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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.

Thessaloniki Will Screen Caravan Titles

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – currently entering its 13th edition – will present three East Silver Caravan titles, which were also nominated for Silver Eye Award in 2010, Bulgarian Paradise Hotel by Sophia Tzavella, The World According to Ion B. by Alexander Nanau and Silver Eye winner, Family Instinct by Latvian director Andris Gauja. Selection of other East Silver Caravan films will be accessible to industry guests in the associated film market during the event.

To mention another programme sections, in the spotlights of the festival there are two multi award-winning documentary filmmakers, Sergei Loznitsa and Czech director Helena Trestikova. The festival will present the key works of both auteurs, including Blockade or Revue by Loznitsa, or the latest long-term observational trilogy Katka, René and Marcela by Trestikova.

13th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Greece
March 11 – 20, 2011

 

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.


East Silver 2010
East Silver Caravan 2010Docu Talents from the East 2010Silver Eye Nominee 2010Silver Eye Winner 2010

 

Paradise Hotel

Director: Tzavella Sophia
Production company: Agitprop Ltd., HBO Bulgaria

Hotel Rai, Bulgaria, 2010, 54 min, Beta SP, Human Rights, Social Issues, Society

The young Demir dreams of a wedding. But his Roma tower block at the outskirts of a provincial town in Bulgaria is no place for romance. 25 years ago it had all it takes for panel socialist heaven: from parquet floors to intercom, the coveted hot water central, street lamps, benches under murmuring apple trees. Someone called the place Paradise Hotel – and the name stuck. But now? The parquet disappeared. The water stopped. The lights went off. And if you cross the field behind Paradise Hotel, you will see Bozhidar “The God Given” who protects everyone from evil and excessive happiness in a documentary about panel integration, love, misery, a lot of dreams, a little lyrics and one Gypsy wedding.


East Silver 2010
East Silver Caravan 2010Silver Eye Nominee 2010

 

 

The World According to Ion B.

Director: 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".

 

>List of East Silver Caravan titles in the Thessaloniki Doc Market.