01/09/2023 - The film festival dedicated to TV documentaries and the second edition of its Industry Days will entice professionals to Sarajevo from 8-12 September

The sixth edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans International Documentary Festival (AJB DOC) will be held in Sarajevo from 8-12 September at three locations in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina: the Bosnian Cultural Centre, Cineplexx Sarajevo and Chamber Theatre 55. The topic of this year’s edition is rights and the violation thereof, and the fight to hang onto fundamental freedoms for individuals and groups.

From among the nearly 300 titles submitted, the programmers have picked 24 films from 19 countries to be screened in four sections: the Competition Programme (dedicated to TV-format, mid-length documentaries), AJB Screening (showcasing films that will soon be shown on TV through the Al Jazeera network), Last Minute Cinema (hand-picked titles from the festival circuit) and SmartDoc (those filmed by smartphones), with two additional special screenings. The complete programme is available on the festival’s website.

In their race for the award, the competition films will be judged by the jury consisting of filmmakers Vitaly Mansky, Bernadett Tuza-Ritter and Nermin Hamzagić as well as producers Vanja Jambrović and Mohamed Elmongy (see the news). The Programme Award will also be up for grabs for the competition films, and it will be given out by the festival’s programme department. All titles, competitive and non-competitive, are eligible for the Audience Award.

“When it comes to this year’s programme, we have inspiring films coming from every corner of the world and powerful stories that will not leave our viewers cold. Perhaps audiences will find films with themes specific to our region the most interesting,” said Edhem Fočo, AJB DOC Film Festival director. Head programmer Lejla Dedić added: “When selecting films, we were guided by Al Jazeera standards, focusing on the quality of production, the strength of the themes and the filmmaker’s unique approach to storytelling that the viewers can connect to. We as programmers, as well as the festival, find the filmmakers and the audience the most important.”

The traditional three-day Smartphone Documentary Film Production Workshop will be held by Faris Bajrović, with attendees coming from the ranks of young filmmakers from the ex-Yugoslavia region. A panel titled “Role of Film and Art in Remembrance Culture: Rwandan, Uyghur and Bosnian Perspectives” will also take place with speakers including Suli Kurban, journalist and filmmaker; Esther Mujawayo, sociologist, activist and founder of the Association of Widows of the Rwandan Genocide; and Nihad Kreševljaković, director of the Memory Module (MESS) programme.

This year’s edition will also host the second Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days, which will take place from 9-11 September. The selected projects from the regions of South-East Europe, the Caucasus and MENA (Middle East and North Africa), which will be divided into three categories (Main Pitch, Works in Progress and Balkan Stars), will be competing for co-production prizes worth $70,000, while also being able to scoop partner awards of (in total) $20,000 and other valuable prizes in services.