We are happy to announce the projects which are selected for the first Hungarian workshop of dok.incubator. The teams will be working with internationally renowned mentors from June 25 to 28 in Budapest.

Dreams at Sunset (HU/RO)

director: Ibolya Simó, editor: Szabolcs Kővári, producer: Genovéva Petrovits, Adrienn Bács

Transylvania’s impoverished villages are largely populated by the elderly who have spent their entire lives in manual, agricultural and farm work. They have dreams – just like everyone else – but they find it hard to put them into words. ISU, a social worker in his thirties, turns the lives of the elderly upside down by challenging the community. His message is very simple: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START LIVING.

Papa (HU)

director: Attila Ponczók, editor: Wanda Kiss, producer: Ábel Kocsó, co-producer: Peter Stern

Papa is an observational documentary in which we follow the director’s grandfather, the 79-year-old Zoltán Ponczók, or Papa, in his search for a social and spiritual home. The haggling on the bustling markets at dawn, the warm hearty meals of his wife, and the love he bears for his children have provided him with much needed spiritual respite. However, the untimely loss of his beloved wife has changed everything. Papa’s placement has also left its mark on his family life, until social accommodation became the only option. As his two-year limit in social care approaches, he hopes to get into a nursing home, but waiting lists can mean years.

2158 Stories (DK/HU)

director: Ida Marie Gedbjerg Sorensen, editor: Marianna Rudas, producers: Krisztina Meggyes & Rikke Tambo Andersen

2158 Stories is an ode to cinema inspired by the discovery of a notebook, in which a Hungarian worker documented the 2158 cinema trips he made over the course of his life. Behind the orderly notebook, the director discovers a split family with a shared passion for cinema. We follow four of the notebook owner’s descendants living in contemporary Hungary and discover how they carry on the film legacy. The multiplot story is weaved together by the young filmmaker’s reflections about cinema and memory. How come the films that we remember are the ones that make us forget about ourselves?

Don’t Worry, Sári! (HU)

director: Sari Haragonics, editor: Flóra Erdélyi, producers: Sára László & Inez Mátis

I lost my Mum 12 years ago, which was a huge trauma in our family’s life: for me, my Dad, my brother and my cousin. Her absence created emotional blocks we all had to deal with. I decided to follow the changes in our family dynamics with my camera for a five year-long period, up to the point when I realised it is not my job to save everyone, that I cannot solve their problems and I must not continue my mother’s path. The film operates with different audio-visual tools including personal archive footage my mother started filming in the 1980s, through which we get to know the story of a family on a bumpy road on a personal and a social level.

dok.incubator HU is organised in cooperation with MADOKE and co-funded by European Union, National Film Institute Hungary, Visegrad Fund