The East Doc Platform Award went to the Polish project The World is not (a) Mine by Natalia Koniarz about inhabitants working in inhuman conditions mining metals on the Cerro Rico mountain. The Ukrainian project Up in the Air by Oksana Syhareva has three awards including HBO Max Award. The documentary follows a young Ukrainian aerial gymnast with ambitions to open his own modern circus studio, while fighting his possessive mother, who is his trainer and a head of the circus studio. The awards were handed on March 31 at the Gallery of Art Critics during the East Doc Platform Partner Awards Ceremony and during the One World & East Doc Platform Closing Ceremony. The 11th edition of the East Doc Platform, the largest co-production, funding and distribution platform tailor-made for Central and East European documentaries, took place from March 25 to March 31 at the French Institute in Prague. See the awarded projects and juries statements.

East Doc Platform Award

The Institute of Documentary Film announces the main EDP prize – East Doc Platform Award associated with the financial support of 5 000 € for the best project in development and production. The granted financial support will help the filmmakers in further development of their documentary film. The East Doc Platform Award 2022 jurors were: Hanne Biermann (Deckert Distribution), Fatma Riahi (Al Jazeera Documentary Channel) and Alex Szalat (Docs Up Fund).

The award goes to The World is not (a) Mine (dir. Natalia Koniarz, prod. Maciej Kubicki, Poland)

Jury statement: “We were happy to see a very high quality among the projects being pitched, so it was particularly difficult for us to select just one of them. But it is especially the very cinematographic approach of showing the vastness of a place that seems to have been abandoned by the rest of the world, contrasted with the incredible narrowness of the shafts of the highest mine in Bolivia, that immediately caught our attention. Natalia Koniarz’s project promises to be a parable about nothing less than the meaning of life, about our interaction with nature, but most importantly about how we treat each other. Therefore, the jury is very pleased to hand the East Doc Platform Award 2022 to The World is not (a) Mine.”

East Doc Platform Award Special Mention

goes to Last Letters of My Grandma (dir. Olga Lucovnicova, prod. Frederik Nicolai, Belgium, Moldova, Netherlands) 

“For its high cinematic language and the richness of its story, linking the past and present, the jury also decided to give a special mention to the project Last Letters of My Grandma.”

Current Time TV Director’s Award

goes to the Institute of Documentary Film

The statement of Kenan Aliyev, the Executive Director of Current Time TV, reads: “This is a difficult, but important moment to recognize and celebrate documentary films. It’s difficult, because we all know that Ukrainian families and children are suffering from bombardment from Russian forces, hunger, family separation, displacement, and fear as we speak. Much of our attention is there, in Ukraine, as it should be.

It’s also an important moment though, because it reminds us of the necessity and power of documentary film. We won’t be so naive as to say ”never again,” because a monstrously destructive land war that we thought could never again happen is, indeed, happening again. But this doesn’t negate the urgent need to bear witness: we must document the violence, we must tell the stories of the heroes, and we must honor and preserve the memory of the victims.

For this reason, tonight’s award is presented to the Czech Institute of Documentary Film. IDF marked its 20th anniversary last year, but because of the pandemic, we didn’t have the opportunity to recognize it. It seems fitting to recognize it this year, at this time of war, because of its mission to support documentary film, a mission whose importance is affirmed every minute that this violence continues. Current Time is dedicated to supporting independent voices, so tonight we honor the Czech Institute of Documentary Film for its dedication to ensuring that the voices that support freedom, justice, independence, and peace are heard.

This is a monetary award in the amount of 2500 Euros. And I’m asking the IDF to direct this small contribution from American people to Ukrainian filmmakers that are documenting the war and human tragedy that must end. Thank you.”

HBO Max Award

HBO Max, the General Partner of the Institute of Documentary Film, awards one of the projects selected to the East Doc Platform 2022 the HBO Max Award worth € 2 000. The award is presented by Hanka Kastelicová, the Executive Producer of Documentaries HBO Max. This award does not constitute any co-production or distribution deal and doesn’t bind the granted director/producer to sell any rights for the film to HBO in exchange for the award.

The award goes to Up in the Air (dir. Oksana Syhareva, prod. Nataliia Pogudina, Ukraine)

Czech TV Co-production Award

Markéta Štinglová, Manager of International Content Projects Centre of the public broadcaster Czech TV, the General Media Partner of the Institute of Documentary Film, announces the winner of the Czech TV Co-production Award. The award presents a financial investment of 150 000 CZK and a subsequent co-production deal. The jury consists of the Czech TV representatives: Markéta Štinglová, Manager of International Content Projects Center, Petr Morávek, Head of Production Department Documentary and Educational Programmes, and Věra Krincvajová, Chief Editor of Documentaries, Film Center.

The award goes to The Wife of (Estonia, USA, France)

Cut thru the Noise Award

The award is given to one of the Ex Oriente Film participating teams that makes the most progress over the course of the workshop in terms of their fist-package preparation. Shortlist of candidates will be suggested by the workshop lead tutors. Winning project will be selected by Diana Karklin, sales & acquisitions manager of Rise and Shine World Sales and by Mirjam Wiekenkamp, founder and manager of international projects at NOISE PR. Awarded team will receive tailor-made consultancy on the project´s release, distribution and sales strategy.

Awarded project: Up in the Air (dir. Oksana Syhareva, prod. Oksana Syhareva, Nataliia Pogudina, Ukraine)

The statement reads: “We very much enjoyed the projects we got to choose from and want to thank you all and Ex Oriente. The project that will receive the Cut thru the Noise Award – a tailor-made consultancy trajectory focusing on distribution and publicity – stood out because of its high cinematic quality, a strong choice of characters and an absolutely engaging narrative. We understand that the filmmaking process has radically changed, but we are convinced that this film will be completed in the best way possible and we are happy to support it. Our award goes to Up in the Air by Oksana Syhareva.”

Ex Oriente Fine Cut Award

The Ex Oriente Film project selected by the workshop lead tutors receives rough cut consultations with renowned film editor in value of 1 500 €.

The award goes to Shut the Fuck Up! (dir. Taisiia Kutuzov, prod. Stephane Siohan, Olga Beskhmelnitsyna, Ukraine, France)

“It’s not easy being young. It’s not easy to be brave. It’s even harder to be young and brave in a small town. Well-known American psychologist Phillip Zimbardo is touring the world with his next social experiment called the Heroic Imagination Project, which explores courage in everyday life. Courage, he says, is not the preserve of those who do not feel fear. Zimbardo teaches that courage can be learned. The protagonist of the film we have chosen to honour is courageous. His actions change the order of a world gripped in prejudice and corruption. An aggressive and unjustifiable war has now intervened in his life. A war that aims to destroy everything our young hero has fought for over the years. That must not happen. And it won’t. We also commend the filmmaker for her courage and talent. We want to help her testimony to be seen and heard by the whole free world and to support our young hero and his country. The prize goes to the project Shut the Fuck Up! by director Taisiia Kutuzova. Glory to free Ukraine.”

The Golden Funnel Award

The award for the most significant development within the workshop is granted to one Ex Oriente Film workshop participating team awarded 1 000 €. The financial support should help the filmmakers in further development and international promotion of their documentary film. Project is selected by the workshop lead tutors Mikael Opstrup, Iikka Vehkalahti, Filip Remunda and Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová.

The award goes to Runaway (dir. Marika Pecháčková, prod. Pavla Klimešová, Vít Klusák, Czech Republic)

“It has been our pleasure to spend the last year working with all of you talented filmmakers. The Golden Funnel award is given to the project, which has made the most significant development within the course of the workshop. Choosing just one has been a difficult decision to make, because all of you worked hard.

During the workshop, the director was looking for a way to talk about something that is kept quiet in “better families” out of politeness. She revealed that silence kills. She therefore decided to break the silence and establish an intimate dialogue within the family, of which the author becomes an organic part. She seeks wisdom in trauma. He masters psychological principles, and so the film brings hope that in trauma, apart from destruction, we can all find wisdom and a way out. For all this he has found an original cinematic language. We award the prize to an auteur who will not emotionally drain us, but inspire and uplift us. The Golden Funnel Awards goes to Marika Pecháčková – Runaway.”

Pitch the Doc Prize

The Pitch the Doc Prize is given to boost the progress of the credited project, providing it with dedicated curation and support in building international recognition and visibility. Consultation is held by an expert associated with Pitch the Doc, and takes place within 6 months of the Prize announcement, provided that the project is successfully validated on the Pitch the Doc platform.

The award goes to Pianoforte (dir. Jakub Piątek, prod. Maciej Kubicki, Poland)

“As Pitch the Doc we would like to contribute to boosting the international recognition of the project, which in current terrible circumstances reminds us that passions, emotions and talents may be engaged in shared human heritage. It shows us that there are values common for people from various parts of the world, despite their differences in cultures, origins and personalities. The Pitch the Doc Prize goes to Pianoforte.”

DAE Pitch Talent Encouragement Prize

Documentary Association of Europe is bringing to East Doc Platform the DAE Pitch Talent Encouragement Prize. The award consists of two free memberships for 12 months, valued at 100 € each and a bespoke mentoring session with a DAE member, depending on the needs of the project team.

The award goes to 5 Pills Away (dir. Karolina Domagalska, prod. Katarzyna Slesicka, Anna Stylinska)

DocsBarcelona Award

In cooperation with DocsBarcelona, one of the projects presented at the East Doc Forum is selected for the Speed Meetings at the 2022 DocsBarcelona. The meetings will be arranged previously depending on financers and projects preferences. The award enables the filmmakers to additionally present their project to the international decision makers and thus soon follow up on and broaden the deals and cooperation initiated at East Doc Platform. The project is selected by Mikael Opstrup.

“Making a character driven documentary is about turning events into a story while staying true to what happened to the characters. When these events concern childhood trauma for the director the bumpy creation process gets even tougher and more difficult. Combining emotional closeness with artistic distance is not easy.

How the result of this journey will appear on the screen I find very difficult to predict with this film but the recordings are very strong and the personal effort from the director even more so.

The Docs Barcelona Award goes to From 0 to 8 (dir. Danilo Cekovic, prod. Mario Adamson, Sergio C. Ayala, Sweden, Serbia).”

DOK Leipzig Accelerator Award for DOK Co-Pro Market

“The DOK Leipzig Accelerator Award for DOK Co-Pro Market for fast forward participation in the 18th DOK Co-Pro Market. The project will have the chance to present itself to international decision makers in tailor-made one to one meetings.

The award is given to Baltic UXO by Alexandra Belinski & Agne Dovydaityte and produced by Dagne Vildziunaite and Agne Dovydaityte for its unconventional visual approach to exploring a little known environmental threat in the Baltic and northern seas. Using exquisite cinematic language, the project shines a light to the dumping of tons of unexploded ordenances in the waters. What was perceived as a quick solution to dispose of harmful weapons after WW2 has become a long lasting danger to the sea and the communities living in its surroundings.”

Baltic UXO (dir. Agne Dovydaityte, Alexander Belinski, prod. Agne Dovydaityte, Dagne Vildziunaite, Lithuania)

DOK Leipzig Accelerator Award for DOK Preview Training

The statement: “The project is invited to present itself at the DOK preview presentation highlighting the best late stage projects from different training initiatives ready to hit the International market.

We are happy to award the prize to Pianoforte by Jakub Piatek and produced by Maciej Kubicki. An intriguing coming of age story driven by empathy, dreams and hope, which will compel audiences to root for the Young pianists and follow them on their journey to achieve their dreams.”

The award goes to Pianoforte (dir. Jakub Piątek, prod. Maciej Kubicki, Poland)

Sunny Side of the Doc Prize

The 33rd edition of the international marketplace for documentary and narrative experiences to be held online and in La Rochelle from 20 to 23 June is delighted to provide industry support and two complimentary accreditations to the creative team behind one project presented in the framework of East Doc Forum 2022. #StorytellingMatters This shared conviction will be the central theme to all Sunny Side of the Doc events in 2022, helping bring to light people, stories and actions which question, engage and impact globally.

The award goes to Dakar Sistaz (dir. Jakub Šmíd, Barbora Chalupová, prod. Zuzana Kučerová, Czech Republic)

The East Doc Platform is organized by the Institute of Documentary Film in association with One World Film Festival.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for the work of Oeke Hoogendijk. In 2020 we played “My Rembrandt” in Belgrade at the Magnificent7 Festival and five years earlier her “The New Rijksmuseum” opened the same festival. Hoogendijk has found her niche, documentaries on art and the art world, and she manages to make drama out of what happens behind the doors, where money talks.

This time the locations are primarily court rooms, where a very actual battle is being performed: In 2014 the Allard Pierson Museum hosted a beautiful exhibition “Treasures of Crimea” with artworks from the peninsula chosen by Valentina, who had walked from llocal museum to local museum to pick the best of the best for the Amsterdam museum… In 2014 Crimea was annexed by Russia, so to whom should the exhibition’s artworks be returned? The director of the museum chooses to take the issue to court – To Ukraine as Crimea belongs to that country or to the annexed Crimea, to the museums, that gave permission to the loan.

It is actually quite exciting to follow the lawyers representing both sides making their arguments – but it would have been dry and boring if the film had not included the true protagonists, the women from Crimea primarily, from the small museums that they have dedicated their life to. But also the lady from Kyiv, who wants the artworks be sent to the capital of Ukraine. They express motions, especially Valentina, who feels guilty that she convinced her colleagues to give the loan. But (my comment) how could she know what would happen to Crimea?

The court room sessions take time, years (with appeals after appeals) while the exhibition’s artworks stand in a storage waiting for a judicial decision to be made. At the time when the film was finished no final decision was taken – in October 2021 the Dutch court decided that the 300 pieces of art should be returned to Ukraine. 5 years after the exhibition…

Netherlands, 2021, 82 mins.

I know Antoine Cattin from his “The Mother» and other films he made with Pavel Kostomarov. I don’t know if the Swiss director still lives in St. Petersburg but the film that he presents at CPH:DOX takes place in the wonderful city. Here is the precise catalogue description of the festival:

”Russia is one of the countries in the world that celebrates the most public holidays. Across a selection of them, the lively and marvelously detailed ‘Holidays’ lets us in to the lives of ordinary people on the streets of the great, inscrutable country of the East about which we hear so much and know so little. All at an upbeat balalaika pace and with a liberating dose of black humour. We are in St Petersburg: Here we meet a poor Kazakh immigrant living in a room full of cockroaches and bedbugs. There is the tough, female head of municipal affairs who works her employees to the bone. There’s the xenophobic tram driver. And then there’s the young urban climber who climbs the city’s towers and roofs. Parts of the film are shot by the subjects themselves, and we are everywhere at once without a loss of detail or nuance. Antoine Cattan’s cinematic mosaic also tells of national divisions, xenophobia, class differences, religion, gender attitudes and the next war, which in Russia is always luring in the shadows.”

Yes, it is up and down Nevsky Prospekt – and it is up on the roofs and it is on the square of the Winter Palace, but it is also with Kazakhs in small komunalka appartments and in the office of the lady, who is taken around to check if the snow is removed and who sits with flowers and left-over pizza boxes talking about sex with a colleague on March 8, the women’s day. One of several gem scenes of a film that otherwise suffers from wanting to have too much, making me ”talk” to the film: Take it easy, let the scenes develop! Old age reaction, maybe.

Switzerland, 2022, 87 mins.

… She has been following Roma from meeting him on Maidan in 2014 until today, where the boy has grown to be a teenager turning 18 very soon. He was living on Maidan, he was in an orphanage, he has problems in reading, he had teachers in Maidan, he has teachers in the orphanage, he has done stupid things and risks to be put in jail if he repeats it…

That’s what I wrote in 2019 after an emotionally strong presentation in Kyiv by Olha Zhurba of her documentary project ”Roma” that now premieres at CPH:DOX. After a long period of editing with the participation of Danish Niels Pagh Andersen and succesful fundraising that brought Danish and Dutch companies in as co-producers with an Ukrainian company and thus guaranteed that the film will have a considerable distribution not only to these countries but to festivals all over. And hopefully to broadcasters. In Kyiv in 2019 Olha Zhurba had followed Roma on her own with no financial help and she said she was not sure if there was a film…

Later on she wrote to me: (Actually) I always believed that there will be a film, even when I was losing Roma or he kicked me off; deep in my heart I had that filmmakers’ confidence and strong believe that this film will be because people must see it!  I didn’t know when it will be and if it will be good but each day I felt gratefulness to the process that were changing me in a better way. It was my power to move further…

…people must see it, she writes, yes absolutely. The end result is great, shifting from now and then, having (excellent narrative solution) the ”now” being phone calls from the director to Roma, who is ”outside” as he has been through his whole young life. From his locked-in position, due to robbery, he is asked to remember and he does so making the audience ready to piece together his role at Maidan in 2014, his stay with brother Kolya, who has been in jail several times, his relation to his mother, his stay at the orphanage, his fun with girls, his meeting with an American woman (OMG!), who has adopted his two sisters, his drug abuse…

Roma is a clever and charming boy/young man. He can reflect on his own situation, he can verbalise – already when he was a school boy – what he wants, when he gets older, what could ”have saved” him from all the shit he gets into.

Roma, declared ”useless” by some of the Maidan fighters, is seen looking for his mother on Maidan. He finds her briefly, she is in a bad state – and he finds together with Kolya her grave in one of the many fine scenes of a film that was finished before the Russian invasion – one can’t help thinking about that when the Maidan Square comes up every night on television right now. And when I read that Olha Zhurba is in Kyiv filming.

Did I say that this is a Must-See at CPH:DOX.

The point of view of the director, Lithuanian Lina Luytė, is clear from the very beginning. A boat with refugees is approaching the coast of Lesbos, the island where the infamous refugee camp Moria is situated. The one that burned down in 2020 with a new one being built that is as bad as the first one, reports say. The boat gets closer to the coast where people stand shouting “get away”. “Don´t come near”. Disgusting… 

Here is the catalogue text for the strongly recommended film that has been shown at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival and will be shown in Copenhagen at the CPH:DOX, link below for when and where. 

“Afghan filmmaker Talib Shah Hossaini wants to make a film about everyday life in Europe’s largest refugee camp, Moria. This is where he lives with his small family while they wait for the authorities about whether they can stay in Greece. Meanwhile, he casts his wife, their daughters and his friends as actors in his homemade no-budget film. Despite the inhumane conditions in the chaotic camp and a myriad of obstacles along the way, the deeply sympathetic Talib maintains his composure. Meanwhile, the line between reality and film-within-a-film is blurred when Talib and his wife are instructed on how to conduct themselves in the asylum interview that awaits them. Comic and tragic moments lead up to an incredible scene when Talib’s film is finally shown to the camp’s other residents…”

The title of Talib Shah’s flm is ”Picnic”, the title of Lina Luytė’s film is ”Blue/Red/Deport”, that refers to the three possibilities of the refugees in the camp, with a smile explained by one of the daughters of Talib Shah, who is – as the catalogue text says – ”deeply sympathetic” but also a man who shows his desparate situation to the Lithuanian director, who goes around with him, films the camp, how it looks, how the family lives, how they get water, how they cook, how the kids manage to overcome, how his wife conveys the situation – and how the filming takes place with sometimes many takes of a scene, especially the one where uncle Norullah, who has been in the camp for a year has again been rejected asylum. Or the tough one, where Talib Shah gets totally upset with his children as they don´t perform well falling in the water. There is a fine flow from the film being made by Talib Shah and the respectful observation of Lina Luytė. 

And the end – the screening of “Picnic”, a fiction taken out of reality, the audience looking at the film, children, children, children, their faces, what do they think, what do they take from their stay in this horrible place… and the reactions from some of spectators after the screening. This is how it is.

Germany, 2022, 81 mins.

https://cphdox.dk/film/blue-red-deport/

 

 

 

A film about wine and greed… is the subtitle of this film that in many ways is closer to a fiction film than to a documentary. It is grandiose in its set-up and although it’s not always succesful in mixing the (much of it wonderful) archive with reenacted scenes , there is a drive in the narration based on diaries and documents of the time that made me enjoy the conflicts in the family with father Spyridon, the sons Nikos and Vasilis and the poor mother. They searched for fame, they got it, they were stubborn but had to deal with politics and politicians which had drastic consequences. With the wine as the loser, alas. In a good meaning: a fascinating old-fashioned documentary drama to be enjoyed.

And when I write old-fashioned I have to continue with some flowers to Kostas Spiropoulos: I can see how much he has enjoyed to make the film, to tell this story, how much effort and care he has put into the research to find the great archive material and turn some of the new scenes into b/w sequences. Is that old-fashioned, I am afraid so, when I think about the fast, non-aesthetic use of news material of today. Also chapeau for some of the composition of landscape images and interiors, there is thought about colours and framing. Paintings.

Une coupe de champagne, voilà!

Greece, 2022, 80 mins.

Read more here, also about the screening times in Thessaloniki.

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/movie/1228/14248