Sevara Pan writes about the DoxBox initiative called Global Day for Syria 2013:

In times when representations of the Orient lends itself to increasing misinterpretations, knowledge of languages and history does not suffice as much as the mechanical gathering of facts does not constitute an adequate method for grasping what is it all about. In such times comes art, which as the renowned poet and human rights activist Cesar Cruz put it, comforts the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

The Global Day for Syria, which took place two weeks ago, is a project initiated by the Syrian documentary film festival Dox Box in support of Syrian filmmakers and in high regard to its people who struggle for their vision of what they are and want to be. In March of last year the management of the Syrian documentary film festival Dox Box decided to cancel the festival due to the upheavals in the country. Instead, they called for documentary film festivals around the world to participate in the project Global Day for Syria.

The second edition of Syria Global Day put in spotlight a few short documentaries by filmmakers from Syria, including Salma Aldairy, Roula Ladqani, and Lina Alabed, among others. Yet, most importantly, it brought forth films made by Syrian citizens themselves in a program called “A Citizen with a Movie Camera” (in 6 compilations: Dialogue, In the Searching for Truth, The Leak, Letters, Moments, and Stories). Beautiful, unsettling, and at last insightful and thoughtprovoking the films were selected from over 300,000 videos from and about Syria that had been uploaded on Youtube. From this enormous amount

of footage, the programmers of Dox Box chose the best films to shed light on the situation in Syria, a picture somewhat different from that given by the mainstream media.

By bringing forth films of its own people who are excluded from the society’s established structures of representation and hegemonic power, Global Day for Syria, I believe, ensued the question the Indian theorist Gayatri C. Spivak once posed — can the subaltern speak? In the age of numerous technological possibilities, fast internet connection and light mobile cameras, citizens of Syria seem to have found voice or at least an outlet for their fervor to speak. Global Day for Syria let its people speak louder, hence bestowing to remapping of the the sheer “history told from below.”

I reckon that more than anything, one of the programme’s thematic compilations “Dialogue” explores the dichotomy of the Self and the Other in “here and now” of Syria. “In the tiny space left for “dialogue”, a dialogue between partisans, between voices and bullets , […] between two hiding snipers, everything can happen, but as we fall into the illusion of cinema, some voice brings us back: it is the real.” At times turning futile, the compilation “Dialogue” continuously attempts to juxtapose the Self to the Other in the present-day Syria. Other is part of what defines and even constitutes the Self, as Edward Said, the proponent of the Orientalism theory would say. But as image of the Other is inescapably colored, distorted, and eventually reduced by the “lense” of the Self, the dialogue seems to be hampered.

As for the stylistic approach and dramaturgy of the film compilation, shaky amateur handheld camera work innate in the very essence of citizen journalism does not seem to bother. In fact, I appreciate this piece of filmmaking to remain unpolished. The intertitles of the descriptive narrative material edited between the disparate video clips in both English and Arabic help orientate yet do not aim at predefining the meanings of each. Devoid of clear cut dramaturgy, the austere poetry of each scene ripens, raptures, and eventually draws us into the audacious undertakings of the involved. Part of what makes the films so compelling to me is that for most of their running time you cannot predict where they are going to. The reality is not scripted — it is witnessed only.

In one of the scenes we observe the dialogue between two snipers, one standing at the vantage point of the balcony, whereas the other hides below. Amidst urban ruins, the two venture to converse on weather and barbeque, which, within my conception, comes at first as jaded cynicism taken out of place.Yet somehow it leaves us with a tad of sadness caused by a yearning of two young men for a peaceful life. Devoured by the heartfelt dialogue between two men, we hear the sound of every footstep they take at naked unease. What each of them is fighting for is Islam, Assad, or their homeland — the dialogue is riveting and provocative.

The film compilation “Dialogue” exposes the interdependence of human life that can neither be reduced to a formula nor brushed aside as irrelevant. “Perhaps through realizing human nature in a shape distant and foreign to us, we shall have some light shed on our own.” Sailing in the highest spheres of delirium, running amok, we have a right to wonder. Because oddly enough in this tale of war, it is as personal as it gets.

http://www.dox-box.org/index.php?lang=2

TSM, ed.: The films mentioned in the text of Sevare Pan are available on

http://www.arteeast.org/pages/events/2324/

 

 

 

 

 

I dare the risk of being called a grumpy old man, but why the f… does the audience, quite a good part of it, here in Kiev, at the Docu Days festival, behave so disrespectful to the films being screened, and to those of us, who sit down from the beginning of the screening to concentrate and have a cinematic experience. For days I have been disturbed by members of the audience, who arrive in the middle of the film and insist to have a seat in the middle of the row with the consequence that many have to stand up, blocking the view of others, or the other way around, people leaving the film before the end making a lot of noise.

I know the screenings are for free, it is very good cultural policy, and I love the atmosphere here, professional introductions and q & a’s, big audience, many behave excellently, and it is a good selection of films including the seven in the Docu/Life competition where I am in the jury, more about that later.

Very simple: You produce a sign to put on the doors into the cinemas saying ”no entrance during the screenings”, and you put some doormen/women to talk loud if the sign is not respected. The cell phones being used during the screenings, texts messages being sent – well, that is all over, that battle is lost, I am afraid.

Photo: Monk from “Burma vj” appealing for Respect for the films!

http://www.docudays.org.ua/

In June 2012 the football championship UEFA Euro took place in Poland and Ukraine. And of course some films came out of that. An Ukranian premiere was arranged at the Docu Days festival. 10 films were collected as a Youth Documentary Almanac, the directors, many of them film students or newly graduated documentarians, who had made films about policemen learning basic phrases of English to be used when meeting the invasion of football fans, or a young poet on his own, or people collecting metal to be sold or one who had a grandfather who built the old stadium, now to be rebuilt etc. – social, about persons, fresh, but in general with no focus and with big editing problems. One of those where you say to most of the films – ah, what a pity, go back to editing and find your film.

A small revelation for me, however, was the screening of the programme ”A Farewell to Cinema”, 5 films from 1987-1992, supported by the state. The times were for social critical films as I knew from Latvian Juris Podnieks and his groundbreaking ”Is it Easy to be Young?”. All films with an artistic quality. First of all demonstrated by (now) veteran director Sergey Bukovsky, who had made two of the five, ”Tomorrow is a Holiday” (1987) (photo) from a poultry factory where the women expressed deep dis-satisfaction about their life conditions, and ”The Roof” (1989) from a shelter for disabled people in a local monastery. The title of the programme comes from the last film in the programme (a dvd is being made by the national film centre), it has the following description, taken from the festival site:

Recently documentary filmmakers have been filming mass protests (end of 80’es, ed.) in the streets of Ukrainian cities, and now they themselves have to organize demonstrations in order to receive an opportunity to film. During the first years of Ukrainian independence, the production of chronicle and documentary films was cut to a minimum. The lack of financing or any state support whatsoever drove the veteran of Ukrainian documentary film, Israel Goldstein, to state: “The authorities are preventing us from filming because they are afraid that in several decades, the viewers of our films might ask: who was in power back then? Who put the people in such a state?” Today, the ‘authorities’ are well-known to everybody, but there is almost no film evidence of the consequences of their work. A Farewell to Cinema demonstrates why it happened this way: the filmmakers had to work as doormen, the studios were closed down, film financing was stopped. This film is one of the most radical in the genre ‘cinema about cinema: this is a film about the way that cinema ceased to exist.

http://www.docudays.org.ua/

Through reliable sources filmkommentaren.dk has succeeded to get hold of a translated version of the official document read from the stage at the opening of Docudays festival here in Kiev. As earlier announced negociations were held immediately that secured that the festival could start and so it did entering today into its third day... festival openings are normally full of loooong official speeches, the organisers of DocuDays deserve big Bravo for a spectacular alternative:

March 22, 2013 No. 826/3299/13-a

District Administrative Court of Kyiv City comprised of the presiding judge Pomidorov O. P. having considered under the written submission proceedings the administrative case claimed by the Kyiv City State Administration versus Human Rights Film Festival Docudays

RESOLVED:

In order to ensure the operational functioning of the government authorities of Ukraine, public safety, safety of government officials and facilities, Kyiv City State Administration appeals to the court with the claim for restriction on the right to peaceful assembly by means of prohibiting representatives of Human Rights Film Festival Docudays and other initiators to conduct any film screenings, meetings and assemblies starting with 22.03.2013 and through 31.12.2013 in Kyiv.

Court deems the claim subject to satisfaction in view of the fact that reported total number of potential participants in the referred to event is very substantial, which could provoke clashes and public disorders.

Resolution shall be enforced immediately.

Judge O.P. Pomidorov

Below you can read about the snow storm in Kiev outside the Cinema House, where the festival ceremony took place last night, March 22nd. But compared to what happened inside that was nothing. The nicely dressed presenters on the stage were suddenly pushed aside by representatives of the authorities, who declared, on behalf of a certain Mr. Pomodorov, that the festival would be cancelled due to its oppositional approach to the same authorities. In walked – see photo – uniformed militia with shields being lined up to protect the speaker from attacks and tomatoes… Some protest shouting were heard from the audience and some negociating took place, I could see from my seat on the second row – the soldiers left and the ceremony could take its beginning.

Clips from the many sections followed plus the opening film, Fortress, a film school film from Prague/FAMU by Klara Takovska and Lukas Kokes telling us, in a satirical tone, about The Transnistrian Moldovian Republic, its leader for more than 20 years, Smirnov is his name, an election process, visits to people who live there, a little bit of everything, and a lot of tv propaganda, which evoked a lot of laughter in the auditorium due to the constant reference to the Russian dominance but nothing more than that, in terms of filmic quality. For me the film sometimes crossed some ethical borders making fun of the naïve people living there.

At the end of the opening ceremony we saw the soldiers/militia people again on the big screen, they were out in the snow, suddenly turning their shields to use them as snow boards. The festival slogan came up: ”There is a Choice!”.

www.docudays.org.ua

Childhood memories! Snow, snow, snow. Well, we had it in Denmark the last week but not dramatic in the Copenhagen area and no problem in taking off from Copenhagen airport friday morning or to go by the connecting flight from Düsseldorf to Kiev.

But Kiev had snow all over – and traffic chaos. It took a long time to get into the city and the driver had to give up to mount the small hill where the festival hotel is situated. So directly we went to the Cinema House, Dom Kino, where the opening of the 10th edition of Docu Days UA was to take place. Time for a lovely warm borstj soup and off we were, Estonian filmmaker Marianna Kaat, partner in crime, and I for an extremely well attended press conference (photo) and afterwards the opening ceremony which was surprising and intelligent in its dramaturgy. Actually the whole festival was on the edge of being cancelled! More about that later.

Later I wanted to go to the hotel due to my winter coughing and general tiredness. But that proved to be a challenge! The hotel is just 10 minutes from the Cinema House but it was impossible to walk. So what to do? Festival organizer, director and cameraman Roman Bondarchuk took action, put me in his car, cleaned it from snow and started the motor. But the wheels were spinning nicely and we could not move. His friend had a car in a better position in the street and he succeeded to bring us to the small hill from where we climbed the snow to reach the hotel. Bondarchuk has a new film, a photo exhibition, a masterclass and is all over the place. I survived and Bondarchuk is a hero!

Now you know where I am and I will be reporting from the snow stormed festival that I attend, also to be member of the Docu/Life jury.

www.docudays.org.ua

Ukranianweek.com writes to a still from the film: ” ’Life Span of the Object in Frame’ began with a photograph taken by Oleksandr Chekmeniov seven or eight years ago at Privoz, a huge market in Odesa. The girl on the right of the picture told the director that the main character of the photograph – the woman sleeping under the counter – used to be a homeless red-haired beauty. She froze to death on the street after an illegal operation to remove her organs…”

Link to ukrainianweek.com/Culture  

A good advice – go to the trailer of this film which is to be found on the website of the upcoming festival in Kiev, Ukraine DocuDays UA. Click below.

It will give you a fine introduction to a documentary that is not easy accessible but attracts you with its many layers and angles, its beautiful verbal narration, its sincerety, its editing originality – you don’t see many (hybrid) essay films like that any longer. And it will hopefully give you appetite to watch the whole work, which you can do at the festival, if you happen to be there from friday onwards.

… a film about the film not yet shot… is the undertitle of the film and you see a film crew meeting and discussing, you see the actors, including the director, rehearse, saying lines, building up a labyrinthic studio with photos from the last 20-30 years – if I get it right. Photos that are extremely beautiful in their depiction of Life situations. The main photo that the film comes back to again and again is an almost surrealistic one with a woman sleeping in a marketplace, having found shelter on the ground while life goes on around her. Who was she? What has happened to her?

And what happened to us, the artists, the film narrative seems to ask. Through images from Genoa, from a room with a sea view, it is indicated that the man talking (the director?) had a mistress, forgot to phone home to his mother, these scenes are beautifully shot like a painting by Matisse from Nice. The photos and the colour manipulation of some of them bring forward a kind of nature morte feeling, there are discussions about Dante, verbal tributes to Jean-Luc Godard, and (the title) a constant going-back-sequences to Edward Muybridge, the movement of the dog running, the man coming up from his chair, a woman getting in or out of her bed… There are many side stories and there are for sure references that I do not understand, so let me give you the catalogue text from the festival:

”The time of exposure is the life span of an object in frame. In this regard, no photo is just a two-dimensional graphic composition – it always has the third, temporal dimension, the temporal depth. A photo is a time carrier, a time vessel. That means – a vessel of memory… But whose memory?.. Of the Face or the Thing or the Landscape which are still on the photo?.. Of the photographer?.. Having chosen photos as the material of the film and memory as the theme, we inevitably find ourselves in a labyrinth of our own and others’ memories, of our own and others’ time. And in seeking for the escape, we become a part of this labyrinth and the material of our own film.”

Had no real stills from the film, here is a photo of the director, who is in the film.

Ukraine, 2012, 116 mins.

http://www.docudays.org.ua/eng/2013/movies/specialni-podii/chas-zhittya-obyekta-v-kadri/

http://www.docudays.org.ua/eng/2013/jury/16/