KineDok, an alternative distribution platform of creative documentaries, is starting its third edition! The selection of 16 new documentaries is screened at alternative venues during the whole year: cafés, clubs, galleries, parks and even in church. Wide audience thus has a chance to watch documentaries that are not available in theatre distribution or even outside of the country of their origin. KineDok offers not only the top production, but also a follow-up discussions with interesting guests and filmmakers. This year, KineDok is joined by a new partner Bulgaria, which became the 8th partner country next to the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The Czech Republic offers two brand new documentaries, which were praised by critics and decision makers from the two main Czech film awards. The winner of the Czech film critics’ award for the best documentary and nominee for the Czech Lion Normal Autistic Film (Normální autistický film, 2016) made by experienced director Miroslav Janek is an intimate and smart portrait of five children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. FC Roma (Rozálie Kohoutová, Tomáš Bojar, 2016) follows a Roma football team which struggles to be recognised by other teams in the football league and in life generally. The film is nominated for the best documentary film for both Awards mentioned above.
FC Roma will be screened during the next week in three different Czech cities and then you can look forward to the premiere of the Croatian film Tourism! (Turizam!, Tonći Gaćina, 2016) 19th February in MeetFactory in Prague. Tourism! investigates the only working Croatian industrial sector today, revealing the love hate relationship of the locals towards the tourists, who come every summer as a tsunami, bringing money but also a huge loss of privacy. The film was selected for the section of young talents at the Karlovy Vary IFF last year.
KineDok recommends two short Hungarian films, which deal with the immigrants’ issue via two completely different forms, talking about tolerance and fear of the unknown. Superior Orders and Those (Felsőbb parancs and Azok, Viktor Oszkár Nagy, András Petrik a Krisztina Meggyes, 2015). Student film Those, winner of the best Hungarian documentary awarded by Hungarian film critics, explores the ambivalent approach of the residents of the small village towards the people in nearby refugee camp. The villagers’ story is told as a fairy tale about a kingdom, which is endangered by aliens.
Polish documentary Queen of Silence (Królowa Ciszy, 2014, Agnieszka Zwiefka) is unique in the way it combines fiction elements with non-fiction story of a deaf girl living in a poor illegal Roma settlement. She escapes her hard life into the world of rhythm, dance and music by recreating the Bollywood style dances from her beloved movies with her friends. Queen of silence was awarded at One World IFF besides many other awards.
All the films are being screened with subtitles in local languages and KineDok strives to make an event from every screening, adding discussions or other programmes to engage the audience. Last year, the Czech Republic invited for example Norwegian director Frode Fimland or Latvian director Ieva Ozolina and the Czech filmmaker Jiří Stejskal visited many screenings of his film across the country and beyond. KineDok cooperates also with a lot of NGO’s, for example with Focus, Progressive, Nesehnutí, Drop In, People in Need or with the Charles University. Audiences seek out these events happily, the numbers from last year speak for themselves – we had over 24 000 visitors across KineDok countries.
KineDok events during One World 2017
KineDok Screening, Q&A and Drink open for public will take place on 9 March at 9pm in the multifunctional space DUP36. A playful documentary, which was shot during 9 years, Moonwalk with Grandpa (Til månen med bestefar, Norway, 2016, David Alræk) will be screened. The story about the director’s grandpa, a big adventurer and inventor, who remains to be a big source of inspiration for David Alræk, despite his worsening dementia, is full of humour and adventure.
KineDok is also organizing another event during One World – two-day KineDok First Screens Conference for young filmmakers and film students from European countries. It will introduce the latest distribution and PR strategies to inspire participants and initiate student distribution movements which will serve the international film culture to develop, grow and sustain itself by bringing the cultural value over the borders.
We happily invite you to DUP36 for the screening and drink on 9 March! If you'll miss it, don't be sorry much - we have 16 new documentaries ready for you, so hop on our website or facebook, look for the closest KineDok venue and mark the date in your smart phone calendar!