Message2Man 2015/ 2

” She is nine years old, lives with her grandmother, her mother is ill and her father, she does not see a lot. This is the background that you pick up gradually as this sensitive, well-made and cleverly thought film goes along with father and daughter on a tour towards the park of Pippi Langstrømpe (Longstocking) in Sweden, a wish for the girl who wants to be strong and independent…”

The beginning of a review I made in March this year of Russian Denis Shabaev’s ”Together” that won one of the main awards at DocuDays in Kiev.

Now it is on the list of the around 25 films competing at the National Competition of Documentary Films at the upcoming Message2Man in St. Petersburg that starts September 26 and goes on until October 3.

The good thing for me, who visits the festival for the fourth time in a row, is that apart from this film and one more, it’s all new land for me – a good chance to get an idea of what happens in Russian documentary. Yes, stories from Russia of today, please.

The ”one more” is by Tatyana Soboleva, who I have met in diffferent festivals and who asked for my opinion on a rough cut of ”Siberian Floating Hospital”. A quote from a FB message I sent to her last December:

… You have made a very very fine film, that has atmosphere of warmth, wonderful people and the right rhythm that fits the waiting to get to people and for people to get on board (for medical help, ed.)… is it going to disappear, from my ignorant pov, influenced of course by your film, they are doing a great job really… Fine music, beautiful images, poetry sometimes, your film will travel! Congratulations!..

And now I am to watch the final film, which is distributed by Deckert Distribution that gives the following neutral description on their website:

When the Siberian winter releases its grip every year in May, twenty doctors, mostly women, board a special ship – a floating hospital, leaving their families behind. The ship crisscrosses the Siberian North, bringing medical care to the remotest rural outposts. Locals wait for this ship, and for the doctors it’s an adventure that alters them and that many of them have become addicted to.

http://www.message2man.com/en/

http://deckert-distribution.com/film-catalogue/siberian-floating-hospital/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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