ZagrebDox Pitching, East Beats West

15 documentary projects were presented at the ZagrebDox pitching thursday the 28th of February. There were 9 commissioning editors around the table. 4 from the West (Arte, YLE, ORF, Jan Vrijman Fund) and 4 from the region, from the Bosnian, Croatian and Macedonian public channel plus from B92, the eternal opposition channel when it comes to Serbian political reality. On top of that a representative from the new Croatian Audiovisual Institute that is to distribute public money for film.

Only the Croatian television seems to have funding for independent productions, the others can offer archive material as their contribution. A generous award from the ZagrebDox festival (5000€) was given to the project ”Village Without Women” by director Srdan Sarenac from Serbia and producer Estelle Robin from France. The price is for the further development of a film project that is very promising and has a big potential for travelling internationally.

The jury for the price was Cecilia Lidin from EDN, Gena Teodosievska from Macedonian Television and Franz Grabner from ORF (Austria). Let me – I was moderator for the session and trained the pitchers two days in advance together with Cecilia Lidin, the best moderator North of the Alps – point at three other projects with an international potential and high film quality: ”Djangarchi” by Croatian team Zoran Krema and Tiha Gudac, ”And Where is Valter” by Bosnian award winner Jasmila Zbanic and ”Cinema Komunisto” by Mila Turajlic.

The latter, having been on the market for a long time, got the ORF on board during the pitching session. Yes, again you can say without hesitation: East Beats West. It is from this region and the rest of the Eastern Europe that the original stories come with a clear artistic ambition. Here there is still a wildness in approach, close to the free documentary that we all want to see.

Link to ZagrebDox site: http://www.zagrebdox.net/html/en/zagrebdox_pro.php Still: Blog writer Tue Steen Müller at the pitching forum.

On Location 2

Michael Noer: Vesterbro

Omsider har jeg fået mulighed for at se Julie og Martins kærligheds historie, og det er, ser jeg, århundredets kærlighedshistorie. I hvert fald endnu. Jeg er meget glad for den film og giver den fem penne i ren spontan glæde. Jeg må alligevel prøve at begrunde - sådan lidt efter lidt. Tænke mig om.

Filmen er fremragende fordi Julie er så sød (ja, det er jo usagligt), Martin er så øretæveindbydende (det er i hvert fald rigtigt), inspirationen fra Ghosts of Cité Soleil er brugt så smukt. Klipperen Adam Nielsen og Michael Noer balancerer de to karakterers udvikling selvfølgeligt naturligt så de, skønt han ikke bevæger sig og hun er i ekspresfart, mødes atter og atter: PLANG.. ja! hjertet oppe i halsen, pulsen bankende, tørheden i munden.. det er vildt spændende!

Filmen er fremragende fordi den går videre end cinéma vérité tradidionen, fordi den ikke blot er en skildring af virkelighed, men en virkelig konstruktion af selve viljen til liv personificeret i den unge kvinde som dokumentarisk karakter og ved hjælp af hendes lånte kamera. Hun filmer selv og sætter kameraet fra sig og filmer så også sig selv. Den vilje er den unge mands konstante udfordring.

Vesterbro er en forbløffende home movie, modig, munter, alvorlig, ærlig. Så klogt, så sofistikeret organiseret og fortalt fra klippebordet i den cinematografiske films tradition med indhold af biografisk drama. Lavet som direct cinema dagbog med samtaler og monologer og med en klar kunstnerisk attityde. 

Michael Noer: Vesterbro, 2007. Klip: Adam Nielsen. Produceret af Copenhagen Bombay Productions 1, info@copenhagenbombay.com  Foromtale: http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/56/youtube.htm Deltog i Odense Film Festival 2008. Får så vidt vides biografpremiere september 2008.

Vurdering:

On location

Oscar til Alex Gibney

Alex Gibneys dybt rystende moralske pamflet vendt imod indførelsen af tortur i USA's krigsfangelejre, Taxi to the dark side har modtaget en Academy Award! Jeg anmeldte filmen her på filmkommentaren.dk da DR2 oktober sidste år viste den som en del af Democracy-serien. Og den fik selvfølgelig fem penne. (Find anmeldelsen ved at skrive Gibney i ruden)

Werner Herzog: Grizzly Man

Vi var noget rystede efter filmen, selvfølgelig, vi på højskoleholdet i går. Men vi samlede os sammen til at tale om den anden mand også, manden, som har lavet filmen: Werner Herzog.

Imidlertid er det jo først historien om de to, som går i døden sammen. Amie Huguenard og Timothy Threadwell. To elskende? Herzog lader det stå hen i det uvisse, for er de på vej fra hinanden? Eller er de vendt tilbage sammen i en ny forståelse? Den bag sin så tydelige ophidselse nøgterne retsmediciner skildrer hvordan de sammen har kæmpet mod bjørnen. Han har skreget til hende, at hun skal flygte, hun er er blevet,har kastet sig ind i kampen. Disse lange minutter, som lydbåndet skildrer, som kun retsmedicineren og Herzog har hørt. Som alene i deres fortællinger er med i filmen.

Werner Herzog, dette barske og blide menneske giver båndet tilbage til indehaveren: destruer det.. og han dæmper sin film ned, gør den tænksom og tyst i en modbevægelse til Treadwells maniske højdepunkter. Han gør det i speaken, han selv læser, den smukkeste speak, jeg længe har hørt, en tekst som slutter sig til den myndige dramaturgi og gør filmen til psykoanalyse, til en filosofisk kritik af vort natursyn.. Så klogt..

Werner Herzog: Grizzly Man, 2005. http://www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm DVD, købt i Stereo Studio, Randers.  

Søren Slumstrup: Læger på flugt

Søren Slumstrup er den venlige dræber, jernnæven i fløjlshandsken. Lægerne burde kende ham efterhånden, men de slemme blandt dem - denne lille ubehagelige gruppe, som han rydder op hos - følger vel ikke med i dette heller. De er så optaget af at tjene penge og dække sig ind, da de laver ulykke efter ulykke, ser det ud til. De øver sig ikke, de efteruddanner sig ikke, de lærer end ikke af deres fejl.

Men Slumstrup er efter dem, ærligt inde i filmens billede, så venlig og flot - og tilbageholdende, tilsyneladende, og han lister den ene oplysning ud efter den anden, spiller patient og sætter sin egen knækkede tand på spil hos den hensynsløse fidusmager på torvet i Malaga. Det er vildt morsomt og dybt alvorligt. Han har min største respekt. Jeg er Slumstrup-fan.

Hans våben er en omfattende forberedelse og en omhyggelig research, som i enhver konfrontation sikrer, at han har den største viden, vel som regel kender svarene, blot skal have dem bekræftet. Og det er så fint, man glæder sig til hvert møde, blot at se ham tale i telefon er en nydelse. Den høflige detektiv.

At se ham med sit ringbind ved siden af medarbejderen fra Sundhedsstyrelsen, som garanteret har forberedt sig næsten lige så omhggeligt. Det sted er Slumstrup en kendt mand. Og hun er lige så korrekt og sprogligt tilsvarende præcis. Hun har klogt valgt sine to klare pointer: lægernes retssikkerhed, det er deres levebrød, det gælder, og at "til fare for patienten" fortolkes som "livsfare". Her kommer slaget til stå i dokumentarens efterliv (som allerede i dag er i gang i DR Nyhederne, i patientforeningen og blandt de sundhedspolitiske ordførere). Det er filmens afgørende scene, denne lange samtale mellem lige parter ved et stort bord.

Den velskrevne speak holder gang i fortællingen, sikrer en beslutsom og energisk gennemførelse. Og det er spændende, det her, tv-timen ryger af sted, også forbi det kritiske punkt ved 40 minutter. Jeg mærkede det ikke i aftes. Alligevel har jeg problemer med klipningen, med dramaturgien. Jeg forstår ikke logikken med sammenbindingen af de tre historier, ser nok deres belysen hinanden i helheden, men ikke i de detaljer, som gør hvert enkelt klip naturligt, som gør at vi selvfølgeligt bestemte steder skal over til en af de to andre forløb.

Billeddækningen ligner lappeløsninger, og der er ubærlige gentagelser, effekterne er banale og uklædelige, og kameraarbejdet ujævnt. Men de journalistiske dyder må siges at være tydeligt til stede..

Søren Slumstrup: Læger på flugt, 2008. DR1 i aftes kl. 20. Genudsendes 3. marts 13:50. http://www.dr.dk/Dokumentar/tv/DR1/2008/0207105840.htm Søren Slumstrup lavede i sin tid: Den hvide magt, 2004, Læger uden fejl, 2003, Helles sidste dage, 2002. Jeg skrev dengang lidt om hans arbejde: http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/35/research.htm

Vurdering:

Joao Moreira Salles: Santiago

He wrote "The History of the Great Men", 30.000 pages about the universal aristocracy. He wrote it in his small kitchen and he had all the pages neatly organised on a shelf in his bed room. The great men and women were close to him all the time. 

He was a butler at the Salles home in Rio. An extremely rich family and house, one can see, when the director (younger brother of Walther) takes us back to the place with his rushes from 1992, when he wanted to make a film about Santiago, the character of the film. A brilliant man, full of grace, a man who lived with his encyclopaedia, and for music and for dance. Born in a wrong century, one could say.

13 years later, after the death of Santiago, and 13 years more mature, the director makes the film based on his filming and on his looking into the pages that Santioago had written. He does not hold back in his reflection on his own role at that time, he was the rich man´s kid, who was more interested in camera angles and framing and light, than in the man in front of him, who is toughly directed by the director, shouting from outside the picture. Do this Santiago, do that, not that like that etc. - Santiago likes to perform but you can also see how he fights to obey the young man´s orders. He obeys, he is the butler.

It sounds a bit sad, but it not only like that. Santiago talks about his childhood in Italy with passion and commitment, and he insists on a sequence where his hands are dancing for the camera. Beautiful, as is this film-film (a must in film schools!), a distant portrait of a man of culture.

Grand Prix 2007 at Cinéma du réel, Paris

Joao Moreira Salles: Santiago, 2006, Brazil, 80 mins.

Read an interview with the director: http://pablogoldbarg.blogspot.com/2007/06/tribeca-x-4-joao-moreira-salles.html

Vurdering:

Film og orgel

"Carl Th. Dreyers sidste stumfilm er blandt de mest berømte værker i filmhistorien. Den mangler sjældent i "verdens ti bedste film" lister. Få film er blevet studeret og analyseret så omfattende i bøger og artikler, og sommetider føler man, at selve filmen er begravet i teori og æstetik. Men et sandt klassisk kunstværk som La passion de Jeanne d'Arc rammer og bevæger publikum med dets smukke enkelthed. Det er en ren tragedie om en ung lidende kvinde kæmpende i en fjendtlig verden. Den fineste hyldest til filmen er nok Jean-Luc Godards: i hans film Vivre sa vie bliver den prostituerede (spillet af Anna Karina) dybt bevæget af Dreyers skildring af den legendariske heltinde da hun i 60'erne ser filmen i en Paris biograf. Hun kan identificere sig med den plagede unge kvinde i denne tidløse film..." (Ib Monty)

Læs hele artiklen på http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:MvTZ6O4GoaQJ:www.filmreference.com/Films-Or-Pi/La-Passion-de-Jeanne-D-Arc.html+%22Jeanne+d%27Arc+%2B+Dreyer%22&hl=da&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=dk

Nigel Allcoat er født Leicester og uddannet som pianist, organist, komponist og lærer. Som improvisator betragtes han som blandt verdens førende og som virtuos. Han har givet snesevis af koncerter på danske orgler. I Sct. Knuds Kirke i Odense har han indspillet en CD med improvisationer til Claus Bergs altertavle. Hans improvisationer til Jeanne d'Arcs lidelse og død er tidligere blandt andet gennemført i Haderslev Domkirke.

Se yderligere information på http://sctmortenskirke.folkekirken.dk/index.php?id=4153&tx_calendar_pi1[f1]=8246&cHash=713b52410a og på www.fof-randers.dk

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 6

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 5

Sometimes, actually very often, reality cheats you, or in this case the weather! While I was in safe surroundings inside the Al Kindi cinema to a session about ethics and documentaries, about the relation between the filmmaker and the person being filmed, about the relation between the filmmaker and the society, not that easy an question in a country like Syria – my wife was fighting with a sandstorm in the desert.

During the session in the cinema I got a text message that she and her companion on the excursion had sought refuge at Red Cross in the desert of Palmyra. I got a bit chocked at least for the moment it took before the next message arrived: Evacuated to a brilliant Arabic restaurant! What a tour, someone had forgotten to check the weather forecast and there they were in the middle of a sandstorm.

She is back in the hotel with sand all over and we are getting ready to go to the cinema to see if the audience is still loyal to the DOXBOX festival. Tonight the programme will be ”The Monastery” by Pernille Rose, ”Salvador Allende” by Patricio Guzman, ”Seeds” by Wojciech Kasperski and ”Belovs” by Viktor Kossakovski. Quality programme. And quality hospitality in a country where there are many eyes watching what you are doing. 

Still: Jørgen Laursen Vig (by Frej Pries Schmedes)  

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 4

It is monday morning and once again I find myself with Pirjo Honkasalo and Niels Pagh Andersen, who are to talk about ”3 Rooms of Melancholia”. For four hours with 25 people in the hall. It goes very well, we manage to relate to the audience – Niels invites us with his gesticulating, competent, open-minded generosity to the world of editing a material that has a very small ratio (1:7 at the highest) and Pirjo sits there full of professional dignity. A film director from a generation where you make films when you have something to say. She shoots on film and she pushes the button when her intuition and the situation invites her to do so.

Later in the afternoon I saw the first prize winner of Leipzig 2007, ”Don´t Get me Wrong”, a Romanian film by Adina Pintilie. Shot in a psychiatric hospital the director has chosen a mere observational approach to the patients, which makes you feel pity for them but also highly embarrassed as the director has no voice, no point of view. We are invited to a peep show to watch grown up naked people having their diapers changed again and again. It crossed my border of what you can film, when the people being filmed do not know that they are being filmed.

One of the Arab Film Institute films showed talent: ”Bird of Stone” by Hazem Hamwi. It is a film - as Niels Pagh Andersen said – with a visual power and an ambition to question what is normality. The main character is Abu Hajar, a man who is barking like a dog when people ask him to do so, a man who takes his own way in life and literally when he walks in the desert or in the modern machinery world, where the filmmaker takes him. The interviews with him shows a philosopher in life, whereas the people talking about him, situated at the end of a corridor, like they were taken in for questioning, well they represent our tendency to talk about other people, especially those who are a bit different. A film that can travel!

Finally the darling of the festival so far, a full house saw Aleksandar Manic ”The Shutka Book of Records” from 2005. They loved it as did my blog-colleague Allan Berg when he was in the jury in Slovenia a couple of years ago and gave Manic a prize for this highly entertaining documentary from the Roma capital in Macedonia.

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 3

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 2

Full house for the film of Omar Amiralay from 1982, ”The Misfortune of Some”, produced for the French channel Antenne 2, during the Lebanese war. Amiralay is the Syrian documentary filmmaker, his films have been shown all over the world, he is the role model for the young Syrian filmmakers and now also active at the Arab Film Institute, the film school in Amman.

I am told that 5 of his films are banned in Syria and that he was not allowed by the authorities to introduce or discuss the film that I saw – even if he was there in the hall to support the organisers of the festival by his mere presence. Respect! The film is first of all a portrait of total turmoil, the French (sub)title being ”Un homme dans la tourmente”. This man is a charismatic and extremely funny round figure, who is a taxi driver and turns into a kind of undertaker during the film and the events it is covering.

We get to learn about his relationship to women and about many other common daily issues in the world. We see the bombed Beirut, and stylistical breaks to this main character, among other things there is a scene with a group of people (a big family?) that watch television. Underlined with a sound score that gives the absurdity of it all.

A discovery for me, and Arab neo-classic, would like another view with someone giving me some background of historical nature. ... and then a revisit to Werner Herzog with ”Lessons of Darkness”, what a masterpiece. More about the festival, already now a success in terms of audience: www.dox-box.org

Vurdering:

DOXBOX Damascus Diary 1

This is a small report from the first day of the new DOX BOX documentary festival in Damascus. At the opening yesterday there was full house in at the Al Kindi Film Theatre, where the DOX BOX team, headed by Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia welcomed the flight-delayed foreign guests - and first of all a full house of an audience, that watched the classic "Light & Shadows" by Omar Amiralay, Mohammad Malas and Ossama Mohammad from 1994, followed by Pirjo Honkasalo´s "3 Rooms of Melancholia", that will be subject to a masterclass, where the Finnish director will be accompanied by Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen.

The atmosphere is all very generous and full of hospitality, the catalogue is fine, the organisers are nervous, it is as it should be for a first edition of a long awaited festival in a country where the tradition for documentaries is not really existant.

For the Danish readers - the Danish Institute in the soukh of Damascus is exactly so beautiful as the rumours had announced. The Institute supports the festival and we are several who think about projects that would qualify one to stay in the historical building so wonderfully kept with courtyards that are second to none when it comes to beauty.

The film programme starts in a while: Nicholas Philibert, two Arabic documentaries that I will write about, Herzog with his "Lessons of Darkness" and Remunda´s "Czech Dream". Cross fingers for audience!

Beata Dzianowicz: Kites

Sneak preview of a film from Poland shot in Afghanistan by Jacek Petrycki, master in camerawork as he has shown so many times before with Kieslowski and Marcel Lozinski.

Beata Dzianowicz has written and directed this film about a group of young film students in Kabul, who are offered a film course by the Polish. They are given small video cameras and Polish Jacek (not the cameraman but another J) teaches them what a documentary is. His and the director´s idea is to make the young ones describe their own reality without prejudices, making the expressions coming from within themselves. It is not easy but they fight for it and we as spectators see clips of what they are doing, we see them at work, we see their enthusiasm and curiosity, we hear them talking "official language", we see them behave like tv-reporters but we also see them, accompanied by Petrycki catching an Afghan urban reality that we very seldom are introduced to in documentaries made by Westerners.

It is informative, it is touching to meet these youngsters who are to build the future of their tormented country.

Once again Bravo to Eureka Media, whose owner and producer Krzysztof Kopczynski directed "Stone Silence", shot in Northern Afghanistan.

"Kites" is a masterpiece and if I were a festival selector or a broadcaster I would immediately contact the producer to get a screener.

More about the film on http://www.eurekamedia.info/index.php?id=37

Poland, 2008, 80 mins. (TV-version of 52 mins. also available)

Vurdering:

Iikka Vehkalahti: A good documentary is

Taken from the site of IDF (Institute of Documentary Film)

www.docuinter.net

commissioning editor from YLE in Finland says:

...something which on one level is very private to the individual. Something that touches my life, but which also has something very universal - universal. A great film is when the private goes through the heavy block of politics/ economics/ media and reaches the universal, is in dialogue with it. Every action a person takes reflects his/her values. There are things which are common to all of us in the world: basic values (like justice), basic emotions (like fear and joy) and experiences (like pain or falling in love) and a good documentary has this universal nature that makes it so dear to so many. Don’t try to make international films. Make films which are more near to you. The most local films are sometimes the most international, because they are universal.

In a good documentary the director and his camera see things, go deeper than just showing things or events in front of the camera. For several reasons I have really started to miss camerawork where the camera really sees. An example: very often now a director makes a documentary following the story of the protagonist in such a way, that the narrative story (will he survive the sickness? will he divorce? etc…) means that it is not so important how the whole film has been shot at all.
A good documentary needs a story, but the story can be something more than just a flat “story”, it can be associative, emotional, fact-based, philosophical. Life is richer than Hollywood describes.

And finally a good documentary will live in time: it has a timeless character. A good documentary is something that you will look at after 10 years and after 50 years its value is still higher.
The film goes deeper and deeper. There must be a moral and philosophical element too.

Kay Bæckmann: Husker du Frank?

Igen en journalistisk case, ser det ud til. Yderst sentimental i præsentationen på DR1 hjemmesiden. Men vi har jo forskellige tærskler for den slags. Dog alligevel, alene det bragte still, igen alting forankret i den der danske familie, hvorom så meget - for meget sandsynligvis - drejer sig. Imidlertid ER det jo noget andet, det handler om her: den stakkels mand er ved at forlade vores virkelighed, og udfordringen for filmen må vel være at trænge så meget den formår ind i hans nye virkelighed, journalistisk eller kunstnerisk. Undersøge om den er den voksende eller svindende, den virkelighed, som forekommer os udenfor som en tåget verden? Og hvordan er den, hvad enten den er som et lille barns eller ej..

Nu får jeg se. Det begynder om lidt. I mellemtiden kigger jeg lidt på redegørelsen for sygdommen. Også på hjemmesiden: http://www.dr.dk/Dokumentar/tv/DR1/2008/0205134302.htm

Det var og er, som jeg formodede, Bæckmann har valgt at fokusere på familien og dens liv med Franks sygdom. Hans karakter objektgøres umærkeligt, der tales i dialogen åbenlyst om ham i tredje person. Men i takt med, at hans demenssygdom tager til, vokser han i sin karakters udvikling. Det sker nok i løbet af optagelserne og det fastholdes heldigvis i klippet, men det udnyttes desværrre ikke filmisk, for det ligger uden for det valgte greb, som er en særlig interesse for den folkelige skildring.

Vi finder slet ikke ud af, får end ikke en fornemmelse af, hvad der foregår i Franks sind, over dette spørgsmål funderer filmen ikke. Og dette manglende essay, denne beskedne spadestiksdybde er dokumentarens svaghed. Den er i mine øjne bare ikke i orden, hverken journalistisk eller kunstnerisk.

Men den den tapre familie som holder til det hele, er det hele værd. Og den motorsagkyndige og kørelæreren. Stor tak til dem for deres mod. Men det egentlige drama er ikke for eksempel den flotte filmscene, hvor de vil tage nøglen til bilen fra ham, det store drama foregår i det skjulte for kamera og mikrofon og klip og dermed for os. I det stille.. i Franks sind.

Kay Bæckmann: Husker du Frank? 2008. DR1. Genudsendes 25. februar 13:50 og 28. februar 09:00.

Vurdering:

Marathon Dok in Copenhagen

What to do a loong grey saturday in February in Copenhagen?

You go to watch documentaries at the Danish Film School where EDN (European Documentary Network) per tradition invites professionals and film students to attend a mini-festival with long and short documentaries, and this year even with so-called minimovies from the Dutch company Submarine (se http://www.submarine.nl )

It´s an excellent programme that includes the IDFA winner of 2007, "Stranded".

See for yourself: http://www.edn.dk/art.lasso?-token.skip=&na=200404&ndd=898

... and if you find this concept interesting, why not do the same! Contact ove@edn.dk  

DoxBox festival in Damascus

It must be a good sign for the documentary genre that festivals are starting all over the world. And that the more established ones break their audience attendance records year after year. A Golden Age for the documentary? I think so and believe so, both in terms of public interest and aesthetic development, at the same time as I try to forget that television is getting poorer and poorer when it comes to documentary support and programming.

Two hard working Syrian documentarians, Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia, who presented their film "Dolls" at IDFA in Amsterdam, launch from friday 15th of February DOXBOX 08 in Damascus with a beautiful mélange of new films, neo-classics and classics. I have the privilege to be a member of the advisory board of the new festival and go there to watch films by Pirjo Honkasalo, Nicholas Philibert, Werner Herzog, Johan van der Keuken, Pernille Grønkjær, Nanna Frank Møller, Filip Remunda, Patricio Guzman, Jean Vigo - plus films by local Omar Amiralay, who is a great filmmaker and far too little known outside his own country and France.

More about the festival http://www.dox-box.org/

På vej til Paradis

Selvfølgelig fik jeg fumlemikkel problemer med at få den bærbare og projektoren til at fungere i salen på Randers Kloster hvor kaffebordene stod og ventede og folk begyndte at komme. Klosterforstanderen, som er et dygtigt menneske hjalp og fik en fin lyd frem i salens højttalere, men billedet ville ikke på skærmen. Vende kablet? Det hjalp ikke. Lukke alt ned og ringe til forstanderen på FOF, og han kom og ordnede det så let som næsten ingenting. Vi kunne begynde til tiden. Med min noget nervøst adspredte indledning.

Men Suvi Andrea Heminens film er SÅ smuk - en intenst lyttende ro bredte sig i salen. Filmen sank ned i disse mennesker.. Som en sagde bagefter: "Der er ikke én her som ikke har prøvet dele af det, vi har set, og alle har vi prøvet at pakke vore liv sammen og flytte herhen.."

Ja, det er en klog film om det altsammen for sådan nogle som os.. Da jeg bar mine tasker ud bagefter, mødte jeg på gangen en af medarbejderne på klosteret. "Hvor ER det en dejlig film", sagde hun. Spontant begejstret, ikke blot høflig. "Hvor kan jeg købe en kopi af den?" Ja, så vidt jeg vidste kunne hun ikke det for tiden noget sted. Måske låne den på biblioteket? Det må undersøges..

Jo, ganske rigtigt. Den findes som netdokument. Det har jeg ikke prøvet før, men så bestiller jeg den da som angivet i instruktionen på bibliotek.dk. Fra Randers Bibliotek, hvor jeg er tilmeldt. Så ser vi, hvad der sker..

PS I min anmeldelse af "På vej til Paradis" her på filmkommentaren.dk skrev jeg, at jeg var forstyrret af nogle bitte små skønhedsfejl i klippet. Det var jeg imidlertid ikke i går. Så jeg må have været noget uopmærksom tidligere. Nu har jeg faktisk overhovedet ingen indvendinger. Filmen forekommer fejlfri.

Suvi Andrea Helminen: På vej til Paradis, 2007. www.magichourfilms.dk www.filmstriben.dk

ZagrebDox, Puhovski and Lozinski

Nenad Puhovski is a filmmaker and film school professor and festival founder and organizer from Zagreb, Croatia. His commitment to the documentary is enormous. He has through his Factum delivered several critical films on Croatian politics and action during the war a bit more than 10 years ago. His life has been threatened for the very same reason but he has raised debate and has also many supporters, who have also welcomed his 3 year long initiative, the festival ZagrebDox.

I am one of those from outside, who will go to Zagreb again to help Nenad and his great team to make another workshop and pitching session with filmmakers from the region, representing 15 projects.

The festival offers an international competition, a regional competition, a Japanese selection and much more including a retrospective of one of the absolute masters of documentary cinema: Polish Marcel Lozinski.  

For me Lozinski´s film "Anything Can Happen" from 1995 is one of the best documentaries ever made. Around 40 minutes of pure beauty with the son of the director as the main character, who runs around in a park talking to old people about existential matters: Life, Death, Love, Loneliness.

The festival takes place February 25 to March 2 and you can read all about it on http://www.zagrebdox.net  

Anna Katrin Nørgaard: Alt for Martin

Jeg er forsigtig med journalistiske cases. Åbner normalt ikke, eller står hurtigt af. Men dette arbejde holdt mig fast, det aftvinger dyb respekt. En kvinde passer på fuld tid sin hjerneskadede og hjælpeløse søn gennem 17 år, lever med ham dag ud og ind alle døgnets timer. Og hun vælger alt andet fra i en voldsom eksistentiel koncentration, som må være livskunst. Og det lykkes dokumentaren at gennemføre fortællingen og argumentationen, så jeg accepterer kvindens afgørende replik, da sønnen er død, og hun står med et livsafsnit bag sig: "Jeg har da levet disse 17 år."

Sådan en replik afhænger af styrken hos den, som siger den. Og kvinden, Anette Schütze er en stærk person og en rigtig god karakter (og de er sjældne i tv-dokumentarer..). Hendes ikke et øjeblik vaklende fortælling ER dokumentaren. Den er selvfølgelig klippet, men ellers er det ikke konstruktionen, som her er værket. Det er hendes liv og hendes så fint skanderede fortælling om det.

Dertil holdes dokumentaren oppe af en række gode scener, ja, rigtige scener, faktisk: en samtale med frisøren, et kort bevægende øjeblik i kirken under konfirmationen, en gennemgående samtale med lægen, den gode læge, som fulgte med gennem de mange år. "Jeg har lænet mig op ad dig al den tid" siger hun til ham. Og der kan nævnes flere steder fyldt med denne autenticitet, denne filmiske vibreren, som skaber en scene.

Plottet med lægefejlen under fødslen og konfrontationen med den uheldige læge lykkes, fordi det tones ned, emotionelt og dramaturgisk. Men historien om ægteskabet, som går i stykker får alt, alt for lidt plads og uddybning. Det er dokumentarens største problem. Som det er blevet, burde det være klippet ud. Som jobhistorien er det, som historien med vennerne er det. Dokumentarens præcise titel angiver fokus, som - næsten altså - er holdt.

Anna Katrin Nørgaard: Alt for Martin, 2008. DR1 i aftes. Genudsendes på DR1 21. februar 09:00. Kan også ses online: http://www.dr.dk/odp/player.aspx?mt=frontpagetab&st=frontpageTab_0&fUrl=undefined&sUrl=undefined

Vurdering:

filmstriben.dk

Helt så let som med interdocnet.com er det vist ikke på filmstriben.dk! Det vil jeg prøve at finde ud af. Skolen, jeg arbejder for, har fået systemet installeret. Og det virker skam. Men, men.. man skal være en skole eller et bibliotek. Og nu i morgen, jeg skal rykke ud eksternt med Suvi Andrea Helminens vidunderligt smukke "På vej til Paradis" kan jeg ikke tage striben med. Så vidt jeg har kunnet finde ud af. Heldigvis havde Magic Hour Films en kopi tilbage - nu da DBC ikke ville sælge, bare henvise til striben. Hvad nu, hvis jeg ikke arbejdede for en skole? Biblioteket. Men de har den nok også kun på striben. Og så SKAL jeg vist sidde på derhenne et eller andet sted, som jeg ikke har fundet ud af.

MEN det gør jeg!!

Indtil videre stor tak til det voksende antal producenter, som sælger DVD-kopier af deres film til private. For det er blevet meget, meget svært at komme til at se dokumentarfilm i Danmark. Bortset fra de ganske uundværlige tv-visninger. Men for de smalle film som regel bare én, sen gang. I en biograf i de forkælede byer får man flere chancer. For mig og os andre er DVD pt. lykken, men altså en lykke under afvikling.

Nu glæder jeg mig til Helminens film i morgen, som eleverne på højskoledagene elsker. Og taler om, uger efter visningen. I morgen gælder det beboerne i Randers Kloster. Det er der, jeg rykker ud til med den bærbare, højttalere og projektor. Og kopien af "På vej til Paradis".

www.filmstriben.dk Suvi Andrea Helminen: På vej til Paradis, 2007.

Interdocnet

In connection with the Docsbarcelona Festival I met Pablo Morales Canedo, who is general manager of IDN, that stands for interdocnet.

- a new initiative where documentaries and shorts can be watched online or be downloaded. A handful of films is so far offered, among them the masterpiece "My Grandmothers House" by Adian Aliaga. Price for viewing 3€. Trailer available.

Here are the words that present the www.interdocnet.com

"On Interdocnet you can watch and download quality documentary films simply by paying a small fee for each film you watch or download. Easy, fast and secure, Interdocnet gives you access to an ever expanding catalogue. The small fee paid by the spectators is almost an ethical question, a question of support to a certain type of cinema and of visions of reality."

Belfast Film Festival

It is one of those ideas that is so obvious that normally noone takes it! However, Cian Smyth did and put it into practice. To make a documentary film award, and a festival, in the name of The Maysles Brothers - and in their spirit making a focus on the observational documentary style that Albert and his late brother David have performed so well. "Primary", "Salesman" and so on.

It takes place, the festival, in Belfast, it is the 3rd edition with a documentary award attached. I was there for the first one, where it was so easy and right to give the prize to Kim Longinotto for her "Sisters in Law". Last year the Basque film (se previous note on this under Magnificent7) "Nomadak tx" by Raul de la Fuente won and the choice this year will be difficult when thew festival takes place from 10-19 April 2008.

The festival also presents an out-of-competition Documentary Panorama strand screening the best documentaries submitted to the festival but not necessarily meeting the observational documentary criteria of the competition. The festival will now, for the first time, also offer a Best Documentary Short award. Read the list below:

Maysles Brothers Award - Competitive Programme 2008
END OF THE RAINBOW by Robert Nugent (Australia) UK and Irish Premiere
BEYOND THE FOREST by Gerald Hauzenberger (Austria) Irish Premiere
THE ENGLISH SURGEON by Geoffrey Smith (UK) Irish Premiere
THE LAST BUS STOP by Kai Salminen and Zsuzsa Boszormenyi (Finland) UK and Irish Premiere
BILLY THE KID by Jennifer Venditti (USA) Irish Premiere
HOLD ME TIGHT LET ME GO by Kim Longinotto (UK)
COMBALIMON by Raphael Matthie (France) UK and Irish Premiere
ALL WHITE IN BARKING by Marc Isaacs (UK) Irish Premiere
CALLE SANTA FE by Carmen Castillo (France/Chile) Irish Premiere
EVERY SEVENTH PERSON by Elke Groen and Ina Ivanceanu (Austria/Luxembourg) UK and Irish Premiere
RUBYOVKA: THE ROAD TO BLISS by Irene Langemann (Germany) UK and Irish Premiere
DOES YOUR SOUL HAVE A COLD by Mike Mills (USA) Irish Premiere
THE FIRST DAY by Marcin Sauter (Poland/Russia) (Short Category) Irish Premiere
52 PER CENT by Rafal Skalski (Poland/Russia) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere
A SON'S SACRIFICE by Yoni Brook (USA) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere
CITY OF CRANES by Eva Weber (UK) (Short Category) Irish Premiere
THE TAILOR by Oscar Perez (Spain) (Short Category) UK and Irish Premiere

Documentary Panorama - Out of Competition Programme 2008
Programme as of 05/02/08 - further titles may be added.
TERROR'S ADVOCATE by Barbet Schroeder (France) Irish Premiere
A TRIP TO ASIA by Thomas Grube (Germany) UK and Irish premiere
NANKING by Bill Gutentag and Dan Sturman (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WAR/DANCE by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WILD BLUE YONDER by Celia Maysles (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
WAVERIDERS by Joel Conroy (Northern Ireland) UK Premiere
UP THE YANGTZE by Yung Chang (Canada) UK and Irish Premiere
SALLY GROSS: THE PLEASURE OF STILLNESS by Albert Maysles and Kristen Nutile (USA) UK and Irish Premiere
IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA by Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott Johnson (USA) UK and Irish Premiere

Mechanical Love

The new film by Phie Ambo, another strong talent in new Danish doumentary, premieres this weekend in the cinemas in her own country after having travelled already to several festivals.

We contributed on the weblog with a review, write the title and click "søg", and you will find it.

... and again, let's make promotion for the initiative of the three female directors - Phie Ambo, Pernille Rose Grønkjær and Eva Mulvad - who have joined forces to be able to sell their work on dvd, all with English subtitles and bonus material.

Have a look at www.danishdocumentary.com

Documentaries at the Berlinale

The prestigious Berlin film festival, the Berlinale, offers a good selection of documentaries this year. 30 it is according to

http://web.docuinter.net/en/index.php

which is the excellent site of IDF (Institute of Documentary Film), that is based in Prague. The Berlinale takes place February 7-17 and among the films screened are two that have been writen about on this blog: "Citizen Havel" by Pavel Koutecky and Miroslav Janek, and "My Name is Sabine" by Sandrine Bonnaire.