3rd Symposium 2010

It took SUNDANCE by storm.
In LA they’re calling it ‘AVATOAD’ - documentary’s answer to ‘AVATAR’ - It’s played in Sydney, New York, and now CANE TOADS – THE CONQUEST and director MARK LEWIS are coming our way!

Join us for this fabulous 3D screening organised especially for Documentary Campus’s 10th anniversary. Cane Toads- The Conquest has been described as “Chaplin comedy, Hitchcock suspense, ecological paranoia and Homeric 3D odyssey" and Lewis as a “master of world cinema!” …. we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate than to invite the man and his toads to Munich!

• Prof. Dr. Jo Groebel, Deutsches Digital Institut, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Dr. Jo Groebel has a dream...that one day he will own a small, simple device that will connect him to everything he needs. Peripheral devices will be integrated in the most suitable way. Rather than see a video on the small screen of a mobile device, he would, in a hotel, for instance, connect his device to the plasma screen in the hotel room. He would only have one number and one subscription for all the communications services. Prof. Dr. Groebel is a visionary and he is about to take you into the future of media. But this future is also now, and we have an important role to play in it.

Media content, including documentaries, has evolved together with the rapid digitization of our communications and broadcast services. The results: A much more personalized and “subjective” style of content, a new competition between the professional and the “citizen” approach and sometimes even a fusion between the two. The same can be said between reality and docudrama. In this age of fast and immediate technology, the changes leave in their wake a fundamental challenge - to maintain accountability and objectivity. In his keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Jo Groebel, one of Europe’s leading thinkers, reminds us of our role. More than ever, we are the professional gate-keepers of documenting reality.

• Richard Ladkani (DCM 2001)

“The Devil’s Miner” is the story of 14 year-old Basilio Vargas and his 12 year-old brother Bernardino. They both work under day in the ancient Bolivian silver mines of Cerro Rico, which date back to the sixteenth century. Through the children’s eyes, we encounter the world of devout Catholic miners who sever their ties with God upon entering the mountain. It is an ancient belief that the devil, as represented by hundreds of statues constructed in the tunnels, determines the fate of all who work within the mines.

• Steve Hewlett Guardian columnist and broadcasting consultant, London, UK
• Andreas Briese, YouTube/Google, Munich, Germany
• Yvonne Body, Beyond Distribution, London, UK

We are surrounded by the chaos of colliding media with content on every screen and screens from the size of a postage stamp to a city block.

Amidst this exciting, ever evolving landscape we continue to tell our stories - in the hope that people will get to see them and we will get paid enough to earn a living.

But the way we have been programmed to produce our programmes for broadcast on TV networks is becoming a thing of the past. In the last decade we have watched the full commission become an endangered species and the co-production solution develop into a quagmire of complex rights demands and difficult delivery scenarios!

Good quality content, produced with integrity and high production values is getting more difficult to make. It’s simple. Broadcasters are paying less. And now that the multi-platform world is our oyster, we are locked in battles to maintain rights that broadcasters demand but often never use. Who will pay for internet content anyway?

How can we become part of the evolving media landscape, to develop new opportunities to deliver factual content that pays across platforms? How can we make a living and not merely survive?

Our panel will help make sense of what’s happening, analyse the changing dynamics in the television environment and offer pathways into the future. No silver linings - unless they exist.

• Jörg Daniel Hissen (DCM 2006)

Landscapes tell stories, if we know how to listen, and that’s what scientists have been doing at Mount St. Helens ever since the catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980 - listening, watching, and learning. And what they learned was radically different from what they had expected. In 1980 it seemed as though St. Helens might remain a wasteland forever. From the start, “Mt. St. Helens - Life from Zero” was to be a story of hope, a story of the resilience of nature, set against the backdrop of the largest natural laboratory in the world. The film takes the viewer to an inaccessible landscape of sheer beauty and gives for the first time a comprehensive as well as cinematographic impression of the miracle of nature’s return that unfolded over the past three decades. The volcanic landscape at Mount St. Helens is recovering because of intricate relationships among plants, animals, and the earth – elaborate linkages that are usually far more difficult to see. “Mt. St. Helens - Life from Zero” shows how nature works, in order to be able to appreciate it.

• Claas Danielsen, DOK Leipzig, Germany

In our daily work we often forget why we work in the documentary field and what the magic of this fascinating genre is. Claas Danielsen, former Head of Studies of Discovery Campus and now Festival Director of DOK Leipzig, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, takes us on a journey into the heart and art of international documentary by presenting excerpts of films that prove the great variety of the genre and might stay in your mind as masterpieces.

• Rea Apostolides (DCM 2002)

The story of a man who abandons his wife and eight-year-old son in Athens following the murder of his cousin, Ilias, in the White Mountains of Crete.

Returning to the small, remote community where he grew up, Yiannis confronts his past and pledges to honour his cousin by tending the family herd.

He struggles to carry on Ilias’ calling, a dying tradition kept alive by a handful of isolated men, high on the barren mountainsides of Crete overlooking the Libyan Sea.

14:00

• NoKo: The North Korean Jeans Story
• Pitched by Dylan Williams, Sweden

14:20

• Armenia Wants a Piece of the North Pole... and South Pole too!
• Pitched by Vardan Hovhannisyan, Armenia

14:40

• Balance and Harmony – The Farmer and His Prince
• Pitched by Bertram Verhaag, Germany

15:00

• The 6th Sense – Predicting Earthquakes
• Pitched by Elmar Bartlmae & Corinna Lücke, Germany

15:20

• Rock Cambodia! From Khmer Rock To Khmer Riche
• Pitched by Marc Eberle, Germany

• Peter Symes, Producer, Bristol, UK
  With David Parker, Available Light, Bristol, UK

A Bristol-based company in the UK, Available Light, has trail-blazed a new genre in the field of historical documentary, by researching and using amateur films shot by participants in the particular subject chosen for study. By interweaving these personal records and their related memories with academic contributions and research, the serious history documentary has been enriched. With examples from three series: "Mud, Sweat and Tractors - the story of 20th century British agriculture"; "Shooting the War" using British and German private footage to tell the story of the home front during World War 2; and "Sea Fever" which looks at the role of the sea in British life; David Parker, MD of Available Light, will explore with Peter Symes the ways in which amateur films can help to cast a fresh light on our understanding of the 20th century.

• Nikkos Mistriotis (DCM 2007)

Colossi of Love is the story of the Greek characters known as “Kamaki”, men who were obsessed with courting female foreign tourists using special techniques during the 70’s and 80’s.

Even if «kamaki», this Greek way of flirting which literally means “harpoon”, was just about sex, in a society where sex with local women was culturally forbidden, it became the reason for almost 1.000 mixed marriages on the island of Rhodes while it revealed other issues: a competition between males, a desire to be unlike others and a feeling of superiority by seducing foreign women.

Issues of a Greece at the point of change, in terms of both cultural and sexual taboos.

• Dr. Patrick Hörl, Autentic, Munich, Germany
  With Richard Ladkani, Rea Apostolides, Vardan Hovhannisyan, Jörg Daniel Hissen

This is about imagination – and how it manifests itself. Did you get, what you wanted? An encounter with some of the most distinguished filmmakers, that left a lasting impression on Documentary Campus over the last decade. A light-hearted review of what happens to those who don't want to part from their camera.Does an international coproduction allow you to produce the film you want to make, or are there any stronger forces at work, that have more influence on your film than you? An intimate look into the often obscure relationship between filmmaker, reality, and films. Everyone has a different strategy, how to face reality.

• Katja Draaijer (DCM 2005)
• Corinne van Egeraat (DCM 2005)

Full of ambitions, Daniel Knoop leaves for Africa to fight poverty in a sustainable way.

In Cameroon, Daniel is confronted with the rules and bureaucracy of the international community and the omnipresent corruption. For his African environment he has to keep his sexual preference a secret; homosexual practice is punishable here. When his boyfriend in Holland breaks up with him, he plunges into his work and this new world full of contradictions. But can he make a difference in a world that is not his?

Bridging the gap offers a candid picture of the professional and personal dilemmas of a young expatriate.

16:30

• Herr von Bohlen
• Pitched by André Schäfer & Rieke Brendel, Germany

16:50

• Odessa
• Pitched by Razvan Georgescu, Romania

17:10

• Copywrong
• Pitched by Bettina Walter & Ben Lewis, Spain

17:30

• Hadwin’s Judgement – The Making Of An Environmental Terrorist
• Pitched by Sasha Snow, UK

17:50

• The Professional Tourist
• by Michael Krass & Stefan Kloos, The Netherlands/Germany

• Mark Lewis, Radio Pictures, Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia
• Alan Hayling, Renegade Pictures, UK

When it comes to 3D there are conflicting views about it’s suitability for documentary. But few documentary makers have braved the complicated set ups or used the cumbersome gear required, so there are a lot of hypothetical views out there.

Mark Lewis is one of the first to put his toe into 3D waters and he’s done it in typical Lewis style with an animal perceived as being Australia’s most repulsive import, the cane toad. 102 cane toads (Bufo marinus) were imported to Australia in 1935 in an attempt to rid the country of the greyback cane beetle, which was decimating Queensland sugar cane crops. 75 years later, an estimated 1.5 billion toads occupy over 1 million square kilometres of territory – and their conquest steadily continues. Mark has extensive experience with cane toads. The film that rocketed him to fame over 20 years ago was on cane toads. Cane Toads – An Unnatural History is now a cult classic. Revisiting the toad in 3D was a natural jump in this new direction. He’s pulled the experiment off, because Cane Toads – The Conquest, opened Sundance this year, where it was described as a unique viewing experience, like being immersed in the land of the toad.

After the Friday night 3D screening you too will have experienced toadtown. Now join us for the story behind the 3D production with director Mark Lewis. And this case study comes with an extra dimension. Mark will be interviewed by another of the current 3D aficionados, Alan Hayling. It’s a double act not to be missed…warts and all.

• Wolfgang Landgraeber, WDR, Cologne, Germany

The working conditions of investigative journalists have become more difficult during the last decade. Since multinational companies have efficiently improved their public relation strategies and at the same time refined their methods to seclude the negative effects of their activities from the public, it has become harder for journalists and filmmakers to disclose the truth behind the shining front of their business. But at the same time the Michael Moores and Günter Wallraffs of the western hemisphere have successfully improved their methods as well, and a new generation of young journalists are on their track. Wolfgang Landgraeber has been a renown investigative TV journalist himself in the eighties and nineties, and as the head of WDR’s documentary department he is now supporting investigative and undercover actions occasionally. He has produced two of the most recent of Günter Wallraff´s films. An additional aspect: the technical facilities of undercover reporting have done better and better within the last couple of years. Mini cameras in HD quality as well as high-standard cell phone videotaping have become the backbone of undercover and underground reporting during the revolutionary turmoil of young people in countries like Iran, Burma and - most recently - in Thailand. In his workshop Wolfgang Landgraeber will show examples of state-of-the art investigative research. He will describe its methods and tricks as well as its limitations by legislation.

• Martichka Bozhilova (DCM 2004)

The epic story of a village turned concentration camp, turned a city, turned nuclear power plant and it’s population. A world instantly transformed by ideologies, regimes and dreams of economic prosperity. The tales of characters whose lives intersect in a sinister past, nuclear future and the stinging mosquitoes flying through time, sealing their fate together.

• Loui Bernal (DCM 2006)

Given the knife, Emilia Cumbane, a non doctor, is sent out to the bush as the first midwife ever to do surgery. She takes on the mission to save the lives of thousands of mothers in the absence of physicians. Here the situation of women in the society unfolds. Emilia representing the new generation breaks old traditional roles. This is an observational documentary from the delivery rooms in Mozambique.

• Alan Hayling, Renegade Pictures UK
• Mark Lewis, Radio Pictures, Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia

Following on from Lewis and Hayling we present Hayling and Lewis! The Cane Toads’ director will interview The Queen In 3D EP Alan Hayling. The Queen In 3D is the closest most of us will come to seeing Britain’s Monarch in the flesh. But this film, which aired on Channel 4 in two one hour episodes, is a lot more than a royal spectacle requiring spectacles.

The story behind how the producers got to film the Queen in 3D is one of extreme serendipity and a reminder that nothing under the sun is really new. Of course 3D has been around for a long time. Dial M for Murder and the Creature from the Black Lagoon were 3D movies that captivated audiences back in 1954. A year before that, a couple of young filmmakers actually filmed the Queen in 3D in the days leading up to and following her coronation, but the footage was never released. Their footage and the events that lead up to its discovery make The Queen In 3D even more multi-dimensional than it first appears. It’s proof that 3D is not just a gimmick, but a fantastic way to tell stories, with a technology that is moving fast to appeal to a new generation of filmmakers.

We’ll get to see 3D clips during the case study and after lunch part one of the programme will be screened. We don’t advise watching 3D and eating at the same time.

• Natasha Dack (DCM 2004)

The Pamir Kirghiz are a tribe of some 2,000 people from the Pamir region of Central Asia. For the last 27 years they have lived in exile in Eastern Turkey. In 2005 an Anglo-Turkish film crew arrives in their village to work with the tribe to tell their story. In a series of scenes divided into “chapters”, we see revealing interviews with the Kirghiz, see exciting and entertaining reconstructions shot on film in a variety of different cinematic styles, and comic scenes of the interaction between the film crew and the community. During this process, we learn how the Pamir Kirghiz’ antipathy to Communism drove them from the Soviet Union, then later from Maoist China, and finally from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to their current exile. And as the past is explored in interview and reconstruction, we see how the Pamir Kirghiz live today in modern Turkey. The film is part historical document, part ethnographical description of a unique people, part portrait of the conflict between individual and globalised culture, and part comedy about the process of film-making.

The Queen in 3D tells the incredible story of two innovative young film makers, Bob Angell and Arthur Wooster – now in their 80s – who used a pioneering 3D camera rig to film a remarkable 3D colour newsreel they named Royal Review. Their spectacular footage includes The Queen attending a variety of Royal engagements in the weeks leading up to and after the Coronation in 1953; a very Royal Epsom Derby in which The Queen’s own horse competed; a trip down the Thames on the Royal Barge; and one of the biggest events of the 20th century - the glittering Coronation Procession making its way to and from Westminster Abbey.