Newcomers

Czech Republic / 2017 / 4’ DODEK

Editing: Nora Štrbová Animation: Nora Štrbová, Alexandra Hroncová Sound: Anna Jesenská Production: Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU), Aneta Furdecká (FAMU), Michal Jiřinec (FAMU)

To be a street artist and a member of the bar association at the same time is not exactly a symbiotic relationship. This animated documentary shows Dodek, the protagonist, fighting a battle between order and chaos both within himself and the world he lives in.

Czech Republic / 2017 / 10’ FRUITS OF CLOUDS

KATEŘINA KARHÁNKOVÁ

Editing: Blanka Klímová Animation: Alžběta Skálová, Tomáš Michálek (MasterFilm) Sound: Jan Richtr Production: Tomáš Michálek (MasterFilm), Dagmar Sedláčková (MasterFilm) Co-production: FAMU

Furry lives in a clearing surrounded by dark woods with a pack of animal friends. Their only food is rare orange seeds that transform into large glowing fruit as soon as they touch the ground. Furry’s friends are afraid to venture into the scary woods, but he’s bored doing nothing but waiting. Czech Republic / 2019 / 7’ HIDE ‘N SEEK

Schovka Editing: Lucie Navrátilová Animation: Barbora Halířová Alexandra Hroncová (FAMU) Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU) Sound: Barbora Krobová Production: Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU)

A hole behind doors, behind this void, the whole world. On the background of a childrens game there is a story about the flow and perception of time. To win the game, the young boy becomes an old man and his life shrinks to one hide and seek game. Poetic visions are created from the memories of childhood and youth as they tell the story of a life.

Czech Republic / 2019 / 4’ HOPUS

Hopus LUCIE KOKOLIOVÁ

Animation: Lucie Kokoliová, Alexandra Hroncová Sound: Matěj Chrudina Production: Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU)

The final match of a Ski Jumping Championship is showed in an anthropomorphized form. We follow the individual candidates until the finale itself, when the unexpected twist happens.

Czech Republic / 2020 / 4’ KUKU

Editing: Nora Štrbová Animation: Nora Štrbová, Alexandra Hroncová Sound: Anna Jesenská Production: Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU), Aneta Furdecká (FAMU), Michal Jiřinec (FAMU)

A short animated documentary which humorously depicts how cuckoos lay eggs into the nests of other birds.

Czech Republic / 2020 / 6’ LEAF

ALIONA BARANOVA

Script: Aliona Baranova Photography: Editing: Jan Saska Animation: Aliona Baranova Sound: Jiří Gráf Music: Petr Mazoch Production: Lukáš Gregor, Univerzita Tomáše Bati Co-production: Zlín Film Talent

A huge sailor receives a lovely autumn leaf from a little girl. It reminds him of his home. How long has he been away? The sailor takes off after his memories. What will he find there? The Netherlands / 2021 / 27’ MIST

Mist Photography: Jean Counet Editing: Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden Sound: Anneloes Pabbruwee en Evelien van der Molen Music: Florian Jankowski Production: Hazazah Pictures

Sometimes, Stephanie “disappears” from her reality. Her body is present, but she is not: she doesn’t feel much anymore, and her sight gets blurry. As if a thick layer of mist covers her world. Stephanie’s trauma dictates her life. Her demons keep popping up on a daily basis. At first sight, she looks like a sociable young woman with a vibrant personality, but actually she can barely get through the days. Everything feels like too much: getting out of bed, preparing food, putting out the garbage, going outside.

“A bee stung me on my finger. It happened yesterday in the yard of a kindergarten, even though I am not in kindergarten anymore.” Fragmented memories of childhood and adulthood blend together in a song that an unknown narrator is humming. In a sixties TV show children are learning a new game. Someone is waiting in the hallway for a permission to re-enter the classroom. Everything is set. Everything is nailed.

Finland / 2022 / 12’ MY HOME

Mun Koti AZAR SAIYAR

Script: Azar Saiyar Photography: Azar Saiyar, Joonas Kiviharju Editing: Azar Saiyar Sound: Kaino Wennerstrand Music: Kaino Wennerstrand Production: Azar Saiyar

Selected Filmography: Roses/ Ruusut (2021) Tell Me/ Kerro minulle (2019) Monument of Distance/ Etäisyyden monumentti (2018) History Bleeds Under Your Fingernails/ Historia valuu kynsien alta (2016) Primus Tempus (2014) Festivals & Awards: Berlinale, Germany (2022), Red Carpet Film Festival, Gaza (2022), Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland (2022)

Czech Republic / 2019 / 12’ OVERBOARD!

BARBORA VALECKÁ FILIP POŠIVAČ

Script: Hynek Trojánek Photography: Alan Soural, Klára Belicová Editing: Marek Král’ovský Sound: Tobias Potočný Music: Matúš Široký Production: Pavla Janoušková Kubečková Co-production: Jakub Viktorín

At first glance, Chameleon and Kiwi are a strange pair - while the former draws attention with his changing colors, the balding and perpetually frightened Kiwi shies away from it. But when an approaching storm sweeps away the roof over their heads, there is no room for differences: they must help each other get to the ark waiting on the shore. This is no simple task because the ark is only for selected couples. Finally, they trick their way onto the boat, but that’s only the start of their problems: Kiwi and Chameleon become an unwanted and unexpected burden, disturbing order on the ark.

The Netherlands / 2021 / 75’ SHABU

SHAMIRA RAPHAËLA

Script: Shamira Raphaëla, Jasmin Preiß Photography: Jurgen Lisse, Gregg Telussa, Aziz Al-Dilaimi Editing: David Verdume Sound: Ibrahim Music: Michael Varenkamp Production: Tangerine Tree

A larger-than-life feelgood family film for young and old(er) to enjoy. A hot summer and a boy with a thirst for life, juggling the women in his life, grandma, mom, girlfriend. The Dutch-Caribbean Shabu (14) lives in a block called Paperklip, in a notorious neighborhood of Rotterdam South. He dreams of being a famous musician. We enter this community through his eyes, vibrant and exuberant, exciting and fun. A colorful loving environment where everyone knows and supports each other. Shabu needs that support, since he has a big obstacle to overcome this summer: he angered the most import woman in his life - his grandmother.

Selected Filmography: Daddy and the Warlord (2019) Our Motherland (2019) Lenno and the Angelfish (2017) Deal With It (2014) Festivals & Awards: Berlinale, Germany (2022), Human IDFF, Norway (2022), BUFF, Sweden (2022), CPH:Dox, Denmark (2022), Hot Docs, Canada (2022), Kristiansand International Children’s Film Festival, Norway (2022), Docaviv, Israel (2022), Docs Barcelona, Spain (2022), Oslo Pix, Norway (2022), See the Sound, France (2022), Zlín Film Festival, Czech Republic (2022), IDFA - Best Youth Film, Netherlands (2021) Germany / 2022 / 25’ SUMMER FLING

Summer Fling Script: Jasmin Preiß Photography: Jasmin Preiß Editing: Jasmin Preiß Sound: Tom Blankenberg Music: Julia Dauksza Production: Jasmin Preiß

Poland, Germany / 2021 / 15’ THE DREAMER FROM ZORZOR

Marzyciel Z Zorzor “What is racism?” – “Aaaah!” No answer. It’s summer somewhere in Germany and the brothers Abudi (5) and Adam (7) spent their time outside playing with fire. Other kids join them and together they discover the elements: fire, water, air and earth. A dreamlike balancing act between escape routes and dwelling places, offense, defense and reconciliation.

Selected Filmography: The Rat and the Cat (2022) Sweet Meadow/ Diese süße Wiese (2018) How do you say/ Come si dice (2018) Back In Time (2018) Spitting Blood/ Blut Spucken (2017) Festivals & Awards: Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg, Germany (2022)

RAFAŁ SKALSKI

Script: Rafał Skalski Photography: Kacper Czubak Editing: Filip Drzewiecki, Rafał Skalski Sound: Paweł Waligóra, Andrzej Kowal Music: Jędrzej BąCzyk Production: Crtn -Acn, Jonas Soto, Mark Riedemann Co-production: Jakub Viktorín

The 19-year-old Ballah is helping his father in the tailor’s workshop, but what he dreams of is going to Europe and becoming a world-famous footballer. His goal is extremely difficult to achieve in Zorzor - a small town in Liberia affected by the Ebola epidemic and the terrible civil war. Everything would be easier if Ballah was good at playing football.

Selected Filmography: Tough Girls/ Twardzielki (2019) Recruits/ Rekruci (2019) Monk of the Sea/ Mnich Z Morza (2016) Wartime Portraits - Pacak/ Portrety Wojenne-Pacak (2014) Lovers/ Kochankowie (2010) Festivals & Awards: LA Shorts International Film Festival, USA (2021)

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland / 2019 / 14’ THE KITE

Czech Republic / 2019 / 12’ WAY OF SYLVIE

Script: Martin Smatana Photography: Ondřej Nedvěd Editing: Lucie Navrátilová Sound: Viera Marinová Music: Aliaksander Yasinski Production: Peter Badač Co-production: Jakub Viktorín

Summer is coming to an end, and the fruit is growing ripe on the trees. A grandpa gives his grandson a kite. Then the leaves fall, and grandpa grows weak. A strong autumn wind carries him off into the cloudy sky. Winter comes, then springtime. A warm breeze brings them together again. Told with enchanting, richly-textured images, this tale is about remembering those who are no longer with us.

Selected Filmography: Poppy Red/ Rosso Papavero (2015) Festivals & Awards: RiverRun International Film Festival - Special Jury Award, USA (2020), Poitiers Film Festival - Audience Award, France (2019), Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) - Best Short Film for Children Award, Germany (2019), Austin Film Festival - Best Animated Short, USA (2019), Ale Kino! Film Festival - Best Short Film for Children, Poland (2019)

VERICA POSPÍŠILOVÁ KORDIĆ

Editing: Matěj Pospíšil Animation: Verica Pospíšilová Kordić, Alexandra Hroncová Sound: Adam Bláha Production: Ondřej Šejnoha (FAMU), Anika Homolová (FAMU)

They say that women are great multitaskers and Sylvie definitely is one. How does she do it? And can she really manage? Sylvie’s life beats in a rhythm of responsibilities. She is efficient, flawless, wonderful and - tired. A small accident happens and everything changes... or maybe not.

MAKEDOX +

CONVERSATION ON IDEAS

Since the beginning of her career as a filmmaker, Helena Třeštíková has been devoted to the method of so-called “time-lapse” shooting.In essence, it means to record the fate of selected protagonists over several years, sometimes even decades. It is actually a fusion of document and story because every person’s life has its peripeteia that is being recorded. In her documentaries, she focuses on continuity, patiently building stories and waiting for events that will signify a life. Her latest trilogy of portraits (Marcela, René, Katka ), shot in the late 2000s, brought her international attention. Masterpieces of editing, the three films confirm the filmmaker’s deftness at transforming the humdrum existence of the downtrodden into unique, fascinating narratives. Within the framework of the masterclass, Treshtikova will talk about the methods of developing ideas for a documentary film and will try to present different aspects of her atypical documentary method by showing excerpts from her most famous films.

The Czech director and documentary filmmaker Helena Třeštíková is more than a director and more than a documentary filmmaker. It can be said that she is an entire phenomenon, one that pushes the boundaries of our notions of documentary cinema.

Mikhail Zheleznikov - producer, program curator

Main topics of discussion:

• where is the idea to work with the time-lapse method coming from • how to determine the topic • what is the hypothesis at the beginning of the work • first project - first steps in unknown terrain • work on the film cutting • searching for shapes • financing of time-lapse films

The discussions will be led by Tue Steen Müller, documentary consultant, and critic. One of the most important Czech documentary filmmakers, Helena Třeštíková has directed some forty films since graduating from Prague’s FAMU film school in 1974. She worked for a long time in Czech television, which funded the hit series “Marriage Stories” (1987), seven years of portraits of young married couples. The series’ six episodes combined sociology, demography, and cinéma-vérité, making the filmmaker very popular in her country. It was followed in 2006 by a second series, “Marriage Stories 20 Years Later,” which catches up with the couples later in their lives. Both series feature Trestikova’s signature working method, known as “time collection.” During her years in Czech television, Trestikova showed an interest in female characters, directing several portraits of women with tragic lives. The disgraced actress in Lída Baarová’s “Bittersweet Memories” (1995), the imprisoned opponents of “Communism in Sweet Century” (1998), the victim of Nazism and Stalinism in “Hitler, Stalin and Me” (2001) and the concentration camp survivor in “My Lucky Star” (2004) all recount their personal histories, marred by 20th-century totalitarian ideologies.

Her latest trilogy of portraits (“Marcela,” “René,” “Katka”), shot in the late 2000s, brought her international attention. “René” won the prestigious best documentary prize at the European Film Awards in 2008. “Katka” won two awards at the RIDM in 2010, including best editing. In these three portraits of society’s outcasts, shot over a period of ten to twenty years, the director focuses more than ever on continuity over time, patiently building stories and waiting for events that will signify a life. Masterpieces of editing, the three films confirm the filmmaker’s deftness at transforming the humdrum existence of the downtrodden into unique, fascinating narratives. The trilogy also highlights Trestikova’s complex relationship with her characters, especially in “René,” where her own life increasingly comes into play. She continued with her time-lapse method also in her later works, like “Private Universe,” covering a span of 37 years from one family’s life. Recently, Helena Trestikova’s works have been the subject of retrospectives at several major festivals, including the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI), the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and RIDM Montreal.

DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP WITH TUE STEEN MÜLLER

Aim of the workshop:

“It will be a pleasure for me to meet filmmakers who have film proposals that are still in the development phase. Maybe you have written down your idea, and maybe you have a treatment, maybe (actually, I think this is the most important thing) you have some visual materials to show. The crucial part is that you are open to feedback from colleagues and me.

Three days: Introduction and presentation; Individual sessions; Presentation for MakeDox participants. And hopefully, you will go home full of inspiration and what I always call “creative confusion and doubt.”

The focus of the 13th edition of MakeDox is the development of ideas.

6 projects in development were selected for the development workshop with Tue Steen Müller.

The workshop participants are directors and producers with short or featurelength creative documentary projects in development produced or co-produced in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, N. Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Romania, and Turkey.

Workshop schedule:

20.08. – group session & masterclass

21.08. – individual sessions

22.08. – group session & presentation of the projects Tue Steen Müller, documentary consultant and critic, Denmark.

Worked with documentary films for over 20 years at the Danish Film Board as press officer, festival representative, and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU, and EDN (European Documentary Network).

Awards: In 2004, he received the Danish Roos Prize for contributing to the Danish and European documentary culture. Two years later, he received an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries in 2006. In 2014, he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. In 2016, he was awarded with the Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. In 2021 he received the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he got an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition and has served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.

From 1996 until 2005, he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). Since 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kyiv, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as a program consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. He teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano, Italy, and writes reviews for www.filmkommentaren.dk.

MAKECOPRODOX FORUM #4

“It is hard not to be in love with MakeDox. The location, the films, and the people. After nine years as a Film Commissioners for documentaries in Denmark and Norway, it makes sense to share knowledge, and I am happy to learn more about the way Balkan is doing things. I am also moderating a network of key persons from the Balkan film agencies and centers and it is a privilege being together with a group who wants to exchange, innovate and work for the best conditions for filmmakers and films in the future.” - Helle Hansen Moderators:

Helle Hansen (Former Film Commissioner documentary at Norwegian & Danish Institute)

Brigid O’Shea (Documentary Association of Europe)

MakeCoProDox Forum is a forum whose main goal is to develop a strategic plan to increase documentary film co-production between the Balkan countries. The Forum welcomes representatives from 12 regional film agencies, documentary associations, documentary professionals, and 10 projects in different stages of production selected through an open call. In anticipation of an economic crisis, the culture and film industry are often the most affected by budget cuts. Only by acting in solidarity and increasing regional co-productions can Balkan countries increase the number of funded projects despite the reduced funds. The first documentary film co-production forum took place during the 10th edition of the Creative Documentary Film Festival MakeDox in 2019, and its 4th edition will be held this year. Our objective with this project is to establish a new alliance sector in the Balkan region for the first time, as the only way to amortize the consequences of the crisis. Within the online sessions we will present the problems that regional countries are facing, and try to find possible ways of overcoming them, while emphasizing their unspecific regulations dedicated to supporting the development and production of documentary films.

The Forum is organized & supported by: MakeDox, North Macedonia Film Agency, MEDIA Desk MK, Greek Film Center, City of Skopje & Youth Cultural Center Skopje.

KIDS AND YOUTH PROGRAM

Children have always been the joy of the Earth, and it is the same at our festival. Therefore, this year as for all editions before, the reactive Documentary Film Festival MakeDoxhas selected several short documentaries combined with animated Czech short films for children, created under the supervision of FAMU International, and taken over by the Czech Film Fund to increase the joy even more. We hope that the program created for children will encourage the development of their synaesthetic experience and the need to visit the cinema and watch movies on the big screen.

For the Youth Program this year, we selected two feature films - “Shabu,” a Dutch-Belgian co-production by the director Shamira Raphaëla, as well as the documentary film “DIVAS” by the director Máté Kőrösi, plus many short documentaries and animated films for young people. We believe that young people will like our choice and show interest in watching movies at the cinema, thus further actively participating in the film story under the open sky.

So pack up, and come to MakeDox with your mothers and fathers, and grandparents. Let’s jump into another festival-film adventure together!

DOC TALKS UNDER THE FIG TREE

Location: Kurshumli An Date: 19.08 - 25.08 Time: 06:00 - 08:00 p.m

The day is slowly going away and if the mind becomes silent for a moment, and takes the body along, you may hear the words of the song which the muezzin sings in a language indecipherable for many of us. But what does it say, really? To slow down, to let go, to lighten up our heavy steps while walking down the cobblestone alleys in the Old Turkish Bazaar in Skopje, rushing toward the An in order to escape the scorching August heatwave. Suddenly, a relief! Behind the massive stone walls a cool breeze embraces us, our thoughts become clear, water is flowing in the center… All is well. We hear the sound of children’s laughter and a distant echo of dogs barking. It’s just a few minutes before 6 p.m, so that means that it’s too early for screenings for it’s still daylight. However, it’s time to talk, to listen, and then talk and listen a bit more… We are sitting in a circle. For a moment we become silent, all of us are here and we may begin. А summer scent is gently spreading in the air- black Turkish tea, wild figs, and watermelon. The tiny metal spoon is making a swirl, melting away the sugar cube. Ching, ching, the spoon goes, announcing the beginning of our discussion. We are talking about characters who live lonesome lives in the middle of mountains, ice deserts, and oceans, and others who found luck in the midst of unfortune, next we turn toward new forms of communication and technology, then we are listening about the craziness of going shooting when everyone tells you that you shouldn’t, then someone shares their aches and pains when they realized their entire recorded material had simply vanished, then we hear about the joy upon seeing all the nonsense finally making sense when revealed on the film screen… Dear dreamers, this year we will, once again, in person, talk under the shadow of our fig tree.

NIGHT STORIES

The docu-nights at MakeDox prove that where words fail, music speaks… When the day is done, after hours of working, indulging into film screenings, or maybe digesting personal stories, we stop for a moment to rest and feel that the An is also taking a breath. Then, the film canvas turns black, so our menu offers a hot spot that links directly to emotions - we dwell upon them, feed their inside, share them or let them go wild… It’s time for our version of Scheherazade and 1001 Nights, our bedtime stories. While the guitar, the oud, the kemane, and the accordion echo around, one should just carefully listen, and they will hear all the stories that were once told in the dark nooks of this place - all the adventures, misfortunes, boastful lyrics of personal praises and hard fates, and all those who played here prompted by joy, delight, grief, or for the sake of shelter or bread.

See you at night, in the stories…

WINTER MAKEDOX

We are launching the WINTER MakeDox this year as an initiative that aims to increase interest in the online viewing of creative documentaries in North Macedonia.

We are all aware that in the past two years, the interest in VOD platforms has increased worldwide due to the pandemic. Yet, the situation in North Macedonia shows that the population has not yet developed the habit of using online platforms.

However, new VOD and online platforms have appeared on the market in the country, slowly forming their audiences. Unfortunately, the offer of creative documentary films on these platforms is very low. Therefore, as the only Association for promoting creative documentary films, we have decided to start this initiative to enrich these online platforms with quality creative documentary films.

For this initiative, four films have been selected, winners from the 2021 editions, from the National Programs of the festivals in the Doc Around Europe network (DOK.fest München, DocsBarcelona, MakeDox, and FIPADOC).

DIDA

Dida

NIKOLA ILIĆ CORINA SCHWINGRUBER ILIĆ

Fifteen years ago Nikola left Serbia to follow his heart to Switzerland. Since then his life is shared between two countries and three women: his mother Dida, his grandmother and his wife. His mother has learning disabilities and has been dependent on the grandmother since forever. As grandmother is getting older, Belgrade is now calling Nikola back home. He can’t let his mother down, but he doesn’t want to give up his life in Switzerland. This forces him to face a moral dilemma: How can he help his mother live a life of independence without losing his own? A heartwarming and amusing documentary about a son who’s trying to step into his grandmother’s shoes.

Script: Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić Photography: Nikola Ilić, Corina Schwingruber Ilić, Pablo Ferro Živanović Editing: Myriam Flury Sound: Vladimir Rakić, Ivan Antić Music: Heidi Happy Production: Franziska Sonder for Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG

Selected Filmography: Nikola Ilić Rakija Fair/ Rakijada (2016) Just Another Day in Egypt (2015) Canton of Yugoslavia/ Kanton Jugoslawien (2013) On the Corner/ Kod Ćoška (2013)

Corina Schwingruber Ilić All Inclusive (2018) In the Woods/ Ins Holz (2017) Just Another Day in Egypt (2015) On the Corner/ Kod Ćoška (2013) Excavating - Tons of Passion/ Baggern - Tons of passion (2013)

Festivals & Awards: Visions du Réel, Switzerland (2021), Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, Ukraine (2021)

LADIES OF THE WOOD

Au cœur du bois

In this green lung bordering the city, between dusk and dawn wandering among joggers and dog walkers, you may come across queer mystical souls. They all share their life story paced by the clients who come and go. Those are the Ladies of the Wood.

CLAUS DREXEL

Photography: Sylvain Leser Editing: Anne Souriau Sound: Nicolas Basselin, Thierry Blandin Music: Valentin Hadjadj Production: Daisy Days Films

Selected Filmography: America (2018) On the Edge of The World (2013)

Festivals & Awards: FIPADOC, France (2022), CPH: DOX, Denmark (2021)

THE SECRET OF DOCTOR GRINBERG

El Secreto del Doctor Grinberg

Considered by many as the “Einstein of consciousness” Grinberg pushed the traditional boundaries of science in an attempt to better understand the potential of the human brain. He claimed he could demonstrate the first steps of telepathy, and he had a personal obsession with explaining scientifically the mysterious practices of shamanism in Mexico. It was during this time, in 1994, at the height of his career, that Jacobo Grinberg mysteriously disappeared. The strange circumstances surrounding his sudden disappearance have given rise to multiple theories which continue to obscure the real version of events.

IDA CUÉLLAR

Script: Ida Cuéllar, Miguel León, Juan Muñoz-Tébar, Fernanda Rossi Photography: Jose Luis Bernal (AEC) Editing: Judith Miralles, Gabriela Soria, Carlos Rufete Sound: Laia Casanovas Music: Eduardo Pacheco Production: Carles Brugueras, Marieke van den Bersselaar, Ida Cuéllar, Inés Massa

Festivals & Awards: DocsBarcelona - Premi Latitud, Spain (2021), DocsMX - Audience Award, Mexico (2020), DocsValència - Panorama Prize, Spain (2020), Sheffield IDFF, UK (2020) , Festival de Málaga, Spain (2020)

ZUHUR’S DAUGHTERS

Zuhurs Töchter

Teenagers Lohan and Samar both feel they were born in the wrong body. Together with their family the siblings have fled the Syrian war and received asylum in Germany. Gradually Lohan and Samar dare to live out their female identity, while their religious parents consider it a sin to be trans. Increasingly Lohan and Samar are drawn away from the conservative environment in the refugee home and into the liberated world of nightlife. For three years the film accompanies the siblings transitioning to the opposite sex and searching for an own identity. The film brings us close to a special family that sticks together despite countless conflicts and hardships.

LAURENTIA GENSKE ROBIN HUMBOLDT

Script: Laurentia Genske, Robin Humboldt Photography: Laurentia Genske, Robin Humboldt Editing: Carina Mergens Sound: Laurentia Genske, Robin Humboldt Production: Erik Winker, Martin Roelly, Ümit Uludağ

Selected Filmography: Laurentia Genske El Manguito (2017) Outside/ Afuera (2015) At Kölnberg/ Am Kölnberg (2014)

Robin Humboldt At Kölnberg/ Am Kölnberg (2014)

Festivals & Awards: AMOR Festival Internacional de Cine LGBT+ - Best International Feature Film, Chile (2022), DOK.fest Munich - Winner of Victor DOK.deutsch Competition, Germany (2021), Hot Docs, Canada (2021)

MAKEDOX LAYERS

MAKEDOX TRAVELING CINEMA

The loveliest, most carefree part of the year has arrived, devoted to summer breaks in grandma’s village. We’ll load our donkey with stories and head towards Belasica and Ogražden’s embrace to chop onions alongside the renowned peppers. We start from the village between two rivers, Turia on the east and Strumica on the west. We continue to Elenica’s base, between Plavuš and Smrdeš, in former Paleokastro, where there was basketweaving and pot-baking in the past.

We are going to a green repose to enjoy crimson tomatoes, watermelons, melons, and leeks which have a whole festival next door devoted to them. We continue to the village of the voivoda, “the village of the lonely house” neighboring Ednokukjevo, and after that to Bosilkovo. Moving through the river path of Garlieva češma and the endemic ferns, we will finish our stories by the waterfalls, in a pastoral idyll by the verdandahs with the villagers from Gabrovo.

The donkey will carry stories, but it will also collect them. It will collect stories from the great-grandsons of the komiti in the southeast whose great grandfathers challenged the world media to write about Macedonia in the first half of the XX century. We will collect stories of anthills, mud, and the endemic flora, but also of the Macedonian’s five centuries shriek – the story of the first modern kidnapping in the world.

DOC AROUND EUROPE NETWORK

Documentary Film Festival Networ k

It is a perfect moment in history to start new collaborations with already acclaimed European festivals from Germany, France, Spain. Festivals are meant to be celebrations of life and a meeting place for creativity, a market where opinions and ideas are exchanged and where collaborations come to life. Festivals are necessary for filmmakers to meet their audience, to celebrate films. Since documentaries usually take a long time before they reach their viewers, festivals acknowledge the filmmaker’s achievement and mark an important moment in the film completion process. This is why it is important to establish strong festival bonds - even more so in times of social crisis. Now it is time to strengthen the ties, help each other with advice and thus support the art of filmmaking. At the moment, one such network is the Doc Around Europe Network, which helps us make the best of the new forms of festivals we’ve had to face in the past two years and take advantage of the new online reality. Moreover, it gives us the opportunity to engage documentary filmmakers from faraway places to understand the differences of the European realities. Doc Around Europe started spontaneously between the German Dok.fest Munich, the French FIPADOC from Biarritz, the Spanish DocsBarcelona, and MakeDox. All of them decided to join their creative forces and different festival experiences and bring films from France, Spain, Germany, and the Balkans to audiences that don’t have the opportunity to see the realities in these countries live. That is also the reason why we’ll organize screenings locally, and we’ll also cross borders to reach the audiences from rural and other urban areas. Last year, the Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, the largest documentary film festival in Hungary, joined our initiative. This collaboration strengthens our festival markets and seeks possibilities for co-production of documentary films. We’ll therefore involve all three festivals in the CoProDox Forum pitching session, and during the discussions under the fig tree, we will open the question Where do we go now?, referring to the festivals in Europe where the next logical step would be the exchange and screening of films from each country and attending each other’s festivals.