Autor: ciseli

What Are We Looking For?

by Mikael Opstrup

In fiction film we write the characters, in documentary film we read them. Or rather: We read people and create characters.

What people do during the years we film them is totally beyond our control and yet we are supposed to create a coherent and engaging story. Based on the unpredictable chaos aka Life. What characteristics are we looking for? therefore seems to be a key question when we decide who to film.

Transforming the people we film into the characters that the audience meet on the screen is solely based on our artistic decisions.
A second important question therefore seems to be: What are our artistic options when we transform events into stories?

Based on his book  ‘THE UNCERTAINTY – A book about developing Character driven Documentary’ and through visual examples, Mikael Opstrup will share insights drawn from years of reflecting on the art of crafting protagonists.

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CV:
> Mikael Opstrup

Mikael Opstrup

A specialist in international project development, trailer consultancy, co-productions, workshop planning & tutoring. Scriptwriting at the Danish Film School (1988), worked for more than 50 documentary organisations & events all over the world. Head of Studies at European Documentary Network, EDN (2011-19). Worked for IDFA (Netherlands), Hot Docs (Canada), Nordisk Panorama (Denmark/Sweden), Institute of Documentary Film (Czech Republic), Baltic Sea Docs (Latvia), Docs Barcelona (Spain), In Docs (Indonesia), Dox Box (Syria) a.o. Producer and co-owner of Final Cut Productions in Copenhagen, Denmark (2002-09). He served as a Documentary Producer at The Danish Film Institute (1998-2002). Author of the book’ The Uncertainty – A book about developing Character driven documentary’ (2021).

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ZDOK.25 contribution:
> What Are We Looking For?

DIE ANHÖRUNG

Die Die Anhörung zu den Asylgründen. Das Filmsetting aus DIE ANHÖRUNG, Schweiz 2023 © Ensemble Film, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen

Ein Film von Lisa Gerig

Vier abgewiesene Asylbewerber:innen durchleben die Anhörung zu ihren Fluchtgründen noch einmal und beleuchten so den Kern des Asylverfahrens. Wird es den Befragten diesmal gelingen, ihre traumatischen Erlebnisse so zu schildern, dass sie den offiziellen Kriterien genügen? Der Film gibt zum ersten Mal Einblick in die heikle Anhörungssituation und stellt damit das Asylverfahren selbst in Frage.

> Trailer
> Webseite
> Streaming: Play SRF

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ZDOK.25-Beitrag:
> Mein Gegenüber – Rollenwechsel im Dokumentarfilm
CVs:
> Lisa Gerig
> Living Smile Vidya

 

Lisa Gerig

Lisa Gerig, 1990, studierte in Zürich und Genf Film mit der Vertiefung Montage. Ihr Abschlussfilm ZAUNGESPRÄCHE erzählt auf radikal subjektive Weise über die Situation der Gefangenen im Zürcher Ausschaffungsgefängnis und gewann mehrere Preise. 2018-2023 Diplomstudium in Dokumentarfilmregie an der Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln, wo sie 2019 den Förderpreis für Junge Studierende gewann. Heute arbeitet sie als freischaffende Filmemacherin in Zürich und Köln. Die Anhörung ist ihr erster langer Dokumentarfilm, der 2023 den Prix Soleure, 2024 den Zürcher Filmpreis und den Schweizer Filmpreis als Bester Dokumentarfilm gewann.

Filmografie:
2023 DIE ANHÖRUNG, 89min, doc
2019 À DEUX, 28min, doc, Förderpreis Young Students
2015 ZAUNGESPRÄCHE, 13min, doc, Best Documentary Filmschoolfest Munich, camera prize Nonfiktionale Bad Aibling, Prize Alexis Victor Thalberg Foundation

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ZDOK.25-Beiträge:
> Mein Gegenüber – Rollenwechsel im Dokumentarfilm
Film:
> DIE ANHÖRUNG (2023)

Processing Together

A collective glimpse at the documentary ecosystem

by Serra Ciliv

What does emotional, relational and ethical support for documentary filmmakers look like?  What does advocating for better mental health in the documentary industry involve?

As a collective of therapeutic practitioners, Film in Mind has been working with filmmakers on the complex issues they navigate while making their films. Their work involves co-facilitating the filmmakers’ process in the face of trauma, challenging social realities and psychological complexity. In many sessions, safety and protection for the filmmakers themselves, their contributors, teams and audiences are among the primary concerns.

Serra Ciliv will begin by talking briefly about some of the main questions her work with filmmakers has left her with. She will then invite volunteers from the audience for a group process around a case: to feel, express, and listen to the different roles, ghosts, edges, relational patterns, belief systems, and structural dynamics in the field.

This is an invitation to engage not only intellectually, but also to collectively tap into the dreaming of what – in a given moment in time- happens in the ecosystem of the documentary process and how all parts within it interact with each other. 

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CV:
> Serra Ciliv