Is it possible to make 11 short documentaries in two weeks? By film crew members from several European countries, from Spain and Bulgaria in the South to Latvia and Lithuania in the North. Young people who had never seen each other before?

It was possible as proved through the Summer Media Studio 2009 in Vilnius, Lithuania, a so-called European Film Student Workshop coordinated by the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and with support from partner institutions and the EU MEDIA Programme. From this side a very good investment in the future, indeed.

Conditions: the film should be about Vilnius, European Capital of Europe 2009. 10 minutes long, maximum.

Result: 11 films of different temperament and style and professional quality, of course. The right to fail is a privilige for film students, actually I think they must, but there is also the obligation to do your best, try something new and be committed. And have fun and learn from working in teams.

See the films: Go to this site http://www.summermediastudio.com/  and take a look and read my small review-like comments in the text below.

I advocated for fun and the upcoming European filmmakers in Vilnius had fun as you can see in the film about the workshop, ”2 Weeks in 10 Minutes”, that is full of ideas and playfulness in storytelling.

Time was limited and it would be wrong not to say that several of the films would have profited from some more time in the editing. Nevertheless, I will not hesitate to give the link below to anyone who wants to visit the beautiful city of Vilnius. The 10 films about the capital of Vilnius bring you around and give you a feeling of buildings, atmosphere and people. And a bit of social and historical background. A very welcomed supplement to many official, promotional tourist guides.

People, yes, how easy it is to see when a person is good for the camera and can act as a strong character: ”The Wizard” (photo) is about a charismatic English teacher and tourist guide (and his dog), whose long monologue is accompanied/interpreted by well chosen images that gives the film portrait a second layer. ”Upside Down” is a wonderful observational camera tour-de-force with a girl, who plays in a modern universe but comes from the old. What energy this uncontrollable girl communicates, ”everything is all right”, she says to comfort the cameraman in the finishing merry-go-around scene. A gift to a film is also the foreign minister of the independent republic of Uzupis when he shows around in this special part of Vilnius in ”Le Bonheur est sur le Guidon”, as is the fine old nobleman, the sculptor ”Konstantinas”,  who in his film shows how he works and gives a warm verbal tribute to Vilnius.

The film about the female trolley-driver, ”Through the Windshield”, could have stayed more focused on her – for my taste there were too many distractions, as in the film about the crisis, ”Empty Rooms”, that have many fine sequences and ambitions but needs another round of cutting. On the contrary, a salute to the film ”Lenino Pr.40” for being so conscious about the form in the story about the building that was the prison for (political) troublemakers in Soviet times. ”Three Garages Man” had great camerawork but the story about the young artist-to-be wanted too much for 10 minutes. I had expected much more from ”Saint Vilnius”, which has a fine female character but disappointing images, whereas ”Deported” about the old people’s home had brilliant moments and faces but failed to make an element of received and written letters work in a harmonious way.

But, wow, 11 films in two weeks, lots of talent, keep on, please!

http://www.summermediastudio.com/

In the best Lithuanian slow-pace, spiritual documentary tradition this is a film that puts total trust to the image. And to the fact that an old man and his horse living in the countryside is a story that includes sufficient drama. It certainly does for a creative director like Mickevicius. There is enough of both story and drama, and of time for reflection if you believe in a film to be made when it meets its spectator. Taking that the film is a chain of sequences of carefully framed nature tableaux, one of life’s many stages, the narrative takes place within these, following the seasons: the old man dragging the horse to a place where he bolts it, the horse easily unbolting to be free again, yet never leaving the man, the horse being attacked by flies and bees, the old man preparing a spray to be put on the horse for protection…  it is a hell of a tough job for the old farmer but he continues his daily fight against the weather, scolding the horse at the same time as he gives it care. Where the wind is blowing, the devil goes, he says in a film that suddenly includes another small drama with a frog as the main character almost being wiped out by mud from the shovel of the man. It is a film full of moments, sometimes hard and rational (what a life he has), sometimes almost biblical scenes that communicates much more than you actually see.

It took the director many years to make this film about his neighbour. He has made several versions. This one is a television hour and a big hurra again for the contribution of Finnish channel YLE, and German MDR. Respect for the audience.

Nevertheless, film festivals all over, pay attention: This is a film for the big screen. Something very special. Beauty.

Lithuania, 2008, 52 mins.

Some festivals make a selection very early. YIDFF – that stands for Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival – does so. The festival that has a strong reputation for high quality selection, and that operates only every second year, yet including several screenings and seminars during the year, ”outside” of the festival, has already made the selection of the 15 feature-length works that were sought from around the world. From the 1,141 entries from 110 countries and areas ”emerges a stringent selection of 15 cinematic gems, richly varied and representing the vanguard of world filmmaking.”

Voila! Among the selected works are ”The Mother” by Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostamarov, ”Oblivion” by Heddy Honigmann and ”Z32” (photo) by Avi Mograbi, all mentioned and highlighted on this site.

The festival takes place October 8-15 and has many other sections, not yet finalised in terms of selection and programming.

http://www.yidff.jp/

Beautiful name for a festival… this one in Armenia that started yesterday and goes on until July the 19th with an interesting documentary competition programme.

Several films have been written about on filmkommentaren.dk, like ”Cash and Marry” by Atanas Georgiev, ”Good-bye, How are You” by Boris Mitic, ”Letters to the President” by Petr Lom, ”One Man Village” by Simon el-Habre and ”Burma VJ” by Anders Østergaard. 17 films are in competition in Yerevan in the documentary category of a festival that presents itself like this in a quote from the website:
 
The Golden Apricot festival is different in the sense that it is relatively smaller-scale and much cozier, but it continues to garner genuinely international attention and respect. The films are presented in two international competition sections: features and documentaries. The films are presented in two international competition sections: features and documentaries. One Grand Prize Golden Apricot and one Special Mention are awarded in each category. One Grand Prize Golden Apricot and one Special Mention are awarded in each category. The festival has a special pan-Armenian competitive section – Armenian Panorama – for short, feature, documentary, and animation films produced by filmmakers of Armenian descent. The festival has a special pan-Armenian competitive section – Armenian Panorama – for short, feature, documentary, and animation films produced by filmmakers of Armenian descent. The opening of the festival is always marked with a traditional blessing of apricots, for which Armenia is famous. The opening of the festival is always marked with a traditional blessing of apricots (photo), for which Armenia is famous.

http://www.gaiff.am/en/international/

Selection has been done for the Nordisk Panorama documentary competition that takes place in Reykjavik September 25-30. 21 documentaries compete and several can be read about on this site: Ada Bligaard Søby’s Black Heart (photo), Anders Østergaard’s Burma VJ, Nanna Frank Møller’s Let’s Be Together and Christian Sønderby Jepsen’s ”Side by Side”.

From Finland there is new film by the master Pirjo Honkasalo, Ito-A Diary of a City Priest. From Norway Polish director Andrzej Fidyk comes with Yodok Stories and fron Sweden there is a new film from the hands of Erik Gandini: Videocracy.

The festival also includes a competition for short films (40 films) and a special section for New Nordic Voices, a competition for new talents (11 films).

And there is as usual a Nordisk Forum that this year includes – among many others – projects from directors like Danish Pernille Rose Grønkjær, Swedish Suzanne Khardalian and Norwegian Magreth Olin.

http://www.filmkontakt.com/fkn-318/

On this site, not long ago, you could find a review of ”Cooking History” by Slovak director Peter Kerekes. During the last year you have had the chance to read several enthusiastic words about Slovak director Juraj Lehotsky’s ”Blind Loves”. And if you go back to the start of the site – soon to be two years old – you will be able to find the name of Marko Skop connected to his fine work ”Other Worlds”, Now same director, who was the producer of ”Blind Loves”, has won the first prize for his new film ”Osadne” at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Yesterday night. Slovak documentaries prove that Eastern European documentaries work with humour, original structure in storytelling and important subjects – as this one about being a citizen of Europe. Here is the description of the film that I hope to watch very soon:

In this cheerful “document-toury movie” by Other Worlds creator Marko Škop, an Orthodox priest, a long-serving mayor, and a Ruthenian activist set out on a journey from the remote eastern Slovak village of Osadné for the European Parliament in Brussels. The village of Osadné lies on the farthest eastern border of the European Union. Local Orthodox priest Peter Soroka has buried 50 people in the past five years and baptized merely two children. Soroka’s civilian counterpart is Mayor Ladislav Mikuláško, a political record-holder who has been the village bigwig for 36 years. These two unusual local patriots decide to take the future of Osadné into their own hands and, with the help of Ruthenian activist Fedor Vico, seek help from the highest authorities.

Osadne, 65/52 mins., Slovakia & Czech Republic

http://www.artileria.sk/en/

http://www.kviff.com/

http://web.docuinter.net/en/net_archive.php?id=669

http://www.blindloves.com/