East Silver
SILVER EYE is an award for the best feature, mid and short length documentary. Documentaries are selected from East Silver Market submissions and the selection committee nominates 11 films in each category. Best films are awarded with prize money of EUR 1 500 in each category: Best Short Documentary, Best Mid-Length and Best Feature Documentary.
In addition to that, SILVER EYE winners are supported with the year-round festival service, access to the international film markets and international broadcasters.
The idea of Silver Eye Awards is to promote and support creative documentaries from the region worldwide, to attract attention of industry professionals, to secure festival and TV releases or help them to find their distributors.
The Silver Eye Award winners were announced during the Opening ceremony of the 14th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival on October 26, 2010.
The Silver Eye Award 2010 was again handed out in three categories: short, mid-length and feature documentary film. The final decision was made by an international jury of selected industry guests of the market: Short category: Bruni Burres (Sundance Documentary Film Program), Jan Naszewski (New Europe Film Sales), Outi Saarikoski-Schimberg (YLE Co-Productions). Mid-Length category: Gitte Hansen(First Hand Films), Anna Hoffmann (Berlinale - Forum), Margje de Koning (Ikon). Feature category: Kathrin Brinkmann (ARTE/ZDF), Andrea Hock (Autlook Filmsales), Marzena Moskal(Quinzaine des Realisateurs, Cannes Film Festival) On top of the financial prize of EUR 1,500, the winner benefits from East Silver’s festival service throughout the year.
Category: Short Documentary
That's Life
Takie życie, Poland, 2010, 27 min, Digi Beta, Portrait, Social Issues
The film shows a beautiful and strong bond between an ailing older woman and her son who sacrificed his family life and professional career so far to take care of his mother. It depicts their everyday existence, pervaded by sensitivity and extreme care, when simple activities such as washing or dressing up require a lot of time and effort on the part of the sick woman and her son, too. Filled with immense love for his mother, at the same time the man begins to feel resentment towards the people around him. In his conversation with one of his sons the father reveals that he misses support from close family members. Will a family meeting become an opportunity to mend such fragile relations?
The Work of the Machines
Praca maszyn, Poland, Switzerland, 2009, 38 min, Digi Beta, Arts and Culture, Music
Poland. A typical industrial town. Here begins “The Work of Machines”. This dance was created in 1968 to celebrate the Factory. Following the memories, it was possible to recreate the forgotten dance. This reconstruction becomes a time vehicle to the past, allowing for a trip to the era where production was supposed to mean a happy life.
Plain Landscape with a Cradle
Krajobraz nizinny z Kolyska, Poland, 2010, 15 min, Digi Beta, Personal View, Portrait, Social Issues
"Plain Landscape with a Cradle" is a portrait of an alcoholic consistently and consciously ruining his own life. The main character, a lonely man in his sixties, from a small village in Masuria, submits to the death drive, a bustling force of ruthless and overpowering nature. Thanks to powerful images, lack of narrator's commentary, unique ambience and intimacy between the author and his character, the film resists the temptation of passing gratuitous moral judgements.
Category: Mid-length Documentary
Family Instinct
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.
Special mention:
Michael Berger - A Hysteria
Michael Berger - Eine Hysterie, Austria, 2010, 50 min, HD, Personal View, Portrait
The subject of the film, Austrian investment banker Michael Berger, who became a dollar millionaire through a risky hedge fund, remains a chimera - an absent individual who also cannot be captured through his crime. There is not even a single picture of him to see, and all that is left of his influence are the impressive sums that are actually missing from the local banks at some time. In six attempts, the film tries to draw together a case from the traces of Michael Berger’s undertakings.
Category: Feature Documentary
At the Edge of Russia
Koniec Rosji, Poland, 2010, 72 min, Digi Beta, Society
Alexei is a nineteen year old recruit being flown in to perform his military service on the frontier of northern Russia. The base is one of few such remaining outposts on the Arctic Ocean. There are five other seasoned and long serving soldiers stationed here, each with their own personal story or secret that has caused them to retreat from the real world. Their training and breaking in of the new arrival is sometimes humorous, at times harsh. Gradually, they each reveal something of themselves in their daily interactions and private moments as they continue their absurd duty in this snow covered no man's land, hundreds of miles from the nearest human settlement.
