Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
June 3 - 11, 2009
Karlovy Vary / Czech Republic
AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM OVER 30 MINUTES (USD 5000)
Osadné | Osadné
Slovakia, Czech Republic 2009, 65 min, WP
Director: Marko Škop
Screenplay: Marko Škop
Director of Photography: Ján Meliš
Editor: František Krähenbiel
Producer: Marko Škop, Ján Meliš, František Krähenbiel, Filip Remunda
Production: Artileria
Co-production: Hypermarket Film
In this cheerful “document-toury movie” by Other Worlds creator Marko Škop, an Orthodox priest, a long-serving mayor, and a Ruthenian activist set out on a journey from the remote eastern Slovak village of Osadné for the European Parliament in Brussels. The village of Osadné lies on the farthest eastern border of the European Union. Local Orthodox priest Peter Soroka has buried 50 people in the past five years and baptized merely two children. Soroka’s civilian counterpart is Mayor Ladislav Mikuláško, a political record-holder who has been the village bigwig for 36 years. These two unusual local patriots decide to take the future of Osadné into their own hands and, with the help of Ruthenian activist Fedor Vico, seek help from the highest authorities.
Marko Škop pitched Other Worlds at the 2003 East European Forum and presented the film at the 2005 Docu Talents from the East.
Škop participated in the 2006 Ex Oriente Film as the producer of Juraj Lehotský's Blind Loves.
Osadné was among the films presented at the 2008 Docu Talents from the East.
SPECIAL MENTION
We Live in Public | We Live in Public
USA, 2009, 90 min, EP
Director: Ondi Timoner
Screenplay: Ondi Timoner
Dir. of Photography: Ondi Timoner, Vasco Nunes, Max Heller
Music: Ben Decter, Marco d’Ambrosio
Editor: Joshua Altman, Ondi Timoner
Producer: Ondi Timoner, Keirda Bahruth
Production: Interloper Films
Sales: Celsius Entertainment
Ambitious young Josh Harris came to New York City in 1984 with the desire to make his mark on the world of modern technology. Nine years later he founded Pseudo.com, an interactive Internet TV site. Called the “Warhol of the Web,” the multimillionaire propagator of communications networks enjoyed his quickly acquired popularity, but he didn’t just rest on his laurels. At the end of the millennium he introduced the groundbreaking project Quiet: We Live in Public. Using an extensive underground space, he created a society with its own rules, inviting hundreds of fans to submit their lives to his all-pervasive cameras for 30 days. Then he subjected his own private life to this Orwellian human terrarium. Editing down 5,000 hours of material shot over a period of ten years, Ondi Timoner has created a fascinating portrait of a visionary who became a warning case against Internet evolution.
AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM UNDER 30 MINUTES (USD 5000)
Wagah | Wagah
Germany, India, Pakistan, 2009, 14 min
Director: Supriyo Sen
Screenplay: Supriyo Sen
Dir. of Photography: Ranu Ghosh, Najaf Bilgrami
Editor: Szilvia Ruszev
Producer: Henning Kamm, Fabian Gasmia
Production: DETAiLFILM Gasmia & Kamm GbR
Sales: KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg
Each night Wagah, the only crossing along the more than 3000 km India-Pakistan border, becomes the locus of an exceptional event. Crowds of people observe the symbolic spectacle of the closing of the border, trying to get as near to the gates as possible in its aftermath. There they greet former friends and acquaintances – their neighbors until the 1947 partition of the country. In contrast to its tenor, this peculiar “festival,” seen through the eyes of three young DVD sellers, represents the lone daily moment when, at least symbolically, the two nations are rejoined.
SPECIAL MENTION
Till It Hurts | Do bolu
Poland, 2008, 25 min
Director: Marcin Koszałka
Screenplay: Marcin Koszałka
Dir. of Photography: Marcin Koszałka
Editor: Anna Wagner
Producer: Barbara Paciorkowska, Ryszard Urbaniak
Production: TVP SA - Channel 2
Sales: TVP SA
A 53-year-old psychiatrist still lives at home with his mom. After a long period of emotional abstinence, he meets Ewa and his enthusiasm over his new love evokes a hysterical reaction from his imperious mother: “Have you lost your mind? You’re over 50!” she shouts at him. The son responds by quoting St. Paul: “Children, obey your parents. Parents, do not humiliate your children so that they will not despair.” Although largely based on emotional blackmail and paranoia, there are even moments of tenderness in their complicated relationship. This intimately-drawn tragicomedy is part of a documentary series that follows up on Kieślowski’s Decalogue.
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