Cinedoc Tbilisi/ 4/ Awards

The Special Jury Award at the 1st Cinedoc Tbilisi festival went to Pawel Kloc for his ”Phnom Penh Lullaby”. The motivation of the Jury of the International Competition:

THE SPECIAL JURY AWARD GOES TO A DOCUMENTARY THAT VERY MUCH SEDUCED THE JURY BY IT’S CINEMATIC QUALITIES AND ITS INTRIGUING PROTAGONIST.

BY USING POWERFUL IMAGES AND AN IMPRESSIVE AND WELL-BALANCED SOUNDTRACK THE FILM MAKER INTRODUCES US INTO A SOCIETY THAT IN REALITY LOOKS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THE ONE TO BE FOUND IN THE GLOSSY IMAGES OF THE TRAVEL AGENCY BROCHURES.

EVERY SCENE OF THIS FILM IS OF A SELDOM SEEN INTIMACY, BRINGING THE VIEWER VERY CLOSE TO THE INTERNAL STRUGGLE OF A MAN TRYING TO BE GOOD IN A BAD WORLD.

IN ADDITION THE FILM MAKER MANAGES TO INTRODUCE A SECOND LAYER ON TOP OF THE PERSONAL STORY: THIS OF THE CONSTANT SCANDAL OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN A SOCIETY THAT AT SOMETIMES SEEMS COMPLETELY LAWLESS.

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

Cinedoc Tbilisi/ 3/Awards

The Jury Mention at the 1st Cinedoc Tbilisi festival went to Julia Panasenko for her “Outro”. The motivation of the Jury of the International Competition:

A DOCUMENTARY THAT HITS THE VIEWER LIKE A ROCK: PUNK DOCUMENARY FILMMAKING! ONE OF THE JURY-MEMBERS CALLED IT.

WITHOUT MAKING ANY CONCESSIONS AND IN A VERY DIRECT STYLE, THE FILM THROWS THE VIEWER INTO THE LAST WEEKS OF THE LIFE OF THE CHARMING BUT ALSO TRAGIC MAIN CHARACTER.

AS AN AUDIENCE WE CAN ONLY BE GRATEFUL THAT THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO’S AT THE CORE OF THIS FILM ALLOWED THE FILMMAKER TO FOLLOW HER ON HER VOYAGE TO THE VERY END. THE RESULT IS A MOVING DOCUMENTARY THAT SHOULD MAKE ALL OF US THINK ABOUT THE WAY WE LIVE OUR LIVES.

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

Cinedoc Tbilisi/ 2

It was too much, something had to be done so I asked one of the staff members of Cinedoc here in Tbilisi to ask the audience to refrain from talking on their phone and send text messages during the screening. She did – saying that it disturbed the members of the jury…! Maybe not the rest of the audience…! My juror colleague Paul Pauwels and I were laughing our asses off.

Otherwise, it has been very stimulating to sit in very often full cinema halls at the very first edition of a festival that has been very well received by the audience. As in many other documentary festivals it looks like the audience has an average age around 25, indeed promising for the future of the event.

On top of that the festival must be praised for the initiative of showing films for a young audience followed by ” discussions after the screenings… moderated by children psychologists, teachers and young civil society activists.” Let me mention two neo-classic films from that section: “Please Vote for Me” (2007) (Photo) by Wiejun Chen and Claire Simon’s “Recreations” (1993).

Awards will be given tonight at The Rustaveli Cinema – in the category “Focus Caucasus”, in the International Competition, and there is an audience award. Will be back with that information tomorrow morning.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

http://www.clairesimon.fr/recreations.html

East by SouthEast

Sitting in Tbilisi I see a press release from the Danish Cinematheque that hosts a ”Festival of Central and Eastern European Film” from October 24 till November 7. Among them the feature hit from Georgia, ”In Bloom”, but also several documentaries. Exciting selection.

Let me quote an interesting article by Ewa Mazierska attached to the press release:

”One problem which is not specific to Eastern Europe, but is felt there more strongly than in, let’s say, France or Denmark, is the dying out of the province. This problem has to do, paradoxically, with the fact that still a large chunk of the population of Eastern Europe lives in the province; this being a consequence of delayed modernisation of this part of Europe. During the communist times the authorities usually limited the number of people able to relocate to the large cities by the rule that one has to be ‘registered’ there in order to live and work there. Under democracy, however, when one can, at least in theory, live where one wants, many people choose to do so, leaving behind their families and thus communities depopulated, impoverished and unbalanced in terms of gender and age. This problem is tackled in numerous Eastern European films, although often indirectly, as exemplified by Matchmaking Mayor (2010) by Erika Hnikova, Igrushki (2012) by Lina Luzyté and Night Boats (2012) by Igor Mirkovic. By and large, in the bulk of the films by Eastern Europe directors their countries come across as places to escape from rather than to visit and enjoy. However, less often than in the past this idea is transmitted in films about sex trafficking, as if to suggest that girls from Eastern Europe have learnt from cinema not to naively follow men from the West promising them paradise on the other side of the border.”

”Igrushki” (photo) is in competition here at Cinedoc in Tbilisi.

www.dfi.dk

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

Cinedoc Tbilisi/ 1

Voila, the 1st International Documentary Film Festival in the Caucasus started last night in the Rustaveli cinema in Tbilisi. Totally full was the cinema hall for the opening ceremony that included a promise from festival director Artchil Khetagouri, that a bigger hall will be available next year – and a good atmosphere filling the cinema for the opening film “Songs of Redemption” by Amanda Sans (who was present) & Miquel Galofre. The catalogue text goes like this: “Songs Of Redemption” is a Jamaican documentary that captures the story of redemption and rehabilitation of inmates of the General Penitentiary located in Kingston, Jamaica. It features riveting interviews and powerful reggae music created, performed, and produced in a unique partnership by inmates and wardens.

At the other end of the Rustaveli Boulevard a workshop goes on during daytime at the fine venue of the Goethe Institute. 10 Georgian documentary projects are being developed with the help from tutors like British Peter Symes, Latvian Uldis Cekulis, Serbian Goran Radovanovic, Belgian Paul Pauwels and Danish Tue Steen Müller, who are writing these lines. I was (also) asked to talk about the state of the art of documentaries and did so through the showing of newly digitized versions of Lithuanian classics like Robertas Verba’s 1969 short documentary about the 100 years old people, and Arunas Matelis 1990 “The Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus” – as well as clips from “Argentinian Lesson” by Wojciech Staron and “Father and Son” (both versions) by Pawel and Marcel Lozinski. Not to forget the fantastic opening of Timo Novotny’s “Life in Loops”, the remix of “Megacities” by Michael Glawogger.

Photo: Opening dinner for the workshoppers… We eat well in Tbilisi!

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

Piotr Stasik: A Diary of a Journey

Stasik is one of the most obvious talents in young Polish documentary. His “Last Day of Summer” is a masterpiece in cinematography and compressed storytelling. This new film from his hands, which was at the Krakow festival, and now has its international premiere at DOK Leipzig, is a beautiful variation of the theme “the master and his pupil”, in this case featuring the photographer Tadeusz Rolke, who travels Poland and its villages together with a 15 year old Michel, who wants to know the secrets of the profession. Out comes a charming film about “an old man and a boy”, a generation film full of fine observations. Yes, Michel Simon in the film of Claude Berri comes into mind, as does the class mate at the Wajda School, Thierry Paladino, who made “La Machina”, where a puppeteer travels with his pupil.

Let me give you some quote references to Tadeusz Rolke:

“You could call him the Polish Cartier-Bresson, an artist from the dying line of photographers without whom “we would be living in the eternal and perfect translucent present, like on TV”. A man who photographed wartime Warsaw and lives today to share his knowledge… Known for his photographs of wartime Warsaw and inspired images of cultural life in postwar Poland and Germany, Tadeusz Rolke‘s photographic archive constitutes 60 years of Polish and European history. Rolke is considered one of Poland’s most accomplished photographers. He photographed the silhouette of the Palace of Culture and Science rising over Warsaw’s rubble, anti-communist rallies, the changes after 1989.

http://films2013.dok-leipzig.de/en/film.aspx?ID=5066&title=A+Diary+of+a+Journey

http://www.culture.pl/web/english/resources-film-full-page/-/eo_event_asset_publisher/eAN5/content/piotr-stasik-a-diary-of-a-journey

http://t-rolke-official-eng.blogspot.dk/

Tamara Stepanyan: Embers

”Cinema for me is a visual poem of time suspended”, says Tamara Stepanyan, according to the festival vod festivalscope. This sentence fits to characterise her fine personal film that takes its start at the grave of her (we learn) charismatic grandmother, Tamara, who was a person loved and respected by people around her – most of them do not live any longer, those who are still there talk with passion to Tamara about Tamara, and about their meetings on May 9, the liberation day of the WW2. It’s all about time and remembering, some of the survivors remember clearly, one says about remembering that her imagination could have changed a lot of what really happened, one says that it is hard to bring back the good memories in an Armenia, that has completely changed, and not for the better, after Soviet times, and one has fallen into dementia.

Tamara Stepanyan films her characters with warmth, she asks her questions to the freedom fighters of 1945 with respect and out of curiosity, her film has a flow in storytelling and what is the strongest quality is her personal commentary that comes nicely and natural as a granddaughter, who loves her grandmother.

Armenia, Lebanon, Qatar, 2012, 77 mins.

http://www.dohafilminstitute.com/filmfestival/films/embers

https://www.festivalscope.com/director/stepanyan-tamara

Idfa 2013

It’s one festival after the other publishing its programme. Lisbon, Leipzig, Amsterdam and today there is a programme party in Copenhagen for cph:dox…

Idfa programme yesterday, the biggest festival in audience numbers and considered to be the most important – this is where all documentary filmmakers wish to have their films shown, and where all professionals have to be for the industry activities, first of all the forum. If you are not there, colleagues might think that you have stopped making documentaries or your company has closed…

It is amazing and overwhelming – take a look at the second link below, 7 competition programmes and 15 (fifteen!) side programmes. Rithy Panh makes the Top Ten according to his personal choice, great films like ”Don’t Look Back” (Pennebaker), Joris Ivens ”A Tale of the Wind”, Pedro Costa’s ”In Vanda’s Room” and a pearl, forgotten by most people: ”Farrebique – the Four Seasons” from1946 by Georges Rouquier.

For historical interested there is this gift: “Next year is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. To mark this occasion, eight documentaries dealing with World War I will screen at the upcoming IDFA. These are films made between 1917 and 1928 and come from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and the UK. The selection was made with researcher David Barnouw of the NIOD, media historian Bert Hogenkamp of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and silent film conservator at EYE Elif Rongen-Kaynakci. The films will be introduced by experts and after the screening, discussions will take place with the audience on the meaning of the films in a historical context.”

Competition for feature length documentaries, 15 films, let me mention 3 of them that I know about: “Life Almost Wonderful” by Bulgarian Svetoslav Draganov, “Return to Homs” by Talal Derki and “The Wild Years” by Ventura Durall (PHOTO).

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/festival.aspx

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/festival/program-sections.aspx

DOK Leipzig 2013

Big numbers in the press release of DOK Leipzig, sent out yesterday with an announcement of the so-called official programme. 56th edition, ” a total of 88 films from 34 countries will compete in the five competition categories. While there is a particularly strong presence of traditional film production countries like Poland, France, and Great Britain, the line-up also includes countries like Bolivia, Myanmar, Nepal, or Syria. 2,240 films from 114 countries were submitted, a total of well over 3,000 films were previewed.”

And it goes on with more facts in the press release, “overall, 346 films will be screened in the various sections and Special Programmes: 187 documentaries, 116 animations, and 43 Animadoc productions. 24 among the 109 films in the official documentary film programme of the 56th edition of DOK Leipzig will be world premieres, 24 international premieres, 7 European premieres and 47 German premieres. The large percentage of prestigious names and former award winners whose films enrich the programme is a particularly positive development.”

Prestigious names… yes, there is a good spread from a classical documentary approach from Volker Koepp, who brings a new title, “In Sarmatia”, to the two Russian documentarians Vitaly Mansky and Marina Razbezhkina and to Danish master Jon Bang Carlsen’s “Just the Right Amount of Violence”, a film that has not yet had its Danish cinema release, as usual with Carlsen on his way to find new ways of exploration and introspection. Bravo also for taking Robert Kirchhoff’s “Normalization” (PHOTO) to the competititon, whereas it is a surprise that “Hilton – Here for Life” by Finnish Virpi Suutari has been chosen.

In the Young Cinema Competititon it is great, for a former Zelig Film School teacher, to find the graduation film of Yuri Mazumdar, a beautiful work from India, “Kalyug”, as well as “The Last Black Sea Pirates” by Bulgarian Svetoslav Stoyanov and “Sickfuckpeople” by Juri Rechinsky.

For me DOK Leipzig is for social and political documentaries, with films from all over the world, with a strong thematic focus, maybe more for the brain than for the heart? I will go there for some days, with pleasure, to a festival that is always very well organised in cosy Leipzig.

Side programmes, of course, take a look at the website, there are focus on Brazil, retro of Peter Liechti and much more. Let the festival director have the last word: “Documentary film today displays an extraordinary wealth of themes and amazing stylistic devices,” says Claas Danielsen. “The genre has long since left its niche to win over a wide audience.” Right he is!

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

DocLisboa 2013

The programme of the 11th edition of the DocLisboa, that starts October 24 and ends November 3, was made public yesterday. Again you just have to say Respect! For the quality of the selection and for side programmes like ”Research”, ”New Visions” (curated by charismatic critic Augusto M. Deabra) and first of all the section ”Moving Stills – Photography, Photographers and Documentary Films”.

Under that (the latter) caption you will find excellently composed 80-90 compilations of short and longer documentaries grouped as ”self-portraits” (Robert Frank, Man Ray…), ”family albums” (Ingmar Bergman), ”Questioning the Image” (Godard, Farocki…), ”Surviving Images” (Agnès Varda…) or ”The Point of View of the Photographer” (Johan van der Keuken’s ”To Sang Fotostudio”, photo).

The festival includes several competiton sections: feature duration (with Avi Mograbi’s ”Once I entered a Garden” and films by Wang Bing, Anand Patwardhan and many others I have never heard about), a Portuguese section, international and short film competitions and much much more.

With a big retrospective of films by French master Alain Cavalier – do you remember ”Thérèse”, his wonderful film from 1986?

http://www.doclisboa.org/2013/en/