Skopje, 8 August 2024 (MIA) - The Iranian-British documentary film 'Celluloid Underground', directed by Ehsan Khoshbakht, is set to open the 15th edition of the MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival on August 15. The motto of this year's edition is 'Digging through Time' because thematically the focus is on archives, that is, using archival material in documentary filmmaking.

The festival, which will be held at several venues: Kurshumli An, Museum of Macedonia, Suli an & Youth Cultural Center, and Laboratorium Cultural Center in Skopje, will close on August 22.

Festival director, Darko Nabakov, said at a press conference on Thursday that this year's program consists of 92 films competing in five categories- the “Onion” main award for best documentary film, “Young Onion” award for films by young filmmakers, “Sliced Onion” award for short films, as well as the student award and the award for best ethical ideas "Onion Seed" award.

"We have been digging through the layers of the onion for 15 years and came to our 15th edition. This time the festival will be held August 15-22 in five locations across town, and host over 100 foreign guests," Nabakov said.

Program coordinator, Petrula Veljanovska, noted that the festival fill focus on Balkan cinema and the use of archival material in documentary filmmaking, as well as, its digitization, preservation, and restoration.

"During the years we discovered that archival material is symbiotically connected to documentary films ad that it is important for filmmakers, because they use it to shape their stories and to give new ideas, a new outlook on things and societal events. The program will open with Macedonian cinematography in Suli an, followed by archival films from Yugoslav, Slovenian, Montenegrin, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian cinemas. This time there is a region in focus, instead of a country, and that is short archival films from the 60s and 70s, filmed, digitizes, and restored in Balkan cinemas," Veljanovska stressed.

In addition to the other films, Bojan Tanturovski's film 'Garden' will also premiere for the first time at the Makedox Film Festival.

"There are also: 'Hollywoodgate' edited by Atanas Georgiev, and other films important for Macedonian documentary filmmaking, such as 'Silence of Reason,' which won an award at the Dutch Film Festival, Mati Diop's 'Dahomey' which won the Berlinale award, and Viktor Kosakovski's 'Architecton'," Veljanovska addded.

The festival will close with Tamara Kotevska's film "The Walk."

Sara Ferro, coordinator of the MakeKoProDox Forum, said that the industrial part of the festival will be marked with two master classes. The first master class 'Masterclass with Stole Popov' will be held on August 18, from 11am to 1 pm at the Laboratorium Cultural Centar. The second will take place on August 18, at the same location, moderated by Dutch directors Ineke Smits and Jeroen Stout.

The workshop 'Workshop on Archival Practices in Film: Archives Imagined' will be held August 15-18, mentored by Kumjana Novakova and Vlad Petri.

The festival is supported by: Youth Cultural Center Skopje, the Cinematique- Skopje, Doc Around Europe festival network, and PPFP Production House. ssh/ba/

Photo/video: MIA