20/01/2003 - The selection for the Panorama Dokumente series in 2003 is announced. Here's the list of documentaries

When the Berlin Film Festival moved house to the Potsdamer Platz, the non-competitive “Panorama Dokumente” section also got a new home of its own, the Cinestar3 cinema. However, the popularity of this sidebar event has grown to such a degree that two films selected will be screened at the Cinema xX7 traditionally reserved for just the “Panorama” section proper.
Dokumente will get underway this year on 7 February with Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and his Lost Family by Mabel Cheung and Alex Law (Hong Kong/China).

The programme also includes:
Comandante by Oliver Stone (Spain). This heralds Stone’s return to documentary filmmaking after a three year absence. The subject of this film is Fidel Castro.

Local Angel – Theological Political Fragments by Udi Aloni (USA-Israel).
This is one of many films selected for screening in the various sections of the Berlin event, that touch on the long-running Middle East conflict.
Le chant du millenaire (The Song of the Millennium) by Mohamed Zran (France-Tunisia)
An intriguing look at the usually silent and closed Tunisian society and its unfulfilled hopes for the future. EL Kotbia (The Bookstore) by Nawfel Saheb Ettaba, selected for Panorama, explores this issue further.

Polìgono sur (Seville, South Side) by Dominique Abel (Spain)
Space to live is one of the priorities of the gypsies who live in the “Las Tres Mil” district of Seville. This former model neighbourhood was built in the sixties but subsequently deteriorated to one of the city’s most poorly served areas. Many of the areas most famous Flamenco bands of musicians are Andalusian gypsies.

Ich kenn keinen! – Allein unter Heteros (Talk Straight – The World of Rural Queers) by Jochen Hick (Germany)
Marriage between same-sex couples is so popular in Germany that not even the most conservative MPs dare attack this institution. So what’s everyday life really like for four gay men who live in rural Bavarian-Swabia? And how do they react to the crude comments of friends and acquaintances as they go to Church or their local pub?

Fight Back, Fight AIDS – 15 years of ACT UP by James Wentzy (USA) and The Gift by Louise Hogarth (USA)
After a long absence, AIDS is once more an issue for this section and the competition. These two documentaries examine different socio-political aspects of this disease.

“Berlin and Beyond” could well be the title of four German films that look at the past, present and future of Germany:
Herr Wichmann von der CDU (Vote for Henryk!) by Andreas Dresen (Germany)
A detailed look at the former Eastern Germany. “A fresh breeze brings movement to politics” is the slogan of Henryk Wichman’s political campaign. A 25-year militancy in the CDU, Wichman was a candidate in the summer of 2002, for the presidency of the Uckermark/Oberbarnim constituency, a notorious SPD safe-seat.

Ich bin, Gott sei Dank, beim Film! (Thank God, I'm in the Movies!) by Lothar Lambert (Germany)
Underground icon, Lother Lambert pays tribute to Berlin-born film director Eva Ebner, whose professional life ran parallel with the history of 20th century Germany. Today, aged 80, Ebner is still troubled by the events she witnessed in her native Danzig where she hid from the Nazis.
Bruno S. - Die Fremde ist der Tod (Estrangement - Is Death) by Miron Zownir (Germany)
When Bruno S. a man on the outer edges of society who spent part of his life in mental hospitals and half-way houses, came to Cannes as the star of Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, he was acclaimed as a star. What happened to him? This new portrait tells the story of what happened afterwards and how Bruno S. found a direction in life.

Die Ritterinnen (The Female Knights) by Barbara Teufel (Germany)
A setting that’s typical of Berlin in the eighties. An apartment in Kreuzberg inhabited by a militant emancipated women’s commune. After the fall of the Wall everything changed... including certain ways of looking at a world that once was considered powerful and absolute. A comparison between contemporary women and their predecessors.

The programme is completed by three short documentaries:

Mogłem być człowiekiem (I Could Have Been Human) by Barbara Medajska (Poland) about the awful conditions of life of a group of coal miners.

Haçla (The Fence) by Tariq Teguia (Algeria/ France), a look at the desperate lives of some young Algerians;
Just Call Me Kade by Sam Zoltem (USA), about the help and support an American family gave their trans-sexual son during puberty.

The programme also includes a tribute to film director and co-founder of the Gay&Lesbian Turin Film Festival, Ottavio Mai: Ottavio Mario Mai by Giovanni Minerba and Alessandro Golinelli (Italy)
Ten years after the death of Mai, who founded the festival together with his longtime companion, Giovanni Minerba. This film is a memorial of Mai’s films and contains interviews with Italian intellectuals and artists. In the meantime, the festival he founded has gained a reputation as one of the best of its kind in the world.

(Translated from Italian)