Third AJB DOC Reaches Record High Rating

 

Despite organizational challenges ensuing from the global pandemic, the AJB DOC Film Festival achieved remarkable success with the audience, as the total number of screenings during the five festival days and a few additional days when the films were still available, reached 125,000.

 

The organizers point out that this audience measurement involved only the online platform and shows only a share of the audience's interest, because no viewership data are available for the screenings on Moja TV videoteka (My TV video-library) of BH Telekom, which provided 5 films from the AJB Broadcast selection, namely Dream Team Grannies, Sandžak Process, Neighbors, Vaha: Portrait of a Legend, and Džemo, as well as media appearances and interviews with authors.

 

Of the total number of screenings, the documentary film “Džemo” won the hearts of viewers and completely unexpectedly captured the attention not only of the local audience, but also the regional and world audiences. This is a story about 45-year old Džemo, who lives in the village with his mother, father and brother, providing them livelihood by taking care of ten cows. Every day, he runs 20 kilometers under load. This film has been seen by 67,300 viewers. This emotional story about the joy of running – a hobby that helps Džemo cherish the memory of his dead brother – resonated not only among the people who run with him, but far beyond. As a result, the authors have been contacted by people from all over the world who wanted to meet the good-natured Džemo.

 

In addition to the films, the previously released trailers and Q&A sessions with the authors, which were broadcast after each film, had a total of 20,000 views. Viewers from 40 countries dedicated their time to watching these stories that touched their hearts. In addition to BiH audience, the films were watched across the region, but also in Germany, USA, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada and many others.

 

Considering only three years of the Festival’s existence and the amount of available content online, the organizers note that they are very satisfied with the viewership and success of the Festival, among both the general audience and the film professionals and critics, but also among young people, who received the training titled “Mobile Phone Documentary Filmmaking”.

 

In addition to the online screening and out of respect for the authors and the teams that worked on the films, the Festival provided seven outdoor screenings restricted to broad public, with due observance of all epidemiological measures.

 

The reach of the announcements was also incredible, i.e. around 800,000 on Facebook and Instagram alone, while over 8,000,000 impressions were recorded over the last month on the online media, including web portals, social networks Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.