Krakow Film Festival: Music without Borders

A press release came in from one of the oldest documentary film festivals, in Krakow, that celebrates its 57th edition BUT with a young competition on music documentaries, the fifth edition of this novelty.

A quote of a quote: “As Anita Piotrowska, film critic and the co-creator of the programme of Krakow Film Festival points out, “music documentary film becomes more and more inclusive. Music always plays the main role here, but often it is additionally charged – it tends to be a political manifesto, an expression of rebellion against stereotypes, a new look at history or a sign of a complicated ethnic identity. It is increasingly difficult to find an “unadulterated” music documentary film. But this is which, in my opinion, proves its vitality and richness. And this is precisely this diversity – not only of the music itself, but of the contemporary ways of telling stories about it – that we tried to capture while selecting the competition titles.”

Wise words and here you have the films selected:

“Chavela,” dir. Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi, USA, 90’

“Far Western,” dir. James Payne, Japan, USA, 82’

“Red Gringo,” dir. Miguel Angel Vidaurre, Chile, 69’

“Festival,” dir. Tomasz Wolski, Anna Gawlita, Poland, 85’

“When God Sleeps,” dir. Till Schauder, USA, Germany, 88’

“Sara Baras, All Her Voices,” dir. Rafá Moles, Pepe Andreu, Spain, 91’

“Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream,” dir. Margarete Kreuzer, Germany, 90’

“Born To Lose-a film about Lorenzo Woodrose,” dir. Palle Demant, Denmark, 82’

“Soul Exodus,” dir. Csaba Bereczki, Hungary, 92’

“The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev,” dir. Tal Barda, Noam Pinchas, Israel, France, 74’

I have seen the latter, which is a family story full of music with the Papa (see the fantastic photo) of the Alaev family (who emigrated from Israel to Tajikistan in 1990s) as the main patriarchial character, who has to face, but does not want to, that children and grandchildren wish to take over, or at least have their independence as members of the family, and a religious community. And the orchestra! Sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, always with great music! And very well told.

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

CAFx 2017 /Introduction

This is a copy-paste of the press release from Copenhagen Architecture Festival, that is indeed very active when it comes to the inclusion of the film medium:

Denmark’s largest architecture festival Copenhagen Architecture Festival opens its fourth edition Wednesday, April 26th with a wide program spread over three cities and with the opening film and world premiere of “BIG TIME” on Bjarke Ingels. 

More than 150 architectural events in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Aalborg. 40 film and 42 venues.

The festival takes place over 11 days. The more than 150 events provide a variety of approaches to architecture and through film screenings, exhibitions, lectures, debates, walks, concerts and conferences there are enough to choose from again this year – both for ’feinschmecker’ and the general public. Again this year you can meet experts from home and abroad who will contribute to the audience to get a glimpse of the world of architecture.

In 2015, the festival was the largest of its kind in the world with its focus on architecture and film. This year the festival offers one overarching theme: “Architecture as identity” with four events which the organizers want to direct a particular focus on: Experience the world premiere of ’BIG TIME’ – a new portrait film about Bjarke Ingels and more than 40 other architecture-related films, a major international conference with visiting architcets such as Charles Renfro and Barozzi Veiga and a new exhibition of Lacaton & Vassal, Druot and Hutin in both Aarhus and Copenhagen or be guided to the latest architecture on the bike of the city architects of Copenhagen and Aarhus – in Copenhagen as part of the festival’s collaboration with the municipality on this year’s building awards. The festival is organized into 11 sub-themes distributed across the three cities.

The audience can, among other things, look forward to an exciting theme of Danish colonial architectural trail – both in Denmark in Copenhagen and in the former colonies around the world under the title ‘colonial traces, a dissection of the city’s various layers in a series of events, which is about how we use the city and who uses it – under the theme titled ‘The city in use’, or the ratio of ‘plan and life’ in the cities and their architecture under the theme of the same name or get a glimpse of friends Dan Stubbergaard’s and Henrik Vibskov’s selection of five films that have inspired each of them in their work.

Festival Director Josephine Michau says: “I hope that the festival can help to unfold how architecture helps to create qualities in everyday life at a local, national and global level and to do it in an unpretentious, curious way that can bring a new look at the architecture and make it widely communicated. The festival is both for professionals and for the ’amateur’, and there is indeed something for both audiences. “

The purpose of CAFx 2017 include exploring how architecture is to shape and reflect values ​​in our lives or cities, and especially how we as individuals, groups or nations are reading us into the surroundings. How can architecture express our identity and values, and how do we link ourselves unconsciously to their nature or expression? What is it eg. that makes us feel at home?

www.cafx.dk

CAFx 2017 /Filmliste

COPENHAGEN ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL

Broen i Mostar, som jeg aldrig så i virkeligheden, er i mit sind billedet på, at krigen ødelægger alt, og næsten tydeligst – for de lemlæstede døde sænker jeg blikket ved – er den bevidste og planlagte destruktion af hele byer og enkelte bygningsværker. Den film i rækken af af filmvisninger, jeg først vælger at sætte mig lidt ind og forstå, som jeg vi gå i biografen og se, var det muligt, er Tim Slades Destruction of Memory fra 2016. Det er fra den film det her still stammer. Jeg ser, det handler om arkitektur som identitet. Filmen findes på den liste over festivalfilm, som jeg her bringer i uddrag på grundlag af arkitekturfestivalens meget store og omhyggelige pressemateriale:

BIG TIME

En film om arkitekten Bjarke Ingels, som blev kendt af mange med sine byggerier i Ørestad, og nu er kaldes han af The Wall Street Journal “en af arkitekturens største stjerner.” BIG TIME følger den unge arkitekt over fem år, mens han arbejder med at fuldføre sit største projekt til dato, boligbyggeriet W57 på Manhattan. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) får samtidig til opgave at bygge World Trade Center 2, en af de skyskrabere, der skal erstatte tvillingetårnene. Mens han er i gang med således at ændre New Yorks skyline, er det pludselig noget så jordnært som helbredet, der volder problemer. Filmen efterfølges af Q&A med Bjarke Ingels og instruktør Kaspar Astrup Schröder.

KASPAR ASTRUP SCHRÖDER | 2017 | 93 min. / DANISH AND ENGLISH W/ENGLISH SUBTITLES / CINEMATEKET | Lørdag 29/4 kl. 14.30 Billetter via cinemateket.dk / ØST FOR PARADIS | Onsdag 3/5 kl. 19.00 Billetter via paradisbio.dk / BIFFEN NORDKRAFT | Onsdag 3/5 kl. 19.90 Billetter via biffen.eu

 

DREAM EMPIRE

24-årige Yana er flyttet til byen Chongqing i Kina for at forfølge sit livs drøm. Den kinesiske boligboble lokker med let tjente penge, og Yana starter et agentur for udlændinge, som skal hjælpe lokale bygherrer med at markedsføre deres nye byggeprojekter. Men projektet tager en tvivlsom drejning, da hendes kunder bliver brugt i et forsøg på at fremstille provinsens spøgelsesbyer som ’globaliserede byer i rivende udvikling’ – belejligt nok hver gang investorer og politiske ledere kommer på besøg. Da boligboblen brister, er Yana tvunget til at sælge sin virksomhed og hun må afvise alt det, hun hidtil har troet på. Filmen efterfølges af en samtale mellem instruktøren David Borenstein og Kristian Skovbakke Villadsen, partner og direktør i Gehl Architects.

DAVID BORENSTEIN | 2016 | 73 min. / CHINESE AND ENGLISH W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES / LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART | Søndag 30/4 kl. 12.30 / Filmvisningerne er gratis, når entré til museet er betalt. Sikr dig billet på louisiana.dk / Debate in English

 

DANMARK VED GANGES

En af Danmarks største byer lå engang i Indien. Danmark ved ganges er en nysgerrig og poetisk dokumentar om kolonihistoriens betydning i dag. Da Serampore ved Gangesfloden var en dansk koloni, blev den kaldt Indiens smukkeste by. I dag arbejder danskere og indere i fællesskab med at redde områdets sidste bygninger fra kolonitiden. Bygningerne er fortidsminder, men hvis minder? Hvad minder de egentlig om i dag? Filmen undersøger, hvordan arkitektur bygger bro til fortiden, om kolonihistorien kan skrives på en ny måde, og om der er plads til nostalgi i en nøgtern postkolonial tid.

NICOLÁS NØRGAARD STAFFOLANI | 2017 | 40 min. / ENGLISH, DANISH, AND BENGALI W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES

BLOK P

Filmen skildrer nedrivningen af den berygtede bygning i Nuuk og vil med det diskutere modernisering og kolonihistorie: hvad er grønlandsk identitet og hvad er dansk velfærd i den udfordring.

RIKKE DIEMER OG PETER JENSEN, 2013, 35 min. / GREENLANDIC AND DANISH W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES

NATIONALMUSEET | Tirsdag 3/5 kl. 17.00 / Billetter via billetto.dk / 17.00: Filmvisning, Danmark ved Ganges / 18.00: filmvisning, Blok P / 18.35: Oplæg og paneldebat.

 

CITIZEN JANE: THE BATTLE FOR THE CITY

Kampen om New York stod i 1950’erne mellem den magtfulde byplanlægger og den idealistiske bydelsaktivist. I 1950’erne stod en enkelt mand for New Yorks byudvikling. Den kontroversielle byplanlægger Robert Moses bulldozede, asfalterede og byggede med beton overalt i de fem burroughs, indtil en enkelt kvinde stillede sig i vejen og sagde stop. Hun hed Jane Jacobs, var antropologisk interesseret bydels-aktivist og forsvarede de enkelte kvarterers særpræg mod den ensformige planlægning, som var tidens modernistiske mantra. Hendes kamp mod mesterbyggeren Moses, såvel som hendes bog The Death and Life of American Cities, fik siden indflydelse overalt i verden. Filmen introduceres af Aarhus’ stadsarkitekt Stephen Willacy, der fortæller om Jane Jacobs’ betydning for dagens byplanlægning og for sin dagligdag som stadsarkitekt.

MATT TYRNAUER | 2016 | 92 min. / ENGLISH W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES / BIFFEN NORDKRAFT | Søndag 30/4 kl. 16.30 / Billetter via biffen.eu / ØST FOR PARADIS | Torsdag 4/5 kl. 17.00 / Billetter via paradisbio.dk

 

DESTRUCTION OF MEMORY

Alt for aktuel film om kulturel udrensning. Syrien, Bosnien og Afghanistan. Moderne krigsførsel har indoptaget et nyt fænomen: bevidste angreb på biblioteker, broer eller skulpturer, som udgør et områdes kulturelle identitet. ‘Cultural genocide’, kaldes det – et begreb, som har en lang historie og som skal understrege de alvorlige konsekvenser, når kulturarv ødelægges. The Destruction of Memory skildrer kampen for at få anerkendt kulturel udrensning som en krigsforbrydelse, en kamp der kan spores over hundrede år tilbage i tiden. Filmen introduceres af Frederik Rosén, seniorforsker i international sikkerhed ved DIIS.

TIM SLADE | 2016 | 125 min. / ENGLISH W/ ENGLISH SUBTITLES / GRAND TEATRET | Lørdag 6/5 kl. 9.30 / Billetter via grandteatret.dk /

Hele filmprogrammet 27. april – 7. maj 2017 findes i Copenhagen Architure Festivals samlede program:

www.cafx.dk

Cinédoc-Tbilisi 2017

With its fifth edition the organisers of this still very young Tbilisi Georgian festival, director Archil Khetagouri and coordinator Ileana Stanculescu, took the decision to move the event from October to May 11-16. Argumentation: Too much happens in October. And my additional argument: Weather must be better in May. I am happy to be able to check that out myself, as the two mentioned have invited me back to a city and a festival I like very much. Regarding the weather: Outdoor screenings are planned.

About the program – there is an international competition, a focus Caucasus, a CivilDOC section, including a pitching session for NGO’s matched with filmmakers, and a CinéDOC Young competition.

There are so many good film titles to be mentioned, let me drop

some names from the international competition: ”A Marriage Story” by Helena Trestikova, ”Normal Autistic Film” by Miroslav Janek, ”You have No Idea How Much I love You” by Pawel Lozinski, ”Woman and the Glacier” by Audrius Stonys and ”Hello I am David” by Cosima Lange. And in the Caucasus section ”Didube, the Last Stop” by Shorena Tevzadze, reviewed on this site a couple of days ago.

Lithuania is the guest country, which means that films by Giedre B(einoriute) and Giedre Z(ickyte) will be played and there will be a longer Q&A with Audrius Stonys, that I have been asked to moderate, with pleasure! And the ”filmmaker in Focus” is Finnish Pirjo Honkasalo with three of her films to be shown, ”A Diary of an Urben Priest” (2009), ”Tanjuska and the Seven Devils” (1993) and ”Three Rooms of Melancholia” (2004). A masterclass will be organised with the master!

A section is called ”Erotic Dox”, where the fine ”Venus” (photo) by Lea Glob and Mette Carla Albrechtsen is to be found. The film goes around the world and happy to say, from a Danish perspective, runs in Danish cinemas with success.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

DOKer 2017

I was a jury member of the first DOKer festival in 2015 and am very happy to see that the filmmakers behind the event are able to continue their pioneer work of bringing films from around the world to the Russian audience. Let me quote the promotion text from their website that you should pay a visit:

”Do not miss Moscow International Documentary Film Festival DOKer. Spend 5 days in the atmosphere of the best creative documentary cinema from around the world! Watch, think, criticise, create!”.

The 3rd DOKer festival takes place May 18-23.

Take a look also at the illustration that says that the selection has a global perspective – and the world is not united. Anyway, here is the list of films for the main feature competition as well as the short film line-up. A third competition ”Let’s DOK it”is still to be announced.

Competition for Feature Docs:

01. ATENTAMENTE by Camila Rodríguez, Colombia 90 min

02. BABYLON DREAMERS by Roman Shumunov, Israel 87 min

03. BECOMING WHO I WAS by Chang-Yong Moon & Jin Jeon, Korea – India 96 min

04. BROTHERS OF THE NIGHT by Patric Chiha, Austria 88 min

05. THE CALM TEMPEST by Omar A. Razzak, Spain – Italy, Spain 73 min

06. THE CHARRO OF TOLUQUILLA by Jose Villalobos Romero, Mexico 90 min

07. THE GIFT by Przemyslaw Kaminski, Poland 56 min

08. GOODBYE DARLING, I’M OFF TO FIGHT by Simone Manetti, Italy 74 min

09. HAPPY by Caroline Genreith, Germany 83 min

10. IN PROCEDURE by Jiska Rickels, Netherlands 58 min

11. THE ISLANDS AND THE WHALES by Mike Day, United Kingdom 81 min

12. THE LOST CITY by Francisco Hervé, Chile 78 min

12. RED CLOTHES by Lida Chan, Cambodia 63 min

14. SACRED WATER by Olivier Jourdain, Belgium – Rwanda 55 min

15. THIRD-CLASS TRAVEL by Rodion Ismailov, Russia 80 min

Competition for Short Docs:

01. AHMAD’S HAIR, by Susan Koenen, Netherlands 23 min
02. BLUEBERRY SPIRITS by Astra Zoldnere, Latvia 13 min
03. BORDERS by Damjan Kozole, Slovenia 10 min
04. DAY AFTER DAY by Sabine Theresa Ehrl, Germany 10 min
05. DISTANT by Leyla Toprak, Turkey — Syrian Arab Republic 16 min
06. FAR EAST by Matteo Delbò & Manuele Mandolesi, Italy 26 min
07. HAPPY HAPPY BABY by Jan Soldat, Germany 37 min
08. HOMELAND by Sam Peeters, Belgium 14 min
09. I WAS ONLY 14 by Froukje van Wengerden, Netherlands 12 min
10. INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY by Artyom Ignatyev, Russia 17 min
11. ISABELLA MORRA by Isabel Pagliai, France 22 min
12. JUNGLE by Colia Vranici, France 18 min
13. THE LONER´S GAME by Silvana Barrero, Argentina 22 min
14. POLONAISE by Agnieszka Elbanowska, Poland 16 min
15. RAKIJADA by Nikola Ilic, Switzerland — Serbia 19 min
16. THE SHENEHEN QUEEN by Anastasiya Zverkova, Russia 42 min
17. THE WITCHER by Maja Tschumi, Switzerland 21 min
18. YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM THE TRUTH by A.a.v. Amasi, United kingdom — Zimbabwe 28 min

http://www.midff.com/home

Ivars Tontegode: Knutifiction

Luckily I live in a country where subtitling of films is the rule – no dubbing as in German or France, where as an example European cultural channel Arte is the big sinner in the language killing discipline. In Denmark we hear the language spoken in the original film and when we don’t understand that language, we get help from the subtitles.

BUT sometimes it is hard to watch and read, as it was for me with Latvian Ivars Tontegode’s impressive biographical documentary about and with writer, poet and translator Knuts Skujenieks, who talks almost through the whole film of 100 minutes at the same time as I had to follow the interesting visual bombardment from Tontegode. I am saying this upfront to admit that my viewing of this new Latvian work suffered from me having to read and watch at the same time. On a MacBook Pro computer.

It will be better when I get to watch the film on a big screen… nevertheless I don’t hesitate to state that I have seen a remarkable film about a remarkable man, whose story is the one about 7 years

in a Gulag camp during Soviet time, where he wrote more than 1000 poems, several read in the film, before he came back to Latvia, a country that got its independence around 1990, a country that, as he says, ”have democracy but our society is not democratic”. Knuts Skujenieks, this jovial white-bearded more than 80 year old man, constantly with a smile on his face, tells his own story from cradle till now, with quotes from his literature and with his continuous reflection on Life in all its aspects.

I always advocate for ”form comes first”, ”make your aesthetic choice” before you start shooting – Tontegode who pitched the film as project at Baltic Sea Docs did so and I dare say that he sticks to a visual playfulness – is it too much? – that sometimes brings me back to the psychedelic 60’es and 70’es, often with erotic sequences that go well with the protagonist’s many ”adventures” as they are called.

And archive footage is being used extensively, newsreels (chronicles) from the time of Soviet Latvia, but also clips from films by local documentary heroes as Herz Frank and Juris Podnieks. The film is good when it gives the Soviet time with well chosen archive and the writer’s comments (there were also many good moments in the camp), it is better when the director ”goes bananas” and breaks his own rythm and Gott Sei Dank there are also more quiet moments, where the old man (as on the photo) walks by the sea. That’s the place where we think, isn’t it? I am already looking forward to a re-view.

The film will have its National premiere in Riga May 4 followed by screenings in cinemas – and it will be available at the Media Library of Visions du Réel, Nyon.

Latvia, 100 mins., 2017

Shorena Tevzadze: Didube, The Last Stop

I have met Shorena Tevzadze and producer Nikoloz Gogochuri several times at workshops in Georgia, where this fine film was developed. Their dedication to the theme and their love towards the characters of the film was always there; watching the final result I feel like saying hello to an old friend Niko, in his shop, with his partner, waiting for clients but no one comes to buy at the veterinarian pharmacy, only friends like the singer Nodar with his guitar, performing his ballads which serve as a commentary to the place and to the dreams of the two on having a garden in the countryside instead of where they are now at a bus station, where shops still exist; at a stop that used to be more important when the train had its last stop here, now it only stops for two minutes.

The filmmakers present the film like this: “A musical fairy tale about a noisy station, where Niko, a veterinarian man is trying to save his peaceful kingdom from its demise.”

But time stands still and Niko uses it to reflect on life and to write poems, one about one of the many floods in the country. He phones television (or radio?) but they don’t have a format for reading of poems.

Luckily a festival has a format for this simple unpretentious portrait of a place and a shop owner: Premiere at Visions du Réel, Nyon, at the Regard Neuf section, the festival takes place April 21 to 29.

Georgia/Switzerland, 2017, 64 mins.

Pawel Lozinski: Being a Tutor

The IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) has published a very informative, well made interview with Polish director Pawel Lozinski, who was at the EastDoc Platform in Prague, where he had a double role: to show his film ”You Don’t Know How Much I love You” and to be a tutor.

In the interview – made by Marta Obršálová – Lozinski goes in detail about his film in terms of the aesthetical and technical choices that he made; you should definitely read it, whereas I have chosen to pick a quote from the director on being a tutor. A very honest dilemma is described by the director as well as some advice that many tutors should follow…:

Speaking about students, how do you like to share your experience with others? How do you react when someone asks your advice?

Tutoring for Ex Oriente Film was sometimes difficult for me. I try to be a tutor but still being a film director at the same time. Obviously, if someone is showing me his materials I am automatically making my own film of it.  But I tried to stop myself – it is their film.  I try to follow their way of thinking the director´s or cameraman´s feeling. I ask them the questions: What do you want to say?  What you want to show? How do you intend to do it? What is the story going to be about? What is your message? Why are you showing it to me and then to the audience? I think the crucial thing in teaching is not giving an answer but just asking the questions and making students or directors think about the right answer from their side. I try to find different paths, ways of thinking for each project. Maybe you can change protagonists? What do you think about putting the camera on the other side? So this kind of talk, not giving a straight yes/no, good/bad answer, just discussing it. When I make my own films, I still need somebody to discuss them with – it could by my cameraman or editor or both. Because when you make a film, you are alone, facing a lot of questions with no answers and having to find the answers on your own. So you have to ask people what they think about it. That is why this kind of training is so important for filmmakers.

https://www.dokweb.net/en/ – and go to articles.

Robert Kirchhoff: To Choose Your Genre

This is a clip from an interview with Slovak Robert Kirchhoff, whose ”A Hole in the Head” was reviewed on this site:

Cineuropa: In your previous documentary, Normalization, you investigated a sensitive issue, and you are now pursuing another difficult theme, the Roma Holocaust, in A Hole in the Head. Why do you choose such difficult subjects? 
Robert Kirchhoff: Every subject that I have chosen to make a film about or to think about is an opportunity to approach that topic differently. It’s a challenge. And this is the way I feel about it. Neither of those subjects came to me by chance; it was always some particular story that brought them to my attention. With Normalization, I attempted to shoot a genre film, an investigative crime film, but there is a difference between the two films. Normalization depends on facts, literally — you have to follow the continuity in terms of the story, the past and the present, and you are working with people you do not necessarily like. In the case of A Hole in the Head, I got to pick the characters myself and I came up with the form of the film. I was facing a dilemma in terms of genre between a classic historic documentary or a documentary essay; I picked the latter. I intentionally resisted pathos — that’s why you can encounter humour in a film revolving around the Holocaust and the Roma genocide — and I resisted any kind of pathos that might have resulted from tying different meanings to a particular character. Those characters lived with their memories and the holes in their heads and I approached them not through the past but the present. That may be one of the reasons why I did not use any of the archive footage, period photos or illustrations.

http://cineuropa.org/it.aspx?t=interview&l=en&did=326167 

Yaser Kassab: On the Edge of Life

It feels unfinished, sketchy this personal film by Syrian Yaser Kassab. It is one long reflection and interpretation of, as the director has formulated it in the catalogue of Cinéma du Réel, “loss and grief”. Far from mainstream. In dark images, often metaphoric, from empty spaces, “detached from reality” as he says, with the fragments of skype conversations with his father, who does not want to leave the country, and at a later point states that we live “like bears in winter sleep”.

The synopsis: “Yaser and his partner Rima leave Syria to Lebanon, but after receiving the news that his younger brother passed away in Aleppo, they end up in a remote and an empty place in Turkey. In this place where the silence and the monotonous daily life being broken by the loud noise of the family calls whom still living in Aleppo. To spend a year and a half, which was almost like a slumber and a coma, waking up every day on the recurring nightmares echo.”

It is one of those rare films that does not move but places itself in a waiting mood full of sadness, memories and longing for a better life. A very much welcomed essayistic lyrical addition to the many war-filled documentaries from the country.

Got the Joris Ivens/ Cnap Award at Cinéma du Réel

Syria, 2017, 45 mins.