Christian Braad Thomsens snart samlede værker

De er rimeligt synlige på Filmstribens forside disse dage, Braad Thomsens film gennem årene, mange af dem, de fleste efterhånden. Som Jørgen Vestergaard har han tilsyneladende selv taget fat på digitaliseringen, så otte af dem nu kan streames af alle med lånerkort til sit bibliotek. De kan også købes som dvd’er. Hos Braad Thomsen selv. Han tager selv hånd om distributionen. Det kan vi være glade for. Der er meget i de film at være glad for. Christian Braad Thomsen fyldte jo år forleden dag. Det er os, lånerne på bibliotekerne, der har fået fødselsdagsgaverne. Indtil videre drejer det sig om disse titler:

Revolution (1969) Afgangsfilmen fra filmskolen, et samtidsdokument, en indforståets analyse.

Kære Irene (1971) Den umulige kærlighed 1

Herfra min verden går (1976) Historien om barndommens landsby, det rystende mesterværk.

Kniven i hjertet (1981) Den umulige kærlighed 2

Koks i kulissen (1983) De dybt ironiske dameattraktioner

Hvor mindets blomster gror (1991) Epitafiet over moderen, barskt, ærligt, ømt.

Karen Blixen – Storyteller (1995) En film så fornem, at den er Blixen værdigere end nogen til nu.

Morten Korch – solskin kan man altid finde (2000) Forfatteren genfundet og sat på rette plads.

Svend Åge Madsen – at fortælle menneskene (2002) At møde sin yndlingsforfatter i toget

Marilyn Marzur – Queen of percussion (2006) Loyal skildring af den fremragende musiker. Fuld af beundring.

www.filmstriben.dk  En række af filmene kan som nævnt købes hos instruktøren selv http://braadthomsen.tripod.com/ Foto: Karen Blixen – Storyteller

Niels Jensen

Så sidder man her på et hotelværelse i Tbilisi i Georgien med tårer I øjnene. En halv time efter at en sms tikkede ind med meddelelsen om Niels Jensens død. Jeg så ham sidst i Filmhuset under festivalen cph:dox, han så svag ud og fortalte mig, at hans hjerte var slidt og at han tit tabte pusten. Han var på vej til biblioteket med filmbøger. Niels var ikke gået på pension, han havde stadig timer på Filmskolen. Men han ærgrede sig over, at han ikke længere kunne køre på cykel ud til Holmen!

Det er mig fuldstændigt umuligt at skrive en nøgtern nekrolog om en mand, der i årtier var Danmarks bedste filmformidler og som lærte mig om filmens vidunderlige verden. Det må blive personligt, men jeg ved at mange kendte Niels, som jeg gjorde det – som det altid inspirerende menneske, som var glad for at give fra sig. Uegennyttig. Et ordentligt og fint menneske, altid til at stole på. Og aldrig til fals – da Mimi Stilling Jacobsen i sin tid som kulturminister skulle godkende en indstilling om en programredaktion ved Statens Filmcentral (SFC), og mente at 2/3 af trioen Erik Thygesen, Bente Hansen og Niels Jensen var for rød, blev der ringet fra ministeriet til Niels (der ikke var “rød”) med besked om at han kunne blive godkendt, hvis han ville… svaret fra ham var, at det var alle tre eller ingen. Loven blev derpå lavet om, så ministeren ikke længere skulle fungere som “gummistempel”.

Jeg ved, at aviserne vil skrive om hans viden om og kærlighed til John Ford og westerngenren. Og om hans store interesse for og viden om Ingmar Bergman. Det har aldrig betydet noget for mig, og det var ikke det, som optog ham mest. Hans hjerte var knyttet til kort- og dokumentarfilmen, og han fik lejlighed til at præge den danske i mange år som filmkonsulent ved Statens Filmcentral (SFC) og før da som konsulent ved Kortfilmrådet. I bedste folkeoplysnings-forstand og i den ånd, som lå bag oprettelsen af SFC, var Niels altid den stærke fortaler for at film skal bruges til at blive klogere af. Jeg gav ham en stak udenlandske dokumentarfilm i begyndelsen af dette år, han så dem, og vi mødtes på Husmanns Vinstue, og Niels analyserede med få ord filmene med præcision og stor entusiasme. Og tit med en parallel til andre kunstarter, specielt malerkunsten men også litteraturen, den korte, novellen, som han har skrevet en bog om.

Åh, der ryger så mange minder igennem mit hovede – om redaktionsmøder i SFC, rejser sammen til Berlin, for meget rødvin i forbindelse med Cinema du Réel i Paris, meget velkomne belæringer om, hvad det vil sige at være lærer, de slidte udgaver af hans fremragende bog “Filmkunst”. Der var højt til loftet og respekt for andre. Mens jeg skriver dette løber en mail ind fra Jørgen Vestergaard, en af mange danske filmfolk, som Niels satte højt og hjalp. Vestergaard skriver: Jeg har kendt Niels siden jeg i en alder af nitten var elev på Krogerup, og jeg føler det som et stort tab… Ja, mon ikke!

Fotografi: Niels Jensen på sit kontor på SFC o. 1985 fotograferet af Freddy Tornberg.

Jørgen Vestergaards snart samlede værker

Når der er kræfter (sponsorer eller store distributører) bag, kommer dvd-boksene med de berømte navne og titler, og det fint nok. Når der er vedholdende vilje bag, kommer de andre film også, men enkeltvis eller blot samlet et par stykker på en enkelt dvd, i almindelige kassetter. Men de samler sig uanset udgivelsesmåden ved siden af hinanden på reolen, disse rækker af samlede værker.

Jørgen Vestergaard og hans forlag på biblioteket i Thisted sørger efterhånden for at få hans samlede værk ud på dvd. Det fylder mere og mere helt til højre på hylden. Under bogstavet V ude ved von Trier og Westerlund. Vestergaard fylder lidt efter lidt meget på hylden, og især fylder hans samlede værk sin plads i den danske filmlitteratur, hvor han som naboerne dominerer sin niche med gedigen kvalitet og faktisk sjældenhed. Umistelig. Disse dvd’er er nu til at få:

Et rigtigt bondeliv (1994), på dvd’en findes også Fjordfiskerne (1996) og Brødre (1996)

Kirsten Kjær og hendes museum (2008), på dvd’en findes også Cementkrucifikset (1968) om Anton Laier og med Broby-Johansens beretning, Jens Søndergaard (1995) og Ovartaci (1998)

Hanstholm – historien om en havn (1970), på dvd’en findes også Vagt ved havet (1965), Havnen (1967) og Kanonen (2005)

Viljen til Thy (2005), en beskrivelse af forandringsprocessen i Thy i perioden fra 1970 til 2005.

De fire dvd’er med i alt 12 film er udgivet af Forlaget Knakken. J.P. Jacobsens Hus. 7700 Thisted. De bestilles ved en mail til orpo@thisted.dk Storm P. Museet www.stormp-museet.dk har endvidere udgivet og sælger selv

Storm P. Opfindelser (2001) en yderst opfindsom dukkefilm over en række af de skøre maskiner, Storm P. tegnede. 

Still: Et rigtigt bondeliv

Jørgen Vestergaard: Landsbyen lever og Sommerheste

Det er så godt, at Jørgen Vestergaard sørger for at få sine mange vigtige film fra en lang og i ordets forstand enestående produktion ud på dvd. For disse film har alle årene været noget helt for sig selv, og de vil blive stående som enestående. Som en særlig filmkultur, han er alene om. I hvert fald på det niveau. En kultur i landets midte, som journalister og politikere for tiden kalder nationens udkant. 

Jeg glædede mig oprigtigt til at se de to gamle film, da de ankom i den nye kassette. Jeg gik gennem udenværkerne af aktualitet og journalistik og pædagogik fra dengang, de blev lavet, direkte ind i de dejlige dele. Først og fremmest ind til de medvirkende og deres sprog, sætninger, ord og kultur, som var min i min barndom, i min ungdom, dengang. Her til stede i et dokumentarisk arbejde og fastholdt, så det er en udfordring til den kultur, det samvær, som omgiver mig i dag. Ved siden af sprogets dokument er der i Vestergaards film altid, og altså også her, filmfotografiets dokument, som altid og også her er selvfølgeligt, smukt og autentisk. Orla Nielsen har fotograferet Landsbyen lever og Lennart Steen har fotograferet Sommerheste. De har været med fra begyndelsen, Sommerheste fra 1964 er Vestergaards første rigtige film, som han så indforstået præcist skriver i kassettens teksthæfte.   

Men, men, jeg må også være skrap. Der er altså noget, der forstyrrer. Det er disse udenværker. Jeg er ikke sikker på, om de altid har forstyrret. Men nu forhindrer de mig i hvert fald i uden grums i linserne at se værkernes rene filmiske indre søjle af uangribelighed. Konkret liste: Gunnar Iversens nok alt for villede speak, Jens Okkings mærkeligt distanceret nedladende indtaling, Peter Watkins-rammen af propaganda drama-dok i Landsbyen lever, som ellers er tidløs dokumentarisme, og så hele børnefilm-historien, som er klodset ramme om den fineste film pure i Sommerheste.  

Begge film er altså en del, og til dels forstyrrende, præget af den tid hvori, og af de formål hvortil, de blev lavet, og jeg kan ikke frigøre mig fra den tanke, at en nybearbejdning kunne have forbedret dvd-udgivelsen betydeligt, idet det så havde været muligt at skrælle ind til de to værkers sikre kerne af umistelig dokumentarisk og filmisk værdi. Den er der selvfølgelig nu, inderst inde og helt sikkert, men der meget omkring, som forstyrrer et blik, som så gerne vil se filmens kunst.

Men, men. Der er jo de uforfalskede og ægte talende mennesker i landsbyerne, og der er især, især det fine lille stykke filmlyrik om de dejlige heste, som dengang var så talrige og vigtige, men som netop disse år udvandrede sammen med bønderne. Som Knud Sørensen skildrer det: ”… Forholdet mellem mænd og heste er naturligt. 1 mand til 2 heste. Et hestespand. Forestiller man sig nu disse 295.000 overflødige mænd (så mange forsvandt fra landbruget mellem 1942 og 1975) med deres overflødige heste på vej ud af dansk landbrug, f. eks. ud over den dansk-tyske grænse ved Kruså, så må man forestille sig en næsten uendelig række af mænd og heste, ned gennem Holsten, forbi Hamburg, videre ad motorvejene forbi Frankfurt, forbi Basel, over Sct. Gotthard, de når Milano, fortsætter, fortsætter, og i det øjeblik første mand drejer ind på Peterspladsen i Rom, forlader sidste mand grænsestationen ved Kruså…” (Beretninger fra en dansk udkant 1978)  

Jørgen Vestergaard: Landsbyen lever, 1990, 44 min. Manuskript: Gunnar Iversen, fotografi: Orla Nielsen, indtaling: Jens Okking, klip: Jørgen Vestergaard, lyd: Kristian Bro og Kjell Bjørlie, musik: Kenneth Knudsen, Ole Theill og Mikkel Nordsø, produktion: Jørgen Vestergaard Film, distribution: Forlaget Knakken orpo@thisted.dk

Jørgen Vestergaard: Sommerheste, 1964, 23 min. Manuskript: Jørgen Vestergaard, fotografi: Lennart Steen, indtaling: Carl Ottosen, klip: Jørgen Vestergaard, lyd: Kjell Bjørlie, musik: Bent Axen, produktion: Jørgen Vestergaard Film, distribution: Forlaget Knakken orpo@thisted.dk

StoryDoc – Teargas in Athens

Filmmakers, broadcasters and sales agents were safe at the Goethe Institute in Athens, while riots were going on outside in the streets. While discussing upcoming projects in development, watching films, listening to clever and inspiring lectures or getting concrete information on the state of the art in terms of market, the demonstrations went on with burning of cars, smashing of windows and pavements. One or two of the filmmakers sneaked out to film a bit with their mobile phones or take some photos… and inside, during all three days of the seminar, the question was raised again and again: who can make a creative documentary on what is going on in Greece these years? The crisis, the demonstrations, why, who, what, where will it go?

The StoryDoc initiative is a sequel to HistoryDoc, founded by, and run by Kostas Spiropoulos, former general manager of the Greek public broadcaster ERT, a man with a vision, and with a strong energy and will to push the development of documentary in Greece – and abroad. The StoryDoc 2010 included three sessions – first a prologue in Ramallah, then (with the participation of 3 Palestinian projects) a session in Corfu during the summer and then now (December 5-7) the last session in Athens. The goal has been to offer around 20 filmmakers help and inspiration to develop their documentary projects. Projects about or coming from Mediterranean and Middle East countries.

The tutors have been editors, directors, commissioning editors from tv stations, producers, sales agents, distributors, and generalists like me who has the privilege to put the programme together as Head of Studies.

www.storydoc.gr

Storydoc – Music in Documentaries

Sanna Salmenkallio, Finnish composer, working both in film and theatre, talked to the participants about music in documentaries stating from the start of her lecture that for her there is actually no difference in making music for documentaries and for feature films. By showing clips from three films, two Finnish and one Danish, Salmenkallio opened eyes and ears for all of us in the auditorium.

It is hard to summarize such a clever presentation so let me just quote the Finnish composer through the notes I made:

It is about what the audience feels… film music is like ritual music… we see things better through music… you have to think when composing that those are actually real people… film music should support the film… much less important is giving information… each musical theme has to be like a character… music is changing our sense of time… music is creating memories…the colour of music is very important…

Salmenkallio explained how she had been working with Danish director Phie Ambo on the film ”Mechanical Love” (2007), where the two of them went for music that has the atmosphere of a fairy tale. No techno, she said, which could maybe have been a more obvious solution for a film on this subject. I have seen ”Mechanical Love” before but never seen it like this time where I could see how the music score binds the beginning of the film together in a beautiful way. Ambo and Salmenkallio met before the rough cut of the film – please come to a composer before the picture side is closed, she said – the composer improvised on a piano while watching the material, they discussed and made the decisions on ”the colour” of the music and listed where music should appear. Salmenkallio also showed clips from the masterpiece of Pirjo Honkasalo, ”Three Rooms of Melancholia” (2004). Magnificent music, contra-tenor singing.

www.storydoc.gr

StoryDoc – the Creative Documentary?

Emma Davie, Scottish filmmaker and film teacher at the Edinburgh College of Arts did a brilliant lecture on what a creative documentary can be. She was adressing her colleagues with advice and reflections that came from the clips from the films she had chosen.

She started with ”My Body” (2002) by Norwegian Margreth Olin, a personal film with a wonderful grainy texture – Olin had found her form, Emma Davie said, do the same, do not think about a big audience, make films that talk to your best friend.

”Do not make documentaries if you don’t have to”, is one of the Ten Points made by Russian director Viktor Kossakovski, who also said that you should not think during the filming but before and after. The clip from ”Belovs” (1993), the masterpiece of the Russian auteur, made Emma Davie say that it is so giving to see the ordinary changed. The joy of looking and be looked at were introductory words to Marc Isaacs ”The Lift” (2002), yes, filmed in a lift, people going in and out, a film that has its limitations in time and space. But what if you have a person, who actually do not want to be filmed. Like the father in Alan Berliner’s original ”Nobody’s Business” (1996), a neo-classic, full of humour and visual ideas, perfect in rythm.

The creative documentary does not pretend that it knows all, the simpler the more fascinating, Emma Davie said, and use suspense if you can. She referred to Berliner’s film, will the father give in and actually reveal anything from his past?

Davie ended with Marcel Lozinski’s ”Anything Can Happen” (1995) (PHOTO), a unique film, one of the absolute favourites of this blogger. The little boy in the park going to old people on the benches, having dialogues with them about life and death, about being old, about religion. Pure pleasure.

As was the lecture of Emma Davie.

www.storydoc.gr

StoryDoc – Storytelling

Film is an emotional stream, Niels Pagh Andersen said, Danish editor, living in Finland, and working with films from many different countries. TV documentaries, feature duration docs for cinemas. Andersen has a long and strong cv. And he delivered an inspiring lecture. He started saying that we all want to bring order in chaos, don’t we? At least this is the job of an editor. Simplify, he said again and again, and referred to some drawings of Picasso, where he (Picasso) found the essence of a bull. The essence, find that, you get much deeper, the simpler you put things. If you want to teach something particular, write a book!

Give a minimum of information, Andersen emphasized, get to the emotions. Look for the inner development of the characters and hold back information, don’t tell everything up front. Create expectations, let the audience work, communicate that ”something is going to happen”. And remember the aspect of identification.

He showed two clips – one from the ”Cities on Speed” series, ”Mumbai Disconnected” (2009) by Camilla Nielsson and one from ”Prostitution Behind the Veil” (2004) by Swedish Nahid Persson. For the last one, Andersen stressed how important it is to build up a sympathy for the characters, he used the word love, in this case two mothers, and prostitutes, who you get to know later in the films from a more dark side in their relation to their children. 

The link below will take you to a longer interview with Niels Pagh Andersen.

http://www.dfi.dk/resultat.aspx?sq=Niels+Pagh+Andersen&ssr=1&sgi=967206473

www.storydoc.gr

Steadywing – the camera choice of Helmrich

Below you find the praise of the camerawork of Dutch director Helmrich, who won the main prize at idfa for his “Position among the stars”. He and many other masterclasses are to be found and looked at on idfa.nl – “on demand”. Take a look and here is a small text from the very same site about Helmrich’s camera. There you can also see how the steadywing looks like:

Position Among the Stars concludes Dutch director Retel Helmrich’s Indonesian trilogy about the Christian-Islamic family the Sjamsuddins. Helmrich (b. 1959) filmed this and the preceding installments (The Eye of the Day and Shape of the Moon) (PHOTO) 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, Retel Helmrich 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. He gives master classes all over the world, and this year he is coming to IDFA. For more information, go to www.singleshotcinema.com.

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

Idfa Winners/2

Even if not having seen all films in the main long feature documentary section at idfa, it is clear that the good choices of the jury appear to be based on artistic quality and subject relevance. Where nobody has waited for or asked for a film like the First Prize winner ”Position among the Stars” (one more film about people, a family, who lives in – for many of us – a far away country), the Special Jury Prize given to ”You don’t like the Truth – 4 Days inside Guantanamo” (Photo) 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 simply a film that should go everywhere and hopefully also will. 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.

”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 know 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. It’s all there and I am looking forward to seeing the whole trilogy when it is published on dvd. Look out for it.

The Jury did well BUT BUT BUT I heard that the members watched (some of the?) films on dvd at home before coming to the festival. Objection! Juries at the most prestigious and important documentary film festival in the world MUST take their time to come to idfa to sit in a cinema to watch the films on a big screen as the audience in Amsterdam did. No excuse, respect for the filmmakers and their works.

www.youdontlikethetruth.com

www.idfa.nl