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Founded in 2001, the INSTITUTE OF DOCUMENTARY FILM (IDF) is a non-profit training and networking centre based in Prague, Czech Republic, focused on the support of East European documentary films and their wider promotion. Our activities support filmmakers through all stages of completion – development, funding, production, post-production, and distribution. We aim at individual filmmakers (tailored consultations), groups of carefully selected professionals with projects or films (Ex Oriente Film, East European Forum, East Silver, Doc Launch, etc.), broader professional community (East Doc Platform), as well as the general public (portal www.DOKweb.net). We closely work with key int. festivals, broadcasters, distributors, sales agents, markets, or training initiatives and serve as the GATEWAY TO EAST EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY FILM.

Cinema Komunisto and Silver Eye Nominees at Doc Lisboa

The upcoming Portuguese documentary film festival Doc Lisboa included East Silver Caravan’s Cinema Komunisto in the programme section Investigations. Among other Eastern European docs in Lisboa are also titles nominated for the Silver Eye Award 2011, such as Abendland by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Barzakh by Mantas Kvedaravicius (both in competition) and Night Shifts by Ivette Löcker (section New Visions). The competition also features The Last Day of Summer by Piotr Stasik and Vodka Factory by Jerzy Sladkovski.

Doc Lisboa will dedicate Special attention to documentary filmmakers Jean Rouch and Harun Farocki, a whole section will be focused on documentary films covering the liberation movements in Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau (1961-1974).

IX. International Film Festival Doc Lisboa 2011, Portugal
October 20 – 30, 2011


East Silver Caravan and Eastern European docs at DOC Lisboa

Cinema Komunisto

Director: Turajlic Mila
Producer: Pesikan Dragan
Production company: Cinema Komunisto, Intermedia network, Dribbling Pictures, ERT S.A. - Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation

Cinema Komunisto , Serbia, 2010, 100 min, Digi Beta, HD, Arts and Culture, History, Politics, Society

When reality has a different script from the one in your films, who wouldn't invent a country to fool themselves? Using rare footage from dozens of forgotten Yugoslav films, as well as never-seen-before archive from film sets and Tito’s private screenings, the documentary recreates the narrative of a country, the stories told on screen and the ones hidden behind it. Stars such as Richard Burton, Sofia Loren and Orson Welles add a touch of glamour to the national effort, appearing in super-productions financed by the state. Tito’s favorite film director, his projectionist who showed him films every night for 30 years, the most famous actor of partisan films, and the director of the film studios who was a secret policeman - all tell how the history of Yugoslavia was constructed on the screen.

East Silver 2011East Silver Caravan 2011East Silver TV Focus 2011Docu Talents From the East 2008 /

 

Abendland

Production company: Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH

Austria, 2011, 90 min, HD, Creative, Society

Western standard of living, civilization, and the urge to exclude others from it are the core of Geyrhalter's latest cinematic documentary essay. Entirely shot at night, Geyrhalter takes us on a very personal journey through the Western world and the structures that guarantee our "civilized" world. Sometimes darkness can help us to see things more clearly.

East Silver 2011 / East Silver Caravan 2011 / Doc Launch 2010 / Silver Eye nominee 2011

 

Barzakh

Production company: Extimacy Films, Sputnik Oy

Finland, Lithuania, 2011, 60 min, DCP, Human Rights, Social Issues

In a Chechen city recovering after the war, a man disappears. The peope, trying to find him, are drawn into a world where they see encounters, diviners and legal advisors, the torturers and the tortured, secret prisons and mythical lakes. When the missing ones appear in those people's dreams, they say, they come from Barzakh - a land between the living and the death.

East Silver 2011 / Silver Eye nominee 2011

 

Night Shifts

Director: Löcker Ivette
Producer: Wieser Ralph
Production company: Mischief Films

Nachtschichten , Austria, 2010, 97 min, 35 mm, Culture, Personal View, Portrait, Society

They are not just awake; they live at night and with the night. Night Shifts is a portrait of an alternative world. The film follows the trails of people in Berlin who are invisible during the day, accompanying them on their nocturnal paths through the metropolis, which are marked by pragmatic routine, desires, and dangers. "It’s always night, or we wouldn’t need light." (Thelonious Monk)

East Silver 2011 / Silver Eye nominee 2011

 

The Last Day of Summer

Director: Stasik Piotr
Production company: Centrala Sp. z o.o., TVP Kultura

Koniec lata , Poland, 2010, 30 min, HD, Creative, Docu Series, Personal View, Youth Documentary

Almost everyone would like to turn back the hand of time and once again become a child. Why do we come back to those years with such nostalgia? When does the childhood end and when does the adulthood start ? What do we loose when our childhood comes to an end? “The Last Day of Summer” is an emotional journey to the times of childhood and a story about difficulties of entering the world of adults. The film consists of 5 parts. Each of them presents a cadet in different age and his ordinary day. It starts from the youngest one that is 7 and finishes with the oldest one that is 17. Within one hour we show how the cadets’ life changes together with their age. Apart from everyday activities we would like to show some interesting events and behaviors typical for cadets at different age ( e.g.: the first day at school – a 7 year old boy, the first date with a girl – a 15 year old boy). We want to take a closer look at the relations between peers, between children and adults (teachers, parents) to see what are the stages of growing up, how do they differ and what is typical for different age groups. During 50 minutes of the film we observe the process of growing up – from 7 year old kid who learns how to read to a 17 year old graduate who has to decide about his future. This film is a journey to the times of childhood. The first and the youngest characters are to recall our memories from those times, which will allow us to identify with them.

East Silver 2010

 

Vodka Factory

Production company: Hysteria Film AB, ARTE G.E.I.E., SVT - Sveriges Television AB, TVP Kultura, YLE - Finnish Broadcasting Company

Vodka fabriken , Sweden, 2010, 90 min, HD, Portrait, Society

One hopes for love after decades of loneliness, the other fights for a dream that threatens her relationship with her child. Tatiana and her daughter Valentina live in the boring, provincial town of Zhigulyovsk 1000 kilometres south-east of Moscow. Valentina, 22, works in a vodka factory, while Tatiana, 50, is a bus conductor. Valentina, whose dream is to be a TV star in Moscow, has to overcome her own limitations as well as the irony and malice of her comrades at the vodka factory. Tatiana has to adapt her expectations to reality when her potential life partner turns out to be a part-time drunkard and a deadbeat. And on top of all this, both women have to think about Valentina’s son Danilo’s future. One of them has to give up the dream.

East Silver 2011