The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear

It is quite a daring storytelling format that Georgian Tinatin Gurchiani has chosen for her first feature length documentary. She has invited (mostly) young people, some of them kids, for a film casting, where she from behind the camera asks them questions about their lives, a rather direct and personal approach that leads to sequences, where you go with them to their homes or with them on missions in life, or you are taken on some visual tours into beautiful and fascinating Georgia.

Daring because you introduce some characters, make us viewers curious to have more, to go deeper, and then you leave them again. It is sometimes irritating with too brief encounters. The casting, however, the variety of characters in age and background, makes one happy at the end of the film – yes, we were given a mosaic picture, the director’s pov, of her country, told through some of its citizens, in a respectful, melancholic tone with an amazing cinematographic work on Georgian landscapes. The two fairy tale linked stories – the boy in the beginning of the film who loves Little Red Riding Hood, and the young woman at the end of the film who feels like a Cinderella – are those of the stories that come out best, the latter in an extremely dramatic way, whereas a story of a brother to a prisoner leaves you a bit ”who cares”. There is a lot of pain in this original film that also has references to the conflicts and wars with Abkhazia and Russia. Again, it was pleasant to watch, with a charming hybrid docu-fiction style.   

Georgia, 2012, 97 mins.

Petra Costa: Elena

There is so much to say about this first feature documentary by young Brazilian director Petra Costa. So much positive because of its visual brilliance and so much because of the way it treats its painful theme. Not to talk about the discussions that the film creates about important existential questions. Yet it would be wrong and far too prosaic to reveal too much of the journey the director invites the viewer to take. Therefore these words from the website of the film:

“Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra, her seven year old sister. Two decades later, Petra also becomes an actress and goes to New York in search of Elena. She only has a few clues about her: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary and letters. At any moment Petra hopes to find Elena walking in the streets in a silk blouse. Gradually, the features of the two sisters are confused; we no longer know one from the other. When Petra finally finds Elena in an unexpected place, she has to learn to let her go.”

The film journey is built around an enormous family archive with beautiful images, among them of the big sister (Elena) holding/caressing the little sister (Petra), interviews with their mother, diaries, recreated, often dreamerish scenes and a wonderfully written and performed voice-over text by Petra, or is it Elena, or both? It is a film about undergoing a mental process, a therapeutical film, a film about three women, mother and two daughters, all three of them aiming for a career in art. But…

Petra Costa, whose great film is supported by Tribeca Film Institute, has written about the inspiration sources for the film, from Pessao to Agnès Varda, a very clever and intelligent post, link below.

Link to tribecafilminstitute.org

http://www.elenafilme.com/

Jonas Mekas: My Paris Movie

Jonas Mekas loves Paris. So does this blogger and his wife. We were there in December last year. Funny to sit in New York, the home of Mekas, one year later, in his Anthology Archives cinema, in the hall named after Maya Deren.

Mekas in Paris, his latest long film, from 2011, 159 mins., a film he made, because, according to his own words: ”A few months ago Danièle Hibon, a curator at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris, very casually asked me if I would consider making a new work to celebrate 20 years of cinema at the Jeu de Paume. Since it was Danièle who in 1992 curated my first exhibition in Paris, also at the Jeu de Paume, I said, without a second of thought, Of course I will do it, absolutely so!”

A tribute to Paris it is. Also literally. I have never seen so many toasts being given as in this film that most of the time takes place in bars and restaurants or in private homes at the dinner tables. White wine, sometimes red, loads of oysters – hard to watch! – looong looong takes from the streets of Paris in different seasons, rainy, a bit of snow but also sunshine, and also shootings from his hotel room(s) and from the windows of his hotel room, the roofs of Paris, but also the old man climbing stairs to get up to look at Paris from above.

I celebrate what I see, he says, and he celebrates Guillaume Apollinaire and the futuristic movement – and all the time in a charming, mild and generous way. To be honest it is nice when Mekas once in a while refrains from the shaky and abrupt camera movements, and indeed, even for Paris lovers, the film is too long, could have lived with less toasts, but then suddenly there is Jonas Mekas alone in his hotel room in January 2009 talking to us, or rather expressing true emotions having heard about the election of Obama in January 2009. Moment of beauty.

Tomorrow Jonas Mekas will be 90, a true artist, a multi-artist, an icon for the independent cinema. Congratulations.   

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/

http://jonasmekasfilms.com/diary/

Sarah Polley: Stories We Tell

Some Danish film professionals adviced me to watch Canadian Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell. They saw it at cph:dox, where it did not get the attention it deserved, it was all about ”Act of Killing” at that festival.

I watched the film with my wife, we agreed on its excellence, I took notes but did never get to the computer to write. Time has passed and I can pass on some superlatives about a film on a family but I can not go deeper, memory fails – I line up a couple of links, including one to the director’s blog text from the NFB (National Film Board), the producing body behind the film. It is one of the most personal and intelligent texts I have read from a director for years.

Diana is the mother of the director, Michael the father, actress and actor. Rumour has it that Michael is not her father. Sarah wants to and makes a film about this, finds out who is the biological father, she tells a story as her father tells the story and others tell their story… who is then the father is maybe not so important for the film, what is important and what keeps you totally engaged and fascinated is the way Sarah Polley, an actress herself, tells her story, in a flow full of life, full of humour and joy of life, and all kinds of emotions, in a flow with private archive, made-up archive with actors, clips from performances, interviews. The mother, however, the main character, can not tell her story herself as she died, when Sarah was 11.

At the end the biological father, pretty well known in Canadian entertainment life, says to Sarah: I’m the only one who can tell the story about me and Diane. To that the answer is easy: Well, a lot of stories have come up through this elegantly made film, the director’s (one sibling as I remember it says ”and why does she want to make this film?”) and the father’s, the two of them having the most impressive scenes in the film.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/29/stories-we-tell-review

http://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2012/08/29/stories-we-tell-a-post-by-sarah-polley/

Canada, 108 mins., 2012

Maysles Cinema

Oops, suddenly you stand in front of a small cinema with the name Maysles Cinema. In the window there is a poster for ”5 Broken Cameras” that runs the same night with a skype Q & A with one of the directors. Another poster promotes ”The House I Live in” by Eugene Jarecki to be screened in January.

We enter the small lobby, have a photo taken next to the poster of the Maysles Brothers masterpiece ”Grey Gardens” (1975) and have a small chat with a female staff member, who tells us that the cinema has been here in Harlem on Malcolm X Boulevard for five years with screenings and debates, and a lot fo classes for kids and grown-ups related to film and theatre.

Taken from the very informative webiste of the Maysles Institute: … The Cinema is committed to a democratic experience, one where filmmakers are asked to attend the screenings of their work, and audiences have the opportunity to actively engage the films and each other in post-screening forums. Coupled with its scheduled series, we encourage the programming participation of local social and cultural organizations and citizen-activists to deepen community involvement and provide exposure for under-represented social issues and overlooked artists and their work.

And a quote from the old master himself (he celebrated his 86th birthday December 6!) from an interview made by David Noh for Film Journal International: In Harlem you walk down the street and people talk to each other, and loud enough so that you hear their conversation. We wanted to be a part of it and we wanted to have a theatre where we could show documentaries exclusively and also teach local kids how to make their own movies. These movies have been good enough that three of twelve of our kids got their films on TV.”

Photo: Poul Rude.

http://www.mayslesinstitute.org/

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/movies/e3i4b2ffa510200a21144528fd62cf7dd91

Pop in TV and the Movies

The well composed and entertaining exhibition on Whitney in New York runs until March 2013. It has the title ”Dark and Deadpan: Pop in TV and the Movies” and invites you to a dark room with a dozen of screens in different sizes with moving images from the 1960’es. You walk into the room and get the sound – a true cacaphony – from the screens around you, the sound of dialogues, music, speeches, monologues like the one from Andy Warhol, who is eating a burger in the film by Jørgen Leth and Ole John, ”66 Scenes from America” (1981).

That for me very well known clip from the Danish documentary classic is placed on one of the four walls close to a tv screen on the floor showing Warhol’s ice cream commercial for Schrafft’s restaurants. Next to that a clip (by Ger van Elk, 1970) of a cactus being shaved!… Also in the playful genre is George Kuchar’s ”Hold Me While I am Naked” (1961), said to be loosely autobiographical, very funny to watch today as is David Lynch ”The Alphabet” (1968) by imb characterised as ”a woman’s dark and absurdist nightmare vision comprising a continuous recitation of the alphabet and bizarre living representations of each letter.” You dare say so, playful yes, as is the video close by not – that presents numbered photos of soldiers who died in Vietnam.

Pop art is also Godard, isn’t it? Wonderful to see the original trailer of “A Bout de Souffle”, Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, a revolver, the pretty girl, the bad boy etc.

There is a lot of creativity and naivity in this room (forgot to write that in the more informational end the landing on the moon (July 20 1969) was also in the room, as well as presidential promotion clips for Johnson and Nixon), which is balanced in the room next door with pop art of a more sinister approach. You are really reminded how great an artist Andy Warhol was, when you see his “Nine Jackies” (1964), three times three Jacqueline Kennedy, just before and just after her husband had been shot (November 1963), and in deep grief – and his series “Electric Chair” (1971).

Most of the mentioned films/tv clips you can find on youtube. 

Photo:Sherman Price (active 1960s), still from The Imp-Probable Mr. Weegee, 1966. 35mm film transferred to high-definition video, color, sound; 75 min. Image courtesy Something Weird Video (from the site of Whitney, below). Totally humorous short film about a photographer taking pictures of women and big boobs in Paris.   

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/DarkAndDeadpan

Khaled Jarrar: Infiltrators

I can not write a review as I have not seen the final edit of the film, and as I have seen material shot by Khaled Jarrar as well as cuts during sessions of the Storydoc programme, I would definitely not be able to be neutral in my judgement. BUT, having said so, it is no surprise at all that Khaled Jarrar (photo), the Palestinian multi-artist, ”an amazing artist,” I have called him on this site, has won two awards at the Dubai International Film festival that ended yesterday.

The film in question is ”Infiltrators”, produced by Sami Said and Mohanad Yaqubi, 70  mins. long, that won a Special Jury Prize at the Muhr Arab Documentary Competition as well as the Fipresci (the critics) award.

This is what was written on filmkommentaren.dk almost 9 months ago:

”We met at the office of Idiomfilms in Ramallah to see a first draft of Jarrar’s first documentary… We watched a 75 mins. cut of a film that with its non-aggressive approach gives the viewer a unique account of the climbers, big and small, old and young, who go to Jerusalem illegally. To work first of all. It uses a non-linear structure, it has many angles and stylistical elements that wonderfully surprise you as a viewer, who is used to strong films in all genres, aggressive against the Israeli occupation. You have sometimes a clear laugh when you see the different ways of climbing, sometimes you laugh because of the absurdity, and sometimes you are moved and feel angry: this can not be true, this is not civilisation 2012! But it is.”

And the catalogue description of the festival in Dubai: The checkpoint is closed. “Detour, detour!” shouts a taxi driver and announces the beginning of the journey. The film unravels adventures of various attempts by individuals and groups during their search for gaps in the Wall in order to permeate and sneak past it.

http://www.dubaifilmfest.com/en/films/detail/mutasalilun/19362/2012

http://www.facebook.com/infiltrators.pal?fref=ts

POV – Visiting Simon Kilmurry

I have during the last years tried my best to understand the organisation of the POV, that had its 25th season in 2012. I have – as many others – always been impressed by the commitment of Simon Kilmurry, Executive director and producer of American Documentary (independent non-profit media company) that produces the strand POV – documentaries with a Point of View. Kilmurry has attended workshops and pitching events all over, this year I have met him in Barcelona, Edinburgh (he is Scottish born), Leipzig and Amsterdam, and before that in Buenos Aires. In the last two years of the idfa forum, he has received the so-called Cuban Hat as the best commissioning editor around the table. For his constant support to creative authored documentaries, I would add.

So, being in New York anyway, I was welcomed in the Brooklyn office by Kilmurry to get more information and knowledge. In the beginning I have found POV very different from what we know about in Europe – and it is when it comes to financing – but basically there are many similariities to what we have and had in Europe. POV is much more than broadcasting one to four times, POV organises screenings locally, POV publishes and facilitates debates around the themes of the films, POV offers interviews with the filmmakers online, POV has a catalogue of short films, a lending library… and so on so forth. A cultural institution, we would say in Europe.

In other words POV is like a European film institute, take as an example the Danish Film Institute that has a film political role to play – documentary films should play a role in society, raise debate. At POV it is put like this: ”Since

1988, POV has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent documentaries to engage communities in conversation about today’s most pressing social issues… community engament and education”.

Being financed by the PBS and a long range of funders, with an acquisition and copro budget of 900.000$, POV can reach 97% of the Americans on-air. On top af that you can go online and watch films like Patricio Guzman’s ”Nostalgia for the Light”, ”Perestroika” by Robin Hessmann or take a look at the fact sheet of ”Give Up Tomorrow” (Collins and Syjuco), where you can get all needed information about this important film. Or watch and enjoy (if you live in the USA), to mention an American film, ”The Kings of Pastry” by Pennebaker and Hegedus.

Kilmurry has brought non-American documentaries to the American audience. He is right now finishing negociations to get ”Act of Killing” on the 2013 programme, he will make a special screening of ”56 UP”, he has acquired the controversial ”The Law in these Parts” by Ra’anan Alexandrovicz and intends to have ”5 Broken Cameras” as well.

To conclude: Back to the educational/informational aspect of POV, read this text and get impressed as I did: POV offers free resources for educators, including 200+ online film clips connected to 100+ standards-aligned lesson plans, discussion guides and reading lists. Registered educators can use any of 80+ full-length films in the classroom for free through our documentary lending library.

Respect!

http://www.pbs.org/pov/

Orwa Nyrabia and Ali Farzat Honoured

Read and enjoy the following – so well deserved and chapeau also for DR’s Horisont (the Danes can watch it online), which dedicated their whole monday programme to tell about the two Syrians and their meeting with the regime’s brutality.

The IMS (International Media Support) wrote this introduction, for the full article go online, photo taken by Rasmus Steen, IMS:

”Film producer Orwa Nyrabia (lives now in Cairo) and political cartoonist Ali Farzat (lives now in Kuweit) were smiling and making jokes on Wednesday in Copenhagen with good reason. They each received the Danish Poul Lauritzen (PL) human rights award and 10,000 euros each for their work on human rights and political freedom in Syria.

With the ongoing violence in the country, the PL Foundation sought to honour Syrians who still fight by nonviolent means.

“We decided to honour two people who have worked tirelessly for political freedom long before the war started, and now from their exile,” says Poul Søgaard, chairman of the PL Foundation. Established by Danish merchant Poul Lauritzen, the foundation aims to support people and activities that work in compliance with the UN Declaration of Human Rights.”

http://www.i-m-s.dk/exiled-syrians-honoured-with-human-rights-award/

Greek Television Fires Kostas Spyropoulos

The film project “Kismet” was presented at the idfa forum in Amsterdam last month. A behind-the-scene documentary which is described like this at the website of the Greek production company, Anemon, that stands behind several professional, internationally distributed works:

“Turkish soap operas have taken the world by storm, conquering the hearts of millions of viewers in the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans, South America and Asia. With unprecedented access to the industry’s most glamorous actors and creative talent, ‘Kismet’ unravels the secrets of this success.”

The film project has support from arte, al jazeera, SVT, YLE and (of course) ERT, Greek Public Broadcaster. The latter has had consequences for its General Manager, Kostas Spyropoulos, a competent promoter and fighter for the creative documentary and for international cooperation. This blogger has worked with Spyropoulos for several years, at the latest through Storydoc. The following text is taken from haberler.com:

“Greek state broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting (ERT) General Manager Kostas Spyropoulos was recently fired by a board decision which cited his contribution to a documentary on Turkish dramas as the reason for his dismissal, it was revealed on Friday.

The documentary titled “Kismet”, which is still being filmed, is about the effects of Turkish dramas on Greek and other societies where they are being

broadcasted. In a statement issued by the ERT on Friday, it was stated that Spyropoulos was removed from his position as his contribution to the documentary “Kismet” was found to be against “procedures.”

“The board of management took this decision as Spyropoulos did not accept his fault and he had some previous actions which had disturbed the corporation,” the statement also said.

Speaking to the Anatolia new agency, Spyropoulos stated that he argued against the decision of the board which found the documentary to be a form of propaganda for Turkey while in fact the documentary depicted realities about Turkish dramas.

Yuri Averof, one of the producers of the documentary, said it was still being filmed and they plan to complete it by spring. He added that he believed the board of management might have misunderstood the content of the film as the documentary has raised great interest in other countries.”

http://www.anemon.gr/kismet.html

http://en.haberler.com/turkish-dramas-behind-greek-state-tv-gm-s-firing-247669/