The reason for this small homage to the Portuguese director, producer and promoter for the documentary film genre is that the Danish Cinematheque in Copenhagen shows a mini-series of the director’s work, starting this coming thursday with the masterpiece ”Alentejo, Alentejo” from 2014, that has Joao Ribeiro as cameraman, from my point of view one of the best in Europe. A quote from the review I wrote about the film on this site:

”… In this –to warn you: I will not be short of praising adjectives in this review – wonderful emotional journey into the history of ”cante”, its roots, its connection to the farming and cooking culture (you see how a bread soup is made, and how bread is baked and red wine is enjoyed) you are invited to enjoy the ”cante” singing by primarily male choirs constituted by Men with furrowed faces and well-fed stomachs, who make the most beautiful performances. You may close your eyes and enjoy, but it would be wrong as the camera catches superbly the faces and the English subtitles, as good as subtitles can be, give you the content of the songs…”

Two other films by Tréfaut is on the programme in Copenhagen, ”Another Country” from 2000, produced by Pedro Martins, about the carnation revolution and ”Fleurette” from 2002 about his mother and her son, the director. Informative and personal and always with an artistic ambition. Here is the cv of Sérgio Tréfaut from his own website:

”Sérgio Tréfaut was born in Brazil in 1965. After a Master in Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris), he started his career in Lisbon as a journalist and assistant director. Eventually he became a producer and director. His documentaries were presented at IDFA and in more than 30 countries, receiving several international awards. His main titles are Outro País (1999), Fleurette (2002), Lisboetas (2005), The City of the Dead (2009). Lisboetas was the first documentary running in Portuguese cinemas for more than three months. His first feature fiction Journey to Portugal (2011), based on a true story and starring Maria de Medeiros is a provocative statement about European airport borders nowadays. It also received several international prizes and was nominated for a Portuguese Golden Globes award (best film, best actress). Sérgio Tréfaut directed Doclisboa International Film Festival from 2004 to 2010. He was also President of Apordoc, the Portuguese Documentary Association and member of the Executive board of EDN – European Documentary Network.”

http://www.sergiotrefaut.com/alentejo/

… or you could also say moments from films that don’t leave you even if you have been watching many, really many as I have during the last month or so, in Leipzig, in Copenhagen, in Minsk, in Amsterdam or Paris. Mostly on my MacBook Cinema, through links, not perfect I know that, but practical.

I have picked three, a Danish/Basque, a Dutch and a German/Argentinian.

In ”Pelota II”, a film by Jørgen Leth and Olasz Gonzalez Abrisketa, the cameraman Dan Holmberg knows what he is doing, when he travels the Basque towns and villagers to film the frontons that are used to play the national sport, pelota, that he, Jørgen Leth and Ole John made a film about in 1983. Now the Basque has asked them to come back to remake an informative and artistic interpretation of the culture, in the style of Jørgen Leth, conveying his fascination with his so well known voice taking the viewer along. The sequence with the frontons, one after the other, is so beautifully photographed and put together.

A totally different camera style is used by Dutch Morgan Knibbe in his ”Those Who Feel the Fire Burning”. For a long time the camera

is up in the air, moving along walls, at the beaches where the refugees come into Europe, in the streets where they try to find a worthy life – and then suddenly the flow stops and there is a long focused moment with a Senegalese immigrant, who talks to his wife and promises her to bring back shoes and clothes, a declaration of love, ”I still remember how we spent the last night together just before I left” – more than two years ago! This scene comes at the right moment, brilliantly thought.

As is German Kral’s wonderful ”Our Last Tango” with María Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes, legendary tango dancers, now 80 and 83 years, a love story from Buenos Aires (a city close to my heart, my father was born there), an elegantly constructed film where the dance is in focus. However it is the faces caught by the camera that stays in my head. The face of María, full of passion for the tango, for life, for the young dancers who are to take over. The camera catches the light in her eyes as well as in the eyes of the young dancer, who is to dance tango on a small table as María did with Juan Carlos. Great scenes of today and from archive material.

Photo from “Pelota II”, the bags are full of the balls picked for the pelota matches. How the balls come into life is the red thread of the film. An amazing craft!

 

 

Two days left of a two week holiday stay in Paris. For the third time in the same rented apartment in rue Saint Denis near rue Réaumur and Blvd. Sebastopol. And it was a different stay this time after November 13, where 130 innocent people were killed and more than 300 injured. On the photo me with ”le Monde” carrying the headline, a quote from the President, ”Ils étaient la Jeunesse de France”. I bought it on the day where Francois Hollande presided the National Hommage for the victims in la cour de l’Hôtel national des Invalides. We watched it on television – it was from a visual point of view a perfect mise en scène of dignity with the President in focus, arriving alone to sit on a modest chair in front of the rows of invited relatives of the victims and politicians and soldiers and police and whoever is in the top of the civil and military adminstration. Hollande made a good speech as far as I understood it in a moment of grief. It was not only la marseillaise that was played, there was Bach, a chanson by Barbara and moving it was to hear ”Quand on n’a que l’amour” by Jacques Brel, performed by three women. They did well, but if you want to hear it performed by the master himself, go to youtube.

France is in a state of emergency, the COP21 Climate meeting started last weekend, you see and feel it in the centre of the city of Paris, where we have had our walks. Lots of

uniforms, policemen and -women, soldiers with machine guns around attractions like Louvre and Centre Pompidou, several police sirens up the boulevards during the days we have been here – we decided not to visit the big museums, but had pleasure at l’Orangerie (see Allan Berg’s Danish report on the photographer Cameron), the re-opened Rodin museum, Jacquemart-André, Institut du Monde Arabe. There is so much to enjoy in Paris and we have done our usual promenades around le Marais (sitting in the sunshine on a bench at Place des Vosges), Jardin de Luxembourg is a must for us looking at life as it is performed by all ages, rue Montorgeuil close to home, the slow-slow re-building of les Halles, Place de la Republique with all the beautiful candles and written greetings after November 13.

The state of emergency is indeed questionable. A visiting friend told us how unconfortable he felt that ”they” now could enter your home anytime to check whatever – the same friend told us that he looks around when he travels the metro and always enters the last wagon. Why, I asked, I have heard that ”they” always enter in the middle, he answered!

Fear… but we have made our decisions and we have noticed that there have been fewer people in ”our” restaurants, no significant queues at the exhibitions we have visited, but we have also stayed inside during the evenings. Never mind, lunches at the brasseries are enjoyable, and a cigar on a café terrasse in sunshine has been enjoyed as always.

Fear… well Le Monde from today reports on a poll for the upcoming regional elections: 30% for Front National (le Pen)!!!

The newspaper’s obvious analysis is that the FN profits from the fear related to November 13 – more police, longer state of emergency, harder politics towards immigration, more bombing in Syria…

Have to stop now, the sun is shining in wonderful Paris!

… and back in the appartment after seeing Hotel de Ville totally surrounded by police cars and soldiers, only people with badges and passports could pass rue de Rivoli, but we found our way to a place in the sun at the bridge that leads from one island to the other.

Photo by Allan Berg.

I have known Filip Remunda since he and colleague Andrea Prenghyova around the turn of the century came to an EDN workshop in Bardonecchia Italy to get advice on how to set up what became brilliant IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) and the Ex Oriente that I had the privilege to work for – for many years. Filip is still with Ex Oriente, he is a teacher, organisor, producer and director. Some years later he and Vit Klusák made the huge success ”Czech Dream” that went all over the world. This docu-comedy was followed by ”Czech Peace” in 2010, again by the two, who fully demonstrated their satirical talent for clever comments on the Czech society. It was praised by their soul-mate in humourous filmmaking, Michael Moore. The present Czech society and its xenophobia is also going to be the subject of the next film to be directed by Klusák, pitched at CPH:DOX recently by its producer Filip. I wrote the following:

”The White World According to Daliborek” to be directed by Vit Klusak is described as ”… a horror movie about the Czech desire for a white Europe…” Remunda was powerful and engaged on stage and the trailer was indeed a scary meeting with Dalibor, who says that he was ”looking for warmth and found it in a nazi group”.

On that occasion I asked Filip for a link to the film that he and Slovak director Robert Kirchhoff had made and that is still waiting for an international premiere. ”Steam on the River” (photo) is the name of 

the sketchy jazz film that – again – has the characteristic unpretentious, original, why not call it crazy, narrative structure in its depiction of old Czech musicians, shot in the US, France and Czech Republic. You feel that it must have been fun to make that film about ”trumpeter Laco Deczi, saxophonist Ľubomír Tamaškovič, and contrabass player Ján Jankeje, who fled from the Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia to the West, where their stars shone alongside those of the world’s famous musicians.” (Clip from the Jihlava Festival website).

Filip sent me another link: ””Czech Journal: Near Far East” filmed over last year at Ukraine. It is my personal road movie where I follow the story of my UKR friends in a search for the behind the scenes of the conflict.” He goes with Tanya, who works as a cleaning lady in Prague, to visit her family in the West and in the East of Ukraine, he goes with wonderful journalist Viktoria, who has moved from Donetsk area to Kiev for safety reasons, he goes with journalist Dasha, who works in the East – to get to hear from the local people, to ask questions as an outsider, to try to understand the complex situation, to catch daily situations. He has made his own reflective commentary, it is excellent, the film is excellent, the look from outside increases my understanding of Ukraine today. It is made in a series “Czech Journal” for Czech television.

http://www.dokument-festival.com/  

Luckily, they are not all American, the 14 which are now left for later to be taken down to 5 in January… but the new Michael Moore is there, “Where to Invade Next” as well as Alex Gibney’s Scientology-film and the fascinating “Listen to Me Marlon” by English director Stevan Riley, and ”Amy” by Asif Kapadia, not to forget Danish company Final Cut for Real’s ”The Look of Silence” by Joshua Oppenheimer. Are these the five to be nominated? Anyway, here is a copy-paste of the list:

Below is the complete list of pics that will vie for nominations for the 88th Academy Awards, whittled down from 124 entries. Noms will be announced January 14, and the trophy will be handed out during the Oscarcast on February 28 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Amy, On the Corner Films and Universal Music

Best Of Enemies, Sandbar

Cartel Land, Our Time Projects and The Documentary Group

Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison Of Belief, Jigsaw Productions

He Named Me Malala, Parkes-MacDonald and Little Room

Heart Of A Dog, Canal Street Communications

The Hunting Ground, Chain Camera Pictures

Listen To Me Marlon, Passion Pictures

The Look Of Silence, Final Cut for Real (photo)

Meru, Little Monster Films

3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, The Filmmaker Fund, Motto Pictures, Lakehouse Films, Actual

Films, JustFilms, MacArthur Foundation and Bertha BRITDOC

We Come As Friends, Adelante Films

What Happened, Miss Simone?, RadicalMedia and Moxie Firecracker

Where To Invade Next, Dog Eat Dog Productions

Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, Pray for Ukraine Productions

http://deadline.com/2015/12/oscars-documentart-feature-going-clear-amy-where-to-invade-next-among-1-1201648214/

When in Minsk for the Listapad film festival, I met with several filmmakers, who presented their projects to me to seek advice. One of them was Volia Chajkouskaya, who provided me with a link to “Crossroads”, the winner of the 2014 Belarussian National Documentary Competition, a film in which she was the assistant director. She sent this text to me about the theme and its main character:

“The film “Crossroads” was conceived as a charity project to help the homeless artist Valery Liashkevich. It became a discovery to me that a person deprived of basic comforts of life can strive to his goal so persistently, remain a philosopher, be thoughtful about his actions, preserve kindness to others. I was not alone in this discovery. The character charmed all members of the crew. No one questioned investing time and their own money (the documentary was created without financial support of any organization) into the production. Art historians joined our work. The National Art Museum of Belarus organized an exhibition of Valery Liashkevich’s works; it lasted three weeks and became a huge success. Another exhibition was held in Gomel, the native city of our character. “Crossroads” became a project, which continues even after the work on the documentary is complete. I hope that the life of the character is changing to the better with our help. The proceeds of the sale of his paintings went on to his bank account and we hope that in the very near future Valery Lyashkevich will have a place he can call HOME…”.

So, call that a commitment! I watched the film and can only second, what is written above. Valery Liashkevich is a sweet, modest man, a fine artist, who sells his works in the streets and tells people that they can get them cheaper if they wish! You see him at the railway station in Gomel during winter and spring, he works and sleeps there, you see him in St. Petersburg (photo) on Nevsky Prospekt, you see how he finds a place to sleep at night, you listen to his wise words and watch him fall asleep among his works. He is weak, I am getting older he says. A small film with a big heart!

Belarus, 2014, 62 mins.