Zhao Liang: Behemoth/ 2

The opening film tonight at the Dokufest festival in Prizren, Kosova is a several times awarded Chinese film that colleague Allan Berg, in Danish, praised at its CPH:DOX screening last year in November. I will not be in Prizren before tomorrow night, wish everyone a fine opening ceremony. Here is the DOKUFEST description of the film:

“Hailed as simultaneously intoxicating and terrifying glimpse at the ravages wrought upon Inner Mongolia by its coal and iron industries and elegantly blurring lines between video art and documentary, Behemoth is a stunning look at contemporary China by one of its most acclaimed filmmaker Zhao Liang, who draws inspiration from Dante’s The Divine Comedy to bring the vision of a journey across Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in startlingly modern way.”

And here is the link to Berg’s review:

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3356/

Siebert, Wagner & Abou Bakar Sibidé: Les Sauteurs

I had been here on Mount Gurugu for fifteen months, when the two came and asked me if we could make a film, says the protagonist and filmmaker behind the camera, Abou from Mali, who like a thousand other Africans on this spot dream about coming to Europe. From where they are, in Morocco with a view from the mountain to Melilla, the Spanish city on the coast of North Africa.

But fences need to be crossed. They try and try and try again, some get over, others do not, some return to the camps on the mountain, a community that is organised, has its own rules, some return to their native country, and some die from injuries, when they get into fights with the police.

Abou is the one telling the story. His voice-off is full of reflection

and information, and communicates how he sees the world differently through the lens: ”I feel I exist when I film”. Abou will make a great film, one of the filmed ”brothers” say. And he was right, it is a great piece of work because it is able to create this atmosphere of waiting endlessly for the right moment to come for the jump.

It might sound like a very depressing documentary and indeed it’s not fun to experience what these young men go through. But they survive on the mountain, they dream about white women washing them so they get pale, they have a football match, Mali against Ivory Coast, they sing, they rap about their life situation and they discuss – in a very tough scene – what to do with a man, who has betrayed them by telling the Moroccan police about their escape plans. Embarrassing to watch that scene!

In between the shaky camerawork of Abou comes the anonymous images from the surveillance camera that shows us human beings like small insects on looong rows approaching the fences, or human beings climbing up, falling down or going down when they see the police waiting. Scary! And a scoop for the film to be able to make this contrast, yes Big Brother is watching you, go back to where you come from. You have no right to come to Europe. ”Yes, I have”, Abou has said earlier in the film, ”you Europeans have exploited us, giving us a poor life, now we want a decent life”. Words to that effect. I am glad this film has been made.

Denmark, 82 mins., 2016

English title: Those Who Jump.

http://www.finalcutforreal.dk/les-sauteurs

Film History at Doclisboa

The Lisbon documentary festival that takes place October 20-30 announces two retrospectives of important film historical interest.

One is mentioned as a full retrospective of the works of Peter Watkins… ”Peter Watkins is the subject of a full retrospective. Active between 1950’s and 1990’s, Watkins won 1966 Academy Award for Documentary Feature with “The War Game”. Being one of the pioneers of docudrama and fake documentary, Watkins (photo) is a leading figure in political and resistance film. His work questions and criticises the media role in urgent issues such as nuclear warfare or the establishment, both by dissecting and re-enacting historical episodes in an openly revisionist approach. His criticism towards audiovisual media as an instrument of power is central to Watkins’s work. The retrospective is a partnership between Doclisboa and Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema.”

The other is a thematic retrospective set up by Michael Chanan with the title “For an Impossible Cinema: documentary and avant-garde in Cuba”. The press release presentation text goes like this:…” consisting of the Cuban documentary movement around the Revolution, an Avant-garde episode in Latin America usually ignored. With the radical change brought about by the triumph of the Revolution and as political and aesthetic opposition to Hollywood, a new cinema is born, in which documentary figured centrally. Together with the impulse to show a new reality and rethink the public function of the image, documentary in Cuba merges the factual record with the aesthetics of shock, producing a unique visual manifesto. Santiago Álvarez, founder of Cuban Film Institute “Latin American Newsreel”, is one of the leading figures. His “nervous montage” technique and his using “found materials” is considered a precursor to the modern video clip. Júlio Garcia Espinosa, who recently passed away, is another leading figure in Cuban film. Espinosa also wrote “For an Imperfect Cinema”, a reflection on revolutionary film. The retrospective is a collaboration with Reina Sofia Museum, from Madrid.

http://doclisboa.org/2016/en/noticias/2063/

Ezra Edelman: “O.J.: Made in America” /4

Dette billede er cinematografisk det vigtigste, det helt centrale i 4. afsnit, hvor dobbeltmordet skildres, hvor anklagerholdet og forsvarerholdet krydsforhører vidner og argumenterer mod hinanden. Dette billede af anklagede O. J. Simpson i retten lyttende (en enkelt gang handlende da han prøver handskerne), lyttende og afmålt reagerende, men vist uden at have en eneste replik. Det er nemlig noget helt andet Edelman vil med sine utallige indklip af denne indstilling, denne ene indstilling med lige så utallige variationer i det overmåde store arkivmateriale, variationer i hovedpersonens repertoire i fuldt kontrollerede ansigtsudtryk. I klipningen afprøves med den kameraindstilling en enkelt bemærkning af statsadvokaten, nu år efter som vidne i filmen her: Simpson kan på et splitsekund (og hun knipser i luften med to fingre) skifte ansigt fra én følelsens yderposition til en anden. Uventet. Nu råder klipperen så over disse utallige kombinationsmuligheder med et ligeledes, må det være, meget stort antal udsagn fra advokater og vidner og lydbånd og dertil fremlagt bevismateriale og fotografier med et rystende indhold. I dette klippebordets variationsværk fører Ezra Edelman sideløbende med sin samfundsskildring af det vestlige USA dette årti, skildringen af sin hovedperson så underfundig kryptisk videre, at i hvert fald jeg alene for dette klippearbejde må se ikke blot serien færdig, men inden da 4. afsnit igen…

Det sidste afsnit sendes på DR2 Dokumania næste tirsdag 9. august 20:55. De sendte afsnit kan ses på

https://www.dr.dk/tv/programmer/genre/dokumentar

Ezra Edelman: “O.J.: Made in America” /3

Jeg var skeptisk ved afsnit 1 skrev kollega Tue Steen Müller, det mærkede han, da vi så den sammen. En læser af vores Facebookside indvendte, at det afsnit jo indeholdt en fremragende redegørelse for udviklingen i det spændte forhold mellem den sorte og den hvide befolkning disse år, og ja, det så jeg ved gensynet, det da er rigtigt nok, og vigtigt ja. Men jeg ledte efter noget andet, en kerne i serien og kom nu lidt på sporet af den, for med ét forstod jeg biljagten i afsnit 3. Jeg så nelig nu, at det centrale motiv i afsnit 1 er OJ’s løb med bolden, hans løb fra alle andre, hans af alle beundrede løb til baglinjen med bolden i favnen. Jeg undrede mig ved første gennemsyn over dette uendeligt gentagne motiv. Det er jo ikke en almindelig sportsreportage, heller ikke kun en biografisk redegørelse, nej arkivoptagelserne er klippet i rytmiske sekvenser til noget særegent. Denne detalje er vigtig for mig, vigtig nærmest musikalsk, og det gik så op for mig, at der er en lang bue af forståelse fra løbet med bolden til flugten med fotografierne i den hvide bil i 3. afsnit. Sådan noget kan jeg lide i en filmiske fortællelinje, lange buer mellem dens kernetemaers enkeltelementer, der er Edelmans sindrige værk naturligvis adskillige… Sådan kollega, dette er mit foreløbige svar.

USA 2016, serie på i alt 463 mins. Det 4. afsnit sender DR2 Dokumania i dag, tirsdag, 2. august 20:45.

7000 Submissions to M2M

…meaning the St. Petersburg festival Message to Man that holds its 26th edition September 25 to October 10… The competition programmes were announced today, for long and short documentaries, for short animated and short fiction films, for experimental works for the national documentary competition. There is quite a lot to choose from, last year I went for the national competition, let’s see what will appeal to me this year, where I will attend for some days after a distribution conference for Nordic and Russian documentarians with the title ”How to Reach the Audience” taking place the 23rd and 24th of September. Responsible is producer Viktor Skubey.

Some words about the long documentaries, where I (among 10 films in competition) am happy to find Ognjen Glavonic’s Serbian ”Depth Two”, Helena Trestikova’s ”Mallory”, ”Manor” (photo) by Canadian Pier-Luc Latulippe and Martin Fournier – and surprising enough ”Under the Sun” by Vitaly Mansky, who I thought was a persona non grata in Russian festival circles!

Same positive surprise when I – in the national documentary competition – found ”My friend Boris Nemtsov” by Zosia Radkevich.

Again – 7000 submissions, it’s crazy, how do you cope with that as a festival? M2M has done it, selection is made, I can only talk from the long documentary part, which has high quality.

http://message2man.com/en/participants/info/

Kirsten Johnson: Cameraperson/2

This is a film that had its premiere at the Sundance festival in January, was at numerous festivals in the USA, won first prize at the festival in Sheffield and has got fine reviews in newspapers and magazines. Here is one more enthusiastic review of a film by Kirsten Johnson with whom I have been tutoring in the Middle East, and whose generosity in sharing experience and inspiring people is both professional, humble and warm. As is her film that I am sure will get to a bigger non-Brexit European audience. It is a film that deserves all the attention it can get.

BECAUSE it puts the cinematographer and his/her work in focus through Kirsten Johnson, who says – a text in the beginning of the film – ”for the past 25 years I’ve worked as a documentary cinematographer. I originally shot the following footage for other films, but here I ask you to see it as my memoir. These are images that have marked me and leave me wondering still”.

Memoir, yes, the film comes out as not only an offer to reflect on

ethical and aesthetical choices of a cameraperson, it is also an autobiographical essay, as – luckily – Johnson connects what she is doing behind the camera with her own private life as mother of twins with a mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and a father/grandfather playing with her Viva and Felix, the names of the twins. In other words private footage is included in a film that is very rich in its thematically structured narrative.

It makes no sense to mention the films from where the footage shot by Johnson is taken. It does not matter as she has created a new context with the clips chosen. Very elegantly she returns to some of the clips and actually puts stories into the minds of us as viewers, to make us understand/feel why that shooting has influenced the cameraperson.

It’s all about Life and Death. If we take one of the red threads of the film, location Foca in Bosnia, there is a fine clip in the beginning with Kirsten Johnson running after a shepherd on horse leading his sheep. It is full of joy, you hear the cameraperson losing her breath, you sense she likes where she is and what she is filming. Later on you are taken back to the same location with a small boy in focus; the camera and the one holding it falls in love with him, the director of this film, ”Cameraperson”, puts music on the sequence, that becomes lyrical. And yet the background is given to the viewer, Foca was hell on earth during the Bosnian war, witnesses tell about murders and rapes and Johnson includes the driver, who is also a war investigator AND the translator in the story, that becomes human far from the reportage-like programmes we have seen so many of. It all ends up in a beautiful scene towards the end of the film, where Kirsten Johnson is back in Foca five years later showing the Bosnians the material from then, saying that what she remembers is NOT the horrors they told her about but how she was received by them as a human being. Respect!

Another story followed through clips is the one from the courtroom, where the case of James Byrd was held – Byrd was the black man, who was chained to a car that dragged him through the town of Jasper, with a brutal death as the consequence. Johnson asks a man from the court to take the chain out of a box and films it in its full length. Or the very touching sequences from Kenya with a wonderful midwife, who fights for the life of a newborn baby in a cool way ignoring he presence of the camera but also responding, when the worried cameraperson asks questions.

Kirsten Johnson has been all over the world and very very often to war zones filming in places where massacres have been performed. You wonder what keeps her going from horror to horror. The mentioned example with the Bosnians is one, curiosity and compassion another, having her twins at home in a safe place a third one etc.etc. There is a lot of death in ”Cameraperson”, but when showing and talking about death you have to ”respect the golden rule”, as says a Syrian refugee at a meeting in Bronx New York, ”Dignity”. That is the approach of Kirsten Johnson for sure.     

USA, 2016,

PS. I have not read it yet but at the newest edition of the IDA published magazine Filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson is on the cover page, promotion line: Make sure to pick up the current issue to read a fascinating article where she discusses and meditates on 11 shots from the film.

PPS. The film is shown at the upcoming festivals in Prizren (DokuFest) and Sarajevo.

http://www.camerapersonfilm.com

Ezra Edelman: “O.J.: Made in America” /2

Det var biljagten i afsnit 3 jeg kom fra. Nu er det snart tirsdag igen og jeg er ganske enkelt spændt på afsnit 4, jeg må uomgængeligt være med i det her. Jeg, som ikke er trofast tv-seer. Jeg, som sjældent følger serier, jeg fulgte sidste tirsdag den forfølgelse af den hvide Bronco som filmen skildrer i actionæstetik, men i en ganske enestående actionæstetik ved at blive ved helikopteroptagelserne af Broncoens kørsel og kun ganske kort, på en måde opmuntrende, lave klip til optagelser fra jorden og, næsten uvirkeligt, til den beruset begejstrede journalists kommentarer fra en dyb lænestol, en besynderlig karakter, som nu ser sine optagelser fra deroppe i sin tv-stations helikopter dengang de var virkelige, nu ser dem som film til tv. Og med dette klippevalg gør Edelman mig til egentlig deltager i dramaet. Når dette menneske i lænestolen både er reporteren og den fnisende leende tilskuer til sit scoop, lægger jeg uden beslutning afstand betragtningerne udefra og flytter mig selv ind i Broncoens værdige ro, jeg holder nu med flygtningen. I hvert fald lige nu i dette: flugten. Og Edelmans fortælling forstår mig og følger med mig, skildrer de mange tilskuere til jagten, som ikke er en jagt, men en eskorte viser det sig, for politiet vil ikke miste OJ, de beskytter deres Juice, hans øgenavn fra fodboldbanen bruges nu mere og mere, og den hvide Bronco baner sig netop som den nærmer sig Simpsons hjem, vej gennem mylderet som cykelheltene højest i bjergetaperne. Jeg holder således med fodboldhelten her i løbet tilbage til baglinjen, holder med Juice, som med, viser det sig her, ikke bolden, men de vigtige indrammede fotografier i favnen…

Brian Tallerico skriver: “… These kind of “you are there” details are riveting, but that’s not meant to imply that this is merely a compendium of little-known facts. What really separates “OJ: Made in America,” other than its investigative spirit, is the brilliant connections Edelman and his team make through editing. We hear a fascinating story about friends trying to play a prank on a young OJ Simpson and Al “AC” Cowlings in which they pulled a starter pistol and AC jumped to protect his best friend. Of course, cut to the Bronco chase, in which AC could have been the last man to see OJ alive if Simpson had done what he intended at several points that day.”

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/oj-made-in-america-2016

USA 2016, serie på i alt 463 mins. Det 4. afsnit sender DR2 Dokumania tirsdag, 2. august 20:45.

Laura Israel: Don’t blink – Robert Frank

When Landskrona Foto Festival is held for the fourth year in a row on 19–28 August, we can not only present an unusually large number of interesting exhibitions of international and Swedish photographers but also the documentary film Don’t Blink – Robert Frank, a portrait of the world’s most influential living photographer today.

See the trailer:

https://vimeo.com/165581520

Fotografen Finn Larsen som bor i Malmø har i dag sendt mig denne meddelelse, da han jo ved, at vi her på Filmkommentaren holder meget af Robert Frank og hans arbejde. Det er i god tid, men der er faktisk også så vidt det kan ses af materialet kun tale om én eneste visning af filmen: 20. august 18:15 i Teatersalonen, Landskrona Teater, så billetterne er ganske sikkert hurtigt væk.

Tue Steen Müller and Sara Thelle on Robert Frank and his works and on Laura Israel’s film:

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3392/

LANDSKRONA FOTO FESTIVAL 2016

Ten days of exhibitions, photo books, seminars, portfolio reviews, artist talks and more. Since the start four years ago Landskrona Foto Festival has established its position as an international meeting place for photographers and those with an interest in photography. Over 150 photographers are exhibiting in Landskrona 19-28 August.

Read more and see program:

http://www.landskronafoto.org/en/festival-2016/

 

Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon: The War Show

Venice Days 2016 line-up: Opening the programme will be Denmark-Finland co-pro The War Show from co-directors Andreas Dalsgaard (Photo) and Obaidah Zytoon. A documentary road film chronicling the Syrian uprising and war, the film sees Zytoon sets off on a road trip around Syria, telling the Syrian story through a series of personal intimate stories. (Screendaily.com)

http://www.screendaily.com/news/venice-days-2016-line-up-unveiled/5107026.article#

Og Fridthjof Film / Line Bilenberg meddeler glade: ”Dansk film udtaget til Venedig. The War Show instrueret af Andreas Dalsgaard og Obaidah Zytoon får verdenspremiere på filmfestivalen i Venedig i sektionen “Venice Days”, hvor filmen både er i konkurrence samt udtaget som festivalens åbningsfilm.

10. august kan de stolte supplere med en meddelelse om at filmen også er udtaget til Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Doc Programme.  

Dokumentarfilmen The War Show om krigen i Syrien instrueret af danske Andreas Dalsgaard og syriske Obaidah Zytoon er udtaget til “Venice Days” – og valgt som sektionens åbningsfilm. Venice Days, er Venedig Film Festivalens uafhængige sektion svarende til Cannes´prestige sektion Directors´Fortnight.

I 2011 bliver den syriske radio-dj Obaidah Zytoon og hendes venner revet med af opstanden imod regimet. De lever blandt kunstnere og aktivister og filmer deres liv, da de begynder at deltage i demonstrationerne mod præsident Assad. Men som opstanden udvikler sig til en blodig borgerkrig, bliver deres venskab testet af fængslinger, død og vold.

Zytoon forlader Damaskus og rejser til sin hjemby Zabadani, til rebellernes højborg Homs og til det nordlige Syrien, hvor hun oplever den spirende ekstremisme. The War Show er en personlig roadmovie, der følger Syriens skæbne og en gruppe venner, hvis liv og drømme forvandles til mareridt, alt imens landet synker sammen i kaos.

The War Show, der er skrevet af de to instruktører, er produceret af Miriam Nørgaard, Alaa Hassan og Ronnie Fridthjof for Fridthjof Film i samarbejde med Dharmafilm og co-produceret af October Oy. Filmen har modtaget støtte fra Det Danske Filminstitut ved filmkonsulent Klara Grunning-Harris og DR ved Mette Hoffmann Meyer, IMS og CKU i Danmark. Derudover mange internationale finansiører. Filmen forventes at få dansk premiere senere på året. ”

SYNOPSIS

In 2011, Syrian radio DJ Obaidah Zytoon and her friends are swept into the Syrian uprising. They live in a circle of artists and activists and begin to film their lives as they take to the streets in rallies against President Assad. But as the country spirals into a bloody civil war, their friendships are tested by imprisonment, death and violence. Zytoon leaves Damascus and travels to her hometown Zabadani, the centre of rebellion in Homs, and to northern Syria where she witnesses the rise of extremism. A highly personal road movie, The War Show tracks the destiny of Syria as we follow a group of friends whose lives and dreams turn into nightmares as their country descends into chaos. (DFI update)

Obaidah Zytoon

 

THE DIRECTORS

“… Obaidah Zytoon traverses the border, bringing out video to show the world the human side of the two-year conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives. But she also imports a message into Syria, admonishing FSA combatants to comply with international rules of war and the tenets of the Koran in their treatment of war prisoners and civilians. A crusader for secular democracy, Zytoon espouses non-violent forms of resistance against both the Syrian regime and extremists involved in the conflict.” (Miriam Herschlag, The Times of Israel, March 14, 2013)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-the-syrian-warzone/ 

Andreas Dalsgaard, who graduated as fiction film director from the National Film School of Denmark in 2009, debuted as documentary director with Afghan Muscles (2007), winner of the Best Director prize at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles, and has since released Bogota Change (2009), The Human Scale (2012), the doc-fiction Travelling with Mr. T (2012) and Life is Sacred (2015). (DFI update)

Tue Steen Müller har her på Filmkommentaren skrevet om to af Andreas Dalsgaards tidligere film: Life is Sacred (2015) http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3265/

og Afghan Muscels (2006) http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/64/

Dalsgaards mange film i øvrigt kan ses i listen her:

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/person/da/163697.aspx?id=163697 

PRODUCTION

The War Show is scripted by Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon, with Miriam Nørgaard, Alaa Hassan and Ronnie Fridthjof producing for Fridthjof Film. The film is made in collaboration with Dharmafilm and co-produced with Oktober Oy of Finland, and it has received funding from the Danish Film Institute. (DFI update)

http://www.venice-days.com/film.asp?id=9&id_dettaglio=712&lang=eng