Docs & Talks/ 3

DYLAN BANK, DANIEL DiMAURO, MORGAN PEHME: GET ME ROGER STONE

MARC EBERHARDT: MEUTHEN’S PARTY

There are still some weeks before the kick-off of Docs & Talks but I have had the chance to watch two of the films, that will be shown at the festival accompanied by talks. They are both on politics of today. In the US and in Germany.

One – ”Get Me Roger Stone” –  with a debate before, in English, where one of the participants is the competent Niels Bjerre Poulsen, who is often on Danish television to talk Trump. It’s on the 21st.

The other – ”Meuthens Party” – where the debate is in Danish after the film: Seniorforsker ved DIIS Cecilie Stokholm Banke og forfatter og journalist på Weekendavisen Jesper Vind debatterer baggrunden for højrefløjens fremgang i Tyskland og resten af Europa og forsøger at give svaret på, hvorfor flere af højrepartierne er plaget af fløjkrige, efter de har etableret sig. It’s on the 22nd.

”Get me Roger Stone” (100 mins.) is not only a portrait of the flamboyant dandy, who for decades have ”made” presidents like

Nixon, Reagan, Bush and now Trump. According to himself – and many others. He is been in and out of the limelight, he adores to be there and he knows how to deal with the media. And he is in total control of this film. A good characteristic comes from the NY Times review (by Manohla Dargis): ”Movies about colorful characters, be they saints or sinners, are often hijacked by their subject, so it’s unsurprising that Mr. Stone, with his bespoke suits and Nixon tattoo, owns this one…”. What you get with this film is an entertaining insight (lots of archive from tv, interviews) to a cynical world full of lies; what you don’t get is a journalistic analysis of what is right and wrong. Everyone, and there are many, talking about Stone either shake their head with a smile or characterise him to be like the president: a crook.

German Marc Eberhardt’s ”Meuthens Party” is classical observational documentary in the genre that we know so well from direct cinema – ”Primary” (on J.F.Kennedy and Humphrey), ”Citizen Havel” – getting close to a politician during his election campaign for the right wing party Afd (Alternative für Deutschland), where he wins a seat in the parliament in Baden-Würtemberg and thus gets into the German Bundestag as one of the chairmen. The director, who is also the cameraman, follows him for a couple of months, Meuthen being the man, who denies that there is antisemitism being expressed by members of his party, well denies racism in general… but but when he is in a full hall for the party gathering, he receives standing ovations for his nationalistic anti-immigration formulations. Would it be wrong to compare him to the Danish righ wing party leader Thulesen-Dahl: Academic, always well-dressed and polite in communications, with pretty clear anti opinions… The film, made by a film student, probably a diploma work, is quite impressive, and has a standpoint. Look for yourself.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/

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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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