HOW TO FILM IN DANGEROUS CONDITIONS

For three months, director Camilla Nielsson witnessed the dramatic events of the elections and the battle for democracy in Zimbabwe. How do you make a film in a country dominated by dictatorship, where every step requires permission and violence in the streets is never-ending? And why is a Danish woman so concerned about what's happening in Africa? Isn't that a colonial viewpoint? These questions will be answered in a sincere conversation between two filmmakers: director Camilla Nielsson in company with a producer and director of the Northern Lights Film Festival, Volia Chajkouskaya.

A candid talk about "President"

Language of the event: English with
consecutive interpreting into Belarusian.

21.11—19:00 (GMT +3)

ONLINE (LIVE)

Speakers

Camilla Nielsson

Is an independent filmmaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She holds a Master's degree in Visual Anthropology from New York University (NYU). Camilla's work spans across diverse topics, from the trilogy on children's rights — Good Morning Afghanistan (2003), Durga (2004), and The Children of Darfur (2006) — to bureaucracy and traffic planning in the urban comedy Mumbai Disconnected (2009). Her first feature documentary, Democrats (2014), about the drafting of a new constitution in Zimbabwe, received more than 25 international awards and nominations, including the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Nielsson's new feature documentary, President, had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Vérité Filmmaking.

Volia Chajkouskaya

Is the founder and program director of the Northern Lights Nordic Baltic Film Festival, a producer and film director from Belarus, currently living in Estonia. She started off with journalism studies and has 11 years of working experience in the media. Volia also obtained a Masters Degree in directing and producing documentary films at the Baltic Film and Media School (Tallinn, Estonia). She launched Volia Films production company in 2016, which produced a full-length documentary, The Road Movie (dir. Dmitrii Kalashnikov), the same year. The film was world premiered at the IDFA First Appearance Competition and was screened at more than 80 festivals. In 2019, Volia joined the production company Allfilm as a producer and director. Currently, she has three projects in active stages.