Terence Davies: Of time and the City/on Narration

Arte: GAZA SDEROT

Razvan Georgescu: Testimony 2

East European Forum 2008

15 Young by Young

Ex Oriente Film

ITVS in Jihlava

Two representatives from the San Francisco based ITVS (Independent Television Service), Cynthia Kane and Lois Vossen, attended the East European Forum. They made a very good impression expressing enthusiasm in their going for the creative and artistic documentary. They were at the right place!

In a morning session clips were shown from two films that they had supported, both of them on their way to international success:

"Cash and Marry" by Atanas Georgiev, produced by Nukleus, Sinisha Juricic, Croatia. And "The Caviar Connection", produced and directed by Jovana and Dragan Nikolic, Serbia. The latter will be premiered at IDFA this year.

Here are some words from the site of ITVS:

Welcome to television's independent voice. Innovative. Provocative. Real. ITVS funds, presents and promotes award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television and cable, innovative new media projects on the Web and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens Tuesday nights at 10:00 PM on PBS... ITVS programs take creative risks, explore complex issues, and express points of view seldom seen on commercial or public television. ITVS programming reflects voices and visions of underrepresented communities and addresses the needs of underserved audiences, particularly minorities and children.

Still: The Caviar Connection.

http://www.itvs.org/index.htm

Jon Bang Carlsen: Addicted To Solitude

Det er et privilegium at åbne en DVD boks som denne.. Så smuk den er, personlige grafiske løsninger.. indeni den nye film, som vi har skrevet om og så de tre ældre., alle mere personlige film end ellers.. også mere personlige end jeg husker dem.

Hvad vil nu det sige? Jo, instruktøren er til stede i det hele, fra yderst tilmeget langt ind, til lige netop der, hvor de medvirkende tager over. Hans malererfaring og hans håndskrift møder jeg på boksen og indeni på kassetterne på DVD omslagene, og med det samme i teksterne, som ikke er tekstforfatterens, men hans.

Jon Bang Carlsen omgiver sine film med ord, også denne, så værket består af en film og en mængde forklaringer, kommentarer og refleksioner, som ude i virkeligheden fortsætter i interviews, artikler og bøger. Så jeg må se alt og læse alt, hvis jeg vil gøre mit publikumarbejde færdigt. Men hurtigt flytter ordene ind i billederne, teksten ind i scenerne, butikken og kirkegården, farmen og landskabet. Og bliver de medvirkendes tillige. Og filmen vokser ud af skitsen, den begyndte med til mesterværket, den er.

Jon Bang Carlsen: My African trilogy plus one, 2008, containing Addicted To Solitude, Portrait of God, Blinded Angels and Purity Beats Everything,  C&C Production, distribution: Danish Filminstitute bookshop@dfi.dk  

Vurdering:

Super 16 no. 04 premiere

Syv producere og syv instruktører er færdige med deres uddannelse på Super 16 og de afleverede  i dag efter planen deres afgangsfilm  i Dagmar biografen. Samtidig med premieren er de syv film tilgængelige på en DVD med titlen SUPER16 NO.04 Det er så flot. Den har jeg kigget nærmere på. 

Filmene, seks fiktioner og én dokumentar, er:

Black Man, Kræsten Kusk / Julie Sophie Vang, 40 min. (Trekanthandel, dansk slavehandel og brutalitet, musealisering, udenrigspolitiske undskyldninger og andre velkendte emner overraskende pædagogiseret som stand-up tragedie. Det er nyt for mig - afgørende er, om skuespilleren, alene og energisk, holder til hele sin tour de force..) 

Cathrine, Mads Matthessen / Jonas Bagger, 25 min. (Cathrines karakter udvikles så fascinerende, jeg slipper hende ikke undervejs, hun bliver heller ikke let at glemme - vigtigt er om familien holder så tæt på det karikeredes distance..)

Kaktus, Anna Treiman / Mads Damsbo (ekstern), 30 min. (Imponeret over instruktørens mod og udholdenhed til igen i udsøgt scenografi og på smukke, smukke locations at skildre dette forbrugte og derfor dobbelt vanskelige emne - tænker også: er det en gang på stedet?)

The Matjulskis, Mikkel Blaabjerg Poulsen, 27 min. (Jamen, jeg falder da for denne omhyggelige parafrase på en række scener, jeg mener at have set andre steder, røres over den sentimentale historie om poesien og musikken og over den tavse hovedpersons udtryksfulde spil - så det er sært, det ikke er min yndlingsfilm i buketten)

Nowhere Man, Sune Lykke Albinus / Line Hvidtfeldt, 22 min. (Livlig skildring af en ung mand i problemer i nattelivet og i legene med vennen og i deres  fællesskab med en pige på bagagebæreren. "Er du faret vild, Andreas?", spørger vennen, og det er mere end konstatering end et spørgsmål - og for mig kunne det gælde filmen, som trods mange meget smukke scener ikke når frem..)

Panser, Roni Ezra / Lars Valentin, 27 min. (To patruljebetjente, en erfaren og en begynder. Den erfarne oplærer begynderen i håndværket, og han skal nok lære det -  filmen er lærlingens svendestykke, den vil håndværket, og det klarer den..)  

Black Heart, Ada Bligaard Søby / Morten Kjems Juhl, 23 min. (Tre unge skæbner i New York og med New York som medspiller, de holdes skarpt adskilte i filmstil, ja, på alle måder, i en sjælden balance - og i mit hoved griber historierne hen over de markerede grænser i ét væk ind i hinanden i det musikalske væv af betydninger, så de tre personer bliver hinandens historie. De er jo i samme film..)

http://www.super16.dk/

The 3 Rooms of Melancholia

I got this mail from Kriistina Pervilä: Yesterday evening Pirjo Honkasalo and I got the news about the arrest of Khadizhat and Malik Gaetaev, our main protagonists in The 3 Rooms of Melancholia. The news was published at FINROSFORUM.FI

We called the family's home in Kaunas, Lithuania and the children confirmed that both Khadizhat and Malik are arrested. Last week the secret police of Lithuania took the parents away in handcufts and they have not heard from them. We got no contact to their mobile numbers. The children were naturally in total panic and could not understand what has happened. This is unbelievable and we know the parents have not done anything wrong.
Something has to be done.

http://www.lrytas.lt/videonews/?id=12241623201223738812&sk=4

Photo: Khadizhat Gaetaev

Terence Davies: Of Time and the City

Terence Davies. Are you old enough to remember his "Distant Voices, Still Lives" from 1988? If not, you will search for it when you have seen this new masterpiece of his, made for the celebration of his native Liverpool: If Liverpool did not exist, it had to be invented.

That is what he says, in the most brilliant film text that I have heard for years. Quoting poetry, bringing in himself, in first person, remembering, calling for, bringing forward his childhood, the times that were, accompanied by visual archive material, by gorgeous shootings from today, from above, from the streets, from inside the church and with music, not the Beatles, not at all, sarchastic he is about "the yeah yeah yeah", no he turns to - among others - Mahler, Brahms and Händel. But there are also long wordless sequences of houses, people and weather. He lets the images talk for themselves, no working class sentimentality, but an interpretation of the life we live, the search for a good life, the longings, the sorrow, life and death. Stream of consciousness. James Joyce on film. A sequence of children from today. They have just learned to walk. There must be a future.

I was breathless after the screening. I want to see it again as quick as possible! Check the site and get a taste of this masterpiece.

http://www.hanwayfilms.com/

http://www.oftimeandthecity.com/

Vurdering:

Hotels

DocLisboa Diary 5

Ada Bligaard Søby: Black Heart

Vedholdende og inspirerende og fascinerende fortsætter Ada Bligaard Søby sit filmarbejde, hvor hun dels lag for lag undersøger den moderne kærlighed mellem ham og hende og dels i fremstillingen disciplinerer balancen mellem disse to karakterer med en milligram-vægt uden den flimrende lethed i fortællingerne ét sekund slippes. Dertil fornyr hun vores samtids filmbillede med smukke tilføjelser, ganske nye kvaliteter af sikre, personlige valg i både andres arkiv, i instruerede nyoptagelser og sit eget fotografiske materiale. I hendes film bliver alt musik ved siden af den egentlige musik som igen omhyggeligt afmålt slutter sig til billedernes og sætningernes og sindsstemningernes kadencer. Genren er lyrisk film, indholdet poetisk indsigt, stemningen humørfyldt vemod.

De tidligere film var American Losers, 2006 og Meet Me in Berlin, 2007 (anmeldt her på siden) og nu kommer så en satsning, Black Heart, hvor de to, manden og kvinden, som aldrig så hinanden i den første film, mens de i film to i det mindste nåede til at tale i telefon med hinanden, nu (i et flash-back ganske vist) når at blive gift, men hvad sker der så med deres karakterer? En joker, kunstneren bag det sorte hjerte, indføres..

Ada Bligaard Søby: Black Heart, 2008. 23 min. 35 mm. Premiere i Dagmar, København 23. oktober sammen med de øvrige film fra Super16. Vises også på CPH:DOX.

Vurdering:

DocLisboa Diary 4

DocLisboa Diary 3

Talking faces. Normally you associate this stylistical element to journalistic programmes on television. And not to creative documentaries. The Israeli documentary, "To See if I'm Smiling" by Tamar Yaron, builds its whole narrative on talking faces. Young women who have served in IDF, the Israeli army, on the West Bank, look back on incidents of death and violence in which they have taken part. Interrupted by mostly home video material from the "happy" days in the army. Out comes a shocking documentary so well edited that you are nailed to the screen.

As you are with another masterpiece by another great documentarian from the UK, Molly Dineen. I have for years used her "Heart of the Angel" (1989) from the tube in London, whenever the talk was about bringing in several layers to your story. Now, almost 20 years later, she makes "The Lie of the Land", a report from the British countryside where the farmers have their healthy mostly male animals shot because they are without any value on the market. This is the starting point for a human tragedy for people who have built their life on breeding animals, and who so far have been able to live from that. Molly Dineen is behind the camera constantly asking questions to the people whose confidence she has gained and she does so with all that curiosity, interest and yes compassion that a documentary director should have.

Wow, it's a festival with strong stories I thought after another long day at the videothèque.

Still: To See if I'm Smiling by Tamar Yaron

www.doclisboa.org     

DocLisboa Diary 2

First full day at a festival in the South that does only schedule one film in the morning, the neo-classic ”The Long Holiday” by Johan van der Keuken. The hall was full of young people taken there by their cinéphile teachers from film school and university.

I went directly to the videothèque to watch films from the international competition programme to prepare my article for the DOX magazine. It was a long journey through the misery of this world filmed and conveyed by committed and sometimes narratively involved directors and cameramen and –women. Made by English (”All White in Barking” by Marc Isaacs), French-Iranian (”The Faces on the Wall” by Bijan Anquetil and Paul Costes), Chinese (”The Red Race” by Chao Gan) and Israeli (”Six Floors to Hell” by Jonathan Ben Efrat). To mention the four films that impressed me mostly. Themes: xenophobia and loss of identity, the forgotten martyrs, children paced to served the state and inhumanity in the state of Israel.

In all these films there were a lot of emotions. They want us to cry or at least be moved at this festival. And think, even if nothing compares to the opening film by Avi Mograbi in that respect. And in terms of stylistical innovation, Mograbi also has no competitors so far. Classical documentary approach, yes, but on the other hand I have not yet seen a film that I thought should have stayed at home.

Still: All White in Barking by Marc Isaacs.

www.doclisboa.org 

DocLisboa Diary 1

I am in Lisbon for the festival. The 6th International Documentary Film Festival. A success in terms of attendance, and a festival with an excellent programme. So much to watch. International and national competition, a competition for investigative documentaries, Frederick Wiseman, ”made in China”, ”new families, new identities”, ”fim diaries and self portraits”, Raymond Depardon, Polish short films and so forth. From all over the world.

All selected according to a high sense of quality. Artistic quality.

And this year headed by filmmaker Serge Tréfaut, on behalf of the producers association, apordoc. In the catalogue foreword, he writes:

”For someone who lives in a deeply anaesthetised, provincial country almost governed by mediocrities with no vision, doclisboa is a kind of Carnival of the Spirit. A moment of celebration when values are turned upside down and the brain and the senses receive hyper stimulation.”

Well, I saw two films yesterday... the heartbreaking observational Kim Longinotto doc ”Hold me Tight, Let me go”, what a brilliant filmmaker and fine person she is, and Avi Mograbi´s ”Z32”, a mise-en-scène film that once again shows how clever this controversial filmmaker is, in finding new ways of dealing with strong themes of the world. This time in a Brechtian musical form. Read about it on the website:

www.doclisboa.org

Still: Z32 by Avi Mograbi.

... and in Haïti

On the plane yesterday from Paris to Lisbon, I read the editorial of Le Monde (October 16). A strong humanistic appeal to us all to remember what happened very shortly ago in one of the world´s poorest countries. I translate a quote from French, as well as I can:

Around 2400 kilometers from Wall Street the continuation of poverty resumes in one of the poorest countries in the world. In April Haïti suffered from violent break-outs of hunger. Between August 15 and September 15, it was hit by two cyclones and tropical storms. Around 800 died and the nutrition situation was worsened. But in Haïti, like elsewhere, far away from the markets, you die in silence. The international mobilisation around this scene lasts as long as the media care. With the financial crisis, the haïtian diaspora has reduced its funding to help. After its financial mistakes it is time that the world adresses its moral mistakes.

Still: Haiti. Untitled by Jørgen Leth, 1995.

DocuRegio- Second Edition

You might sigh when you hear about another training programme for documentary producers in Europe... but this one is different and adds to Discovery Campus, Ex Oriente, Eurodoc and many others supported by the EU MEDIA Programme. In a very creative way, as the initiative that was taken by general manager Vincent Leclercq from CRRAV in Tourcoing in the North of France, focuses on bringing the regional film funds together to develop a production collaboration across the borders. And to train the local producers to go international.

In times where the tv channels do not really increase their budgets for creative documentaries - on the contrary it can be witnessed almost all over - the public funding is crucial. And if the independent production companies on an international scale are able to not only help each other creatively, but can also profit from financial support from regional fund outside their own country, there is a vision for the future.

In Tourcoing this week, at the DocuRegio pitching session led by Cecilia Lidin from EDN and pitching guru Sibylle Kurz, we had the pleasure to meet representatives from regional funds from France, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Italy, Belgium and Denmark. There is still a long way to go to bend the local rules, but it is possible and several producers left the session with the intention to coproduce their project with a colleague company from another company, in order to open the door to local funding. And make a creative collaboration as well. Also with those, not to forget, broadcasters (YLE, Lichpunt, Arte, ZDF/3sat, ORF etc.) who fight for the survival of the creative documentary at tv.

www.crrav.com

Jon Bang Carlsen: Trilogi + 1

DVD-boksen indeholder fire film, den sydafrikanske trilogi, Addicted to Solitude, 1999, Portrait of God, 2001, Blinded Angels, 2007 og så Purity Beats Everything, 2007. Og jeg tager filmene op her, fordi de, og især den seneste film, bliver emne for næste aften i min filmklub. Vi er godt forberedt, vi har Tue Steen Müllers vidende og anerkendende anmeldelse her på filmkommentaren.dk den 21. maj (skriv 'purity' og klik), nogle har set filmene i forvejen, den seneste har været i biografen de senere måneder i en række byer, og instruktøren har været til stede, og den har været vist på DR2 på den sene kvalitetssending.

Men der står for mig stadigvæk en række spørgsmål tilbage at overveje, i første omgang om forbindelserne mellem de de tre plus én film, og om hvordan denne trilogi-konstruktion hænger sammen med den sidste titel, som sådan er løst tilknyttet. Og jeg må prøve at finde ud af, hvordan de fire film griber tilbage i det tidligere værk, måske helt tilbage til Jenny, 1977. For alt i dette filmarbejde over fire årtier væver sig for mig at se sammen i nye betydninger.

De medvirkende i Purity Beats Everything, Miriam Lichterman og Pinchas Gutter fortæller deres erindringer fra Auschwitz. Det vidste jeg på forhånd var det forfærdende indhold, men som Tue Steen Müller gør opmærksom på, peger filmens fortæller også på, at denne erindring for længst blevet til fortælling, til en kunstnerisk bearbejdelse. Og filmen fortsætter i det spor, bygger yderligt en række lag på beretningerne, først den frapperende del af billedsiden med optagelser fra en sjællandsk gård, og jeg ser, at grebene oven i de idylliske landskaber, som rigtignok tilvejebringer en udholdelig kontrast, eller i hvert fald anderledeshed, er talrige og fyldt med foruroligende tankebearbejdelser af de medvirkendes erindringer. 

De mange velkendte træk fra de tidligere film: lyden fra optagelserne i arbejdsværelsets computer (Portrait of God), den velkendte håndskrift på skiltene (Livet vil leves, breve fra en mor og mange gange siden), hver eneste beskæring, belysning og motivvalg i hvert eneste billede (Før gæsterne kommer ja, og Jenny og konstant siden). De mange velkendte træks tryghed gør, at jeg overhovedet kan lytte til de ufattelige detaljer og tage dem ind, men stadig uden at fatte dem. Forstå, ja det er umuligt. Der tager filmen fat på det afgørende lag i konstruktionen. Det har med de hjemlige ting at gøre. derfor denne vedholdende skildring af kunstnerhjemmet, hvor filmen er blevet til, hjemmet med vasketøjet og tørresnoren. Det hjem kender jeg også i forvejen. Fra flere steder, tydeligst fra Carmen og Babyface. Hvad det så betyder, vil jeg tænke videre over og snakke med dem om i filmklubben. Men her skal lige noteres, at med denne DVD-boks er endnu et umisteligt filmværk bevaret til et nyt liv i dette filmformat for alle hjemmene. Måtte de øvrige film snart følge efter.

Jon Bang Carlsen: My African trilogy plus one, 2008. C&C Production, distribution: Danish Filminstitute bookshop@dfi.dk  

Picasso and Artistic Variation

An obsession, one of many that came from Picasso, who often made several of the works in one day. And you understand why the master wrote - on the back of an envelope - probably in 1932: "When I see Manet's Lunch on the Grass I tell myself there is pain ahead".

Artistic repetitions and variations of the same theme in documentary films... Where do we find them? I had this thought when I watched Picasso. I thought of Jørgen Leth and his two America-films, "66 Scenes from America" and "New Scenes from America". The camerawork of Dan Holmberg is in both cases much more linked to visual art than to narrative (literary) structures. I thought of Steen Møller Rasmussen, also a Danish documentarian, who has searched to catch New York, inspired heavily by Leth as a filmmaker and Robert Frank as a filmmaker and photographer. I thought of Sergey Dvortsevoy and his Russian images, full of atmospheres and different moods, as are the Danes I mention above. And as are Picasso´s variations. Could it be possible to talk more about film and (visual) art?   

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/accueil.html

Mikael Opstrup: The documentary Narrative 2

DEN DOKUMENTARISKE FORTÆLLING - Skabelsen af dokumentarfilmen, sammenholdt med dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen / THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE (English version after the Danish)  

1. Fiktionsfilmen er defineret af historien. Et handlingsforløb som nedfældes i manuskriptet og siden omsættes til film. Instruktørens arbejdsproces er lineær og fiktionsfilmen er dramaturgisk friktionsfri. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Fiktionsinstruktørens bestræbelse er fortælling.

2. Dokumentarprogrammet er defineret af emnet. En begivenhedsrække, som journalisten gengiver så objektivt som muligt. Selv om objektivitet er en umulighed og skabelsen af programmet dermed modsætningsfyldt, er journalistens bestræbelse entydig og vejen mod det uopnåelige er lineær, som i fiktionsfilmen. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Journalistens bestræbelse er gengivelse.

3. Dokumentarfilmen er defineret af både et begivenhedsforløb og en fortælling. Begivenhedsforløbet finder sted i den virkelighed dokumentarfilmen beskriver. Fortællingen er instruktørens genfortælling af begivenhedsforløbet. Der er to handlingsforløb og kernen i dokumentarfilmens dramaturgi er modsætningen mellem de to handlingsforløb, det faktuelle og det narrative. Dokumentarinstruktørens bestræbelse er genfortælling.

4. Både fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarprogrammet består ideelt set af to skarpt opdelte forløb: i fiktionsfilmen at skrive et manuskript og derpå omsætte dette til film; i dokumentarprogrammet at indsamle fakta og derpå at ordne disse begivenheder i et program; dokumentarfilmens forløb består ideelt set af en uendelig vekselvirkning mellem at skabe fortællingen, optage begivenhedsforløbet og ændre fortællingen.

5. Således har dokumentarfilmen noget til fælles med både dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen. De to dokumentargenrer har den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og formidling til fælles; men hvor journalistens bestræbelse vil være at minimere modsætningen, vil dokumentarinstruktørens være at uddybe den.De to filmgenrer har fortællingen til fælles, da der ingen dramaturgisk forskel er på fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarfilmen; men hvor fiktionsinstruktøren selv skaber fortællingens enkeltelementer - scenerne - må dokumentarinstruktøren beslutte, om den ene eller den anden begivenhed er bærer af enkeltscenen i den dokumentariske fortælling.

6. Dokumentarfilmens modsætning mellem det faktuelle og det narrative er antagonistisk i arbejdsmæssig henseende men komplementær i kunstnerisk forstand. Antagonisme er det forhold, at to ting er uforenelige modsætninger. At to modsætninger udelukker hinanden. Komplementaritet er det forhold, at to sider af en sag foruden at udelukke hinanden også kompletterer hinanden. At to modsætninger er hinandens forudsætninger.

7. Skabelsen af en dokumentarfilm er en antagonistisk proces. For instruktøren personligt fordi fortolkningen af virkeligheden kun bliver interessant, hvis den er resultat af en stræben mod objektivitet - velvidende at det er i fortolkningens møde med gengivelsen at dokumentarfilmen bliver til kunst. Og arbejdsmæssigt fordi vi skal formulere en fortælling på et tidspunkt, hvor vi endnu ikke kender det begivenhedsforløb, fortællingen gengiver. Det kan ikke lade sig gøre. Men det lader sig gøre. Det sker ved at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning til en komplementær.

8. Det betyder, at man hele tiden skal ændre fortællingen efter udviklingen i virkelighedsforløbet. Det vanskelige ligger i at hengive sig til den absolutte stræben, som er forudsætningen for en vellykket og forløst fortælling, velvidende at virkeligheden hele tiden vil ændre fortællingen. Konstant at stræbe mod at strukturere en virkelighedsfremstilling, som må korrigeres af virkeligheden. At kombinere absolut åbenhed med absolut beslutsomhed. At stræbe fuldt og helt mod det uopnåelige. Ja netop at finde styrken til at stræbe, fordi målet for denne stræben, er uopnåeligt.

9. Dette forhold er kernen i arbejdet med den dokumentariske fortælling. At erkende nødvendigheden af at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og fortælling til en kreativ komplementær modsætning, er en bevidsthedsmæssig forudsætning for at skabe dokumentarisk filmkunst. At skabe det fuldendte ved at stræbe mod det umulige.

10. Dokumentarfilmen forløses kunstnerisk, når kun det ene lag - virkeligheden - er synligt som kontinuerlig fortælling. Når genfortællingen ikke fungerer harmonisk, dvs. hvis enkeltelementerne fra virkelighedsforløbet ikke er fuldstændigt sammenfaldende med scenerne i fortællingen, åbenbares dette andet lag - fortællingen - som et postulat. Derved ændres det virkelige begivenhedsforløb fra at udgøre fortællingens elementer til at blive en ny og selvstændig fortælling. Filmen får dermed to uafhængige narrative forløb, hvorved værket falder fra hinanden. Men når instruktørens fortælling går op i en højere enhed med virkeligheden, ophører den med at være til stede i tid og rum og findes blot som dramaturgisk klarhed.

11. Evnen til at arbejde kreativt forløsende med uforenelige modsætninger er en central evne hos dokumentarfilm instruktøren.

THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE

The creation of the documentary - compared to the documentary programme and the fiction film.

Mikael Opstrup

1. Fiction is defined by the story. A course of events that is written down in the script and then converted into a film. The directors work process is linear and the fiction film is from a dramaturgic point of view frictionless. Only one course of events exists. The fiction director's endeavour is storytelling.

2. The documentary programme is defined by the subject. A course of events that the journalist reproduces as objectively as possible. All though objectivity is an impossibility and the creation of the programme thereby antagonistic, the journalist's effort is unambiguous and the road towards the unattainable is linear as in fiction. Only one course of events exists. The journalist's endeavour is reproduction.

3. The documentary film is defined by both a course of events and storytelling. The course of events takes place in the reality the documentary describes. The story is the director's retelling of the event. There are two courses of events and the core of the documentary's dramaturgy is the contradiction between the two courses of events, the factual and the narrative. The documentary director's endeavour is retelling.

4. Both the fiction film and the documentary programme exist ideally of two clear-cut developments: In fiction to write a script and there after to transform it into film; in the documentary programme to collect facts and there after to put the events in order in a programme. The documentary film exists ideally of en endless interaction between the creation of the story, recording of the events and changing the story.

5. Hence the documentary has things in common with both the documentary programme and the fiction film. The two documentary genres have the antagonistic contradiction between reality and presentation in common; but where as the journalist's endeavour is to minimize the contradiction the documentary director's endeavour is to maximize it. The two film genres has the storytelling in common; but where as the fiction director creates the story's components - the scenes - himself, the documentary director has to decide if the one or the other event is the bearer of a scene in the documentary story.

6. The documentary film's contradiction between the factual and the narrative is antagonistic in work-related respect but complementary in artistic respect. Antagonism is the condition that two sides of an issue are inconsistent. That two contradictions exclude each other. Complementarity is the condition that two sides of an issue besides excluding one another at the same time complement one another. That two contradictions presuppose one another.

7. The creation of a documentary is an antagonistic process. On two levels. Personally for the director because the interpretation of reality only becomes interesting if it is the result of a strive for objectivity - well aware that it is in the interpretation's encounter with the reproduction the documentary film becomes art. Work related because we have to put forward a story at a time where we do not know the course of events, the story reproduces. This is not possible. But it is done. Done by transforming the antagonistic contradiction into a complementary paradox.

8. This means to constantly modify the narrative one has created because the perception of reality constantly changes the story. The difficulty being the devotedness towards absolute aspiration, which is the essential prerequisite for a successful and released story, well aware that reality constantly will change the story. Constantly striving to organise a presentation of reality that must be corrected by reality.  Combining absolute openness with absolute resolve. Striving body and soul to achieve the unattainable. Actually finding the strength to strive because the very goal one is striving to attain is unattainable.

9. This condition is the essence of working with the documentary story. To realise the necessity of transforming the antagonistic contradiction between reality and storytelling into a creative complementary paradox is a conscious prerequisite for the creation of documentary film art. The creation of the complete by striving towards the unattainable.

10. The documentary film is released artistically, when only one layer - reality - is visible as a continual narrative. When the retelling is not harmonious, i.e. if the single elements from the course of events are not completely convergent with the single scenes in the story, this second layer - the narrative - is revealed as a postulate. Thus the actual sequence of events is reversed from representing the elements of the narrative to becoming a new and autonomous narrative. Thus the film gets two independent courses, by which the work falls apart. But when the director's work comes together with reality it ceases its presence in time and space and exists only as dramatic clarity.

11. The ability to work creatively releasing with inconsistent contradictions is a key ability of the documentary film director.

Mikael Opstrup is producer, Final Cut Productions. opstrup@final-cut.dk  http://www.final-cut.dk/  Mail private: mikael@opstrup-husum.dk

Festival dei Popoli 2008

New people, new ideas: Luciano Barisone is the new director of the Festival dei Popoli. Born in Genoa in 1949, he is a journalist, film critic (Filmcritica, Cineforum, Duellanti, La Rivista del Cinematografo), proponent of Cineclub, and founder of the magazine Panoramiche, of which he is also director. This piece taken from the site, see below, where he also reflects on the status of the documentary today and advertises a policy like this:

What we are interested in doing is not so much to impose limits or boundaries, but rather to observe from year to year where reality cinema is heading, reflecting, through discussion on the underlying phenomena in progress. The 49th edition will therefore be the setting for a round table, which we have decided to entitle Nanook's Legacy, as a tribute to the "first to be so baptised" and to the legacy with which it has endowed us. Our aim is to gather together critics, scholars, cineastes, producers and cinema propagators and to invite them to analyse and to debate the state of the art, with the aim of arriving not so much at a scientific conclusion but at thoughts which will stimulate further thoughts and future processing.

http://www.festivaldeipopoli.org/index_eng.html

Scottish Film Institute: Latest News

I promoted the possibility of watching short documentaries from the Bridging the Gap series a couple of weeks ago. This very active documentary institute in Scotland also publishes a newsletter that you can subscribe to for free, see site below.

What a pleasure to see the programme that is announced for October and November. Two of the best currrent documentary names will visit Edinburgh: Nicholas Philibert and Andrey Payanov, the latter to show among others his masterpiece "Mosquito Problems and Other Stories". And there are themes like "music in documentaries" and "trailers" to be studied. Much to be inspired by, and why not "so ein Ding muss ich auch haben"?

http://www.docscene.org/

Still: Andrey Payanov: Mosquito Problems... 

Frederick Wiseman on Festival Tour

Pernille Rose Grønkjær: The Monastery

The best - according to this blog writer - Danish documentary for years, "The Monastery", is now to be seen or re-seen on French/German cultural channel arte on the following days: 9/10 (22.25), 21/10 (01.20), 24/10 (09.55)

arte has changed the title into "Le Monastère, M. Vig et la nonne", it will be shown in vo (version originale) and this is how the French introduction looks like, pas mal du tout: "Dans un château en ruine transformé en monastère, l'émouvante rencontre entre un vieux théologien danois et une nonne russe orthodoxe. Un documentaire aux allures de conte, qui nous entraîne avec magie dans un univers mystique."

Allan Berg has written a long and competent analysis of this film on this site. Search "pernille rose" at the left or go to

http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/53/themanifold.htm

If you want to buy the film on dvd, go to the site below:

http://www.danishdocumentary.com/

Jørgen Roos in Paris

10 years have passed since the death of Jørgen Roos (1922-98), who for decades was THE Danish documentary and short film director. He was – as Hans Christian Andersen, subject for several films by Roos – a brilliant storyteller, who played with the film language, where he very often made commissioned information films into films of a high artistic quality.

In 1948, as a young cameraman, he helped Carl Th. Dreyer make the 12 minutes long short film thriller, ”They Caught the Ferry”, based on Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen’s short story, for the public traffic authorities. Simple message: drive carefully.

... which was what Jørgen Roos, situated with his camera in a side car of a motor bike,  did not do. Or more precisely what his driver did not do. They drove into a tree and was according to Jørgen Roos, the storyteller, thrown 15 meters into a corn field. The master himself, Carl Th. Dreyer ran to them and put the most important question (!): Did anything happen to the camera?

If you happen to be in Paris, the film is to be watched at Maison du Danemark on Champs-Élysées. Name of exhibition: Collisions (Until 19/10). For other films of Jørgen Roos, contact the Danish Film Institute.

www.maisondudanemark.dk

www.dfi.dk

Still: Jørgen Roos

Julia Kristeva: .. films as a substitute

Kristeva analyses paintings and books but suddenly while reading an essay on Marguerite Duras, I meet  this thought provoking reflection on film language:

"For such silent or precious exaggeration of speech, for its weakness tensed as if on a tightrope above suffering, films come as a substitute. Having recourse to theatrical representation, and especially to the film image, necessarily leads to an uncontrollable wealths of associations, of semantic and sentimental richness or poverty according to the wiewer. If it be true that images do not make up for verbal stylistic awkwardness, they do nevertheless plunge it into the inexpressible - the "nothing" becomes undecidable and silence inspires one to muse.

As a collective art, even when the scriptwriter manages to control it, the cinema adds something to the Spartan indications of the author (who ceaselessly protects a sickly secret at the heart of a more and more elusive plot); what it adds are the inevitably spectacular volumes and aggregates of bodies, gestures, actors' voices, setting, lighting, producers and all those whose task is to show.

If Duras uses the screen in order to burn out its spectacular strength down to the glare of the invisible by engulfing it in elliptical words and allusive sounds, she also uses it for its excess of fascination, which compensates for verbal constriction. As the characters' seductive power is thus increased, their invisible malady becomes less infectious on the screen because it can be performed: filmed depression appears to be an alien artifice.

We now understand why Duras' books should not be put into the hands of oversensitive readers. Let them go see the films and the plays; they will encounter the same malady of distress but subdued, wrapped up ina dreamy charm that softens it and also makes it more feigned and made up - a convention. Her books, on the contrary bring us to the verge of madness."

"A cette exagération silencieuse ou précieuse de la parole, à sa défaillance tendue en corde raide sur souffrance, vient suppléer le cinéma. Recourir à la représentation théâtrale, mais surtout à l'image cinématographique, conduitnécessairement à une profusion immaîtrisable d'associations, de richesses ou de pauvretés sémantiqueset sentimentales au gré du spectateur. S'il est vrai que les images ne réparentpas les maladresses stylistiques verbales, elles les noient cependant dans l'indicible : le "rien" devient indécidable et le silencefait rêver. Art collectif même si la scénariste parvient à le contrôler, le cinéma ajoute aux indications frugales de l'auteur (qui protège sans cesse un secret maladif au creux d'une intrigue de plus en plus insaisissable dans le texte) les volumes et les combinaisons, forcément spectaculaires, des corps, des gestes, des voix des acteurs, des décors, des lumières, des producteurs, de tous ceux dont le métier est de montrer. Si Duras utilise le cinéma pour user jusqu'à l'éblouissement de l'invisible sa force spectaculaire en la submergeant de mots elliptiques et de sons allusifs, elle l'utilise aussi pour son surplus de fascination qui remédie à lacontraction du verbe. en multipliant ainsi le pouvoir de séduction de ses personnages, leur maladie invisible devient à l'écran moins contagieuse à force d'êtrejouable : la dépression filmée apparaît un artifice étranger.

On comprend désormais qu'il ne faut pas donner les livres de Duras aux lecteurs et lectrices fragiles. Qu'ils aillant voir les films et les pièces, ils retrouveront cette même maladie de la douleur mais tamisée, enrobée d'un charme rêveur qui l'adoucit et la rend aussi plus factice et inventée : une convention. Les livres, au contraire, nous font côtoyer la folie."

Litt.: Julia Kristeva: Black Sun - Depression and Melancholia, 1989. Soleil noir - dépression et mélancolie, 1987.

Louisiana Museum Behind Film on Per Kirkeby

Danish artist Per Kirkeby exhibits more than 100 of his paintings, 50 of his sculptures and works in other genres at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark - until 11/1 2009.

My colleague Allan Berg praises below a film on Per Kirkeby, made by Pernille Bech Christensen after idea of Poul Erik Tøjner, the director of the museum.

The film, "Per's Method", has English and German subtitles. A quote from the review: The conversation between Per Kirkeby and Poul Erik Tøjner has been transformed into a beautiful, clever and very important film. The two talk about the method of the painting and about all from work, life and biography that has been painted into the works.

The dvd is part of the catalogue of the exhibition.

http://www.louisiana.dk/dk/Menu/Udstillinger/Per+Kirkeby

Pernille Bech Christensen: Pers metode

Per Kirkeby og Poul Erik Tøjner mødtes før åbningen af udstillingen af Kirkebys værker, nu og tilbageskuende, tre dage i maj. Til en samtale. Deres samtale de tre dage er blevet til en smuk, klog og meget vigtig film. De to taler med hinanden om maleriets metode - som titlen så præcist angiver - og om alt det i arbejdet, i livet og i biografien, som er malet ind i billederne. Hvor det er til stede, men skjult. Samtalen er yderst omhyggelig og særdeles åbenhjertig - men "om nogle ting taler man ikke", som Kirkeby alvorlig udtrykker det. Der slutter samtalen og filmen.

Denne finhed af tøven og tilbageholdenhed hos Tøjner og Bech Christensen er deres films styrke. For det er i dette rum af opmærksom tryghed, at den store maler kommer ud i områder, som supplerer og uddyber alt det vi ved fra Jesper Jargils film og fra Anne Wivels film, fra alt det vi har læst i Kirkebys mange bøger. Er der mere at føje til? Kunne man spørge. Filmens svar er overbevisende: der var mere, og der er mere...

Pernille Bech Christensen: Pers metode, 2008. Medvirkende: Per Kirkeby og Poul Erik Tøjner. Manuskript (idé og koncept): Poul Erik Tøjner. Kamera: Bøje Lomholdt. Klip: Pernille Bech Christensen. Producer: Peter Bech. Produktion Glow Film & TV for Louisiana Museum. Distribution: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, filmen ligger i bogen til udstillingen:

http://www.louisiana.dk/dk/Menu/Udstillinger/Per+Kirkeby

Still: Per Kirkeby under samtalen. Foto: Peter Bech

Vurdering:

Cahiers du Cinema