Chinese Films on Docalliance

It is a pleasure – again – to be able to promote the quality vod Docalliance. Not only is the selection of films for the catalogue excellent, the prices are very low and the texts are free from normal site publicity language, it conveys information and treats the reader with respect. Read this:

Some are enthusiastic about China, some are rather fearful; only a few ignore China; yet only a few know the real China of today. China is more than nationalism, economy and human rights though; China is primarily its people. These, however, are left in the background, under the cover of the official media image created by state propaganda and western media. It is the concrete people’s stories rather than the collective mass of a nation that are in the focus of the three Chinese directors and their films. Out of the three, London-based Chinese writer and director Xiaolu Guo is the closest to the West. Her books are translated into English; her fiction film She, a Chinese (both written and directed by her) won the Grand Prize at the 2009 Locarno festival. It was in the pauses during shooting of this film that her documentary film Once upon a Proletarian was made. According to the director’s words, the documentary mosaic of present-day post-Marxist China was inspired by the encounter with onlookers following the filmmakers‘ work. In twelve chapters, the life stories of the protagonists carefully selected across social classes unwind in a compressed yet expressive way. Not lacking poetry and humour either, the film ends by the symbolical wish of a young student of painting: “Life in freedom is a happy life!” As for other films by Xialu Guo available at

Docalliancefilms, you can also watch a mini collection of short films called 3 Short Films about Home.
100 Patients of Doctor Jia by filmmaker and theatre artist Wang Hongjun is conveyed in a similar spirit. The film is interesting for its form; consisting in a single shot, it gradually presents the 100 patients mentioned in its title. They are coming to a country doctor’s office with their worries, anxieties, ailments but also joys and humour. Though the simple concept might look boring, it works perfectly well, surprisingly as the film takes over an hour. Telling about the tough past of the Chinese countryside as well as about the current problems of its diverse society, between the lines the documentary challenges the official myth of China as a single compact nation.
Director Zhao Liang and his film Petition, screened at the Cannes festival, are in greatest discrepancy with the Chinese propaganda. As perhaps the most impressive of the mentioned films, the documentary examines nothing lesser than the very foundations of the contemporary political system of the country. Its protagonists are primarily poor inhabitants of the regions coming to Beijing to complain about the injustice they suffered from local authorities. However, the central government doesn’t treat them any better, with most of them getting stuck in a troublesome and literally Kafka-like situation in front of the gates of “the law”. Although they have been persecuted, bullied, forced to sleep under bridges and to live on junk during the twelve years of observational shooting, most of the protagonists refuse to give up their hopes for justice.

Still: Zhao Liang’s Petition. From Gdenerate Films.

http://docalliancefilms.com/

Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields

British tv Channel4 broadcast a week ago a tv-documentary on what happened during the final weeks of the 25 year long civil war between the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers. The programme was presented by the journalist Jon Snow. It is a primarily mobile phone shot documentation of horrible war crimes performed by the troops of the government. The UN has until now refused to make a further investigation into the allegations that are being brought forward. The British parliament members are to watch the documentary this week. Leading international newspapers have followed the story of the documentary. For ONE MORE DAY the film can be watched online, provided by Channel4, later on through other channels. Filmkommentaren will NOT show any photos in connection to this posting. Here follows the text behind the film from the site of Channel4, plus a link to the documentary:     

With disturbing and distressing descriptions and film of executions, atrocities and the shelling of civilians the programme features devastating new video evidence of war crimes – some of the most horrific footage Channel 4 has ever broadcast.

Captured on mobile phones, both by Tamils under attack and government soldiers as war trophies, the disturbing footage shows: the extra-judicial executions of prisoners; the aftermath of targeted shelling of civilian camps; and dead female Tamil fighters who appear to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused and murdered.

The film is made and broadcast as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces growing criticism for refusing to launch an investigation into ‘credible

allegations’ that Sri Lankan forces committed war crimes during the closing weeks of the bloody conflict with the Tamil Tigers.

In April 2011, Ban Ki-moon published a report by a UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and government forces.

It called for the creation of an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed by government forces and the Tamil Tigers during that time.

This film provides powerful evidence that will lend new urgency to the panel’s call for an international inquiry to be mounted, including harrowing interviews with eye-witnesses, new photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage, and satellite imagery.

Also examined in the film are some of the horrific atrocities carried out by the Tamil Tigers, who used civilians as human shields.

Channel 4 News has consistently reported on the bloody denouement of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields presents a further damning account of the actions of Sri Lankan forces, in a war that the government still insists was conducted with a policy of Zero Civilian Casualties.

The film raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act, not only with respect to Sri Lanka but also to future violations of international law.

You can follow the programme on Twitter using #KillingFields

Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields will be shown to MPs and parliamentary officials at a special showing in the House of Commons next week.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/4od#3200170

Docs at Moscow International Film Festival

It starts next week on June 23rd and lasts for 10 days. The MIFF is one of the classic film festivals with big names, tributes to film history, stars, red carpet and competitions. Edition number 33 it is, led by Russian renowned film director Nikita Mikhalhov. For years the festival has given space for screening of documentaries, ”Free Thought”, a non-competitive panorama programme one could call it, this year – for the first time – a competitive documentary programme is introduced. 7 films are included, another 18 films are shown in the Free Thought documentary programme.

Below you will find more on the documentary films being shown, during the festival reports will be brought on this place as I am privileged to be juror in the documentary section together with British director Michael Apted (photo) (the man behind the legendary series SevenUp) and Russian Aleksander Gutman (August 17).

For the main programme of the festival there are retrospectives with American directors Sam Peckinpah and Rob Nilsson, a retro on Italian cinema, director icon Sokurov and on Werner Herzog, who will be in Moscow to present his films and hold a masterclass.

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/

Photo: Michael Apted, from amdoc.com. By courtesy of First Run Features.

MIFF Documentary Competition

It is a strong line-up of international documentaries that compete in Moscow. 7 films are on the list: From Europe comes ”Czech peace” by the succesful team behind ”Czech Dream”, Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, Austrian master director Nikolaus Geyerhalter comes with ”Abendland”, Lithuanian poet Audrius Stonys is represented with ”Ramin”, ”Marathon Boy” by Gemma Atwal is from UK/India, ”Hell and back Again” by Danfung Dennis comes from UK/USA, Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov are co-directors on ”Happy People: A year in the Tayga” and talk-of-the-town ”Senna” (photo) about the late Argentinian formula One racing driver is made by Asif Kapadia with three countries involved in the production: France, UK and USA.

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/

Still: Senna. From filmbook.com.

MIFF Out of Competetion

The non-competitive programme has several interesting films to offer the audience in Moscow, many of them have been written about on this blog, all have been to imporant festivals often to be awarded:

”Position among the Stars” by Leonard Retel Helmrich. ”Into Eternity” by Michael Madsen. ”Katka” by Helena Trestikova. ”Phnom Penh Lullaby” (photo) by Pawel Kloc. ”12 Angry Lebanese” by Zeina Daccache.

I am looking forward to watch the highly praised ”Pina” (Bausch) by Wim Wenders, the polish shorts ”Declaration of Immortality” by Marcin Koszalka and ”A Piece of Summer” by Marta Minorowicz, and the story about the chess genius ”Bob Fischer against the World” by American Liz Garbus. And of course Werner Herzog’s ”Caves of Forgotten Dreams” which is included in his masterclass.

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/

Still: Pawel Kloc: Phnom Penh Lullaby. From dokweb.net.

MIFF Free Thought Documentary Programme

I asked Georgy Molodtsov, a young filmmaker, who I met at the DoxPro in St. Petersburg, and who is working for the Documentary section at MIFF – to give some background on the festival’s documentary development. Here are clips from his text:

“Free thought” was created by Sergey Miroshnichenko (director of the excellent 7UP Russian version project called “Born in the USSR” (photo)) together with producer, programmer and promoter Grigory Libergal in 2006. Their idea (which was reflected in their catalogue foreword from that year) was that modern documentaries might be compared with serious literature and philosophical publications. But the author should not lose his thoughts and ideas, carried away by the freedom of form. 

For the selection: “The aim of our noncompetitive program is to present a selection of outstanding documentaries from the last year – winners of prestigious film festivals as long as films with good box-office revenue.”  Overloaded halls in all editions on almost every screening gave us a chance to develop our program.

Last year public the TV-Channel “Kultura” (Rossia-K) invited the two to make a weekly talk-show “Watch and Discuss” with a screening of best feature documentaries, mostly those which were presented in “Free thought” program. Every Saturday evening 4 experts, group of young film critics, bloggers and filmmakers and prominent Russian film director Vladimir Khotinenko watch and discuss full-length creative documentaries. Last season we`ve screened only 18 films, but we hope that from the next season there will be more. At the moment that is the only strand on Russian terrestrial TV dedicated to creative documentaries and, as we see from the ratings, it has its regular and wide audience.

Our 2011 competition program (see above) is based on the idea of audience orientation. We wanted to show the selection of the films, which are aimed on audience and might have good box-office in their countries or around the world. 

http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/eng/

Still: Sergey Miroshnichenko: Born in the USSR. From dutchdocaward.nl.

Pavel Koutecky Award/2

The winner of the award that carries the name of late Czech director, the man behind ”Citizen Havel”, is Linda Jablonska (photo), who previously (on this blog) is known for her ”Welcome to North Korea”. This text is taken from the IDF site:

“Earthlings, Who Are You Voting for?”, a documentary film by Linda Jablonská and a group of filmmakers with learning disabilities, is the recipient of the 2011 Pavel Koutecky Award. Selected out of 7 nominees and beating 100 submissions, the film also won the Audience Award at last year’s Jihlava IDFF.

And the description of the film: “Conquering Public Space – Documentalities” is a documentary project made by people who find it hard to get oriented in the world and who probably never were A students. To put it politically correct, they are mentally handicapped. That, however, does not prevent them from having an original perspective, sensitivity, curiosity and courage – all one needs to become a documentarist. During a six month documentary workshop of the civic association Inventura, a film was made under the supervision of documentarist Linda Jablonská, trying to prove that mentally handicapped people, too, can get oriented in the public space and have a political opinion of their own. We were following a phenomenon concerning all of us – the Czech parliamentary election. The documentality crew took part in the pre-election meetings, filming public inquiries with both citizens and politicians, discussing themes that would be considered “unusual” in other media. External cameras recorded all the events, such as the reactions of the bodyguards, supporters and opponents of the political parties. We were trying to find out whether political correctness and pre-election promises are but empty slogans, exploring the Czech society twenty years after the Velvet Revolution and the degree of its prejudice against anything that is not “completely normal”.

http://www.dokweb.net/en/documentary-network/articles/pavel-koutecky-award-goes-to-earthlings-1617/

Mikkel Stolt: Docomedy Now

Mike Proud’s (My Avatar and Me) and Mikkel Stolt’s “random thoughts on documentary films and humour” on the blog Docomedy Now: “(Lack Of) Authenticity? … the reason for that was that we as filmmakers chose to blend different modes of filmmaking since the film takes place in different realms of reality. Personally, I don’t believe in a “documentary truth” – only a “cinematic truth” – since all films are subjective regardless of how much just a fly-on-the-wall you want to be. Also, I really want to push the boundaries of so-called documentary films…” 

Underfundigt underholdende og distanceret nær behandler Mikkel Stolt sine frustrationer fra samarbejdet om Min Avatar og Mig med medinstruktøren Bente Milton, konsulenterne Jacob Høgel og Kim Leona samt sin kompagnon i selskabet, Jeppe Raasthøj og konkluderer med et helt lille poetik-manifest: “… jeg savnede også den løbende, æstetiske diskussion, for til sidst kom det som så ofte før med film til at handle alt, alt for meget om afviklingen af historien og hvordan handligen blev formidlet. For mig er film bare meget mere end handling; det er også et stykke musik, en skulptur, en digression hist, et indfald pist – alt sammen uden at være højpandet, men underholdende.”

Edinburgh Documentary Pitch/1

There is a lot of film political commitment and competence in the activities of the SDI (Scottish Documentary Institute). The small staff (Noë Mendelle, Sonja Henrici, Flore Cosquer, Amy Hardie and Finlay Pretsell) stands behind the talent development production scheme Bridging the Gap, several masterclasses with great filmmakers from all around the world, they publish a well written and edited newsletter, they have their office in the ECA (Edinburgh College of Art), where students are studying to become filmmakers under the leadership of filmmakers Emma Davie and Noë Mendelle.

I was there for the Edinburgh Pitch, for the two first days to tutor and moderate the pitching session that had a panel of 14 commissioning editors and distributors representing Autlook from Austria, BBC Scotland, Storyville BBC4, True Stories More4, CBC Canada, Lichpunt Belgium, DR Sales Denmark, YLE Finland, Creative Scotland (previously Scottish Screen), POV USA, Cat & Docs France, ZDF/arte, VoDo UK, Al Jazeera.

There was quite an international choice of projects, including one from Uruguay, one from Brazil, one from Israel, two from Finland, an Australian/Norwegian, an Irish, a French, and some Scottish and English.

SDI is on twitter, go to the site and join the conversation.

www.scottishdocinstitute.com

Edinburgh Documentary Pitch/2

It is a public secret that most public broadcasters do not have a young audience. ”Young people do not watch television”, it is being said again and again when television people meet. They watch films, including documentaries, online, or they go to festivals or they download films. Some tv stations, like German/French arte, produce webdocs to reach the young, or they make interactive productions. Remains to be seen what results will come out of this at a longer perspective.

It was therefore refreshing to hear Catherine Olsen from CBC Canada inform the audience (a full auditorium, great to see) that the channel had an audience from 25-40. Less refreshing, however, it was to hear that the channel dubs all their programmes because the audience can not read subtitles. Well, they can, but they don’t do because they send text messages while watching/listening to the programmes. Multi-tasking!

I met a Scottish filmmaker later that day, who said ”I don’t want people to send text messages while my film is on television…”

The language issue, well, the ususal pattern: the channels that do subtitles and thus respect the work of the sound engineer on a film are the European. We are not Barbarians, said Wim van Rompaey from Lichtpunt in Belgium.  

Photo from Scottish Amy Hardie´s “Edge of Dreaming”.