This is a sneak preview review of a film that has its premiere beginning af August at the Locarno Film Festival written by an admirer of Polish cinematographer and director Wojciech Staron, an admirer who happily once more (after the films Siberian Lesson and Argentinian Lesson) is totally seduced. Staron proves to me again to be one of few European documentary poets, who believes in the power of the image and sequences without verbal explanation, he dares long scenes, he is a master in composition, he is a Filmmaker who paints with his camera, a visual artist…

… as one of the brothers, Alfons Kulakowski, who is a skilled painter. Alfons is the little brother, Mieczyslaw is some years older. They are both in their 90’es. Alfons is fit, Mieczyslaw is

frail and gets weaker as the film progresses. It’s about the two together, for a whole life, one gets the impression, helping each other in the twilight of their lives. That said, it’s more Alfons who helps his older brother to get around, well also to get dressed in a beautiful scene that follows one, where Mieczyslaw takes his time to put on a sock with the help of equipment from the kitchen. There are many such brilliant moments that serves one purpose: to show the love the brothers have to each other, and the love the director feels for his protagonists.

But there is also a story unfolded in a more classical sense so let me quote the introductory screen text: ”80 years after being exiled in Siberia the brothers Kulakowski decided to return to their homeland Poland to start a new life there.”

That’s about all you get to know up front, from which point you slowly, with the old men, are moved into their minds and piece by piece get hints on how their past lives have passed. In Siberia, but also in Almaty Kazakhstan, which is mentioned later on. That is in general done through cuts that goes from today to the past of 8 and 16 mm archive films shot by Mieczyslaw in which you – in magic sequences – see beautiful women, festive situations, helicopter bringing food to remore areas and you understand that they must have (had) families. And you see archive with Alfons, who paints landscapes, easy to recognise because of his beard that was black at that time.

The film takes the viewer to Brussels where a big exhibition of Alfons work is organised. The long-haired, white-bearded brothers are there, it is very official, they get pretty tired and when home – Oh Noooo – their house had caught a fire and is burnt totally down with all the paintings that we have seen in room after after room. Once again a new life has to begin for the old men…

And it does with Alfons embracing a tree, to find courage to go on. Staron lets them go on in ending scenes full of compassion, making it clear where the point of view of the director is and how he interprets the destinies of brothers in Life. Wow for a film!  

Poland, 2015, 68 mins.

http://www.semainedelacritique.ch/2015/brothers.html

… and there are tributes to film and film history at the Dokufest in Prizren. The film star on the photo needs no further introduction, ”Ingrid Bergman, in Her Own Words”, a film that premiered at the Cannes festival this year, made by Stig Björkman, film critic and director, editor of the film magazine Chaplin 1964-72, which was one of my key tools in my film education. Björkman has written books and made films on Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen and Lars von Trier. About the Ingrid Bergman film:

” Accessing Ingrid Bergman’s diaries and her own private footage, this film gives an inside perspective of one of our most distinguished actors and a woman who always chose her own path. Released in 2015, it marks the centenary of her birth.”

Another pearl in the section ”Films on Film” is ”Cinema: A Public Affair” by Tatiana Brandrup – the description is very appealing:

” A man in Moscow fights for his vision of cinema; he sees it as a way towards a better society. A cinematic journey through the world of Naum Kleiman, one of Russia’s most significant intellectuals alive today. A documentary collage, which combines excerpts from film classics and interviews with a portrait of contemporary Moscow.”

And there are films on Bertolucci, John Ford (of course the one made by Peter Bogdanovich), Raoul Walsh. I watched the two last mentioned Amdocs in Palm Springs – entertaining and informative pieces of film history.

http://dokufest.com/2015/program/films/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teddy Grouya, festival leader of Amdocs, the American Documentary Film Festival in Palm Springs, teamed up with Dokufest leader Veton Nurkollari and voilá a collaboration exists, where ”Amdocs at Dokufest” is one of the 15 interesting special programmes at the upcoming (starts August 8) festival in Prizren. With ”Dokufest at Amdocs” to be made in Palm Springs next year.

Amdocs presents 8 films in Prizren, let me put some words on the three that I saw in Palm Springs: Khinmay Lwin van der Mee’s ”Nigga Theory”, 21 mins. long about Jody David Armour (photo), who is a university professor, a writer and activist, a charismatic man, who talks so well and precise about the good black man and the bad black man judged very often by their looks. When I looked like Obama everyone accepted me, now with my Afro-American look, I sense suspicion around me, he says.

Another one to be warmly recommended is Esther Julie-Anne’s ”Out of Love”, about the father of the director, who is trying to find out why he married and divorced 5 times – about which I wrote back in March in Palm Springs: ”It is not easy to make a personal film – when does the private become interesting and thought-provoking for the rest of us? It needs cinematic skills and a good story and strong characters. This film covers all three elements.”

And the Hussin Brothers (Noah and Timothy) ”America Recycled”, an impressive film about another America, a road movie but even if ” It’s not the first time we are taken on the road in America and of course you think of Jack Kerouac and the Route 66 films. But it must be the first time that we are invited to experience a bicycle road movie!”

http://dokufest.com/2015/program/

Yesterday the Dokufest festival in Prizren, Kosovo announced its programme for the festival that runs August 8-16. It is inviting and extremely well edited and both timely in its connection to the world we live in with MIGRATION as main theme and to the art of documentaries and short films. We have already written about the Albert Maysles retrospective and the music documentary selection by Pamela Cohn – now it’s all there…The press release gives a fine overview, we will come back with elements of the slate as the festival calls it. So here it is in a full version:  

Prizren, 20 July 2015 – DokuFest announced today its full slate of films for the 2015 festival, which runs from August 8 – 16 in the city of Prizren, Kosovo. Culled from a record number of over 3.000 submissions, festival will showcase a fine selection of 228 films from 43 countries across 6 competitive sections and more than a dozen specially curated programs.

Migration is central theme of the festival this year and its global, as

well as local social context and consequences, will be highlighted and explored through a number of events, including panels and discussions with filmmakers and invited international and local experts. A hand picked film program focusing on the issue of migration has been created and inimitable Bafta winning filmmaker Daniel Mulloy has created yet another striking visual campaign to match with this year’s theme.

Competitions are at the heart of the festival and this year’s selection brings some of the finest work of non-fiction cinema, as well as a great array of short fictions and experimental cinema to charming city of Prizren and its, now celebrated outdoor cinemas, to which we proudly announce the 5th installment, the Dream Cinema.

DokuFest is also very proud to be able to present record number of films made in Albanian, both by filmmakers living and working in Kosovo and Albania, but also abroad. Nearly a dozen short documentaries under the banner of DokuFest have also been produced and will be shown at the festival. But it is not in numbers as much as it is in their quality that we are proud of.

Festival will pay tribute to one the world’s greatest filmmaker Albert Maysles, with the screening of six of his films, including landmark films such as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens as well as his last two films, Iris and In Transit. Albert Maysles, who died earlier this year, aged 88, together with his brother David, redefined documentary filmmaking, and influenced a generation of filmmakers with their ability to capture reality as it was unfolding.

View From The World, non-competitive section of the festival will once again bring some of biggest films of the year, including, among others, CITIZENFOUR, winner of Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, The Wolfpack, Sundance sensation and winner of US grand jury prize and The Pearl Button, winner of Best Screenplay at this year’s Berlinale.

This year’s rich and varied program also includes film critic’s Neil Young survey of American independent scene in Uncharted States of America and Pamela Cohn’s now continuous exploration of music documentary landscape, albeit in very different form this year, in Sound of my Soul selection.

Plus a great number of other films to much delight of our audience!

“DokuFest is returning with yet another eclectic programme of films that is sure to amaze, move, question and surprise,” says Veton Nurkollari, Artistic Director of DokuFest. “We are delighted to be able to present works of highest quality, both from emerging filmmakers and masters of the craft, to our growing audience”.

http://dokufest.com/2015/program/

7 films are selected to be screened at Festival del Film Locarno in the Semaine de la Critique that takes place August 7-14. They are world or international premieres. I know about three of them, have watched two and am very happy for the choice of “Lampedusa in Winter”, directed by Jakob Brossmann with former Zelig Film School student Cornelia Märki as editor. She sent me the film a couple of months ago to have my opinion and I answered “I have no objections, I think this is an important film to get out now, it is very well put together, an impressive piece of observational documentary filmmaking that stays away from dramatizing but IS dramatic anyway – the strike of fishermen, the refugees, the humanistic Paola, the same for the mayor… good rhythm…” yes, it is indeed a very timely film that for sure will travel on from Locarno to other festival destinations.

Otherwise Poland is again taking the lead with 3 selected films.

The interesting, touching winner from the Krakow Film Festival by Karolina Bielawska, “Call Me Marianna”, “K2. Touching the Sky” by Eliza Kubarska and the long-awaited “Brothers” by the master Wojciech Staron (“Siberian Lessons” and “Argentinian Lessons”). I am dying to see that film!

The remaining 3 are “The Day The Sun Fell” by Aya Domenig, “The Ground We Won” by Christopher Pryor and “My Name is Gary” by Blandine Huk and Frederic Cousseau.

Take a look at the website and you will notice the extensive, signed descriptions to each film, must be critics writing. Some words about the Semaine de la Critique:

… is an independent section, organised by Swiss Association of Film Journalists, in cooperation with the director and organisers of the Locarno International Film Festival. The Semaine de la critique has its own jury which awards the Prix SRG SSR/Semaine de la critique worth 8000.– CHF for the best film in competition and the Premio Zonta Club Locarno for a film with extraordinary social commitment. The Semaine de la critique was first held in 1990. Since then it has reviewed state of the art documentary film-making annually with a selection of works chosen for their specific expressive value or essence.

To date, a total of 137 films have been screened, including productions by Erroll Morris, Fredi M. Murer, Nicholas Philibert, Richard Dindo, J. van der Keuken, Zhang Yuan, Davide Ferrario, B.Z. Goldberg, Thomas Riedelsheimer or Samir, among others.

http://www.semainedelacritique.ch/