Coincidentally, current events in the form of the Czech national elections which took place during the festival were a thought-provoking reflection on the relevance of documentary filmmaking. The live TV coverage at the festival café was crowded with fest attendees between film screenings. Another festival winner, Normalization (Kauza Cervanova), an equally gripping drama from Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff, displayed the power of investigative journalism with a mission. The film, which recorded solid results when it was theatrically released in Slovakia (5,400 admissions in one month), examines a controversial murder verdict for a group of men more than 30 years ago, with a court upholding the results (and even sending some of the men back to prison a second time) in 2006. If the accused did not get justice in the courts, they do in Kirchhoff’s 100 minute dissection, with its credible solution to the murder of a young woman. The Between the Seas jury gave the film its special mention.
The festival gives prominence to its market screening, East Silver, with awards for full length, medium, and short films. Among the films singled out was The Art of Disappearing codirected by the team behind Oscar nominee Rabbit a la Berlin Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosolowski. As might be expected, the documentary has an element of poetic musing along with an unexpected journey back into pre-1989 history. The muse of this story, which might be subtitled Voodoo a la Poland, is a Haitian voodoo priest whose comic interpretations (both bizarre and profound) of exotic Poland during the rise of the Solidarity movement lead him to perform an exorcism on behalf of the Poles.
Speaking with FNE, festival director Marek Hovorka said he feels a mission of the festival should be to promote the Czech documentary filmmakers. To that goal, one of the festival’s competition sections is Czech Joy. One of the films in that section, Show!, a behind-the-scenes look at a girl band managed by a driven father, won the festival’s audience award. The film’s win gives it guaranteed distribution by the Czech Association of Film Clubs. The array of Czech documentaries in the selection ranged from the deeply personal to anti-Roma racism, from low comedy to high tragedy, from a shameful past to contemporary activism, a display of the riches of documentary films to be found in Central Europe.
The complete list of festival winners follows:
Opus Bonum Best Documentary Film Award
The Uprising, dir.: Peter Snowdon (UK/Belgium)
Czech Joy Best Czech Documentary Film Award
The Great Night, dir: Petr Hátle, www.nutprodukce.cz
Special Mention: To Rule, to Work, to Earn, to Pray, to Collapse, dir: Andran Abramjan www.famu.cz
Fascinations Best Experimental Documentary Film Award
Song, dir.: Nathaniel Dorsky (US) and Exterior Extended, dir: Siegfried Alexander Fruhauf (Austria)
Between the Seas Best Central and East European Documentary Film
Winter / Miracle, dir: Gustavo Beck, Željka Suková (Croatia//Denmark/Brazil) www.ukus.tv
Special Mention: Normalization, dir: Robert Kirchhoff (Slovakia/Czech Republic) www.atelier.sk
Audience Award
Show!, dir: Bohdan Bláhovec (Czech Republic) www.nutprodukce.cz
Silver Eye Award
Best short-length documentary: Previous Scenes, dir: Aleksandra Maciuszek (Cuba)
Best mid-length documentary: Joanna, dir.: Aneta Kopacz (Poland) www.wajdastudio.pl
Best feature-length documentary: 727 Days without Karamo, dir.: Anja Salomonowitz (Austria)
Special Mention: The Art of Disappearing, dir.: Bartosz Konopka, Piotr Rosolowski (Poland) www.otterfilms.pl
