IDA Documentary Awards 2011

The American (LA) based member organisation IDA, International Documentary Association, holds its annual ”IDA Documentary Awards 11” December 2nd with a big show – the American way with sponsors, of course. The IDA has definitely an international perspective, as it can be seen by a look at the nomination list of films below. Experience how the IDA writes about its event on its site, click on the list of nominations and you will see great films like Patricio Guzman’s Nostalgia for the Light (photo), Strauss & Anastasion’s The Redemption of General Butt Naked, as well as a nomination of the quality documentary strand POV run by Simon Kilmurry. Personally, as a teacher at the Zelig – School for Documentary in Bolzano – it is wonderful to see two of the five Student Documentary Awards coming from there: Janos Richter and Jakob Stark’s ”Guanape Sur” and Mark Olexa’s ”Heart-Quake”:

Read the full 2011 IDA Awards Press Release.

http://www.documentary.org/awards2011

http://www.documentary.org/awards2011#nominees

Michael Christoffersen: Law of the Jungle

Sådan ser han ud, den seneste i rækken af Christoffersens helte, alle jurister på arbejde for et internationalt retssystem. Han her er på vej, på billedet på vej fra en demonstration langt inde i Perus jungle, arresteret og på vej til bank og måneders fængsel og flere mishandlinger, men også på vej til en erkendelse af, at undertrykkelsen og volden og torturen, forsvindingerne og henrettelserne må bekæmpes i seje og tålmodige juridiske argumentationer i internationalt overvågede retssager på et stadigt udbygget og sikret grundlag af international ret, i hans tilfælde internationale rettigheder for oprindelige folk. Han er jæger og familiefar og leder af en gruppe unge indianere, som har sat sig op mod olieselskabet Pluspetrols metodiske ødelæggelse af deres land. Han hedder José Facin Ruiz, og han læser i dag jura på universitetet i Lima. Den kendsgerning er den lykkelige udgang på Michael Christoffersens film om de forfærdelige forbrydelser i Perus Amazonland under Pluspetrols regime.

Som jeg prøvede at forklare, da jeg i sin tid skrev om Christoffersens Saving Saddam har jeg det sådan med hans film, at dengang the crime of crimes og det historisk set nye internationale retssystem om disse sager og nu et spirende internationalt juridisk system omkring oprindelige folks krav på ret til jord og søer og vandløb og naturressourcer i de nu fire film bliver selve emnet og kernen. I hver film vokser fortællingen og en karismatisk hovedperson sammen med forståelsen af denne jura, denne etik, som altså effektivt kropsliggøres i en smuk bue fra den blide og tænksomme Aspegren i Genocide, over den barske og effektive Geoffrey Nice i Milosevic on Trial, den frustrerede Wilay i Saving Saddam og nu i Law of the Jungle den forbitret argumenterende Jorge Tacuri (indianergruppens advokat og filmens egentlige hovedperson) og hans klient og protegé, den med imponerende værdighed determinerede indianerleder José Fachin Ruiz, en måske kommende folkeretsspecialist.

De fire værker set under ét udgør en samlet journalistisk og dokumentarisk erfaring om international ret lagt ned i ét vældigt værk, som filmet på location disse tidlige år vil bevare sin enestående status som skildring af denne ambition om et samlet retssystem. Denne tidlige historie er hermed skrevet og tydeligt formuleret af de bevægende medvirkende, Michael Christoffersens advokathelte.

Operatøren i BioCity Randers kom ind i salen i aftes, tydelig glad og stolt over at være med i Dox-On-Wheels fornemme næsten simultane visning i 20 biografer i 19 byer, altså også i min. Operatøren var skuffet over et beskedent fremmøde, men jeg kan nu bagefter forsikre ham om, at Law of the Jungle var langt den vigtigste film blandt dem, han kørte i aftes, og at det var stort at se en intellektuelt uomgængelig dokumentar i en næsten ny og RIGTIG biografsal med perfekt videoprojektion og smuk lyd.  

Michael Christoffersen: Law of the Jungle, Danmark 2011, 83 min., klip: Niels Ostenfeldt, produceret af Radiator Film, Stefan Frost og ABC Film. Filmografi (Michael Christoffersen): Saving Saddam, 2008, sammen med Esteban Uyarra, produktion: Team Productions, Mette Heide, Milosevic on Trial, 2007, produktion: Team Productions, Mette Heide, Genocide: The Judgement, 1999, Michael Christoffersen for BBC og SVT.

Barcelona Calling

This is not a neutral text. I have been part of the DOCSBarcelona team from the very beginning, and have seen how Joan Gonzalez and his team at Parallel 40 over a period of 15 years has built up a basis for the creation of a documentary culture in the Catalan capital. Wednesday next week is the deadline for film projects to be sent in for the eventual selection for the Forum part of DOCSBarcelona that also includes a festival, masterclasses, a latin forum, and rough cut screenings. Taken from the webiste:

DocsBarcelona Pitching Forum calls for submissions to the 15th edition of the documentary financing session held alongside the International Documentary Film Festival (January 31 – February 5). A board of experts will pick 24 applicants for a two-day prep pitching workshop, culminating in project presentations in front of film professionals and observers, followed by one-to-one negotiation meetings. The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2011.

DocsBarcelona Pitching Forum is an established stage for unfinished documentary projects from all over the world seeking financing, promotion or networking basis. With a large number of documentarians as well as film professionals, the venue became one of the major winter season meetings since its foundation in 1996 by EDN. Although the preliminary workshop is optional, it is an essential opportunity for any producer/filmmaker who aims to fine-tune their project before the public pitching itself. In addition to that, Eastern European and “New European” countries (including Malta and Greece) are offered special fees to attend either as a workshop participant, a project pitcher or as an observer. Observers may find special registration form HERE.

www.docsbarcelona.com

IDFA Awards

From press release of IDFA: The winners of the various IDFA competition programs were announced Friday, November 25 in Escape, during the awards ceremony of the 24th IDFA. Seung-Jun Yi’s Planet of Snail (South Korea) won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. The Special Jury Award went to 5 Broken Cameras (Palestine/Israel) by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, who also won the Publieke Omroep IDFA Audience Award. The film received financial support from the Jan Vrijman Fund.

WINNERS & AWARDS

VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (€ 12,500) Seung-Jun Yi – Planet of Snail (South Korea)

Special Jury Award

Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi – 5 Broken Cameras(Palestine/Israel/Netherlands/France)

NTR IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (€ 10,000)

Jorge Gaggero – Montenegro (Argentina)

IDFA Award for First Appearance (€ 5,000)

Xun Yu – The Vanishing Spring Light (China/Canada)

Dioraphte IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary (€ 5,000)

Jessica Gorter – 900 Days

Publieke Omroep IDFA Audience Award (€ 5.000)

Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi – 5 Broken Cameras(Palestine/Israel/Netherlands/France)

IDFA Award for Student Documentary (€ 2,500)

Karen Winther – The Betrayal (UK/Norway)

BlackBerry IDFA DOC U Award (€ 1,500)

Mehrdad Oskouei – The Last Days of Winter (Iran)

IDFA Award for Best Green Screen Documentary (€ 2,500)

Micha X. Peled – Bitter Seeds(USA/India)

IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling (€ 2,500)

Antoine Viviani – Insitu (France)

RIDM Awards

The documentary film festival in Montréal RIDM sums up its activities and awards like this, with the DOKLeipzig winner “The Tiniest Place” again very much presented. More information, and trailers to be watched, by clicking on the titles below. To be welcomed that the festival also honours editing and cinematography: The festival presented nearly 200 films, (had) events, and activities. More than 60 special guests from Quebec and abroad participated this year, helping us to bring out the best in reality-based filmmaking.

During the awards ceremony on Nov. 19 at the Grande Bibliothèque, 10 awards were given out to highlight some notable contributions. Prizes worth more than $26,500 in cash and services were distributed to the honourees.

This list of winners is as follows:

GRAND PRIZE FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE Territoire perdu by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd 
Special mention: The Tiniest Place (El lugar más pequeño) by Tatiana Huezo

BEST EDITING IN AN INTERNATIONAL FEATURE presented by AQTIS 
Territoire perdu by Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd

GRAND PRIZE FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE presented by Bell 
Carnets d’un grand détour by Catherine Hébert

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY IN AN INTERNATIONAL FEATURE presented by Antoine Laoun Opticien 
El velador by Natalia Almada

BEST NEW TALENT FROM QUEBEC/CANADA presented by the NFB 
The Vanishing Spring Light by Xun Yu

CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE – CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARD Les Etats-Unis d’Afrique by Yanick Létourneau 
Special mention: La guerre de Wiebo (Wiebo’s War) by David York

BEST INTERNATIONAL MEDIUM-LENGTH FILM presented by Films Transit 
Hula and Natan de Robby Elmaliah 
Special mention: Out of Reach by Jakub Stozek

BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM presented by Vox 
Flying Anne (Anne Vliegt) de Catherine Van Campen

WOMEN INMATES AWARD The Tiniest Place (El lugar más pequeño) by Tatiana Huezo

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD presented by Canal D 
Bouton by Res Balzli

PS. The film of Frederick Wiseman was shown at the festival – Crazy Horse, photo – as the opening film resulting in a signed letter to the organisers from around 30 filmmakers, who expressed that the festival supported sexism!

Idfa – film about Michaël Meshke

This is what is (also) nice about going to idfa – you meet directors and producers, whose work you have seen and appreciated before. Viktoria Szymanska made the wonderful “Themerson & Themerson” (photo) about the magic work of this British couple in early avantgarde cinema, pure dadaism, and Szymanska was successful in getting the tone of the artists into the film.

Now she is here to present another film project about an important artist, the puppeteer Michaël Meshke, 80 years old now, the man who had the fantastic “Marionettheater” in Stockholm, Sweden. Viktoria Szymanska showed me some footage, shot today and some archive clips with Meshke performing. She had shot a scene with Meshke walking the streets of Paris with the puppet Baptiste, a reincarnation of the main character in “Les Enfants du Paradis” – you remember it, Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, directed by Marcel Carné. It is indeed a very promising film project.

Szymanska’s film is being produced by Estelle Robin from the French company Balibari, based in Nantes, and Szymanska could not have got a better support for an international production. Robin stood behind the constantly award-winning “Village Without Women” by Serbian director Srdan Sarenac and “La Machina” by Polish/French/Italian director Thierry Paladino.

http://www.balibari.com/

Idfa – Weijun Chen

Breakfast meetings in the hotel. This morning I was lucky to meet Chinese Weijun Chen, the director behind the international successes “I Will Vote for You” (photo) and “The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World”. He was in Amsterdam to meet his producer Don Edkins, the man behind the big series “Steps for the Future” and “Why Democracy”. Now he has entered and launched another mega project “Why Poverty”, see details on the site below.

Weijun Chen stands behind one of 8 long films in the series that has Nick Fraser from BBC and Mette Hoffmann from DR/TV as editors. More than 40 broadcasters around the world have joined the series that will have its premiere in one year and will also provide a website connected, plus several short films.

Here is a text clip from the site describing the film of Weijun Chen, quite a controversial film for China I guess:

In ancient times in China, education was the only way out of poverty – in recent times it has been the best way. But just over ten years ago, when higher education was commercialised by order of the government, the start of a major change in China’s society took place. The equality that once existed for all students has been destroyed, and for the millions of college graduates who come onto the job market each year, the future is bleak. Chinese Dream is a film that charts a societal shift that will have an impact on the future economic progress of China.

http://whypoverty.net/contact/

Idfa 2011

It is a bombardment of impressions to be at the biggest documentary film festival in the world. Films, meetings, receptions, ”hello, how are you”, ”nice to see you again”, people with badges walking in the streets around Rembrandtsplein, the square with the huge documentary tent where you can go and get your accreditation papers, catalogues and tickets. It is a fest for the documentary genre, indeed it is. Wonderful. Screenings are sold out so many professionals (programmers from other festivals, buyers from television, distributors) go to the Docs for Sale building to watch the films, or sit at the hotel rooms to get the films online. Rembrandtsplein, the statue of the master stands in a position as was he overlooking what is happening with all these documentaries and documentarians. Logistically it seems to work perfectly, artistically, the state of the art, the level of quality of the documentary today and tomorrow…

Yes, how about that? Monday morning, I paid a short visit to the 19th edition of the Forum for International Co-financing of Documentaries down one of the canals at the beautiful Compagnietheater. It was the start of the festival, the hall was full, good atmosphere, very little money around the table due to the general crisis and to the crisis for the creative documentary in public television. But again the number of project applications to come and pitch was huge, 500 it was, 10% made it to the table so to say, or tables as the Forum today does have several options for the pitching – in a big hall in the mornings, and in smaller halls in the afternoons.

Same procedure as last years, I have to say, the female moderation team, Karolina Lidin and Jess Search, works better than the male, Rudy Buttignol and Axel Arnö, that is not well prepared when it comes to knowing the broadcasters, the first one seems to be more interested in having people in the hall hugging each other to create atmosphere. Continuing in this my slightly grumpy evaluation, it is for me, who has attended all 19 years (!), fine to listen to the project presentations, whereas the comments from the broadcasters are pretty predictable and mostly like ”we will talk more later”. The only one who is really challenging the ones pitching with questions and comments is Nick Fraser from BBC. I listened to 7 presentations, most of them (boring) mainstream investigative, interview based television programmes, two of them with Film potential: ”Tea Time” from Chile to be directed by Maite Alberdi (who has a film in competition, ”The Lifeguard”, ”Map” by Spanish director Léon Siminiani, a personal film that I knew from the DocsBarcelona 2011, plus Justin Webster’s, as it was said from a panelist, damn good story ”I will be Murdered” from Guatemala, supported by BBC and TV3 Catalunya. Webster places himself strongly between the journalistic and the creative documentary.

Financing possibilities are small these days, when it comes to television, are there other options coming up? This was discussed at a meeting on video-on-demand, called ”revenues-on-demand”, you can read about in an article, click below. And do not get confused, I was not at the meeting as the photo (from Edinburgh!) indicates, sorry Peter Jäger from Autlook Films in Austria, not my fault – Peter is much younger than me and he does not smoke cigars! 

www.idfa.nl

http://idfa.nl/industry/Festival/latest-news/idfa-daily-2011/news-and-background/21-11-11-revenue-on-demand.aspx

Wajda Studio celebrates 10 Year

The Polish tradition for high quality documentaries is very much kept alive by the Wajda Studio, which formerly was called The Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing. Especially the short documentary has had and has a strong home at the school, now studio. The film ”Paparazzi” (33 mins.) is in competition at this years’s idfa, there is a new film by Maciej Drygas screened, “Tonia and her Children” by Marcel Lozinski, teacher at the school, is at Docs for Sale, as is “Argentinian Lessons” by Wojciech Staron. (For the subscribers of DOX magazine a dvd with 3 short films has been made available with the last issue). At idfa the birthday was celebrated at a reception where also representatives from the Krakow Film Festival and the Krakow Film Foundation were present.

From the site of the Studio a small historical outline:

The Wajda Studio (formerly The Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing) was founded in 2001 by two directors, some of the most acclaimed Polish artists – Andrzej Wajda, winner of an Oscar for lifetime achievement, and Wojciech Marczewski, an outstanding director and educator.

The Wajda Studio continues the Wajda School’s mission and supports auteur film projects. We are looking for feature, documentary films, and short films on contemporary subjects.

The Studio focuses on international co-operation and co-productions. The Studio makes a difference through artistic supervision from the best Polish and European artists, and by playing an emphasis on project development. It offers script doctoring and the production of short fictions and documentaries under the “30 minutes” program and „First Documentary” program. The Studio runs the EKRAN (link) – International Program for Film Professionals.

The Studio pays special attention to the promotion and distribution of its projects.

Among the achievements of the Wajda Studio there are more than 50 documentary and feature films, and over 200 shorts. In addition, our films have been screened and awarded at major festivals including Berlinale, San Sebastian, Karlovy Vary, Hot Docs, IDFA and DOK Leipzig. The Studio (formerly known as the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing) has twice been awarded the Best Documentary and Short Films Producer prize at the Krakow Film Festival, in 2008 and 2010.
 

Photo: Wajda in the film about him: Let’s Shoot, made by graduated students, who have all made great documentaries: Maciej Cuske, Thierry Paladino, Marcin Sauter and Piotr Stasik.

http://www.wajdastudio.com/en

Anonymous: The Weather Balloon

What constitutes a documentary film? When is a documentary most trustworthy and/or true to actual facts? Can we depict reality without interfering? Do we WANT to depict reality without interfering? We will never stop argue about these things, but allow yourself four minutes with this excellent video which some will just call “footage” but which I will call a work of self-made art.

A weather balloon was sent up from somewhere in Denmark, equipped with an HD-camera and a microphone. The balloon went up to an altitude of 31 km (and a temperature of 71 degrees below). Upon landing the GPS system failed, so it took some time to find it in the water. Then somebody made these extracts and edited them together. The film is both self-reflective and avant-garde and is also raising implicit questions of a both humanistic and scientific nature. But above all it’s just breathtakingly beautiful.

Watch it here: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Vejret/2011/11/18/074723.htm and please tell me if I have lost my marbles.