Baltic Sea Docs Riga/ 3

I have mentioned so many times the old masters like Herz Frank, Ivars Seleckis, Mark Soosaar, Henrikas Sablevicius, Uldis Brauns and their younger students like Audrius Stonys, Arunas Matelis (who are no longer the young generation but masters who belong to the Baltic poetic tradition), but there are always directors, who sing with their own voice, in this case with many voices like Laila Pakalnina, who has made long and short documentaries, and feature films, conceptual and not conceptual, provoking in subject and style(s). Always surprising.

… and always a gift for a moderator at a pitching session, like me at the Baltic Sea Docs this year. I had no idea what Pakalnina wanted to say or how she wanted to present her project called ”Spoon”, and I was wonderfully amused as was the audience and the panel of decision makers, who were asked to get active. But first the catalogue text for the film:

”Men can drill very deep, down to where oil is. Large groups of qualified men equipped with machines can extract oil and make it travel far, to a place where other qualified men can transform oil into useful plastic. The plastic is then moved away to a factory, where more men can turn it into spoons, which will be even further transported to all sorts of eateries, and, likely, will be available free of charge. This meaningful life will last for one unceremonious meal.This film is going to be about a plastic spoon, society, and society’s progress. About the steps that must be taken so that people can end the spoon’s journey and throw it into the bin…”.

And it was at this point the panelists became actors in a documentary film pitched to them:

The last scene of the film, the throwing of plastic spoons into a bin was shot yesterday, sunday morning on the 11th floor of the Hotel Albert. Where the 20th edition of the Baltic Sea Docs 2016 took place. Take a look at the photo – From the left to the right: Arte’s Valérie Theobalt, MDR’s Heribert Schneiders, Estonian Television’s Marje Jurtshenko, IKON (The Netherlands) Margje de Koning and DR/TV’s Jan Daae.

The film is to be shot in black and white by Gints Berzins, who had been on the hotel location to decide, where the camera should be placed and whose few super aesthetic panoramic shots were shown on the screen while the discussion of the film took place.

Pakalnina was accompanied on stage by Lithuanian producer Dagne Vildiunaite, not present was the Estonian producer Kaspar Kallas. With Pakalnina being Latvian this is going to be a true Baltic coproduction supported by the film institutions, I guess, and maybe some of the spoon throwing decision makers from the photo. From my side thanks for the show and mind my words, there is no risk in supporting Laila Pakalnina. You will get quality, whether you like the style she chooses for storytelling or not. 

Photos: Photo: Agnese Zeltina… thanks!

http://balticseadocs.lv

Steve Hoover: Almost Holy

A week ago I was in Mariupol with Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, whose ”Mariupolis” made a big impression on me. And now I have returned to the city in Ukraine with American director Steve Hooper, who is here in Riga and with whom I have tutored filmmakers for the Baltic Sea Docs 2016. His film had an equally strong impact on me. And it has been a pleasure to meet the young director from Pittsburgh.

Full house in the K-Suns cinema in Riga, a long Q&A after the screening of a film, that has already had a long festival career and has been theatrically released in the USA and in the UK.

It’s an action film in the best American sense: Gennadiy Mokhnenko, a pastor in Ukraine who rehabilitates homeless children at his center, Pilgrim Republic, is a charismatic character, who is taking matters in his own hands. Who does what the authorities should do but do not do, or are not able to do because of lack of resources. He picks up kids in the streets, takes them to his place, works on getting them out of their drug addictions – or try to get them back to a normal life and/or reunited with their parents. If they are alive or if they are capable of being parents.

It is amazing how close Hoover and his crew have been able to come to the kids and youngsters. You see tragic fates, you follow some of them along the film, where Gennadiy is almost constantly in the picture. Yes, he is a hero, an amazing man, a documentary version of Bruce Willis, full of love for the victims of the social reality in this part of Ukraine that is close to the war, actually part of the war as the film demonstrates. There are touching scenes, there are scenes where you want to close your eyes, there are scenes where Gennadyi talks directly to the camera, there are images that you will not forget at the end of the film, where Gennadyi swims in the sea with the steel factory behind him, and on shore, as the director put it in the discussion after the film, makes ”a pillow” for himself in the sand.

Small objections from a critic who likes the film a lot – it is a bit too long, I felt some repetitions. It has – mostly in the beginning – a ”nervousness” in the editing and camerawork, which might have to do with the fact that Hoover jumps in time from beginning of 2000 forward and back again. Was that necessary? And the sound score, did it have to be so strong, could there have been more silent sequences? And yet, it is an action film…  

USA, 100 mins., 2015.

http://www.almostholyfilm.com/

Baltic Sea Docs Riga/ 2

The first day of pitching at the 20th edition of the Baltic Sea Forum ended with the presentation of the project ”Baltic New Wave”. The initiator and co-director of the film-to-be Kristine Briede was the presenter in front of four mature men, Arunas Matelis from Lithuania, Riho Västrik from Estonian, Uldis Cekulis from Latvia and Lithuanian co-director Audrius Stonys. The project had been developed for a long time, the financing is of course more depending on contribution from the three Baltic film institutions and the tv stations in the countries than on international financing… and yet as Sari Volanen from Finnish YLE said, it could be a theme evening with the film and some of the (short) films that will be cited from. To give you more information, here is the synopsis from the catalogue:

”A story about the Baltic School of Poetic Documentary and its creators – filmmakers who broke the propaganda documentary tradition in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The story is told by two filmmakers – contemporary director Audrius Stonys (LT), and Herz Frank (LV / ISR), his late friend and mentor, who is guiding Audrius according to the Map of Ptolemy – a cinematographic code-book suggesting new discoveries both in poetic filmmaking and its meaning. Frank’s personal archives, uncovered by Audrius in Frank’s home in Israel, are a key to the timeless questions raised by every generation.”

The filmmakers presented in the film will be Andres Sööt and Mark Soosaar from Estonia, Henrikas Sablevicius and Robertas Verbas from Lithuania,  Ivars Seleckis, Aivars Freimanis and Uldis Brauns from Latvia… and maybe more of that generation.

Allow me to be emotional: The films of the mentioned masters as well the films of Stonys and Matelis were films I got to know on the island of Bornholm during the 1990’es. I am a true lover of the Baltic documentary tradition.

Photo: Agnese Zeltina… thanks!

http://balticseadocs.lv/

Dalsgaard og Zytoon: The War Show /6

The War Show vandt Venice Days award ved dette års Venedig Film Festival, den blev i går af den officielle jury valgt som dette års vinderfilm. Juryen lagde i sin bedømmelse vægt på, at “The War Show er en film, som giver et stærkt menneskeligt indblik i den komplekse krig i Syrien. Endvidere at det er en film, som alle burde se”.

JURYENS MOTIVATION

“The War Show provoked an impassioned response from the jury. We were immediately struck by the political and social significance and urgency of the film, while also appreciating its daring and innovative approach to filmmaking. We deliberated on whether or not this harrowing documentary should be included alongside the rest of the Venice Days lineup, which was comprised of narrative fiction features. However, we came to the conclusion that the film worked on its own merits as an outstandingly crafted piece of cinema, not simply one that appealed to our moral conscience. The War Show is also an incredibly topical film that sheds light on an ongoing conflict that is too often ignored or misrepresented by the media. We believe it is a film that each and every one of us should see.”

De udenlandske anmeldere har også taget godt imod den danske filminstuktør Andreas Dalsgaards og den syriske filminstruktør og radio-dj Obaidah Zytoons dokumentarfilm. Screen Daily skriver: “…doesn’t just hit home, it does so with devastating force”, Varity skriver: “Essential… Highly personal yet universally affecting”, Hollywood Reporter skriver: “… the film manages to capture the hopes and fears of an entire generation…”, Huffington Post skriver: “A personal, insightful, entertaining, terrifying, melancholic, and brave journey inside Syria from the days of the revolution of 2011 to modern times…”

The Arab Times skriver: “Highly personal yet universally affecting… From the euphoria of protest to complete despair in the face of the unthinkable… While a number of documentaries from Syria discuss how the Assad regime specifically targets anyone holding a camera or filming with their phone… few apart from the The War Show specifically address how the camera changes the battles themselves… The War Show captures the scope of the tragedy while making the participants real.”

Filmen er nu på Toronto filmfestival, TIFF og vil senere blive vist i danske biografer, lover Line Bilenberg i sit nyhedbrev for producenten Fridthjof Film.

http://www.venice-days.com/NEWS.asp?id=1&id_dettaglio=817&lang=eng

Baltic Sea Docs Riga

I had to have a photo of the grand old man in Latvian documentary Ivars Seleckis (born September 22 1934) and me just before the pitch rehearsal at the 20th edition of the Forum for documentaries being held in Riga these days. Seleckis will together with producer Antra Gaile close the pitching sessions on Sunday with the presentation of a project called ”To be Continued” that features 7 children, who are 7 years old and thus have just begun to go to school. It is the company Mistrus Media that produces this film that will picture Latvia of today thorugh the eyes of kids, who have grown up in a free Latvia.

Seleckis showed a beautiful trailer to his film that so far is supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia.

25 projects will be pitched tomorrow saturday and sunday to a panel of 17 so-called decision makers – distributors, sales agents, broadcasters.

Some name-dropping of well-known filmmakers who will pitch – Seleckis already mentioned, Victor Asliuk from Belarus, Audrius Stonys from Lithuania, Giedre Zickyte from that same country, Laila Pakalnina from Latvia, Arkko Okk from Estonia, Martichka Bozhilova from Bulgaria, Sami Paul-Anders Simma…

Parallel to the training of those who are to pitch, there are film screenings going on in the K-Suns cinema in Riga – and the cinema is full every night. Last night it was the masterly ”Don Juan” by Jerzy Sladkowski that was shown.

More reports will follow, until then check http://balticseadocs.lv/ 

Mette Knudsen: Vejen er lang

Rammevignetten er en stort opsat drømmescene, hvor historiens oprørske kvinder kvinder løber i samlet flok gennem tiden. Filmens producent Nils Vest har under optagelsen af den scene fotograferet rødstrømpen i gruppen som et enkelt sætstykke til den scene og som sindbillede fra tiden omkring 1970, og det er her Mette Knudsen tager afsæt for sin redegørelse for kvindebevægelsernes historie, der i rødstrømpebevægelsen begyndte hun selv som aktiv, derfra dykker hun i sin film tilbage i de historiske forudsætninger. Det er meget redeligt, og det er meget omhyggeligt lavet.

Filmen er på tv delt op i fire afsnit. Det første blev sent på DR K i aftes, og der er allerede noget at glæde sig over. Først er der de medvirkende fra Mette Knudsens egen generation, som klogt og velformuleret, men desværre i den valgte tv-stil klippet i alt for korte afsnit, sætter erfaringens konklusioner ind i historieberetningen. Mest glædede jeg mig over samtalen mellem Bente Hansen og Mette Knudsen. Havde så gerne set den i sin fulde udstrækning. Men der kan jo komme flere korte klip og så kan jeg måske rekonstruere den i hovedet.

Dernæst må man lægge mærke til og vil blive glad for Erik Norskers kontrolleret klassiske fotografering, først af alle disse samtaler / interviews med de medvirkende, dernæst af en række vignetrekonstrueringer i stiliseret filmhistorisk ånd. Jeg tror i nøje lighed med rekonstruerede scener i nogle af Mette Knudsens tidligere historisk tilbageskuende film. Den slags skal vist gøres meget nænsomt, og det sker faktisk her.

Så alene Mette Knudsens møder med kvinderne fra dengang og Erik Norskers billeder ser her efter første afsnit ud til at være filmen værd. Nu får vi se, resten…

Danmark 2016, 106 min., sendes på DR K i fire halvtimes afsnit. Det første blev sendt i aftes. Det kan ses her:

https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/vejen-er-lang/vejen-er-lang-roedstroemper-og-blastroemper-1-4

De følgende sendes på DR K følgende onsdage, 14., 21. og 28. september 22:15.

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/film/da/94920.aspx?id=94920 (Filmens data) 

Finn Larsen og Lars Johansson: Når asfalten gynger

”…Men hvad var det så egentlig, de to fotografer dokumenterede? Hvad så de på? De så det sociale liv, der udspillede sig blandt Randers’ unge, når de havde fri fra familien og skolen. Det, der foregik rundt om flippermaskinen eller foran den lukkede købmand. På dansegulvet til en fest, i en kammerats værelse, eller i kliken, der mødes omkring knallerterne. De så det, der foregik mellem de unge. De signaler, de sendte til hinanden – med deres tøjstil, med deres frisurer, der fortalte andre med en slags kodesprog, om de var til disco eller måske motorcykler. Og de så de signaler, de unge sendte med deres bevægelser og øjekast. De smil og blikke som var invitationer til sjov, til intimitet, og som var del af et indforstået sammenhold. Med kameraet kunne det altså lade sig gøre at registrere det her særlige sprog uden ord. Som man ikke kunne forevige på andre måder, hverken med en båndoptager eller en skrivemaskine eller i form af fysiske genstande. De to fotografer havde blik for de unges samvær.”

Da fotografierne blev udstillet som en del af udsillingen der tidligere på året, holdt Sarah Giersing fra Det Kongelige Bibliotek en tale fyldt af indsigt. Citatet er fra den tale, hele talen, som bestemt er værd at læse, findes gengivet på

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3623/

”Når asfalten gynger” er en del af Finn Larsen og Lars Johanssons dokumentation af ungdomskultur i Randers 1978-1979. De mange fotografier blev dengang og igen i år udstillet på museet i Randers og altså umiddelbart i år gentaget i Øksnehallen. Denne del med titlen Når asfalten gynger kan nu om lidt ses på Københavns Hovedbibliotek:

http://goldendaysfestival.dk/event/n%C3%A5r-asfalten-gynger

Dalsgaard og Zytoon: The War Show /5

Cineuropa har lavet et kort, men virkelig interessant interview med Andreas Dalsgaard, som afdæmpet, præcis og beskeden i nogle ganske korte afsnit foræller om sin og klipperen Adam Nielsens arbejde med Obaidah Zytoons historie og hendes omfattende og talrige og ganske særlige filmoptagelser fra disse første år under borgerkrigen. For eksempel om, hvordan hun under klippeprocessen pegede detaljer i billederne ud for ham og Adam Nielsen, detaljer de slet ikke havde været opmærksomme på, men når de accentueredes i det herefter ændrede klip tilsammen nu er et enestående lag i filmen, som er hendes fortælling, hendes syriske virkelighed. Se den korte video her:

http://cineuropa.org/vd.aspx?t=video&l=en&did=314950 (Cineuropas video)

http://www.dfi.dk/Nyheder/FILMupdate/2016/August/ (Om filmen)

Mileva/Kazakova: The Beast is Still Alive!

No, I can not make a real review of this film…

But why not?

I know the two makers too well, and the project. I have seen them pitching the film at several workshops. And I am just so happy for them that they have finished the work. A good film, an important film, a rich film. And taken for the Sarajevo festival recently.

So, you can not be objective, you mean?

There is no such thing as objectivity in reviewing films, and I normally can take the necessary distance, when I write about films made by people I know. But this time, no, precisely because of my admiration for Mina and Vesela, and their courage and their stubbornness to finish a project that will be well received outside

their own country and raise big discussion – it already has – in Bulgaria. It actually states that 60% of the parliament members in Bulgaria were agents for the communist regime! Just that statement – we are talking about a member of the EU! And not just Bulgaria, they also mention, or say point at the connection between the Greek Syriza and the billionaire Kokkalis, who was a stasi agent during GDR. And talk about Bokova, who was appointed for a job in the UN. She was a key person in the communist times.

So, you think the two directors are courageous and stubborn… are they also good filmmakers, are they artists?

Mina is an excellent animator, her dramatic drawings of ”the Beast”, aka communism, are of high artistic quality, some are like paintings you could hang on the wall, if they were not moving, and Vesela, well I have kind of been in love with her since I met her years ago. Her energy, her talent as an actress and producer and director. She is a gift to the film playing the young woman, who goes around the world to find out whether there is anything good about communism. As an actress she knows the métier, she is present and she has passion, when she asks questions. She plays a young woman, who has a dialogue off-screen with her grandfather, who lived during the communist period and ended up being part of the Goriani resistance movement.

What was that?

I had never heard about it but I understand from the granddaughter in the film that she wants to have him and this guerilla movement ”into Bulgarian history”, which has so far not been possible and there is another strong point that the film makes: The period of communism is not dealt with in the school books in current Bulgaria. You understand why, when you in the film, person by person, is told what this and this parliament member did during the years of communism and when you see and hear about the concentration camp Belene, where thousands of opposition people ended their lives. This is the strong side of the film, the focus on Bulgaria – present and past. It’s actually quite shocking and they tell it well through the story of the grandfather, who was a true communist, but was imprisoned for his criticism of the regime, was hired – because of his intellectual skills – as an agent, who did economical analysis, before he went for the Goriani group.

I sense there is a but…?

Ah, you want the reviewer to be critical even if he says he won’t! Well, and it sounds crazy to say so, but there is too much in the film. I could have lived without the visit to Cuba, I am a bit fed up listening and watching Zizek again and again. It’s probably my fault but I think he is a showman and I don’t get what he says because I always study his crazy body language. It’s like Mina and Vesela wants to broaden out what has happened to Bulgaria. Does it work? I´m not sure. Anyway there is so much dynamic in the film created (also) from the clash they construct between the animated Beast-sequences and Vesela going around, or with her sitting at the archive staring at the files of grandfather. Those moments are maybe the key moments of the film, emotionally.

As you don’t want to give pens to the film, how do we end this non-review review…

With a quote, words to that effect: … at the camp (Belene), the prisoners, those who were condemned to death, were given a mirror, so they could look at themselves for the last time before they were executed.  

http://beast-film.com/beast-film_home/index.html

Bulgaria, 2016, 91 mins.

Photo: Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova

Astra Film Festival

… with the subtitle “Sibiu International Film Festival” has existed since 1993. This year it takes place October 17-23. The Romanian festival in Sibiu sent an email about the selection that has been done and the interesting thematic grouping of the films which have been done as well as the competitive sections listed with an award for “Outstandox”, “Romanian documentaries”, “Central and Eastern European documentaries” and “Student documentaries”. Here is the text:

“We have received over 1,200 submissions from all over the world, many of the documentaries dealing with extremely interesting subjects and using surprising approaches, making it difficult for the Selection Committee to pick the 100 films that make up this year’s official programme and various sidebars.

The 23rd Astra Film Festival welcomes the audiences to an exciting documentary cinema week. A selection of the best new international, Eastern European, and Romanian documentaries dealing with some of the burning issues in contemporary reality, are grouped in the theme programmes Inside Radical Islam, No Place Like Dis-place, Citizens of the Online World. Strong authorial voices and outstanding skills are reflected in the films in the theme sections Self-Family-Society, Doc-vlog, Circumscribed Spaces, Stories from Urbania, and OutstanDox. Surprising stories and incredible characters emerge from the films in the theme sections Encounters, Refurbished Past, and Reality Under Cover.

This year, Astra Film pays tribute to the work of Fred Wiseman (photo), and invites you to meet a legend of documentary cinema.

A special programme features recent works of the great masters of documentary cinema Patricio Guzman, Gianfranco Rosi, Werner Herzog and Thom Andersen.

Last but not least, the new formats – VR, 360, webdoc, full dome –  are present in the New media – immersive documentary programme: The Future Is Now.”

Many of the films have been reviewed or noted on this site like “Depth Two”, “Don Juan”, “Train to Adulthood”, “The Dazzling Light of Sunset”, “The Dybbuk, A Tale of Wandering Souls”, “Among the Believers” and “Sonita”.

http://www.astrafilm.ro/official-selection-2016-1.aspx