Pedro Urano & Joana Traub Csekö: Hu Enigma

I like it when a film slowly seems to get a hold of itself before your very eyes.  Like it’s getting smarter as it goes along. That’s how I felt watching this depiction of a huge hospital complex in Rio de Janeiro which has half of the building functioning and the other half lying almost in ruins.

The film is sort of clumsy to begin with. We follow a patient being pushed in a bed in the working part of the hospital and we see graphic pictures of the ruin. Then we follow a gastroscopy of the woman which – as something of a banality – is intercut with handheld shots from the cellar of the hospital with pibes, rubble and rats. Ok, one thinks, we get it: The hospital itself is also a patient.

But slowly the film opens up. Pictures of the building play a huge part throughout but we also see and hear people from various institutions talking either directly to us from behind a desk or walking around in the quite amazing construction. It can be the hospital director, an engineer, an architect – even a patient – all people who have genuine interest or feelings for the whole monstrosity. HU refers to its status as a University Hospital and it was part of the modernist, architect movement in 1950’s. But it was built way too big, and the unused part of the building is referred to as the “lame leg” and is just that: A dead counterpart to the “good leg”.

Split screen and camera movements are used with various effect and luck, but I get the feeling that it all seems to work better and better as the films progresses. Also, wonderful little stories appear like the one with a woman carrying an empty plant pot and who needs help to get out of a door. She wants to get one of the ferns growing wildly in the ruin right outside. It’s told from a distance and is just a beautiful documentary scene with reminiscence of Jacques Tati.

The graphic pictures are accompanied by industrial sounding “music” which also seem a bit trite to begin with but it all prove to be worthwhile in the end. For us and for the filmmakers in a way I won’t reveal here. I’m built up to amazement and content in a strangely satisfying way.

http://cphdox.dk/d/film.lasso?ser=1638&s=

Fia-Stina Sandlund: She’s Blonde Like Me

CPH:DOX on a November afternoon. I am watching a filmmaker’s film about her filmmaking and herself. Afterwards, I watch the filmmaker telling us about her film about herself and her filmmaking. I’m always interested in the creative process so I’m all eyes and ears.

The filmmaker, Fia-Stina Sandlund, surely wants to confuse us, though. In this film, she is taking her lead character to the famous art Biennale in Venice to make a performance which will serve not only as a performance but also as an audition and a step towards making a rendition of Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s “Miss Julie”. We quickly meet Alexandra Dahlström as the protagonist and from then on she rarely leaves the frame until the last 15 minutes or so. The filmmaker (Sandlund) is ever present on the soundtrack since large portions of the film consists of the two blonde girls talking about their project which only is revealed sporadically. Sandlund is sometimes seen on the edge of the frame, and we get the feeling that they both are serious artists; Dahlström is dedicated, a bit sulky at times, maybe even troubled. We also get the feeling that she could easily play Julie. Or Sandlund. Maybe she does the latter already? I know, it sounds confusing, but it’s really not. Not yet, at least.

As a viewer one looks for things to get involved with and in this case they throw us some small intellectual goodies about Strindberg and his play “Miss Julie” and it’s clear that Strindberg fascinates the protagonist(s) with his ambiguous view on women. I, more predictably, notice how much Dahlström looks like Scarlett Johansen from certain angles. Dahlström IS a sight for sore eyes – and you may know her from “Fuckin’ Åmål” – but I sometimes just want to poke her (and Sandlund) in the eye. The film is namely shot less delightfully and my fascination and my irritation struggle to get the upper hand. The film is both bold and boring, arguably too long but surely original and not without humour.

The moment in the film which the women have prepared for comes: the performance with Dahlström playing Sandlund. But the weather pulls their legs; the electricity goes away and the performance is aborted. At least in the film. And then a true avant-garde moment appears: A woman – whom we have never seen before – coughs. Violently. Now I’m confused. The woman turns out to be some kind of clairvoyant and she’s having a séance to get some other hitherto unseen women closer to Strindberg. I forget that I want to cast Dahlström for almost anything but I don’t forget Sandlund’s project. Kudos to that.

The film is the first in a trilogy where the third supposedly will be a version of “Miss Julie” with Dahlström as Julie, since she passed the “audition”. This Sandlund tells us afterwards on this November afternoon. Film number two, “She’s Staging It”, will be a depiction of a theatre workshop in New York were they will be working on saving Julie from the suicide she presumably commits after curtains in “Miss Julie”.  I’m somewhat disturbed by the fact that I want to see both.

Fia-Stina Sandlund: She’s Blonde Like Me, Sverige, 2011. 89 min.

The Syrian Revolution/ 9

Text taken from Facebook, announced publicly in Copenhagen yesterday at the cph:dox festival by film producer and festival director Orwa Nyrabia from Damascus:

Syrian filmmaker Nidal Hassan disappeared in Damascus on Thursday 3-11-2011, no information about him has come to light since that day.

 Nidal was born in 1-9-1973, he studied Film Direction in Armenia and made several films one of which, SALTY SKIN, won a notable Russian prize. He has other films like FLINT MOUNTAIN and an unfinished film on his coastal city Tartous, THE POOR CHALLENGE GUINNESS.
 Note that he was previously detained at what is known as the “Intellectuals’ demonstration” in Damascus.

Nidal Hassan was on his way to the festival in Copenhagen.

At the same meeting Orwa Nyrabia announced that Syrian filmmaker Ali Sheikh Khoder, who was arrested by an unknown security division in Douma, Damascus, September 30 2011, had been released. One out, one in!

Link to the Facebook page

Greek Festival Opening in Moment of Crisis

The 52nd edition of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival has started and runs until the 13th of November. In a newsletter issued by the festival, under the headline “a modest ceremony raised the curtain of the festival”, the festival director had some opinions, which are important to share:

In his opening speech, TIFF director Dimitris Eipides did not fail to refer to the crucial times Greece is going through: “I am certain that there are some people in the audience wondering what is the use of having festivals and festivities when the country is sinking”, he said, adding that the answer to this question is that if Greece is to have a chance of revival, the country needs citizens who are mature, outward-looking, innovative, bold, with a vision and a plan.

“We need to be entertained, to receive stimuli, to understand the world around us. This is the only way we can change this world”, underlined Mr. Eipides, adding that, under this light, the films of the 52nd TIFF “provide audiences with the opportunity to exercise penetrating and substantial interventions, to reach novel explanations of the social, political and cultural developments unfolding in the world around us”. “Only by active intervention any work is meaningful”, he added. Mr. Eipides announced that the TIFF is moving forward with the establishment of the Thessaloniki Film Archive. “The Thessaloniki Film Archive is a life’s work. It will develop and broaden the city’s cinema culture, capitalizing on the energetic core of film enthusiasts who have been cultivated by the Festival throughout the years. This is a gift worthy of Thessaloniki, which is celebrating its centenary from liberation”, commented Mr. Eipides. Welcoming audiences to the 52nd TIFF, “one of the oldest film festivals in the world, esteemed by an international community of exacting viewers and professionals”, TIFF director said he was proud for an additional reason: for the fact that more than 50% of TIFF’s budget this year is funded by European funds (specifically, by the European Regional Development Fund), without burdening the country’s national budget.

newsletter@filmfestival.gr

Nelson Pereira: The Music According To Tom Jobim

The opening is splendid: Old b/w footage from the 50’s of an aircraft flying into Rio de Janeiro and an orchestral rendition of “Garota de Ipanema” on the soundtrack. I want to go to Rio and I want to see and enjoy this film. The camera is now on the ground and takes us downtown in a car and nothing can go wrong. Or so I thought.

The film has no talk at all but continues like an uncommented anthology with a line of numerous interpretations of the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. The clips seem to be original and they last for between one and four minutes or so. That means that we rarely get more than a couple of verses and the Portuguese lyrics are sometimes subtitled and sometimes not. More irritatingly, it seems that the film now and again use “new” archive material which was not in the original TV or live performance footage. It’s mostly album covers or posters which the camera pans or tilts over or old stills where they couldn’t resist splitting the layers in that “modern 3D” fashion which is more annoying than meaningful. So as a film I must say it comes across very uneven at times, almost amateurish, and somewhat haphazardly put together. For instance, at one point there is a still of an album with Jobim’s name (again) and you can see that this particular album was arranged by band leader Nelson Riddle. It’s immediately followed by Nara Leão singing “Dindi” with just a guitar player!?

Turning to the music, there seem to be one principle: Two to four different interpretations of each number. That is highly interesting but also quite frustrating at times when a favourite of yours is limited to a mere minute. There might be a slight chronological order (but it doesn’t feel or look that way) and only sporadically is there displayed any development of Jobim’s work or how Brazilian and American jazz music started to affect each other. Sometimes Jobim is seen playing and sometimes he’s not and the film ends with some performances of his with choir and big bands from the late 80’s and early 90’s. On the director’s webpage I realize now that there is a TV program from 1984 listed with the same title, so I expect this to be a newly made version which supposedly had its world premiere at New York Film Festival in October this year.

But before I get all negative on this film about one of the best songwriters in the western world, I would like to point out some gems in the film because it is also a mere joy at times. There are nice recordings with Gal Costa and Adriana Colcanhotto but especially the Americans seem in a good shape with highlights including a virtuous minute and a half with Gary Burton playing “Chega de Saudade”, Sammy Davis Jr. scatting through “Desafinado”, Judy Garland singing “How Insensitive”, Erroll Garner and his trio really getting the right bossa nova feel in “The Girl from Ipanema” and Oscar Peterson playing one of my personal favourites, “Wave”. In these segments you can really hear the benefits of mixing the Latin and the North American musical tradition. However, I think my favourite piece is of Jobim and Elis Regina in a naked studio with a hanging microphone between them singing “Águas de Março” in a very Brazilian way. Here is the undeniable charm of his music which the film – as a film – unfortunately lacks. I don’t miss more info but I miss the film being able to link the emotional impact of the music with mere cinematic craftsmanship.

And then there might be a reader or two who asks how the film included the most famous and bestselling versions of Jobim’s music, namely the recordings with Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Jobim himself. I can only say: It was not in there! Go figure!

seen at

www.cphdox.dk

Nelson Pereira Dos Santos: The Music According To Tom Jobim, Brasilien, USA 2011, 88 min.

Truls Lie: The Seduced Human, a moral enquiry

For nylig forlangte Tue Steen Müller her på siden at nye film skal indeholde noget nyt: ”Please surprise me, give me time for reflections, to smile, laugh, cry, tell me something I did not know in beforehand – or show me something that I have not seen before, or make some unpredictable montage of location connections with places, with sound and image. Surprises, please.”

Nå, det er selvfølgelig skrevet noget senere, end Lie var færdig med sin journalistiske dokumentar om Jørgen Leths liv og værk, så han kunne ikke ad den vej vide, at han let med sit emne og sit arbejde kunne ramle ind i netop sådan en træthed. Müllers advarsel var kommet for sent. Lie styrer fra først til sidst lige en gang til gennem alt det stof, vi kender så godt fra andre biografiske film og især fra Jørgen Leths egen produktion af film og bøger og fra utallige interviews, han har givet.

Filmens undertitel lover et essay, bilder jeg mig ind. Og det glæder jeg mig til og skuffes. Jeg får en feature, som formidlende holder stoffet ude fra fra kroppen, autors krop og lader den medvirkende gøre arbejdet. Men jeg er i og for sig ikke interesseret i en repetition af Jørgen Leths liv og værk, jeg vil se Truls Lies grundige læsning af biografien og filmene. Lie er filosof og journalist, og Kierkegaard bringes i spil, men ikke for alvor, den undersøgende journalistik sendes på vej ned i uopdagede lag: nysgerrigheden (et kort afsnit er viet den, se still!) og angsten for at svømme i dybt vand. Men Lie forfølger ikke sporene, taber ligesom interessen, lige netop når min er vakt, for det her er da vist nyt? I hvert fald for mig.

Lie har lavet en sympatisk film, og en pædagogisk film, måske også en lidt kedelig film. Leth medvirker som altid loyalt, yder sit bedste, holder sig ikke for fin til nogen eller noget. Et menneske uden arrogance. Desværre er Lie trods sin karrieres pondus for ydmyg og høflig og vist også for lidt energisk. Det er ærgerligt, synes jeg. Men uøvede kan nok her finde en tilgængelig første introduktion til en stor kunstner og et stort værk.

Truls Lie: The Seduced Human, a moral enquiry, Norge 2010, 51 min. Medvirkende: Jørgen Leth, manuskript: Truls Lie, fotografi: Truls Lie og seks fotografer yderligere, klip: Marius Smit, producer: Dag Hoel, produceret af Faction Film. Filmen er på CPH:DOX lige nu og en DVD skulle meget snart være til salg på filmens hjemmeside.  

Tue Steen Müller har også her på siden skrevet om Truls Lies journalistiske arbejde med DOX magazine.

Boycott Iranian Cinema Vérité Festival

IDFA (the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) put a text on its website the other day with an appeal to ilmmakers with a film selected for the Cinema Verité Festival to seriously consider withdrawing their film and decline any invitation from the festival as Cinema Verité Festival is a government-organised festival, run by the same government that intimidates and arrests filmmakers.”

I know that many do follow this appeal, the Zelig film school in Bolzano being one of them. On Facebook I found the following exemplary letter from Polish filmmakers with a reaction from an Iranian filmmaker:

Dear Documentary and Experimental Film Centre. After hearing the stunning news that filmmakers Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Mehran Zinatbakhsh and film distributor Katayoon Shahabi were not released from the unjust detention we decided to take a stand on this overwhelming circumstance.

This information shocked us just as it did many of our friends working for festivals all over the world. After receiving so many e-mails asking for support we cannot stay aside. Yet there is only one way in which we can raise our strong objection!

As a solidarity to the filmmakers that are being kept imprisoned and a strong disagreement with the human rights policy undertaken by the Iranian government we request to withdraw our films from the participation in Cinema Verité Iran International Documentary Film Festival.

The titles are as follows:

Takie życie/ That’s life by Daniel Zielińskii. 

La Machina (PHOTO) by Thierry Paladino. 

Smolarze/ Charcoal burners by Piotr Złotorowicz. 

38,5 by Grzegorz Dębowski

. Komeda, muzyczne ścieżki życia/ Komeda a soundtrack for a life by Claudia Buthenhoff-Duffy

. Planeta Kirsan by Magdalena Pięta

. This decision was made unanimously with all the producers and filmmakers and expresses our clear standpoint to this unjust violation of human rights. 


On behalf of Krakow Film Foundation, 

Katarzyna Wilk and Zofia Ścisłowska.

Thank you so much for your support! I would like to thank Polish filmmakers’ expression of solidarity on behalf of dozens of intimidated Iranian filmmakers. Warm regards 

Maziar

http://www.idfa.nl/industry.aspx

Vinylmania – Support the Campaign

Help, there is only 7 days to go to reach our goal. These are the words from filmmaker Paolo Campana in Turin, Italy. It is all or nothing, he says, as it is with the crowdfunding done through Kickstarter. I have known Paolo and his project for years, I have always followed what Stefilm (Stefano Tealdi, Edoardo Fracchia and Elena Filippini) have done – in this case a fine film about a phenomenon that goes worldwide…

Below you will find more info about the film, trailer, clips and what your donation will be used for, and a link to kickstarter:

A trip into the grooves, Vinylmania is a 75 minute feature length documentary about an object that has never lost its soul: the vinyl record. An epic love story, the film is filled with fascinating characters and internationally recognized artists including PHILIPPE COHEN SOLAL (Gotan Project), WINSTON SMITH (Dead Kennedys, Green Day record sleeve artist), PETER SAVILLE (Joy Division, New Order record sleeve artist) and DJ KENTARO (2002 DMC World DJ Champion).  

Devotion, ecstasy, infatuation, agony – all feelings that the director of the film, Paolo Campana, has experienced from childhood and shares with like-minded record collectors, Djs, musicians and artists (the said vinylmaniacs) in the documentary. Set in 11 different cities and 7 countries worldwide, the director sets out on a global road trip to find out what role vinyl records play in the 21st century.

How will your donations be used? The money you give us will fund: Clearance rights of the music for dvd worldwide release – A voice over artist and studio to mix an English language narration track (currently in Italian by the director himself) – Creation and editing of the bonus materials- Creation of a dvd graphic, case and booklet – A 5.1 surround sound version – Licensing costs

http://www.vinylmaniafilm.com/

link to kickstarter.com

Omar Amiralay: Everyday Life in a Syrian Village

In Danish as this is about getting Danes to come and watch the forbidden masterpiece of Omar Amarilay, Syria’s most important documentary filmmaker, who died this year in February, a month before the Syrian revolution started:

Tabet af den syriske mesterinstruktør Omar Amiralay (1944 – 2011) (foto) tidligere i år var ikke blot et tab for en global klub af cinefiler, men for enhver der tror på at filmmediet har en universel, human rækkevidde. Den umiddelbarhed med hvilken vi forstår landarbejdernes kamp i den syriske landsby, hvor vi er vidner til hverdagens gang, bekræfter i lige så høj grad Amiralays humane empati, som hans talent som en instruktør af subtile allegorier. En flok små børn der graver skelettet af en kamel frem af ørkensandet er et af den slags billeder der endnu i dag kan få jorden til at ryste under en hvilken som helst autoritet. Hans kritik og sans for de vidde landskaber omkring landsbyen placerer Amiralay blandt de fineste af filmskabere, og også derfor er det passende at inkludere den film, hvor han med egne ord fandt sin politiske stemme, i et filmprogram der har ambitioner om at give en historisk dybde til de ‘pludselige’ folkelige opstande i den arabiske verden i 2011. Filmen er forbudt i Syrien den dag i dag – men vi får se hvor længe det varer.

Filmen vil blive indledt af Orwa Nyrabia, som er filmproducent og –instruktør, og sammen med Diana el Jeiroudi initiativtagere til Dox Box festivalen, som I år afviklede sin fjerde udgave I begyndelsen af marts lige før revolutionen startede. Orwa Nyrabia skriver dagligt på Facebook med henvisninger til klip fra det Syrien, som I dag ikke tillader udenlandske pressefolk at rapportere frit fra landet.

OBS! OBS! Dette er et unikt arrangement I cph:dox, som desværre ikke er omtalt i programavisen.

Husets Biograf, 5. November 20.30

http://www.cphdox.dk/d/film.lasso?ser=1734&s=2011118

Bonke & Koefoed: Ballroom Dancer

Cph:dox opened with an entertaining documentary with Russian Slavik Kryklyvyy, Latin American dancer, as the main character, who tries to make his way back to the top, where he was the best in the world – 10 years ago.

The film shows him training and competing with the partner Anna Melnikova, also his girl friend, who suffers from the constant change of temperament of Slavik, who corrects her at the same time as he declares his love to her. One-dimensional, the film is, and mid way through the story, the film goes dead, for a long period, coming up again with a beautiful sequence where the two, after having been apart, and after she has met another man, good for her, perform in a rehearsal room to the tunes of ”You were on My Mind”. That dance is great to watch but after the dance, she leaves the room and he sits alone back. A real Film scene, but in this context far too pathetic as the story is not really developed to justify that point of drama.

There are for sure many fine documentary observations in the film, but why is it that you leave the cinema without being touched, is it because your reaction to the main character is ”who cares”, is it because you get no information about his previous life – it seems strange that there are no scenes with Slavik and his former partner Joanna, who wins all the competitions we see in the film – is it because the music score is far too loaded in its attack on making the viewer feel, is it because the filmmakers actually did not have enough material to make this feature duration drama that it is stretched out to be?

Christian Bonke & Andreas Koefoed, Denmark, 2011, 85 mins.

www.cphdox.dk