Baltic Sea Forum 2014/ 2

Are you on drugs was the question, jokingly asked by panelist Esther van Messel from First Hand Film, when Russian producer Vlad Ketkovich was pitching the project ”My Beliefs” to be directed by Tatiana Chistova. Could be… Ketkovich, wearing a t-shirt with ”army” on the front, talked loud, laughed and performed, he did not need a microphone to talk about the young Russian people, who do not want to go to the army and therefore meet with a commission to express why not. The trailer presented was a hilarious – and sad at the same time – observation of what goes on in the room, where they ask a panel of officials to be transferred to civil service duty. And the two of them, director and producer, did a fine humorous dialogue to convey a project of great potential.

… All in all there was a good atmosphere in the room with a panel of broadcasters and distributors and sales agents – and all chairs for observers were full. And pitchers who were able to being out their personality.

This was the first day of the Baltic Sea Forum with 12 projects and it was

obvious that Russia of today and Russia/USSR is the theme of the 2014 edition contrary to other years where many non-actual – for instance about art – subjects have been brought to the table.

The morning started with ”Dangerous Liaisons. Russia’s Soft Power” presented by the company Mistrus Media and the two investigative journalists Inga Dagile and Sanita Jembarga. A quote from the catalogue text: ”Through an in-depth investigation into the links between the protagonists, NGO’s, the media and Russia’s funding system, this film will try to deconstruct the Russian propaganda machine”. Well received and a willingness from the panelists to come up with ideas for the narrative construction.

At the end of the day ”Era of Dance” from another Latvian company, VFS Studio, was pitched. Elina Karule from the company talked about the influence that the electronic dance music in Riga had on the democratisation in the USSR in the 80’es, being one more element to make the Empire fall. The producer Uldis Cekulis stressed that there is rebirth of that music going on now, so the film will combine the past and the future.

Russian veteran director Vitaly Mansky was there with producers Simone Baumann and Guntis Trekteris – and everyone in the panel welcomed him and his personal story, from the catalogue: A Russian director born in Soviet Ukraine returns to the country of his birth, revealing an utterly personal story of his family then and now – a look at Lviv, Odessa, Harkov and Crimea from an individual living in Moscow.

Russia, USSR… and yet the warmest applause, as I heard it, went to ”Inga Can Hear” by Kaspars and Ieva Goba about a 15 year old girl who is the only hearing person in her family. A classical, non-political warm humanistic documentary is coming up.

Sorry, don’t find space for text on the other 7 projects but I dare say that in general the quality was good from all sides.

Photo by Esther van Messel from FB, text: Beautiful Riga caught in a coffee break of Baltic Sea Docs.

 

 

Across the Roads, Across the River – 7 on Riga

It was presented last year at Baltic Sea Docs and there it was on the big screen at Splendid Palace, the film that was made on the occasion of Riga being the Cultural City of Europe.  A so-called omnibus film consisting of seven films by European directors, who have been asked to take a look at the beautiful city at the Daugava river.

Short films (from 12 to 20 minutes) in other words, a film genre that was once the one that opened a cinema screening before a feauture film. A time slot, to use a television term  that now has been conquered by commercials.

But not last night at the Splendid Palace, previously called ”Riga”, a cinema dating back to 1923, and it felt natural that the first film was by Lithuanian film poet Audrius Stonys, whose love for archive material comes out in his fine, well-balanced tour on board some small fishing boats, shifting between today and before, celebrating men and tradition. German Rainer Komers went further out to the delta of Riga and gives the audience an impressionistic picture of what he saw and heard from man and surroundings, whereas Austrian artist Bettina Henkel stays in the old town of Riga, in ”“Theater

Strasse 6”, which is an investigation in the same time about a building in Old Riga as well as into her own family history and in a broader sense part of Latvian history.” I have to say that I did not get it, I just saw the director putting papers on walls and furniture as a kind of installation, messy and boring to watch. As was, boring, the piece of Sergei Loznitsa, ”The Old Jewish Cemetery”, an observation of people in the location of today, a poor district, watched by the director and conveyed clinically without colours. Why?

After two films – this is of course the danger of putting seven films together – which made you a bit sleepy to be honest, the energy returned with the last three contriobutions. Danish Jon Bang Carlsen followed a cat around, actually several cats with a beautiful white one in focus, entertaining and original idea and you get to see Riga from many angles with May 9 celebrations as one of the backgrounds, Victory Day of ww2, parallel to a sequence of a cat playing with the mouse. A metaphor? Also very convincing and well composed is the film of Estonian Jaak Kilmi, who was at ”the virgin island”, where people for decades have had their small houses, living there during summer time. It is a warm film about a special place and a special culture that now will disappear, a text is announcing at the end of the short cinematic visit. And of course the old local master Ivars Seleckis ends the film in the style he used in the Crossroad-trilogy, here through a visit to the Kipsalu district meeting people, who live there and observing restaurant life, a regatta on the river, joyful, a bit touristic maybe but does it matter when there is warmth and cinematic skills?

The films are linked through presentations made by the directors, reflections on filmmaking, short, manifesto-like, a brilliant thought realised by Latvian director Davis Simanis. He is on the photo ready to film Jon Bang Carlsen.

Conclusion: Great effort, not totally succesful, but nice to watch and not only for Rigans and Riga-lovers like me, the long duration is of course complicating an international distribution. But why not – an appeal to television people – reserve small time slots weekdays and show one after the other. And festival people, take it as it is, or pick some of them for your short film programme.

Latvia, Mistrus Media, 2014, 140 minutes

http://riga2014.org/FilmForceMajeure 

"The Flaherty Presents”

Press release (edited) of today from The Flaherty, great initiative:

Cinema Guild and The Flaherty announced today an exclusive digital partnership to create a curated series spotlighting the work of groundbreaking artists and filmmakers. Volumes in the series, titled “The Flaherty Presents,” will be released annually on all major digital platforms across North America.

This new partnership aims to bring together The Flaherty’s unique curatorial approach with Cinema Guild’s noted distribution networks and to make many of the films and ideas gathered annually at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar available in homes and classrooms across the country.

The series will launch with a spotlight on acclaimed filmmaker Eric Baudelaire, guest artist at the 2014 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, available on November 25, featuring the following two films: “The Anabasis Of May And Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi And 27 Years Without Images” (2011, 66 minutes) and “The Makes” (2010, 26 minutes). Baudelaire’s new film, “Letters to Max” receives its world premiere on September 12 at the Toronto Film Festival.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Cinema Guild in making filmmakers of exceptional talent available to wider audiences,” commented Anita Reher (photo). “This new partnership is part of The Flaherty’s 60th year of celebrating the art of cinema.”

“We have immense respect for The Flaherty; for what they accomplish at their now-legendary annual seminar, and for what they do every day to empower filmmakers and support documentary and independent cinema. We’re honored to be entering into this partnership with them,” added Ryan Krivoshey.

The deal was negotiated by Ryan Krivoshey, Director of Distribution for the Cinema Guild with Anita Reher, Executive Director, and Chi-hui Yang, Board Trustee, of The Flaherty.

Leena Pasanen New DOKLeipzig Festival Director

Press release of today from DOKLeipzig: Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung is proposing the Finnish documentary expert Leena Pasanen (49) to become the next director of DOK Leipzig. The City Council will decide on the appointment on 15 October. A selection committee composed of industry professionals chose Pasanen from 33 candidates. Her years of experience and excellent international network were among the deciding factors.

Leena Pasanen currently directs the Finnagora cultural institute at the Finnish Embassy in Budapest. Previously, she held various management positions at the Finnish television broadcaster YLE. Pasanen was responsible for documentaries on YLE 1, then led the cultural and documentary programming division of the digital special-interest channel YLE Teema and later worked as a programme coordinator. She also spent three years as director of the European Documentary Network in Copenhagen.

“I am delighted that Leena Pasanen has been nominated as my successor. She is widely respected internationally, a profound connoisseur of documentary film and a very experienced cultural manager”, says outgoing festival director Claas Danielsen.

If the City Council signs off, Leena Pasanen will succeed Claas Danielsen on 1 January 2015. She will begin a five-year contract as festival director of DOK Leipzig also serving as managing director of the municipal Leipziger Dok-Filmwochen GmbH.

Claas Danielsen has led the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film since 2004. During his tenure, he modernised DOK Leipzig and made it one of the leading international documentary festivals and major industry gatherings.

… If I dare take the October 15 confirmation as a formality, a big hug and congratulations to Leena, colleague in documentary and former director of EDN – as the one who writes these lines.

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