East Doc Platform Neumann & Turajlic
„Bringing the Past to Life“ was the theme of a masterclass with Stan Neumann and Mila Turajlic, directors I have known for years and whose works I have seen and appreciated. Both work with archive as the title of the class indicate, and both had interesting reflections to convey to the audience, with clips of course.
Some quotes: „We don’t work with archivists, it diminishes the possibility for coincidence, for finding something unexpected that you can use“. Turajlic gave an example – she was at an archive and saw that there was material about „picking tangerines“. As she knew that Tito was fond of tangerines, she looked at it, and there he was – for her „Cinema Komunisto“.
„There is nothing true in an image“. „I want the documentary archive material to work narratively, to tell my truth, not as an illustration“. „The eye on the archive must be new“. „The first thing is to destroy the archive, break it down and make it your own“.
Clips were shown from „Austerlitz“, „Cinema Komunisto“, „On the Other Side of Everything“, Neumann’s film on the Russian revolution, his film on Klemperer and totalitarian language… and more.
Below you find links to know more about the two directors. On filmkommentaren Mila Turajlic was mentioned the first time in 2008, Neumann in 2009.
Mila Turajlic
Links: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4096/ http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4090/
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1346/
Stan Neumann
Links: about “Language Does Not Lie” (Klemperer); about the importance of form; about “The Surrealistic Photo”
