AJB DOC 23

The sixth Al Jazeera Balkans International Documentary Film Festival is set to run September 8-12 in Sarajevo. With a theme of Rights[s], 24 films are selected, six of which are world premieres. At the same time, 22 new doc projects will be presented during Industry Days (Sept 9-11). “We found our time-frame and niche in the world of documentary films, and that is documentary films intended for television broadcast,” says festival director Edhem Fočo.

The new documentary, world-premiering at AJB DOC, concerns two titans of football in the Balkans, specifically Sarajevo - Vahidin and Husref Musemić. “These are two knights who made not only FK Sarajevo famous, but also the city of Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, even Yugoslavia,” enthuses co-director Edin Isanović to Business Doc Europe.

The second Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will be presented September 9 - 11 2023. “The initiative will not only support aspiring documentary filmmakers within the Arab world, it will also give them the opportunity to connect and network with decision-makers and leading professionals from around the world, which will reflect on the quality of doc films in the region,” says Ahmed Mahfouz Nouh, Aljazeera Documentary Channel MD.

Piotr Śmiechowski, producer at Polish production company Telemark, discusses the new project December in which the final month of the year brings not only snow and frost to Europe but also migrants who are offered neither gifts nor welcome, and whose presence triggers “a battle between empathy and indifference,” he says. AJB DOC Industry runs 9-11 September.

The sixth edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) will kick off September 8 in Sarajevo with the screening of the film Game: Second Level by Sajid Khan Nasiri, Eefje Blankevoort and Els Van Driel. The festival runs from September 8 to 12 and presents 24 films whose common theme is human rights. The second edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will run Sept 9 to 11.

Life is Beautiful is the story of a life put on hold by international politics and rigid bureaucracy. The project, helmed by Mohamed Jabaly and based on his own experience of displacement, is being produced by Kristine Ann Skaret for Oslo-based Stray Dogs Norway. Business Doc Europe spoke to Skaret about the documentary, its urgency and its aims.

Parma-based filmmaker Matteo Ferrarini explains that Spring in Mariupol (screening in Competition in AJB Doc) is intended to give a very different perspective on the Ukrainian war than that provided by most of the western mainstream media. Many western journalists visited Mariupol during the siege but most left after a couple of days. Maurizio stayed put for the whole of the spring, he tells BDE, trying to understand what the city’s residents were enduring. The siege lasted until late May.

The $25,000 Main Pitch Al Jazeera Documentary Channel prize was awarded to The Rabbis Intifada by Heather “Chana” Tenzer. Al Jazeera Documentary Channel awarded its Work-in-Progress prize to Abd al-Kader Habak for Until The Buzzing Stops, and its Balkan Stars award to I Don't Want To by Hanis Bagashov. The second edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry days @ AJB DOC ran September 9-11 in Sarajevo. All awards…

Intrepid 52-year-old Bosnian athlete and filmmaker Tomislav Cvitanušić, a basketball star in Sarajevo as a youngster, recently made climbing Everest, the world’s highest mountain, his goal. His ascent is chronicled in new documentary, The Deepest Summit, screening this weekend at AJB Doc. Was there an ulterior motive? “To steal some of the media space from the everyday politics that is always quite pessimistic in the Balkans,” he tells BDE.

The AJB DOC Main Award went to When Spring Came to Bucha by Mila Teshaieva and Marcus Lenz. The Al Jazeera Balkans Program Jury Award was presented to Nick Read and Ayse Toprak for My Name is Happy. Special Recognition Awards went to Pure Unknown, by Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo, and Flotation, directed by Alesandra Tatić and Eluned Zoe Aiano.