DOKweb Content
www.DOKweb.net is a portal dedicated to East European documentary film. The news section provides up-to-date information on upcoming and just completed films, interviews with filmmakers and other documentary professionals, in-depth articles exploring the state of documentary filmmaking in various parts of the region, as well as insightful texts on current trends, funding, etc. The portal also boasts the largest published databases of completed and upcoming documentary films from Eastern Europe, an industry directory, as well as trailers and original video content. www.DOKweb.net is IDF´s key online project that provides comprehensive details on all IDF´s activities and links them with general information service.
Institute of Documentary Film’s Activities
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.

East Silver Caravan at DOCPOINT Helsinki

DocPoint Helsinki, annual Finnish documentary film festival, will welcome its visitors with several East European titles from the catalogue of East Silver at the end of January. Among them, there is also Family Instinct, our Silver Eye Award winner in the mid-length category.

The 10th edition of the festival will also screen Czech documentary Katka by Helena Trestikova, the most successful box office documentary in the Czech cinemas last year, or The World According to Ion B. by Alexandru Nanau, one of the Silver Eye Nominees. Apart from the Caravan titles, there are also other films included into East Silver market, all accessible to industry professionals in East Silver Online Videolibrary.

DocPoint Helsinki, Finland
January 25 - 31, 2011

East Silver titles in programme:

Family Instinct

Director: Gauja Andris
Producer: Melberga Madara
Production company: Fa Filma

Ģimenes lietas , Latvia, 2010, 58 min, HD, Drama doc, Portrait, Social Issues

"Family Instinct" is a film about incest - an illegal act, social taboo and a violation of religious norms. Zanda is a 28-year-old woman, worn out by hard work. Surrounded by poverty and despair, she is trying to survive with her two children in a god-forsaken Latvian village. Her hardships can be traced back to living in a relationship with her brother Valdis. When Valdis is put in jail, the local community forces her to make a difficult choice: to stay with him or with her children. Despite her ill fortune, she manages to express her love for the children, still hoping to save her family. The film offers a tragicomic but highly authentic insight into the bleak reality of Latvian countryside today.

Katka

Production company: Negativ s.r.o., Czech TV

Katka , Czech Republic, 2010, 90 min, 35 mm, HD, Creative, Longitudinal, Portrait

Helena Třeštíková's film is a remarkable documentary tracing fourteen years in the life of a young junkie and her futile battle with drug addiction. Why did she start taking drugs? She claims she wanted to be different. The year is 1996 and 19-year-old Katka lives in the Sananim therapy community in the town of Němčice with hope for a normal life – she dreams of having a boyfriend and even a family, some day. But there's no happy ending. The director records Katka's descent over the years into a spiral of theft, prostitution, physical and psychological deterioration – a spiral that is broken only by brief flashes of hope and resolutions to stop taking drugs. Katka's desire is sincere, but in the end drugs always win. Will Katka finally find the strength when she becomes pregnant and motherhood offers her life-sustaining motivation?

A Piece of Summer

Producer: Jastrzebska Ewa
Production company: Polish Filmmakers Association

Kawalek lata , Poland, 2010, 24 min, Digi Beta, Portrait

It is the last days of the summer holidays. A grandfather, who works in Bieszczady Mountains, awaits the arrival of his grandson. Surrounded by wild nature they try to reach an understanding of each other. The camera keenly observes, with slow and subtle pace, a developing relationship to one another and to the world that envelopes them.

 

The Declaration of Immortality

Producer: Slezak Ewa
Production company: Agencja Filmowa for Polish TV

Deklaracja nieśmiertelności , Poland, 2010, 29 min, Beta, Personal View, Portrait

In his new film Marcin Koszałka returns to a forgotten genre, namely a mountain film. The protagonist of his story is Piotr “Mad” Korczak, somewhere in the background there is his rival Andrzej Marcisz. The director focuses on the decline of the career of the great master, provoking his reflection on his future life, when he will no longer be able to climb mountains. It’s a moving story about inability to come to terms with old age and about desire of immortality.

 

Sounds Under the Sun

Producer: Gaisa Līga
Production company: Mistrus Media Ltd.

Latvia, 2010, 62 min, HD, Arts and Culture, Music

The question – How music is created? – forms the bases of the film "Sounds Under the Sun". Investigating the world of sonic creation, the film takes a number of world famous contemporary music composers into an inner and outer journey, finally gathering them in Riga, Latvia, the place where their music comes to life performed by one of the world’s best youth choirs.

 

The World According to Ion B.

Director: Nanau Alexander
Producer: Nanau Alexander
Production company: HBO Romania, Alexander Nanau Production

Lumea vazuta de Ion B. , Romania, 2009, 60 min, HD, Arts and Culture, Portrait

Ion B. is a 62 year-old homeless man. His bed is a filthy foam mattress at the bottom of a garbage chute. Ion sorts through the daily household garbage of the block, avidly reading the books, magazines and newspapers he finds. Since the 70s he has been creating collages from them that he calls "my films".