Jafar Pahani: Taxi Teheran

 

The French poster for the film catches perfectly the sweet, light and unpretentious atmosphere of the latest work made by a director, who lives under a berufsverbot from the state he lives in: he is not allowed to make films, he is not allowed to leave the country. And it introduces the characters, or should I say: The teacher who argues with the man (third from the right), who has quite strong opinions on what should be done to criminals. The little man who sells films on dvd even those that are not finished yet (!), the two older ladies who enter with a bowl of goldfish, the niece who wants to make films as her uncle, the taxidriving director Pahani, but has been told by her school teacher, that certain rules have to be followed, the boy who is in her film, but can not be as he ”commits a crime” on camera, and finally the flower-carrying, smiling dissident-colleague to Pahani.

The film starts, Pahani is behind the wheel, he takes the driver’s seat with a camera that can be positioned so it catches what happens outside and inside with the characters entering, those on the poster. It is joyful to watch with small situations that reflect a debate on human rights in Iran, that susperstition lives well among the older generation, that you can get whatever film you want in piracy copies (I experienced that myself back in 2000 when I visited Teheran), that there are rules for what you can film and what not.

Pahani himself, the taxi driving film director, comes out as a mild and generous character – one of the kind of taxi drivers you seldom meet – he listens to the stories that he has created for the film – and makes his job as a film director, who loves his citizens and who lives as they do, coping with the many restrictions.

Iran, 2015, 82 mins.

You can only love that film, that opens theatrically in Copenhagen, Grand Teatret October 1st.     

Nordisk Panorama – the Forum/ Second Day

It’s 9.10am and everybody is there – the financiers sit at the table, the pitch team members are at the first rows in the audience waiting for their turn to perform, and the moderators Gitte Hansen and Mikael Opstrup, who were obviously happy about the way the first day went, are now eager to keep the civilised documentary family atmosphere intact. Yes, we Nordic people are trying to be punctual, and 10 minutes delay is not really a delay. From the point of view of someone, who has organised workshops in the South of Europe!

Again a very tough start of the day. Theme: Sexually abused street children in the Philippines, who are, as said in the catalogue, ”offered a new life at a center on an island South of Manila”, a film to be directed by Danish Mikala Krogh. Actually it is a film already in production; the director is in the country with her family and has been there for a year. That’s a true commitment and for me there is no doubt that this will be another fine film from the hands of Mikala Krogh backed up by producer Sigrid Dyekjær and the company Danish Documentary, and financially with 200.000€ (!) from the Danish Film Institute, consultant Helle Hansen. The pilot, as the pitcher Dyekjær called it, was very well made (only objection: again too dominant music) and the response from the financiers were Yes = This is good. Only one that needed ”to see structure” was NRK’s Tore Tomter…

Equally succesful in terms of good response, prologues for the

individual meetings in the afternoon, some even said ”I’m in” (= financially) was ”The Other Jerusalem” by PeÅ Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian, who with passionate gesticulation introduced the story about Palestinians being forced out of East Jerusalem. She mentioned that 20.000 demolishing orders are published – in the clip you meet two Palestinians suffering from ”the annexation”, that ”they” call it, not occupation, as Khardalian stressed, and you are in the room of the lawyer Ziad, who seems to be a central character in the film, the one ”the victims” come to talk to. Holmquist has secured coproduction agreements with Finland and Norway, so no doubt that this film will be made. If fully financed… you never know! From the reactions it seems so.

The Icelandic project ”FC Kareoki” about mud or swamp soccer was a good relax after the two thematically hard starters, and one where jokes could made about – as SVT’s Charlotte Hellström said – another game that Men play to have fun; Whereas the Finnish ”My Plato’s Cave” was a proposal about an autistic young man, well presented it was. But no real enthusiasm for any of those two.

And then to something completely different as ”they” say: ”Mogadishu Soldier” by Norwegian acknowledged director Torstein Grude, who has 400 hours of material shot during a year by two Burundian soldiers, who fight Al-Shebaab in Somalia. Very very hard to watch the clip with close-ups of corpses with heads shut off, graphic indeed, raising a lot of ethical questions. We are in the process of selecting scenes, said producer Bjarte Mørner Tveit, it is going to be ”from the soldier’s perspective”, a bit like ”Act of Killing”, whose Danish editor Niels Pagh Andersen has been hired to do the job of making a watchable film.

Trailers are the most important in a pitching session, you quickly notice sitting at a Forum like this. Most of them are made trying to be on two legs: to be informative and to convey the visual style of the film to be. Difficult that is, but possible as shown through ”Bobbi Jene”, a project presented by from Danish producers Julie Leerskov and Sara Stockmann with Elvira Lind as director, a fascinating – finally there was one – love story, where the director has followed the protagonist for three years. In Tel Aviv and now in New York, where Bobbi Jene wants ”to create her own boundary breaking and violently personal performances”. A character-driven story and as with the previously mentioned project, the name of the editor, Adam Nielsen, was launched to push for individual meetings to get money. 75% of the financing in place for this character-driven story.

Trailers can tell how a film will be in tone and that was the case for Swedish ”After Inez” by Karin Ekberg, who two days after the birth filmed the parents of a stillborn daughter. I had to turn the head away for a moment, when the camera pointed at the dead child but I got back and sensed the respect from the filmmaker towards the parents and their grief. She has followed the parents for two years to observe how they handled the grief – until the moment where Inez gets a little brother. During the two day Forum these were the most silent moments at Amiralen!

What is the balance – a buzz word during the two days – between this and that, was a very often expressed sentence, and it came back when Danish director Boris Bertram presented his ”Photographer of War” with photographer Jan Grarup as main character – referring to the transformation process that Bertram wants to observe of Grarup, who from being totally focused on his job, now – after the illness and death of his ex-wife – ”has to take care of his four children by himself”. As a Dane: Grarup is a very interesting character, a film on him is welcomed, if Bertram can catch the change, if it happens, maybe it has already, that was not quite clear from a visual presentation with a pretty bombastic sound design. Not needed, Grarup’s photos could easily stand on their own.

End of two days with high quality documentary projects, high budgets, most of them around 300.000€, a demonstration of a well-functioning Nordic collaboration financially. With big money from the film institutes and less from the tv stations, it is a Paradise when you compare with other European countries. One could wish for more participation of the true authors – as a friend of mine from a distribution company said ”it is very much subject-orientated”, for television more than for theatrical release, and for festivals of course. And for the show-side of it: Could one wish for some more breaking  the rules that the audience/the observers could avoid some fatigue seeing the same way of presenting and answering from the panel. Having said so I am a loyal fan of these public pitches contrary to the one-to-one meetings. In the Malmö public pitch you get the chance to know what happens in the Nordic documentary world right now. To see the players on stage.

Photo: Teddy Gruoya, Amdocs Festival, Palm Springs.

http://nordiskpanorama.com/en/industry/

Nordisk Panorama Award Winners 2015

Awards were given at the Gala last night in Malmö at the Nordisk Panorama. Here is the motivation from the jury for the Best Nordic Documentary Award:

”For its complexity, attentiveness to details, ability to tell the story in artful and concise way and unprecedented access to the events, we would like to give Best Nordic Documentary Award to Democrats. A film that manages to approach a unique moment in the history of Zimbabwe in an honest, straight-forward approach creating a compelling, suspenseful drama…”

Yes, the winner was ”Democrats” by Camilla Nielsson, who competed with 13 other films.

Absolutely no objections from filmkommentaren.dk

The same goes for the Audience Award that went to ”The Look of Silence” by Joshuan Oppenheimer.

Remains to be seen is ”Marta & Niki”  by Tora Mårtens, who received an honorary mention in the Best Documentary section.

Three more films were awarded in the short film and ”New Voices” category – check the link below.

http://nordiskpanorama.com/en/industry/festival/special-programme/nordisk-panorama-winners-2015/

Nordisk Panorama – the Forum/ First Day

… or to be more precise: Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries in Malmö, Sweden, taking place September 20-22 2015.

Edition number 22 (!) with 270 participants, 24 projects to be pitched to a panel of decision makers, around 30 at the table and a lot in the audience among the observers, including me, who asked the organisers if there was a chair for a reporter, who has been to the Forum many times before; at the table as consultant for National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral), now part of the Danish Film Institute, and as moderator when I worked for the EDN (European Documentary Network).

So there I was at Amiralen (Photo by Teddy Grouya, Amdocs festival Palm Springs), a very fine venue for an event like this, lot of space, good image projection of the trailers, to be seen from all angles, the usual small fights with the microphone (why are people who work at television so bad in talking into those tools?), space for talks in the coffee breaks, networking is the word, and as usual perfect professional treatment from the staff of Nordisk Panorama (before called Filmkontakt Nord) – good catalogue for projects and participants, as well as the inviting website, link below.

Sooo, the Nordic documentary family gathered with an Italian delegation invited and commissioners from arte, BBC, Dutch television, POV, RAI and many others. Sales agents, distributors,

People from the film institutions and tv stations. A quite remarkable attendance.

With words from the well prepared moderators Gitte Hansen (First Hand Films, Switzerland) and Mikael Opstrup (EDN), the show took off with the Swedish project ”Prison Sisters” by Nima Sarvestani, the director who has made ”Those Who Said No” (2014) and ”No Burqas Behind Bars” (2012). He presented a follow-up on what has happened to the two Afghan women from that film. The project was indeed very well received, more than 50% of the financing is already in place, and the rest will come. No doubt. Sarvestani makes films that can reach both a television audience and do well at festivals.

A footnote in the middle of the report: The system here in Malmö, like at most pitching events, implies that individual meetings are held in the afternoon – where further (hopefully) contractual procedures will be agreed upon.

From the tough world for women in Afghanistan to a portrait of the Danish superstar architect Bjarke Ingels, ”Big Times”, presented by producer Sara Stockmann and director Kaspar Schrøder. Premiere February 2017, a trailer that very much reflects the close contact between the director and the charismatic architect, shot over five years with the architect fighting with what could be a serious illness. If I got it right, not a halleluja-film about the man, who is to change the skyline of Manhattan but a human drama. Promising.

A Norwegian project, ”Exit”, from director Karen Winther, who in her youth was part of a neo-nazi group, got out of that and wants to examine through others ”what makes extremists change” – and a sweet and joyful Icelandic project about baby-swimming, ”Dive – Rituals in Water”, three directors, the trailer visually strong – and a Norwegian ”Ambulance” from Gaza, directed by Palestinian Mohamed Jabaly. Time to stress that the Forum deals with the world as it is in all its cruelty, in this case through a first person film, the director being part of an ambulance team that operated during the 52 day war in 2014. A panelist, Tore Tomter from NRK in Norway, called Jabaly a brave man. Another panelist, Mette Hoffmann from DR in Denmark, wanted to hear what Jabaly thought of Hamas (!). He cleverly answered that ”I don’t deal with politics, I am a filmmaker”.

Let me stop the title-dropping for a moment to come up with some comments on the atmosphere in the room, the pitching, the trailers, the response from the decision makers…

We are in the North of Europe and people behave nicely, the pitchers pitch nicely and polite, for my taste far too much according to unwritten rules with someone presenting the director(s) as ”unique”, the project as ”amazing”, then the director says some words, the trailer is screened, some more words and then ”we are looking for pre-sales and co-productions”. It is a bit mechanical and boring and even more so, when the panelists start by saying ”thank you for a good pitch”, ”thank you for a a fine trailer” – the monotony is there and why do the pitchers (many of them, not all) read from a piece of paper? More energy, please! And for us observers, who behave quite as mechanical – we applaud after the trailers and after the verbal pitch has come to an end and after the Q&A. What about some whistling or some booing or some bravo’s. No, we are too polite for that. Not that the panelists say stupid things but they don’t have to repeat what the one before has just said, do they?

Therefore it was a blessing for the show that veteran Finnish director Pekka Lehto (I remember his fine films ”The Real McCoy” and ”Boy Hero 001”) with his ”Jailhouse Socrates” about a criminal underworld in his country, said hello, showed the trailer right away and was very ”naughty” in his interruption of some of the broadcasters. Suddenly it all became very lively making moderator Opstrup smilingly say that ”this is getting out of control”. What Lehto gave to the room was energy, a dialogue between pitchers and panel, at least an attempt, thanks for that and thanks for having a trailer that showed the cinematic competence of cinematographer (and producer) Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen. Which one of the panelists, Tore Tomter, who talked a lot on this first day and in general was very positive to everything, asked was going to be the style of the film…

Anyway, this is getting too long and I don’t have space for all projects… let me finalise by highlighting the project ”Death of a Child” by the team behind ”Pervert Park”, Swedish Frida and Lasse Barkfors, who impressed with their calm and personal presentation of a film on ”every parent’s worst fear – to cause one’s own child’s death”. SVT’s Axel Arnö said it with the right words – (your way of presentation and the trailer is) low-key, deep and intriguing. Philippe Muller from arte expressed his thanks, ”this is a film that is for all of us”, producer Anne Köhncke from Final Cut for Real gave the theme a philosophical perspective without any paper in front of her. And I – like many others in the room, I’m sure – made my own thoughts, and I know this will be a film that I will watch with hesitation…

http://nordiskpanorama.com/en/industry/   

Morgan Neville: Under the Influence

Deftly made is this Netflix documentary by the director of the film, that won an Oscar in 2014: ”Twenty Feet from Stardom”. Is deftly the right word, took it from google translate, with other words well-crafted, predictable in its building and with charismatic Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards as the one, who explains to us where his influences lie. He smokes constantly, he laughs his tobacco-laugh, he performs some tunes on his guitar, he does not speak a lot about his conflicts with Mick Jagger, he does a bit about family – after 20 years of no contact with his father, they found each other and now the father has been travelling with his world famous son all over the world.

I have never been a big fan of the Stones and this film does not give me a lot – apart from the fantastic b/w archive material with legendary Muddy Waters, one of Keith Richards inspiration sources. I could listen to him singing for hours, but not to Richards who has very little voice to offer but in this film a lot of generosity.

USA, 92 mins.

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/s/keith-richards-talks-under-influence-toronto-world-premiere-225529311.html

Anja Dalhoff: Trafficker

Det handler om handel med unge, ofte ganske unge afrikanske kvinder som mod deres vilje ofte af deres forældre via mellemhandlere sælges til organiseret prostitution i europæiske byer for eksempel København. Anja Dalhoff griber det rent og professionelt journalistisk an, vinkler sin historie således: en del af disse kvinder bliver i branchen på den måde, at de selv bliver bordelværter, bordelbestyrere, bordelejere og kvindehandlere, og resten af tv-dokumentaren er overbevisende belæg og bevisførelse. Dokumentaren er omfattende og den er omhyggeligt lavet, og den virker på mig som den skal, fuldstændig gribende, forfærdende og oprørende.

Jeg så dokumentaren 16. september sent på aftenen på DR2, har først kunnet skrive om den nu, men jeg tror nok den kan ses på DR2 Dokumentars hjemmeside (link nedenfor) nogle dage endnu.

Anja Dalhoff har tidligere i en film fra 2007 Månen er sort behandlet emnet trafficking, og hun har arbejdet med problemstillingen siden. I 2009 kom Mærket for livet og i 2011 Mistanke om menneskehandel, begge lavet som undervisningsfilm til særlige situationer, og i 2014 kom dokumentaren Et liv efter trafficking. Det er en imponerende vedholdenhed og produktive Anja Dalhoff har endda lavet andre film i samme periode. Nu i år altså Trafficker, som samler hendes undersøgelses- og reportage indsats i en stor rystende og overbevisende dokumenteret anklage.

Jeg ved selvfølgelig godt at der for for journalistiske dokumentarer gælder særlige faglige regler og råder andre konventioner end i filmiske dokumentarer. Jeg har alligevel indvendinger. Her især til visse detaljer i dokumentarens klipning. Jeg kan generelt ikke lide opklipninger af interviews og da slet ikke, når jeg som her i en fremlæggelse af belæg for en anklage skal følge med i vidneudsagnene. Jeg vil da helst høre så meget af vidneudsagnet som det i sig selv kan bære, og helst i sin helhed eller i så store stykker som muligt. Jeg vil her kun pege på en enkelt slem, i mine øjne direkte uskøn sekvens cirka 14 minutter inde i filmen. En medvirkende handlet kvinde, Irene hedder hun, sidder i et smukt nærbillede og fortæller en lang grusom voldtægtshistorie. Hun afbrydes imidlertid hele tiden af klip til en medvirkende ekspert, Kevin Bales, hvis udsagn bestemt er lige så vigtigt, men klipperen demonterer ved sin besynderlige disposition begge udsagn både indholdsmæssigt og emotionelt, og senere i sekvensen med Irenes historie klippes der ydermere frem og tilbage til vidneudsagn fra to andre medvirkende kvinder med deres historier, som således også går i stumper og stykker.  

Jeg er ellers så glad for Anja Dalhoffs interviewscener, som jeg mærker dem fra hendes hånd. Jeg er også glad for hendes reportagescener. Jeg ser begge slags som rigtige filmscener. Imidlertid er Trafficker dokumentar konstrueret som et oplysende, agiterende foredrag med oprørende detaljer, et vigtigt vigtigt foredrag med illustrationer,  nemlig disse fine filmscener, som her bare for mine øjne bliver ligesom til fotos, til illustrationer i en trykt rapport, en vigtig rapport som sagt, men en rapport i ord. Det er altså, som det er journalistikkens konvention, en litterær metode, ikke en filmisk metode som er valgt. Og filmbilledet og filmscenen ofres. Men hvor er det dog blevet til en vigtig, til en vildt oprørende rapport. Heldigvis.

Dertil kommer det nok allervigtigste. I dokumentarens kerne, som i alle de Anja Dalhoff film jeg gennem årene har set, ligger der også i denne film en smittende omsorg for den enkelte medvirkende, især for det skrøbelige og udsatte og mishandlede menneske, en usentimental ømhed, som bliver i mig længe efter mange af de faktuelle detaljer er tonet ud.

Danmark 2015, 58 min. (Samlet vurdering 4/6)

SYNOPSIS

The devastating story of the sex trade in African women who then become the pimps of the next generation. Nigeria is a hub for human trafficking. Victims are transported to 33 countries, mostly as part of the $100 billion dollar sex trade. The documentary underlines the human costs behind the statistics. Its tender, devastating interviews, reveal an all-too-common tale: African women turned prostitutes spend years paying off their trafficking debt in Europe. Few ever escape the shackles of their nightmarish ordeals. (Danish Doc Production site)

Det er en kaleidoskopisk dokumentarfilm med kvinder fra Nigeria og Kenya, der er ofre for menneskehandel. På den anden side medvirker også kvinder, der efter at have betalt deres gæld selv bliver “Madams”. Dvs. selv begynder at handle med kvinder. Et skræmmende fænomen, som desværre ikke er ualmindeligt. (Anja Dalhoff, Facebook opdatering)

CREDITS

Anja Dalhoff: instruktion, foto og produktion. Michelle Mildwater: research, interviews og speak. Ahmad Jaladi Farahani: råklip. Johs Aarup: klip, colorgrade og grafik. Povl Kristian: musik. Hamid Hagn: lyddesign. Mette Meyer Hoffmann: DR redaktion.

FILMOGRAFI

Når Månen er sort / When the Moon is black, 2007

Mærket for livet / Affected for life 2009

Mistanke om menneskehandel / Suspicion of Human Trafficking, 2011 https://vimeo.com/24716911

Et liv efter trafficking / A Life after Trafficking, 2014

LINKS

http://www.danishdoc.dk/Danish_Doc/FilmUK.html  (Production company site)

https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/trafficker/trafficker  (DR2 streaming nogle dage endnu vil jeg tro)

Bigert/Bergström: Engaged Cool Duo from Stockholm

DocAlliance and its excellent vod initiative has for years been promoted on this website and here is (a bit late, sorry, but it’s weekend and maybe you have time…) one more copy-paste of a fine offer from “your online documentary cinema” – to watch FOR FREE works by a duo of artists from Sweden until September 20. Go for it:

Mats Bigert (1965) and Lars Bergström (1962) have formed an artistic duo since their studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Besides documentaries, their work also includes exhibitions, conceptual art and installations in public space. In 1993, they participated in the Venice Biennale with their installation Adrenaline Dream and have exhibited their work across the world ever since. They often deal with current social and climatic issues. Discover the Swedish duo through their films for free!

During their successful career, Bigert & Bergström’s have produced a large

number of artworks. Their sculptures and installations are often based on digital technologies and intended for interaction, changing their shape or colour after being touched or according to the weather. By placing unexpected objects in public space, the artists change the context of places where people pass every day. For instance, they have placed their artwork Tomorrow’s Weather at the Stockholm Central Station. They hung giant molecules of H2O, C2 and N2 which change their colour according to the weather forecast for the following day. Another transformation of the public space called Ecco Humor consisted in placing a large curved mirror in the underground parking lot of Dunkers Culture House in Helsingborg, Sweden. The fifty-metre-wide and six-metre-high wall of super reflective stainless steel is the largest of its kind in the world.

Their latest film from the past year is entitled MOMENTS OF SILENCE. It captures moments in which the world stops and falls silent for a minute or two. The film is compiled of archive footage of minutes of silence honouring the victims of conflicts or natural disasters.

In 2002–2012, the duo made a loose trilogy about the human obsession with control. The first film entitled LIFE EXTENDED  (PHOTO) follows the desire to live forever, introducing a gerontologist who believes that humanity will be immortal soon, a monk who prepares his soul for its posthumous journey by long marathons and architects who construct spaces that slow down ageing. The middle part of the trilogy, THE MOUSE, deals with the ancient relationship between men and mice. It presents the fields in which we meet these small rodents and shows that we would have zero knowledge of genetics without laboratory texts. The third part follows climatic change and its impact. In THE WEATHER WAR, the directors travel to the US with a special machine-sculpture called Tornado Diverter whose goal is to stop tornados. The film deals with the theme of climate change and human influence on it in general.

LAST SUPPER captures the tradition of a final meal before an execution, ironically alluding to the original biblical dimension of the phrase. The protagonist is a former prison chef who used to prepare the last meal for the convicts. The film combines documentary scenes, interviews and animated sequences.

http://dafilms.com/event/223-bigert-bergstrom/ 

European Documentary Awards

A warm welcome to a new procedure from EFA (European Film Academy) that has published a shortlist of 15 European documentaries from which 5 will be nominated for the award to be given at the EFA ceremony in Berlin in December. The shortlist has been put together from lists of three films given by 10 important European documentary festivals.

I am happy to see Phie Ambo’s ”Good Things Await”, Camilla Nielsson’s ”Democrats”, Sean McAllister’s ”A Syrian Love Story”, Ivan Gergolet’s ”Dancing with Maria”, Oleksandr Techynskyi, Aleksey Solodunov and Dmitry Stoykov’s ”All Things Ablaze” (photo), Oppenheimer’s ”The Look of Silence”, Asif Kapadia’s ”Amy”, Gábor Hörcher’s ”Drifter” and ”Toto and his Sisters” by Alexander Nanau on the list, all films that I have seen and appreciate – in different levels and ways… and looking forward to watch the remaining 6, use the link below to get the titles.

And a quote from the same website:

”It is with great pleasure that the European Film Academy and EFA Productions announce the first ever EFA Documentary Selection, a list of 15 European documentaries recommended for a nomination for this year’s European Film Awards. 

The change follows a decision by the EFA Board to “acknowledge the growing importance of European documentary cinema,” says Israeli producer Marek Rozenbaum, EFA Board Member on the documentary committee, “there is a growing number of excellent documentaries which have to be seen by the members…”  

http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/News-detail.155.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=332&cHash=b7c7e85bfca0fa9f7bc36041d88e9e9a

Message2Man 2015/ 2

” She is nine years old, lives with her grandmother, her mother is ill and her father, she does not see a lot. This is the background that you pick up gradually as this sensitive, well-made and cleverly thought film goes along with father and daughter on a tour towards the park of Pippi Langstrømpe (Longstocking) in Sweden, a wish for the girl who wants to be strong and independent…”

The beginning of a review I made in March this year of Russian Denis Shabaev’s ”Together” that won one of the main awards at DocuDays in Kiev.

Now it is on the list of the around 25 films competing at the National Competition of Documentary Films at the upcoming Message2Man in St. Petersburg that starts September 26 and goes on until October 3.

The good thing for me, who visits the festival for the fourth time in a row, is that apart from this film and one more, it’s all new land for me – a good chance to get an idea of what happens in Russian documentary. Yes, stories from Russia of today, please.

The ”one more” is by Tatyana Soboleva, who I have met in diffferent festivals and who asked for my opinion on a rough cut of ”Siberian Floating Hospital”. A quote from a FB message I sent to her last December:

… You have made a very very fine film, that has atmosphere of warmth, wonderful people and the right rhythm that fits the waiting to get to people and for people to get on board (for medical help, ed.)… is it going to disappear, from my ignorant pov, influenced of course by your film, they are doing a great job really… Fine music, beautiful images, poetry sometimes, your film will travel! Congratulations!..

And now I am to watch the final film, which is distributed by Deckert Distribution that gives the following neutral description on their website:

When the Siberian winter releases its grip every year in May, twenty doctors, mostly women, board a special ship – a floating hospital, leaving their families behind. The ship crisscrosses the Siberian North, bringing medical care to the remotest rural outposts. Locals wait for this ship, and for the doctors it’s an adventure that alters them and that many of them have become addicted to.

http://www.message2man.com/en/

http://deckert-distribution.com/film-catalogue/siberian-floating-hospital/

In the Editing Room

It’s such a great photo, this one, taken by Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis. I stole it from his FB page, where he had this accompanying line:

“There always is The Moment when analog and digital film cut meets…”

Roman Bondarchuk is the contemplating director in the editing room, the film to finish is “Ukranian Sheriffs”, that Cekulis produces and that Bondarchuk makes with his spouse and scriptwriter Dar´ya Avershenko, a talented film couple who is part of the team behind the festival DocuDays in Kiev, who was part of the team behind “Euromaidan Rough Cut” and made one part of the “15 Young by Young” series, produced by Ilona Bicevska.

Precisely that part of the series, about kids playing jazz music and the relationship to their teacher, has been made into a feature documentary, named ”Dixieland”, that premieres in Riga tonight. I have seen a more than rough cut of the work and there is no justice if it is does not travel to festivals all over!

… back to the photo, yes, the moment of reflection, not touching the buttons, not touching the yellow note papers, thinking thinking: did I find my film, the one I wanted to make, the one I had in my head for so long, he is not the only one who has experienced that crucial moment.