The Arab Spring

It’s been a while ago since a text has been posted about the Arab Spring and specifically the Syrian Revolution. Not that nothing happens, on the contrary, the brutality and killings continue in Syria. I do, as many others I am sure, follow what happens primarily through Facebook that has links to YouTube with daily small reports about shootings and demonstrations in the streets. I told a Syrian friend about the frustration I get not to be able to read or understand Arabic. He answered that I should be happy about that because it would just mean me going from frustration to pure worrying.

But moments like this stimulates the creativity and the young woman on the photo makes her point with a text that I have had translated:

Grow your Brain, not your Beard.

DOCSBarcelona 2012

The programme of the upcoming documentary festival in Barcelona, January 31-February 5, has been published. The selection is rich in quality and variety, and as usual the festival has its categories and for the second year the festival is competitive.

Apart from the Official Selection, there is a section with current affairs documentaries entitled DocsAffairs, a talent category with the name Doc! Doc! Doc!, films for school children, master classes (including one with Russian director Viktor Kossakovsky, whose ”Vivan las Antipodas!” will be screened in the official selection) and a section called Finisterrae with ”films that explore innovative ways to portray reality, distancing themselves from the canonical models and using new formal resources. As its name indicates, Finisterrae will bring us documentaries that are positioned at the fringes or outer limits of the  production; works that have opted for a pioneering language. Indeed, all of these films involve an implicit research and formal risk.” Sounds exciting!

Many films come from other international festivals, often with awards, like Polish Pawel Kloc’s exciting and controversial ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” or Ruthie Shatz & Adi Barash’ ”The Collaborator and His Family” (photo), shot in Tel Aviv where the Palestinian, who spied for Israel fights to survive and gain respect from the Israeli authorities. ”Rouge Parole” by Tunisian Elyes Baccar is a fresh documentation and interpretation of the revolution in the country and ”Give Up Tomorrow” by Michael Collins and Marty Syjuco is the touching story about Paco, a Philippine man who has been in jail for years for a murder that he could not have committed. In a master class the two behind the film will give an inside to how they through the film were able to change the situation of Paco.

The pitching forum of DOCSBarcelona celebrates its 15th edition with the presentation of 24 projects to around 30 international broadcasters, distributors and representatives from funds and markets. On top of that a special mini Latin Forum is arranged with 6 specially selected projects from that region. Barcelona is not only professional top football, it is also a unique place for the best of the best of the creative documentary genre. 

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/index.php?edicion=2012

BAFTA Nominations

The following (edited) text about good times for documentaries in cinemas is taken from the Realscreen site:

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is reintroducing an award category for best documentary, “in recognition of the number of high-quality theatrical documentaries” being made. The new category will be simply called “Documentary”.

A theatrical documentary award was presented by BAFTA between 1948 and 1990, but dropped thereafter, with docs recognised in the major film categories only. In a statement, the organization said: “BAFTA’s Film Committee has chosen to re-introduce this category now in recognition of the number of high-quality theatrical documentaries released in cinemas in the UK each year.”

“Films from all countries will be eligible as long as they have a theatrical release in the UK. The award will only usually be presented if 15 or more films are entered. A specialist Documentary Chapter of BAFTA Film Voting Members will vote for a longlist of five films during the round one vote and then will vote again in round two to decide the three nominations. The winner will be selected by all Film Voters during round three voting.”

Asif Kapadia’s Senna (photo), James Marsh’s Project Nim and Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison, Living in the Material World have been selected as the three documentary prize nominees for the 2012 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Film Awards.

Notably, Senna also lands a nomination in the Outstanding British Film category – the first time a documentary has been nominated in the category since Marsh’s Man On Wire, which won the prize in 2009. Prior to that, Kevin Macdonald’s Touching The Void also picked up the award, in 2004.

Senna, Nim and Material World were culled from a five-strong doc longlist that also included Pina and Macdonald’s Life in a Day. The 2012 BAFTA Film Awards’ winners will be announced on February 12 at the Royal Opera House in London, England.

http://realscreen.com/2012/01/17/senna-nim-material-world-in-running-for-bafta-doc-prize/#ixzz1jpKD5rhc

Avi Mograbi on DocAlliance

DOCAlliance, the vod of six quality documentary film festivals (FID Marseilles has just joined cph:dox, Visions du Réel Nyon, DOK Leipzig, Planete Doc Review Warsaw and Jihlava IDFF) is very appealing for documentary lovers. Their selection is excellent, their texts about the films are as well, and to get more people to watch, DOCAlliance launches some offers you can’t refuse.

Like now with five films of world class Israeli director Avi Mograbi, very well known by readers of filmkommentaren.dk. The films of Mograbi which are now available, and can be streamed for free TODAY, and after that be watched for very low prices, are:

How I Learned to Overcome my Fear (1997), Happy Birthday, Mr Mograbi (1999), August (photo) (2002), Avenge, but One of my Two Eyes (2005) and Z32 (2008).

http://dafilms.com/

Julie Bonan: Il était.. Les enfants du Paradis

The world’s best film? No doubt for me, Marcel Carné’s ”Les Enfants du Paradis” from 1945, shot during the German occupation, script by Jacques Prévert with the best of best of French actors like Pierre Brasseur, Pierre Renoit and Jean-Louis Barrault AND the star over all stars, Arletty.

Pure pleasure it could only be to watch this tv-documentary that takes us behind the scenes with archive interviews to meet Prévert, Arletty and Carné, a story guided by, among others, director Bertrand Tavernier, photos from the shooting, a lot of anecdotes, and the sad story about Arletty, who had a love affair with a German office, went to prison, and thus could not be there for the premiere of the film in 1945 because of her ”collaboration”. A film that at the same time became a symbol of the French liberation!

Garance and Baptiste, Arletty and Barrault. Carné and Prévert, touching it is to see the latter, in an interview from 1969, say that all films are actually documentaries, Arletty is performing in a film that is about herself. Prévert wrote the role to her as well as the lines.

Lucky you, who have not yet seen ”Les Enfants du Paradis”, and lucky us who can see it gain and again…. and thanks to the digital channel of DR/K, who showed the documentary about the masterpiece on a grey monday morning.

2009, 50 mins., made for France 5

Fredrik Gertten: Big Boys Gone Bananas!*

“.. on free speech in documentary film”, hedder underteksten, er på farefuld vej ud i distribution. For Dole Food Company kan bestemt ikke lide forgængeren Bananas!*, og nu forsøger dette verdens største frugtfirma at forhindre lanceringen af fortsættelsen i USA, som med titlen Big Boys Gone Bananas!* netop handler om Doles forsøg på således at undertrykke ytringsfrihed i en film.

Fredrik Gertten samler nu penge ind til advokatbistand især, så han kan få sin mere og mere vigtige film vist i USA. Se trailer og hjemmeside om sagen her.

Burma VJ

Danish producer Lise Lense-Møller passed on this great news asking if it could be interesting for our readers. Absolutely! Below quotes from emails from yesterday from Joshua to the producer, her team and the director Anders Østergaard:

“Dear All, I am writing this to share one of the most wonderful news for us. Myanmar government released 651 political prisoners and “all our VJs have been included in this amnesty.” Everybody who took part in making of Burma VJ are freed now and in good health and spirit. I believe you deserve to share our joy. 

I am now seriously thinking whether it is a good time to go back and start making more documentaries about Burma. I will write more later about it. This mail is just to thank you for all your efforts in making of Burma VJ, which played a significant role in changing the situation in Burma.”

… and further on in another mail:

“I called to four of the VJs today and they say thanks to you all. They said they heard a lot about the success of Burma VJ since they were in prison. One of them is called “Oscar” by his jailmates because of nomination news (for an Academy Award, ed.). Ko Maung joked that “One thing that upsets him is that we didn’t hire a handsome guy such as Brat Pitt to play his role.” We had Big LOL. :). But he said he was so pleased to know that someone could use the footage he has sacrificed for in a very effective way. This time, he is serious and no joking. 🙂 

He will support Aung San Suu Kyi’s works whenever he can. Someone is going to share Burma VJ DVDs to all of them and they will have chance to see a documentary about them in a few days time.  They all are really happy now.”

www.magichourfilms.dk

Magnificent 7 2012

Countdown for the 8th edition of the European Feature Documentary Film Festival, always an adventurous experience for this documentary consultant and co-selector of the 7 films together with Svetlana and Zoran Popovic.

It takes place in Belgrade January 25-29, in the Sava Centre, the audience will be huge, and representatives (6 directors and 1 director of photography) from the films selected will be there to meet the audience and share their film view and practice in a workshop that takes place the day after the screening of their film. So join the party, come to Belgrade if you want to meet Gary Tarn, Miguel Goncalves Mendes, Audrius Stonys, Fernand Melgar, Gereon Wetzel, Xavier Arpino and Michael Glawogger.

Check the site. Here follows my welcome words:

January 25th 2012 at 7pm the opening of the 8th Magnificent7 film festival. I write film to stress that this is a festival for films that are made to be screened on a big screen to an audience that appreciates this mix of a social, entertaining and artistic experience in times where films (also) are meant for small computers, ipads, well even mobile phones. An audience who appreciates to sit with hundreds of other people and take in what comes from the screen to the heart and to the brain. I am sure that you will agree that whether you like the films or not, you will never leave the cinema untouched by what you saw.

I am one of those, who never leaves the cinema untouched and who comes to

Belgrade once per year for a week of pleasure focused on the finest film genre, some would say the only one that still gives space for the independent film: the documentary.

I am also there to sit among you fellow spectators and sense the reactions to the films, that we have selected after months of watching and joyful communication between Copenhagen, where I live and Belgrade, where Svetlana and Zoran Popović are at the Magnificent7 HQ.

We heartily welcome the comeback of two directors at the programme this year. The festival opens with ”The Prophet” (photo) by Gary Tarn, that comments on the world of today – including material shot in Belgrade, when Tarn was here with his ”Black Sun”. The Lithuanian master Audrius Stonys, who was here with ”The Bell”, this year introduces ”Ramin” to us, warm and compassionate film about an old man in Georgia full of life, wisdom and a longing for love.

Yes, love is definitely a theme at this year’s festival. As shown in Portuguese film ”José and Pilar” by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes about the beauty of the relationship between writer José Saramago and his wife, the journalist Pilar del Rio. Saramago, the Nobel Prize winner, is forced to travel around, tiring for a man at his age, a man who could have been tempted to stay in the old world, as it is beautifully conveyed in French director Marc Weymüller’s meditative look at people in the Portuguese Barroso region in ”La vie Au Loin”. A film that mirrors our time, and our dealing with time, as does Gereon Wetzel with ”El Bulli”, which could be seen as an indirect appeal to us all to slow down and dedicate passion and focus. And of course a fascinating insight to the art of cooking.

Caring for the other… is that what the staff does in Fernand Melgar’s heartbreaking institutional documentation from one of the richest countries in Europe. ”Vol spécial” is shot in a centre for refugees who have been refused to stay in Switzerland and wait to be sent home. The staff does its job, what they have been told to do, with an institutional empathy, one could say. Is this where civilisation stands today? Lack of love and compassion!

And for closing – Michael Glawogger, the Austrian director of many controversial films. This time he cares about prostitutes in his travel to Thailand, Bangladesh and Mexico. As with his previous globalisation films (”Megacities” and ”Working Man’s Death”) the camerawork is done by Wolfgang Thaler, who excellently interprets each location in its own way. ”Whore’s Glory” is done with sensitivity and respectfully tells us about prostitutes who offer moments of love. It is a stunning film that for sure will create debate about what documentaries can and should do – as all 7 films it is for the big screen, and for the social and artistic experience.

http://www.magnificent7festival.org/home.html

Top Stills

Vi forbinder bestemte historiske begivenheder med bestemte personer, de er vores hovedpersoner før, filmene gør dem til det. Dobbelt betydningsbærende. De tre stills i Filmkommentarens hoved kunne være de to bloggeres personlige bud på tre sådanne scener med tre særlige medvirkende i tre uomgængelige film. / The three stills above are from films strongly appreciated by the two bloggers, in important scenes and with main characters in the films as well as in specific periods of our history.

1) Vietnamkrigen erindret af Robert McNamara under sindrigt pres i Errol Morris: The Fog of War (2003). ”Det er måske Morris’ berømte spejlarrangement ved interviews, som gør det. McNamaras blik, fortælling og tolkning plus hans intensitet former uafrysteligt min opfattelse af verdenshistorien den sidste halvdel af 1900-tallet.” (Allan Berg Nielsen i filmkommentaren.dk) / The Vietnam War as it was recalled by Robert McNamara, pushed by Errol Morris in “The Fog of War” (2003). “Maybe it is the famous mirror arrangement at the interviews that does it. The glance of McNamara, his storytelling, his interpretation plus his intensity shakes completely my look at world history during the last half of the 20th century.”

2) Militærkuppets fly mod præsidentpaladset iagttaget af Salvador Allende omgivet af livvagter i Patricio Guzman: The Battle of Chile (1975-1979). / The attack on La Moneda watched by Salvador Allende surrounded by his guards in Patricio Guzman’s “The Battle of Chile” (1975-79). “How could a team of five – some with no previous film experience – working with one Éclair camera, one Nagra sound recorder, two vehicles and a package of black-and-white film stock sent to them by the French documentarian Chris Marker produce a work of this magnitude?” (Pauline Kael in The New Yorker).

3) Den nye tjekkiske politiske kultur levet af Vaclav Havel i blot en af utallige værtshusdiskussioner i Pavel Koutecký og Miroslav Janek: Citizen Havel (2008). ”I 12 år fulgte Pavel Koutecký og hans hold Havel, i det offentlige og i det private rum og ud af det er kommet en helt vidunderlig, morsom og gribende fortælling om en helt vidunderlig mand, der hele vejen igennem beholder sin integritet og viser at den ærlige og kærlige mand naturligvis ikke kan undgå at løbe ind i problemer, når han skal have med politik at gøre.” (Tue Steen Müller i filmkommentaren.dk) / The new Czech political culture as it was lived by Vaclav Havel in one of many café discussions in Pavel Koutecky and Miroslav Janek’s Citizen Havel (2008). “For 12 years Pavel Koutecky and his crew followed Havel, in public and privately, and from that material a wonderful film has been made, funny and touching it is about a fine man, who keeps his integrity and shows that an honest and loveable man of course must run into problems when he enters politics.”

Lise Birk Pedersen: Putin’s Kiss

Of course it is a scoop to get close to the inner circles of Putin’s youth movement Nashi through Masha Drokova. And to come out with this film now, when things are moving in Russia. It deserves to be seen all over, for sure. And it is a scoop to include journalist Oleg Kashin, who was almost beaten to death after critical comments towards Putin and the movement. As well as the opposition politican Ilya Yashin.

BUT the most interesting and dangerous man in the story, the founder of Nashi, the good looking demagogue, Vasily Yakemenko, who rethorically seduces the youngsters to fight for ”a clean Russia” and who is now kind of minister of Youth, he is not really a character in the film, even if he is so much in the picture, literally. His rude behaviour towards Masha, who at a moment seems to be in love with him, is once revealed, and his approval with an evil smile of the disgusting action with the trampling on photos of opposition politicians and critical journalists is caught by the camera. Yakemenko is his master’s voice, a man of power, a manipulator. Was it not possible to get him and his ideology more into the film?

I am asking this because I have doubts about the strenght in the story as it unfolds now. The film obviously has structural, storytelling problems. It does not establish the story up front where you in surveillance camera b/w images see someone beeing beaten up without linking this to Oleg Kashin, who through a voice-off tells: This is a film about a young woman, who goes into a political movement, becomes one of their spokespersons, gets a tv show as a journalist but starts to doubt the brutality of the Nashi and begins to meet some of the opposition people.

AND makes her decision when Oleg Kashin is being attacked. We know later that he is the victim when the b/w sequence is repeated. The growing friendship between the two of them and her decision to quit Nashi comes thus as a kind of surprise. It is a pity that the film lacks flow because both young Masha and the damaged Oleg are interesting to follow. For me it seems like a problem that the film wants to be both a character driven story and a journalistic report on Nisha and the opposition.

Premiere in Danish cinemas January 19. Oleh Kashin and Ilya Yashin will attend. The film goes to Sundance and open in American cinemas after the festival.

Denmark, 82 mins