Ashraf Mashharawi and Ken Loach in Sarajevo

I have copy-pasted from Guardian of today, where Simon McBurney interviews Gaza documentarian Ashraf Mashharawi (photo), “joint winner of the Katrin Cartlidge award” that was given out at the Sarajevo Film Festival, that the director travelled to in spite of all the complications involved in, going in and out of Gaza. Read the touching interview and about Ken Loach:

“Ken Loach has called for a boycott of all cultural and sporting events supported by the Israeli state, and condemned the support offered to Israel by the US and UK. Speaking at the Sarajevo film festival, Loach was presenting the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation award to two documentary-makers from Gaza, Abdel Salam Shehadeh and Ashraf Mashharawi. The former was unable to attend due to the airstrikes, while the latter, who was at the festival, told Reuters he would be unable to return.”

“He was holding his twins,” says Ashraf Mashharawi, leaning forward. “All his family around him. They had been able to shelter in their basement. But it was a direct hit and their house collapsed. It took two days to reach them. When we did, I helped to move the rubble from above them. He was sitting in the corner, holding his girls, one under each arm. They were all only slightly injured, so they must have died slowly.”

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/25/ken-loach-calls-for-cultural-boycottof-israel

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/25/ashraf-mashharawi-sarajevo-film-festival-gaza-simon-mcburney?CMP=ema_861

http://www.sff.ba/en/news/9996/ken-loach-curator-of-katrin-cartlidge-foundation-2014

Signe Byrge Sørensen

Signe Byrge Sørensen modtog i aftes på Filmhøjskolen i Ebeltoft under det årlige branchetræf for dokumentarfilmfolk ROOS PRISEN. Det Danske Filminstitut skriver i den anledning:

“Producer Signe Byrge Sørensen er på vej til internationale festivaler i Venedig og Toronto med sin nye dokumentarfilm “The Look of Silence”, Joshua Oppenheimers opfølger til “The Act of Killing”, der denne gang giver stemme til ofrene for det indonesiske folkemord i 1965-66.

Signe Byrge Sørensen grundlagde Final Cut for real i 2009. At hun kun fem år senere skulle optræde på den mest glamourøse af Hollywoods røde løbere, oscarnomineret for den kontroversielle “The Act of Killing”, havde den beskedne producer nok ikke forestillet sig. Men udsynet og lysten til at formidle globale problematikker på film har været en drivkraft i hele Signe Byrge Sørensens professionelle liv. Det samfundsmæssige engagement kombineret med en enorm arbejdsomhed, analytisk skarphed og stort mod har gjort hende til en dybt respekteret producer blandt kolleger i både Danmark og udlandet.

VISIONÆR PRODUCER I VERDENSKLASSE

Roos Prisen gives for en bemærkelsesværdig indsats for dansk dokumentarfilm, og priskomiteen uddyber valget af den 44-årige producer således:

En filmproducer kan være – men er ikke nødvendigvis – en kreativt drivende kraft. Signe Byrge Sørensen er meget mere end en kreativ producer. Hun har med “The Act of Killing” vist sig som visionær producer i verdensklasse. Hun så potentialet i Joshua Oppenheimers materiale, der bestod af mere end 1000 timers optagelser. Hun etablerede et professionelt, kreativt rum omkring ham, som gjorde, at det monstrøse materiale kunne forløses til en film, der på alle måder er nyskabende og bemærkelsesværdig. Hun skabte det økonomiske rum, og hun sørgede med en vedholdende strategisk indsats for, at filmen kom ud i verden og fik den fortjente opmærksomhed fra både kritikere, publikum og politikere.

Blandt kolleger i filmbranchen bliver Signe Byrge Sørensen fremhævet for sit intellekt, sin seriøsitet, sin fordomsfrihed og enorme vedholdenhed. Hvis Signe har påtaget sig en opgave, tager hun det fulde ansvar: det produktionsmæssige, det kreative, det etiske, det politiske osv. Og man skal absolut ikke lade sig narre af den ydmyge fremtoning. Signe Byrge Sørensen ved, hvad hun vil opnå, og går venligt, men bestemt efter det.

For os alle er det en gave, at det, som Signe Byrge Sørensen overordnet går efter, er at bidrage til en bedre verden med større lighed og social retfærdighed. Med film, der indimellem slår benene væk under publikum. Produceren selv står fast, hvad enten det er på den røde løber eller blandt syriske flygtninge, som er tema for et af Signes kommende filmprojekter.

OM SIGNE BYRGE SØRENSEN

Signe Byrge Sørensen er født i 1970. Opvokset i Maribo, cand.comm. i internationale udviklingsstudier og kommunikation fra RUC i 1998. Hun har produceret film siden 1998. Hun begyndte hos SPOR Media, rykkede senere til Final Cut Productions og grundlagde Final Cut for Real i 2009. Hun har produceret dokumentarfilm over hele verden og modtog i 2014 Timbuktu-prisen for sin formidling af stof fra udviklingslande.

Blandt de film, som Signe Byrge Sørensen har produceret, er “The Look of Silence” (instr. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2014), “Kulturkatedraler: Halden fængsel” (instr. Michael Madsen, 2014), “The Act of Killing” (instr. Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012), “Klovn for livet” (instr. Ida Grøn, 2011), “Hjemvendt” (instr. Marianne Hougen-Moraga, 2011) og “Fodbold er Gud” (instr. Ole Bendtzen, 2010). Hun har også produceret og med-instrueret (med Janus Billeskov Jansen) “I sproget er jeg” (2005) og “Kunsten at være Mlabri” (2007).

OM ROOS PRISEN

Roos Prisen, der er opkaldt efter dokumentarfilmpioneren Jørgen Roos, blev etableret i 1995 med det formål at “påskønne en særlig bemærkelsesværdig indsats for dokumentarismen i Danmark.”

Tidligere prismodtagere er: Jørgen Roos, Jørgen Leth, Sami Saif, Phie Ambo, Janus Billeskov Jansen, Jon Bang Carlsen, Jesper Jargil, Anne Wivel, Tue Steen Müller, Niels Pagh Andersen, Arne Bro, Steen Møller Rasmussen, Tine Fischer, duoen Lise Lense-Møller og Anders Østergaard, Lars Skree, Eva Mulvad, Michael Noer og Adam Nielsen.

Priskomiteen består af sidste års modtager, Adam Nielsen, samt direktør Henrik Bo Nielsen og udviklingschef Ane Mandrup fra Det Danske Filminstitut.”

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2163/

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2729/  

New York Film Festival

The photo refers to the film ”Red Army” by Gabe Polsky that at indiewire.com (link below) is described like this:

Soviet hockey players? As in the ones that were defeated by a young, inexperienced American team at the 1980 Olympics? In fact, the “Miracle on Ice” is just a blip in the story of Soviet hockey, as demonstrated by Gabe Polsky’s exhilarating documentary, in which the Cold War is fought on the ice. The Soviet Union’s Red Army team was the most successful dynasty in sports history. Players, trained from a young age, were stronger and more skillful than any others in the world and were meant to show up the West at every opportunity. Polsky, a child of Soviet immigrants who grew up playing hockey in the United States, finds a prime example of artistry on ice in Red Army team captain (and one-time NHL star) Slava Fetisov, who went from national hero to political enemy to American star to post-Communist Russian Minister of Sport. Polsky’s wildly entertaining film examines the many ways that sport both embodies and reflects social, political, and cultural realities…

Indiewire.com “lines up” the “auteur-packed Doc Lineup” at the coming New York Film Festival, the 52nd version that takes place September 26 – October 12. And it is indeed a great selection including at least four films that I so much look forward to watch:

Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence”, Martin Scorcese’s “The 50-Year Argument” about the New York Review of Books, interview based (James Baldwin is there, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer…), Albert Maysles (83 years old) with “Iris”, last name Apfel, “about fashion- and interior-design maven Iris Apfel, who is herself just south of 92…”, Wiseman’s “National Gallery” (in London) and what I think is probably the most important: “Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait” by Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan.

A quote from Real Screen: “This section of the festival has become increasingly important to us, and to me personally,” said Kent Jones, the NYFF’s director of programming and selection committee chair, in a statement. “It’s kind of a commonplace to think of documentary as an add-on to fiction, something extra, and of course nothing could be further from the truth: cinema started with documentary, and it will always be at the core of the art form.”

http://realscreen.com/2014/08/20/al-maysles-iris-set-for-new-york-premiere/#ixzz3B0cCsSpS

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/new-york-film-festival-unveils-auteur-packed-doc-lineup-20140819?page=2#blogPostHeaderPanel

 

Message to Man 2014

St. Petersburg, end of September (20-27), programme has been announced for the 24th edition of Message to Man. On top of the list, very much appropriate, is local master Alina Rudnitskaya with her latest fine b/w work ”Blood” (photo), one of 9 feature documentaries in competition, where you also find Ventura Durall’s ”Bugarach” and ”My Name is Salt” by Farida Pacha.

Message to Man has a competition for short-length documentaries, for short fiction and for animation. AND, what is special for the festival, there is a ”in silico” category with experimental works. For the fourth time and here is a repeat of what Mikhail Zheleznikov told me about this section last year:

“In this contest we present some purely experimental works, as well as more or less narrative documentary, animation or fiction shorts, which were too “avant-garde” for a more conventional international competition. 

Experimental short film competition In Silico works well in the context of the whole festival program, and draws the audience. Besides, it really expands our options – now we can show almost all the crazy shorts that we like and easily get away with it.”

More than 20 crazy works are listed.

Later on I will write about the special retrospective of new Danish documentaries to be shown in St. Petersburg this year. Message to Man is a festival rich in programme.

http://message2man.com/eng/

Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo: Rich Hill

Det er et fornemt filmværk, DR2 Dokumania sender tirsdag aften, en på én gang afklaret klassisk lydefri dokumentar og helt ny ung energisk samtidsskildring. Man skal ikke lade sig forlede af den danske undertitel, den er indsnævrende og vildledende. Jeg læser i hvert fald noget andet i filmen end ”fattig i Midtvesten”. De medvirkende familier er fattige, ja, måske fordi byen er under afvikling, måske ikke derfor. De er ulykkelige måske, måske ikke derfor. Jeg tror i øvrigt ikke på, at fattige mennesker er ulykkelige, bare sådan mekanisk, som en følge af fattigdom. Som en indforståethed.

Man skal stå renset og uskyldig på den film, for lige fra første billede begynder den som en erfaren fortæller fast og rolig selv sin historie. Som selvfølgelig er en historie om Rich Hill på samme måde som Twin Peaks er om Twin Peaks, Harlan County om Harlan County.

Livet kan sådan et sted have den ro, som betragtningen skildrer. Det er et inderligt ønske om skønhed, lad os nu se på det her, tage os tid. Og oplevelsen af ro er ikke grebet ud af luften, jeg ser i filmen, at den ro er til stede i de tre drenge. Den kan være glad, den kan være deprimeret, den kan være vranten. Men billederne viser den som skønhed, og det er ikke en distancering, det er en sandhed. Det er selve autenticiteten i stedet, som griber ind i værkets form. Det begynder lige ved åbningen, som det indforståede forslag til konsensus, og jeg accepterer den aftale, og det er ikke ret tit, det sker, for eksempel forkastede jeg jo her undertitlen, men efter netop den her åbning er jeg er sikker på, at jeg vil se den film, vil det sted hen, der vandrer jeg hen.

Hvert billede er en gennemtænkt skildring, det er lange optagelser, som i klippet roligt samles i klare scener af de små handlinger: de kigger på en kalender på væggen, han blader i en scrapbog, han taler i telefon. De snakker bare dagligdags med hinanden, de to. Hans besvarelser i intervewet bliver svar til sig selv, bliver næsten til indre monolog, sådan også med ham med telefonen, han er helt alene i billedet i scenen, og kameraet er mindre end et insekt på væggen. Det deles roligt og forståeligt og ordentligt op: tre drenge, tre hjem, tre slags dagligdage. Plus forældre og søskende, en lillesøster især. Hun bryder i sin birolle igennem med en særlig udstråling, en menneskelig styrke så afgørende vgtig for historien. Og historien samler sig, som var det af sig selv, i klare afsnit: Skolen, byfesten, halloween aftenen, det omrejsende tivoli, fyrværkeriet.

Og ja, ok. Det er da fattige familier, og filmen skildrer da omhyggeligt tre grader af fattigdom, tre grader af hjemligt rod, tre grader af ulykke. Det er skam ikke kun lyrisk impressionisme, det er også nutidig socialrealisme. Filmen er en undersøgelse, men studiets antropologiske metode er poetisk, ikke videnskabelig. Den er poetisk præcis. Mange scener vil huskes: skolelederens kontor, mor og søn diskuterer på verandaen, far og søn er sammen om lidt guitarspil. Dette er scener af opdragelsens antropologi. Der er mange af den slags, tæl selv efter!

”Rich Hill” er et fornemt filmværk. Alt er kontrolleret. Alt er tilsyneladende fejlfrit. Men den tilføjede undertitel ”fattig i Midtvesten” giver alt for snævre associationer, som let låser i en vinklende kategorisering, før filmens egen fortælling er begyndt. Dens poetiske undersøgelse er en langt mere omfattende antropologisk bedrift. Se selv efter!

USA 2014, 91 min. Sendes i morgen aften (18. august) på DR2 Dokumania.

The Power of Silence – Docs in Riga

The Baltic Sea Docs has announced its mini film festival programme that runs parallel to the pitching of 24 new documentary projects primarily from the Baltic countries but also producers from Western European countries turn up with proposals that have a link to the Eastern part of Europe. Two Russian projects will be presented this year where no Ukranians are on the list. But, as the organisers informed me: … a Polish project deals with the experience of four young people at Maidan Square and one of the Russian projects, by Vitaly Mansky, is a reflection on his Ukrainian roots on the background of Ukraine today.

Back to the film programme: 9 films are screened, all carefully selected with a wide spread in geography… “Dance for Me” by Danish Katrine Philp, “My Name is Salt” by Indian Farida Pacha, “Two Raging Grannies” by Norwegan Håvard Nustnes, ”The Square” by Egyptian/American Jehane Noujaim and Bulgarian “Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service” (photo) by Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva.

The title of the mini festival is “The Power of Silence”. Quite a subtile, sophisticated headline – I asked why and got this fine answer from Lelda Ozola and Zanda Dudina:

…There are a lot of under-water currents in each film that you keep thinking about after having watched. In other words you watch as if lightly, but then think a lot about issues raised – children travelling to other countries to reach their aims, adoption, economic growth, the quite silent people at the square of Cairo or in the salt field in India, etc, AND the wonderful lady Freda who worked with BEATLES during the whole existence of the group without walking around bragging about it. Keeping SILENT working in Liverpool as a book-keeper (title “Good Ol’ Freda”) … She is so simple, so positive and so natural in her modesty, it’s wonderful and powerful silence! … Hope that people who watch the films will understand. And hope that our good old friend from Danish screaming democracy will also understand us…

Of course, he will, I am looking forward to come back to wonderful Baltic Sea Docs in Riga for the 18th edition.

https://www.facebook.com/BALTICSEADOCS

http://www.mediadesklatvia.eu/baltic-sea-docs-2014/film-programme-power-of-silence/

Nagieb Khaja: Gaza Under Siege

Filmen er lavet for Al Jazeera English, som præsenterer den således: ”We find out what happens when a war is waged on a besieged area where half of the population is below the age 18. On July 8, Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip, which the Israeli military called ‘Operation Protective Edge.’Among its aims, they said, was to bring to an end rocket attacks launched by Hamas and other groups, and to destroy tunnels which were being used to bring in and store weapons.

For five days (July 25 – 29) in the run-up to Eid, filmmaker Nagieb Khaja was on the ground in Gaza. Hospitals were filled with injured children and distraught parents, while paramedics put their life on the line to try and reach those buried beneath the rubble. By the time he had arrived, the fighting had been going on for 16 days. Over 750 Palestinians had been killed, most of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 32 troops and three civilians had been killed.

This film is an account of what was happening as Israeli strikes decimated neighbourhoods and buildings, documenting what life was like for the people of Gaza living under fire.”

Filmen handler altså ikke om politik, ikke om konflikten mellem Hamas og Israels regering, den handler heller ikke om krigen og den er ikke noget partsindlæg heller, selv om den nok af mange vil blive set sådan. Den er i ordets egentlige forstand et vidneudsagn, Nagieb Khajas og hans holds (Reem Akkad Kasm, Warwick M and Mat Skene) vidneudsagn.

Khajas rolige og balancerede voice over, både i billedet og off, gør materialet, de optager til en reportage af stor lødighed og blivende værdi, fordi han gennemtænkt og neddæmpet lidenskabeligt løbende begrunder og værdisætter valget af optagelser, som indgår. Han vælger selv at være meget i billedet i optagelser, hvor han fortæller direkte til mig fra bilen han sidder i. Jeg ser, det er Khajas historie, hans blik, der ser alt dette forfærdende. Og efterhånden ser jeg det mere i hans bevægede ansigt end på billederne af bombernes destruktion af bygninger og mennesker. Det er jo ham, der er der. Ham, der ser. Det har jeg stor respekt for. Det bliver til en omvisning, som i sin tone og attitude er nøgtern og usentimental, men empatisk. Den er saglig og faglig. Journalisten ser det hele, ingen lidelse glemmes.

Doha, Qatar, 25 min.

Foto: Nagieb Khaja (ikke fra filmen)

“Gaza Under Siege” kan ses på Al Jazeera English i dag fredag d.15.august 21.30 og i morgen lørdag d.16.august 16.30. Den kan for tiden streames på http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2014/08/gaza-under-siege-2014813135919182905.html

 

2nd Edition of AegeanDocs

New documentary festival in Greece, actually the second edition it is – the official selection has been announced.

Some words from the site of the festival: ”The AegeanDocs International Documentary Film Festival announces the selection of the 54 documentaries, which will participate in the official (competition) program of the AegeanDocs 2014 in Lesvos, Chios and the other islands of the Northern Aegean from 20 to 28 September 2014… The final list represents 27 countries from Europe, the Middle East, Turkey, United States, Chile, Peru, Argentina and India. We have received an impressive number of well qualified film proposals – 347 films from around the world – the selection committee has selected 54 films for the official program…

The opening film will be the Oscar nominated ”The Act of Killing” by Joshua Oppenheimer… All 54 films will take part in the competition for the four AegeanDocs awards: Best History Documentary, Best Political Documentary, Best Social Documentary (2.000 euros each) and for the Special Award for Young Filmmaker (1.000)…”

My pleasure it is to see that several films that took part in workshops organised by Storydoc (Kostas Spiropoulos and Chara Lampidou), must be the driving force behind this festival, have been taken for presentation, including films from Greece, of course, like Marianna Economou’s ”Food for Love” and Stella Alisanoglou’s ”Dimitris Papadoulis – The Multiple Gift”, but also Palestinian Nahed Awwad’s actual ”Gaza Calling” and Sara Ishaq’s ”The Mulberry House” (photo).

Fine quality is also Greek ”The Grocer” by Dimitris Koutsiabasakos and ”Ain’t no Cinderellas” by Turkish Emel Celebi.

Take a look at the site, impressive festival initiative.

http://www.aegeandocs.gr/aegeandocs-2014-the-official-selections/

http://www.storydoc.gr

San Sebastian Eastern Europe series

Yes, the international film festival in the beautiful Basque city, taking place for 62nd time this year (September 19-27) launches an impressive retrospective called ”Eastern Promises. Autobiography of Eastern Europe… a look at movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence post-World War II. A cycle to discover the creative wealth of these film industries and the new talents to have emerged in the last decade.”

”The retrospective will bring together a total of 50 titles from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia, many of which have never been seen in our country…”

Among the 50 titles you will find three great documentaries: Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda’s ”Czech Dream” (2004), Andrey Paounov’s ”Georgi and the Butterflies” (2004)(photo) and Peter Kerekes ”Cooking History” (2009).

The occasion is of course ”25 years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall”. Which festival dares to make a retrospective of 50 documentaries, or 25… I would be happy to assist in the selection…

http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2014/news/1/4297/in

Hungarian DunaDOCK Withdraws from Festival

The Jameson Cinefest International Film Festival in Miskolc, Hungary will not include the DunaDOCK masterclass as planned. On facebook, in the ScreenDaily, on Spiegel Online and of course in the Hungarian media, that I can not read, the matter has been dealt with: The festival (to take place in September) does not want a couple of Roma documentaries shown, critical to the society’s treatment of the minority, one of them being a film classic of Pál Schiffer from 1978. As a consequence the DunaDOCK has withdrawn from the festival.

On a personal note: In the early days of establishing the EDN (European Documentary Network) I had the pleasure of meeting the fine man Schiffer in the middle of the 1990’es, introduced to me by Diana Groó, who is one of the four filmmakers behind DunaDOCK, and who made me watch several of the master’s works.

Schiffer died in 2001, another master Bela Tarr backs the decision of DunaDock as does the Hungarian Filmmakers Association. Here follows the announcement of the DunaDOCK:

Dear Friends,

We regretfully announce that DunaDOCK will not present its MasterClass program at the Jameson CineFest International Film Festival in Miskolc this September.

To our greatest surprise we found out that CineFest can only host our professional program if it does not contain – contrary to our plans – any film dealing with the topic of Roma in Hungary, or if it does, the title, the description and the names of the creators of such films cannot be listed in the official program or in any other public forum.

This year – as previously – we selected internationally recognized Hungarian and foreign documentaries for our MasterClass, based on professional

criteria. We were planning to include a great Hungarian classic film – Pál Schiffer’s Cséplő Gyuri (1978) (photo) – , and a new Hungarian documentary, that was already shown at international festivals. So it happens that both deal with the Roma topic.

The explanation of the CineFest leadership is incomprehensible to us; according to them the film festival takes place at the time of local elections, thus to avoid political conflicts and for security reasons they cannot undertake the presentation of any film dealing with the topic of the Roma in Hungary; even their usual Roma workshop is canceled.

We believe that the documentary film is a medium that helps the empathy towards our fellow humans and we find it unacceptable that an independent filmmaker professional program’s freedom can be restricted by current politics.

Under these circumstances DunaDOCK will not be present at the CineFest and we have notified already the organizers about our decision.

We sincerely regret that such a situation can occur at an international film festival.

Our MasterClas series will continue at a different place and time, to be announced soon.

Budapest, August 2014

The DunaDOCK team

Agnes Böjte, Diana Groó, Klara Trencsényi, Julianna Ugrin

http://www.screendaily.com/news/bela-tarr-slams-cinefests-roma-ban/5076066.article

– and DunaDOCK on Facebook