A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
Football starts tonight, will try NOT to write too much about it unless there are real great creative moments documented, but I could not resist this wonderful piece of Irish humour taken from facebook. Enjoy that and some fine matches, hopefully.
It has always been important for a documentary to be screened at the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary that this year runs from June 29 to July 7 with a strong programme that was announced two days ago. There is fine variety in countries represented, Brazil and Uruguay as well as Denmark and Poland are on the list with the 16 titles that have been picked.
Helena Trestikova’s excellent ”Private Universe” is there, the Cannes premiered and awarded ”Sofia’s Last Ambulance” by Ilian Metev will be screened, and for this film blogger it is exciting to see that Austrian Timo Novotny ”Trains of Thoughts” (photo) will have its premiere in Karlovy Vary. Novotny made years ago the fascinating ”Life in Loops”, a remix of Glawogger’s ”Megacities”. With his new film, the director also works with his friends from the band ”Sofa Surfers”. This is the short description of the film from the Karlovy Vary site:
The Sofa Surfers’ original soundtrack accompanies the special rhythm of Timo Novotny’s audiovisual essay as it takes us on a journey through the subways of several world cities, discovering what makes them unique. This whimsical movie stands out for its effective interplay of music and image.
It is old news, but still interesting to look at, as it lists the 25 films that the 3000 members of the IDA (International Documentary Association) announced as the best documentaries ever in connection with the celebration of the association’s 25 years in 2007. Here it goes, they are all good films, you should definitely watch them if you have not done so already, but where are the European films – apart from a few – where is “Shoah”, where is a film by Sokurov, Herz Frank, Dvortsevoy, Kossakovsky, Patricio Guzman, Pierre Perrault, Jean Rouch and so on, so forth. The members of IDA chose the 25 from a list of 700.
1. “Hoop Dreams,” (photo) directed by Steve James, Peter Gilbert and Frederick Marx 2. “The Thin Blue Line,” directed by Errol Morris 3. “Bowling for Columbine,” directed by Michael Moore 4. “Spellbound,” directed by Jeffery Blitz 5. “Harlan County USA,” directed by Barbara Kopple 6. “An Inconvenient Truth,” directed by Davis Guggenheim 7. “Crumb,” directed by Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb 8. “Gimme Shelter,” directed by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin 9. “The Fog of War,” directed by Errol Morris 10. “Roger and Me,” directed by Michael Moore 11. “Super Size Me,” directed by Morgan Spurlock 12. “Don’t Look Back,” directed by DA Pennebaker 13. “Salesman,” directed by Albert and David Maysles 14. “Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance,” directed by Godfrey Reggio 15. “Sherman’s March,” directed by Ross McElwee 16. “Grey Gardens,” directed by Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer 17. “Capturing the Friedmans,” directed by Andrew Jarecki 18. “Born into Brothels,” directed by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski 19. “Titticut Follies,” directed by Frederick Wiseman 20. “Buena Vista Social Club,” directed by Wim Wenders 21. “Fahrenheit 9/11,” directed by Michael Moore 22. “Winged Migration,” directed by Jacques Perrin 23. “Grizzly Man,” directed by Werner Herzog 24. “Night and Fog,” directed by Alain Resnais 25. “Woodstock,” directed by Michael Wadleigh.
If all goes wrong, you can always turn to Mother, which is what the director of the film does in the film, when his producer no longer wants to support him. This storytelling tool, including the making of the film in the narrative, a meta plan, works in this case as the film is about a young French filmmaker who, after 15 years, goes back to his Egyptian coptic roots in a village, against the will of the mother, who in the beginning says that ”no members of the family (should be) in the film”. But the help of mum gets the film to be finished, the family members all end up in the film, which adds to the film’s light-hearted entertaining qualities at the same time as it gives a beautiful hommage to people far away from Tahrir Square, in a small village where someone once saw the apparation of Virgin Mary.
For that it is the core of the story, did these apparitions really happen, is there any proof, any documentation? This was what made the director interested, what motivated him to go on a quest among coptic religious people. Especially in 1968 where some film footage could indicate the apparation. He puts an ad in the newspaper, he has people to help him find witnesses, but is does not really give results, when he is in Cairo. So off he goes to mother’s village, ”the french guy”, as they call him, and fine situations are caught between him and his grandmother. Mum leaves France to help the son, mum is not happy, ”c’est un film de merde”, she says, how can you film a miracle. Stubborn Namir decides to create the apparation and deceides to do casting of young women for the role of Virgin Mary. He sets up a very fine, warm and humane atmosphere, and he describes himself in a very funny way with the director (Me) filmed as was he God. Which in a way he is,the director, on the set, and film is magic, isn’t it?
A post scriptum comes up – the producer calls the director to tell him that he can raise funding for the film, if he includes something about the revolution at Tahrir Square… on a personal note, oh yes, this is what ”they”, the broadcasters, want, thanks to the director for giving us something else, non-journalistic. Photo: Son and mother, director and producer.
France, 2011, 85 mins.
The film is to be released in France by
http://www.sddistribution.fr/prochainement.php?limite=2
international sales and festivals:
http://www.docandfilm.com/index_en.cfm?&CFID=79884&CFTOKEN=88224574
contact: d.elstner@docandfilm.com
You should know that I am totally biased, as I work for the company, Parallel 40, that among other initiatives stand behind DocsBarcelona, nevertheless I find it important to post a congratulation greeting to visionary Joan Gonzalez (photo) and his staff in Barcelona, for an award, not a film award, there are hundreds of them, but an award for the important work in society that the company has done and does through the production and distribution of documentaries with a social perspective.
Training, production, distribution, film commission administration, festivals, tv management – it is all happening or has happened under the umbrella of Parallel 40, and with a clear goal statement, here taken from the site of the company: ”Parallel 40’s mission is to contribute to society’s cultural enrichment through the audiovisual medium.”
The award is part of a Momentum Project, an initiative from ESADE (ESADE is an independent nonprofit university institution) and BBVA (a multinational Spanish banking group) aimed at promoting social entrepreneurship in Spain.
10 companies (one for film) were awarded – nice to be reminded that people outside the film propfessional circles recognise the value of documentaries!
The Danish Øregård Museum in the North of Copenhagen hosts currently an exhibition of works of legendary model, surrealist and war photographer Lee Miller (1907-77).
Her role is known as part of the surrealist movement in the Parisian Montparnasse period, she was the muse of Man Ray and a photo documentarian of all the gurus of the art revolution of the 19020’es, like Dali, Max Ernst and Picasso. But she was also a war photographer, who documented, what she saw when the concentration camps were freed by the allied forces. Horrible pictures of piled up corpses, of SS-men beaten up or killed, very strong pictures which stand in contrast to the picture of Lee Miller in the bathtub of Hitler in Munich, a picture taken by American photographer David Scherman, who takes part in the documentary, see below, made in 1995. ”She was always for the extraordinary”, says Scherman, who thinks she was best in pictures that included arrangements, more than she was a classic war correspondent. Take a look!
OBS: For the Danish and/or visitors to Copenhagen – the exhibition is open until June 20. The DR K has shown a tv documentary made by Helle Retbøll Carl, based on an interview with the son of Lee Miller and Ronald Penrose, the surrealist painter who died in 1984. On the same channel, that often schedules re-runs, the very good documentary by Sylvain Roumette has been shown, see below.
Photo: Lee Miller: David Scherman Dressed for War. ©Lee Miller Archives, England. All Rights Reserved.
Sylvain Roumette: The Mirror Crossing, France, 1995,55 mins.
Released on DVD by ARTE VIDEO.
http://arttattler.com/designleemiller.html
http://oremus.dk/frontpage/exhibitions/current
Danish Cinemateket presents 8 films in a retrospective of the Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov. Even if 8 is not a lot when you take a look at the impressive, huge filmography of the director, whose latest work ”Faust” received the first prize at the Venice Film Festival 2011, this retrospective consists of several of his ”elegy” documentaries, among them ”Moscow Elegy” (1988) about Andrei Tarkovsky.
På dansk: Cinematekets program for juni omfatter bl.a. en serie med 8 af russiske Aleksandr Sokurovs dokumentarfilm, bl.a. ”Moscow Elegy” om Andrei Tarkovsky, og flere andre af hans elegier, men også hans bravournummer fra Vinterpaladset, ”Russian Ark”. Rasmus Brendstrup fra Cinemateket skriver flot om instruktøren:
Aleksandr Sokurov (f. 1951) begyndte – som så mange af Ruslands store filmnavne – sin karriere med at klippe dokumentariske arkivbidder sammen på nye måder. I dag har han favnet både logistiske mammut-produktioner (som i one-take-filmen ’Russian Ark’) og ny special effect-teknologi, sådan som det sås i Venedig-vinderen ’Faust’, der var Månedens Film i maj. Sokurov har over årene udviklet sig fra at være kendt som Tarkovskys åndelige arvtager til at være Ruslands største nulevende arthouse-instruktør i egen ret. Men han er også en sjælden race inden for kunstfilmen. Han kan dårligt længere kaldes auteur, for han kan være lige så storladen og fyldt med overraskelser, som han andre gange fremstår kompromisløs og kryptisk. Og så er det tydeligt på filmenes vidt forskellige form, at hans karrierebane spænder fra censur-hylderne under Sovjetunionens statsstyrede filmepoke til nutidens ubegrænsede muligheder. Centralt i Aleksandr Sokurovs film finder vi imidlertid altid det sårbare menneske, der tvivler, føler eller forhandler sig frem, ofte uden klart mål eller reelt håb for succes. Sokurov har det seneste årti med sine spillefilm om magt-dinosaurerne Hitler, Hirohito og Lenin (tre værker, som vi viser senere på året) vist, at han er lagt mere interesseret i det sårbare individ end det opblæste ego. Hans film – som det bl.a. ses i Tarkovsky-portrættet ’Moscow Elegy’ – bærer præg af det samme: Her råder sanselighed, subjektivitet og søgen. Foto: Source: ITAR-TASS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sokurov#Filmography
http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Serie.aspx?serieID=7394
Below, in Danish, in connection with the national premiere on June 6, a review of the new film of Phie Ambo, who brillliantly invites her audience on a both emotional and informational journey into the traumatised lives of two American war veterans as well as introduces us to Will, a kid who suffers from ADHD. Will is too scared to enter an elevator, the two vets fight with experiences that have had severe consequences for their post-war lives.
Into their lives comes professor Richard Davidson and his scientific team. The film follows the process the soldiers go through at the research centre of Davidson, and what the pedagogical team does to help Will overcome his fear.
The film is made for the big screen. As her female documentary star colleagues, Pirjo Honkasalo and Kim Longinotto, and at the same quality level, Ambo does the camera herself and brings beauty to the characters, at the same time as she with music and sound (maybe a bit overdosed) supports an editing that is superb in its integration of the four characters in a narrative flow. On top of that there are graphic and animation sequences, the latter sometimes made as were we in a school – white chalk on a blackboard. Fine solution!
Which, for this reviewer, is the core of this film’s success: You get a cinematic experience, you follow an exciting healing process, you are touched, maybe mostly by seeing a little boy’s fear, and you are offered knowledge, you might learn someting about the brain, ”the most complicated phenomenon in the universe”.
Denmark, 2012, 90 mins.
Du bliver grebet om hjertet fra første øjeblik. En lille dreng er rædselslagen ved tanken om at skulle ind I en elevator. Det er den tanke og følelse, der skal ændres hos Will, der lider af ADHD og ofte hamrer håndfladen ind I sin pande. Det kan lade sig gøre netop ved tankens kraft og professionelle menneskers hjælp. Det samme gør sig gældende med to krigsveteraner, Rich og Steve, som bærer på frygtelige krigsminder. De lider af PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) og de kan også hjælpes via meditation og åndedrætsøvelser, siger den fjerde hovedkarakter I filmen, hjerneforskeren Richard Davidson, hovedpersonen kan man sige for det er hans forskningsresultater og aktiviteter, som filmen skildrer – “we can change our brain for the better”.
I filmen man ser hvordan. Det er en film, hvor karaktererne udvikler sig og hvor processen med at gøre livet nemmere for Will, Rich og Steve følges. Det sker I børnehavelokalet og I Davidsons forskningscenter, hvor de to soldater sammen med andre gennemgår et helbredelsesforløb. Der gives parallelt hermed konkrete oplysninger om, hvordan hjernen fungerer og kan forandres “for the better”, og der oplyses om de familiemæssige sammenhænge for de tre. Deres historier er dramatiske, de har brug for den hjælp, som kan gives ud over den traditionelle medicin.
Se, det her kunne være en indholdsbeskrivelse til en klassisk videnskabs-dokumentar fra BBC. Det er det ikke. Phie Ambo har lavet en stor og smuk Film til det store lærred, visuelt brilliant, fremragende klippet af Marion Tuor I et flow, der formår at bringe historien fra den lille dreng til de to voksne og tilbage igen uden at det virker postuleret.
Det er ikke bemærkelsesværdigt, at dokumentarfilm I dag er karakter-baseret og appellerer til følelserne, som Phie Ambos film I høj grad gør, du
ler og græder som det hører sig til I en biografs mørke, men det er usædvanligt, at det følelsesmæssige kombineres med ambitionen om at gøre publikum klogere. I dette tilfælde på hjernen, hvis funktion stadig, siger Richard Davidson, er “the most complicated in the universe”. I filmen er det naturligvis Davidson, I billedet, som giver os viden, men det er også Ambo, der betjener sig af grafik og animation til at redegøre for, hvad der sker oppe I hovedet på os. Det sker f.eks. med kridt på tavle, jo det skjules ikke at vi også er I biografen for lære noget!
Herligt! Og dermed placerer Phie Ambo sig I en fornem dansk dokumentar-tradition ved at forklare vanskelige sammenhænge filmisk. Børge Høst fik I 1963 en Bodil for sin atomfysik-film “En ny virkelighed” og I nyere tid har Dola Bonfils set på den aktuelle hjerneforskning I “Tankens anatomi” (1997) og på et forskerhold på Novo Nordisk I “Drømme med deadlines” (2003).
For alle tre gælder det, at der er udført et kolossalt grundigt researcharbejde, og I Phie Ambos tilfælde har det så tilsyneladende været uomgængeligt vigtigt, at filmen fik en appellerende visuel form og en dramatisk struktur, som passer til en film til biografen. Hvor man også et godt stykke henne I filmen accepterer en effektfyldt montage, et billed- og lydbombardement, som sigter på at fortolke, hvad der sker I hovedet på veteranerne, når de gennemlever deres krigsmareridt. Det er film, det er flot at se og høre på, men jeg spekulerer på, hvad professor Davidson siger til den udlægning? Men det er lykkedes at få de mange stilistiske elementer til at spille sammen (allright, der er måske undertiden lidt for megen tjubang tryk på musik og lydeffekter), men formen bærer igennem og det ender med, at Will kører I elevator og med at Rich og Steve får det bedre. Hvilket er, hvad vi som publikum forventer med den valgte fortælleform. Imponerende sikker og overlegen er denne film, nummer to I en trilogi, hvor robotfilmen “Mechanical Love” var den første.
Filmen får landsdækkende premiere under DOXBIO d. 6. juni I 50 biografer. Herefter fortsætter den I minimum en uge I bl.a. i Grand Teatret, Øst for paradis, Café Biografen, Biffen i Aalborg, Ishøj Bio og Ikast Bio.
Den 6. juni vil der være en live-transmitteret diskussion, hvor instruktør Phie Ambo, professor Richard Davidson og en veteran vil diskutere filmens temaer og svare på spørgsmål fra publikum i hele landet.
Vi er på vej ind i en ny æra, – en renæssance hvor alting bliver vendt på hovedet. På alle niveauer opdager videnskaben nye sammenhænge, som betyder at vores verdensopfattelse hele tiden ændres og intet er længere er, som vi først antog. Vores viden bliver større og mere kompleks. Konstant bliver der stillet nye fundamentale spørgsmål om, hvem vi er som mennesker. Og jo flere spørgsmål der stilles, jo mere tydeligt bliver det for mig, at der bliver flere og flere ting, som vi stadig ikke ved eller forstår. Det synes jeg er vanvittigt inspirerende!
FREE THE MIND er anden del af min trilogi om fundamentale menneske-lige spørgsmål. Filmen Mechanical Love (2007) om robot-forskning var den første og med FREE THE MIND er det kendetegnende for begge film, at de befinder sig i det spændingsfelt, hvor videnskaben møder virkeligheden, og hvor videnskabsmændene sætter spørgsmålstegn og tankestreger i stedet for punktummer.
I FREE THE MIND er det centrale spørgsmål: Hvad er en tanke og kan den manifestere sig i kroppen? Kan vi ændre vores hjerne fysisk kun ved hjælp af tanker?
Min personlige grund til at kaste mig over netop dette emne, var at jeg for nogle år siden pludselig og helt uventet blev ramt af panikangst. Det var en meget fysisk oplevelse og føltes mest af alt, som om ’pladen’ i min hjerne var gået i hak og der skulle noget fysisk til for at skubbe til pick up´en. Jeg opdagede at meditation kunne være det lille skub, der skulle til og jeg blev meget interesseret i at forstå, hvordan det hang sammen. Jeg fik lyst til at åbne op for kraniet og kigge ind i hjernen og se, hvad der egentlig foregår derinde under meditation.
FREE THE MIND er et resultat af den undersøgelse. Filmen er ikke et facit, men et indlæg i en fortløbende debat om, hvad mennesket er for en størrelse.
Phie Ambo, maj 2012