DOK Leipzig 2008/2
I have previously – in my diaries from DocLisboa – mentioned the new masterpiece by Avi Mograbi, Z32. It was also shown at DOK Leipzig, Avi Mograbi was there and I told him again, as in Lisbon, that his films…
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A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
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A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
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DOK Leipzig 2008/1
Of course, you have to be careful when you take a quote from the press office of a festival. Especially as you have not been able to follow the festival intensely because of other obligations. But I went to the…
Terence Davies: Of time and the City/on Narration
I can´t help thinking about this new film by Terence Davies, a masterpiece, I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago. October 28 the Guardian had an excellent interview with him. A constant flow of wise words on filmmaking.…
Arte: GAZA SDEROT
This monday the first documentary commissioned for the internet by Arte France starts its broadcast. ”Gaza Sdetor – Life in Spite of Everything” is an experimental 60 day interactive project by French documentary production company Bo Travail with Arte France…
Razvan Georgescu: Testimony 2
Good news about a film written about on this blog more than 7 months ago: TV Documentary: PRIX EUROPA Best Television Documentary Programme of the Year goes to Testimony by Razvan Georgescu (author/director), Stefan Grandinetti, Hans Zimmermann (camera). Produced by…
East European Forum 2008
Saturday and Sunday 24 projects were pitched at the East European Forum at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in Czech Republic. It is always difficult to measure what is a success but of course positive reactions/commitments from broadcasters count.…
15 Young by Young
Think Big! Is what young producer and director Ilona Bicevska has done throughout a year of participation in the Ex Oriente 2008. The award was given sunday at the East European Forum in Jihlava. Katja Wildermuth from MDR in Germany…
Ex Oriente Film
Another season of Ex Oriente Film is over. For a year – in 3 sessions – I have had the privilege to follow and tutor a group of documentary makers, a few already experienced, most of them upcoming talent from…
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…
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…
Terence Davies: Of Time and the City
Sometimes you have high expectations and get disappointed. Sometimes your expectations are fulfilled. Sometimes you get much much more than you expected even if you had high expectations. Terence Davies. Are you old enough to remember his “Distant Voices, Still…
Hotels
During the doc festival and market season – which is now and lasts until December – your bed waits for you in a hotel, normally booked and paid for by the organisers of the event. Some people hate hotels, can…
DocLisboa Diary 5
”A sermon has to be like a woman´s dress. It should long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting”. These wise words (by the way try to change ”sermon” with film) come from the mouth of…
DocLisboa Diary 4
Sunday morning in Lisbon. Sunshine and empty streets. Perfect for a walk before going to sit in front of the video monitor and all the fine films of this festival. Strolled down (literally down) the streets to several great viewpoints…
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…
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…
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…
… 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…
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…
Picasso and Artistic Variation
Picasso was obsessed with Manet´s painting from 1863, “Lunch on the Grass” (“Déjeuner sur l´herbe”). This may be witnessed in the great exhibition that just opened in Parisian Musée d’Orsay. Until February 1st 2009, more than 40 of the variations,…
Festival dei Popoli 2008
It’s festival time. And classics change leadership. Since 1986 Mario Simondi was the symbol of the documentary festival in Firenze, always searching for the high quality and hosting his guests perfectly. I can witness this as can Allan Berg, my…
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.…
Frederick Wiseman on Festival Tour
Lucky you who have yet to discover the work of Frederick Wiseman. Lucky us who again get the chance to watch them on the big screen. A quote from the site of Wiseman’s Zipporah company: “… his cameras have observed…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Cahiers du Cinema
The world’s most famous film magazine, a piece of film history in itself, founded by André Bazin, influenced directly or indirectly by Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and other nouvelle vague people, is in danger again. The…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
Don Edkins: Why Democracy
Its been an interesting weekend, politically speaking, in South Africa. I had been away travelling for a week and came back on Saturday to find out that the President of South Africa – Thabo Mbeki – had been deposed. He…
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,…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
Geoffrey Smith: The English Surgeon
Three persons are presented in a parallel montage. An Englishman in his garden preparing for his trip to Ukraine. Henry Marsh is the surgeon, as is the man he is to visit in Kiev, Igor Kurilets, and the patient to…
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…
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…
James Marsh: Man on Wire
It is more than 30 years ago. I remember it vaguely. I remember that he did it. The tightrope walking between the the twin towers in New York in 1974. But I did not remember the story behind it. That…
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…
Carlo Lo Giudice: Padre Nostro
Scratch me! Hug me! Don’t act stupid! The father is 90 and the son around 50. They live together, they sleep in the same bed. They caress each other in the bed. The son constantly scratches the father´s back and…
Riga Diary 5
I attended the first handful of projects that were pitched at the Baltic Sea Forum. Before I had to leave back to Copenhagen. Again I heard a sentence that is often expressed at pitching sessions by the commissioning editors present.…
Riga Diary 4
The Boy from Riga: Sergei Eisenstein. Born in 1898, son of Mikhail and Julia. Lives in the city until 1915 where he goes to St. Petersburg to study. His father becomes the architect of beautiful Jugendstil buildings that are still…
Riga Diary 3
Salome Jashi is from Georgia. She is here for the Baltic Sea Forum. She has an interesting documentary project called ”Restaurant Bakhmaro and Those Who Work There” that is to be pitched in this coming weekend to television editors and film…
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…
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…