The ending of 2013 will be very busy for Academy of Documentary Arts. ADA undertakes several training activities and kindly invites to participate in all of them.

The Baikal ADA Green workshop will take place, in Irkutsk (Russia), during The XII-th Baikal International Festival of Popular-Science and Documentary Films "People and Environment" (http://www.baikalkinofest.ru/en/ ).  ADA experts – Dorota Roszkowska and Krystian Matysek - will lead masterclasses focused on development process, fundrising and secrets of shooting of documentary nature films. More information and participant accreditation available at http://docuarts.eu/baikal/

From November 7^th to 10^th, workshops focused on scriptdoctoring and documentary projects development will be held in Kiev (Ukraine). The aim of that event will be teaching young filmmakers how to develop film idea and construct storytelling. Within next few days the call for projects will be open and further details will be announced at www.docuarts.eu

The second edition of ArtDocFest ADA Pitching will take place in Moscow (Russia), during the ArtDocFest Festival of Documentary Films (http://www.artdocfest.ru/eng ) from November 30 ^th till December 9^th. The Pitching session will consist of three days of projects preparations and one day of public presentations in front of decision makers from leading Russian TV stations. The call for projects is open until October 10^th. More information at www.docuarts.eu/artdocfest

ADA launches co-operation with new partners - documentary film festivals in Poznań and Szczecin. Representatives of Academy are invited to lead presentations of ADA’s training initiatives at 22^nd Dokument Art Film Festival  (http://dokumentart.pl/en ) in Szczecin (Poland) on October 18^th and on November 22^nd , during the 17^th IDFF Off Cinema (http://www.offcinema.pl/en ) in Poznań (Poland).

All above mentionned ADA’s activities are co-financed by Polish Film Institute and events in Russia also by Polish Cultural Center in Moscow.

IMAGINE by Andrzej Jakimowski – which premiered in Toronto last year and was winner of best director and Audience Award at the Warsaw international Film festival amongst many others has been chosen as the Polish representative at the European Film Awards.

 

Further now to its release in Poland in by Kino Swiat in April of this year, IMAGINE will be released by KMBO wide in France on October 23rd.  Meanwhile further sales have been made following the deals with Kino Świat and KMBO,   to Russia - P&I Films Distributions, Turkey – Calinos, and Germany via Neue Visionen.  A deal is in the offing for the US and Canada and this will be announced later in October.

Boasting a healthy €2.05 million budget the producers secured top British and German actors Edward Hogg and Alexandra Maria Lara to join the cast of largely blind children the much bruited third feature and first English language film from Polish-born Jakimowski, for a shoot that took in the Portuguese capital Lisbon and a major location in a Convent School orphanage in Evora. Other cast includes: young blind French actor Melchior Derouet (as Serrano), and Francis Frappat (Doctor).

 

The film, written by Jakimowski, tells the story of Ian (Hogg), a charismatic (and blind) spatial orientation instructor, who arrives at a top notch Lisbon ophthalmological clinic where he is in charge of sessions with blind patients. As a new teacher he uses unconventional methods, and during his spatial orientation sessions Ian quickly wins the trust of his students; a small group of children and teenagers of various nationalities. Among his students, a young woman called Eva (Lara) is especially withdrawn and secluded. Ian concentrates his efforts to make her overcome her shyness. He brings her outside the clinic without any permission to help her rediscover the pleasures of life.

 

"For Ian, the mind and imagination rather than sensory perception allow him and his patients to move around and live actively." Says Jakimowski," but in the end his methods - although successful - prove to be too challenging."

 

Film and Music Entertainment in London have brought together a posse of young blind actors ranging in age from nine and sixteen.

 

"Jakimowski is one of those rare European film makers," says UK producer, Mike Downey, "whose films have the ability to travel and communicate whatever the language. In this, Jakimowski’s first English language outing he has created in the roles of Ian and Eva challenging roles for both leads, which will be a great showcase for the talent of these two amazing leads. They are real gems of parts."

IMAGINE  is a Poland-France-Portugal co-production between ZAiR (Warsaw), KMBO (Paris), Filmes do Tejo II Multimedia (Lisbon) and is funded by the Polish Film Institute, the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC), the Institito Do Cinema E Do Audiovisual (ICA), Canal + Cyfrowy, Can do Films and Wytwornia Filmow Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych. Mike Downey of Film and Music Entertainment co-produces.

 

"The subject of spatial orientation by blind people is fascinating." Says director Andrzej Jakimowski, "The remarkable and rarely used technique of "echolocation" used by Ian is only one element of this phenomenon. In fact he pays much more attention to imagination than any sensory perception. This is the outcome of several months’ research into spatial orientation techniques used by blind people - and more broadly by research into the reality of blind people’s lives. I find some of their methods poetic and absolutely cinematic at the same time."

 

Jakimowski’s most recent feature, Tricks was the Polish Academy award nomination in 2009 and has picked up major awards at Venice, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Miami and Thessaloniki film festivals. Released in all major international territories the film has performed solidly at the international box office.

For Further Information Please contact:

 

Tanja Lunardelli at Film and Music Entertainment (53 Great Portland Street, London W1W 7LG, Tel: + 44 207 255 1834, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)