Master Class on Documentary Filmmaking and the Right to Development Programme

October 7, 2014

Today, 7 October, at AUCA, students invited to attend Master Class on Documentary Filmmaking and the Right to Development Programme hosted by Journalism and Mass Communications Department and Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan in the frameworks of International Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights 2014.

The Master Class was held by 5 experienced international and Kyrgyz filmmakers. 

Elyor Nematov is one the guest speakers and currently working as a freelance photojournalist and conducts workshops on documentary photography, teaches students to create stories that are relevant to Central Asia.  He presents his work “I am Foreigner” documentary.

According to Elira Turdubaeva, chair of Journalism and Mass Communications department, The “Master Class on Documentary Filmmaking which we organized together with Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan in the frameworks of International Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights aimed at giving our students an opportunity to meet well-known documentary film makers on human rights and development issues and learn from their valuable experiences.  The speakers shared their knowledge and experiences on with the participants on such topics as Multimedia in Documentary,  DSLR (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) Revolution, Ethical Implications of Documentary Films on Human Rights and SnapDoc.

Three hours were not enough for such a master class and one speaker Victor Jackshe had not delivered his presentation. Therefore, we are organizing another master class later this week and he will make a presentation on “Using a Camera as a Tool for Direct Communication”. All participants were very interested in the current master class as the issues the speakers raised, all participants were actively taking part in the discussions - asking questions and sharing their viewpoints on the issues discussed during the master class.

We decided to host this event because we think that it is useful for our students, especially for the students of Journalism and Mass Communications to meet such experienced film makers and learn from their experience in this field. Today documentary films are one of the most powerful media contents which contribute to the development of the society by raising important questions on social problems. And it is very important for journalism and mass communications students to learn how to produce these films and ethical implications of these films on society. 

I think it was very useful in terms of choosing the topic, conducting investigative journalism, asking questions, producing documentaries and disseminating them not only through traditional media, but also what is more important today, through social media. Jürgen Schaflechner’s (Germany) presentation on Ethical Implications of Documentary Films on Human Rights raised such questions as representation, manipulation, stereotypes in documentary films and ethical implications of these films. Especially the presentation on SnapDoc by Victor Jackshe (Denmark) was very interesting. He shared some of his experiences in making his 44 documentary films and especially his experiences in conducting investigations for his documentary on Using Child Labour in producing chocolates such as Nestle and Mars were very interesting. Participants were really interested in how he made this documentary and its implications.

All participants are highly interested in next master class and expressed their wishes to attend it. "We are planning to hold a series of such master classes each month together with Bir Duino and other institutions and give a chance to our students to get first-hand information and learn from field experts. Except for master classes we are planning to cooperate with other departments at AUCA such as ICP, Sociology, Anthropology and European Studies to conduct joint student projects on different social, political, cultural and economic issues in our society,” – said Elira Turdubaeva.

The guest lecture was attended by the students of AUCA as well as by AUCA Alumni and guests. Gulzat Matisakova, AUC Alumna 2014, also presented her documentary movie at Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan festival. Her work is “Informational Publications in Reproductive Health”. The film is about brochures on sexual and reproductive health in Kyrgyzstan for youth.

Geete Ramazan, student from Afghanistan of Journalism and mass Communications department said: “The master class on documentary film Making was a truly wonderful lecture which will enable me to apply the useful lessons I learned to my own future career as a documentary film maker in Afghanistan. It was very useful. Thanks a lot to all organizers of this master class.”

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