main pageFEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILMS COMPETITION
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For this year's Documentary Films Competition 'Image of the World - World in Images', held under the patronage of Discovery Networks Central Europe organized as a part of the Documentary Films Section of the Plus Camerimage Festival, we received over 530 entries from 79 countries from six continents. That is 150 more than last year!
This year, for the first time, for the Documentary Films Competition, the entries were accepted for two separate time categories: short and feature. The decision on which movie will be awarded the Grand Prix - the Golden Frog will be made during the Festival by an international jury, separate for each category. What is more, independently from the jury, the patron of the Documentary Films Section will for the first time in history grant the statuettes of Discovery Networks Central Europe. Below, you will find the list of this years' feature documentaries jurors:
- Jury Chairman: Lech Majewski, director, screenwriter The Garden of Earthly Delights, Angelus, Basquiat
- Barbara Bilinska, Discovery Network Central Europe, Channel Director Poland
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, cinematographer Independence Day, Rob Roy, Jackal
- Lawrence Grobel, writer, author of biographies of Marlon Brando, Truman Capote and others, lecturer at UCLA in Los Angeles
- Louis-Philippe Capelle, cinematographer Nuit noire, Innocents Abroad Secretary of IMAGO
From November 28th to December 5th in Polonia Cinema in Lodz the fans of documentaries will have a chance to see, among other things, the movies awarded at Hot Docs, Dok Liepzig and Silverdocs festivals. 12 feature documentary films were qualified for the Documentary Films Competition finale. Below you will find the list of the nominees in this category.
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ANOTHER PLANET (Másik bolygó)
director: Ferenc Moldoványi
cinematographer: Tibor Máthé
country: Hungary, Finland
year: 2008
A documentary essay shot on four continents (North and South America, Africa, South-East Asia), presents the hidden face of our planet and the general moral crisis of our world. The film follows the lives and hardships of exploited, enslaved and worked to the extreme children, seven lives altogether. Each character stoically endures spiritual, cultural, familial, and social helplessness, with the patience of Job. The appalling everyday life of child labourers, child prostitutes and child soldiers is revealed to us in Congo, Cambodia, Mexico and Ecuador. Tibor Máthé’s powerful imagery and Tibor Szemző’s magical music create a dramatic juxtaposition.
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BLIND LOVES (Slepé Lásky)
director: Juraj Lehotský
cinematographer: Juraj Chlpík
country: Slovakia
year: 2008
Finding a true love and happiness is not an easy task. How much harder is it for blind people? Blind Loves is a subtle and insightful film essay on the most intimate emotions of people deprived of eyesight. It is also an attempt to show something very valuable in possession of blind people – an autonomous world of their emotions, full of dreams and ideas. Hence the problem of not seeing is presented as an asset and not a disadvantage. Not only do four of the main characters share their blindness but, in the first place, their strong need for natural and deep love. A thorough observation of their private worlds blends with a visionary animation à la Švankmajer.
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BLOODY MONDAYS & STRAWBERRY PIES
director: Coco Schrijber
cinematographer: Martijn van Broekhuizen
country: Netherlands
year: 2008
Beauty, love, work... sometimes it just isn’t worth getting out of bed for. Bloody Mondays & Strawberry Pies examines the role of boredom in the human condition by showing the lives of five characters. Among them are: a 32 year old Wall Street stockbroker who makes millions a year, a desert nomad who does nothing all day, the last living spy from the Second World War, a painter who has been painting Time for the last 42 years and the first school-shooter in American history, Brenda Spencer, who at the age of 16 shot eleven people because she “didn’t like Mondays”. The actor John Malkovich gives voice to the inner bored human being. His fascinating timbre crawls under your skin and wonders: ‘How many people in the world are like me?’ The answers are right in the silent Sahara of your mind.
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BURMA VJ
director: Anders Østergaard
cinematographer: Simon Plum
country: Denmark
year: 2008
Armed with small handy cams undercover Video Journalists in Burma keep up the flow of news from their closed country. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism. Their material is smuggled out of the country, broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered for free to the international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs but, for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and, as unity, they tell a much bigger story. Going beyond the occasional news clips from Burma, acclaimed director Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same providing a thorough documentation of the historic and dramatic days of September 2007, when Buddhist monks went out into the streets protesting against the regime.
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DANCING WITH THE DEVIL
director: Jon Blair
cinematographer: Lance Gewer
country: UK
year: 2009
Three men stalk the gloomy back-alleys of the city’s notorious slums. Spiderman, a 28-year-old drug lord, embarks on a routine patrol through the shadowy streets of Coréia, the sprawling favela he controls. Inspector Leonardo Torres, a muscle-boundcop from Rio's drug squad, inches through the alleys of another shantytown, shots ringing out around him. And Pastor Dione, an evangelical preacher intent on ending the city’s drug conflict, trawls the slums for lost souls while trying to broker peace among all parties. With unprecedented access to some of Rio's most wanted men, together with the specialist police units that hunt down and kill them, the film offers an intimate look at one of the bloodiest urban conflicts on earth.
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HUNTING DOWN MEMORY (Jakten på hukommelsen)
director: Thomas Lien
cinematographer: Patric Säfström
country: Norway
year: 2009
Hunting Down Memory is both a humorous and tragic film, exploring the theme of identity through Øyvind Aamot’s amazing story. A 27-year-old individual sailed for six months on a voyage around the world with director Thomas Lien, before he quit in order to travel alone across China. A few weeks later, his memory was completely gone. The frivolous globetrotter, after losing his memory and managing to return to Norway, experiences the world with a consciousness of a child, is confronted with various prejudices, and has to build a new identity. He is Wind now. He is about to embark on a journey, to trace the footsteps of Øyvind. How will he react to this new-found knowledge, the reality of his own existence? Will he regret ever having embarked on such a journey, or will it turn out to be a true blessing?
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IN A DREAM
director: Jeremiah Zagar
cinematographer: Erik Messerschmidt, Mark Stetz
country: USA
year: 2008
In the vibrant, bohemian neighborhood of South Philadelphia, 50,000-square feet of concrete are covered with tile and mirror mosaics that were created by renowned artist, Isaiah Zagar. The murals chronicle his love for his wife, Julia, and subtly hint at the darker corners of an extraordinary imagination. Where Isaiah is obsessive and self-absorbed, Julia – a former Peace Corps volunteer who has become an icon in South Philly's art community – is a gracious and warm personality. For decades, their opposing natures complemented each other perfectly. But, in a moment of great stress, just before picking up their oldest son from a rehabilitation center, the family implodes. Isaiah confesses to an affair with his assistant, is kicked out of the house, and spirals into a debilitating nervous breakdown. A fascinating portrait of love and betrayal, artistic invention, and the enduring power of family bonds.
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LIVING, THE (Zhyvi)
director: Sergey Bukovsky
cinematographer: Pavel Kazantsev, Volodymyr Kukorenchuk, Roman Yelenskyi
country: Ukraine
year: 2008
At the beginning of the 1930s, Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union, experienced the worst tragedy in its history – the Great Famine of 1932-33, also known by its Ukrainian name, Holodomor. The Communist regime sought to punish the disobedient Ukrainian peasantry. In contrast to other constituent republics of the Soviet Union, the Communist authorities of Ukraine forcibly took away not only food and seed grain, but also whatever foodstuffs the farmers had left. Roads to large cities, where food could still be bought in limited quantities, were blocked. Local trade in foodstuffs and industrial goods was strictly prohibited. In 1932-33, 17 persons died in Ukraine every minute, 1,000 – every hour, and almost 25,000 – every single day. The film tells this shocking story calling as witnesses those who miraculously survived the Holodomor.
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RENÉ
director: Helena Trestikova
cinematographer: Helena Trestikova
country: Czech Republic
year: 2008
This raw authentic documentary film tells the story of René, whose life was being captured on camera since he was seventeen. The camera followed his hopeless journey from prison to prison and brief periods outside the prison walls. In 2008 the film comes to an end, leaving the now 37-year-old René as a sick man who still gets in trouble with the law but, at the same time, is the author of two published books. Director Helena Třeątíková records René's personal development against the backdrop of significant political transformations taking place in Central Europe.
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TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN, THE
director: Byambasuren Davaa
cinematographer: Martijn van Broekhuizen
country: Germany
year: 2009
A promise, an old, destroyed horse-head violin and a song believed lost lead the singer Urna back to Outer Mongolia. Her grandmother was forced to destroy her once loved violin in the tumult of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Only the violin’s neck and head survived. The ancient song of the Mongols, The Two Horses of Genghis Khan was engraved on the neck of the violin. Now it is time to fulfill the promise Urna made to her grandmother. Having arrived in Ulan Bator, she brings the still intact parts of the instrument to Hicheengui, a renowned maker of horse-head violins, who will build a new body for the old instrument. Then, Urna leaves for the interior to look for the song’s missing verses. But the quest disappoints her. None of the people she meets on the way appears to still know the old melody of the Mongols.
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UNMISTAKEN CHILD (Hagilgul)
director: Nati Baratz
cinematographer: Yaron Orbach
country: Israel
year: 2008
After years of isolation, Lama Konchoq was declared the Greatest Tibetan Meditator of our time. At the end of 2001, he passed away. 28-year-old Tenzin Zopa, his shy and gifted disciple, who served him for 21 years, is unexpectedly appointed by the Dalai Lama to lead the search for the reincarnation of his late Master. The “Unmistaken Child” must be found within four years. The ensuing quest transforms Tenzin from a modest servant into a spiritual leader, only to become a servant again once the child is found.
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YODOK STORIES
director: Andrzej Fidyk
cinematographer: Torstein Grude, Tore Vollan,
country: Norway
year: 2008
Today, over 200,000 men, women and children are locked up in North Korea's concentration camps. Systematic torture, starvation and murder is what faces the inmates. Few survive many years in the camps, but the population is kept stable by a steady influx of new persons considered to be 'class enemies'. A small group of people have managed to flee from the camps to a new life in the prosperous South Korea. Some of them gather and decide to make an extraordinary and controversial musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp. Despite death threats and many obstacles, the musical becomes a tour de force for this ensemble of refugees, giving them a possibility to talk about their experiences and inspiring others to protest against the existence of the camps.
SCREENING TIMES AND DATES:
ANOTHER PLANET (FEATURE VERSION)
Polonia cinema (Main), 01 Dec, 11:45
BLIND LOVES
Polonia cinema (Main), 29 Nov, 17:00
BLOODY MONDAYS & STRAWBERRY PIES
Polonia cinema (Main), 30 Nov, 19:15
BURMA VJ
Polonia cinema (Main), 04 Dec, 12:00
DANCING WITH THE DEVIL
Polonia cinema (Main), 04 Dec, 18:45
HUNTING DOWN MEMORY
Polonia cinema (Main), 30 Nov, 11:45
IN A DREAM
Polonia cinema (Main), 01 Dec, 16:30
LIVING, THE
Polonia cinema (Main), 03 Dec, 17:30
RENE
Polonia cinema (Main), 29 Nov, 12:00
TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN, THE
Polonia cinema (Main), 02 Dec, 15:30
UNMISTAKEN CHILD
Polonia cinema (Main), 03 Dec, 12:15
YODOK STORIES
Polonia cinema (Main), 30 Nov, 16:00
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