Magnificent

My Danish writing blog colleague writes above, under the caption "Oscar kritik", linking to a group of festival people, who object to the selection of films nominated for this years documentary Oscar. He proudly mentions that two Danish films are mentioned in the alternative list that the festival people have set up: Asger Leth's "Ghosts of Cité Soleil" and Pernille Rose Grønkjær´s "The Monastery".

This gives me the chance to round up the festival "Magnificent7" in Belgrade that ended with the screening of "The Monastery" at the Sava Centre in Belgrade.

1500 people saw the film, Pernille was there, and this old doc-blogger got tears in his eyes experiencing that a film about an old man and his dream, Mr. Vig, captures the hearts of everyone.

"The Monastery" is the best that has happened to Danish documentary for years.

... and the "Magnificent7 Festival" is unique and Magnificent! Organised and spirited by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic. 

Photo: Pernille Rose Grønkjær (Erik Molberg Hansen)

Thierry Garrel & Alain Cavalier

If you happen to be in Barcelona tomorrow, 1st of February, you could visit Institut Francais at 17.30 to meet two French masters in documentaries - at a masterclass open to the audience. Thierry Garrel is Head of the Documentary Unit of Arte France and Alain Cavalier is the director who after a long and strong fiction filmography (among other the masterpiece "Thérèse") now makes his own "Portraits".

Garrel, in Barcelona for the DOCSBarcelona festival, has chosen four favourite films for his section in the festival, called "Le Dernier Repas". About Cavalier he writes:

Alain Cavalier is a pedestrian in Paris. He loves the city. Unexpectedly on his walks, with his eyes and his ears always wide open, he has come across a woman who makes mattresses, a woman who works in a dry-cleaner's, the owner of a bistro, a woman who makes thread... and decided to film these women.

For more about Arte, go to http://www.artefrance.fr/

Asger Leths Haiti-film

Vi så Ghosts of Cité Soleil i FOF-filmklubben i aftes. En lille bevæget, imponeret og også noget trykket flok. Hvilken film! Og vi noterede, at Leth og filmen for et par dage siden havde modtaget de nordamerikanske filminstruktørers pris, DGA-Award, som vi fornemmer, han sætter mere pris på end en Oscar. Det er jo mine læremestres og forbilleders anerkendelse, som han fortalte Ritzau. Prisen gives for "outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary".

Ja, den er fremragende. Den er den mest sete dokumentarfilm i danske biografer det seneste års tid. Men den er vist ikke på programmet noget sted mere. Nu venter vi spændt på DVD-distributionen her i landet.

I aftes så vi som forfilm de første 15 minutter af Jørgen Leths Haitifilm, som er præcist 10 år ældre. Det viste sig at være storslået. En række sammenligninger mulige: generationsmæssige, historiske, æstetiske, moralske. Og de to film omspænder dertil ti afgørende år i Haitis politiske udvikling, Aristides æra. Men først og sidst, to filmmonumenter, det ene ikke større end det andet. Så forskellige og dog så ens.. Et fyrtårn i hvert sit årti.

Asger Leth: Ghosts of Cité Soleil, 2006. Nordisk Film, i biografdistribution. en amerikansk DVD kan købes i "Laserdisken". Jørgen Leth: Haiti-uden titel, 1996. DFI/DBC distribution. Kan lånes på biblioteket.    

DOCSBarcelona

For four days Barcelona hosts the documentary film festival DOCSBarcelona. This second edition takes place in the Alexandra cinema situated in one of the ramblas of the beautiful city. I am writing this from my hotel room preparing for the screenings tonight. The festival has asked me to put together the Panorama section, which is 8 feature length films and 3 short films. Here they come, you can find more info on the films on http://www.docsbarcelona.com/

"Hoy el dia se repite diferente", Spain, 2007 - www.hoyeldiaserepitediferente.com

"Kalinovski Square", Estonia, 2007

"La isla de la Juventud", Mexico, 2007

"Oltre la paura: Bruno contro la Mafia", Italy, 2007 (plus short film)

"Ser Isla", Mexico, 2007

"Someone Like You", Denmark, 2007 - www.barokfilm.dk  (plus short film)

"Stone Silence", Poland, 2007 - www.eurekamedia.info  (plus short film)

"The Way of a Warrior", Germany/Switzerland/Italy, 2007 - www.filmtank.de  

Oscar kritik

En række festivalledere har i frustration over Academy Awards udvælgelsen / nomineringen af dokumentarfilm, de finder - skal jeg kalde det "ikke-tidssvarende" - på et weekendmøde lavet deres egen liste over årets 15 bedste film. To danske film er på den liste, og disse to og en række af de øvrige har været anmeldt her i filmkommentaren.dk. Se selv efter:

http://www.indiewire.com/biz/2008/01/15_documentarie.html 

Efter fremlæggelsen af listen findes en interessant blog-diskussion om ved festivalbedømmelser og prisuddelinger at inddrage andet end filmenes indhold, hele det kunstneriske arbejde med fotografi, klip, lyddesign..

Magnificent7 has begun

... and the festival that we have been writing about on this blog every day for a week has had a magnificent start. On saturday the opening Basque film "Nomadak tx" gathered more than 600 people, accompanied by full house (around 450 seats) to also Bulgarian film "Mosquito Problem and other Stories" and German film "Nach der Musik". The audience shows again this year enthusiasm and the filmmakers offer their knowledge to young filmmakers and students on the following day with intense discussions on what is a documentary.

Yes, what is a documentary?

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 7

On this blog we have many times written about the Danish manyfold awarded film by Pernille Rose Grønkjær, "The Monastery". You can click on the title and read all about it.

Now it is to be the closing film at the festival in Belgrade - and it is indeed a magnificent film. This is what I wrote when Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, and I took it for presentation with a reference to the site of the film:

www.themonasterymovie.com  

SELECTOR‘S WORD: “This film has received all the prizes it deserves because it has all the qualities you can ask for in a documentary. It is about a man and his dreams, that he wishes to fulfill at this point where he is close to the end. But it is also a film about love between a nun and the old man, and between the director - who is also the camerawoman of the film - and a unique character for a film. A man she has followed for seven years. You cry, you laugh, you sense drama and conflict. What an artistic achievement!”

Vurdering:

TV and Creative Documentaries

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 6

Vurdering:

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 5

Vurdering:

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 4

The fourth film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting this coming saturday, under the subtitle "European feature documentaries", organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is

WORLDSTAR

A young German author, impressed by photographs of a Czech photographer, goes with his friend’s recommendation to visit him. She was welcomed with a combination of the worst rude words. So it all began. This is a film about an old man with no needs and a remarkable past, facing the hype as an artist against his will. There isn’t any important city in the world where his unusual work hasn’t been exibhited. In this very moment some of the leading metropolis' galleries are exhibiting, for amazed visitors, the photographs taken with the strangest camera ever made. But, while in the art circles worldwide his photos cost up to 12 000 Euros, Miroslav Tichý lives alone in an old, waste house, isolated from the world, surrounded with only a few friends. "They should have come earlier, now it’s too late." - he said refusing to talk about the fame. The German director Nataša von Kopp discovers for us the new "Tichý Ocean" in the middle of Europe in the begining of 21st century.

www.worldstar.sleeping-tiger.com

MY WORDS: “What a character! He is around 80 years old, and there he sits, Miroslav Tichý, a brilliant photographer, who does not want to take part in all the fuss around him being a génial artist. The gallery owners and the art critics come to his room, where he sits drinking his beer and slivovica, they ask him all kind of clever questions to his work. He doesn’t give a damn. The young female filmmakers, however, have succeeded to be there and to make him talk to them, and thus to us. Thanks to that, it’s great fun to be with him. This film is full of talent!”

More about film and festival at

www.magnificent7festival.org

Vurdering:

Naser Khaders kunnen

Ude i tovene har han efter at have valgt den mulige redning forleden og erklæret sig som klart borgerlig tilsyneladende kastet sig ind og generobret den offentlige opmærksomhed, han plejer at leve i symbiose med. I dag. Hvad er det med ham? Træt og pligtopfyldende tager jeg en film, som står udstillet på mit bibliotek. Med modvilje, den har en talemåde i sin titel, den har et emne i sin titel, som forlængst har forladt min interesse. Men det er en FILM, DFI-støttet, der må være en eksistentiel kerne.. Jeg snupper den, vil se efter. Filminstituttet har netop sendt et stort antal ud til bibliotekerne.. Jeg vil kigge på nogle af dem, nysgerrigt.. Denne bliver så den første.

Jeg har set den nu. Det er en god film, som henviser Khader til den rolle som statsministerens støtte, han nu bekræfter. Skildrer ham som borgerlig livsnyder og forsigtigper i kulturkampen. Det er en god film, som indfører en yderst interessant modkarakter, Ahmet Akari, som klart er den, jeg holder med. Uden at dele mange af hans synspunkter. Men blot det, at han erstatter Khaders fitnes-madras med sit bedetæppe, gør mig vågent interesseret i manden, som bestemt ikke er smart. Og hvis filmen mere fokuseret havde heddet "Et mandfolk" havde det helt været hans film, selv om det næsten er det nu. Intet flæb hos ham. Kun serier af hurtige beslutninger. Akari hører hjemme i aktiongenren, Khader i livsstilgenren. Denne gode film viser hvordan.

Vibeke Heide-Jørgensen: Muhammedkrisen under huden, 2007. http://www.dfi.dk/DfiKataloget/Nyefilm/Filmbeskrivelse.htm?id=19627 Lånt på Randers Bibliotek.

Vurdering:

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 3

The third film to be shown at the unique festival in Belgrade, starting this coming saturday, under the subtitle "European feature documentaries", organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and with me taking part in the selection is

A FATHER'S MUSIC

The unusual father-son adventure. The film author, son of a famous conductor of East Berlin State Orchestra, Otmar Suitner, tries to relive and regain the important and missing moments of his own childhood. He invites his father on a journey through time and space. In this brilliant musical and film search, like in a symphony, all the important themes are being discussed: the successful career of a great conductor, personal view of music and family memories through a prism of irony regarding recent German history. A surprisingly open dialog between father and son reveals the unusual craft of balancing through life - between Communists and West, between personal life and career, between a wife and a mistress. Under the guidance of two great masters, the musician and the filmmaker, father and son, in the rhytm of fusion of the perfect shots and lavishing, exciting music, we enjoy in this fascinating revelation of time, people, beauty and love. The film has been screened and awarded at big festivals, such as Leipzig, Lisbon, Montreal and in Museum of Modern Arts in New York. This is the best documentary film in Germany in 2007.

www.nachdermusik.de

MY WORDS: “There is this moving family photo of a big man holding the hand of a boy walking away from the camera to somewhere. Father and son who were never really father and son, as the son lived with his mother in the West and the father lived with his wife in the East as renowned and tributed conductor of music. The film is a voyage back in time with father and son (and the two women). It’s without pretentions, full of humour and the son’s ambition to make the father conduct just one more time. Silent beauty, stylistically perfect film and wonderful music!”

More about festival and credits of film at

www.magnificent7festival.org

Vurdering:

Paris Small Talk

Pollution out, pollution in. I am in Paris for one day passing to the fipa festival in Biarritz. I see all cafés having added an outdoor terrasse for the smokers. And I see - and experience - that it is no longer possible to have a montecristo cigar with your coffee after a wonderful meal of oysters and a crème brulèe!

A consolation... is that you now can watch television in most of the Parisian cafés! So you dont have to talk to your companion if you wish to watch fashion models doing the catwalk or football or music videos.

Congratulations to Parisian culture... that was once. Hello to Degas and Toulouse Lautrec and all your fine café paintings that we can now study in the museums. And hello to Truffaut and Godard and all the others... "Jules et Jim" and "A bout de souffle", Moreau and Belmondo, always with a cigarette!

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 2

... for feature length European documentaries

For the fourth time I have had the privilege to select film for this unique festival together with the two organisers Svetlana and Zoran Popovic

THE MOSQUITO PROBLEM AND OTHER STORIES

Made in a Fellini spirit, this structurally unusual film develops before us a gallery of strange characters and even stranger stories. A little town, somewhere in Bulgaria, is under attacks of mosquito swarms and everyone is forced to defend himself in his own way. And just about when you think that their problems are huge and almost unberable, the emence "ghosts" start to emerge from the darkness like in a thriller or a horror movie. Followed by piano sounds and dishevelled narrator, near the rusty cranes, along with cheerleaders' singing and in the shadow of a mountain big phantom nuclear power plant, through the waste island of horror, where the cows and sheep walk and the gigantic buzzing mosquitos bring with their stings the destinies of our heroes closer together. A whole little world which is currently converted by ideologies, regimes and dreams of economical prosperity.

MY WORDS: "Have you ever heard of Belene, a town in Bulgaria? No, I suppose you haven’t. And you maybe never really wanted to... Nevertheless, having seen this witty and at the same time mind-provoking film, you will say, yes I have met people from Belene, who are eccentric and charming and who share their thoughts on life in a town which suffers an almost year-round mosquito infestation. It’s not only a beauty in human approach, it is also innovative in a dramaturgical structure."

More about the film and the festival at

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/selekcija/the_mosquito_problem.htm

Vurdering:

Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade 1

This is the fourth edition of a unique festival of only 7 films but with a huge audience and a warm support from its visitors. It is organised by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic and their team, and I have had the privilige to select films for the festival together with the couple. During this week - up to the start of the festival January 26, I will infom about what we think are magificent films.

NOMADAK TX

Content: A film which takes us on a journey all around the planet in a fantastic rhytm of images and primary sound of a unique archaic instrument - txalaparta. Just like in fairy tales, this journey begins when two young Basque men, musicians Harkaitz Martinez and Igor Otxoa, inspire life to simple pieces of wood.

The uniqueness of txalaparta is that it has to be played by two people and the music is made through a dialog of two musicians. They expand the dialog and spread it around the world - from India to Lapland, through Mongolian plains and Africa. In search of new sounds they go through icy wastelands, Siberian mountains, burning hot deserts. During this great adventure the leading characters meet musicians of various cultures and they join their celebration of sound.

www.nomadaktx.com

My comments: “At the first glance you might think that this is just another politically correct film – and then you discover that these young, charming music talented guys are able to establish more than just a superficial contact with people from al over th world. It's music, it's culture clash and diversity, it's a dream of a better world that is conveyed to us.”

More about the film and credits to be found at www.magnificent7festival.org

Vurdering:

Wie Ich bin (How I Am)

And yet this one is different as a first person narrated documentary where we never hear the young Patrick say anything - but through a text integrated into the image we watch what he thinks and is able to formulate via a computer. He defines his own situation, he actually interprets it better than we could have done. At the same time we watch his beautiful open face and his melancholic glance into the camera as if he was wondering why this happened to him. A clever observer of the world and a young man who is able to communicate.

"The written speech is important for me because then I am not so lonely", is one of his lines, a very concrete one, where many of the others are pure poetry.

Patrick not only observes, he is also trying to take part and it hurts to see how he sometimes stumbles around bewildered and locked into his own world - "please no pity but sympathy", he writes on the film image in this very well crafted film school diploma work from Zelig in Bolzano.

Wie Ich bin. By Ingrid Demets, Caroline Leitner and Daniel Mazza. 48 mins. 2007 www.zeligfilm.it / http://www.zeligfilm.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=257&Itemid=104

Vurdering:

Food for thought?

Following the example of last year’s festival, the international and national competitions are now open to fiction films as documentaries. We said it last year and we repeat it again today: it is not a question of creating a sterile contrast between the true and the made up, but instead of appreciating a film as a producer of meaning, of truth, of intelligence and of our world. We can never have enough of that.

Jean-Pierre Rehm

- who is the director of the festival in Marseilles: http://www.fidmarseille.org/

Janus Metz: Fra Thailand til Thy

Stedet introduceres i smukt fotografi, Lars Skree og Henrik Bohn Ipsen er fotograferne. Der er myndighed over det, et jysk landskab, som er meget mere end et vindblæst hjørne, som det så arrogant hedder på DR1 hjemmesiden. Og kvinden, det til en begyndelse handler om, introduceres tilsvarende smukt og sikkert. Og så begynder fortællingen, det er som det skal være, jeg er tryg. Fra dokumentarens begyndelse. Jeg skal bestemt nok blive ved den... Læs mere FILM # 64

English version: The location is introduced in beautiful photography by cinematographers Lars Skree and Henrik Bohn Ipsen. There is authority to these shots. A Jutlandic landscape that's much, much more than a windswept corner of the country. A region and a people with a singular way of life, great dignity and their integrity intact. The photography conforms to my vision of the place that was shaped sometime back in the Romantic Age. Sommai is introduced with similar beauty and sureness. At first, it's all about her. Once a stranger to these parts, she is now so integrated as anyone can be who looks different and comes from the other side of the globe. Then the story begins. All is well and good. I feel in good hands, from the beginning of the documentary, Love on Delivery. I know I'll stick with it... Read more: FILM # 64

Janus Metz: Fra Thailand til Thy, 2007.

Vurdering:

Lars Movin: Hae-Jin

Styrken i filmen er hovedpersonens usentimentale, værdige, kloge, gennemtænkte og dog ligefremme og spontane, velformulerede, ja, dannede fortælling direkte til kameraet, altså til seerne. Intervieweren som har været der under optagelserne må have tilsvarende kvaliteter: fortællingen er i øjenhøjde.

Det usentimentale og værdige giver fortællingen og dermed filmen en tone af kølighed, som er aldeles velgørende når den tackler disse vanskelige, emotionelt og etisk komplicerede situationer. Og hovedpersonens kompetance bringer filmen blidt, men fast og sikkert gennem følelsesladede situationer, som kunne være på sammenbruddenes rand. Især skyldfølelsen overalt hos den nye familie: vi skilte os af med hende! Den emotionelt mest udsatte bliver hver gang den, som med en diskret holdning og handling afleder lynene.

Lars Movin: Hae-Jin, 2006. http://www.dfi.dk/DfiKataloget/Instruktoerer/Filmbeskrivelse.htm?id=668 Set på DR2 i dag http://www.dr.dk/Dokumentar/tv/DR2/2007/0228090141.htm Filmen kan lånes på biblioteket.

Vurdering:

TV 2 dok om læge og patient

Der var meget, jeg ikke var glad for i den dokumentar. Det dropper jeg fuldstædigt at komme ind på. For jeg synes først og sidst, at det er så modigt gjort af medvirkende og tilrettelægger og godt for os allesammen, at den er lavet. Og så var fokus i selve dokumentaren (mindre i i foromtalen og titlen) så indlysende vigtig: forståelseskløften mellem enhver patient og enhver læge. Den ene er syg, den anden rask, den ene i arbejdsdagens hurtigt glidende rutine, den anden i det pludselige stops ængstelige usikkerhed, den ene i en situation blandt hundreder lignende, den anden midt i noget aldeles ukendt. Dertil næsten altid kulturkløften, sprogligt og uddannelsesmæssigt, generationsmæssigt og med hensyn til social baggrund. Næsten hver gang det priviligerede menneske over for det ikke-priviligerede.

Og det lykkedes dog at få dette gjort klart, i hvert fald skitsemæssigt, i programmets løb, så begge parter for vore øjne ændrede indsigt og adfærd.

Især må jeg fremhæve castingen af den medvirkende læge. Hun kunne stå ved, hvad hun sagde og gjorde og se sine fejl i øjnene over for sin (lige så godt castede) coach og over for os. En regulær FILM ville kunne bygges på de to. Lægen og psykologen. Så kunne vi komme dybere, ville jeg tro, helt ned til lægens fagarrogance, som, om ikke udtalt hos den medvirkende, selvfølgelig mere end manglende træning i samtaleteknik er problemet. Ud over lægens nødvendige lægefaglige dygtighed (som selvfølgelig er det altafgørende) er der brug for menneskelige kvaliteter. Den medvirkende læge viste faktisk hvordan, tror jeg.

Tilrettelæggeren, Dennis Kragelund, kan være tilfreds med sit arbejde. Jeg så det i aftes på TV 2. http://programmer.tv2.dk/article.php//id-9876639.html det fremgår vist ikke, hvornår der er genudsendelse.

Vurdering:

Menstruation - a film project

For a year I have been following a young Slovak woman, Diana Fabianova, in her struggle to finance a film on menstruation. Diana, who lives in Spain and has a Spanish producer, has done a huge work to promote her film project that has been developed - among others - through the Ex Oriente film training programme (www.docuinter.net ) in which I have a position as Head of Studies.

She has now sent this mail out about her project that is described in a very well designed site under development as well. See and read for yourself what she writes about "Moon Inside You":

"We have a new web page for our documentary, with a new trailer and other additional material. It's on the interactive base, we would be very happy if you gave us your feedback, and if you so desire, you can also participate on the creative base.

Soon we will start a blog with entries from the shoot in different countries, interviews with the experts and participants, and further information regarding the documentary, as well as the general issue of menstruation".

http://www.mooninsideyou.com

Channel 4: The First World War

Det gør da ikke så meget, at den her serie er mere end fem år gammel. Og det er bestemt fascinerende at få genopfrisket skoleviden og dertil lagt ny historisk viden og nye vurderinger (lader det til) og Benito Scocozza sørger for, vi ikke bliver bildt noget ind. (Eller gør han?)

Men film er det ikke, det er historielærerens lysbilledforedrag. Og det, som så er at kigge efter, er især billedmaterialet fra arkiverne. Rigtig meget er faktisk filmmateriale, det meste reportageoptagelser, jeg ikke har set før. Så jeg bliver så vidt muligt hængende på ved de følgende afsnit.

Afsnit 2 (8. januar 2008). De skiftende tilrettelæggere/instruktører, vel afsnit for afsnit, griber det ret forskelligt an. 2. afsnit forekommer dels mere udvendigt effektsøgende, dels mere ensidig i sin tendens. Snart bliver det nødvendigt at læse bogen, som er manuskripternes grundlag, Hew Strachen: "The First World War", Oxford University Press, 2001 og frem. Speakerkommentaren er tilsyneladende nøgtern.. men, de nye vurderinger.. jeg ved ikke rigtig. Til gengæld er arkivmaterialet fortsat imponerende. Jeg prøver at fortsætte nogle afsnit.

Afsnit 7 (15. januar 2008) Afsnittet om u-bådskrigen er ren forelæsning. I orden for så vidt. Men er der nye oplysninger, nye vurderinger? Nej,vist ikke. Men så, litterære kvaliteter? Vist heller ikke. Julie Fabricius danske version er formodentlig loyal mod den originale speak. Men så er den svag, uden en samlet tankes stringens, uden sproglig rytme, men sært hoppende opløst i enkeltoplysninger kombineret med en endeløs, forekommer det, række citater med vildt skiftende vinkler og mærkeligt forskellige niveauer. Det betyder, at min tanke i forløbet afbrydes af spring væk, og forelæsningen, filmfortællingen falder sammen.

Channel 4: The First World War, UK 2002. Producer: Jonathan Lewis for Wark Clements Production m.fl. 1.del set på DR 2, 7. januar 2008. http://www.dr.dk/DR2/F%C3%B8rste+verdenskrig/20080104085651.htm

Vurdering:

DR 2: På verdens bund 1-3

Jeg har lige set en dejligt gammeldags (klassisk måske) dokumentarfilm om at være bundløst fattig, men realistisk og værdig på samme tid. De bor på landet, som er tørkeramt, på sultens rand, men rent og ordentligt i smukke traditionelle hytter, disse kvinder. De ser deres mænd tabe stoltheden og give op. Med deres børn på ryggen tager de Addis Abeba for at tigge. Ydmyges, lever i snavs og elendighed - men sender penge hjem hver måned. Vender tilbage, når det går rundt igen derhjemme. Parate til en ny tur til hovedstaden.

Det ser ud som traditionel britisk antropologisk film, er en dansk produktion, men jeg fangede kun klipperens navn, det er den dygtige Jesper Osmund. Jeg leder efter instruktørens navn og andet.. Der kommer ser det ud til to afsnit mere..

DR2 og Jesper Osmund: På verdens bund, tiggerne i Addis Abeba 1-3. 1. del set 7. januar.

Vurdering:

TV 2 dok: Pirater om bord

Ikke mange film får en foromtale som denne sag, som kaldes dokumentarprogram, som på hjemmesiden fremtræder som en veritabel multimedieproduktion med kaptejnens blog, med faktabokse og bonusmateriale, "eksklusive videoklip".

Det er kl. 20:50, vi får se..

Senere: ja,jeg fik se. Og programmet som sådan var en skuffelse. Det kan slet ikke stå alene, men skal måske ses som blot en del af det samlede materiale, TV 2 dok har udsendt. For mig at se, er det en fejl at vinkle de fem søfolks historie kollektivt uden at skildre deres forskellige karakterers udvikling under de mange uger. Derved bliver for eksempel et af de få vigtige plots, modsætningsforholdet mellem de to unge og de tre gamle,underbelyst og i og forsig i det foreliggende materiale postuleret.

Mere kan siges, men det er svært at komme på meget positivt. Det må jeg tænke nærmere over..

TV 2 dok: Pirater om bord, 2008. Set 7. januar 2008. http://programmer.tv2.dk/dok/

Vurdering:

Pol Pot - Timewatch BBC - and Rithy Panh

A small intro to our foreign readers: The Danish DR/TV has always been the flagship when it comes to documentaries on television in Denmark. It might paradoxically enough continue to be so!

The paradox is that a move to new premises, including the building of a concert house, has resulted in a drastic cut down in staff and money, due to a catastrophic budgetary mismanagement from the public service broadcaster. Less funding for local production gives more foreign purchases and re-runs, and the shelves are full of buys of good documentaries!

One of them is a BBC production from 2005 from the renowned history strand Timewatch, whose editor is John Farren. It is about Pol Pot, the man behind the Cambodian genocide in the late 70'es. The documentary gives us the story of the man behind the genocide - without having more than a couple of sequences with the man himself. The director, Andrew Williams, has therefore chosen to reconstruct some of the scenes as they were told to be by people who worked with Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge. Very much is based on quotes from interviews with Pol Pot. It is all very nice, the archive is used cleverly, and the research is as we expect from a BBC production, but... it has also this distance and lack of passion of a non-involved producer and director.

For those who want to know more about Cambodia, there is one director to be mentioned: Rithy Panh, Cambodian, born in 1964, escaped the country to settle in Paris making several strong and passionate documentaries and dramas about his own country. The one that comes closest to describing the terror during the Pol Pot regime is "S21" that can be bought on dvd at http://www.editionsmontparnasse.fr/dvd

Watched on DR2 2008-01-04.

Pol Pot, BBC, 2005, Andrew Williams.

Vurdering:

Pirjo Honkasalo: Melancholia

DR2 sendte en meget sen aften for nogen tid siden den finske mesters seneste mesterværk. FILMKOMMENTAREN.DK gjorde udtrykkelig opmærksom på, at den film måtte man ikke miste.

Pirjo Honkasalo er ude i filmfestivalverdenen regnet blandt de største, mest uomgængelige. Og den store ener. Hun researcher selv, skriver selv, filmer selv (på film!), klipper selv. Men denne film har den danske mester, filmklipperen Niels Pagh Andersen skabt fortælllingen i. Med rolig hånd i tre store akter, der huskes som tre malerier, tre kæmpelærreder af stor skønhed og derfor endnu større gru.

"Al filmkunstens styrke og skønhed er til stede her... Et enestående og essentielt værk!" Le Nouvel Observateur

Pirjo Honkasalo: Melancholia, 2006. Kan købes hos co-producenten Magic Hour Films http://magichourfilms.webhotel.net/index.php?specLan=da&specPage=filmbasen_quire&specMovie=ok Den kan også lånes på biblioteket og i Randers vises den i FOF Mandagshøjskolen og Onsdagshøjskolen.

Dorte Høeg Brask: Duften af Beirut

Det var et godt gensyn med den film. Jeg havde første gang jeg så den problemer med den medvirkende vi følger på opklaringsrejsen. Det havde jeg også i dag, men så opdagede jeg, at hun vokser i løbet af filmen, vokser i alvor og vedkommenhed.

Og sådan var det måske med hendes liv. Hun bevægede sig fra overfladiskhed til stadig større livsfylde nu, hvor hun sammen med Høeg Brasks så fint tilstedeværende kamera (og mig) konkret oplever, hvordan livet river konstanser væk, huse skydes i stykker, naboer flygter, venner dør, kærligheden er til låns. Og sin elsker finder hun som knogler i en kasse bag en jernlåge i kirkegårdens skelethus.

Jeg så, dette var ægte. Jeg finder "Duften af Beirut" er en af de mest konsekvente og vedkommende i gruppen af film, som med deres medvirkende rejser tilbage i fortiden for at genfinde dennes medvirkende.

Og så: jeg holder meget af Dorte Høeg Brasks kommentar og fortællerstemme. Her er noget vigtigt på færde, det mærker jeg næsten allermest tydeligt.

Dorte Høeg Brask: Duften af Beirut, 2006. Set på DR2 i dag, og genudsendes nok en gang mere mindst. Filmen kan også lånes på biblioteket.

Georg Larsen: Beautiful Beirut

Det var da interessant at få dette ugebladsjournalistiske blik på en yngre, emanciperet libanesisk kultur. Personerne, reportagen fulgte, var vist nok både sympatiske og kloge, men filmen var for ubeslutsom til at finde ud af det. Den holdt ikke fokus, måske fordi, den simpelthen ikke havde noget. Valgte at følge de to kvinder, som medvirkede, i deres springende tanker og foretagender. Helt ukritisk forekom det.

Jeg holdt ud til slut og havde god tid til at gøre mig mine tanker om nutidig overflade og sentimentalitet. Jeg kunne ikke lide leksikonforklaringerne på skiltene. Det vidste jeg stort set altsammen, havde foretrukket Larsens egen, personlige speak med personlige vurderinger, gerne journalistiske eller historiske eller politiske, ganske bestemt.

Georg Larsen: Beautiful Beirut. Set på DR2 for lidt siden.

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