DOKweb Content
www.DOKweb.net is a portal dedicated to East European documentary film. The news section provides up-to-date information on upcoming and just completed films, interviews with filmmakers and other documentary professionals, in-depth articles exploring the state of documentary filmmaking in various parts of the region, as well as insightful texts on current trends, funding, etc. The portal also boasts the largest published databases of completed and upcoming documentary films from Eastern Europe, an industry directory, as well as trailers and original video content. www.DOKweb.net is IDF´s key online project that provides comprehensive details on all IDF´s activities and links them with general information service.
Institute of Documentary Film’s Activities
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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.

Road to Mecca - The Journey of Muhammad Asad

Road to Mecca - The Journey of Muhammad Asad
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At the beginning of the 1920's, the Jew Leopold Weiss takes a journey to the Middle East. The desert fascinated him, Islam became his new spiritual home. He left his Jewish roots behind, converted to Islam and started calling himself Muhammad Asad. Becoming one of the most important Muslims of the 20th century he first started to work as an advisor at the king's court of Saudi-Arabia, later translated the Koran, became a co- founder of Pakistan and finally ambassador of the UN. The director follows his fading footsteps, leading out of the Arabian desert to Ground Zero. He finds a man who was not looking for adventures but rather wanted to act as a mediator between Orient and Occident. A Road To Mecca takes the chance to deal with a burning debate which is starting to gain more and more importance nowadays.

Probes

Probes
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Lobotomy is Yuri Khashchavatski's personal indictment of the Russian media's brainwashing tactics. Taking the recent war between Russia and Georgia as a point of departure, he illustrates how far removed actual events were from the conflict as it was reported on Russian state television. The director's own voice drives the argument, but journalists, military experts and politicians also have their say. The film intersperses interviews (live or via Skype) with archive footage that is, in turn, contrasted with amateur clips found on the Internet. Khashchavatski contends that "Montage is a powerful and insidious weapon." And he would be the one to know, because in addition to directing the film, he also edited it and its highly effective audio mix. He is a master of the art of irony as well. This personal account by the director suggests that the Russian state is not being governed according to democratic principles, but by a Mafia-style hierarchy.

PRL de Luxe

PRL de Luxe
  • Director
    Edyta Wróblewska
  • Country
    Poland
  • Related to film
    PRL de Luxe
  • Language
    Polish
  • Category
    Docu Series, Society, Youth Documentary
  • Length
    1' 00''
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Crazy Mike from Krakow specializes in organizing guided tours that are anything but typical. He drives the tourists to Nowa Huta in a dilapidated Vee Dub and allows the relics of the past - the "Stylowa" restaurant, the former site of the Lenin monument, the giant steelworks, a typical worker's flat - to unfold their charms. During the sightseeing, he talks about the joys of life in the People's Republic of Poland and the absurdities of real socialism. Will the memory of the trip stay with the tourists a little longer?

Profile: Jan Kaplický

Profile: Jan Kaplický
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"I have the feeling that there is always someone creating something which our generation never even imagined." Jan Kaplický, quote from his essay on architecture. We believe that from today's perspective, i.e. a time when ecological issues are becoming the focal point, a time when many of us suffer from a lack of living space, forming the human beings; We believe that it is worth trying to make a film portrait of a man who dealt with these issues a long time ago, through architecture! Long before 1968, when he decided to leave the country as a consequence of the then political turmoil and it was only in emigration that he proved his exceptional talent! Our intention is to create – on a large scale – a portrait of the heart of Jan Kaplický, as well as of his opinions and thinking through the architecture of today's society. Jan Kaplický has been living and working in England for a long time, where he also founded Future Systems, a prestigious society recognized throughout the world. He visits Prague, his native town, partly because of the fact that he feels homesick and also because he pursues various projects here (among the most famous ones, there is the proposed memorial to the victims of the communist regime, in the form of 42 stairs leading to a point overlooking the city, which has however not been put in practice yet). Unfortunately, all his proposals usually meet opposition in the Czech Republic, both due to personal intolerance, associated with envy – a typical Czech character, as well as due to a number of absurd decisions about what to build, where bribery often plays an important role. Similarly to Milan Kundera, a well-known writer, Jan Kaplický has not become very popular in his home country. The important themes on which the film should focus include the life story of this man – an architect, problems of leaving one's native land and various issues of modern architecture. Thanks to our friendly relations with J.K., we managed to make a short recording in spring 2002, when the architect took us to his favourite spots in Prague, heartily spoke about the influence that his parents had on him (in Letná Alley) and about how one develops as an architect, moments of his youth before he left the country in 1968, about how a Russian soldier aimed his gun at him, about the generation changes and the unrealised monument to the victims of communism. This interview could help people reveal the horizons and motivate them to take a different view of the world. With his more than two-meter-high posture of a tall gentleman (visually an extremely interesting person), he irradiates strong energy. This was also evident from his lecture which he gave to a crowded audience in Veletržní Fair Palace, Prague, in 1999, from which we have managed to get a unique recording.

Prison of My Own

Prison of My Own
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Forty-four year old Susanne is incapable of acting spontaneously. For the past 25 years her thoughts and actions have been dictated by psychological compulsions. When her mother found the situation too much for her to cope with, and the medication and periods of hospitalisation did her no good, a large family decided to take her in. Twenty years have passed since then. Susanne talks with astonishing self-irony and sensitive self-awareness about her illness, what triggered it, and whether she has the courage to be completely well again.

Rula, Ticho, Čumba Ladislav, doc. Karel Floss and Other Heroes of Our Demonstration in Year 2007

Rula, Ticho, Čumba Ladislav, doc. Karel Floss and Other Heroes of Our Demonstration in Year 2007
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Demonstrations for and against the American radar. – Department of documentary film, FAMU – 3rd year (bachelor degree work).

Remembering

Remembering
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Are Czechs happy? What do they strive for? Are Czechs impassive or do they desire personal and social changes? What is the feeling of a contemporary citizen of Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic? In March 2006 Ivan Vojnár's documentary searched for answers to some of these questions focused mostly on the reflection of personal issues and feelings. Has the social and political climate changed considerably since 1989? A waitress at an international hotel is setting tables for breakfast. Her feeling is that "not much has changed since the Revolution, perhaps just traveling, people are weary, they don't know who to vote for. I have a daughter who is to go to college, the things that we are facing, I am quite scared of all of it." Are the answers truthful or are they partial self-stylizations? Are the Czechs prone to accepting certain roles and masks? What is the problem? How to get rid of it? The film is not offering solutions; it just explores the ideas of present-day Czechs. French documentary filmmaker Jean Rouch says that cinéma vérité is not about representing truth but about truthful representation. Director Ivan Vojnár drew inspiration from public inquiry films from the 1960s: Jean Rouch's Chronique d'un été (1961), Chris Marker's Le Joli mai (1962) and the film of moral discomfort by Czech filmmaker Evald Schorm - Zrcadlení.

Elective Affinities

Elective Affinities
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March 1968. The film captures the two weeks prior to the election of a new president after A. Novotný had stepped down.

Moravian Hellas

Moravian Hellas
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This film starts with mischief-making, it goes to criticism, a type of criticism approached in a typically mischievous way... The film points out the causes of folklore profanation, discusses fake folklore, partial industrialization of folklore, etc.

Mister Bubyli

Mister Bubyli
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The hero of the film took a job as a teacher in a village school. He catches a bus early in the morning to go from the city to the village to teach even if there is only one pupil in the class. He tries to prove himself in many professions. He is always in a hurry and always on the run. He tries to succeed in many things in life and to challenge the opinion of his father that he is a loser.

 

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