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

Kraków under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945

It is so natural that Krakow has been a Cultural Capital of Europe. It has history, beautiful buildings, an active outside life with loads of cafés – yes, we are many visitors in this city and the Main Market Square should be visited early morning or late night when we are not so many – and there are cinemas, that have a high quality repertory, Lars von Trier’s Melancholy opened on the same day as in Copenhagen – and it is a university city with students sitting on benches in the many green areas in the good weather preparing for exams.

And a city with a sad background as so excellently conveyed in the Historical Museum that has been installed at the former enamel factory of Oskar Schindler on the other side of the river, at Lipowa 4. About the daily life of the Jews in the ghetto, about Schindler and his saving of a thousand Jews in his factory, the story we know from Steven Spielberg’s film, shot in Krakow, about the German occupation and the occupiers upperclass life. About the Plaszow concentration camp nearby. Interviews with survivors, Polish and Jews, all is subtitled in English for the foreign visitor, documents, including letters written by the 8 year old Roman Polanski, year by year, visual and oral, an exemplary museum. High quality documentation.

www.mhk.pl

Marcel Lozinski: Tonia and her Children

Vera and Marcel, brother and sister. Marcel, film director. They sit together around a table. They do so to recollect and remember Tonia, the mother of the siblings, a woman who was in jail and a woman who was filmed by Marcel when he was at film school. The mother was arrested in 1949 for spying against the communist regime, performing bourgeois behaviour, with relations to the notorious American spy Noel Field. She was in jail for more than 5 years, leaving her children to be in children homes.

The set-up by Marcel Lozinski gives the viewer a very emotional journey through the childhood of Vera and Marcel. Their story is told through them reading letters from their mother, texts from investigation papers, accompanied by photos from the family and clips from the footage of Lozinski.

It is all held in a very controlled style with close-ups of the three, with the faces expressing emotions to what is being read and talked about. Was she guilty, Tonia, is not the main issue, she felt guilty and did not want to be released from the jail where she went through terrible torture, described in details in writing. She came out and the son and the daughter remember differently, how they met her. It is a painful journey in memories for the two, who also have had a complicated relationship as grown-ups.

Marcel Lozinski, it is revealed, has in many ways a similar story as the two, he mirrors himself in the story, it seems, in a film that is masterly done, tense and precise, letting emotions come out but never trying to add effects to enlarge the drama.

Poland, 2011, 58 mins. (in National Competition in Krakow Film Festival 2011)

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Krakow Film Festival Small Talk

In the old festival hotel Cracovia, next door to the Kijow Cinema, where the main programme of the festival is running, there is a so-called Industry Zone, where festival people meet and talk to filmmakers in an informal atmosphere about what they are looking for, and where there are 30 video booths available for buyers and others, who look for films. It is all very well organised here in Krakow, and while praising the professionalism what a pleasure to see technically perfect screenings in the cinemas.

Small talk – I talked to two festival programmers, who entertained me with info on how they do their selection screenings (you have to remember that some festivals get thousands of entries for selectors to watch…) anyway, it shocked and amused me to hear that one was ironing at the same time as watching the screen, another was knitting, a third one watched in trains or when  the kid was doing ice-skating. Yes, there are many films in the world and there are many ways of watching, sitting, lying, in bed, on a couch, in a summer house in good weather with a good computer screen.

Just that you know if you happen to be a filmmaker!

Polish Doc Film History

The Polish Film Institute runs an honorable dvd publlishing policy. Previously I have reported on very good director boxes with films by Kieslowski, Karabasz, Marcel Lozinski, Pawel Lozinski – and now, here in Krakow, at the hall of the Kino Kijow, I supplemented the collection by buying boxes with films by Wladimir Slesicki, Marek Piwowski and Maciej Drygas. His ”Hear my Cry” (photo) is on the box, a masterpiece from 1991, the title referring to the spectacular manifestation of a man, who set fire to himself in 1968 as a demonstration against the Warsaw countries invading Czekoslovakia.

All films in the boxes are with subtitles in English, French, Russian and German.

http://www.pisf.pl/en/

Short Film Studies

Richard Raskin, Aarhus University, is the short film expert and editor of “Short Film Studies”. Raskin calls for papers for volume 2 number 2. Click below, to know more about the editor and to have the presentation of the film to be written about:

We invite all students of the short film – including researchers, teachers and film-makers – to contribute to Short Film Studies Vol. 2, Number 2. Each article should focus on any one of the three works mentioned above and may not exceed 1,500 words. Any aspect of the selected work may be chosen for study, including interpretive issues, dramaturgy, camera work, editing style, sound, closure, etc. Potential contributors should begin by sending a max. 50- word abstract to the editor, Richard Raskin at raskin@imv.au.dk. A prompt response will follow, regarding the suitability of the proposed contribution. The deadline for submitting completed articles for peer-review is 1 November 2011.

http://imv.au.dk/~raskin

http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/MediaManager/File/shortfilm(CFP)2_2.pdf

Krakow Film Festival

First an introduction taken from YouTube, where the Krakow Film Foundation has posted videos and some trailers from films taking part in the 51st (!) edition of Krakow Film Festival, 23rd – 29th May 2011: KFF is one of the oldest film events dedicated to documentary, animated and short fiction films in Europe. During 7 festival days viewers have an opportunity to watch about 250 films from Poland and abroad. Films are presented in competitions and in special sections like retrospectives, thematic cycles, archive screenings. Festival is accompanied by exhibitions, concerts, open air screenings and meetings with the filmmakers. Every year KFF hosts about 750 Polish and international guests: directors, producers, film festival programmers and a numerous audience from Krakow. (Krakow Film Foundation is the main producer of the Krakow Film Festival, the Krakow Film Market and co-organizer of the Dragon Forum. Foundation also promotes Polish documentary, animated and short films abroad.)

The fine old cinema Kino Kijow, next to the communist style Hotel Cracovia, previously the festival hotel, now to be closed, was full last night at the opening ceremony. Festival director Krzysztof Gierat welcomed us all and a 3D short film produced by Ridley Scott was shown, pure technique, no content, did not get the title. After that the opening film, also produced by Ridley Scott, but directed by Kevin Macdonald, Life in a Day, was screened. The film is in the competition for international documentaries, where I am in the jury with Slovak director Dusan Hudec (whose newest film The Entire World Is a Narrow Bridge is shown at the festival), local director and cameraman Marcin Koszalka (whose The Existence I remember as a masterpiece), Kaleo la Belle (winner of main Prize at the festival 2010 with the fine film Beyond the Place) and Italian Annamaria Percavassi (director of Trieste Film Festival). 20 films are to be watched, reviews of some of the films will follow after the festival. There are also juries for short films and a national jury.

http://www.triestefilmfestival.it/

www.krakowfilmfestival.pl

Côté & Henriquez: You don’t like the Truth

The Copenhagen documentary audience gets spoilt. First the professionals were invited to watch it at the yearly Maraton Dok, organised by EDN (European Documentary Network) and now Cinemateket at the Danish Film Insttute has chosen the film as the ”documentary of the Month” in June. The film referred to is the idfa (International Film Festival Amsterdam) Special Jury Prize winner ”You don’t like the Truth – 4 Days inside Guantanamo”.

The film made by Luc Côté and Patricio Henríquez, has gone all over the world, and this coming September to be theatrically released in New York, ”has its actuality and relevance as a film that goes behind the many news bits and discussions about the camp in Cuba. To give an evidence to how one (and many more?) prisoners have gone through the most outrageous interrogation beyond any human decency… It is intense in its split-screen use of the security camera footage that catches the interrogation of a 16-year old boy. You shake your head in despair watching this investigative (many interviews with cell mates and lawyers and a psychiatrist) Canadian film about the mental torture of a Canadian citizen. For more about the content and background, click on the title in the text below or go the site of the film.” Quote from earlier posting on this site.

www.youdontlikethetruth.com

Parallel 40: Joan Gonzalez

For many of us it never goes beyond the words, when it comes to put into reality all the good intentions about the promotion of the documentaries. Few have had the strength and courage to link all the elements of the chain from production to the meeting with the audience. Joan Gonzalez has and what he has done for the genre during the 15 years of existence of his company Parallel 40, based in Barcelona, deserves respect and admiration. In Catalunya, of course, and in Europe and – read below – in South America.

Training, production, distribution, film commission administration, festivals, tv management – it is all happening or has happened under the umbrella of Parallel 40, and with a clear goal statement, here taken from the site of the company: ”Parallel 40’s mission is to contribute to society’s cultural enrichment through the audiovisual medium.”

Joan Gonzalez is a visionary, some will say a dreamer, I will add that many of his dreams have and will come through. Step by Step as his slogan is. When I met him in Granada 15 years ago for the first EDN documentary workshop in Spain, he was one of the participants and made his first documentary pitch, not very convincing. But he was thrilled about the format, and he took it all to Barcelona, and became the organiser of what is now a very well established event, DocsBarcelona (read more below). At that time he was managing a local tv station and doing a lot of training, which is still very much on his agenda. He is definitely a talent scout, his office is full of talented carefully picked young people, who get the injection of documentary enthusiasm from their director. On top of that the company has for years delivered half hour documentary programmes directed by new filmmakers to TV3 Catalunya.

A man with high ethical standards, who is not afraid to use the word ”trust”, when he describes, what he wants people to associate with his company. He has lost some battles with this attitude but he has always come back full of optimism and with new ideas. On a personal level: Joan is a dear friend, I have always enjoyed his company, I love to work with him, to watch and listen to the creative, sometimes hard but passionate discussions between him and production manager Elena Subira, to share with him our common passion FCBarcelona, to sing Jacques Brel with him in his car, and to meet his lovely family: Montse, Berta and Marti.  

http://www.parallel40.com/