Jury
Marcel Łozinski, director and head of the Documentary Film Department at Andrzej Wajda Film School
Ivana Mladenović, director
Lidija Špegar, director

Small Stamp for the best film by a filmmaker below the age of 35

THE SPECIAL NEED
dir. Carlo Zoratti, Germany, Italy, Austria

“Special Need” is a film in which the director managed to portray a piece of life of an autisticc person but without even a slightest touch of bad taste. With humour, easy-goingness and sensibility for the protagonist, it reveals the universal need of human beings – to be loved.

Special Mentions

STORIES WE TELL
dir. Sarah Polley, Canada

A brave search for the truth sabotaged by overlapping family members’ stories. Crossing the boundaries of genre, the director is trying to separate lies from the truth in her own family.

PATIO
dir.  Aly Muritiba, Brasil

A film of outstanding minimalist directing, triggering emotions and thoughts about space, time, capitvity and freedom.

Movies That Matter Award

Movies That Matter Jury
Sanja Sarnavka, president of the women’s association B.a.B.e.
Ed Moschitz, director
Veton Murkollari, DokuFest art director

The jury would like to praise the festival for excellent selection of films that touched upon many aspects of human rights. This inevitably made the decision process difficult for us and therefore we have decided to give two special mentions, in addition to a main award.

The film that best promotes human rights

PIPELINE
dir. Vitaly Mansky, Russia, Czech Republic, Germany

By documenting lives of ordinary people living along one the biggest European projects, we are slowly faced with many of its paradoxes. Polluted rivers offering dead fish, strange golden statues reminiscent of communist era and widespread poverty on one side are interwoven with images of wealth on the other side. A line from the film superbly paraphrases the essence of this great piece of documentary filmmaking; “For countries in transition democracy means poverty”. The Movies That Matter award goes to the film “Pipeline” by Vitaly Mansky.

Special Mentions

RETURN TO HOMS
dir. Talal Derki, Germany, Sirya

The first special mention goes to a film that put us directly into the horror of urban civil war and that shocked us with its brutality. We were devastated to see transformation of young people, full of hopes and dreams for better future, into ruthless warriors, as war progresses and as they feel forgotten by the rest of the world. With hope that film like this help conflict comes to an end and freedom comes to Syria, we are giving special mention to the film “Return to Homs” by Talal Derki.

4th MONKEY
dir. Hrvoje Mabić, Croatia

The second special mention goes to a film that successfully reveals a scandal, which was kept secret for long time from public opinion in Croatia. By using simple investigative techniques the director is able to shed light to major abuse of human rights in psychiatric hospital, both by its managing stuff as well as people from city government. An important film, in the wake of controversy surrounding the withdrawal of another film at ZagrebDox dealing with similar topic. The second special mention goes to the film 4 Monkey by Hrvoje Mabic. 

Teen Dox Award

Teen Dox Jury
Students of the First Private High School in Zagreb

WITH OPEN EYES
dir. Erik Bafving, Sweden

14 minutes, 20 persons and a child, the most complex emotions through the pure simplicity of photographs. This film touched and moved us, awoke the most beautiful, painful and sincere emotions in us, and hopefully you too. We believe everyone could identify with these beautiful 14 minutes. All of us at one point wondered: „Who am I really?“

Special Mentions

THE RED CARPET
dir. Manuel Fernandez & Losu Lopez, Spain

In a time we live in we want more and better from life: luxury and glamour, but our souls are empty. Marginalised children showccase their extraordinary ability to feel fullness in love, happiness and the sense of community. This film will make everyone realise how little is enough for happiness. Each of the 12 minutes is a moral in itself.

PHONE DOX AWARD

Phone Dox Jury
Ana Hušman, video artist
Andrej Korovljev, director
Tomislav Jelinčić, director

LIVING WITH LEVIATHAN
dir. Şirin Bahar Demirel, Turkey

Filmmaker Şirin Bahar Demirel compiled personal moments of the participants of the Turkish protests in an intimate and idiosyncratic way to sublimate the individual experiences in this turbulent historical moment. The public space of Istanbul’s streets and squares through the personal lens of the protesters becomes a stage for small people’s intimate dramas which, through actions and experiences, become part of the collective history.

MY GENERATION AWARD

FATHER AND SON ON A JOURNEY
dir. Marcel Łoziński, Poland

The Award is presented by ZagrebDox founder and director Nenad Puhovski

It is not easy to be a child. Nor a young person. Carrying the traumas of the world we are growing up in, including those coming from the environment that is supposed to protect us – our own family. Cutting the motional umbilical cord is almost always difficult and painful. However, it is not easy to be a parent. Especially a father. Expectations are often greater than possibilities and knowledge about failed chances always arrive too late. Facing them, therefore, is almost always equally painful and hard. But there are hundreds of fiction and documentary films about the coming-of-age traumas, even an entire sub-genre, documentaries about the problems of parents, especially fathers, are few and far between. Therefore, the My Generation Award this year goes to the Polish documentary master Marcel Łoziński for his outstanding film “Father and Son on a Journey”, in which he honestly, gently and ruthlessly on himself analyses his relationship with his son, also a renowned documentarian, Pavel.

ZAGREBDOX PRO AWARDS

HBO Adria Award for Best Pitch

TCHINDAS
dir. Marc Serena, Pablo García Pérez de Lara, Spain

ZagrebDox Pro Award fo Best Project

IN SEARCH OF A LOST COUNTRY
dir. Marija Ratković Vidaković, Croatia
 
The Sheffield Doc/Fest Marketplace Award

IN SEARCH OF A LOST COUNTRY
dir. Marija Ratković Vidaković, Croatia

 

Of course there had to be a meeting in Zagreb about the EU supported programme ”Creative Europe”, that runs from 2014 till 2020 and has two sub-programmes: MEDIA and Culture. The MEDIA Desk Croatia, Martina Petrovic, hosted the meeting in a building in the street next to the Kaptol Center, the location of the five cinemas, where the ZagrebDox films are screened. The building needs restoration but that is expensive so for the moment the authorities have invited the Croatian Audiovisual Center, ZagrebDox/Factum (the company of Nenad Puhovski, director of the festival), HulaHop (company of Dana Budisavljevic) and other companies and festivals to have their address there. This forms a kind of Film House.

Paul Pauwels (PP), director of EDN, that now has an office in Copenhagen and in Brussels, was well prepared in his excellent presentation of the new Creative Europe, having read the 380 (!) pages of a programme, which – said PP – will make it more difficult for “all of us”. There are many changes made from the previous MEDIA Programme. For instance, said PP, the applicants for development support will now be able to get a lumb sum of 25.000€ if you can raise the other 25.000€, which can no longer include any in-kind contribution. The latter is a radical change.

In Eastern European countries that will be pretty difficult, said Hrvoje Hribar, Head of the Croatian Audiovisual Center, who told the participants that an Eastern European Alliance has been set up to discuss Creative Europe and to come up with suggestions for amendments. PP stressed several times that the people from Creative Europe to him, when he has met them in Brussels, have stated that they consider 2014 as a test year and that he had found a

willingness/openness to listen in the corridors in Brussels. OK, so “let’s use this year to communicate with them”, said Hrvoje Hribar. PP added that he found it a good idea to contact the Creative Europe people directly with questions as it was his impression that there are still loads of unsolved matters that MEDIA Desk representatives have tried to get answers to, without result.

From my point of view, having been director of EDN 1996-2005, where we succeeded to start workshops in South of Europe plus arrange lots of other MEDIA supported events for the members, with quite some success, as has been most of the documentary festivals and markets that came to existence during the MEDIA years… it is totally stupid to change something that worked so well as MEDIA did. Why? And as said by PP, the new programme seems to stress the commercial/the industry aspect more than before, where the cultural/creative aspect had (also) been in the foreground. In times of financial crisis Creative Europe seems to focus on support for bigger companies! What an arrogance!

It is my opinion that this policy will not survive. It will for sure be changed, it has to if EU wants to live up to its obligations to support the smaller and poorer countries – take the Eastern European countries, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal… Many, many countries with a low audiovisual capacity and with a lot of talent!

Lots of lobbying to be done on the basis of facts and figures. For sure EDN with its Brussels-based director Paul Pauwels will be able to play the role of bringing forward the necessary proposals for change.

Photo from “Gangster of Love” by Nebojsja Slijepcevic, Croatian documentary comedy, in cinemas in Zagreb right now with around 5000 tickets sold!

http://ec.europa.eu/culture/media/index_en.htm

www.edn.dk

http://www.hulahop.hr/en/home

http://www.havc.hr/index_e_box.php

http://factum.com.hr/en

Does she wants too much, Tatjana Bozic? From Life and from the Film, she has made and in which she is the main character? A film about a woman looking back at her love life to find out what went wrong in previous relationships – and about what she can take from that in terms of understanding herself. And get on with her life as a mother.

You can’t get it all, her friends say, when she, in the present layer of the film, is complaining that her marriage with Dutch Rogier, with whom she has her child, does not work perfectly. You want everybody to love you, that’s the problem, her father says to her. Mother died, what would she have adviced me, she asks her father, should I leave the marriage? Your mother would have said Yes, the father replies.

She is a handful, Tatjana, and she does not hide that in the film about herself. On the contrary, you get very close to her, you see her suffer, you see and hear her being unbearably pathetic but also cheerful and direct. In between you reflect on whether you watch a private or a personal film.

She wants the film to be funny. And it is, especially when she is visiting her ex-boyfriends. Pawel, Russian Pawel, is the one who analyses, if you can use that word, her best. They were together for four years, before he chose to live with another Tatjana. The visiting of the past is a great idea for the film, the ex-lovers are from different cultures and that makes the film lighter. The mother of the Englishman did not like Tatjana! The Russians drink too much! Klichés but still, Balkan mentality, British stiff upperlip and Russian melancholy do not fit together.

Unfortunately the director also wants to send a message. In several wordless sequences you see faces of women… close-ups, they look at you, apparently to kind of ask us about/feel ashamed of the condition of women today. I don’t think it suits a story which has already mant facets and is so rich anyway and it does not generalise, on the contrary it has a focus on one individual and her effort to find out about herself searching for Love. That is more than enough, there is no need to include the whole world. She wants too much, Tatjana Bozic.

www.zagrebdox.net

Holland, Croatia, 2013, 83 mins.

OK, this film represents everything that I dislike about a certain kind of documentaries: It is – to quote the description in the site of the festival here in Zagreb – ”eye-popping”, ”stunning” and I could add sentimental over-the-limit of decency and what is worst: hypocritical.

The film shows how a young really good snow boarder, Kevin Pearce, crashes dramatically (you are invited ”to enjoy” the accident again and again), recovers his brain injury, wants to get back to the sport, mum and dad and brothers (one of them with down’s syndrom) don’t like the idea, the doctors warn him as his brain is not as it was, and at the end he gives up and starts a fund/social movement it is called called ”Love your Brain”. Halleluja!

The hyprocrisy comes in through the storytelling that the director has chosen. She paints a super glamorous picture of the sport and its young fit practitioners. Fantastic images of their acrobatic jumps and movements in the air, all wrapped in music from wall to wall, and of course a hurrah for an artificial world that is full of money and commercials. She points at the competitive point between Kevin and Shaun White, another snow boarder, it’s all very good and healthy. Accompanied by visits to the house of the understanding family Pearce, who sits down at the dinner table and talks about Kevin and what he wants with his sport and life – brother David with the down’s syndrom is the one who says that he suffers from Kevin’s playing with life and death. And mother crying again and again as she goes around with her son to doctors and psychiatrists… It’s just too much…

And then at the end of the film, after another injury where a young female snow boarder dies (of course we see the deadly crash), the film tries to raise just a bit of discussion about the sport… and we hear a panel of the young colleagues of Kevin express that they have also broken this and that in their bodies many times but… why bother, is the impression of the message you get after having been through the visual hymn to a sport that is dangerous but produces superb and entertaining and sensational images!   

USA, 2013, 109 mins.

www.zagrebdox.net

http://www.kevinpearce.com/