Greek Tribute to Jon Bang Carlsen

The 18th edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival includes a retrospective of films by Danish director Jon Bang Carlsen, indeed not the first time this director has been, much deserved, presented as one of the most interesting documentary directors of our time. A man who went “hybrid” long before this word came into the documentary vocabulary, read what he said at a masterclass in Thessaloniki:

“I have a special approach towards documentaries. I don’t exactly know what a documentary is. When I graduated from Film School – it might as well be… a hundred years ago – I wanted to look into the harmony offered by life in the countryside and so I started doing research on this story I had chosen. When I attempted to put together the shreds of the reality that I was trying to depict, I did so using free associations, but when we started shooting I got the feeling that I had destroyed the beauty of my character’s life. I came to realize that the only way to depict this story would involve a reconstruction of reality. What prevailed was the need to approach my heroine’s reality in the most honest way and as accurately as possible. From the start, I was taught by my teachers that documentaries are related to the truth, that you have to follow life through the camera and show the truth. This was not directly related to what I sought to do. Also, because I also make fiction films, I don’t see such a big difference when I make documentaries. I believe that my documentaries are similar to the way someone paints a landscape. I don’t want to shoot inside a studio, but to look outside for shreds of reality and use them to narrate the story”.

The films shown from the huge filmography of Jon Bang Carlsen was “Addicted to Solitude”, “Cats in Riga”, “Déjà Vu”, “Hotel of the Stars”, “Phoenix Bird” and “Portrait of God”.

At the upcoming DocuDays festival in Kiev, Ukraine, Jon Bang Carlsen will be present to present “It’s Now or Never”.

http://tdf.filmfestival.gr/default.aspx?lang=en-US&page=1323&newsid=2233

http://docudays.org.ua/eng/

Hyoe Yamamoto: Samurai and Idiots /2

Det er en historie om denne mand, Michael Woodford, administrerende direktør for japanske Olympus og om hans afsløring af et stort bedrageri i firmaets umiddelbare fortid, et afsløring, han etablerer i samarbejde med en journalist, en oversætter, en redaktør og en tidligere direktør. Filmens styrke ligger i dens interviews med disse levende interessante mennesker, vidneudsagn som er smukt filmet som enkle filmscener med intense talking heads, intense i deres eget indhold, intense fordi de holdes i lange afsnit, som først klippes lige før scenen taber sin kraft. Og disse interviews bringes i en klog og rolig klipning sammen i en intensitet tæt på det klassiske kammerspils, altså næsten som var de medvirkende fortællere og vidner til stede i samme rum, altså i et klippets set-design. Dette er det afgørende vigtige lag i en forrygende fortælling om et enormt bedrageri og et dybt interessant møde mellem britisk og japansk firmakultur. Det kunne være blevet herved og have været en helstøbt dokumentarfilm.

Men journalisten Yamamoto stoler ikke på filmkunstneren Yamamoto, journalisten har tilsyneladende vurderet, at bedrageriernes økonomiske og forretningsmæssige teknik ikke er tydelig nok i interviewmaterialet, så han tilføjer et stort og i og for sig flot foredragslag i tv-grafik, som midt i filmen helt kvæler de medvirkendes lavmælte intensitet i kammerspillet, som mod slutningen efterhånden går i opløsning.

Til denne æstetikændring af filmen til tv-dokumentar bidrager også en samtidig tilføjelse af et historisk lag klippet på tv-arkiv materiale suppleret med mere end rigeligt dækbilledmateriale overdådigt fotograferede bybilleder som var det ikke en analyse af Olympus Corporation men en elegant glat reklamefilm for firmaets kamerateknik og berømte linser. Værst er at tv-reportagerne i tilfældig fotografisk kvalitet og stil er meget uheldige for klippets karakterudvikling af hovedpersonen Michael Woodford, som da han klarer sig dårligt i gadeinterviews og tv-shows for mine øjne ændrer sig fra et helstøbt, intens og pålideligt menneske til en usikker, i kanterne flosset, forhenværende industrileder i nedtur. Havde lige netop det været fortællingens hensigt med skildringen af sin hovedperson, ville det måske være vellykket. Men jeg kan ikke tro det, for Yamamoto siger jo til Fraser i deres Q&A: ”Wherever you find an intriguing character, I think a story always follows. I don’t think it works the other way around.” Jeg skuffes altså over min helt, jeg mister hans i et slutskilts triste lapidariske tekst.

Japan 2015, 75 min. DR2 Dokumania 15. marts 2016. Filmen er produceret for BBC Storyville i coproduktion med blandt andre DR. Kan for tiden ses på DR2’s hjemmeside: dr.dk/tv/se/dokumania

SYNOPSIS

In October 2011, Olympus Corporation, a multibillion dollar Japanese optical company, dismissed its president and CEO, British-born Michael Woodford, over cultural differences in management style. Japanese media dutifully reported the dismissal with minimum coverage, another foreign CEO failing to adapt to the Japanese way. But international media reported a brewing scandal where Japanese board members of the company unanimously voted to dismiss Woodford for blowing the whistle on a 1.7 billion dollar fraud that the 93-year-old Japanese company had kept secret for more than two decades. Film-maker Hyoe Yamamoto unravels the events that led to one of the most mystifying corporate scandals in the world.

LINKS / LITTERATUR

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054f7qp (Nick Fraser: Q&A med Hyoe Yamamoto in English)

Hyoe Yamamoto anbefaler i sine sluttekster disse bøger:

Exposure, Portfolio Penguin

Yoshimasa Yamaguchi: Samurai and Idiots, Kindansha

TeamFacta: The Olympus Syndrome, Heibonsha

 

East Doc Platform 2016

I left Prague yesterday after 7 fine days with the East Doc Platform and its professional and personal touch. I was happy that my hand luggage was not being weighed at the airport, my IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) catalogue (close to 200 pages with postcard-like colour photos of projects) would have been sent to check-in of luggage. I wanted it for the cabin. The heaviness has given me a small pain in the shoulder! – but you have to suffer for the art…

And chapeau for the art of organising a huge event like this with so many elements. I was not part of it all but I have heard no objections from any visitors to the hospitality and already mentioned professionalism.

Below I will post comments on projects which were part of the East European Forum. 21 were pitched, I can not get the whole way around and my categorisation is of course a simplification. I will also mention the film projects, which were awarded and those awarded at the One World Festival, the parallel event. Have to mention as well that the event included meetings for projects for individual meetings (the so-called ”Project Market”) and a presentation of new Czech Docs. For the latter master Miroslav Janek presented clips from his upcoming ”Normal Autistic Film” saying that it will hopefully show ”the Beauty of Mental Diversity” – for me the clip already pointed in that direction. Robert Kirchhoff, another name that advocates quality, is working to finish his ”Through the Forest”, which could end up being the film on the Roma Holocaust. The material shown was promising.

www.dokweb.net

East Doc Platform Award Winners 2016

East Doc Platform Development Award:

WHEN THE WAR COMES

(dir. Jan Gebert, prod. R. Síbrt, V. Hozzová; Czech Republic)

Photo Viktoriá Hozzová receiving the award from Luke Moody, Britdoc.

Czech TV Postproduction Award:

RUSSIAN VIEWFINDERS

(dir. Alexander Abarutov, prod. O. Mille; France)

HBO Europe Co-Production Award:

PRISONERS WITHOUT PRISON

(dir. Verjana Abazaj, prod. Artan Malaj; Albania)

The Golden Funnel Award:

FOR MOTHER’S SAKE?

(dir. Nikola Ilić, C. Schwingruber Ilić; prod. F. Sonder; Switzerland)

IDFA Forum Award:

PLANETA PETRILA

(dir. Andrei Dăscălescu, prod. A. Antoci; Romania)

DocsBarcelona Award:

OCCUPIED CINEMA

(dir. Senka Domanovic, prod. Snezana Penev; Serbia, Croatia)

DOK Leipzig Co-Production Market+ DOK Preview Awards:

AVTOVAZ

(dir. Petr Horký, prod. Martin Jůza; Czech Rep.)

and

OVER THE LIMIT

(dir. Marta Prus, prod. Maciej Kubicki; Poland, Germany)

id w | interactive documentary workshop Award:

THE FUTURE OF FOREVER

(dir. Ana Brzezinska, prod. Lukasz Borzecki, Poland)

www.webdok.net

One World Festival Awards 2016

The One World festival in Prague, number 18, will have its award ceremony on Wednesday; the winners, however, have already been announced. I mention, via the press release of today, the winners of the main competition, for the whole list, please go to the website:

The Grand Jury conferred awards for Best Film and Best Director, selecting from among 12 documentaries in the Main Competition category.

The award for Best Film went to “A Syrian Love Story” by British director Sean McAllister (UK / 2015 / 75 min.), who attended One World together with Raghda Hassan, a protagonist in the film. Three years ago the festival presented McAllister’s documentary The Reluctant Revolutionary.

“ The jury was impressed by the radical approach the director has chosen in the storytelling and by the braveness of the protagonists who allow the audience to experience an intimate story bringing out the human factor and an honest picture of a family in crisis amidst the political larger one,” the jury said in a statement.

The award for Best Director went to Zhao Liang, the Chinese director of “Behemoth” (France, China / 2015 / 90 min.), which is one of the most visually interesting films in this year’s festival.

“Liang Zhao is able to creatively craft a complex beautiful yet devastating image, mirroring the dialectic of the concrete to the basic values where he advocates for the fragile human and environmental state of our world. A director who manages with artistic precession and outstanding imagery to paint a loud and clear statement against violations caused by greed and illusions,” the jury said in its decision.

The Grand Jury consisted of: Polish documentary filmmaker Hanna Polak, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut, Syrian independent documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Berlin-based non-profit association DOX BOX Diana El Jeiroudi, director of the ZeLIG School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano Heidi Gronauer, and Czech documentary filmmaker Bohdan Bláhovec.

http://www.oneworld.cz/2016/

East European Forum – Cinema

”It is too artistic for our audience”… he said so, Erkko Lyttinen from YLE, the Finnish broadcaster that has always defended the artistic documentaries… has the last bastion fallen? I had heard that remark before, but from less important broadcasters in the documentary world. The project that was referred to was ”Aleph” by Iva Radivojevic, Croatian director living in New York, at the pitch accompanied by a Canadian and Croatian producer. Yes, it is cinema, inspired by a short story of Borges, ”a cinematic experience that contemplates the question of what we center our lives around”… a travelogue with a title that refers to Jewish mysticism. A hybrid, very inviting, to be finished in 2018. Another film in the auteur tradition is ”D is for Division” by Latvian Davis Simanis, to be produced by Guntis Trekteris, a personal essay by the biggest talent in Latvian cinema, but what does that matter if almost noone around the table knows him… Simanis and Trekteris had problems in conveying what they want with this film about inner borders with photographs as the starting point. No surprise that tutor, Czech/French director Stan Neumann, was a good sparring partner, Neumann being a master in the essayistic genre.

It is a silent film, the Bosnian director Marko Sipka said about ”The Land”, that reminded me a lot of the Baltic documentary tradition: old woman in the countryside living alone in a remote mountain village, ”a meditative visual contemplation about loneliness and an old-fashioned life style that is about to disappear”. I talked about it with Danish director Jens Loftager and we both remembered names like Sergey Dvortsevoy and Swedish Nina Hedenius, who made a film, where there was almost no dialogue. It became a hit on television. Those days are probably over, this film will be for festivals and it will be strong I would think judging from the charismatic director’s presentation.

The same goes for the Romanian director Andrei Dascalescu, who charmed us with ”Constantin and Elena” in 2008 and who is now back with ”Planeta Petrila” (Photo: producer Anamaria Antoci with director), presented with passion and humour, the director said it to be a rockn’roll film, about a mine to be closed and an artist fighting to keep the old buildings and make them into art. A Don Quijote, the director asks? The trailer was unconventional, hopefully the film will be the same. HBO Europe supports – as they do with many films, among the present commissioning editors – she calls herself executive producer – Hanka Kastelicová was the absolute star, and so much welcomed as the public broadcasters in general fail to support the creative documentary.

www.webdok.net

East European Forum – Television

… having said so, I hurry to say that the films that I mention in this post are also creative, but they have in their presentation thought of television as the channel to an audience, at the same time as many presented their projects  to be made in two versions, one for cinema and festivals and one for television.

Let me begin with a story that includes retro dancing in Moscow, a warm film in a cold city, with old women who go to dance, who want to live even if the conditions age-wise and socially are difficult. Director is Tatyana Soboleva (photo from the pitch together with her French producer), I have had the pleasure to know her and her films for some years, is the right one to do this film called ”Open Air”, she has an eye and a heart for people, 52 mins. long it will be. Equally ”For Mother’s Sake” by Serbian Nikola Ilic will be an audience hit judged from the trailer. Three generations: the director, his mother and his grandmother. HE is married to a Swiss woman, they live in Switzerland and what to do, when grandmother dies and there is noone to take care of the mother, who had a stroke when a child? She dies and the son must take care of her but how – when he lives in another country but comes from a country with a strong family feeling, where you don’t send mothers to homes? I put this in the television category even if tv people in the round table session hesitated! Come on, this is universal.

More obvious chances for these two: ”Avtovaz” with Czech journalist Petr Horky, who went to Russian Togliatti, that used to be a super Soviet city with a famous car factory that produced Lada but now suffers from the crisis. A Swedish manager was called in to modernise, he sacked thousands of people, wanted to change the working culture – and was himself sacked some days ago. A fascinating trailer with Bo Andersson, as his name is, was shown plus some other material with workers and sacked workers, but how do the filmmakers cope with the new situation? And – we stay in Russia – ”Over the Limit” by Polish Marta Prus, who in terms of quality of cinematography came up with the best trailer and a story that must be something for television: the competition of three Russian gymnasts to go to the Olympics in Rio this summer. They are friends but only two will be picked, who? They are beautiful and innocent these girls, whereas the coach, a woman with a hat, seems to be a good bitchy character.

Let me finish with the award winning ”When the War Comes” (again supported by HBO Europe) directed by Jan Gebert, the most actual film in its description of nationalism and refugees in Europe today, read this short text: Hundreds of teenagers join the paramilitary grup in Slovakia to get ready for the final clash of civilizations and to fight whoever intrudes their country… It will go to festivals and television in long and short versions.

www.dokweb.net

Hyoe Yamamoto: Samurai and Idiots

”Nårsomhelst du møder en interessant personlighed, følger historien med, tror jeg. Jeg mener ikke det uden videre sker også den den modsatte vej.” Sådan svarer den japanske filminstruktør Hyoe Yamamoto (FOTO) på BBC-redaktøren Nick Frasers Q&A på Storyvilles hjemmeside.

What is more important, story or character?

Wherever you find an intriguing character, I think a story always follows. I don’t think it works the other way around.

Hyoe Yamamotos film “Samurai and Idiots: The Olympus Affair” (dansk titel: “Svindel i stor stil – Olympus affæren”) er lavet med Olympus’ tidligere administrerende direktør Michael Woodford som en sådan intriguing character og altdominerende medvirkende. Og filmen er præcist, klart og enkelt bygget op om denne mands fortælling i et eneste stort gennemgående interview. Den sendes på DR2 Dokumania på tirsdag 15. marts kl. 20.45.

Filmen er produceret for BBC Storyville med støtte fra DR2 Dokumania, og derfor er Nick Fraser central, og jeg kan rigtig godt lide, at han således præsenterer sit Storyville-programs film ved en rask undersøgelse af instruktørens baggrund. Også den kunstneriske baggrund. Så jeg citerer lige et par Q&A’s, som bestemt gør mig spændt på at lære hans film at kende (læs hele interviewet via linket nedenfor):

Which documentary has most inspired you?

James Marsh’s “Man on Wire”, Kazuo Hara’s “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”, Hubert Sauper’s “Darwin’s Nightmare”, and Raymond Depardon’s “Modern Life”.

Which person would you most like to interview, living or dead?

Rainer Maria Rilke and Stefan Zweig.

What is the best piece of filmmaking advice you’ve ever been given?

Read a lot (by Werner Herzog).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054f7qp

Nagieb Khaja: Syrien: Den Brændte Jord 1-3

Det drejer sig om borgerkrigen i Syrien. Politiken meddeler, at gennem mere end seks måneder har russiske fly bombet syriske byer. Den russiske regering har allieret Rusland med den syriske regering, som er i krig med en række oprørsgrupper og den russiske regering fastholder, at bombningerne kun er rettet mod grupperne Islamisk Stat og Jabat al-Nusra, men for Nagieb Khaja ser virkeligheden helt anderledes ud. I tre korte reportagemontager giver Nagieb Khaja et ellers uset billede af krigens rædsler, der hvor bomberne rammer i Aleppo. Nagieb Khajas modige og fortvivlede værk, hans videooptagelser uden omsvøb og hans dæmpede stemme gør det klart for mig, hvad det her drejer sig om, Nagieb Khaja er mit vidne nu, som Pablo Picasso med sin Guernica værkserie har været min fortolker, når jeg gennem mit liv prøvede at begribe borgerkrigen i Spanien.

1937

Forvandlingsskriget, idet dæmonen bliver til. Eventyrenes fjerne tordenluft har slået et et glødende lyn ned i dette billedes år, kort før den største storkrig, og det noget skriger, som forvandles.

Atter og atter dukker i Picassos kunst ansigtet frem i sin metamorfose, nu dybt sovende, her som om det stirrer ud fra et brændende hus.

Nogle står samlet neden for dette hus i trediverne, skarer.

Du og jeg er i dem.

Nu skriger hun, og glasset brister: Se det tynde hår, dæmonkammen. Hun kommer frem deroppe.

Borgerkrigen er fjern. Blot som kalenderblade på aviskiosken. Man er i tomheden.

(Ole Sarvig, fra Krisens Billedbog, 1937)

2016

Jeg kan om Nagieb Khajas rystende dokument Syrien: Den Brændte jord kun skrive en stilfærdig tak…

Danmark, 2016, 3×7 min. De tre afsnit kan streames på Politikens hjemmeside: politiken.dk/udland 

Fredrik & Magnus Gertten: Becoming Zlatan

Traitor, I said a long time ago to Jesper Osmund, who has edited the film about Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the magnificent Swedish footballer, who ”killed” the Danish ambition to qualify for the European championship. A Dane to help the Swedish brothers from Malmö (!) make a film about the young Zlatan and his first years as a professional player, going from Malmö to Amsterdam to Turin, from Malmö FF to Ajax to Juventus! A good film, a very good film actually, and as you could read in a previous post from the other day, a film that is out now, where Zlatan still, at the age of 34, does magic on the pitch and hopefully will do the same for Sweden in France in June, when the European tournament starts.

For a football fanatic the film is gold. You see where he comes from, you have interviews with him, you get a sense of (with Ajax manager Leo Beenhakker’s words) his conflicted nature, you see him being aggressive and violent in matches, you see him score goals and get booed by the audience when he does not, it’s all so very well composed going back and forth in time, there is a kind of melancholic tone in the film that is also about a young player on the top, who is a very private person at the same time as he through growing up learns how to behave, or does he? His tribute to Malmö and the quarter Rosengården, by donating a football pitch, is there and beautiful indeed it is.

For me, I did not remember that, it was especially interesting to get the description of the rivalry between Egyptian player Mido and Zlatan when in Ajax legendary Ronald Koeman was the coach and suddenly had too many strikers. An anecdotal story about a pair of scissors flying from Mido’s hands through the air in the dressing close to hit Zlatan, who then was the only one who came forward to defend his rival in the media. It is fine to hear Koeman as it is fine to hear Capello, who was Zlatan’s coach when he came to Juventus, when Ajax became too small for this fantastic football player.   

Sweden/Holland, 2016, 85 mins.