BIDF GOULASH - 2016

Since ancient times, hair has been the symbol of force, joviality, and vitality. A bizarre phenomenon: one day someone gets rid of her waist-length hair, and then another person bears it.A woman, dissatisfied with her own life, sells her hair. The story unfolds from here. Hair buying/purchase functions almost as the trade of organs. The cut and bought strands of hair are used for hair lengthening or for the making of wigs. Hair travels and changes. It is being processed in wig making plants, cleansed with special care in hair salons and prepared for its new owner. And so the journey starts. In the movie, strands of hair exchange owners, while life paths, personalities, perceived and real problems gradually unfold. Poverty, sickness, dissatisfaction, the desire and the joy of transfiguration capture many a human destinies.
Ibolya Simó was born 1984. She received her degree from Sapientia University’s Department of Film, Photography and Media in 2013. She has been been working as a Director since. Her works include: ”Woman life” , documentary, 43 min. Association Dunaversitas, 2007 It received an Audience award at the Film.dok Romanian-Hungarian International Documentary Film Festival in 2007.
”Tiny Joys”, documentary, 67 min. Duna Workshop, 2009 At the 40th Hungarian Film Review it received a Certificate of Appreciation. ”Perfect Investment” , short fiction movie, 21 min. Association Transikon -Duna Workshop, 2015. 2nd Prize FFeST-International Student Film Festival. 1st Prize TIFF-Local movies competition. ”Tomi, Ervin end the school”, documentary, 52 min. Association Transikon, 2016
aylobis@gmail.com

What happens when a utopian architect sees the birth of a city when no one else does? At least not the French State, nor migrants themselves … How far can the humanist dream of themselves be in harmony with the needs of others? What inspiration can build up to a very strong desire to change the world, when the emergency situation holds all cards? In the North of France city of Grande-Synthe, an architect, a Mayor, and a group of refugees are experimenting with the world-city of the future…
Estelle is managing director of Les films du balibari since 2005. She has (co)produced numerous documentaries that have travelled and gained global acclaim in festivals and on TV, including Village Without Women by Srdjan Sarenac, The Man Who Made Angels Fly by Wiktoria Szymanska, 18 years by Frédérique Pollet Rouyer. In 2016, she released in French cinemas the feature-length documentary Brave as Lions (at BIDF). She is co-producing with Greece and Canada Dolphin Man, on the life and legacy of free-diving legend Jacques Mayol, and currently at EAVE with A Thousand Fires by British-Jordanian filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky.

estelle.robin@balibari.com

In 2014, the unimaginable happened: war returned to Europe. Two years later, Ukrainian soldiers and citizens adapt to the routine of a grinding conflict that tears at their homes, bodies and society. Through intimate access into the lives of frontline Ukrainian soldiers, their families and IDP’s, this film tells in unique and interwoven portraits of a nation at war.
Eva Rink studied journalism, anthropology and history in Germany and France, and has been an independent producer of documentaries over the past 15 years. After her graduation she worked in the US on various productions for the Discovery Channel, after which she became the lead producer for international co-productions at major German documentary film production companies, such as Filmtank Hamburg, Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduction and Kobalt Documentary. In 2006 she initiated the DOK INDUSTRY activities at the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, DOK Leipzig. Afterwards she was curating German programs for the festival; and had been part of the selection committee for the Pitching FORUM in Amsterdam.
eva.rink@kobalt.de

SRBENKA is a film about peer violence toward children of different nationality in Croatia. SRBENKA examines how the generation born after the war copes with the dark shadows of history. Although the Croatian war ended 20 years ago, for many Croats the noun “Serb” is still the synonym for “the enemy”. This is a huge issue knowing that five percent of Croatian citizens are of Serbian nationality. Many children of Serbian origin hide their nationality, afraid of the reaction of their classmates. SRBENKA will tell their stories, by following several children dealing with their traumas.
Vanja Jambrovic was born in 1980 in Zagreb, Croatia. In 2005 she majored in philosophy and comparative literature at the Faculty for Social Sciences in Zagreb and in 2011 she received a degree in production from the Academy of Drama, Art and Film, also in Zagreb. Since 2009 she is working as producer in Restart where she acts as one of the key delegate producers. Restart is a company covering everything within the documentary and fiction film industry: professional production, education, a distribution label and running Dokukino (a small art house cinema in the centre of Zagreb). With her projects Vanja participated at professional workshops such as: EAVE (2015), Producer on the move (Cannes 2014), Berlinale Talent Campus (Berlin, 2013) Emerging Producer (Jihlava 2012), Sarajevo Talent Campus (Sarajevo, 2012), Eurodoc (France 2010).

vanja@restarted.hr

The film is a sort of Transylvanian Buena Vista Social Club, with
the difference that instead of interviews we see scenes from the
everyday life of the characters that are performing traditional dances and concerts at parties. Good music, dynamic dances, exotic and lively scenes, nice people and a lot of fun are the characteristics of this film. They play traditional Hungarian, Romanian and gypsy music from the central part of Transylvania.
Their lifestyle reminds us of the fable of La Fontaine about The Grasshopper and the Ant. Sometimes they are shining, surrounded by a lot of joy, but then everyday life comes in extreme poverty – and the film is built on these contrasts.
Dr. Róbert Árpád Lakatos: film director, producer and DOP, teacher at the film department at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, in Cluj–Napoca, Romania. For directing documentaries and short fictions, he received numerous prizes like Europa Cinemas Label award at Karlovy Vary, Golden Dove in Leipzig, Hungarian Film Critic’s Prize, Best Short Film at Hungarian Film Week, etc. As producer of the Argo Audiovisual Association he produced successful shorts of young directors, presented in festivals in Locarno, Leipzig, Mar del Plata, Warsaw, etc.

lakatrob@yahoo.com

Behind Tahrir Square (the icon of the 25th of January Revolution), and in downtown Cairo that roars day and night with all kinds of people, two pubs are located. In a conservative society where religion forbids drinking and possesion of alcohol, a Muslim and Christian barman (Saeid & Daniel) are obliged to work in the two pubs to obtain their daily livelihood. The two barmen are suffering exclusion and the contempt of society because of their job, and the conflict between what they believe and what they do, especially Saied who has another morning job as a teacher. The film reveals the daily life of two barmen during the fundamental regime of the Muslim’s Brotherhood.
Nivine Afify graduated from the Faculty of Mass Communication at Cairo University in 1994. She worked as an assistant director in the Egyptian TV sector and in many short films. Later on, she worked as an interpreter at the Administration of Screening Foreign Movies of the Egyptian Radio & TV Union. Afify produced many short fictions and documentaries that have participated in more than 100 international film festivals and that were awarded 8 prizes. She produced her first feature documentary, We Have Never Been Kids, in 2016, which has been awarded 7 prizes in Dubai, Egypt, Morocco, Italy, and France. Currently, she’s producing a narrative feature, Happy New Year, and a feature documentary, Two Barmen From Egypt.

janfilmpro@gmail.com

Tokaj is one of the best-known wine region in the world. In the past King Louis XIV of France, Queen Victoria, Peter the Great, Goethe or Beethoven drank the Tokaji Aszú that was referred to as the „Wine of Kings, King of Wines”. But in the 20th century the region was almost destroyed, the mass-production during the socialist era caused serious damage. Since 1989 the region struggles to get back to their previous fame and to become acknowledged again. But they have to face a new challenge: capitalism and the global market. Can they compete with the biggest international wine producers while they work in one of the most poverty-stricken area of Hungary? Our characters fight in different ways, but the goal is the same: making the “Big Wine”.
Ágnes Böjte was born 1977 in Budapest, Hungary. After Graduating from Communication Department of University of Szeged in 2003, Agnes worked as an editor for the Hungarian Television, and as a director-, and producer assistant in several projects (documentaries and a feature film). In 2013 she graduated from the Media Design department of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. She is a member of the organising team of DunaDOCK Master Class and Pitching Forum, and editor-reporter in a Radio Program about contemporary films. Agnes works as line producer and production manager in Éclipse Film since 2015.

agnes.bojte@eclipsefilm.hu

A Second World War little-known story about a group of ordinary young people who were transformed over-night into secret agents and sent by the British Intelligence behind enemy lines in German-occupied Eastern Europe on a serious mission. Their task was to find an escape route for the Allies’ war prisoners and to organize the resistance movement. It was almost a suicide mission as these agents were Jewish youth from Palestine, sent back to their countries of origins, where their brothers were facing the “final solution”.
Documentary filmmaker and experienced film producer. Was a key member in the production team of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu directed by Cristi Puiu (Un certain regard Award Cannes 2005), and Delta by Kornél Mundruczó (Fipresci award - Cannes 2008). Oana produced Tudor Giurgiu’s films Love sick (Berlinale 2006-Panorama), Of snails and men (Romanian box-office hit in 2012) and Why me? (Berlinale 2015-Panorama), and Peter Strickland’s Katalin Varga (Silver Bear, Berlinale 2009). She is also co-founder and executive director of Transilvania International Film Festival. Aliyah DaDa, her first feature documentary, premiered at Astra Film Festival, Sibiu 2014 and Jerusalem Jewish IFF 2015.

oana.giurgiu@librafilm.net

A story about the current political crisis in Poland. President Lech Kaczynski was killed in an air crash in 2010. This tragic catastrophe - portrayed as political assassination – was used by his brother Jarosław to carry out a plan which has given him rule over Poland. He is ‘fixing the country’: civil liberties are sacrificed for the sake of those who were excluded from the prosperity of a free market. ‘Committee for the Defense of Democracy’ is challenging this new vision of Poland, standing in Jarosław’s way. Observing the crisis EU launched the Rule of Law mechanism – thus supporting opposition. Who will win this battle?

Malgorzata Prociak Film producer, production manager, culture activist. Graduate of The Film Production and Management Department of PWSFTviT in Lodz and Czech studies at University of Wroclaw. She made several award winning shorts. Since 2012 she has worked with Konrad Szolajski developing several social documentaries and completed productions of two films: ‘Voices’ and ‘The Battle with Satan’.
Konrad Szolajski MA in lm directing – Silesian University (1979-1985) – Film Directing – post-graduate course at the National Film and Television School, Beacons eld, England (1985- 1987) – PhD in film directing – Silesian University (2012) Wrote an directed documentary and action films, which were shown in cinema and by TV stations and at many Polish and international festivals. He is known for satyrical view on contemporarry Poland and a humorous approach to serious subjects including Polish national complexes and religion. He has worked as a film tutor at Warsaw University, Silesian University, Łódz Fim School and SWPS University, was a member of the Polish TV Programing Board (1999-2003), has been a member of EDN since 2006. In 2005 he launched a new film production company ZK Studio which has produced fiction and documentary films with a strong social hook, aimed at international markets.

God’s Own Country is a poetic documentary that tells a unique story of faith, solitude and tradition. It takes the viewer to experience the last days of a never seen harmony of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim people, in the South Indian city of Cochin.

Julianna Ugrin producer graduated from ELTE University in 2005, she started to work in the film field at Flora Film International. In 2009 she was selected to EURODOC producers workshop. From March 2009, she worked at Havas Films as producer and production manager. In 2011 she co-organized the 1st session of EURODOC in Budapest. She established Éclipse Film in 2011. Her films were screened or also awarded at IDFA, DOK Leipzig, or Sarajevo IFF among others. She is part of Emerging Producers 2014. Beginning of 2014 she also joined Café Film. She is an EAVE graduate, founder of DunaDOCK, co-organizer of KineDOK and member of EDN.
julianna.ugrin@eclipsefilm.hu

The protagonist of our documentary-tale is Csángáló, the old, but world famous gipsy violist, whose breadwinner hand left him in the lurch from one day to another. People travelled thousands of kilometers just to learn from him, yet he can’t even read music. The master fights a seemingly irreversible disease, his right hand started to shake uncontrollably. Life is cruel.They say in Szászcsávás that the musician who drops the bow, cannot be member of the band. Tinkucza, Csángáló’s daughter, is continuously searching the internet looking for a cure, until she finds out that the disease is treatable with surgical intervention for many years now. The archaic fairytale world that Csángáló lives in, is only aware of the power and help of the God.It is unthinkable that brain surgery would be a potential solution. The old and diseased violinist’s last task is to teach his century-old knowledge to his grandson, the 12-year-old Bálint.
His first film experience in highschool: a social movie about a gypsy family. He won the main award in the High School film competition, and got the maximum mark on the preliminary oral test of Sapientia University of Cluj.
2012-2013: He attended the documentary Master course of Dunaversitas and was part of three Film Camps as a camera-man or director. These camps were organized by Filmtett (Romania) and Mediawawe (Hungary). At the end of 2014 he finished his final exam film, called Under ice (27 min). This film participated to many short film competitions in Romania and Hungary. 2015: beginning of summer he started to shoot his first feature length documentary project: Hands of God.

l_barnabas@yahoo.com

Tashi (13) has only one desire and it is to become a boy. She tries to do everything that is far away from home and is related to the man’s world. But after an unsuccessful attempt at becoming a footballer in the first Bhutanese women football team she realizes that the only way to be a boy at her village is to take over the family’s Buddhist monastery. Will her father accept her as a son and the next guardian?

Zsófia Zurbó graduated in 2013 from ELTE University Film Studies, Budapest. She also studied at Charles University, and FAMU, Prague in 2012. After university, she started to work for a marketing and communication company as a project manager and tender writer. Meanwhile, she was also a freelance filmmaker, working on different projects like music videos, promotional videos for theatres and other companies.Screenplay writer and assistant director of the feature documentary “The Unknown József Antall” and the “Immersion, Wait and See” about the first Hungarian Prime Minister, directed by András Dér. She also works on documentary series for AMC Spektrum which will be premiered in 2017. She works for Éclipse Film since 2015 - where she is responsible for various projects-, as well as for KineDOK.

zsofia.zurbo@eclipsefilm.hu

Karel Gott is one of the most distinguished singers in European pop music. He has been known for decades and recognized as “The Golden Voice of Prague”. Karel Gott is a legend who managed to connect the East and the West at the times of the Cold War. The new Cold War, the war in Ukraine brings new drama to the lives of the admirers of divine Karel. Karel Gott unites people again. This begs the question: what makes “The Golden Voice from Prague” so unique? We will look for answers among people whose lives have been influenced by Karel Gott. Divine Voice is a character driven documentary. It tells the stories of people who never met each other and they have been charmed by a single voice. Simone Baumann has been working in film production for more than 20 years and has produced many documentaries and feature films. Now she is the head of the documentary department of Saxonia Entertainment. She is an experienced co-producer, and one of Europe’s leading experts on Russia, the former Eastern bloc, and their audiovisual markets. Simone has been working as the GERMAN FILMS Eastern Europe representative since 2005 and she is also a founding member of the Russian-German Film Academy. Simone.

Baumann@saxonia-entertainment.de

Climate change and everything that has to do with this issue does not really touch us anymore. We have already read way too much in daily headlines. Yet, climate change has become a billion dollar business. A global, lucrative marketplace has developed, used by share-holders in anticipation of high returns on the stock market. Global warming and climate change projects are traded in the billions on well-attended ’climate fairs’.

Barbara Weissenbeck was born in Vienna, in 1968. She studied Economics & Cultural Management, and went on to become a press photographer assistant at various theatres. Later on, she established her own company in the service sector. She had been working for INTERNATIONALE TANZWOCHEN WIEN as marketing and artist’s manager; meanwhile, she’d been working as an independent cultural manager dealing with contemporary dance, theatre, and music. Since 2003, she’s been working as a production manager for Langbein & Skalnik, where she has managed more than 40 documentaries. In 2002, she founded her own production company, the FILMWERKSTATT WIEN, in order to produce high-quality documentaries. Gerald Benesch was born in 1963, in Salzburg. He graduated from Grafischen Lehranstalt in Vienna, then until 2005, he had been working as a graphic designer for several PR and Marketing companies. Between 2005 and 2010, he provided help for mentally and physically disabled people. Since 2011, he’s been doing research and projects for Cosmos Factory GmbH in Vienna. Since 2012, he’s been working on several film projects as a researcher and co-director, among which the award-winner Die Carsony Brüder was screened at Reno Film Festival in 2015.

weissenbeck@filmwerkstatt.com

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. Viki Réka Kiss has been active in a variety of international film productions in different roles. She worked exclusively with Laokoon Filmgroup for 3 years in both documentaries and feature films, later she started working as an independent producer. Her main focus is producing creative documentaries, and Éclipse Film has become a perfect match for her in this endeavor. After gaining several years of experience in various aspects of film and creative media development and production, My Marish will be her first feature length documentary as a producer.

viki.reka.kiss@eclipsefilm.hu

Almost a quarter of a century after the Iron Curtain came down, walls are going up again in Europe and around the world. The human race is building barriers at a rate perhaps unequalled in history. What kinds of dangers generate and support today’s border walls? What kind of freedom is freedom enclosed by concrete and barbed wire? To these universally relevant questions, Endless Shadow aims to identify possible answers from a global perspective. Through the personal micro stories collected along the world’s most iconic walls (e.g. America-Mexican border, Israeli Palestinian Walls, Cyprus Wall, Peace Walls in Northern Ireland, South Africa - Kruger National Park, Melilla Spanish Enclave, wall between India and Bangladesh, Greek-Turkish border wall etc.) we intend to explore stories of every-day life set against a backdrop of barriers. We wish to place the micro stories collected into a personally experienced historical framework that will divide the film into three larger units and encompass the past twenty-five years, from the dismantling of the Iron Curtain to the erection of the new European border walls. Sára László co-founded Campfilm in 2007 and worked as a producer or occasionally as a co-author in all of Campfilm’s completed films. In the recent years she worked together with various national and international partners (Media council Hungary, Hungarian National Film Fund, HBO Europe, ARTE France, RTS, Jba Production (FR), Novak Prod (BE) etc). With Campfilm’s projects she participated in several international training programs (Ex Oriente Film, Eurodoc, Nipkow Programme). Sára is a member of the European Documentary Network (EDN). Marcell Gerô after graduating from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest as film director, he co-founded Campfilm in 2007 and worked as a producer in all completed projects, except for the feature length documentary CAIN’S CHILDREN (2014), premiered in the New Directors competition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, which he directed.

sara@campfilm.eu

THE EARTH MASTERS is a creative documentary which takes the audience into the unheard-of sphere of geoengineering, a kaleidoscope of technological ideas to globally manipulate the climate aiming to counteract climate change. Giant mirrors in space reflecting the sun, enormous white balloons pumping sulphites into the skies, the Earth being bombed out of orbit. Experts confront us with the pros and cons of the epical proposals triggering our inner conflicts which come up when we think about our future and the necessity to take action. Welcome to the unknown realm of how to fix a broken planet!

Maria Wischinewski born in 1976 in East Berlin. She studied Cultural Sciences at the Europe University Viadrina and in Poland and Russia. From an early age she became inflamed with passion for documentary film. Worked as a translator, curator and for several film festivals. Since 2007 she acts as a producer, author, director for award winning, cultural and historical relevant documentaries. In 2016 she founded KOBERSTEIN FILM, a production company for documentaries and cultural events in Berlin.

Nadja Smith is a documentary producer based in Berlin focusing on socio-political documentary and international co-production. She produced the Spanish-German co-production ANDROIDS DREAM by Ion de Sosa, premiere at the 65th Berlinale (Forum). In 2015 she co-produced the short documentary ONE MILLION STEPS by German director Eva Stotz. Right now Nadja Smith is working with award-winning director Alba Sotorra and KOBERSTEIN FILM, producing the creative documentary THE EARTH MASTERS. Selected for Below Zero 2016 and ESoDoc 2016, supported by Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg.

info@nadjasmith.de, mw@koberstein-film.de

The Tap Tap is a band of students with physical disabilities. It has become so known that it sells out concerts, has traveled the world and their annual concerts at the Opera earned a TV broadcast. And they want more. TTT shows how to beat the odds, above all, how to have fun with your life. They’re full of humor, no holds barred. But what lies behind this cheeky exterior & motivates TTT to go this route at all? Is it their inner motivation or pressure from their bandleader? The film tells the intimate story of the band members and offers a peek behind the scenes of building TTT’s media image.

Radovan is a Czech director and producer, co-founder of production company PINK. His debut The Prison of Art premiered at JIHLAVA IDFF 2012, On Decency was shortlisted for Koutecky Award. He is a producer of short films Enkel and Das Wandernde Sternlein (dir. M. Ther). In 2013 he produced documentary Byeway (dir. I. Bystrˇicˇan). In 2014 he was selected as an Emerging Producer at Jihlava IDFF. He has recently co-produced documentary Cinema, Mon Amour by A. Belc, premiered at DOK Leipzig.

radovan@pinkproductions.cz

I was confronted with a hole in my memory, edging on the border of dream and reality. Years ago I met two Hungarian guys in Aarhus, Denmark, who studied at the local university with Erasmus scholarship. The last thing I remember was them handing me a drink. The next day I woke up at the police station, I didn’t remember the past 10 hours. The police told me that I was probably drugged. I felt terribly ashamed and was too scared to ask anything so I still don’t know what happened to me…The film leads the viewer through an investigation and meanwhile talks about an issue from the victim’s perspective, something that still counts as a taboo.

Krisztina Meggyes is a freelance film director. She received her Master’s Degree in Documentary Directing from the University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest. In the last three years she worked as a director and content editor in several documentary films. Her film Day 791 won the short film section of the Budapest Documentary Film Festival in 2014. Her graduation film, Those, won the Hungarian Film Critics’ Award in ‘Best documentary of the year’ category. She is a lecturer at University of Theatre and Film Arts.

meggyeskrisztina@gmail.com