Andrés di Tella: Hachazos

English title: Blows of the Axe, which refers to the 1950s practice by Argentine distributors of chopping up film prints to prevent people from stealing and illegally projecting them (according to an interview with di Tella in Idiom, google that, can’t make the link work).

Exciting film that Argentinian director di Tella has made about the avant garde film director Claudio Caldini, whose work he is bringing back from oblivion, reluctantly agreed upon by Caldini, a true filmmaker, you can see, categorized as an experimental filmmaker, always been a problematic term ”experimental”, why not talk about ”free film”, as Caldini worked without any money and says to his colleague di Tella (who is quite the opposite, an intellectual filmmaker) that the best film he has made, he made without thinking, just doing.

Di Tella lets the camera rest for long time on the face of Caldini, who since 2004 has lived in General Rodriquez, far West of Buenos Aires. Slowly he gets words out of the filmmaker, his story, mostly from when he left the Argentinian dictatorship to India, suffering there from hallucinations with hospitalisation, making films in between, on super-8, coming back moving from place to place in Argentina.

Caldini opens his boxes with films, di Tella makes him reconstruct how he made his film (look at the photo), they go to classes that Caldini holds in

Buenos Aires, they screen some of them in his house… ”home movies” says di Tella, ”homeless movies”, says Caldini. But they also go to screen (on three projectors) his films in public, for the first time in 20 years.

You are in good company with the two filmmakers. You are invited to intimate conversations, in almost darkness, you experience Caldini’s subtle sense of humour, and you see the respectful way di Tella puts it all together. The director has also written a book, same title, about Caldini, it exists in Spanish language. From there (translated by Aaron Cutler, in connection with the Idiom interview) this beautiful text:

A man brings all his work, all his life, inside a small leather bag purchased in India, on a train that goes from Moreno to General Rodriguez, by the western suburbs of Buenos Aires. They are the originals of his films, all in Super 8, an obsolete format, in danger of extinction, which does not allow the films to be copied. This bag is like the manuscript of his autobiography. It tells of Claudio Caldini, caretaker of a suburban villa, secret filmmaker.

Argentina, 2011, 83 mins.

http://www.s8cinema.com/portal/en/edicion-2013/vanguardias/claudio-caldini/

http://www.visionaryfilm.net/2012/05/claudio-caldini-hachazos-2011.html

http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/happenings/oncampus/october-10-provosts-lecture-with-andres-di-tella/

http://bdetudoverdade.tempsite.ws/2012b/busca/index.asp?lng=I&mos_id=11

Per Kirkeby: Asger Jorn

Som regel kan jeg ikke lide at læse, hvad instruktørerne mener om deres film, hvordan de udlægger deres film. Det minder mig så meget om facitliste. Og at se film er jo ikke at løse regneopgave, slet ikke at nå frem til det eneste gyldige resultat. Men der er undtagelser, der er for eksempel Bang Carlsen og Leth og Bergman. Og der er Ada Bligaard Søby. Og så er der Per Kirkeby. Når jeg læser deres tekster om deres læsninger og gensyn med egne film (Bergmans ”Billeder” frem for noget) eller deres synopser (Bligaard Søbys tænker jeg på, men hvor er det nu man finder dem?) så sker der det, at teksterne i stedet for at afrunde mit arbejde med filmene: nå det var så det, så lukker vi den bog, udvider og forlænger mit liv med filmene. Jeg får lyst til og brug for at se dem igen. Sådan er det i høj grad med Per Kirkeby. Lad mig derfor begynde gensynet på Filmstriben med ”Asger Jorn” (1977) med hans frygtindgydende tekst ”Jorn – udvortes” (1995), som bare skal læses (min absolutte anbefaling) og så hans elegante lille essay om fiktion ”Hvad skal man egentlig med kunstnere på film?” (1995), hvor jeg her simpelthen citerer hele stykket om ”Asger Jorn”:

”Fiktion. Da jeg lavede min film om Asger Jorn var det mit udgangspunkt. Jorn var død, jeg havde aldrig mødt ham, men han havde været meget nærværende i mit kunstnerliv. Som frastødning og tiltrækning, en fiktion i mit liv. Og der var ikke andre kilder end efterladenskaberne, reportagen var udelukket. Så filmens fiktion var rekonstruktionen af en figur, et liv, bestemt af efterladenskaber og mine spørgsmål. Derfor blev det først og fremmest en film der handler om valg og hvorfor i et liv i en tid som måske var anderledes. Om valgenes mulige suverænitet og mulige uundgåelighed og melankoli. Denne fiktion, denne handlingsgang, skulle opleves som en historie i sig selv, uden legitimering i værkernes berømmelse.

Så jeg viste ikke et eneste rigtigt maleri i filmen. Et forhold de færreste faktisk lægger mærke til. Et maleri er ikke til filmens tid, det er altid snyd og bedrag, når kameraet søger rundt og zoomer ind i en eftergørelse af se-processen. Og den alvidende, belærende speakerkommentar var også udelukket. I stedet benyttede jeg Jorns egne tekster, ofte uden direkte forståelsesmæssigt belæg, men mere efter en intuitivt fornemmet ”stemning”. Den må nemlig meddele sig, som tilskuer har man heller ikke mulighed for at kontrollere skriftens opbygning af argumenter.

Jorn var en så stor kunstner og en så afgørende figur at der ikke var noget behov for en heltemytologisering. Det forbød hans format. Og jeg var så at sige vaccineret mod den udvej fordi jeg søgte at forstå nogle ting der også for mig selv var af afgørende betydning. Og så var han altså væk. Men det var Wilhelm Freddie ikke. Så der var metoden den modsatte: Kun personen var i billedet, med sin egen fiktion…”

Og her bliver jeg nødt til indtrængende at bede Filmstriben inddrage den film også i et dejligt voksende udvalg af Kirkebys film, som lige nu tillige omfatter “Geologi er det egentlig videnskab?” (1980) og “Ekspeditionen” (1988). Det her må fortsætte.

Danmark 1977, 62 min. Manuskript: Per Kirkeby, fotografi: Teit Jørgensen, klip: Grete Møldrup, musik: Asger Jorn, Jean Dubuffet, fortællerstemme: Morten Grunwald, produktion: Vibeke Windeløv / Kraka Film, distribution: Filmstriben. Litt.: Per Kirkeby: ”Fisters klumme” (1995), (de to Kirkebytekster findes her).

Arte Focus on Greece

OBS – In one week, August 15, the French-German cultural channel arte dedicates a whole day of programming to Greece! The thematic day on arte is initiated and organised by the Strasbourg based arte commissioning editor Madeleine Avramoussis with the Greek journalist Dimitra Kouzi as the presentator. In documentary circles Avramoussis needs no further introduction and I have personally enjoyed her competence and energy in numerous workshops, and not only in Greece. Dimitra Kouzi has been one of the strong fighters for the good, creative documentary in Greece, through CineDoc, an initiative to show foreign documentaries, through her (former, well there are many great Greek tv people who are former) position at the national television ERT, and through her blog, see link below.

17 documentaries and 2 features with 10 premieres will be broadcast, made (mostly) by local independent companies and directors, productions often supported through co-production deals between arte and ERT.

As presentator Dimitra Kouzi takes the viewer through the day. She will introduce films and subjects, like geography (the islands of course), like the ”Food for Love” made by renowned director Marianna Economou about Greek mothers, who send packages of good food to their grown-up children abroad. I have seen material from this film and if it keeps what is promised, it will be great fun to watch – as well as giving Greek family culture information.

There will be a programme on Alexandre the Great and a premiere of a film by another ”international” Greek documentarian Kimon Tsakiris, who has made a road movie from the Wild West of Greece to lead us into the current life of the Greek. Yiannis Boutaris (photo) is the main character of a long, very well made documentary by Dimitris Athiridis, who followed the controversial, former wine merchant and his candidature to become mayor of Thessaloniki. He succeeds.

Just to mention some of the films offered in this lovely initiative to put focus on a country that has been given a lot of attention in these years of crisis. Here the people, the culture and not the economy and the riots in the streets of Athens are on the agenda. Those films on the crisis, and on politics will hopefully find their tv slots on another occasion.

Madeleine Avramoussis wrote to me: I hope that this Theme day comes at the right time to show how important the coproductions are! Especially now,  when the Greek government is shaping the future public channel.

Link to: dimitrakouzi.files.wordpress.com

http://download.pro.arte.tv/uploads/Journee-Grece-OK.pdf

Lars Movin: Jeg ville først finde sandheden

.. med undertitlen ”Rejser med Jon Bang Carlsen”. Læserne af denne tekst skal til start vide, at såvel Jon Bang Carlsen som Lars Movin i årtier/årevis har haft en høj stjerne hos undertegnede blogger. Jeg har i de 20 år, jeg  var ansat i Statens Filmcentral skrevet og talt om Jon, jeg har givet grønt lys til de mange filmpjecer og –plakater, som blev lavet til hans film og jeg har indstillet flere af hans film til økonomisk støtte. Jeg har rejst med Jon til festivaler og vist hans film på filmskoler og seminarer. Alt sammen med glæde for Jon er sin generations vigtigste dokumentarist og har et velfortjent solidt internationalt ry.

Når det kommer til Lars Movin, har jeg altid betragtet ham som en fremragende kulturjournalist, som fornemt i og udenfor dagbladet Informations spalter er fulgt i Erik Thygesens fodspor med sin enorme viden om amerikansk underground. Han har skrevet om beatgenerationens kunstnere, han har nedfældet sine rejseindtryk – og han har været den danske filmkritiker og – skribent, som bedst har fulgt og beskrevet den nyere danske dokumentarfilm. Og han har selv lavet film. Hvilken energi og flid, har jeg tit tænkt om Lars Movin.

Og nu har de to rejst sammen til de steder, hvor Jons film er optaget for gennem samtaler at komme tættere på instruktørens måde at arbejde på og finde ud af sammenhængen mellem ”liv og værk, mellem biografi og fortælling”, som Lars formulerer det i sit forord.

Resultatet er blændende, den bedste filmbog jeg har læst i årevis – og lad den bibliotekaruddannede blogger med det samme også rose bogen som bog: 560 sider, velillustreret, med et detaljeret noteapparat, et navneregister og en kommenteret filmografi. Det er et imponerende arbejde, som her lægges frem af Lars Movin og bogen kan læses fra start til slut, eller man kan  hoppe rundt i den og bruge den som opslagsværk.

”Rejsen til Amerika” hedder det første kapitel og her er de to på hjemmebane. Det bliver til afsnit om mesterværkerne ”En rig mand” og ”Hotel of the Stars”,

om spillefilmen ”Time Out”, der blev et nederlag for instruktøren med en af flere fejlcastings, som han efter eget udsagn har lavet i sin karriere. Samtidig taler de to om ”Just the Right Amount of Violence”, filmen som endnu ikke har haft dansk eller international premiere. Jon Bang Carlsen formulerer sig igen og igen, så man har lyst til at citere ham, og det er Movins fortjeneste at sætte de mange sprogblomster ind på de rette steder og trække tråde fra det ene udsagn til det næste.

Men måske er det kapitlet ”Sjælens grundlandskaber”, som er det mest centrale for forståelsen af, hvorfra Jon Bang Carlsens stof stammer. Det tætte og komplicerede forhold til moren, som han voksede op hos, skilsmissen, hendes selvmordsforsøg og det uafklarede forhold til faren. Familierne Bang og Carlsen og deres tilhørsforhold, Kyndeløse – ”i erindringen et mentalt landskab for Cubakrise, postskilsmisse og teenage-spleen”, som en billedtekst lyder (side 150). ”Livet vil leves – breve fra en mor” er vel den film, der kommer tættest på moren, jeg husker, hvor forbavsede vi blev i Statens Filmcentral, da morens breve blev læst af Bodil Kjer. Denne gang en perfekt casting!

Og så kapitlerne om de ”danske” film, ”Jenny” først og fremmest, men også ”En fisker i Hanstholm”, hvor tilblivelseshistorien i bogen giver bevis for Jons herlige evne for den sproglige anekdote. Jo, humor er der i bogen – og i ”How to Invent Reality” fra den irske periode, som i øvrigt er lidt tyndt beskrevet i forhold til de andre rejser, inklusiv sidste kapitel, hvor de to rejsende er i Sydafrika, som instruktøren har opholdt sig i gennem mange år og lavet mesterlige film som ”Addicted to Solitude”. Her finder de hovedpersonen fra denne film, Brenda, som i 1999 ikke vidste, hvor hendes mand var blevet af og i 2012 er blevet gift og har børn. I de sydafrikanske afsnit folder Lars Movin sig ud som den nøjagtigt observerende, smukt formulerende rejseforfatter, han er.

Jeg har ikke skrevet meget om Jon Bang Carlsens metode, den iscenesatte dokumentarisme, som det rejsende makkerpar vender tilbage til igen og igen. Det er godt formidlet, hvordan metoden er anvendt, hvordan instruktøren hele tiden prøver noget nyt og udfordrer sig selv: ”For mig handler det om at nulstille sig selv hver gang, man skal starte på et nyt projekt, og så pejle sig ind på, hvilken form der vil være brugbar denne gang” (side 188).

Der er masser af stof at blive klog på for den, der vil vide mere om at lave film og vil møde en instruktør, der har været ærligt tvivlende overfor hver ny opgave, har været (og er) stærkt produktiv, en visuel begavelse, et menneske der med en genert kejtethed altid har været i stand til at komme tæt på sine personer, der på den ene eller anden måde har indeholdt noget af ham selv. Men bogen kan også læses som en selvbiografisk rejsebog  af den, der ikke er specielt interesseret i iscenesat dokumentarisme eller kender nøje til instruktørens værker.

Informations Forlag, 2012, vejledende pris: 349 kroner.

Kollega Allan Berg har skrevet flere tekster om Jon Bang Carlsens film: “Addicted to Solitude“, boksen “Trilogi+1“, “Jenny“, “Time Out“, “Carmen & Babyface“, “Purity Beats Everything” (skrevet af Tue Steen Müller), “Fugl Fønix“, “Jeg ville først finde sandheden“, “En fisker i Hanstholm“, “Livet vil leves“, “Baby Doll“, “Ofelia kommer til byen“.

Puljiz & Sans: Mekas

Yesterday at midnight the great Swedish cultural strand K-Special of SVT showed (third run) a French production from 2012 with Jonas Mekas, who declares that ”I’m not a filmmaker, I don’t really make films, I only keep filming, I am a filmer, not a filmmaker”.

To be in company with Mekas is always a pleasure. In this case he sits there with a beer in his hand, it’s from his native country Lithuania, talking to French art curator Jérôme Sans (who in 2000 made a book on/with Mekas, published by Steidl, title ”Just like a Shadow”).

Of course there is a lot of looking back in this film and talk about Andy (Warhol), Cassavetes (when Mekas came to New York he was a film critic), Robert Frank, Jacqueline (Kennedy) but the main concern/talk of Mekas in this film is the survival of the independent film and his ”baby”, the Anthology Film Archive. His film political achievement, transforming the building which is now the Archive from a prison. His making a collection that is second to none.

There are clips from his works, there is a mention of his escape from occupied Lithuania, but there is first of all this kind and generous old man, who says that only the very very personal films are universal. And blows the trumpet in between.

France, 2012, 52 mins.

http://jonasmekas.com/diary/

Nastia Tarasova: Linar

Yes, that film blew me away. Actually, it did already around one and a half year ago, when its producer (and camerawoman) Irina Shatalova contacted me asking for general advice on financing and distribution, giving me a pretty dark image of the situation for the creative documentary in Russia. She told me about the film that Nastia Tarasova and she was making about Linar, the wee Russian boy who had undergone a heart transplantation in Italy – after he for almost a year ”had been living with an enormous apparatus on wheels, that constantly piped his blood” (website of the fim). I saw a rough cut and now a couple of months ago Shatalova sent me the finished film.

Which is magnificent, so well made, daring to go the whole way of passion, bombarding the viewer’s emotions while watching a Film that is constantly dramatic in tone, helped by a unique music composition made by Dimitry Selipanov. There are dream sequences, sometimes nightmarish, that you can attach to the situation for the boy, who has to suffer a lot to reach the goal: to get a new heart. But the scenes that for this viewer are most affective are those that catch the daily life for Linar, close to nurses and to ”uncles” = the Russian surgeons, who are with him in Italy. The filmmakers have succeeded in building up a fantastic image of (especially) the young Marcel Tagaev, who (photo) is the one who plays and eats with Linar, and communicates with the mother, who is back home in Russia with two other children. The lovely relationship between the two of them, and the warm but anxious facial expressions of ”uncle Marcel”, whose relationship to Linar is much more than one of patient/doctor, makes the film talk directly (sorry) to your heart! Not to talk about Grandpa Konstantin, the doctor, who comes to Italy after Marcel Tagaev – he picks up Linar from school and walks with him in the streets of Bergamo, where Linar learns to bike, and to count in Italian, which he does upon arrival in airport in Russia. Great scenes are there many of, and you can sense that the filmmakers have been close to Linar and his ”family”. Otherwise you could no achieve such an authenticity.

If any justice exists in the jungle of festivals, this film will have a long and important life all over the world. No surprise that the film got the audience award at a new festival in Omsk, Siberia. It is a film with a huge audience potential.

Russia, 82 mins, 2013.

http://www.linarmovie.com/

http://reflexionfilms.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=115:linar&Itemid=568

DokuFest Prizren

The festival in Kosovo (starts August 17) has announced its impressive programme. The artistic director Veton Nurkollari welcomes the audience in this way:

“We are thrilled to present an expanded slate of competitions at DokuFest this year, with films that paint a picture of contemporary world in such a brave, provocative and honest way. Films about bees, ships, the cat name Baby, Black Sea pirates, Balkan matchmakers, punk girls in balaclavas or mass exodus are only part of eclectic selection of films in competitions and we are looking forward to share these and other films with our audience in August”.

In the international competition for long docs (10 films) you will find films like “Elena” (Petra Costa, Brazil), “The Last Station” (Christian Soto & Catalina Vergara, Chile), “Stories We Tell” (Sarah Polley,Canada, the opening film, Photo), and the new film by Polish Bartek Konopka and Piotr Rosolowski “The Art of Disappearing”, whereas another Polish film “My House Without Me” (Magdalena Szymków) is to be found in the short doc section. There are also films under the caption “human rights”, including “Salma” (Kim Longinotto, UK), and a Balkan Docs Competition with “Dragan Wende” (Lena Müller and Dragan von Petrovic, Germany/Serbia), “One Step Ahead” (Dimitris Athiridis, Greece) and “The Last Black Sea Pirates” (Stoyanov, Bulgaria)… not to forget an hommage to Chris Marker and a retrospective of films by Jay Rosenblatt.

… and many other inviting sections and workshops.

http://dokufest.com/2013/

Luke Moody on Hybrid Documentary

Have to confess that I have been using the term “hybrid”, whenever I have been talking about the new tendencies in the documentary genre. Without really being able to get closer to what it is, where it comes from, what ethical questions that are linked to it, the relationship between viewer and maker, the “self” in the film and so on so forth.

Therefore it is great that English filmmaker Luke Moody, who also works for Britdoc, has written an informative analysis of “hybrid tendencies in documentary film”. Moody takes us by the hand and gives us food for thought. He exemplifies – his starting point is “The Act of Killing” – and sets up some categories. His text and approach could be a very welcomed theme for a whole seminar on documentary filmmaking of today. We could easily skip a pitching session or two, not to forget one of the technically based transmedia gatherings.

Here are two small quotes from the long article by Moody, but please read it all (link below):

Recognition of new waves and emergent trends tend to overlook the specific ideas and patterns of filmmaking. The ‘hybrid documentary’ is not a subgenre, it is a mode of tactical filmmaking. To come to terms with these modus operandi, rather than looking upon them as a singular movement, there’s a need to trace each trajectory of complex, rich methodology…

How do we assess the ethical and aesthetic merits of a film that does not attempt to be more factual than fictional? On a spectrum of honesty-manipulation? Form-function? Responsible-irresponsible? How are the filmmakers assessing their own codes of operation? Paradoxically, the audience awareness of fact production and manipulation allows the filmmaker to negotiate a new level of trust through shared transparency: “This is how I shall produce the story, come with me on this journey.”…

The increase of audience trust permits a shift in ethical contracts between filmmaker and subject, a shared ground of risk and experiment…

Photo from Bombay Beach (Alma Har’el, 2011), one of the films mentioned.

http://11polaroids.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/act-normal-hybrid-tendencies-in-documentary-film/

DocAlliance’s Summer Gift

… to its loyal documentary lovers, hope there are many, who use this exceptional vod library that now has more than 800 titles, which can be overwhelming, where to start and where to end… which is the reason why ” our film selectors updated the Recommended section highlighting the best world documentaries by filmmakers such as Petr Kerekes, Zuzana Piussi, Nicolas Philibert, Agnes Varda, Bert Haanstra, Nikolaus Geyrhalter or Jorgen Leth.

In the newsletter from DocAlliance it is written that masterpieces from these directors and many others can be watched for free starting from today until August 4!

I tested it, clicked “recommended”, clicked “New Scenes from America” (photo) by Jørgen Leth, and there it was on my computer, so easy, such a fine initiative, modern documentary film history right there for you.

http://dafilms.com/?nl=iNSUirQm1t-2

Magdalena Szymków: My House Without Me

Sometimes, and maybe it happens more often with Polish short documentaries than with films from other countries, you sit after a fine film experience and say to yourself, ahhh it could have been longer, which is maybe the best compliment you can give a film, as the common sentence after a film is the opposite: too long, I was bored!

With Magdalena Szymków’s story – taken from the precise description on the site of the English producer – about two women, one house, an intimate story about a Pole and a German placed by war on enemy sides and their parallel lives accidentally brought together – I would have loved to have more, maybe a bigger film could be developed from this extraordinarily important theme of post-war Europe. We knew about the move of the border of Poland due to cynical big power´s politics, but it is the first time I have seen such an intelligent treatment of the subject as this one seen through the eyes of old women, whose memories are both informative and emotional.

Back to Polish short documentaries – and many of them come from the Wajda School – that often have this wonderful precise language with few words and a great impact on the visual interpretation. It’s all there in this film that also plays with double exposure of archive material to give support to the film’s memory flow.

For subscribers of the DOX Magazine – the film came with Number 96 on a dvd that also included Marcel Lozinski’s “Tonia and Her Children”.

http://www.vezfilm.org/storage/MyHouseWithoutMe_ENG_2.pdf

www.wajdastudio.pl/pl/filmografia/moj-dom

Poland, 2012, 28mins., Wajda School