Torben Skjødt Jensen: Teaterdokumentarer /5

Teatermennesket Torben Skjødt Jensen havde 29. marts 2014 den her Facebook-opdatering: ”… i aften står den på premiere på Rytteriet 2 på Bellevue – det skal nok blive sjovt… Men jeg vil nu gerne inviterere alle jer, mine FB venner, i teatret i aften. På DRK starter i aften 20.55 en ny runde teatertransmissioner på “1. parket” – og de næste 3 lørdage har jeg produceret og klippet de viste forestillinger. Det starter med “EKSIL”, teater Nordkraft i Aalborgs første brydetag med Jakob Ejersbos forrygende Afrika fortællinger – en rejse med den unge Samantha ned i den mørkeste side af menneskesindet i hjertet af Tanzania. Spænd selen og rejs med i aften foran TV-skærmen …” Jeg står på, og bliver væltet og fyldt med kaotiske følelser og ustrukturerede tanker. Jeg ved ikke hvad jeg skal mene. Og lader være. Sørger…

Over den skæbne, som truer den unge, på mange måder (måske alle måder) nøgne, unge kvinde, jeg selvfølgelig, sådan som det er indrettet, altså skrevet og iscenesat, følger fra begyndelse til slutning uden at tage blikket væk. Hun er der hele tiden, og hun skal følges til hun går til grunde. Hun hedder Sofia Saaby Mehlum, er skuespiller og en voksen kvinde, og hun fremstiller karakteren Samantha, som er en stor skolepige. Og for mine øjne forvandler Sofia Saaby Mehlum sig til denne skolepige med en voksen kvinde i sig. Jeg ser det ske. Dokumentarfilmen gør det muligt. Jeg har hende i fokus fra hun under prologen viser sig i baggrunden lænet op ad en af verandaens stolper (på den veranda foregår alt, den er et microkosmos), gennem alle scener til den sidste. Og det er ikke, fordi jeg glor på hende, som hun siger til en af mændene (og samtidig betror, at det kan hun godt forstå), det er fordi, hun lader hvert øjeblik med sin energi, sin musikalitet, sin autenticitet i hver eneste reaktion og hvert eneste udtryk. Og netop det er noget, dokumentarens iagttagelse om ikke muliggør at se, for sådan er det heller ikke, men udpeger og understreger, så jeg ikke alene oplever en 15 årig kvinde, men en voksen kvinde i sit mimesiske øjeblik på øjeblik på øjeblik, en skuespiller i sin kropslige erindring.

Jeg ser ikke filmen som en kritik af af europæisk praksis i Afrika, ikke som en filmatisering af Ejersbos roman, slet ikke som en optaget og gemt transmission eller reportage fra Nordkrafts forestilling. Jeg ser filmen som en fremragende dokumentarisk skildring af en skuespillers empatiske undersøgelse af en person i et litterært værk og hendes skuespillerarbejde med at genskabe dette menneskelivs tragedie, så jeg ved, det var ægte og stort teater der i Ålborg på Nordkraft, så jeg for mine øjne ser en autentisk indsats for ærlighed og kærlighed, men som det hedder i undertitlen også ser en konsekvent ”destruction of beauty”. Et tv-program ja, men her i form af et filmværk, som bør bevares, så det kan genses i en films skriven. Min association lander jo ved Sonnet LXV: ”… Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? / O! none, unless this miracle have might, / That in black ink my love may still shine bright.//”

”Eksil”, Danmark, 80 min. Postedified TV & Film, København. Det grundlæggende teaterstykke blev opført af Nordkraft, Aalborg. TV- versionen blev endt på DR K første gang 29. marts 2014 og igen i forbindelse med teaterfestivalen på DRK 16. juni 2014. Vil formodentlig blive genudsendt yderligere, da de formodentlig har rettighederne til flere visninger.

Torben Skjødt Jensen: Teaterdokumentarer /4

22. juli 2013 havde Torben Skjødt Jensen denne underdrevent stolte opdatering på sin Facebookside om sin tv-udgave af Christian Lollikes modige teaterstykke om Anders Breivik og hans i al fremtid ufattelige forbrydelse: ”Husk det nu – iaften 20.45 DR2 – MANIFEST 2083, teaterforestillingen fra CafeTeatret af Christian Lollike og med Olaf Højgaard, produceret og klippet af mig (sagde hunden) i en special version for netop DR – og vi har alle “oppet” os det bedste vi har lært…” Jeg så ikke tv-versionen dengang, først nu, og det er et fortsat chok (nu efter igen en pause) at se Torben Skjødt Jensens overførsler af teaterforestillinger til film, den ene lykkes bedre end den anden.

Hans tv-version af ”Manifest 2083” er rystende vellykket. Hele filmen handler om forestillingen, som udelukkende handler om at lave den teaterforestilling. På den måde bliver Olaf Høigaard ved med at være sig selv og aldrig den forbryder, hvis grusomme forbrydelse er baggrund for ønsket om og viljen til at lave den teaterforestilling og dernæst denne film.

Han påtager sig gennemført på alle planer det mimesiske skuespillerarbejde. Han styrketræner, indtager steroider, foretager japansk meditation. Jeg ser det hele, han sminker sig til forestillingen. Morderen sminker sig. ”Jeg skabte et narrativ”, sagde morderen. Det samme kan Lollike og Højgaard og Skjødt Jensen på den diametralt modsatte menneskelige og etiske baggrund herefter sige. De etablerede den skræmmende fortælling om, at det er muligt. Når som helst, hvor som helst. Morderne går omkring iblandt os.

Torben Skjødt Jensen har sat sit markante præg på Christian Lollikes og Olaf Høigaards modige teaterstykke. Skjødt Jensens aftryk er denne særlige berøring med en sikker, hurtig pensel, noget ubestemt tydeligt, som ikke kan være anderledes, som jeg kender fra hans film langt tilbage, som vist altid har været der i hans værk. Og ja, han har med Lollike og Højgaard oppet sig, og det var egentlig ikke påfaldende nødvendigt.

”Manifest 2083”, Danmark, 80 min. Postedified TV & Film, København. Det grundlæggende teaterstykke havde premiere 15. oktober 2012 på Café Teatret. Sendt på DR 2 første gang 22. juli 2013 og i forbindelse med teaterfestivalen på DR K for kort tid siden. Vil formodentlig blive genudsendt der, da de formodentlig har rettighederne til flere visninger.

DocAlliance Celebrates Sarajevo Film Festival

… by offering a selection of short Balkan documentaries for free until August 17. On the occasion of the 20th edition, Rada Sesic, the festival’s programmer of documentaries, has picked what she herself calls ”… pearls of the documentary expression, powerful, lucid, intelligently structured, likeable, often even humorous. I believe, that showing the best of the regional short docs is really a treat, not only for the audience in the region itself, where the stories found its source, but for the whole world and its film lovers, because short forms are powerful, beautiful and memorable…”

The quote is from an interview with Sesic, first link below, the second one brings you to the films available.

11 films are recommended, let me point at “Real Man’s Film” by Nebosja Slijepcevic, here is the annotation:

“In Balkan every generation has its war. Sons are continuing fights started by their fathers. There are rifles and pistols in every hand. Concentration of arms has reached a critical point. Even the smallest incident would be disastrous to this fragile peace. 
Watching children playing with toy guns makes you wonder: what are we leaving to the next generation?”

http://dafilms.com/event/176-Sarajevo_Film_Festival_20_years/

http://dafilms.com/

Laura Dekker: Maidentrip

Det er solosejleren, som også er fortælleren, som er autor her. Det her er Laura Dekker alene og så naturligvis et stort hold af filmfolk og administratorer. Men det er hendes film, hun har filmet det meste, hun laver voice over med det samme, fra hvor hun er. Og hun er helten, hun er i den grad helten. Også min helt, efter jeg har fulgt hendes beretning om stædigt arbejdsomt at gøre sin ketch klar til at sejle jorden rundt ved først at sejle alene over Atlanterhavet til en vestindisk ø og så senere vælge den ø til slutmål for rekordforsøget. Altså beslutte ikke at vende tilbage til Holland, men vælge udvandringen under udvandringen og så efter jordomsejlingen finde en gast og sejle den halve jord tilbage, til New Zealand.

Jeg var låst ved skærmen uafbrudt, mens jeg bare så og lyttede og sugede til mig af uimponeretheden, den selvfølgelige dygtighed, den rutinerede dagligdag alene på en båd midt i verden. En sejlbåd som det eneste, man har, som hjem og base, og så selvfølgeligt sejlende overalt, hvor der kan sejles, sejle ud i verden og ind i sin egen ro og afklarethed. Det var lige sådan en film, jeg havde brug for netop nu. (Og det er vel hvad film er til…)

Susan Wloszczyna skriver på rogerebert.com i sin anmeldelse: ”… What a relief it is to spend quality movie time with an adolescent girl who isn’t pining for a boy or obsessed with social media. Not that Dekker doesn’t act her age regularly. She adorns herself with headbands, wrist ornaments and necklaces. She dyes her blond hair red around the trip’s midway point. She celebrates after making popcorn for the first time. She bounces around to music and eats out of a cooking pot just because she can. She even swears, though not quite like a sailor.” Læs hele den omhyggelige anmeldelse her:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maidentrip-2014

Filmen kan formodentlig nogle dage endnu ses på:

http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/dr3-dok/dr3-dok-14-arig-alene-pa-verdensomsejling

USA 2013, 55 min.

Sergio Tréfaut: Alentejo, Alentejo

An old man stands at his kitchen sink. He is being addressed by his daughter. Cut. He sits down at a table, cleans his glasses, puts them on, takes a piece of paper, looks into the camera, looks at us and starts reading from the paper(s). I wrote a poem, he says, about ”cante”, about how it came into existence. He reads the lines about the Alentejo people being mute, but listening to the voices of birds and cicades, they got inspired to express Life through singing. Words were scarce, carefully treated. ”Cante” was born. The old man smiles, he has given his interpretation with humour and pride of being part of the Alentejo community, a region that although abandoned and far away from Lisbon, a region with unemployment and poverty, has its own rich culture and history that is being nurtured not only by the old generation but also by the youngsters and the kids in schools.

In this –to warn you: I will not be short of praising adjectives in this review – wonderful emotional journey into the history of ”cante”, its roots, its connection to the farming and cooking culture (you see how a bread soup is made, and how bread is baked and red wine is enjoyed) you are invited to enjoy the ”cante” singing by primarily male choirs constituted by Men with furrowed faces and well-fed stomachs, who make the most beautiful performances. You may close your eyes and enjoy, but it would be wrong as the camera catches superbly the faces and the English subtitles, as good as subtitles can be, give you the content of the songs.

What you discover is that the texts are story – telling themselves. Love songs from the countryside, in the beginning a tribute song to

Mother, a song about Death, powerful and sad, about the eternal crisis of Alentejo, and the crisis of today, and the longing to come back to Home, when you have left the culture and its deeply rooted ”cante”. Crisis of today: the film also lets children in a classroom tell their teacher that the parents work abroad, there is nothing for them here. The film ends on a song that includes lyrics like ”abandoned” and ”always been forgotten” and in this way the film is also a political message to the authorities of a Portugal in Lisbon and Porto, the big cities.

The cinematograpy – the dop is Joao Ribeiro – is unique. The singing with the choirs takes place on a black background or in taverns where the singers and the moments where the individuals come into the song are perfectly (= naturally) arranged. Look at the still accompanying this review, of course it is the man to the furthest left, who is the lead singer, whereafter others take over in the a capella performance. The light is set right in this scene from a tavern as many others from similar locations, complemented by the set-ups where you have the choir out-of-location and in the dresses they use for performance. Ribeiro demonstrates a fantastic eye for composition. When you have a person talking to the camera, like the old woman in the beginning of the film, who tells fascinatingly about her childhood, the framing is done through lot of stories told ”around” the woman at the table. Or when you have an old man, also in the beginning, who remembers songs, is emotionally affected and sings one song, waits some moments – the camera stays on him – and sings one more… it is magnificently conveyed.

And thanks for letting the scenes unfold, for being slow = respectful, for letting the characters express themselves!

There is a song ”to every situation” says a young man, who studies ”cante”, and you feel happy when you hear and see three young men in a kitchen where they make the bread soup, eats a bit, salutes each other with a glass of wine and start to sing, and afterwards talk about ”cante”. It’s not about understanding, it’s about ”feeling the lyrics”. He says.

I have followed Sergio Tréfaut’s documentary work for many years. I saw his Portuguese revolution film ”Outro Pais” (1999), his warm film with his mother ”Fleurette” (2002), his ”Lisboners” (2005), the Egypt work ”City of the Dead”. They are all good, however, the new ”Alentejo, Alentejo” seems to me to be the most mature and rich informational and emotional documentary from his hands.

Portugal, 2014, 97 mins.

http://alentejoalentejo.com/en/

http://www.sergiotrefaut.com/alentejo/

 

Alan Berliner: First Cousin Once Removed

Lucky film enthusiasts in Copenhagen: The award-winning documentary by Alan Berliner has been chosen to be “Documentary of the Month” at the Cinematheque in the Film House of the Danish capital. It will have five screenings. A fine Danish language intro is to be found via the link below. Here is a repeat of my review from 2012:

Famous for his film about his father, ”Nobody’s Business”, clever and funny with an excellent, playful montage, it was simply great to watch the newest documentary by Alan Berliner, also with a family member as main protagonist, also with a playful montage and also a tribute to Life even if it deals with Edward Honig, who has Alzheimer’s disease, sits in his chair through the whole film, with family archive material flasbacks here and there and everywhere, shot over five years, a wonderful experience, because Edward Honig was wonderful to meet, a poet and a translator of poetry, among others Portuguese Pessao, a man on his way away from the Life he had been praising again and again, sitting in this room full of books and papers not knowing why and where and what and who.

Berliner asks and asks and gets moments out of Honig, at the same time as he tells the story about him, twice married, haunted his whole life by feeling guilty for the death of his brother when a child, and treating his sons of second marriage really bad. He gets the second wife and the two children into the film as well as other key witnesses to the life of Honig. As well as the director’s own son in musical sequences with the old man. When Honig answers Berliner, he does it normally with a humourous reaction to his own situation, that makes Berliner make excellent associative sequences (often with trains through tunnels) that loosens up tension and gives us viewers a bit of free time to reflect… well it could be on ”la condition humaine” to use a kliché. There are many films about Alzheimer’s disease, and it is indeed hard to watch what used to be a strong, well formulated man get to the point where he expresses himself with sounds, that Berliner refers to as an inspiration coming from outside the window of the room where he sits. From the birds. ”Remember How to Forget”, Honig says, ”little boy, I like you, take me for a ride in your story”, which is what Berliner has done with respect and a storytelling that is non-chronological with an elegance, that makes you think what a wonderful thing FILM is.

USA, 2012, 78 mins.

http://www.alanberliner.com/#

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?id=F840443F-1331-482A-A23D-5C21E854D304&tab=-

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Film.aspx?filmID=f29219

Appalling New Laws for Russian Film people

I got a letter from a friend from the Russian Documentary Guild with a link (see below) to an article that starts like this: ” Two amendments about distribution certificates and prohibition of offensive language in movies entered into force in Russian legislation on cinematography on the 1st of July, 2014. These amendments have fundamentally changed the system of production, film screening and distribution of Russian documentary film industry…”

And it continues like this, “So, from the 1st of July every right holder have to get the certificate even for a single screening of his film in public space wheter it’s a movie club, festival or any other form of sreening or rental. Getting distribution certificate becomes complicated because of the second amendment – prohibition of offensive language in movies. This law contains not only prohibition of some offensive words, but also scenes of smoking, appeals to overthrow the government, extremism, etc. The list of prohibited words doesn’t exist, an independent commission of experts will regard every project and make its own decision. What do the drafters of the law mean by extremism and appeals to overthrow the government isn’t clear either. Mechanism of the expertise is incomprehensible too: who will participate in this evaluation expertise and how this process will be held is explained nowhere…”

And it costs… “Getting a distribution certificate costs about 18-20 thousand rubles (from about $510-$570) for one film (this sum doesn’t include cost of the trip from other cities, and only right holders can get the certificate by themselves in Moscow). Directors who make films without support of the

Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation but using their own budget, small movie companies and educational institutions won’t be able to afford this sum of money. However, even if some right holders have money, they have no guarantee that they get the distribution certificate quickly. Firstly, the film may not pass the expertise, and secondly, the new law anyway suspends the life of the movie at least for 2-3 months, during which directors can manage to gather all the necessary documents and submit the relevant papers…”

”Various organizations, in particular, Documentary Film Guild and the X International Short and Animation Film Festival Open Cinema wrote open letters about the law of distribution certificates. Marina Razbezhkina, director of the School of documentary film and theater announced that the films of her students and graduates, created without the financial support of the state, wouldn’t participate in festivals and film screenings where the certificates are needed. This law, according to Razbezhkina, introduces censorship in movie industry that violates freedom of speech and expression (Article 29, the Constitution of the Russian Federation).”

Wahnsinn… in 2015, censorship for sure. The Documentary Guild that is doing important work to improve the conditions for documentarians in the big country, deserves support from international organisations and festivals even if – quite a sarchasttic tone – the Guild writes: “…dear foreign colleagues, don’t worry! This law won’t concern you! You can continue to show your movies at international film festivals in Russia with offensive language and without distribution certificates! Come to Russia, we are waiting for you!

http://rgdoc.ru/en/news/

My Greatest Docs Ever

So this is my choice for the Sight & Sound “The Greatest Docs Ever”. I have chosen films that I have used in my work as a teacher and consultant, films that I have come back to because they have meant something to me. I have been influenced by meetings with the directors – Herz Frank, Lozinski, Kossakovsky, Apted, Glawogger, Matelis – and by reading about and listening to clever words by Leacock and Pelichian, not to forget Lanzmann. What the films all have in common, I think, are a belief in the values of Life how hard and unfair it may be to you. A humanistic fundament, can you say so? 6 of the films are from the Eastern part of Europe where I have been working quite a lot and from where most of the original, artistic documentaries come.

Those which are multi-layered, philosophical, essayistic in a Chris Marker-way, sketchy and close to the term “camera comme stylo”. To be stressed: This is a personal choice, if I had gone through film history decade after decade it would have been different.

1.Ten Minutes Older

Herz Frank (photo)

1978

It’s all there. The story of our lives. To be read in the face of a boy. An intellectual, concepedy documentary with Juris Podnieks as cameraman, “the story of good and evil” as the subtitle goes. I have shown it wherever I go to introduce that documentaries must be reflective and philosophical.

2. Shoah

Claude Lanzmann

1985

No words necessary, an obvious choice and Lanzmann’s follow-up “The Last of the Unjust” is an appendix that shows that the director/journalist is still able to add quality to documentary film history.

3. Anything Can Happen

Marcel Lozinski

1995

Playful and clever interpretation of what Life and Death, Joy and Sorrow is – the director’s charming son runs around in a park, where he meets old people

and ask them all kind of questions in a direct way that we grown-ups would never dare. The result is touching and great fun at the same time.

4. The Belovs

Viktor Kossakovsky

1994

I could have taken the director’s last masterpiece, Vivan las Antipodas, as well but this film from the countryside of Russia  brilliantly depicts the Russian soul as we have experienced it in works of Dostoyevsky and Thechov.

5. Man With a Movie Camera

Dziga Vertov

1929

When you get bored of formatted documentaries, this is the one to make you trust the power of the documentary language, the joy of Life, the enthusiasm of what the new medium is able to achieve, innovative and playful, pure pleasure, to watch without music, please!

6. 7UP

Michael Apted

1964 –

It’s like watching yourself… wonderful hymn to human lives… you follow the characters with so much interest and empathy, you cry and laugh with them, it’s a magnificent series, and it also – in its style – is a look at how film and television language has changed through 50 years.

7. Megacities

Michael Glawogger

1998

Few directors have as Glawogger been travelling the world to tell stories about how people live and think and work. This is one of the works from his trilogy (the others are “Workingman’s Death” and “Whore’s Glory”), with a superb cinematography of Wolfgang Thaler, “la condition humaine” is the theme so far away from reportage as one can be.

8. Before Flying Back to the Earth

Arunas Matelis

2005

He comes from the Lithuanian school of poetic documentary, he made several beautiful b/w enigmatic short documentaries but when his daughter got leukemia and was at hospital for months, the director decided to make a film about children in a similar situation and he came up with his magnificent visual poetic homage to how children fight against their serious illness with all they got of courage and humour!

9. Seasons

Artavadz Pelichian

1975

I have never understood Pelichian’s montage theory but this his masterpiece will always attract an audience to see the power of the single image, at the same time as the film is anthropological, have totally abstract, non-figurative sequences, no words, Vivaldi “only”. You are speechless when you have been with peasants and sheep up and down the hills. If you look carefully there are small human stories, happiness and grief.

10. Jazz Dance

Richard Leacock

1954

I had to have Leacock on board… his filmography is extraordinary, his work with Flaherty is unique, his work with the other direct cinema people (Pennebaker, Maysles, Drew) likewise, but I have chosen this one that he himself has talked so well about, where he went bananas in a night club, filmed from the table, a jamming with the camera, a true FREE film.

The Greatest Documentaries of All Times

The international film magazine Sight & Sound has ”polled 340 critics, programmers and filmmakers in the search for authoritative answers”, which are now published in two parts (click on link below) – ”the top 50 documentaries as nominated by 237 critics, curators and academics” and ”the greatest documentaries ever made, as voted by 103 directors”.

Why… they give the answer themselves: ”The new Sight & Sound documentary poll is the result of a “why didn’t we think of that before” moment. In the light of the amazing recent success and cultural impact of several nonfiction films, a group of curators, myself included, were chewing over what the BFI might do specifically for documentary films and television. It soon became obvious that we were not sure exactly what it was that we were trying to discuss.”

And the result: “What’s remarkable about the Top 50 documentaries list is that it feels so fresh. One in five of the films chosen were made since the millennium, and to have a silent film from 1929 at the top of the list is an absolute joy. That allusive essay films feature so strongly throughout demonstrates that nonfiction cinema is not a narrow discipline but a wide open country full of explorers. The current print edition of S&S contains only the highlights of our results; the real explorers among you will want to browse the full results and commentaries which goes live online on the 14th August.”

Let me reveal the top three of the critics etc.: 1. Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, USSR 1929. 2. Shoah, Claude Lanzmann, France, 1985. 3. Sans Soleil, Chris Marker, France, 1982 – and the top three of the filmmakers:  1. Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov, USSR, 1929. 2. Sans Soleil, Chris Marker, France, 1982. 3. The Thin Blue Line, Errol Morris, USA, 1989.

Not that surprising – the freshness that is mentioned above comes in when you examine the list more detailed and find films like “The Act of Killing” and “Leviathan”.

I was asked to participate in the voting as critic/programmer. Tomorrow I will bother you with my list.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/greatest-documentaries-all-time-poll

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/documentary-poll-acknowledgements

Robert Drew 1924-2014

Richard Leacock died 2011 and yesterday one more from the Direct Cinema movement of the 1960’es that changed the documentary history, passed away: Robert Drew. As USA Today puts it in their factual obituary:

Drew formed Drew Associates in 1960 with the goal of applying his magazine experience to films. Among those joining him were such future directors as Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, The War Room), Maysles (who with brother David made Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens) and Richard Leacock (Happy Mother’s Day).

“I wondered why documentaries on television were dull,” he told The New York Times in 2013. “I had no doubt we could make a lighter camera, and I started with that premise and started finding people who could do that.” Referring to the creative trio above, where – seen retrospectively – Drew was maybe the perfect executive producer.

The trade magazine Realscreen (link below) calls Drew a “documentary pioneer” and highlights the masterpiece “Primary” (1960), where Drew ”convinced” JFK to take part in a film about his campaign. JFK became in many ways the character of Drew’s films – in 2008 ”he released A President to Remember, which used footage from several of his Kennedy films, and at the time of his passing today (July 30), his entire collection of films is in the process of being preserved by the archives of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, of which he was a member.”

Sooo much of today´s observational documentary filming (create “the feeling of being there” as Leacock said) owes to the pioneers of Direct Cinema, whose films are available on dvd’s today. You just do a little googling to see where. And check the vod’s and YouTube.

www.realscreen.com