Kvedaravicius & Bilobrova: Mariupol 2

This text is written by filmmaker Maxi Dejoie:

On December 10th, Mariupol 2, the last documentary by Mantas Kvedaravicius and Hanna Bilobrova, rightfully received the award for best documentary of the year at the European Film Awards ceremony. After it was premiered in May at Cannes Film Festival, Hanna Bilobrova’s name was removed from the credits as the film’s co-director. During the European Film Awards ceremony, neither Hanna nor her name were nowhere to be heard nor seen. In a “normal” situation, this action would be very upsetting. What makes this specific situation even more disgraceful, is the fact that Hanna risked her like to retrieve the backpack which contained the footage realised by Mantas and herself in Mariupol under Russian occupation, and went through an infernal odyssey to locate Mantas’s body after he was executed by Russian soldiers/criminals, and managed to take him through Russia, back home to Lithuania where he could receive a proper and decent burial, close to his family.
As fellow documentary filmmaker, especially one that shared more than credit as co-director, I feel particularly upset by this event that I find unfair (to use an euphemism) and believe that it sets a dangerous precedent.
If there is anyone who believes that acknowledging Hanna’s contribution to the making of Mariupol 2 would make it any less of an extraordinary achievement, or Mantas Kvedaravicius’s sacrifice any less historic, I believe they would be wrong, as to recognise Hanna Bilobrova’s role as the film’s co-director would be simply a necessary act of justice and morality, something that should be a given in an “artistic” industry as ours, but apparently it is not.

dok.incubator presentation

Always a fine experience to attend the yearly presentation of upcoming documentaries developed at the dok.incubator workshop that has its address in Prague due to its Czech founder and manager Andrea Prenghyova. There was a presentation at IDFA this year, I was not there, but the presentation was repeated in a hybrid form yesterday: a welcome by Head of Studies French producer Christine le Goff and Prenghyova with le Goff giving a brief welcome intro to the film and filmmakers, seven there were, five of them women as le Goff pointed out in the beginning. All very precise and professional. To remind you, dok.incubator is a rough -cut workshop, this was the 12th edition with a slogan on the poster: Work Hard – Fly High. During the years the workshop has existed I have only heard positive feedback from participants praising the selection of tutors, many of them of course editors.

For me watching the seven project presentations (hello from the teams, trailer, talk, one or two scenes, final comments on funding/wishes for sales agents/festivals) I decided to pick out three films that I definitely would want to watch when they are finished. Here they come:

“Blix, Birds & Bombs” by Swedish Greta Stocklassa, a Czech/German/Swedish production with the fine old (now 94 years) gentleman, the Swedish diplomat Hans Blix. I think we all remember Blix, appointed by the UN to go to Iraq to investigate if Saddam Hussein had or produced weapons of mass destruction. 700 inspections “but in no case did we find weapons of mass destruction”. CIA, the Americans and their allies, did what they could to bring Blix into miscredit… the rest, the invasion into Iraq is history. Stocklassa stressed in her presentation that the film has its focus on the man, Hans Blix, who we see in his apartment in Stockholm and in his armchair answering questions to the young director or feeding the birds outside his window. It will be an informative and entertaining and thought-provoking film, I am sure.

Equally promising is “Pure Unknown” by Italian Mattia Colombo and Valentina Cicogna, an Italian, Swiss and Swedish coproduction. The text from the presentation sounds like this: “Every night nameless bodies land in Dr. Cristina Cattaneo’s autopsy room. She calls them Pure Unknown. The Pure Unknown belong to the fringes of society. They are homeless, prostitutes, runaway teenagers. Lately, they have mostly been migrants, rejected by the Mediterranean Sea onto the shores of Italy. If all rights belong to the living, nothing is left to the dead. So what happens when the dead have lost their identity? In the face of this growing multitude, no one seems concerned about their right to dignity. No one but Cristina”. Nothing to add, I was touched by what I saw and by the charisma of the doctor,

It will and should travel to television and festivals.

I have written about dok.incubator film presentations before and hoped for film projects with a more clear stylistical approach. For sure the workshop’s primary aim is to find films with a theme that is timely, fair enough, but it can also be combined with an “auteurish” approach like South Korean Juyeon Yang’s “My Missing Aunt”, a personal film, where the director tries different storytelling methods to dig out the mystery about her aunt, who killed herself, or did she? Memories, witnesses, testimonies… and chapeau for the workshop that it also includes a project from another continent.

Still med Hans Blix

https://dokincubator.net/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=2022%20ONLINE%20preview%20CONFIRMATION%202&utm_medium=email

CPH:DOX lancerer ny streamingtjeneste

I dag lanceres CPH:DOX’ nye, helårlige streamingtjeneste PARA:DOX, som byder på et udvalg af verdens bedste dokumentarfilm og et stort vidensunivers med aktuelle podcasts, talks og artikler, der sætter filmoplevelserne i perspektiv.

Viden, perspektiv og store filmoplevelser. Det er omdrejningspunktet for CPH:DOX’ nye streamingstjeneste PARA:DOX (paradox.dk), der går i luften i dag med støtte fra Novo Nordisk Fonden og Det Danske Filminstitut. På PARA:DOX er fiktionsfilm og tv-serier smidt på porten til fordel for et stærkt udvalg af tidens bedste dokumentarfilm nøje kurateret af CPH:DOX’ programredaktion. Over 100 film er tilgængelige fra i dag, og nye titler tilføjes hver måned…

 

Men PARA:DOX er mere end film. Som noget helt særligt byder platformen også på et vidensunivers. Her kan brugerne – med afsæt i filmene – dykke ned i aktuelle og samfundsrelevante temaer, søg ny viden og få flere perspektiver på verden gennem podcasts, talks, interviews og artikler.

“Vi lever i en paradoksal virkelighed, der på den ene side rummer en enorm kompleksitet og på den anden side et utal af nemme løsninger formuleret i smarte overskrifter og hurtige tweets. Dokumentarfilmens særlige force er, at den søger nuancerne og vender vores forestillinger om verden på hovedet. Vi ved fra de seneste års corona-nedlukninger, at der er et stort og dedikeret publikum i Danmark, som gerne vil opleve dokumentarfilm i hjemmebiografen – og ikke kun på det store lærred. Et både nysgerrigt og videbegærligt publikum, der gerne vil have en større indsigt i verden omkring os – og det skal PARA:DOX være leveringsdygtig i. Både gennem et kurateret program med verdens bedste dokumentarfilm og med et vidensunivers, der skal sætte yderligere perspektiv på filmoplevelserne,” siger Niklas Engstrøm, kunstnerisk direktør for CPH:DOX.

Hele året rundt – uden fast abonnement…

I de seneste tre år har CPH:DOX tilbudt streaming som et supplement til festivalens biografvisninger, men kun i en begrænset periode. Her har efterspørgslen været stor, og mange har efterspurgt en helårlig platform. Med lanceringen af PARA:DOX får publikummet i Danmark, Grønland og på Færøerne nu mulighed for at se et udvalg af de bedste dokumentarfilm hjemme hos sig selv – hele året rundt.

På PARA:DOX slipper brugerne for at skulle betale endnu et fast abonnement. Filmene på platformen koster fra 19-49 kr. at leje, mens podcasts, artikler, talks mv. er frit tilgængeligt og gratis for alle.

“Vi er mange, der efterhånden er kørt godt trætte i alt for mange abonnementsordninger på streamingtjenester. Vi har derfor valgt at gå en anden vej. På PARA:DOX skal brugerne kun betale for de film, de vil se – ligesom når man går på festival. Samtidig vil hele vores videnunivers kunne opleves helt gratis,” siger Niklas Engstrøm, kunstnerisk direktør for CPH:DOX.

Over 100 kvalitetsfilm får et permanent hjem

På PARA:DOX finder brugerne dokumentarfilm, der fortæller både store og små historier fra virkelighedens verden. Filmene udforsker tendenser og svære spørgsmål inden for områder som videnskab, kultur og samfund og giver publikum bedre mulighed for at forstå verden omkring sig. Der er film om alt fra det ydre rum til den menneskelige hjerne – og om svampe, S/M og de sociale mediers psykologi. Fra store instruktører som Werner Herzog, Jennifer Baichwal, Michael Glawogger og Ulrich Seidl til yngre talenter som Cannes-vinderen Payal Kapadia, Sundance-vinderen Theo Anthony og danske Frigge Fri og Cecilie Debell.

“Mange af festivalens bedste film er gennem de sidste 20 år kun blevet vist 2-3 gange for aldrig siden at vende tilbage til dansk jord. Nogle af de smalle titler kan være svære at opstøve, endda at søge sig frem til, men på PARA:DOX får de nu et hjem,” siger Niklas Engstrøm, kunstnerisk leder af CPH:DOX.

Stort fokus på videnskab…

Ligesom på CPH:DOX er videnskab også et stort fokusområde på PARA:DOX. Med støtte fra Novo Nordisk Fonden bliver PARA:DOX Danmarks første streamingtjeneste med videns- og videnskabsformidling som et helt centralt element. På PARA:DOX vil brugerne allerede nu kunne finde film, der formidler ny viden om alt fra hjerneforskning, kvantefysik og geologi til atomkraft, kunstig intelligens og robotteknologi. Og i løbet af 2023 vil platformen blive tilført en lang række nye, stærke dokumentarfilm, der giver forskere inden for ikke mindst naturvidenskaben en stemme.

“Naturvidenskab og teknologi udgør nogle af samfundets grundlæggende drivkræfter. Ikke desto mindre er forskningen udfordret af at nå ud til den bredere offentlighed. Gode dokumentarfilm
er en ideel model til at løse denne udfordring. En af vores helt store ambitioner med PARA:DOX er at styrke forskningens gennemslagskraft i samfundsdebatten og at motivere til refleksion over forskningens anvendelse i samfundet”, siger Niklas Engstrøm.

Viden, kontekst og nye perspektiver…

Vidensformidlingen begrænser sig ikke blot til selve filmene. Hver måned retter PARA:DOX fokus mod aktuelle og samfundsrelevante temaer og udgiver podcasts, talks, debatter, artikler og interviews for at sætte filmene i kontekst og perspektiv. I platformens vidensunivers kan man blandt andet blive klogere på fremtidens virtuelle verdener, være med, når der diskuteres kosmologi og mørkt stof – og få indblik i krigens regler og hvorfor krig, i det hele taget, ikke er forbudt. Man kan også lytte med, når Mads Brügger undersøger, hvordan det er at drive et uafhængigt medie i Putins Rusland eller komme tættere på instruktørerne bag de aktuelle film.

Vinderfilm fra CPH:DOX kan opleves på PARA:DOX…

PARA:DOX byder også på den komplette samling af vinderfilm fra CPH:DOX’ prestigefulde hovedkonkurrence. Samlingen tæller blandt andet nyklassikere som Harmony Korines performative provoværk ‘Trash Humpers’ og Joshua Oppenheimers ‘The Act of Killing’ og ‘The Look of Silence’ samt filmkunstneriske mesterværker som ‘The Three Rooms of Melancholia’, ‘Le Quattro Volte’ og ‘Bloody Beans’.

PARA:DOX er støttet af Novo Nordisk Fonden og Det Danske Filminstitut.

PARA:DOX går i luften den 7. december 2022, hvor det hele kan opleves på paradox.dk

 Fotografi: Niklas Engström

WHEN TREES BLOOM AT HOME AGAIN

Filma Film Fest Ukraine:

WHEN TREES BLOOM AT HOME AGAIN

migration as a result of military conflict

After February 24 we all began to live in a new reality shaped by the full-scale war waged by Russia against Ukraine. The passage of time is now marked by shelling, air-raid alerts, curfews, and most recently, by blackouts. The lives of people and all other creatures have become ultimately precarious. Cities and villages are smashed into ruins, and whole ecosystems are perishing. Thousands of Ukrainians (often with animals and plants) have to flee the war to other cities, regions, and countries. To express solidarity with every human, every living being who has lost or had to flee their home, we decided to make migration in armed conflict the topic of this year’s only “Filma” program.

As a feminist collective, we encourage you to show solidarity with groups who experience discrimination. That’s why it’s important for us to screen these films,where directors tell the stories of their own migration experiences, or keep their creative concepts as non-stigmatizing, non-exoticizing as possible. We believe that this solidarity is impossible without comprehensive critical re-evaluation of the systems of oppression (such as colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, etc.) and power structures. That’s why every film on the program marks our attempts to discuss complicated, often silenced topics, including the bio- and necropolitics of EU/West imposed on migrants during waves of migration in the second half of the 2010s and at the beginning of the 2020s; apartheid against Palestinians and the settler colonialism of the State of Israel; the telling inaction of the international community in regards to wars of aggression waged by Russia in the 1990s–2020s; the impact of the legacy of colonialism on the armed conflicts and ethnic cleansing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and in the Near East.

Our program consists of eight films arranged to make up a single meta-story about the loss of home and the long way back to the homeland. We would like you to start with “Remember the smell of Mariupol” by Zoya Laktionova, and then move on to “My Favorite Job, 2022” by Sashko Protyah. In Zoya’s film, the author travels through the memories of her hometown that become entangled with horrendous images of war.

The story of volunteers filmed by Sashko Protyah demonstrates how courage and grassroots self-organization saves lives even when it is deemed impossible. In both works, the authors reflect upon the loss of their hometown Mariupol which was occupied and virtually destroyed by Russia in the spring of 2022.

We recommend you next watch “Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows” produced by the Slovenian collective Newsreel Front, “Purple Sea” by Amel Alzakout and Khaled Abdulwahed, and “Landscape of Terror” by Kasia Hertz. The authors of the video essay “The Train of Shadows” reflect upon the ethics of cinema by telling the intermingled story of railways, migration, and cinema. In this work, Amel Alzakout combines her chronicle of migration through the Mediterranean sea with reflections on the fragility of life, her relationship with her husband, and the dehumanizing nature of the contemporary media. Kasia Hertz filmed the stories of refugees who survived the inhuman conditions and violence at the border between Belarus and Poland at the end of 2021. Each film shows how perilous, if not deadly, the road of those seeking asylum may be.

Then check out the films ”I Swam Enguri” by Anuna Bukia and “The Turtle’s Rage” by Pary El-Qalqili. Along with the characters of her film, Anuna crosses the border from occupied Abkhazia to Russia and witnesses the aftermath of the war in her home city of Sukhumi. Pary El-Qalqili tells the story of her Palestinian family to show how devastating the trauma of forced displacement can be.

We conclude this cinematic journey with the film “5 Exchange Lane” by Anirban Dutta. “The Turtle’s Rage” and “I Swam Enguri” both depict a journey to an occupied home which is filled with disappointment and sorrow. However, the story of the Cole family taking their journey accompanied by the film director is filled with the fragile hope of regaining memories of home, of reconciling with the pain of its loss.

We named the program “When Trees Bloom at Home Again”, because we believe that every place has the power to restore itself. And that like trees, the feeling of home will sprout and blossom, despite all attempts to destroy it. We dream that all those who want to return will see that bloom again.

https://filmafest.org/en/

Mila Teshaieva & Marcus Lenz: When Spring Came to

The Russian massacre in Bucha in Ukraine is well known and talked about. This film documents the cleaning up after the Russians left. It’s not nice to look at. Corpses in black plastic bags being collected and transported, names spoken out of murdered citizens, registration of the deceased, insight to apartments, where the Russians took siege, mourning, of course there is a sad atmosphere but there is also a will to carry on with life. Documentation of war crimes in Bucha has been collected. It’s terrible. The film, shown as part of the Luminous section at IDFA, documents, there are talks with survivors, it is important that the filmmakers were there and were there so quick after the massacre in March this year.

Allow me to change language and quote the Ukrainian author Serhiy Jadan, who spoke at a book fair in Frankfurt. How do you speak/film about Butcha when the war is over:

La poésie après Boutcha et Izioum est certainement possible, voire nécessaire. Cependant, l’ombre de Boutcha et d’Izioum, leur présence, va peser de tout son poids sur la poésie d’après-guerre et va largement déterminer son contenu et son ton. C’est une prise de conscience douloureuse mais nécessaire du fait qu’à partir de maintenant, le contexte des poèmes écrits dans notre pays sera celui des charniers et des quartiers bombardés… 

Germany, 2022, 66 mins.

Photos: Mila Teshaieva (radioeins) Marcus Lenz (wild films) Serhiy Jadan 

Mila Turajlic and Labudovic

Serbian director Mila Turajlic is my cinematic historian, when it comes to tell me about the history of Yugoslavia and Serbia. At IDFA she presented her two new films “Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels” and “Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudovic Reels”, plus had a live documentary performance about the reels together with her colleague Maja Medic. But let me take a flashback to the filmkommentaren archive, where you can find words about her previous films “Cinema Komunisto” and “The Other Side of Everything”. About the former: 

”It was one of those evenings (the closing night of the Magnificent7 2011, ed.) that you will never forget – and that Mila Turajlic will never forget. A totally packed Sava Centre in Belgrade gave her a minute long applause for her great work on making the 100 minutes long documentary on Yugoslav film history, ”Cinema Komunisto”, a film that in this and shorter versions will travel the world, to festivals and television companies. It is an enjoyable and informative voyage the young director takes, in film history and in history – back to a country that no longer exists.

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3125/

And the latter, the jury motivation for giving “The Other Side of Everything” the main award at IDFA 2017: 

“An apartment becomes a metaphor for both the former Yugoslavia and the current political climate in the region. In a space where past and present are in constant dialogue, we discover an inspiring character. Through the filmmaker’s lens we are introduced to her mother (Srbijanka Turajlic, RIP) – an enlightened woman who has dedicated her life to political activism. Poetically structured, the beauty of this character resonates. For its textured cinematic language that artfully blends the historical with the personal, the jury awards the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary to The Other Side of Everything by Mila Turajlic.”

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4096/

“…an enjoyable and informative voyage”, “…poetically structured” are words that also can be linked to the Labudovic Reels. Stevan Labudovic was the cameraman of Tito, who sent him to Algeria to cover the activities of ALN (Armée de libération nationale), The National Liberation Army fighting for the independence from colonializing France. He was there for 3 years and his contribution to the liberation is remembered and more than appreciated by the Algerians, as we see in the film. Turajlic travels to the country, meets surviving soldiers who took part, always with the showing of what Labudovic caught with his camera. Much of this Turajlic found in the archive Filmske Novosti, many reels had never been shown before – 35mm footage, excellent quality.

In both films – the Guerilla one and the one telling about the non-aligned countries meeting in Belgrade in 1961 – Turajlic has wonderful conversations with the cameraman (1926-2017), she takes him to his birthplace in Montenegro, where he was born, he talks about his profession, we see him on location, quite a fit man back then, also in the film, an old man mounting the stairs with a stick. “Your lens is dirty”, he says to Turajlic… and in another scene he directs her to get away from the disturbing sunshine. Enjoyable and informative.

Sound was put on later – propaganda, positive propaganda as Labudovic calls it, to be shown as short films in the cinema before the feature. Until 1989 this was the case, as in other Eastern countries where they were called chronicles. It´s history and impressive to see the leaders of the non-aligned countries one after the other: Nasser, Nehru, Sukharno and so on coming to Belgrade to establish a feeling of solidarity towards the rich colonizing countries. Labudovic was also at the UN when Tito spoke at the assembly. The material shown makes the cameraman say “oh, what a terrible framing I did…”, showing how it should have been. When Turajlic goes to New York she visits the embassy of Serbia, beautiful but on an expensive address, so it will be sold!

The scoop of the multi-layered narrative of Mila Turajlic is her voice-over that goes from giving the viewer the necessary facts to her own reflection about being born in a country that no longer exists – finding similarities between the Algerian fight for freedom against the French and the Yugoslav resistance against the Germans during WW2. In Algeria, at the museum for the liberation, she was reminded of her own childhood. Beautiful!

“Poetically structured”, indeed, many sequences put together of the formidable cameraman Stevan Labudovic.

Thank you!

Good interview with the director: https://rm.coe.int/interview-with-mila-turajlic/168098fb8c 

Lea Glob: Apolonia Apolonia

Main award at IDFA 2022 for Danish director Lea Glob for a film she has been working on for 13 years. A huge achievement to say the least. I saw the film two days ago at home online and was planning to write a review, but after this announcement of to night it was much easier to let the jury speak as well as quote the fine description from the IDFA website:

“This film has characters who breathe life and take us on a journey, opening us up to the worlds of culture and art, of business and politics, of the mechanics of a success story. It is infused with love…” the Jury statement.

“When Danish filmmaker Lea Glob first portrayed Apolonia Sokol in 2009, she appeared to be leading a storybook life. The talented Apolonia was born in an underground theater in Paris and grew up in an artists’ community—the ultimate bohemian existence. In her 20s, she studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the most prestigious art academies in Europe. Over the years, Lea Glob kept returning to film the charismatic Apolonia and a special bond developed between the two young women.

The result is a fascinating portrait, spanning 13 years, of a young woman trying to find her place in the art world. Apolonia is confident in her talent, but her path is not always an easy one. Life is not a storybook; one of the lessons Apolonia learns is that women painters have to make more sacrifices and overcome greater obstacles than their male counterparts do. This also applied to the friend she lived with for a long time, Oksana Shachko, one of the founders of the feminist action group Femen. Apolonia’s resilience is put to the test.” the IDFA website.

Apolonia, Oksana, Lea… three women, three approaches to life and art and society… three women from different parts of this crazy world we live in… three women full of life and hope… living on the edge… life and death.

Alina Gorlova: This is Not Putin’s War

I am often asked how boycotting the protesting Russian cinema will help win the war.
I found a good example to talk about it with.
I came across the project of a documentary film by a Russian director, which is currently being presented in the industrial section of the IDFA Forum. For those who don’t know, it’s a section of upcoming films where producers and directors look for partners and funding.
The Russian director presents her new project called “Dom”. 
€ 704,140 budget
How will a boycott of Russian cinema help us win the war? I think it will help us a lot to win the war if we lose our illusions. Creating a false picture of the aggressor country is absolutely not going to help us win the war. We found ourselves in this situation because Russia lulled the world community and even Ukrainians into complacency.
But let’s analyze the logline of this project, for example:
“A lost generation of young Russians arrives in Tbilisi Georgia. Forced to leave their homeland by Putin’s war and repression, they live as digital dissidents searching for a new home.”
Putin’s war.
This is not Putin’s war.
This is not Putin’s war.
This is not Putin’s war.
This is a war of Russians against Ukrainians. Putin has been in power for so long because he nurtured the Russians’ chauvinistic and imperial sensibilities. The definition of itself as a superior nation, its culture as great, and its main language as the main one are very pleasing to the people of Russia. Understanding this situation is key. Opposition Russians are speculating on the word “Putin” themselves, probably hoping to attract more attention to the project. “Putin’s war” is the creation of a false reality.
Again. I believe that, unfortunately, the authors of the project are engaged in manipulation.
I don’t know why this happened to Russian society; I think it’s not my business. But this is the task of their directors. That is why the use of the phrase “Putin’s war” from the very beginning is hypocritical. When Putin leaves, Russians will not automatically start repenting. I suspect that they will start preparing for a new war. That is why the statement about putin’s war is dangerous.
Further, the project description states:
“We are guilty of having allowed a monster to grow: “Putin’s Russia”, which is now destroying not only its own country but also its sister country.”
You could leave no comments here, but you can’t)))
First, in the sentence, the emphasis is shifted to the destruction of Russia. How does this monster destroy Russia? What did the authors mean? Excuse me, is Russia bombing Moscow? Killing its children and civilians? Have you turned any of your cities into Mariupol? In an attempt to make the project description more interesting and add sacrifice to their heroes, the authors completely muddled the issues.
And the highlight of this text is the presentation of Ukraine as a sister country of Russia. This is a classic narrative of Russian propaganda to justify aggression on the territory of an independent and, for them, at most, a neighboring state. It’s even hard for me to find the words here.
The perception of Russia and Ukraine as sister states supports the propaganda narrative. And supporting the narratives of Russian propaganda will definitely not help win the war.
I don’t care about the creative component of the project, I haven’t seen any of the director’s films, but the description of the project is infuriating and disorienting. Ukraine has not yet won this war. Supporting Russian propaganda narratives is harmful in this way.

Verzio Documentary Moments

When you have been watching scenes and footage from 8 projects at the Verzio DocLab Budapest last week there are moments of what you could call authentic truth that stay in your mind. Let me mention 4 of them:

A mother draws the curtain and lets in the sunshine to the room, where her grown-up son sleeps. She caresses him, he looks at her and the dog that also waits to be included in the moment of happiness. The severely disabled son smiles. Anna Rubi caught this moment that will leave no one untouched when “Your Life Without Me” comes out and will create debate in Hungary that “still lacks humane state care”.

Black & White, a mother and her daughter Erin (MacPherson), the director, sits next to each other with a cup in hand. None of them talks but you sense in this moment that something is wrong because of the framing and because the scene stays long. That unique cinematographic moment will stay in “The Pursuit of Grief” – the mother has lost her husband, the daughter Erin her father.

One-two, One-two-three, wife and husband train dance steps in their kitchen in “Dreams at Sunset” by Ibolya Simó. The scene is fun to watch – and touching as you have just been told that their two sons have passed away, one after cancer, the other took his own life. They now want to make reality out of “it is never too late to start living”, a sentence from the catalogue.

Another dance scene moment in a house in Budapest where the director Sára Timár dances with her old father thus showing her love to him, who used to be an important person in Hungarian dancing. This poetic dance moment followed in a scene, where a visit to the cellar reveals that something completely different had been going on… “Under the Dance Floor”, working title of the film-to-be.

Young filmmakers with an eye for people and situation. You need to be curious and have the skills to get close to achieve moments like these.

www.verzio.org

Foto: Anna Rubi 

Verzio DocLab 2022

From tuesday till saturday 8 film projects were being worked on in Budapest as part of the Verzio Human Rights Film Festival. The filmmakers came with their material and were met by mentors and colleagues, who gave them feedback in order for them to develop their projects and make – for their presentation today – a scene that could prove their film skills and tell the audience, what the film would be about. No trailers, no money talk, a brief verbal presentation and then the scene – or two – edited during the four days.

It was pure pleasure to be part of the mentoring team (Austrian director Michael Seeber, Spanish editor Diana Toucedo, Hungarian editor Brigitta Bacskai) walking from room to room in the infamous CEU Library, where there are no students due to the conflict between the Hungarian government/Victor Orban and the university founded by George Soros – that resulted in the move of the university to Vienna. But that’s another story you can google on your own…

It’s amazing what can be achieved creatively in so few days and it was my impression that the panelists (representatives from the festivals FipaDoc in Biarritz, Biograffilm in Bologna, from KinoDok in Czech Republic, Claudia Rodriguez Valencia from Colombia, Danish film consultant at the Swedish Film Institute Jannick Splidsboel, Hungarian film directors Asia Dér and Klara Trencsenyi, whose wonderful film “The Missing Tale” had its Hungarian premiere at the Verzio festival two days ago) appreciated the non-classical-pitch situation.

Also during the week there were two so-called masterclasses. The two editors Diana Toucedo and Brigitta Bacskai talked about their profession and I had the pleasure to have a conversation with Michael Seeber, who is a very knowledgeable person in the European film scene, having made documentary films and tv series and fiction. Seeber had chosen the title of the conversation, “Pursuing focus in our films — The creative possibilities”, showing clips we did both of us. Seeber showed a text clip from his upcoming film on Ida Halpern, Austrian ethnomusicologist, looking fwd. to see the final result.

The titles of the projects presented, look out for them:

  • Up in the Air (Ukraine)

  • Your life without me (Hungary)

  • 2158 Stories (Denmark)

  • The pursuit of grief (South Africa) 

  • Albada / From the morning (Venezuela) 

  • Under the dance floor (Hungary)

  • Dreams at sunset (Hungary) 

  • El cielo esta azur y el mar esta tranquilo (Spain)

    The workshop was organised by Péter Becz, filmmaker (by the way making a documentary in Denmark about a Hungarian chef based in DK!) assisted by Hanna Kadar and Anna Bölcsföldi, two great young women who made our stay effective and enjoyable.

  Still: …Hungarian film directors Asia Dér and Klara Trencsenyi, whose wonderful film “The Missing Tale” had its Hungarian premiere at the Verzio festival two days ago) appreciated the non-classical-pitch situation.