Claas Danielsen: A Specifically Individual Style Makes a Film Outstanding

Claas Danielsen is a member of, and an advisor to, the European Film Academy, and has served on many international festival juries, and the selection committees of different German films and media funds. As the Jury President of the Magnolia Documentaries for this year’s Shanghai Television Festival, he shares his experience in documentary directing.

Daily News: How do you assess all the documentaries participating in this year’s Shanghai Television Festival?
Claas Danielsen: The festival picked a very strong selection of international documentaries, which made our jury work fascinating but also difficult. I think our jury has really honored the quality and diversity of the documentaries we selected. We tried to focus on the unique quality of each film and we were very happy some were very strong Chinese productions.

Daily News: What is the most important aspect of your judging criteria?
Claas Danielsen: For me, a documentary is really strong and convincing if the topic and the way the story is told really matches the film-making style. I am impressed by a documentary if there is a film-maker who makes distinct individual decisions on each film. Each film requires an individual treatment. A specifically individual style makes a film outstanding.

Daily News: Is there a current trend in the development of the documentaries?
Claas Danielsen: What is exciting about documentary is that the boundaries between different genres - documentaries, fiction and animation - get blurred. So film-makers often use fictional elements and animation in documentaries. That has made them much more attractive for broader audiences. It is great to see young audiences wanting to see documentaries. Another trend is more and more documentaries are made in 3D.

Daily News: How should documentaries maintain the loyalty of audiences?
Claas Danielsen: A very important quality of documentaries is that we can explore the world and get a deeper understanding of it. I think that documentaries can fascinate bigger and bigger audiences when the people can relate to them. Through the documentaries they get an emotional understanding from the heart of the world, which is the strength of documentaries compared to fiction and other genres.
Daily News: 3D films can give more real feelings, but why haven’t they achieved the expected success among the viewers?
Claas Danielsen: The quality of the story always decides the quality of the film. If 3D technology is used in a wise and intelligent way, then it can open up new topics and new ways for documentaries. But if in a wildlife documentary, a big frog jumps over the camera in 3D, I laugh. It’s not an emotional effect that deepens my understanding.

Daily News: Is the closeness toward real life an important aspect in the success of documentaries?
Claas Danielsen: I think it’s very important that documentaries are close to common people.