Audience Development

… is the name of a new support scheme from EU’s Creative Europe – Media Programme. Its task is

”To stimulate interest in, and improve access to European audio-visual works, in particular through promotion, events, film literacy and festivals.

Film literacy projects: to provide mechanisms for better cooperation between film literacy initiatives in Europe to improve the efficiency and European dimension of these initiatives.

Audience development projects: events focusing on the programming of important and successful non-national European films on various distribution platforms and promotional activities building on the marketing on promotion results of important festivals and awards.”

The first results – money-wise a bit more than 6 mio. € – of a call that was announced at the end of March – have been published and great to see a wide spread of countries being succesful with their applications, and not a centralising tendency one could fear after the launch of Creative Europe. OK, France and UK are there as benificiaries but Germany not, Italy is there, Romania, Estonia and Czech Republic as well, the latter with support to Doc Alliance Academy and to Institute of Documentary Film with a programme called KineDok.

I am – at the moment – not able to go closer to all 16 to see how many are documentary projects, but I have been given access to EDN’s ”Moving Docs”, see below post.

Photo of a film mentioned in the ”Moving Docs” application, see below: ”Velvet Terrorists”.

https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/actions/media/audience-development_en

Audience Development: Moving Docs

With EDN (European Documentary Network) as the natural umbrella organisation for a project concepted and developed by Rea Apostolides, strong and visionary Greek producer and member of EDN’s Executive Committee, the ”Moving Docs” project was, by Creative Europe, granted 150.000€, 81% of the budget applied for – for a true international initiative with a vision to reach an audience outside the traditional festival circles, if I get it right.

I have been granted access to look a bit more into the application that was succesful.

What was impressive from a first glance is the group of players in ”Moving Docs”, they are called partner organisations: Planeta in Spain, that stands behind the unique ”Documentary of the Month”, Apordoc in Portugal, Doc/IT from Italy, SDI (Scottish Documentary Institute), Against Gravity Warsaw Poland, Doc Lounge Sweden, all known as strong and experienced promoters of European documentary life, whereas Rea Apostolides as manager of the project contributes with her company Anemon as does EDN headed by Paul Pauwels. ”Brave New Culture” from Cyprus is also on board. Regret to say thatI have never heard about it before.

The action starts February 2015, runs the rest of the year and includes cinema screenings, community screenings, festival screenings, vod screenings and educational activities…. you name it, they got it!

Creative Europe asks in the application for titles of films and a long list of potential highlights is mentioned. Among them ”Master of the Universe” (photo).

Some quotes from the 72 page big application: The objective of Moving Docs is to engage urban and rural audiences across Europe through regular and simultaneous screenings of the best European and international documentary films…structured around ”European Screening Days”, five unique media moments that connect European audiences… target groups are 20-40 years… (focus on) issue-based films… the action will use different strategies to target four different audience catagories: rural, urban, frequent and first-time doc viewers…

Much more will come about ”Moving Docs” from the organisers – here is only to be said: Well done, good luck – filmkommentaren.dk will follow your work.

Daniel Dencik: Tal R: The Virgin /2

Tal R får med det samme ordet, og han taler lavmælt og intenst filmen igennem. Denne gennemløbende fortælling rammer mig, overbeviser mig, besejrer mig med sin alvor. Tal R hedder han, og jeg får efterhånden forklaringen på fornavnet. Det er egentlig et pigenavn, fortæller hans forældre, da det bliver deres tur til at fortælle noget. Bogstavet R står for efternavnet, og i listen over filmens medvirkende, ser jeg, at efternavnet må være Rosenzweig. Flere af de medvirkende vidner hedder Rosenzweig. Det er familien, hustruen, forældrene, børnene. Så er der derudover venner og kolleger til at tegne det portræt af en maler, som stemmen har åbnet for.

Skønhed er det vigtigste. Det er det første Tal R fortæller. Ordet diskuteres ikke, det skal ikke forstås dybsindigt, det skal ikke fortolkes, det står for sit almindelige pålydende. Og det har Martin Munch, fotografen taget til sig i sit arbejde med optagelserne af den række stiliserede scener, som filmen består af. Tableauer hedder de i Denciks synopsis. Stiliseringen er ikke en manér, en påtagethed. Den er en naturlighed, et alvorligt og konsekvent valg. Sådan skal filmen være, og sådan er de medvirkende instrueret i en iscenesættelse, som omfatter fotografering, klip, set design, alt, så det er gennemført cinematografi, som lever opmærksom i sin neddæmpethed.

Skønheden er oppe mod selve ødelæggelsen, truslen om holocaust hviler som en tyngde over malerens tænkning, over hans arbejde. Krigens og mishandlingens rædsel har fulgt ham i drøm og forestilling siden barndommen. Det bekræfter forældrene. Og det skildres i filmen som et livsvilkår, det gives ikke hen til en psykologisk eller historisk eller biografisk forklaring. Således er Denciks film også et usædvanligt værk.

Danmark, 2014, 30 min. Filmen sælges på dvd (with English subtitles) i Tiger butikkerne overalt og kan streames VOD: http://danishdox.com/tal-r-the-virgin

Anmeldelser: Politiken (Dorte Hygum Sørensen) Ekko (Henrik Østergaard) FilmGuide (Nanna Frank Rasmussen)

Herz Frank 1926 – 2013/ 3

I like this tradition so much – the plaques that are put on the walls of the houses, where great artists have been living and working. To honour them and remember. They do so a lot in the Baltic countries and it is only just that a plaque of Herz Frank was unveiled some days ago in Riga at Lacplesa Street 29. In the presence of his two daughters and friends.

Guntis Trekteris, who produced ”Flashback” and is now finishing ”Edge of Fear” together with Frank’s co-director, sent me the photo. If you can not read the text, which is in Latvian and English, it goes like this:

”Prominent Latvian documentary film maker HERZ FRANK 1926-2013 lived and worked here from 1960 to 1993”.

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