INDUSTRY

In Hungary the poor are stigmatized while government criminalized homelessness and slashed social benefits. But a group of homeless activists confronts authorities in defense of social justice and human dignity.

In Hungary, the poor are marginalized while elites monopolize power. But AVM, a group of homeless activists confronts authorities in defense of social justice. AVM fights an oppressive system by preventing evictions, lobbying local authorities, raising awareness and providing pro bono legal aid. AVM welcomes homeless and wealthy, educated and disadvantaged, young and old, supportive and critical of the group. Their name and motto is The City Is For All.

This is the story of their fight, which takes an unexpected turn when they discover something more transformative than political victories – AVM as alternative society, a community of inclusiveness, participation, personal growth and solidarity.

An outcome of intensive research into AVM’s life, The City Is For All is surprising, inspiring and virtually unprecedented. Their pursuit of better community is starkly significant in a society that is gradually drifting “the other way”. Their fight carries an important message for our crises-ridden societies: pursuit of individual freedom as an end in itself will only further erode solidarity, alienating people, communities and societies from each other.

TUTORS

IVANA PAUEROVA MILOSEVICOVA
PAUL PAUWELS

Althought pro-wrestling can give the impression that it is only some vulgar circus attraction, in reality it is a male soup-opera, where the good (face) and the bad (hill) fights its the eternal struggle.

There is a pro-wrestling league in Hungary, called HCW (Hungarian Championship Wrestling). While in several parts of the world (USA, Japan, Mexico) these kind of leagues are serious business enterprises, sport entertainment, with thousands of fans, and hundreds of members, in Hungary this is only a small community, which fights for its everyday excistence.

Our „Sunday heroes” are members of this community, whom live the illusion of being superheroes for the weekend shows, while during the week they have commun jobs and ordinary lives. Our film will present this universe through five characters, five man, five ages. Ron Corvus - the oldest wrestler of the community, Renegate - the director of the HCW, the tough dreamer, Icarus - the stubborn rebel, real superhero character, Jack the Clown- the first timer. T.J. Richards - the 12 years old follower, who won’t give up until he gets into the ring.

They are sunday heroes, who prompt us to be heroes in our weekdays as well, always at all hazards.

TUTORS

THOMAS ERNST
PAUL PAUWELS

Olha is a woman who keeps going ahead. Her life is packed with enough events to fill up a few telenovelas and yet, it is so similar to the lives of many women of such background – Ukrainian labour migrants in Italy.

Olha is a woman who always keeps going ahead. That is according to her own account anyways. Her life is packed with enough turning points to fill up a few telenovelas, and yet, it is so similar to the lives of many women of such background – Ukrainian female labour migrant in Italy. „Moving ahead” is not always easy as it means to face Italian stereotypes about husband-hunting Eastern European women, Ukrainian public accusations of leaving in search of a better life, her own guilt for bringing her son to the city where he found his death and the need to be an example for her 18 year old daughter. The film is full of women talking about men and their absence from migrant women’s lives.

TUTORS

THOMAS ERNST
PAUL PAUWELS

This is a feature length animated docu-fiction comedy will show how much Romanians know about the Dracula myth, which was projected on Transylvania by the book of Bram Stoker, and doesn’t have much to do with the historical reality of the region.

The fact is, that average Romanians don’t know much about Dracula, because this artificially created myth was projected on Transylvania by the book of Bram Stoker and American movies, and doesn’t have much to do with the historical reality or the mythological tradition of the region.

We are making interviews with very different people who are connected in one way or other to the topic of Dracula. We will use the sound of those interviews with documentary value, but we put those texts in the mouths of animated characters.

The structure of the film will be a quiz show – which helps us to connect a lot of different contents. Of course, the questions of the quiz show will be artificially created by us, after we know what contents we want to use from the interviews. The reactions of the animated figures of the jury also helps us to build tension.

Each candidate will be introduced by a short real footage video (showing him in his natural surrounding at home) which will be shown on a big screen which is part of the decoration of the animated Quiz Show. This also reminds the audience that we are dealing with texts with documentary value.

TUTORS

THOMAS ERNST
PAUL PAUWELS

Ethnic churches are being closed at an alarming rate in the US. This is impacting the Hungarian community. We uncover the truth behind church closings and offer solutions how to keep them open in order to preserve cultural identity.

Ethnic churches are in the cross-hairs of local Bishops and are being closed at an alarming rate. The Bishops justify the closings with claims of shrinking parishes and priest shortage. The faithful say it’s all about money. Are churches being sold to bankroll the sex-abuse scandal or because they sit on high priced real estate?

This impacts the Hungarian American community and their struggle is the focus of the documentary. The film is about a heroic battle to preserve cultural identity. One example of cultural identity can be traced to strong ties to churches. These aren’t just buildings, but second homes; a refuge to preserve cultural and historical identity. Every time an ethnic church is closed, a community of immigrants fades away.

The doc promotes the idea of an inclusive society, which respects the identity and dignity of all its members. At a time when immigration and discrimination have never been more polarizing, this is one conversation people from every community need to have. “Foreclosing on Faith” uncovers the truth behind church closings and offers solutions to keep the doors to the faithful open.

TUTORS

THOMAS ERNST
PAUL PAUWELS

A couple living in deep poverty win the jackpot in the lottery. But all goes wrong. Can they cope with luck, stay together, and live out their dreams?

Anikó and Laci are a middle-­aged couple. Since they won the lottery in autumn 2013, harmony has vanished from their marriage. Right after winning the lottery, Anikó has recovered from the panic disorder from which she was suffering for twenty-five years. She has become very active. Before, Laci was the breadwinner. Now he does not have to work anymore, he wants to lay back and enjoy life, at last. Anikó started to act like a boss and she is angry with Laci because he is not motivated in cooperating with her. Laci hardly tolerates Anikó’s new behaviour. Anikó would like to help addicts. She opened a non-alcoholic café this spring. Her motivation is connected to Laci’s past: the man was an alcoholic when they met. But the pressure Anikó puts on the family by being bossy, has defeated the purpose. Laci started to drink again. Will they be able to start a new life after Laci is back from the rehab? The personal story of the couple’s delight and unexpected difficulties are shown here as a contemporary fable.

TUTORS

PÉTER KEREKES
DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA

Oy vey, tsores is centered around four women over the course of the past hundred years: grandmother, mother, daughter and granddaughter passing down their facial features and survival strategies from generation to generation.

Oy vey, tsores!” was something my mother and grandmother would say in uncertain circumstances. Today, we; my daughter and I, still say, shout or sigh: “oy vey, tsores!”

The film tells the history of one hundred years from the perspectives of four different women from four different generations. Everything that could have happened to a German/Jewish/Hungarian family across the twentieth century certainly happened to ours.

My family’s tangled history spans Berlin, Budapest and Paris; bourgeois existence and poverty; Orthodox Judaism and atheism, Holocaust and liberation, the birth of socialism and its slow decay and transformation into an era of globalisation.

The four of us have faced our differing fates with the same mindset, passion and rebellious approach, all the while stubbornly resisting our overbearing mothers and exhausting every possible permutation of generational conflict.

The story is framed by a journey I took with my daughter from Budapest to Berlin, to liberate my grandmother’s ashes from a Hungary that grows more fascist by the day. The past century springs to life on our journey as we pass by the places where scenes of our family history occurred.

TUTORS

PÉTER KEREKES
DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA

This observational documentary is about the personal fight of a deaf - mute boy for the acceptance of the society, showing three periods of his life: childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

This documentary is covering more than 15 years from the life of the main character.

By the beginning of the film the ten years old deaf- mute Alfréd meets the deaf-mute photographer of the village, receives from him a non digital photo camera (it was before the digital era), and some photo lessons. His magical knowledge puts him in a higher position among the children from the neighborhood, and the adults also have to realize that Alfréd is smarter than they thought.

This life episode of Alfréd was presented in 2002 as a separate 37 min. film, and won most of the documentary awards on the Hungarian film festival field (for ex. the Hungarian Critics award for the best young documentary film director), and helped the author to begin his international career as a director.

After ten years, when Alfréd was finishing school in the city, we decided to continue filming. And we did follow him with the camera, showing how he is trying to adapt himself to the world of the non-deaf people. Now is time to begin the shooting of the third part, about how he will succeed (or not) to establish his own family, and find his place in the society as an adult person.

TUTORS

PÉTER KEREKES
DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA

“Dezo was the world’s best photographer.” - Paul McCartney

Dežo Hoffmann got his first break as a war cameraman in Spain. Here he became friends with Ernest Hemingway and Robert Capa. He met a beautiful Spanish woman, who is supposed to have died in mysterious circumstances shortly after their wedding. Is it true that she was shot in a truck when crossing the front? Dežo threw himself into the whirlpool of events in Second World War and when it finished he settled in London where he began to work as photographer.

In 1962 he became the court photographer to the Beatles. He lay down on the grass in a park in Liverpool and let the lads run and jump about. His action shots caused a revolution in the world of show business. Overnight, formal studio photography was out and energy and spontaneity were in. Dežo photographed all the stars of the era – the Rolling Stones, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie and many others.

Then he vanished from the scene. What happened? Why did a man who had the world at his feet suddenly drop out of the limelight? Which of his dramas – in war, private life or work – caused this sudden change in his career?

TUTORS

IVANA PAUEROVA MILOSEVICOVA
DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA

A unique journey into the minds of everyday athletes, in their past and present covering the original marathon legend.

300 ambitious people from across the world gather every year from 1982 in Greece to relive the real marathon legend according to the historian Herodotus: to run a non-stop ultra-distance race called Spartathlon. 246 km – this equals to 6 consecutive marathons. It has become one of the most prestigious and hardest running races of modern times.

They run continuously. They deal with heat and cold when darkness falls. They ascent to a 1200m high mountain pass and, face the relentless pressure of the clock: the time limit is 36 hours.

ULTRA is a film about people who dedicate their lives to running in order to compete in this radical journey. We follow the protagonists Bela (52, Hungary), Annett (47, Germany), Marios (48, Greece), Gilles (52, France), Eiolf (58, Norway), and the director, Balazs (35, Hungary) as they confront extreme hardship and surpass the limits of their strength, both in their body and their mind. Whether running to escape from their everyday life, to challenge the aging process, to compensate some failure, or to seek the supernatural, all the runners get a taste of immortality and experiences their own mortality.

The film explores the runners› troubled past and present life during a whole year of preparation, training, contemplation, longing and self-discovery.

TUTORS

IVANA PAUEROVA MILOSEVICOVA
DOROTA ROSZKOWSKA

Rebellion of a modern day slave, who, despite her hopeless situation, is determined to break free of the physical and mental oppression she has been subjected to for 10 years, and to be a free person.

My documentary is about the life of Maris, a 51 years old modern day slave, who has been serving a family in a small Hungarian village since 10 years.

Maris, left by her alcoholic husband pennyless and vulnerable, joined the family to do housework in exchange for food and accommodation. During the years she slowly and impreceptible became a modern day slave: she is not allowed to make decisions by herself, eat from the same food as others, or answer back to them unless ordered to. To earn money for the family she is sent to clean factories or sell flowers on the market.

Maris’s youngest daughter, Vivi (17), lives in a hidden state custody by the Slovakian border. She daydreams of eating at McDonald’s, owning a Samsung Galaxy and living in the capital with her mother. Maris often calls Vivi in secret and promises her that she will get her out before she turns 18 next year.

Will they both be free or will Vivi end up the same way as her mother? And even if Maris manages to break free: will the family ever let her go?

TUTORS

IVANA PAUEROVA MILOSEVICOVA
PÉTER KEREKES

The portrait of Eszter offers insight into the lives of her peers, other sufferers from mental disorder. Through documenting her everyday life, the downs and the ups, we alert people to the widespread problem of depression, bipolar disorder, borderline disorder and other terrible pains that are hushed over in mainstream society.

Eszter writes in her blog:

The other day someone asked how dared I live my life so transparently. He meant of course the fact that I talk openly about my mental disorder, even as a public figure. I really have to think about this.”

When someone is on the brink of suicide, she takes initiative, calls, tries to find the suicide, talks to the police. Sometimes she can save some people, sometimes she cannot.

We can show how she struggles and deals with the everyday, how she turns suffering into strength through offering help to others. Offering support heals the helper as much as it helps the one who is helped.

TUTORS

IVANA PAUEROVA MILOSEVICOVA
PÉTER KEREKES