DOK Leipzig 2020 Awards

The Golden Dove as well as the Silver have been given out at the DOK Leipzig festival.

”Downstream to Kinshasa” by Dieudo Hamadi won the Golden, a coproduction ” from the Democratic Republic of Congo, France and Belgium that focuses on war-disabled people from Kisangani in the DR Congo. ”The jury motivation goes like this: ”… praised the filmmaker “for bringing intimacy and dignity to a Sisyphean struggle that is invisible in the broader world, here delivered to the screen with the clear trust of its protagonists and the commitment of the filmmaker”. Who is from Kisangani and whose ”Maman Colonelle” I remember clearly for its quality. This one is also a strong and important documentary to remind us of a horrible war of six days in Kisangani twenty years ago. It’s emotional to follow the crippled people on their way to the parliament in Kinshasa to make their case; they want compensation from the government and parliament who do not care. The film has previously been to Cannes and Toronto and will be in the Masters section at IDFA, whose Bertha Foundation has supported it.

And for the Silver Dove the jury chose “The Poets Visit Juana Bignozzi” by Argentinian Mercedes Halfon and Laura Citarella. I saw the film online a couple of days ago, liked it but I had big problems to access it, understanding it all as Juana Bignozzi’s poems were read in Spanish, a language I don’t master. Impossible to really appreciate her poetry with English subtitles. Anyway I agree with the jury pointing at the film with ”a freshness and energy that recall the French Nouvelle vague”. And yet, maybe a bit too constructed for my taste.

AND one more award for Czech ”A New Shift” (winning at Ji.hlava FF as well) by debutant Jindřich Andr, a good film, read http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4843/ The award was given in The Golden Dove in the “Golden Section”, the newly introduced Competition for the Audience Award Long Documentary or Animated Film 

No, actually there were 2 awards for the film about Tomas, the miner who became an IT programmer – the MDR award went to ”A New Shift”. Jindřich Andr must be a happy director with this recognition at two important festivals.

For many other awards go to www.dok-leipzig.de

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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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