Colette Bertin has recorded hundreds of radio programs on audio cassettes. Today, at 82, Colette plunges into her archive and evokes a whole life spent listening, from tapes to podcasts.
Special Commendation at the Prix Europa and Prix Italia in 2014.
“If we didn’t look after ourselves, we were done for…”
Three former inmates of the Brens women’s concentration camp, who were detained from 1942-44, recall their experiences
The concentration camp for women in Brens, southwest France, existed from 1942 to 1944. Three women from different backgrounds – Arlette, Nuria and Angelita – recount the time they spent in the camp. Arlette was picked up at random by the Vichy police. Angelita was arrested for conspiracy against Marshal Pétain, while Nuria fell victim to her status as a Spanish refugee. The three women were sent to Brens, where they co-habited with women from all over Europe separated into wooden huts by nationality.
A tribute to the solidarity and moments of friendship that are essential to surviving such an ordeal.
Camp Sisterhood (Soeurs de Camp) received special commendations at the Prix Europa and the Prix Italia and won the Prix Bohemia in 2013.
Benoît Bories is a radio documentary maker and a sound composer. He produces radio documentaries for France Culture, ARTE radio and RTBF as well as other non-French speaking radio stations. With Charlotte Rouault, he founded Faïdos Sonore, a sound production collective who makes radio documentaries. For the last three years, he has also been making sound creations for live performances, installations and theater.
Charlotte Rouault is a French freelance radio documentary-maker. She has worked with France Culture, ARTE radio, RTBF and RTS. In 2009, with Benoît Bories, she created Faïdos Sonore, where she developed her documentary approach in parallel with a will to transmit and share, through workshops and training.
“A little girl is playing with her shadow. It follows her, doing everything she does. The girl is fascinated – she is totally in control, deciding exactly what the next step will be. But suddenly, something happens. As she turns a corner, she runs right into a bigger shadow and no matter where she turns, how she runs or waves, her little follower has disappeared, swallowed up by a bigger darkness. The girl stands still for a while, not understanding…”
Susanne Björkman’s Prix Italia-winning documentary, In the Shadow of the Phantom, tells the story of 25-year-old Aziza, a woman who works in a Stockholm metro station close to a local group of skinheads’ stomping ground. Her mother is German, her father is Tunisian and Aziza herself was brought up in Sweden, but people have let her know in no uncertain terms that she does not fit in.
Susanne Björkman was born in 1946, beginning her radio career at the Swedish Radio Company in 1971 and working exclusively in documentary form from 1976. She’s a garlanded feature-maker winning awards such as the Prix Italia, the Jörgen Ericsson Award and the Ikaros. In 1990 she became Sweden’s first professor in radio production at the Drama Institute in Stockholm. Susanne’s programmes are often portraits of people she has spent extensive time with, recording what happens in their lives. What is recorded is both an external and an internal process. The conflicts or themes that crystallise during the recording are often quite separate from the genesis of the documentary.
Matěj has perfect pitch and a phenomenal memory – often speaking in remembered fragments of fairytales and television shows. He also suffers from extensive autism with signs of Asperger syndrome.
Winner of the Prix Bohemia, AudioREPORT and Government Board Award (2017), nominated for the Prix Europa.
Dramaturgy by Lenka Svobodová
Sound and technical editing by Roman Špála
Freddie Bagron, a retired opera singer, is preparing for an important performance – an act of love for his terminally ill wife, Turid. The doctors tell him Turid’s cancer is incurable but in Freddie’s mind, Turid is recovering.
Sindre Leganger (b. 1987) is an independent producer from Norway. He makes documentaries both for national and international audiences, such as ‘Still Glowing Strong‘ (NRK, 2014) and ‘Wood Fighting With Steel‘ (Love + Radio, 2016).
Technical direction – Kjetil Hansen
Coach – Kjetil Saugestad
Recorded at a summer camp on the edge of the North Sea, Leaps and Dunes captures children in the process of growing up.
Leaping across the sands, swimming too far out in the water, investigating the mysteries held by the girl’s bathroom… this documentary places the listener amidst the swirls of cigarette smoke, on mischievous midnight expeditions and in the middle of awkwardly slow dancing young adults. A poetic portrait of a summer spent away from parents.
This documentary received a special commendation at the Prix Italia in 2001.
Rikke Houd has produced work for NRK, SR, Third Ear, BBC, Radio24syv, DR, RÚV, KNR, CBC, ABC and more. Her work has been broadcast internationally and screened widely – at Sheffield Doc Fest, In The Dark, CPH:DOX, Tempo Documentary Festival and Reykjavik International Film Festival and more. She was a Prix Italia Finalist and Special Mention in 2001, 2014 and 2015; was featured on the Prix Europa shortlist (2005, 2006, 2007, 2012, 2013) and won the In The Dark Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2015.
Sabine Hviid now works as a production designer for films and television. Together with Rikke Houd she founded Polar Radio in 2004, a non-profit project that aims to help youth in remote communities or youth belonging to minority groups articulate important issues through radio features and creative radio pieces. She won the Robert (2015) and the Kodak Commercial (2003) Awards for Best Production Design.
A short documentary from one of Susanne Björkman’s first radio assignments. A serendipitous recording of a lonely man in a ‘Beer Cafe’ in Malmö. As Susanne approached his table, he began a spontaneous monologue about his loneliness, which lasts the length of the song playing on the jukebox in the background.
Susanne Björkman was born in 1946, beginning her radio career at the Swedish Radio Company in 1971 and working exclusively in documentary form from 1976. She’s a garlanded feature-maker winning awards such as the Prix Italia, the Jörgen Ericsson Award and the Ikaros. In 1990 she became Sweden’s first professor in radio production at the Drama Institute in Stockholm. Susanne’s programmes are often portraits of people she has spent extensive time with, recording what happens in their lives. What is recorded is both an external and an internal process. The conflicts or themes that crystallise during the recording are often quite separate from the genesis of the documentary.
In February 2015, Joachim Gerhard has reached the city of Elbeyli on the border between Turkey and Syria and stands within sight of Kobane, a city under fire. He shouts in despair into his phone. He is trying to persuade his two sons Mike (18) and Klaus (25) to come back to Germany with him. For the last time but one, the 51-year-old hears their voices – distorted and hysterical. Soon afterwards a video appears – Mike and Klaus pose with an automatic rifle under a black Daesh flag and declare their father an enemy. Nevertheless, Joachim does not give up on his sons.
The voice messages from the father and the Gerhard brothers, and the video, are all original material.
Papa, We’re in Syria won the Prix Europa for Best European Radio Documentary in 2017.
Christian Lerch works as an independent author and audio producer for various German speaking public broadcasters and podcasts.
Gabriela Hermer works as an executive producer at rbb, Berlin. Before she started working at rbb, she was an independent documentary filmmaker and radio feature producer.
Papa, We’re in Syria features the voices of Bettina Kurth, Florian Lukas and Fabian Busch. The sound was by Bodo Pasternak and Bettina Mikulla; assistant direction by Oliver Martin; direction by Christian Lerch and production by Gabriela Hermer. It was a Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg production in cooperation with Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
‘Is this interview for me or for you?’
Two men share an intimate conversation exploring the desire to escape, vulnerability and giving your heart to a stranger.
Wait (Espera) won the Directors Choice award at the Third Coast International Audio Festival (2018) and was shortlisted for the Hearsay International Audio Arts Festival ‘Celebrate’ and GanBéarla awards (2019).
Sayre Quevedo is a multimedia documentary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the creator and co-producer of Re:Construcción, a transnational exhibit that explores the legacy of the Salvadoran Civil War. His work has been featured on National Public Radio and Marketplace, among others.
Resounding with music, humour and humanity this feature blends the story of a pianist documenting his own decline and the residents of a care home near the Dutch border of Essen. Musically interweaving reality and fiction we dive into the internal world of people who feel that they are beginning to lose themselves.
This feature won the Prix Italia, Premios Ondas and a Special Commendation at the Prix Futura in 1993.
The pianist’s diary extracts are taken from the novel ‘Out of Mind’ by J. Bernlef.