Helmrich: Position Among The Stars

Good news for the documentary interested audience in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Monthly Documentary in May at the Film House is Leonard Retel Helmrich’ masterpiece “Position Among the Stars” that runs every day from Thursday May 5 till Wednesday May 11. First a clip from the intro of the Film House, in Danish, and then quotes from what we wrote after the film won the first prize at idfa 2010. Go and watch the film:

“Leonard Retel Helmichs hjertevarme og sorthumoristiske portræt af en indonesisk familie i et slumkvarter i Jakarta vandt hovedprisen på verdens største dokumentarfilmfestival (IDFA) og på Sundance-festivalen. Via portrættet af Shamsuddin-familien demonstrerer Retel Helmrich, hvordan globaliseringsbølgens krusninger brydes med lokale sociale omvæltninger i det moderne Indonesien, herunder begyndende demokrati, generationskonflikter, voksende indkomstforskelle og opblomstringen af militant islamisme.”

”Position among the Stars” is third part of a trilogy about a family in Indonesia. 6 years after his second film about the family Sjamsuddin, three generations, the director Helmrich presents one more big humanistic epic that can be compared to Satayit Ray’s Apu-trilogy. Helmrich goes or rather flies from situation to situation, his camera is constant moving, there is an outstanding flow in the narrative, and he is met with open arms and minds by his characters. You sense that they like him, like he likes them, but empathy is of course not enough to make an exceptional film like this – the director knows his stoytelling dramaturgy, he knows to play with contrasts: countryside/big city, young/old, old world/modern life, and he does it through scenes with the warm and loving grandmother, her sometimes desperate son, who is a representative for the local community, split as he is between his mother’s generation and his niece, the teenage girl, the hope of the family, who is the one who must have an education, the first one in the family. There is a development of the characters in the film. There is laughter and tears.

Hemrich is using the Single Shot Cinema technique, a style he developed and perfected himself. He chooses to actively engage with his subject rather than remaining a neutral outsider – a position that typifies Direct Cinema. He aims to record events from the inside, not observe from a distance. To achieve this, he created the Steadywing, a construction that allows the filmmaker to move the camera continually in an exceptionally fluid and intuitive way – as he did among the family members featured in his trilogy. Helmrich’s invention has proved to be an inspiration for an entire generation of young filmmakers.

www.singleshotcinema.com

http://www.idfa.nl/nl/idfatv/idfa-2010/on-demand/masterclass-leonard-retel-helmrich.aspx

Hot Docs: Made in Italy

Conversations with documentary filmmakers from Italy is always full of head shaking over the situation in Italian television, which is basically run by the main character in Italian documentary of today: Silvio Berlusconi. There are public funding mechanisms, and they do what they can for very limited budgets, and there are production companies, who know the international market possibilities, out of necessity! But still documentary filmmaking, in terms of financing, in Italy, compared to other Mediterranean countries, is more a nightmare than a profession!

Nevertheless, it is very positive to see that there is talent around that deserves attention – as you can see at the ”Made in Italy” section at the Hot Docs festival that are about to start in Toronto. There are films by established names like Gianfranco Rosi (”El Sicario”, photo) and Sabina Guzzanti (”Draquila – Italy Trembles”), but also two Zelig film school graduation films, ”Guanape Sur” by Janos Richter, and ”Heart-Quake” by Mark Olexa.

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/search/search&film_programcategories=%22Made%20In%20Italy%22

Hot Docs Festival 2011

If idfa in Amsterdam is the biggest in Europe, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference and market. It returns for its 18th annual edition from April 28 to May 8, 2011. Showcasing the best Canadian and international documentaries, Hot Docs is set to welcome delegates, filmmakers and audiences to Toronto for this 11-day event. This year, Hot Docs will screen over 199 documentaries from 43 countries on 16 different screens across Toronto. More from the press release:

“This year is something of a game-changer for Hot Docs,” says executive director Chris McDonald. “We are expanding the number of film presentations by one third, we are screening in new neighbourhoods across the city, and we will be providing more direct financial support to filmmakers. The doc-making marketplace has changed dramatically, and so has our role within it. We are not just screening great work, we are helping to finance and distribute films in a meaningful way. Stay tuned for the announcement of a major new international initiative in the coming weeks. Until then, we look forward to sharing a staggering array of quality docs with our unbeatable Toronto audiences at this year’s Festival.”

The 2011 Festival will feature 199 official selections and retrospective titles in ten programs, as well as eight films by young filmmakers aged 14 to 18 screening in this year’s Doc It! showcase, and films selected as finalists in the International Documentary Challenge. In addition to screenings, international buyers and industry professionals will attend the Festival to participate in a full slate of conference and market events. These events include the world-renowned Hot Docs Forum and a vast number of other market and networking opportunities.

“Every year we start with the goal of showing everything documentary can do,” says director of programming Sean Farnel. “Yet, more so than ever, what documentary is doing is re-inventing itself, expanding our notions of its capacity to communicate contemporary stories and ideas. So let’s call 2011 the year that docs broke wide open.”

Photo:  Dennis Danfung: Helle and Back Again, UK/USA, 88 mins. – to be shown in one of the many categories, International Spectrum.

http://www.hotdocs.ca

SVT and Documentaries

Well, it is first and foremost for us Northeners, who can read Swedish… but I write this text in English anyway to praise the documentary profile, quality and volume of the SVT, Swedish public broadcaster, that publishes a very good newsletter on the documentaries that is broadcasted on the different slots on SVT1 and 2. You can subscribe on the newsletter for free through the address below.

Coming up in the coming week is Frederick Wiseman’s ”La Danse” (photo) (tuesday 10pm) from the Parisian ballet and a film on Jörgen Persson, great cameraman for Bo Widerberg, Roy Andersson and Bille August (monday 09.50 am). During Easter many other Swedish subject and international documentaries have been on the schedule.

dokumentarfilm@svt.se

Marcel Lozinski on DocAlliance

The excellent vod (video on demand) portal DocAlliance, set up by five European film festivals, makes a generous offer: to watch five films by Polish documentary master Marcel Lozinzki. The five films, including the masterpiece ”Anything can Happen”. Here is the text for the free streaming of the first three documentaries:

”From April 18 to 25, three of Łoziński’s films made in the 1990s will be introduced. These will include the short film 89 mm od Europy (89 mm from Europe, 1993), which received an Academy Award nomination and a number of other prestigious awards. Situated on the border between Poland and Belorussia, at a train station in Brest where the European narrow-gauged railway ends, the black-and-white impression muses on where Europe and the world of Western Christianity end. Two years later, Łoziński boosted his international renown by his film Wszystko się może przytrafić (Anything Can Happen, 1995). The film protagonist is the director’s son Tomek who has already had an essential role in 89 mm from Europe. This time, the six-year-old boy meets retired people in a park in Warsaw, asking them rather “mature” questions about life. The confrontation of his notion of the future and the vision of people who don’t have much time left results in a gentle reflection on life and death. The last of the presented films made in the 1990s is Żeby nie bolało (So It Does Not Hurt, 1998). A follow-up to the film Wyzita as seen from the distance of twenty four years, the film follows the encounter of farmer Urszula Flis, a press photographer and a journalist from the “Gazeta Wyborcza” daily, dealing with loneliness, life’s victories and losses, as well as with the borders of Urszula’s privacy, which have already been overstepped by the media in the past and which are again challenged by the film crew in the present.”

Again – go to DocAlliance, watch these films and pay for many others. It is cheap and high quality!

http://docalliancefilms.com/

Oscar Perez: Ventrada

Nothing happens. Or a lot happens. Up to you as audience. It depends on how you define ”a story”. In mainstream definition terms one would say that there is no story, and yet here is an outline of the short documentary shot in the countryside near the delta of Ebro:

An old man in an electric wheelchair is the ruler of an old farm with dogs and sheep. From his chair he orders the others around, including the sound man from the film team, when some puppies just born are about to be killed unintentionally by the dog ”bitch”, who protects her litter.

His wife (or sister?) walks into the picture, and another character, an old man who seems to be a bit retarded, is the one that the ruler commands to get rid of most of the puppies leaving only two to live. At the end of the film the camera goes with the ruler on his way into the marshes to follow his sheep. It is almost like a still life, brutal in tone, he is not really likeable, you start wondering about the kind of life he has had, he just sits there without a smile on his stone-face.

A story or a tableau, both I would say. Because of the stubborness/patience/eye of the film director/cameraman who waits to seize the moments. And gets some. Classical documentary observation, and multi-layered like a creative documentary should be.

Spain, 2009, 22 mins.

www.docsbarcelona.com

Storydoc Wants Films from the Mediterranean

It is not unusual that we do proper promotion for events that we are involved in ourselves. This is no exception! Loyal readers have read my texts from Israel and Palestine – where a workshop was held that ended up with the selection of 4 Palestinian film projects for the Storydoc 2011. Now we need good projects from other countries. Deadline April 26. Read all about it and join what will be valuable and fun! :

2011: Call for Filmmakers with Mediterranean Projects.

Storydoc is a training programme with the focus on the development of documentary projects – www.storydoc.gr.

The Projects wanted should have a strong Mediterranean connection.  The call is open to filmmakers from the Region, other filmmakers with a project that deals with the area.

20 projects will be selected, plus 5 from Greece and STORYDOC will offer 5 scholarships to the selected projects.

The selected creative documentary projects will be developed through two sessions tutored by experienced documentary directors, commissioning editors, producers, editors and generalists. See below. At the second session extra 10-15 commissioning editors and distributors will be invited.

The work will be performed in groups and on an individual basis. There will be work on treatments, scripts as well as on visuals (trailers, demos, teasers). Inspirational lectures will be held on several documentary relevant subjects. Main focus is the creative process of developing film projects to secure quality and originality.

The Participants will be documentary professionals and filmmakers (including authors, directors, producers, screenwriters, and consultants) with experience in their local environment, aiming at working on an international level. A strong impact will be put on networking between the participating filmmakers and producers as well as broadcasters. Collaboration will be encouraged between Mediterranean producers from the South and the North.

Between the two sessions the participants will be offered online consultancy from selected tutors.

Deadline for submission of projects is April 26.
We ask for a two page written presentation of the project (synopsis, treatment, visual style, cv’s, status of the project) plus eventual trailer or other kind of visual material connected to the project.
The sessions in 2011:
1st session in Corfu July 11-15. See July 2010: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OavAEuqajnA) .
2nd session in Athens late November 26-30.
–   a special session took in Ramallah March 25-27.
Price for participation: 400 euros per one person, 250 euros for the second person per project and for the observers 200 euros  (this includes all lunches and coffee breaks , one dinner per session and special discount for hotel accomodation)

Documentary consultant Tue Steen Muller is the Head of Studies.
Project manager is the broadcaster Kostas Spiropoulos.

The Storydoc Tutor Team: Emma Davie (UK), Mikael Opstrup(EDN/Denmark) Niels Pagh Andersen(Denmark), Iikka Vehkalahti (Finland), Jordi Ambros (Spain), Louise Rosen (USA), Peter Symes (UK), Stan Neumann (France), Madeleine Avramoussis (France), Sanna Salmenkallio (Finland), Kathrin Brinkmann (Germany), Rea Apostolides (Greece), Ann Julienne (France), Illia Papaspirou (Greece), Eva Stefani (Greece), Gena Theodosievska (Fyrom),George Khleifi (Palestine), Diana El Jeiroudi (Syria).
Storydoc is organised in collaboration with ERT and EDN.
                                                Projects and queries: STORYDOC,
                                      Att: Chara Lampidou,Event Manager
                                     19, Mithimnis str, 112 57 Athens, Greece
                                      Tel: +30 210 8663963  -Email: lampidou@storydoc.gr

Photo: Isra’ Odeh, ChewingGum Gang, Palestine.

National Film Board of Canada in a Digital Age

It was a scoop that DFI (Danish Film Institute) had invited James Roberts, assistant director general from National Film Board of Canada (NFB), to come to the Danish DOK-dag (Documentary Day, see more below) to talk about the online film distribution policy of the 72 year old public film institution, set up by visionary politicians and the one and only Scotsman John Grierson, who saw before anyone else what role film could play in education and information in a democratic society.

A scoop, because Roberts very clearly and enormously inspiring could explain, how the NFB had implemented a strategy paper from 2008 into a very generous offer – more than 2000 films for free for individuals, online, and not only for Canadians, see below what to do, and a subscription system for the schools and institutions, still – in the spirit of Grierson – the major client of the NFB. ”Start Watching” was the headline of the plan and 10 million views have been done so far. 400 people are employed at the NFB that has offices all over Canada and is very up-beat when it comes to the use of new media. 15% of the production of the NFB is channelled into interactive documentaries. (I will write about one of the award-winners later, titled  ”Highrise”).

The website of the NFB is exemplary for how to make it easy to navigate for the users – to find the necessary film historical titles and watch a trailer or a full film. Or to see where films are screened in Canadian cities, or how to

download a title or buy a dvd, with photos and search possibilities by decades, or titles, or directors. You name it…

Here is a clip from the interesting strategy plan (19 pages, can be downloaded), caption ”Mission”. Pure socialism, some would say, proud cultural policy I would say:

For almost seventy years the National Film Board has played a vital role in Canadian society as a public producer and distributor of audiovisual materials in the public interest. It is recognized and celebrated the world over as one of the great cultural laboratories for research, development and innovation in documentaries, animation, and now, new media. It is unique in providing Canadian creators a place to develop new forms of authentic, socially relevant works that are central to creating common democratic, civil values in a rapidly changing and increasingly diverse society. By supporting emerging filmmakers, members of diverse cultural and linguistic communities, Aboriginal communities and the disabled, the NFB ensures that its audiovisual works reflect the country’s diversity and explains the changing cultural and social realities of Canada. It is the most trusted provider of Canadian audiovisual content to Canada’s educational system and is a significant carrier of Canadian values to Canada’s youth. As a public provider, it is uniquely placed to break new ground and take the creative risks that neither the private sector nor the public broadcast sector can undertake.

In a digital era, the need for the NFB as Canada’s public producer and distributor is more essential than ever to undertake the kinds of risks that an audiovisual industry in constant state of change and turmoil cannot afford to take. Again and again, the NFB has shown that it can lead initiatives, on its own or in private-public partnerships, which benefit the industry and Canadians. It is one of the hallmarks of the NFB to step into areas of market failures to create public goods that enrich the country and provide cultural leadership both domestically and internationally. The NFB’s enormous international brand value, its creative work and its constant inventiveness have attracted broad interest in Canada as evidenced by the ongoing demand for NFB works by our embassies and trade missions in all parts of the world. It has also opened doors for the private sector to new markets such as Brazil and Singapore because their industries and governments have seen the NFB as their first port of call in engaging with the Canadian audiovisual industry.

www.nfb.ca

NFB: Watch Hundreds of Films Online

I have been surfing around on the site of NFB for an hour now. I have seen some trailers, I have seen clips from some of the films that I remember from a long festival life, and from the imports that was done when I was employed at the National Film Board of Denmark (Statens Filmcentral). Yes, down memory lane, but also down film history lane when you think about the excellent films that has come from the Canadian sister organisation: animation films by Caroline Leaf and the master himself Norman McLaren (photo), documentary films by Colin Low and direct cinema pioneers Roman Kroitor, Wolf Koenig and Michel Brault. At least a hundred NFB films were offered the Danish audience on 16mm, and if with dialogue and commentary, with Danish subtitles or in a Danish version. And from today “RIP” and “Up the Yangtze”, just to mention a couple that is available online by a click from your home computer in Denmark. Much easier than your home access to the Danish documentary history! Go Canadian, DFI, Danish Film Institute, and learn from them how to advertise. At the NFB site, for all titles, both those you can watch online and for those where only a trailer is watchable – there is information about where to buy a dvd or where to download with prices etc. Pure pleasure for one, who was educated librarian maaany decades ago. But start here:

Create your NFB profile today.Enjoy documentaries, animations, alternative dramas and interactive productions on the web, on your personalized home page, or on your iPhone. Don’t forget to check out our trailers, playlists and upcoming online releases. Free for personal use and on a subscription basis for schools and institutions.

www.nfb.ca