Jihlava 2014 /Kerekes and Janek

Gustav Mahler was in Jihlava. His face is looking at me from the wall in the breakfast room of Grand Hotel, which was grand once, an art nouveau building from the outside but how could they put that terrible furniture into the lobby! Tasteless. Anyway, service is fine and kind. Back to business, well actually pleasure:

After having three one hour meetings with filmmakers participating at the training programme Ex Oriente, a masterclass was held by Peter Kerekes and it lived up, to what I had expected. Kerekes showed clips from the three films that have given him the well deserved reputation as a documentary auteur with his own style, ”66 Seasons”, ”Cooking History” and ”Velvet Terrorists”.

The Slovak told the audience why he is not able to make observational documentaries, he feels uncomfortable by being there and telling his characters that ”just don’t notice that I am here”! Reality is not in front of the camera, it’s in my head. For the ”66 Seasons” I did a deep research to make sure that they would talk about the past, what happened way back around the swimming pool in Kosice. I wrote everything down when having filmed, a good

exercise and then I could go back and make my characters do something unexpected to get away from the tone of being official, when a camera is there. If they trust you there are no borders.

The scenes Kerekes showed from ”66 Seasons” (photo) were hilarious – the man coming up from the water looking like Adolf, because one of the old women had a boyfriend, who had that little moustache. People love to play their own life and I was positively surprised that a film so local could sell to almost all tv stations in Europe. I think I succeeded in bringing energy into the scenes of the film. As for ”Cooking History” the situation was different as I had to make a very precise script for this film which was more a ”documentary theatre” than a ”documentary film”. He showed the ”epilogue” of the film in which the former u-boat cook is preparing the meal standing in the sea… the idea of the cook himself! Finally some words about ”Velvet Terrorists”… where it was difficult to make one of the terrorists perform. One of the co-directors, Ivan Ostrochovsky, whispered to Kerekes, ”give him a girl”, which turned out to be a great idea – in the film you see how ”the terrorist” teaches a young girl how to use weapons, how to lie to a lie detector (!) and many other tricks. Where the two first films were shot on film, ”Velvet Terrorists” was made on video and the team ended up with a lot of material. A brilliant 90 minutes masterclass, Kerekes is an original documentary humorist.

At night world premiere of Miroslav Janek’s ”The World According to Brabenec”, full house in the big cinema, wonderful atmosphere because of the charismatic old man. One more remarkable film from the hands of Janek, here is the catalogue description:

“Journalist Renata Kalenská’s book of interviews with member of the Plastic People Vratislav Brabenec recorded not only his memories of the underground years, but also the author’s experiences with this highly distinctive individual. This cinematic sequel builds on those experiences as it captures her additional interviews with Brabenec – improvised talks at places that hold some meaning for Brabenec or Kalenská. The result is several scenes of irrelevant philosophising, self-deprecating humor, and commentary on the life of birds and on nature in general. The conversations, recorded mostly by hand-held camera, are interspersed with poetic citations. “Do you ever feel happy?” “I don’t like the word happy at all. I equate happy with stupid.” “I’m unhappy with you. So I guess I’m un-stupid.””

Several films of Kerekes and Janek can be found on DocAlliance, Kerekes films can be bought via his website.

http://www.dokument-festival.com

http://kerekesfilm.com/?lang=en

http://dafilms.com/

CPH:DOX 2014 /Widmann og Krause

SCENARIO af Philip Widmann og Karsten Krause

De to på dette still har en affære. Det er en kort scene, der er nogle få flere i filmen, de er alle iscenesat, de er vignetter i den vældigt omfattende dokumentation af den mindste og almindeligste kærlighedshistorie i verden. Det er dokumentationen som gør den usædvanlig, bemærkelsesværdig og til posthum kandidat til århundredets største.

Jeg læser ikke filmen som en lummer romance, som festivalkataloget formulerer det, jeg læser såvel emne som værk, som jeg læser Orhan Pamuks roman ”Uskyldens Museum”. Jeg ser filmens autentiske, fotografiske, lydbåndbundne og fysiske artefakter, som jeg tror, jeg ville se hans museum i Istanbul, grebet og berørt af materialets aura af ømhed. Jeg tror også, jeg ville se Susanne Zanders udstilling i Berlin af dokumentmappen og dens indhold, ”Günter K.: Margret-Chronik einer Affäre ” på samme måde. Filmen bygger på den udstilling. Det er en rørende og uskyldig affære. Hvis nogen er skyldige, er det galleriejeren og filminstruktørerne. Men de er også modige, de har vist mig almindelighedens poesi.

Susanne Zander beskriver på sin hjemmeside historien ganske kort: ”Margret (udstillingens titel) chronicles a secret love story, which took place from May 1969 to December 1970 between the Cologne businessman Günter K., 39, and his secretary Margret S., 24 – a meticulous documentation consisting of various photographs and documents, which were found in a briefcase at the dissolution of an apartment.The convolute comprises of hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs showing the same woman in various places and poses: sitting at a typewriter at the office, traveling, and in a hotel room…” (En fotoserie på hjemmesiden viser et ganske lille, vemodigt gribende udvalg, dybt intime souvenirs forvandlet til genstande i en offentlig kunstsamling.)

Det kan være, at filmens Hans, som altså hænger sammen med 1970-virkelighedens Günter K., samlede dette materiale i dokumentmappen for på det grundlag at skrive en bog om sin kærlighed, sin forelskelse, som Pamuks hovedperson Kemal Bey samlede tingene til sit museums og Pamuks romans virkelighed og bad Pamuk skrive romanen, som skulle være udstillingens katalog. Filmens tilsvarende museumssamler, Hans finder bare ikke ordene, som skal forvandle notater og artefakter til hans kærligheds historie, han dør fra opgaven, og den sorte mappe ligger tilbage i lejligheden. I filmens virkelighed, i udstillingens, i virkelighedens.

”Scenario” er en cinematografisk tænkt og uhyre skarpt gennemført dokumentarfilm. En tragedie og et melankolsk essay over erindringens og kærlighedens fysiske fremtræden og over biografiens væsen samlet i arkivets, dagbogens og collagens filmkunstneriske form.

Tyskland 2014, 89 min. Vises på CPH:DOX 2014 9., 10. og 14. november. Links til steder og billetbestilling her:

http://cphdox.dk/screening/scenario

Beskrivelse af “Scenario” fra filmfestivalen i Berlin, kataloget:

http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesSzenario.html

Susanne Zanders udstillingsbeskrivelse:

http://www.galerie-zander.de/artist.php?lang=en&a=guenther_k

Sebastian Frenzel, anmeldelse af udstillingen i Innsbruck og Berlin:

http://www.monopol-magazin.de/artikel/20105782/Guenther-Margret-Secret-Diary-Kunstraum-Innsbruck-Kunst-Werke-KW-Institute-Berlin.html

Jihlava 2014 /Kerekes, Mansky, Nellis

SECOND CHANCE / THE ETERNAL LIGHT / AUDITIONING FOR PARENTHOOD

I am back in Jihlava after 5 years. I stopped working for the training programme Ex Oriente in 2009, where the final session with pitching took place in this cosy provincial town, where time seems to stand still. But where a documentary film festival is taking place for the 18th time. From the start under the leadership of energetic Marek Hovorka, who is always going for the different films and have established interesting sections for his programme. The festival has a huge industry programme, the excellent DocAlliance is here, the Silver Market, loads of masterclasses with directors like Godfrey Reggio, Peter Kerekes and Nicolas Philibert.

I went to the Silver Market and watched some short documentaries. Peter Kerekes came up – again – with a surprise, entertaining and thought-provoking. Title ”Second Chance” (photo, 12 minutes, he visits an old lady, whose birthday is October 28, the independence day of Slovakia (1918). To ask for her advice. His plan is to fight the corrupted policy of current Slovakia and his idea is to ask a country to invade Slovakia to establish better conditions – as communist leader in Czekoslovakia Bilak did in 1968, when he and others in the top of the communist party asked Brezhnev to help! Kerekes goes to Finland for help! It’s excellent!

More observational is Vitaly Mansky’s ”The Eternal Light”, shot in Ukraine on Victory Day, May 9, where the war veterans join around the memorial statue and the eternal flame that unfortunately has gone out. He meets a veteran in his home, stories from the war are told. 15 minutes, whereas Laila Pakalnina has made a two minutes piece, that in her classical search for weird situations has one shot on football players lined up side by side waiting for the result of a penalty shoot… for football freaks like me funny, will others understand.

At night a walk through the quiet and softly lighted town, following the white lines that take you from cinema to cinema, a fantastic idea that the festival has performed year after year. To a three hour opening of the festival, a show for more than one hour and a film about families adopting children, ”Auditioning for Parenthood” by Alica Nellis. For me a mainstream tv documentary full of talking generalities, have to talk to Marek Hovorka why a festival that advocates for film Art starts like that.

http://www.dokument-festival.com/

http://www.wff.pl/en/filmy/second-chance-slovakia-2-0/

DOX 103

I read the last article this morning in a plane on my way to Prague. I had browsed through the sport pages of a stupid Danish tabloid newspaper and felt good in my 24C seat on Czech Airlines with DOX in my hands. You concentrate on the reading and if any turbulence occurs you read the same sentences more than once holding quality in your hands! DOX is for these moments up in the air, or in the summer garden, in a train or in the sofa at home. I have never read the entire magazine right away, the same with this issue, you read it piece by piece, pick it up once in a while, also this number 103, where black is the cover and white are the letters that say ”last issue in print”.

Filmkommentaren.dk readers might have followed the posts of protest and the many why’s to Paul Pauwels (PP), who on the website of EDN has characterised this debate as a facebook campaign! In this last issue, PP writes, under the headline ”On to Greener Pastures”, that DOX does not fit into the EDN policy in a new challenging media situation.

Anyway, the other day I heard that an Executive Committee member of the EDN had suggested to publish/print one fat DOX per year to come out in connection with the idfa festival. That is

very much in line with the suggestion that I have made, inspired by what the Danish Film Institute does – they have an online service for smaller articles and longer, deeper background stuff in printed versions to come out at important festivals. Does not have to be that expensive – layout, printing, translation, symbolic fees… I am sure there could be volunteers for the editing. I do hope that PP, the staff and the Executive Committee will discuss this seriously…

Because we need articles like the ones in the last issue. Examples: Vibeke Bryld’s clever reporting from the Flaherty seminar, Sevara Pan’s intro to the succesful DocIncubator, Emma Davie on CAMP, a new way of storytelling with mention of an interesting Palestinian film, Suvi Helminen’s wonderful historical article about Glorianna Davenport and much more – all well written and edited, new to me and pointing in the direction of finding alternative ways for storytelling within our lovely documentary genre. They do not fit into an online concept. And the layout is fine, actually excellent, as is the language editing.

Yesterday I had dinner with Ole John, Danish film director and producer and writer, and one of the founders of EDN. When asked he said: I love DOX, I read all of it. Me too!

Photo: Frances Flaherty, accompanying the article by Vibeke Bryld.

CPH:DOX 2014 /Østergaard & Rácz

1989 by Anders Østergaard & Erzsébet Rácz 

Of course the film had to start with 1956 and it does so with very fine and moving archive footage of people searching for the remains of Imre Nagy, whose government was not accepted when the Russians invaded the country. Nagy was executed in 1958. That historical reference is important to include as the re-burial of Nagy, the rehabilitation of him, happened in the years around 1989, and with the support of Miklós Neméth, who served as prime minister 1988-1990 and is the main character of ”1989”, an intelligent, informative, entertaining and provoking documentary.

Yes, it deserves all these superlatives for its fresh look at what happened 25 years ago, when the wall went down as did the Soviet Union. Neméth, economist, coming into power, looked at a country close to bankruptcy and found the border control mechanisms extremely expensive – so he decided to have the borders opened, to tear down the iron curtain. He did so and had strong opposition from the hard-liners in his communist party, his rooms were bugged, and his manouvres were looked upon with more than skepticism from the GDR leader Erich Honecker, as the result was that thousands of Eastern Germans flew to the West through Hungary, before the wall went down in their own country.

They are all there in the film – Gorbachev, Helmuth Kohl, Honecker – and

they talk, well maybe not always with their own voices, but with their own words, researched, found and checked in the archives by the filmmakers. Who have put together archive images of these big-name players, or have reconstructed archive images of them – the meetings behind closed doors are brought into daylight. It is wonderful to watch a storytelling that breaks some rules of the mainstream television historical documentary. Call it hybrid or not, what the filmmakers seek is authenticity.

Parallel to the greater political story runs a personal – a Hungarian is being shot at the border at a time, when it was closed after being open. His widow talks about how it was to enter a freedom that her husband did not get to enjoy. This element in the film stands a bit weaker than the playful political interpretation and the moving images that relates to Hungary 1956. Neméth stands out as a brilliant and sympathetic man, who joined the communist party and went to its top, a decision he took even if his father told him ”remember where you come from” and did not talk to him for six months!

Clever, very clever film that has its premiere at cph:dox festival on November 5 and is being simultaneously screened in many European cities – in the press material is mentioned Oslo, Prague, Brussels, Dublin, Kiev, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok,Porto, Belgrade… check your local media for where the screenings take place.

Denmark, 2014, 90 mins.

http://cphdox.dk

CPH:DOX 2014 /Østergaard og Rácz

1989 af Anders Østergaard og Erzsébet Rácz 

Så er der guf for historikerne – igen. Denne gang ikke i forbindelse med et stykke 1864, Danmarkshistorie, vi er tættere på, det drejer sig om 1989, for 25 år siden i tiden omkring Europas totale forandring – murens fald, Sovjetunionens opløsning.

Og det drejer sig om en intelligent udarbejdet, filmisk provokerende, underholdende og oplysende film af danskeren Østergaard og ungareren Rácz. De præsenterer en nyfortolkning af begivenhederne, der førte til murens fald og et nyt Europa. I centrum er datidens ungarske premierminister Miklós Neméth, som fortæller, hvorfor han besluttede sig for at rive ”jerntæppet” ned. Det var ganske enkelt for dyrt at opretholde grænsekontrollen! Konsekvensen blev at østtyskerne i tusindvis flygtede til vesten via Ungarn.

Neméth blev ikke populær. Dels kom han i konflikt med landets betonkommunister, dels så DDR’s Erich Honecker med forfærdelse på, hvad der skete i Ungarn. Og Gorbatjov… Neméth besøgte ham i marts 1989. Og Kohl, Gorbatjov ringede til ham.

Det er alt sammen med i filmen, som genskaber historien (med rørende tilbageblik på Ungarn 1956) ved hjælp af originalt og rekonstrueret visuelt arkivmateriale, og dialoger som er fundet frem fra utallige kilder. Det er undertiden morsomt og undertiden dramatisk: Filmholdet har interviewet enken til en mand, der ikke nåede at opleve friheden, han blev skudt ved grænsen på et tidspunkt, hvor den stadig var lukket.

Hold da op for en rig og spændende film, glæder mig til et gensyn!

Filmen har premiere 5. november, ved CPH:DOXs åbningsgalla i DR Koncerthuset, hvor filmen samtidig får visninger i udvalgte biografer landet over og i mere end 15 forskellige biografer i Europa. Dermed bliver åbningsfilmen på CPH:DOX, for første gang i festivalens

historie, ikke blot en københavnsk begivenhed – men noget hele Danmark og resten afEuropa kan deltage i. (Citat fra cph:dox hjemmeside)

Danmark, 2014, 90 mins

 

 

 

http://cphdox.dk/node/8162

Maloof and Siskel: Finding Vivian Maier

”Finding Vivian Maier” is ”documentary of the Month” at the Cinematheque in Copenhagen with screenings from the 23rd of October, so Copenhageners – this is a must-see, it is lovely portrait of a mysterious woman, who her whole life was working as a nanny or governess, serving others at the same time as she, always with a camera around her neck, was taking photographs that she never showed to others. A person who ”never fit in”, an eccentric. She lived from 1926-2009. Close to her death, a quote from the website of the film…

”… Maier’s massive body of work … came to light when in 2007 her work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. From there, it would eventually impact the world over and change the life of the man, who championed her work and brought it to the public eye, John Maloof.

Currently, Vivian Maier’s body of work is being archived and cataloged for the enjoyment of others and for future generations. John Maloof is at the core of this project after reconstructing most of the archive, having been previously dispersed to the various buyers attending that auction. Now, with roughly 90% of her archive reconstructed, Vivian’s work is part of a renaissance in interest in the art of Street Photography.”

Of course one might say that it is the work of an artist that is interesting and not her/his life. In this case, however, the putting her life together piece by piece through the photos and interviews with those, who employed her and

the kids, she took care of – many of them are in the photos – brings forward a facetted portrait of Vivian Maier, who did not want to tell, where she came from and in many cases gave people, who asked, a fake name like V. Smith. So the enigma, the mystery around her private life still stands as does the question whether she would have wanted the photos to be published. The answer to this… well, if she kept all the negatives in boxes, if she kept all the receipts from photoshops, if she kept everything in order, one could make the conclusion that she would not mind that someone found them and made them public?

The photos have a great documentary quality. She has been able to catch the moments, to get close to people, to convey humour and tragedy, ”the bizarreness and incongruity of Life” as one of the interviewed employers says. She travelled the world in 1959 documenting what she saw, a street photographer, well this is where she was with the children she was looking after, sometimes she forgot them, one of the now grown-up males says. A closed person, hiding behind the Rolleiflex, a true documentarian.

If you are not in Copenhagen, you can get to the film through the film-link below and/or go to the photos via the second link.

USA, 2013, 83 mins.

Photograph: © Vivian Maier/Maloof Collection © Vivian Maier/Maloof Collection (taken from Guardian).

http://www.findingvivianmaier.com/

http://www.vivianmaier.com/

Louise Detlefsen og Louise U. Kjeldsen: Forsøget

Filmen rummer et vigtigt sted 30 minutter inde den mest gribende scene, jeg mindes at have set i en tv-dokumentar. Den er en ægte og helt igennem autentisk filmscene. Den varer vel næsten fem minutter, og er netop så lang, den er, fordi den skildrer en vanskelig telefonsamtale, og en sådan tøver, som vi ved, med at slutte, for ingen ved, hvordan man gør. Scenen fortsætter, så den kan vise mig hvor smukt, det kan ske. Fortsætter til sin egen afslutning. Samtalen er den alvorligste en læge og en patient kan have. Når begge, patienten og lægen, er tømte for ord, naturligt færdige, trætte, vokser pauserne og bliver ligesom af sig selv til en slutning. Det er meget smukt, for sådan ved jeg naturligvis, det er i den virkelige virkelighed.

Patienten deltager i forsøget på Herlev Sygehus med t-celle behandling. Det var først gået så godt, men nu efter den seneste scanning opfylder hun ikke kriterierne for at fortsætte. Hun er opgivet, det er hvad lægen, uden direkte at sige det sådan, må meddele i denne telefonsamtale. Patienten argumenterer med lægen, hun gør det afdæmpet klogt. Både på et intellektuelt niveau og på et følelsesmæssigt niveau. Hele samtalen hører jeg på filmens lydside. Jeg er hos lægen og kigger hende over skulderen, mens hun sidder ved sit skrivebord og tager den samtale, som hun på forhånd har aftalt med patienten, som bor i Thy. Det er alt sammen meget, meget opmærksomt registreret af Henrik Bohn Ipsens kamera.  Det er filmens centrum og handlingens overraskende omdrejningspunkt. Sådan har klipperen Steen Johannessen klogt ordnet det.

Louise Detlefsen har lavet en interessant produktionsbeskrivelse, hvor hun skriver om filmens idé: ”Først mødte vi den erfarne kræftlæge Benny Vittrup Jensen, der som overlæge ved Enhed for Eksperimentel Behandling på Herlev Hospital, talte med os om tro, håb og kærlighed i arbejdet med de uhelbredeligt syge patienter. I en periode på nogle måneder fik vi lov at sidde med i hans konsultation på 17. etage, hvor patienter, der ikke har flere behandlingsmuligheder kommer for at medvirke i medicinske forsøg, i håbet om det kan forlænge eller redde deres liv. Efter at have fulgt Benny Vittrup Jensen havnede vi nogle etager længere nede på Herlev Hospital, hvor Center for Cancer Immunterapi holder til. Her oplevede vi, at der foregik noget nær et mirakel…”

“I al stilfærdighed var den ansete professor i klinisk immun terapi Inge Marie Svane sammen med et hold af yngre læger i gang med at afprøve en helt ny form for kræftbehandling. I vores øre lød det for godt til at være sandt: Lægerne opererede en kræftknude ud, tog nogle særlige immunceller ud, dyrkede dem i laboratoriet så de delte sig til milliarder og så fik patienten sine egne immunceller tilbage i kroppen. Her kunne de så i månedsvis bagefter helt af sig selv gnaskede kræftcellerne i sig. Så kræften skrumpede ind eller sågar helt forsvandt. Døende patienter kunne blive helbredt.

Det lød så enkelt, at selv vi forstod det. Og det lød ikke bare forståeligt, men også som første skridt hen imod en kur mod kræft. At Herlev Hospital til og med var det første sted i Europa, hvor denne nye metode blev afprøvet på mennesker, gjorde det endnu mere spændende for os…”

Jeg kan godt lide den film, ja, jeg er meget optaget af den film. Jeg har måske enkelte indvendinger. Vistnok. Men det har mindre betydning. Det vigtige er, at filmen er lavet. Den leverer en ren og ordentlig og afdæmpet beskrivelse af kræftlæge og kræftpatient på fælles hårdt arbejde. (At det stik modsatte billede af patient læge relationen andre steder i andre situationer både kan tegnes og er blevet tegnet, ved mange – bestemt også jeg.) Men her er jeg i den klassiske oplysende dokumentarfilms verden. Disse film skildrer opbyggeligt vore samfunds vitale funktioner. De skal bruges til folkeoplysning, og de var fra deres begyndelse ikke kritiske (blev det efterhånden ind imellem), og i dag er en film som Forsøget i sin art og kvalitet ikke så almindelig. Den er en gammeldags film på den fine måde. En tv-dokumentar med information og oplysning som formål og indhold i en filmisk form, hvor samtale og interview veksler med reportage med ren og behersket journalistisk holdning.

Danmark 2014, 56 min. TV2 på torsdag 23. oktober 20:50

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/film/da/85454.aspx?id=85454

LOUISE DETLEFSEN

Fra Barbie til Babe (2003), Min bedste lærer (2006), Klara – livvagtens datter (2008), Jakob – Revisorens søn (2008), Christas mareridt (2010), Mig og mine forældre, Sådan er kvinder, Et forbandet år (2012), Lovebirds (2014) 7,9,13 (2014) Forsøget (2014)

LOUISE UNMARK KJELDSEN

Min bedste lærer (2006), Sådan er kvinder, Et forbandet år (2012), Store piger græder ikke, De sårede, Selvoptaget

 

Cinedoc-Tbilisi Second Edition /2

The festival in Georgian capital Tbilisi ended yesterday and I found this message on the FB page:

The award ceremony is over and we would like to announce the results:

International Competition: The main prize of this section goes to “Judgment in Hungary” (dir. Eszter Hajdu). 
The special mention to “Ne me quitte pas” (dir. Sabine Lubbe Bakker & Niels van Koevorden)

Focus Caucasus:
 The main prize of this section goes to “Blood” (photo) (dir. Alina Rudnitskaya). The special mentions to “Zelim’s Confession” (dir. Natalya Mikhaylova) and 
”Biblioteka” (dir. Ana Tsimintia)

Cinedoc Young:
 Our special jury – the youth – gave the main award of this section to “The Barrel” (dir. Anabel Rodriguez Rios)

Our opening film “Do you believe in love?” (dir. Dan Wasserman) received the Public Prize.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/