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EX ORIENTE FILM 2010

SESSION ONE - FIND YOUR WAY

March 23 - 28, 2010 / Roztoky u Prahy, Czech Republic

Unfazed by global crises, doomsday stories or utopian fantasies, the Institute of Documentary Film is ready for another workshop season. Kicking off in grand style, the Ex Oriente Film Session One (Mar 23 - 28) offers several lectures, screenings and seminars that are open to all documentary professionals. It is a great honour to welcome film theorist and FIDMarseille director Jean-Pierre Rehm as the lead tutor of the first session, and a great pleasure to host, among others, Peter Badel, Nick Ware, Niels Pagh Andersen and Carlos Casas.

In 2010 Ex Oriente Film introduces a new system of inspirational lead tutors who will be involved in designing the programme structure of their respective sessions. Film theorist and FIDMarseille's director Jean-Pierre Rehm will be the lead tutor of the 1st session; documentary producer of the Flying Moon Filmproduktion Helge Albers will be in charge of the 2nd session; director and editor Stan Neumann will, along with Danish documentary expert Tue Steen Müller, head the 3rd and 4th sessions. More details available HERE.

OPEN PROGRAMME

Wednesday, March 24 / 10.00 - 12.00   
Lecture: Jean-Pierre Rehm - What Does It Mean to Make a Film Nowadays? What Does

"Mainstream" Mean in Documentary Film?

Jean-Pierre Rehm is a French film theorist, critic and, since 2002, director of FIDMarseille - International Documentary Film Festival. A graduate of École Normale Supérieure, modern literature and philosophy, he was a lecturer of history and theory of film and art; he also worked at the French Ministry of Culture. Mr Rehm is an editor of Cahiers du Cinéma and a regular author of film and art reviews, exhibition catalogues, artist and filmmaker monographs. He has curated a number of exhibitions of contemporary art, both in France and abroad, e.g., in Egypt (Cairo Museum of Modern Art), the Netherlands (Witte de With, Rotterdam) or Japan (Yokohama Art Center).

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Wednesday, March 24 / 18.30 - 19.30

Case Study: Piotr Stasik, Jacek Naglowski - The Last Day of Summer

Director Piotr Stasik and producer Jacek Naglowski present a case study on their 2008 Ex Oriente Film project. Moderated by Hana Rezková

In Russia there are a few hundreds of cadet schools that prepare  young people for a career in the military. Boys and girls attend these academies from the age of seven. The film will look at one day in the life of a cadet from the cadet school No. 70 in Penza, Russia. This will be an unusual portrait composed of 20 different individual portraits. We want to shoot an ordinary day of five cadets from various age groups and then arrange the most interesting moments by age - so that we could see the character grow before our eyes. From the 20 different days we will create the one ideal and condensed day in the life of a cadet.

The project was developed at the Ex Oriente Film 2008, presented at the East European Forum 2009 in Jihlava and Docu Talents from the East 2009 at Karlovy Vary IFF.

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Thursday, March 25 / 10.00 - 13.00     
           
Inspirational Session: Nick Ware - Finding New Ways to Inspire, Fund, Create and Distribute Documentary Films   

Nick Ware is Editorial Director of Mercury Media, the international documentary film distributor, and of its documentaries on demand channel, http://www.joiningthedocs.tv/. Nick leads on partnerships and film acquisition for both projects. Nick is also a consultant, specialising in finding new ways to create, fund and distribute factual and documentary content. He works with media companies, film festivals, charities and Government departments. He is also a freelance executive producer and trainer. Nick was a senior executive in the BBC for many years, including Managing Editor of BBC Four, Creative Director of BBC Learning, and Commissioner for Arts programmes. He is also a former Controller of the not-for-profit tv station Community Channel.

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Thursday, March 25 / 20.30  
 
Screening: Hunters Since the Beginning of Time, a documentary film by Carlos Casas
The screening will be followed by Q&A session. Introduced and moderated by Jean-Pierre Rehm

HUNTERS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME
Italy, Switzerland, Russia 2008, 87 min
Director, Photography and Camera: Carlos Casas / Music and Sound: Sebastian Escofet / Editor: Felipe Guerrero Production: Fabrica, RTSI / Executive Producer: Federico Jolli

Along the coast of the Bering Sea, a community of whale hunters are struggling to survive keeping alive a millenary tradition. Surviving one of the most extreme environments of the planet. The film follows the life of the last whale hunters of Siberia, their ability to survive using archaic hunting techniques forced by International Commissions.

The film is divided in two parts: winter and summer, Focusing on their everyday hunting procedures, the film wants to transport the spectator to a scenario where one of ancient hunting traditions still exist. From fish to seal to whale, we see the food chain of a whale hunter, their lifestyles, we witness the remains of a millenary whale hunting tradition that is dissapearing. Survival in these desolate lands depends only on their hunting rituals. I wanted the film to be a sort of action hunting film, without much dialogue, a pure cinematic and visual experience.

The film is part of The End (2002-2008), a trilogy of feature documentaries dedicated the most extreme environments on the planet: Patagonia - Solitude at the End of the World; Aral Sea - Aral: Fishing in an Invisible Sea; Siberia - Hunters Since the Beginning of Time.

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Friday, March 26 / 10.00 - 12.15

Master Class: Niels Pagh Andersen - Dramaturgy in Documentary: No Rules But Tools

There are no rules in filmmaking, but dramaturgy can serve as a useful tool to achieve better clarity in storytelling. This master class will open up a toolbox and, with samples from Niels Pagh Andersen's films, show how to find a story in chaotic reality. It will start with the basics of what a story is and end with "the storyless story" and how to use the words simplicity and identification as a compass in the fantastic journey of editing documentary films. 

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Friday, March 26 / 20.30

Screening: The German Secret - A documentary film by Lars Johansson
A film for inspiration selected and introduced by Niels Pagh Andersen

THE GERMAN SECRET
Denmark 2004, 88 min

Director: Lars Johansson / Producer: Mikael Opstrup, Thomas Stenderup / Editor: Niels Pagh Andersen

The reconstruction of a wartime romance between her mother and the German officer who may be her father brings far wider repercussions than the subject of this documentary ever expected. As captured by her husband, director Lars Johansson, the story of Kirsten Blohm's family background turns out to be more fantastic than fiction, involving captivity and flight, secrecy and lies. Who was her father? And who exactly was her mother? Blohm, born in 1946, was raised by her grandparents. She did know her mother, the beautiful but cold Signe Gondrup, but Signe never wanted to disclose anything about her life, let alone about her daughter's father. Following her elusive mother's footsteps, Blohm's journey takes her to the Czech Republic and Germany where she uncovers a series of dramatic events as well as embarrasing skeletons in the closet.

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Saturday, March 27 / 10.00 - 12.00

Lecture: Peter Badel - Visual Styles in Documentary Film by Peter Badel
A systematic lecture about visual styles in documentaries with theoretical approach and samples of different cinematoghraphy work in various documentary films

Peter Badel is a documentarian, director of photography of cine-documentaries as well as motion pictures, and a photographer. Born in 1953 in Berlin, he studied cinematography at Film & Television Academy in Potsdam Babelsberg. He was a director of photography in the DEFA Studios for Motion Pictures, and since 1992 he is a freelancer. Additionally, he gives symposia of cinematography and teaches at various academies. Currently he is teaching cinematography at the Film & Television Academy HFF in Potsdam.

For the complete list of tutors and guests of the first session, please click here.
Please click here to read more about the projects that attend the 2010 Ex Oriente Film.