Munich 16th
International Documentary Film Festival

April
27 - May 6, 2001

A documentary film
festival may not sound the most alluring of cinematic diversions, but Munich's
16th International Film Festival - running 27th April through 6th May, 2001
- managed on a modest budget to draw large and attentive audiences to four comfortable
venues around the bustling Bavarian capital. In spite of May Day holiday temperatures
unusually topping 26 degrees C and the constant temptations of this congenial
city's celebrated beer gardens (not to mention a mini "Hamburg Fishmarket" with
attendant carnival atmosphere pitched out side the festival centre in the well-equipped
Filmmuseum), from mid-morn to late at night there were so many spectators that
at one screening there were not even seats available for the Jury!

Event is clearly
a labour of love for co-founder Gudrun Geyer, who sadly stepped down after 15
hard but productive years directing the festival, press officer Ursula Wessler,
and a small team of young helpers, who succeeded in eking out the tiny budget
of some 400,000 DMs to present a packed programme of over 30 non-competing feature-length
documentaries culled from around the world, and some 18 new shorts, as well
as showcases of new Bavarian productions, a Tribute to Ukrainian veteran Boris
Galanter, and an extensive and popular retrospective affectionately devoted
to images of animals on the big and smaller screens.

The International
Jury, composed of Dr Grazina Arlickaite, programmer of the "Film Spring" in
Vilnius, Phillip Bergson, BBC broadcaster and filmfestivals correspondent, Antoine
Cattin, editor of the Swiss magazine Hors-Champ, Paris-based film critic Dr
Heike Hurt, and Brigitte Schroedter of Bayerischen Rundfunk, had over two dozen
long (sometimes, very long) films to consider, ranging from The
Turandot Project to Agnes Varda's The
Gleaners and I, and several entries borrowed from the Berlinale. Their
Special Prize, worth 5,000 DMs, went to Riben Guizi ( directed by Minoru
Matsui, Japan), the candid, almost casual, catalogue of confessions of war crimes
perpetrated by soldiers and servants of the Mikado, and the Bavarian TV Prize
- with a value of 20,000 DMs - went to The Dream of the Bear (by Cherry
Duyns, The Netherlands), a charming and witty expose of how the Soviet system
turned the circus into a propaganda tool.

Many screenings
had lively Q and A s with attending film-makers, and there were nightly 'happy
hours' in the Filmmuseum bar for professional exchanges . The TV channel Planet
organised a preview of its summer programmes and sponsored an opening reception
as well as another jury, which gave its prize (worth 5,000 DMs) to The House
of Cain ( by Christos Karakepelis, Greece), a poetic portrait of murderers
in prison. Ample documentation on entries and video-screening facilities were
available in the fest centre .Other venues included the historic Maxim cinema
in a suburb near the famous Nymphenburg Palais ( actual location for Alain Resnais's
Last Year in Marienbad). Unsurprisingly, the largest professional turnout
was for the lavish mid-fest reception hosted by the Oberburgermeister in the
imposing Old Town Hall.

Phillip
Bergson