Zeljko Mirkovic

Two of his films have been reviewed on this site (”I will Marry the Whole Village” and ”The Long Road Through Balkan History”). I have known him for a decade, admired his commitment and seen his strong development as a filmmaker. He is a good friend, who (with his family) I appreciate very much to see at least once per year, when I am in Belgrade. Of course his company is called Optimistic Film, of course he uses facebook (2824 friends!), twitter, youtube etc. to draw people’s attention to what he is doing. Some days ago Zeljko sent me news about the film he is making, and of course, and well deserved, his upcoming film has caught the interest of the media. Here is a text clip (from Wild Rooster), you can read more using the links below as well as see the trailer of the film:

“When two fighting men crossed paths over the skies of Yugoslavia nobody could have guessed that it would set in motion a serious of events that have seen two families becoming firm friends. By orchestrating emotional meetings between a Serbian baker and a former US airman and capturing them on film, Serbian documentary maker eljko Mirković has produced a film that is grounded in a message of reconciliation.

The Second Meeting is a film about the touching reunion and shared memories of a US F117A stealth pilot Dale Zelko and the Yugoslav missile colonel Zoltan Dani who shot him down over Yugoslavia on March 27, 1999. The plane crashed and everyone had a chance to see for themselves, and live. Thankfully, the pilot ejected and was successfully evacuated eight hours later.”

http://www.optimisticfilm.com/eprojekti.html

http://www.independent.com/news/2012/jun/24/no-hard-feelings/

http://wild-rooster.com/serbian-documentary-carries-a-message-of-peace/

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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