DocsDF festival, organised since 2006 in Mexico City, was the first documentary film festival in Mexico. Since its first edition, it keeps on growing and widening its scope with new thematic series and events prepared with the documentary branch in thought, such as DocsForum or the Latin Side of the Doc film market, which takes place in Mexico for the first time this year.
Every year, DocsDF selects one country which is invited to the festival as a special guest. This year Poland is the country, which will be in the centre of the festival guests’ attention. DocsDF organizers made provisions for a very attractive programme, presenting the achievements of Polish documentary cinematography, prepared together with Krakow Film Foundation in cooperation with National Audiovisual Institute, Documentary and Feature Film Production Company and Polish Television.
In the Masters from Krakow series, films by the Polish winners of Krakow Film Festival will be shown. These are:
– "The Musicians" directed by Kazimierz Karabasz (Golden Dragon 1961)
– "On a railway line" – directed by Bohdan Kosiński (Golden Hobby-horse 1971)
– "Primary school" directed by Tomasz Zygadło (Golden Dragon 1971)
– "Hair" directed by Marek Piwowski (Golden Hobby-horse 1972)
– "The Hospital" directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Golden Dragon 1977)
– "Seven women of different ages" directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Golden Hobby-horse 1979)
– "The Reading Primer" directed by Wojciech Wiszniewski (Golden Hobby-horse 1981)
– "Scenes from the life of a man" directed by Bohdan Dziworski (Golden Dragon 1983)
– "Anything can happen" directed by Marcel Łoziński (Golden Dragon 1995)
– "The Sisters" directed by Paweł Łoziński (Golden Hobby-horse 1999)
The second programme dedicated to Polish documentary film – Young Talents – concentrates on the latest Polish productions, which are successful at international festivals. Within its frames the following films will be shown:
– "Behind the fence" directed by Marcin Sauter, 2005
– "The Seeds" directed by Wojciech Kasperski, 2005
– "Rendez-vous" directed by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, 2006
– "The Clinic" directed by Tomasz Wolski, 2006
– "52 Percent" directed by Rafał Skalski, 2007
– "Glass trap" directed by Paweł Ferdek 2008
– "Till it hurts" directed by Marcin Koszałka, 2008
– "The Lucky ones" directed by Tomasz Wolski, 2009
– "Six weeks" directed by Marcin Janos Krawczyk, 2009
– "Mother" directed by Jakub Piątek, 2009
– "Where the sun doesn’t rush" directed by Matej Bobrik, 2009
– "Out of reach" directed by Jakub Stożek, 2010
– "A Piece of Summer" directed by Marta Minorowicz, 2010
– "Returns" directed by Krzysztof Kadłubowski, 2010
– "Paparazzi" directed by Piotr Bernaś, 2011
– "Freestyle life" directed by Adam Palenta, 2012
– "Argentinian lesson" directed by Wojciech Staroń, 2011
– "Phnom Penh Lullaby" directed by Paweł Kloc, 2011
– "Rabbit a la Berlin" directed by Bartek Konopka, 2009.
Even more, Polish films will compete for the awards in the competition sections. The film "Survive Afghanistan" by Małgorzata Imielska found its way to the International Full-Length Documentary Competition. "Heaven" by Jan P. Matuszyński will compete for the laurels in the International Short Documentary Competition.
A numerous delegation of Polish film makers and other people working in the film branch was invited to Mexico. During the Forum, the representatives of Krakow Film Foundation will present the distributing strategies of Polish documentaries on the European and international markets and will talk about the criteria taken into account while choosing the film projects which are given grants for their production.
Director Paweł Łoziński will be a jury member in the Best Latin American Documentary Competition, at the same time he will represent the film "The Sisters" shown in the Masters From Krakow programme. The rest of the invited directors, that is, Małgorzata Imielska, Jan P. Matuszyński, Tomasz Wolski, Paweł Kloc, Marcin Janos Krawczyk and Adam Palenta, will have a chance to present their films as well as meet with and talk to the Mexican audience.
DocsDF Challenge, which will last form 9 to 13 November, is an interesting initiative of DocsDF. Young film makers whose projects were selected to this section will have the task of making 10-minute documentary films within 100 hours, cooperating in international groups. The films created in this way will compete for the Jury’s Award and the Audience’s Award. Poland will be represented at DocsDF Challenge 2012 by Julia Popławska and Katarzyna Kural.
Within the frames DocsDF festival the fourth edition of Latin Side of the Doc film market will be held. It will last from 7 to 9 November and it will be its first edition in Mexico. Latin Side of the Doc can boast its own set of awards, given to the best market films, among others, the best European project and the best Latin American project awards.
More information:
– about DocsDF festival – here.
– about Latin Side of the Doc market – here.