X Eurasia.DOC Documentary Film Festival takes place in Minsk on October 1 and 2

The anniversary X Festival of Documentary Film of the CIS countries “Eurasia.DOC” united two cities: the event started on September 28 in Smolensk, and continues on October 1 and 2 in Minsk. This year, the forum expanded its geography, proving that the documentary genre is on the rise. Details - material of the correspondent of the agency "Minsk-Novosti".

Genre on the rise

- An additional symbolism this year is that Smolensk is the youth capital of Russia, and Minsk is the youth capital of Belarus. It is gratifying that our festival is supported by the youth documentary journalistic movement, said Andrey Krivosheev, Executive Director of the Festival and Chairman of the Board of the Belarusian Union of Journalists.

He stressed that the predictions about the death of the genre, which sounded a few years ago against the background of the development of artificial intelligence and the departure of the audience in smartphones, were not justified: documentary film not only survived, it is now on the rise.

Director of the Eurasia.DOC Festival Valery Shekhovtsov added that over the past ten years the project has acquired clear contours and has become a noticeable phenomenon in the Eurasian space. If the festival was originally conceived for the CIS and Baltic countries, today its geography is much wider.

- The festival is attended by representatives of not only Russia and Belarus, but also other countries – our colleagues from China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan. This year, there is a representative of Moldova in the short list, for the second time a film from Iran was announced in the short program, said V. Shekhovtsov.

Point of attraction

The jury of the festival this year will evaluate works in various categories and genres. This year, the forum received 413 applications from 17 countries. The list of finalists includes 34 films from Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Uzbekistan.

The Eurasia.DOC Festival has always sought to collect films that are at the forefront of our lives. But at the tenth festival, the range of genres and categories of non-fiction films is particularly wide. This year you will see reports, dramas, comedies, animal films, historical films. I have not celebrated such a great variety as this year, although it is not the first year in the jury, said Natalia Gugueva, Chairman of the Jury of the Eurasia.DOC Festival, Russian film director.

Vladimir Solovyov, Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Russia, reminded that creating a quality documentary requires months or even years of painstaking work, which is especially difficult in the current extreme information conditions. Sites such as Eurasia.DOC are becoming an important point of attraction for professionals.

- It is hoped that documentary film will revive. There are more and more interesting, high-quality festivals, such as Eurasia.DOC, which the Union of Journalists of Russia supports for many years in a row. It became a very important date in the calendar of journalistic events of the year, Solovyov said.

The festival preserves the tradition of openness: all screenings and events in Minsk are absolutely free for spectators and are limited only by the number of seats in cinemas.

Historical memory

One of the key themes of the festival is historical memory. This year marks 85 years since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Within the framework of the festival, a large-scale block of events dedicated to this date and the topic of genocide of the multinational Soviet people will be held.

- For the first time in more than a decade of history, we have decided to unite professional historians, those who work in archives and are engaged in excavations, and our law enforcement agencies – the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Investigative Committee, the Committee of Forensic Examinations, which are engaged in factual confirmation of the fact.

On Thursday, October 1, the main venue of the festival – the cinema “Victory” – will host the round table “Conflicts and contours of the modern world”. Film screenings from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Belarus will take place in the cinema halls. Viewers will see the tapes “Polessky reserve”. Life after Chernobyl, Dogs, Winter, The Untold War. Women's share" and other jobs. In the evening there will be a meeting with political scientist and writer Vladimir Sergienko.

The next day, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus will host a round table and an open screening of the film “Dulag 142 – Death Camp”. In the afternoon, the Pobeda cinema will host a scientific and educational conference “The Genocide of the Soviet People during the Great Patriotic War”.

Also on October 2, the youth contest “Eurasia.DOC: 4 minutes” will be held at the cinema “Belarus”, and in the evening a solemn closing ceremony and a screening of the winning film will be held.

For reference

The organizers of the X Festival “Eurasia.DOC” were the Eurasian Center for Cultural Initiatives, the Belarusian Union of Journalists, the production center “Studio Third Rome”, the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of Russia.

The event is supported by the Minsk City Executive Committee, the Ministry of Culture of Belarus, the Ministry of Information of Belarus, the Ministry of Culture of Russia, the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS Member States, the Government of the Smolensk Region.

Photo by Sergei Pozhi