14 films are to be found in the competitive category “Best Nordic Documentary”, 18 in the “New Nordic Voices”, that also includes fiction and animation films.

This is the focus of this post, won’t bother you with my very little knowledge about today’s short and children films.

In competition: If I were you I would watch Jerzy Sladkowski’s new film ”Bitter Love” (PHOTO) that takes you on a cruise on Volga, where people meet to talk, kiss, pass the time, talk philosophy and literature as the Russians do. I am a fan of Sladkowski and share his obsession with Russia,his films are always full of humour and a fascination that is brilliantly conveyed by his magnificent cameraman Polish Wojciech Staron.

You could also go with Estephan Wagner and Marianne Hougen-Moraga to Chile, were their ”Songs of Repression” takes place at a village in the Andes, where a German colony has been for decades… the film reveals in a fine way, through the characters chosen, abuse and religious fanatism. Great film that was praised when it was shown at the DocsBarcelona.

And ”The Cave” by Feras Fayyad is there… no further introduction needed.

And then some that I look fwd to see: John Webster’s “Eye to Eye”, ”Colombia in My Arms” by Finnish Jenni Kivistö and Jussi Rastas… and many more.

Go to the website and check the trailers. And I heard that you better be quick if you want to get tickets as the number of people who can watch each film is limited.

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/festival/  

… and what a pleasure for a huge fan of Baltic documentaries that – on the initiative of Nordisk Panorama and with the collaboration of the Baltic film institutes/centres and Baltic Sea Docs – a delegation of fine filmmakers from the three countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will attend the Forum of Nordisk Panorama. Online.

There is an excellent page on the site of Nordisk Panorama presenting who-is-who from the Baltics. There are producers and directors – and teasers for two films, exciting they are, presented by Estonian Marianna Kaat and Latvian Uldis Cekulis. Very promising projects that will turn out to be good films, I am sure.

The delegation will have its presentation on the 18th of September within „Producers Meet Producers” – I hope to see good matchmaking with the Nordic coming up. Heading the delegation is Zane Balcus, Head  of Baltic Sea Docs, and the one who is getting me and Mikael Opstrup through covid test in Riga in a week, where the Baltic Sea Docs starts!

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/industry/forum/members-of-the-delegation/

I have written several posts about the Sarajevo FF and more will follow. But let me leave it for a while to put a focus on the festival 645 km to the South, in Skopje, North Macedonia, MAKEDOX is the name, a darling for those of us who have been there because of its high quality in selection, its debates ”under the fig tree”, its outdoor screenings and the way you are welcomed by Petra Seliskar, her family and friends, who are the hosts and the organisers.

The festival starts tomorrow, the 19th and continues until the 26th.

As usual there are several competitive categories set up. A Main Program with films like the wonderful “Our Time Machine” by Yang Sun and S.Leo Chiang that with its puppet master Maleonn makes me think about the Quay Brothers. And  the investigative Romanian ”Collective” by Alexander Nanau. Another Romanian (gosh, they make good documentaries in that country these years) by Andrei Dascalescu, « Holy Father », the Swedish « Only the Devil lives Without Hope » by Magnus Gertten, and Dutch John Appel’s « Once the Dust Settles ». Appel makes a masterclass during the festival that has a country focus on Holland. 

Newcomers is another section that includes strong films as Ukrainian award winning « The Earth is Blue as an Orange » by Iryna Tsilyk, Romanian (again !) « Acasa,My Home » by Radu Ciorniciuc, winner at Krakow FF – and Danish Susanne Kovács impressive « It Takes a Family », and Georgian « A Tunnel » by Nino Orjonikidze and Vano Arsenishvili. The latter I promised to watch on a big screen but I have not found one yet! 

There are short films, student films, films for kids and youth – and five juries including one for « moral approach », love that ! 

A Forum has been established, projects to be pitched to regional film funds… there is so much positive energy in this festival.

Docs under the Fig Tree… the famous get-together-to-talk-docs of the festival is also on the agenda… I wonder how Petra Seliskar will handle that online? I have seen the themes to be discussed under the tree, fascinating, you have to register, contact the festival if you want to take part and – if I get it right – you will be given a Zoom link.

Good luck!

http://makedox.mk/mk/en/

Baltic Sea Docs (BSD) takes place from the end of August and one week into September. The industry programme involves a tutor-based workshop where the 24 selected projects are being discussed and the trailers shown and equally commented on. At the end there will be a pitching forum with invited experts from the international documentary community to give feedback. BUT parallel to this there is a film programme for the audience in and outside Riga the home of BSD.This is the content of this post:

 

I got an email from project manager Zane Balcus yesterday, where she wrote about the film program. Here is a quote: The opening film will be Acasa, My Home, which will play simultaneously in cinema (our only cinema screening this year at K.Suns) and online. It will be followed by recorded interview with the director Radu Ciorniciuc. We have also scheduled an interview with the director of Overseas, Sung-A Yoon (and her film will be screened at an outdoor screening, in addition to the online ones). And another activity around the film programme will be a discussion after the film Self Portrait  – moderated by a psychotherapist and focusing on eating disorders…

I went back to Zane Balcus and asked her for further comments: Zane is a film historian and critic, and she came up with these comments to the selection of 8 films to be screened during the 2020 edition of Baltic Sea Docs: 

“To make a selection of a small number of films is very challenging. If there were no deadline for completing the programme, it could last for very long time – there is always one more title to be checked out and tested against others to find the perfect match. We’ve tried to compose the programme with films that would appeal to different audiences, varied tastes for documentary. Among the films will be “Acasa, My Home”, which has turned out to be one of the festivals’ favourites this year (an interview with the director Radu Ciorniciuc will be part of the screening), and it will be our opening film. We’ll screen Scheme Birds (Ellen Fiske & Ellinor Hallin), Love Child (Eva Mulvad), Overseas (Sung-A Yoon), Self Portrait (Margreth Olin, Katja Hogset, Espen Wallin) – films with powerful stories and lasting effect on the spectators. In beautiful black and white image, and engaging narrative style will be Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (Barbara Paz). With no specific characters, but a natural phenomenon at its centre – The Wind  A Documentary Thriller (PHOTO) (Michael Bielawski). It is difficult task to find a more light-hearted film, the one for the spot this year has been The Lessons of Love (Kasia Mateja and Malgorzata Goliszewska). The choice of going online has also influenced the selection, and there are already a couple of titles that we’d love to show in cinemas next year that were not available for online screenings.”

No objections to this selection, high quality, I am sure the – primarily – online audience will appreciate this slate of films, which are brought to their homes – again primarily. Even if the scale is small the selection gives a good positive status of the artistic level of the genre in these years. Most of the films have been reviewed or noted on this site.

http://balticseadocs.lv/

More about what happens in Sarajevo, or rather organised online by the festival, in this case by the Cinelink, that presents the Cinelink Talks 2020 from August 15-20. In collaboration with the training programme Documentary Campus and the trade magazine Screen International. 

“The eleven 60-minute CineLink Talks will run from August 15-20, and focus on the opportunities and challenges facing both the region and the wider international film sector. All of the webinars will run via Zoom, and feature a live Q&A in which audience members will be able to ask questions of the panellists.”

Register for the free talks with the form below. You will receive a confirmation email for each panel you register for within 24 hours.”

Link below.

Let me just highlight one session, the one on the 20th of August dealing with the wonderful film “Honeyland” by Tamara Kotevska (by the way, it’s her birthday today! and Ljubomir Stefanov) – it’s a one hour case story on a film that took the world with its excellence and warmth. The producer and editor Atanas Georgiev will be in conversation with producer and Rough Cut co-organiser (with Rada Sesic) Martichka Bozhilova.

https://www.screendaily.com/CineLinkTalks

I was in Moscow last year as member of the short film jury and I have followed the festival since 2015, when I was in the online feature jury – together with – among others – Viktor Kossakovsky. I have great admiration for the work of the team behind the Doker  – The Moscow International Documentary Film Festival. They have now announced their program for 2020, which is to go theatrical, unless the corona situation dictates something else before the dates August 21 – 30. With mask and distance regulations according to the Ministry for All Theatres.

Some words about the main competition that includes 12 titles. I have seen Romanian success « Acasa My Home » by Radu Ciorniciuc (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4775/) as well as Danish Eva Mulvad’s « Love Child » (PHOTO) that my colleague at filmkommentaren.dk Allan Berg praised in this Danish language review (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4669/) and the Polish « Lessons of Love » by Kasia Mateja and Malgorzata Goliszewska. They are Russian premieres but among the 12 are also world premieres the selected documentaries.

And two quotes from the website of Doker: “Annually DOKer receives more than 2,000 applications from around the world. We have participants not just from Europe and North America, but many filmmakers from lesser-known Asian, African, South American and Oceanian also take part in the festival… « DOKer is the only Documentary Film Festival in Russia where the professional jury evaluates separately the work of the director, the cinematographer, the sound director and the film editor. »

Check the whole program, link below. 

I wish the festival all the best and cross fingers for a situation where the films will be screened in the cinema October as planned.

https://www.midff.com/post/main-2020

Due to greatly increased concern regarding the epidemiological situation in Sarajevo, and record cases of COVID-19 infection in the city in the past several days, we at the Sarajevo Film Festival have made the decision to conduct the 2020 edition of all festival events entirely online  from 14 to 21 August. This confirms the Sarajevo Film Festival’s responsibility and commitment to its community. 

The world premiere of FOCUS, GRANDMA, the most recent film by Bosnian director Pjer alica, opens the programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The film will be available for viewing worldwide, at ondemand.sff.ba – the Sarajevo Film Festival’s online platform.

Ondemand.sff.ba is the central hub for all the film screenings, programmes and events of this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival – not just for local audiences but also for film lovers across the region and around the world. Ondemand.sff.ba is a VOD platform that allows users to subscribe to the entire festival programme for seven days, or select individual titles and content. Ondemand.sff.ba was developed in cooperation with Festival Scope and Shift72 Streaming Services, a leading on-demand content streaming company from New Zealand.

Ondemand.sff.ba will feature recent regional and world cinema titles including world and international premieres. By registering on ondemand.sff.ba, viewers will access films according to regional and territorial availability.

Users of ondemand.sff.ba may also access other festival content, including exclusive masterclasses with renowned filmmakers across the world. The Sarajevo Film Festival Masterclass Programme is organised in cooperation with Variety and will be available worldwide via the Variety Streaming Room. 

As previously announced, CineLink Industry Days will be held online from 15 to 20 August 2020. As with the rest of the festival events, there will be no onsite CineLink elements. Detailed information about this year’s industry programme will be available at cinelinkindustrydays.com. Talks on the latest industry trends with more than 40 film professionals from around the globe will be available on ondemand.sff.ba under CineLink Talks. The 10 hot topics of discussion will be debated online, in cooperation with the Documentary Campus and Screen International.

First a copy paste from the press release that came to the inbox yesterday:

”We are thrilled to announce the projects selected for Nordisk Panorama Forum and wish to congratulate all who made the cut!

100 new documentary projects were submitted to the 27th edition of Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries by some of the very best producers and directors the Nordic region has to offer.

Nordisk Panorama Forum is the main funding event for the Nordic documentary community. This year we are going online and adding more dates: the forum will be 18-23 September. At Nordisk Panorama Forum a selection of 20 brand new documentary projects will be pitched to around 70 attending decision-makers and 20 observer+ projects have been selected for special access to meetings with decision-makers. Projects will be pitched Mon-Tues 21-22 September…”

Let me mention a few of the projects to be presented at the online event: 

Talented Danish director Andreas Koefoed presents a film project with the title ”Bendtner” and then we football fans know that the protagonist is the once talented Danish football player, now celebrity, 32 year old Nicklas Bendtner, who has played 81 matches for Denmark.

In the list announced by Nordisk Panorama, taking place September 18-23, there is still no description of the films so curious to know from what non-tabloid (my guess) angle Koefoed will attack the subject Bendtner.

The same goes for ”Corona Film Club – My Life as a Film with Stig Björkman”, the excellent Swedish film critic and director of several films on Ingmar Bergman. Stine Gardell, experienced producer, is the director.

As is Finnish John Webster who is listed to make a film on legendary Jörn Donner, it has the subtitle ”Epilogue”.

The Forum has invited a delegation of Baltic filmmakers to take part – and three well known directors will pitch or observe: Latvian Una Celma, Estonian Marianna Kaat and Lithuanian Giedre Zickyté.

Photo from the Swedish ”Calendar Girls”. 

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/festival/