Magnificent7 Doc Festival Belgrade 2017

The website of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade is up and running. The festival starts February 1st – I am happy to be part of the selection team with Svetlana and Zoran Popovic again, for the 13th time and you will have many reports from Belgrade in the coming two weeks. Here are some words that I wrote for the website/catalogue:

Welcome! Again – for the 13th time – I am looking forward to sit with the best audience in Europe in the huge hall of the Sava Center. A Cinema with a big screen and a good sound that give us spectators a unique Cinema experience.

Because this is what you, dear audience, expect from the Magnificent7 – excellent films, Cinema quality.

I am now using the term Cinema for the fourth time to remind you that documentary is Cinema. All right, let’s narrow it a bit: the films we show at Magnificent7 are documentary films that deserve to be shown on a big screen with the mentioned high quality image and great sound. Contrary to the many tv programs called documentaries, which are mostly based on putting together according to words.

Magnificent7 is the home for the documentary art form. Made by filmmakers who think in images and sound – and have something

important to communicate. Sometimes we forget that when we leave the cinema full of thoughts about, what we have seen, it is because the topic has been treated in cinema language.

2017 edition – I can promise you amazingly composed, stunning images through excellent camerawork. Big words and you might not agree or love all the films – boring if we all thought the same, right? But I think you will agree that not many words are being said in the films of Sergei Loznitsa, Audrius Stonys and Nikolaus Geyerhalter. ”Austerlitz”, ”Woman and the Glacier” and ”Homo Sapiens” do sometimes give you tears in the eyes because of the beauty they convey. It’s Cinema! Don’t talk about it, show it!

Another buzz word I would like to use in describing this year’s selection is Creativity. I dare promise you that this year brings an homage to Creativity. Not only are the films – with a boring term used by European support schemes – creative in the treatment of their stories but a couple of them actually have a focus on Creativity. That goes for Cosima Lange’s passionate journey ”Hello, I’m David” with David Helfgott, the legendary pianist and that goes for Miroslav Janek’s ”Normal Autistic Film” that a critic from Variety characterised as ”a beautifully crafted, intimate, and revealing observational portrait of five youngsters with Asperger’s Syndrome”. The film shows these youngsters having great creative skills.

Remember your school time and the good teachers you had, who have one way or the other influenced your grown up life? The ones I remember are the ones, who were using their creative skills… precisely what the wonderful teaching couple from Ireland, John and Amanda, do and have done for decades at the Headfort School – they seek to get the best out of the students. They play theatre and music, they care! It is pure pleasure to follow them in the film by Neasa Ni Chianain and David Rane, ”In Loco Parentis”.

As a film it is equally pure pleasure to watch Jérôme le Maire’s dramatic, involved and observational ”Burning Out”. But when it comes to content, I am sure you will think and feel with the hospital staff: Something has to be changed at this place. As in many other hospitals in Europe, I can say from Copenhagen.

Hello, I’m Tue – I am happy to come back at Magnificent7 in Belgrade. I hope you find the program interesting, Cinematic and creative.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.php

The photo is taken by a dear guest, Martin Rattini, producer and cameraperson, at the festival in 2016. Zoran Popovic and Tue Steen Müller. The third selector, Svetlana Popovic… will appear in photo(s) in upcoming reports from Belgrade.

Robert Budreau: The Deaths of Chet Baker

Det er svært at oversætte titlen til dansk, død i flertal? Det er vanskeligt at tænke død på den måde. Der må poesi til, hvis vi ikke vil nøjes med en nøgtern detektivisk udredning. For hvordan døde Chet Baker? Hans mange venner har dengang spekuleret på det, han var alene på hotelværelset i Amsterdam, eller måske var han det ikke.

Robert Budreau tager mulighederne op i en afdæmpet omhyggelig ja, smuk og sikker film på otte minutter. Det er i filmen sikkert at Chet Baker lejer sig ind på hotelværelset. Det er sikkert at han mødtes med en person på værelset. Det er sikkert at han injicerer heroin umiddelbart før døden. Det sikkert at han sidder i vindueskarmen den nat for åbent vindue.

Og det er sikkert at han ved tretiden blev fundet på gaden nedenfor død efter et voldsomt kraniebrud. Det er filmens indhold. Eller?

Eller er det ikke musikken som er indholdet og det filmiske digt, iscenesættelsen af dødens muligheder, er en variationssats altså? Hvor en af mulighederne måske var den som den nat i Amsterdam forelå for Chet Baker, som den var en kendsgerning for Kammerherr Brigge: ”… Er starb seinen schweren Tod. Und wenn ich an die andern denke, die ich gesehen oder von denen ich gehört habe: es ist immer dasselbe. Sie alle haben einen eigenen Tod gehabt.” (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Canada, 2009. 8 min. Vises i Cinemateket, København lørdag, 11. februar 19:00 sammen med Budreaus Chet Baker biografi (også iscenesat) Born to Be Blue, 2015, 97 min. og Bruce Webers Chet Baker biografi (dokumentarfilm) Let’s get Lost, 1988, 120 min.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=13932 

Bruce Weber: Let’s Get Lost

”Stjernefotografen Bruce Webers knitrende sort/hvid-portræt af trompetisten, sangeren og stilikonet Chet Baker, Let’s Get Lost, betragtes af mange som jazzdokumentaren over alle. Se den sammen med den nye biopic Born to be Blue, med en velcastet Ethan Hawke i hovedrollen. Et drama, som genskaber scener og stemninger fra Bakers liv i 1960’erne – blandt andet et skrinlagt filmprojekt og et musikalsk comeback, imod alle odds…”

Sådan skriver Morten Tang fra Cinemateket i København indbydende, idet han sætter Bruce Webers 120 minutter lange film optaget umiddelbart før Bakers død i 1988 i spidsen for en lille række jazzfilmpremierer i dagene 6.-12. februar i forbindelse med arrangementet Winter Jazz som Copenhagen Jazz Film Festival er en del af.

I Cinemateket kan man komme til danmarkspremiere på tre jazzfilm: Chet Baker biografien Born to Be Blue med Ethan Hawke i hovedrollen fortæller historien om musikerens comeback i 1960’erne og den vises sammen med Let’s Get lost. Dernæst Sound of Redemption, en klassisk dokumentarfilm om saxofonisten Frank Morgan. Og endelig Telemach Wiesingers collagefilm Kaleidoscope, som præsenteres i samarbejde med Goethe-Institut Dänemark.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=13932 

Release Oleg Sentsov

… was the working title of the film project by Askold Kurov pitched on several occasions, and the words being expressed on several occasions at film festivals and elsewhere. The Ukrainian filmmaker and writer was arrested by the Russians in March 2014 in Crimea and sentenced to 20 years in jail on suspicion of “plotting terrorist acts”.

Askold Kurov has now finished his film about his friend. It will be shown at the Berlinale. The final title is “The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov”. The film is supported by these three countries: Estonia / Poland / Czech Republic.

DocsBarcelona Reaches 100.000 Viewers

… in 2016, a big step from the 78.204 in 2015, to be totally precise: 102.769. Joan Gonzàlez, the man on the top of what he calls ”the project” DocsBarcelona, is a proud man, when he gives me the numbers for the many activities that have one goal: to create and feed an audience with good films.

The Documentary of the Month, that includes 87 screening venues, had 47.776 viewers, the DocsBarcelona festivals in Barcelona, Medellin (Colombia) and Valparaiso (Chile) did 12.391, whereas online viewing via the platform FILMIN came to 33.618 and sales of DVD’s in many different places like FNAC and El Corte Inglés gave the number 8.894.

DocsBarcelona has been in existence for 20 years building up the mentioned elements to reach the audience (with the words of Gonzàlez) step by step to reach what is quite an achievement. If you want to know more, check out

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/

Poster from the January Documentary of the Month, Kandahar Journals.

Uldis Brauns 1932-2017 /2

The other Uldis – Cekulis – one of the producers of the film being made right now, ”Baltic New Wave”, wrote to me yesterday: Tomorrow we go with Kristine (Briede) to Saldus church, it is the biggest town on the way to Uldis (Brauns) home from Riga. There the funeral will take place. Ivars Seleckis and other old friends are coming too.

 But you should know this, since last Friday mid day, when Uldis passed away all trees in my country are like this (attached picture from our studio window 5 min ago). You remember, it’s like Uldis hair, it’s Uldis around us these days…

… and from me the second photo, taken by Uldis Cekulis as well, in the garden of Brauns, in September 2014, a hug and thank you.

The Poetic Documentary

I think we said ”poetic documentary” more than a hundred times in Aarhus during the weekend, where the mini-festival Baltic Frames took place. The theme for the festival chosen by the curators Signe Van Zundert and Niels Bjørn Wied, also included the word: Capturing the Poetic Everyday. But what is ”poetic”? I went to one of many online dictionaries, where ”Poetry” was defined like this: ”the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts”. If you take away the reference to literature, where most of the words come from when we talk about films… then maybe we get closer. But as one of the participants at the seminar sunday asked: Is a poetic documentary merely one that shows beautiful landscapes… No, was the answer from Audrius Stonys, who is – together with Kristine Briede – the director of the film under production, working title ”Baltic New Wave”, a poetic documentary, he said, can deal with any topic, it’s about the aesthetic choice and the personal angle. But, said I, if there is a poetic documentary, there must also be a prosaic documentary… Yes, said Stonys with a smile, Michael Moore does not make poetic documentaries!

Equally with a smile, Ukrainian director Roman Bondarchuk, who showed his ”Ukrainian Sheriffs” at the festival and a clip from his wonderful ”Dixie Land”, asked if Stonys found his films were ”poetic”. The answer came immediately, ”of course they are”. To go back to the definition above, ”the exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative and/or elevated thoughts”, is created through (also)

the outstanding camerawork that we saw in Aarhus performed by Bondarchuk, Berzins (who shot the two films of Viesturs Kairiss) and Laisvūnas Karvelis, who did the camera for Audrius Stonys ”Gates of the Lamb”.

By the way I once told students at the Zelig Film School that they were not allowed to use the word ”poetic” because ”poetic” can be interpreted differently depending on the eyes who watch. We then showed Wojciech Staron’s ”Brothers” and the only word I could find that would fit was ”poetic”!

Back to ”Baltic New Wave” and the old masters. Click the link below and take a look at the website of vfs, the company of Uldis Cekulis, where a 6 minutes long teaser introduces ”A story about a unique phenomenon in the history of cinema – Baltic school of poetic documentary and its creators – filmmakers from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia who broke the dogmatic poster-like propaganda documentary tradition in the Soviet Union in the 1960s by creating films that were totally different: humane, meaningful, and poetic. The story is told in a poetic road-movie ‘detective’ style…”

Three times ”poetic”, and they knew what it meant – Herz Frank, Uldis Brauns, Henrikas Sablevicius…”.

Photo (Danish Cultural Institute), from left: Festival curators Niels Bjørn Wied and Signe van Zundert, producer Uldis Cekulis, in the middle Danish Cultural Institute in the Baltics director Simon Drewsen Holmberg, Latvian ambassador to Denmark Kaspars Ozoliņš and directors Audrius Stonys and Roman Bondarchuk – after screening of ”Ukrainian Sheriffs” in Aarhus.

http://vfs.lv/baltijas-jaunais-vilnis/

Documentary of the Month: Weiner

… at the Danish Cinemateket Copenhagen January 26 – February 1.

American ”Weiner” by Josh Kriegmann and ElyseSteinberg is a well made observational documentary about the rise and fall of Anthony Weiner, the congressman whose campaign to become mayor of New York the filmmakers follow. It is one of these full-access films you seldom see made today, where politicians are protected by campaign staff and spindoctors. But Weiner has invited them to get close to follow his dramatic fall from the top, when his ”sexting” addiction is revealed again and again. Jewish Weiner’s Arabic wife Huma (Abedin) is constantly in the picture, it is quite emotional to follow her reactions to the husband’s ”mistakes”. He is trying hard to have her stand beside him, she lives up to that, at the end she stays at home when he is going to vote. You see him transporting his son in a stroller to the voting place… ”a father and his son”, this is America as is the description of the media, who do not want to hear Weiner talk politics. They even try to set up a confrontation between him and one of the women, with whom he – according to her – had phone sex with, up to five times per day… Observational, yes, but Weiner is interviewed after the fall from the sky, and he is actually sympathetic to watch and listen to.

The link below puts a focus on what happened afterwards… Huma Abedin is separated from her husband, the woman who for years were – and still is as far as I know – a close advisor to the Clinton family and took part in the campaign for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and hit the headlines when her email account with mails to Hillary was opened… for me she is the interesting character in the film.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-the-movie-weiner-tells-us-about-huma-abedin/2016/06/02/142b67b0-27ee-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html?utm_term=.da4ad6e4592b

Lise Birk Pedersen: Tutti a Casa

Vi er 83 minutter inde i filmen, her er det dramatiske højdepunkt, i billedet ser vi de egentlige medvirkende bortset fra en. Kvinden i midten er Paola, manden til højre er Alberto, manden til venstre er Mario. Den fjerde hovedperson er fraværende, det er den på det tidspunkt i filmens forløb ekskluderede Luis. Scenen sammenfatter filmens to vigtigste dramatiske forløb, den pludselige vækst, men så også uenighederne og eksklusionerne i det nye parti i Italien, Movimento 5 Stelle og nedturen for den tidligere regerende partikoalition og især den dominerende Silvio Berlusconi.

De fire var oprindeligt venner og kolleger, enige om grundlaget, at reducere eller fjerne mafiaens og alle de gamle politikeres, først og fremmest Berlusconis magt, de er enige om målet, men ikke om enkelthandlingerne undervejs. Luis blev stemt ud ved en votering blandt partiets medlemmer. Så her ved den afgørende afstemning i senatet om Berlusconis immunitet er det de kun de tre af de fire som samlet energisk råbende argumenterer, men bestemt uden at miste noget som helst af deres store charme, som jeg filmen igennem vænner mig til og bliver meget glad for, de tre plus én er yderst forskellige, men det er fornemt lykkedes Lise Birk Pedersen og Anders Villadsen at tegne dem præcist lige stærke, lige sympatiske.

Jeg ser fem tråde i konstruktionen: For det første er der skildringen af de fire personer som udvikles hver for sig: Mario som lytter til musik og har det sært med sin pistol til selvforsvar men godt i sin lænestol på sit værelse hos forældrene, Paola som er enlig mor og hjemme sidder munter på gulvet med sit barn ved et lavt bord foran tv som en ung kvinde, Alberto, som er vred og uforsonlig og angrebets mand, som drikker norgenkaffen i køkkenet stående og læsende noget aktuelt, Luis som er moderat og forhandlingens mand og lever velordnet med familien om spisebordet. Dette er den vigtige og stærke tråd, hvor Lise Birk Pedersen undersøger et politisk system gennem filmisk skildring af menige politikeres sind. For det andet er der en meget løsere og indirekte skildring af Beppe Grillo, som er uforanderlig uforandret fra første til sidste klip og af Silvio Berlusconi, hvor filmen følger hans faldende kurve til et nulpunkt. For det tredje er der en kort historie om Grillokritikeren, Adele Gambaro, som dukker op og forsvinder. For det fjerde er der Movimentos udvikling. For det femte er der Italiens politiske udvikling som bundet til alliancen mellem PD og Berlusconi. Det hele fortalt kronologisk siden 2013.

Jeg kom efter at have set de to versioner ogå til kort at se på Politikens forside 12. januar, at der i tillægget FILM var en artikel: ”Dokumentarist har brugt tre år på at demaskere populismen”, og så var der et foto af instruktøren Lise Birk Pedersen, og jeg tænkte da, at det var hvad hun måtte have sagt. Jeg læste ikke interviewet, da jeg ikke havde fået tillægget med fra naboen, hvis avis jeg overtager. Demaskering betyder jo oftest afsløring af noget grimt, men som det tilsvarende udtryk, hemmeligheden bag sløret som falder, kan der også være tale om noget sjældent og smukt. Jeg ser imidlertid ikke de to film, hverken biografversionen eller tv versionen som en afsløring af populismens nøgne udseende, jeg er efter mit ene gennemsyn slet ikke på det rene med hvad populisme er. Jeg ser derimod en velfunderet dokumentarisk beretning om fire mennesker med vidt forskellig baggrund på en løst skitseret, måske usikkert underforstået baggrund af italiensk statsstyre, sammen kaste sig i gang med et politisk projekt i et nyt parti. Det som filmen i mine øjne skildrer, er politisk handling i en ny begyndelse i disse fire temperamenter og politiske tænkninger.

Det er generøst, at filmen er produceret både som som som dokumentarfilm til biografen og som tv dokumentar, 90 og 60 minutter. Den lange version bygger på optagelserne med de fire medvirkende og på deres skildring af kampen mod Silvio Berlusconi og deres kritik af de gamle partier og deres mænd, ja, især mænd faktisk, over for det nye partis opdukken og dets stifter og leder Beppe Grillo. Den korte version bygger på det samme, vil nok koncentrere sig om den politiske situation, men gør det ved især at forkorte materialets enestående styrkepotentiale, de smukke optagelser med Luis, Mario, Alberto og Paola. Det havde synes jeg, været flottere hvis Lise Birk Pedersen i den disposition havde villet understrege de to genrers særpræg i dag, altså videreudvikle tv-dokumentaren som andet og mere end en forkortet og derved kunstnerisk svækket dokumentarfilm.

Yderligere styrkes det undersøgende og kommenterende journalistiske greb ikke i tv-versionen. Den grafiske begejstring som er uden politisk filosofisk analyse af Grillos blog fylder i begge versioner alt for meget. Egentlig er den som den bruges ligegyldig, det er jo blot en måde at organisere et politisk parti på ved talrige medlemsafstemninger. Åbningen af den lange version om det politiske system i oldtidens Rom er smukt fotograferet og klippet, men i dens populariserede og lapidariske form et BBC-greb som her er problematisk og en svaghed, oven i købet altså i front.

Men filmens styrkesider er mange flere. Der er som nævnt sidehistorien med eksklusionen af Adele Gambaro, en fin kort historie i historien, der er tilsvarende Luis’ opgør med Grillo. Der er den rystende scene med Alberto som på et ark med portrætter af kolleger cirkler afvigere fra Grillos linje ind, kolleger som Luis, som Mario. Og der er Paolas store tale ved mistillidsafstemningen vedrørende Berlusconis immunitet, en smukt klippet sekvens af smukke filmscener. Og der er også korte øjeblikke som Paolas beherskelse af tribunen ved en demonstration og der er et sted, hvor Grillo taler, hun lytter, scenens indhold er slet ikke Grillos sætninger, men dette levende portræt af hende. Og så er der fine neddæmpede steder, ofte nærbilleder af lyttende, af samtalende ved møder, hvor lyden fra optagelsen tages fra og kun musikken ledsager fotografiet, tænkepauser.

Så jeg er selvfølgelig blevet nysgerrig. Jeg må forstå Lise Birk Pedersens projekt! Det har hendes film Tutti á Casa gjort nødvendigt for mig, jeg må nu med det samme bestemt se alle hendes film, det er blevet uomgængeligt, i første omgang naturligvis Putins Kys, men så også de andre. Vil hun med sine værker skildre og fatte den filmiske undersøgelses emne og objekt gennem sine medvirkendes sind, umiddelbart og direkte og ikke ved deres replikker, ikke ved det de siger som jo mest er spontane almindeligheder, som hun her beskriver Luis klassiske, besindige mådehold i gammel anstændig borgerlighed, Marios faglighed i juraens skønhed og retfærdighed som den viser sig i barokmusikkens orden, Albertos uforsonlige robespierreske kynisme i en vrede over undertrykkelsen af sin fattige baggrund af ødelæggelsen af sin smukke by Torino med den vidunderlige FIAT fabrik og Paolas betagne forelskelse i Grillo, hendes skønne naive naturlige kraft når hun taler i bilen, i senatet, på tribunen ved valgmødet, taler med sin krops sprog, sine hænders gestik og sit ansigts lynsnare mimik? Er det det hun vil? Kernen i Tutti a Casa er nemlig ikke Grillos blog, ikke Italiens historie siden oldtiden, ikke den venlige udgave af populisme (hvad det så er). Den er disse fire menneskers spæde voksne liv med den politiske handling.

Tutti a Casa – al magt til folket? Danmark, Norge, Finland 2017, 90 min. / 60 min. Manuskript og instruktion: Lise Birk Pedersen. Fotografi: Thomas Løberg og Riccardo Gremona. Klip: Anders Villadsen og Geir Ørnholt. Produktion: Magic Hour Films, producere: Lise Lense-Møller, Bjarte Mørner Tveit og Sami Jahnukainen. Biografpremiere i DOXBIO biograferne 1. februar: http://www.doxbio.dk/kob-billet/ 

SYNOPSIS

Efter årevis med politisk korruption og en alenlang række af dysfunktionelle regeringer er Italien på randen af kollaps. Komiker Beppe Grillo og hans politiske bevægelse Movimento 5 Stelle trænger ved hjælp af sociale medier igennem Berlusconis mediemaskine og vinder ved valget i 2013 25 % af stemmerne ved parlamentsvalget. ‘Tutti a Casa’ belyser den nuværende udvikling indenfor de vestlige demokratier, hvor populistiske partier, som Movimento 5 Stelle, stormer frem. Filmen dokumenterer en bevægelse igennem dens begyndelse og ved mødet med den politiske dagligdag og realitet. (Magic Hour Films)

LINKS / LITTERATUR

http://www.magichourfilms.dk/tutti-a-casa-1 (Producentens side)

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/film/da/96102.aspx?id=96102 (DFI faktaark)

Uldis Brauns 1932-2017

Sad news, Audrius Stonys said, when we met at the cinema Øst for Paradis in Aarhus, where the mini-festival Baltic Frames takes place: Uldis Brauns passed away, 84 years old. Brauns was with Herz Frank the leading man in what has been called the Riga Poetic School of Cinema. I asked Stonys how he would characterise Brauns – and Frank – he answered in a beautiful way: Frank was the brain, Brauns was the soul.

The Baltic Frames in Aarhus has the subtitle ”capturing the Poetic Everyday”, Stonys is par excellence the representative of the poetic cinema in the Baltic countries today and he will be directing the film – together with Kristine Briede – on ”The Baltic New Wave”, where Brauns will be a central director. The main producer of this upcoming film, to have its premiere in 2018, is Latvian Uldis Cekulis, who I again will thank a lot for taking me to meet Uldis Brauns in September 2014. This is what I wrote at that time:

… 90 minutes from Riga you turn down a dirt road and drive twenty minutes to reach a house standing alone (2,5 kilometer to nearest neighbour) in what you can only describe as a paradisiacal garden with tall trees, chickens and geese walking and running around, a greenhouse for tomatoes, rows of vegetables and a river down at the bottom of all the green. Silence! Not to forget an old chevrolet

and a tractor, and a cottage where Uldis Brauns took us for a traditional Latvian welcome – homemade beer…

A mild and as Cekulis said when asked yesterday, ”a gentleman” with a high sense of visuals. And a storyteller as I experienced at the visit:

… we communicated with translation help of Kristine Briede, who has been visiting Brauns many times and has his confidence. We talked about ”235.000.000”, and I got the story about the film (working title USSR 1966) that was first rejected on a project basis, when Brauns and his colleagues turned up in Moscow with a very precise budget, but on the way out from the meeting, they were called back and had an ”ok, go ahead”. Which they did to make the film that was shown in Leipzig. With consequences. Brauns was called to Moscow and was told that he should cut from the moment where the GDR high representatives left the cinema (!), no further explanation, plus some other moments including a scene from the official welcoming of de Gaulle to Moscow. Brauns was not in Leipzig, he did not know that the film would be shown there! The film exists in three versions, 70 minutes, 110 minutes and 140 minutes. The latter, the director’s cut, lies on the floor in the Riga flat of the director and needs to be restored – on the way back our small group decided to address the National Film Centre of Latvia to ask for help to have this happen.

In other words, the film was censored, from my point of view ”235.000.000” is one of the masterpieces in world documentary history, a feature duration documentary with no words, an homage to Life and to the joyful co-existence of people from the many republics of USSR. But the Kremlin people could not see that, they only saw that their leaders were not praised enough…The reason for putting aside the film can only be found in the advanced poetic storytelling and the focus on ordinary people and their lives in grief and happiness…

Uldis Brauns made numerous documentaries, one other gem is ”The White Bells” (1961). A documentary film poet has passed away.

Photo: Uldis Cekulis.