AJB DOC 24

Swedish-based Palestinian filmmaker Wafa Jamil spoke to Business Doc Europe after her emotional pitch for The Other Gaza, in which she articulates her cherished dream - to show her 8-year-old daughter the other Gaza, the fairyland that she left almost 30 years ago. “For me home is the essence of orange blossom and the taste of summer water melon, which became the symbol of Palestine,” she recalls.

The award for the best film (AJB DOC Main Award) went to Smiling Georgia by Luka Beradze, about the “false promises politicians make to retain power“ (in this case the promise of dentures). The Al Jazeera Balkans Program Jury Award went to José Carlos Soares, Tanju Şahin and Aslıhan Eker Çakmak for their film Holy Redemption, which “uncovers Israel's strategies to systematically steal or 'seize' private Palestinian land and displace Palestinians."

The prizes were handed out September 16 at AJD Industry after three days of frenetic pitch activity and during which 29 projects were presented across four categories (Main Pitch, Rough Cut, Balkan Stars, and Special Selection). The projects competed for co-production and cash awards worth more than 120,000 EUR provided by Al Jazeera Documentary, Al Jazeera Balkans, and other partners.

The deadline for films for the 7th Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival has been extended to midnight of June 3 2024, while project submissions for Industry Days (three categories: Main Pitch, Rough Cut, Balkan Stars) can be made up to and including June 15. AJB DOC Film Festival will take place in Sarajevo 13 to 17 September 2024. Industry Days runs September 14-16.

Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) will examine the theme of ‘Justice?’ during its 7th edition, to be held 13-17 September 2024 in Sarajevo. “Art is tasked with dealing with issues of wider significance, sometimes painful, forbidden, ignored or marginalized, but too important to be quiet about. Our task is to give voice to those who have been denied it, and the festival theme of ‘Justice?’ speaks about and examines precisely that,” write AJB DOC organisers.

Croatian director Filip Filković Philatz and German producer Tamara Babun (Wolfgang & Dolly) pitched their doc project K67, about the iconic work kiosks that populated much of the former Yugoslavia before the Balkans War. In the film Filković and the kiosk designer Saša Mächtig will go on a whistle stop tour to visit the locations where the objects still stand. “I think that we're going to be a lovely couple in the film, like the professor and his student,” the director told the Industry audience in Sarajevo.

The seventh Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC), running September 13 to 17 in Sarajevo, will examine the question of ‘JUSTICE?’ and “bear witness to the violence against Palestinians and address the world's economic and political turbulences,” says Festival director Edhem Fočo. “We wanted to focus on the issue of Gaza and Palestine. It pains us that other film festivals have somewhat overlooked this topic, as if it were not the most important issue today."

Belgian producer Frederik Nicolai discusses his new project, which pitches September 14 at AJB DOC, that focuses on Baron Arthur, the leader of a once wealthy and powerful Romani community at the border between Moldova and Ukraine, who faces a dilemma as his community seems to fall apart. “The emancipatory struggle raging in the Roma community today is a story that is universally relevant,” Nikolai tells BDE. “It can inspire women from other communities worldwide to dare to pursue their own dreams and ambitions, and fuel vigilance in more progressive societies.”

In 2012, Georgia’s ruling ENM party ran a toothless election campaign – quite literally. In parts of the country voters were enticed into having all their rotten teeth removed, to be replaced with shiny new dentures after the election. The problem was that the ENM party lost, and the incoming Georgian Dream party saw no need to fulfil the promise. Director Luka Beradze chews over questions on his film, as posed by BDE.

Pauline Blanchet discusses her new doc project, which pitches September 14 at AJB DOC, about a 14-year old female wrestler defying traditional gender norms and ethnic barriers in her isolated Albanian-Muslim community. “Audiences worldwide will connect with Sadije’s struggle to forge her own path in a world that has already defined her role. Her story speaks to anyone who has faced pressure to conform to societal norms, especially during teenagehood,” Blanchet tells Business Doc Europe.