Cuadernos means Notebooks or Diaries if I get it right – written by Argentinian writer Ricardo Piglia. Regret to say that I had never heard about him before, even if his long bibliography includes works translated into English, French and German. I will search for books of him in these languages after having seen Andrés di Tella’s fascinating essayistic documentary on and with him. di Tella I know as a true auteur, that’s why I asked him a link to this film. Three years ago I praised his ”Hachazos” on this site.

How to describe the unique style of di Tella? What is it that attracts me so much and draws me totally into the film? The tone first of all, maybe, with its calmness that fits to Piglia (born 1941), his charisma, his voice when he reads from the diaries, but indeed also di Tella’s constant reflection on how to ”film” diaries and his gentle (yes, gentle and not

bombastic) surprising me with archive material, some of it ”found footage” from a collector, some from another writer Amorim, who filmed his colleagues (Borges, Garcia Lorca) to build his own autobiography, and some from (amazing!) the fall of Peron in 1955 and the death of Che Guevara and the return of Peron to Argentina. But on top of that, the theme, daily events written down in this case, some – as says Piglia – ”exist in the diary but not in the memory”, and some in small film clips but not in the memory… And for me also this love to Argentina and Buenos Aires, the city where my father was born in 1921.

The historical frame is clear and linked to the story of Piglia, whose father was a Peronist, was put in jail and moved with family from the suburbs of Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata. ”1955 was a year of Sorrow, 1956 was Prison, 1957 even worse”, words from Piglia, who started to write his diaries when 16 years old in 1957 and have kept on since then. di Tella films him at the moment where he packs down his books to return to Buenos Aires from Princeton University, where he has been teaching (see link below). Piglia reads from the diaries, laughs when he finds – in one of the first notebooks – a list of boxers next to a fictious text, reflects on how much easier it is to convey personal experiences in life when you go from the first person to the third person narrative. The camera rests often on the writer’s face (PHOTO) and his hands later on in the film, when Piglia turns ill and asks the director not to focus the camera on his hands. Very impressive and touching is the story Piglia tells – my life would have been much different if I had stayed in the Buenos Aires suburb like my cousin, whose sad story he gives us listeners and viewers. At some point he does not want to read, di Tella does it for him, their collaboration on this film is obvious, they are both obsessed with memories as they come out in literature and cinema.

What else to be applauded? Yes, the masterly precise placement of music, the dark sequence with the writer in rainy weather that makes me think of ”The Third Man” and Orson Welles, there are other sequences like that, ”film noir”, and then suddenly archive images from a terrorist attack with a beautiful text by the writer and his reflections on how historic moments can influence one’s life. Not to forget the humour!

Looking forward to see this film at European festivals, please!

Argentina, 2016, 81 mins.

http://www.princeton.edu/spo/people/display_person.xml?netid=rpiglia

… that has the subtitle ”New Heroes of the Cuban Revolution” is a well told character driven, emotional and informational, visually excellent documentary from a country, where the president’s daughter Mariella Castro is ”heading a new state program for transgender care”. She is in the picture once in a while, with the two foreign doctors who perform genital surgery, 5 per year, and she is seen with the first one who had an operation, Juani, who is waiting for another one ”to give life to his pancho”, the name that is used for penis. Juani is one the three characters, Malu and Odette are the two others, they wait for the operation to make their wish come through: to become women!

It is ”No to Homophobia, Yes to Socialism” and the film invites you to have warm feelings for the three, at the same time as it does not hide the strong conservative reactions from the society and the families, who are not happy, to say the least. In Odette’s family religion plays an oppressing role.

In other words: the filmmakers show their fascination of the country and their love to the characters but they also have a point of view. They are not ”only” describing. Which can be exemplified with this sequence: Mariella Castro says that the country will develop socialism and ”never go back to capitalism”, she talks propaganda language, as the next images of the Cuban flag comments, to be followed by a street image that says ”poverty”, cut to a billboard with Fidel and ”Socialismo o Muerte”, cut to military people, cut to more slogans on walls. An elegant way of pointing on the situation of the country. As are slow motion sequences of people in the streets walking or standing on the boardwalk, many of them waiting for clients. You hear the director ask Malu, ”is this where you pick up work”, ”No she says, that can happen everywhere and with that money you will have meat on the table the next day”.

The best documentation of the social condition, however, comes with Juani, who lives with his brother, has his pension and earns a bit through extra work as does his brother, to be able to go to the grocer to buy the allowed rations of rice etc. Juani is also the one, who in a speech salutes Mariela Castro and her center for sex eduation and tolerance of LGBT – and the one who is looking for a girl friend, who can touch me here, he says and points at his heart. As I do now – this is a film with a warm heart.

The film will be shown in international competition at the upcoming Munich Doc Fest.

http://transithavana-film.com/

Holland, Germany, 2016, 82 mins.

I have a weak spot for Polish documentaries and this fine film by young Marta Prus makes me – again – wonder why. Is it because the directors know how to create a tense atmosphere very much due to excellent, mostly close-up cinematography like here by Adam Suzin? Is it because they know how to give you a sense of klaustrophobia, to nail you to the screen, like here where most of the film is built around a young man in trouble, a young intelligent man, who is totally aware of his addiction problem and constantly talks about his wish to ”smoke up”? In the film Marta Prus succeeds in getting you into a closed ”room”, where the two main characters, the young man and the director, are. Or is my liking Polish documentaries linked to the fact that the directors very often refrain from pouring verbal information to the viewer? They trust the image – and let an eventual story come out in the narrative as this evolves.

Probably a mix of all… Anyway this film should be obligatory viewing at film schools because of its treatment of the relationship between the one who films and the one who is being filmed. An honest chamber play to say it briefly, about responsibility. Here follows a text from Polishdocs promotion of the film:

”Talk To Me is an intimate journal presenting several months of friendship between the director and 21-year-old Krzysztof, a resident of the Monar rehabilitation centre in Warsaw, who is addicted to marihuana. What happens when trust and sympathy of the protagonist towards the director turn into love? Can the director remain just an observer, without any responsibility, if she constantly accompanies him? Marta Prus becomes a close friend who tries to help Krzysztof.”

I met Marta Prus at the East European Forum in Prague, where she presented ”Over the Limit”, a drama about young Russian gymnasts who fight for qualification to the Olympic Games in Rio. Very promising project from an obvious talent. From Poland.

Poland, 2015, 43 mins.

http://polishdocs.pl/en/films/finished/1565/talk_to_me

My friends at the Bolzano based film school Zelig has asked me to tell our readers that the call for applications for the 2016-2019 training cycle is open. Normally we don’t do that kind of promotion on this site but when it comes to praise a school that develops talent in documentary filmmaking with a focus on the genre as an art form, it is with pleasure that I repeat what I have written on the Zelig website:

“The focus at ZeLIG is clear: You need to learn the craft to be able to develop your creativity. You need to learn team-work and to test yourself as a coming documentarian. The school is small with a big heart, a generous staff and committed teachers. The students watch loads of films and make several themselves before they enter the jungle. 3 years. A gift!”

And here is what the school it self states: ZeLIG provides professional training in documentary filmmaking. The program is aimed at preparing young people for careers in filmmaking and the audiovisual sector. Specific attention is focused on documentary cinema in all its forms. The school is located in Bolzano, Italy – a multilingual city, strategically located at the crossroads of Italian, Austrian and German cultures. This gives ZeLIG a distinctly international flavor. Our students and teachers come from around the world, united in their quest to explore, create and further their knowledge of documentary filmmaking. The program provides the basic skills required by the various professional roles in audiovisual production, along with the opportunity to major in one of three key specialized areas in documentary filmmaking:

• Direction/Project Development
• Photography/Lights
• Editing/Post-Production

Applications for the 2016-2019 training cycle are open, deadline May 26.

Photo taken from the website of the school: teacher in cinematography Tarek Ben Abdallah in action with students around him.

http://www.zeligfilm.it/en/