A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Thierry Garrel, who has been head of Arte France’s documentary department, has quit the channel after 21 years. He is taking up a job in a multi media project. I have interviewed and discussed the state of the (documentary) art…
There are loads of documentaries about the changing China made by Westerners and/or by the Chinese themselves. This one is made by French filmmaker Camille Ponsin, who unlike several Western crews got access to the University of Nankin and took…
I was in Galway, Ireland twice this spring. And had a chance to combine with a couple of days at the sea near Clifden. Yes, sheep and stone walls, small winded roads, pure pleasure to visit. I met Johnny White,…
Stumbled over a funny article in Guardian about the favourite films of American presidents and presidential candidates. … and Hillary loves Out of Africa. … and John McCain’s pick is Viva Zapata (Photo) Read for yourself at:
Here everything is complicated, says one of the women in the film. It is Cuba she talks about, and she and the 11 other interviewed women in the film both talk about and demonstrate what a life means where you…
In the middle of the Euro 2008 I take time to watch a documentary by talented Latvian director Robert Vinovskis about football, seen from an original angle far away from the banality of the commentators that fill my ears every…
A documentary animation film. Quite innovative. Based on a visual diary made by Latvian Irina Pilke, an old woman, who has drawn episodes from her life since 1947. Made into a film through the script and interview from writer Nora…
The biggest part of this hommage to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the US and nobel prize peace winner for his tireless international work for peace in the world, is about his promotion of the book ”Palestine. Peace not…
Dont we too often think that documentaries should have simple narrative plots: a lead character, a conflict and the Aristotelian three-act structure? Doesn’t that easily lead to documentaries that are cheap imitations of fictional movies – minus the big screen?…
The subtitle of this book is ”the making of the Steps for the Future documentary series”. The writers are the two key initiators of this, the most important international documentary coproduction and training initiative, I know of. To remind you…
This film is funny, clever and makes you think. If it makes you (=me) change lifestyle, is another question. Could be, let’s see. The synopsis of the film taken from the website: Director JW convinces his wife and two small…
I am on the West coast of Ireland not far from the islands of Aran. Tomorrow I am going to talk with Mac Dara Ó Curraidhín about a brilliant proposal for a film on Flaherty. Here is a small quote…
I am in Ireland, in Galway, for the workshop DOCURegio, where a dozen of documentary projects from regions of Europe are to be discussed and adviced on further development. I take the opportunity to watch a film that I was…
Jeg har aldrig været på Roskilde festivalen. Jeg kan derfor ikke skrive ud fra genkendelsens glæde, som Politikens Dorte Hygum og Weekendavisens Bo Green Jensen. Og – hovedet på bloggen – jeg kender ikke de optrædende, bortset fra Peter Belli!…
En lille opfølgning på Piasecki og Munch-Petersens film, og på Dola Bonfils ønske om “at bruge” de fælles DFI/TV midler til at udfordre de alt for optrukne grænser mellem journalistikken og filmkunsten. I dette tilfælde med en film i serien…
På denne blog klagede undertegnede over DFI’s støttepolitik (se under Filmkunst eller Journalistik, eller søg dene titel under ”polemics”) og fik svar fra filmkonsulent Dola Bonfils, her er et citat: ”… Øvelsen i disse år er at finde et fælles…
You watch this film with a smile on your face. You do so because you like the characters and you like them because the director likes them and is able to convey her feelings to the audience. We meet them…
Miriam Lichterman lives in Cape Town with a view to beach and sea. Jon Bang Carlsen lives in a farmhouse with a fine view to a beautiful landscape in Denmark with family, cat and dogs. She is a holocaust survivor,…
Hvad er det, der får en 60 årig mand til at sidde og småtude af bevægelse, når han ser en film om fodbold, ovenikøbet en film, hvor alt, ja stort set alt hvad han ser, er noget, han har set…
– Danskerne kan glæde sig rigtig meget til mødet med Marie Cavallier: En begavet, smuk, livsglad og varm kvinde – med humor, siger Per Wennick, og tilføjer: – Det har været en fornøjelse at arbejde med hende. Sådan lød det…
Thorsen er en ægte dokumentarist. Han bringer sit publikum ind i et rum, som fyldes helt af hans hovedperson, skuespilleren over alle danske mandlige skuespillere, Jørgen Reenberg. 60 år ved teatret, over 80 år på livets scene. Vi er til…
The crimes committed in the name of Marx and Engels are of the same infamous character as those performed by the nazis. The two regimes, nazi Germany and communist Stalinistic Soviet Union worked together, and learned from each other when…
Lamartine Silva is the main character in this committed road movie that takes us around Brazil to discover what MHHOB is doing. Lamartine is one of the hip-hop musical artists, who dedicates energy and time to this activist movement that…
Short documentaries of international quality are hard to find. The television stations have long ago given up slots for shorts, with a few exceptions like Arte, and the film institutes and the public funding systems do the same – because…
Classical documentary approach: Something is wrong, we have to tell about it, let’s go and get the facts and convey them to the world. That’s what Arto Halonen, Finnish documentary director, and journalist Kevin Frazier decides to do. With a…
It starts as a film about a third ”…wood” after Holly- and Bollywood: Nollywood from Nigeria. But it takes place in Antwerp, where a young man, John, wants to be a superstar in this kind of right-to-the-heart, often moralistic, home-movie…
Tuesday evening May 6, Riga, the old fine cinema in the middle of the city. I am invited to the premiere of a film, that I have had the privilege to follow for a couple of years. The director Peteris…
I don’t need to write a lot about this film, do I? The winner of IDFA 2007, screened and awarded at an enormous amount of festivals, broadcast all over, including in Denmark. A well constructed dramatic story with a wonderful…
This music documentary film is about Swiss music – the famous and for many, including me, unbearable yodel – and Swiss artists who have developed their music from the yodel into a great innovative and fascinating rythmic play with the…
What a darling! Very simple idea, charming main character, a film for all ages about a young student, who earns his money as a porter, and carries a coca cola fridge up the mountain to a place where it can…
Catherine Destivelle is the name and after numerous films (at the Trento Film Festival) about people dying in the mountains, and about heroes who save people, or fight the mountains – it was such a relief to meet a female…
Normally you say that something must be wrong if you leave the cinema to say that the cinematography was excellent, but the rest of the film… You do say so with this ambitious film but it is justified because it…
Here are the results of the jury work. 4 of the films will be reviewed in the coming 3 days. Plus one that did not get a prize: Stranded. Gran Premio “Città di Trento” – Gold Gentian and 5000 Euro…
Time for banalities. My own ones and examples from the films I have seen. Word banalities. My own first: Wow, how much the viewing situation means for your evaluation of a film. Being in a jury you will always watch…
“Anja Dalhoff har modtaget Europas Kvinders Pris for sit engagement og arbejde i kampen mod menneskehandel. Anja Dalhoffs film fra 2007, “Når månen er sort”, dokumenterer for første gang, med levende billeder, problemet med trafficking af nigerianske kvinder til Danmark.…
Last day of watching. I write this while another commercially thought tv documentary is running on the screen. Makes me think about this genre where you can argue that the scenography – the mountains with or without snow – is…
The jury has seen 25 films in 3 days. Diversity is the word that applies to the selection. But also quality in most of the films, in very different formats and storytelling traditions. Diversity because there are several films for…
… have to break the news that “Blind Loves” made it to Cannes! As expected and as so well deserved. Juraj Lehotsky is in the Director´s Fortnight section with names as Jerzy Skolimowski and Claire Simon. Congratulations and may this…
I am in Trento, in the jury of the Trento Film Festival that has the thematic subtitle: Montagna. Esplorazione. Avventura. The festival starts today and goes on until May 4. 34 films are in competition, short and long. It is…
Renata Medero, documentary film student at Zelig, Bolzano, Italy, writes this review of a neo- classic: Unforgettable images… whether you like it or not. Some films deliver images to never be forgotten, some beautiful, some not. But – what happens…
Holiday. The family goes to the countryside, to the datcha. We don’t know if it is far away, probably not if you judge from the condition of the car, that has severe problems in getting started. It can not have…
A quote from DOX Magazine 74 (www.edn.dk), page 16, from a discussion between Neelima Mathur and Iikka Vehkalahti on “Universality vs Diversity”. Vehkalahti from YLE Finland writes: … perhaps it is that in the genre of cinéma vérité – as…
A good title for a documentary? At least a title that calls for sympathy for the one flying? And for some experience shared by other people: A man comes to the airport. He wants to check in, goes to the…
A Love Affair – and a small follow-up on the review of “Blind Loves”: It all started around 1990. Even though I had been working for the National Film Board of Denmark since 1975, my knowledge was very limited when…
I saw this beautiful film sunday morning in Vienna during the Ex Oriente first session ( www.docuinter.net ). The director Juraj Lehotsky took the short way from Bratislava to show us a feature length, four chaptered (following the loves stories…
Åh, Niels, ikke så puritansk… det er ikke muligt at have denne meningsudveksling uden at være direkte og konkret og nævne navne. Og Dola giver da også svar på tiltale ved at understrege at hendes ambition er at udfordre Guldbrandsen…
This is a pure commercial for one of the most important documentaries from the last years. Timo Novotny’s film has been shown all over the world, it has been awarded for its innovation of the genre, it is a vision…
DFI’s filmkonsulent Dola Bonfils svarer på mit indlæg “Filmkunst eller Journalistik” (link nedenfor). Det gør hun grundigt og klart, samtidig med at hun gør opmærkom på, at hendes tid pt forhindrer hende i at gå ind i skriftlige diskussioner om…
Make extraordinary film about ordinary people, and ordinary films about extraordinary characters! It is very easy to apply this slogan to the film about Marianne Greenwood, a citizen of the world, an adventurer, a writer and photographer. A woman with…
I know it is rather subtle but I have to express my boyish entusiasm after a football match tonite where Michael Laudrup, the best football player Denmark has ever had, made his underdog team, Getafe from Madrid play 1-1 in…