Ryan White: Serena

This film about tennis superstar Serena Williams is one more of the many current documentary portraits of celebrities in the entertainment business and political life. Contrary to the classics in this direct cinema tradition (“Primary” (JFK), “Lonely Boy” (Paul Anka), “Stravinsky”) you sense that you don’t get it all, that the huge amount of people around Serena have had an influence on what to be filmed and what not to be filmed… control of the public image in other words. A limitation of course…

… and yet you get close to a lovely and lively, funny and serious, emotional, extremely professional sportswoman, who is also into the fashion business and who loves her sister Venus, very often the one she has to play against in the big matches. She is much more interesting for a film than Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi.

The grand slam tournaments are the red thread in the film – the director has followed Serena over the season where she had the chance to win all four tournaments within the same year. She wins the three and fails on the last one, where she loses to a skinny Italian… This constitutes the dramatic highlight of the film, after she lost she does not want to talk to anyone, her French coach leaves his hotel room not knowing about his future, cut to Serena in her bed with her teddy bear, a little girl with some grown-up comments and a text saying that she then stayed away from tennis for a long time.

The annoying elements of a film that is well designed with music to tell us what to feel – yes it is mainstream in that aspect – come up when the director asks some of the people around Serena to talk about/characterise her, unnecessary as she herself has all the charisma needed, and comments brilliantly on the media interest on her curves and muscles…

Unnecessary except for the coach, the Frenchman who is a good accompanying character in and outside the picture, the latter when he comments on her performances: I love you and I trust you.

USA, 2016, 90 mins.

Two of the Competition Films at MIFF

– i.e. Moscow International Film Festival, that has a competition section for documentaries with 8 films. I have had the pleasure to get access to some of them, here are some notes on the two I have watched so far, a disappointment and a pleasant surprise:

It is no secret for readers of this site that Czech Helena Trestikova is a director, we have followed and highlighted for years for her long term observational documentaries on people living on the edge of society – “René”, “Katka”, “Marcela”, “Private Universe” to mention those who have travelled successfully all around. It is therefore understandable that the Moscow festival has picked her new film, made together with Jakub Hejna, “Doomed Beauty”, which has the actress Lida Baarová as the portrayed character, whose life and relationship to nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made her enemy of Czekoslovakia. Trestikova filmed her at the end of her life – the film is professionally made – fine archive of course but it is, sorry for this reaction, unbearable to watch the old woman crying all the time having problems with expressing herself. I can not help think that the footage should have stayed on the shelf.

The Korean film, however, “Mrs.B – A North Korean Woman”, shot over several years, brings a fascinating, unbelievable story to the screen about a woman, who is smuggled out of North Korea to China to be forced into marrying a Chinese farmer. She turns into being a smuggler and drug dealer herself, and has the intention to get her North Korean husband and her two sons out of the country to live with her in South Korea. She succeeds, but after being interrogated by the secret services from both Korea’s if I get it right, she is thought to be a spy. But basically she wants to return to China to her Chinese husband and his farmer family.

It is a difficult film that Jero Yun has made and you sense that it has not been possible to say and show everything. But it lives strongly in the scenes where you are at home(s) in China with the husband and his parents, and with the Korean family members the director has chosen to interview. They convey the confusing claustrophobic atmosphere that these poor people are in. But first of all it lives because of Mrs.B., who wants a decent life and puts a lot of energy into achieve that. And if you take all the politics connected to the three countries away, the film is maybe first of all a love story.

www.moscowfilmfestival.ru

Asif Kapadia: Amy /2

I næste uge inviterer DR2 Dokumania til gratis visninger af Asif Kapadias (Senna) film over sangerinden Amy Winehouse’s liv og karriere. Den dejlige film havde biografpremiere sidste år og denne velkomne serie repriser nu vil foregå i Aarhus, Viborg, Horsens, Svendborg og København.

Her kan man se filmen: JYLLAND Tirsdag den 5. juli DokuramAa Kunsthal Aarhus – i baggården J.M Mørks Gade 13 8000 Aarhus C / Torsdag den 7. juli Kulturjægerne Viborg Kunsthal, Riddergade 8 8800 Viborg / Fredag den 8. juli Jernlageret Horsens Havn, Jens Hjernøes Vej 10-12 (mellem Havnetrekanten og Lystbådhavnen) 8700 Horsens FYN Torsdag den 7. juli Dokken Ribers Gård ved Harders, Møllegade 36 5700 Svendborg SJÆLLAND Torsdag den 7. juli Videomøllen Krydset mellem Ravnsborggade og Sankt Hans Gade 2200 København N / Søndag den 10. juli Carpark Movie Nights Under Bispeengbuen mellem Nordre Fasanvej og Bispeengen 2000 Frederiksberg

Filmen starter klokken 22.30, men tjek det lokale event for, hvornår arrangementet går i gang. Man kan læse om arrangementerne på www.dr.dk/dokumanialive  Amy får tv-premiere på DR2/Dokumania til efteråret.

Jeg kan kun anbefale gensyn på gensyn, Kapadias helt særegent vellykkede film holder til utallige. Sådan skrev jeg om den: “… Jeg gik til filmen uden specielle forudsætninger, kendte ikke Amy Winehouse, kender faktisk ikke meget til jazz, har slet ikke forstand på jazz. To af mine venner tog mig med og med vilje lod jeg være at læse foromtaler og anmeldelser. Men jeg var fordomsfuld, ventede et musikerportræt, et stykke journalistik, ja, ventede et konventionelt værk bygget af arkivmateriale og interviews med Winehouse’s familie, venner og kolleger.

For så vidt netop hvad det viste sig at være, men i Kapadias film er disse byggesten brugt til at konstruere et filmværk, som i stedet får mig til at tænke på de store skæbnefortællinger som Jacobsens Fru Marie Grubbe (1876) og Duras’ India Song (1975), og den mellemliggende store gruppe af sådanne alvorligt gjorte skildringer af intense kvindeliv i buers stigning og fald, korte eller lange, men uafvendelige…” Læs mere

Youth in Randers 1978-1979 /2

… seen by Finn Larsen and Lars Johansson, a photo exhibition at Øksnehallen in Copenhagen, running until August, curated by Finn Larsen and Hans Grundsø, with an exhibition newspaper catalogue of almost 100 pages that is in Danish AND English language and includes photos from the exhibition about how young people looked like, what they did in their free time, how they met the opposite sex, cigarettes, beer, mopeds – there is also a section on a rocker group – ordinary life interpreted in an extraordinary manner, a close-up of a generation in the sixth biggest city in Denmark some four hours away from the capital, where the exhibition now is to watch.

Yes, a classical documentary approach by two skilled photographers Lars Johansson and Finn Larsen, who later on have developed their own careers in film and literature and visual art – reminding us how important it is to have time to go deep and to catch the moment. Larsen, editor of the impressive newspaper catalogue, has been so generous to puiblish a great reflective article by Swedish legendary documentary photographer and filmmaker Sune Jonsson. Here is a quote:

“The reportage confrontation is a fragile method of documentary work. But even so unfavorable an assigment situation can be transformed: IF the photographer is given sufficient time, IF he is given time to gain a knowledge of the environment that will enable his pictures to function as documentary statements, IF he has the personal qualifications to deepen his empathy, his social commitment, and his responsibility as a fellow human being…”

A must-read article for documentarians as the exhibition is an inspiration. It is all about the Gaze as Albert Maysles would have put it.

Publisher of the newspaper catalogue: Finn Larsen info@finnlarsen.se 

Ung i Randers 1978-1979 /2

– set af Finn Larsen og Lars Johansson, og udstillet i Øksnehallen i København indtil begyndelsen af august, med Larsen og Hans Grundsø som kuratorer.

Jeg tog derind i går søndag til det fine udstillingssted ved Halmtorvet og mødte en lys og inviterende udstilling, ordentlig lavet med masser af fotos, de fleste sort/hvide sat op i hvide rammer og med nøgterne tekster, der giver den nødvendige baggrund for oplevelsen af de tre udstillinger samlet i én og så filmen “Ungdomsbilleder”. Jeg var der et par timer og tog så hjem til haven med udstillingsavisen i hånden, små hundrede sider, en præstation i sig selv, som jeg nød og fordybede mig i – i nok et par timer.

… en ung mand med krøllet hår på gaden med en smøg i munden ved aftentide. Han har – viser billederne – været på grillbar, nu tager han på knallert (sammen med to andre på samme køretøj) hen på et værtshus, hvor der er piger, hvor der er gang i den… og så sidste foto der tages af fotografen Lars Johansson, taget af Finn Larsen, går jeg ud fra.

En filmisk sekvens gengivet i forstørrede kontaktark på bannere, der daterede hænger fra loft til gulv. Det her fotograferede vi den dag i 1978, se på dem, se på hvad de gør, hvordan de ser ud, se på deres ansigter. Det er for mig udstillingens scoop, denne suite af bannere, der dokumenterer (sorry!) dokumentarismens styrke, hvad der kan komme ud af, som Johansson og Larsen har gjort det, at være sammen med unge i en dansk provinsby i længere tid, interessere sig for dem, fange dem i hverdag og (mest) i fritid, lige på og hårdt og nænsomt og kærligt. De har taget den tid, det tager at få noget vigtigt og ægte frem.

Som den legendariske svenske dokumentarist Sune Jonsson skriver i en artikel (citeret fra den engelske oversættelse) gengivet i udstillingsavisen:

“The reportage confrontation is a fragile method of documentary work. But even so unfavorable an assigment situation can be transformed: IF the photographer is given sufficient time, IF he is given time to gain a knowledge of the environment that will enable his pictures to function as documentary statements, IF he has the personal qualifications to deepen his empathy, his social commitment, and his responsibility as a fellow human being…”

Citatet bringer mig tilbage til avisen, de små hundrede sider, som er fremragende redigeret af Finn Larsen, og disponeret så dobbeltsider med en gengivelse af fire af de omtalte kontaktark-bannere kan foldes ud. Lige til at hænge op. Der er kloge tekster – tak for Sune Jonsson – en flot åbningstale af Johansson, da udstillingen åbnede i Randers, to ligeså flotte interviews med Allan Berg og Vibe Mogensen, som begge var med på holdet bag “Ungdomsbilleder”, filmen som blev lavet via Workshoppen i København efter udstillingen åbnede med succes dengang. Filmen, jo jeg så den igen, men den virker – og det er den jo – som et noget tungt museumsstykke, hvor fotografierne har beholdt sin friskhed. Se selv i avisen, kig forbi Øksnehallen og se hvordan – som en dokumentarist har udtrykt det – man kan lave noget “extraordinary out of the ordinary”.

Wim Wenders: Himlen over Berlin

Igen i dag og i morgen samt i dagene den 1.-3. juli viser Cinemateket i København ‘Himlen over Berlin’ (1987) eller ‘Wings of Desire’, som Wim Wenders mesterstykke hedder i denne engelsktekstede og nyligt restaurerede version. Morten Tang skriver videre i Cinematekets meddelelse: ”Det er et af 1980’ernes absolutte hovedværker. En storbysymfoni på metafysisk himmelflugt fortalt i et formsprog, som transcenderer både (filmhistorisk) tid og rum.

Hvordan ser verden ud for engle? To trenchcoat-klædte skytsengle iagttager Berlin og dens befolkning i smukke sort/hvide billeder. Englene kan se og høre menneskenes tanker og drømme, men de kan ikke tale med dem eller opfatte virkeligheden i dens komplekse farverigdom.

‘Himlen over Berlin’ er en lyrisk meditation over livet, kærligheden, tiden og forgængeligheden – og den synes at forudsige Berlin-murens fald to år senere. I modsætning til andre tyske instruktører i sin generation er Wim Wenders ikke politisk orienteret, men snarere poetisk og eksistentielt søgende. Filmen har en tilsvarende sanseligt billedæstetik skabt af fotografen Henri Alekan, der blev berømmet for sit kameraarbejde på Jean Cocteaus ‘Skønheden og udyret’…”

Program og billetter: link

P. Lozinski: You Have No Idea How Much I Love You

A couple of weeks ago I wrote articles for the Krakow Festival newspaper. One of them had the headline “Lozinski” and was about father and son, Marcel and Pawel. I saw that there was a new film by Pawel in the program, I had not seen it when I wrote the enthusiastic words about the two – later I read that he received an award in the National Competition for “You Have No Idea How Much I Love You”, I have watched the film with the beautiful title, it is amazing, let me give you an idea why I love it:

Three faces, talking faces, faces that express emotions, faces to be read, nothing else but these faces in close ups, a mother and her daughter, and a psychotherapist, who is there to make the two reconcile after a long separation. For

75 minutes you are in that room of intimacy and suffering and pain, studying how the intelligent, sometimes tough sometimes soft, therapist makes the two open up for the traumas that come from their childhoods’ lack of care and love. Look at the still photo of the daughter, she is full of defiance towards her mother, she gets aggressive and sad when she talks about the divorce of her mother and father, it is embarrassing for the two involved and for the viewer… but liberating when the therapist interrupts, very often by saying “could we use another word” or by interpreting one of the many sentences coming from daughter and/or mother.

As a viewer you know these stories, in a way it is very banal – a child feeling guilt because of the parents divorcing, just one of the themes coming up, the reason it is so good stems from the filmmaking, the three are so good, they are so well directed, the editing goes smooth from one to the other, you listen while you watch either the one talking or the one listening. Like he proved in “Chemo”, Pawel Lozinski has this unique skill of going to the core taking away all the unnecessary and bringing to us a cinematic conversation piece of universal reach.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2416/ (Lozinski, Father and son)

Poland, 2016, 75 mins.

Moscow International Film Festival

There was a lot of hard work behind the introduction of documentaries to the Moscow International Film Festival, done by Sergey Miroshnichenko, no presentation needed – did you see his “7Up Russian version”, excellent – and producer and critic Grigory Libergal – whose presence at the yearly Baltic Sea Forum brings competence to the table – and the result is now for some years manifested in a competition programme of 8 films and a programme of the programmers favourites called “Free Thought”, including this bloggers favourites as well, “Brothers” (PHOTO) by Wojciech Staron, “Brothers” by Aslaug Holm and Zhao Liang’s “Behemoth”, the two latter praised on this site by colleague Allan Berg. For years I have had contact with filmmaker, promoter, film politician and pr person for the festival Georgy Molodtsov, a true multi-talent, who has given me the possibility to see some of the competition films, which are all new to me – as they are World premieres. Apart from quality the festival invites the Moscow audience to watch films on the big screen, clearly part of the profile. Films with a big F.

www.moscowfilmfestival.ru

Doc Alliance Selection 2016

… sounds very formal, much better if you call it, like the organizers also do, “2016: Fresh Documentary Talents at the Upcoming Ninth Das Awards”, “Das” standing for “The Doc Aliance Selection Award”, that is to be distributed August 7 at the Locarno International Film Festival, the winner gets €5000. The selection process is very simple:

every festival that constitutes the Alliance selects a film and the focus is to “support new filmmakers and projects” as formulated by the projects manager Nina Numankadic, who also stresses that the selected 7 films will be screened at all 7 films. You can read about all the films on the website – link below – I just want to mention that DOK Leipzig has chosen “Train to Adulthood” as the film they want to promote, a good choice, Hungarian Klára Trencsényi is definitely a talent to follow. Last year’s winner was Iraqi Abbas Fahdel’s “Homeland” (Iraq Year Zero).

www.dafilms.com

Ung i Randers/Youth in Randers 1978-1979

Later this week I will visit an exhibition in Øksnehallen in Copenhagen. An exhibition that has been set up by the two photographers Finn Larsen and Lars Johansson, wholived and worked in Randers, the sixth biggest city in Denmark, around 60.000 inhabitants.

This is also the home of Allan Berg, co-editor of filmkommentaren.dk and at that time festival organizer and filmmaker in works with the two mentioned Larsen and Johansson.

Here is their introduction to the exhibition, that I will review in Danish and English:

Back in 1978-79 the background was years of museum work. Although we were young, we had worked in many different ways. New and old, local and foreign. Learned and thought. Photography became the tool and the form, more and more. The tradition of documentary. The working title was Among young people in Randers. First contact was Landstrygerne. A moped club that eventually became a motorcycle club. It was in color – slides, were what they were called. 8B from Tirsdalens school was let into the museum. It became It’s about us. They did most of it themselves. Areas of the city were searched, mostly in the evening. Black/white and flash. When the asphalt sways. The title came along the way. Films were important at the museum. We can do that too. Images of youth 16 mm color, shot with heavy equipment. The meeting lasted two years. There has not really been anything similar more made in Denmark before or since. Reunion. This is a re-exhibit. A glance at a time and at a Randers that was contemporary for young people not so long ago. When you had to make plans to meet, you went out into the hallway where the phone was, picked up the receiver and dialed a number that you had memorized or written down in a little book. Otherwise you went around the corner to the grill bar, where your friends hung out. Or you met in the evening at the club under the church or at school.

It was seen for a while.