Artdocfest/ Riga Announces Competition Films

Zane Balčus, film critic and journalist, colleague and manager of Baltic Sea Docs, writes for the FNE, Film New Europe, that I can only recommend warmly you to subscribe to if you want daily film news from Eastern and Central Europe. With her permission I copy paste the article:

Riga: International Documentary Film Festival Ardocfest / Riga will run from 26 November to 1 December in Riga. The screenings are planned to be held at the cinema Splendid Palace. The festival will have two competition sections – an international competition (with 21 films) and Baltic competition – Baltic Focus (films produced in or co-produced with Baltic countries, 8 films). All competition films will be Latvian premieres. 

The main award of the Baltic Focus competition will be named Herz, honouring Latvian documentary filmmaker Hercs Franks (1926 – 2013).

On the jury of the international competition will be Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner, the director of the National Film Centre of Latvia Dita Rietuma, and journalist of music and politics Artemy Troitsky, who is currently based in Estonia. Baltic Focus will be judged by film consultant Tue Steen Müller (Denmark), director Alina Rudnitskaya (Russia), and associate professor of University of Cagliari Massimo Tria (Italy). 

Artdocfest was established in Russia in 2007. Since 2015 it was partnering with Riga International Film Festival as a non-competitive section of documentary films, but since 2018 it was running as an international documentary competition section within Riga IFF. Organizers of Ardocfest / Riga has an ambition to become an important cultural and documentary film event in the Baltics and broader Eastern European region. Along with the film competition programme, the festival will have out of competition screenings, a symposium dedicated to theoretical discussions on documentary cinema.

Out of competition programme will include latest film by the festival’s president, director Vitaly Mansky Gorbachev. Paradise.  

International Competition programme:

Breaking into Baikonur / Vtorgnennia na Baikonur (Ukraine, 2020)

Directed by Dmitriy Gromov, Angel Angelov

Bitter Love (Sweden, Poland, Finland, 2020)

Directed by Jerzy Sladkowski

Garage People / Garagenvolk (Germany, 2020)

Directed by Natalya Efimkina

Gunda (Norway, USA, 2020)

Directed by Victor Kossakovsky

Gift / Dar (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Valentin Sidorenko

Joy / Dzhoi (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Darya Slyusarenko

The Earth is Blue as an Orange / Zemlia blakitna, nibi apel’sin (Ukraine, Lithuania, 2020)

Directed by Iryna Tsilyk

Co-produced by Moonmakers

Supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre

The Whale from Lorino / Wieloryb z Lorino (Poland, 2019)

Directed by Machey Kuske

Produced by Pokromski Studio

The Foundation Pit / Kotlovan (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Andrey Gryazev

Kunashir (France, 2019)

Directed by Vladimir Kozlov

A Boy / Malchik (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Vitaliy Akimov

It’s Night Outside (Belgium, 2020)

Directed by Lea Tonner, Caroline Guimbal

I Need the Handshakes (Poland, Belarus, 2020)

Directed by Andrei Kutsila

Produced by Belsat TV

Dad / Papa (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Valeriya Gay Germanika

Don’t Hesitate to Come for a Visit, Mom (Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Russia, 2020)

Directed by Anna Artemyeva 

Stasya is me / Stasia – eto ia (Russia, Ukraine, 2020)

Directed by Stasya Grankovskaya

Shadows of Your Childhood / Teni tvoego detstva (Russia, 2019)

Directed by Mihail Gorobchuk

Silent Voice (France, 2020)

Directed by Reka Valerik

Daybreak, sunset, cow milk / Utro, vecher, moloko (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Marina Fomenko

Time is (Belgium, 2019)

Directed by Zaur Kurazov

Beaumonde scrapping / Chermet (Russia, 2020)

Directed by Nikolay N. Viktorov

Baltic Focus competition:

The Jump / Šuolis (Lithuania, Latvia, France, 2020)

Directed by Giedrė ickytė

Produced by Moonmakers

Co-produced by VFS Films

Supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre, the National Film Centre of Latvia

The Weight of All the Beauty / Süda Sõrve Sääres (Estonia, 2019)

Directed by Eeva Mägi

Produced by Alasti Kino

Supported by the Estonian Film Institute

Meanwhile on Earth (Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, 2020)

Directed by Carl Olsson

Co-produced by Allfilm

Supported by the Estonian Film Institute

Restless Memories / Nemierīgās atmiņas (Latvia, 2020)

Directed by Elina Lange-Ionatamishvili

Co-produced by Mistrus Media

One Life / Vienas gyvenimas (Lithuania, 2019)

Directed by Marija Stonytė

Produced by Moonmakers

Supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre

A Loss of Something Ever Felt / Üht kaotust igavesti kandsin (Estonia, Sweden, Colombia, 2020)

Directed by Carlos E. Lesmes, Liis Nimik

Produced by Alasti Kino

Supported by the Estonian Film Institute

Lobster Soup (Spain, Iceland, Lithuania, 2020)

Directed by Rafael Molés, Pepe Andreu

Co-produced by Studio Nominum

Supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre

The Circle / Südamering (Estonia, 2019)

Directed by Margit Lillak

Produced by Allfilm

Supported by the Estonian Film Institute

http://www.filmneweurope.com

https://artdocfest.com/en/event/idff-artdocfest—riga/ 

 

Lina Soualem: Their Algeria

You don’t know if she is crying or laughing. The grandmother of the director, who came to France from Algeria with her husband in the fifties. She is born in 1937, the two were married for 62 years, then decided to divorce but they are still living quite close to each other. She is still cooking for him, bringing the food, taking care of him, she is active, but she has decided to have her own life for the time she has left.

He is rarely speaking, moves slowly, watches tv and goes to the local cafeteria to just sit there the whole day – according to his wife, who is no longer his wife, but they are still husband and wife as says the director’s father, an actor in numerous films and before that a mime artist. The daughter uses her father to help reveal the past of the grandparents. She wants to know her roots, wants them to tell. It works very well. The film creates a fine atmosphere.

The film is built around the conversations mixed with footage that the father has shot in 1992. Lovely footage that includes Algerian parties with song and dance. Slowly we get closer to the grandfather and the scoop is when the director, the granddaughter, shows material that she shot in their village in Algeria. Grandfather’s face changes expression and he is proud of her filming there. The former cutler in Thiers. Who with his wife left Algeria. They wanted to come back but the war came with all its atrocities.

They remember, grandmother first of all remembers. You ask too many questions, Lina…she covers her face with her hands and we don’t know if the lively old woman is crying or laughing. 

It’s of course a film about the destiny of Algerian immigrants coming to France, about colonialism but it has a universality: Did we have/do we have the talks with our grandparents before it is too late. I envy the director, I never met my grandparents and there are so many questions I will never get answers to as my parents are no longer alive. This film made me think.

France, 2020, 70 mins.

https://www.dok-leipzig.de

IDFA Final Competition Selections

I saw (most of) the IDFA press conference, 2 hours!, with artistic director Orwa Nyrabia on stage in de Balie on Leidseplein, which used to be the main meeting place for IDFA. Nostalgia! Nyrabia presented the sections, also those that are not competitive with – for some films – clips. And he presented the juries and he is good in talking briefly and warmly about the chosen films. There are all together 258 titles for the festival that starts November 18 and goes on until December 6. And here is a quote from Nyrabia:

”The IDFA 2020 program tells us, without doubt or hesitation, that documentary art is just essential, relevant, and meaningful. Here’s a more inclusive program than ever, a program that takes us a step further from the overwhelming immediate moment and shows us a larger worldview. It protects our sanity and helps us find balance in the middle of all the chaos”. Words from a festival director, who is not afraid of expressing passion. Thank you!

And the films… Let me mention some from the competition programs, films I know from when they were on a project stage and filmmakers I know and expect a lot from. 

Feature length: Of course Vitaly Mansky’s “Gorbachev. Heaven”, 100 minutes (photo from the shooting) – “Mikhail Gorbachev, the 89-year-old former leader of the Soviet Union, receives Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky at his house just outside Moscow. In a light and pleasant atmosphere, weighty topics come up for discussion, as Gorbachev looks back over his life.”

And Milo Rau’s “The New Gospel” from Matera in Italy, setting up a play with immigrants. Rau, theatre director, was the one behind “Congo Tribunal”. And I can’t wait to see “Le Temps Perdu” by Argentinian Maria Alvarez, “A group of now-aging Marcel Proust fans have been meeting at a cafe in Buenos Aires since 2001, to read his seven-volume classic In Search of Lost Time. This black-and-white film documenting the reading sessions is an oasis of calm, intimacy, and depth in a modern world dominated by speedy online communications and innovation.” Since 2001! Wow!

First Appearance: Many, many years ago, in a workshop in Bucharest a young man Adrian Pirvu presented a film proposal: “A remarkably frank account of an attempt to get a grip on life. The first question is “When did it all start?” With the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, perhaps? When it happened, Adrian Pirvu’s mother was nearby and pregnant with him. She believes that’s why he is almost blind in one eye. Adrian is lonely and angry, and he hopes to find purpose in his life before he turns 30. So he decides to make a film in Ukraine about other people affected by Chernobyl. That’s how he meets Helena, which turns his world upside down. A new beginning?”. Actually Helena was not in his world by that time but his presentation and passion was convincing all of us in the workshop that here is a film. Alexandru Solomon, Hi Film, stepped in with his production company and now Deckert Distribution is taking care of distribution. Oh, I am so curious to see how the film ended up. “Everything Will Not be Fine”.

The same goes for “This Rain Will Never Stop” by Ukranians Alina Gorlova and producer Maksym Nakonechnyi, super talented young filmmakers, who have presented several versions of the film at different workshops. I remember Gorlova’s “No Obvious Signs” that we gave 5 pens on this site. Here she comes with a family story including locations in Ukraine, Syria, Germany, Iraq.

Mid-Length: I thought I knew the filmography of master Helena Třeštíková with whom I have spent many good festival hours, in Belgrade and last time in Helsinki. But there she is again with a world premiere, “Anny”, who “ didn’t become a sex worker till she was 46, but since then, she’s kept returning to the streets of Prague, rain or shine, as cars pass by at a snail’s pace. Helena Třeštíková’s film crew also kept returning to Anny in the years from 1996 to 2012.” Amazing how many films Třeštíková has made at the same time…

Archive: Bravo for having, for the second time, a section for films that use archive material in a creative way. 10 films compete, including Rithy Panh with his “Irradiated”, where he invites the audience “to become witnesses to human evil in an overwhelming, three-screen meditation on the mechanisms of violence” I had big problems watching it, should I give it another chance? And of course I am – as a lover of Paris and everything related to French culture and art – interested in watching Ulrike Ottinger’s “Paris Calligrammes”.

At the press conference I saw a clip from the opening film, “Nothing but the Sun” by (copy-paste from the press release) “Paraguayan-Swiss director Arami Ullón. A quietly earth-shattering film, Nothing but the Sun lucidly contrasts the hot, arid atmosphere of Paraguay’s Chaco region with the devastating stories of the Ayoreo people, an indigenous community violently uprooted from their ancestral territory by white missionaries. Between past and present, forest and desert, folk songs and church hymns, Ullón’s poetic feature lays bare the raw emotions of the human condition, seen through a culture on the brink of disappearing, but not without a voice.”

The clip took me by the heart. I will watch it, alas not in Amsterdam but at home on my computer. 

On your computers you can already now see trailers from several of the films in competition. Like the one for Iranian Firouzeh Khosrovani’s ”Radiograph of a Family” that competes in feature length section and in the archive category. Fantastic trailer, an invitation to see the whole film, indeed! That’s what a trailer should do.

www.idfa.nl 

Jindřich Andrš: A New Shift

It’s a good film. Not because of the theme (a mine is closed, miners are without job, what to do?) that is pretty much known. This time it takes place in Silesia, a region that has also been described before, mostly by Polish filmmakers – No, it is good because of the miner Tomas, who becomes the IT programmer Tomas. The director has followed Tomas for four years in his struggle to get a new education – his doubts, his warm realitionship to his children, his dating to find a new partner, his café talks with friends, his passion for Banik Ostrava, the football team he supports.

I write Tomas as I get close to him and his positive attitude to life. He is himself, when he is at interviews for IT Jobs, grounded and charming and funny, also when he talks to a full theater in Prague at a TED arrangement about him succeeding. It made me for a moment think “is this a corporate film” as it of course puts a positive light on the retraining program Tomas is part of. But why bother as this for once is a positive and authentic film. It is the director’s first film, well told (dramaturg is as always in Czech documentaries Jan Gogola) and being in both DOK Leipzig and Ji.hlava festivals is quite a good start!  

Czech Republic, 2020, 91 mins.

IDFA Academy Announces Program

I have copy-pasted a FB post coming from the Head of the IDFA Academy Meike Statema.The IDFA Academy program is as always very inviting – the 60 selected young filmmakers, even if all is online, will get food for thought as you can see from this clip:

…Highlights of the program reflect this approach. In addition to the Opening Session by the always-exciting French director Claire Simon and Gianfranco Rosi’s highly anticipated masterclass, discussions and lectures will focus on issues such as filmmaking in a limited space with the UK director Marc Isaacs, or on numerous initiatives created by cinema collectives and digital platforms in order to support arthouse theaters during the pandemic. 

Other events will deal with more traditional topics. For instance, Mila Turajlić and Carine Chichkowsky, director and producer of the 2017 IDFA winner The Other Side of Everything,(PHOTO) who are taking part in IDFA Forum with their new project, will lead a session on how to get financing partners on board for a project while still maintaining artistic independence. Aswang producer Armi Rae Cacanindin will speak about international co-productions, and directors Maite Alberdi and Firouzeh Khosrovani will provide insight into writing and researching for project proposals. Finally, sales agents Anaïs Clanet of Reservoir Docs and Liselot Verbrugge of Deckert Distribution will tutor the participants on topics related to sales and distribution…

www.idfa.nl

Qutaiba Barhamji: La Terre de Gevar

… Gevar, Natasha, Shevan. A family. From Syria, now living in France. English title: Gevar’s Land.

The joy of seeing something grow. Plants, vegetables – at home on the balcony and in the garden. In a scene Natasha looks at her phone and tells Gevar that a town in Syria is being bombed. They are in the garden, Gevar puts down his phone and talks about, when to plant garlic onions. Syria is far away and the two try to establish a new life in France. The gardening plays a key role in that respect. It is lovely to see Gevar drawing on a piece of paper, where to plant potatoes, radis, pumpkins, onions, parsley, coriander, okra…He is happy to be in France and expresses this, when the discussion unfolds among the Syrians at parties and gatherings. Where a friend says that he loves French literature but not to be in France! 

Qutaiba Barhamji follows the family over a year. He is behind the camera, he is close to the family but he does not interfer or asks questions. A clever solution, there are so many films that have been dealing with the tormented country. He is present, at their home and in the garden. He helps with some translation from French to Arabic and catches small but important situations. Which are actually identical to (I was thinking when watching), what my wife and I have experienced in our allotment garden : A neighbour who tells us « ignorants » how to do gardening OR the same neighbour informing us that there is a ban on watering the garden – in the film they water anyway, in our community we do the same. Come on, otherwise the garden will die!

Gevar and his family meet the (French) bureaucracy – nothing special, we have do so as well – the difference is, as he says so precisely, Gevar, that “I can’t control my dreams”, the thoughts he has brought along from Syria. Again the film is not going into this issue, not needed, a film comes from the screen to be formed in the head of a spectator.

We see the pumpkins and are happy on behalf of the family. Alas, they are robbed; the director stays respectfully at a distance, when Natasha breaks into tears, she cries, says the little boy. Gevar gets a job far away from the home and the garden, they talk about moving and giving up the garden. Gevar is taking down the barbecue installment he has built, he stands thoughtfully in the picture in the garden, he has to give up. Sounds like a sad ending, maybe, but there is also a wonderful scene towards the end, where Gevar comes home to Natasha and Shevan after being away for work. A scene full of love and happiness. They will manage their new life in their new country. I hope!

France, 78 mins., 2020

IDFA – Heddy Honigmann and Marlén Viñayo

In August 2007 Allan Berg and I started filmkommentaren. The first post/review of a film published was „Forever“ by Heddy Honigmann, a lovely film where the director takes the viewer to the cemetery Père Lachaise in Paris. An essayistic film about Life and Death made by the Dutch master, whose films I have followed with pleasure during decades – do you remember ”Metal and Melancholy”, ”Oblivion”, ”O Amor Natural” and the recent ones ”Buddy” and ”Around the World in 50 Concerts”? And many more.

So it is wonderful to see that the director has a world premiere coming up at the IDFA (16 November – 6 December), placed together with 7 other in the Dutch Competition category.

The title is ”100UP” and the life affirming website description goes like this:

”A doctor from Lima still works in the hospital, in New York a sexologist still sees clients, while elsewhere in the city a student attends lectures at the university. On the other side of the world, a spry Norwegian helps with lambing and a distinguished Dutchman is working fanatically on an online platform for human rights. What do they have in common? They’ve all passed their 100th birthday.

In this documentary, seven colorful centenarians give us a glimpse into their lives today and their rich pasts. All are still very active, even though the clock is ticking, bodies sometimes fail to cooperate, the loss of loved ones is painful, and some worry about the world’s future.

Heddy Honigmann visits these very old citizens of the world and asks them about life. What do they expect of it? Each tells their story in their own way, sometimes with humor, occasionally with a touch of melancholy, but always with the wisdom reserved only for the very eldest of us.”

A very promising annotation and I am going to watch it, unfortunately not in Amsterdam as the Dutch government does not allow Copenhageners to enter due to the pandemic, but online as most of my film watching is now.

Yesterday IDFA also announced other competitive sections – student films, kids and docs and short documentaries. In this category I find with pleasure a new film by Marlén Viñayo entitled ”Unforgivable”. The director is from El Salvador and charmed us with ”Chacada” at many festivals, including DocsBarcelona, where it won an award, ”a touching story – full of humour – about five women, single mothers, poor, who have quite some stories to get rid of in the theatre play, they are performing together.” Was what was written on this site.

”Unforgivable” (36 mins.)… here is a clip from the website: ”Geovanny is incarcerated at the San Francisco Gotera prison in western El Salvador, which is exclusively dedicated to detaining gang criminals. In 2017, almost all inmates converted to evangelical Christianity. Like them, Geovanny has withdrawn from his gang. But while the church has no difficulty accepting his violent past, the fact that he loves another man is regarded a sin for which he can’t be forgiven.”

A veteran and a newcomer at IDFA. That’s how it is with this festival. As the artistic director Orwa Nyrabia wrote on FB: So much to see, so much to hear, so much to talk about, so much to just stay silent after. This year in documentary film is tremendous… Indeed, I will come back with more information about the IDFA program later.

www.idfa.nl

Sergei Loznitsa:The Natural History of Destruction

I take the liberty to copy-paste from the excellent Filmneweurope – a news note by Aukse Kancereviciute. It goes like this:

VILNIUS: Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa is starting production on his archive documentary project The Natural History of Destruction / Natūrali naikinimo istorija. The film is produced by Germany‘s LOOKS Filmproduktionen GmbH in coproduction with Lithuania‘s Studio Uljana Kim and Atoms & Void (the Netherlands).

The Natural History of Destruction is inspired by German writer W.G. Sebald’s 1999 book of the same title. Sebald describes the phenomenon of mass destruction of the German civilian population and German cities by massive Allied air raids during World War II. In particular, he examines the perception and processing of this phenomenon in European post-war literature.

Loznitsa often deals with 20th century European history and the memory of the greatest tragedies of that time. His 2012 film In the Fog won the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and he won Best Director in Cannes Un Certain Regard for Donbass (2018). In 2013 Sergei Loznitsa launched the film production and distribution company ATOMS & VOID. 

The film was awarded a grant in the Eurimages October 2020 round. It is supported by the Lithuanian Film Centrewith 77,000 EUR; the Netherlands Film Fund with 50,000 EUR; and German entities RBB / MDR with 90,000 EUR, MDM with 100,000 EUR grant, Medienboard with 70,000 EUR, and BKM with 80,500 EUR.

The production is planned to be finished in September 2021 with no premiere date announced yet.

Photo from his previous ”Donbass” 

https://www.filmneweurope.com

Sine Skibsholt: Lever elsker savner

Datteren og moderen når i en træt omfavnelse hinanden efter endnu et skænderi. De når hver gang hinanden. Datteren har i sit femtenårige liv været igennem to omfattende behandlinger for sin kræftsygdom. Den seneste er afsluttet for kort tid siden og hun er udskrevet. Moderen har på det nærmeste fulgt sin datter og er dybt præget af bekymringernes konstans, angstens bølger og den voksende træthed ved samværets mere og mere intense krav.

Senest har hun under en knoglemarvstransplantation været isoleret sammen med datteren i en plastikomhængt enestue på hospitalet til den endelige raskmelding og udskrivning. Sine Skibsholts film skildrer tilbageskuende dette faktuelle forløb nøgternt, indlevet og filmisk smukt og klart, men det er ikke hendes films hovedanliggende.

Sine Skibsholt er nemlig inde i et stort tema med variationer, familiemedlemmer og alvorlig sygdom skildret i hendes kunstneriske egenart. Som i Skibsholts tidligere film, Dem vi var, 2016 er der scener som hun har optaget observerende med sit kamera og der er tilrettelagte scener, men det er ikke til at se forskel, både datteren og moderen er imponerende sandfærdige og simpelthen velspillende og medskabende i de iscenesatte afsnit, og netop det er resultat af fornem instruktørkunst og af klipperens iagttagelse og lytten, at fremdrage disse fine nuancer i bevægelser, stemningsskift og hurtige replikker, som jeg næppe når at opfatte helt, som jeg får lyst til at skrive ned: nudansk replikkunst, en eksempelsamling.

Og netop dette er filmens hovedanliggende, de gribende samtaler mellem to krævende personligheder, datteren og moderen. Samtaler næsten udelukkende i skænderiets form. Samtalerne udvikler sig til de forsvinder i en fortvivlelsens magtkamp i en ulykkelig stigende kurve, som bliver filmens storyline, tilsammen en helt enkel fortælling om et datter / mor forhold i en almindelig teenage overgang med et på sygdomsforløbets særlige betingelser måske alligevel almindeligt forløb af uoverensstemmelser som i den beslutsomme klipning af et formodentligt meget stort filmet materiale klemmes sammen forsigtigt men bestemt og på tv opleves som en serie kriser. Det er voldsomt drama, det er oprivende kammerspil. Den lille teaterscene er familiens lejlighed, soveværelset eller køkkenet, et enkelt afsnit i bilen, de er vist nok på vej til psykologen. Det afgørende er, at kammerspillet ikke handler om det særlige, sygdommens krav og dødens nærhed, det handler om de almindelige frigørelseskriser døtre og mødre gennemlever, som vi alle kender.

Men vi er ikke mange som kender den voldsomhed og styrke og det mylder af sårende replikker, alt sammen med en underholdende værdi, en sandhedsværdi som filmens unge voksende kvinde eksploderer med, driver filmen frem med. Moderen må tage imod, for det meste…

Sine Skibsholt: Lever elsker savner, Danmark 2019, 80 min.

Filmen har biografpremiere i aften, søndag den 18. oktober, faktisk lige om lidt på TV2 21:00. Der venter flow-tv’s mange mange seere en stor ny dansk dokumentarfilm af en ny mester.

 

Ji.hlava Festival Goes Digital with Big Program

I got a press release from Prague/Jihlava yesterday. It’s about the 24th edition of a festival that I have visited several times – in connection with the Ex Oriente workshop organised by IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) and once to be a juror. This year it’s all online as you can read below in the clip from the press release. Read and go to the website to check the quite exciting program of new films and of classics, thematically organised. 

”Ji.hlavaIDFF kicks-off in two weeks! Despite the recent forced shift of the event to digital space, the full-fledged festival programme with over 59 world and 26 international premieres remains. What can the viewers look forward to? The programme features over 220 films: from the latest of Czech and international documentary crop, SouthKorean film retrospective, comprehensive showcase of Afro-American docs as well as new documentaries focusing on topics that are more than relevant these days:coronavirus pandemic, China and HongKong, climate change,and films asking the fundamental question–where is our home?

The 24th Ji.hlava IDFF will take place between October 27 and November 8, 2020. “We are sorry that we can’t screen the films in cinemas but we want to see the current situation as an opportunity. One positive aspect is that everyone will be able to get to see the films,” says Marek Hovorka, the Festival Director. “Fifteen years ago, the same year when YouTube was launched, Ji.hlava IDFF founded the first VOD portal dedicated to documentaries. Today, DAFilms.com is one of the leading European VOD platforms,” describes Hovorka the partnership with DAFilms, which will be the festival’s this year’s streaming platform.“The uniqueness of this programme is in the fact that apart from over 220 films available to the Czech viewers, we will offer more than 80 films from Ji.hlava’s competitions to audiences worldwide, released in their World, International or European premieres, ”says Diana Tabakov, the Executive Director at DAFilms. This year’s Ji.hlava will not only focus on films. “In order to bring the unique atmosphere of Ji.hlava to online audiences, we have prepared several simultaneous live streams, all-day live service from the festival’s Lighthouse studio at the Ji.hlava’s central Masaryk square as well as an interactive environment interconnecting the audience with the filmmakers,” concludes Marek Hovorka.”

www.ji-hlava.com