26. September 2015

Documentary Competition

LET'S CEE Documentary Competition
Curator: Rada Šešić

“The documentary camera’s gaze allows us to ‘see for ourselves’ in an identification with the camera as objective and disembodied.... But if we are brought to remember that this is also the filming subject’s look and he or she is a participant in real events unfolding in historical time, then it becomes understood as embodied and can no longer be an “objective” gaze when our knowledge of the context of filming gives rise to moral questioning.” This quote from the book Recording Reality, desiring the Real by Elizabeth Cowie, clearly emphasizes some important filmmaker approaches in this year’s selection of East and Central European documentaries for our Festival. It is interesting to observe how filmmakers position themselves when they seek in form of Cinema of I or Cinema of Myself answers for all of us. The Czech film Sugar Blues explores to what extent daily sugar consumption  affects our bodies; and  the Croatian Naked Island takes a captivating look at the filmmaker’s family secret; and in the meditative, yet political Latvian Invisible City – the filmmakers found intriguing angles as storytellers. The Estonian film Anthill reflects on life in the largest Soviet blockhouse area of Tallinn, in a broader temporal and spatial context; while the Hungarian Cain’s Children, the filmmaker revisits young delinquents thirty years later, showing how society has failed to help support and reintegrate these ruined adults, living at the margins of society. The makers of the selected documentaries do not limit themselves to the simple task of representing and describing reality, but use the strengths of cinematic language to investigate, reveal and offer relevant issues for public debate. The Serbian documentary Logbook Serbistan tackles a hot topic of Europe today: migration, borders and the (in)humane attitude of man towards his fellow man. The Turkish Love Will Change the Earth reflects on a turbulent political reality, witnessing one of the largest civic uprisings in the history of modern Turkey. The Romanian documentary Trading Germans is based on a true story of one of the largest human trafficking schemes in history, that happened silently and secretly during the Cold War. Remarkable stories that successfully swept several festivals in America and Europe: like the second documentary from Romania, Chuck Norris vs Communism; and the two Polish films Call Me Marianna and The Queen of Silence that admirably depict the clarity  and courage of the main characters, commenting in a charming, cinematically-exciting and non-intrusive manner on the society around them. We present you with eleven strong, moving documentaries, with passion and great enthusiasm  emanating  from each image – eleven personal and highly artistic reflections on the world we live in, confronting us with serious issues, calling for our alertness, making us ponder ourselves and push forward in our everlasting search for the deepest truths.

LET'S CEE Documentary Competition - all dates & tickets:
www.letsceefilmfestival.com/programme-overview-2015/category/dokumentarfilm-wettbewerb.html