Hans-Erik Therus: Sven Lindqvist – ökendykeren

Jeg kom tilfældigt og først sent ind i filmen med Sven Lindqvist (1932), som SV2 sendte i aftes, men jeg blev dybt fascineret af den berømte forfatter, som jeg læste for årtier siden og nu så påfaldende svigtede. Det blev jeg mærkeligt flov over. Hvorfor holdt jeg op med at læse ham? Var han for streng ligesom Jan Myrdal? Jeg begyndte i aftes at finde hans bøger frem igen, og Therus film bliver heldigvis genudsendt lige om lidt, i dag

11. maj 14:55 og 15. maj 23:30 på SV2

Jeg vil se det hele, og allerede nu vil jeg anbefale vores læsere at se med. SVT K-Special skriver på sin hjemmeside: ” Först i medelåldern började författaren Sven Lindqvist drömma. Bortträngda minnen dök upp och inspirerade till böckerna Bänkpress, Ökendykarna och Utrota varenda jävel. Filmaren Hans-Erik Therus har porträtterat Sven Lindqvist och undersöker varifrån drivkraften, inspirationen och den ständiga nyfikenheten kommer… Filmen följer bland annat med på lanseringen av den första engelska utgåvan av hans bok 'Myten om Wu Tao-tzu' från 1967.

Sven Lindqvist föddes 1932 i Stockholm. Han debuterade 1955 med essän Ett förslag, och har sedan dess på olika sätt odlat en personlig blandform av essä, aforism, reportage, dagbok, reseskildring och lärobok – med ett tydligt politiskt anslag. Sven Lindqvist har nått betydande internationella framgångar och hans böcker är översatta till ett flertal språk."

svt.se/k-special

Football in Sevilla

... well, not played in Sevilla but watched by a film blogger in a tapas bar the last two nights, both matches performed in Germany, both with German teams as the winners, in the first of two matches in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

The first match, in the bar in Sevilla, FC Barcelona against Bayern Munich, was not very well attended, apart from me I did not see any Barcelona fans, contrary to the second match, that of tonight, where you had to move your head pretty often to get viewing access to the whole screen, and where the bar was enthusiastic when Ronaldo scored to 1-1 for Real Madrid, but making a lot of customers leave when they saw that Dortmund was much more efficient = Polish Lewandowski, who had the night of his football career, scoring 4 goals!

Back to FC Barcelona... the Spanish sport newspapers this morning put it on the front page in different versions but with the same conclusions: Barca’s glorious years are over, something is wrong with the way of playing, something has to be changed, new players etc. They wrote the same after Barca’s first match against Milan, where Barca made a fantastic come back, but to be realistic, the 0-4 in Munich last night is impossible to change into a result that will make Barca reach the final of the Champions League.

Images from the match: Messi, making no successful moves at all, and at a certain moment I saw him in a position that made me think that the best player in the world was suffering from a stomach illness, was he ill? Or Gerard Piqué who had his head shaven (but kept his beard) in a way that illustrated the vulnerable defender being weak, as he could not keep Müller away from his attacks, and goal-making. The same Müller (nice name, but...) who made an obvious dirty obstruction on Jordi Alba, so he could not prevent the goal. The referee did not react. This event, as well as the clear off-side of Mario Gomez, when he scored for Bayern, made me think of the title of the film ”Kill the Referee” – to be fair there were also hands on the ball of Barca players on two occasions that could have given Bayern Munich penalties. Hungarian referee Kassai, the man in charge, will not be given more Champions League duties. Not competent.

Wrote a Barca fan after a Sevilla bar football watching! And let’s take it once more, what Gary Lineker, the English striker said: Football is about 22 players and one ball, and the Germans always win!

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Testamentet i DOKUMANIA

DR2 DOKUMANIA meddeler i en pressemeddelelse, at " 'Testamentet', en dansk dokumentarfilm fra 2011 af Christian Sønderby Jepsen" bliver sendt tirsdag den 16. april 2013 kl. 20.30 på DR2. 

" 'En doku om vores kamp i livet og alle de skuffelser vores familie udsætter os for, en hudløs ærlig doku om livet med en rig familie og deres lovning om bedere liv, men blir snydt for ALT, en familie der er SÅ rådden og forloren.' Sådan resumeer Christian Peter Ernst Steffensen filmen på sin Facebook-side. Christian er bror til 31-rige Henrik, og sammen med deres tredje bror står de i 'Testamentet' til at arve millioner fra deres afdøde morfar. En formue, der kan få dem ud af en tilvæelse styret af fattigdom, stoffer og alkohol i den midtjyske by, Skals.

Men, som var det en fiktionsfilm, er formuen ikke vundet uden kamp. Henrik må træffe vigtige valg og gøre op med en fortid præget af manipulation, intriger og mistro. Alt sammen for at realisere drømmen om et bedre liv. 'Testamentet' er en episk, men tragikomisk fortælling om penge, manipulation og frigørelse. Et dansk Hollywood-drama fra det mørke Jylland, som vi håber, både du og dine læsere vil se eller gense." (Kimi Seerup, Dokumentargruppen på DR2)

Boris B. Bertram: The War Campaign

Boris B. Bertrams "The War Campaign" har den danske titel "Krigskampagnen" og den har premiere på DR2 Dokumania på tirsdag 19. marts 20:30. De skriver "Bush, Blair og Fogh" som overtitel. Og det er ikke urimeligt, det var deres krig.

Det er en flot række vidner Bertram har samlet, udsøgt smukt fotograferet og intelligent og indfølt intrtviewet, ser det ud til, ja, der ville være nok tilbage og helheden meget stærk og overbevisende, vil jeg tro, hvis de svageste, Frank Grevil og Per Stig Møller ikke havde forstyrret det samlede billede. Nu må jeg med det samme notere, at jeg foreløbig har set filmen i en arbejdskopi, meget vil ske / er sket før tv-visningen på tirsdag.

Men hvad er det nu for noget, Bertram har lavet? Dorte R. Stidsing kalder det på DFI's FILMupdate "en dokumentarisk politisk thriller", og ja, det er da spændende at få repeteret begivenhderne for årtiet siden, men jeg vidste det jo godt. Nu har Boris Bertram snakket med alle disse kloge velformulerede folk som er med i filmen og flere til og læst alle artiklerne, alle rapporterne og alle bøgerne og så gør han alligevel det, at han i sin kommentar nøjes med et handlingsreferat. Nu må du selv bedømme, mærker jeg, han siger bag det, og den nødvendige analyse og samlende overvejelse lægger han fra sig, essayet overlader han til mig at skrive selv...

Dokumania: The Gatekeepers & 5 Broken Cameras

Danish prime time documentary slot Dokumania (on DR) shows two of the Oscar nominated films: Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers and Emad Burat and Guy Davidi’s 5 Broken Cameras (photo) on March 5 20.30pm and March 12 20.30pm.

And in Danish: DR's Dokumania viser de to Oscarnominerede dokumentarer The Gatekeepers (dansk titel: Det hemmelige Israel) og 5 Broken Cameras (dansk titel: Fem ødelagte kameraer) tirsdag den 5. marts OG tirsdag den 12. Marts, begge gange kl. 20.30. Bravo!

Simon Klose: TPB AFK

”Det er dagen før retssagen begynder. Fredrik pakker en computer i en rusten gammel Volvo. Sammen med hans Pirate Bay (TPB)-medstiftere står han ansigt til ansigt med et erstatningskrav fra Hollywood på 72 millioner kroner i en sag om krænkelse af ophavsret. Fredrik er på vej hen for at installere en ny computer i den hemmelige serverhal. Det er her verdens største fildelingsside er gemt. Da hacker-vidunderbarnet Gottfrid, internetaktivisten Peter og den fordrukne webnørd Fredrik findes skyldige i retssagen bliver de konfronteret med virkeligheden i form af et liv offline AFK away from the keyboard. Men dybt nede i de mørke datacentre fortsætter skjulte computere stille med at kopiere filer.”

Sådan sætter DR2’s pressemeddelelse filmen i gang. Og sådan går filmen faktisk i gang. Og jeg er i en thriller, og jeg holder ved længe, for der er spændende det her, det er spændende i lang tid. For mig begynder thrilleren først at tabe højde, da tv-timen er gået, og vi skal i gang med retshandling to, appelsagen. Så mærker jeg, at det ikke er biograf det her. Fortryllelsen damper væk, og så står jeg ud af filmen og begynder at tænke IRL (in real life), får lyst til at google og finde facts. Og jeg griber mig i at sidde og kigge på en tv-dokumentar, hvor jeg mangler forudsætninger. Og jeg mærker en sær udelukkelse, en arrogance, som de medvirkendes indforståethed forsvarer sig med over for deres modstandere, samtidig med, de inkluderer alle internetbrugerere af deres slags og med deres moral, ekskluderer de fremmede som mig, mærker jeg, og jeg tænker, hvor er de journalistiske dyder, jeg plejer at stole på? Og så sker det, at tv-dokumentaren sandelig også smider mig af... Men jeg kan stå på igen, denne gang har jeg mange chancer som publikum:

For i et samarbejde mellem DR2, Information og DOX BIO var der i aftes, 20. februar dansk biografpremiere i Grand Teatret, København med efterfølgende debat. Det kan man nok læse om i Information i dag. Og snart kan den vel ses i flere biografer. Dertil kommer, at den har tv-premiere på DR2 Dokumania den 26. februar 21:00. DR2 skriver i pressemeddelelsen desuden om en ”nytænkende måde at frigive dokumentarfilm på”, her altså en film, som DR2 er tilfreds med at have medfinansieret. Denne nytænkende måde er, at TPB AFK samtidig har web-premiere på youtube.com: link Her kan man, gratis altså, se filmen, og det var sådan, jeg i aftes var til premiere ved min computerskærm. I sig selv en oplevelse og en overvejelse: har Per K. Kirkegaard klippet en biograffilm, en tv-dokumentar eller en youtube-film? Jeg er forvirret og i syv sind. Og det gør altså ikke noget. Jeg er foreløbig ikke begejstret, men jeg er faktisk alligevel lidt fascineret og nysgerrig…

Simon Klose: TPB AFK, The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard, Sverige 2013. Klip: Per K. Kirkegaard. Producere: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Anne Köhncke og Martin Persson. Medvirkende: Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Wark og Fredrik Neij. Produktion: Blandt flere selskaber Final Cut for Real

Vurdering:

In the Belly of the City

A newsletter arrived from Torino sent by Stefilm, now the classic Italian documentary production company, once – when we were much younger – the company that was mentioned by everyone as the only one from Italy, that dared to go international in order to make films for the European market. I say ”we” because I have a lot of warm memories for almost a couple of decades, working/meeting with the two architects Elena Filippini and Stefano Tealdi, and the doctor Edoardo Fracchia. The three, who left what could have been decent careers, to enter unstable lives as documentary producers, directors and distributors. Now the trio stands behind a company with an impressive filmography that can be studied on their website, link below. Doing also distribution of films from other European countries in Italy as well as running training and workshops. The aim is to improve the documentary culture in Italy.

One thing was always on the agenda when we met in Bardonecchia for the Documentary in Europe or in Marseille for the Sunny Side of the Doc or in Torino for visits in the office or privately: Food. When Stefano Tealdi was president for the EDN, he often joked that EDN (European Documentary Network) also could stand for Eating and Dining Network... and right he was, having workshops in the South of Europe meant good food and wine. It still does. And coming from Piemonte the wine quality in these meetings had to be high, and now - after a couple of dark years for the club - you can also talk football, about Juventus, the champions.

Concluding: it is therefore only natural that Tealdi and his colleagues send out a newsletter advertising that Stefilm from monday 18th of February till friday 22nd of February ”takes you to the wonderful world of foodmarkets” on arte. The company has produced a tv series of one (television) hour documentaries shot in the bellies of Torino, Barcelona, Budapest, Vienna and Lyon. Before this series Stefilm has been studying and producing docs on coffee, tea, gelato, pizzas of course, pasta...

Bon Appetit!

http://www.stefilm.it/

Doucet: Afghanistan-The Unknown Country

Two weeks ago after reviewing the documentary on Afghanistan by Murphy and MediaStorm, I came across a film on the subject matter, which exposes yet another face of this wonderful country. Therefore this review:

For over a decade, Afghanistan has been a frequent guest of the global news coverage. But what do we really know about this country? In the 1-hour BBC documentary "Afghanistan: The Unknown Country" Lyse Doucet takes us on a journey through the parts of the vast Afghan land and its diverse culture to reveal another face of the country beyond the war – the country of ancient traditions and its beautiful people, who despite all its hardship and heartache, are still proud to call it home.

"Afghanistan: The Unknown Country" is neither artistic nor political. More than anything, it falls well under the format of a travel documentary. Unlike a typical protagonist of the classic travel documentary, however, Doucet, does not come in the shoes of a mere curious observer or a world traveller who likes to take a peek into the exotic or the foreign. BBC's chief international correspondent, Doucet invites us to join her on the

Vurdering:

Ada Bligaard Søby: Petey & Ginger

Ada Bligaard Søby har i lidt mere end syv år været i gang med et konsekvent filmisk værk, som med undertitlen til den seneste af de syv film, det består af, også samlet kan kaldes a testament to the awesomeness of mankind. Det er store ord, men de siges på en stilfærdig måde. Der larmes ikke i hendes film, men hver rystende detalje, hvert udbrud af pludseligt vid præcist på plads i konstruktionerne, er fyldt med intens og sagte alvor: dette er mine ønsker for menneskets fremtid, og i et kaos af nutidig moralsk og materiel sammenbrud skimtes i filmene en forunderlig blid fasthed og en ærbødighed over for enhver kulturs integritet og historie. Alle filmene har, uden at Ada Bligaard Søby har rystet på hånden, i et og alt intenst levet op til de store ord. Der har været bygget og bygget på værket.

Sådan er det derfor selvfølgelig med den syvende og seneste film, Petey & Ginger(2012), som havde premiere på CPH:DOX i november og har været sendt for nylig på DR K. Den skal ikke først og fremmest nye veje, den skal videre med det, værket er i gang med. Så den vender tryg tilbage til den første film, American Losers (2006) i tema, den amerikanske kultur, og i kunstnerisk greb, en sammenstilling af en kvindes og en mands biografier og liv nu. I denne tilbagevenden, i denne sunde vedholdenhed fremstår den som en rig variation i en filmisk passacaglia.

Vurdering:

Per Wennick: Frits Helmuth

”Et udgangspunkt for den film, jeg gerne vil lave, den der historie, ikke? … Da vil jeg være fortælleren, som går igennem filmen og leder den videre. Hvorfor ikke være fuldstændig clean på at fortælle folk historien ud fra dit eget selv, fra mig. Sige goddag, jeg hedder Frits Helmuth, nu vil jeg gerne fortælle en historie, som ligger mig meget på sinde. Den begynder sådan her…” Dette siger Frits Helmuth i filmens titelsekvens, og det er en klar og ligetil plan. Den begyndelse er jeg vel nok med på.

Den plan saboterer Wennick imidlertid, han indlemmer Helmuths fortælling i Henrik Helsgauns enestående optagelser fra 2004 i sin fortælling uden at beslutte sig for en klar, alternativ fortælleposition, uden at formå at tilføje en kunstnerisk autoritet, som kan modsvare Frits Helmuths forførelse. Han lukker andre medvirkende ind, medvirkende, som ikke er vidner om, men som er kommentatorer til Frits Helmuths livsvalg, ofte i en selvcentreret, anklagende form, ind imellem med direkte angreb på og sladder om den oprindelige fortæller. Og det ville for så vidt kunne rummes i Wennicks film, hvis disse medvirkende havde haft eller var blevet instrueret til en intellektuel og emotionel tyngde, som vægtede Frits Helmuths. Det sker ikke på noget tidspunkt, og ikke kun Helmuths projekt, vistnok også Wennicks vælter. Man må give alt det man kan, alt det man har til publikum, siger Helmuth. Det forstår de tilsyneladende på hver sin måde, og det går galt.

Frits Helmuth fortæller henrevet om Osvald Helmuth i forståelse og beundring. Pusle Darville og Mikael Helmuth vidner resigneret bittert om Frits Helmuths svigtende forståelse og fravær som far. Kaspar Rostrup magter mærkeligt ikke afbalanceringen. Wennick lader endnu mærkeligere dem alle tre medvirke sært tilbagelænet (også i scenografi, fotografering og interviewindsats) som er de vidner ved en høring, i en retssag, som er de deltagere i et mødepanel i et tv-program. Måske er de?

Vurdering:

POV – Visiting Simon Kilmurry

I have during the last years tried my best to understand the organisation of the POV, that had its 25th season in 2012. I have – as many others – always been impressed by the commitment of Simon Kilmurry, Executive director and producer of American Documentary (independent non-profit media company) that produces the strand POV – documentaries with a Point of View. Kilmurry has attended workshops and pitching events all over, this year I have met him in Barcelona, Edinburgh (he is Scottish born), Leipzig and Amsterdam, and before that in Buenos Aires. In the last two years of the idfa forum, he has received the so-called Cuban Hat as the best commissioning editor around the table. For his constant support to creative authored documentaries, I would add.

So, being in New York anyway, I was welcomed in the Brooklyn office by Kilmurry to get more information and knowledge. In the beginning I have found POV very different from what we know about in Europe – and it is when it comes to financing – but basically there are many similariities to what we have and had in Europe. POV is much more than broadcasting one to four times, POV organises screenings locally, POV publishes and facilitates debates around the themes of the films, POV offers interviews with the filmmakers online, POV has a catalogue of short films, a lending library... and so on so forth. A cultural institution, we would say in Europe.

In other words POV is like a European film institute, take as an example the Danish Film Institute that has a film political role to play – documentary films should play a role in society, raise debate. At POV it is put like this: ”Since

Christoffer Guldbrandsen: Tyveriet af Afrika

Det er en overvældende film, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, Henrik Veileborg, Lars Skree og deres kolleger præsenterer for os, et imponerende værk, som er tætpakket med detaljer, informationer, vurderinger, synspunkter, anklager og forsvar, forbindende tråde i ufatteligt virvar, hovedfortælling og sidefortællinger for hen over det hele klart og uafrysteligt overbevisende atter i litteraturen at belyse den enkle fortælling om, at de riges investeringer i de fattiges lande omgående alle statslige og overstatslige forsøg på regulering viser sig at give de rige en enorm fortjeneste, denne gang åbenbart noget over (mildt udtrykt) Paul Sweezys 1. lovs historiske konstatering: 70 procent. Derfor fattigdom!

Raymond Baker, lederen af Global Financial Integrity, siger nemlig i det første af interviewklippene med ham: ” Mange tror, at vi i Vesten gavmildt har ydet bistand til udviklingslandene og især til Afrika. På globalt plan vurderer vi imidlertid, at der føres ti gange så mange penge ud af udviklingslandene, som der føres ind i udviklingslandene.” Udtalelsen er placeret i titelsekvensen umiddelbart før skiltet:Tyveriet af Afrika. Så er det sagt. Resten af filmen er egentlig herefter blot en enkelt farverig case, som detaljeret, nøgternt og gruopvækkende med teknik og historik og visse biografiske detaljer beskriver, hvordan tyveriet begås.

Og Raymond Baker er blot én i en imponerende række højt kvalificerede vidner, som udsøgt fotograferet i cinematografiske opsætninger fyldt med skønhed og medfortællende betydningsladning, nøgternt og med foruroligende dæmpet lidenskab forsyner os med rækker af facts, så vi økonomiske lægmænd bliver svimle og konfuse, til det efterhånden samler sig om forståelsen af en enkelt, endog særdeles aktuel, finansiel teknik, transfer pricing, en almindelig og ofte anvendt metode til undvigelse af statslig finansiel regulering.

Klipperen Bodil Kjærhauges ordning af det store materiale i blokke af fortællinger, som kan holdes fast i tanken undervejs, og Guldbrandsens saglige og rolige fortællerstemme filmen igennem fører en gang til i den økonomiske verdenshistorie frem til et klart svar på spørgsmålet: Hvorfor Fattigdom? Svaret består af fem sætninger og varer som først nævnt nogle få sekunder, der fornemt retorisk underbygges i 58 minutter, og vi får svaret på én gang som en økonomisk forelæsning, et juridisk anklageskrift, et politisk debatindlæg samlet i en moralsk og indigneret pamflet: Jeg anklager!

Vurdering:

Paul Sweezys 1. lov om udenlandske investeringer

Hver gang jeg ser Christoffer Guldbrandsens film Tyveriet af Afrika synger for min erindring fra for virkelig lang tid siden denne bemærkning: ”… indtægterne fra udenlandske investeringer over en hvilken som helst signifikant periode vil overstige kapitaludgifterne med 70 procent.” Udsagnet er økonomen Paul Sweezys (1910-2004). Det stammer fra en forelæsning, han gav i juli 1967 på Round House i Chalk Farm, London under en 14 dages tværvidenskabelig konference arrangeret af Institute of Phenomenological Studies, London med titlen Dialectis of Liberation. Det lille afsnit af forelæsningen, hvori bemærkningen faldt, ser sådan ud:

Why Poverty?/ Hvorfor fattigdom?

Danish text to inform the Danes where they can watch the series of films ”Why Poverty”, see more below in previous posting:

Det danske Filminstitut (dfi) har sammen med DR støttet produktionen af serien og DR står bag kampagnen, der er knyttet til filmenes tema. Filmene udsendes fra søndag den 25. November til torsdag den 29. November og der er på hjemmesiden oplæg til temaerne og til skolebrug undervisningsmateriale for grundskole og gymnasier.

Fra den 3. December kan danskerne se alle filmene på Filmstriben, de 30 kortfilm er allerede tilgængelige på youtube.

Dfi oplyser at ” bibliotekerne der viser filmene og deltager med arrangementer, udstillinger m.v. er en del af en global cross-media kampagne, som når ud til over 500 millioner mennesker over hele verden.”

Link til dr.dk/Undervisning/Hvorforfattigdom

http://www.filmstriben.dk/

Why Poverty?

Today, Idfa guests and idfa audience had the chance to watch the eight long films in the long awaited and now well promoted series “Why Poverty?” – with four days to go before the worldwide launch that you can read about below.

Production is made by the non-profit organisation Steps International, that as logo on its website has “great stories can change the world”. The key person behind this initiative as well the previous “Why Democracy” and “Steps for the Future” is Don Edkins, a true gentleman in the world documentary community, and a man who in his work in a true Griersonian way seeks to combine the documentary art form, campaign and information. Among the directors of the eight films are Chinese Weijun Chen, American Alex Gibney, British Ben Lewis and Brian Hill, as well as Danish Christoffer Guldbrandsen. Here is a text clip from the website of Why Poverty?:

… uses film to get people talking about poverty. We've commissioned award-winning film makers to make eight documentaries about poverty, and new and emerging talents to make around 30 short films. The films tackle big issues and pose difficult questions, but they're also moving, subtle and thought-provoking stories. They transmit around the world in November 2012, on more than 70 national broadcasters reaching 500 million people. They'll be accompanied by events designed to spark global and national debates and an online conversation to get people asking “Why Poverty?”

You can watch clips and shorts online now, and find out more about what’s happening in your country.

After November, the documentaries will be available to everyone online and we’ll begin an outreach programme, building on the momentum from broadcast…

Impressive, wish you all the best luck!

www.steps.co.za

http://www.whypoverty.net/en/about

The World According to Lance

According to realscreen of yesterday CNN will air a 45-minute documentary on Lance Armstrong this Saturday (October 27) at 9 p.m. EST produced by ABC Australia, and “reported/directed” by Quentin McDermott, as it is phrased. The work on the film started 7 weeks ago when it was clear that Armstrong was to be banned and stripped his Tour de France titles.

“We worked at great speed to secure the agreement of key witnesses… In all we filmed in nine locations: Sydney, Australia; Dallas and Austin, Texas; Missoula, Montana; Detroit, Michigan; Montreal, Canada; Paris, France; London, and Hertfordshore in England, in a whirlwind round-the-world tour.”

Voila! Non-fiction at its quickiest, quality? Let’s watch what Hollywood Reporter calls "the doping doc".

http://realscreen.com/2012/10/24/cnn-picks-up-armstrong-doc-to-air-saturday/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cnn-picks-up-armstrong-doc-to-air-saturday

Messi Messi Messi Messi/ 2

Yes, here we go again with some football, four times Messi/ 2, explanation will follow. But look at the two old boys on the photo, to the right one half of the directorate of the yearly Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade, Zoran Popovic, whose wife Svetlana, the other half, took the photo, and to the left this blogger who is responsible for the football posts on filmkommentaren. We sit in the lobby of Hotel Prezident in Sremski Karlovci in Serbia, style Louis XVI, cherubines in the background. It is last sunday evening and our only way to watch el classico Barcelona against Real Madrid was to go online via some unauthorized links on the computer.

We did and what a treat from the side of Messi (and by the way also by Ronaldo), who made two goals, one of them his classic free kick that gave no chance to Casillas, best goalkeeper in the world. Some days later Messi was back in his homeland to play for Argentina against Uruguay, and he (captain of the national team that night!) again scored twice. Free kick again but as everyone expected that he would kick over the defense wall and therefore jumped high, he made a flat kick, keeping the ball to the ground. Gooool!

Four goals from Messi, this time over two games, last time in one match. And take a look at analytical Popovic and his finger explaining to the Dane that Messi’s first goal was a good one, and not by hasard as Xavi cleverly blocked a Real player to get near to Messi. Clever man, this Zoran.

Beauty! 

Kossakovsky on “Why Poverty”

Viktor Kossakovsky was on his way home from Vilnius Documentary Festival, where he presented a retrospective of his films from “Belovs” to “Vivan las Antipodas”. I was on my way to the 22nd edition of St. Petersburg festival “Message to Man”. While waiting for boarding permission, the director invited me to watch his newest work, “Lullaby”, a short film (around 3 mins.), he had made for the big documentary series initiative “Why Poverty”. Shot in Berlin with a focus on a Deutsche Bank door leading to cash withdrawal machines, the director has made an original contribution to the short film section of the series. It should be watchable very soon according to the site of “Why Poverty”, read this text clip:  

”Why Poverty? uses film to get people talking about poverty.

We've commissioned award-winning film makers to make eight documentaries about poverty, and new and emerging talents to make around 30 short films. The films tackle big issues and pose difficult questions, but they're also moving, subtle and thought-provoking stories.

They transmit around the world in November 2012, on 62 national broadcasters reaching 500 million people. They'll be accompanied by events designed to spark global and national debates and an online campaign to get people asking “Why Poverty?”

You can watch clips and shorts online now, and find out more about what’s happening in your country.

After November, the documentaries will be available to everyone online and we’ll begin an outreach programme, building on the momentum from broadcast...”

Photo: Kossakovsky in Vilnius.

http://whypoverty.net/

Patrick Barbéris: Vietnam-Treason by the Media

Eddie Adams fotograferede 1. februar 1968 på en gade i Saigon politichefen i Sydvietnam, som personligt uden videre likviderer en viet cong leder. Det rædselsvækkende fotografi er, som alle i min generation ved, uhyre berømt, det er måske det fotografi, som frem for andre tegner den krig for mig. Men jeg kender ikke historien, kendte den ikke, før jeg så Patrick Barbéris' dokumentar i aftes. Det var en rystende oplevelse. Materialet til denne historie, som blot er en af filmens talrige, er for en stor del ikke nær så kendt arkivstof, billeder, jeg ser første gang, og så er det en række fremragende (ja, simpelthen fremragende) interviews med en lang række af disse journalister fra den gang, Joseph L. Galloway, Walter Cronkite (på materiale fra dengang) og Peter Arnett og flere til, hvis navne alene får mig til at holde en lille pause for at give også den erindring plads. Og som var det ern selvfølge, er det hele ledsaget af en afdæmpet, indsigtsfuld, ja, klog og meget velskrevet fortællerstemme, som uddyber og udfolder det, vi altid har sagt, at Vietnam krigen var den første krig, som var billeddækket samtidig med, i sekunderne, den fandt sted. Ja, vi har sagt det hele tiden, men hvordan var det nu, det var med det? Det ved jeg nu, jeg har set Patrick Barbéris' videnfyldte og tankevækkende værk.

Patrick Barbéris: Vietnam, la trahison des médias (Vietnam-Treason by the Media), Frankrig 2008, 90 min. Arte France ved Thierry Garrel. Set på DR K i aftes. Genudsendes 21. september 01:00 og 25. september 12:50. Er udkommet på DVD.

Vurdering:

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Fuglekongerne

Avisen i Skagen har fotograferet denne mand, som er den ene hovedperson i Christian Sønderby Jepsens nye tv-dokumentar. (Det låner jeg. Jeg har desværre ikke noget still fra dokumentaren.) Han hedder Rolf og han er i dag enten nr. 1 eller nr. 2 på en vigtig rangliste, listen over ornitologer, som har set flest fugle. Det er noget mere end 400 og de mest sjældne er selvfølgelig fulgt af mest prestige, en bøffeland, en citronvipstjert, en stribet græshoppesanger. Han er oppe mod en mand fra Ringkøbingegnen, Munck hedder han, og i Sønderby Jepsens film følger vi de to mænds kamp (igen to mænds rivalisering, som i Side by Side...) om at føje en sjælden fugl til deres liste over iagttagelser, som de vel at mærke alle har fået omhyggeligt anerkendt af organisationen, af betroede kolleger. Det er dokumentarens historie, den skildrer nogle afgørende uger, hvor Rolf søger at vippe Munck af stillingen som landets bedste fuglekender, -iagttager, -spotter. 

Kampen skildres mod et smukt tænkt og fotograferet bagtæppe af landskaber og figurer i gruppe. Som en trækfugleflok forbliver de uden enkeltindividualitet, dog enkelte trækkes frem for at kommentere Rolfs og Muncks forehavende, som de bedømmer overbærende, måske også på måder anerkendende, mændene på deres neddæmpede, fagorienterede måde, de få kvinder på deres... Ingen siger særligt præcist, hvad det går ud på, udtalelserne er overfladisk generelle: det er en prestigekamp, det er samlermentalitet, de er, måske i højere grad, men som alle ramt af en samlermentalitet. Rolf selv ser biologisk på det, han og Munck er begge alfahanner, siger han et sted, et kort blik fra en kvinde til ham et andet sted følger den tolkning.

Men hvad mener dokumentaren? Har den overhovedet en kerne af indsigt i det eksistentielle? Jeg er ikke sikker. Men det er tydeligt, at som sine hovedpersoner rummer dokumentaren ej heller tvivl. Den er uden undren, uden tøven, skabt i ren accept. Dens iagttagelse er båret af udelt fascination af de to mænd og deres forehavende. En speciel fascination, man som de fleste i bagtæppets figurgruppe, vil jeg tro, kan have svært ved at dele. Både mens man ser dokumentaren og bagefter. 

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Fuglekongerne, DK 2012, 28 min. DR2, set på http://www.dr.dk/TV/se/fuglekongerne/fuglekongerne#!/  hvor den kan ses til 12. oktober, altså nogle dage endnu. 

Vurdering:

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video 3. afsnit

OK, det er et tv-program, og jeg finder mig i rammerne, når jeg får disse interviews, disse møder med instruktørerne rundt om i verden så generøst. Og heldigvis i samlede blokke, én ad gangen, så jeg lige kan nå at være til stede i samværet. Man kan jo bare vælge. Og jeg vælger Zhang Yimou, som han sidder der bag sit bord i Peking som Bergman dengang sad bag sit på Fårö. Disse ryddede bordplader. I det kinesiske selskab kunne jeg gerne være blevet meget længere. Så fremragende medvirkende redder enhver film og tv-program, dygtighed kan ikke holdes nede. Zhang Yimou talte faktisk også om Bergman og skal lige citeres for bemærkningen om, at Bergman ikke forenklede, han gjorde det modsatte, løftede meneskelivet med problemerne, vi alle har, til et åndeligt niveau. Der kunne det ses og måske forstås i sin helhed. Bergmans antropologi.

Og jeg vælger Francis Ford Coppola, som han sidder der i sin vingård og fortæller om at flytte hjem, eksistens og kunstnerisk arbejde fra filmbyens voldsomme økonomiske omklamring til friheden sammen med vennerne og de overskuelige projekter med mindre film, artfilm, som han, som de selv styrer. Et eksil i vinmarker på et vinslot fyldt med samlinger af bøger og videoer som hos Bergman på Fårö.  

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video, Sverige 2012. Seks tv-programmer i serie. En række interviews ved Jane Magnusson og Hynek Pallas. 3. afsnit set på SVT1 i onsdags. Afsnit 1-3 kan i nogen tid ses på SVT hjemmeside 4. afsnit sendes 12. september 21:00.

Vurdering:

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video 2. afsnit

Så er Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel og Biutiful) igen kommet til Fårö, som for ham er et af filmhistoriens vigtigste valfartssteder, ja, for netop ham, tror jeg, det allervigtigste. Her er han på stranden, location for Persona, og han er grebet af situationen, og da han er en ukunstlet, helt igennem autentisk medvirkende i Bergmanseriens afsnit 2, gribes jeg pludselig også. 

Iñárritu har forsøgt at finde Bergmans hus engang tidligere. Det mislykkedes, for når han spurgte om vej, ledte de lokale ham på vildspor. Med ét var det gået op for ham, at de beskyttede deres nabo, passede på Bergman. Anekdoten er jo smuk, fordi den på én gang fortæller troværdigt om Bergman og hans forhold til de nærmeste og om denne empatisk ekspressive mexikanske filminstruktør, som har krop og intelligens til at fylde rollen som gæst på Bergmans sted, i hans stuer, blandt hans bøger og så denne videosamling. Han har valgt at besøge huset om natten, han går omkring og kigger, men forsigtigere end den forrige gæst. Høfligere. Ærbødig måske. Han tager sit pendul frem, og ja, det begynder at svinge. Bergman er til stede.

Og sådan er det, Iñárritu ved vist nok meget om Bergman, holder fokus (hvis det er filmens fokus?) og taler om Bergman og om døden, som i del 2 er temaet. Forinden har Woody Allen i sit interview talt om Bergman hele tiden. Og det styrker i mine øjne projektet, som har det diskutable udgangspunkt, at når en instruktørs værk er repræsenteret i Bergmans videosamling, er dette værk og dets instruktør interessant for Bergmanforståelsen. Man har vel tænkt på den måde indirekte at skrive et nyt filmhistorisk essay om Bergmans værk. Men de to andre medvirkende Gus van Sant (Elephant, 2003) og Agnieszka Holland (The Wire, 2004-08) taler, så vidt jeg bagefter huske, kun om deres egne film og så om døden, som de skal. Og de er bestemt spændende bekendtskaber, og så er det jeg kommer på den tanke, at Fatima Varhos idé med sin tv-serie er at skildre samtidens filmkunst internationalt i en række enkeltstudier alene holdt sammen af det forhold, at de (måske tilfældigt) står på videoreolen i Fåröhuset? Altså tredobbelt fokus? Jeg er forvirret, for opmærksomheden skifter, uanfægtet ser det ud til, mellem Bergmanstudium, tema (komedie sidst, døden nu) og de medvirkende instruktørers film.

Imidlertid var det i aftes interessante møder med interessante personer, og de bevæger serien mod et ok for mig. Men der er ikke meget nyt føjet til billedet af den store svenske instruktør, som lægger hus til.

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video, Sverige 2012. Seks tv-programmer i serie. En række interviews ved Jane Magnusson og Hynek Pallas. 2. afsnit set på SVT1 i aftes. Kan ses på http://www.svt.se/bergmans-video/ 3. afsnit sendes 5. september 21:00.

Vurdering:

Dokumania: Senna

Danish Dokumania, the Tuesday creative documentary tv slot of DR, broadcasts Asif Kapadia’s great archive based documentary tomorrow, August 28^th. To be highly recommended. Here is a repeat of one of many previous texts about the film:

In a report from the Moscow International Film Festival the following I wrote the following about the film about legendary Ayrton Senna: (the film) has a classical straight forward narrative, simple it is, and should be, with its focus on the career of the formula 1 driver, Brasilian Ayrton Senna, his fight with French Alain Prost, a love-hate relationship, his importance for his poor nation, his charming appearence. It is all built on archive, not a talking face, all comments come off the image, an excellent solution for a film that appeals to a broad audience.

In an interview in the Guardian, Saturday July 9, done by Stuart Feffries, the information is given on a film “that quietly (has) broken box office records to become the surprise hit of the summer. Now the picture is poised for a US release that might well put it in the frame for an Oscar.”

Continued by the following: “The 39-year-old Hackney-born director's film powered away from an unpromising position on the starting grid. It grossed £375,000 on its first weekend, three times more than Kevin Macdonald's 2005 documentary about two British mountaineers' near-death experience in the Andes, Touching the Void. After that impressive start, Kapadia's film looks set to become one of the most successful documentary films ever released in the UK. "At the moment, we're in third and chasing down second," laughs Kapadia. His film has accelerated past Justin Bieber's concert film, Never Say Never. It's now grossed more than £3m and is bearing down on the 2005 nature documentary March of the Penguins. "There's only one documentary we'll never overtake – Fahrenheit 9/11." Michael Moore's 2004 documentary has, like Ayrton Senna in the 1993 Brazilian grand prix, an unassailable lead in this race.”

The interview gives an  excellent background to a film that was also very well received at the festival in Moscow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jul/09/asif-kapadia-interview-ayrton-senna

Vurdering:

Erik Pauser: The Face Of The Enemy

Den lille gruppe unge kvinder sidder i deres deling vietnamesiske soldater under Den amerikanske krig, som den hedder i deres land. Tre af dem overlevede rædslerne, Pauser har besøgt dem, og deres erindringer bliver det bærende element i hans film om krigen, som de og deres generation ser den, for omkring de tre grupperes en række andre vidner, alle dybt rystede stadigvæk, men værdigt afklarede og afdæmpede. De mange år har været nådige. 

Erik Pauser: The Face Of The Enemy, Sverige 2010. Set på DR2 i aftes.

http://www.erikpauser.com/

Vurdering:

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video

Jeg havde glædet mig meget, nu er jeg lidt skuffet. Ja, tænker, at myten om Bergmans filmsamling, hans videorum var bedre end at have set stedet, set de to lænestole, været i huset igen. Sidst sad Lena Endre og Erland Josephson i den brede vindueskarm i arbejdsværelset ved siden af, med udsigten til havet. Det var i den dejlige Trolösa (2000). Nu sætter Tomas Alfredson sig der. Jeg kan ikke rigtig lide det. Jeg kan ikke rigtig lide måden (i tv-programmets sært akavede stil), han nærmer sig huset på, kommenterer arkitekturen og tømrer / snedkerarbejdet på. Det er da ikke dybt nok? Han tager godt nok skoene af, da han bliver bedt om det. Ja, Fåröhuset er nu museum. Videorum og arbejdsværelse mindestuer, hvor støvet lægger sig. Jeg kan ikke rigtig lide det. 

Tomas Alfredson er første afsnits gæst i huset og temaet er komedien. Bergmans komediearbejder eller komedieformen i al filmæstetisk almindelighed? Det er ikke helt klart. Vist heller ikke for Alfredson. Han går omkring og piller lidt ved tingene, kommer med sine usikre bemærkninger og fortæller om et projekt med Bergman, som aldrig blev til noget, en anekdote om Bergmans uvilje mod mobiltelefoner fæstner sig. Jeg ville vist helst ikke have hørt den. Den er ikke morsom, den fortæller om en gammel mand, siger ikke noget om den gamle mands filmkunst. Vil dette tv-program være en ugebladsartikel eller vil det være et seriøst Bergmanstudium? Jeg tror det sidste, men det ligner det første.

Gæstens besøg i huset og i samlingen er hvert afsnits ramme, ser det ud til. I den ramme er i en tydelig kapitelinddeling anbragt en række interviews. Tomas Alfredson får også sådan et, men kommer ikke tættere på Bergman der heller. De øvrige er Robert De Niro, i sig selv en oplevelse og lidt for mig ny viden om de Niros humor. Men tættere på Bergmans humor kommer han ikke. De øvrige interviewede, filminstruktørerne Alexander Payne (Sideways, 2004), Wes Anderson (Rushmore, 1998) og Agnès Jaoui bidrager så vidt jeg kunne høre heller ikke til vores Bergmanforståelse. Men måske, måske var det heller ikke meningen? Jeg vil prøve trofast at hænge på de kommende afsnit. Det kan sagtens blive meget bedre. Og så vil jeg lytte omhyggeligere ind til Jane Magnussons og Hynek Pallas’ interviews, prøve at finde ud af, hvad det egentlig er de vil og vurdere de svar, de får. Finde ud af om det er Bergmans filmkunst, det drejer sig om, eller hvad det er.

Fatima Varhos: Bergmans video, Sverige 2012. Seks tv-programmer i serie. En række interviews ved Jane Magnusson og Hynek Pallas. 1. afsnit set på SVT1 i aftes. Genudsendes i dag over middag. Kan også ses på http://www.svt.se/bergmans-video/ 2. afsnit følger 29. august.

Vurdering:

Péter Forgács: El perro negro

"... El perro negro telling personal dramas, faults, faiths, illusions and desperation, the unseen side of an insane war. The workers self-government experiments, the multitude sufferings of civilians, the schism of the divided country, the revolutionary illusions, murders and the systematic massacres orgies of Franco's brutality changed once and for ever the universe of Unamuno, Lorca, Bunuel, Hernandez, Durruti, the royalists, and the Falangists. The rise, and fall of ideas, the final personal losses come near to our eyes. The unseen private films reveal the cruel and beautiful sides of the Spanish times - as a prelude to the World War II." (fra Péter Forgács' synopsis)

Det nervøst skæve still fra filmen forbinder sig i en association til Robert Capas fotografi af en faldende soldat på en bjergside, et fotografi, som for mig altid har rummet erindringen om nederlaget, den tabte krig. Scenen i filmen udvider sig på samme måde, jeg ser den uden eksterne realkommentarer, men med Forgács’ lyddesign og med den kontrapunktiske voice over, som fortæller en biografi, en af de private livshistorier, filmede og skrevne, som filmens konstruktion hviler på. Ethvert billede indeholder en biografi, siger Forgács. Hans film er en ubrudt dokumentation af den indsigt. Og ethvert følsomt valgt billede indeholder som bekendt et system af associationer, personlige og fælles kulturelle. Filmens klip opererer tillige i lange sekvenser modigt tavst med denne erfaring.

Jeg så den forunderlige og aldeles oprørende film på DR K i aftes. Vær opmærksom! DR K gentager ofte udsendelse af film, man har indkøbt. Når det sker det, se den! For eksempel blot for at se filmscener sat fri af enhver illustrativ lænke. Hvorefter du er alene med borgerkrigens lovløse regel: brutalitet uden grænse.

Péter Forgács: El perro negro, Ungarn 2005, 84 min. Set på DR K. Genudsendes 31. august 14:55.

Vurdering:

Pierre Thoretton: L’Amour Fou

Pierre Bergé, the life long partner of Yves Saint-Laurent (1936-2008), is the one that tells the story about the artist and his troubled life as the fragile and modest designer, who – helped very much by Bergé’s organisational and financial talent – established the world famous fashion house, built up an art collection, and as the years went along, developed deep depressions (Bergé calls it une dépression nerveuse) and took to immense alchohol and drug abuse.

Bergé, often facing the camera, takes the viewer to the different flats and houses of the two, in Paris, in Normandy and in Marrakech with the packing down of the art collection as the backbone of the story. Bergé decided to sell it all after the death of YSL and the film follows that process ending in Grand Palais in Paris at the auction - ”L’amour Fou”, I guess, must refer to both the relationship between the two men, and to their love to the art collection that was of an amazing quality. 

Archive (lots of interviews with YSL, clips from the shows, the amazing ”la collection russe”, and one where Catherine Deneuve sings for the old, shaken designer), photos, his love to the world of Proust (he signed in as Swann when at hotels abroad!), his Mondrian inspiration, the two women who followed him, one his black seducer into narchotics, the other the light and joyful companion. Bergé himself, and his work for rights for homosexuals, is characterised towards the end of the film as a man who lives on memories, a lonely man. (Could, however, have done without the kliché of him standing at a window looking to the sea.) He has been there through the whole film telling his story about YSL. A fascinating insight to a man whose ”fame only brought suffering”.    

Watched the film on DR K, Danish public television (K stands for Kultur), that broadcast several fashion films in connection with a fashion week in Copenhagen. The film is out on dvd.

http://www.ifcfilms.com/

France, 2010, 103 mins.

Vurdering:

Anders Gustafsson: Succesjægerne

Drengene øver sig i at kontakte pigerne. Det gælder om at turde, at få sagt noget, at holde en samtale med den valgte pige så mange sekunder som muligt. Det er en øvelse. De er på kursus på Speed Up Life Academy. De skal til eksamen i mod og andet om knapt fire måneder. De er lige i begyndelsen af kurset, på ryste sammen rejse til et sted i Spanien. Kameraet ser drengene. Med pigernes blik - og de er søde, ser jeg tydeligt, de ser, pigerne.

Problemet er, at drengene ikke ved at de er søde. De er usikre, skuffede, sårede, hæmmede. Det er derfor, de er på psykologikursus. Og der får de at vide, at det kan de gøre noget ved. Som kærlighedslivets kampsoldater træner de sådan tilskyndet med mange mange mavebøjninger, og de lærer at skrige sammen før slaget: Jeg er komplet ligeglad med, hvad andre tænker om mig. Og: Agressivitet er bedre end passivitet.

Gustafssons elegante tv-dokumentar er lige ved, men kun lige ved at blive en rigtig, rigtig klog film. Men den fortaber sig i sine registreringer, sine fine, fine lytninger og iagttagelser, kontrolleret nervøst filmet og flot, flot klippet i en pulserende urolighed, som aldrig bliver rod, som trods jeg hele tiden synes, jeg keder mig, holder mig fast hen over krisepunktet i nærheden af 30 minutter. Igen en film, som vokser og vokser. Imidlertid når den ikke frem til analysens sammenfatning, den siger vist nok, for mig skuffende, at den vil overlade læsningen til mig. Men jeg er ikke interesseret i drengene, jeg er interesseret i Gustavssons anliggende i feltet mellem journalistik og filmkunst, men han giver ikke noget fra sig at læse. I stedet får den charmerende direktør for akademiet det sidste ord. Hos tatovøren ligger han og får sit (og filmens?) credo printet med temmelig vandfast blæk i sin arm: "Med disciplin, målbevidsthed, ærlighed, mod og kærlighed kan du opnå alt det, du sætter dig for. Den rigtige indstilling betyder alt, og ingen vil se mig give op. Fordi jeg vil simpelthen ikke."

Anders Gustafsson: Succesjægerne, Danmark 2011, 40 min. Manuskript: Anders Gustafsson, fotografi: Anders Gustafsson og Niels Thastum, klip: Anja Farsig og Rasmus Steensgaard Madsen, produktion: Plus Pictures, producer: Mette Heide. Sendt på TV2 maj, 2012. Set på Filmstriben.dk

Vurdering:

Annette Mari Olsen og Katia Forbert P.: Fangekoret

Korlederen Louise Adrian har oprettet et kor af indsatte på Statsfængslet i Vridsløselille og filmen følger hende i arbejdet, som ikke kun består i at øve sig og synge. Nej, hun og koristerne skriver musik og tekst selv, og det er der kommet en dejlig film om et sympatisk arbejde ud af, en af den slags film, som vokser og vokser, og som for alvor tager fat, da tv-timen er ved at være forbi. Godt, der findes en lang version, den historie kan ikke hurtigt overstås.

Men hvad er historien egentlig? Hvis historie? Det er som om, der har været ubeslutsomhed i klipperummet, hvor skal fokus være? Alt i materialet har peget på Louise Adrian, for hun fylder hver scene med sin tilstedeværelse, hun lyser simpelthen. Men nogen har tilsyneladende ment, at fokus burde være hos koristerne, naturligvis på grund af af den specielle situation, de er i, alle afsonende lange domme, være hos én af dem, Brian for eksempel, eller hos hele banden, altså en kollektiv film. Det ser ud til, at det sidste nærmest har været beslutningen, og det lider filmen under. Korets medlemmer kommer kun langsomt i gang og ud over kanten frem til mit engagement, mens korlederen gnistrer og stråler fra først til sidst.

Det betyder så det alvorlige, at filmens kerne, det kunstneriske arbejde med at omsætte personligt stof til sange og korværker i nogen grad i filmens skildring overskygges af dette personlige stofs biografiske indhold (koristerne skaber værkerne på deres egne ulykkelige historier) og sentimentaliteten truer atter og atter.

To ting redder filmen, de medvirkende korsangeres ukuelige humør, vid og charme og først og sidst korlederens benhårde krav til ærlighed og kvalitet i hver detalje, i hvert moment af hvert musikstykkes elementer og forløb. Det ender med alligevel ikke at blive en debatfilm om kriminalforsorg, det er en musical om kunstens transformation af det personlige til det almene. Dette hårde arbejde.

Annette Mari Olsen og Katia Forbert Petersen: Fangekoret, Danmark 2012, 58 min./76 min. Fotografi: Katia Forbert Petersen, klip: Wojtek Kloczko, produktion: Sfinx Film/TV for DR2 ved Mette Hoffmann Meyer. Kan ses på filmstriben.dk

Vurdering:

Kevin Macdonald: One Day in September

Den er fra 1999, den er en klassiker i dag, og den vil blive stående som klassiker i filmlitteraturen i fremtiden. Som sådan er den altid aktuel, ikke kun fordi der nu er olympiade (den foregår som bekendt under olympiaden i München 1972), men fordi den handler om grusom vold af den slags, nogle kalder terror, andre kalder krig, og om troskyldighedens nederlag med sin manglende professionalisme i den forbindelse.

Jeg så på Dokumania i tirsdags, at den film i sine centrale dele holder styrken efter tretten år, med langsomheden frem for hastværket, med koncentrationen frem for overfladiskheden, med fremstillingens ro midt i begivenhedernes forvirring, som den skildrer. Altså især i konstruktionens og fortællingens centrale elementer. Der er for mig at se disse fire:

Der er den kronologiske beretning (vældig støttet af Michael Douglas’ fortællerstemme) af selve begivenhedsforløbet fra gidseltagningens forberedelse over dens pinefulde faser til til det forfærdende slutspil i lufthavnen, fortalt som en nedtælling minut for minut.

Der er det store gennemgående interview med en af gidseltagerne (formodentlig den eneste overlevende), som ser aktionen, som han kalder det, som en krigshandling.

Der er her overfor interviewet med chefen for den israelske efterretningstjeneste, som må se magtesløs til, mens han nøgternt noterer sig alle de fejl, de tyske politifolk begår fra øverst til nederst, fra først til sidst.

Og der er endelig heroverfor igen den tyske general, som kynisk erindrer det samme, han, som derefter fik til opgave at udvikle et fuldt ud professionelt tysk antiterrorkorps.

Dette er filmens umistelige kerne. Dens overflødige og sentimentale rammeværk vil blive glemt, og det gør ikke noget. Dramaets detaljer og de tre interviews’ nøgterne sagkundskab inden for det fag bliver i sindet al tid – som klassisk filmkunst.

Tue Steen Müller har her på siden dels refereret et interview med den meget flittige instruktør Kevin Macdonald i hans syn på dokumentarfilms udvidede muligheder i dag dels nævnt ham i forbindelse med en lang række festvals, hvor hans film har været vist, senest festivalen i Tel Aviv, april i år, hvor hans helt nye Marley var den ene af to åbningsfilm. Andre film bør nævnes: Touching the Void, 2005, My Enemy's Enemy, 2007, som kan ses på filmstriben.dk og Life in a Day, 2010, filmen han taler om i det nævnte interview.

Vurdering:

Eugene Jarecki: Reagan /2

Jamen, hvad er nu det for noget? Er den ikke kedelig den film? Jeg havde da ventet noget helt særligt og regulært spændende, i hvert fald noget dybt interessant, eller bare lidt interessant af denne film om den præsident, amerikanerne vist nok bedst kan lide. Men jeg så de næsten to timer totalt forvirret af mistet overblik og ganske energiforladt, for det kunne slet ikke vække min interesse.

Jeg er klar over, at det er noget med mig, jeg kan nogen gange have svært ved at forstå journalistiske pointer, vel på grund af manglende relevant paratviden. Men det kan også være noget med formen, Eugene Jarecki har valgt til sin præsidentfilm. Jeg har jo for kort tid siden set Clinton af Barak Goodman, hvor jeg med stigende interesse havde fulgt et shakespearesk drama i fire akter, et kronologisk epos som en islandsk saga og en krønike som fra et dansk kloster i middelalderen genfortalt eller gendigtet af Saxo. Alt det kan jo ikke være sandt på én gang, men det var sandt, mens jeg så det, for sådan så jeg det. Begejstret.

Det fælles for de fire genrer er kronologien. At filmen loyalt gengiver begivenhederne i tidsrækkefølge i samarbejde med min hukommelse, som husker dele af begivenhedsrækken i forvejen, fra andre tekster, fra mit eget liv. Jeg drives af nysgerrighed efter, hvad der sker med mig i mit eget liv. Det er naturligvis derfor, Clinton er min helt. Som en lang række fyrster var det i historiebogen i skolen, hos Shakespeare på biblioteket, i Ingemanns romaner. Min smag er kulørt.

Jarecki vil noget andet. Han vil undersøge Reagan som person, han vil lave en klog film om en statsleder, der iagttages som et objekt, der nøgternt holdes ude fra kroppen og al mulig identifikation, og han vil belære mig med denne klogskab. Han vil ikke lave en kronologisk parafrase, han vil lave en tematisk fremstilling, tage problemstilling efter problemstilling og forholde sig moralfilosofisk til dem. Så han vælger som form det journalistiske essay, men han tør ikke hengive sig til tankedybden i temaerne, som bliver postulater som overskrifter, men han slipper ikke den kronologiske tryghed. For han vælger begge dele, drevet af ambition og af, hvad han tror nødvendigt. Jeg tror, at filmen mister overblikket. Det er derfor, jeg mistede det. Fortællerstemmen er valgt bort som mulighed, forståelsen skal fremgå af vidnernes udsagn i interviewene. Men det lykkes ikke, for af hensyn til filmens fremdrift klippes fremdriften ud af interviewene. Jeg mister interessen, finder Reagan er konstant uinteressant i det han siger, også i de to berømte taler. Jeg mangler min helt. I et essay er essayisten normalt helten, identifikationspunktet. Men her er ingen fortællerstemme, og han er heller ikke til at finde for mig i klippets valg, linje og rytme. Det skulle være en klog film om Ronald Reagan, jeg fangede ikke pointerne, fattede ikke dybderne. Det har nok med mig og mine forudsætninger at gøre, men jeg synes det er en kedelig film, og jeg tror faktisk ikke det er en klog film.

Eugene Jarecki: Reagan, USA 2011, 45 + 55 min. Sendt på DR2 23. og 24. juli.   

Vurdering:

Jacob Jørgensen og Henrik Lundø: Min dal

Denne dejlige egnsskildring genudsendes på onsdag om aftenen ganske passende (sommer, turvejr og ferie) og så berettiget, for den er en vigtig og så ubemærket selvfølgelig smuk tv-dokumentar. Hans Edvard Nørregaard-Nielsen krediteres for den af DR K. Vel som medvirkende og forfatter, den blev jo produceret i forbindelse med udgivelsen sidste år af hans to binds værk om Limfjordens topografi og kulturhistorie, hvor den i dvd kopi følger med i en lomme på bindets inderside. Nørregaard-Nielsen har skrevet en vidunderlig tekst på en sikkert på flere måder livslang forundersøgelse. Men det skal nævnes, at Kirsten Klein har medvirket til bogen i betydeligt omfang, og at de sammen er kloge og følsomme medvirkende i Jørgensens og Lundøs film, for det er da bestemt de sidstnævnte, som har lavet filmen, den er deres arbejde, og de stiller det generøst beskedne til rådighed for Nørregaard-Nielsen og Klein, som er dem, vi ser og hører. Jeg skrev glad om dem her på siden, da filmen blev sendt første gang: "Det er en uafbrudt tilfredsstillelse at følge de tos kloge, indsigtsfulde, originale og på hver sin måde, i det danske sprog og i det danske fotografi, virtuose skildring af Limfjordens topografi, historie og poesi." Jeg glæder mig til at gøre det igen.

Jacob Jørgensen og Henrik Lundø: Min dal, 2011, 50 min. Medvirkende: Kirsten Klein og Hans Edvard Nørregaard-Nielsen, produktion: JJ Film. Sendes onsdag 25. juli 20:00 på DR K. Filmen findes på filmstriben.dk  Jørgensen og Lundø har tidligere samarbejdet med Nørregaard-Nielsen om et lignende projekt, Jeg så det land, 2005, 61 min. Også den kan ses på filmstriben.dk

Eugene Jarecki: Reagan

DR2 sender i morgen aften og tirsdag aften meget passende efter Clinton den britiske, som de skriver, tv-dokumentar i to afsnit Reagan. Der findes i hvert fald én produktion mere om Ronald Reagan, men jeg gætter på, at den vi får er den New York baserede amerikanske instruktør Eugene Jareckis film fra 2011. Den har været sendt på BBC Storyville og er måske delvist finansieret derfra, men det bliver den nok ikke britisk af. Vi får se. Interessant bliver det af vigtigere grunde, for Jarecki har tidligere lavet film om Henry Kissinger, det var i 2002, og han fandt under det arbejde ud af, at den amerikanske udenrigspolitik er resultat af en del mere end en enkelt personligheds indsats, derfor gik han videre med en meget bredere analyser, Why We Fight i 2005 om det militære-industrielle kompleks. I The House I Live In fra i år undersøger han "krigen mod narkotika". Begge værker blev belønnet med Grand Jury Prize på Sundance de pågældende to år.

Tue Steen Müller har tidligere her på siden skrevet om Jareckis Reagan-films placering i den amerikanske tradition af præsidentfilm. Den sendes på DR2 mandag 23. juli 22:50 og tirsdag 24. juli 22:50.

Chris Hegedus og D.A. Pennebaker: Kings of Pastry

Jacquy Pfeiffer til venstre vil gerne være MOF, have ret til tricoloren i kraven ligesom vennen og kollegaen Sebastien Canonne til højre. For at få den skal han deltage i Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, en konditorprøve, som afholdes hvert fjerde år. Det fik han lyst til, da han fire år tidligere hjalp Sebastien til godkendelse, og nu er det omvendt. Jacquy har forberedt sig alle årene, og nu pudser han sammen med Sebastien formen af og lige netop det viser sig skæbnesvangert, da afgørelsen falder efter tre forrygende og voldsomt krævende prøvedage. Der er 16 kandidater til titlen og kraven, men kun omkring en tredjedel består denne gang.

Man skal selvfølgelig være dybt fascineret af avanceret konditorkunst for fuldstændigt at forstå og værdsætte denne film. Der mangler jeg en del, men jeg kan forstå og jeg kan lide Hegedus’ og Pennebakers filmkunst. De lader filmen som konstruktion vokse langsomt fra bunden, udvikle sig fuldstændigt som Jacquys bryllupskageskulptur i et langt, langt crescendo med velanbragte og meningsfulde (velsmagende) afstikkere og detaljer, små sejre og tidskrævende nederlag undervejs, herunder et frygteligt uheld som under selve prøven rammer en sympatisk medkandidat, jeg undervejs også har lært at kende. Uheldet overvindes og prøvens sidste dag slutter i højeste tempo og i højeste spænding. På toppen af filmkonstruktionen er som på kagen naturligvis selve brylluppet.

Chris Hegedus og D. A. Pennebaker: Kings of Pastry, USA 2010. Fotografi, lyd, klip og produktion: Chris Hegedus og D. A. Pennebaker. DR2 Dokumania i aftes. Tilgængelig for danskere online i denne uge på Dokumanias hjemmeside   

En anden film af amerikanske (og ikke engelske som Dokumania skriver) Pennebaker: Monterey Pop

Vurdering:

Barak Goodman: Clinton

Barak Goodman har med sit selskab i Brooklyn, NY lavet en lang række arkiv-baserede, historieformidlende, ”i dybden”, som de selv skriver, tv-dokumentarer: Mai Lai (2010), The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (2009), The Lobotomist (2008), Kinsey (2005) og en række flere. Jeg har ikke set nogen af dem, men kunne bestemt have lyst, bare på titlerne. Så jeg var spændt, da DR2 i aftes sendte 1. afsnit af Goodmans helt nye Clinton. Men jeg blev faktisk skuffet. OK, der var mange, mange for mig nye oplysninger, men det blev trods den trænede fortæller, Campbell Scotts troværdige stemme til pligtstof for mig, jeg kedede mig faktisk. Der er i serien ellers lagt op til et flot drama med ham og hende, Bill og Hillary, naturtalentet og den intellektuelle slider, den udadvendt folkelige og den tænksomme hjerne bag det fælles foretagende og de store ambitioner, mellem den konstant troløse mand og den atter og atter bedragne kvinde. Der blev blot ikke tid nok til i enkelte scener, i umistelige billeder at låse sådanne store temaer fast. Det er vist ikke, hvad Goodman mener med at gå i dybden, vil gå i dybden med. ("... an in-depth look at the legendary president Abraham Lincoln" står der på dvd-coveret om den film). Det må være noget andet andet, en anden slags dybde. Chokerende nye oplysninger? Også for historikerne? Måske. Der er tre timer tilbage. 2. del sendes i aften 22:50. Jeg hænger på...

2. DEL

Det var godt, jeg fortsatte. Vidnerne står nu klart frem. Og velordnet ensartede. Men der er voldsomt mange medvirkende med analyse-konklusioner, som i klippet sættes på i så voldsom forkortelse, at alle udsagn bliver postulater. Filmen interesserer sig ikke for mellemregningerne, ikke for det lange tøvende i en egentlig samtale. Den vil effektiv fremdrift i en fortælling, som skal nå så meget, som muligt.

Den holdning giver så til gengæld i her i værkets del 2 et overblik fastholdt i hovedafsnit, som jeg bagefter kan huske: Først Vince Fosters selvmord, som berørte Clintonparret dybt og ledte til den plagsomme Whitewatersag, så kampen for det første budget, som endte med sejr på en enkelt marginal, men dog en sejr, som hurtigt gav finanspolitiske resultater af betydning, men så nederlag på nederlag: Krigen i Somalia, Folkemordet i Rwanda, Sundhedsreformen frem til lavpunktet (hedder det, men det er vel som man tager det) nederlaget til republikanernes Newt Gingrich i valgene til Kongressen, hvor Demokraterne mister flertallet i Senatet, valget, som mere end valg af repræsentanter og senatorer blev til et valg for eller imod Clinton. Se det er jo for så vidt et godt overblik over en periode. Mere end pligtstof, dramatisk og spændende fortalt, faktisk. Men hvor er analysen? Den samlede forståelse og holdningen til tingene. Til nu forsvinder den i mere end 15 vidners korte statements. Campbell Scotts fortællerstemme holder sig til begivenhedernes referat, den røber ikke filmens bud på indsigt og forståelse. Sådan samlet. Jeg forstår stadigvæk ikke, hvad Goodman selv mener og hvordan han og hans film placerer sig uden for alt det, der i forvejen menes om den præsident. Hvad er det mon der tilføjes? Barak Goodman med de mange dokumentariske priser vil da andet end filme og holde mikrofon over interviewmedvirkendes hoveder? Der er to afsnit tilbage. I aften og i morgen aften. Jeg må se ordentlig efter, høre ordentlig efter.  Det kan nås for mig at finde ud af det…

3. DEL

Nå, sådan er det lavet! Goodmans egen analyse og konklusion og holdning ligger – filmisk faktisk – som en konstruktion af små dele af interviewene, som er limet sammen af den – forstår jeg også nu – omhyggelige og naturligvis velskrevne fortællerstemme. De medvirkende er ikke medvirkende som personer, som personligheder slet ikke. Man ved for alles vedkommende, at de må være fascinerende mennesker. Alle som én. Men her er de stemmer i et samlet kor, samlet i en klippets ordning i en dramatisk fortællekurve. Kun en enkelt skiller sig ud på mærkelig vis, det er Kofi Annan. (Det må jeg finde ud af senere.) Så tv-serien er ikke et udsagn, eller en række udsagn om, men et billede af Clinton og de år, han var præsident. Et pointelistisk billede, et impressionistisk billede, et langt gobelinvævet tapet. Et ordnet flimmer af brudte udsagn. Går jeg tæt på, bliver det uskarpt, går jeg på afstand, læner mig tilbage og tager fortællingen til mig, umiddelbart, vokser tv-værket til et stort epos.

Den gennemførte kronologi kaster nogle gevinster af sig i og med, at jeg jo kender hovedtrækkene i begivenhedsrækken, det er jo alt sammen sket for øjnene af mig. Det er i min tid, og det giver fortællemæssige muligheder, som Barak Goodman udnytter: Whitewater-sagen kan komme op igen og igen, den berømte unge praktikant kan introduceres - men ikke mere, jeg kender hende jo - introduceres de mærkelige dage, hvor Clinton gik alene omkring i regeringskontorerne, for personalet var sendt hjem, han havde ikke penge til lønningerne, fordi lovgivningsmagtens flertal anført af Newt Gingrich og han ikke kunne nå overens om det statslige budget. Min interesse bindes i denne vældige styrkeprøve med de mange pespektiver, som Clinton vinder så grundigt, at det fører direkte til den store sejr ved præsidentvalget i 1996, men jeg ved dog bag dette, at der jo var det der med praktikanten. Jeg ved, at præsidenten tænker på det. Ved andre det? I hvert fald ved de i filmen ikke, vidste de dengang ikke, Clinton slet ikke, at det en dag vil eksplodere – i fjerde og sidste afsnit.

Lige nu før fjerde akt er præsidenten stor og fri. Fri af ham, som opførte sig, som var han præsident, Newt Gingrich, omsider fri af Hillary Clintons medpræsident-funktion, som var uhensigtsmæssig i forhold til de andre nærmeste medarbejdere. Gingrich har regulært tabt og Hillary har klogt indset, at hun må spille på egen bane. Og Clinton viser sig handlekraftig, ikke kun indenrigspolitisk, også udenrigpolitikken tager han på sig skønt skræmt af de afrikanske katastrofer tidligere. Skønt han end ikke har lært at gøre honnør griber han som øverstkommanderende ind og sender USA sammen med NATO i krig mod Serbien og har med ét den anerkendte rolle som den vestlige verdens leder.

4. DEL

Krønikens ubarmhjertige form, den strenge kronologi indebærer således også sine egne slutninger. Og ofte slutter begivenhedsrækken ikke med et markant punktum, den glider ud i mere ens – tlsyneladende ens dage. Clinton har 700 af den slags dage tilbage i det hvide hus efter Lewinsky sagen, som fylder meget af fjerde akt, vel nok alt for meget. De 700 dage synes jeg følgelig der skulle være gjort mere ud af, for dem ved jeg på forhånd mindre eller intet om. De gør mig nysgerrig.

Det smukke arkivfoto, som sidder i toppen af dette blogindlæg, bruger Barak Goodman til fortællingen om samtalen mellem de to, mellem ham og hende, da han omsider indrømmer, at han var hende utro med den unge kvinde i regeringskontorerne. De to ser ikke på hinanden, ser ikke hinanden, de ser hver deres vej, men parallelt, på lige fod, lige stærke. Og sådan bliver det. Hun arbejder herefter på at vinde og vinder guvernørposten i New York, hun har nu sin egen karriere, sit eget liv. Han hjælper hende, men han har først og sidst sin lange afslutning, sine 700 dage.

Det betydningsladede arkivbillede, billedsiden til den afgørende scene, bliver også det centrale element i tv-seriens plakat, som fastholder tv-dokumentarens shakespearske plot omkring erotik, ambition og magt.

Barak Goodman: Clinton, USA, 2012, 4x50 min., manuskript: Barak Goodman, fotografi: Stephen McCarthy, klip: George O´Donnell og Nancy Novack, produktion: Ark Media Barak Goodman, Chris Durrance og Jamila Ephron. Sendtes på DR2 16.-19. juli 2012.  

Vurdering:

Yael Hersonski: A Film Unfinished

Dokumania på DR2 viser i aften 21:00 under overskriften Ghettoens glemte film Yael Hersonskis berømte A Film Unfinished fra 2008. Vi skrev dengang og senere om filmen her på filmkommentaren.dk: "... Som nu herren, som sidder og læser ved chatollet i fred og ro. Men nej, så blev der i arkivet fundet en glemt filmrulle med fraklippet. Der blev fundet to dagbøger, som fortalte om optagelserne, om de tyske dokumentarfolks arrangeren alting. Den læsende herre er altså tvunget til at sidde der i ro, og det er, hvad han har tilbage, disse tre møbler, bag kameraet er stuen fyldt med resten af hans familie. I soveværelset bor en anden familie, i de andre værelser andre, én familie i hvert rum." 

Tue Steen Müller mødte filmen i professionelle sammenhænge fra da den pitched på Copro i Tel Aviv til den blev præsenteret på festivalen Memorimage i Reus nord for Barcelona, hvor man specialiserer sig i film om erindring, ofte bygget på arkivstof. Netop som Hersonskis film, hvor arkivstoffet er noget ganske særligt, optaget til et formål og nu reflekterende vendt mod sig selv, uden at filmbillederne antastes som de dokumentariske filmbilleder, de er.

Filmens hjemmeside link

The Guardian: Destination Docs

The British newspaper, always strong on cinema, has launched a series of (sponsored) articles named “Destination Docs”, published in connection with the Sheffield DocFest. The headline goes like this, “Despite new documentary formats, traditional fact-based films still attract impressive audiences – and offer value for money”. The series reminds you of the constant documentary dominance in the UK of the broadcasting companies, contrary to the rest of Europe, it is good reading, even more so when the floor is given to one of the best documentarians of today, Molly Dineen:

“Bafta-winning documentary maker Molly Dineen believes Channel 4 has shown bravery in the past with its factual shows, but has a word of caution to all the broadcasters. "Channel 4 is still very cool for factual, but it needs to be stretched by the subject matter. There's a risk that all channels are suffering an unhealthy pressure for docs to become more light, sexy, cheap and overly dramatic.

"The adventure has got to be in tackling issues that need to be tackled, that could be expensive and unpopular. Filming real-life is expensive; structured reality is not," warns Dineen.

Channel 4 also risks losing out to competition from the web, she says. "There needs to be collusion between the mainstream and what young filmmakers are shooting [for the web] and their motivation." Dineen adds: "If C4 let too much of the genuine political underbelly of documentary move to the web, then they could be sunk because telly will then just be advertising and titillation, and the serious look at life will end up on the web."

Molly Dineen's documentaries will be out on dvd thanks to the British Film Institute: a three-volume collection. The first volume, out on 25 April, contains Home from the Hill, My African Farm, Heart of the Angel and In the Company of Men, her three-part examination of Welsh Guardsmen on a final tour of duty in pre-ceasefire Belfast.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/11/factuals-big-fat-viewing-figures

Anna von Lowzow: P. S. Krøyer/ 2

Birte Overlade spørger i en bemærkning (se højre spalte) til et blogindlæg fra 24. marts 2008 om von Lowzows film om Krøyer og kunstnerkolonien i Skagen hvilken stor kærlighedshistorie jeg refererer til, når jeg skriver, at de to medvirkende Jon Holden Dahl og Jette Thage meget bedre selv og alene kunne have fortalt ”den historie om Krøyer, vi alle sammen kender i alle detaljer, én gang til, på en ny måde og med deres værdige varme og ro.” For sådan er det, ”vi hører jo gerne de store kærlighedshistorier igen og igen…”

Jamen jeg tænker da i første række på kærlighedshistorien med Marie og Søren Krøyer. Og allerførst på hvordan de begge skildrer den i deres billeder. Dernæst – og nu kommer de referencer, som er mine, dem jeg lige havde i tankerne, da jeg skrev så kortfattet irriteret efter at have set filmen: Ole Wivel: Rejsen til Skagen, 1977, Jens Smærup Sørensen og Franz Ernst: Lyset over Skagen, 1986 (filmmanuskript), Marianne Saabye: P. S. Krøyers Fotografi, 1990 (udstilling og bog), Jacob Thage, red.: Portrætter fra et ægteskab, 1997 (udstilling og bog).

Marie og Søren Krøyers kærlighedshistorie er en stor kærlighedshistorie, en af dem ”vi” (altså jeg) gerne hører atter og atter. Som Marguerite Duras’ og kineserens (hendes to romaner), som jeg er så optaget af lige nu, hvor Elskeren fra Nordkina er kommet i dansk oversættelse, som Célines og Lilis (skrevet frem i hans sidste romaner), som Harriet Bosses og August Strindbergs (på den måde Lagercrantz skildrer den i sin biografi) og som Goethes og Ulrike von Levetzows kærlighedshistorie (fuld af fryd og smerte foldet ud i Martin Walsers roman Ein liebender Mann, 2008). 

Vikram Gandhi: Kumaré

The reason for this review that ends with concrete info in Danish: The DR  documentary strand Dokumania invites to a screening at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen of this very entertaining documentary that is produced in the US, has travelled festivals over there, is American in tone, has been compared to ”Borat”, which is right as a starting point as the director also plays fake with his identity but this is where the comparison stops.

The power of illusion is the theme of the film – well, what could be a more precise description when it comes to cinema? The director of the film, that has the subtitle ”a true story about a false prophet”, ” is a young East Coast American from an Indian family. He is astonished by the success of Eastern-style gurus in the wealthiest parts of the world. As an experiment, Gandhi learns the tricks of the yoga trade, dresses himself as a guru, lets his beard grow, adopts a thick accent, and sets off under the name Kumaré to the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona. There, he quickly gathers a group of followers around him, whom he teaches to meditate to catchphrases such as "Be all that you can be." (text taken from idfa annotation 2011). With his own commentary the audience is guided through his journey that must stop at a point, “I am not who you think I am”, he must reveal his true identity. What is the reaction from the disciples, did they buy his “help yourself, you don’t need a Guru”?  

Back to the power of illusion – in the beginning this blogger thought that the director wanted to reveal all the humbug in the commercial, spiritual world, but the film changes perspective and comes out differently, without (almost, I would say) making fun of the disciples who worship Sri Kumaré. 

USA, 2011, 84 mins.

Photos courtesy of Kahlil Hudson and Daniel Leeb (according to site of the film)

Filmen vises på Det Kgl. Bilbiotek mandag den 14. Maj kl. 17. Instruktøren er til stede. Begrænset plads.

Filmen vises på Dokumania, 22.maj 2012 kl. 21 med genudsendelse 26.maj kl. 17

http://www.kb.dk/da/dia/studentsonly/ord/120514_dokumania_kumare.html

http://www.kumaremovie.com/about/

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?ID=052158f7-f57e-41bd-9846-84cf42a090d0

Vurdering:

Mat Hodgson: QPR: The Four Year Plan

A classical story, and a wonderful tv documentary for football freaks like this blogger. This is the text that gives the background, taken from the BBC’s programme site:

”In 2007 Queens Park Rangers Football Club, facing relegation and bankruptcy, was rescued by four high-profile billionaires. Their vision: to take a community of reluctant fans, semi-talented players and a roster of ever-changing managers to Premiership glory. The new owners, risking ridicule and commercial failure, allowed cameras unprecedented access to record the roller-coaster ride. Though they paid for much of the filming they did not control where the cameras pointed or what ended up in the film.”

QPR succeeded but after years of struggling on the pitch and mostly backstage, where the film stays with the protagonists, where – luckily, as they live up to all the clichés about Italians – the Italian owner and the Italian sports manager express their strong emotions according to the results, which in the first years were terrible and where the coaches are changed whenever there is a slate of defeats... ”he is an idiot”, is being said about the men who were saluted just months ago as the savour of Queens Park Rangers, the London club with the address Loftus Road.

It is a well-made observational documentary, it lives through the details, and through the long time it has been filming, with the right warm and humourous touch, with a lot of f... words, but also hugs and vanity – if they dont stop booing me, I will leave, says Flavio, one of the moneymen behind the club, the mafia-looking guy on the photo. And the films includes great lines to pick up like ”this season we don’t scream at the players”.

PS. QPR is now fighting to avoid the relegation to Championship again, the coach is no longer Neil Warnock but Mark Hughes. Hoping the best for the club!

UK, 2012, 90 mins.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01d7kd7

Vurdering:

Dokville

... is the name of a ”Branchentreff Dokumentarfilm” in Ludwigsburg, taking place in Ludwigsburg the coming week, May 3-4. Organised by Haus des Dokumentarfilm the event, that has the title ”vom Dokumentarfilm leben”, among other issues has its focus on webdocumentaries with the intervention of producer Christian Beetz, who will give the story about the multimedia project ”Farewell, Comrades” (Photo), entitled ”Crossmedia – Chance für den Dokumentarfilm?”.

On the subject of webdocs - Thomas Schneider writes on the site of Dokville (read the rest as well): Bei Arte – aber nicht nur dort – wird schon seit einer ganzen Weile mit diesem neuen Medienkonzept gearbeitet. Entstanden sind so in den letzten Jahren gut ein Dutzend Webdokus – die besten von ihnen zum Beispiel über »Prison Valley«, eine Gegend in den USA, die nur für den Strafvollzug genutzt wird oder über den arabischen Frühling im Jahre 2011. Sie sind alle über die Website www.arte.tv abrufbar – in der Navigationsleiste haben die Webdokus einen eigenen, prominenten Bereich spendiert bekommen. Auch beim MDR hat man geschichtliche Dokumentarthemen mit Webdokus begleitet: zum Mauerbau und zur Geschichte des Trabis zum Beispiel.

Pepe Danquart, German director and producer, is invited to make the introductory keynot speech. The director of a recent film on Joshka Fischer, and the coproducer of Michael Glawogger’s ”Whores' Glory”, will for sure make a both entertaining and critical kick to the present situation of the documentary, here in special in Germany.

And there are many other issues on the agenda of the two day event. Sometimes it is good to stop the flow of festivals and discuss the state of the art. Which is what the Germans do here.

http://www.dokville2012.de/

Sean McAllister: Japan: A Story of Love and Hate

The British filmmaker Sean McAllister took part in the East European Platform event in Prague organised by IDF (Institute of Documentary Film). He ran a masterclass, where he showed clips from his many films shot in troubled areas (Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria and Yemen, where his last film ”The Reluctant Revolutionary” was shot, it had its premiere at the Berlinale 2012). For a night screening McAllister had chosen to show his 2008 work from Japan, ”Japan: A Story of Love and Hate”, a film shot in a non-war-non-conflict area, and a film that he appreciated a lot himself.

As did I, for good reasons, as the film is an excellent conveyed story from a Japan that we know so little about, a film that simply takes us to meet Japanese people, who are open-minded when it comes to their private life, and a film that shows McAllister’s unique talent for getting close to people, have their trust and treat them with respect. The director is involved, his voice is heard, he arranges and pushes the story, and he sets an atmosphere of serious fun. It is a film made with and not about.

It works thanks to Naoki, his 56 year old English speaking protagonist, divorced several times, once a businessman on top of the world and now a postman with a tiny salary. His luck is that Yoshie, 29, takes care of him, she has several jobs including a night one, where she leaves home to entertain men at bars. They live in a very small flat and this is where most of the film takes place. Where most of the conversations between McAllister and Naoki take place as well, and they are pretty intimate. Naoki has a kind of fatalistic approach to his situation, laughs at it and defines it to be all because of capitalism pointing at the director with a laugh – ”that you Westerners brought to us”.

I have never seen a film like that from Japan, about poverty and family trouble and love life crisis. You are never bored, on the contrary, you are in the film from start to end, and – gosh – I have never seen a filmmaker bring a viagra pill as a gift to a character, as does McAllister does on his second vsit to the father of Yoshie, who has the same age and problem as Naoki, who with this visit, after several years of being with his daughter, sees her father for the first time.

UK, Channel4, 2008, 70 mins.

http://www.seanmcallister.com/

http://www.tenfootfilms.co.uk/

Vurdering:

Broomfield & Churchill: Sarah Palin. You Betcha

The style of British director Broomfield is well known from many of his films. He is in the picture, he is a character himself, the journalist looking for characters, and the truth, walking in and out of doors, very often as the upper class, well dressed British gentleman asking questions, very often without revealing his critical mission. It worked perfectly with ”The Leader, the Driver and the Driver's Wife” from apartheid South Africa and with other films, where he is trying to get an interview with politicians and celebreties.

This is also the case with his newest film, on Sarah Palin, but he fails to get the interview, he wants, and the film fails for the same reason, as he has to use archive (mostly tv) material from her career that brings nothing new to the screen. Well, he gets talks with Palin’s father and with all the people that she has been using and betraying, but as you all the way through the film waits for the clever Broomfield to get close to Palin, you end up being disappointed and bored seeing scene after scene with the director about to fall on his ass up there on the icy roads of Alaska.

I saw the film on Danish Dokumania, a rerun yesterday morning, in a version where the image pretty often had a text coming up saying ”only for preview”. Ooooops! Embarrassing for DR2, Danish public broadcaster not to have checked copy before transmission!

www.dokumania.dk

http://www.nickbroomfield.com/

Vurdering:

Magnus Gertten: Håbets Havn

Den svenske instruktør Magnus Gerttens mesterstykke "Håbets Havn", som er anmeldt på engelsk på filmkommentaren, bliver vist på DR2 på onsdag den 25 kl. 20.30 i en én-times udgave. Og på SVT2 dagen efter, den 26, kl.20 med flere genudsendelser.

Her er et klip fra den begejstrede anmeldelse af en film, som er ganske enestående: It is brilliant. With a classical approach and with a fine balance between conveying information and creating emotions, the film lets three holocaust survivors tell their story, starting from the time point where they arrive with the Red Cross buses from the camps to Malmö – going, in a fine montage, back in time to what happened before and afterwards.

Vurdering:

Farewell Comrades! TV, Webdoc, Book/ 2

The first tv-documentary episode of the arte (German-French) crossmedia event, presented on this site a couple of weeks ago, is online for a free preview, also for viewers outside France and Germany. The 52 mins. documentary, to be broadcast on arte this coming tuesday, directed by Andrei Nekrasov, covers the period 1975-1979 in the series that in its 6 parts goes up to 1991.

It is too early to make a review of the tv series – I will wait until the whole series is out on dvd – announced to be on February 8 – also to be able to watch a version without dubbed voices as here in French or in German. Nevertheless, having watched the German version expectations are met by the work of Nekrasov, who instead of a tv-normal-boring third person commentary has chosen what is called a father-daughter dialogue. The young woman in the film is the daughter of Nekrasov, Tatjana, in the film carrying the name Gagarina! In the introduction at the site of arte it is said:

“Ein Dialog zwischen Vater und Tochter bildet den roten Faden der Serie: Der Vater, geboren in den 50er Jahren, wurde nach sowjetischen Ideal erzogen, während die Tochter, eine moderne junge Europäerin auf der Suche nach ihren Wurzeln, in den 80er Jahren im Westen aufwuchs…”

In other words, the father has lived it, the daughter wants to understand what went wrong with socialism and is the one who gives the viewer the background verbally accompanied by archive material from documentary and fiction films as well as interviews with people like the interpreter of Ceaucescu, the close advisor to Brezhnev, the man who blew the statue of Czekoslovak communist leader Klement Gottwald into pieces.

http://www.arte.tv/fr/Adieu-Camarades-_21-1975-1991/4314104.html

http://www.farewellcomrades.com/en/

Julie Bonan: Il était.. Les enfants du Paradis

The world’s best film? No doubt for me, Marcel Carné’s ”Les Enfants du Paradis” from 1945, shot during the German occupation, script by Jacques Prévert with the best of best of French actors like Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoit and Jean-Louis Barrault AND the star over all stars, Arletty.

Pure pleasure it could only be to watch this tv-documentary that takes us behind the scenes with archive interviews to meet Prévert, Arletty and Carné, a story guided by, among others, director Bertrand Tavernier, photos from the shooting, a lot of anecdotes, and the sad story about Arletty, who had a love affair with a German office, went to prison, and thus could not be there for the premiere of the film in 1945 because of her ”collaboration”. A film that at the same time became a symbol of the French liberation!

Garance and Baptiste, Arletty and Barrault. Carné and Prévert, touching it is to see the latter, in an interview from 1969, say that all films are actually documentaries, Arletty is performing in a film that is about herself. Prévert wrote the role to her as well as the lines.

Lucky you, who have not yet seen ”Les Enfants du Paradis”, and lucky us who can see it gain and again.... and thanks to the digital channel of DR/K, who showed the documentary about the masterpiece on a grey monday morning.

2009, 50 mins., made for France 5

Farewell Comrades! TV, WebDoc, Book

Twenty years ago. The fall of the empire, USSR and the communist regimes in the East bloc. Time to look back. And time to use different media to approach the huge overall theme from many angles and with many eye-witnesses involved. Produced by the companies, German Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion and French Artline Productions, what was launched yesterday is ”a multimedia event” with a tv-series of 6 x 52 mins., a webformat (also called webdoc) and a book. The book has been out since September 2011, the tv-series will be broadcast January 24, 31 and February 7 (2 parts each evening) on arte and be published on dvd by February 8, by arte that is the main financial locomotive of this big production.

The site is there now and I have used some hours this morning to enjoy it. The build-up is very simple: 30 postcards lead to 30 people born in the USSR or in former East Bloc countries like GDR, Poland, Romania, Czekoslovakia and Hungary. For each person there is a small 3-5 minutes long film based on interviews and archive material with reference to topics that can be studied with more text and sometimes with more archive material. 22 topics are covered like sports, youth, resistance, dictatorship, love, youth etc. There are photos of the 30 protagonists who cover a wide range of backgrounds, not only geographically but also socially. There are an Olympic champion, a zoo keeper, an engineer, a school teacher, a couple of journalists, a counter-intelligence officer, a choir member etc. You can choose language when you surf on the site: English, French, German, Hungarian and Norwegian! The short films are subtitled, no dubbing, thanks for that. It is quite a pleasant, interactive is the word for it, experience to visit this site, take it in bites, and use it in schools for the new generations. It is, as said in the promotion material ”stories from throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union about friendship, passion, rebellion and beliefs, offering unique insight into day-to-day life beyond the Iron Curtain and the dynamic behind the collapse.” Well-done and well conveyed information, anecdotes and personal it is, sometimes fun, sometimes tough to hear and see.

The book: ”was published by C.H. Beck in September 2011.The famous historian and writer György Dalos covers in six chapters the major events of the communist system in Europe between 1975 and 1991 and gives inside view into the everyday-life behind the Iron Curtain.”

The TV-series: that is linked to the book mentioned, has been directed by well-known Russian director Andrei Nekrasov, who has made films on

Charles Ferguson: Inside Job

Jeg melder lige ud med det samme: den film kan jeg godt lide. Den er betydeligt mere overbevisende, end de danske anmeldelser efter premieren sidste år lod mig tro, den er et fuldt forståeligt vredt angreb på Wall Street spillerne, økonomerne og direktørerne. Den berømte gades verden set som et banalt casino, klædt af til skindet, medvirkende efter medvirkende, i en imponerende klippet række krydsforhør, som Ferguson gennemfører uden at lade sig forstyrre det mindste af alle mulige forsøg på intimidering, som den medvirkende på dette still fra filmen (han hedder R. GlennHubbard og var George W. Bush`s nærmeste økonomiske rådgiver og stod bag dereguleringerne), som ser sur ud, fordi han flere gang har sagt, at han kun vil tre mintter mere, og Ferguson fortsætter uanfægtet og fotografen selvfølgelig bare følger trop. Fergusons vrede er disciplineret i en yderst velforberedt saglig tørhed som var det Orienterings vidunderlige Jesper Tynell på vej fra avisernes Cavling til filmenes Academy Award. Ferguson og han har fortjent hver sin pris på beslægtet journalistisk metodik.

Vurdering:

Dokumania January 2012

For the English readers: The Danish documentary strand Dokumania, that broadcasts on DR2, starts the new year with high quality films: Oscar-winner ”Inside Job” by Charles Ferguson, continued the week after by ”The Interrupters” by Steve James (to be remembered for his masterpiece ”Hoop Dreams”, staying in the US to celebrate Mohammed Ali’s 70th year birthday on January 17th, ending with Palestinian/Danish Omar Shargawi’s Cairo documentary ”1/2 Revolution”.

For the Danish readers:  Der er grund til at holde øje med Dokumania i januar måned. Det starter godt med den oskar-belønnede ”Wall Street Indefra” (”The Inside Job”) af Charles Ferguson, fortsætter med ”Chicagos Gadeengle” ( The Interrupters”), som jeg personligt glæder mig til at se efter spaltevis af rosende omtale af Steve James’ film – det var ham med basketballfilmen ”Hoop Dreams” – så fejres Mohammed Ali’s 70 år på dagen, den 17. Januar,  med canadiske ”Mohammad Ali – den største”, og som sidste film i januar vises ”1/2 Revolution” (foto) af Omar Shargawi, som der bl.a. blev skrevet følgende om på dette site:

The quality of this film lies with the fact that the Palestinian/Danish director succeeds to personalize the story. He and his friends lived in the centre of Cairo, close to the Tahir Square. From their windows they could follow the violent clashes between police and demonstrators, from hour to hour, in a flat where there was also a baby stumbling around among grown-ups like the director himself, who have family outside he country and who of course worry about what could happen to their dear ones. It does indeed gives the situation another perspective, and the film a tension different from the youtube uploaded clip documentations from the fights in the streets…

På dansk igen: Dokumania’s hjemmeside er generelt udmærket, denne gang er der dog sjusket – “The Interrupters” er krediteret med Nanna Frank Møller som instruktør (!) og I forbindelse med trailer-henvisninger er der gået kuk I linkningen fra filmen om Mohammad Ali med henvisninger til to andre film. Når det er sagt, læg så også mærke til at (nogle af de) gamle udsendelser kan ses tredive dage efter – bla. Göran Olssons fremragende Black Panther-arkiv film. 

http://www.dr.dk/dr2/dokumania#/26130

http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

http://www.facingalimovie.com/

William Karel: Looking for Nicolas Sarkozy

A couple of days after the death of Vaclav Havel, you sit down and watch a documentary on the French president Nicolas Sarkozy - what a quality step down - set up through a mix of archive material and comments from foreign correspondents, who have followed the president from his entrance to power in May 2007. Commentators from leading English and German newspapers and magazines, as well as tv people from a handful of countries. Quite a good spread with more or less analytical remarks, practically speaking all of them pretty negative. Well in the beginning everyone was expecting a new, much more energetic period after dead years with Chirac, but quickly it was clear that Sarkozy was not ready for the job, to say the least. He comes out as a total fool in this documentary, ”in the beginning he was like a ten year old boy”, one says in the film that is chronologically structured and involves a lot of anecdotes about the performance of the president. And not much more, as he has never really invited the foreign press to have longer interviews with him – visions for France, he does not have.

But he has the ability to control the media in his country, he has the power to push himself into the spotlight leaving his ministers as tools for the promotion of himself. Of course the private life is commented. His dependency on the advice of his Cecilia (”sans Cecilia il était totalement perdu”), who left him – and his quick change to Carla, and now the baby, cleverly used in public relations purpose. OK, he gets praise for his role in the Russian-Georgian conflict, for his role in dealing with the European financial crisis, but otherwise the film is full of the correspondents talking about his coming late to the Vatican, using his cell phone during the meeting with the Pope, the catastrophical insults to Africa, the idea of sending help to Ben Ali when the revolution in Tunisia had started, his disastrous and cynical move towards the romas, his relationship to Angela Merkel (remember the photo of the two on the beach and the comment ”how deep is their love”), his jealousy towards Barack Obama etc. At the end of the film the correspondents revela that Sarkozy, through his campaigners, now is trying to build up a new image as a more calm and intellectual statesman, who watch Robert Bresson and Carl Th. Dreyer in the evenings!

In the documentary genre of films about state leaders the film of Karel can not compete with the films we have available on Kennedy, Clinton and Havel. It is a tv product, formatted, fun to watch and of course you ask yourself – did we get close to the man, no, not at all, and what is it that the French like about him? Will there be a film about that? This is more of a comedy, but his flirt with the voters of Front National is not fun at all, will there be a film about that?  

France, 2011, 77 mins.

The film is available on dvd, in France  you can buy it in one of the fnac shops or you can order it via Amazon. This review is based on the broadcast on arte, wednesday december 21, 2011.

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/looking_for_nicolas_sarkozy-6273024.html

Vurdering:

Agnès Varda on Arte

Tomorrow – and the rest of the week – French/German channel arte invites documentary lovers on what seems to be a wonderful lighthearted journey with Agnès Varda, entitled ”Agnès de ci, de là Varda”. On the site of arte, see address below, there are clips from the series, which according to ”le monde” (18-19. December) is ”subjective, fantaisiste, érudite et émouvante... un très beau cadeau”. In the same article Varda says that she has filmed almost as if she was thinking with no other intention than ”to show my curiosity”. Sounds like ”caméra comme stylo”, as the French new wave was saying they were aiming for.

She meets colleagues on her way, like the 103 year old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira and Chris Marker, a close friend, who does not want to be seen in the film, but ”he looks like Bruce Willis”, Varda says!

If you have the chance, go and peep into the windows of Agnès Varda, who has her shop in rue Daguerre (she made a film a bout the street in 1976, Daguerreotypies) or enter the shop and buy one of her many great films.

For French viewers – remember that you can watch programmes of arte seven days after they have been broadcast.

Link to arte.tv

Idfa – film about Michaël Meshke

This is what is (also) nice about going to idfa – you meet directors and producers, whose work you have seen and appreciated before. Viktoria Szymanska made the wonderful “Themerson & Themerson” (photo) about the magic work of this British couple in early avantgarde cinema, pure dadaism, and Szymanska was successful in getting the tone of the artists into the film.

Now she is here to present another film project about an important artist, the puppeteer Michaël Meshke, 80 years old now, the man who had the fantastic “Marionettheater” in Stockholm, Sweden. Viktoria Szymanska showed me some footage, shot today and some archive clips with Meshke performing. She had shot a scene with Meshke walking the streets of Paris with the puppet Baptiste, a reincarnation of the main character in “Les Enfants du Paradis” – you remember it, Jean-Louis Barrault, Arletty, directed by Marcel Carné. It is indeed a very promising film project.

Szymanska’s film is being produced by Estelle Robin from the French company Balibari, based in Nantes, and Szymanska could not have got a better support for an international production. Robin stood behind the constantly award-winning “Village Without Women” by Serbian director Srdan Sarenac and “La Machina” by Polish/French/Italian director Thierry Paladino.

http://www.balibari.com/

Idfa - Weijun Chen

Breakfast meetings in the hotel. This morning I was lucky to meet Chinese Weijun Chen, the director behind the international successes “I Will Vote for You” (photo) and “The Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World”. He was in Amsterdam to meet his producer Don Edkins, the man behind the big series “Steps for the Future” and “Why Democracy”. Now he has entered and launched another mega project “Why Poverty”, see details on the site below.

Weijun Chen stands behind one of 8 long films in the series that has Nick Fraser from BBC and Mette Hoffmann from DR/TV as editors. More than 40 broadcasters around the world have joined the series that will have its premiere in one year and will also provide a website connected, plus several short films.

Here is a text clip from the site describing the film of Weijun Chen, quite a controversial film for China I guess:

In ancient times in China, education was the only way out of poverty – in recent times it has been the best way. But just over ten years ago, when higher education was commercialised by order of the government, the start of a major change in China’s society took place. The equality that once existed for all students has been destroyed, and for the millions of college graduates who come onto the job market each year, the future is bleak. Chinese Dream is a film that charts a societal shift that will have an impact on the future economic progress of China.

http://whypoverty.net/contact/

Idfa 2011

It is a bombardment of impressions to be at the biggest documentary film festival in the world. Films, meetings, receptions, ”hello, how are you”, ”nice to see you again”, people with badges walking in the streets around Rembrandtsplein, the square with the huge documentary tent where you can go and get your accreditation papers, catalogues and tickets. It is a fest for the documentary genre, indeed it is. Wonderful. Screenings are sold out so many professionals (programmers from other festivals, buyers from television, distributors) go to the Docs for Sale building to watch the films, or sit at the hotel rooms to get the films online. Rembrandtsplein, the statue of the master stands in a position as was he overlooking what is happening with all these documentaries and documentarians. Logistically it seems to work perfectly, artistically, the state of the art, the level of quality of the documentary today and tomorrow...

Yes, how about that? Monday morning, I paid a short visit to the 19th edition of the Forum for International Co-financing of Documentaries down one of the canals at the beautiful Compagnietheater. It was the start of the festival, the hall was full, good atmosphere, very little money around the table due to the general crisis and to the crisis for the creative documentary in public television. But again the number of project applications to come and pitch was huge, 500 it was, 10% made it to the table so to say, or tables as the Forum today does have several options for the pitching – in a big hall in the mornings, and in smaller halls in the afternoons.

Same procedure as last years, I have to say, the female moderation team, Karolina Lidin and Jess Search, works better than the male, Rudy Buttignol and Axel Arnö, that is not well prepared when it comes to knowing the broadcasters, the first one seems to be more interested in having people in the hall hugging each other to create atmosphere. Continuing in this my slightly grumpy evaluation, it is for me, who has attended all 19 years (!), fine to listen to the project presentations, whereas the comments from the broadcasters are pretty predictable and mostly like ”we will talk more later”. The only one who is really challenging the ones pitching with questions and comments is Nick Fraser from BBC. I listened to 7 presentations, most of them (boring) mainstream investigative, interview based television programmes, two of them with Film potential: ”Tea Time” from Chile to be directed by Maite Alberdi (who has a film in competition, ”The Lifeguard”, ”Map” by Spanish director Léon Siminiani, a personal film that I knew from the DocsBarcelona 2011, plus Justin Webster’s, as it was said from a panelist, damn good story ”I will be Murdered” from Guatemala, supported by BBC and TV3 Catalunya. Webster places himself strongly between the journalistic and the creative documentary.

Financing possibilities are small these days, when it comes to television, are there other options coming up? This was discussed at a meeting on video-on-demand, called ”revenues-on-demand”, you can read about in an article, click below. And do not get confused, I was not at the meeting as the photo (from Edinburgh!) indicates, sorry Peter Jäger from Autlook Films in Austria, not my fault – Peter is much younger than me and he does not smoke cigars! 

www.idfa.nl

http://idfa.nl/industry/Festival/latest-news/idfa-daily-2011/news-and-background/21-11-11-revenue-on-demand.aspx

A New Wave for Arab Cinema?

17th floor of the Hotel Africa in the capital of Tunisia. Early morning, the city prepares for a new day. Sunshine. To the right the beautiful clock with the sea behind it, to the left a look down the Avenue Bourguiba, that leads to the medina and the kasbah square, which was a main location for the uprising almost a year ago. The avenue is impressive with its trees and accompanying bird concert. It is full of outside cafés and what could be better for a man from the North of Europe to sit here, in the month of November, with a café crème and a warm croissant au beurre, watching life passing by. And the men (not many women at the cafés!) chatting, cigarette smoking.

Inside the hotel the Euromed Audiovisual III, an EU funded programme, hosts a conference for a couple of hundred people, which one way or the other deals with the theme ”Towards a New Mediterranean Cinema?”. The organisers have decided to practise the classical panel format for the conference. Thus one group of people after the other takes the floor to express opinions and convey information. The problem with that format is that you need strong moderation to avoid the time schedule to fall apart. The conference organisation lacked that skill so there was a constant delay and time pressure. At the same time as many speakers seemed to have prepared a half an hour powerpoint presentation, and were given 10 minutes to deliver that. And your prejudice about French speaking people needing more time to make their points was not shot down. Not at all!

Themes – data collecting, statistics about production and distribution, promotion, cinemas, film funds and commissions, the role of television. All on the background of the Arab Spring and the hope for a better and more free cinema, be it fiction or documentary. In the room were film people from Arab speaking countries – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya (!), Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. The clearest optimism was to find in the hosting country. ”You know what”, said the director Ferid Boughedir (”Halfaouine”, 1995, wonderful feature film), ” we were called from the Ministry of Culture. Please rewrite your film project with no  self-censorship”!

The main question, however, that came up in all panels, was the lack of Sud-Sud collaboration and whether the Arab spring could spark a new era in that respect. Each country has a close look on own problems – lack of funding, bad television, few cinema halls, dependency of financing from the North (=

Rasmus Dinesen: Verdens bedste kok

Selvfølgelig er det fascinerende, men præcist hvad er det, som er så fascinerende? Filmen går ud fra, at det er en selvfølge, og der tager instruktøren fejl. Og fejltagelsen er fatal for hans film, for han bruger den derfor ikke til at finde ud af det der med fascination. Og derfor er det overhovedet ikke en egentlig fascinerende film, det er nemlig ikke en klog film. Det er en tilsyneladende fascinerende film. Og det bliver den ved at efterligne det, den skildrer, først og fremmest hovedpersonen, kokken Rasmus Kofoeds virtuositet. Helt tydeligt derved at klipperen Per K. Kirkegaard og hans hold i klipperummet ligesom gentager Kofoeds og hans holds suveræne præstation, blot altså i deres fag. Se det er en hyldest. Og det holder filmen igennem. Næsten. Jeg tror ikke den tour de force havde holdt mange sekunder længere end de fem minutter over 40 minutters muren. Det var der slet ikke stof til. Men flot, flot klippet.

Ikke stof nok? Ja, filmens kerne er jo selve fascinationen. Fascinationen af træningen, logistikken, roen, overblikket, kraftudfoldelsen på de rigtige tidspunkter. Men der er ikke mere, ikke flere lag, og efter variationerne over fascinationens rent ydre fremtrædelsesform ligesom er udtømt, er der for mig at se ikke mere tilbage i filmen.

Ikke i interviewuddragene hvor sympatisk end Rasmus Kofoed er, ikke i den speak, som med foragt næsten (gætter jeg på) er udeladt, ikke i scenerne fra sportslivet uden for køkkenet.. Ingen eftertanke, slet ikke nogen tvivl, disse elementer, som ellers kan give bastonen. Filmen er glad, begejstret og fascineret for og af sig selv. Lukker sig om fascinationen, kan, hvad den har villet. For så vidt og ikke længere. Den når sit publikum, vil jeg tro, skuffer det ikke, anfægter det heller ikke.

Rasmus Dinesen: Verdens bedste kok (The World’s Finest Chef), Danmark 2011, 45 min. Fotografi: Aske Foss, Niels Thastum, Rune Backs og Rasmus Dinesen, klip: Per K. Kirkegaard, Frederik Strunk Hjorth Nielsen og Klaus Heinecke, lyddesign: Bobby Hess, musik: Rune Funch og Jakob Dinesen, producer: Monica Hellström, produktion: Final Cut for Real Sendt på DR2 Dokumania i aftes. Genudsendes 19. november. Rasmus Dinesen filmografi: United Colours of Football (1998), The Forbidden Team (2003), Diplomacy (2008)

Vurdering:

Documenting the Revolution/ 1

The cph:dox festival deserves credit for (also) putting a focus on the changes in the Arab world. With the support of IMS (International Media Support, Danish state supported organisation), no less than a dozen screenings and debates, entitled ”Free Radical”, were on the agenda of the festival, with many invited guests from the countries involved. I attended a handful of them as well as a very well visited seminar held by Danish newspaper Politiken, also a supporter of cph:dox, under the headline ”The Arab Spring and the new Media”, referring to the role of social media like Facebook and Twitter during the revolutions. This meeting included a panel of experts, university people of Arab origin living outside the region, plus Danish professor Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen who made a fine introduction to Syria and the website activity going on – the main source for information from a country closed for foreign press, many times linked on this site under ”The Syrian Revolution".

I mention this because of the clear distinction in terminology and access between that – academic – panel and the bloggers, activists and filmmakers who took part in the festival. No, I am not saying that one is better than the other, only that you feel so strongly the difference between an inside and an outside look on the current affairs. Jon Alterman from Washington thought that the social media's impact was quite overestimated, television's role had been crucial for the changes in Tunisia and Egypt, Skovgaard-Petersen did not have the word ”revolution” on his power point presentation, he talked about ”the uprising” etc.

Orwa Nyrabia, however, Syrian film producer and co-organiser of the Dox Box festival, that has been running for four years in Damascus, unlikely of course to happen next year, did not hesitate to call the uprising ”a revolution”, and gave the audience a good intro to the situation in his country on two meeting occasions. One in connection with the screening of ”Life in a Syrian Village” by late master Omar Amiralay, and another when one of the dox:lab films were to be screened. Danish performance artist Lillibeth Cuenca was meant to be joined by her co-director, Syrian filmmaker Nidal Hassan, who did not arrive to Copenhagen as he was arrested in Damascus when he was about to get his travel documents cleared. The work-in-progress of the two was screened – it was less than promising from a film quality point of view. Nyrabia took the floor and informed with a lot of humour and sarchasm that there is nothing new in Syrian filmmakers being put into prison by the regime, that Nidal Hassan and others are grown up people, who know about the risk they are taking saying what they are saying against Assad and his dictatorship. There is no reason to feel guilty, he said to the Danish performer and others from the festival organisation, keep on inviting us so we can come and tell you what we know and see. Said Nyrabia, a very good friend, who I keep on naming ”the first minister of culture” in a new and free Syria!

The best session, however, was called ”Documenting the Revolution”. Clips, photos, film quoted were shown and the panelists helped each other to give a broad picture to the audience. In the panel were documentary filmmaker Elyes Baccar (Tunisia) (PHOTO from his Rouge Parole), journalist.

Targeting: Bin Laden

Jeg har det med filmen, som jeg har det med ordet drejebog, som jo betyder to ting på dansk. Naturligvis er en drejebog en plan for en film, men det er i nutidssprog også en plan for en hvilken som helst anden kompliceret handling eller aktion. Targeting: Bin Laden vil som film overbevise mig om, at dens manuskript simpelthen er CIA’s og admiralens manuskript for ”Red Teams” opsporing og likvidering af Osama Bin Laden. Og det lykkedes i første omgang. Jeg iagttog det tvivlende til vantro: er dette direct cinema, er dette optagelser fra kameraer i The Navy’s SEAL Teams hjelme, er det Bin Laden, der står der øverst på trappen i nattøj? Og som filmen skred frem accepterede jeg det hele. Den er faktisk ret spændende. Som underholdning er den temmelig spændende. Og jeg var jo underholdt. Og forført.

Men så kommer eftertanken. Ét er at jeg faktisk godt kan lide historiske rekonstruktioner, som BBC underholdning for eksempel, noget andet er, at jeg da plejer at efterlyse eftertanke og tvivl og tøven i ægte dokumentariske historiske rekonstruktioner. Nå, der er da alle tre elementer i Targeting: Bin Laden. Men de er vel at mærke omhyggeligt anbragt inden i filmens selvforståelse af at være selve denne komplicerede og farefulde operation ind i et Pakistan med forstår man ikke-informerede myndigheder. De er præsidentens og hans mænds eftertanke, tvivl og tøven med hensyn til de rent militære og tekniske risici, naturligt placeret som plotpunkter. Og der er kun dette ene lag i filmen.

Eftertanken, tvivlen og tankens langsomhed hører hjemme i en anden slags dokumentarfilm, disse film med fortællevinklen anbragt et sikkert sted i nærheden af autor og lagt ned i værket som en voksende uro af noget, som blander sig udefra, måske fra tilskuerens sind, her kunne det være moralske og juridiske overvejelser, der, som det er tilfældet sker i  Morris’ The Fog of War, lyttes frem af McNamara i den berømte spejlkonstruktion. I The History Channels værk er det naturligvis slet ikke sådan. Det er selvfølgelig en omhyggeligt efterrationaliseret og dramatiseret påstand om, at de to drejebøger, admiralens og historiekanalens er konkruente. Det her er selvfølgelig en propagandafilm. En rigtig veldrejet en af slagsen.

The History Channel: Targeting: Bin Laden. USA 2011, 88 min. Sendt i DR2 Dokumania (Operation bin Laden – minut for minut) på hvis hjemmeside den kan ses nogen tid endnu. Filmen kan købes på Amazon og streames elller downloades mange steder på nettet. Den historiske operation, hvis internationale lovlighed er anfægtet fra mange sider, får et udfoldet og interessant forsvar i en kort juridisk opsats af to lærere ved amerikanske militærakademier, Shane Reeves og Jerymy Marsch: ”Bin Laden and Awlaki: Lawful Targets”, i Harvard International Review 26. oktober 2011.

Vurdering:

Danfung Dennis: Hell and Back Again

Dokumania, DR's flagskib for dokumentarfilm, hver tirsdag på DR2, i morgen kl. 21, viser den prisbelønnede amerikanske dokumentarfilm "Helvede tur-retur", som har vundet flere første-priser og er med i køen til at blive Oscar-nomineret. Helt fortjent. Jeg var i juryen i Moskva i sommer på Moscow International Film Festival, hvor vi (de andre medlemmer var engelske Michael Apted (sevenUp-serien) og russeren Aleksander Gutman) gav filmen første-prisen. Her er en gentagelse af anmeldelsen, der fulgte:

”I love my pistol”, says Sergeant Nathan Harris, the protagonist of the film about an American soldier, who gets seriously wounded in combat in Afghanistan, is taken back to the US and to his wife Ashley, who helps him recover; at least she helps him getting through the day, the trauma he has from his time in Afghanistan, he does not seem to be able to fight on his own as the film tells the audience.

Many films have come out and is coming out from and about the war in Afghanistan and its consequences on heart and mind, especially on those going there as soldiers to secure changes in the country. This one is one of the best so far in its superb camera work from the battlefield, in its description, with a lot of dignity, of the Afghans who are victims of the constant search for Talibans by the Americans. They are told to leave their houses, their houses are searched, they are searched and controlled. The desperation comes from the Afghans, who don’t want to be ruled by the Talibans, but you soldiers do not really make the situation easier!

The emotional side of the film, however, lies where Nathan Harris is back home, suffering enormously from his pain, constantly taking strong medicin and – this is how the film is built – thinks back on Afghanistan where he definitely wants to be again as a killer, the word used by the doctor who examines him. As a spectator you look, with empathy, thanks to the approach of the director, at a man brought up in a society of violence, a young man sitting in a sofa at the end of the film playing with his guns... ”I love my pistol”.

US/UK, 2011, 88 mins.

Winner of 1st Documentary Competition at Moscow International Film festival 2011.

http://hellandbackagain.com/

http://www.dr.dk/dr2/dokumania#/21356

Vurdering:

East Silver Awards 2011

Alina Rudnitskaya is a very talented filmmaker from Saint Petersburg. Her newest 25 minutes long documentary from this year, ”I will forget this Day” (photo) has already been awarded at several festivals for its stylistically strong vision of women and their emotions when waiting to have an abortion. Rudnitskaya thinks, in the best Russian tradition, in images and it is no surprise that she now can add one more prize to her collection:

”The annual Silver Eye Award for the best documentary film of the market, which was awarded for its third time. The winners of Silver Eye Award 2011 are: Category Short documentary: I Will Forget This Day, Alina Rudnitskaya, Russia, 2011; Category Mid-length documentary: Crulic – The Path to Beyond, Anca Damian, Rumunsko, 2011; Category Feature documentary: Solar Eclipse, Martin Mareček, Česká republika, 2011.”

Which gives me the opportunity, again, to praise the work done by East Silver in the framework of the IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) in Prague. Here is some more text from their site: The aim of the prize is to support creative and exceptional documentary films from the region of the Central and Eastern Europe. The awarded films were selected by the international jury from the three main categories (short, mid-length, and feature documentary film). Not only that the films received the traditional trophy and prize money of 1 500 EUR, but will also profit from the one-year round festival service of East Silver Caravan, which will support their international distribution on film festivals and markets. For the first time this year, the winning films will be included in the online database of the unique industry VoD portal Festival Scope, which is designed directly for the festival selectors only, in order to increase their potential for the international distribution.

http://www.eastsilver.net/en/east-silver/news/silver-eye-2011-award-winners-1798/?

ITVS

stands for The Independent Television Service’s (ITVS). It supports documentary projects for broadcast in the US – subject-wise from all over the world. 8 films have been supported out of ITVS  International Call for 2011, where 476 submissions were received from 118 countries representing 72 languages. All of the eight projects are slated for eventual broadcast, including slots on PBS series such as Independent Lens and P.O.V., and the international series Global Voices.

“We are elated to have this new crop of projects join our growing catalog of ground-breaking documentaries, each connecting Americans to the world, and the world to Americans,” said Claire Aguilar, vice president of programming for ITVS.

8 out of 476 – tough competition, so much more there is reason to salute several very good projects that I have met in workshops and pitching fora.

Like “Avant” (photo) from Uruguay by Juan Andres Alvarez and about Julio Bocca, world dancer who takes on the job to build up a national ballet in an unfinished theatre in Montevideo… Like the Israeli “Before the Revolution” by Dan Shadur, whose family was in Tehran during the Shah period… Like films by Lixin Fan (Last Train Home) and Brian Hill (The Not Dead)…Not to forget two Danish producers, Mette Heide and Henrik Veileborg, who have received funding for their stories from Japan and Zimbabwe. The one from Japan is to be directed by talented Kaspar Astrup Schröder. “I Want to Cheer Up” is the working title of a totally crazy story that goes like this: The complexity of happiness is at the center of this story about Ryuichi, the owner of a professional stand-in company that rents out fake family members and friends. At work he can finally be the perfect husband and father that he doesn’t know how to be at home…

Read more: http://realscreen.com/2011/10/25/itvs-selects-eight-docs-for-international-call/#ixzz1bvOxu6Nm

http://itvs.org/funding/international

George Harrison: Living in the Material World

I don’t want talking faces, you often hear documentary filmmakers say. To be understood: it is boring television stuff. In this case, and in many other, of course, the talking faces, at least most of them, are interesting to look at and are the ones that drive the story, here about George Harrison, told in an efficient way by Martin Scorcese and based on anecdotes and personal memories about an extraordinary character, who for many, but not for this Beatles-fan, stood in the shadow of John and Paul. The film, in two parts and made for television, by HBO in the US, is informative and entertaining and emotional – and for one who has grown up with the music, a great visual and musical walk down memory lane. They are all there, lots of archive with Harrison himself, and archive shot by Harrison himself, Ringo Starr, McCartney, Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Phil Spector, George Martin – and his wife Olivia Harrison, who gets the last word in a film that for Scorcese is  about a man, who was constantly searching for meaning on his spiritual journey through life. A man with humour, charming, generous and with a lot of songs that will stay like the still weeping guitar...

Saw the film on the big screen in the Copenhagen Cinema Imperial, more than 1000 seats. Excellent atmosphere.  

Martin Scorcese, USA, 3 hours and 20 mins., 2011

http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/george-harrison-living-in-the-material-world/index.html

http://www.georgeharrison.com/

Vurdering:

Jacob Jørgensen og Henrik Lundø: Min dal

Så er det en fryd at se tv. Skonnerten som fartøj passer perfekt til Kirsten Klein og Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen, og de to passer perfekt til den i hastighed, blidhed, stilfærdighed og gedigen faglighed. Det er en uafbrudt tilfredsstillelse at følge de tos kloge, indsigtsfulde, originale og på hver sin måde, i det danske sprog og i det danske fotografi, virtuose skildring af Limfjordens topografi, historie og poesi. Jacob Jørgensen og Henrik Lundø følger det opmærksomt lyttende til alle nuancerne og supplerer op, så det bliver til et fornemt, fornemt tv eller film, man kan kalde det, hvad man vil, vidunderligt er det.

Genudsendes på DR K: 20.10. 02:20 og 19:05, 24. oktober 14:55.

Kan ses nårsomhelst på Filmstriben.dk

Vurdering:

Frederik Gertten: Bananas

De kommer langsomt, lidt efter lidt, den ene efter den anden, men de kommer, alle de vidunderlige film, Tue Steen Müller ser rundt om i verden og skriver om her på bloggen. Alle vi frustrerede, som ikke kommer på festivaler, som bor langt fra de snedige biografer i de store byer, vi har heldigvis DR2 Dokumania og vi har Filmstriben.dk,,  og så er der jo webdistributionen i øvrigt, dog et for mig at se uoverskueligt landskab indtil videre.

Men nu har jeg altså omsider set Bananas! Den film har jeg længe læst om både her på siden, hvor Müller har skrevet grundigt om filmen og begivenhederne omkring dens fremkomst, og på FaceBook. Og jeg må skrive, at den film er værd at vente på. Den bliver ikke uaktuel, for den handler om meget mere end Dole Food Companys og Dow Chemicals forbrydelser mod plantagearbejderne i Nicaragua. Den handler om de rige magthaveres brutalitet og så om, hvad der er at gøre ved det. Det er en evig historie, den er tit blevet fortalt uforglemmeligt. Og det bliver den så her en gang mere i verdenslitteraturen. Filmen viser, hvad der er at gøre ved det. Forbilledligt.

Jeg hæftede mig med det samme ved klippearbejdet, ved Osmunds og Bugge Couttés elegante, uafbrudt fascinerende håndværk, som svinger historien umærkeligt mellem voice over og indre monolog og så smukt holder sagsfremstillingen fokuseret og på plads i et fyldt og let opfatteligt forløb. Aldrig en brøkdel af et sekund for meget, aldrig bare lidt for lidt for at kunne følge med. Og om jeg fulgte med! Ivrigt optaget fulgte jeg de to medvirkende advokater, mine helte, som med det samme fik mig på deres side og deres sags, og det blev til en beredskabsfilm om civil courage. Filmen indgyder nemlig mod og energi og længsel efter selv at gøre noget på sin plads her i verden. Jeg deler den cubanske advokats (se billedet), forargelse og vrede, ønsker mig hans energi. Jeg beundrer kollegaen, amerikanerens rolige, besindige, modstanderudslettende procedure i retssalen. Et effektivt par som en Hoffman og Redford, dengang det var præsidentens mænd, som var fjenden. Tænk sig at være del af et sådant heltepar, tænker jeg henført, mens jeg ser filmen, ser den som film, simpelthen begejstret.

Bananas kan nogle dage endnu ses i fuld længde på Dokumanias hjemmeside:

http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Dokumania#/19736

Frederik Gertten: Bananas, Sverige, 2009. Klip: Jesper Osmund og Olivier Bugge Coutté.

Cattin & Kostomarov: The Mother

This international renowned film by Swiss Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov reaches Danish Television (DR/TV) on tuesday October 11 as part of the strand Dokumania and under the Danish title, ”Den russiske mor”. The film was at the Magnificent7 European Feature Documentary Film Festival 2009. Here are the words from the catalogue:

This is the story that resembles novels by Dostoevsky. The main character is called Lyubov that means Love in Russian. When she was a girl, her mother sold her for a bottle of vodka. At the moment, many years later, she is raising on her own her own children, nine of them and she wants to adopt the tenth one. Over the three-year period filmmakers have been recording the life of Lyuba and her children, presented in the spirit of cinéma vérité. They have made unusually strong, raw yet also poetic portrait of a woman who, despite her ill fortune, manages to express her love for her children and live a dignified existence. It's a story about an ordinary woman with strength of a super hero. This remarkable record of the dramatic and intimate moments in Lyubas life at the same time offers a highly authentic look at the bleak reality of todays Russia. The film has given new perspectives even to the Russian audience. Equally successful in the West and in the East, the film has gained big and important awards all over Europe and it has been winning at all leading festivals in Russia. (Svetlana and Zoran Popovic)

Liouba escaped from her violent husband with all her 9 children... One more sad Russian story, you think and then you watch a universal story about Love, simply, it is tough, life is tough for her but nevertheless the film leaves you with optimism on behalf of humanity: If she can make ends meet, then there is hope. Respect and love and cinematographic skills make this a unique experience from start till end. What a character! (Tue Steen Müller).

So IN DANISH: SE DEN FILM! And for others - the film is available on the Docalliance vod.

Switzerland, Russia, 2007, 80 mins.

http://docalliancefilms.com/film/7475-la-mere-french-version/

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/pages/2009_eng.php?film=2

http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Dokumania/Programmer/2009-10-11/Dokumania_Den_russiske_mor.htm

Vurdering:

Alexis Spraic: Shadow Billionaire

Den amerikanske titel spiller måske sprogligt på en berømt succes. Den blæser sig op, og det holder den slet ikke til. Det er bestemt ikke et værk, der sætter foden i døren. "Den forsvundne millionær" hedder dokumentaren stilfærdigt scherfigsk i sin danske version. Det giver også falske associationer. Der er desværre ingen underfundigheder i den film. Det er derimod ganske ligetil - og dødkedelig - dokumentar mainstream. Sådan interviewbåren så det mærkes autentisk, på den måde skærer vi den historie, forekommer det mig Spraic og hans hold har tænkt. Sådan vil de derude have det. Og her sad jeg så og ville have noget helt andet, først og fremmest et bud fra en sikker fortællerposition på dette usædvanlige menneskes særprægede biografi. Et klogt og dybt og tænkende bud.

Det drejer sig om den mystiske rigmand Larry Hillblom, grundlæggeren af DHL, hans forsvinden ved en flyulykke et sted i Stillehavet, og så det efterfølgende opgør om arven. Det viser sig, at han har børn, adskillige faktisk. Så forskningsinstitutionen, som havde troet den skulle have det hele, kommer i økonomisk knibe og måske i moralsk dilemma. Advokaterne slås og nupper deres del af pengene.

Spraic gør det til en kulørt historie, til en uskøn historie, til en banal ugebladshistorie, overfladisk og småsnerpet og smagende faktisk. En historie som dem i Rapport i gamle dage. Og det var jo ikke, hvad jeg ventede i Dokumania, så jeg er skuffet. 

Dokumania viser den kommende måned filmen på sin hjemmeside. Se selv filmen efter i sømmene, det kan være jeg tager helt fejl.

http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Dokumania#/18569 

Vurdering:

Ulla Boje Rasmussen: Thors saga /3

Den store fortælling om den magtfulde islandske familie Thors i fire generationer og med vægt på to biografier, den danske udvandrer Thor Jensens og hans oldebarn, finansmanden Björgólfur Thor Björgólfssons vævet ind i Islands politiske og økonomiske historie gennem mere end hundrede år bliver vist på DR K den 18. september 21:00.

http://www.upfrontfilms.dk/

Jeg har på Det Danske Filminstituts FILMupdate skrevet tilbageskuende om nogle af Ulla Boje Rasmussens tidligere film, som på mange måder leder frem til hendes nye filmværk, som jeg opfatter som et meget modigt forsøg på at forene en poetisk observerende dokumentarstil med en speakbåret analyserende, illustreret fremsstilling.

The End of Pitching Sessions?

So, no more pitching sessions, the young distributor said to me during the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries in Riga? She had followed the Doc Discussion on this blog, and had read the many skeptical texts from filmmakers, who saw the pitching sessions as a kind of show without any content (= money).

What to answer? It is true, and should not be hidden behind halleluja marketing language like ”come to our pitching session and get your film financed”, that the financial situation is pretty weak when it comes to contributions from public broadcasters, and that many leave frustrated with unfulfilled expectations.

On the other hand it was again, having just been to Riga, very encouraging to meet experienced producers bring new talents to the table. There was a focus on their projects for several days, they were discussed, criticised and developed, coalitions were made that can endure and make the films better. A Lithuanian producer, who had been to other pitch events before, is now working on two projects with a German and Belgian editor. An Estonian producer matched with a Georgian director, which made the representative from Estonian Film Foundation say that the door could be open for further funding. And several projects made such a strong promotion that the filmmakers can come back at a later stage. A Swedish director/producer felt that the positive reactions she got in Riga could help her chances at the national film fund. And so on, so forth.

The sessions should definitely continue. And in a realistic workshop-like frame – we meet to bring forward and develop new projects and new talented directors, we meet to create new contacts and strengthen the already existing ones, to sum up, we meet to keep the creative documentary alive!

Not only young talents pitched in Riga - 85 years old Herz Frank (photo from themovingarts.com) went on stage with his exciting story about Larissa, who has married the murderer of Rabin, and have a child with him.

Docs: George Harrison, Neil Young, Paul McCartney

This autumn brings three new documentaries with music icons George Harrison, Neil Young and Paul McCartney, made by film icons Martin Scorcese, Jonathan Demme and Albert Maysles.

”George Harrison: Living in the Material World” is a two-part documentary by Martin Scorcese made for HBO, to be screened October 5 & 6. The trailer promises a film that tells the story about the legend through interviews and archive – and lots of music, including, of course, ”Here comes the Sun”.

Jonathan Demme ”Neil Young Life” (photo) is a continuation of the collaboration between the two being film number 3. It will be screened at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival.

As will Albert Maysles ”The Love We Make” that premieres September 10 and is co-directed by Maysles and his filmmaking partner Bradley Kaplan. It follows McCartney as he prepares for the Concert for New York City, which took place less than six weeks after the 9/11 attacks. McCartney himself was scheduled to fly out of New York City on the morning of September 11, and upon being grounded returned to the city to witness the unfolding situation firsthand. Maysles and Kaplan’s film, shot in 16mm black and white, captures McCartney interacting with New Yorkers on the Manhattan streets as he rehearses for the concert, and features other performers in the event as well, including David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow and Mick Jagger.

Read more: http://realscreen.com/2011/07/20/maysles-mccartney-team-up-for-showtime-doc/#ixzz1Vw7I8DKv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnx87LIDO9k

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/neilyounglife

http://realscreen.com/tag/paul-mccartney/

Det går godt for Dokumentarfilmen

A small text on good times for the documentary in cinemas and media coverage in Denmark. More films in cinemas, much more press than before, reviews in daily newspapers of dvd’s

Jo, det ser godt ud for dokumentaren. Ihvertfald var det markant at åbne dagbladet Politiken’s filmtillæg denne torsdag. Der var anmeldelser af hele fire dokumentarfilm, to udkommet på dvd (Senna og Two in the Wave (om Truffaut and Godard)) og to med premiere i biografen, Steam of Life og Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop. Når dertil kommer, at den lille, fine biograf Vester VovVov har tre dokumentarfilm på plakaten (udover filmen om O’Brien er det det Exit Through the Gift Shop og Til Havet), at centrumsbiografen Dagmar reklamerer med snarlige events omkring premiererne på Bobby Fischer Against the World (photo) og El Bulli, at Grand Teatret har haft Waste Land (se anmeldelse nedenfor) på programmet, den kører nu i Empire Bio, at der er Dokumania hver tirsdag på DR2, at der er Mandagsdokumentar i PHCaféen, at Cinemateket har en månedlig dokumentar i Filmhuset, hvor også EDN (European Documentary Network) har SønDok med udenlandske debatskabende film... ja, så det er svært at være pessimistisk på genrens vegne.

Bortset fra hvis man – som co-blogger Allan Berg – har bosat sig udenfor hovedstaden, for så er der langt til filmene, ihvertfald hvis de skal ses på det store lærred. Men det er en helt anden historie om dansk centralistisk kulturpolitik.

Nanna Frank Møller: Let’s Be Together

Under titlen ”En Feminin Dreng” viser DR2’s Dokumania en af de væsentligste, nye danske dokumentarfilm, som har vakt berettiget opsigt både inden- som udenlands under sin originaltitel, ”Let’s Be Together”. Her er anmeldelsen, som vi bragte, da filmen blev vist på cph:dox

That Nanna Frank Møller is an excellent editor has been proved many times, primarily in her collaboration with Danish director Max Kestner. That she has a talent for directing herself became obvious with the film about the circus sisters, ”Someone Like You”. Here she is with another proof: a film about 14 year old Hairon, who has Brasilian parents but lives in Denmark with his mother and her Danish husband, one more dad for Hairon.

”Let´s Be Together”, however, is the story about son and (Brasilian) dad, told in an intimate and gentle film language, full of respect for the drama that lies in a teenager, who loves to dress like girls and women do.

Hairon wants to be Cleopatra for his birthday and this forms the structural frame of the film. Mother and Hairon go to Brasil to see Brasilian father and to have the Cleopatra costume prepared. Strong conversations are unfolded, interpreted brilliantly in rythm and music and in an editing that have wonderful pauses that are full of information and emotion. ”You must know to control your life a bit”, the father says in one of the many scenes with the two together. Would be wrong of me to reveal the end scene of the film, it is so fine and impressive and well thought and performed by a big talent in new Danish documentary.

www.dr.dk/dokumania

Vurdering:

Lichtpunt: Claudio Magris

Intelligent television. A talk with a writer, one of the best, for many years and still a candidate to receive the Nobel Prize of Literature, Italian or should one say European Claudio Magris, interviewed in his flat in Trieste by Piet de Moor, in German, a meeting with a very sympathetic man, who answers the questions put to him. In other words focus on a face, a talking face, with small incerpts of images from beautiful Trieste, from Donau (the title of his most famous book) and of course from the legendary Caffée San Marco, where he often goes to sit and write. With paper and pen. In total concentration but still with people around him.

Magris talks about his writing – how he writes, where he writes, the difference between his writing for newspapers (43 years he has written for Corriere della Sera!), his love to Trieste, his aim always to be ”genau” and consequent huge research work, and his vision for Europe.

I like this simplicity: One-two-three images and there we are in the flat of Magris ready to make the conversation. And there we stay apart from the image sequences that link the talking. The Belgian tv channel Lichtpunt has made several programmes like this.

Belgium, 2010, 35 mins.

www.lichtpunt.be

Vurdering:

Dokumania: Løb for Livet

This is an announcement especially for our Danish readers about the screening tomorrow of Serbian Mladen Matičević award winning documentary ”Run for Life” on the tuesday evening strand ”Dokumania” on DR/TV. I will therefore switch to Danish language

Det er en varm og gribende dokumentar, som serbiske Maticevic har lavet. Den har vundet priser i Kroatien (ZagrebDox) og Serbien (Beldocs). Den havde sin verdenspremiere sidste år på idfa in Amsterdam efter en lang og besværlig produktionsproces, som faktisk er blevet en del af filmen. Sagen er nemlig den, at de tre etiopiske løbere, som filmen handler om, i en lang periode blev holdt for nar af den serbiske træner, som havde taget dem til sig. Eller var det de serbiske atletik-myndigheder? Ihvertfald løb de maratonløb efter maratonløb i håbet om at kunne få serbisk statsborgerskab, blive i landet og stille op til OL i London for deres nye land. Men intet skete og Maticevic, filmens instruktør og selv maratonløber, besluttede sig for at hjælpe dem. Han tager rundt med dem, køber mad og tøj, prøver at finde ud af, hvad der er galt – og laver en film om det. Med store vanskeligheder, kan jeg bevidne, som fulgte filmen fra sidelinien som lærer på EU-træningsprogrammet for dokumentarister, Ex Oriente. Ud af det er kommet en fin, menneskelig historie af universel karakter. Om mennesker der håber og bliver skuffede. Får nye venner i den serbiske landby de bor i, og som de må forlade. Se den!

PS. Dokumania’s beskrivelse af filmen er i øvrigt meget mangelfuld, er tydeligt skrevet af én, der ikke har set filmen.

http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Dokumania#/13957

http://www.zagrebdox.net/en/

Storydoc Session in Corfu/ 1

Documentary film projects from 11 countries, 21 of them, were developed during 5 days at the Ionian University in the city of Corfu. From morning till evening, July 11-15, the filmmakers, directors and producers, had meetings with invited tutors - filmmakers, broadcasters, distributors and all-round generalists. 14 tutors were there to give feed back, in group constellations, on what they saw and read from the filmmakers, who came with teasers and/or material to show. A very simple concept based on conversation and dialogue with the aim to give inspiration, convey knowledge and establish new alliances. Networking. A process that was very much helped by the fact that all participants at the workshop stayed at the same hotel that offered a swimming pool, a beach, a bar and a lobby, relatively cool, where emails could be checked and talks could be continued.

And very much stimulated by the generous and warm hospitality by the Storydoc daily management, the entrepreneur Kostas Spiropoulos and the organiser, often called Madame Storydoc, Chara Lampidou. It can not be easy to make a workshop in a country in deep economical crisis, but they do.

The five day workshop included so-called inspirational lectures and plenary presentations as well as a look at the Arab Spring and its consequences for documentary filmmaking in the involved countries. More about that below. Photo from a plenary session at the university.

www.storydoc.gr

Moscow Film Diary/4

”My Perestroika” is a fine documentary by Robin Hessman. It was screened the other day for an American audience on the pov – documentaries with a point of view. A trailer from the film + loads of information on the fall of the USSR can be found on the excellent website of pov. There is even a small ”Glossary of the Cold War”, interview with the director, who lived in Russia most of the 1990’s.

Here is the site’s description of the film: ... is an intimate look at the last generation of Soviet children. Five classmates go from living sheltered childhoods to experiencing the hopes of Gorbachev's reforms and the confusion of the USSR's dissolution, to searching for their places in today's Moscow. With candor and humor, the punk rocker, single mother, entrepreneur and married teachers paint a picture of the challenges, dreams and disappointments of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Through first-person testimony, verité footage and vintage home movies, this beautifully crafted documentary reveals a Russia rarely seen on film.

http://www.pbs.org/pov/

http://myperestroika.com/screenings/

Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields

British tv Channel4 broadcast a week ago a tv-documentary on what happened during the final weeks of the 25 year long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers. The programme was presented by the journalist Jon Snow. It is a primarily mobile phone shot documentation of horrible war crimes performed by the troops of the government. The UN has until now refused to make a further investigation into the allegations that are being brought forward. The British parliament members are to watch the documentary this week. Leading international newspapers have followed the story of the documentary. For ONE MORE DAY the film can be watched online, provided by Channel4, later on through other channels. Filmkommentaren will NOT show any photos in connection to this posting. Here follows the text behind the film from the site of Channel4, plus a link to the documentary:     

With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes - some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast.

Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

The film is made and broadcast as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch an investigation into 'credible

Edinburgh Documentary Pitch/1

There is a lot of film political commitment and competence in the activities of the SDI (Scottish Documentary Institute). The small staff (Noë Mendelle, Sonja Henrici, Flore Cosquer, Amy Hardie and Finlay Pretsell) stands behind the talent development production scheme Bridging the Gap, several masterclasses with great filmmakers from all around the world, they publish a well written and edited newsletter, they have their office in the ECA (Edinburgh College of Art), where students are studying to become filmmakers under the leadership of filmmakers Emma Davie and Noë Mendelle.

I was there for the Edinburgh Pitch, for the two first days to tutor and moderate the pitching session that had a panel of 14 commissioning editors and distributors representing Autlook from Austria, BBC Scotland, Storyville BBC4, True Stories More4, CBC Canada, Lichpunt Belgium, DR Sales Denmark, YLE Finland, Creative Scotland (previously Scottish Screen), POV USA, Cat & Docs France, ZDF/arte, VoDo UK, Al Jazeera.

There was quite an international choice of projects, including one from Uruguay, one from Brazil, one from Israel, two from Finland, an Australian/Norwegian, an Irish, a French, and some Scottish and English.

SDI is on twitter, go to the site and join the conversation.

www.scottishdocinstitute.com

Edinburgh Documentary Pitch/2

It is a public secret that most public broadcasters do not have a young audience. ”Young people do not watch television”, it is being said again and again when television people meet. They watch films, including documentaries, online, or they go to festivals or they download films. Some tv stations, like German/French arte, produce webdocs to reach the young, or they make interactive productions. Remains to be seen what results will come out of this at a longer perspective.

It was therefore refreshing to hear Catherine Olsen from CBC Canada inform the audience (a full auditorium, great to see) that the channel had an audience from 25-40. Less refreshing, however, it was to hear that the channel dubs all their programmes because the audience can not read subtitles. Well, they can, but they don’t do because they send text messages while watching/listening to the programmes. Multi-tasking!

I met a Scottish filmmaker later that day, who said ”I don’t want people to send text messages while my film is on television...”

The language issue, well, the ususal pattern: the channels that do subtitles and thus respect the work of the sound engineer on a film are the European. We are not Barbarians, said Wim van Rompaey from Lichtpunt in Belgium.  

Photo from Scottish Amy Hardie´s "Edge of Dreaming".

Edinburgh Documentary Pitch/3

YLE and arte, television channels – for many years leading in creative documentaries when it comes to international orientation, involved in coproductions and acquisitions of documentaries from all over the world. As an organiser of meetings where producers come to present their projects, you always have to be sure that there are representatives from arte and YLE. Otherwise you can be sure to have complaints from the producers who come hoping for support.

For arte it is simply an obligatory matter of policy being the European cultural channel with many tv slots for documentaries. They have to show us viewers the world as it is right now politically, socially and culturally. The question is whether they do so through journalistic programmes or through creative documentaries. In the last many years journalism has won strongly in what should not be a battle but is – the loser in arte is the artistic documentary, the authored, the one with the personal signature, ”a film by...”.

Where arte goes for next year is difficult to say – according to commissioning editor Doris Hepp, for many years a guardian angel for the different documentary, the one that would surprise you. Hepp was in Edinburgh not able to tell about the 2012 structure for documentary slots, the only message she could give was that her slot La Lucarne for the creative documentary would be positioned at 1o’clock at night!

For YLE it has – to my knowledge – never been written anywhere that the Finnish channel should be international orientated and feed the Finnish viewers with the best of the best of documentaries from the world. But they have done so, the commissioning editors of YLE, for many years, parallel to the high quality of the Finnish documentaries that is also supported by YLE. Jenny Westergaard from YLE told us in Edinburgh that changes have been done, cuts have been made, slots have been cancelled – for the documentaries. Other Finnish people told me that the filmmakers are fighting to make adjustments to the negative development within one of most significant documentary channels in the world. Is YLE and documentaries going down as one of the commissioning editors have said it, will it no longer be the channel to be held forward as the example? What a pity, if so!

Photo: Photo from Steam of Life, Finnish doc going worldwide.

Adam Schmedes: Kamæleonernes strand

Pludselig blev den vist på DR1 forleden og forinden af DFI og Filmland på P1 og BT og meget mere lanceret som en nyhed. Det var sært, men det var da godt, og Adam Schmedes har under alle omstændigheder fortjent opmærksomheden. Filmen om de sjældne dyr på dette afgrænsede græske sted er værd at se af en række grunde, for eksempel denne, at "filmen for første gang viser et dyrs (dette eller i det hele taget?) livshistorie, hvor hele dyrets cyklus er med. Det har man aldrig set før", som Lene Thomsen Andino oplyser i DFI's pressemateriale. Hvad enten det er det ene eller det andet, skal det da ses. Enestående som det er. Og rigtig smukt fotograferet som alle Schmedes naturfilm.

Hvis DR ikke genudsender har man chancen på nettet på Filmstriben. Og ud over den sjældne komplette kamæleonbiografi skal man se Adam Schmedes egensindige naturfilmstil forankret i en urystelig opfattelse: de må ikke være som BBC's naturfilm, de skal være underholdende, de skal være tydelige i deres moralske udgangspunkt og ærlige over for de barske sandheder om naturens orden og denne ordens udsathed. Dette tydeliggøres i en story-line efter bogen og en speak, som får hver anden til at krumme tæer. Men det er knsekvent og med vilje og åbne øjne. Så det er take it, or leave it..

Adam Schmedes: Kamæleonernes strand, Danmark 2008. 52 min. Manuskript: Peter I. Lauridsen, produktion og foto: Adam Schmedes, klip: Jes Kjær Paul, produktion: Loke Film.  

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Min fætter er pirat

Det kan godt være, at rammen er faderens godnathistorie for børnene, at meningen er at fortælle en moderne Robin Hood historie, som det stod i DFI pressemeddelelsen i november, eller vel nærmere berette en nutidig sørøverhistorie. Så vidt så godt. Det kan også være, at Sønderby Jepsen med Henrik Bohn Ipsens stilrene og selvfølgelig fejlfrie billeder har villet noget særligt med en meget bevidst iscenesat dokumentarisk metode, hvad Tue Steen Müller er inde på sin anmeldelse af hans første film, Side by side (2008), hvor han i den films ”gennemførte mise-en-scene stil, i en lovende debut, erindres om Jon Bang Carlsens tidlige film.”

Men der er noget galt. Sønderby Jepsen griber tilsyneladende forkert. Han har jo været bundet af sin hovedperson, som havde historien og som kunne føre ham til dens location i Somalia. Imidlertid fungerer Farah ikke som fascinationssamlende fortæller. Han forbliver ordentlig læge og pæn skolelærer filmen igennem. Uden ridser i lakken og uden at udfordre os det allermindste. Og filmen om ham og med ham leverer ikke én ægte scene, bortset fra en tur ud til et kapret fiskefartøj, hvor han ikke er med, et besøg i et fængsel og så en en kort samtale med en flok børn, dette sidste kan han! Som medvirkende i alle de andre iscenesatte afsnit er han ikke stærk nok, vil være så præcis, men er overforenklende, pædagogiserende, moraliserende.

Hans fortælling er hovedproblemet, et problem inde i selve sproget. Hans sprog er ikke kun enkelt, dagligt sprog. Det er et nedredigeret sprog forenklet så meget, at det knækker. Det bliver til en forklaring for børn, som i sin korrekthed må kede også dem. Det er værst i monologafsnittene, så snart han taler sit eget sprog i dialogerne, bliver det bedre, og som nævnt lykkes det også i spillet i et par scener. Men vide det, kan man ikke, henvist som man er til de danske undertekster, hvor oversætteren også så gerne vil forklare og forenkle. Scenerne med dialog er dertil instruerede til en tilstand, hvor nærvær og autenticitet er fordampet. Tilbage er en sær stivhed af omhyggelig illustration.  

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Min fætter er pirat, Danmark 2010. Fotografi: Henrik Bohn Ipsen. Medvirkende: Nasib Farah og hans fætter Abdi. Produktion: Monday Media. Sendt for nylig på DR2 Dokumania. Distribueres på www.filmstriben.dk

Vurdering:

Bosse Lindquist og Jesper Huor: Wiki Rebels

Naturligvis handler Lindquists Huors film om det forståelige modsætningsforhold og uundgåelige brud mellem de to vidt forskellige personligheder og ledere af Wikileaks Julian Assange og Daniel Domscheit-Berg, og det er for så vidt filmen værd i det journalistiske nu. Men det er en bestemt scene fra redegørelsen for Wikileaks' offentliggørelser, som gør, at man ikke kan ryste filmen af sig, aldrig glemme den. En amerikansk Apaches angreb på mennesker på jorden, navngivne journalister, ukendte fodgængere og en familie i en bil gør filmen til mere end historisk dokument i den løbende strøm. Den vil af historien blive placeret som milepæl. Af Wikileaks tusinder af publicerede hemmelige dokumenter vil det være disse billeder, som huskes af alle, som har set dem. Og vi vil huske den kyniske radiokommunikation under angrebet: dette er krigen.

Læs Lasse Jensens kommentar til hele Wikileaks-sagen i Mennesker og Medier, og hør dette DR radioindslag, som er et kort interview med Daniel Domscheit-Berg i anledning af hans bog Inside Wikileaks.

Still: Personen ved sigtemærket er identificeret som en journalist på arbejde for Reuter.

Bosse Lindquist og Jesper Huor: Wiki Rebels (2010), SVT1. Sendt for nogen tid siden på DR.

Vurdering:

Parallel 40: Joan Gonzalez

For many of us it never goes beyond the words, when it comes to put into reality all the good intentions about the promotion of the documentaries. Few have had the strength and courage to link all the elements of the chain from production to the meeting with the audience. Joan Gonzalez has and what he has done for the genre during the 15 years of existence of his company Parallel 40, based in Barcelona, deserves respect and admiration. In Catalunya, of course, and in Europe and – read below – in South America.

Training, production, distribution, film commission administration, festivals, tv management – it is all happening or has happened under the umbrella of Parallel 40, and with a clear goal statement, here taken from the site of the company: ”Parallel 40's mission is to contribute to society's cultural enrichment through the audiovisual medium.”

Joan Gonzalez is a visionary, some will say a dreamer, I will add that many of his dreams have and will come through. Step by Step as his slogan is. When I met him in Granada 15 years ago for the first EDN documentary workshop in Spain, he was one of the participants and made his first documentary pitch, not very convincing. But he was thrilled about the format, and he took it all to Barcelona, and became the organiser of what is now a very well established event, DocsBarcelona (read more below). At that time he was managing a local tv station and doing a lot of training, which is still very much on his agenda. He is definitely a talent scout, his office is full of talented carefully picked young people, who get the injection of documentary enthusiasm from their director. On top of that the company has for years delivered half hour documentary programmes directed by new filmmakers to TV3 Catalunya.

A man with high ethical standards, who is not afraid to use the word ”trust”, when he describes, what he wants people to associate with his company. He has lost some battles with this attitude but he has always come back full of optimism and with new ideas. On a personal level: Joan is a dear friend, I have always enjoyed his company, I love to work with him, to watch and listen to the creative, sometimes hard but passionate discussions between him and production manager Elena Subira, to share with him our common passion FCBarcelona, to sing Jacques Brel with him in his car, and to meet his lovely family: Montse, Berta and Marti.  

http://www.parallel40.com/

Images from the Revolution in Egypt

I was watching the Danish news magazine Horisont (modelled after the BBC Panorama strand) last night, prime time on DR, our public service channel. They had 25 minutes on Egypt. I sat down with some expectation that was competely let down. It was as it used to be: a journalist with a microphone in hand walking on Tahrir Square with some interviewees, a little trip to the countryside to hear what a pro-Mubarak peasant have to say, and then back to the studio for further comments. Boringly put together, giving no real sense of what had happened, just a little pro et contra, information, no emotion. Pedestrian.

Earlier that same day I had seen some videos on vimeo (excellent platform for transmitting films and videos). Videos made by young people, who was there when the uprising happened, who took part and who have had the talent to put some short visuals together in a structured way, with a sense for building a story and for giving the atmosphere of being where a total change was taking place. Here is a text that is an intro to the videos you may want to watch. There are more to find, signed by one of the activist filmmakers. Jasminah Metwaly:

Intifadat Intifadat, a collective of filmmakers, won the Streaming the Revolution Award (at a festival in Cairo, ed.) for three videos they submitted. According to the jury, these videos showed an incredible sensitivity with the camera. More than merely scenes of protest, the videos convey a sense of raw emotion. The carnivalesque aesthetics show sophistication with both content and form. These videos demonstrate acute skills in depth of field, composition of shots, and creative editing.

The Downfall of Mubarak (6'23): vimeo.com/20169177 Torah (5'25): vimeo.com/21000128 Cairo Intifada (5'59): vimeo.com/19513814

http://www.storydoc.gr/

Sami Saif: Tommy

Tommy Seebach, popstjerne, vinder af det danske melodi grand prix adskillige gange, blev 53 år gammel. Han var, som det vist hedder, hård ved sig selv, knoklede for at få anerkendelse for sit talent, nåede toppen, faldt dybt, druknede sig i alkohol, holdt op igen, men var slidt ned og døde pludselig af et hjertestop.

En klassisk historie, et motiv fra showbizz-verdenen gennemspillet igen og igen i fiktionens ramme, og i utallige dokumentarer. Og i sidstnævnte ramme som regel på akkurat den tv-dokumentar-måde, som Sami Saif anvender sig af: arkiv med hovedpersonen, interviews med famile og arbejdskammerater, og masser af klip og materiale fra familiens privatarkiv. Når så Sami Saifs dokumentar er så meget bedre end gennemsnittet, er det fordi han har Tommy Seebachs enke og tre børn som hovedfortællere OG det helt unikke hjemmevideostof at trække på. Familien er totalt åbne i deres udsagn om den stadig mere alkoholiserede far og mand, der sprængte familien. Enhver der har haft alkohol i familien som barn ved hvad det betyder. Men de taler også smukt om en mand, som så gerne ville være med dem hele tiden, men ikke kunne.

Det kræver sin instruktør at kunne komme så tæt på, men Saif har opnået den tillid, som er forudsætningen for at han kan fortælle sin historie i et flot komponeret flow, i en undertiden virtuos montage der udelukker brugen af en kommentar. Det er simpelthen godt håndværk.

Tommy blev udsendt af DR1 i prime time på en lørdag aften. Jeg ved godt, at det var lige før Melodi Grand Prix finalen, så der var en tematisk sammenhæng – men tør man håbe at DR med sit aktuelt offentliggjorte fokus på ”tilbage til klassisk public service”, OGSÅ generelt genetablerer noget af den kvalitet, som den nedlagte dokumentargruppe besad? Det er helt vanvittigt, at Det Danske Filminstituts midler til kunstneriske dokumentarer skal bruges til en tv-dokumentar som denne, hvor god den så end er.

2010, 80 mins./55 mins. (jeg så den sidstnævnte), producent Peter Bech

www.tommyseebach-filmen.dk

http://www.filmstriben.dk/

Vurdering:

Realscreen

I have written about and praised the DOX magazine a couple of times as the magazine for the creative (artistic, authored, call it what you want) documentary. But if you want to follow what happens in the more commercial sector of the documentary, call it non-fiction, you should take a subscription to the FREE daily email newsletter of the magazine realscreen. It gives a lot of good information, it contains very often small interviews with documentarians, it is quickly read. You could also take a (to be paid for) subscription for a print version of the magazine.

To give you an impression of what has been written about the last days: American documentary icon Ken Burns premieres a new tv series, Prohibition (photo), about the American attempt to ban alcohol in the 1920’es. Report from the HotDocs festival, including the forum for documentary projects. Tim Hetherington, killed in Libya, receives a tribute at HotDocs and Restrepo is being shown. Albert Maysles to be honoured at the Sheffield DocFest. New film from James Marsh (Man on Wire), Project Nim, the perfect case study for the nature versus nurture debate, with the story of a chimpanzee at the center of a 1970s experiment. A lot about what Discovery and National Geographic channels are up to, including quickly produced programmes on Bin Laden… check it out and subscribe if you find it useful.

http://realscreen.com/

Sophia Tzavella: Paradise Hotel

It seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and isolated it is, what was meant to be (25 years ago) a place to live, in noble decency, planned to house the Romas by the socialist government. Today block 20 is a pigpen with no water and often no electricity, with garbage all over, people throwing their swill from the balconies, and doing shit anywhere, rats all over. Disgusting living conditions.

The director has chosen a complicated, yet interesting structure. Upfront and towards the last part of the film, she goes with hardcore social documentation: Inside and outside the appartments, talking faces, stories about the unbelievable poverty and why they choose to stay here (what could the alternative be?). In some cases she goes close, in others she stays with a distance. There is a dynamic pace in the narrative, no sentimentalism, this is how it is, carried by a strong musical score. In between there are some staged sequences, for instance with an albino, whose enigmatic silent role in the film I never really understood.

... and then documentation is taken over by Fellini! A marriage is going to be, and colourful and entertaining it becomes with the young couple’s appartment being painted, everyone getting dressed up, music, dance, food, happiness, and a sign saying ”Paradise Hotel”. The director makes a point, dreams of a better world with her protagonists for whom you can only have empathy.

The market is full of films about romas and the living conditions, this is one of the better ones.

Bulgaria, 2010, 54 mins., HBO Central Europe & Agitprop

http://www.agitprop.bg/#/info/home

http://www.taskovskifilms.com/

Vurdering:

SVT and Documentaries

Well, it is first and foremost for us Northeners, who can read Swedish... but I write this text in English anyway to praise the documentary profile, quality and volume of the SVT, Swedish public broadcaster, that publishes a very good newsletter on the documentaries that is broadcasted on the different slots on SVT1 and 2. You can subscribe on the newsletter for free through the address below.

Coming up in the coming week is Frederick Wiseman’s ”La Danse” (photo) (tuesday 10pm) from the Parisian ballet and a film on Jörgen Persson, great cameraman for Bo Widerberg, Roy Andersson and Bille August (monday 09.50 am). During Easter many other Swedish subject and international documentaries have been on the schedule.

dokumentarfilm@svt.se

Vaclav Klaus on Camera

Below is a text about a new Danish television documentary, ”The President”, which describes the absurd process that lead to the nomination of totally unknown haiku-poet and politician, Belgian Herman van Rompuy, as President of the EU – according to Romani Prodi and Joshka Fischer an evidence of the fall of the European project.

It is quite entertaining, well made, but maybe it does not bring anything clever or new to the table, it stays on the surface, reviewer Allan Berg thinks.

An EU sceptic, Czech President Vaclav Klaus (Photo from March this year, Klaus and Sarkozy), however, brings something new to the table: a not very well hidden cleptomania performed during a press meeting in Chile. Oooops, was I on camera? Take a look on your own on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdobFPqr8c4

Christoffer Guldbrandsen: Præsidenten

Det er så ikke, som man ellers efter pressebilledet kunne tro, Romano Prodi, der fortæller historien. Det er Guldbrandsen selv, som er fortælleren, i hvert fald af den journalistiske, handlingsbaserede historie, som er bundet i hans speak. Det er nok de fire klippere, som står for musikken, for rytmen og selve spændingen. Og spændende er det, det er bestemt en god film, en flot film, en underholdende film. Men jeg er ikke sikker på, det er en klog film. Jeg er ikke overbevist om, at Guldbrandsens historiefortælling når dybere end skolebogens oversigt, teksten har ligesom ikke litterær værkhøjde, og kun enkelte steder får klippet lov at fortælle selv, så filmisk når den heller ikke vingefang. Og så savnede jeg sådan tid til Prodis analyse, til Fischers. Nok deres især. Men, hvor er det dog netop spændende og flot med alle disse super-egoer i præcise klip fra alle de mange kampe. Imidlertid, den store film med den samlende skildring af hele kampen og selve kampen om det politiske projekt, Europas forfatning og Europas præsident, er det ikke.   

Christoffer Guldbrandsen: Præsidenten, Danmark 2011, 52 min. DR2 Dokumania 12. april 21:00. Guldbrandsens filmografi: Fogh bag facaden (2003), Rødvinsgenerationen (2004), Lykketoft finale (2005), Den hemmelige krig (2006), Dagbog fra midten (2009).

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Carsten Foldbæk: Med døden som makker

Jeg synes, det er uheldigt, at DR2 og Carsten Foldbæk leverer os dokumentarisk sjusk og blot i slutteksterne indrømmer, at billederne ikke passer til det, som fortælles. Det er så synd at billeddække Helge Hansens fornemme fortælling med et arkivmateriale så genbrugt og genbrugt eller misvisende eller direkte utroværdigt, så den forvirrende aflæsning af det næsten overskygger hans reelle og autentiske tilstedeværelse i billedet, en medvirkende-præstation, som fortjener at stå alene uden forstyrrelse, med mindre arkivmaterialet er udsøgt sjældent og hundrede procent dækkende. Man var altså blevet klar over svagheden, der var et skilt, som undskyldende fortalte at dækbillederne ikke nødvendigvis havde med de begivenheder at gøre, som Helge Hansen fortalte om. Jeg vil opfordre DR2 til at få den dokumentar rettet eller klippet om og sendt igen i den historisk og topografisk korrekte ramme og billeddækning, den fortjener.

Helge Hansen er tidligere modstandsmand og overlevede tortur, dødsdom og Neuengamme-ophold. Han er en præcis og klar og usentimental fortæller, og han er selvfølgelig den egentlige autor til det trods alvorlige fejl, han ikke er skyld i, gribende og seværdige fortælling.  

Carsten Foldbæk: Med døden som makker, Danmark, 54 min. DR2 dokumentar, kan ses på 

http://www.dr.dk/NU/playerrett/#/med-doeden-som-makker/7536  

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Hugues le Paige: The Prince

The director of this film used to be a strong and passionate commissioning editor at RTBF, the French language Belgian public broadcaster. He left when the channel decided to be less active in the commitment to the creative documentary. Le Paige wrote articles and a book about the overall decline of the public broadcasters involvement - as a colleague said to me some days ago: he predicted the crisis as it unfolds right now. For this blogger, in the early days of the EDN (European Documentary Network), it was always a pleasure to have le Paige in a pitching panel with his commitment and critical constructive encouragement to the filmmakers to fight on for quality against mainstream sensationalistic tabloid.

As this film shows, le Paige masters the personal reflection, in this case, on the relation between those who film and those who are being filmed. Who is in power, who is in control, and how is the power performed. le Paige goes back to the material he shot with Francois Mitterrand towards the end of his presidency. The President had given him carte blanche to film during meetings, when he was working at his desk, on visits to his childhood home or to the potential voters in the countryside. We observe the superb controller charmingly conveying what he wants to convey, at the first glance innocent and spontaneous, but you discover his fine way of manipulation, he knows exactly what kind of questions he wants to be put, he is very much conscious about his ”image”. What is seen is a very charismatic man who is in total control with the media.

le Paige wonders what he could say to ”find the truth” and still be free. You might say that the director is a bit naive in retrospect... but great it is to watch the charismatic Mitterrand explode in front of the camera and at the same time, as written, be in total, charming control.

Belgium, 2011, 52 mins.

http://www.arturomio.com/

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Nahid Sarvestani: The Queen and I

Ja, selv om jeg var ved at segne af træthed hang jeg på. Jeg havde jo regnet ud, hvordan det ville udvikle sig mellem de to kvinder... (jeg kunne have læst det på Dokumanias hjemmeside ser jeg nu bagefter), men det var på en eller anden måde helt ok med den forudsigelighed. På en eller anden måde...

Det er en god film, den vokser og vokser, begge karakterer vokser og vokser, bliver mere og mere interessante, og vel at mærke i en konstant balance. De fylder lige meget, både i billedet og i historien, som viser sig ikke at være to, men én fortælling, elegant og nænsomt vævet sammen af Farah Pahlavis og Nahid Sarvestanis biografier, deres synspunkter og refleksioner.

Farah Pahlavi har senere bemærket, at det ville have været bedre for filmen, hvis hun også som Sarvestani havde indre monologer off-screen. Skarpt! Hun har fuldstændig ret. Balancen i værket er så vigtig, og dette er en ubalance...  

Filmen kan nu og formodentlig nogle dage ses på Dokumanias hjemmeside.

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Francois Truffaut: Kvinden overfor

TDC har forsynet mig med en sort boks, som kan gemme filmene fra gamle dage, som DR K denne tid sender i gedigne serier. Det betyder gensyn efter årtier og derefter gensyn på gensyn af værker, som ellers kun havde plads i bøgerne og så i erindringen fra den ene gang i biografen dengang. Gensyn som nu i DR K's vigtige Truffaut kavalkade Kvinden overfor fra 1981. Det er altså en stor kærlighedsfilm. Og den handler slet ikke om Bernard Coudray og Mathilde Bauchard, den handler om Gérard Depardieu og Fanny Ardant. Og den handler ikke om Gérard Depardieu og Fanny Ardant, for det handler da om Francois Truffaut og netop Fanny Ardant, men da jeg så den dengang, handlede det selvfølgelig om hende ved siden af. Og når hun ser filmen nu, handler den om? Naturligvis om Bernard Coudray og Mathilde Bauchard, for hun ved siden af elsker historier. Men hvad sker mon under fortællingen? Det er jo så vidunderligt med film, som aldrig er dengang, for det jo er umuligt, og som sjældent er historier kun, for de er jo for levende virkelighed lige nu og her. Hvad er under disse omstændigheder den virkelige historie? Jeg genlæser i eftersøgningen af et svar et smukt essay om Truffaut og finder der en konklusion: Kærlighed er ikke koldere end døden. Kærlighed er varmere end livet.

DR K genudsender Kvinden overfor i aften 23:25 og 8. april 16:45

POV: Cakes, Ellsberg and A World in Conflict

POV means Point of View and is the name of ” American television’s longest-running independent documentary series”, part of the PBS in the US and led by executive producer Simon Kilmurry, who is a frequent visitor to documentary events all over. From him a press release was sent to filmkommentaren.dk – here is an excerpt that gives you the idea that the American audience can watch high quality, creative documentaries. If you want to know more about POV, go to the website, that has trailers, background articles, a blog etc.:

The new season in June kicks off with Kings of Pastry. D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus' behind-the-scenes account of France's greatest pastry competition, an epic, a three-day test of passion, perseverance, artistry amd nerves. In advance of the new season, on June 7, POV will present a special encore broadcast of the Oscar nominated film The Most Dangerous Man in America, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers, an event that changed the course of the Vietnam War and world history. POV airs on PBS on Tuesdays at 10 pm...

US Documentary Channel

Wish we had a documentary channel in Europe! We do not. The Americans have: The Documentary Channel, that also offers a very valauable newsletter that advertises the broadcasts of the channel AND a so-called Docstore, where films can be bought or downloaded.

Coming soon is a series of Robert Drew documentaries, including the classics ”Primary”, ”The Chair” and ”Crisis” (these films can also be bought in Europe, of course). In clips Drew gives anecdotes about the shooting of these and other films in his retrospective. Entertaining and informative doc film history.

http://www.documentarychannel.com/

Tribeca Film Festival

Could not resist, had to bring that photo, even if I have now idea about the film – it has its premiere at the festival. Here is what is written about it on the site:

The first big piece of news about the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival has broken, and it’s a doozy. To open the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by American Express®, we’ve assembled some serious talent: award-winning director Cameron Crowe, seminal rock keyboardist Leon Russell, and Elton John (photo), with the latter performing live on April 20!

What do these three men have in common? Well, in 2009, Elton John teamed up with his longtime idol Russell to make an album called The Union, produced by the legendary T-Bone Burnett. Director Crowe—himself an avid music fan, having explored the musician’s life in such classics as Almost Famous and Singles—decided to film their collaborative process, from writing through recording. The result is a documentary of the same name, the world premiere of which will be shown as the opening night film on Wednesday, April 20, 2011.

The festival continues until May 1^st and has a strong documentary programme with 12 films competing in the so-called World Documentary Feature Competition (WDFC), plus another 9 docs to be found in a new section called Viewpoints. Films from USA and the UK dominate the selection for the WDFC, but what a pleasure to see that “Cinema Komunisto” by Serbian Mila Turajilic has been taken as an outsider, well done selection committee! As well as Swedish Gabriella Bier’s “Love During Wartime” – love between an Israeli and a Palestinian. Look forward to see that film as well as “Marathon Boy”, which will have its Danish premiere on “Dokumania” this coming Tuesday.

Also with Danish eyes – Eva Mulvad’s “The Good Life”, that has been running in cinemas in Copenhagen for weeks, is in the Viewpoint category that is characterised like this by the festival programmer: In our new Viewpoints section, we celebrate films that have unique, personal perspectives in their approach to their subjects, and which connect a wide range of global stories.

http://www.tribecafilm.com/

http://www.dr.dk/dr2/dokumania

http://www.cinemakomunisto.com/news/

Gainsbourg Forever

Tomorrow, 2nd of March, it is twenty years ago that the French artist icon, Serge Gainsbourg, died. This is being celebrated by the French. Yesterday the daily newspaper ”Libération” brought a black & white poster photo with ”Gainsbourg nu”, at least almost naked, staging himself in a position in his bed, smoking a cigarette. The eternal cigarette of the singer, who also brought it to the stage when performing.

The French-German European cultural channel, Arte, of course, dedicated a whole theme evening to Gainsbourg, entitled ”Gainsbourg Forever”, including a quite well done documentary voiced by Jane Birkin, based on the holiday films and videos she made when the two of them lived together. You see the singer being a clown in front of the camera, with his dog, and playing with the daughter of Jane Birkin, Kate, and later with their child Charlotte, destined to be an actress herself. It sounds banal and the images are private from the places they went, always to Venice by the way, but Jane Birkin gives it emotions with her voice-off, full of reactions to what she remembers from when they were together. Unsnobbish, loveable.

Mes images privées de Serge, 2011, 40 mins.

http://www.arte.tv/fr/Echappees-culturelles/Gainsbourg-forever/3712996.html

Good Docu News from Czech Republic

On this blog you have often met the sentence ”East Beats West” referring to this blogger´s enthusiasm for original documentaries from Eastern Europe. The central point for spreading knowledge about the situation, and for stimulating the sector through festivals, workshops, training sessions and brilliant website is the IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) in Prague. IDF has released this press release about ”Czech Documentary Film in 2010. It includes an overview of viewer numbers for Czech Television, cinema attendance, festival awards, funding suppport from the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography, and Czech TV. But also some well argumented worries for the future. I think documentarians in many other countries will nod affirmingly when you read the pro’s and con’s:

Czech documentary film in 2010:

• 16 Czech documentaries released in cinemas
• Highest cinema attendance for documentary film: Katka – 117,000 filmgoers
• Documentary funding from the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography: CZK 33 million granted to 39 projects
• Czech Television allocated CZK 157 million in external and internal costs to 786 projects
• Highest viewer numbers for documentary programme on Czech Television's channel 1, ČT1: 13. komnata Kateřiny Kornové - 1,250,000 viewers
• Highest viewer numbers for documentary programme on Czech Television's channel 2, ČT2: Marital Etudes 20 Years Later - Mirka and Antonín - 504,000 viewers

Prague, February 9, 2011 – Czech documentary film did fairly well in 2010. As in the previous year, sixteen documentaries were released in cinemas, yet according to the Association of Film Distributors, documentary films attracted over 160,000 filmgoers, i.e., nearly three times as many compared to 2009.

van der Valk & Gavan: Geert Wilders – the Movie

Almost 3 years ago we brought a review of a film signed by Geert Wilders, Fitna – the Movie, an anti-islam 16 mins. long visual pamphlet that stirred a lot of debate – it is to be watched online, if you wish.

Last year Dutch directors van der Valk and Mags Gavan set off to make a film about Wilders, who has now positioned himself and his right-wing, racist party as a supporter of the sitting government in the Netherlands. The ambition of the filmmakers were to get close to Wilders to get an interview. They do not succeed. Thus the film is more about them not succeeding going from place to place where Wilders goes, or comes from, small-talking to people who agree or disagree with him. Mixed with a lot of archive from speeches by Wilders in parliament or in London or... whatever, whereever... it stays superficial, there is nothing we did not know in beforehand in this film about a frustrated filmmaker in his sofa or at his computer trying to get access. If he is not out doing some vox-pop. Creative documentary, no. Good Journalism, no.

Seen on Dokumania, DR2, February 8 2011. 

Netherlands, 2010, 79 mins.

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