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goEast wants to draw your attention to a Conference of the Documentary Film Centre

in co-operation with ARTE, the DEFA-Foundation and the Documentary Film Initiative in Film Office North-Rhine Westfalia (dfi)

The “New” Neighbours
Current Trends in the Documentary Film of the New EU Member States

Time: 11a.m. Monday, 6th Dec. – 4p.m. Wednesday, 8th December 2004
Venue: SWR (Südwestrundfunk / Studiosaal / 70190 Stuttgart, Neckarstr. 230)

This event is also part of the Central Training Programme of the ARD and ZDF (ZFP) and the “Cultural year of the 10”.
(Conference languages: English and German)

Conference fee: 100 Euro / Students 30 Euro
Registration: Haus des Dokumentarfilms / Documentary Film Centre
Königstr. 1 A, 70173 Stuttgart
Tel: (49) 711 – 9978 08 0 / Fax: (49) 711 – 997808 02 / hdf@hdf.de / www.hdf.de

“Fortress Europe“ – under this title the Serbian film-maker Zelimir Zilnik views from without the new border fortifications of the European Union which have shifted eastwards. The documentary films of the new member states in Central and Eastern Europe are almost completely unknown in Germany. Film production there has been undergoing rapid change since the collapse of the “socialist camps” and both television and the marketing of documentary films are playing a decisive role in this process. This is because the production of documentary films has become more dependent on television and the film market since state support has ceased. What consequences does this have for the themes and aesthetics of the films? Will the documentary be squeezed out of the cinemas as has been the case in the West and take on new formats that are specific to television? And what about the documentary film’s role as critic of society since the fall of the Berlin Wall, now that it no longer has to hide behind subversive imagery? Following the political opening up, will there be upheavals in the documentary film scene of these countries that are as far-reaching as those which took place in the eastern German states after the “wrapping up” of DEFA? And what new opportunities for co-operation does membership of the European Union make possible? At this conference film-makers, film critics and editors from Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia will present a selection of important documentaries from their countries and communicate an overview of emerging trends and problems.

Monday, 6th December

11.00 Welcoming speech Egon Mayer (HDF /
11.15 – 12.30 Introduction by film journalist Hans-Joachim Schlegel:
The new Realities. The situation regarding non-fiction in the new EU member states

12.30 – 14.00 Lunch

Moderator: Klaus Wenger (ARTE)

14.00 – 16.00 Poland / Film screening and discussion with Hans-Joachim Schlegels and the director Pawel Lozinski:
“Sisters” (1999 / 12’), “Such a story” (1999, 58’)
16.00 – 16.30 Coffee Break
16.30 – 17.15 Paper Andrzej Fidyk: The Documentary Film and Television in Poland
17.15 – 18.00 Lithuania: Rasa Miskinyte: Documentary filmmaking in Lithuania in the post Soviet period
18.00 – 20.00 Dinner
20.00 – 22.00 Latvia / Film screening and discussion: Hans-Joachim Schlegels with director Antra Cilinska:
“Is it easy …… to be? Ten years later“ (1998, 65’).

Tuesday, 7th December

Moderator: Wilhelm Reschl (HDF)

10.00 – 11.30 Czech Republic Film screening:
Filip Remunda: “Czech Dream” (2004 / 83’)
11.30 – 12.00 Coffee break
12.00 – 12.45 Paper Filip Remunda: The Czech documentary and the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague (IDF / www.docuinter.net)
12.45 – 13.45 Lunch

Moderator: Peter Zimmermann (HDF)

13.45 – 15.00 Film screening: Martik Sulik (Slovakia): “The Key for Determining Dwarfs or The Last Travel of Lemuel Gulliver” (Czech Republic 2004 / 58’)
Introduction: Hans-Joachim Schlegel
15.00 – 15.30 Coffee break
15.30 – 16.30 Hungary: Robert Lakatos: “Across the Border” - News trends in the Hungarian Documentary Film Production
16.30 – 17.00 Coffee break
17.00 – 18.30 Podium and plenary discussion with invited directors
Media in Upheaval: From the cinema to television production?
From censorship of the party to the dictates of the market?
Discussion moderated by Hans-Joachim Schlegels

20.00 – 22.30 Film screening: “Across the Border: Five Views from Neighbours”
(Austria 2004 / 131’)

Wednesday, 8th December

Moderator: Petra Schmitz

10.00 – 12.00 Film screening and discussion: Hans-Joachim Schlegel and the Serbian director Zelmir Zilnik
“Fortress Europe” (Slovenia 2001 / 80’)
12.00 – 13.00 Lunch
13.00 – 13.15 Film screening: Peter Braatz: “ Tingling Blues. Observations in a glass-blowing factory (Slovenia 2001 / 13’)
13.15 – 14.00 Slovenia/ Paper Ziva Emersic (TV Slovenia)
Documentary Films in Television
14.00 – 14.30 Coffee break
14.30 – 16.00 Podium and plenary discussion:
Ways to the neighbour: Opportunities and problems of East / West co-operation and co-productions
Discussion moderated by Hans Robert Eisenhauer (ARTE)
Participants: Andrezej Fidyk (TV Poland), Rasa Miskinyte (TV Lithuania), Filip Remunda (Czech Republik), Ziva Emersic (TV Slovenia), Zelimir Zilnik (Serbia), Achim Forst (3sat) Christian Popp (RBB)