Two important prizes for a film by Lena Müller and Dragan von Petrovic, co-directed and filmed by Vuk Maksimovic, whose uncle is the protagonist of a film that the team itself – on the site of the film – calls tragicomical. A quote from the synopsis: … the young cameraman Vuk from Belgrade embarks on the trail of his eccentric uncle Dragan Wende who, 30 years earlier, became the street king of West-Berlin’s 1970s hedonistic disco scene. Earning easy money in Berlin’s most famous nightclubs, work and play went hand in hand… 20 years later, Vuk’s uncle is an aged alcoholic who lives off social welfare and memories of his youth…

The film has other charismatic characters, is playful and entertaining, with “absurd and sit-comic situations”.

The film was appreciated on two occasions during the last few days. It got the prestigious Max Ophüls Prize and it received first prize for best documentary at the Trieste Film Festival. The motivation from the German prize looks like this:

“Ein Stück irrwitzige Weltgeschichte, erzählt aus der Küche eines abgehalfterten Bordell-Türstehers. Ein Stück berührende Familiengeschichte, erzählt in der historischen Dimension des kalten Krieges. Ein Stück derbe Männergeschichte, erzählt mit Pfiff und Ironie dank sicherer Montage – halbseiden, blockfrei und humorvoll. Das hat die Jury begeistert und darum vergibt sie den Dokumentarfilmpreis Max Ophüls an den Film„Dragan Wende – West Berlin“.”

OBS. The producer Lena Müller has made an excellent website for the film that goes far beyond normal mainstrem promotion, check it and watch trailer and teaser and listen to the soundtrack.

88 mins., 2012, Serbia/Germany

http://www.von-muller-film.com/home.html

http://www.triestefilmfestival.it/en/comunicati/si-chiude-la-24a-edizione-i-vincitori/

A very interesting critique of (some of) the selected documentaries for the Sundance Film Festival comes from Anthony Kaufmann, who has written for NY Times, Village Voice, Variety among others.

I dare to make a long quote from the beginning of his article that can be read in full length by clicking the link below:

This year the Sundance Film Festival captured the zeitgeist. Films that premiered this past week in Park City investigated, explored and exposed the biggest issues of the day, from abortion (After Tiller) to immigration (Who is Dayani Crystal?), from economic unfairness (99%, Citizen Koch, Inequality for All) to information in the digital age (We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Google and the World Brain), from covert wars (Dirty Wars, Manhunt) to other political and social injustices (Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer, God Loves Uganda, Blackfish, etc).

But no matter how incisive, exhaustive, convincingly argued or shrewdly structured, most of the films employed tried-and-true formal elements. As far as I saw, there was no Catfish or Exit Through the Gift Shop (photo), no Imposter or Man on Wire, no radical mixes of documentary and fiction—in short, very little stylistic experimentation. Watching the docs at Sundance was like being holed up in your living room and held captive by HBO, besieged by hours upon hours of solid reportage.

Not all of Sundance’s docs were created equally, but they were made in mostly the same mold: some TV-ready combination of first-person interviews, verité observations, archival footage and informational text. Whether it’s the tyranny of broadcast television executives or the conventional training of most documentary filmmakers, Sundance was awash in issues, not artistry…

Link to blog.sundancenow.com

On Wednesday January 30 at 7pm the opening of the 9th edition of the European
Feature Documentary Film Festival, Magnificent7 will be announced
by the lady, who represents the festival venue, the biggest theatre in the region, the Sava Center in Belgrade. Ms Nevena Djonlic will be followed by Mr Popovic and Mr Müller, who will introduce the selection of films for the 9th edition of the European Feature Documentary Film Festival, Magnificent7. The festival runs until February the 3^rd.

The opening film is the international hit, nominated for an Oscar, Searching for Sugar Man (photo) by Malik Bendjelloul. The 6 other films in the programme have equally received awards and been world wide honoured for their quality. That goes for Tea or Electricity by Jérôme le Maire, Ilian Metev’s Sofia’s Last Ambulance, Kimmo Koskela’s Soundbreaker, Helena Trestikova’s Private Universe and Manuel von Stürler’s Winter Nomads.

Tonight the 7^th film in the festival, Swedish Palme, directed by Kristina Lindström and Maud Nycander, is nominated in three categories at the Swedish award ceremony Guldbaggen.

The audience will be spoilt with good films in the evening with an additional workshop programme during day time for, quoted from the website: “young film authors and film students as well as students in related art disciplines, but also towards all those who feel the need for a different kind of “film food”; film professionals and professional amateurs are also the suitable candidates for our workshop.”

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/home.html

This text is written for the catalogue of Magnificent7 2013: I am writing this from New York, a metropole of mainstream entertainment cinema, but also the place to be for two veterans of independent cinema, the 86 years old Albert Maysles and the 90 year old Jonas Mekas. Maysles, part of the classical direct cinema movement once said that “the eye of the cameraman should be the eye of the poet”. Mekas is, if anyone, the father of the personal cinema, never compromising in his way of putting together his diaries from all over the world.

One should go for innovation but also honour roots and tradition – this is what we do in Belgrade year after year with a festival that carries the name of a mainstream American movie but has its focus on poetry and independent, personal storytelling.

And which, like the old people mentioned, insists that documentary films should be shown on a big screen for a big audience. In cinema halls.

Actually all the films selected for the 2013 edition of Magnificent7 have been shown theatrically in their countries of origin, some of them also in theatres abroad. It can be interpreted as one more sign of the golden times, we experience for the popular documentary genre, but it also proves that the filmmakers who come to Belgrade with their films have thought of the big screen when making their works.

We promise you poetry and personally made documentaries. With a diversity in themes and “handwriting”. From the minimalistic and original interpretation of an urban social reality in “Sofia’s Last Ambulance” to the beautiful and respectful meeting with people, who do very seldom appear in the media: “Tea or Electricity” and “Winter Nomads”. From the portrait of a great humanist, Olof “Palme”, who was shot down, when he chose to walk home after a visit to the cinema, a rich film in its time depiction of a society asis the Czech “Private Universe”, a family film in the wonderful epic tradition.

Magnificent7 is a tribute to the art of cinema, but it is also a tribute to the power of art itself. Two films point directly in that direction. “Searching for Sugar Man”, internationally the most succesful documentary of 2012, is (also) about the fact that important art will always survive, whereas “Soundbreaker” (photo) is, as the title indicates, about an artist who seeks to break all rules to give us viewers and listeners an experience, we will never forget.

Do come to the 7 films we hope you will enjoy and never forget.

Tue Steen Müller

It is a good idea to get on the mailing list for the idfa newsletter. The one from January 18 includes statistics on the 25th edition of the festival last November and communicates deadlines for the IDFA Bertha Fund (before Jan Vrijman Fund), the Docs for Sale, the festival and the Academy Summer School. How to it, quote from the newsletter:

If you would like to stay in tune with IDFA and all our industry deadlines and events, then subscribe now to IDFA’s monthly Industry Newsletter. Subscribing is easy and can be done via your MyIDFA account.

… and for the news: the 25^th edition of the festival in 2012 had 2700 festival guests and 200.000 tickets sold. Twohundredthousand tickets!!!

Furthermore IDFA, the European Film Market and EDN runs a documentary newtworking platform at the upcoming Berlinale (February 7-15), where 16 documentaries from the idfa festival are screened – among them are “The Gatekeepers”, “Elena” (photo) and “Beware of Mr. Baker”.

Link to idfa.nl

Link to efm-berlinale.de

A press release in an edited version: Moma, the Museum of Modern art in New York organizes February 15–March 4 “Documentary Fortnight 2013: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media”, the 12th annual two-week showcase of recent documentary films examining the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction practices, and reflecting on new areas of documentary filmmaking.

This year’s festival includes an International Selection of 20 feature-length films and several shorts, all of which are U.S. or New York premieres that will be presented by the filmmakers. The festival also features New Cuban Shorts, a spotlight on films by emerging Cuban filmmakers, many of which have never before been seen in the U.S.

The programme also includes a tribute to POV, highlighting award- winning films from the past 25 years of Public Television’s longest-running showcase for independent documentary film—plus a sneak preview of a title in the upcoming season.

The festival opens on February 15 with two daring new approaches in filmmaking: Ilian Metev’s Sofia’s Last Ambulance (Germany/Bulgaria/Croatia, 2012) (photo), which premiered at the 51st International Critics Week at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where it was the second documentary ever to compete; and Chico Pereira’s Pablo’s Winter (Spain, 2012), winner of the Competition for Student Documentary at IDFA, the world’s largest documentary festival. Sofia’s Last Ambulance follows a three-member paramedic crew in one of

Bulgaria’s dwindling fleet of emergency ambulances. The camera’s focus is on the intimate emotions and reactions of a doctor, nurse, and driver—not their patients—as they respond to situations both the serious and absurd.

In Pablo’s Winter, Chico Pereira explores the tragic history of an old mining town, inspired by real-life characters playing themselves.

Other highlights include Jose Álvarez’s Canícula (Dog Days, Mexico, 2012), the BestDocumentary Film at the 2013 Cinema Tropical Awards, a sensorial film that follows the daily rituals of the ancient Totonac people of Zapotal Santa Cruz, Mexico, who are known for their daring aerial Voladores (Bird Men).

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear (Germany/Georgia, 2012), Tinatin Gurachiani’s first feature film, combines the compelling stories of 15- to 23-year-old youths with a look at contemporary Georgia.

New Cuban Shorts comprises four programs of short documentaries by nine emerging directors from Cuba. Highlights include three films by Armando Capo, including Nos quedamos (We Stay, Cuba, 2009), which follows a Cuban family that persists in defending their home from an invasion of bees, and three films by Ariagna Fajarado, including La Vuelta (The Bend, Cuba, 2008), which depicts a community thriving through the collective efforts of its residents, all of whom are brick-makers.

The POV section includes 21 award-winning, outstanding, and controversial films from the 25-year history of POV (Point of View). Highlights include the world premiere of Homegoings (U.S., 2013), Christine Turner’s account of a Harlem funeral director who honors 150-year-old funereal traditions, and the first film ever showcased on the series, American Tongues (U.S., 1988), Louis Alvarez and Andy Kolker’s humorous look at American dialects.