Zoom In Zoom Out

And what are your thoughts about that? The moderator of the pitching session – sitting in her home somewhere in North America – asks the sales agent sitting in her home in Zürich Switzerland. The pitching team is from Norway, the project deals with people in Peru. The pitchers are in their homes in Norway, I am watching from my corner chair in a garden house in Copenhagen. Where I have been with my wife since beginning of April, watching the garden come to life with a lot of green but also blue and red flowers – and birds singing you good morning, when the sun rises. Pure Monet.

No complaints from me, this is Covid times and we have to take care. And we do. Even if we can only see the dear small ones very little. 

Restrictions also in the documentary world of course. Films are being screened 

online, industry talks are online, webinars the same, interviews, master classes…

No complaints from me… I am used to watch films on my MacBook Pro, when films are to be selected for festivals or to be reviewed on the blog or evaluated for the critics panel at this festival in Krakow; a true pleasure I have been invited to take part in for many years. But I have also been in Krakow, in the cinemas together with fellow viewers to sense that special atmosphere you only find in a cinema hall with large screen, high quality images and good sound. 

Nothing compares!

Back to the industry events going online currently. The other day Zane Balcus from the Baltic Sea Docs wrote so well on this on www.filmkommentaren.dk: … “Several of the arguments in favour of or against digital could be experienced at an online visit to Visions du Réel. Nothing of the constituent components of the festival took place physically. I hadn’t planned to go to Nyon this year, but the possibility of attending the festival online made me join it. During the festival, I focused more on the industry section, specifically Pitching du Réel and Docs in Progress. While watching previously pre-recorded presentations assembled in blocks and streamed to the participants, the missing element was the energy of live event – the ability to feel and evaluate project representatives in the course of the presentation, presentation form, trailer nuances on a high-quality and large screen with good quality sound, the interaction of moderator with pitchers and decision makers, audience reaction…” She makes no conclusions, and how could we, it is Pro & Contra:

If you do these events online, you can have more people – and if everyone sits at home, it is greener, maybe more effective, some say, for instance Brigid O’Shea from DOKLeipzig, where all industry activities now will be digital. But the human element of meeting each other, profiting from being physically together in group sessions, being inspired by other filmmakers and their comments, this kind of reciprocity you can’t create online.

The film screenings online, as you have in Krakow this year, have been, in terms of numbers, at other already finished festivals, like CPH:Dox in Copenhagen, Munich, DocuDays in Kiev and DocsBarcelona, still running, overwhelming… almost 120.000 tickets in Copenhagen and almost 140.000 in Barcelona. In the mentioned festivals a new audience has been reached, who has welcomed the chance to sit at home watching documentaries, when cinemas have been closed.

Cinemas… Nothing compares.

They know that in Krakow, they will learn from the online experience, they will have good numbers for the online, they will maybe repeat some of the online screenings and they will have cinema screenings next year again.

Photo by Kasia Wilk from pitching at Krakow FF 2020.  

Openings Inspired by Krakow FF

I have been brought back to thinking about the different ways films start, while watching the Krakow FF international competition of this year. I think we all agree about the importance of catching the attention of the audience from the very start. Hook the viewers, so they stay for the duration of the story. Some starts are very short before the title appears on the screen, some are long, some give a promise, some set the tone and the atmosphere, some try to do all of it, some put up some questions that might or might not be answered. 

Some editors have told me that they often wait with doing the opening until the end. Having built a story or tried to, they suddenly – together with the director – “discover” the film and what is important and what not. Where do you want to take the audience? What do you want to say? Examples:

Norwegian “Self Portrait” uses a bit more than one minute to let you into the gripping story. You see a couple of photos of a woman from behind, a woman walking, who becomes “alive” walking across a field, turns around and looks at you; off screen she has told us that when a child, she decided to stop time as she is now able to do, when she takes pictures. The last photo is of herself, the anorectic Lene Maria. Credits come and we know, what the film will be about, the character, the theme, the tone.

In “Sunless Shadows” (Photo) Iranian director Mehrdad Oskouei’s voice is heard on a black background: Dear Sara, when you come into the room, sit down, push the red button and talk to the camera… she does and she talks about the murder, she has committed. Content of the film is thus revealed and the director’s and the director’s involvement and method and stylistical approach.

In Romanian “Acasa, My Home” by Radu Ciorniciucthe opening describes a paradise for kids – they swim in the lake, they fish, they have boys’ fights, they enjoy life in the nature. Until they are interrupted. The director states upfront with whom he places his sympathy.

Polish Maciej Cuske – in The Whale from Lorino – opens with wild images of sea waves smashing against rocks somewhere in the world. The images are matched with words of a fairy tale about whale and man. An opening that makes the promise of a film with poetic moments.

Openings… I am totally indoctrinated by words of Niels Pagh Andersen, Danish editor, mostly famous for his work on Oppenheimer’s «Act of Killing» and «Look of Silence»: Hold Back information, give the necessary input upfront, but don’t pour a lot of information into the head of the poor viewer. Build it up, step by step, give the viewer a chance to take part, remember that the film is made in the head of the viewer, remember that one viewer interprets in one way, another in another way!

That is what a good documentary can do – by good I mean documentaries that have many layers, many openings, to use that word again, for interpretation. 

And from a previous Krakow festival: Is Piotr Stasik’s New York film a film about New York. Absolutely. Is it about «la condition humaine », our existence, loneliness, a philosophical work, is it about Love, Yes to all, it has many layers, a film that will be watched and evaluated differently depending on age and sex. And where you are in your own life. I go to visit family in New York every second year, I have observed people in the underground as Stasik is doing, it’s fascinating but I know it so well that I can go to the other levels: Life as we live it, together or alone. And as a film buff who wants to be surprised, I enjoy the sound and rythm that the director gives me. It’s new and innovative.

Happy Birthday Krakow FF

60th edition! Wow! And then you have to go online! Instead of having all of us invited passionate film lovers sit and applaud one of the most important documentary festivals ever.

A challenge for you but I am sure the festival will make that a success as well. I write „as well“ because I have visited the festival many times and always felt the good organisation and the generosity that meets you as a guest. Of course with a good program, retrospectives etc. Memories…

Actually, I dont remember the first time I was at the festival. But it could have 

been in 1987, where I was travelling for the Danish Film Board (now the Danish Film Institute) with two Danish film journalists. It was not long after the tragic crash of a LOT flight in May, where 183 died. We 3 were in general hesitant to fly – I still am – but arrived safe to Warsaw and took the train to Krakow. On the way back, however, we left Warsaw, circled around for an hour or so before we landed. In Warsaw! It was a LOT flight… Technical problems «they said». We waited, drank a lot of vodka and went with the same flight home. That it was the same flight, we were not informed before we landed.

Thanks to www.filmkommentaren.dk I can now easily follow some of the visits to the festival. Let me jump to 2011, where Krzysztof Gierat invited me to be part of the international jury that also included Marcin Koszalka, who (my proposal) at every little jury meeting served a different glass of Polish vodka on the condition that the jurors gave points to them. We did. 

I wrote several articles from the festival, that had Wojciech Staron as winner of the Golden Horn with “The Argentinian Lesson”. I already knew his “Siberian Lessons”, I am a big fan of “Brothers” and of his collaboration with Jerzy Sladkowski. At this year’s festival he is there as cameraman on “Bitter Love”. Pawel Kloc got the Silver Horn for “Phnom Penh Lullaby”. I remember that I was in doubt but luckily the other jury members insisted – and having seen the film many times and used it at film schools, I now see how unique a documentary it is.

The festival has always known how to honour the artists: 

In 2012 Helena Trestikova received the Dragon of Dragons honorary award, the one that of course also has been given to Marcel Lozinski, in 2016, who celebrated his 80th birthday recently. He is one of my true documentary heroes with “Anything can Happen” on the top five of my best documentaries ever. And I love the film Pawel, the son, made, “Father and Son”, knowing that Marcel also made his version! That’s another story.

One more jump to 2016, where I met young and younger filmmakers who was associated to the Wajda Film School (oh, I remember making a lecture at the school with Wajda himself and Marcel Lozinski on the front row…) 

The young ones… In 2016 Piotr Stasik had a new film. The innovative “21 x New York”. I was – as this year – part of a critic’s panel where all 6 members gave top points to Stasik’s work, but the jury decided for another film!

I had more luck in 2018, quote from the filmkommentaren text: “Sometimes it´s jackpot! I had voted for – in my post yesterday – four films and they were all awarded: Talal Derki for his “Of Fathers and Sons” (The Golden Horn and the Fipresci), Marta Prus for her “Over the Limit” (The Silver Horn, The Silver Hobby-Horse (National Competition), The Audience Award – and awards to her editor Adam Suzin, and to her producers Anna Kepinska and Maciej Kubicki), Pablo Aparo and Martin Benchimol for “El Espanto” (The Silver Horn for Best Medium Length Documentary) and Stephen Nomura Schible for “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda” (Best film in the DocFilmMusic Competition and Student Jury’s Award).

Yes, Marta Prus deserved the recognition. I – and she, I guess – had hoped for awards at DocsBarcelona and Cinédoc Tbilisi, did not happen, I saw the film several times that year, held Q&A’s with her. What a talent she is!

Back to the festival and its atmosphere. Krzysztof Kopczyński, a very good friend for decades, who took me to Moscow with Stasik, Cuske, Sauter (I think) to meet Russian filmmakers in the Polish-Russian coproduction series and who is the director of the impressing film on Dybuk… and loves the good life. Krzysztof and I have been eating wonderfully at the old Jewish quarter of Krakow, Kazimierz. Next year again, please!

 … which leads me to Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosolowski with their “Rabbit à la Berlin”, a fantastic work that their powerhouse of a producer Anna Wydra managed to bring for an Oscar nomination!

Innovation was a word I used above and that I use again to characterise Pawel Lozinski’s „You Have No Idea How Much I Love You“…

With a little twist, I hope I gave you an idea, why I love Polish Documentary Cinema! And the Krakow Film Festival!

Congratulations, dear friends: Kasia Wilk, Barbara Orlicz-Szczypula and Krzysztof Gierat and all the other brave birthday children in Krakow. 

Photo: From “Bitter Love” by Jerzy Sladkowski, camera Wojciech Staron, in the international competition of the Krakow FF 2020.

138.506 Spectators at DocsBarcelona

Take a look at the photo above. Taken by the photographer F Fagregas: A concert with The Boss, Bruce Springsteen at Nou Camp. Where I have been several times with Joan Gonzalez, director of DocsBarcelona. Last night at the award ceremony he announced that the audience for DocsBarcelona 2020 Online was so big that the famous stadium for Barca i.e., where Messi plays, where Ronaldinho and Laudrup have played, would have been too small as it can “only” room a bit more than 90.000. The number of spectators for DocsBarcelona online, available for viewers in Spain, was 138.506! Of course it is not totally comparable but the amount of cinemagoers at the festival four years ago was 10.000 and 2 years ago the number passed 25.000 cinemagoers. Mr. Data, as Gonzalez sometimes calls himself, was right when he wrote that this forms a giant step for the documentary genre and he continued that the online will stay, NOT as the first priority, that will still be to show the festival films in the cinemas, but as a means to reach new audiences, to create a documentary culture!

It would be interesting to know, of course, from where in Spain the audience comes. Gonzalez, on the basis of twitters, if I got it right, said that he thinks 60% are from Catalonia, 40 % from the rest of Spain.

From me, as Head of Programming, I am happy to see artistic, personal documentaries like “Winter Journey”, “Songs of Repression”, “Advocate”, “Rising from the Tsunami” and “Vivos” attract more than 4000 spectators in the few days they were available. The winner – b/w, experiment in editing, for many “special” – had close to 2500 spectators.

Long live the art of documentary cinema.

www.docsbarcelona.com 

Storm Henriksen og Lindgreen: Mod, Sved og Tårer

Det er en ungdomsfilm står der og det udelukker mig, jeg lammes i interessen på forhånd og så har Andrea Storm Henriksens og Ina Lindgrens lille tv-serie næsten selvfølgelig en bestemt vinkling i front nemlig at undersøge et sociologisk problemfelt om unge mennesker som ikke passer ind i de mere fastlagte og sædvanlige uddannelsesrammer. Det er den journalistiske vinkel læser jeg på forhånd men jeg læser også dokumentafilmtræk når jeg ser filmen, træk som dukker op, Frederick Wiseman minder i skildringen af miljøet, af institutionen, af den vidunderlige cirkusskole og i portrætteringen af de fire hovedpersoner.

Skildringen lykkes til overdådighed, den skole er et fagligt fantastisk og emotionelt rart sted, men portrætteringerne får ikke plads nok til at montagens karakterudviklinger af de fire bliver rolige og tydelige, men jeg er også mest optaget af alderdomsfilm og frydes til gengæld ved kameraskabte ærlige scener, to eksempler:

Samtalen mellem eleven højt oppe i trapezen og læreren på gulvet, den scene som jeg elsker, som jeg kunne se til et sekund før den dør af sig selv og jeg er en erfaring og et minde rigere som efter et digt…

Samværet mellem eleven ved klaveret som har meldt sig ind på skolen her for spring, trapez og jongleren (som han loyalt slider med) men i pauserne sætter sig ved klaveret og spiller og hun som har set ud som han har set hende, hun sætter sig på bænken hos ham og han lærer hende stilfærdigt venstrehånden og de spiller sammen som det måske kan bruges ved afslutningsforestillingnen. Og så synger han, synger og spiller en blues. Ja, kald det bare forelskelse, kærlighed i spæd begyndelse…

Det er som to små kameraiagttagelser i Wiseman film og der er adskillige af dem at opdage og tøve ved i denne fine lille tv-serie, det er et smukt og rigt værk med en sikker puls som kulminerer i den store finale, en serie for ungdommen og alderdommen at juble over. Se den!

SYNOPSIS 1

A documentary series in two parts about a group of young students at an alternative school in Denmark. At AFUK (the Academy for Untamed Creativity), also called “The Circus School”, it is acceptable to be different. The school believes in quirky characters, and that everyone is capable of much more than they think they are. 

For a year we follow the students on the “artist course”, a group of young talents within circus and performance, as they develop their unique skills. These young people have never had much success within the framework of the traditional education system but at AFUK they will get a chance to live out their talent and personalities, which they have often felt insecure about and not often been fully appreciated for. They are committed and have a lot invested in this school year, where new friendships and a new sense of community could emerge. (Danish Film Institute site)

SYNOPSIS 2

Mod Sved Tårer er en ungdomsfilm, der foregår på en kreativ ungdomsuddannelse i Danmark, hvor der er plads til at være anderledes. Akademiet for utæmmet kreativitet, også bare kaldet AFUK, er et alternativ til det traditionelle gymnasium. ”Man skal turde at være den man er” og ”Du kan så meget mere end du måske selv tror” er nogle af AFUKS kerneværdier. Hen over er skoleår følger filmen fire unge elever på AFUKS artistlinje, der på hver deres måde ikke føler, at de passer ind på et almindeligt bogligt gymnasie. Vi møder Mads, Oliver; Zanya og Andy første skoledag og filmen følger dem fra den første nervøsitet til de står stolte og modige med helt ny styrke både fysisk og mentalt, foran et stort publikum og talentspejdere til skolens afslutningsforestilling Festivitas. Mod Sved Tårer er en ungdomsfilm om identitet, om ikke passe ind i det mange forventer af en og om modet til at søge nye fælleskaber. (Made in Copenhagen site)

Mod, sved og tårer” af Andrea Storm Henriksen og Ina Lindgreen. Premiere på TV2 den 2. juni 2020. Den smukke tv-serie i to dele kan desuden ses på TV2 Play fra den samme dato.

Krakow FF Puts a Focus on Denmark

Tonight the opening of the Krakow Film Festival takes place at 7pm. 

The festival 2020 goes online – with the same high quality in selection as always. Competition programmes, thematic sections, a Dragon Award for the master Peter Forgacs, films for kids, industry events and much much more.

Including a very generous gesture towards Denmark: “Special guest of this year’s festival is Danish cinema. In Focus on Denmark section we will see the latest documentary and short films from Denmark, as well as a special programme for kids and youth and a selection of student films.” A fine bravo to Danish documentary in the 60th edition of the prestigious festival. An honour.

On that occasion you – whereever you live, for free, with English as the language – will have the chance to meet 4 Danish top documentary producers, who have contributed to the current success of Danish documentary worldwide. The producers who will talk about coproduction are Sigrid Dyekjær, Kathrine Sahlstrøm, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Malene Flindt Pedersen – who will be joined by Ane Mandrup, Head of Documentaries at the Danish Film Institute and Kim Christiansen from DR Sales (Danish Broadcasting Corp.), executive producer. It’s my job to be the moderator.

The conference has a duration of 90 minutes and takes place Tuesday June 2nd at 12-13.30 via the link below, You can put question to the panel (write mail@tuesday.dk). Photo: Eva Mulvad’s A Modern Man 

https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/industry/industry-zone/panels-conferences/focus-on-denmark-presentation/

 

 

 

Grit Tind Mikkelsen: Rebeccas rum

Rum hedder det. Både i ental og i flertal, både i fysisk betydning og i mental betydning. Rebecca hedder også Vera og hun kan godt være i to tilstande, viser det sig. Grit Tind Mikkelsens dejlige film spiller på alle disse alternativer i en gennemført diminuendo, som dog desværre mod slutningen forstyrres en del af en metafor over havets tilstande. Unødvendigt, for hovedpersonen Vera Rebecca er konstant i scenen  og fortæller selv det hele i én uafbrudt dialog med de andre og med sig selv, og det er og bliver Rebecca Veras egen smukke, smukke film hvert sekund, indlevet støttet af Grit Tind Mikkelsens kloge instruktion og fornemt observerende kamera og Anna Heides uforstyrret elegante klip fra det voldsomste til det mest tyste. Jeg vil tillade mig herefter fra de to at vente mig flere kloge og gribende film, mere filmkunst altså.

Danmark 2020, 69 min. Filmen havde premiere under CPH:DOX og kan streames på DR-TV fra 31. maj 2020.

SYNOPSIS 1

 The entrepreneur Rebecca Vera Stahnke has broken off all contact with the established fashion industry, and is now focusing all her efforts on the new concept Veras. From the hopeful beginnings in empty storefronts to the harsh tone of board meetings, Rebecca fights on all fronts for a space that is hers. In a reality where tonnes of clothing and highly-strung confrontation is a part of everyday life, Rebecca’s biggest challenge is ultimately herself. ‘Pieces of Rebecca’ follows the personal journey of a young entrepreneur’s first years, but is above all a human tale of Rebecca herself – the woman behind the phenomenon Veras. (CPH:DOCS site) 

SYNOPSIS 2

Rebeccas Rum er et intimt og poetisk portræt af en passioneret arbejdsnarkoman, som forsøger at finde en balance mellem sin profession og den hun er.

 Iværksætteren Rebecca Vera Stahnke har, efter en krise, kappet kontakten med den etablerede modebranche, og satser nu alt, hvad hun indeholder, på sit nye koncept Veras. Alt ved denne rejse er personligt og i løbet af Rebeccas første år som iværksætter, følger instruktøren hendes udvikling i håb om at fange den menneskelige fortælling.

 Rebecca introducerer os for et farverigt univers midt i København, samtidig med at hun slider for at få plads til sig selv i en pulserende og hårdtslående verden. Fra den håbefulde start i tomme butikslokaler, til de skarpe hjørner til bestyrelsesmøderne, kæmper Rebecca på alle fronter for et rum, som er hendes eget.

I en virkelighed, hvor tonsvis af tøj, højspændte konfrontationer, ubetalte regninger, Airbnb og kontor-udlejere, der opfører sig som røvhuller, er en del af hverdagen, så er Rebeccas største udfordring i sidste ende, sig selv. Mens Veras vokser sig stor og efterspørgslen bliver større, mister Rebecca bid for bid sig selv i sit arbejde. Hun erkender at for at overleve, må hun skabe et privat rum, hvor hun blot behøver at være Rebecca.

Rebeccas Rum går bag om facaden og portrætterer virkeligheden for en modig og visionær kvinde i et skelsættende år af sit liv. (Line Bilenberg i sin pressemeddelse)

DocsBarcelona: Filmmaker’s Window

3 months ago a state of alarm forced us to leave the office from where we always produce DocsBarcelona. In this context, this edition has been prepared: looking out the window to see the few things that were happening in a world that had completely stopped.

We believe it is important to remember everything we have been through. That is why we have asked directors and friendly directors of DocsBarcelona to share with us how they experienced this confinement beyond the window of their home. Sharing the hard moments, and the beautiful moments, and these looks outward and at the same time inward. We asked them, to the extent that they could and under the conditions we already knew, to send us an audiovisual piece that reflected this moment as only documentaries do.

And now, it seems that everything is being left behind (including this new edition of the Festival that is already ending) we present the result of these pieces, which we have also had the honor and pleasure of preparing for this digital projection with the help of the Victor Kossakovsky, from whom we got the idea through his masterpiece, TISHE. It is thanks to his sensitivity, and to that of Èric Motjer, Laura Àlvarez, Ariadna Seuba, Anna Petrus, Pepe Rodríguez, Alexandre Chartrand, Oscar Moreno and Clare Wiekopf, from the friendly filmmakers who have lent themselves. Now we can open this filmmaker’s window to everything we experienced a few weeks ago around the world. We hope you enjoy it!

The premiere will be next Saturday, May 30th at 12pm (Spanish time). You can follow it through the web or social networks of @DocsBarcelona. Do not miss it!

Photo from  Kossakovsky’s TISHE.

Niels Pagh Andersen at DocsBarcelona

Yesterday a masterclass was held with Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen in conversation with me. I was happy to see that almost 130 attended the class with ”the Skinny Romantic”, as he has been called by Ai WeiWei, whose ”Vivos” is one of the films at the online DocsBarcelona 2020. The other film at the festival edited by Andersen is Danish ”Songs of Repression” by Marianne Hougen-Moraga and Estephan Wagner. The film that won two awards at the Cph:Dox festival recently, produced by Final Cut for Real that also stood behind ”Act of Killing” and ”Look of Silence”, also edited by the storyteller from Hans Christian Andersen’s country.

Among the themes: Emotional dramaturgy, Director and Editor, Holding back Information, Empathy for the characters, Good and Evil, Order in chaos and much much more.

If you were not among the viewers yesterday, you can see and hear by clicking, it’s for free and in (some kind of) English:

https://me.docsbarcelona.com/events/1/live/5

 

The Digital life of the Documentary Industry

Zane Balcus wrote this essay:

New features of something to come were felt in February during Berlinale. Then only a few people were seen on the streets in face masks, but hand disinfectants were regularly provided in the toilets of the European Film Market (and in sufficient amounts for the huge crowds of attendees). In Prague at the beginning of March, the “new reality” arrived in full force during the week of the East Doc Platform (EDP) and One World Film Festival. The festival was suspended due to the ban to gatherings over 100 people. It was painful for those filmmakers who learned only after arriving in the Czech Republic that their film would not be shown in the cinema (like it was for the team of The Earth is Blue as an Orange, who had had so successful start in Sundance, bookings to almost all spring festivals this year (and I’m sure beyond it), which have now moved online). 

Dafilms stepped in and the festival immediately switched from physical space 

 

to digital. EDP’s events continued to take place because their size was within the limits, and this was also the result of an increasing sense of insecurity, as part of the planned guests decided not to come shortly before and even during it. In a couple of days, the rules changed again, and even EDP had to move their last events online. While in Prague, the news were coming in about other events: Zagreb Dox will only hold its industry section online, but will move the festival to a later time, CPH:DOX switched to digital, the same for Thessaloniki, Vilnius.

These developments coincided with the launch of a new international organization, the European Documentary Film Association (DAE). DAE’s intention to bring together documentary professionals came at exactly the right time, as it was needed not only as a place for the exchange of information, but also to support each other at the time when previously established stable structures had suddenly dismantled. The Friday hangouts organized by DAE quickly gained a certain structure – participants meet once a week at zoom and discuss certain topics. The topics resonated to the current situation from various aspects of the industry. I joined the group focusing on the pitching forums – what effect does the current situation have on this essential element of the industry? In some way, the crisis pressured to touch upon issues already present before – the number of pitching platforms, sustainability, accessibility, inclusiveness, can digital form be an asset, or what can’t be done online? After a few weeks of discussions, a document was created with the main conclusions (accessible on DAE’s website).

Several of the arguments in favour of or against digital could be experienced at an online visit to Visions du Réel. Nothing of the constituent components of the festival took place physically. I hadn’t planned to go to Nyon this year, but the possibility of attending the festival online made me join it. During the festival, I focused more on the industry section, specifically Pitching du Réel and Docs in Progress. While watching previously pre-recorded presentations assembled in blocks and streamed to the participants, the missing element was the energy of live event – the ability to feel and evaluate project representatives in the course of the presentation, presentation form, trailer nuances on a high-quality and large screen with good quality sound, the interaction of moderator with pitchers and decision makers, audience reaction. The choice of organisers to show video of pre-recorded presentations or to offer live presentations is, of course, dependent on many factors, including that of the different time zones of project teams and experts. Overcoming potential obstacles, digital can be a solution to adapting to the current situation. But it is important to stress that even though technically a lot of components of the event can be carried over to the digital space, still there is something very important that resists adaptation.

In a digital environment, it is more difficult to integrate the social aspects of events where informal meetings take place – possibility to meet projects and experts outside the official programmes. Online format is perfectly capable of maintaining the form of industry events, but it can’t replicate all content – networking is the missing link. Attempts to create a more informal atmosphere in a digital environment are different: for example, all industry participants of Visions du Réelwere invited to joined the zoom platform before the presentations began. When “I arrived” 6 minutes before the indicated start time, 4 “pages” of people were already there, and soon it increased to 8 pages, with a total of around 200 people. Having light latinomusic in the background, the organizers greeted familiar colleagues whose “entry” into the virtual space they spotted. Element of an informal atmosphere was created also after the awards ceremony – guests were diverted to zoom rooms where to talk with others in manageably small groups. At any time, it was possible to return to the main room and join another room to continue talking again with other people. When one of the guests suddenly vanished from the room I was sent to, I thought it was in some way similar to a situation in a physical reception or happy hour, when you drift from one group of people to another, and can spend like this the whole evening. On the other hand, it highlighted the restrictions of a virtual environment: I cannot see where the person went, I cannot know where I should go to meet some of the familiar people I noticed earlier and with whom I would be happy to chat.

Screening Online

Many questions, different reactions and ambiguous attitudes have also been raised about screening films online. Technically, again, it can be done. But is the small screen the most appropriate form? Festivals are important starting platforms for new films, after one festival they travel to the next, and only gradually reach the small screen on the streaming platform. This natural circle has been affected now by leaving festival organizers and producers in an open dialogue – what is the best solution. Discussions about this topic has been present in almost all public discussion accompanying festivals since the end of March. Festival organisers have made a variety of arguments about how to see the current situation – that it is an opportunity to reassess what the festival mission is (stated by Orwa Nyrabia, IDFA), to reflect on how responsible festivals should be in the context of global climate change, what can we learn and keep from the current situation? I align with the colleagues saying that films should be shown in cinemas, that they need the classical viewing form – people watching film on a large screen together in a darkened auditorium. Digital can exist in parallel, but it should not be the main one.

I was fully having this experience in my first online film festival jury work. The organisers of the goEast festival decided that the festival would take place online – part of the programme in May, part in the later months this year. Along with colleagues from Paris, New York and Berlin (Nino Kirtadze, Darya Zhuk, and Christoph Terhechte), we were watching films online, and in several virtual conversations then discussed our impressions and agreed about the winners. There was no opportunity to spend more time with colleagues, as would be the case if we were attending the festival, and watch films in proper conditions. 

What these two months (short and long in the same time) have shown is the ability to mobilize, adapt, share. This time has significant losses, but also benefits, as well as the awareness that digital solutions in the context of film festivals and industry platforms are here to stay in greater extent than before. This topic will need the next chapter in written form – after some more months will have passed, with having more time to prepare the events in these new circumstances, and more conclusions to make. This also concerns me a lot as someone, who needs to find the “best possible solution” for the Baltic Sea Docs event in September.

Photo: Expert meeting Visions du Réel.

The article is published here with a courtesy of portal Kino Raksti (www.kinoraksti.lv), where it was originally published there on 18 May 2020 in longer form.