Michel Wenzer: At Night I Fly /2

Jeg tror, jeg kunne lytte til ham i timevis, i dagevis. Han er indsat i Folsom fængslet i Californien. Har været der længe. Skal formodentlig være der al tid. I begyndelsen var hans velkomstgave til en ny indsat et våben lavet der af materiale for hånden, et våben at true med, at slå ihjel med. Sådan fastholdes de nye i voldskulturen det nye sted. Han er barsk nok til nu at holde sig fri af det, han slår hårdere end de andre, må jeg tro. Og nu er hans gave til de nye måske en kuglepen og et stykke papir. Poesi gør fri, det gør et barberblad monteret på skaftet til en tandbørste ikke.  

Her er han i sin celle, forvandlet til digter. En del af de indsatte mødes i en litterær café i fængslet og læser op for hinanden. Det er formidabelt, utroligt, forbavsende: “… and there are great scenes from this room where (some) inmates meet with people from other races, as they say, in a world where the white normally do not meet with the black, or the black with the latinos… music, poem reading, writing, religious meetings, they are well articulated…” som Tue Steen Müller skrev i sin imponerede anmeldelse fra april i år her på siden, og han beskev formen: “The film has a sketchy, fragmentaric structure, but the impressionistic approach slowly adds up sequence by sequence, and you get some characters, who are reflective when it comes to their own situation and to the actions they take to fill their days to make it all bearable, or you could say to make sense of it all…”  

Jeg er fuldstændig opslugt, ser i dag filmen på Filmstriben.dk i mindre bidder. Kan faktisk ikke klare mere, kan slet ikke slippe denne særegne skønhed Michel Wenzer og fotograferne Camilla Hjelm Knudsen og Eric Börjesen har bygget op i en behersket sikker ro, scene for scene.

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Allan Berg Nielsen
Allan Berg Nielsen

Allan Berg Nielsen started the first documentary cinema in Randers, Denmark way back in the 1970’es. He did so at the museum, where he was employed. He got the (16mm) films from the collection of the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral). He organised a film festival in his home city, became a member of the Board of Directors of the Film Board, started to write about films in diverse magazines, were a juror at several festivals and wrote television critiques in the local newspaper. From 1998-2003 Allan Berg was documentary film consultant (commissioning editor) at The Danish Film Institute, a continuation of the Film Board. Since then free lance consultant in documentary matters.

abn@filmkommentaren.dk

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