Gathering Barents filmmakers

Last weekend filmmakers from all over the Barents Region gathered in Murmansk to view the 108 film contributions for the Northern Character festival 2014. The participating filmmakers came from Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Greece, France, Ukraine and Canada.

“I am incredibly proud that the Northern Character festival has gathered you here in Murmansk. The festival connects the hearts and expands the boundaries”, Svetlana Soldatova who is president of the festival, said at the opening.

During the festival more than 3000 people visited the many events, which shows that it has become an important part of Murmansk city life.

The debate “Media Forum” is an annual event, which every year focus on important topics of cross border journalism in the Barents region. This year’s topic was how media cover international conflicts. Naturally the war in Ukraine and how it is covered across the world became the hot topic.

“It is important to understand where the truthful presentation of the facts ends and propaganda begins”, said Valery Gamza according to Northern Character’s web site.

Winner of the festival’s main prize, The Grand Prix, was the Swedish film maker Gunilla Bresky with her film “I stop time”. It tells the story about the Soviet war photographer and documentarist Vladislav Mikosha who was active during WWII. In addition there were awarded winners in a wide number of categories. Follow this link to see all winners.