Adam Schmedes: Kamæleonernes strand

Pludselig blev den vist på DR1 forleden og forinden af DFI og Filmland på P1 og BT og meget mere lanceret som en nyhed. Det var sært, men det var da godt, og Adam Schmedes har under alle omstændigheder fortjent opmærksomheden. Filmen om de sjældne dyr på dette afgrænsede græske sted er værd at se af en række grunde, for eksempel denne, at “filmen for første gang viser et dyrs (dette eller i det hele taget?) livshistorie, hvor hele dyrets cyklus er med. Det har man aldrig set før”, som Lene Thomsen Andino oplyser i DFI’s pressemateriale. Hvad enten det er det ene eller det andet, skal det da ses. Enestående som det er. Og rigtig smukt fotograferet som alle Schmedes naturfilm.

Hvis DR ikke genudsender har man chancen på nettet på Filmstriben. Og ud over den sjældne komplette kamæleonbiografi skal man se Adam Schmedes egensindige naturfilmstil forankret i en urystelig opfattelse: de må ikke være som BBC’s naturfilm, de skal være underholdende, de skal være tydelige i deres moralske udgangspunkt og ærlige over for de barske sandheder om naturens orden og denne ordens udsathed. Dette tydeliggøres i en story-line efter bogen og en speak, som får hver anden til at krumme tæer. Publikum deles i to grupper. Men det filmiske greb er konsekvent og valgt med vilje og åbne øjne. Så det er take it, or leave it..

Adam Schmedes: Kamæleonernes strand, Danmark 2008. 52 min. Manuskript: Peter I. Lauridsen, produktion og foto: Adam Schmedes, klip: Jes Kjær Paul, produktion: Loke Film.  

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Min fætter er pirat

Det kan godt være, at rammen er faderens godnathistorie for børnene, at meningen er at fortælle en moderne Robin Hood historie, som det stod i DFI pressemeddelelsen i november, eller vel nærmere berette en nutidig sørøverhistorie. Så vidt så godt. Det kan også være, at Sønderby Jepsen med Henrik Bohn Ipsens stilrene og selvfølgelig fejlfrie billeder har villet noget særligt med en meget bevidst iscenesat dokumentarisk metode, hvad Tue Steen Müller er inde på sin anmeldelse af hans første film, Side by side (2008), hvor han i den films ”gennemførte mise-en-scene stil, i en lovende debut, erindres om Jon Bang Carlsens tidlige film.”

Men der er noget galt. Sønderby Jepsen griber tilsyneladende forkert. Han har jo været bundet af sin hovedperson, som havde historien og som kunne føre ham til dens location i Somalia. Imidlertid fungerer Farah ikke som fascinationssamlende fortæller. Han forbliver ordentlig læge og pæn skolelærer filmen igennem. Uden ridser i lakken og uden at udfordre os det allermindste. Og filmen om ham og med ham leverer ikke én ægte scene, bortset fra en tur ud til et kapret fiskefartøj, hvor han ikke er med, et besøg i et fængsel og så en en kort samtale med en flok børn, dette sidste kan han! Som medvirkende i alle de andre iscenesatte afsnit er han ikke stærk nok, vil være så præcis, men er overforenklende, pædagogiserende, moraliserende.

Hans fortælling er hovedproblemet, et problem inde i selve sproget. Hans sprog er ikke kun enkelt, dagligt sprog. Det er et nedredigeret sprog forenklet så meget, at det knækker. Det bliver til en forklaring for børn, som i sin korrekthed må kede også dem. Det er værst i monologafsnittene, så snart han taler sit eget sprog i dialogerne, bliver det bedre, og som nævnt lykkes det også i spillet i et par scener. Men vide det, kan man ikke, henvist som man er til de danske undertekster, hvor oversætteren også så gerne vil forklare og forenkle. Scenerne med dialog er dertil instruerede til en tilstand, hvor nærvær og autenticitet er fordampet. Tilbage er en sær stivhed af omhyggelig illustration.  

Christian Sønderby Jepsen: Min fætter er pirat, Danmark 2010. Fotografi: Henrik Bohn Ipsen. Medvirkende: Nasib Farah og hans fætter Abdi. Produktion: Monday Media. Sendt for nylig på DR2 Dokumania. Distribueres på www.filmstriben.dk

Bosse Lindquist og Jesper Huor: Wiki Rebels

Naturligvis handler Lindquists Huors film om det forståelige modsætningsforhold og uundgåelige brud mellem de to vidt forskellige personligheder og ledere af Wikileaks Julian Assange og Daniel Domscheit-Berg, og det er for så vidt filmen værd i det journalistiske nu. Men det er en bestemt scene fra redegørelsen for Wikileaks’ offentliggørelser, som gør, at man ikke kan ryste filmen af sig, aldrig glemme den. En amerikansk Apaches angreb på mennesker på jorden, navngivne journalister, ukendte fodgængere og en familie i en bil gør filmen til mere end historisk dokument i den løbende strøm. Den vil af historien blive placeret som milepæl. Af Wikileaks tusinder af publicerede hemmelige dokumenter vil det være disse billeder, som huskes af alle, som har set dem. Og vi vil huske den kyniske radiokommunikation under angrebet: dette er krigen.

Læs Lasse Jensens kommentar til hele Wikileaks-sagen i Mennesker og Medier, og hør dette DR radioindslag, som er et kort interview med Daniel Domscheit-Berg i anledning af hans bog Inside Wikileaks.

Still: Personen ved sigtemærket er identificeret som en journalist på arbejde for Reuter.

Bosse Lindquist og Jesper Huor: Wiki Rebels (2010), SVT1. Sendt for nogen tid siden på DR.

Camilla Nielsson: Democrats

Danish filmmakers Camilla Nielsson (Director) and Henrik Veileborg (Producer) have been chosen as grantees of the 2011 Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund for their documentary film project Democrats.

Their film, along with eight other documentaries, was a finalist selected by the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) and was chosen by a jury consisting of Jessica Alba, Amir Bar-Lev, Wendy Ettinger, Frida Giannini, Edward Norton, and Mariane Pearl. The two will receive funding and year-round support from TFI including one-on-one guidance and consultation, helping their film to reach completion and enter the marketplace in the best possible position.

Democrats is a film about the creation of a new constitution in Zimbabwe. The film follows two top politicians, who have been appointed to lead the country through the reform process. The two men are political opponents, but united in the ambition to make history by giving the nation a new founding document – that can give birth to the future’s Zimbabwe.

Doc Alliance Strikes Again

On this site the vod (video on demand) initiative Doc Alliance, run by five European film festivals, has been praised several times for its quality in film selection and presentation, and for its cheap prices not to forget.

Doc Alliance has again a generous marketing offer to have people know about the vod. A handful of films about children can be streamed for free (until June 5), among them the masterpiece by Miroslav Janek, Unseen, which has the following catalogue annotation:

„People imagine, that the blind live in darkness and know nothing about the things around them. But they have a concrete image of everything.“ says photographer Daniela Horníčková, who led blind children from the Prague Jaroslav Jeek School to capture their surroundings on still camera. The children took pictures at school, on field trips, at home or the dormitory mostly focusing on things they knew by touch. In 1995, director Miroslav Janek entered the project and shot a documentary stimulating comprehension of the issues and uniqueness of the creative process.

http://docalliancefilms.com/film/free

Pavel Koutecky Award

Koutecky died tragically in 2006, 50 years old, after having completed twelve years of filming Vaclac Havel. The material was edited by his colleague Miroslav Janek and the masterpiece Citizen Havel was born.

An award has been set up in the name of Pavel Koutecky. For the fifth time it is to be handed out (followed by 100.000 CZK). In Prague on June 6. The nominees are the following Czech documentaries: All for the Good of the World and Novosice (Vit Klusak), Bear Islands (Martin Rysavy), Czech Granada (Jan Papousek), Earthlings, who are You voting for (Linda Jablonska), Filmmaker, Fan, freak (Katerina Mikulcova), For Semafor (Miroslav Janek), and Matchmaking Mayor (photo) (Erika Hnikova).

www.dokweb.net

51st Krakow Film Festival Awards

The festival ended this evening with the prize ceremony in the huge Kijew Kino. The jury, of which I was the chairman, judging 20 international documentaries, made the following decision – quoting the short motivations, reviews of three main prize winners follow below:

Golden Horn: The Argentinian Lesson by Wojciech Staron. The film maintains its form and story from beginning to end, a story not only about different cultures but much more about the beauty of a young boy and a young girl getting closer to each other, a growing friendship. The jury finds the film a true piece of art.

Silver Horn (Medium-length documentary): Phnom Penh Lullaby by Pawel Kloc. The film uses a strong cinematic language to depict a very unconventional  struggle for love and acceptance in a devastating family environment under hard existential conditions. A very strong character development kept the jury on the edge of our seats. Silver Horn (Feature-length documentary): Regretters by Markus Lindén. The film has found a perfect solution to self-analysis performed by two human beings, who have undergone sex changes in search of their identity and the gender of their personality. The dialogue carries the touching story in a perfect arc.

Honorary Mention: Agnus Dei. The Lamb of God by Alejandra Sanchez.The film follows the bravery of the main character’s decision to challenge the institution of the church. Honorary Mention: Doctors by Tomasz Wolski (photo). The film is taking its audience to an important public institution and tells the story through amazing imagery and sparse and sometimes humoristic dialogue in serious moments of life and death.

For awards in the many other categories, take a look at site of the festival. A pleasure to see that the film of Marcel Lozinski got the first prize in the national competion, see review below.

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

http://www.kff.com.pl/en/news/168

Wojciech Staron: The Argentinian Lesson

It has a story, a point of view, a humanistic approach and a director, who is also the cameraman and who has the skills to catch magical moments as they happen in life. A decade ago the director made ”Siberian Lesson” and now he goes to Argentina with (his family) the same teacher and her two kids. She teaches Polish to Argentinians who have Polish origins, and we see how this is practised, while the son, Janek, takes a soft step into the world of meeting the opposite sex. Into adulthood, one could maybe also say. He meets and plays with Marcia, who is a bit older than him, it seems, they are always together, he helps her earning a bit of money, there is time for games but there is also time to discover the harsh reality of Marcia’s family. They travel by train to meet her father, who lives separated from the mother, who has mental problems. 

This is a film with a social content, but also a love story with many levels where much emotion is to be read in the faces of the characters. Dialogue is sparse, images give the information needed, step by step there is a development and an interpretation being made with painting-kind-of-tableaux, from the location, from the small village where it all takes place, to chapter a narrative with many sensitive and metaphoric images.

Poland, 56 mins. 2011

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Markus Lindén: Regretters

I want to be seen, says one them. I want to be conventional, says the other. Both of them took a very unconventional decision, to change from being a man to being a woman. The title says that they have regretted that decision. The film tell their stories, with all the pain they have suffered, but also with warmth and humour. They are very different and that gives the film an extra dimension. You listen attentively every single minute, carried as the narrative is by dialogue. And that is where the decision of the filmmaker comes in with a strike of genius:

They walk into a studio, the two of them, they sit down, and they talk to each other, or to the camera, with small private and public archive material presented to show, how they looked in their childhood, in school, in their marriage (Isadora alias Orlando), all the way through accompanied by their own commentaries. Orlando has gone back to being a man again (got a penis and breast operation), Mikael (alias Mikaela) is waiting for the same operation.

Their stories have been told as a theatre play but when Mikael after hesitation agreed to take part, it was luckily made into this documentary that profits succesfully from the preciseness in the dialogue. Why do you want to have that penis operation back, says Orlando, can’t you just be you, you are a man. Orlando was married for 11 years, her husband knew nothing about her male past, it ended dramatically, now he is on his own, an extravagant feminine exhibitionist with clever remarks to Mikael, who also cleverly insists on being an orderly, ordinary citizen.

Talking faces are boring in documentary films… no they are not, look at these two brave human beings with all their experiences and wisdom. They walk out of the studio, a theatre of life has been performed.  

Sweden, 58 mins. 2010

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Pawel Kloc: Phnom Penh Lullaby

From a filmic point of view it has everything, it is so well done: strong characters, who are developed, as a similar strong story is being unfolded, with conflicts, dramas, emotions, intimacy, closeness. The style is aggressive, the camera goes everywhere and is excellently performed, the voice-off text is sometimes a bit heavy but the dialogue in many scenes is amazingly good…

Yes, I have double feelings with this film that is so rich in his hybrid form between fiction and documentary. Is it exploiting its characters, I thought while watching, no, they know they are in a film, and they (re)act maybe stronger for that reason, was the next impression… they, Ilan, the Israeli who ended up in the capital of Cambodia, a tragic character, who fights for some kind of decency for the child he has with a young alchoholic cambodian woman, who have several other children placed here and there. They work in the street, Ilan as a fortune-teller, in the nights of Phnom Penh, among drug distribution and prostitution, in deep shit. What is the future for the children we see?

There are some editing problems in the film, especially when there are cuts from the small family being in a bus, then in a boat, then in the street, the structure is a bit confusing and the music far too bombastic for my taste, but having said so, this film stays in your mind for a long time, also because of its evident absurd humour. Boom-boom, they say in Phnom Penh, the same as bunga-bunga in Berlusconi’s Italy.

Poland, 2011, 86 mins.

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl