Lars Feldballe Pedersen: Præsidenten fra Nordvest

It’s a Dane writing this review. Important to say as the main character of this film, Ahmed Dualeh, is Danish, well he is born in Somalia but has been living in Denmark for 47 years – and he speaks the most perfect, classic Danish. An accent is there but the vocabulary is huge, which is heard, when he in first person tells the amazing story about his life in the country he loves and where he settled in 1967. He became a captain of ships at Maersk, he set up his own company and became a millionaire, he established a family… but he has his heart in Somalia, where he was born in poverty, adopted by an Italian family, and where he – voted by exile Somalis – became the president of Jubaland in 2012, the republic in the South of Somalia. As it turns out there are many other, who want that job, and also a position as prime minister is not reachable for the charismatic idealistic man, who wants to help his native country and dedicates a lot of time to go to political meetings and to meet people in the streets. Most of the time outside Jubaland, in Mogadishu or in neighbouring Kenya as Jubaland still is a dangerous place because of warlords.

The structure of the film goes from here to there, from Denmark to Somalia, from the family to politics. Very simple and efficient. His wife Zhara is worried about him – and their life together – as he is so much away from home. In a scene she is packing her suitcase, cut to him trying to catch her by phone, no success, cut to a daughter who tells him to stop all that travelling, cut to him and wife on what is said to be the last tour, where he is bringing computers and other technical equipment to a school in his native region in Somalia.

Apart from the drama, which is actually not described as a drama, of the couple who has been together for 45 years, the film lives through the way he – and she – is described. An almost constantly smiling, well formulated positive Danish Somali and his adventurous life with Zhara. You will be in a good mood watching this film, which of course also in a Denmark of today full of restrictions towards foreigners is a very timely documentary.

Denmark, 2017, 65 mins.

Best Documentaries 2017/ Intro

Per tradition I have gone through the texts on this site to find, what I see as the best documentaries of 2017. I stopped at 16 titles – half of them come from the Eastern part of Europe. Am I one-sided? Many will probably say ”yes you are”, but it is a fact that in 2017 – contrary to another fact: that funding is much less in Eastern Europe compared to for example in France and Germany – creative, personal cinematographic works came from directors in Poland, Serbia, Lithuania, Romania, Czech Republic/Slovakia and Russia. Let me remind you that it was a Romanian film (”Licu”) that won first prize at DOK Leipzig and a Serbian at IDFA (”The Other Side of Everything”)

Another positive aspect of the list is that new names mingle with well known as Leonard Helmrich, Talal Derki, Arunas Matelis, Vit Klusak, Elvira Niewiera/Piotr Rosolowski and Ai WeiWei. I refer to Marta Prus, Simon Lereng Wilmont, Mila Turajlic, Mohamed Siam, Mindaugas Survila, Ana Dumitrescu, Elvira Lind, Ní Chianáin and David Rane. Julia Bobkova, Ana Dumitrescu.

I stopped at 16. I could have added Frederick Wiseman and his film on the New York Public Library, which was loved by me, who was once long long ago educated librarian. And I am sure that if I had seen Agnès Varda’s ”Faces Places” or the new film by Raymond Depardon, they could have been candidates.

But veterans have to wait – and let me just remind you that if you miss Raoul Peck’s masterpiece ”I’m not your Negro”, Rahul Jain’s ”Machines” that is on most hit lists coming out right now, ”Cameraperson”, ”Austerlitz”… they were on the 2016 list that you can check here:

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3782/

Photo from “The Distant Barking of Dogs” by Simon Lereng Wilmont.

Best Documentaries of 2017

Marta Prus: Over the Limit

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4091/

Leonard Helmrich:The Long Season

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4092/

Talal Derki: Of Fathers and Sons

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4094/

Simon Lereng Wilmont: The Distant Barking of Dogs

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4099/

Mila Turajlic: The Other Side of Everything

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4096/

Mohamed Siam: Amal

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4087/

Mindaugas Survila: The Ancient Woods

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4086/

Arunas Matelis: Wonderful Losers

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

Ana Dumitrescu: Licu – A Romanian Story

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4076/

Ai WeiWei: Human Flow

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4066/

Elvira Lind: Bobbi Jene

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4030/

Niewiera/Rosolowski: The Prince and the Dybbuk

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4052/

Julia Bobkova: The Last Waltz

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3984/

Vit Klusak: The White World According to Daliborek

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3959/

Kasper Collin: I Called Him Morgan

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4046/

Ní Chianáin and Rane: In Loco Parentis

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3821/

Yulia Grigoryants. Photographer/ 2

In the beginning of this month, December 2017, the Armenian photographer published a slate of photos and a text for ajjazeera, click the link below and you can see and read it all.

Here is some of Grigoryants text: In Gyumri time is measured as “before” and “after” the earthquake. On December 7, 1988, an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale struck northern Armenia, killing at least 25,000 people and injuring hundreds of thousands more. A countless number of people were left homeless as high-rise apartment blocks collapsed like dominoes. Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, suffered much of the damage… the photo: Syuzanna, aged 9, plays inside old rusty cars in front of the abandoned building, where she lives with her family. Ten days ago, Syuzanna’s father committed suicide because of debts he was unable to repay…

Copyright: Yulia Grigoryants/ al jazeera

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/forgotten-survivors-gyumri-earthquake-171004083707018.html

Yulia Grigoryants. Photographer

The times they are a changing… Years ago I met Yulia Grigoryants several times in the Caucasus region. In Tbilisi and in her own country Armenia’s capital Jerevan. She worked with local Bars Media and was the producer of the film ”The Chosen Ones” that ended up having the title ”One,Two,Three”. I already then knew her as an excellent documentary photographer so when I met her again in Paris last week – she is married to a French film producer and they live in Paris – I asked if she would be so generous to let us show you readers a couple of her photos. Here is the first one that has this text to follow:

Yazidi Gyozal (34 y.o.) bakes bread in the traditional bread house “tonratoon” in Yazidi village Rya Taza in Armenia. Gyozal hasn’t seen her husband for the last 10 years. He emigrated to France and even hasn’t seen his youngest son. Together with her 4 children Gyozal waits for the moment when he will be able to take them to France.

Photo Copyright: Yulia Grigoryants.

Important Questionnaire from EDN

Ahhh again! Someone asking you to fill in a questionnaire – were you happy with the festival, the workshop, the hotel you stayed at, the dinner you enjoyed and paid for… You know it and you don’t like it. And if you don’t answer, be sure they will come back.

The same as director of EDN (European Documentary Network) Paul Pauwels (PP) and his office in Copenhagen has done again and again. BUT WITH QUITE A DIFFERENT AIM that points to the future. I have always been sceptical when it comes to studies, especially to academic ones, but having been pushed gently by PP, I clicked on the link below and went quickly to the questionnaire, that is actually very well put together showing that ”they” know what they are talking about.

It’s part of the EDN’s ”Media and Society” survey that EDN and partners want to be the fundament for setting up a policy for the future of the documentary genre, in all its aspects.

The questionnaire is NOT ONLY FOR EDN MEMBERS, who are primarily producers/productions companies and institutions. I would strongly advice also directors, camerapersons, editors etc. to take a look at the questionnaire.

And if I may be ”geographical”: EDN has far too few members from the Eastern part of Europe – and their situation is quite different from the (rich) countries in the West of Europe like France, Germany, the Nordic … so come on Baltic makers, Polish, Belorussians, Czech, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Slovenians, Russians, Georgians, Ukrainians… take a look, give your answers, make your voices heard! How do you see the documentary world today and tomorrow? About 30 minutes online, it’s nothing!

http://edn.network/activities/media-and-society-initiative/

Best of DAFilms 2017

… DA standing for DocAlliance, “the creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals…”. We do it again, recommend our readers to sign up for a subscription for this unique quality vod. €5 per month!

“The end of the year is a perfect time for retrospection, evaluation and best of charts. In December, we at DAFilms traditionally give our program selection over to you, our viewers. The Curated Program includes the films that you liked and watched the most in the past year. Plus, as a Christmas bonus, we added a few new films that were successful at festivals and now receive an online premiere at DAFilms!

Our Christmas selection includes a whole range of documentaries. If you love animals, don’t overlook Do Donkeys Act? about the life of donkeys; narrated by Willem Dafoe! However, if you don’t come to DAFilms for animals, watch for instance El Sicario – Room 164, a portrait of a hitman who speaks on camera in strict anonymity…”.

Let me mention some of the gems among the 20 films mentioned in this x-mas greeting: Chris Marker (PHOTO) with “Lettre de Siberie” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3983/) (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3946/), Ognjen Glavonic’s “Depth Two” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3475/),

Salome Jashi’s “The Dazzling Light of Sunset” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3525/). The two latter were both on this site’s “Best of 2016”.

And Viktor Kossakovsky’s “The Belovs” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3371/)

Two classics and two neo-classics, can one put it like that?

www.Dafilms.com

Miroslav Janek: Universum Brdecka

Got the newsletter from Czech IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) yesterday. One of the news highlighted was that Miroslav Janek has made a new film that will be released December 21. Janek is one of the heroes of filmkommentaren.dk, we have posted a lot of texts about him and his work and his portrait is with Robert Frank and Herz Frank on top of the site.

The new film is made together with Tereza Brdeckova, journalist and author and daughter of Jiri Brdecka – the artist the film is about, as the title says: ”Universum Brdecka”.

Marta Jallageas has made a fine mini-interview with Janek about the film – an interview that makes me curious to see the film and know about another fine Czech ”screenwriter, author and artist”, who made ”Lemonade Joe, The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, Dinner for Adele, The Emperor and the Golem… These are just a few of the successful films written by Jiří Brdečka”, as the interview says.

The film has over five thousand cuts, says Janek, who again worked with his wife Tonicka as editor. ”We spent five months in the editing room… It seems like we were trying to break some editing world record here but that’s obviously nonsense. It’s about the way we tell the story. We picked a style that requires a lot of cuts but many would be hard to notice even for professionals… The key to selecting material was simple. Excerpts from Brdečka’s movies are not used to illustrate or inform about his work. Instead, we used them to create meaning so that they fit in with the subject discussed in individual scenes and enhance them both emotionally and aesthetically…”

Always interesting to read Janek’s thoughts on filmmaking, can’t wait to see the film about an artist I have never heard about. And the article includes the trailer of the film, very inviting, in Czech language, but does not matter, you get an idea of the man and the style of the film.

www.dokweb.net

Macedonia Cuts Film Funding

… by 25% in 2018, according to a headline in FilmNewEurope of today. If I get it right there will be 5m€ for film in 2018 – in 2017 it was 6m€, in 2016 6,5m€. No details are put forward, maybe Macedonian filmmakers know more…

So – as previous posts have revealed – it goes down in Catalunya for the television station, it goes up in Serbia via the Film Centre and down in the country just south of Serbian border.

… in France there is via the CNC 80m€ for documentaries…

http://filmneweurope.com

Zhong Weixing Photos in Paris

If you are interested in photography it is always a good idea, when you are in Paris, to visit Maison Européenne de la Photographie, a building in three floors with interesting exhibitions. We were there today and apart from a huge collection of portraits and reportage photos with Marlene Dietrich (the best is the one taken by Cecil Beaton, link below) there is – until beginning of January – an extraordinary exhibit of portrait photos by Chinese Zhong Weixing, who presents artistic interpretations of what he considers to be the best photographers in the world. ”Face à Face” is the name of the series. He is playing with light and shadows, many of them are in movement, he proves stylistical excellence. Names: Raymond Depardon, Salgado, William Klein, Yann Arthus-Bertrand and as you can see Robert Frank. And many others.

https://www.mep-fr.org/

http://www.zhongweixing.cn/

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/39801/cecil-beaton-marlene-dietrich-british-1932/