28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

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Docu Talents from the East 2013

Docu Talents from the East 2013 introduced the most remarkable creative documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe in the stage of production or post-production. Directors and producers of thirteen selected feature-length documentaries introduced their projects planned for theatrical distribution in the period from August 2013 to July 2014 in eight -minute presentations.

Docu Talents from the East 2013

Projects presented at Docu Talents from the East 2013

GOTTLAND

Directors: Lukáš Kokeš, Petr Hátle, Rozálie Kohoutová, Viera Čákanyová, Radovan Síbrt, Bohdan Bláhovec, Klára Tasovská
Country: Czech Republic
Producer: Tomáš Hrubý
Director of photography: Lukáš Milota, Prokop Souček, Lukáš Kokeš, Pawel Dyllus
Film length: 120 min
Stage of development: production
Estimated date of premiere: February 2014

Synopsis
Gottland is a cross-genre film based on selected parts of the international bestseller Gottland (European book of the year 2009) by Mariusz Szczygiel. 7 documentarists; students of Prague’s famous film school FAMU; observe Czech history from the losers’ point of view, examining the neuralgic points of Czech and European history and so called “heroes” of the Czech nation. The name Gottland refers to a famous Czech singer Karel Gott, one of the most popular pop-music singers in Central Europe. Karel Gott himself became a symbol of a successful and hardworking citizen of the Czech lands, who has stayed perfectly neutral for the last 60 years. He is the only real hero for the Czech nation, sometimes even reaching the status of a god.

Producer
nutprodukce - Tomáš Hrubý

POWROTY AGNIESZKI H. / RETURNS OF AGNIESZKA H.

Directors: Krystyna Krauze, Jacek Petrycki
Country: Czech Republic
Producers: Agnieszka Janowska, Jacek Nagłowski, Martin Vandas
Director of photography: Jacek Petrycki
Film length: 52-70 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: November 2013

Synopsis
The documentary titled Powroty Agnieszki H. (Returns of Agnieszka H.) will be a multi-layered story of Agnieszka Holland’s youth, her time spent studying at FAMU in Prague, and her fascination with the Czech culture, which remains with her until today.

Producer
Centrala Distribution - Agnieszka Janowska, Jacek Nagłowski, Maur Film – Martin Vandas

JAZZOVÉ VÁLKY / JAZZ WARS

Directors: Robert Kirchhoff, Filip Remunda
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia
Producers: Robert Kirchhoff, Filip Remunda
Director of photography: Martin Matiášek, Jakub Halousek, Tomáš Staněk
Film length: 80-120 min
Stage of development: production
Estimated date of premiere: April 2014

Synopsis
La vie de bohème the documentary way. The story of three extraordinary jazzmen coming from Czechoslovakia: Laco Deczi lives in New York, Jan Jankeje in Stuttgart and Lubo Tamškovič used to live in Paris. They are from the same generation influenced by the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Laco Deczi's close friend, jazz harmonica player Chris DePino, a politician close to President George W. Bush, is attempting to put on a concert of the Czechoslovak Jazz Stars commemorating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of course the concert may never be organized.

Producer
Hypermarket Film - Filip Remunda, atlier.doc, ltd. - Robert Kirchhoff, Czech Television

EXKURZE / EXCURSIONS

Director: Jan Gogola
Country: Slovakia
Producer: Peter Kerekes
Director of photography: Noro Hudec
Film length: 80 min
Stage of development: production
Estimated date of premiere: June 2014

Synopsis
In Excursions, children travel through time, most frequently into the past. Their destinations are important places of national myths, such as the homes of writers and statesmen, as well as war memorials. A child who lives in his own small world is confronted with the power of a community that has withstood many trials and yet still survives today. The film would like to research the values presented today to children during excursions. How are traditions and the basic ideas on which the state is built presented today?

Producer
Peter Kerekes s.r.o. - Peter Kerekes

FELVIDÉK. HORNÁ ZEM / FELVIDEK. STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

Director: Vladislava Plancsikova
Country: Slovakia
Producer: Tomáš Kaminský
Director of photography: Dušan Husár
Film length: 80 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: November 2013

Synopsis
This is my personal story. I am from Felvidek. My grandma and all her family came to Slovakia from Hungary many years ago. They were forced to live in a house of evicted Hungarians. How can the result of a political chess game after the Second World War change the destiny of thousands of families? I want to find out what happened. I let old pictures, maps, letters, shoes, and memories tell the story of two nations.

Producer
Mandala Pictures – Tomáš Kaminský

WOLF

Director: Claudio Giovannesi
Country: Italy, Czech Republic
Producers: Marta Donzelli, Radim Procházka
Director of photography: Michele D'Attanasio
Film length: 74 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: August 2013

Synopsis
Terezín was an artificial ghetto for prominent Jews in transit to the East. Rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein was Head of the Jewish Council. He survived with his wife and his son, Wolf, and was absolved from the accusation of collaborating with the Nazis. Suspicion followed him even when he moved to Rome, where the Jewish Community isolated him until his death. Wolf, throughout his life, tried to redeem his father’s image. During the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Claude Lanzmann, who interviewed Benjamin in 1975, presented a film dedicated to him, finally redeeming his figure, a result that was never achieved by Wolf.

Producer
Vivo film – Marta Donzelli, Produkce Radim Procházka – Radim Procházka

AGFA 1939

Director: Michał Wnuk
Country: Poland
Producer: Magdalena Kamińska
Director of photography: Michał Popiel-Machnicki
Film length: 75 min
Stage of development: pre-production
Estimated date of premiere: May 2014

Synopsis
Michal discovers an Agfa box in his house. The orange box contains hundreds of World War II-era photographs and two rolls of 16 mm film. The photographs show one German’s perspective on the destruction of Poland, the Eastern Front, and the Holocaust. The film is a touching farewell to the family shot by a German soldier. There is a reason why Michal has not seen the pictures before; the never-mentioned family secret that Alois Kunsdorf, his grandfather, was forced to serve in the Wehrmacht; a treacherous thing in the eyes of the fellow Polish countrymen.

Producer
Balabusta – Magdalena Kamińska

SUGAR BLOG

Director: Andrea Culková
Country: Czech Republic, Germany
Producer: Daniel Tuček
Director of photography: Lukáš Milota, Aleš Blabolil
Film length: 95 min
Stage of development: production
Estimated date of premiere: February 2014

Synopsis
Sugar Blog is a personal historical-industrial documentary about our addiction to sugar and sweet life. The director, who was diagnosed with pregnancy diabetes, investigates the fatal effect of a century of sugar consumption on the individual and society. She realises how difficult it is to give up this addictive drug and how it is almost impossible to find any food without sugar. She uncovers strong links between mental and behavioural disorders and excessive consumption of sugar and learns about its influence on human thinking and culture in general. And she notes it down in her sugar blog.

Producer
Golden Dawn – Daniel Tuček

300 TONNA ARANY / 300 TONS OF GOLD

Director: Tibor Kocsis
Country: Hungary
Producer: Tibor Kocsis
Director of photography: Tibor Kocsis, Zsolt Tóth
Film length: 90 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: November 2013

Synopsis
The film follows the fight of a farmer, Eugen David, for the survival of his beautiful village Rosia Montana and his happy life in the mountains of Romania. A Canadian company wants to open Europe’s largest opencast goldmine here. They plan to relocate the people and destroy four mountains. The plan splits the once peaceful community in two. Brothers and friends become enemies. Eugen, the most powerful landholder, refuses to leave his home. He wants to protect his land. In a fight against the Gold Corporation, our hero brings the battle from his farm all the way to the European Parliament.

Producer
Flora Film International – Tibor Kocsis

MÝCH POSLEDNÍCH 150 000 CIGARET / MY LATEST 150.000 CIGARETTES

Director: Ivo Bystřičan
Country: Czech Republic
Producers: Kamila Zlatušková, Czech Television
Director of photography:  Jakub Halousek, Jan Strnad
Film length: 52 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: August 2013

Synopsis
After 15 years of chain smoking, the director decides to stop right after a serious medical observation. In his video-diary he continuously depicts the state of his body and mind during tobacco withdrawal. As he is getting more and more angry, he makes efforts to question the general situation of tobacco business in his country. In a humorous manner he is trying to get into contact with tobacco corporations’ representatives and the politicians who make ideal conditions for the existence of a tobacco enterprise. Documentary infotainment brings surprises.

Producer
Czech Television – Kamila Zlatušková

PUTIN'S GAMES

Directors: Alexander Gentelev
Country: Germany
Producer: Simone Baumann
Director of photography: Vyatcheslav Satchkov
Film length: 120 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: August 2013

Synopsis
The Russian city of Sochi on “Russia’s Riviera“ is a traditional summer resort for Russia’s rich and beautiful. It was also chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee. It was a bizarre choice: Sochi is to become the venue of the first subtropical Olympics. When the Committee made its decision, there was not a single venue fit for Olympic purposes of any kind. How could that be? And how are the Russians now going to convert their summer resort into a winter sports paradise? What is happening behind the fiercely guarded fences of the Russian Olympic construction sites?

Producer
Saxonia Entertainment GmbH – Simone Baumann

JEESUS ELAB SIBERIS / JESUS LIVES IN SIBERIA

Directors:  Jaak Kilmi & Arbo Tammiksaar
Country: Estonia
Producer: Margus Õunapuu
Director of photography: Arbo Tammiksaar
Film length: 80 min
Stage of development: post-production
Estimated date of premiere: January 2014

Synopsis
Jesus Lives in Siberia tells the story of the world’s largest and oldest spiritual commune ("Vissarionites") in a Siberian taiga through children’s eyes. Arbo Tammiksaar moves to a Vissarionites, village with his family for about one year. This is a purely observational documentary which focuses on the children’s relationships with parents, teachers, and friends in this cloistered part of the world. For Vissarionites the end of 2012 is when the world as we know it changes and a new era shall begin. How do the children and the community prepare for it? How do they see their life in the future?

Producer
Film Tower Kuubis – Margus Õunapuu

VELKÁ NOC / THE GREAT NIGHT

Directors:  Petr Hátle
Country: Czech Republic
Producera: Pavla Kubečková, Tomáš Hrubý
Director of photography: Prokop Souček
Film length: 90 min
Stage of development: production
Estimated date of premiere: November 2013

Synopsis
A documentary study of the modern-day phenomenon of nightlife and sleeplessness. Using authentic portraits of characters living in the dark “half-world” of Prague’s non-stop bars, gambling houses, and night clubs, the film maps the living space and community of people of the “eternal night”.

Producer
nutprodukce – Pavla Kubečková, Tomáš Hrubý, HBO Europe - Tereza Polachová

 

HISTORY

Ministerstvo kultury
Fond kinematografie
Creative Europe Media
Město Jihlava
Kraj Vysočina
GEMO
Česká televize
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Aktuálně.cz
Respekt
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