DokMa – International film festival Documentaries in Maribor will take place between 2nd and 6th of November
(Maribor, 17 September 2004)
Documentaries in Maribor - DokMa 2004 – is an international film festival which will take place within the first week of November in Maribor offering premiere screenings of select documentary films. During its five days of events this first and only film festival of this level in the northeast Slovenia is going to present documentaries created by numerous reputable authors. The participation of first films to be showed within the main programme has already been confirmed, among them also feature-length documentaries The Five Obstructions (2003) by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth from Denmark and Souvenirs of Mr. X (2004) by the Austrian film director Arash T. Riahi, as well as the short documentary Days Under (2003) by the young Dutch director Jiska Rickels and some short animated documentaries from Australia presented within a special section. DokMa festival will besides premiere Slovenian screening of some major proponents of the recent documentary production provide for its public also the rich accompanying programme including workshops, lectures, exhibitions, etc.
During five days of events the programme of the very first edition of the DokMa film festival intends to introduce its visitors the with documentary film genre in the broad and all-embracing manner. The documentary film should namely not be regarded, as the majority of average cinema goers would possibly do, just as a (sub)variety of journalism but rather as an example of the rich and highly complex film language. Documentaries may come as feature films, experimental, animated, silent…Within the main programme of the festival spectators will be offered a selection of five major achievements in the recent documentary film production (each day one screening). The Dutch representative Days Under depicts in its memorable 20 minutes of light, colours and sounds a harsh day in the life of German miners, the 90-minute film Souvenirs of Mr. X pays homage to the amateur film production in Austria, whereas the film The Five Obstructions is the Danish contribution to the Oscar nominations in the section of foreign language films. During one evening dedicated to the main programme we will present also a selection of five Australian short animated documentaries – the trilogy Uncle/Cousin/Brother (1996-99) by Adam Elliot, Mother Tongue (2002) by Susan Kim and Living with Happiness (2001) by Sarah Watt.
Besides the main programme the festival will feature also the section entitled Great Documentaries, whereby a special place will be granted also to the film The Perfect Human (1967), a 13-minute anthropologic study of human’s habits and conducts, called by Lars von Trier a “miniature masterpiece”. This film was also the main reason that von Trier had prompted his teacher Jørgen Leth to reconsider and remodel his aesthetic and philosophical concepts, expressed in the afore-mentioned cult short documentary. The festival’s offer will be complemented by InterRegional Retrospective from European non-EU countries as well as the Parallels programme, which is open to the mix of documentaries of various lengths and styles. For the participation in the two latter programmes films can still be submitted until 30 September.
Accompanying programme will include also the workshop dealing with the theory of the documentary film, for the attendance at which one can still send applications. Festival will further on provide also lectures and exhibitions as well as plenty of entertainment programmes.
DokMa Film festival is organised by the Institute Pekarna Magdalenske mreže in cooperation with the PIFF, Association for the Transformation of the Social Communication, and the Association for the Development of the Film Culture. The Steirmark metropolis Maribor will host this festival from the 2nd to the 6th November. The central part of the programme will take place in venues of Pekarna, yet certain festival’s activities will be covered also by some other organisations or institutions.
All further details regarding the festival are to be found at www.dokma.net.
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Contact:
Polonca Korez, press office
Pekarna magdalenske mreže
Tel.: + 386 2 300 78 70
Fax: + 386 2 300 78 71
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]