Personal Archive Documentaries

At the Archidoc training session at the la fémis film school in Paris yesterday, where ten projects were presented to a panel of producers, broadcasters and festival representatives, two so-called hybrid documentary projects stood out as upcoming films that are to be built on private archive footage of professional character.

Seb Farges has been filming his life with different girl friends for 20 years, in New York, with different technical equipment. An obsession he said at the pitching session about his project called ”Womanmanhattan”, an autobiographical story about a man who hides behind his camera, filming the girls and NY. But now, being 40 years old, it has to come to an end. I intend to go to Bratislava with Vladislava, a new girl friend, and she will, with her skills in docu-animation, help me find out what has happened with me, constructing a mental map. Serge Fabrege has for years put his footage on his vimeo website that has had more than 500.000 followers. Fabrege showed a trailer with material that due to the dialogue between him and Vladislava (photo presents the two of them, Seb and Vladislava) had a humourous distance-creating approach that was very much appreciated by the audience.

Portuguese José Fernandes has also been filming his life and love stories. Through six years. His film project, conveyed through an aesthetically attractive style, called ”Lily, Sachi and Me”, contains a story about the director travelling to Italy to fall in love with a Japanese popstar, going with her to Japan, leaving her again to seek freedom in California, where he falls in love with a girl from South Korea. He goes with her to her country, where he gets a call from the Japanese girl who wants him to come back to Japan. José Fernandes is obviously a great cinematic talent and I trust that he can make a film that follows in the footstep of other travellers, who are fascinated by Asian culture, Wim Wenders with his ”Tokyo-Ga” and Chris Marker with his masterpiece the essay ”Sans Soleil”.

Private stories made public, and in the hands of talented filmmakers, universal, why not, the interest to share every little thing from your private life is evident on facebook, and in these two upcoming films. Watch out for them!

http://vimeo.com/sebfarges

One World Festival Prague

One more festival, and one of great importance. The following text is taken from the site of IDF (Institute of Documentary Film), that stands for a huge so-called industry programme parallel to the festival. It all takes place in Prague, March 6-15.

One World is the largest human rights documentary film festival in the world. This year, the festival opens in Prague followed by another 40 towns across the Czech Republic. The program features engaging and thought-provoking documentaries that promote a deeper understanding of political and social issues both in national and global contexts. On top of its year-round projects, One World also supports human rights film festivals abroad, e.g. the first annual Baghdad Eye Festival in Iraq in 2012.

Main Competition
The feature-length documentary films in this category will be competing for the Best Film and Best Director Awards, which will be presented by the Grand Jury. The Lithuanian-Finnish documentary Barzakh (photo) by Mantas Kvedaravicius is one of the 15 films in this section that also includes a number of festival hits, e.g., 5 Broken Cameras, Bombay Beach, Planet of Snail, Special Flight and The Tiniest Place.

Right to Know
This competition category presents feature-length documentaries that draw attention to unknown or suppressed issues linked to human rights. The winning film receives the Rudolf Vrba Award. 14 films will be presented in this section, including Belarusian Dream by Russian filmmaker Ekaterina

Kibalchich and the Chechen-themed Who Killed Natasha? by Mylène Sauloy, co-produced by France, Serbia, Croatia and the UK. Also watch out for the super successful Big Boys Gone Bananas!* or the ITVS-funded Invoking Justice.

Youth Quake
The selection does not focus just on the Arab Spring and uprisings in Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya but also captures protests of young people in established democracies; here you’ll find Darkhead by Austrian filmmaker Arman T. Riahi; The New World by Estonian filmmaker Jaan Tootsen or Marshall Curry’s Oscar-nominated If a Tree Falls – A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. 

With or Without You
The films in this category show how the most varied of social influences – migration, poverty, institutional care, foster care and adoption – disrupt and complicate traditional family ties and relationships: e.g., the Austrian doc Mama Illegal by Ed Moschitz, included in East Silver 2012.

So-called Civilization
The documentaries in this category draw attention to mankind?s twisted relationship with the environment in which it lives and to the fact that humanity is destroying nature irrevocably through its ill-considered and reckless activities – e.g., The Magical Journey of Useless Things by Katja Schupp, Detroit Wild City, Chernobyl Forever, and You’ve Been Trumped.

Panorama
This category offers a selection of highly-rated documentary films that have in the last two years received a great deal of attention at international festivals, where some picked up prestigious prizes – screening, for instance, Bakhmaro by Georgian filmmaker Salome Jashi; El Medico – The Cubaton Story by Daniel Fridell; Argenitinian Lesson by Wojciech Staron, and Victor Kossakovsky’s ¡Vivan las Antipodas!

Czech Films
As each year, One World presents Czech documentary films shot in the previous year to both Czech audiences and foreign guests – Big as Brno; From Cherries to Cherries; Into Oblivion; Love in the Grave; Punk in Africa; Race to the Bottom; Solar Eclipse; The Tripoint; Trafacka – Temple of Freedom.

People in Need – 20 Years
This retrospective category is included in the programme on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the foundation of one of the biggest non-profit organisations in Central Europe and the organiser of the festival, the People in Need foundation. Films, videos and photographs online at www.ceskatelevize.cz/jedensvet.

For more details on all programmes and films, please visit One World.

http://www.dokweb.net/cs

ZagrebDox 2012

The 8th edition of a festival that has a strong programme with an international competition programme, a regional one, a retrospective with star director Jay Rosenblatt, a section with controversial documentaries like Mads Brügger’s ”The Ambassador” (photo) and Fredrik Gertten’s ”Big Boys Gone Bananas!”, music documentaries, a selection of 14 films from the Danish Film School, a retrospective of Baltic documentaries from the last ten years selected by this blogger. And several other good offers to documentary people in the Croatian Capital. A small pitching session is also organised, as before, where regional projects are presented to a panel of potential investors.

The international competition programme of 29 long and short films includes among others ”5 Broken Cameras” by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi, ”Bakhmaro” by Salomé Jashi from Georgia, ”I will forget this Day” by Russian Alina Rudnitskaya, ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Polish Pawel Kloc, ”Ramin” by Lithuanian Audrius Stonys and ”The Will” by Christian Sønderby Jepsen from Denmark.

The regional competition of 20 films presents fine films like Romanian ”Noosfera” by Ileana Stanculescu and Artchil Khetagouri, Stefan Valdobrev’s portrait of a football fanatic ”My Mate Manchester United” and Nikolas Geyerhalter’s ”Abendland”. Plus a lot of films that I am in the lucky position not to have seen, yet, including ”Family Meals” by Dana Budisavljevic.

Reports will be posted from ZagrebDox, a festival created and run by the tireless Nenad Puhovski. And a PS. The website of ZagrebDox is clear, beautiful to look at, competent in text and full of trailers to watch. Bravo!

http://zagrebdox.net/en/2012/home

Tempo Dokumentärfestival Stockholm

It is a good programme that the organisers of the Swedish documentary film festival has put together for ”a six-day-long documentary party” in Stockholm March 6-11.

New Swedish documentaries in competition, among them Fredrik Gertten’s ”Big Boys Gone Bananas” and Michel Wenzer’s ”At Night I Fly”, which recently got the national award Guldbaggan as best documentary. A retrospective and masterclass with Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill. Music documentaies. A selection by local alternative orgnisation Filmcentrum.

AND, very interesting, a new award that carries the name of local icon Stefan Jarl. Six films compete for the ”Stefan Jarl International Documentary Award”: The magnificent ”5 Broken Cameras” by Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi, a film that deservedly travels all over with its both alarming and touching story from the occupied territories in apartheid Israel. ”Bombay Beach” by Alma Har’el, ”Inside Lara Roxx” by Mia Donovan, fascinating ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” by Polish Pawel Kluc, impressive ”Cinema Komunisto” by Mila Turajlic and Idfa winner 2011 ”Planet of Snail” by South Korean Seungjun Yi. Happy that I am not a juror with such a line-up of strong films! 

http://www.tempofestival.se/english/

Nick Fraser: Bob, Robert or Mr. Redford?

Nick Fraser, commissioning editor at BBC’s Storyville, wrote an article for The Observer (February 5), constructed as a diary from and about the Sundance Film Festival, where ” I have two films in the American competition. I am also judging films for the world documentary jury.”

Among many observations about being a juror, and about the worry of whether ”his” film ”The House I live in” (photo) by Eugene Jarecki – read the whole article – would get an award or not, it did win,  Fraser, in a for him very unusual situation, writes about being nervous before sitting in a panel with the founder of Sundance:

”There are lots of ways of celebrating one’s birthday. This year I’m spending mine with Robert Redford – on a panel to discuss documentaries – and I am distinctly nervous. But I notice similar symptoms in the other guest – the redoubtable Sheila Nevins , head of documentaries at HBO and acknowledged queen of the genre in the US. We exchange anxieties. How will we behave in the presence of cinema royalty? Do we call him Bob, Robert or Mr Redford? We cannot decide. Stuck in ski resort traffic, he arrives late, and it is reassuring to find that near-deities are subject to the same vicissitudes as the rest of us.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/feb/05/sundance-diary-nick-fraser-storyville

The Syrian Revolution/10

One more text from Dox Box festival Orwa Nyrabia, who has turned war correspondent and frequently writes in English on Syria and Me – The Revolution Chronicles:

Damascus: The regime’s security forces, backed by armed operatives, raided the office of activist and journalist Mazen Darwish, the director of the Syrian Center for Media and Free Expression, in central Damascus after sealing the area. Security forces arrested Mr. Darwish and a number of other professionals in the office. The LCC is verifying the names of those arrested.

(LCC is a resistance group, described like this: Local Coordinating Committees of Syria, an umbrella organization with members from most cities and many smaller towns across Syria. Ed.)

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

Steve James on Documentaries

One of the best documentaries recently is ”The Interrupters” (photo) by Steve James, who was also the man behind masterpieces as ”Hoop Dreams” and ”Stevie”. Film journalist Jennifer Merlin has interviewed James, site address below, and out of that comes many interesting comments from a modest true documentarian.

Here is a clip from the long and good interview:

There are all kinds of different films and all kinds of hybrids. I like all kinds of films and all kinds of documentaries, but I see a lot of films and thing, gee, I could never make that — not from a judgmental standpoint, but just because I don’t think that way. I’m just not that kind of storyteller. So, you know, I’m old fashioned. I like cinéma vérité.

The films that had the biggest impact on me when I was getting interested in film were the verite classics, on the one hand, like Barbara Kopple’s work or the Maysles.

The other films that interested me, and I think my films are a kind of hybrid with these, are Michael Apted‘s UP Series and especially The Times of Harvey Milk, which I saw at a particular moment of time when I was starting to love documentaries and I was just struck by how powerful, and insightful and emotional that film was without being sappy or anything like that. And those are both films that are interview driven films. They’re not verite films. So I think my style is a kind of a hybrid.

http://documentaries.about.com/od/documentarydirectors/a/A-Conversation-With-Steve-James-Part-One.htm

Cinéma du Réel 2012

The Cinéma du Réel has chosen its competition films for the 34th edition of the festival that takes place in the Centre Pompidou in Paris March 22 to April 3.

15 films have been taken for the International Competition and the International First Films Competition. Many are world premieres, some international premeieres and some French premieres. Among the latter you find the success ”Five Broken Cameras” (photo) by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi and ”Two Years at Sea” by Ben Rivers. There is a competition of short documentaries, very much welcomed of course, a French section of course – more than 200 films are screened and there are workshops and tributes with/to John Gianvito, Dick Fontaine, Susana de Sousa Dias, Mario Ruspoli and Raúl Ruiz.

“Arrested Cinema” is a section where “From Iran to China, from Syria to Tibet, many filmmakers, documentarists, artists or ordinary demonstrators have been arrested, imprisoned, confined to their residence or killed. With its new “Arrested cinema” section the festival aims to create a space each year and give regular news updates for a cinema confined to resistance.

And to stay on the political track there is, again. A section called “Exploring Documentary: Combatants” which is “A tribute to the filmmakers who have fought and continue to fight on liberation fronts, using deadly weapons (rifles, machine guns), non-deadly weapons (cameras, tracts…) or the two together. With films by Tobias Engel, Margaret Dickinson, Jocelyne Saab, Clarisse Hahn, Deborah Shaffer, Jean-Michel Humeau, Dick Fontaine and some films of the Slon-Iskra audiovisual collection.”

www.cinemadureel.org

Haus des Dokumentarfilms

Our German language readers should know about the fine work done by the Stuttgart based Haus des Dokumentarfilms. Yesterday I received a ”Dokumentarfilm Newsletter” from the Haus with a link to a website – in German – that provides you with a lot of information, on new docs in German cinemas, support that thas been given, documentaries on television, new dvd releases and so on.

The mission of the Haus: ”Unser Haus dient der Förderung, Forschung und der Sammlung des Dokumentarfilms. Wir wollen Filmemacher, Redakteure, Produzenten und am Dokumentarfilm Interessierte zusammenbringen.”

Long and good articles about films are to be found on the website, and of course there is information about the ongoing Berlinale, as well as info on the work of the German ag-dok, the strong association for documentarians.

The photo is from Cyril Tuschi impressive documentary about Khodorkovsky. It runs in German cinemas.

http://www.dokumentarfilm.info/

Bahraa Hijazi Syrian Filmmaker

.. detained by security forces since February 2nd. The following text is taken from Facebook:

Bahraa Hijazi, was born in 1986 in Damascus, Syria. Her family is originally from Jeiroud, a city 50 kilometres from the capital. Bahraa’s father Abdul Nabi Hijazi is a well-known Syrian novelist and TV writer. Bahraa is a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, majoring in the Department of Visual Communication. She works in visual design and animation, and has been creating children training workshops in this field. Bahraa has directed a short animated film entitled “Heart Torments ” which was produced by Tawasol network in collaboration with the United Nation Development Program and the International Centre for Journalists. Most recently she was preparing her first feature documentary, depicting the life of women in Syria. The project represents one of 10 projects that was chosen by DOCMED 2011 International Program for young producer and filmmaker ————————————————————– Née en 1986, Bahraa Hijazi est étudiante en 4ème année au département de Communication à la Faculté des Beaux-Arts de Damas, et fille du grand auteur et scénariste Abdul Nabi Hijazi. Graphiste, réalisatrice de films d’animation et chargée de projets et d’ateliers de formation pour les jeunes dans les domaines de la conception et de la réalisation. Son court métrage d’animation “Tourments de coeur” a été produit par l’atelier Tawasol (communiquer) organisé en coopération avec l’atelier du Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement et le Centre international pour les journalistes. Elle prépare actuellement son premier documentaire sur les femmes en Syrie. Celui-ci a obtenu le soutien du programme “Doc Med”, et a été sélectionné récemment dans le cadre du programme de production du Festival International du Film de Rotterdam.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/الحرية-لــ-بهراء-حجازي-Freedom-for-Bahraa-Hijazi/128328827289752