Documentary Films .net

Annual international documentary film festival focusing on "world and culture" topics and on Globians as a life style: Documentaries on world cultures, sub cultures, world religions, traditional cultures, regional cultures, cultural worlds, rural life, urban issues, the environmental, the globalization process, human technology, the frontier, wild life, nature, future. spirit. Humane and truly Globians. -- Documentaries of those kinds. all of them. in one place. annually.

During our 3rd festival season in August 2007 we not only had the pleasure to present the world premiere of "Memory of the Waves" by film maker Kazutaka Tokoda from Japan but we also had the honour to show to world festival premiere of "Women Behind The Camera" by Alexis Krasilovsky (http://www.womenbehindthecamera.com/). "Women Behind The Camera" is a world wide view on women as DPs and camera operators and their struggle in a man's media world. Alexis, also a professor for film at California State University, Northridge (http://www.csun.edu/banners/akrasilovsky/), made Globians Film Festival a very special and prolific compliment while visiting the festial in person and speaking to journalists. Alexis Krasilovsky said to them: "Globians Film Festival ist the most Anti-Sundance film festival I have experienced in recent years". Belive it or not. But all visiting film makers liked the intimate atmosphere and the family style administration of Globians Film Festival. If you want to take a key hole perspective first, get an insight from our photo gallery of the 2007 festival proceedings by following this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/globians/sets/72157601383585576/

Potsdam is an open minded city influenced in its history by cultures from all over Europe. At the Globians festival in Potsdam (close to Berlin) we like to know and show more about cultures of the world, which in our understanding is more than just an exhibition platform for ethnological films. The need for a global understanding of regional issues may give birth to new type of individual life style: People who no longer live in just one community but have a geographical "life span" to several cultures and continents. Hence we are proud to present movies on Globians: the inhabitants of our globe with a global understanding of cultures, societies, politics, history and our life on earth.

We are not a film festival for anti-globalization topics and their peer groups but we remain critical and open for films on economical and ecological destruction. More than that we look into new cinematic horizons on how we can overcome those destructions and find paths for a new "planetarian" life style that is more compatible to our near future than the current industrial organization of functional societies. We like to show films about this avant garde of people who are in search of this "planetarian" life style in their projects. We call those people "Globians" and the Globians film festival is the place to show profiles of this sort of people and cinematic introductions to their work and their understanding, their sensibility, their suffering and their success.

We are not an ethnological film festival but we are very interested in the difference and credentials of local cultures, in the difference of their living conditions and in cultural history. We strongly believe that animal life and the rights of animals are an essential part of the human condition. Hence we also look into the communication processes of animals and humans, even if this process is disturbed or malfunctional and leads to strong conflicts between humans and animals - and mostly to the near or fulfilled extinction of species. Hence, we show films on animals but we are not a "wild life" film festival. Furthermore, we do not see a genre difference between "ethnological movies" and "wild life" pictures, because the time when we could have pretended to present movies of "untouched wild/tribe life in danger" are definitely over. This "untouched wild/tribe life in danger" topic is pure fiction now: but we are a documentary film festival. With global communication means everything is touched now in every small part of the world. We also like to show movies that deal with this "technology intrusion into the wild" - and if there are projects which try an alternative usage of technology for the better.

In a time when the shift from analogue film production to digital production, editing and distribution is almost done, we like to see strong individual voices in film making who know what they are doing, when less "effect filters" are more to the substance of a work. We strongly believe in independence when "independent" is not just a label for better selling within current distribution structures. We like "mavericks" in film making very much. But we don't like "escapism", if you know what the difference means.

Our festival city is Potsdam, Germany. Potsdam is fun, pretty much what "Berkeley" is to "San Francisco". With us you have a focused but relaxed festival atmosphere with oversight but all the 'pleasures' of the "big city" Berlin right next to you. It's only a 17 minute train ride from Potsdam main station to Berlin's Bahnhof Zoo. Travel time from Berlin to Prague is short. We have lots of historic castles, parks and ancient architecture here in Potsdam. So coming over for the GLOBIANS festival visit seems very inspiring.

Right from the beginning in 2005 we had film makers visiting the festival proceedings at their own cost from as far as Japan and California. In 2006 14 film makers accompanied their festival entries in person. What they really liked was the "intimate" and "family like" festival atmosphere. You might not get "masses" from the usual industrialized festival biz but a very communicative field of program experience and exchange with fellow film makers working in your field of interest. To maintain this atmosphere of cooperation between film makers this is a NO AWARDS AT ALL festival. All films we select for our festival program are considered to be precious.

Also in 2006 six ambassadors from Berlin embassies and cultural institutions came for a festival visit to Potsdam: from Venezuela, New Zealand, Bosnia, Slovak Republic. The producer of our 2006 festival opener "10 Questions For the Dalai Lama" received three buying bids/requests for his film within days after giving us the German premiere of his film. In 2006 our acceptance quota was more than 30 percent, it stayed beyond 30 % even in our third festival round in 2007 while nearly doubling the amount of films being shown to 72. So there are very good chances that your film submission makes it into our festival, especially when your documentary deals with "world and culture" topics.

There seems to be no better place for documentaries on "world and culture" topics. Basically we understand ourselves as an English or American film festival on German territory, very open to all other film makers from every single place in our world. The stars of big budget studio fiction films might go to Deauville (France) for an early autumn visit to Europe, but the truly independent and serious documentary film maker keeps a very close eye on Globians Film Festival Potsdam, Germany, ready for a visit mid of August.

ORGANIZERS:
Joachim Polzer (Festival Founder and Curator)

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