Stephen Smith, one of the directors of “Vanishing Point”, wrote to me a couple of months ago. He asked if I would care to watch his film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Apart from a very fine recommendation by late Peter Wintonick, there had been no real attention, he wrote, even if the film – see website, link below – has been going around to mostly Canadian festivals. I got the dvd and started to watch and was immediately brought back down memory lane – Greenland and the many Danish documentaries made from there, especially by Jørgen Roos (1922-1998), who for decades returned to adventurous Greenland to film the hunting culture and the conflicts between traditional way of living and what we Danes has taken with us to Greenland. If anyone Roos has visualised inuit in Greenland. My vision of the island comes from him.

Roos would have loved “Vanishing Point” that is a very well told and beautifully filmed story, non-sensational in a calm rhythm and with a charismatic leading Navarana K’Avigak Sørensen – more Danish can a surname not be! Navarana is the one who tells the story in first person tracking her own family roots back to Qitdlarssuaq, a shaman, who in the 1860’es migrated with a small community of Inuits from Baffin Island to the North of Greenland. Navarana is the descendant, who takes the viewer by the hand to show and reflect on the Inuit culture of today up there near Uummannaq, where her family used to live until they were displaced due to the building of the American Thule base (Jørgen Roos has made a film about this Danish-American scandal).

Naduk is the daughter of Navarana or did I get that wrong… doesn’t matter, Navarana goes with her family (Naduk’s husband is Ole… again more Danish

can a first name not be) out hunting, it’s in May and the ice used to be thick, but now there is danger that the dogsled will sink into the water. The camera catches the beauty of the nature and the equally beauty of the faces of three generations on hunting. One sequence is amazing: No words behind the images of the auk seabirds, who in hundreds (thousands?) fill the sky going to and fro or rather trying to escape the nets brought to catch the birds. Totally non-dramatic you watch the catch, the strangling and the putting the dead birds into sealskin bags that are to rest some month under rocks – and then the delicious kiviaq dish can be served, Navarana and her family say.

The last long part of the film takes Navarana to where Qitdlarssuaq came from, the Bassin Island. She discovers that the culture there has developed in quite another direction – “here life runs on gasoline and and sugar”. She goes hunting a narwhal, that is shot from a motor boat, whereas – to be seen later when she is back in Greenland – where she comes from the whale is first harpooned from a kayak and then shot. Mattak is a delicatesse and Navarana enjoys.

The text of Navarana that is conveyed voice-off, or to the camera is good – like when she is to sum up the situation of the inuits of today: “The World is Melting Under Our Feet” – but maybe also too demonstratively pointing at the theme, letting her repeat sentences like “what do we get when we go to our places” and “what do we lose when we leave”. On the other hand you trust Navarana’s unsentimental approach, an inuit elder she is described being in the synopsis of the film, well she is definitely not old in mind, perfect as a film character. “Qitdlarssuaq is in my blood”. Thanks for updating my vision of inuit culture in Greenland seen (also) on the background of the culture in Canada.

Canada, 2012, 82 mins.

http://www.meltwatermedia.ca/site/Vanishing-Point-movie.html

https://www.nfb.ca/film/vanishing_point/

 

A couple of months ago I wrote a text about the upcoming second edition of the Cinedoc festival in Tbilibi, Georgia. The festival included a section called Ukranian Voices with several films, also one that I had not heard about, ”Ukraine_Voices”. The day after I was informed by Dmytro Tiazhlov and Ella Shtyka, what was hidden behind the title – ”a documentary almanach”, 8 short documentaries made during the workshops organized by the Indie Lab project initiated by the two filmmakers. Tiazhlov has been reviewed on this site before for his works ”Cornered” and ”I was a Monument to Myself”. So I downloaded the film and watched. Here is the synopsis taken from the Georogian festival site:

A collection of 10 documentaries (in my download there were 8, ed.) gives a glimpse into nowadays Ukraine just before the crisis started. These short films are all directed by different filmmakers and tell us various stories, through these films we observe Ukraine from different points of view and get to the heart of what really matters to millions of young Ukrainians, we also get to know some unknown heroes and learn their stories.

And here is Tiazhlov’s comments from the site of festival Eastern Neighbours in Rotterdam last month: “Ukraine today is a pluralist society amidst authoritarian regimes, a fascinating and troubled country Poorly understood by its neighbors. It’s also home for extraordinary tradition of civil society and for Gifted writers, thinkers, artists, many of whom, reflecting on the Maidan, have raised in new ways Fundamental questions. The Ukrainian society realized that it could have a direct and real impact on the Government, as an equal partner in the decision-making process.”

The initiative itself deserves praise, and good also (in several films) to move away from Maidan and Kiev to see what happened elsewhere, filmed by young filmmakers and activists. It makes no sense to review film by film, so let me mention three, that had fine quality, (also) because they had a focus on one character, good idea when you have so little time as a short film allows you: ”More than Nikolai” (photo) by Oksana Sharnik, about the charismatic priest, who helps people in need and is very clear in his opinions, denying to stay at home, when there are demos in the streets of Kherson. Equally the ”Penalty for Justice” by Vyacheslav Bihun, who tells a horror story (nothing to do (at least directly) with politics) about a man, who was beaten up by the police, to end up in a wheelchair paralyzed, being helped by fine people to take his case to the European Court. The film is told through drawings. Excellent choice. And – Madian, yes – ”Right to Protest. The Beginning” by Aksynia Kurina with activist and journalist Mustafa Nayem, later awarded internationally for his contribution and dedication, who via FB called for demonstrations on the square. It is full of energy, has fun at the same time as you never doubt that what is going on is more than serious. Again – this collection of very different films and protagonists, mostly pro-EU, adds another aspect to our knowledge about the tormented country just around the corner from where I live…

Ukraine, 8 short documentaries, 2014, 81 mins.

http://enff.nl/

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/?p=1915

 

Got this mail from Carmen Cobos this morning referring to a screening in Aarhus, Denmark tomorrow; “IMPERFECT HARMONY – my debut film as director will be shown in your country this Thursday, maybe you care to see it” – the Doc Lounge Aarhus is the venue, FB link below and here is what I wrote about it on this site:

Louis Andriessen, charismatic Dutch composer, and Mariss Jansons, charismatic Latvian chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The two characters in the fascinating observational documentary drama, which is very well told, interesting and entertaining.

The drama evolves as the days pass. Andriessen has composed music for the 125 year’s anniversary of the Concertgebouw, and enters the building to follow the rehearsals during the last five days before the performance. The camera stays very much on the face of the composer, who appears a bit nervous and confused in the beginning. His relationship to the musicians is warm and generous, while the relationship to the conductor is on the contrary a bit complicated. At some moments, to say the least… ”school teacher”, says Andriessen having discussed details with Jansons, ”he is a pain in the…”. Some of the musicians seem to agree with Jansons and his need for pedantry – it is clear that he in his questions to the composer that this is not the kind of music he favours – others like the more open attitude to interpretation that Andriessen stands for.

It is a very generous film. You get very close to the artistic creation of a fine piece of music, you get a fine impression of how two characters of different temperament get closer to each other, two old proud professionals who have to meet each other, whether they like it ot not. You see how an orchestra works preparing down to the smallest details, asking questions to the composer. Andriessen has very interesting comments to his work, to music and to from where his inspiration comes… Happy Ending, Andriessen walks out of the building, out into windy Amsterdam mission completed.

https://www.facebook.com/events/878400385517259/