JIHLAVA ON KOVA SANA. Tue Steen Müller.28.10.08
Jihlava on monista dokumenttimaailman tapahtumista yksi kaikista sympaattisimpia. Itä-Euroopasta tulevat elokuvantekijät hakkaavat rehellisyydellään, vlipittömyydellään ja elokuvallisella asennoitumisellaan useimmat Euroopan dokumantaristeista.
Ja Jihlavassa tapahtuu paljon, rahoitusfoorumin lisäksi seminaareja, festivaali ja tuotannossa olevien elokuvien esittelyjä. Suomesta paikalla esiteltiin Jukka Kärkkäisen toivottavasti tänä vuonna valmistuva Kansakunnan olohuone. Sari Volanen edusti Yleä Foorumissa ja Iikka Vehkalahti työskenteli seminaarissa pari päivää kertoen myös yhdessä Don Edkinsin kanssa kirjastaan Steps by Steps.
JaTue kirjoitti neljäkin blogia tapahtumasta:
JIHLAVA I
Two representatives from the San Francisco based ITVS (Independent Television Service), Cynthia Kane and Lois Vossen, attended the East European Forum. They made a very good impression expressing enthusiasm in their going for the creative and artistic documentary. They were at the right place!
In a morning session clips were shown from two films that they had supported, both of them on their way to international success:
"Cash and Marry" by Atanas Georgiev, produced by Nukleus, Sinisha Juricic, Croatia. And "The Caviar Connection", produced and directed by Jovana and Dragan Nikolic, Serbia. The latter will be premiered at IDFA this year.
Here are some words from the site of ITVS:
Welcome to television's independent voice. Innovative. Provocative. Real. ITVS funds, presents and promotes award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television and cable, innovative new media projects on the Web and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens Tuesday nights at 10:00 PM on PBS... ITVS programs take creative risks, explore complex issues, and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public television. ITVS programming reflects voices and visions of underrepresented communities and addresses the needs of underserved audiences, particularly minorities and children.
Still: The Caviar Connection.
http://www.itvs.org/index.htm
JIHLAVAII
Another season of Ex Oriente Film is over. For a year - in 3 sessions – I have had the privilege to follow and tutor a group of documentary makers, a few already experienced, most of them upcoming talent from Eastern Europe. I was rushing out of the door to get to the next station, where I am now, Discovery Campus Masterschool, so for those of you Ex Oriente people who read this: Thank you so much for a great year full of fun and creativity – and please make some good films!
... that will take time, of course, and the projects, all pitched at the East European Forum, will be at other presentation venues like here in Leipzig or at the idfa Forum. Like the one on the picture:
Thierry Paladino´s ”Puppets” to be produced by Centrala Film Warsaw.
The projects are listed on:
http://web.docuinter.net/en/activities.php?kategorie=2&id=91&sid=198&rok...
Think Big! Is what young producer and director Ilona Bicevska has done throughout a year of participation in the Ex Oriente 2008. The award was given sunday at the East European Forum in Jihlava. Katja Wildermuth from MDR in Germany loved the Latvian project which is called ”15 Young by Young” and promised to help it to realisation – as did several other in the panel.
The project will consist of 15 films, each of them 15 minutes long, to be made by 15 different directors from the 15 ex-Soviet republics. They can then be put together in whatever way the broadcasters want, 5x45 minutes or into one long version. Ilona Bicevska has a very well thought and wonderfully ambitious plan on how to pick the directors and the themes at editorial workshops, among them with the participation of the Danish Film School that has promised to help with editing suites and supervision.
To be finished 20 years after the collapse of the USSR and/or the independence of the ex-Soviet republics. From the country of Juris Podnieks, Ivars Sleckis and Herz Frank. Bravo!
Saturday and Sunday 24 projects were pitched at the East European Forum at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czech Republic. It is always difficult to measure what is a success but of course positive reactions/commitments from broadcasters count. In my experience – that for pitching sessions go more than 10 years back – 25% of the projects presented do normally get some finances from these events.
In Jihlava this year my guess is that at least 6 will be supported at this stage. Many others are still in development and received advice for further development. And the sentence: ”come back to me”. And others were told that this is too local, which does not mean that the film to be made could not turn into high quality. Remember ”Czech Dream” – who had thought that this film would tour the world? The IDF team (see picture) that stood behind this 8th edition of the East European Forum, had again turned the session into something warm and creative in a design under the motto ”Recycle Life – Make Documentaries”. The panel of broadcasters was this year around 20 people, including representatives from the Sundance Institute and ITVS from the the US. In an atmosphere of slight depression for the public broadcasters in Europe the participation of the funds was real good news!
http://web.docuinter.net/en/index.php
