The program of the 4th AJB DOC film festival has been published

The challenges that society has faced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the challenges that individuals around the world have imposed on themselves or society has imposed on them, imposed the guiding theme The fourth AJB DOC Film Festival, which is symbolically represented on all visual materials.

The AJB DOC Film Festival overcame the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic with a combination of new solutions and norms that were valid before. Thus, a carefully selected selection of the best world and regional documentaries at the fourth edition of AJB DOC is returning to cinemas, while at the same time the program will be available via the digital platform on the official festival website ajbdoc.ba, through which all films will be able to be viewed. free and without registration.

"We are glad that the festival is becoming a tradition in these September days. After the challenges we faced, especially during the pandemic, which we used as an opportunity to make this festival even more democratic, accessible to the people, with one click and free of charge, I hope that the fourth edition will bring new success, and for the following years we are preparing more nice surprises," said Tarik Đođić, director of Al Jazeera Balkans.

Edhem Fočo, director of the AJB DOC Film Festival, announced two new editions of this year's edition of the Festival.

"This year we have a new selection, which we called SMART DOC, and as part of which we will show the films made by the participants of last year's training Filming documentaries with a mobile phone. I think it's a revelation for all of us that great movies, TV quality, can be made with cell phones. I hope that we will continue with this selection and that it will be successful in the future. The second novelty, which we will announce properly, and for which I want to give some introduction, is Industry, that is, the financing of the production of new documentary films. I hope that we will raise AJB DOC to a new level and become the most important festival of documentary films in this region in the next few years," said Fočo.

The organizers say that out of nearly 300 registered films, 23 will be shown in the program of the AJB DOC Film Festival, including eight regional ones, five from BiH. premieres and six world premieres, and three special screenings.

"Although we expected the number of registered films to be much lower due to the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to previous editions of the festival, there was no difference in the number of registered films. From the total number of submitted films, 11 were selected for the competitive selection, eight of which will have a regional, two national and one world premiere," said selector Đani Hasečić.

In the AJB Shows selection, three films of different generations of authors from regional production will be shown.

"As part of this selection, we will present a film." The last cow in the village, the graduate debut film of the young director Kenan Kulenović, film Scribe of new stećaks Dragan Stanimirović in cooperation with Almir Berkovac and the film Pictures from the life of Bosnia and Herzegovina. shooting Mustafa Mustafić, who is specific in that he deals with the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. cinematography from its creation until today. It could be said that the small drawback of this year's selection is that all three films come from Bosnia and Herzegovina, however next year will mark the 75th anniversary of Bosnia and Herzegovina. cinematography and this is our small contribution to that jubilee, which, I believe, will go largely unnoticed. Also, through the content of Mustafić's film, we will be able to see the importance of the film - documentary and fiction - in the construction of the general culture and what represents our identity," said selector Sead Kreševljaković.

As part of the non-competitive Last Minute Cinema selection, in which the audience has the opportunity to watch films in their original, longer form, five films will be shown - Radio silence, Collective, My childhood, my country - 20 years in Afghanistan, economy i Gorbachev. Raj.

"This year we have a really top-notch selection, we are talking about author's works that question the image of today's society, the functioning of the system, generally accepted and established truths through the plot and characters that sometimes challenge us, and at the same time educate us and therefore make us aware of the environment that we are sometimes not aware of ", said selector Lejla Dedić.

Three prizes will be awarded at the AJB DOC Film Festival. An international expert jury consisting of award-winning film producer Jamel Dallali, screenwriter, director and editor Una Gunjak and DokuFest artistic director Veton Nurkollari will select the best film of the Festival's competitive selection and award the "AJB DOC Main Award".

All competing films enter the competition for the award of the Al Jazeera Balkans program jury, which awards the "AJB Program Award". Also, all films shown at the AJB DOC Film Festival enter the competition for the Audience Award.

This year's edition of the AJB DOC Film Festival is held under the patronage of BH Telecom and in partnership with Samsung.