Second edition. Second time that Damascus has an international documentary film festival. The programme is enlarged, there is an industry section, sidebar retrospectives, it is all there. Impressive it is to be back.

Full house at the opening film, “China is still Far” by Malek Bensmaïl, shot in Algeria and dealing with the question of what it means to be Algerian. Let me give the floor to the director: ” A school somewhere in the Aurés. Between the North and the South. Between an oasis and the steppe.I decided to set up my camera in a classroom of the last form of a primary school for a few months so that I could seize, through the look of the children as well as through that of their teachers and families, what has been passed on in an Algerian school, 50 years after the independence…”

It is beautifully shot, the children and their teachers are great, there are some very touching and funny moments between them, other sequences do not have the same focus and intensity, is felt to be a bit too long, but a very relevant choice for the opening of the festival.

http://www.dox-box.org/

Second edition of the documentary festival in Damascus, Tartous and Homs in Syria. Reports from the 1st edition can be found on filmkommentaren.dk.

I dont have the programme schedule yet but have seen the list of films and guests who will be there. It demonstrates that the organisers, filmmakers Diana el Jeroudi and Orwa Nyrabia have made a big effort to enlarge the cinema programme. It includes a very impressive list of films to be offered to the Syrian audience is. More than 40 films where half of them are new for me… who watch quite a lot as loyal readers have discovered.

There is an official selection with an audience award. Let me mention 3 known titles (”Family” by Sami Saïf and Phie Ambro, ”From Father to Son” by Visa Koiso-Kanntila and ”Mosquito Problems and other Stories” by Andrey Paounov) and 3 I am looking forward to watch (”China is Still Far” by Malek Bensmail, ”One Man Village” by Simon el Habre and ”Six Ordinary Stories” by Meyar Alroumi). There is a series called ”Voices of Women” with films – among others – by Kim Longinotto, Eva Mulvad and Alina Mazzarati. There is 3 films by Nicholas Philibert in the ”Meet the Master” category. There is a series of ”Notes on War” with films by PeÅ Holmquist, Werner Herzog – among others. And ”Best of Fest” introduces ”The English Surgeon”, ”The Mother” and ”René”. What a fest to expect. Photo: Burma vj by Anders Østergaard, closing film in Damascus.

Plus several industry arrangements, including one where Mikael Opstrup, EDN chair and producer and I are doing a writing workshop for 12 filmmakers.

http://www.dox-box.org/

It is the fourth time the programmer Cian Smyth organises the documentary festival ”within” the Belfast Film Festival, March 26- April 4. And again it is a pleasure to see a varied selection of high quality films, 44 in all, ” from experimental to cinema verite in form” as said in the press release, with observational “gaze” perspectives in the spirit of Albert Maysles like Helena Trestikova’s manyfold awarded “Réné”, and more “staged” titles like “Blind Loves” by Jura Lehotsky and “Z32” by Avi Mograbi, and several new Irish films.

From the press release: Finally, a section of the festival that is extremely important to us, Truth/Memory/Transition, attempts to present and discuss documentary films and their worldwide stories in the context of conflict resolution, managing the emotional impact of history and the flexible nature of memory. This strand centres around debate and Pray the Devil Back to Hell will provide a thrilling centrepiece discussion in the presence of filmmaker and subject as it sits alongside a fascinating discussion about the consequences of fame in politics with world-renowned Northern Ireland civil rights campaigner Bernadette McAliskey (nee Devlin) and the film Bernadette. Photo: A mural with Bernadette Devlin.

The films in this category: Pray the Devil Back to Hell: dir. Gini Reticker, USA, 2008, Ireland Premiere. Bernadette: dir. Duncan Campbell, Northern Ireland/Ireland, 2008, World Premiere. AWingBigCell: dir. Seamus Harahan, Miriam deBurca, Northern Ireland/Ireland, 2008, World Premiere. For the Record: dir. Mairead McClean, Northern Ireland/Ireland, 2009, World Premiere. An Phailistin – Disturbing the Silence: dir. Sonia NicGiolla Easbuig, Ireland, 2004

www.belfastfilmfestival.org

Awards were given out tonite at ZagrebDOX. The regional awards are the ones to be noticed signaling strongly the current high quality. All 3 films have or will have a well deserved international recognition. The two first have been written about on filmkommentaren.dk. Keep an eye on your local festival or tv programme. Here folllows the jury’s motivation texts:

Big Stamp
The Caviar Connection, Dragan Nikolić: A wonderful mixture of observational documentary and creative authorship. It shows the inevitable disappearing world of traditional fishing through the colorful, character driven story of one family. The film pulls us so fully into this world, that we can’t help but have warmth for these flawed characters, find humor in their ordinary situations, and feel compassion for their struggles.

Jury Special Mentions
Cash & Marry, Atanas Georgiev: Adresses the very relevant theme of illegal immigration through a highly personal and entertaining approach. Sure to please crowds around the globe, the film succeeds in touching this thorny subject in a way that will be revealing and thought-provoking for audiences from both sides of this divide.

21st Second, eljko Mirković: A refreshing look at the humanity behind the “hero” protagonist, who faces the dilemmas of rebuilding his life, and ultimately discovers the beauty of a second chance at being a good father.

Jury: Casey Cooper Johnson, Irena Taskovski, producer, Silvestar Kolbas, director of photography.

http://www.zagrebdox.net/  

It took some time for director Atanas Georgiev (Macedonia), his producer Sinisha Juricic (Croatia) and coproducer Ralph Wiser (Austria) to make and finish ”Cash and Marry”, which will be a hit at festivals in the coming year. As it very rightfully was at the world premiere at ZagrebDOX where it was pitched as project 3 years before. Totally full house, people standing in the corridor, a super audience for this film’s first screening.

But it was worth waiting for. It is a provocative, stylistically sometimes messy and anarchistic, charming, funny, clever, touching and so very much actual document about Europe today exemplified by the hunt for a bride in Vienna that performs the director himself – for the film and for a passport that can make him stay in the European Union.

Next screening is at the Diagonale in Graz, Austria to be followed by a screening at Visions du Réel in Nyon… and so on and so forth. ORF commissioning editor Franz Grabner expects a big audence, when he shows it on television and with Austrian distributor Autlook on board it must be possible to make a strong world distribution of this film to festivals and tv stations.

I had the privilege to see the development of a film that was handled creatively and competently by a young director and his team, including first of all Sinisha Juricic from Nukleus in Zagreb. Congratulations.

http://www.zagrebdox.net/

12 projects from the region. I can not mention them all but again I must say that the validity of the argument, so often expressed on this place, that originality and creativeness in documentaries come from the Eastern part of Europe, this argument stays intact after ZagrebDOX 2009. As said by one of the participating editors, Wim van Rompaey from Lichtpunt in Belgium, they are good storytellers. I would add – and how wonderful it is to be surprised and entertained and witness passion and commitment.

Let me mention 3 projects that I am sure you will meet as films within the next year: ”I’ll Marry the whole Village” by Serbian Zeljko Mirkovic, who I met 8 years ago and who has developed enormously in his film skills. This story is a music based documentary on a man who wishes the best for the bachelors in his village and wants to become a matchmaker, as the filmmaker already is having publicised his film intention! ”Ritz” by Croatian Miroslav Sikavica, a story about civil action against the meaningless violence that made Luka Ritz a victim last year in Zagreb. And ”Lost Tapes of Adrian Tudor” by producer Catalin Leescu and Andra Chiriac from Romania, about  a man who posted a video clip on YouTube bragging his much better life in Spain and showing his new Audi – with the result that more than a hundred fellow Romanians commented on him by making their clips for the YouTube.

The team behind the ”Lost Tapes of Adrian Tudor” received the prize (see photo, where they are accompanied by Wim van Rompaey) for the best pitch.

The ZagrebPro is the training and pitching session of the festival. 12 projects from the region were presented to 8 committed panelists, who contributed with critical, constructive and encouraging comments to the directors and producers present: Veteran Franz Grabner from ORF in Austria, in previous years he picked up succesful films, see above. Jenny Westergaard from Finnish YLE, for the first time in Zagreb, she is one of the most international orientated and knowledgeable tv editors in Europe. The same goes for Wim van Rompaey from Belgian Lichtpunt, a small oasis for the creative documentary. Hrvoje Jucincic from Croatian Television was there with money for prebuys and coproduction. Sanja Ravlic represented the local Audiovisual Institute, which functions like a film Institute. Vanja Kranjac, always supportive on behalf of Serbian B92 that does not have money but can help with archive and equipment. As can Bosnian Television that was presented by the filmmaker Namik Kabil, who was very competent in his remarks to colleagues. Irena Taskovski found several projects that she wants to help through her distribution company. And Paolo Vidali from the Italian Friuli region was there to build alliances with producers and directors.

Cecilia Lidin from EDN and I had the pleasure again to moderate the session and train the pitchers in the two days before thursday February 26.