Doc Lounge Malmö

Something to be copied. And easy to do so...  Just came back from Malmö from a visit to a so called Doc Lounge. Which is ”the soft hang-out spot for documentary film lovers in Malmö, (where you can) meet the world of documentaries in a club environment with cozy sofas, nice cushions, carpets, bar, live music and cool DJ´s.” Could also be called café cinemas. Screenings every monday. Support from local authorities and svt, Swedish Television! Tonite an event in collaboration with the Nordisk Panorama festival that runs until October 1.

A very well visited sneak preview of ”Young Freud in Gaza” by PeÅ Holmqvist and Susanne Khardalian. An excellent filmic inside look at everyday life and problems as they are met and seen primarily through the eyes of young Ayed, who is the only field psychologist in northern Gaza.

What a character this young man is for a film. And how charming he is in his philanthropic mission: to help things get better for patients in an area full of hot political problems. The couple filmed during two years 2006-2008, when Gaza was isolated from the world, and the film has a harmonic and peaceful rythm that gives space for the characters to be developed for a viewer, who switches between laughter and grief. A film that will go all over. And will be premiered in cinemas in Sweden in November.

http://doclounge.se
http://www.nordiskpanorama.com
http://www.peaholmquist.com

Poul Martinsen and DR

The article below includes words about one of the most prominent Danish tv documentarians, Poul Martinsen, employed at DR for decades as the director of documentary programmes and films that are still remembered by the Danish viewers. Both because they were good, but also because they were produced at a time when DR was the only broadcaster. For documentaries these were the golden days with a strong department, DR Dokumentar, that combined the journalistic and artistic documentary storytelling. Today it is diffferent and what seemed important for the people behind yesterday's programme on Poul Martinsen was a constant reference to Martinsen as the man who sort of invented reality tv (Big Brother and Robinson) before this was even thought of. Martinsen himself refers to the Maysles Brothers as his inspiration!

DR today, well the broadcaster presents itself like this, and it all sounds so fine but the reality... I am sure you can refer this to other public broadcasters:

"The mission of DR is to inform, entertain and inspire. DR provides programmes and services for everybody. DR gives the general public plenty to choose from, plenty to think about, to puzzle over, to laugh at, to feel provoked by, to absorb them and to adopt as their own.
DR aims to be the frame of reference for the whole population, helping us to understand ourselves, our times and the people around us, and enabling us to act accordingly.
DR must constantly provide the general public with an independent, high-quality alternative to the commercial media."

Photo: Talent 2008. One of DR's current successes, a high-quality alternative to the commercial media? The man in the middle is Zentropa's Peter Ålbæk Jensen, one of the three talent "judges".

Monopolets Helte – Poul Martinsen

At Poul Martinsen er en fin og klog dokumentarist, som har lavet et væld af seværdige dokumentarprogrammer og  - film for Danmarks Radio vidste vi jo godt. Os der har alderen til at have været tv-seere tilbage fra tresserne eller har set de mange genudsendelser eller været i det københavnske Cinemateket, hvor han har været præsenteret retrospektivt. Altid med ”Lydighedens dilemma” og ”Broen” som hovedeksempler, som det var tilfældet i DR2´s overfladiske aftenprogram med Martinsen, hvor der spildes tid på at lade ham vandre forvildet rundt gennem det nye tv-hus, før han bliver placeret foran et tv-apparat, hvor han kigger på klip fra sine programmer og kommenterer dem klogt og oplysende. Afbrudt af - igen - overfladiske speakerkommentarer om hvor god og herligt provokerende han var – fra folk som Poul Nesgaard og Gorm og Gregers – og om hvordan han ”opfandt” Big Brother and Robinson lang tid før de blev trend. Vigtigt for Martinsen, næh, det der satte ham i gang, siger han til kameraet, var brødrene Maysles ”Salesman”. Dokumentarismen på internationalt niveau med andre ord.

Flere af DR Dokumentar’s udsendelser (bl.a. mange af Lars Engels, men vist ikke af Martinsen) kan ses i fuld længde  på Bonanza, se nedenfor.

Eller læs Peter Harms Larsens bog om Martinsen eller Ib Bondebjergs
Virkelighedens fortællinger, den danske tv-dokumentarismes historie (begge 2008)

http://www.dr.dk/Bonanza20/Tv

Sendes også DR2, lørdag 4. oktober kl. 22.50

Vurdering:

Scottish Film Institute: Bridging the Gap

Here is another fine initiative that enables you to watch documentaries from the UK online. Let the Scottish Film Institute make their own presentation:

”SDI is an internationally recognised documentary research centre at Edinburgh College of Art specialised in documentary training, production and distribution. It was set up in 2004. Our aim is to stimulate and inspire the documentary scene in Scotland and beyond through focus on creative excellence and unashamed international outlook...

Our films have played at major film festivals, such as Sundance, Cannes, Hotdocs, Tribeca, Full Frame, Silverdocs, IDFA, Cinema du Reel, Vision du Reel, Leipzig and have picked up major awards and nominations.”

On the new site of SDI it is possible to watch several short documentaries from the Bridging the Gap series. I watched Astrid Bussink’s 8 minutes long film ”Upside Down”, based on the letters that Rudolf Hess wrote to his family about his flight to Scotland in 1941 and written from the Spandau prison, where he was until his death. An excellent visual interpretation.

http://www.docscene.org/

Still: From Astrid Bussink: Upside Down.

DOK-Leipzig Programme Ready

A festival that is very dear to me has made its selection. I am working as a scout for Leipzig festival director Claas Danielsen and his team, when it comes to films from the Baltic and other Eastern European countries. And there are some other films that I have recommended. They did not follow all my advice in the selection committee - they had many offers:

From 2.400 films more than 300 films were taken for four competition sections (International Competition for Documentary Film, International Competition for Animated Film, Young Documentary Talent Competition – Generation DOK, German Competition for Documentary Film) as well as for the International Programme.

Those filmkommentaren.dk readers who visit the DOK-Leipzig programme site (see below) will recognise films that have already been written about or reviewed on this place. Write the titles in the "søg" and you will find: Blind Loves (Juraj Lehotsky), Gugara (Naglowski and Dybczek), Today the Same Day is Different (Baig and Moreno), Three Men and a Fish Pond (Pakalnina), Testinomy (Georgescu), Nazis and Blonds (Tammiksaar), The English Surgeon (Smith), Recipes for Disaster (Webster), Man on Wire (Marsh). Quite a lot!

Go to Leipzig, watch films, go to the market events and the cafés, and the church of Johan Sebastian Bach. 

http://www.dok-leipzig.de/v2/cms/de/dok-festival/programm-2008/index.html

Still: Juraj Lehotsky: Blind Loves.

Don Edkins: Why Democracy

Gibney:Gonzo:Life and Work of Hunter Thompson

I had hoped for more from this film about a journalist legend that I had heard so much about, read so much about, but never seen a film about. A journalist whose work I had read only a little of, but nevertheless knew about, the one, who gave name to the special hybrid, fascinating kind of reporting that inspired journalists all over the world to leave classical journalism, to fictionalise and talk in first person.

For sure the film has a lot of interesting archive material with Gonzo himself, and includes clips from the film ”Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, has a wonderful collection of 60'es music on the soundtrack, a great walk down memory lane, but the film is not very inventive in its storytelling that is pretty formatted with continuous cuts with people who knew Gonzo and can tell how fantastic he was. Predictable tv like hell.

So for me the interesting look back is on American history with for instance George McGovern as the president everyone wanted until he casted a fragile vicepresident candidate, a gift to Nixon and his gang of crooks. ”I’ve been a good Read”, Gonzo says himself, and Johny Depp does his best to argue for this in the film, where he reads texts to the camera, but it does not hide a loose repititive construction of a film about a man, who always went for the wild and totally committed. Gonzo died in 2005.

A dvd version is on its way. And the film goes all over in festivals.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809963971/info

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/01/22/sundance-interview-gonzo-director-alex-gibney/

Vurdering:

Audrius Stonys Interview

I have written - and so has Allan Berg - many times about Lithuanian documentary poet Audrius Stonys, who by the way is a big admirer of the films of Jørgen Leth, who is on the cover of filmkommentaren.dk for the moment. At the University of Pompeu Fabre in Barcelona, a student made an interview with Stonys, 8 minutes long and placed it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjbl6cb7dko  

Jørgen Leth: Sanct Hansaften-Spil

Jeg lærte i skolen, at Digte 1803 er en stor bog, måske den største i dette dengang nye århundrede, som vi er nogle, der aldrig rigtigt har forladt. Jeg hørte om samtalen med Steffens og jeg lærte Guldhornene udenad, det skulle vi. Og jeg lyttede efter, når Reumert læste digtet i radioen med musik til. Det blev en del af mig. Men jeg forstod det ikke. Først nu tror jeg, at jeg forstår. Lidt.

Tænk, at det er Jørgen Leth og Per Kirkeby - som i mellemtiden har betydet så meget for mig - og de kongelige skuespillere, som omsider (jeg så aldig tv-produktionen, og havde dengang i 79 bestemt ikke kunnet tage den ind..) at de viser mig, hvordan og hvorfor, den bog er stor. Og gør min dansklærers arbejde færdigt. Det var Thure Munkholms korte analyse, som bragte mig på sporet. Bare sætningen: "... Oehlenschlägers sprog, der her toner frem i al dets overvældende skønhed og metriske vidskab." Altså! Metriske vildskab...

Og blide smerte: "... Jeg har jo alt elsket og levet!" Synger Maria ved klaveret, og Konen siger: "Deres Stemme har dog en herlig Klang. / Hvad hedder den Arie? / Maria svarer: Teklas Sang. / Den er oversat efter tydsk Poesi / til Weyses deilige Melodie." Og jeg tilføjer: og Henning Christiansens gribende melodi til jødedrengens sang: "... Kommer at kiöbe, kommer at kiöbe! / Röde, gule, grönne og blaa i Fleng! / Jeg er en god lille Jödedreng!" Og Frits Helmuths fortælling om liden Kirsten: "... I gamle, længst forsvundne Tid / der var en deilig Pige.." Og Ove Sprogøes blinde mand: "Skaffer mig min Fiol igien, / at jeg kan tolke min stumme Smerte."

Alt dette ustandseligt afbrudt af den fineste ironi og klassiske lystighed: "De Gravhöie skulde Fanden flytte! / De staae her og giör ikke den mindste Nytte." Tekstens første og berømte chok. Institutionen Leth og Kirkeby og Christiansen har med hele holdet anvendt dette tydelige set-up fra digteren og omsat det i tv's letteste og simpleste greb og gjort det til noget så enestående som tv-kunst af munter alvor.  

Jørgen Leth: Sanct Hansaften-Spil,1979 i DVD-udgaven The Jørgen Leth Collection 19-21, 2008. Foto: Instruktøren i 1979, men på en anden produktion.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345   

Vurdering:

BFI: Documentary Film History

The BFI (British Film Institute) celebrates its 75th birthday by publishing a collection of dvd's including one of documentaries from the golden period 1930-1950. What a discovery for those who dont know about it, and what a revisit for us, who was taught that it all started in the UK with names like John Grierson, Humphrey Jennings, Paul Rotha and Basil Wright. Check the website below. 4 discs of brilliant work, a booklet - films and interviews. A gift!

http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_8457.html  

Jørgen Leth: A Midsummer Night's Play

Thure Munkholm writes in the booklet in the box-set: "At first glance, it might seem to be quite a leap from these two fictional travel stories to Leth's earlier TV production of A Midsummer Night´s Play, a classic from 1803 by denmark´s national Golden Age poet, Adam Oehlenschläger. But only on the surface. All three films, in essence, are concretised expressions of aviable material.

The images in Interference and Traberg emerge as small concrete poems in their own right. In A Midsummer Night´s Play, literary language, Oehlenschläger's words and dialogue, serves a similar function. In his production of the play, Leth abstains from any form of modernisation, even including elements of the play that most updated versions would likely excise as so much archaic filler... Leth is mainly interested in stressing the tones and music of literary language.

The film's main attraction, apart from the celebrated artist Per Kirkeby's Golden Age-inspired sets, is Leth's singular ear for Oehlenschläger's language, sounding forth here in all its overwhelming beauty and metric wildness."

Jørgen Leth: A Midsummer Night´s Play, Denmark, 1979 in the DVD-edition The Jørgen Leth Collection 19-21, 2008. The box no. 4 contains also Interference, 1983 and Traberg, 1992.

All films in the Jørgen Leth Collection have English subtitles.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Jørgen Leth: Udenrigskorrespondenten

Jeg mener ikke, jeg har set filmen siden den var ny. 25 år er gået. Og man spørger naturligvis: holder den? Og jeg svarer lige med det samme efter at have set DVD-versionen: Om den holder! Omsider en ligetil og tydelig film. En klog og smuk kærlighedsfilm. En gennemført Leth-film, så genkendelig. Måske falder den lidt sammen til sidst, det må undersøges nærmere, men til da: Ja, hvor den holder.

Gensynet er fantastisk, filmen er meget bedre, end jeg husker den. Igen er der det med den anden uskyld, at glemme alt det, jeg ved om filmen på forhånd, om Haiti og om Leth og hans bøger og andre film, og opleve filmen igen i en tømt tilstand af både forståelse og oplevelse, som er værkets mening og hensigt, som Poul Borum sagde.

Der er i den situation meget at glemme, for der har været meget siden. Hans "Haiti, uden titel" først og fremmest og "Traberg" jo, og Asger Leths "The Ghosts of Cité Soleil". Den politiske udvikling i landet, kup og krige. Alle artklerne og bøgerne. Det ville ikke være Jørgen Leths skyld, hvis jeg ikke genkendte stederne og personerne og begivenhederne. Med alt det stof glemt, men husket et andet sted i systemet, er det, at alt i den 25 år gamle film er tydeligt og ligetil. "Det lignede en erindring, dette sted," som Traberg siger et sted i den film, hvor alt også er så velkendt. 

Jørgen Leth: Udenrigskorrespondenten /Interference, Danmark 1983 i DVD-udgaven The Jørgen Leth Collection 19-21, 2008. Boks 4 indeholder Traberg, 1992, Sanct Hansaften-Spil,1979 og Udenrigskorrespondenten.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Vurdering:

Jørgen Leth: Interference

The Danish director Christoffer Boe writes in the box booklet:

" For one scene alone Interference is a must see. The scene: an extended medium close shot of Hanne Uldal, as The Woman, lying naked on the metal floor of a balcony. And no, it´s not because we´re looking at the best breasts in Danish cinema, but because her declaration of love is the purest image we have of a certain kind of male psyche. Sure, it´s The Woman speaking, but she is expressing The Man´s innermost desire.

His endless desire to combine woman´s total devotion and care with his own self-control and work achivement.

-Use me for anything. I want you to. I will massage your temples with a lemon.

-While I´m writing?

-Yes, while you´re writing.

Writing while a woman loves you - what more could you ask for!"

Jørgen Leth: Interference, Denmark 1983 in the DVD-edition The Jørgen Leth Collection 19-21, 2008. The box no. 4 contains Traberg, 1992, Interference and and A Midsummer Night´s Play, 1979.

All films in the Jørgen Leth Collection have English subtitles.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Mikkel Munch-Fals: DR2 Premiere

Jeg kan selvfølgelig ikke lide stilen, men det er da ligemeget. Imidlertid ser jeg, at det ikke er godt nok. Jeg er faktisk ikke tilfreds fagligt. Mikkel Munch-Fals er ikke anmelder, men kunstner, siger han. Og han vil med sit filmprogram skabe en tv-oplevelse. Altså tv-kunst - så spændende. Med en dybde, som var det Tom Wolfe. Det er en programerklæring, jeg rigtig godt kan lide.

Nu sad jeg så til premiere på Premiere i aftes. Frustreret altså. Jeg var heller ikke underholdt, hvad der, forstår jeg, også var meningen. Men pyt, det er jo noget med mig. Nok fordi jeg ikke hører til gruppen mellem dem med lav talje i bukserne og dem med inkontinens. Selv om Munch-Fals talte om sig selv og sin tilstrækkelige modenhed til at kunne kritisere omverdenen og filmene, fik han også bestemt hvem, han vil tale til med sit tv-værk: 35 plus / minus. Jeg har nu tænkt mig at lukke op og høre efter alligevel.

Også fordi jeg sådan har glædet mig. Det er jo vigtigt, næsten ryggen mod muren, forstår jeg, med det filmprogram. Jeg havde læst Jacob Ludvigsens beretning (jeg tør ikke skrive hvor, for så er jeg stemplet..) om filmprogrammets tilblivelse. Det langtrukkent nervepirrende valg af værten og chefernes analyser og ideer og om Mikkel Munch-Fals, som ved en masse og bare er til det hele. Når det altså handler om film. I snæver forstand, selv om han ser både kunst og pop? Sluger det råt, står der?

OK - jeg blev ikke underholdt, jeg blev ikke stimuleret ret meget filmfagligt og jeg nød ikke måden heller. Men jeg er imponeret over Mikkel Munch-Fals modige præstation. Og jeg mærker trods det meget indpakning hans store paratviden, tror faktisk, den bliver fulgt op efterhånden af en tilsvarende analytisk følsomhed og vurderingsevne. Så jeg glæder mig fortsat til at lære og til at indse en masse fra hans filmverden, som er mig så fremmed. Vil altså følge Munch-Fals og hans DR2 Premiere. Jeg vil være ligeglad med den fjollede pseudo-von Trier-attitude og forsøge at finde frem til og holde fast ved, hvad der bliver sagt af klogt om filmene og deres omverden.

Mikkel Munch-Fals: DR2 Premiere, Danmark 2008. Første program på DR2 15. september.

http://www.dr.dk/DR2/premiere/

Vurdering:

Jørgen Leth: Traberg 3

Så kom den! Og jeg satte mig og genså efter de mange år Traberg, som hele tiden smutter væk fra fortælleren og derved forbliver uforståelig og alligevel i alle scener og referencer så genkendelig. Så let at forstå alligevel, en sand helt. Jeg så filmen i den tilstand, Poul  Borum kaldte den anden uskyld, hvor jeg havde glemt det hele, alt jeg vidste om den film og så den igen. I den uskyld, som er både forståelse og oplevelse. Som har ophobet viden som glemt forudsætning.

Og hvor er filmen smuk! Dan Holmbergs institution af filmfotografi i det bredest tænkelige spektrum fra still-leben over den pludselige aktion i rummet til reportage i borgerkrigens tumultariske midte. Fastholdt i Camilla Skousens modige forbliven ved scene efter scene i en lang, ubønhørlig fortælling om at tage sig tid, som Traberg, når han skriver brev og omhyggeligt folder det sammen og lægger det i kuverten, klistrer den til. At sætte frimærket på bliver en handling for sig. Vigtigt for filmens plot. Jo, der er skam et plot i den film. Af sted, tid og sansning. Af politik, grusomhed og angst. Digteren i Inferno.

"... traberg strolls / through hell´s forecourt / traberg has plans / traberg has no plans / he meets people, / then has to move on / a man on the move, / an important man / no tracks, trailing slime / no wives, no kids, no home..." (Fra Pernille Fischer Christensens store tekst i boxens booklet)

Jørgen Leth: Traberg, Danmark 1992 i DVD udgivelsen The Jørgen Leth Collection 19-21, denne 4. box i udgivelsen indeholder Traberg, Udenrigskorrespondenten, 1983 og Sanct Hansaften-Spil, 1979 og et stort bonusmateriale.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Vurdering:

Riga Diary...tv and Artistic Docs 2

I (Tue) wrote from Riga about the theme in the headline after a pitch at the Baltic Sea Forum. I made Iikka Vehkalahti comment on it and now there is a contribution from Marje Jurtshenko at Estonian Television, who was present and argued against the use of the expression "too artistic":

I see that I have raised a hot topic! I really got pissed of talking about "too artistic for tv" - especially when I didn't see anything that artistic in the trailer. Anyway, here is a short comment to Iikka:

I agree with many things what Iikka says about television and the way filmmakers sometimes try to hide weak stories behind the shaping but I also think that film is the combination of good story AND the visual, so if the content asks for the creative visual thinking I think we should encourage that. Tv has changed, of course, now it is mainly a fast food place but to be honest I know that there are also lot of people out there, who would like to have some gourmet dishes once in awhile. Even if those are more difficult to digest, even if it takes more money and time to prepare it.

I think that lot of the commissioning editors (not only) underestimate their audience as well. Of course if your slot has to make rating then you have to go for fast food but if people have chance to show creative docs, I think they should make effort also to support this kind of filmmaking (or thinking in general). Because if those people say that films are too creative and nobody will need those, of course soon this kind of filmmaking will disappear. And then I will better turn on the radio. Marje Jurtshenko.

Geoffrey Smith: The English Surgeon

Vurdering:

Bibliotek.dk

I nogen tid har man kunnet søge film i en særlig funktion på bibliotek.dk og vel at mærke bestille dem og låne dem, vist nok fra alle biblioteker, ligesom bøger. Men nu meddeler AVM, at systemet er langt mere sofistikeret. Læs her:

http://www.avm.dk/nyhed/visnyhed.php?nyhedsnummer=1138

det er for godt til at være sandt!

Anders Østergaard om sandfærdighed

Albert Maysles Interview

Take 5 minutes break and go to the website of British newspaper Guardian and watch an interview with good old observational documentary hero Albert Maysles, this mild man who is a true believer of the classical approach to reality. This is what it is called:

"The eye of the cameraman should be the eye of the poet": an interview with Albert Maysles. Daniel Tapper talks love and propaganda with documentary maker Albert Maysles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2008/aug/06/albert.maysles

Riga Diary... tv and Artistic Docs

Iikka Vehkalahti, YLE Finland had this comment to Riga Diary 5:

"Dear Tue. I have to admit, that we (YLE TV 2 Documentaries) have a slogan: " don´t look at tv, look at TV 2 Documentaries". It´s implement is actually the fact, that the nature of the television has changed. In the minds and in the decisionmaking. Because of several reasons of course. Starting from the competition of viewers, the slot programming, the new entertainment programmes, the nature of societies and cultural atmosphere etc.. etc.. etc..

The fact is that for a demanding, complex, creative, different documentary film there is not very much of space in television. And commisioning editors, they know that. But another thing is of course if they have given up, if they don´t fight for the best films with all possible tools starting from festival awards and ending at the marketing tools from YouTube to blogs and like art museums, the circle of friends.

Ok, we can say, that  in mainstream television art fight is doomed, that only special channels like.. documentary channels... but.. at the same time I have to copy my own words that I planned to write into Steps by Steps book, but left out (because it can be misunderstood). Good to read also I think: TO BE IN BETWEEN

Too often directors consider themselves more fascinating, than the stories they tell. And that means they place themselves between the audience and the story - usually in the name of Art. And sure it's great if the director really is an artist and is able to create new dimensions and interpretations of a story.

But if the director is just trying to make a weak story more interesting by decorating it - the only audience that'll be satisfied are the lousy juries at little tinhorn film festivals."

James Marsh: Man on Wire

Vurdering:

Jørgen Leth: Traberg 2

Jeg tror den kommer i overmorgen! En af mine yndlingsfilm, måske afgjort min favorit, Jørgen Leths Traberg er på vej. DVD-boksen, hvor den er sammen med to andre Lethfilm, har været forsinket. Min boghandler har et par gange ringet til forlaget, som kun kan sige, at der er problemer, en anden gang er de allesammen til frokost. Det er afslappet som Haiti, helt rent i stilen. Jeg venter et par dage mere. Læser lige igen i Leths bog Traberg. Den er med et af hans egne faste udtryk generøs.

Det er som om, det er alle, ja, alle notaterne i lommebogen til filmen, som er trykt og udgivet. Så modigt og fuldt af tillid. Jeg husker for mange år siden han i filmmuseets sal ude på Christianshavn viste nogle af Henning Camres fornemt sort/hvide, kræsne, på én gang distante og empatiske optagelser til Notater om kærligheden, den unge kvinde, som gør sig i stand før, hun skal mødes med sin elsker. Jeg tror, det var de originale optagelser. Før klip. Det var også modigt, tillidsfuldt, generøst.

Et par citater fra bogen: "Traberg. Det afgørende er at tage ud til eksotisk location og filme en cigaret i et askebæger. Sådan skal det være." "Jeg betragter hende. Jeg bruger hende. Jeg kærtegner hendes krop. Jeg indsnuser hendes duft. Jeg hører hendes ord, hendes lyde. Jeg elsker hende sagligt og detaljeret. (Første tekst til Traberg, siger Camilla)."

Sidste: Min søde boghandler ringer til mig. Hun har nu fået fat i forlaget. Jørgen Leth: "Fiktioner", som DVD-boksen hedder, er gået på lager og bliver nu distribueret. Hun kan have en til mig fredag eller mandag.. De laver andet end spise frokost på det forlag!

Jørgen Leth: Traberg, en tekst, 1990. Jørgen Leth: Fiktioner, DVD-boks 4, i den samlede udgivelse med Traberg, Udenrigskorrespondenten og Sct. Hansaftenspil.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

British Documentary History Online

Need to brush up your documentary film history? If so, the BFI (British Film Institute) can help you. I have just spent a little hour in company with two brilliant British actors, Derek Jacobi and Malcolm McDowell, who have introduced me to the GPO Unit film tradition way back in the 30’es with John Grierson as the mastermind – and to the 50’es and the so called Free Cinema with Lindsay Anderson as the main player, who after his contribution to the documentary history picked McDowell to be his favourite actor in films like ”If” and ”O Lucky Man”. This interactive online elementary documentary course that you can reach and use for free is introduced like this:

”The General Post Office may seem an unlikely source for some of the most creative British filmmaking of the 1930s, but with a talent roster including W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Len Lye, Norman McLaren and J.B. Priestley, that's exactly what it was. Here, Sir Derek Jacobi presents an extensively illustrated interactive guide to the history of the GPO Film Unit, with clips ranging from well-known classics like Night Mail (1936) to rarer but equally sparkling gems.”

”Fifty years ago, a programme of short documentary films changed British cinema for ever. In the third BFI series developed in partnership with BT,  Malcolm McDowell introduces an interactive history of Free Cinema, the pivotal but under-recognised film movement of the late 1950s.”  Some of these films can be watched on the FourDocs website, see below.

Photo: Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowell on the set of 1973's O Lucky Man!

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/index.html

http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/

Carlo Lo Giudice: Padre Nostro

Vurdering:

Riga Diary 5

Too artistic for whom? For the commissioning editor and his/her personal taste or for the viewers? What a patronising attitude! And what is meant by "too artistic"? In this case the trailer that was shown included some reconstructions, some tableaux that should give us the audience some idea of a stylistical approach. Call it a personal handwriting. Nothing unusual, just a bit different from the mainstream but enough to scare some of the television people. Not all of them, fortunately, the representative from Estonian television liked the clip and dared to mention that the film could also be good for festivals.

Which pissed off the representatives from BBC and DR, who expressed their disrespect for "festival films", i.e.for them are films for the happy few. Two comments to this: Well, this is just another confirmation that public television is run by the journalistic, mainstream approach, that programmes which are a bit different do not stand a chance. And that - with other words - you can forget all documentaries with artistic ambitions. Understandable it is that the audience feels that it is underestimated and choose to go to festivals instead. Which they do in big amounts, in full cinema halls that - added up - very often grap a bigger audience than the one that watches television.

Art and televison? Forget about it, except for some few exceptions.

Photo: Jurga Ivanauskaitė.

Riga Diary 4

Riga Diary 3

Riga Diary 2

Guard dog or lap dog? Seems to be a very actual and relevant question that journalists in Belarus (and other countries as well) have to ask themselves. In the country of Lukashenko no criticism of the President and his regime will be tolerated, for which reason many journalists have been and are beaten up – or simply disappear.

As a world premiere in a full cinema hall, at the ”Is it Easy to be Different?” festival that runs parallel to the Baltic Sea Forum, this is what is the theme of the film ”Journalists” by Aleh Dashkevich (director) and Volha Nikalaichyk (producer). It follows some journalists, interviews them or their relatives, some of the journalists now live abroad, and brings images from demonstrations where journalists and cameramen are beaten up. Plus some of the well known sequences with the President himself. As a creative documentary ”Journalists” will not be prized but as another strong documentation of the appalling political situation in Belarus, it will travel the world to festivals and hopefully also to tv channels. And thus spread the message.

If anyone wants the film, feel free to contact the director at

adkpradukcyja@gmail.com  

Photo: Mr. Lukashenko.

Riga Diary 1

I am writing this in my room on the 8th floor at Hotel Albert (Einstein) in Riga, where the Baltic Sea Forum and the ”Is it Easy to be Different” mini festival starts today. Yesterday I had time to take a walk in this beautiful capital of Latvia and made my way to the park where two filmmakers were killed back in 1991 while filming a follow-up to "Homeland" by Juris Podnieks. The crew came under sniper fire during a Soviet coup in Riga. Andris Slapins and his crew-mate Gvido Zvaigzne got killed. Podnieks himself died in a diving accident in 1992.

The company, however, is still in existence thanks to Antra Cilinska, the editor of Juris Podnieks for masterpieces as ”Homeland” and ”End of Empire”, and now director and producer in the studio. Two years ago she directed ”Us and Them”, a 64 minutes long documentary on – quoted from the catalogue of the National Film Centre of Latvia – ”present day Latvia” and ”the existence of two parallel communities – one Latvian, the other Russian”.

http://www.mediadesk.lv/index.php?&s=150

Photo: Andris Slapins.

Jørgen Leth: Traberg

Sporet går til en lille spansk by, kameraet over de vidunderlige tegltage. Lyden er en skrivemaskine. Så ser jeg værelset, han er der ikke, men hans ting er der: skrivemaskinen, bøger og avisudklip. Stof om Haiti, et land i indbyrdes krig. Jeg ser tagene ud af vinduet. Det bliver sort, Trabergs hænder trækker skodderne for. I sin støvede 2 CV er han atter på rejse ad en ensom landevej i det vældige landskab. Alle elementer i filmen er på plads, nu følger jeg Traberg. Ham holder jeg med. Det er elementært.

Det er en stor film. Den samler flere af Filmens traditioner. Det er en surrealistisk film. Man kommer til at tænke på Buñuels 'l'Age d'Or' fra 1930, som handler om Roms grundlæggelse, statsmagten, banditter, borgerskab og et seksuelt-sadistisk præsteskabs kristendom. Alt kan ske i denne film, fordi alt kan ske i virkeligheden. Der er så mange logikker, der insisterer på at være reelle. Der er mange logikker, der er faktiske, og som mennesket får gennemført. Det er sjældent, at en film giver plads til dem alle. L'Age d'Or gjorde. Traberg gør. (Mogens Rukov i Information 19.12.1992).

Danmark, 1992. Plakat: Per Kirkeby

DVD-boksen "Fiktioner", hvor Traberg er med, skulle udkomme i overmorgen. Den er blevet forsinket nogle dage, siger min boghandel. Jeg glæder mig vildt til at se Traberg igen, og Udenrigskorrespondenten igen.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Doc Air Impressive Online Catalogue

If you want to make your own festival, faced in front of your computer, Doc Air offers you quality. Check it yourself, and be aware that here you find an excellent selection of Czech directors to be carefully studied - like Karel Vachek, the late Pavel Koutecky, Jan Gogola, Miroslav Janek. But also films by international "stars" like Chris Marker, Jørgen Leth, Michael Glawogger and Ulrich Seidl. Around 250 short and long films, good annotations for each films and a well written newsletter to subscribe to. And cheap it is. End of my promotion. Here is a clip from the site´s own presentation:

Doc Air is the first and only portal for the online distribution of documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe. It does not matter whether you are a film professional or not. Doc Air is a documentary heaven for anyone who has a great interest and at least a little money... Doc Air offers a selection of important contemporary documentary films from all over the world. Doc Air films are presented in cooperation with various European documentary film festivals

Legally and for a minimum fee, you too can watch or buy a film by mere playing or downloading it in one of the three offered formats. The majority of the films are charged as follows: you will pay 1 Euro for a stream, DivX format download will cost you 2.5 Euro, DVD quality 5 Euro.

Photo from Glawogger: Megacities.

http://www.doc-air.com