Yes, it is tonight that DocsBarcelona opens with the screening of “Aquarela” by Viktor Kossakovsky, a dear friend of the festival and a true master of cinema. The festival runs until the 25th with films in the CCCB, cultural centre, and in the Aribau Cinema. After being in airplanes for six hours travelling from Tbilisi in Georgia, I reached Barcelona last night ready to introduce and talk with some of the 25 directors, who will be attending. First nice challenge is to have a talk with Kossakovsky tomorrow at the CCCB Theatre at 19.30.

As you have seen on the FB link, I had a haircut and a shave in Tbilisi for CinéDoc festival and DocsBarcelona.

Click below to see the good programme we have put together.

www.docsbarcelona.com

International Competition

Best Film –The Disappearance of My Mother (Photo) – by Beniamino Barrese

Jury statement – “This film openly talks about respect, dignity, beauty and honesty. The film makes us think about how we treat privacy and who has the right to use it, which is a very important question for any documentary film. An emotional insight into a relationship between mother and son.”

Beniamino Barrese, Director of The Disappearance of My Mother – “A million times thank you for this great uplifting warming cinematic and human experience. It was so great! Looking forward to meet you all again and hopefully share more cinematic and human experience… We are full of the beauty of the last days, travelling to Poland. I haven’t seen my mum so happy for a while and I’m so thankful of that to you all.”

Current Time TV Award – My father is My Mother’s Bother” by Vadim Ilkov

Kenan Alyiev, Executive Editor of Current Times TV – “The award goes to My Father is My Mother’s Brother by Vadim Ilkov. In this touching and intimate documentary the director shows the fragility of parental bonds, and the mystery that imbues the relationship between a child and an underground artist in a family struggling for happiness and normality. With this award we recognize the power of the director to speak about current realities with an artistic approach, and the deep understanding he brings to the characters.”

Special Jury Mention – Honeyland by Lubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska

Jury Statement–“Exceptional images in a simple story that opens many

philosophical issues. By observing small insects who have incredible ability of collaboration we discover the greed of our society. If everyone could take away half of what they need the world would be a better place…”

Focus Caucasus Competition

Best Film – Wound by Arthur Sukiasyan

Jury statement–“For its superb cinematic qualities in every scene, for its rhythm and balance and focus on humans who live in a place, where time seems to stand still, the jury has decided to award as the best film in the Focus Caucasus section Wound by Arthur Sukiasyan.”

Georgian Public Broadcaster Award – Before Father Gets Back by Mari Gulbiani

Jury statement –“For its warm cinematically skilful portray of two girls, who survive everyday troubles through love and phantasy, for bringing up a current theme in the world of today, the jury has decided to award Before Father Gets Back by Mari Gulbiani.”

Special Jury Mention – A Life of Her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze –“For precisely, with beauty and solidarity, conveying the life of a woman full of energy and will to have a good life on her own, the jury has decided to give a special honorary mention to A Life of her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze.”

MAC Georgia-Shuki Movida Award – A Life of Her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze

MAC Georgia Shuki Movida Statement–“All three films in this category – A Fear of the Past, A Life of her Own, and In the Land of Wolves, evidenced strong technical skill and offered the audience meaningful insights into life with a disability. For its skilled and sincere telling of Nunuka’s courageous steps towards overcoming challenges and establishing a life that is independent, we are pleased to give this year’s award to Tamara Mshvenieradze’s film A Life of Her Own.”

CinéDOC- Young (audience award – by children)

Best Film–Life is a beach by Jens Pedersen

Civil Pitch 2019 Awards

Production Award (USD 3000) – Missing My Body – The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) – Nino Chimakadze and Alexander Kvatashidze

Jury Statement– “The production award is given to a project revealing the hidden sorrow of many Georgian families, told in a very original cinematographic way, adding different layers to the story.”

Development Award (USD 500) –Identity in Process – New Vector, Mariam Jibuti and Nino Memanishvili

Jury Statement – “Identity in Process is a special project for opening up a pressing issue in Georgian society, through a character who is looking for a hope in difficult circumstances.”

Current Time TV Award (1000 USD)–Vitali – Center for Participation and Development-Tamar Kapanadze and Keti Gigashvili

Kenan Alyiev, Executive Editor of Current Times TV – “The award the Civil Pitch the project with the title – Vitali. This is a Georgian project by Tamar Kapanadze and Keti Gigashvili that explores the rise of far-right extremism in Georgia. We hope the film helps people confront the rise of extremism, and its terrifying implications for Georgian democracy. This film is dedicated to Vitali, and Georgians need to know his story.”

New Talents Caucasus Awards

Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries Award –Ever Since I Know Myself, Maka Gogaladze

The Author of the project will participate at the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries held in Riga, Latvia, in September 3-7, 2019

Zane Balcus, Pitching Forum Representative of Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries –“For a poetical and personal, memory driven story connecting past and present in an original, and visually complex form.”

Current Time TV Award (USD 1000)–Mothers, Sons and Homeland Leyli Gafarova

Sergei Trofimov – Acquisition and Commissioning Manager of Current Time TV– “The film uses the stories of two families, two mothers and their sons, to try and understand a country still living between peace and war. Current Time always supports new talent, new voices, from some of the most difficult places, and today we are very proud to recognize Leyli Gafarova, this new talent from Azerbaijan.”

Eurasiadoc Awards –

Beauty and the Lawyer by Hovhannes Ishkhanian

and

Cadillac Dreams by Elene Mikaberidze

Mariam Chachia, Representative of Eurasiadoc– Eurasiadoc is a French programme which helps documentary filmmakers to transform their ideas to the films. This year Eurasiadoc is awarding prizes for one Georgian and one Armenian filmmaker. These authors will have the possibility to attend two weeks scriptwriting residency and develop their projects with EurasiaDoc trainers. Two brave projects grabbed our attention. They tell us stories about the fight for freedom. Even though the characters of the projects are totally different from each other, all of them choose to fight for equality and they try to break down the boarders which are made by humans. The prizes of Eurasiadoc 2019 for the Georgian residency goes to the project Cadillac Dreams by Elene Mikaberidze. The prize for Eurasiadoc 2019 for the Armenian residency goes to the project Beauty and the Lawyer by Hovhannes Ishkhanyan.”

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

Csilla Kato, member of the Caucasus Jury at Cinédoc Tbilisi wrote this longer version of motivation for the winner:

Earthquake shakes our basic security feeling and the basic assumption, belief, that we can accommodate comfortable life on a supporting and peaceful earth.

Wound brings us into a human world where the Armenian earthquake stricken town people integrated this experience of living with open wounds of earthquake tragedy for a long run.

It is a state of being that can be spiritually rewarding, as one of the protagonists states, referring to the example of Job from Bible.The film builds up a special time world, with the slowly changing rhythm of the sequences, long takes with still images, as well as the rhythm of the movement of the people in the film. The jury appreciated the craft of minimalist cinema used by Arthur Sukiasyan, through which he succeeds to evoke the state of being of people on the edge of existence.

Armenia, 2019, 25 mins.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

10 projects were part of the Civil Pitch in Tbilisi, one of the activities of the Industry section of Cinédoc Tbilisi festival in the capital of Georgia.

After a couple of days of training led by Daniel Abma and Brigid O’Shea, both from the DOKLeipzig, the NGO representatives and filmmakers were ready to present their projects to a panel including representatives from IDFA Bertha Fund, Baltic Sea Docs, Current Time TV, Golden Apricot Festival in Jerevan, One World Festival in Prague, DOK Leipzig…

The idea of the Civil Pitch is great: The NGO’s bring the subjects, the filmmakers the film skills. More or less, because many of the filmmakers were quite young and unexperienced – learning by doing.

They all did a good presentation, verbally, with passion and enthusiasm, more difficult with the visuals – the trailers/teasers – as many of the projects were very young as the filmmakers. What impressed me was the quality of language skills and that the NGO’s and filmmakers matched each other in a way that I sometimes had difficulties in understanding, who is who.

For me, who had the pleasure of moderating the session, the Civil Pitch gives me a fine inside to the troubles of the country, the issues needed to be discussed – like transgender, to be a young activist, to have lost a son in the war, people with disabilities, hate groups, pollution (yes, it’s terrible on the Rustaveli Boulevard) and North Ossetia that is a melting point of different cultures, the Ossetian, the Georgian and the Russian. Not to forget a project about a silent monk worshipped by thousands of people outside the official religious circles.

The venue – as previous years – was at the Open Society Georgia Foundation. Great hosts.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

… in the Capital of Georgia. It was an unpretentious presentation with two skilled presenters and – unlike many international festivals – it happened in both Georgian and English language. With clips from all competitive sections (for the young, the Caucasus and the international competition) and from the Red Soul section that includes films by Vitaly Mansky, Dziga Vertov, Werner Herzog and others. A small section consequently includes a Red Soul Party with vodka, beer and Soviet food! Tonight. I am happy, see the photo, to be in the Caucasus jury, with Kenan Aliyev and Csilla Kato. Aliyev works with Current Time TV, that is sponsoring 3 awards at the festival (Intl. competition, Civil Doc and New Talent presentation), the channel is truly supporting new film people here and in other parts of Eastern Europe, bravo for that. Csilla Kato is from the reputed Astra Film festival in Sibiu in Romania. Which has been written about several times on this site – here is one of the links: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4372/

The opening film was “Honeyland”, full house in the cinema for this masterpiece from North Macedonia. If you want to know more about that film, use the “search” and you will get there. Has been praised numerous times on this site.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

DocsBarcelona starts in 10 days. I have written about the upcoming festival, link below.

But DocsBarcelona has many other rooms. One of them is the Documentary of the Month that includes one film being shown at 75 venues in Spain and later on in countries in Latin America. In cinemas, in culture houses, in libraries… check the link below.

It is an amazing film cultural initiative.

In the month of May, it is the Scottish director Finlay Pretsell’s “Time Trial” that is offered to the audience. Here is what the site says about the film:

“The end of an athlete’s career is a race against time and a fight against an inevitable demise. The addictive need to participate defies logic and creates a mesmerising and painful spectacle. TIME TRIAL takes us into the final races of cyclist David Millar’s career, leading up to his last encounter with the Tour de France. We go inside the peloton, we’re pushed up impossible climbs and forced down rapid descents, we lie alongside him in his hotel room in post-race agony. We ride in the support car, the source of comfort, supplies and fleeting relief from the cold. And we know that every mile travelled is a mile closer to the end. TIME TRIAL gets us close to David Millar, revealing how the human spirit is driven by a force deeper than success and glory. Filmed using pioneering techniques, bespoke vehicles and on-bike cameras, and with a new score by US composer Dan Deacon…”

And my words from November 2017: …I watched the film yesterday in a smaller cinema, Munt 13 (at IDFA), and I was suffering with the protagonist David Millar on screen. My suffering was in solidarity with poor Millar, who fights to get his last Tour de France but loses – suffering very much due to the music composed by American Dan Deacon, music which is constantly surprising and sometimes a torture to take into the ears.

It has changed my view on music in documentaries, which normally is just filling in holes in weak scenes. Here it goes with the race and the situations, the sequences, the scenes. A great example of music in documentaries – here used for a film, which is so well constructed, full of funny moments, it’s not “only” the tragic fall of a hero…”

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4521/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4089/

http://eldocumentaldelmes.com/en/