Camilla Magid: Land of the Free

Time, yes, again Time means everything for many documentaries. And the other big T, Talent. And of course the most important quality for the documentarian, who cares… curiosity and compassion, maybe that is a big word, but in this case also a word that fits to the work done by a group of people, an NGO of volunteers, in Los Angeles, a priest, a psychologist/therapist and other social workers, who want to help people and families suffering from longer or shorter emprisonments. Camilla Magid, caring and compassionate, share the ambition to take strong human stories to the audience and she does it so well, because she has taken her time – the film is shot over a period of two years – and because she has a strong filmic talent as she already showed in her 2012 documentary ”White Black Boy”.

The film is structured around meetings in this Continuum, where

former inmates present their life stories. Three of them constitute the film: Brian, out from prison after 24 years convicted for murder, Mexican origin Juan out after being in for drug sales and Gianni, 7 years old, his mother was in for three years.

Brian is the main character, the others come second. BUT, Brian, what a character description and development, no fiction film could have made such a convincing and truthful portrait as Camilla Magid has done: In the beginning it is all outlined, Brian, 42 years old, stands at a highway where cars are passing at high speed. Wow, he says, drinking a starbucks coffee, delicious he says, did not know that coffee could taste like this. Slowly the story is built so fine, how to get a work, a place to stay, how to be intimate with women, how to meet his mother, what is e-mail and so on so forth. It is made with sensitivity and – sorry for that word again – care, your sympathy for Brian goes up and up, you want him to succeed, HE wants to succeed, if he does or not I will not reveal, look for yourself.

And Gianni, OMG there is scene of desparation with him and his mother, there is beating but there is also clever Gianni, with a lot of traumas from his mother being away from him, and there is the mother, who wants he boy to get away from the street and the violence, that he sees and hears every bloody day.

And the young father Juan, who comes out but can’t stay away from the drugs and the related Easy Money, you can earn in the streets, in again and out…

Far too many who get out, end up in jail again, says Mr. Richard, the psychologist/therapist who takes part in the Continuum meetings and is the one, who formulates the film’s strongest criticism of the lack of perspective in the authorities way of giving former inmates a chance to get a life.

Brian goes back to the place where he 24 years ago took another man’s life. Filmed with respect and understanding as is everything in this work… (PHOTO: by Consuelo Althouse) Brian looks at Gianni, who is about to give the ones at the Continuum meeting some good news…

Denmark/Finland, 2017, 91 mins.  

Visions du Réel Starts Tomorrow

… and seems to keep the high quality for ”auteur” documentaries that was the profile created by Luciano Barisone. The festival, in Nyon Switzerland, now with Emilie Bujès as artistic director, goes on until April 21, and announces on its website the following numbers: 174 films from 53 different countries, 78 world premieres, 23 international premieres, 2 European premieres, 42 Swiss premieres, 139 film directors attending the Festival. The last numbers are important… 139 out of 174, important!

There is a special focus on Serbia this year with 18 documentaries, including of course newer titles as ”Depth Two” by Ognjen Glavonic, ”In Praise of Nothing” by Boris Mitic, ”The Other Side of Everything” by Mila Turajlic, but also older ones like Dragan Nikolic’s ”The Caviar Connection” and ”Dragan Wende – West Berlin” by Dragan von Petrovic and Lena Müller, both of them important films.

Also to be mentioned: French Claire Simon is ”Maitre du Réel” with

several of her films to be shown, but not ”Coute que Coute”, a masterpiece from 1995. Why not? 12 sections, where 5 of them are competitive – with very good money awards. We are in Switzerland…

Let me mention some of the films that I know about: Happy to see the Ukrainian ”My Father is my Mother’s Brother” by Vadym Ilkov with Darya Bassel as one of the producers. It is a debut film made with a lot of emotional care for Katya, the little girl who is raised by uncle Tolik, an artist, as her mother is not able to do so.

Equally glad to see the selection of Latvian Davis Simanis ”D is for Division” in which the biggest talent in Latvian cinema uses the essay form carried by his own text and voice that is not only saying where we are but is personal, reflective and makes the film grow. Simanis is around the border all the time – with strange images almost empty surroundings, sad images, lifeless and then close by there is patriotism/nationalism/fanatism. It’s horrifying to watch all these people gathering to celebrate, all those people in uniforms, to hear all these speeches and songs which are hymns to won battles or battles to come.

In quite another mood is the veteran master of Latvian documentary, Ivars Seleckis, who has made “To be Continued”, his first film about children, full of love and warmth, I saw it when almost finished and wrote – a quote – to Seleckis, whose work I have followed since the 1990’es: “I have seen your film. I love it. As FILM and as a grandfather with kids at the same age: 2 are 6 years old and have just started in school, 2 are 4 years old.

Children are children, wherever they are and I coukld recognise so many ways of behaviour, so many reactions, their facial expressions, their clever thoughts. And I could see that the Latvian school system is different from the Danish. More classical, more based on marks and competition.

BUT the great thing – one of them – is that you succeed to bring out the personalities of the kids: Karlis is a real Boy, Gleb revolts to his parents, indeed he does, Zane is a darling, so is Anette whose mother works abroad (good you have that aspect in the film!) and Anastasia is the star, the one who stands out for me (and you, Ivars) with her phantasy, her living in the countryside with horses helping mum… (PHOTO).

And a Russian documentary is in the medium length competition, Alex Markov archived based “Our Africa”, that tells the story about the Soviet leaders wanted to conquer Africa, when the Westerners left their former colonies. Amazing to see a young Brezhnev in Africa, kissing the leaders in a film that is an important interpretation of history.

And then of course the festival hits 2017/18 are there: Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons”, Marta Prus “Over the Limit” and Finlay Pretsell’s “Time Trial” with David Millar.

https://www.visionsdureel.ch/en/festival/programme/competition-nationale

Max Kestner: Slette omstændigheder

Et centralt nærbillede er fra en scene hos en grafolog. Er det et ”a” der på kortopmålingen? Hvad særligt er der i givet fald ved det ”a”? Jeg kan ikke svare, jeg kan ikke skrive om Max Kestners forunderligt vidunderlige film uden en spoiler sniger sig ind. Eller kan jeg? For hvilken undersøgelse foretages? Eller er det sådan, at flere undersøgelser overlapper hinanden? Er filmen en spændingsfilm, som jeg lægger væk, når jeg har fået vejret, eller er den et essay, som jeg stiller på reolen, så den gemmes nær mig, fordi de spørgsmål, det essay rejser, kaster flere af sig, flere spørgsmål, flere undersøgelser, yderligere læsninger?

Filmen vil så lykkeligt for folk i nærheden blive vist i biografen i Humlebæk 23. april, og jeg kan kun anbefale at sikre sig en billet, se link til bestilling længere nede, for det bliver en vigtig begivenhed, og instruktøren Max Kestner og produceren Henrik Veileborg vil være til stede og stå til ansvar, de ”har lavet en skøn, skør og skødesløs dokumentarfilm, skriver Humlebio i sit program, en film ”der tager afsæt i den mytiske Danmark-Ekspedition til Nordøstgrønland i 1906-08. Filmen følger en amatørhistoriker, der vil afdække sandheden bag den officielle forklaring der fortæller, at tre mand døde på ekspeditionen, men at man kun fandt liget af den ene. Det bliver en opdagelsesrejse rundt på statens arkiver, hvor det viser sig…” og nu er biografdirektøren også tæt at spoile – “at sandheden er en helt anden, end vores hovedperson i sin vildeste fantasi havde forestillet sig.”

Ved siden af detektivromanens story line, som er Kestners observerende kamera i hælene på historikeren, er der en løbende essayistisk fremstilling, som ligger i Kestners venligt distancerede, så smukt docerende fortællerstemme, som huskes fra tidligere film. Og tab nu ikke tråden fra begyndelsen og hør godt efter, for essayet indledes i titelsekvensen til et stort betagende natlandskab under stjernehimlen (STILL), hvor Kestners fortællerstemme indleder et foredrag om fraktaler og om gengivelse af virkeligheden fra landskabet over korttegning og landskabstegning til notatet og påpeger, at i alle disse optegnelser er der mulighed for falskneri, fejl og fejltolkning og efter denne roligt alvorlige besindighed og tæt på at spoile (men fortumlet af Nanna Frank Møllers underfundige klip opdager jeg det ikke) vælter Kestner og hans bårne kamera og hans film ind hos detektiv-historikeren Steffen Holberg, som så i den grad tager over som fortæller og holder min opmærksomhed i fast greb gennem forhindring efter forhindring den hele time akkompagneret af instruktørens kloge kommentarer og ved klipperens elegant musikalske greb styret ind i og ud gennem fysiske, personlige og tænkemæssige vanskeligheder. Det er en sært krævende og meget, meget spændende film.

SYNOPSIS

Three Danish polar scientists tragically lost their lives during an expedition to North-Eastern Greenland from 1906-08. Only one of them was found. More than a hundred years later the mystery and tragedy still nags indomitable amateur historian Steffen Holberg, who is absolutely determined to solve it. With help from knowledgeable people, professional experts and state archives, he moves ever deeper into the rugged terrain between truth and myth, fiction and reality to find out what happened – if he can. Mylius-Erichsen, Høgh Hagen, and Jørgen Brønlund died in the wilderness, but the expedition’s search team only found Brønlund’s dead body and did not even look for the other two. But why not? In his poetic and imaginative signature style, Max Kestner pays tribute to Holberg’s curiosity and to the fundamental human desire to satisfy it. ‘Every time you move closer, new worlds appear,’ says Kestner about his own working method. That movement is performed with humour and grace in his new film. (CPH:DOX 2018 programme)

Max Kestner: Slette omstændigheder, Danmark 2018, 60 min. Manuskript: Max Kestner og Henrik Veileborg. Fotografi: Max Kestner. Klip: Nanna Frank Møller. Produktion: Upfront Films, producer: Henrik Veileborg. Distribution: Vistes på CPH:DOX 2018 og i DR.TV nogle dage. Vises nu i Humle Bio 23. april 19.00.

http://humlebio.dk/OrderMovieTicket.aspx?showId=9085 (Billetter til forestillingen i Humlebæk 23. april 19.00

http://www.upfrontfilms.dk/films2.php?mit_indhold_id=2&films_id=17 (Upfont Films om sin film)

https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/slette-omstaendigheder (DFI om filmen)

FilmHotel und FilmUni Konrad Wolf

I live for several days at the Hotel am Griebnitzsee, which is wonderfully situated – as the name indicates – and the last two day I have been breakfasting in the terrasse of the hotel. Frühling is hier – in Potsdam, where the hotel is full of film: old cameras, photos. I pass every morning ten photos of the one and only ”die Asta” (Nielsen), Danish film star, who was acting in many films in Germany (1881-1972) before WW1 and after up to the end of the thirties, where she returned to Denmark. The only true film star we ever have had in Denmark.

At the Film University I have met 10-15 (depending on the days) dedicated film students (camera and direction and one from animation). They have seen and discussed films like ”Cameraperson” by Kirsten Johnson and ”Wongar” by Andrijana Stojkovic. The latter was awarded the other day in Belgrade, I am happy to say that it worked fine with the young German students, who have also heard their teacher talk about Agnès Varda, Frederick Wiseman, Miroslav Janek, Kossakovsky, Loznitsa, Pennebaker, Robert Frank, Herz Frank, Juris Podnieks, Maysles… and many others. And pitching and market.

This third day, however, has been the day of student films to be shown and discussed. Have to say it has been both joy- and fruitful, open discussions and constructive criticism. Tomorrow is the last day, we are to see Stasik`s ”21 x New York” and wrap up trying to define what is a documentary today.

Thanks to Peter Badel and Daniel Abma, who got me here and have treated me so well.

PS. Forgot to say that Rahul Jain passed by yesterday to show his masterpiece ”Machines” in one of the big cinemas that the school has. Rahul is excellent in talking about his film and where the inspiration came from.

Baltic Frames i Aarhus

Det her skrives på dansk for vi skal have folk i Aarhus og omegn i biografen, hvor de skal se baltiske film. Det foregår i kunstbiografen Øst for Paradis og det er ifølge arrangøren Det Danske Kulturinstitut i de baltiske lande ”(en) perlerække af rørende, morsomme og dybsindige film”, som er valgt ud, (også) for at lykønske de baltiske lande med 100-årsjubilæet. Endnu et citat: “For 100 år siden, i 1918, kunne Estland, Letland og Litauen for første gang erklære sig selvstændige stater. Filmfestivalen Baltic Frames 2018 er en dansk markering af dette vigtige jubilæum for tre lande, der de seneste 100 år har gennemlevet radikale omvæltninger. Et konstant element i de tre landes udvikling har været fornemme filmtraditioner, der også helt aktuelt fostrer medrivende og nyskabende produktioner.”

Det er sandt, hvad såvel Allan Berg og jeg, redaktører af filmkommentaren.dk har erfaret siden vi mødte baltiske film på Bornholm for 25 år siden på festivalen Balticum Film & TV Festival. Efterfulgt af ture til de dejlige lande.

Festivalen Baltic Frames åbnes på fredag 6. april med en af verdens bedste

dokumentarfilm, “Ten Minutes Older” af Herz Frank – den varer ti minutter, blev lavet i 1978 – og er optakt til aftenens nye internationale cykelsport-hit, “Wonderful Losers. A Different World” af Arunas Matelis, en film og en instruktør som har fyldt vore spalter i de seneste uger.

To andre – meget forskellige – dokumentarer, som har gået deres sejrsgang verden over på festivaler er “Liberation Day” af Letten Ugis Olte, der sammen med norske Morten Traavik besøgte Nordkorea med legendariske kultband Laibach, som optræder foran et måbende publikum. Spektakulært og musik for fuldt drøn, med de begrænsninger der var for et besøg i Nordkorea. Den er på programmet lørdag 7. April – dagen efter vises Audrius Stonys “Woman and the Glacier”, et af hoverdværkerne i den poetiske dokumentar, som balterne er så gode til.

Hele programmet kan ses ved at klikke på linket nedenfor. Hvis du vil vide mere om de nævnte film, er der links tilgængelige, også nedenfor. 

https://www.danishculture.com/baltic-frames-filmfestival-i-oest-for-paradis/?lang=da

Herz Frank: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3393/

Wonderful Losers: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4048/

Liberation Day: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3752/

Audrius Stonys & Woman and Glacier: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2296/

Martovski Festival Awards Andrijana Stojkovic

Two days ago Martovski Festival = The March Festival, 65th edition = Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival gave the main award for Best Long Documentary to Andrijana Stojkovic for “Wongar”. If you click below you can read what I have written about this extraordinary film that had the director go to and fro the editing room for years. It was worthwhile and my hope is now that the film will have the festival life it deserves – and maybe one or two tv stations as well, if they dare celebrate a high quality creative documentary. Here is the English translation of the jury motivation:

Out of the thematically strong selection the jury decided to award the film that distinguished itself by its minimalism, modesty, wisdom, cinematic value and a purposeful and rounded film form. A film about a foreigner in a foreign country, who, after his life spent in recording and fighting for the voice and rights of those who are systematically abolished, is seen in the old age. Old age marked by attention and calmness devoted to the dingos with whom he lives, wild dogs in which he recognised and found his mysteriously missing family, wife and children.

By making a conscious decision the author Andrijana Stojković does not explain to us the film, does not impose an attitude and an opinion about her hero, does not use the medium as a platform to hold historical or moral lessons to the audience. The director decided only to show us – without external interventions – to hand us over the universe she deals with in the film. This she accomplishes with long, melancholic and static shots that carefully capture the details of that world, at the same time submerging us in its rhythm, rules and values.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4137/

http://martovski.rs/en/

Film History/ France

From Ukraine to Paris where the festival ”L’Europe autour de l’Europe” with a program of European films took place from March 14 till yesterday April 1. A celebration of the author film it is, the film d’auteur, with hommages to masters like the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, born in 1944 with an early debut in 1959 in the legendary new wave film by Francois Truffaut, ”Les Quatre Cent Coups”; Antoine Doinel he is and we met him again in that role in several films by Truffaut, who is said to have seen Léaud as his alter ego. Léaud has played in films by Jean-Luc Godard and Jacquette Rivette – you remember the masterpiece ”La Maman et la Putain”? – and in the festival in Paris, he is in the latest film by Catalan director Albert Serra, ”La Mort de Louis XIV”.

The festival is run by Irena Bilic, it is the 13th edition of an impressive festival that runs in 13 different Parisian cinemas, including a couple of cultural institutes and an American university’s ”Arts Arena”, where I had the pleasure of presenting Danish Phie Ambo’s ”When You Look Away”, that was very well received by an educated audience of primarily Americans living in Paris.

Bilic also celebrated the Baltic cinema. Lithuanian Audrius Stonys had put together a program of films by Jaak Kilmi from Estonia, Viesturs Kairiss from Latvia, Arunas Matelis and himself from Lithuania.

I was not there but the organisers told me that it had been quite difficult to draw an audience to the Baltic films, as it was for the films in the Prix Sauvage competition, 8 fictions films and 1 documentary. I was in the jury with fine people like Polish Rafael Lewandowski and Bulgarian Ralitza Petrova. We gave the award to ”Colo”, a beautiful film by Portuguese Teresa Villaverde. Our jury motivation goes like this: « For the humanity and deepness with which it treats its subject matter and for the precision of its formal choices, while always remaining sincere, the Prix Sauvage goes to Colo by Teresa Villaverde. »

www.evropafilmakt.com

Film History/ Ukraine

Exciting it was to visit Dovzhenko Film Studios in Kiev, originating from 1927, carrying the name of Alexander Dovzhenko (1894-1956). And sad as well as the buildings stand alone (apart from a couple of sound studios and a fantastic store with props) and deserted – as I have experienced in other former Soviet republics, Latvia being one of them. But you can easily imagine the studio, that is like a small city in itself, with everything needed space-wise for big productions, flats for the important directors – and Dovzhenko was here.

Just to remind us, a text clip I googled:

”Along with Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko is one of Soviet cinema’s early masters. Best known for his silent films, Zvenyhora (1928), Arsenal (1929) and Earth (1930), Dovzhenko holds a dominant place among avant-garde directors. It has generally not been recognized that Dovzhenko’s early canon was also an integral part of the Ukrainian cultural renaissance. This work looks at Alexander Dovzhenko’s Soviet Ukrainian trilogy in the light of the silent cinema’s early aesthetic and presents an analysis of the silent trilogy in the context of the Ukrainian Cultural Renaissance (1917-31)[2] and its dialogue with a wider modernist avant garde.”

The studio is today owned by the Ukraine state.

Photo taken by Roman Bondarchuk: Ellen Fonnesbech-Sandberg, Dar’ya Averchenko and me.  

http://rayuzwyshyn.net/dovzhenko/Introduction.htm

Civil Pitch Winners at Docudays

I had the privilege to moderate the final pitch session of the Civil Pitch at Docudays festival in Kiev Ukraine. 8 projects were presented to a panel of documentary producers, festival people and distributors. Projects which were quite young but pretty much alive and kicking. Read what Roman Bondarchuk from the festival rightfully said:

“It’s incredible that these projects didn’t even exist as recently as two weeks ago. That filmmakers and activists exist each in their own worlds and rarely cross paths,” says Bondarchuk, a member of the competition jury. “And it is also incredible that for me personally some topics presented by the participants were absolute discoveries, and they made me want to engage these topics myself. In the end, although we have selected only four projects as winners, all of them had a great opportunity to meet renowned professionals of the European film industry and receive consultations about their projects.

I can only agree with him and hope that the film projects, most of them aiming at 20-25 minutes, will be realized. 4 of them will be helped by start money, each of the winning projects will receive $5,500. The funds for producing these short documentaries are

provided by the USAID/ENGAGE activity, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by Pact in Ukraine.

And the winners are

1. ‘UFO RESCUE MISSION’ by the director Oleksiy Radynski and the activist Oleksandr Burlaka (#savekyivmodernism movement). UFO is a fantastic architectural building in Kiev, threatened by the plan to be “integrated” by a shopping mall…

2. ‘NO STATUS. UKRAINE’ by the director Dmytro Tiazhlov and activist Kateryna Babich (“No Borders” project). Three immigrants waiting for/hoping for asylum in Ukraine, helped by the “No Borders” people

3. ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP!’ by the director Taisiya Kutuzova and the activist Yelizaveta Sokurenko (NGO Human Rights Information Center). A 17 year old young man stands up against the local authorities and their corrupt actions.

4. ‘BEHIND THE KITCHEN DOOR’ by the director Yulia Kochetova-Nabozhniak and the activist Natalya Dorofeyeva (CO “UCO ‘Legalife Ukraine’”). Sex workers. PHOTO from the award ceremony.

http://docudays.ua/eng/2018/news/kino/civil-pitch-winners/

Arunas Matelis – Class with a Master

Confession: I insisted to be the one to talk to Lithuanian Arunas Matelis in the class that the organisers of Docudays in Kiev had set up to celebrate the director and his work for the last 25 years with his short documentaries, his ”Before the Flight Back to the Earth” and the new one, ”Wonderful Losers”. As you can see from the photo he was also in the jury – one of them – of the festival, watching 6 Ukrainian feature documentaries and a short film program.

Insisting… as I have known Matelis since the beginning of the 1990’es where he with Audrius Stonys came to Bornholm to the Balticum Film & TV Festival as young talents impressing us all with their word-less visual poems, a word Matelis used at the class, where around 25 people attended – many more will have the chance to see what we talked about, when Docudays put the recorded talk online.

I put two short films into the program: ”Flight Over Lithuania” that he made with Stonys for an Expo Exhibition in 2000 and ”Ten minutes Before the Flight of Icarus” from 1990, a film that was shot just before the country, the beautiful country described in ”Flight Over…”, became independent.

Arunas Matelis is a man of reflection, a man who – now he does more than when I met him 25 years ago – does not like to talk about his films because words take away from the images, the visuals that he put so much emphasis on. I am in Paris now coming from Kiev this morning and I see with great pleasure that some of his films – as well some made by Audrius Stonys – are shown in the festival I attend, Festival des Films Autour de l’Europe. It is therefore more than appropiate to say that Arunas Matelis is un grand auteur.