“Challenge, as the guiding theme of the fourth AJB DOC Film Festival…reflects both the challenges that society has been facing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenges faced by individuals around the world, whether they were self-imposed or put before them by society,” write organisers of the Al Jazeera Balkans International Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) whose 4th edition be held online and in Sarajevo 10-14 September.
“We are glad that AJB DOC has become a festival which is traditionally held in September. We have faced many challenges, especially in the pandemic. But we have used them as an opportunity to make the festival more accessible to people by allowing them to watch the films online, with one click and for free. I hope that the fourth edition will bring us new success. We are preparing more beautiful surprises in the years to come,” says Tarik Đođić, director of Al Jazeera Balkans.
“The AJB DOC Film Festival managed to overcome the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, by combining new solutions with previously established norms. Carefully selected documentaries from the region and the rest of the world are returning to the big screen at the fourth edition of AJB DOC,” the festival adds.
The festival offer comprises 23 documentaries from the Balkans and beyond are selected across 4 sections, that include the established Competition, Last Minute Cinema and AJB Screening programmes.
An addition this year is the SMART DOC section, in which the festival will show films made by participants within the 2020 Mobile Phone Documentary Filmmaking training programme. “I think it was a revelation for all of us that great films of TV quality can be made with mobile phones. I hope that we will have with this selection in our future editions and that it will be successful,” comments Edhem Fočo, director of the AJB DOC Film Festival.
“Another novelty, which is yet to be announced in detail, is Industry – financial support for the production of new documentary films,” Fočo adds. “I hope that this will raise AJB DOC to a new level and that in this way we will become the most important documentary film festival in the region in the next few years.”
AJB DOC organizers confirm that out of almost 300 submissions, there will be 8 regional premieres, 5 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) premieres, 6 world premieres, and three special screenings within the 23-film programme.
“Although we expected the number of submissions to be much lower due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no difference in the number as compared to the previous editions of the festival. We have selected 11 films for the Competition Programme, eight of which will have their regional premieres, two films will have their national premieres and one film will have its world premiere,” said the programmer Đani Hasečić.
The AJB Screening selection offers three regional productions – three films by “authors from different generations.”
These comprise Last Cow in the Village, a debut film by a young director Kenan Kulenović; A Standing Man by Dragan Stanimirović in collaboration with Almir Berkovac, and Scenes From the Life of BiH Film, a film by Mustafa Mustafić, which is specific in that it deals with the history of cinematography in Bosnia and Herzegovina, from its beginnings to the present day. “Next year marks the 75th anniversary of BiH cinematography and this is our small contribution to that jubilee which, I am afraid, will go quite unnoticed,” notes Sead Kreševljaković, a member of the programme committee.
“Furthermore, the content of Mustafić’s film [Scenes From the Life of BiH Film] will show us the importance of film, both documentary and feature, in the building of general culture and our identity,” Kreševljaković adds.
AJB DOC Film Festival will present three awards in 2021.
The international professional jury comprising award-winning film producer Jamel Dallali; writer, director and editor Una Gunjak, and artistic director of DokuFest Veton Nurkollari will choose the best film from the Competition Programme to be awarded the AJB DOC Main Award. All films from the Competition Programme also compete for the AJB Program Award, awarded by the Al Jazeera Balkans Programme Department Jury. All films screened at the AJB DOC festival will also compete for the Audience Award.
The festival program will also be available on the digital platform of the official festival website ajbdoc.ba. All films can be viewed for free and without registration.
