Fourth AJB DOC Film Festival Opened
The Fourth Al Jazeera Balkans International Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) opened with a special program and a screening of a film at the Kovači Multimedia Center.
The fourth edition of the International documentary film festival (AJB DOC), which will last until 14th September, opened with a screening of Catherine Harte’s film Faith and Branko, which took place at the Kovači Multimedia Center.
Tonight was also the beginning of
both online and theater hall screenings which take place at the Sarajevo
Cineplexx cinema.
The audience was brieflz reminded of
the success of the last year’s edition of AJB DOC, which was held completely
online due to the pandemic. All films were available online on the ajb.doc platform
which recorded over 120.000 viewers.
After this short trip down the memory lane, it
was time for Edhem Fočo, the director of AJB DOC Film Festival, to address the
crowd.
He
announced a mini concert by Adnan Zilić, who accompanied by Ivana Đurić, Meho
Radović, Edvin Hadžić, Adis Sirbubalo and Dino Šukalo, performed music from the
film Džemo by Lejla Kajić and
Davorin Sekulić, which opened last year's edition of the Festival, as well as
music he composed for other films.
“Music is an integral, and sometimes crucial
part of a documentary. With music, you can express a wide range of emotions. It
is what gives depth to films and makes them unique. This year, we decided to
have a small concert as a part of the opening ceremony, in part because of the
symbolism of the film which will open the Festival", said Fočo.
After the
concert, Ahmed Mahfouz, the director of Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, had the
honor to officially open the Festival. He congratulated the organizers on the
fourth edition, emphasizing that it was by no small endeavor in these
circumstances.
"We
are facing challenges from all sides - both those caused by the pandemic and
others that are happening around the world - from political unrests to riots,
terrorism, disease, polarization, etc. The film industry has carried the burden
of those challenges. But it is what gave films new energy. I think this is just the beginning of a new
renaissance of films in general, and documentaries in particular”, said
Mahfouz.
“During
the Festival, we will make a great announcement about the launch of industry which
will, I hope, be a milestone for the documentary filmmaking in the region,” he
added.
Tarik Đođić, the director of Al Jazeera Balkans, said
he was glad to see that the AJB DOC Festival was becoming a tradition
associated with September.
“We have faced many challenges, especially in
the pandemic. But we have used them as an opportunity to make the festival more
accessible to people by allowing them to watch the films online, with one click
and for free. I hope the fourth edition will bring us new success. We are
preparing more beautiful surprises in the years to come”, said Tarik Đođić,
director of Al Jazeera Balkans.
The
opening ceremony was followed by the screening of the film Faith i Branko,
an intimate documentary that follows a seven-year relationship between two
musicians of different cultures. This was followed by a Q&A session with
the British accordionist Faith Elliot and the Roma violinist Branko Ristić, the
main protagonists of the film, who performed some of their music which made
them popular around the world.
The second
film which was screened on the opening night of the Festival was Radio Silence by Juliana Fanjul. This
film opened the out-of-competition Last Minute Cinema selection. Radio Silence was screened in the
Cineplexx cinema at 21:00 hrs, but it was also available for online viewing.
In the
coming days, the audience of the AJB DOC Film Festival will have an opportunity
to watch 21 documentaries of highest quality. The novelty of this year's
edition of AJB DOC is the Smart Doc selection, which will present documentaries
filmed with smart phones. All films in this selection were made by authors who
participated in the last year’s training which was held as a part of the third
AJB DOC.
In
addition to screenings, a training in Smart
phone documentary film production will be held under the guidance of a
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Damir Šagolj, from 11th to 13th
September. The training is organized in cooperation with the Al Jazeera Media
Institute.
Furthermore,
Al Jazeera’s reporter from Gaza, Safwat al-Kahlout, will hold a lecture for
journalists on topic Gaza: Past, Present
and Future. The lecture will be held on Sunday, 12th September,
at 16:00 at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in Sarajevo. The number of
participants is limited due to pandemic restrictions. Prior notice of
attendance will be required at info@ajbdoc.ba with the subject Gaza - lecture.
AJB DOC
Film Festival will present three awards. International jury consisting of an
award-winning film producer Jamel Dallali, writer, director and editor Una
Gunjak and artistic director of DokuFest Veton Nurkollari will decide on the best film from the Competition
Programme, which will receive the AJB DOC
Main Award.
All films from the Competition Programme also
compete for the AJB Program Award,
awarded by the Al Jazeera Balkans Programme Department Jury. All films screened
at the AJB DOC festival will compete for the Audience Award.
This
year's edition of the AJB DOC Film Festival is held under the auspices of BH
Telecom, and the training is organized in partnership with Samsung.