Baltic Sea Docs 2014/ 1

I am sitting on the 11th floor of Hotel Albert in Riga. We are into the third day of the workshop that preceeds the pitching of the weekend. 22 projects will be presented after two days of intense discussions of the projects. Today is the day where the filmmakers take their time to make the final adjustments of the verbal/visual presentation including the re-editing of trailers where they have had the chance to get assistance from Swedish/Canadian editor Phil Jandaly.

Everything has been – as always – perfectly organised by Lelda Ozola and Zanda Dudina from the Film Centre, and the weather has been superb. I am looking at the churches of Riga and at the new National Library that we had the possibility to see from inside the other day. It is magnificent, wow to be a student sitting in one of the many reading rooms with a view to Daugava river and the skyline of the Latvian capital.

Riga is the Cultural Capital of Europe and the film activity is influenced by this. Tonight I am to watch ”Across the Roads, Across the River”, the omnibus film about Riga with short films by the directors Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine), Audrius Stonys (Lithuania), Rainer Komers (Germany), Bettina Henkel (Austria), Jaak Kilmi (Estonia), Jon Bang Carlsen (Denmark) and Ivars Seleckis (Latvia). Before the screening I will have the pleasure to meet with Seleckis, the grand old man of Latvian documentary cinema, soon to be 80 years old. The reason is that he is the obvious Latvian choice to be part of the film about the masters of the poetic cinema in the Baltic countries. Seleckis is the man behind the trilogy from the Crossroad Street among many many films he has made about Latvian history and culture. On a personal level I owe to Seleckis that he was the first to take me and my wife on a tour round Latvia to see the beauty of the country.

The producer behind the film on the Baltic poetic documentary cinema is Uldis Cekulis. On the photo you see him relax outside the rooms in the farmhouse where we stayed on the island of Manija in Estonia, when visiting Mark Soosaar. Cekulis was the cameraman on the research trip.

Khaled Jarrar: Infiltrators

For everyone who has followed the tragic events in Gaza it is a must to watch the Palestinian artist and filmmaker Khaled Jarrar’s Infiltrators. I have written about Jarrar several times on filmkommentaren (one link below) and am happy that he will come to Copenhagen to show his films to the Danes. It happens in the framework of the Salaam Filmfestival on 07.09.2014 kl. 16:30. At the Cinematheque.

http://www.salaam.dk/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1934/

Mark Soosaar

… is a phenomenon. I have known him since the Balticum Film & TV Festival on the island of Bornholm in the middle of the Baltic Sea, going on from 1990-2000. He came there several times and 6 of his films were shown. He always came with his car on his way to Copenhagen or to Paris where he had things to do related to research for a new film or to his museum in Pärnu. It used to be called Chaplin Centre, now the name is simply Museum of New Art.

Sooo, filmmaker, art museum director and festival director of a festival that had its 28th edition this year in July. And on top of that, together with his wife Svea, Soosaar on the small Kihnu island Manija (35 inhabitants) has goats and sheep to take care of.

This is where we went for a visit. We (producer and cameraman Uldis Cekulis, filmmaker Kristine Briede, sound engineer Arvids Celmanis and me) came monday evening and left tuesday morning. Soosaar showed us around, milked a goat, great taste and talked about his current filming on the bigger Kihnu island. 3 half hour

documentaries are being made about the life of kids. On the 1st of September he had filmed the first school day. We were on a research trip for a film about the masters of the poetic cinema in the Baltic countries, and Soosaar is the obvious choice for Estonia. His many films about Kihnu are clear witnessing his respect for history and tradition and the lives of human beings.

On the photo (taken by Cekulis) you see the setting for the conversation we had late evening at the fire (Svea on the left, then Soosaar and me). Most of the talk was about Soosaar’s engagement in the situation in Ukraine. In his art museum in Pärnu, that we visited tuesday morning, he has every year what he calls a nude art show, ”Man and Woman” – this year he changed the perspective inviting Ukranian artists to exhibit their works in the museum, a fine gesture of solidarity that was followed up by legendary Czech photographer Jan Saudek and his wife Sarah, whose nude photos were sent to the exhibition, an equally fine sign of support for the Ukranians in their fight against the Russians.

Mark Soosaar, born 1946, is a young man with an incredible energy and a true believer in art, be it film or visual art or the radio broadcasting he does once a week, in Kihnu language!

Robert May: Kids for Cash

Det er tirsdag i dag og Dokumaniadag på DR2, som i aften 20:45 sender den bemærkelsesværdige ”Kids for Cash” om en retssag i en lille by i Luzerne County i Pennsylvanias bjerge (atter en amerikansk provinsbyskildring som sidste tirsdags “Rich Hill”), en retssag, som i medierne fik dette mundrette navn, en retssag, som vakte betydelig opsigt.

Produceren Robert May (blandt andet af dokumentarfilmene ”The Fog of War” og ”Stevie”) boede i den by og var i gang med en spillefilm, da en utrolig historie begyndte at udfolde sig i byens virkelighed: en kendt og respekteret dommer blev anklaget og efter et langt sagsforløb dømt for at modtage penge fra to private ungdomsfængsler for de børn og helt unge, som han for ned til de mindst mulige forseelser idømte så lange straffe som muligt. Til afsoning i netop disse fængsler. ”Yes, Dickens could have made this up, but instead, the story was unfolding right before our eyes, in real life…”, fortæller May i en lang og dybt interessant produktionsbeskrivelse trykt i filmens Press Notes (link nedenfor). Undervejs blev børnene og deres forældre intimideret af såvel politiet som af dommeren og hans medarbejdere. De fik stort set aldrig en forsvarer, de blev narret og presset til at skrive under på, at de afstod. Men en mor gav ikke op, hun tog kampen på sig, og sagen begyndte at rulle, da den lokale radiostation og en journalist fra en avis tog fat. ”Each day, we would pick up the local and national papers and read about what was happening right where I live…”, fortæller May videre. ”The fiction film we’d been working on became less and less of our focus. Clearly, I and Lauren (Lauren Timmons, medproducer) had gotten hooked by the “Kids for Cash” scandal – not just as citizens, but as storytellers. We began to see it as a potential subject for a feature film; one that could capture an audience’s imagination just as it had captured our own…” Virkeligheden overgik fantasien i intensitet, spillefilm lagt til side, nu skulle der laves dokumentarfilm!

De arbejdede på filmen i fire år. Under omhyggelige sikkerhedsforanstaltninger interviewede de en lang række involverede og indsamlede arkivmateriale og afdækkede lidt efter lidt parallelt med medierne en ind i detaljerne forfærdende historie, og denne thriller skulle selvfølgelig blive filmens story line. Filmen blev bygget på interviews med en række involverede i dette arbejde, men især følger den i interviews fem af børnene og allervigtigst, viser det sig, dommeren Mark Ciavarella (foto), som efterhånden erobrer hele opmærksomheden, dramaet bliver hans…

Så vidt, så godt. Det hele er imidlertid omgivet af arkivmateriale: tv- og avisklip, private fotos og film og enkelte æstetiserende rekonstruktioner, som forventes at fortælle af sig selv. Og filmen er klippet som konventionen angiver for denne særlige slags dokumentarfilm, går det op for mig, når jeg følger Dokumanias repertoire og ser film, jeg ellers ikke ville komme i tanker om. For jeg kan jo egentlig ikke lide dem. Og slet ikke denne. Jo da, interviewene med børnene er vigtigt materiale, hver af disse en film i sig selv. Og de sensationelle interviews med dommeren kunne være kernen i en film med en kunstnerisk problemstilling, som jeg tænker mig, Errol Morris ville have valgt at lave, havde materialet været hans. Nu er det Robert Mays og han har villet noget andet. Han har, ser det ud til, først og fremmest villet påvirke samfundsinstitutionerne, villet fremtvinge ændringer i lovgivning og regler og procedurer. Og derfor har han villet have det hele med, ihvert fald så meget som muligt. Og det er gået ud over filmen, som er tænkt i sproglige udsagn (afsløringer og argumenter) og slet ikke i filmbilleder og -scener.

Filmen er derfor så mærkværdig grim at se på. Kameraarbejdet er ud over hvad, der helt nødvendigt skyldes optagebetingelserne under så forskellige vilkår over en årrække (igen må jeg anbefale at læse den inetressante produktionsbeskrivelse i pressematerialet), ikke på nogen måde prægnant. Den fotografiske behandling af arkivmaterialet er uden idé ud over illustration og bevis og bestemt ikke rig på variationer. Og så må der simpelthen have været mangel på billedmateriale, der er mange gentagelser af dækbilleder, og dækbilledbrugen virker tilfældig og den er uden idé.

Men researcharbejdet til filmens journalistiske indhold, graverarbejdet, er imponerende (og en sidste gang må jeg anbefale produktionsbeskrivelsen), og detaljerne i sandheden, som her kommer frem, er aldeles rystende. Og så er der studiet af dommeren Mark Ciavarella, som er en næsten shakespeare-lignende, uanede tanker vækkende skildring af et menneskesyn, et samfundssyn, et opdragelsessyn rummet i hans helt personlige udgave af zero tolerance. Denne pæne, kultiverede, veltalende mand, som nu er i fængsel på i realiteten livstid. Ude i den virkelige verden. Dette studie af et sådant menneske er alene filmen værd.

USA 2014, 105 min.

Press Notes: http://kidsforcashthemovie.com/wp-content/uploads/KIDS_FOR_CASH_Press_Notes_061914.pdf

New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/movies/kids-for-cash-directed-by-robert-may.html?_r=1

Variety: http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/kids-for-cash-review-1200911791/

The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/kids-cash/review/657513

Phie Ambo: Så meget godt i vente

For én der trådte sine barnesko i SFC (Statens Filmcentral), er alt omkring Phie Ambos nye film den rene fryd. Debatten søgte vi med filmene, som blev sendt rundt til alle hjørner af Danmark – og de skulle gerne være af høj kunstnerisk kvalitet, sætte gang i tanke og mundtøj. Film skulle bruges til noget i den bedste Griersonske forstand. Og opleves på bedste Jørgen Lethske og Jon Bang Carlsenske vis. Ambos nye film er oplysning og oplevelse. En klassisk dokumentarfilm.

På et højt kunstnerisk niveau befinder ”Så meget godt i vente” sig. Jeg så filmen på stort lærred i Grand Teatret og nød fra første øjeblik Phie Ambos sans for komposition, hendes nærbilleder fra naturen, den rolige klipning og ikke mindst den fine måde, hun følger Niels Stokholm, denne karismatiske 79-årige bonde, mild og stædig fornemmer man, til stede er

han, når han forklarer, viser rundt og taler lavmælt kælent til de vidunderligt smukke røde danske malkekøer, som der nu er så få af i Danmark, fortælles det. Og konen hjælper til og er den, der virker mest påvirket af at øko-kontrollanterne hiver parret i retten, hvor de risikerer at miste tilladelsen til at holde dyr på grund af påstået ringe hygiejneforhold. Tror jeg anklagen gik på.

Ambo komponerer sine naturbilleder fremragende og er ikke bange for at være højtidelig og højstemt omkring sit emne selvom musikken – af Johann Egill Johannsson – måske får en tand for meget. Og uden at overgøre det, evner hun at skabe en stille dramatik omkring “sagen”, hvor de to er i retten og hjemme afventer rettens dom.

At jeg stadig ikke helt forstår principperne og filosofien omkring det biodynamiske, skal filmen ikke lastes for. Den gør, hvad den kan for at oplyse og man kan kun ønske held og lykke med debatterne i mere end 40 biografer landet over, sat i scene af DOXBio (link nedenfor) med sunde vine og øl og brød og… Det er en formidabel formidlingsindsats, intet mindre. Og filmen fortsætter i flere biografer efter premieren den 3. september.

Ren propaganda for Stokholms Thorshøjgaard? Ja, så absolut, instruktøren elsker stedet, filosofien og aktørerne på stedet. Men netop derfor er filmen et perfekt udgangspunkt for en diskussion om vort forhold til naturen og hvordan landbrug kan/skal/bør føres. Ærgerligt er det dog, at gårdens varer skal spises på Noma og andre dyre restauranter. De elitære sekvenser med de dygtige kokke og restaurantejere forstyrrer mit øje noget, når jeg lige har været i marken med Stokholm og har gravet kolort i kvæghorn ned i jorden. Men måske er det stadig sådan, at man kan handle ved stalddøren, som familiemedlemmer der har gået på Steiner-skole, fortalte mig, at de gjorde med deres forældre?

Til gengæld tager jeg gerne til Streetfood på Papirøen, da jeg nu ved at overskuddet går til en fond til bevarelse af Stokholms – hans egne ord – “lille kunstværk”.

Danmark, 2014, 96 mins.

http://www.doxbio.dk

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/film/da/86642.aspx?id=86642

DOKLeipzig 2014 Statistics

Press release from the festival in Leipzig, says a lot about volume of documentaries world wide, plus animation films on top of that!: 2,350 film productions from 119 countries have tossed their hat in the ring for this year’s International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. The submissions came from all five continents. In addition to major film-producing countries like France, the US and Poland, the selection committee also received productions from Trinidad and Tobago, Benin and the Central African Republic. For the first time a film was submitted from the tiny Caribbean island nation of Dominica.

The submissions consist of 1,931 documentaries, 339 animations and 80 animated documentaries. The selection committee has also screened nearly 500 other films at festivals around the world.

Some 80 films will be selected from all these productions to compete for Golden Doves in five competition sections. For the first time, the winner of the Golden Dove in the International Short Documentary Competition will qualify

for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

In addition to the competition sections, DOK Leipzig will be showcasing other outstanding films in the International Programme. The festival will be rounded out by a retrospective and numerous Special Programmes, so that a total of about 350 films will be shown in the Leipzig festival week from 27 October to 2 November 2014. One of the special programmes has a focus on films from countries of Ex-Yugoslavia.

DOK Leipzig is the largest documentary film festival in Germany and the oldest in the world. Last year’s festival saw a record 41,500 attendees

Photo: The selection committee with (white shirt in the middle) Claas Danielsen for his last year as festival director. It is understandable that a couple of the selectors wear sun glasses after the many hours in the dark.

http://www.dok-leipzig.de

Brian Knappenberger: Internet’s Own Boy /2

Filmen kan stadigvæk ses på Dokumanias side:

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/dokumania/dokumania-internettets-vidunderdreng

Jeg har netop set det to timer lange værk igennem én gang mere. Jeg kan stadigvæk ikke forstå detaljerne, mangler forudsætninger, har skrevet en lang liste over ting, jeg skal sætte mig ind i. Men jeg tror, det er en meget vigtig film, en film, som sætter mange uomgængelige overvejelser i gang. Det er en pligtfilm. Skal Filmkommentarens læsere kun se én film i aften, må det absolut være denne.

Her er nogle anmeldelser:

Rogerebert.com: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-internets-own-boy-the-story-of-aaron-swartz-2014

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/movies/the-internets-own-boy-the-story-of-aaron-swartz.html?_r=0

Variety: http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/sundance-film-review-the-internets-own-boy-the-story-of-aaron-swartz-1201069259/

Indiewire: http://www.indiewire.com/article/sundance-review-the-internets-own-boy-explores-the-tragic-fate-of-a-technology-icon

Festival Director Dancing in the Rain

Well, you might not see it but it was pouring down in Copenhagen sunday, when Magnificent7 festival director Zoran Popovic, caught by his co-director Svetlana behind the camera, was expressing his joy to be close to Hans Christian Andersen in the Royal Garden with the three of us “singing in the rain”. After 10 years of festival visits to Belgrade, my wife and I finally had the pleasure of a week with the Popovic’s in Copenhagen… they adore Hans Christian Andersen about whom his cinematic biographer, legendary Jørgen Roos said that had he lived today, he would have made documentaries.

Mikkel Stolt: The annual “Danish Doc Get-together”

During the closing panel talk Sunday at European Film College, English director Nick Broomfield suggested that all of us in the audience were in fact blessed because we are working in the documentary business of Denmark – the happiest place in the world with probably the best possibilities of getting a film financed. Well, we are also a bunch of cantankerous bitches and blighters who are never just satisfied.

But this weekend we were blessed with the presence of among other said Bloomfield, Russian director Victor Kossakovsky and emerging Ukrainian filmmaker Jurij Rechinsky, whose very moving and empathic “Sickfuckpeople” (2013) was shown on Friday night followed by a Q&A with the sneakingly charming director. About eight hours (and a couple of glasses of red wine and discussions in small groups) later we watched the brand new “The Tales of the Grim Sleeper” by Nick Broomfield. Quite a way to start at 8 in the morning, but it seemed that there was a bit more discrepancy between us all regarding our opinions on that film. Personally, I found it a bit disappointing and obvious considering some of his earlier work, but the talk and discussions afterwards was very enlightening and entertaining.

Entertaining is maybe not quite a satisfying word for the performance of Victor Kossakovsky which followed a screening of his remarkable and extremely cinematic “¡Vivan las Antipodas!”(earlier reviewed on this site). His passion is surpassed which we saw in a clip from behind the scenes on that film and I almost felt guilty with my tame Nordic temper, wanting to make films. He was a powerhouse of good remarks (“I want to make your soul soft”, “We are all guilty in giving TV so much power” and “Don’t tell me you wanted to be a filmmaker because you watched TV; no, you saw Fellini, Tarkovski, von Trier, whatever…”), expressed with his hefty accent which had us all on the edge of our seats – if not for the excitement, then for being able to understand what he said.

During dinner on Saturday night, a prestigious Danish prize, “Roos-prisen”, was most deservedly given to “Act of Killing”-producer Signe Byrge Sørensen but she couldn’t celebrate too heavily since she (together with producer colleague Helle Faber) had been given the ungrateful task of giving a lecture early Sunday morning. Rather rude, come to think of it. It was about the pros and cons of international co-productions and a bit more practical than the rest of the tight program which held much more than I can account for on this limited space.

There has been some grumbling in (the younger end of) the business towards the costs of participating. We may be blessed but we are not rich. Still, somewhat of a bargain for a brilliant seminar among the best and I think this one was my 15th in a row. However, being a cantankerous bitch I still have ideas for improvements and things we could do without but that will only be in my evaluation form provided by the arrangers. I hope it will be anonymous!

In the end, I can only advice you to become a famous documentary filmmaker and get invited or become a member of the Danish society to get a chance to join this seminar – but that’s equally hard these days.

Foto: Lars Bo Kimergaard: Kossakovsky forklarer i Ebeltoft “Antipodas” med en ledning. 

Brian Knappenberger: Internet’s Own Boy

Det er tirsdag i dag, det er Dokumaniadag. Filmen i aften, Brian Knappenbergers ”Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” er på én gang enkel som udsagnet på dette still (ikke fra filmen, men fra et blogindlæg om filmen) og yderst kompliceret, når jeg vil forstå, hvad historien egentlig går ud på, for ikke at tale om, hvad det rent teknisk var, det geniet Aaron Swartz foretog sig. Så jeg har problemer med den film, men jeg kan netop derfor bestemt anbefale Filmkommentarens læsere selv at se efter i  aften. Det kl. 20.45 på DR2. Dokumania redaktionen skriver i sin pressemeddelelse blandt andet:

” ’Internettets vidunderdreng’ (den danske titel) fortæller den fascinerende og fængende historie om en ung internet-pioner, der i kampen for fri vidensdeling på nettet kommer i klemme hos myndighederne og det pumpede amerikanske retssystem. Internet-pioneren Aaron Swartz startede bølgen om fri vidensdeling, og filmen følger ham gennem en kompleks kæde af begivenheder, der efterlod internet-miljøet måbende. Han er aktivist og opfinder, og allerede som 14-årig involverer han sig i udviklingen af den populære internetstandard RSS og opfinder sit eget ”Wikipedia” fem år før Wikipedia opfandt sig selv.

I studieårene på MIT tager hans liv en politisk drejning, som kulminerer, da han downloader 4 millioner videnskabelige artikler – en handling som får store konsekvenser, da også FBI indblandes. I 2011 og 2012 bliver han retsforfulgt for flere alvorlige dataforbrydelser og hængt ud som ondsindet hacker i et juridisk mareridt. Kort efter, som kun 26-årig, bliver Swartz fundet død i sin lejlighed.

Filmen bygger på arkivmateriale, blandt andet private videoer og nye interviews med hans nærmeste, som Knappenberger former til sin egen personlige historie og overvejelse af de nye teknologier og hvad de betyder for vores civile rettigheder. Brian Knappenberger skrev og instruerede ”We Are Legon” (2012) en film om hacktivist kollektivet Anonymous, så det ser ud til, at han har gang i noget omfattende.

USA 2014, 105 min.

Foto: Fra Alex Steeds blog steed.bangordailynews.com 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/02/aaron-swartz-hacker-genius-martyr-girlfriend-interview