Maj Wechselmann: Min Mor

The film was presented at the Baltic Sea Docs 2013 in Riga and Maj Wechselmann was there, not only to present her film project about her mother but also – with her long experience as documentary director – she helped and encouraged the younger filmmakers present. I had the chance to watch a 55 mins. version of the film (original 76 mins.) due to the excellent initiative of Swedish Television, SVT Play, that once a week presents a documentary classic that (some of them) can also be seen outside Sweden – so if you understand/read Swedish, you have access, for free.

This fine offer from SVT has an editor, Lars Säfström, who also used to visit Riga for the pitch. Redaktør Säfström…

som han omtales, har skrevet denne fine omtale af Maj Wechselmann og hendes film:

En dokumentärfilm kan ha ambitionen att få publiken att se världen på ett nytt eller åtminstone annorlunda sätt. Ibland kan den till och med sträva efter att förändra världen genom att övertyga eller upplysa oss om samhällets brister eller missförhållanden. Filmaren blir då aktivist i sin strävan att få oss på andra tankar och filmen blir ett medel som manar till aktion och politiskt ställningstagande. Problemet med aktivistfilmer är att de så lätt blir propagandistiska och som sådana har en tendens att bara nå de som redan är övertygade om det filmen vill övertyga om.

Maj Wechselmann är en av Sveriges mest engagerade och stridbara filmare. Hon har gjort en rad filmer som tar en klar politisk och ibland medvetet provokativ ståndpunkt. Det har handlat om allt från unga flickor på en chokladfabrik till kamp mot kärnkraft, EU, och militärindustrin. Mest känd är hon kanske för sin film om stridsflygplanet Viggen från 1973.
Men hon har också gjort en rad filmer som lyfter fram starka kvinnor; journalisten Bang, författaren Moa Martinsson. Till den senare kategorin hör filmen om hennes egen mor.

Hundra år efter mammans födelse reser hon tillbaka i hennes fotspår och träffar överlevare och vittnen. Med hjälp av stillbilder, dokument, arkivfilmer och rekonstruktioner berättar hon hennes historia, från de fasansfulla pogromerna i Ukraina i förra seklets början fram till efterkrigstidens Köpenhamn. Hon skildrar hur hennes mamma radikaliseras i mötet med de usla arbetsförhållandena för textilarbetare i Montreal men samtidigt hur det förflutna ständigt jagar henne. I filmen säger Maj Wechselmann: ”Mamma, du var så rädd för att vi båda skulle dö, så jag blev rädd för att leva.”

Filmen Min mor är kanske Maj Wechselmanns mest personliga film men också, som alla hennes filmer, ett klart politiskt ställningstagande mot övergrepp och förföljelse och som alltid på de svagas och utsattas sida.  

Maria Fredriksson: Miraklet i Gullspång

En Spøjs film. Synonymer: Snurrig, Pudsig. Iflg. en ordbog “sjov på en uventet måde”. Det er ihvertfald svært at kategorisere denne film, som i løbet af sine 108 minutter tager nogle drejninger, som er uventede, og sjove, for personerne i filmen opfører sig anderledes end dem vi normalt møder i dokumentarfilm om problemer eller overraskelser i familien, som er hvad Kari og May støder på, da de en dag sidder overfor Olaug, som de ser som deres afdøde søster Lita’s tvilling, som de aldrig har mødt. En genforening i fryd og gammen… næh, en start på en historie fuld af de overraskelser, som ellers er få i dokumentarfilm. Hvem lyver, siger instruktøren desperat på et tidspunkt; hun fik historien serveret af søstrene Kari og May, dykkede ned i den som en anden detektiv og gav os tilskuere den underholdning, som må komme frem, når de troende norske søstre, fra landet i Norge, møder Olaug som er vokset op i luksus, har været officer i hæren, er ikke-troende og vil finde ud af om Lita, hendes tvillingesøster døde for egen hånd eller…

Der er nogle herlige scener, nej der er mange herlige scener, da Olaug besøger familien ude på landet, hvor en bror og hans familie holder til, hvor hun bor i en campingvogn så længe hun kan holde ud at være med sin familie. Eller er det nu familie? Hvad skal vi tro? Skal vi overhovedet tro på noget eller nogen? Et mysterium foldes ud, mennesker træder i karakter og det er mennesker med karaktertræk, vi kan genkende – som Kari, May, Olaug og broren Arnt. Kig dig omkring i din egen familie! Spøjs og skøn film!

Norge, Danmark, Sverige, 2023, 108 mins.

Agniia Galdanova: Queendom

I was not in the jury of the CPH:DOX this year but I agree totally with the motivation to give the film an award:

“Urgent and Political, this award goes to a powerful and intimate coming of age story about an Outsider within her family and her country. With exquisite gentleness and outstanding visual beauty, the film quietly builds upon itself, ultimately crescending into a loud and expressive rebellion and rallying cry against a brutal regime and its attempts to violently control and intimidate both young and old generations. In this present moment, it’s impossible not to recognize the bravery of both the protagonist and the filmmaker. This film will remain a breathtaking and striking reminder of arts role in speaking truth to power.”

… and it is a heartbreaking story to follow Gena Marvin’s unsuccessful attempt to reconcile with the grandparents, who live 8 hours flight away from Moscow, in Magadan, where Gena is born. The grandfather wants him to have an education and when he is kicked out of a make up school because he was present at a demonstration for Navalnyj, grandfather stresses that Gena (Gennadiy) should at least earn some money on his performing art in the streets, wearing high heels and amazing costumes. The film includes small video performances where you can see the artistic skills of Gena Marvin. At the end we see him in Paris calling grandma and grandfather, excellent dramaturgical build of a strong and touching documentary about the right denied to be different.

USA, France, 2022, 98 mins.

Alisa Kovalenko & Simon Lereng Wilmont: Girl Away from Home

This is the IDFA catalogue description: Nastia is a gymnast in Kyiv, training intensively with her four teammates for the Ukrainian National Championships. At other times they make dance clips, perform acrobatic feats, and giggle a lot. Nastia knows that together they can achieve anything. But then the war breaks out, and Nastia’s parents send her to her grandmother in Germany, hoping that the separation will be temporary.

In this youth documentary, Nastia speaks in voice-over about how she’s experienced this intense year—how she had to leave the country in a hurry and was then stuck indoors in a German apartment block for weeks on end. She sadly re-watches the carefree clips she made just a short time ago with her besties. On the phone to her parents, she bravely tells them all is well. But it’s not. She’s wondering whether she’ll ever see her homeland again.

Nastia only starts feeling a bit better once she has joined a local gymnastics club in Germany. The war is still raging, but the surroundings now feel like a kind of home. A story about a resilient girl, strong family ties, friendships, and the solace you can find in sport.

Ukraine, Norway, 2023, 22 mins.

IDFA Calls for an Immediate Ceasefire

At IDFA we believe in the value of life, and in the universal dream of a peaceful world. We respect the pain and the huge loss on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides of the on-going conflict. We stand by the families of all victims and condemn all acts of killing. We hope that all hostages are returned safely to their families, and that a new beginning becomes possible, where both sides have the right to exist, where children are safe and empowered, and where they can dream of the future, and then make a better future for everybody.

Today, as the escalation of a cycle of violence that extends back over decades is raging and reaching new heights. The tolls of death keep rising, and the most vulnerable are unwilling victims.

We believe that documentary filmmakers, Palestinian, Israeli, and from all over the world have already warned us, repeatedly, and told us, in uncompromising films, that violence will only escalate, with rising nationalism, rising radicalization, prevailing hopelessness, and continuous dehumanization. 

To acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinian people today does not mean ignoring the pain of the victims on the Israeli side. All pain is respected, and all this killing must stop. The world of arts and culture has a responsibility towards this, and IDFA acknowledges that. 

We call for an immediate ceasefire, immediate humanitarian aid, a restoration of basic services and infrastructure, so that peace can have a chance someday.

Read here the statement from IDFA and Artistic Director about the events of the Opening Night.

Olya Chernykh: A Picture To Remember 

Hello Olya, how are you sweetheart? The voice of Babuschka Zorya from Donetsk, the hometown of Olya, who is now living in Kyiv with her father and mother. The film is built in a way that I as a viewer look forward to the next call Olya makes to Zorya to hear, how she is. They are and have always been close! An 80 year old woman full of life, who has had an important role in the life of Olya. The film is a gem, (also) when it comes to a family archive that includes – as family footage always does – gatherings around the table, lots of material from when mum and dad were married, when Olya was a baby and learned the names of her family and so on so forth. All of that held together of a personal voice narration of Olya, and that’s where the pain comes in, the pain of February 24 2022, when everything changed and the family left Zorya and Donetsk, “the city with millions of roses and coal”. We get glimpses of what it was, a rich city – and now…

Yes, it is a family film, memories and today, as she says, Olya, who originally wanted to make a film about her mother’s working place, a morgue! Now the morgue is a fine location with the mother and her colleagues, lots of humorous conversations and a birthday party for the mother, and a scene with a cleaning lady who wants to stop working there as the salary per month is 50€!

The challenge with a family film is of course to find the tone of the film and give it a flow and an atmosphere… I was not bored at any moment, I loved the family members, also the father who was painting during the night, a very good painter, would have loved to have more of him in the film, but a wise decision to focus on the three generations of women and their lives.

Hello grandmother, how are you… They are bombing all the time, Olya, I have changed all the windows, but let’s not talk about sad things. And at a zoom call in beforehand this fantastic woman looks like a samurai, Olya says to the woman, who wanted Olya to be in the sun to have a fine teint when a teenager. A sweet film it is, taken from a family’s love to each other, memories, also tough ones as the family is displaced from Donetsk, excellent editing work by Polish Kasia Boniecka.

Guy Davidi: Innocence (Uskyld)

Instruktøren: “Det er en film om, hvad det betyder at blive soldat i Israel, og hvordan samfundet i Israel lægger pres på børn og unge fra en meget ung alder, frem til at de melder sig til militærtjeneste. Med filmen vil jeg gerne have publikum til at indse, at skildringen af militærvold ofte er meget anderledes end det billede, vi bliver præsenteret for.“Filmen fortæller historierne om fem unge afdøde soldater. Jeg ønskede ikke at følge én bestemt karakter, jeg ville vælge nogle stykker. Det tog mange år at opbygge. I stedet for at lave forskelle i hver historie, forsøger jeg at skildre den vigtigste historie, som de alle deler, nemlig presset ved at vokse op og gå ind i militærtjeneste”, siger Guy Davidi.

Citat taget fra pressemeddelelsen da filmen havde premiere i Danmark i slutningen af september i år.

Det er en betagende smuk humanistisk anti-militaristisk documentar i essay-genren. Som blander personligt arkivmateriale med uddrag af breve og dagbogsnotater i en imponerende cinematografisk ramme. Det er tydeligt at Davidi har arbejdet med materialet i årevis for at finde den rette respektfulde balance i forhold til de unge, som tog deres eget liv.

Danmark, Israel, Finland, Iceland, 2022, 101 mins.

IDFA Opening Night

Earlier this evening, the 36th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) officially opened in the Royal Theater Carré with the world premiere of A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh.  

IDFA 2023 takes place from November 8 to 19 in more than 30 theaters and festival locations throughout Amsterdam. In those venues, IDFA will present 270 films and 32 new media projects from 137 countries. This 36th edition will welcome over 3000 professional delegates and guests who will be able to immerse themselves in a diverse program that includes films, interactive projects, an exhibition, performances, events and workshops. 
The opening night ceremony kicked off at Royal Theater Carré, with Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia taking the stage to officially welcome all filmmakers, documentary professionals, and guests to Amsterdam:“With more than 3000 professionals arriving to Amsterdam and an edition that is the most international to date, we are looking forward to sharing films that will live long, travel the world from here, and filmmakers whose careers will shape the future of this field. It is at such terrible times that a film festival proves its worth, accepting that we are many and we are not in agreement, but we can still think together about this world that we share”. 

Opening film of IDFA 2023: A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh 
The festival opened with A Picture to Remember (Ukraine, France, Germany), in the presence of Ukrainian director Olga Chernykh. The film is her first feature-length documentary and presents a deeply personal and essay-style account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women: Chernykh herself, her mother, and her grandmother. In a bid for connection and intimacy, the filmmaker uses old family films, recordings of conversations, and news reports to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother. The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film that travels through time fluidly.   

A Picture to Remember received IDFA Bertha Fund support in 2023 and is nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature. View the overview of awards at the festival here. 

Cultuurfonds Documentary Stipend goes to Luuk Bouwman 
During tonight’s opening ceremony, the €50,000 Documentary Stipend—made available annually by an anonymous patron—was awarded to filmmaker Luuk Bouwman for his documentary All Against All. The awarded sum is intended to financially support his next documentary project and his already-established careersin documentary film. The award was handed out by last year’s laureate, filmmaker and artist Pim Zwier. 

Talks with filmmakers and film professionals during the festival   
Throughout the upcoming festival, IDFA will host over 60 talks to accompany its film and industry programs, giving festival visitors unique insight into the filmmakers’ backgrounds, the journeys behind the films, and current developments in the documentary film industry.  

The extensive program is divided into the categories Film Talks, Filmmaker Talks, Corresponding Cinemas Talks, and Industry Talks & Sessions. All events will be hosted as in-person events, and a selection will be recorded and made available on-demand to all accredited guests in the Talks Library within 24 hours of the live event.   

DocLab 
With the theme Phenomenal Friction, IDFA’s new media section explores friction in all its forms. The exhibition program invites audiences to look beyond technological efficiency and convenience, to explore the resistance that propels creativity forward and the conflict that reveals life’s complexities. The selection will showcase over 30 interactive and immersive documentary works that use or comment on emerging technology in new and innovative ways.

Mstyslav Chernov: 20 Days in Mariupol

This text is from the website of the film:

“An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.

After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for The Associated Press, 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL is Mstyslav Chernov’s first feature film. The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.”

This text is from the Ukrainian DocuDays festival website – the film won the first prize in the Ukrainian competition category and the Audience Award. The motivation for the first one goes like this: “Unprecedented document of the time and evidence of crime. But despite all the captured monstrosity and dehumanization the film leaves the viewer with a sense of forceful determination to keep resisting – because of the professional commitment and public service of the ordinary heroes in front and behind the camera.“

All of you remember the scene with the pregnant woman being carried to the hospital, an iconic photo… mother and child did not survive – I chose another photo taken from the DOC/NY site.

DOCA Documentary Association Georgia

… was founded one year ago, November 2022. And has since then performed an avalanche of activities, first of all protesting against the Ministry of Culture and its Reorganization at Georgian National Film Center followed by demonstrations outside the Center and outside the Ministry together with other parts of the cultural sector, whose independence of political influence was equally threatened, I posted on this: https://filmkommentaren.dk/documentary-association-georgia-protests/

A month ago – at the festival in Batumi – DOCA held a well attended meeting “How to Navigate a politically charged environment”. Filmmakers discussed the boycott of the Georgian Film Centre, here are quotes of a statement: …More than 200 people working in cinema – directors, actors, scriptwriters, cameramen, film studios, etc. – signed a statement boycotting the Georgian National Film Center. This came after the Minister of Culture, Tea Tsulukiani, controversially reorganized the Center and appointed her loyal cadre to direct it… “As a sign of protest, we will no longer participate in the competitions and projects announced by the seized film center; we refuse to be members of the competition commissions because we do not want to become a formal participant in the process that leads to the destruction of modern Georgian cinema, culture, and science,” – reads the statement.

DOCA has established a Film Club as well to SHOW the strength of the Georgian documentary right now, where it wins awards at numerous festival around the world but also to invite the audience to explore high quality international documentaries like “Workingman’s Death” by late Michael Glawogger. Furthermore seminars are set up and of course it is a good idea to have the CEO of the Danish Film Institute Claus Ladegaard come to talk about how that state institution is organised and runs. It takes place next week, November 10 in Tbilisi and the IMS has helped financially.

… and one more thing – take a look at my FB page – PEN America has published “Taming Culture in Georgia” with an elegant reference to the film of Salomé Jashi, “Taming the Garden”…

https://pen.org/report/taming-culture-in-georgia/?fbclid=IwAR0cdA34xXVA7d14FcdVahXna0R6_rbgPecgPCFrAz4zJodZ9d8wEQjSg1E