Moscow International Film Festival 2014

A triumph for the young Polish director Jan Matuszynski in Moscow yesterday where the Best Documentary Award was announced, given to him for his ”Deep Love”. I have seen this film twice before, read what I wrote from the American Documentary Film festival: 

”I was asked to introduce the Polish film ”Deep Love” by young Jan Matuszynski, who was present and received quite an applause for his cinematically brilliant interpretation of the love relationship between Janusz, who got paralyzed when diving and Joanna, his girl friend, who worries as he insists to continue diving and break the record by going down to 100 meters, even if his medical status, as the doctors tell him, does not allow him to do so.

This is what I wrote back in November when I saw the film at DOKLeipzig: ”Deep Love” is a multi-layered story. It is about a man, whose life first of all consists of a passion for diving, a passion that had severe consequences for him when his head hit a rock, making him a handicapped man, who understands what the people near him says to him but can not talk himself and has a paralysed arm and leg. Nevertheless, he wants to get into the sea again and go deeper, encouraged by his close friend and co-diver, yet discouraged by his girl friend, who is afraid of what could happen to him if he realises his wish to go 100 meter down. Here lies the core of the film, the relationship between them, the love story with her in the centre, with her constant care and anxiety. A very strong story but for my taste a bit too dramatic and disturbingly set up with music and sound… on the big screen in Palm Springs, my objections were no longer there, I have to say. Reminding me of how important the watching situation is for your evaluation of a film.”

EDN Launches Co-Production Guide

Short enough for an overview – detailed enough for your co-production strategy… this is the one-liner from EDN about the new baby of the organisation: A Co-Production Guide which is available online for the members of an “… organisation for professionals working with documentary film and television… with about 1000 members from more than 60 countries…” I am sure that this excellent help for documentarians, who work internationally, will give EDN even more members.

As a member, I have checked the information given from several countries and it looks perfect even if everyone knows that “perfect” does not exist, when you are dealing with such a huge collection of facts to be conveyed. I notice that there has been two readers/collectors from every country, good idea, as it is to have the possibility for readers/users to come up with their co-production experiences online. Interactivity, as it should be with a member’s organisazation like EDN. In other words, here is a tool you can’t afford to miss. Become a member of EDN … I stop my promotion, short quote from the press release sent out in connection with the Sunny Side of the Doc:

“EDN is launching The EDN Co-Production Guide, a new tool for international financing of documentaries. The online guide provides details on coproduction opportunities across Europe. All information is edited by EDN, provided by established producers and based on concrete co-production experiences. EDN has commissioned experienced producers in 30 European countries to provide information about the co-production possibilities in their country. The information is now brought together in an easy-to-use format making it possible to use the information in the everyday reality of a production company.

The guide includes:

• Profiles of co-production funds in 30 countries

• Guidelines for funding of co-productions in each country

• Titles of co-produced projects and production companies

• Contact info, relevant links and organizations

• A forum for EDN members to share co-production experiences

www.edn.dk

Daniel Dencik: Tal R-The Virgin

CPH:DOX og varehuset Tiger siger, at de sammen vil sikre dokumentarfilmens udbredelse, og de vil sammen gerne være med til at gøre kunst tilgængeligt for et større publikum. Tiger har netop nu udgivet Daniels Denciks dokumentarfilm ”Tal R – The Virgin” og indledt et samarbejde med CPH:DOX.

Tiger-butikkerne er med deres brede udvalg og centrale beliggenheder en alternativ salgskanal for de dokumentarfilm, der ellers ikke er til at opdrive. ”Tal R – The Virgin” er således nu til salg i Tiger-butikkerne.

”At udgive filmen hos Tiger er som et frisk pust i en døende branche,” skriver Daniel Dencik i pressemeddelelsen, ”det er dejlig enkelt: Tiger synes filmen er interessant. Der er intet bureaukrati og jeg skal ikke afgive mine rettigheder. Det passer meget godt til den måde jeg tænker på – bare at kaste sig ud i det man brænder for. Og jeg vil jo bare gerne have at så mange mennesker som muligt ser min film.”

Viljen til at få dokumentarfilmen ud til et bredere publikum har Tiger til fælles med CPH:DOX. Det er derfor, de har indledt et samarbejde, som skal prøve sig frem med nye og anderledes måder at udbrede filmkunst på.

Tine Fischer, festivaldirektør i CPH:DOX, er selvfølgelig glad for det nye samarbejde: ”CPH:DOX har altid haft fokus på dels at finde nye og anderledes måder at vise dokumentarfilm på og endnu vigtigere at få et nyt og voksende publikum til at begejstres over filmene. Tigers nye initiativer på dokumentarfilmområdet er unikke i den sammenhæng. Det er høj kvalitet, risikovillighed og stort outreach forenet i én og samme ambition. Vi glæder os til at være med til at give ambitionen yderligere liv. Vi tror at vi sammen med Tiger kan styrke dokumentarfilmens udbredelse og få ting til at ske på nye og ikke konventionelle måder, ” skriver hun i pressemeddelelsen.

Samarbejdet mellem Tigerbutikkerne og CPH:DOX’s bliver markeret ved et arrangement i morgen, 26. juni. I den forbindelse inviteres der til en særvisning af ”Tal R – The Virgin” i Grand Teatret. Efter filmen er der i Tigers Spilbar en samtale mellem Daniel Dencik og Tine Fischer. Senere på aftenen vender DJ Djuna Barnes plader. Billet til arrangementet kan købes for 30 kroner på www.grandteatret.dk

”Tal R – The Virgin” bliver solgt i Tigers 66 danske butikker og i løbet af sommeren i alle 320 Tiger-butikker i 20 lande. Kontakt: Tina Schwarz, ts@zebra.as

It’s a Jungle out There…

This is a sentence I have used again and again when talking to film students, who are still in their film school protected environment… and then suddenly they have finished their studies, want to work, want to learn more, want to be part of a network… It’s not easy and where do you get help in the search for information?

At the – let’s take the whole name – HFF Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf Postdam Babelsberg – I met briefly student Annegret Sachse, we got FB friends and I joined the Projector group on FB and found out how valuable it is, organised and run by Annegret.

“I started it almost 3 years ago, when I was searching for workshops and finding all this information. and I got tired of sending the links out in seperate messages to all my filmmaker friends :))”, she wrote to me, when I asked her ok to promote Projector on filmkommentaren.

“Sure you may write about it if you like. I kept it a “secret group” from the beginning, it means it works only by invite, members invite people who they think should be in it, and I basically invite every filmmaker I become friends with on fb. Somehow this kept it pretty free of spam, and it seems fb doesn’t even give me the option anymore to open it, it says “Group privacy can only be adjusted to a more restrictive setting for large groups”.

I’m happy to add anybody who wants to join, but if I am not friends with them on fb I can only send them an invite via their email address. Either they send me a fb message with their email, or a mail to my email (annegret.sachse@gmail.com).

Complicated. But possible.”

A young colleague sharing generously what she finds of workshops, schools, courses, grants – and that is a lot and far beyond the limited circle of Creative Europe and MEDIA.

Torben Skjødt Jensen: Teaterdokumentarer /1

Torben Skjødt Jensen skrev i lørdags på sin Facebookside: ”Alt godt har det jo med at komme til en ende – og i aften lørdag er det sidste aften med DR-K’s Teaterfestival på TV. Den slutter dog af på en “high note” med premiere på forestillingen “KRØYERS YDERSTE NAT, som er optaget inde på Folketeatres Hippodrom-scene i april måned – igen altså, ganske aktuel. Vivian Nielsen har skrevet det begavede manuskript som er godt gammeldags trekantsmelodrama hvor kunstnerægteparret P.S. Krøyer og Marie Krøyer befinder sig i nålens øje af deres snarligt forliste ægteskab – med Maries elsker, den svenske komponist Hugo Alfven, på sidelinien. Preben Kristensen, Maibritt Saerens og Kenneth M. Christensen spiller sig ud i dette drama, som godt nok udspiller sig på Skagen juleaftensnat, men står fint til stemningen omkring den danske Skt. Hans. God fornøjelse til alle …”

Jeg nåede at se Vivian Nielsens ”Krøyers yderste nat” i lørdags. Og jeg blev optaget af det, selv om mange ting talte imod: Jeg kan den alt for mange gange brugte historie udenad. Troede jeg. Men Vivian Nielsen har noget at tilføje, så det biografiske trænges i baggrunden for et eller andet nutidigt, som fonemmes velkendt direkte, i sproget, i argumentationen. Noget smerteligt nutidigt, noget, jeg måske kender.

Så den overforbrugte biografiske historie banaliseres og sentimentaliseres ikke yderligere her. Det er klart, at Krøyer er P. S. Krøyer, men som historien er grebet an, kunne titlen for mig mere meningsfuldt betyde Marie Krøyer, for hun er mennesket i det til denne nat udsatte valg, det er hende, der har valget, hende, der vælger at vælge. Det bliver Marie som så uforglemmeligt smukt med citater og fortolkninger af for mig mere end 100 år senere velkendte Keats-linjer fra ”Ode til en græsk vase” om skønhed og sandhed og for mig ukendt Ibsensladder, at et var Ibsens hustru, som gennemtvang, at Nora skulle forlade sin mand.

Men så skete mens jeg så Skjødt Jensens tv-version, at det flyttede sig til Hippodromscenen og blev til en dokumentarisk skildring af skuespillere, som midt i et publikum er i færd med at mime, at genskabe, at gennemleve dette trekantdrama fra dengang i Skagen. Og jeg kom til at tænke på ”Vanya on 42nd Street” (1994), hvor Louis Malle så vidunderligt lader skuespillerne og karaktererne i Anton Tjekhovs stykke væve sig ind i hinanden for mine øjne, så jeg ustandseligt flyttes fra New York til Rusland og tilbage, flyttes i sted og tid, så begge bliver ét i værket.

Og jeg så, at Torben Skjødt Jensen har lavet en dokumentarfilm om tre skuespillere, som opfører et stykke på en intimscene. Formidlingsaspektet forsvinder næsten i hans ferme og følsomme greb om stoffet, og det opløses helt og skønt i Maibritt Saerens forelskelse i én mand og i hendes kærlighed til en anden. Her som genskabelse af en gammel kærlighedshistorie. Det bliver så til hendes placering midt mellem Kenneth M. Christensen og Preben Kristensen og til hendes afgørende valg mellem dem. Med de to børn i tankerne, det fødte inde i soveværelset ved siden af og det ufødte, som ingen af mændene før nu ved om. Det her er ikke filmet teater, det er i min oplevelse virkelig dokumentarfilm.

Danmark 2014, 120 min. Den første af seks udsendelser på DR-K, 16.-20. juni, 2014, 6 x 120 min. Af de seks har Torben Skjødt Jensen produceet og klippet de fem.

“Krøyers Yderste Nat” kan endnu ses på: http://www.dr.dk/tv/se/teater-festival/teater-festival-kroeyers-yderste-nat 

Dziga Vertov: Kinonedelja – Online Edition

The Austrian Film Museum (celebration of its 50th year) has a present to all who are interested in film history and Dziga Vertov and history of course, read here, click and watch, it is so well presented:

The Kinonedelja (Kino-Week) newsreels represent Dziga Vertov’s first contribution to cinema. A total of 43 issues, each containing an average of 5 to 7 different items, were produced between May 1918 and June 1919. Vertov joined the newsreel’s ranks as a secretary initially but by the fall of 1918 had taken on full responsibility for the series. The Austrian Film Museum holds prints of 14 clearly identifiable issues of the Kinonedelja series. The films provide an invaluable record of life in the young Soviet Russia, then in the throes of civil war. Within the framework of the EFG1914 project, and continuing its recent tradition of publishing important works by Dziga Vertov in digital form, the Film Museum has made its complete Kinonedelja holdings freely available online. The publication of the Kinonedelja – Online Edition marks the first presentation of moving images on the Film Museum’s website. For the online presentation, the Viennese collection is complemented by additional digitized Kinonedelja issues and fragments held by the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen and the Swedish Film Institute in Stockholm.

Read more about the Kinonedelja series: filmmuseum.at

E. Niewiera & P. Rosolowski: Domino Effect

I am sure that many readers of this review do not really know anything about Abkhazia… I was in the same situation until I came to Georgia, saw terrible archive images from the war in 1992-93, where Abkhazia broke away from Georgia, declared its independence and was only recognized by Russia and a couple of South American states.

Co-director Rosolowski is also the cameraman, who brilliantly has captured the devastated Abkhazian capital Sukhumi, the empty houses, the ruins, it looks hopeless – and it is on this background that Rafael Ampar, minister of sports, a proud patriotic man, tries to build his life with Natasha, Russian opera singer and mother of a child, who comes to visit. She has – to say the least – huge problems to adapt to a culture and the Abkhazian language, she does not understand, she argues with Rafael, wants to leave, there is no job for her, whereas her daughter seems to have good time with Rafael.

The scenes between the two, their feelings for each other and their endless discussions are conveyed with great authenticity, and a lot of humour, the dialogues seem natural and un-directed, he is the cool chain-smoking reflecting man – “Abkhazia is my homeland” – she is the Russian drama queen with constant ups and downs in expressions.

She leaves and comes back… Happy ending? Well, she arrives to the station with the baby, he has carefully prepared her return, but will it work? Will Love survive for victims of history and geography?

The title refers to the fact that Rafael stands behind the organization of the world championship in domino plays in Sukhumi (!) but it has of course also a broader meaning… USSR fell, Georgia got its independence and turned to the West, Abkhazia broke away (is that the right way to put it?) and is embraced (but not very much helped it seems) by Russia. The domino effect? Anyway, a very well made, a lovely film, that achieved three awards at the recent Krakow Film festival. Well deserved!

Poland, 76 mins.

http://www.otterfilms.pl/

Fotografiet 175 år

Nicéphore Niépce: Fotografisk optagelse ’heliografi’ af bygninger uden for vinduet i arbejdsværelset i Le Gras 1825.

 

 

 

”Forlydender om, at det var lykkedes at fastholde billeder i et camera obscura, blev bekræftet 7.1.1839 af Pariserobservatoriets direktør Francois Arago. 19.8.1839 offentliggjordes Niépces og Daguerres opfindelse, som den franske stat havde købt… ” (Den Store Danske) Det må være disse begivenheder i 1939 i fotografiets langvarige og komplicerede opfindelses-historie, som har fået FILMSTRIBEN til i sit nyhedsbrev i går at fejre 175 året med et tema om fotografi og fotografer ved at sammenstille og anbefale en række film fra repertoiret. Jeg vil så så benytte anledningen til at pege på e af disse film, som jeg synes særlig godt om, ”Fotografi” af Steen Møller Rasmussen (som i parentes bemærket havde fødselsdag i går):

FOTOGRAFI (2006)

I filmen medvirker fire fotografer, Keld Helmer-Petersen, Per Bak Jensen, Krass Clement og Kirsten Klein, men filmen handler ikke om dem. Næsten heller ikke om deres fotografier, sådan specielt. Den er ikke et gruppeportræt, slet ikke en biografisk sammenstilling. Den er om det, som titlen siger, fotografi. Den er et essay, måske, eller en poetik i hvert fald.

Steen Møller Rasmussen har lavet sin film som et fotografi, naturligvis. Med alle de fotografiets elementer, de medvirkende taler om, som synlige og mærkbare tråde af konstruktion og holdning i filmen, så den hviler i sig selv, i sin viden om æstetikken, som et billede af hver af de fire (det skifter hele tiden, i stor ro, selv om skiftene ofte markeres af fast motion (eller hvad det hedder) OG som et billede af Steen Møller Rasmussen.

Tydeligst er selvfølgelig motivet vinduet, som introduceres i første scene. Ude, inde, kigge ud. Det er Helmer-Petersen, som kigger og taler om at løbe ud og ind at hente kameraet og ud. Bak Jensen analyserer udsigtens linjer og beskæringer, Clement er fascineret af tågedagens lys: “Det er fandme smukt”, og bliver selvfølgelig optaget af en handling derude i bylivet. Kirsten Klein tager tråden op og får langt, langt ude øje på en båd på fjorden. Jo, det er da en fisker, der er ude at sætte garn. Og hun runder den anden linje af, et træ er med årene blevet så stort, at det dominerer vinduets billede, det forstyrrer ved at tiltage sig for megen opmærksomhed.

Og Møller Rasmussen fordeler rollerne: serier og slægtskaber (Helmer-Petersen), stedet og jeg og dets ånd og det religiøse (Bak Jensen), magien, oplevelsen og besjælingen af den, som så bliver fotografiets sjæl (Clement) og endelig: “Se Jordens krumning her ved Livø Bredning” (Kirsten Klein). Klipperen Anders Villadsen har omhyggeligt foretaget dette fletværk (her kun antydet, analysen kan fortsætte og fortsætte), som gør “Fotografi” til ét eneste billede af denne kunsts væsen.

Fotografi

http://www.filmstriben.dk/fjernleje/film/details.aspx?id=2646376900

http://www.filmstriben.dk/fjernleje/page/article.aspx?id=1852  

Hans Robert Eisenhauer – Interview

Many years ago, at my time in EDN, I asked Hans Robert Eisenhauer to come to Italian Bardonecchia to the yearly Documentary in Europe session as a keynote speaker on the theme ”public service television”. I had known him from many years and admired him for being one of few commissioning editors, who actually edited a programme strand according to the very obvious point of view: this theme we have to offer to our audience. He worked for ZDF/arte’s theme evening and had a big influence on the documentary policy of arte. And he saw clearly that the reportage was not enough to cover a theme, there had to be a documentary interpretation, a personal touch, in other words a creative documentary as we call it today. The talk in Bardonecchia was brilliant including a criticism of the development among many broadcasters to go mainstream = tabloid in the stupid fight for higher ratings.

Eisenhauer is now retired from arte to be a very active producer, who helped producer Orwa Nyrabia and director Talal Derki realise ”Return to Homs”. About this and his time at arte, EDN brings a long interview, also accesible for non-member, link below.

Here is a quote: The public service TV landscape has changed profoundly between the time of my start at ARTE and until today. There is much more competition even between public broadcasters.

We as documentary producers and filmmakers, but also the broadcasters are confronted with two tendencies, which are challenging our professional life. On one hand we see a more and more globalized “market” of documentaries, of ideas, of communication. Thousands of new projects are flooding the documentary landscape every year. On the other hand we are observing, that the broadcasters are constantly cutting budgets, reducing slots and are asking more and more for national or even regional content. This is a real challenge for all of us, but not only for the filmmakers and producers, but also for our TV-colleagues. It is also a huge cultural and an economic/financial problem too. The funding became more and more difficult within the last decade. The support of regional, national and local film- financing funds cannot compensate for the loss. But the most important loss is the fact that innumerable interesting and promising projects will never appear on the small and the big screens…

http://www.edn.dk/

Sunny Side of the Doc 25 Years

Below, Yves Jeanneau, CEO of the Sunny Side of the Doc welcomes the delegates to the 25th edition of an event this blogger has visited numerous times, when it was in Marseilles. Now the location is in la Rochelle and still going strong is the Sunny Side of the Doc. Dates June 23-26. Congratulations!:

In a few days, most of you will be in La Rochelle for the 25th Sunny Side of the Doc. Since 1989 the event has grown a lot – thanks to your creativity and your ideas over those years. I wanted to let you know the thinking that lies behind our events and which goes into all the work that the team does for you.

The different Sunny Side events in Europe, Asia and Latin America have been for the past 25 years a way of looking forwards and outwards. Our way is not to be defeatist, inward looking or nationalist.

Documentary is all about bringing something back of the outside world to the audience, making it richer along the way by giving it a voice. This mutual respect between the maker and the subject needs to continue (if that’s not being too idealistic). But for films like docs, which are made neither for art galleries nor supermarkets, I think that’s possible. Docs are for people who are curious, interested in the world, who like to share experiences and be surprised – avoiding the predictable at all costs.

Tom Perlmutter, who’s been at the heart of the Canadian documentary industry for so long, once wrote that documentary was like the canary in the mine warning about gas leaks – either it survived, or it didn’t and sent out a warning… 

For me documentary is like a wind propelling us towards new places. Or a starry sky which illuminates while asking plenty of questions. In times of darkness, it can be like a beacon, and put its public and private usefulness on show. It investigates and has a point of view, both of which give it a voice and something to communicate.

Reality can be stubborn,  complex and perplexing. Quite a hard thing to sell to the public, and yet we’re part of it, this reality which can raise our spirits and our concerns, our hopes and dreams…

http://www.sunnysideofthedoc.com/sunnyside/celebrating-25th-anniversary/