All the lovers of Croatian documentary film, as well as those yet to become, will be thrilled by the news of Factum’s new project, Factum Online. The project is being developed in several stages, and the first includes the activation of a video-on-demand platform. This means that, starting from now, the audience has a chance to see over 70 documentaries produced by Factum from the comfort of their homes!
Factum’s online video store thus includes recent hit films like Dum spiro spero by Pero Kvesić, in which the director takes us on a journey through his daily life, speaking about how he is slowly losing the strength to live and the strength to cope with the loss. Nevertheless, in the backdrop to this most awarded Croatian documentary of 2017 is a story about life and not death, as the title itself suggest –While I breathe, I hope. Another life story, but from an intimate female point of view, is A Two-Way Mirror by Katarina Zrinka Matijević. In this film the director, searching for a peace of mind, travels through the rough province of Lika, the region of her ancestors. Apart from being her intimate testimony, the documentary also becomes an ultimate visual tribute to Lika. Among the most pertinent of Factum’s documentaries is definitely Generation ’68 by Nenad Puhovski, his personal dedication to the generation with whom he shared ideals and which is this year celebrating the 50th birthday of their revolution, which was supposed to ‘be realistic and demand the impossible’.
However, apart from recent titles, Factum’s online video store includes real documentary treats, perhaps older, but still quite pertinent today, such as Matija Vukušić’s The Children of Transition, a coming-of-age and childhood story, everything but lovely, fun and carefree, reflecting an entire cross-section of a society still struggling with the definition of real values. Vukušić’s film speaks about the environment we jointly create for the future. The past and past events whose consequences are still felt today are in the focus of the film Naked Island by Tiha K. Gudac, in which the director investigates what really happened to her grandfather, a political prisoner on Naked Island, and how this affected the family relations. This engaged and shocking film won the Heart of Sarajevo for best documentary film in 2014 at Sarajevo Film Festival.
Among the sea of older and newer titles, many might want to recall, or discover, Factum’s hit films like the touching and brave documentary All about Eva, or the now iconic titles The Boy Who Rushed and War Reporter, the only documentaries ever to win the state award Vladimir Nazor, presented to the finest accomplishments in different fields. All these films, some of which cannot be seen that often, are now at the top of your fingertips even if you did not have a chance to see them in theatres or at festivals.
However, as mentioned, Factum’s online video store is only the first stage of the Factum Online project. In the next, film lovers will have a chance to comment on the films and communicate with the rest of Factum’s online community and film crews, as well. The first such chance will happen in September, with the first ever DokuChat guest, the writer and director of iOtok, Miha Čelar, presenting his latest documentary film iOtok and the namesake interactive series. Until then, sit back, relax, decide where to start and take a dive into the sea of documentaries!
