Eröffnungsrede von Claas Danielsen

DOKLeipzig director for 10 years Claas Danielsen made, as he always does, a welcome speech that went far beyond the usual thanks to sponsors and audience and guests. I have taken a couple of sequences from his German language speech:

Eine der wichtigsten Eigenschaften guter Dokumentarfilme ist, dass sie uns Angst nehmen. Sie helfen uns, das Schreckliche in der Welt anzuerkennen und es an uns heranzulassen – manchmal ubrigens auch das unfassbar Schöne, das wir genauso wegschieben, wenn wir fürchten, es zu verlieren.

Denn die Dokumentaristen widmen sich oft dem Schicksal einzelner Menschen – aufrichtig, wahrhaftig und mit Geduld. Mit diesen Protagonisten können wir uns als Zuschauer verbinden. Wer die syrische Familie in Reem Karsslis Film begleitet hat, für den haben die unter dem Bürgerkrieg leidenden Menschen ein Gesicht bekommen.

Und wer die iranischen Jugendlichen in Kaveh Bakhtiaris Film „Stop-Over“ dabei beobachtet, wie sie verzweifelt und oft unter Todesgefahr versuchen, in den Westen Europas zu gelangen, wird bei den Bildern von Migranten an den hochgesicherten Außengrenzen Europas nicht mehr gleichgültig wegschauen können.

Gute Dokumentarfilme informieren nicht, sie verändern uns. Dokumentarfilme machen das Verdrängte empfindbar. Aus der abstrakten Bedrohung und undefinierbaren Angst wird ein konkretes Schicksal und damit ein Gefühl, das uns nicht mehr überfordert. Das Verdrängte wird „verständlich“, also für unseren Verstand greifbar. Dadurch öffnet sich eine Tür, ein neuer Weg wird sichtbar, heraus aus der Lähmung, hinein in das aktive Handeln. Auch auf

psychischer Ebene kann so Heilung geschehen. Das ist die einzigartige Kraft des Dokumentarfilms, er wirkt dem Verdrängen entgegen und öffnet unser Herz und unseren Geist.

Das, was sich dann zeigt, mag oft verwirrend und komplex sein. Denn die Welt und die Zeit, in der wir leben, sind vielschichtig, unübersichtlich und ständig in Bewegung.

…….

Warum hat es der erzählerische, künstlerische Dokumentarfilm dann jenseits der Filmfestivals so schwer? Warum erkennen nur noch so wenige Entscheidungsträger in den Fernsehanstalten, wie gut sie diesen Schatz nutzen könnten. Anstatt dessen schieben sie ihn oft ins programmliche Abseits, dörren ihn finanziell aus oder wickeln ihn ganz ab. Und das in Zeiten, in denen Kritiker das öffentlichrechtliche System grundsätzlich in Frage stellen. Am Geld kann es angesichts der günstigen Minutenpreise und der langen Lebensdauer der Dokumentarfilme nicht liegen. Es fehlt an Mut und Wertschätzung.

Ich frage mich: Hat die kompromisslose Suche der Dokumentarfilmer nach Wahrhaftigkeit etwas Bedrohliches? Sind Leidenschaft und Idealismus dem Zuschauer nicht mehr zuzumuten? Ist das Ringen um eine moralische Haltung in einer Zeit der Umbrüche unseriös? Ist der Kampf um Würde, Respekt und Menschlichkeit aus der Mode gekommen? Was verdrängen all jene, die diese Art von unformatierten und unbequemen Filmen nicht mehr zeigen wollen? Warum ziehen es viele aufrechte, couragierte und unbequeme Redakteure vor, die Funkhäuser zu verlassen, anstatt weiter für ihre Sendeplätze und Individualität im Programm zu kämpfen?

http://www.dok-leipzig.de/

Leipzig Networking Days 2013

Sevara Pan is in Leipzig for the festival and writes with enthusiasm about one of the so-called industry activities: Spanned over 3 days, Leipzig Networking Days celebrated its finale on the warm Sunday afternoon of October 27th. Initiated by Documentary Campus, Leipzig Networking Days is an annual pitching and networking event that hosts over 200 industry professionals from around the world. This year, the event commenced with the opening keynote, given by Jens Schmelzle, the founder of Simpleshow, a global leading company that helps simplify internal and external communication. “Keep it simple” was the key of his message – the conspicuous precept we are all aware of, yet hardly few of us apply in practice. This advertising principle, Schmelzle reckoned, could be well employed in filmmaking or storytelling in general. Starting off with the essential core, he presumed, gives an opportunity to lay a foundation to build up the narrative, ornament it with nuances, and parlay with luscious minutiaes.

The next two days of the event were dedicated to pitching of 16 documentary projects developed within the Masterschool 2013, 2 guest projects from the MENA programme (the Middle East and North Africa programme: http://www.documentary-campus.com/v2/page/contact/), and 3 guest projects by Documentary Campus Member Companies. The pitches were then followed-up by a number of panel discussions as well as scheduled one-to-one meetings with 30 commissioning editors from promiment broadcasting companies – ZDF/ARTE, MDR, ITVS, LIC China, and Channel 4 – to name a few.

From the lost generation of the bleak Russian garbage dump “svalka,” to the frenetic journey of the LGBT countercultural movement Queercore with its roots in punk, to the backchannel of the Austrian Chancellor Kreisky and PLO-fighter Sartawi, and onto the veil behind the theft of the Chagossian nation – the unbridled diversity of projects was captivating. While some touched and inspired, others intrigued and left wondering. There was room for every shade of emotion, taking turns in the laboratory of mind with the sweeping gait of the 8-minute pitch. But was there “room for a man?” At the brink of solemnity of the event, there was also a leeway for humor and wit. In the company of a 25-year old Lebanese Anthony on his odyssey to seek out an answer to the existential question of manhood, suddenly we found ourselves within a 4m² space, hedged in by Anthony’s outspoken mother Nicole, perplexing older sister Romy, frisky doberman Velvet, and a “handy and virile” construction worker that embodies “the essence of masculinity.”

Leipzig Networking Days culminated with the award for the best pitch, handed out by Chris Black, the marketplace manager of Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of the Documentary Campus long-term partners. The pitch award was genially granted to the polish filmmaker Hanna Polak (project Yula’s Dream) for her 13-year-old commitment to the story, chronicling an extraordinary journey of 11-year-old Yula growing up in the black hole of the metropolis, at the outskirts of the Moscow garbage dump, and her ultimate breaking out to a better life at the age of 25.

To put it in a few words. Leipzig Networking Days was a success. Bright smiles, enthusiasm about the new and the upcoming, but most importantly, a genuine love for documentary films were pivotal for the event to run par excellence.

DocsBarcelona +Medellin/ 2

In times where festivals for documentaries aim for bigger and bigger numbers of audiences, ranging from 50.000 to more than 200.000, it is refreshing to read that much smaller numbers can make the organisers happy like the ones who stood behind the pioneer work in Colombia. Read the press release filmkommentaren.dk received yesterday, and click below to read what we have written about the festival before:

“With over 16 years of experience, DocsBarcelona closed its first edition in Colombia, Docsbarcelona+Medellín, with absolute success. “The last applause” by German director German Kral was the cherry of a four-day festival that turned the city of Medellin into the centre of international documentary.

With a great response from the citizens of Medellín, (2.448 viewers attended the screenings with an average of 87 people per session) DocsBarcelona+Medellín points out to turn into a new meeting point for international documentary.

DocsBarcelona + Medellín , which took place between the 15th and the 20th of October, presented 15 films, most of them screened previously at DocsBarcelona (Spain), morning screenings for teenagers, as well as a program of industry activities including a Development and Documentary Executive Production workshop, 3 master classes and 3 rough cut screenings. The event counted with the support and presence of 6 international guests.”

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/2504/

http://docsbarcelonamedellin.com/

Aneta Kopacz: Joanna

Yesterday midday I mailed Joanna Solecka from Wajda Studio. I have known Joanna for some years and she was the one, who sent me the link to watch their 45 minutes long documentary ”Joanna”, a film about a mother who suffers from cancer. My starting point – to be a bit cynical: I have seen lots of films about a dying parent and their loved ones to be left behind. Nevertheless I don’t remember one with the same high quality. These were the words sent to Joanna about ”Joanna”: 

I watched the film – if you can put it like that – with pleasure and emotionally touched, to say the least, well what else can I say but BEAUTIFUL. As a film and as a hymn to Life and Love, whatever might happen.

One day later, today, Joanna writes me that the film ” won the Silver Eye award at the 10th East Silver Market at Jihlava in the mid-length documentary category”. The jury motivation goes like this:

We decided to award the documentary, which opens the door to the private life of an engaging protagonist in the hardest time of her life. The director approaches her story with a high level of sensitivity and an elegant cinematic approach. We are entirely immersed in her life, through which the viewer experiences a transcendent lift from her story to the bigger values of life and our own personal lives.

One more quote, quite precise actually from the Wajda Studio itself:

Joanna’s hand lovingly strokes her son’s back. They are lying in the grass, listening to the meadow dwellers and the sounds of nature. Jaś says he has a “divine time” with his mom, and Joanna, too, loves to spend time with her boy. But this time is limited. Joanna says she is not afraid of dying, but of leaving behind her little family. Aneta Kopacz’s narrative is remarkably subtle, preserving the tender moments of the remaining days in expressive images.

Subtle, sensitive, tender, expressive, a marvellous music score, BEAUTIFUL.

The film will be shown in competition in DokLeipzig. An obvious candidate for one or more awards.

http://www.dok-leipzig.de/

http://www.eastsilver.net/en/east-silver/news/

Trestikova, Bang Carlsen, Susana de Sousa Dias

Some call their films author driven, some call them auteurs, all agree they make creative documentaries, are artists in the field of filmmaking. They are very different, have their own style, some would call it a hand-writing, which is personal. They come from the East of Europe, the North of Europe and the South of Europe:

Helena Trestikova, Jon Bang Carlsen (photo) and Susana de Sousa Dias, whose portraits are now to be found on top of the front page of filmkommentaren. Here are some quotes from the many articles written about them on this site:

About Helena Trestikova at the Magnificent7 Festival 2013: …a masterclass with a very well prepared presentation with 11 scenes from her films, through her work of long-time observation. She showed us clips from ”Marcela”, ”Katka” and ”René” (Best European Documentary in 2008) and talked about the ethical questions connected to being so close to her characters, helping them ”outside” the film as well, to get on the right track in their lives. Trestikova said that she did not really consider herself as a filmmaker, more as a chronicler, who has new films coming up this year and has plans to continue to film René and maybe also the family in ”Private Universe”. Deep respect for Trestikova for a constant non-tabloid humanistic focus on people outside the celebrity spotlight.

About Jon Bang Carlsen, who had a retrospective in Buchareat early 2013: With a reference to his films shot in Ireland, ”It’s Now or Never” and ”How to Invent Reality” the Romanian organizers presents Bang Carlsen as ”the inventor of Reality”. Here is a clip from the text: This year One World Romania organizes a retrospective dedicated to the Danish documentary filmmaker Jon Bang Carlsen… a legendary director who reinvented documentary film. In his work, Jon Bang Carlsen has always explored the land between fact and fiction. From 1977 onward, mise-en-scene with real characters plays a very important part in his productions, and this method is detailed in his meta-film, How to Invent Reality (1996). His documentaries are often visually and symbolically powerful staged portraits of marginal figures and milieus that involve compelling stories… His new film “Just the Right Amount of Violence” will be shown at DOKLeipzig and idfa 2013.

About ”48” by Susana de Sousa Dias: … with a sense for image and sound, and the putting the two together. To convey with Still Life. Faces of a Dictatorship (2005) the traumatic past of Portugal under Salazar. The film is 77 mins. long without any narration, built on archive from the 48 years between 1926 and till 1974, when the carnation revolution happened. The archive includes news, war footage from the colonies, propaganda films and photos of political prisoners. The musical score for this film, by António de Sousa Dias, is exceptional, first you wonder why but then you see what it does to the images, making a reflective distance and opens for a new both intellectual and emotional interpretation…

Joe Berlinger: Under African Skies

Paul Simon’s 1986 album, “Graceland”, is a pivotal album and more than anything it revealed to us western mono-culture consumers that South Africa is a rich source of rhythms, harmonies and just plain good grooves. Also, the album and the following tour gave musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Joseph Shabalala, Ray Phiri and Baghiti Kumalo a chance to make the world listen to their (and Simon’s) music.

But since the record was made during the embargo of South Africa, ANC and Artists Against Apartheid were adversaries to Simon’s project – although both Simon and the involved black musicians insisted on the collaboration.

In 2011 Paul Simon returned to South Africa to meet the old gang and to do a 25th anniversary concert. This film, quite traditionally, consists of scenes from the rehearsals, archive footage of the old recordings and concerts, the harsh life under apartheid plus recent interviews with the main characters. Simon himself comes across both enthusiastic (albeit a bit old) and somewhat tired of the old controversy while the other musicians are just a treat to look at and listen to.

There is an important dialogue on a sofa between Simon and founder of AAA, Dali Tembo, where they discuss the political implications, and – in my mind a key scene – Simon also tells us about a meeting he had with ANC. Back then, ANC wanted the black musicians to not go on the tour, and Simon therefore asked the politicians: “Is this the government you will be? A government who wants to control artists?” Powerful stuff, to say the least.

But the film pays an equal attention to the music related topics. For instance, we hear about Simon’s problems with getting his words to fit when he returned to New York with the tapes. He had to re-listen and re-analyze the complex patterns of the instruments.

However, we as an audience aren’t allowed to really listen. Even though the film is packed with music, we mostly get to hear a few seconds before someone talks, and while it seems completely unnecessary to have people like Whoopi Goldberg and Paul McCartney in the film, others like Harry Belafonte and Philip Glass make more sense. It’s always tricky to fit music into a storyline, but apart from that the film is structured rather cleverly.

It is not cinematographically awe-inspiring but certainly inspiring in other ways; especially if you are just slightly interested in Paul Simon, music, culture, politics or… the world.

Joe Berlinger: Under African Skies, 2012. Watched at Cinemateket, Copenhagen.

DOK Leipzig Starts Monday

… and as usual there are many interesting side programmes like this one, text taken from the site of the festival, headline “Putting the Material At a Distance”:

Peter Voigt’s films reveal his special relationship to image material: He has the ability to cinematically represent times of which no visual records exist. He often deliberately does not use historical images, as they are already stored in the collective memory. He puts ‘material at a distance’ and creates a wholly unique position apart from imitation and retelling.

Peter Voigt, born in 1933 in Dessau, became, in 1954, the youngest member of Bertolt Brecht’s directorial team at the Berliner Ensemble. That experience shaped him and is reflected in later works such as Der Zögling or Episches Theater (1998), in which he thematically returns to Brecht. Voigt learned the cinematic craft as a director and writer of contemporary history in documentary film. He worked as an illustrator and director at the DEFA Studio for Animated Films and the DEFA Studio for Documentary Films, which distinguishes him as a crossover artist straddling the genres.

In an interview with producer Andreas Goldstein (Oktoberfilm/Berlin), Peter Voigt will present his work and his artistic method before the master class. In celebration of his 80th birthday, DOK Leipzig has dedicated an homage to the grand master.

To get the most out of the master class we recommend to go to the screening of Peter Voigt’s films Episches Theater, Ich bin Ernst Busch and Kentauren on Friday 01 November at 11:00 in the Passage Kinos Wintergarten. 

Please Note: The master class will be held in German WITHOUT translation. Accredited guests welcome!

Check out petervoigt.info for background information about the filmmaker’s work and career!

http://www.dok-leipzig.de/industry-training/master-class/master-class-peter-voigt

Time to Celebrate Documentaries

… say the DocAlliance people, who again are advertising their vod repertory, including several films that can be streamed for free. The reason for celebration NOW is of course that two of the festivals that are part of the Alliance start today (Jihlava and Lisbon), two other (Leipzig and Copenhagen) follow a bit later.

Go to the site below and see what is on the menu – Frederick Wiseman is not (yet) but his new film “At Berkeley” (photo) will be screened in Lisbon and Copenhagen. Here is the text from DocAlliance:

A month full of the best of contemporary documentary film is about to start! Four Doc Alliance partner festivals are inviting both local and international audiences to meet new talented directors, emerging producers and progressive distribution trends. DAFilms.com offers you the unique opportunity to watch selected festival films during special weekly events online for free. Are you going to one of the festivals only? Are you planning your film trip for the spring months? Watch DAFilms.com and enjoy the festival fall in the comfort of your home!

http://dafilms.com/

Tbilisi

I took this photo from the FB page of Jana Cisar, who was one of the tutors in Tbilisi at the DocStories Georgia workshop that ran parallel to the Cinedoc festival. Cisar has a premiere coming up of her film ”Böhmische Dörfer” at the Hofer Filmtage, that starts today. I have a dvd of the film and will watch and write about it asap. Link below.

The photo is taken from the Hotel Villa, where we were staying and represents very well the impression you get of the capital of Georgia, when you walk around and leave the noisy Rustaveli Avenue for backyards like this, lovely and charming to watch, probably difficult to live in, a lot of in-house discussions going on here and there, comments from the windows, Fellini and Iosseliani.

In FB language this is what I liked in Tbilisi: the food in general, the eggplant with nut cream, the katchapuri, the chinkali, the chacha (got home with two silver bottles and two gold) (thank you dear friends), the decadence, the cafés that are hidden from the streets, the hospitality, Pirosmani, the bookshops in the backyards, the fine weather in the beginning of the week, the organisation of the workshop by Nikos and the volunteers, the outdoor café at the Goethe Institute… and the dislikes: the constant overall smoking, the phone calling and text messaging and small talk in the cinemas, the child sitting on a cardboard begging on Rustaveli placed there by the mother, the disrespect of the car drivers for pedestrians, the sour red wine I got (my fault, could have researched better), the night flights out of the city, the information about the Russian provocation regarding the upcoming Olympics having a soldier hero from Ossetian war carry the torch, the young woman born in Abkhazia who with tears in her eyes told me her father was killed in the 1991- 93 war…

Yes, you are constantly reminded about the recent history and the hard conditions  the Georgians live in – and how priviliged you are coming from a small country where a stupid debate the last week has gone around the scandalous overspending of a former prime minister, who went by first class flights all over the world as chair of an international organisation, luxurious hotels etc.etc. What a different life we live.  

http://www.hofer-filmtage.com/en/festival2011/movies-2012-details/film/boehmische-doerfer.4237/

Cinedoc Tbilisi/ 6/ Awards

The 1st International Documentary Festival in the Caucasus is going towards its end. Today the awarded films – and others – are being screened and last night the award ceremony took place in the Rustaveli Cineme. I was member of the jury of the International Competititon together with film critic and festival programmer Victoria Belopolskaya (Russia) and EDN director Paul Pauwels. The decisions of the international jury are to be found below.

Another jury consisting of Petr Kostorhyz (Czech Republic), Lela Ochiauri (Georgia) and Marina Drozdova (Russia) gave the main prize in the Focus Caucasus section to The English Teacher, directed by Nino Orjonikidze & Vano Arsenishvili (Georgia).

The catalogue description (taken from the website of the production company) of this fine film goes like this:

Young, adventurous “English teacher” is assigned to carry out a “linguistic revolution” in a remote Georgian village. Looking for new adventures, South African Bradley Nelson finds himself on the frontier of a big political change in the country. In order to get rid of the Soviet legacy and engage with the western world, the government initiates a project to “invade” Georgia with English speakers. Excited traveler is determined to contribute to a “radical change” in the small post-Soviet country. But when the first wave of excitement disappears, he is confronted with the gloomy reality. There are no signs of revolutionary changes, and in fact, no desire to change at all. Villagers are facing completely different set of challenges…

The Audience Award went to “Songs of Redemption” by Amanda Sans.

http://www.artefact.ge/englishteacher1

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/