Jury of 13. Gdańsk DocFilm Festival, consisting of Magdalena Piekorz (Head), Pasquale Misuraca and Henryk Tronowicz decided that the main award “Gate Of Freedom” and a 20.000 PLN prize will go to Deep Love by Jan P. Matuszyński. The motivation: “For high artistic values and consistency of form and content. For a skillful presentation of the idea that freedom can be always found within oneself”.

Jury also decided to give out three honorable mentions in form of Special Awards: to “The Reaper” by Gabriel Serra Arguello (Mexico) for “disciplined storytelling and skilful use of means of film expression”, “See No Evil” by Jos de Putter (Holland) for “a thoughtful and kind observation of the world of chimpanzees as well as for a “humanitarian” attidude of the apes towards the filmmakers”, and “A Place for Everyone” by Angelos Rallis and Hans Ulrich Goessl “in acknowledgement of raw cinematography and merciless observation, that help us recognize Tutsi and Hutu within ourselves”.

Audience Award went to “The Ukrainians” by Leonid Kanter and Ivan Yasniy.

This year’s Jury also nominated three films for Jan Machulski Young Cinema Award. Of all Polish documentaries shown during the Festival, the chosen nominees are:

Best Film: “The Macedonian” by Petro Aleksowski
Best Cinematography: …

Yesterday brought us a meeting with Magdalena Piekorz, head of the Jury, a great masterclass by Pasquale Misuraca, lots of meetings and a great portion of cinematic emotions. But today is the day everything will be known! The Awarding Ceremony will be held at 6 PM, but before that we start at 11 with “A Dream of Warsaw”.

13th Gdańsk DocFilm Festival has crossed the halfway mark. On Friday we showed 5 competing films, while guests gathered in Health And Safety Hall met with Jerzy Morawski, saw Krzysztof Krauze’s documentaries and first half of the “Sports Films” screenings.

Today we begin at 11.00 with freshly-made “The Ukrainians”. After the film there will be a Q&A with the director, Leonid Kanter. But there will be more guests visiting us today – meetings with Bartosz Paduch, Petro Aleksowski and Jan P. Matuszyński will also be held.

The Health And Safety Hall will host special screenings of Magdalena Piekorz’s documentaries and a meeting with the director. Afterwards, we invite you to take part in the masterclass session “Ashes of Gramsci. Pier Paolo Pasolini – ideology and art” conducted by Pasquale Misuraca.

Full programme can be found here.

The first day of 13th Gdansk DocFilm Festival is now history. We wish to thank Mr. Basil Kerski, head of the European Solidarity Centre for attending our opening ceremony. We were also very happy to greet so many faithfull viewers – we hope you will be with us in the forthcoming three days of this year’s festival!

Today’s programme consists of five films in the Main Competition, along with a teleconference with Angelos Rallis, director of “A Place for Everyone”. After that, we invite you to the historical Health And Safety Hall, where special screenings and a meeting with Jerzy Morawski will be held.

This year’s 13th edition of Gdańsk DocFilm Festival will take place on 11-14 June, at a new venue – the European Solidarity Centre. Justyna Jaranowska talks to the festival’s artistic director, Tomasz Żółtowski, about the reasons why the festival is worth visiting.

Justyna Jaranowska: 24 documentaries, 4 days of artistic events, the company of cinema celebrities. What is more, the event is free of charge. It sounds really appealing.
Tomasz Żółtowski: Yes, it does. This year, we want to give the documentary lovers the opportunity to participate in the festival for free. It must be admitted, though, that it was never an expensive event. Last year, a four day ticket cost PLN 35, while a daily ticket was only PLN 12.

J.J.: Why such a change?
T.Ż.: It is largely due to the change of venue. For many years the screenings were held at the “Neptun” and “Kameralne” cinemas on Długa Street in Gdańsk. Since the place is going to be liquidated in a couple of days and the European Solidarity Centre greeted us with hospitality, the 13th edition will be held there. It’s another chapter in the history of our festival.

J.J.: And it’s a symbolic place, which relates to the festival’s idea.
T.Ż.: A …

We received information that, due to an unexpected illness, Klaus Schmutzer will be unable to join the Jury of 13. Gdansk DocFilm Festival. His place will be taken by Pasquale Misuraca, whom we are happy to introduce as a new member of Jury.

Misuraca, born in 1948 in Siderno, Italy, studied sociology at the University of Rome and published literary and scientific essays and books: “Scientific rationality and political rationality” (Editori Riuniti 1977), “Actuality of Kafka” (L’Astrolabio 1983), “The Transition” (Universitas 2009), “Secular gospel according to Feliciano” (Universitas 2012), “The Creative Life” (Universitas 2013). Alongside his work as a director, he has worked as an adviser for TV and radio, written and produced for television and given guest lectures about sociology of knowledge and documentary and film. Among his films are: “Angelus Novus” (Cannes 1987), “The Sophists” and “Aristotle: Ethics” (Multimedia Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences 1989), “I have no words” (Berlin 1992), “Pasolini’s Ashes” (Marseilles 1995), “Self-portrait: Kafka, Gramsci, Hitchcock, Pasolini” (Locarno 1995), “Retrato del Padre Esteban Gumucio” (Santiago de Chile 1999), “Vittorio De Sica: Self-portrait” (Rai Tv 2001), “Leonardo Sciascia: Self-portrait” (Einaudi 2002), “Videodiary of a King Prisoner” (Rotterdam 2006).

Official website: www.pasqualemisuraca.com

You can now watch the new Gdańsk DocFilm Festival official teaser.

We are very pleased to announce that this year’s Gdańsk Doc Film Festival Grand Prix is founded by Gdańsk City President, Mr. Paweł Adamowicz, and will amount to 20.000 PLN.