NFB/ONF celebrates 75 Years

National Film Board of Canada/Office National du film du Canada is the oldest national film institution in the world, as far as I know. It started in 1939, and is being celebrated in and outside its own country because of its 75 years. For someone like me who worked for 20 years in the sister organisation National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral) (that also started in 1939 with its activities now integrated in the Danish Film Institute) the NFB was a magnet of interest with its integration of production, promotion and distribution. The catalogue we built up included dozens of films from the NFB, many of them being animation films. Yes, this is where the genius Norman McLaren (PHOTO) made his films.

In world documentary history there are strong names placed from Canada, let me just mention Pierre Perrault, Colin Low, Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koenig and Peter Wintonick, who with NFB made “Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment” (1999), for me definitely the introduction to that lovely documentary sub-genre.

From the press release from NFB, sent out some days ago: Starting May 2, the NFB’s online Screening Room, NFB.ca, will feature a web page dedicated

to the NFB’s 75th anniversary, featuring new content each week. On May 19, the NFB will launch its new 75th-anniversary website, Making Movie History: A Portrait in 61 Parts, offering an anecdotal portrait of the NFB’s place in Canadian cinema, told through the stories of some of its artists, rebels and dreamers.

And later on a brief history is outlined:

•    The NFB is founded in 1939 by documentary pioneer John Grierson in accordance with the recommendations of the National Film Act, laying the foundation for a homegrown film industry.

•    In 1941, Norman McLaren joins the NFB to open its animation studio and pioneer breakthroughs across a range of animation techniques.

•    The first Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject goes to the NFB, for Churchill’s Island, beginning a string of successes that would see the NFB win 12 Oscars―and garner 72 nominations, more than any film organization in the world outside Hollywood.

•    In 1964, the NFB establishes its French production branch, reinforcing the NFB’s leadership role in francophone filmmaking and helping to build a distinct national cinema in Quebec.

•    The NFB’s immersive multiscreen experience In the Labyrinth creates a sensation at Expo 67 in Montreal, leading to the invention of the giant-screen IMAX format.

•    In the 1980s, Winnipeg takes the global stage as a centre of animation excellence, with such classics as Richard Condie’s The Big Snit and Cordell Barker’s The Cat Came Back.

•    In 1993, Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary film Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is named Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival.

•    In 2009, the NFB launches its online Screening Room and establishes digital production studios in Vancouver and Montreal that have produced such acclaimed works as Welcome to Pine Point, Bear 71 and the interactive animation BLA BLA.

•    In 2012, Sarah Polley completes Stories We Tell, one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful Canadian documentaries of all time.

•    As the NFB marks its 75th anniversary, NFB.ca and partner platforms have surpassed 50 million viewings, with NFB interactive productions and digital platforms winning over 100 awards, including 7 Webbys.

Go to the websites of NFB, surf around, many films are available for free, or for cheap streaming or buying.

http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/press-room/press-releases-media-kits/?idpres=21177

https://www.nfb.ca/75-1/

Med præcision og stor entusiasme

”Niels Jensen behandler på sin umistelige lyriske malerbaggrund indforstået Palle Kjærulff-Schmidts ‘Der var engang en krig’ og når efter et langt tilløb om den tids stemning frem til Claus Loofs fotografi. Som, ja altså, så forunderligt præcist rammer den stemning. ’Så smukt som grålys kun kunne være det i – nej ikke i fyrrerne. Men i tresserne.’ Det var jo Coutards lys…” (Fotografi: Niels Jensen på sit kontor på SFC omkring 1985 fotograferet af Freddy Tornberg)

 

Forleden dag udkom i Ulrich Breunings redaktion på filmskolens hjemmeside Niels Jensens efterladte forelæsningsmanuskripter. Det synes vi her på Filmkommentaren er en dejlig nyhed. Derfor har vi her samlet hvad vi har skrevet om Niels Jensen og hans arbejde.

NEKROLOG 2010

af Tue Steen Müller

Så sidder man her på et hotelværelse i Tbilisi i Georgien med tårer I øjnene. En halv time efter at en sms tikkede ind med meddelelsen om Niels Jensens død. Jeg så ham sidst i Filmhuset under festivalen cph:dox, han så svag ud og fortalte mig, at hans hjerte var slidt og at han tit tabte pusten. Han var på vej til biblioteket med filmbøger. Niels var ikke gået på pension, han havde stadig timer på Filmskolen. Men han ærgrede sig over, at han ikke længere kunne køre på cykel ud til Holmen!

Det er mig fuldstændigt umuligt at skrive en nøgtern nekrolog om en mand, der i årtier var Danmarks bedste filmformidler og som lærte mig om filmens vidunderlige verden. Det må blive personligt, men jeg ved at mange kendte Niels, som jeg gjorde det – som det altid inspirerende menneske, som var glad for at give fra sig. Uegennyttig. Et ordentligt og fint menneske, altid til at stole på. Og aldrig til fals – da Mimi Stilling Jacobsen i sin tid som kulturminister skulle godkende en indstilling om en programredaktion ved Statens Filmcentral (SFC), og mente at 2/3 af trioen Erik Thygesen, Bente Hansen og Niels Jensen var for rød, blev der ringet fra ministeriet til Niels (der ikke var “rød”) med besked om at han kunne blive godkendt, hvis han ville… svaret fra ham var, at det var alle tre eller ingen. Loven blev derpå lavet om, så ministeren ikke længere skulle fungere som “gummistempel”.

Jeg ved, at aviserne vil skrive om hans viden om og kærlighed til John Ford og westerngenren. Og om hans store interesse for og viden om Ingmar Bergman. Det har aldrig betydet noget for mig, og det var ikke det, som optog ham mest. Hans hjerte var knyttet til kort- og dokumentarfilmen, og han fik lejlighed til at præge den danske i mange år som filmkonsulent ved Statens Filmcentral (SFC) og før da som konsulent ved Kortfilmrådet. I bedste folkeoplysnings-forstand og i den ånd, som lå bag oprettelsen af SFC, var Niels altid den stærke fortaler for at film skal bruges til at blive klogere af. Jeg gav ham en stak udenlandske dokumentarfilm i begyndelsen af dette år, han så dem, og vi mødtes på Husmanns Vinstue, og Niels analyserede med få ord filmene med præcision og stor entusiasme. Og tit med en parallel til andre kunstarter, specielt malerkunsten men også litteraturen, den korte, novellen, som han har skrevet en bog om.

Åh, der ryger så mange minder igennem mit hovede – om redaktionsmøder i SFC, rejser sammen til Berlin, for meget rødvin i forbindelse med Cinéma du Réel i Paris, meget velkomne belæringer om, hvad det vil sige at være lærer, de slidte udgaver af hans fremragende bog “Filmkunst”. Der var højt til loftet og respekt for andre. Mens jeg skriver dette løber en mail ind fra Jørgen Vestergaard, en af mange danske filmfolk, som Niels satte højt og hjalp. Vestergaard skriver: Jeg har kendt Niels siden jeg i en alder af nitten var elev på Krogerup, og jeg føler det som et stort tab… Ja, mon ikke! (TSM, blogindlæg 10-12-2010)

CINÉMA VÉRITÉ

af Allan Berg Nielsen

Jørgen Vestergaard var ung og begynder dengang i 1961, da han var assistent på Carlsens film fra Limfjorden, men han var som den journalist, han også ville være, herefter erobret af den poetiske måde at rapportere på. På film. Carlsens regler var dengang med den produktion: 35 mm. Sort/hvid. Ingen musik. Film som ikke er turistfilm, som Carlsen skriver i ledsageteksten til dvd’en, som kom ud i år. Bortset fra det sidste modificerede de begge senere denne strenghed.

Et kapitel i dansk filmhistorie begynder her. Vestergaard er et par år senere med sin første rigtige film ”Sommerheste” i gang med en livslang værkrække, og Carlsen er allerede begyndt på sin berømte trilogi (som også findes på denne dvd), der introducerer cinéma vérité i dansk film. Niels Jensen skriver om det i sin bog, ”Filmkunst” (1969) og citerer Henning Carlsens begejstring for Jean Rouchs og Edgar Morins metode: ”Dette studie i et menneskeansigt… er drama mere end nogen forfatter, skuespiller eller instruktør kan skabe – det er det, der hedder ’cinéma-vérité’ – sand film!” Niels Jensen vidste godt, at Carlsen ikke kendte Rouchs og Morins film i 1960-61, ”… men hans ord bringes for at vise hvor meget instruktøren (Carlsen) længtes efter en dokumentarfilm, der beskæftigede sig med mennesker.”

Og det er også ved gensynet disse mange år senere, man gribes af billederne af menneskene fra dengang. Fastholdt af dem lige fra den første lange scene med de to, som i kølig morgendis vader ud til jollen, stiger om bord og i en stilfærdig lyd fra det, som sker og er der og ikke andet, ror ud og ud, til de forsvinder i dis, lige før de forsvinder ud af billedrammen. Carlsens klip, som behjertet følsomt har ladet os vente længe, længe for at se, se, lader os i tvivl om det, men vi ved jo, at de skal røgte garn, at kameraet senere i fortællingen efter reglen, vi har i nervesystemet, vil samle dem op ude ved pælene. Sådan er den, billedfortællingen, som den tids nye æstetik og Theodor Christensen forlangte det, som Carlsen ville det. Denne film og så ”Familiebilleder”, som han lavede samtidigt, står blandt de mange dokumentarfilm, han har overkommet, hans hjerte nærmest, skriver han i ”Mit livs fortrængninger” (1998). De siger ikke noget, de to fjordfiskere, de ved, hvad der skal gøres og koncentrerer sig om det. Sådan er det også med deres modsætning, havnearbejderformanden inde i Aalborg, som med udsøgt musikalitet i sine hænder dirigerer cementsække igennem en dæksluge, og netop under denne optagelse går det en smule forkert og.. ja, op igen, om igen. Bemærkningen falder, som var det filminstruktørens, en af de få replikker i den tavse film. Jo, tavs er den. Erik Aalbæk Jensens og Nicolai Lichtenbergs speak er udenfor, af en anden verden, højskolens, belæringens, distancens. I dag kunne den godt undværes, den ved ikke, hvad den taler om, filmbillederne ved det. Den er et udenværk, som er til at komme omkring ind til den rene film. (ABN, blogindlæg 13-12-2010)

MODERNE DOKUMENTARISME

af Allan Berg Nielsen

Niels Jensen skrev i ”Filmkunst” (1969) videre om Henning Carlsen, at han med trilogien ”De gamle”, ”Familiebilleder” og ”Ung” (1960-65) var blevet “den førende danske repræsentant for moderne dokumentarisme.” Det var skarpt set og modigt vurderet blot fire år senere, men det var også kyndigt, har det herefter vist sig. Afsnittet i det store filmæstetiske essay fortsætter om Carlsen: “Da De gamle blev til, stak dansk kortfilm endnu i al væsentlighed i tredivernes og fyrrernes tradition. Man fremlagde og redegjorde, spurgte ikke thi man vidste det hele og opsøgte ikke mennesker på hvis ansigter livet havde skrevet. Nu kom det. Lykke og sorg, tryghed og modgang, fællesskab og ensomhed ses i billederne af ‘De gamle’ og høres i stemmerne.”

Henning Kristiansens teleoptagelse af de to på bænken i parken er fra Familiebilleder. Til netop denne scene, som er et indklip, særdeles medtolkende, som det er placeret i filmen, knytter Henning Carlsen i ”Mit livs fortrængninger” (1998, 134f) en afmonterende anekdote, som dokumenterer, at virkeligheden i historien bliver til en virkelighed, som overtrumfer den virkelige. Dokumentarfilm er konstruktion. Konstruktion af sand virkelighed. Det er måske også Niels Jensens konklusion på en tilsvarende læsning af en Carlsen-tekst, Jensen skriver i ”Filmkunst”: “Henning Carlsen, der i sin tid begejstredes over cinéma vérités sandhed har nu givet dette en drejning og er endt med (i et interview i Kosmorama nr. 81) at prise det subjektive og anfægte selve forestillingen om det dokumentariske. Findes det overhovedet? Findes der andet end instruktørens film?” Niels Jensen så det med det samme dengang i 1969, men der er stadigvæk politiske sager om det dokumentariske billedes sandhedsværdi, sådan er det i den virkelighed. Pointen i dette er imidlertid, at de to på bænken godkendte brugen af deres samvær, skønt det i deres virkelighed, da de uden at vide det blev filmet, havde et helt andet indhold end klipningen tillagde det. De var nemlig biografgængere og kendte også den virkelighed som virkelighed.

KORT OM KORTE HISTORIER (2007)

af Tue Steen Müller

For tre år siden blev jeg af Film, DFI’s blad, bedt om at vælge mig en filmisk julegave og begrunde valget. Jeg valgte en bog af netop afdøde Niels Jensen, som jeg siden da har læst med stor fornøjelse. Her følger min begrundelse fra 2007 – og hvorfor ikke lade den være en julegave i år 2010:

Hvorfor elsker jeg korte film? Jon Bang Carlsen mente engang, at jeg måtte have problemer med vandladningen og ikke kunne sidde stille til en “Abendfüllender Dokumentarfilm”! Jeg selv mener jo, at det er i denne genre, der overskrides grænser og kan findes antydning og præcision i udtrykket.

Den egentlige forklaring er den, at Danmarks bedste filmformidler klogt og pædagogisk har vist mig vejen fra den dag, jeg lærte ham at kende sådan cirka for 25 år siden. Som højskolelærer, som programredaktør ved Statens Filmcentral og som lærer ved Filmskolen har han brændt for filmen som kunstart og øst ud af sin store kærlighed og viden. Navnet er Niels Jensen, som for længst kunne have lagt fødderne op på fodskamlen efter en smuk og uselvisk tjeneste til gavn for dansk filmkultur.

Det gjorde han ikke. I stedet har han nu udgivet en ny bog, hvor han introducerer os til novellen, novellefilmen og noveller omsat til spillefilm. Sikkert med en masse henvisninger til billedkunsten. Jeg glæder mit til at læse den. Som jeg gjorde i sin tid, da “Filmkunst” åbnede mine øjne for at film skal ses i sammenhæng med andre kunstarter og kulturelle strømninger. Derfor står den bog øverst på min ønskeseddel!

”Kort om korte historier i litteratur og på film” Af Niels Jensen, 2007, 439 sider. Udgivet af Den Danske Filmskole. (TSM, bloginlæg 14-12-2010)

THE VERY DANISH NAME

by Tue Steen Müller

To our non-Danish readers who might have noticed that several recent Danish language articles circle around the name, the very Danish name, Niels Jensen.

The reason is that Jensen died a week ago, 81 year old after a long and important contribution to Danish film culture. He taught film – and many other topics – at the Danish folk high school Krogerup, he was a teacher at the Danish Film School, he served years as film consultant at the National Film Board of Denmark (now Danish Film Institute), and was a member of the board of directors at the same institution, and many other committees.

And he was an excellent writer which we film buff Danes have profited from. He wrote the best Danish book on film, ”Filmkunst”, and made reviews and presented films on television. A constant source of inspiration and semper ardens and interested in other people. Niels Jensen, I am sure, also has fans outside Denmark, he made several tours to American universities. (TSM, blogindlæg 15-12-2010)

ANHALTER BAHNHOF

af Allan Berg Nielsen

Fra Tue Steen Müllers private videotek har jeg lånt en film om arkivmaterialets alvor, en dokumentarisk rekonstruktion formet som filmisk elegi. En gammel mand sad for længe siden i en mørk biograf i Berlin og så ”Berlin, Sinfonie einer Grossstadt”. Skribenten, som fortæller historien, sad i nærheden, ja, det var Niels Jensen, og Jensen hørte ham mumle for sig selv: ”Anhalter Bahnhof, Anhalter Bahnhof…” op mod de stumme sort/hvide scener. Det kom fra en dyb smerte, tabet var stort. Udenfor var nu “kun brudstykket af en portal, murbrokker og græs tilbage.”

Jeg så for lidt siden omsider Yael Hersonskis berømte, Sundance-vindende film ”A Film Unfinished” (2008) og kom til at tænke på det citat, denne korte replik, som blev ved med at gentage sig i mig, som en melodilinje, der ikke vil forsvinde. Jeg så nu disse nutidige mennesker, som var børn dengang, sidde i en moderne biograf og 65 år senere se optagelser fra Warszawas jødiske ghetto, hviske og udbryde og direkte sige sådanne ting til boomstangens mikrofon: ”Måske kommer min mor om lidt gående der på gaden…” Det er dyb smerte, tabet er værre end forfærdende, moderen blev vel kort tid efter dræbt i Treblinka som tusinde flere. Oplevelsen i biografsalen er uafrystelig, at se ansigtet som ser. Som Anna Karinas ansigt, når hun i en mørk biograf i Paris ser Jeanne d’Arcs lidelse og død. Lidelse og død.

Jeg ved godt, at Yael Hersonskis hovedanliggende er en detektivisk kortlægning af den tyske besættelsesmagts manipulering af dokumentarfilmen. Filmen var i sin begyndelse i 1942 tænkt som propaganda. De indespærrede i ghettoen levede iscenesat en times tid som forkælede bedsteborgere. Som nu herren, som sidder og læser ved chatollet. Men så blev der i arkivet fundet en glemt filmrulle med fraklippet. Der blev fundet to dagbøger, som fortalte om optagelserne, om de tyske dokumentarfolks arrangeren alting. Den læsende herre er altså tvunget til at sidde der i ro, og det er, hvad han har tilbage, disse tre møbler, bag kameraet er stuen fyldt med resten af hans familie. I soveværelset bor en anden familie, i de andre værelser andre, én familie i hvert rum. Fraklippene på den nyfundne rulle viste kamerafolk gå ind i hinandens scener, sådant måtte jo ud. Og det måtte den åbenlyse nød, sult, brutalitet, vold og død også. Nu er det hele omhyggeligt på plads i Hersonskis uafviselige og umistelige værk. Omsider sidder jeg foran arkivmaterialets alvor: Warszawa, Warszawa… Filmen er Yael Hersonskis. (ABN, blogindlæg 13-03-2011)

NOTER TIL FILMHISTORISKE NEDSLAG (2014)

af Tue Steen Müller

Det var en herlig tirsdag eftermiddag på Den danske Filmskole. Niels Jensen var tilbage i rollen som den inspirerende, vidende og altid veloplagte filmpædagog og -historiker. Her er historien:

”Indtil sin død arbejdede Niels Jensen på et manuskript, som man med god ret kunne kalde filmhistorien ifølge Niels Jensen. Eller måske snarere et livstestamente, der samler et langt livs viden. Nu kan de første fire bøger downloades her på hjemmesiden ”.

Ja, det er rigtigt, gratis kan alle læse, på nettet, hvad Jensen har skrevet om ”filmens begyndelse”, ”filmens sprog og filmens stil”, ”russiske film fra 1920’erne” og ”tyske film fra 1920’erne” – 75-80 sider pr. bog, velillustreret, enkelt og smukt sat op.

Bogreceptionen på filmskolen for familie, venner og kolleger blev flot indledt af skolens leder af efteruddannelsen, Tina Wagner Sørensen og Ulrich Breuning, som afløste Jensen som lærer på skolen og som veloplagt fortalte om Jensens evne til altid at sætte filmhistorien i forbindelse med billedkunst, filosofi, historie, politik… Anekdoterne flød fra Breuning, som af Tina Sørensen fik en velfortjent tak for con amore at have gjort manuskripterne tilgængelige.

… og så tonede Niels Jensen frem på lærredet. Peter Klitgaard havde filmet en af Jensens forelæsninger, om neorealisterne, og Jørgen Kastrup, klipper, havde fundet frem til klip fra genren: Viscontis ”Ossessione”, Rossellnis ”Païsá”, de Sicas ”Cykeltyven” og ”Umberto D” osv. Jamen, sådan var det jo, når Niels Jensen talte om film, uden manuskript og altid i kontakt med tilhørerne! Filmen er til internt brug, da ingen rettigheder (pt) er clearet. Foto: Freddy Tornberg for Statens Filmcentral.

To our non-Danish readers – the text above refers to the actual publishing of filmhistorical texts by Niels Jensen – who died December 2010, 81 year old, after a long and important contribution to Danish film culture. He taught film – and many other topics – at the Danish folk high school Krogerup, he was a teacher at the Danish Film School, he served years as film consultant at the National Film Board of Denmark (now Danish Film Institute), and was a member of the board of directors at the same institution, and many other committees. (TSM, blogindlæg 01-05-2014)

DocsBarcelona 2014

Young directors, fresh views and interpretations of the world today, resistance movements, new ways of storytelling – it is a golden age of the documentary and that is strongly reflected in the programme that the DocsBarcelona festival has just published!

I write this totally biased as I have had the privilege to be one of the programmers for the upcoming festival that takes off May 26 and runs until June 1. Let me give you words about some of the more than 40 films that will be on the screen.

The festival opens with a film that is unique in many ways: ”The Good Son” by Shirly Berkovitz. I met Shirly in Israel a couple of years ago and she told me that at a meeting for documentary people, a young man turned up to ask if anyone wanted to make a film about him, who deeply wanted to become a she. The young director Shirly went on the journey with him, an intensely painful journey through falsifications and lies towards the family, the director became a friend and ”partner in crime”, they took off to Thailand for the operations, and more I will not reveal here except for my joy that a warm and sensational film made without any tabloid touch opens the festival.

Another highlight is Talal Derki’s “Return to Homs” from Syria. I have previously written this about a film that I consider to be among the most important that has come out the last couple of years: … this is a personal drama experienced by Basset and Ossama, commented and equally experienced by Talal, conveyed in panoramic scenes that look like Berlin

1945, as well as intimate scenes with the fighters, as well as tough reportage scenes of human beings being shot, brought to the kind of medical treatment that is possible on the front line, in a war zone, as well as a memorable tour through holes in the walls, Ossama  following Basset… Never has the word ”authenticity” fit so well as a description of a film!

“Everyday Rebellion” by the Iranian/Austrian brothers Riahi will probably be one of the favourites for the Audience Award, as it has been at other festivals, where it goes around and is met with enthusiasm by people, who think that it is good that there are resistance movements all over as the film shows so well and committed; by the way supplemented by an active website.

The same anti-materialism freshness and originality in storytelling you will find in “My Stuff” by Finnish Petri Luukkainen, who decides to test how much he (and we?) actually need in our daily existence. It’s funny, visual, food for thought, Finnish!

And please, please line up for Nastia Tarasova’s “Linar”, again a young director’s impressive, visually poignant heartbreaking story about the Russian child, who is to have a new heart. Reminds us how emotionally strong the film medium can be!

Can we live without Love and Art… the festival brings two beautiful, completely different films to the screen, award-winning before they came to Barcelona: “Belleville Baby”  by Mia Engberg, pure poetry, …it has a feeling, an atmosphere, a personal tone (the director’s own voice and her text is excellent) and a well told story from the past, where the director fell in love in Paris, lived with him for some time, experienced him becoming a criminal, because of his immigrant background, an honest film that also includes reflections on the fimmaker wanting to convey the good story, whatever the subject of the story thinks…

…and “The Special Need”  by Carlo Zoratti about the autistic young man, who wants to find someone to share his life with, the one and only – again a fresh and young, and personal approach.

…and “Joanna” by Aneta Kopacz, about a mother who has cancer and how she handles that situation with her five-year old son. It is a poetic and life affirmative film

Art – fantastic film by Andreas Johnsen, Danish director in his twenties, who got access to Chinese master AiWeiWei and made “Ai WeiWei – The Fake Case” where nobody else from the world press was kept out. More classical is Argentinian Rodrigo Vila’s “Mercedes Sosa, The Voice of Latin America!”  with great archive material, whereas “Avant” by Juan Alvarez Neme from Uruguay is a must not only for all ballet interested people because of Julio Bocca, but should be seen also for its brilliant cinematic observation of an institution that is to be revived.

I can not go on – the titles mentioned are from the Official section and the one called New Vision, the are also Special Session, journalistic documentaries, films for children and teenagers, students films – plus the whole industry section that I will return to on another occasion.

Enjoy!

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/

Niels Jensen: Noter til filmhistoriske nedslag 1-4

Det var en herlig tirsdag eftermiddag på Den danske Filmskole. Niels Jensen var tilbage i rollen som den inspirerende, vidende og altid veloplagte filmpædagog og –historiker. Her er historien:

”Indtil sin død (december 2010, red.) arbejdede Niels Jensen på et manuskript, som man med god ret kunne kalde filmhistorien ifølge Niels Jensen. Eller måske snarere et livstestamente, der samler et langt livs viden. Nu kan de første fire bøger downloades her på hjemmesiden (link nedenfor, red.)”.

Ja, det er rigtigt, gratis kan alle læse, på nettet, hvad Jensen har skrevet om ”filmens begyndelse”, ”filmens sprog og filmens stil”, ”russiske film fra 1920’erne” og ”tyske film fra 1920’erne” – 75-80 sider pr. bog, velillustreret, enkelt og smukt sat op.

Bogreceptionen på filmskolen for familie, venner og kolleger blev flot indledt af skolens leder af efteruddannelsen, Tina Wagner Sørensen og Ulrich Breuning, som afløste Jensen som lærer på skolen og som veloplagt fortalte om Jensens evne til altid at sætte filmhistorien i forbindelse med billedkunst, filosofi, historie, politik… Anekdoterne flød fra Breuning, som af Tina Sørensen fik en velfortjent tak for con amore at have gjort manuskripterne tilgængelige.

… og så tonede Niels Jensen frem på lærredet. Peter Klitgaard havde filmet en af Jensens forelæsninger, om neorealisterne, og Jørgen Kastrup, klipper, havde fundet frem til klip fra genren: Viscontis ”Ossessione”, Rossellnis ”Païsá”, de Sicas ”Cykeltyven” og ”Umberto D” osv. Jamen, sådan var det jo, når Niels Jensen talte om film, uden manuskript og altid i kontakt med tilhørerne! Filmen er til internt brug, da ingen rettigheder (pt) er clearet. Foto: Freddy Tornberg for Statens Filmcentral.

To our non-Danish readers – the text above refers to the actual publishing of filmhistorical texts by Niels Jensen – who died December 2010, 81 year old, after a long and important contribution to Danish film culture. He taught film – and many other topics – at the Danish folk high school Krogerup, he was a teacher at the Danish Film School, he served years as film consultant at the National Film Board of Denmark (now Danish Film Institute), and was a member of the board of directors at the same institution, and many other committees.

http://efu.filmskolen.dk/

M. Obert: Song from the Forest/Sange fra skoven

Citat fra pressematerialet: Essensen i Bayaka kultur er deres ældgamle polyfoniske sang. Louis Sarno har gennem sine indspilninger af Bayaka folkets musik sikret en af verdens vigtige kulturarve; i 2003 fik Bayaka folkets musik UNESCO World Heritage Status. Louis Sarno har indspillet over 1000 timer af Bayaka folkets sang og musik. Bayaka folket kæmper i dag for deres overlevelse, da træfældere og guldspekulanter indtager deres leveareal. Over de sidste to årtier er 75 procent af Congo Basin regnskoven blevet ryddet…

Dette er baggrunden for Michael Oberts film, der fra i morgen, via Doxbio, har premiere I mere end 40 danske biografer. Den fortjener et stort publikum for sin smukke skildring af en mand, der I 25 år har levet I regnskoven hos Bayka-folket, hvor han har optaget deres enestående musik. Louis Sarno hviler I sig selv, når han sidder I sin lille hytte og udtrykker sin kærlighed til det samfund, som har taget ham til sig. Han har lovet sin søn, som han har med en Bayaka kvinde, Gomá, at vise ham hvor han selv er født og vokset op og turen til New York udgør anden halvdel af historien, hvor drengen Samedi oplever en helt anden verden, som selvfølgelig synes at fascinere ham.

This is what I wrote after the idfa festival, where the film got the main prize: The winner, ”Song from the Forest”, has an absolutely wonderful main character Louis Sarno, charismatic, sympathetic and his contribution to the collect of music from the pygmies is admirable and extraordinary. To see and listen to him is great, and there is a lot to get from his travel with the son, whereas it irritates when the filmmaker in the beginning of the story, as a kind of selling tool, brings in Jim Jarmusch to tell us how magnificent Louis and how apartheid is still to be found everywhere, there are other show-stoppers like that along the way…

I saw the film again this morning and focused on what I liked (still having problems with the editing structure of a film): Cinematographer Siri Klug) has amazingly beautiful images from the forest, this is where the film (accompanied by Bayaka music and renaissance music by William Byrd) lives aesthetically, whereas it falls a bit down when we go to the US with the interviews and family situations – maybe it was the intention to have it more prosaic to stay in harmony with what Sarno feels like when he is back to New York: I’m not a real person in this place. The story with him and the son is nice, father and son but not much more than that. In the forest he talks about the ”spiritual serenity” that he experiences, he talks in such a mild and calm and clever way when he sits in his humble house, but he (in the US part) is also more than concerned about the future of the Bayaka culture, and is he seriously ill, you think when you see him in New York?

Germany, 2013, 96 mins.

www.doxbio.dk

www.songfromtheforest.com

Viesturs Kairiss: Pelican in the Desert

This new film by Latvian film and opera director Kairiss will have its international premiere tomorrow at Visions du Réel in Nyon. Here is an article I wrote for the promotion of the film:

The first film work I met from the hands of Viesturs Kairiss was ”Romeo and Juliet” (2004). A wonderful original short documentary, or as it has been named ”a documentary musical”, where two deaf youngsters perform the staging of Bernstein’s ”West Side Story”. It has since then been one of my first choices, when I have had the privilege to make retrospectives of Baltic documentary cinema for international festivals.

I learned that Kairiss already from the late 1990’es worked as a theatre and opera director and in that field now has developed into an often used director internationally with a special fame for his Wagner opera settings. His way of working in opera was interpreted freely and with a lot of inspiration by his colleague Davis Simanis, a soul brother in Latvian documentary. The film was ”Valkyrie Limited” (2009), a masterpiece overseen by international festivals. Simanis has worked with Kairiss as editor in several of his films, including the features.

Kariss is an opera director who also makes films, and tries to

combine the two art forms… Well, you could say so, when you look at his ”Lohengrin from Varka Crew” (2009) that has Wagner in the title in a film, where the protagonist is a sportsman with the mission to help people on this earth, and you can indeed sense the opera director in ”Pelican in the Desert”, the new grandiose work of the directorand – that credit must be given up front in this article – Gints Berzins, the cameraman whose images are magnificent. Nothing less!

Latgale

The film opens with an informative text about the mysterious, spiritual place that the director and cameraman take us: Latgale is a land lying at the furthest point of the European Union’s Eastern border… and is continued by a text that gives an idea of how this place is to experienced in the film: At times it seems to be an island surrounded by water, yet at times this land reminds of a desert, which has covered the Ark carrying the salvaged humanity…

Voila! Untergang! Doomsday – and there is a preacher in the film, who foresees that this is the way it goes.

And (almost, comes below) no more written text, actually there are relatively few words uttered in this mythical journey to people and faith, performed by mostly old representatives of a society and culture that seem to disappear.

The Visual Flow

The film literally takes off with a flying over water, images that come back as a kind of chaptering. Between sequences that have a focus on bringing a beautiful combination of image and sound. A woman singing a prayer, the sound (and image) of water, a man painting a crucifix, another man washing himself in mud… this is not an anthropological film, there is no instisting on giving information, nevertheless, through the people who take part, the audience is invited to know more about Latgale.

The Jews

An example – quoting one more text from the screen: An old Jewish tale tells that a pelican cut open its breast with the beak and fed his hungry young with its own blood. Followed by long silent passages, a shift in season to winter, a man who is saying that there were many Jews here, today there are none, to be followed by a visit to a house, where a woman tells that this used to be a synagogue, calling for grandpa in the sofa to stand up and play his accordeon. He does, and he does well, she continues by saying that this is a holy place, and the film makes it a holy atmosphere the moment, where she starts to sing. To mention just one of many magic poetic moments in the film.

The Building of the Story

Well, you can not really talk about ”story” in the way it is often used in modern documentary discussions. More about an associative editing where death follows the sequence about the Jews, to the cemetery, to a woman in summer time chasing her dog to catch it and take it back, and then winter again, where a man takes his teeth out of the mouth and gives a concert with tongue and nose. Hilarious. But also – the whole film is like that – respectful to the people. No easy making fun, the man continues to play on abandoned iron rails outside the wooden house, which turns out to be a church.

Prayers

Many church houses are visited and many prayers and chants are heard. It is a multi-layered film with an emphasis on religious rituals and their believers and priests and preachers. The interiors of the churches are described, the huge catholic processions as well as the fascinating entry to the place of an old believer, who tells about where and how he baptizes children as well as grown-ups – and gets interrupted by a call on his cellphone! For whom the bells toll – beautiful are the many sequences where old women draw the ropes that brings the bells to perform music.

No Future

Latgale seems to have no future, is what the film communicates. A brilliant montage brings that kind of feeling. Four men in the snow are digging a grave, the sound of their shovels accompany Mahler music, women are dancing to this sound score, with and without cowboy hats, cut to empty abandoned houses, stones, mountains, yes, there is a desert, and then back to the four men, the dead body… I have not given the scenes in their right order but the death is there, also in the tragic accident that a man describes he witnessed next to a ruin, a burnt down house.

No message but experience and a hymn to spirituality, sometimes solemn, always letting the dignity of the people come forward whatever mad or weird they might appear. Kairiss did not go there to inform, he went there to experience. He was impressed, he saw an operalike drama or an elegy, if you like. He dwelled like another Visconti on the decadence of the decline. He went with his superb cameraman Berzins to convey this inspiration in an observational, expressionistic film language of super-aesthetic sequences. What more could you ask for?

Latvia, 2014, 70 mins.

http://www.visionsdureel.ch/en.html

EDN Today and Yesterday

The EDN website is a rich source of general information for documentarians around the world. Available, even if you are not a member – which you definitely should be to get all the service provided by the organisation.

For instance the newly published call for projects to be pitched online, this time projects ”From the Opposition”, deadline for submission May 2nd, check the website, from where this (edited) text is taken:

EDN Online Pitching is a pitching format based on an online video conference, where a limited number of documentary projects are pitched. For this pitching session EDN is calling for documentary projects from the opposition. The submission deadline is May 2, 2014 at noon.

EDN Online Pitching is an initiative where four documentary projects are pitched to a group of leading international financiers and decision makers… each session lasts one hour. This session, which will focus on documentary projects on ‘the opposition’, will take place on May 23, 2014 at 14:00-15:00 (Central European Time).

With projects from the opposition, we mean documentary projects done by or portraying people, groups or movements forming a social or political opposition. This can for instance be: 

  –  Political oppositions fighting for democratic rights

  –  Armed groups battling suppressing political leaderships

  –  Social movements trying to change current dominant structures.

For this session we plan to have the presence of 4 – 6 financiers and experts with a special interest and experience in human rights, political and current affairs documentaries. So far the following have confirmed their participation:

Iikka Vehkalahti, YLE, Finland

Ryan Harrington, Tribeca Film Institute, USA

This is EDN of today, if you want to hear a bit from the past, EDN has published an interview with its Member of the Month, Tue Steen Müller, who remembers the days of the fax machine in the office in the mid 1990’es.

http://www.edn.dk/

Glawogger – Collected Posts on his Works

”A World of Troubled Beauty…”

 

 

 

 

 

HEADLINE

NY Times brought the most precise headline to an article about the films of Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger’s impressive work: A World of Troubled Beauty – referring to his trilogy ”Megacities”, ”Workingman’s Death” and ”Whore’s Glory”. (Post 08-08-2012)

 

AN ART OF CROSSING BOUNDARIES

The IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) website informs that the first retrospective of the Austrian documentarian is taking place in New York at the Museum of Moving Images until April 29. The website of the Museum includes interesting text excerpts from a soon to be published book on Glawogger. Here comes the series intro by the museum:

”One of the most versatile and original talents in contemporary world cinema, the Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger has made an art of crossing boundaries, both geographic and formal. He spans diverse, far-flung locations within a single film, often dealing with ambiguous notions of home and foreignness, and moves back and forth between fiction and documentary, sometimes combining and subverting both modes. Glawogger’s career resists classification at every turn, but whether set on the margins of the developing world or in precincts of privilege, his surprising, beautifully photographed films are testaments to his own boundless curiosity and to the endless complexity of the human condition. This retrospective, his first in the United States, includes his widely acclaimed and much debated documentary trilogy on harsh working environments, as well as a selection of fiction features and experimental short films.” (Post 22-04-2012)

 

MEGACITIES (1998)

Renata Medero, documentary film student at Zelig, Bolzano, Italy, writes this review of a neo- classic:

Unforgettable images… whether you like it or not.

Some films deliver images to never be forgotten, some beautiful, some not. But – what happens when the ugliness is so hypnotizing that one cannot stop watching? “Megacities” is a unique film because it brings toghether issues that by themselves seem irreconcilable. The worst of the megalopolis is brought together: dehumanization, cruelty, despair, all wrapped in a glossy and luxurious manufacturing, which makes the film as beautiful as mercyless.

The aesthetization of the poverty is not a new tendency in some films of the international scenario, but “Megacities” is tricky. Has a spotless photography, where the flawless and somewhat mysterious composition of images forces the spectator to keep watching the movie even when he might not want to.

And then, the big lettered question: Do I have the right to see this? What right did the director had to film it? And there is still another ethical issue to deal with: a group of russian street kids reveal that they were paid to be filmed. Does that mean that they were paid for showing the inhuman condition in which they live? How maquiavelic could such an idea be? In any case this film is not advisable to animal right activists, good consciences and weak hearts!

I think it is a masterpiece, because it achieves the impossible even though I don’t agree in some of the director’s views of the situations. (Post 26-04-2008)

 

MAGNIFICENT 7 2012

… And for closing – Michael Glawogger, the Austrian director of many controversial films. This time he cares about prostitutes in his travel to Thailand, Bangladesh and Mexico. As with his previous globalisation films (”Megacities” and ”Working Man’s Death”) the camerawork is done by Wolfgang Thaler, who excellently interprets each location in its own way. ”Whore’s Glory” is done with sensitivity and respectfully tells us about prostitutes who offer moments of love. It is a stunning film that for sure will create debate about what documentaries can and should do – as all 7 films it is for the big screen, and for the social and artistic experience. (Post 13-01-2012)

 

AT DOCSBARCELONA 2013

… The job given to Michael Glawogger at DocsBarcelona was very simple: find 7 clips and talk about them in your master class. He found 6 and surprised this blogger, who thought he knew the work of the Austrian filmmaker, by showing ”Haiku”, a film he made in the 1980’es, wonderful in editing and – as he said – a film that includes the theme that he was to develop a couple of decades later: work. To prove that, he showed a sequence from ”Workingman’s Death”, that has a dialogue between workers about prostitutes, the theme of the director’s latest work, ”Whore’s Glory” (photo), that is in the official selection at the festival.

Glawogger is not only an important artist, he also has the gift to be able to talk precisely about what he does, and how he approaches his characters. And he does that in a provocative way that is perfect for a master class as well as a Q&A session like the one he performed yesterday in the new Filmoteca in Barcelona. The audience wanted to know how he got the prostitutes in ”Whore’s Glory” to participate, how his research was done, if he paid them to take part (yes, of course), how much the film’s budget was (2 mio.€ the answer was), practical as well as ethical question.

Masters come to Barcelona, last year it was Viktor Kossakovsky, this year he was followed by Michael Glawogger. For sure, two of the best documentary (if not the best) artists of our time. (Post 01-06-2013)

 

CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE (2014)

6 3D documentaries by Wim Wenders, Michael Glawogger, Michael Madsen, Robert Redford, Margreth Olin and Karim Ainouz. Executive producer: Wim Wenders. Each film is 26 mins. long. Subtitle: ”If Buildings Could Talk” and this is where the overall problem lies if the idea is that they have to be watched as one film with six locations… I saw it like that at the press screening tuesday and this is how the 6 are to be screened at the Copenhagen Architecture Festival x Film, with one small break… Michael Glawogger’s part ”The National Library of Russia” is close to my heart as educated librarian (in the last century), and because this is magic St. Petersburg, where you have this fantastic building in the middle of the city, on Nevski Prospekt, where you with Glawogger in a few seconds leave modern times and enter a place full of people and books and index cards and kilometers of bookshelves and students at their small study tables and old ladies sitting in their small booths writing on their cards or taking books out to be transported to the reader in the reading room. Glawogger avoids the ”I am a building”. Instead he lets voices and texts come out from the images – Dostojevski of course, Bunin, Brodsky and many others – unfortunately difficult to understand it all as there are Russian voices in the background with an English voice in the foreground that only gives some of the texts, if I got it right. Visually this film is excellent, there is a flow, a constant movement, great close-ups, small stories within the overall story, Glawogger and his cameraman Wolfgang Thaler succeed to convey their fascination fully. A great visit! (Post 20-03-2014)

 

MICHAEL GLAWOGGER 1959-2014

Shocking news – Michael Glawogger has died from malaria during the shooting of a film in Africa. So young! My deepest condolences to family and the many, who were close to him.

In June last year I had the privilege to moderate a masterclass with Michael Glawogger. It happened in Barcelona at DocsBarcelona, where his ”Whores Glory” was shown. I had recommended the masterclass to happen after meeting the director at the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade 2011, where he stayed the whole week of the festival, took everyone by heart with his warm generosity and ability to inspire, sharing his experience as a filmmaker, who never compromised and gave us, as he expressed it himself, a description of ”la condition humaine”.

In connection with a retrospective in New York, NY Times characterised his impressive work as ”A World of Troubled Beauty” – referring to his trilogy ”Megacities”, ”Workingman’s Death” and ”Whore’s Glory”. Films that will stay in film history.

A couple of quotes from his hand, taken from the many texts about Glawogger: ”I start filming when I sense that nothing is exotic any longer. But common. Not before.”“For me documentary filmmaking is a very special kind of life and I come to see places in a way that I could not see by just travelling, and I would also feel lost travelling without the purpose of watching things in order to work with them, since that makes sense to me. If I weren’t a filmmaker, I wouldn’t take that time for travelling and watching, so that makes me very happy. The people I meet for these films, that make them very happy…”

Take a look at the photo, see his smile, see his calm and open invitation to ask whatever question relevant to the art of filmmaking that he mastered so wonderfully – most recent with the film from the National Library in St.Petersburg. (Post 24-04-2014)

Michael Glawogger 1959-2014

Shocking news – Michael Glawogger has died from malaria during the shooting of a film in Africa. So young! My deepest condolences to family and the many, who were close to him.

In June last year I had the privilege to moderate a masterclass with Michael Glawogger (photo). It happened in Barcelona at DocsBarcelona, where his ”Whores Glory” was shown. I had recommended the masterclass to happen after meeting the director at the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade 2011, where he stayed the whole week of the festival, took everyone by heart with his warm generosity and ability to inspire, sharing his experience as a filmmaker, who never compromised and gave us, as he expressed it himself, a description of ”la condition humaine”.

In connection with a retrospective in New York, NY Times characterised his impressive work as ”A World of Troubled Beauty” – referring to his trilogy ”Megacities”, ”Workingman’s Death” and ”Whore’s Glory”. Films that will stay in film history.

A couple of quotes from his hand, taken from the many texts about Glawogger:  ”I start filming when I sense that nothing is exotic any longer. But common. Not before.”“For me documentary filmmaking is a very special kind of life and I come to see places in a way that I could not see by just travelling, and I would also feel lost travelling without the purpose of watching things in order to work with them, since that makes sense to me. If I weren’t a filmmaker, I wouldn’t take that time for travelling and watching, so that makes me very happy. The people I meet for these films, that make them very happy…”

Take a look at the photo, see his smile, see his calm and open invitation to ask whatever question relevant to the art of filmmaking that he mastered so wonderfully – most recent with the film from the National Library in St.Petersburg.

Baltic Responses to Ban of Russian Channels

Is this a wise decision, I wondered, when i read a text on “Film New Europe” a couple of weeks ago:

Governmental bodies in both Latvia and Lithuania have banned broadcasts of Russian state TV channels. A three month ban began on 8 April 2014. Lithuania first issued a three month ban of the Russian channel NTV Mir two weeks earlier over broadcast of the documentary The Convicted. It later suspended broadcasts of RTR-Planeta (Russia) also for a period of three months. Latvia issued a three-month suspension of rebroadcasts of the channel Rossiya RTR over reports of biased coverage reflecting military propaganda. One-third of Latvia’s population is native Russian-speaking, and 8 percent of Lithuania’s population is comprised of native Russian language speakers…

I decided to ask three very good friends to give me their reactions, Latvian Lelda Ozola who works as Media Desk at the National Film centre, film directors Giedre Beinoriūtė and Audrius Stonys from Lithuania. The answers, the strongest one first, were:

STONYS: Let me answer you what I think about the banning of Russian TV channels in few questions. Would it be possible that ‘Der Stűrmer’ or ‘Vőlkischer Beobachter’ would be published and distributed in London in

1941? Would any European country accept a TV channel which would openly propagate war, violence and national or racial discrimination? What is the difference between Putin and Goebbels propaganda?

The war against Ukraine already started. Also in the information front. The banning of these Russian state TV channels has nothing to do with rights of Russian population in Latvia and Lithuania. Actually a majority of Lithuanian Russians are not supporting war against Ukraine. Lie is a lie and it has nothing to do with a freedom of speech. I follow events in Ukraine and how they are presented in Russian TV channels on the internet. It is mind blowing open and extremely cynical lie. We banned this open lie in our countries, but I think this issue should be taken very seriously in the European context. In XXI century in Europe, a Television is used as a repressive weapon against freedom of another country. How could this be possible?

Audrius Stonys

OZOLA: The things happening in the Ukraine is not fun. Somehow we here take it very personally – the fear is almost physical. Russia is so close and performs so cynically in the Ukraine. We have witnessed provocations here from the Russian speaking population and the state TV channels of Russia broadcast sheer propaganda and lies – they incite hatred on regular basis. So, actually, the ban on the channels is a measure of defence. The pretext for Russia to come and defend their citizens who suffer here seems very close to reality at the moment. That’s why the channels are banned even though it is most probably difficult for you to understand it looking from the media democracy point of view…

Lelda Ozola

BEINORIUTE: I think it is not about just banning the Russian TV channel. Russia is using media as a weapon constantly and deliberately spreading lies and disinformation and inciting hatred. Russia is waging the information war. So I see this ban not as a sanction but as a defence. And I think this ban is the least reaction which should be reacted to. Somebody has just to say: stop.  And I wish Europe would be less faltering.

Giedré Beinoriute