| The 8th PLANETE DOC FILM FESTIVAL was held from May 6-15th, 2011, in Warsaw as well as in 21 other Polish cities in the course of „Digital PLANETE DOC Weekend” of May 6-8. The festival has received the prestigious „Key International Film Event of 2009” award from the Polish Film Institute, as well as „Wdecha” award from Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper as Warsaw’s most interesting cultural event of 2008. In 2011, three festival cinemas – Kinoteka, Muranów and Iluzjon in Warsaw – hosted over 31.000 festival-goers, which makes PLANETE DOC the third most popular documentary film festival in Europe. PLANETE DOC FILM FESTIVAL received a record number of submissions for its eighth edition in 2011. From the hundreds of entries the organizers chose 183 documentary films, which were grouped into the following film sections: Political Sciences, Fetish and Culture, Intimate Stories, Heroes Among Us, All Quiet on the Eastern Front, SpaceTime, Climate for Change, Inspiration & Muse – Free Your Mind, LSD: Love, Sex & Dreams, Doc Alliance and Anima Planet. The festival program also included a selection of documentaries made by students of Andrzej Wajda Film School, as well as short-feature documentaries produced by religia.tv channel and films shot with cell-phones for the DE-PL EXPERIMENT, which was part of the „Neighbors 2.0” festival organized by Goethe-Institut and German Embassy in Poland. The festival also featured a mini-retrospective of Leonard Retel Helmrich („Leonard Retel Helmrich’s Documentary Trilogy”), while Warsaw’s Iluzjon cinema showcased „The Greatest Hits of Planete Doc Festival” section, presenting best films from the past PLANETE DOC editions for the second time in festival’s history. Apart from awards presented also at previous editions of the festival, such as: - MILLENNIUM AWARD (main prize), - MAGIC HOUR AWARD for best medium-length documentary, - AUDIENCE AWARD, - AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AWARD for best film about human rights (the only film festival award of this kind in Poland), - GREEN WARSAW AWARD for best film about environmental issues (the only award of this type presented at a Polish film festival), - CHOPIN’S NOSE AWARD for best film about music, - WARSAW ANIMATION WINNER award for best animated film, - ART-HOUSE CINEMAS NETWORK AWARD for the film chosen by „Digital PLANETE DOC Weekend” audiences, - FOCUS MONTHLY AWARD for the festival’s greatest personality, the following awards were presented for the first time: - CANON CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD for the best documentary cinematographer (the first award of this type presented at a documentary film festival), - DOC ART AWARD for the best film about art, artists and/or art-related events. Competing for the MILLENNIUM AWARD and 8.000 Euro in prize money were 16 of the best full-feature documentary films from around the world, including fresh releases from Berlinale and Sundance festivals. Among these were: „Armadillo” by Janus Metz – docu cinema's biggest blockbuster of 2010 and the first documentary film in history honored with International Critics Week's Grand Prize at Cannes IFF, „Khodorkovsky” by Cyril Tuschi – sensation of this year's Berlinale, prize-winner at Sundance („Best World Documentary of 2010”) and at IDFA in Amsterdam (Main Prize), „Position Among the Stars” by Leonard Retel Helmrich – the third part of a documentary saga about an unusual family from Jakarta, „Abendland” by Nikolaus Geyrhalter – grand comeback by the author of „Our Daily Bread”, „The Erotic Man” by Jørgen Leth – most recent autobiographical work by the iconic experimental documentary filmmaker and mentor of Lars von Trier, „Green Wave” by Ali Samadi Ahadi and Jan Krüger, which the critics have proclaimed as the new „Waltz with Bashir”. Nikolaus Geyrhalter's „Abendland” won the MILLENNIUM AWARD. For the full list of awarded films click here. Each year, PLANETE DOC attracts cinema's biggest names (guests of the festival's previous editions include Werner Herzog, Nicolas Philibert, Sergei Dvortsevoy, Raymond Depardon and Andrzej Wajda) as well as extraordinary individuals depicted in the featured films (such as Garry Kasparov, Sebastian Marroquin – the son of Pablo Escobar, Dr NakaMats – world's most prolific inventor, creator of the floppy disk). Among the most important visits at the 8th PLANETE DOC FILM FESTIVAL was that of Jane Goodall, the world-famous icon of the environmentalist movement, researcher on chimpanzee behavior and social activist. „Jane's Journey”, a biopic by Lorenz Knauer about this fascinating woman, competed for the Green Warsaw Award, while Goodall herself attended a Q&A session with the audience and delivered a lecture at Warsaw's Copernicus Science Center. Both meetings were hosted by Martyna Wojciechowska – ambassador of the film „Jane's Journey”, editor-in-chief of National Geographic Poland and jury member for the Green Warsaw Award competition. This year saw the return of Jørgen Leth, the cult filmmaker and mentor of Lars von Trier, to PLANETE DOC. This time Leth brought to Warsaw his latest autobiographical film – „The Erotic Man”. During the festival, the Danish filmmaker reunited after over 20 years with Jan Nowicki, who played in Leth's film „Notes on Love” in 1989. To commemorate Leth's visit in Poland, a selection of 11 documentary films by the experimental film-maker was released as a DVD box-set entitled „The World According to Jørgen Leth”. Masterclasses for film professionals, organized in cooperation with MEDIA Desk Poland and Andrzej Wajda Film School, were led by: Leonard Retel Helmrich – a renowned Dutch filmmaker and cinematographer, winner at this year's Sundance festival, as well as „Armadillo” director Janus Metz and Michael Haslund – consultant at the Danish Film Institute who supported the film's production. The festival that opened the doors to international success of Bartek Konopka's „Rabbit à la Berlin” could hardly overlook Polish documentaries. Guests at this year's festival included two stars of Polish documentary cinema – Marcel Łoziński and Maciej Drygas, whose latest releases („Tonia and Her Children” and „Violated Letters”, respectively) competed for the Magic Hour Award. Collaboration with the Polish Art-House Cinemas Network allowed for nationwide screenings of 5 of the best films featured at the 8th PLANETE DOC festival – these were held simultaneously in Warsaw and 21 other Polish cities during the „Digital PLANETE DOC Weekend” of May 6-8. This innovative project enabled thousands of viewers to watch selected films concurrently with the Warsaw audience and thus to participate in the biggest documentary cinema feast in Poland, making them feel like true inhabitants of a global village. Furthermore, thanks to the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Greenpeace Poland, screenings of Carl-A. Fechner's „The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy” in Warsaw and 6 other Polish cities were accompanied by debates concerning the issue of energy autonomy under the joint title „Does the End of Oil Mean the End of Civilization?”. Debate guests included filmmakers, specialists and journalists. Special events program, organized with the support of the City of Warsaw, was just as interesting as the 8th PLANETE DOC festival's film program. Oscar-nominee Sam Green (for „Weather Underground”) and Dave Cerf opened the festival with „Utopia in Four Movements”, a work of the „live documentary” genre that combines film, live storytelling by Green himself and luminous live music by The Quavers. The event was held in Warsaw's Dramatyczny theater. One of the festival's most sought-after events was the „Battle of the Sexes” documentary animation show presented by two well-known animators: Signe Baumane and two-time Oscar-nominee Bill Plympton. The audience's applause decided which host – each being a representative of a different sex – had played a sexier and funnier animation on the silver screen. Many screenings were accompanied by Q&A sessions with filmmakers and protagonists of the films presented (among them Jørgen Leth and Jane Goodall), as well as debates devoted to most urgent problems on both global and local scale – such as energy autonomy, Polish military presence in Afghanistan, conflict in the Middle East and the value of life, the current situation in Russia and GMO (genetically modified organisms). Participating in these debates, hosted by well-known journalists, were filmmakers, specialists, journalists and representatives of culture, media, science and politics. The visit of Maria Logan, lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky who came to Poland to take part in the „All Quiet on the Eastern Front?” debate, met with particular interest. PLANETE DOC Academy events included workshops for teachers and educators organized with the support of Orange Foundation, Jane Goodall's lecture in the Copernicus Science Center, „polska.doc” series of debates co-organized with Association of Creative Initiatives „ę” and activities comprising the „Neighbors 2.0” project organized in collaboration with Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy in Poland. The Touch&Try presentation organized by Canon allowed festival guests and audience members to get acquainted with the company's products. Over the course of two consecutive weekends, festival-goers had the opportunity to consult Canon experts and try out digital SLR EOS system cameras as well as film cameras for both amateur and professional use. However, PLANETE DOC is more than just film-related events. Two exhibits were featured during this year's festival: „Afghanistan Now!” was a collection of photos by well-known war photographer Maksymilian Rigamonti shot in Afghanistan over the summer of 2010, while Vahida Ramujkic and Aviv Kruglanski prepared an exhibition of documentary weaving (or the „low-tech documentary format”). Culinary buffs had the chance to participate in a presentation of new culinary trends by master chef Łukasz Konik following the screening of „El Bulli – Cooking in Progress” by Gereon Wetzl. In cooperation with Museum of Modern Art, PLANETE DOC festival also participated in Warsaw's Museum Night; most remarkable works of creative documentary film-making, including Clio Barnard's „The Arbor” – winner of the Doc Art Award – were presented in the Museum's temporary location. Special events accompanied also screenings held outside Warsaw. Through the support of Heinrich Böll Foundation and Greenpeace Poland, „PLANETE DOC Digital Weekend screenings of „The 4th Revolution – Energy Autonomy” were followed by debates entitled „Does the End of Oil Mean the End of Civilization?” on the issue of energy autonomy. This year the festival was also held outside Poland. The project „PLANETE DOC in Southern Sudan”, organized in collaboration with Polish Press Agency contributor Julia Prus, enabled audiences in Warsaw and Juba, the capital of world's youngest country, to connect live and jointly watch the film „Blood in the Mobile”. Just like in the previous year, the festival was also present online. Films from past editions of PLANETE DOC could be watched for free at Iplex.pl Internet cinema, while festival news and video reports were posted on various websites and social networking services. The 9th PLANETE DOC FILM FESTIVAL will be held from May 11-20, 2012. More information on PLANETE DOC available at www.planetedocff.pl |
