Vikram Gandhi: Kumaré

The reason for this review that ends with concrete info in Danish: The DR  documentary strand Dokumania invites to a screening at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen of this very entertaining documentary that is produced in the US, has travelled festivals over there, is American in tone, has been compared to ”Borat”, which is right as a starting point as the director also plays fake with his identity but this is where the comparison stops.

The power of illusion is the theme of the film – well, what could be a more precise description when it comes to cinema? The director of the film, that has the subtitle ”a true story about a false prophet”, ” is a young East Coast American from an Indian family. He is astonished by the success of Eastern-style gurus in the wealthiest parts of the world. As an experiment, Gandhi learns the tricks of the yoga trade, dresses himself as a guru, lets his beard grow, adopts a thick accent, and sets off under the name Kumaré to the desert city of Phoenix, Arizona. There, he quickly gathers a group of followers around him, whom he teaches to meditate to catchphrases such as “Be all that you can be.” (text taken from idfa annotation 2011). With his own commentary the audience is guided through his journey that must stop at a point, “I am not who you think I am”, he must reveal his true identity. What is the reaction from the disciples, did they buy his “help yourself, you don’t need a Guru”?  

Back to the power of illusion – in the beginning this blogger thought that the director wanted to reveal all the humbug in the commercial, spiritual world, but the film changes perspective and comes out differently, without (almost, I would say) making fun of the disciples who worship Sri Kumaré. 

USA, 2011, 84 mins.

Photos courtesy of Kahlil Hudson and Daniel Leeb (according to site of the film)

Filmen vises på Det Kgl. Bilbiotek mandag den 14. Maj kl. 17. Instruktøren er til stede. Begrænset plads.

Filmen vises på Dokumania, 22.maj 2012 kl. 21 med genudsendelse 26.maj kl. 17

http://www.kb.dk/da/dia/studentsonly/ord/120514_dokumania_kumare.html

http://www.kumaremovie.com/about/

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?ID=052158f7-f57e-41bd-9846-84cf42a090d0

Ib Bondebjerg: Virkelighedsbilleder/ 3

In Danish – about an event in the Danish Cinemateket, where Ib Bondebjerg hosts his third session about the modern Danish documentary portrait linked to his book ”Virkelighedsbilleder”. Invited directors are Sami Saif and Jon Bang Carlsen:

De to film af Saif og Bang Carlsen er ”Family” (2001) og ”Livet vil leves – breve fra en mor” (1993) (foto), begge fremragende film, den første er vel de fleste bekendt som en både underholdende og gribende film om en ung mand, der leder efter sin far, hvorimod ”Livet vil leves” endnu ikke har fået den opmærksomhed, som et personligt, billedmæssigt originalt fortalt, tekstmæssigt smukt (Bodil Kjer lægger stemme til!) mesterværk af vor vigtigste nulevende danske dokumentarist. Her er teksten, som introducerer filmens visning i Cinemateket

Torsdag den 10. Maj kl. 19

Det føles forkert, at mødre kan dø. Men det gør de – reflekterer filminstruktøren Jon Bang Carlsen i slutningen af sit filmdigt til sin mor. Moren var altid i bevægelse, var bange for stilstand, for døden, men forblev hele livet i den lille landsby ved Vesterhavet, mens Jon Bang Carlsen flygtede fra landsbyen og rejste ud på en Amerikarejse. Mod erkendelse og modning. Men hele tiden var de i kontakt, og trods afstandene fandtes en nærhed og samhørighed. Moderen er nu død. Men hendes breve og tanker er tilbage – og Jon Bang Carlsens minder om hende.

http://www.dfi.dk/Filmhuset/Cinemateket/Billetter-og-program/Film.aspx?filmID=v1014734

The Punk Syndrome in Theatres in Finland

According to this film blogger, their previous documentary “Living Room of a Nation” was one of 10 the best documentaries coming out in 2009. Now Jukka Kärkkäinen and J P Passi have done another strong film that travels from festival to festival, AND – writes the fine FilmNewEurope site today – was released on 4 May 2012 on 45 screens in Finland, a record for a domestic documentary in Finland.

From the site: “The film is a documentary about a punk group whose four members are all mentally handicapped. The filmmakers observed their private lives at improvised rehearsals and concerts resulting in a film that can be likened to a jam session of sound and fury, the essence of punk.

The Punk Syndrome is produced by Mouka Film Oy (www.mouka.fi). International sales are handled by Vienna-based Autlook Filmsales (www.autlookfilms.com). It premiered at Visions du Reel, winning the CHF 10,000 special prize for Most Innovative film.”

Take a look at the film’s site to find out more about this original work.

http://www.filmneweurope.com/

Finnish Punk

Gdansk Doc Film Festival

Poland is a big country with a strong tradition for festivals and an impressive national production of documentaries, many of them in the short format. I had never heard about it before, but reading the site there is also a well programmed documentary festival in Gdansk. Edition number 10 closes today. There are many Polish films in the competition section and a Polish as well as an international Panorama section. Good films like Piotr Stasik’s Last Day of Summer (photo), Romanian Anca Damian’s Crulic, Magdalena Pieta’s Planet Kirsan and Srdan Sarenac’  festival hit Village Without Women are at the programme. The idea of the festival in Gdansk has a political, historical reference:

Work is a special good and privilege of a human being. It should be the basis for dignified family life and stable social situation. Yet, so often in today’s world work, and its lack, become the cause of human tragedies and social conflicts. Discrimination, violation of law and treatment of human beings at work as objects more and more often threaten the development of societies and indirectly undermine trust in democracy and moral order.

It is in Gdansk that working people started the fight for dignity and decent working conditions against the system that was destroying these values. This is how “Solidarnosc” came to being. It is important to continue the discussion on this subject here, with the participation of NSZZ “Solidarność”, in an international group and on many levels – scientific, artistic, social and political. August 1980 needs not only to be remembered but also wisely continued. This is the origin of our Festival.

We want to accomplish it through, among others, presentation of works of world cinema and the debate about the role and significance of human being in the workplace – in the context of global economy, uniting Europe, on the background of company mergers, technological boom, but also bureaucracy and economy oligarchy.

http://www.gdanskdocfilm.pl/

DocAlliance Excellent Online Offers

Even today, with the existing online possibilities, many come up with the usual comment and ask the eternal question: Yes, I love documentaries but where can I see them. And those who go to festivals with hundreds of films to choose from, often come back saying – I missed this or that masterpiece.

If you subscribe to the newsletter of the best vod for creative documentaries, the Doc Alliance, you will be helped to make your choices. Today the ”Events of the Months” was published and it shows perfectly the editorial skills of the Doc Alliance people.

From May 7 – 13 the theme is ”True Stories from Russia” including a slate of quality films like ”Mother” by Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov, and Nino Kirtadze’s “Durakovo – the Village of Fools”. The week after (May 14 – 20) the distributor Taskovski Films generously offers three masterpieces for free: Bulgarian Andrey Paounov’s ”The Mosquito Problems and Other Stories”, ”Bahrtalo!” by Robert Lakatos and Serbian Aleksander Manic ”The Shutka Book of Records”. The headline is ”Trip to the Balkans” and there is wonderful humour in these storytellingwise original, non-mainstream documentaries.

The highlight, however, is that DocAlliance gives us the chance to watch, in the right order and in one two or three days, as you like, the Indonesian trilogy of Leonard Retel Helmrich, a strong humanistic work to be compared to Satayit Ray’s Pather Panchali work from India. ”The Eye of the Day” (2001), followed by ”Shape of the Moon” (2004) (photo) and ”Position Among the Stars” (2010) are the titles of Helmrich’s so-called ”Single Shot Cinema”. Watch it!

Again, I can only repeat a Bravo to what DocAlliance does for the artistic documentary!

http://dafilms.com/newsletter/view/6Fb7ayvHIY/

Helle Hansen: Ordet fanger

Det begynder med et citat af Victor Klemperer: ”Ord kan virke som bitte små doser arsenik. De sluges ubemærket, de synes ikke at have nogen virkning, men efter nogen tid viser giftens virkning sig alligevel.”

Måske skulle der være gjort lidt mere rede for Klemperers metode og teori, være diskuteret, hvordan han gennemførte sin undersøgelse af intolerancens skrevne sprog i 1930-erne, at mediet dengang var aviser og bøger, mens Helle Hansens film tager sig på at undersøge politikernes talte sprog et halvt århundrede senere, og finder sine eksempler i tv. Det gør en forskel. Der er en tøven, når der skrives, også når en politiker skriver, en eftertankens tøven. Og det er denne skriftens langsomhed, som gør det langt alvorligere og modbydeligere, det er jo omhyggeligt og skjult anbragte giftportioner. Det er det da næsten aldrig, når politikerne diskuterer i tv, her er fortalelser tilgivelige, troede jeg måske. Og filmen er for en stor del en montage af forbløffende politikerformuleringer netop fra ophidsede tv-debatter, hvor det ene ord tager det andet. Men Helle Hansen har imidlertid den pointe, at en stor del af sine belæg finder hun i skrevne taler, mange i Pia Kjærsgaards og Mogens Camres taler, som – skal vi sige – er de tydeligste. Og det er rystende, hvad vi genhører, hvad vi ligesom har vænnet vort øre til. De sagde det! Og de havde på forhånd skrevet det, langsomt måske, men uden tøven. Men langsomt har arsenikken virket, Villy Søvndal, viser det sig, er angrebet, og jeg tænker, at vi alle må undersøge vort sprog for forgiftede ord.

I begyndelsen af filmen er der en smuk fortællerstemme, Helle Hansens egen, som i et yderst velskrevet og venligt dansk begynder en reflekteret fortælling om den fremmedfjendske sprogbrug i de danske politikeres debat de seneste 25 år. Den stemme er en tryghed tænkte jeg, jeg kan godt lide fortællerstemmer i film, og den kunne fint have fortsat og uddybet det essay, som Anders Villadsens filmiske citatmontage etablerer. Men stemmen bliver væk, man har måske været bange for, at fremstillingen skulle blive litterær. Jeg synes det er ærgerligt, det var lige på nippet til at blive en klog, litterær og eftertænksom film, men det skulle altså være en såkaldt debatfilm, eller som det hedder i folkeoplysningen, debatskabende, og filminstituttet har da også som led i færdiggørelsen udarbejdet et undervisningsmateriale til Ordet fanger. Godt nok, den har altså været tænkt som skolefilm, er lavet som skolefilm, så kan den ikke samtidig være filmessay på højt plan. Eller kunne den ikke? Helle Hansens fortællerstemme lover det til at begynde med ret overbevisende, men holder det ligesom ikke.

Helle Hansen: Ordet fanger, Danmark 2012, 38 min. Manuskript: Helle Hansen, foto: Henrik Bohn Ipsen, klip: Anders Villadsen, producer: Søren Steen Jespersen, produktion: Monday Reporter og Bastard Film for DR2, distribution: DR2 og filmstriben.dk samt dvd-salg. Filmografi, Helle Hansen: Børn under jorden, 1977, Børnehuset 1997, BZ, 2006. Medvirkende i Dola Bonfils’ Billeder til tiden, 1994.

Signe Markvard: Asger

Den lille ufuldendte skitse af en udsat tilstand skildret i en bevidst valgt kunstnerisk form er mere et anslag end det er et forløb eller en udvikling. Manden Asger taler om sig selv og den verden af fotografisk iagttagelse og fastholdelse, seksuel erkendelse og valg inde i en mulig psykose, som han siger er diagnosticeret som udefineret skizofreni. Fortællingen består af beskrivelse af en særegen sindstilstand, af erindring og af tanker og ideer om ved billeder og musik at nå det dækkende udtryk, ordet og sætningerne ikke magter. I konsekvens af dette er monologen akkompagneret af Trentemøllers musik og Signe Markvards filmfotografi. Musikalske og billedlige landskaber, som loyalt lægger sig blidt og forstående omkring mandens sarte, let skræmte betroelser og spinkle filosofi. Et enkelt sted manipuleres monologens lyd med en ekko- eller forsinkelseseffekt, som søger at være eller illustrere den drømmeagtige tilstand af uvirkelighed, som talen skildrer.

For mig understreges netop derved, at Asger ikke har ret, hans sprog skildrer faktisk allerede dækkende det, lyddesignet søger at nå eller illustrere. Hans monolog er gribende forståelig i sig selv, men den klæder og fortolker nydelsesfuldt Trentemøllers musik og Markvards billeder i en kammermusikalsk sats, som ikke fuldendes endsige efterfølges af yderligere satsers videre forløb og konklusion. Vi efterlades svævende i et menneskes sørgmodige resignation.

Men det er opløftende, at filmen har kunnet laves, at sådant kan blive til i et samarbejde mellem en medvirkende og en kunstner, som både kan og gør det hele selv: instruerer, interviewer, fotograferer, klipper og færdigproducerer samt via vimeo distribuerer en helstøbt dokumentarfilm. Nu er den også tilgængelig på filmstriben.dk efter den på filmfestivalen i Odense sidste år modtog publikumsprisen.

Signe Markvard: Asger, Danmark 2010, 10 min. Instruktion, kamera, klip og alt andet: Signe Markvard, musik: Trentemøller. Distribution: vimeo og filmstriben.dk

 

The Syrian Revolution/ 11

It goes on and on… this is what I copied from BBC this afternoon:

“At least four people have been killed as security forces and militiamen raided student accommodation in Syria’s second city, Aleppo, activists say. Live ammunition was reportedly used to disperse an anti-government protest outside dormitories adjacent to Aleppo University’s campus late on Wednesday. As many as 200 students are thought to have been arrested during the raid. The university has announced it is suspending all classes for the rest of the current academic year. Aleppo has so far not experienced the violence and large-scale protests seen in other cities during the uprising. But there have been almost daily demonstrations by its students.” (Read the rest of the article, link below).

On Facebook there are texts and photos and drawings and cartoons from Syrians, who express their emotions and points of views and informs about what we do not get in the big printed and electronic media. Here is a wise pov from Orwa Nyrabia, who frequently writes in his “Syria and Me” FB page:

”Minorities, just like the west, the EU and the US, are afraid of an Islamist Jihadist Syria, they are skeptic and they withdraw, thinking they need to be sure. They are forgetting that every minute of withdrawal from their side is a great support to that jihadist potential they are afraid of. It is only by taking an active part, contributing in a proactive manner, that such tendencies can be minimzed.”

The photo speaks for itself: Homs…

http://www.facebook.com/syrian.revolution.photos

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Syria-and-Me-The-Revolution-Chronicles/318536521531396

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17937448

DOX for Short Docs

The Summer 2012 issue of the European Documentary Film Magazine DOX (number 94!) is out. The editor-in-chief Truls Lie uses his editorial to point at the values of the short documentary, which is forgotten by many. His starting point is his position as a juror at ZagrebDox, where the first prize was given to the Polish 7 minutes long “Returns” (photo) by Krzysztof Kadlubowski. In the same competition category with films with a duration around and over an hour. A good decision and a fine way of pointing at a film genre that was born with the Lumière Brothers and had its prime period when short films were screened in cinemas before the feature film. All big names in film history have made short films and many also short documentaries – Alain Resnais, Luis Bunuel, Antonioni etc. – not to mention the stars of the genre itself like Richard Leacock, Johan van der Keuken, Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor, Colin Low etc.

Today you can watch short documentaries in festivals, many of them are excellent works from film schools, and in very few tv stations. The latter is very difficult to understand as the short film has an immediate appeal to a young audience, which is the target of the public broadcasters, who complain that the average audience is 50+ or 60+. Is it too optimistic to believe that the commitment that the most innovative broadcasters make to include short films in their repertoire (like POV, arte) could spread to others for online distribution? The Latvian 15YoungByYoung, that includes 15 short documentaries from the former Soviet republics, as well as the upcoming series of shorts to be produced by the Why Poverty initiative are just two examples of subject orientated “packages” of short films, where also a creative element is sought.

Back to the editor and his editorial in DOX, where Truls Lie expresses his fatigue of long films – 8 out of 10 feature-length could be shorter, less than an hour, he states… well, maybe that is a bit exagerrated, of course it is, and less than an hour means tv-duration, 52-58 mins. Which for me is the most stupid decision on duration taken by the broadcasting companies, dictated solely by schedule thinking. Anyway, DOX deserves praise for this approach that also means that the buyers and subscribers receive a dvd with the magazine, this time with 7 short documentaries chosen by the editor. Bravo! In the magazine there are two articles about short documentaries, so yes, DOX is an edited magazine. Next time, to tease the editor a bit, the list in the back of “noteworthy film” could maybe also include shorts. This time there is more than 30 feature length documentaries mentioned.

http://whypoverty.net/

http://www.15youngbyyoung.com/

www.edn.dk