Documentary

In my books I have always written on feature and documentary side by side — as both are narrative films that address matters of history and discourse, albeit by different means. For about a decade now I have preferred watching documentaries rather than fiction films, mainly from the Balkans and from Eastern Europe, but also from across Asia — and I have taught classes on Japanese and Independent Chinses documentary. I have also supervised doctoral work on these matters.

One would think my interest in viewing would lead to writing more on documentary — yet, besides giving talks on documentary filmmaking — at events held in Zurich, Paris, Rotterdam and other places — I have not systematically produced significant writing on this strand of filmmaking. I hope to compensate soon, by posting new pieces on documentary film from a variety of countries and periods.

My involvement with international documentary festivals such as the Yamagata Documentary International Festival in Japan, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, the Astra Film Festival in Romania, the Taiwan Documentary Festival and others has been of decisive importance, and I have been blessed to enjoy the friendship of some great documentary filmmakers.

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ZELIMIR ZILNIK (2006)

DUSAN MAKAVEJEV (2006)

EPHTIM (Antony Donchev, Bulgaria, 1999)

FOOD FOR LOVE (Marianna Economou, Greece, 2013)

EASTERN EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY: NATIONALISM AND RACISM EXPOSED

HONEYLAND (Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, Macedonia, 2019)

PLAYLIST: DOCUMENTARIES BY NAOMI KAWASE

PLAYLIST: SOVIET HYBRID GENRE DOCUMENRARIES OF THE 1920s and 1930s

PLAYLIST: DOCUMENTARIES BY ARTAVAZD PELESHYAN

PLAYLIST: DOCUMENTARIES BY MARCEL LOZINSKI