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/

Sergei Loznitsa to Receive Award in Krakow/ 1

A press release came in from Krakow Film Festival two days ago. Here comes the essence of it, followed by a post of some references, we have made to films of a very productive and excellent director of short and long documentary and fiction films:

This year, the Krakow Film Foundation Programme Council decided to honour the eminent director of documentary films, Sergei Loznitsa, with the Dragon of Dragon award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the development of the international cinema. The 21st laureate of this prestigious award is at the same time the youngest winner of the award in history… big names like Jonas Mekas, Werner Herzog, Marcel Lozinski, Albert Maysles are among previous winners as are Priit Pärn, the Quay Brothers, Jerzy Kucia and Paul Driessen – remember that the festival is also the place for artistic animation films.

The President of the Programme Council, the film critic and film theorist, Prof. Tadeusz Lubelski, gave three main reasons for the nomination: “First, the consistent, extremely original and fruitful explorations of the form. Loznitsa created his own style of documentary film, resulting from patience and distance to the world, based on long shots and brilliant soundtrack. Kracauer would have had an insoluble problem with his works, because this is the cinema of pure recording, at the same time completely created. And the end result tends to be worthy of the dramas by Beckett.

Secondly, Loznitsa as a film-maker is an inquisitive and unyielding explorer of Russia. He discovers the weight of its past (often bringing archival tapes to life), but also its unique, sometimes shocking present. To this aim serve him the explorations of the documentary film’s form, though he often uses them also in feature films, such as the recent brilliant film “A Gentle Creature.” Thirdly, this is a film-maker who is connected with our festival since the very beginnings of his artistic work, that is, for over twenty years. So we can almost view this director – born in Baranavichy, educated in Kiev, residing in Germany for many years – as a film-maker from Krakow.”

http://www.kff.com.pl

Sergei Loznitsa to Receive Award in Krakow/ 2

… and here are some quotes from Loznitsa films, we have been writing about on filmkommentaren. It’s very few, only documentaries. If you want to see the full filmography go to Loznitsa’s own website, link below.

The Event (2015) – … Loznitsa is not in Moscow in this film, he is in Leningrad and gives me exceptional material from what happened in the streets and the squares, that I love so much today, where people gathered to try to understand what is going on in 1991. +  he gives me the legendary mayor Sobchak and his impressive speeches, “the sea of faces” listening to him, the USSR flag being substituted by the Russian, the slogans used like “fascism will not prevail”, bring the “coup gang to justice” and the name of Yeltsin shouted again and again. Fascinating…

Maidan (2014) – He is distantly observing and not involved (not meaning that he does not have a point of view, indeed he has), he makes the viewer observe and have the eyes go around his images, that are like paintings, as the jury stated in their motivation for giving an honorary award to the film (in Leipzig, ed.). Several long shots included the singing of the Ukrainian anthem, where you let your eyes wander within the frame, as was it a work by Brueghel! Unique moments they are.

My personal favourite is ”Blockade” (2005) about the 900 days siege of Leningrad during WW2. Will watch again and write…

Austerlitz (2017) – Loznitsa´s construction of the sound score is a superb alliance to the black & white images, where there is no camera movement and where every frame is precise and full of meaning in its composition. Back to the sound… it goes on my nerves when I am confronted with the sound of steps of all the tourists, who are visiting the camps – after visiting several, Loznitsa decided to concentrate on Dachau and Sachsenhausen – in their almost naked summer dress with their smart phones clicking all the time, their audioguides linked to the ear, and their selfie-photo-taking.

http://loznitsa.com/

Magnificent7 Gets Support

Iva Plemic Divjak, one of the many Serbian film people helping to set up the festival has made this English summing up for me and you readers, of the article in blic.rs of today

Members of the Independent Cultural Scene Association of Serbia – ‪NKSS is giving their full support to the ‪Festival “7 veličanstvenih” / Magnificent 7 Festival and are protesting against the decision of the Sava Centre to go full blown commercial and to withdraw from the partnership with the festival after 13 extremely successful years. They are giving an example of one of the Magnificent7 guests, the great German Kral, being astonished by the impressive audience in the full Sava center for the screening of “Un tango mas”… The punch line is the nature of Sava centre’s sources of financing (quote): “We’d like to remind you of the fact that Sava centre, being a public institution, is partially financed from the budget of its founder – the City of Belgrade. As stated in the SC’s business program, this subvention in 2018 amounts to 43.000.000 Dinars (362.870EUR), while the subvention they are receiving from the Serbian Ministry of Culture is 5.000.000 Dinars (42.190EUR).”

The picture is from the first edition’s first film in the festival in 2005, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s “Touch The Sound”.

Docs & Talks/ 2

Bravo! It’s quite a festival that the Danish Cinemateket and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presents in the Film House in Copenhagen. And yet it is not “only” a festival with high quality documentaries from all over, it is ALSO a so-called event, where screenings of the films are followed by Talks. Connected to international themes of today, inviting us viewers to go deeper via films and discussions than we are used to through the daily news… These were the words welcoming the new festival on this site last year in February. We posted 12 texts about the festival last year and we intend to cover it again through pre-talk, reviews and visits to some of the screenings. Our experience with the festival was very positive, so welcome back – and for those who are not in Copenhagen, follow the program, might give you inspiration to do the same.

12 is a good number – there are 12 films in the program, a couple of them have been reviewed on this site, actually recommended, those are “Mogadishu Soldier” and “Convictions”.

About “Mogadishu Soldier” I wrote: …Taken from no fewer than 523 tapes,

this compilation (film) gives an honest and sometimes revealing glimpse behind the scenes of war… 523 tapes in the hands of Norwegian Torstein Grude and Danish Niels Pagh Andersen, the again-and-again praised Danish editor, who has put the filmed impressions and interviews and battle scenes together in a way so it is watchable… even if a documentary addict like me had to look away from the corpses and the injured soldiers, and the scenes as well, where captured enemies, children fighting for Al-Sharaab sit there with grown-up soldies surrounding them. It hurts. They get close, the Burundian cameramen… whio had been given cameras by Grude. As an example of the building of “Docs & Talks” a senior researcher from DIIS and a representative from the Somali community in Denmark will talk about the situation in the country and the role of UN and the African Union.

And a quote from the review of award winning “Convictions” by Tatiana Chistova that demonstrates the director’s sense of the absurdity of being called for military service… and homophobia: … There’s a nurse, uniformed military men, a woman who puts all the questions – in the room where Viktor enters asking for ”alternative military service”, because of his, as he puts it, ”non-traditional sexuality”. His case is discussed, a nurse comes in and says that she does not think homosexuality is a decease… But the camera and the sound catches the leading lady at the table saying to the military man next to her: ”… maybe he is insane”!… After the film senior researcher Flemming Splidsboel Hansen fra DIIS will talk about Russian current nationalism.

Just two out of 12 – there are also short films and debate from Kurdistan and Myanmar, the brilliant “Mama Colonel” from Congo, the German “Meuthen’s Party” about the leader of the righ wing party Afd, the Basque “Walls”, the Swedish “Dead Donkeys Fear No Hyenas”, “A Possible Algeria” by French Viviane Candas, who will be present at the screening, another French on migration “On Call”, “Get me Roger Stone” is a film from Trump’s US and finally the film that opens the festival #The Road” from China, by Zanbo Zhang.

Wow for a program, we will be back with more as the festival gets closer.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=15914

Docs & Talks /1

Docs & Talks 2018 / Film- og forskningsdage 20.-25. februar + 27. februar

I 12 + 3 filmarrangementer kombinerer festivalen Docs & Talks dokumentarfilm med forskningsformidling og debat. 20.-25. februar i Cinemateket i København og 27. februar i Øst for Paradis i Aarhus.

ARRANGØRERNE AF DOCS & TALKS SKRIVER I INDBYDELSEN:

“Hvad sker der, når to soldater i den upopulære fredsbevarende FN-styrke i Somalia får til opgave at filme deres egen hverdag? Hvordan oplever almindelige mennesker Kinas gigantiske infrastrukturprojekter over alt i verden? Og hvordan skildrer man russisk nationalisme gennem en historie om militærnægtere?

Svarene kan du få, når Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier (DIIS) og Cinemateket endnu en gang byder velkommen til DOCS & TALKS – Film- og Forskningsdage fra 20. til 25. februar i København og 27. februar i Aarhus. I en række tankevækkende arrangementer kombinerer vi dokumentarfilm med forskningsformidling og debat.

DOCS & TALKS byder på i alt 12 filmarrangementer i CINEMATEKET, hvor debatpaneler med forskere fra DIIS og andre internationalt anerkendte forskningsinstitutioner, instruktører, case-personer og praktikere vil diskutere og perspektivere filmenes temaer.

Vi skal følge den dramatiske historie om opførelsen af en kinesisk motorvej og diskutere Kinas infrastruktur-projekter ude i verden. Vi kommer helt tæt på en af nøglepersonerne i det tyske højrefløjsparti AfD og tager med afsæt i filmen en debat om de bevægelser, der driver Europas nye højre. Med to migrationsfilm ser vi både på det store perspektiv: Grænsepolitik – og det helt nære: Migranternes fysiske og psykiske helbred.

Tanken med DOCS & TALKS er at formidle viden på en anderledes måde – og at gøre båndet mellem film og forskning stærkere. DOCS & TALKS går endnu tættere på aktuelle begivenheder end den daglige nyhedsstrøm, samtidig med at vi skildrer de grundlæggende politikker, ideologier og udviklingstendenser, der ligger bag.

Vi glæder os til at byde et spørge- og diskussionslystent publikum velkommen. Billetpris: 95/65 kr. Hvor intet andet er anført, foregår debatterne på dansk.

OG

DIIS OG CINEMATEKET I PARADIS PRÆSENTERER DOCS & TALKS AARHUS

FILM- OG FORSKNINGSDAG D. 27. FEBRUAR 2018

Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier (DIIS) og Cinemateket byder for første gang velkommen til DOCS & TALKS AARHUS– Film og Forskningsdag tirsdag d. 27. februar i Øst for Paradis, hvor vi byder på tre tankevækkende arrangementer, der kombinerer dokumentarfilm med forskningsformidling og debat.

Forskere fra DIIS vil sammen med kolleger fra bl.a. Aarhus Universitet diskutere og perspektivere filmenes temaer – og invitere publikum til at tage del i debatten. Vi skal debattere den nye globale grænsevirkelighed med afsæt i filmen Walls. Vi skal følge den dramatiske historie om opførelsen af en kinesisk motorvej med filmen The Road og diskutere Kinas infrastrukturprojekter ude i verden. Og endelig skal vi helt tæt på en af nøglepersonerne i det tyske højrefløjsparti AfD, der portrætteres i filmen Meuthen’s Party, for derefter se nærmere på de bevægelser, der driver Europas nye højre.

Med DOCS & TALKS går vi endnu tættere på aktuelle begivenheder end i den daglige nyhedsstrøm, samtidig med at vi skildrer de grundlæggende politikker, ideologier og udviklingstendenser, der ligger bag.

Sara Thelle og Mira Bach Hansen / Forum for Film og Formidling. Anne Blaabjerg, Troels Jensen og Sine Plambech / DIIS. Rasmus Brendstrup / Cinemateket”

PROGRAM OG BILLETTER

Se programmerne og bestil billetterne her:

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

http://paradisbio.dk/NextDaysProgramme.aspx?offset=0 (Øst for Paradis, find 27. februar på siden. Her er de tre film med)

FILMKOMMENTAREN

Vi har her på bloggen planer om at omtale alle filmene og selv skrive om dem vi har set. 

Protest from Magnificent7 Festival Belgrade

Dear audience, dear friends of the Festival,

After thirteen magnificent years of the Festival’s continuous growth in quality, after its extraordinary contributions to the Belgrade, Serbian and European cultural landscape, the Festival has faced insurmountable difficulties. These difficulties have unfortunately nothing to do with our will or actions; yet, in such circumstances, the Festival has to find a way to exist in another time and another place – which, we believe and hope, will be the spring of this year.

Since the very beginning and the first Festival in 2005, we had an agreement with Sava Center about a joint organization of the Festival. Throughout the years, this cooperation was very successful, fueled by mutual trust and enthusiasm. We are deeply grateful to all those at Sava Center who persisted with us year after year and who invested their best efforts in helping the Festival take place under the best possible conditions and in the best possible way. When Sava Center celebrated its 40th birthday in 2017, we received recognition for “an extraordinary cooperation and special personal contribution to the affirmation of Sava Center.”

Before signing a new contract for 2018, we were notified, to our great surprise, by the administrative department of Sava Center that all future forms of such cooperation were terminated. The argument claimed that the current situation required Sava Center to begin running its operations exclusively on commercial grounds. This in turn meant the cancellation of the agreement about the co-organization of the Festival.

The Festival was thus given the status of any other commercial client overnight – along with the offer to use Sava Center upon paying very high rental prices. The General Director of Sava Center denied any form of communication or dialogue; his response was one of ignoring, which resulted in resounding silence.

Due to lack of means to accept such conditions – but also due to lack of will, since we strongly believe that the commodification of culture inevitably leads to its destruction – we publicly protest such treatment of the Festival and refuse to allow money and profit to have priority over more important human values and needs.

Encouraged by your loyalty and enthusiasm, we are not giving up the Festival that we have made for you and with you. Just like in the past years, we are ready to fight for the superb beauty, the magic of film, and for the values that this unique anthology of modern documentary – The Magnificent 7 Film Festival – brings together.

We will notify you in a timely manner about further developments.

Belgrade, January 19, 2018.

Festival Directors
Svetlana and Zoran Popović

Orwa Nyrabia Artistic Director of IDFA

Orwa Nyrabia (1977) is the new artistic director of IDFA. Nyrabia, who was born in Syria, is well-known in the documentary world as a producer, festival director, curator and mentor.

Nyrabia started his career as an actor and journalist. In 2004, he started producing independent documentary films, including successful titles such as Return to Homs (which opened IDFA 2013 and was an award-winner at Sundance Film Festival) and Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Cannes 2014). 

In 2008, Nyrabia and his partner Diana el-Jeiroudi set up the first documentary festival in Syria, DOX BOX, bringing renowned filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Patricio Guzmán and Nicolas Philibert to Damascus. To focus attention on the violation of human rights in his country, in March 2012 and 2013 he organised with his team a Global Day for Syria, with Syrian films being screened in cities around the world.

In 2012, Nyrabia was arrested in Damascus for his political

activism. Prominent figures from the film world, including Jeremy Irons, Mike Leigh and Danny Boyle, protested against his arrest in a letter to the Syrian government. Following release he fled the country, going on to work as a producer in Egypt and Berlin.

Nyrabia is a member of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Deutsche Filmakademie, the International Documentary Association and the European Documentary Network. He has received several awards and distinctions during his career, including the George Polk Award for Documentary Film and a European Documentary Network Award. 

Orwa Nyrabia has been involved with IDFA for some time now, in a variety of roles. He worked as a programmer on the theme programme Shifting Perspectives: The Arab World (2017), has sat on the festival jury and was active as a mentor and advisor for IDFAcademy and the IDFA Bertha Fund.

Orwa Nyrabia succeeds Ally Derks, the founder of IDFA who announced her departure from the festival in 2016 after 30 years at the helm. Barbara Visser was responsible for the festival programme in 2017 as interim artistic director. 

“We are particularly pleased to welcome Orwa Nyrabia,” says chair of the IDFA Board, Derk Sauer. “With his knowledge of the documentary world, his international background and inspirational personality, he is exactly the right person to consolidate IDFA’s position as the most important documentary film festival in the world.”

“The appointment of a new artistic director is an extremely painstaking process, and we have spent a year on this”, says Festival Director Cees van ‘t Hullenaar. “Together with the Board and festival staff, a clear profile for this position within the organisation was drawn up. I believe that these efforts have now produced the ideal candidate for us. Orwa is a powerful voice in the international documentary field, has a sharp cinematographic eye, a great knowledge of film history and is socially very committed.”

Much much more on Orwa Nyrabia is to be found on www.filmkommentaren.dk – write his name in the search place and you will get it all starting with a report from the Dox Box festival 2008.

Dan Laustsen, filmfotograf

Disse dage nævnes Dan Laustsen i forbindelse med nomineringen til Academy Award for bedste fotografering i The Shape of Water selvfølgelig især for samarbejdet med filmens instruktør Guillermo del Toro gennem flere filmproduktioner (The Shape of Water, 2017, Crimson Peak, 2015, Mimic, 1997) og her i landet lige så naturligt for samarbejdet med filminstruktøren Ole Bornedal (1864-Brødre i krig, 2016, Fri os fra det onde, 2009, Kærlighed på film, 2007, Jeg er Dina, 2002, Nightwatch, 1998, Nattevagten,1994)

Her på Filmkommentaren.dk vil vi i dagens anledning som en tilsvarende oplagt erindring tillige nævne samarbejdet med filminstruktøren Anne Wivel (Søren Kierkegaard, 1994, Giselle, 1991, David og Goliath, 1988 og Ansigt til ansigt, 1987)

DOKUMENTARFILMFOTOGRAFI

At lytte efter hvad der sker i rummet… det kan man roligt sige Dan Laustsen gør i Ansigt til ansigt, hvis store styrke er, at billederne af de unge kommende præster tilsammen lukker tilskueren inde i et rum, hvor han bliver i de 166 minutter, som filmen varer. Det er nærbilleder af ansigterne, der udtrykker en kommentar eller en følelse i forhold til, hvad der bliver sagt i netop det øjeblik. Det er ansigter af typer, som vi kommer til at holde af.

Der er den stædige og den glade dreng, den kønne unge kvinde, som altid er den første til at opponere imod den stædige, den skeptiske, den tillukkede. Og lærerne med hver deres pædagogiske stil. Det er uophørligt fascinerende at overvære denne serie af eksistentielle debatter, og det kan kun tilskrives den store sikkerhed og intensitet i fotograferingen, at du ikke slipper taget. Det er hvad der gør en god fotograf – at kunne fornemme at her sker der noget, ikke nu, men om et øjeblik. (Tue Steen Müller, i sit bidrag, Kameraet som pen i Dirk Brüel m.fl.: Fotografens øje, 2009)

http://filmcentralen.dk/grundskolen/film/ansigt-til-ansigt (FILMCENTRALEN, streaming)

FARVER OG SORT-HVID

Farverne er næsten trukket helt ud i scanningen af Fri os fra det onde (2009)? “Det er en rå og voldelig film med meget blod, og jeg har altid kunnet tænke mig at lave en sort-hvid film. Helt uden farver tror jeg måske, at denne flm ville blive for dyster, men vi kom frem til, at det var en god måde at skabe distance til volden på, en visuelt stærk fortællemåde. Jeg brugte meget vidvinkel og arbejdede for, at hvert eneste billede skulle være et setup i sig selv.” (Dan Laustsen i et inteview med Andreas Fischer-Hansen i Dirk Brüel m.fl.: Fotografens øje, 2009)

Giselle, 1991

http://filmcentralen.dk/grundskolen/film/giselle (FILMCENTRALEN, streaming)

Oscar Doc Nominations

Sooo, today was the day where the 15 documentaries on the shortlist that we brought in December, link below, was to become the 5 to be nominated. No Ai WeiWei, no Wiseman, no Matthew Heinemann but good and very good films.

Facebook has been full of congratulations to those, who have gone that far, and from here comes the same.

Here is the list, alphabetical order:

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

Steve James, Mark Mitten and Julie Goldman

Steve James is a great director (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters and Life Itself that we reviewed here: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3242/

FACES PLACES

Agnès Varda, JR and Rosalie Varda

Hmmm, feel ashamed that we have written so little about Varda during the years and this one has been praised everywhere!

ICARUS

Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan

Available on Netflix, saw it, one of those where “content is King” but as a Film, well. Read few words here: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3242/

LAST MEN IN ALEPPO

Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed and Søren Steen Jespersen

Happy to see this awards-all-over film also for the Oscars. The film is produced by Larm Media and Aleppo Media Center. Review here: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3858/

STRONG ISLAND (photo)

Yance Ford and Joslyn Barnes

Also on Netflix and on top of my viewing list, recommended by many, including the one with whom I share the subscription – and of course another BRAVO to the coproducer FinalCut for Real, its manager Signe Byrge Sørensen and editor, master Janus Billeskov Jansen.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4107/

http://oscar.go.com/nominees