POLISH PARTCIPANT OF DOK. INCUBATOR 2013
The list of 2013 edition of the DOK. Incubator workshop has been announces. Among selected projects there is one Polish title – “The life of a butterfly” by Piotr Bernaś.
They don´t promise nothing but blood, sweat and tears to their participants, but actually the 2012 workshop projects start their carrier in the most prestigious festivals all over the world. IDFA, CPH:DOX, DOK Leipzig, MoMA Documentary Fortnight, True / False Festival, Visions du Réel Nyon, Hot Docs, Documentary Edge Auckland, and – most brilliant – the Best Directing Award at SUNDACE 2013, these are the trophies of the films, edited and developed within last year edition.
DOK.Incubator accept only eight feature documentary projects in the rough cut stage to work with them individually for six months on the strongest dramaturgy of the final cut and a clever distribution and marketing strategy. The individual coaching of experienced editors, producers, sales agents and marketing experts for whole the creative teams (director, editor, producer) helps films to maximize their international potential and meet a world-wide audience.
The initiative has just announced this year selection results and the films accepted seem promising… Polish project “The Life of a Butterfly “by Piotr Bernaś is going to be a movie on modern gladiators, arena, and bloody tournaments, a conscious self-destruction of a radical 34 years old rebel, World Champion in fighting. What is the motivation of a man who consciously chooses his life to be a constant fight, full of pain and risk? Is the physical pain some kind of escape from different type of pain? The project „The life of a butterfly“, which seeks for the reasons of fascination with risk and agression, will also be presented at Hot Docs Forum in Canada at the beginning of May. The producers will have an opportunity to find new coproduction and financing possibilities.
Scottish-Icelandic film “16 Years 'til Summer” by Lou McLoughlan instead, is an intimate observation of a daily battle of a man returning home after 16 years in prison, for rebuilding his life. Could a quirky, boisterous humor between father and son, in an isolated cottage on the edge of a picturesque loch bridge the years’ gap in their experience and help with the responsibilities of a free life?
Other four projects are concerning strong political issues from the most painful wounds of our modern politic map. Russian project “Sukhanov”, by Svetlana Strelnikova follows a renowned cardio surgeon , who decides to use own authority to support the Putin autocratic regime… “Okhwan, Mission Impossible”, by a Slovak director Marek Mackovic, tells instead the story of a Korean activist who exchanged a search for family life and a successful business career for200 kilometers daily on bike. He survived 41 days of hunger strike, 6 hits by cars, 5 times surgery, 4 times malaria. All for one dream. He wants to get North and South Korea reunified...
And the tough politic negotiations are the topic of another selected film, too, the Danish project “Cooper´s Challenge” by Karen Stokkendal Poulsen. It follows the intense talks between Serbia and Kosovo, an ice-queen Kosovo independence activist vs. a strong macho-ego, who won’t give up on Serbia’s right to the territory. Will Robert Cooper, an EU senior diplomat manage to make them agree? … An important important topic of contemporary post-communistic countries handles “Besence Open”, a Hungarian film by Kristóf Kovács about a poor village with a Roma majority that win EU funding to build a tennis court… Nevertheless they’ve only ever seen tennis on TV, one day, a tennis tournament should take place in their village. Will they manage to cooperate all together to build a future for the community?
The broken community of the post-soviet world is present in the Czech project “Pit-hole”, by Jiří Stejskal. It´s a drama of the last from the original farms in today´s Kyiv, now surrounded by modern living quarters of high-floor prefabricated houses. The unusual family refuses to let the developers to kick them out from their home and defends an island of ancient justice in unjust country. The last selected project, Romanian “Chuck Norris vs. Communism“, by Ilinca Calugareanu, is going to be a story about VHS tapes and the fight for freedom that centers on a cut-throat racketeer during the dying days of Communism in Romania. The humor sometimes can reach the same power as a serious criticism has…
DOK.Incubator starts the first of total three workshop sessions in June in Wroclaw. Among this year´s editing coaches there are Per K. Kirkegaard /DK/, editor of Emmy best editing awarded Armadillo, the Lars von Trier editor Jacob Thuesen /DK/, the most awarded german editor Gesa Marten /DE/ and Wolfgang Widerhofer /AT/, scriptwriter, producer and editor of Nicolaus Geyhalter films.
For Polish documentary film-makers, who are interested in DOK.Incubator activities, the first workshop is open and the lecturers are available to discuss on the base of individual meetings. More information and the application form will be soon at www.dokincubator.net The deadline of the applications for these individual consultation is May 20th.
[source: press release]