Flahertiana
The Russians respect film history. At least, this is what the organisers of the international documentary film festival Flahertiana do. October 15-21 they organise the 9th edition with the reference to Robert Flaherty (1884-1951) and with prizes that are named after his (the first creative documentary ever?) ”Nanook of the North”.
Selection has been done already and 3 of the 22 competition films that have been reviewed on this site will be offered the audience in Perm, the location of the festival: ”Cash and Marry” (Atanas Georgiev) (photo), ”The Living Room of the Nation” (Jukka Karkkanen) and ”Young Freud in Gaza” (PeÅ Holmquist). % Russian films are shown, among them a new film by Alexander Gutman (”17 August”), and there are films from Iran, Iraq, Israel, Poland, UK, Germany, Mexico, Romania and Switzerland. A varied and competent selection as I see it.
Let me end with a quote from the site of the festival: “The more your work corresponds to the real life, the better it seems…” — these words said by Dürer, an artist of the Renaissance, are the most laconic expression of the aesthetic conception of the film festival Flahertiana.