PUBLISHED11 Sep 2024

Beyond Borders Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival concludes

Documentary Australia CEO Dr Mitzi Goldman, who attended the festival as President of the Jury, shares her reflections.

Pictured above: Mitzi Goldman

 

The ninth annual Beyond Borders Kastellorizo International Documentary Festival was just held on the island of Kastellorizo in Greece.

Presented every August, the festival highlights the documentary form as a means of fostering connections between people and cultures.

Encouraging a convergence of diverse ideas and perspectives from around the world, Beyond Borders collaborates with a Country of Honour each year and in 2024 the selected country was Australia. Documentary Australia CEO Dr Mitzi Goldman was honoured to attend the Festival as President of the Jury, joined by leading names from Greek and world cinema.

 

Pictured above L-R: Michel Noll, Carol Drinkwater, Mitzi Goldman and Karina Bedkowska

“The standard of the films in the main competition was exceptionally high. Collectively, they reflected a lens on the issues of the contemporary world, which is in confrontation with the past. The festival offers what is so precious about documentary – an intimate view of our shared experience as humans dealing with geopolitical challenges and often, personal tragedy. The festival affirmed the importance of documentary as an art form, particularly in connecting us to many and varied truths,” said Mitzi Goldman

In addition to the main competition, five Documentary Australia-supported projects were showcased as part of the festival’s Australian Panorama: Anzac. Lemnos. 1915., The Defenders, Freedom is Beautiful, Delikado, and The Australian Wars. 

Three Australian films were also screened in the short film competition – Dipped in Black by Derik Lynch, Enemy Alien by Gabriel Murphy and Keeping Country Strong by Bettina Catherine Richter. AFTRS was the film school in focus and Australian projects were pitched in the co-production forum, including the Documentary Australia-supported film Let Them Hug.

A special mention goes to the Alfieris Foundation which generously contributed to supporting filmmakers to attend the festival. We thank Emmanuel Alfieris for his engagement. Tragically, Emmanuel, who was planning to attend the festival, recently passed away suddenly. Our heartfelt condolences go to his wife and children.

The Alfieris Foundation particularly wanted to support an Indigenous filmmaker to attend. This enabled Derik Lynch, director of Dipped in Black, to present his film in competition followed by a Q&A. He also attended the co-production forums and masterclasses and met many other filmmakers whose work was screening.

Pictured above L-R: Derik Lynch and Angus McDonald

“Beyond Borders is a unique boutique documentary film festival that focuses on the art form of documentary and celebrates the creative collaboration that comes about when filmmakers are together, away from the stresses of a marketplace. Set in a beautiful place with time to share and reflect on the power of documentary cinema, the festival is a rare gem in the international documentary landscape, nestled in the Mediterranean sea at the crossroads between Asia and Europe,” said Mitzi Goldman

Derik Lynch, Angus McDonald and Liselle Mei were in attendance from Australia, Penny MacDonald was a jury member of the micro docs competition and Mitzi Goldman was the President of the main competition jury alongside Valerie Kontakos, Shuibo Wang, Bruce Clark, Alan Gilsenan.