Danfung Dennis: Hell and Back Again

The Afghanistan documentary by Danfung Dennis, awarded at many festivals opens today in Paris. The daily Libération has an interview with Dennis, link below. Here is a re-post of the review of the important documentary:

I love my pistol”, says Sergeant Nathan Harris, the protagonist of the film about an American soldier, who gets seriously wounded in combat in Afghanistan, is taken back to the US and to his wife Ashley, who helps him recover; at least she helps him getting through the day, the trauma he has from his time in Afghanistan, he does not seem to be able to fight on his own as the film tells the audience.

Many films have come out and is coming out from and about the war in Afghanistan and its consequences on heart and mind, especially on those going there as soldiers to secure changes in the country. This one is one of the best so far in its superb camera work from the battlefield, in its description, with a lot of dignity, of the Afghans who are victims of the constant search for Talibans by the Americans. They are told to leave their houses, their houses are searched, they are searched and controlled. The desperation comes from the Afghans, who don’t want to be ruled by the Talibans, but you soldiers do not really make the situation easier!

The emotional side of the film, however, lies where Nathan Harris is back home, suffering enormously from his pain, constantly taking strong medicin and – this is how the film is built – thinks back on Afghanistan where he definitely wants to be again as a killer, the word used by the doctor who examines him. As a spectator you look, with empathy, thanks to the approach of the director, at a man brought up in a society of violence, a young man sitting in a sofa at the end of the film playing with his guns… ”I love my pistol”.

US/UK, 2011, 88 mins.

Winner of 1st Documentary Competition at Moscow International Film festival 2011.

http://hellandbackagain.com/

http://next.liberation.fr/cinema/01012378780-j-ai-voulu-choquer-les-spectateurs

Vaclav Havel on Film

It seems strange that on the day of the death of Vaclav Havel, I posted several texts on the high quality of the IDF (Institute of Film) website (see below) and now I do it again to make you know the text published there to remember Vaclav Havel, and the many films he took part in. Read here:

Former Czech President, dissident, prolific playwright, essayist, and film director Václav Havel (October 5, 1936 – December 18, 2011) appeared in countless documentary films that closely traced both his political moves and moments from his personal life. Here are just some of them…

In 2003, David Remnick of the The New Yorker described Václav Havel’s last day in office as follows: “On Sunday night, February 2nd, Czech radio and television broadcast Havel’s farewell address. He took pains to thank his wife and his supporters. To all those who felt disappointed “or have simply found me hateful, I sincerely apologize and trust that you will forgive me.” Havel flashed his country the peace sign and his work was done.” [David Remnick, “Exit Havel”, The New Yorker, 10 February 2003].

Havel’s work and role were incredibly difficult, crucial and irreplaceable, as any of these documentary films attest. Although he was never too comfortable in front of the camera – probably much happier when staging his own scenes in Leaving – many of the films give a good idea of his warm and charismatic personality, doing away with the myth of a shy, awkward president and revealing instead his calm yet strong-willed determination.

Screened at Visions du réel, Crossing Europe, Hot Docs, DOK Leipzig, Berlinale’s Forum and other festivals, Citizen Havel (2008) may be the best-known film on Havel. Shot over the span of 13 years, it was originally helmed by Pavel Koutecký who made a number of other Havel-themed docs. After Koutecký’s death in 2006, the project was taken up by director and cinematographer Míra Janek.

Please watch them if you get a chance, Václav Havel, Prague – Castle can be streamed in East Silver’s video library; many of them are available on the VOD portal Doc Alliance Films.

http://www.dokweb.net/en/

Vaclav Havel Died Today

… and what a loss it is! Luckily – in terms of films, we have a lot of material that documents who he was and how he performed as a writer, a politician and, simply, a human being. I go back to early times of filmkommentaren to re-publish, what was written after I saw a rough cut of what was going to be the masterpiece ”Citizen Havel”:

Yesterday in Prague, I attended a sneak preview of a still unfinished documentary on Vaclav Havel. The version (for cinemas and festivals) I saw was 150 minutes, for me it could easily have been longer, simply because the company of Havel is such a joy! 

I was told that a 6 hour long (6 x 1 hour) TV version has been made as well to be screened on the private channel NOVA, and not on public Czech tv, that did not want to take part which of course is no less than a scandal.

The film is wonderful being the result of 12 years of shooting by Pavel Koutecky who died last year in a tragic accident. The film has been completed by Mira Janek, and covers sequences from the life of Havel when president until the moment, he steps down and leaves the castle in Prague. Private life and official life. Havel in a lot of situations with his advisors, Havel constantly versus the other Vaclav (Klaus) and Havel with his first wife Olga, who dies in 1996. And Havel with Dagmar, Dasa, who is his life’s companion now. A film full of humour about a gentle man, who – as he says himself – is unwilling to conform to the stereotypes. A man who listens and thinks before he talks. A man who appears to have some drops of vanity when it comes to shirts and ties, and who is absolutely unpractical and who could not live without a woman at his side.

Apart from the joyful meeting with a man of great modest charisma, the film gives you an inside to important moments in Czech politics when EU is to be the reality for the former communist country.

This is not a review, just a first advertising: Watch out for “Citizen Havel” that will be a success all over the world when it comes out next year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16236393

Agnès Varda on Arte

Tomorrow – and the rest of the week – French/German channel arte invites documentary lovers on what seems to be a wonderful lighthearted journey with Agnès Varda, entitled ”Agnès de ci, de là Varda”. On the site of arte, see address below, there are clips from the series, which according to ”le monde” (18-19. December) is ”subjective, fantaisiste, érudite et émouvante… un très beau cadeau”. In the same article Varda says that she has filmed almost as if she was thinking with no other intention than ”to show my curiosity”. Sounds like ”caméra comme stylo”, as the French new wave was saying they were aiming for.

She meets colleagues on her way, like the 103 year old Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira and Chris Marker, a close friend, who does not want to be seen in the film, but ”he looks like Bruce Willis”, Varda says!

If you have the chance, go and peep into the windows of Agnès Varda, who has her shop in rue Daguerre (she made a film a bout the street in 1976, Daguerreotypies) or enter the shop and buy one of her many great films.

For French viewers – remember that you can watch programmes of arte seven days after they have been broadcast.

Link to arte.tv

2012 Documentary Preview/ 1

One day when she was travelling in Belarus, Lithuanian film director Lina Luzyte woke up in her train, that had stopped at a station in the town of Zhlobin. She looked out the window and saw a lot of people lined up to sell  plush toys to the passengers…

It became a film, that will premiere in 2012 – and will have a strong festival presence. I can say so as I have seen rough cuts of the film, which is more than promising, and is the first feature documentary of Lina Luzyte, whose producer is Dagne Vildziunaite, company: Just a Moment.

Look out for the film (working title: Belarussian Toys) when it comes near you. Here is a quote from the IDF website (see below) interview by Hana Rezkova. Luzyte says:

… When I was passing the town, what caught my sight was an image – a face of a man holding a crocodile next to his head. Both faces next to each other. The man’s face was really sad and the crocodile was very beautiful. At that moment I understood that the toys will be the key element, not only visually but also on the level of meaning. The process was actually the opposite. While I was there I stopped distinguishing them from the rest of the reality. They were not standing out anymore. And in the editing room I realized that they have very sad eyes. One of my protagonists told me that there are Polish eyes, German eyes, Russian eyes, and Belarusian eyes. All the eyes have eyelashes leaning towards both left and right. Only the Belarusian eyes have eyelashes directed to one side only.

http://www.dokweb.net/en/

DOKWeb from Institute of Documentary Film

Among the many websites of documentary organisations (EDN, Documentary Campus, Eurodoc etc.) the one provided by the Prague based Institute of Documentary Film (IDF) stands out, when it comes to deal withfilmmaking.

Apart from the information that the active organisation gives on its activities like the East European Forum, Ex Oriente, East Silver market as well as a guide to funding possibilities, a survey over professionals, the DOKWeb publishes articles about and interviews with important filmmakers from the region it deals with: Eastern Europe.

To mention a few: Katerina Surmanová writes about Lithuanian master director Audrius Stonys, who has been making his lyrical documentaries for over 20 years (Photo: Ramin by Audrius Stonys). The same writer takes the reader into the world of Polish director and cameraman, Cracow based Marcin Koszalka. Hana Rezkova, for years a key person at IDF, talks with Russian Vitaly Mansky about his new Cuba film and with Lithuanian director Lina Luzyte about her Belarussian Toys, which will be released in 2012, see above.

Read for yourself, the articles are all high class introductions to important filmmakers. And the website is the place to get knowledge about East European documentaries.

http://www.dokweb.net/en/

Czech Documentaries in Cinemas

A total of 44 Czech films have been released in cinemas this year, including 19 documentaries. The number of theatrical releases has been steadily rising in recent years. This positive trend is both due to the technical and financial availability of digital technologies that make cinema release viable even for low-budget films, as well as various projects, such as Czech Joy in Czech Cinemas that helped release 5 documentary films in a joint campaign.

Seventeen of this year’s documentary releases will compete for the Czech Lion Awards organized by the Czech Film and Television Academy (CFTA), that will be announced in March 2012. In sheer number of films, the documentary category comes close to the feature category (24 films). In mid-January, Czech film critics will also announce best films of the past year. Their competition features all films distributed in cinemas, short films as well as films making use of alternative distribution channels. On top of the CFTA eligible films, the Czech Film Critics Awards include, for instance, Andrea Slováková’s documentary In Sight released on VoD.

Photo: Matej Minac’s film “Nickys Family”, the third film about Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved 699 children from nazi deportation to concentration camps.

http://www.dokweb.net/cs/

Best Documentaries 2011

Playing the-best-of list game, here is what I consider as the best documentaries of 2011. This time I have not mentioned the countries of origin as the documentary film language is not bound to borders. Nevertheless, contrary to the American and English 2011 lists, I hope you will appreciate to find films with a multitude of different languages and cultural links. Alphabetical order:

Asif Kapadia: Senna, 106 mins.

Danfung Dennis: Hell and Back Again, 88 mins.

Fernand Melgar: Vol Special, 99 mins.

Pietro Marcello: The Silence of Pelesjan, 52 mins.

Mantas Kvedaravicius: Barzakh, 57 mins. (Photo)

Michael Glawogger: Whore´s Glory, 110 mins.

Patricio Guzman: Nostalgia for the Light, 90 mins.

Shatz & Barash: The Collaborator and his Family, 84 mins.

Viktor Kossakovsky: Vivan las Antipodas, 104 mins.

Wim Wenders: Pina, 100 mins.

Documentary Talents 2011

Whatever talk there is about financial crisis and difficulties in getting funding for creative, non-formatted documentaries, new talents enter the scene with their stories, visions and original and/or personal way of expressing themselves. Many others could have been mentioned, the 10 are films and people I have met in 2011. Except for one they are all from Europe but after having been in South America a couple of times, I have high expectations in films from that part of the world in 2012.

I will also draw your attention to the big international festival success of the diploma films 2010 from the documentary film school Zelig in Bolzano, that has sent out talented people, who now try to raise funding for the next work.

But here we go in alphabetical order, great films all of them:

Alina Rudnitskaya: This Day I will Forget, Russia, 25 mins.

Andrea Deaglio: Il Futuro del Mondo Passa da Qui, Italy, 63 mins.

Bram van Paesschen: Empire of Dust, Belgium, 77 mins.

Lou McLoughlan: Caring for Calum, Scotland, 24 mins.

Maria Fernanda Restrepo: With My Heart in Yambo. Ecuador, 135 mins.

Mila Turajlic: Cinema Komunisto, Serbia, 101 mins.

Mindaugas Survila: Field of Magic, Lithuania, 62 mins.

Pawel Kloc: Phnom Penh Lullaby, Poland, 98 mins.

Salome Jashi: Bahkmaro, Georgia, 58 mins. (photo)

Thierry Paladino: La Machina, France/Poland, 52/100 mins.

The Syrian Revolution/ 10

It goes on and on, when will it stop or be stopped, the brutality in Syria? Today is friday, the day where many will be killed, as we know it from many weeks and months. And people opposed to the regime are arrested. It is the menu of the day and of course you notice it even more when it is someone you know

Like this time Guevara Namer, photographer and part of the staff behind the Dox Box festival in Damascus. We met her again in Amsterdam this year at the idfa festival – her first travel abroad after the regime had given her and others of Kurdish origin an identity card and a passport. At an age of 27! On her way to the next festival, the one that goes on in Dubai, she was then, at the airport, taken away from her colleagues.

As before when others have been arrested, friends have immediately put up a site for her, address below. The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom and Expression writes the following, edited version:

The immigration authorities at Damascus International Airport at four oclock this afternoon 8/12/2011 arrested the photographer and film producer Guevara Namer while she was traveling to the United Arab Emirates to attend the Film Festival of Dubai where she was among a group of Syrian artists and journalists who have been invited to attend the festival…

Guevara was born in 1984, she is a graduate of the Institute of Photography in Damascus and a fourth-year student at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art Studies Department. She was one of the Syrian Kurdish citizens deprived of their citizenship and has her passport only for a short time.

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression expresses its strong condemnation of the arrest of photographer and film producer Guevara and demands her release and strongly condemns the way and the place where they arrested her – as if it were an ambush focus of the Syrian citizen when she goes to the border ports.

http://www.scm.bz/?page=show_det&category_id=94&id=803&lang=en

http://www.facebook.com/free.gefara