Dan and Noit Geva: Noise

It has so many layers this Israeli documentary about a man, who lives in the middle of Tel Aviv and suffers from the noisy surroundings, to the point where he goes bananas, and into an action with surveillance cameras and loudspeakers to identify and scare the noise-makers. He is a filmmaker, this man, he has a family with kids, he has a wife, who tells the story to us in a third-person manner, until she objects to his total obsession and sort of “enters” the narrative.

The point of view is his. He is the one, who shouts to groups of people passing by, or has the police come and ask a homeless person to move from his resting place outside the window of the appartment of the director “with the hyper-acoustic sensittivity” (from the publicity material). He is the one, who goes to the neighbours to ask them to calm down, and he is the one who constantly has a row with drivers, who park their cars in “his” street.

All this forms the fun part of the story, but the film also takes you to hear about how the nazi used sound as a torture instrument, as do many armies and police forces nowadays. The story progresses from the daily, banal noise damage on an individual – that you can easily identify with – to become a small Orwellian metaphor for a society where measures are taken to control communication and movements. It is a style that also another Israeli filmmaker, Avi Mograbi, has been using in several of his critical, political comedies. “Noise” carries succesfully the same tense, funny, critical reflection on a society full of noise on several levels.  

Israel, 72/59 mins.

http://www.docaviv.co.il/en/2012/films/1537

http://www.JMTFilms.com/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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