News from Paris: Cinéma du réel

The International festival of documentary films Cinéma du réel March 23rd -April 5th 2011 opened this Wednesday in Paris at le Centre Pompidou for the 33rd time. Readers of this blog are used to a broad coverage of this festival, unfortunately this year Tue Steen Müller and Allan Berg are not in Paris, so you will have to settle with my short account of what is going on.

The opening night Wednesday offered a tribute to the Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay, who passed away February 5th this year by showing his first film Film-Essay on the Euphrates Dam (1970) and his last film A Flood in Baath Country (2003). His friend, Syrian filmmaker Ossama Mohammad, made a beautiful introduction and the whole audience stood up for a minute of silence for the Syrians killed in the demonstrations that day.

In his introduction in the program booklet, the director of the festival, Javier Packer-Comyn, asks for a reconsideration of the notions we use around documentary film: “Ethics”, “Gesture”, “Documentary”, “Otherness”, “Cinema”, “Relationship to the world”, “Point of view”, “Just distance”, -these are precious words and must be used with accuracy, he states. We should re-discuss the fundamentals and “reflect on the meaning of all these undertakings. Why make documentaries? Why see them? Why show them? To who? How? Refine our practice, even the act of transmission. Accept the limits of festivals, these places that today accommodate so many different desires. Avoid that they become just pipes to be filled, recipes to apply. I think that the specificity of “Cinéma du reel” is salutary in the festival landscape of today. To centre ones choice beyond strategies and opportunism of circumstances sometimes offered by the diktat of world premieres that certain festival of our size limits itself to apply. Without any resignation, offer a program that is dense, open, generous in its approach, without pretention, and with an editorial project strongly directed towards the audience of the festival” (My translation!). And indeed it is another great program.

What I particularly like about the festival is its fine historic programs of “classic” American documentary. It is at Réel that I have seen Shirley Clarke, Jim McBride, Howard Alk, the Maysles brothers, over the last years. Again this year, I’m in for a treat: tributes to Richard Leacock, who so sadly died the day of the opening of the festival, and Leo Hurwitz, a privileged screening of invisible films and the program America is hard to see, the Conscience of a Nation. Here is the program I have made for myself so far:

Richard Leacock’s films, off course, because I have been part of the team who works for his book-project, and it is wonderful to see his films on a big screen: Canary Island Bananas (1935), Primary (1960), Happy Mother’s Day (1965), Chiefs (1969), Tilton’s Jazz Dance (1954), Pennebaker’s Company (1970) and Les oeufs à la coque (1991) made with Valerie Lalonde.

Invisible films: Portrait of Gina (1958), a lost TV-film by Orson Welles found in 1986 at the Ritz hotel in Paris and only showed once before. Followed by Introduction to the Enemy (1974) by Haskell Wexler, Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, a film of their visit to North and South Vietnam.

Leo Hurwitz, The Young Fighter (1953), Native Land (1938-41), Strange Victory (1948) and Dialogue with a Woman Departed (1980).

Henchman Glance, a document by Leo Hurwitz re-edited by Chris Marker. During the Eichmann trial in 1961 (filmed by Hurwitz), the accused was shown the film Nuit et Brouillard by Resnais. The scene was filmed by Hurwitz and years later re-edited by Chris Marker, thereby confronting the views of three filmmakers.

In the international competition I will see Nous étions communistes (2010) by Maher Abi Samra. The filmmaker returns to Lebanon to reunite his old friends from the communist party to reflect over the fragmentation of the Lebanese society.

Then I will wait and see what the juries decide…

Allan and Tue, I hope you come back next year!

http://www.cinemadureel.org/index.php?lang=en

http://blog.cinemadureel.org/

For those of you who read French, I highly recommend to follow the French journalist, film critic and historian Jean-Michel Frodon’s blog Projection publique on Slate.fr. Here is his recommendation on what to look out for at Cinéma du réel with a good introduction to the American documentary pioneer Leo Hurwitz: http://blog.slate.fr/projection-publique/

Cinema Hotel Tel Aviv

… is to be recommended if you go to the White City by the sea. They have a nice website, take a look at their YouTube clip. Here is a quote from the site text:

The building was constructed in 1930, in the best tradition of the Bauhaus style, as the Esther Cinema – one of the first theaters of Tel Aviv. The building was recently restored (no cinema any longer!) and renovated to become an elegant and unique hotel… As you browse through the hotel, you will notice some of the projectors, movie posters and theatre chairs. Laurel and Hardy on the wall in the lobby and popcorn to add to the nostalgic armosphere.

http://www.cinemahotel.com/

The Israel Documentary Screen Market

It is pitching session edition number 13 that is arranged by Orna Yarmut and her crew. Amazing how it has developed, take a look at the site and see the many activities that are offered Israeli filmmakers. Here is a quote for what it is about, from the site:

”Copro is the first and only organization of its sort in Israel that serves as an independent marketing channel for documentary films. CoPro is a registered non-profit organization that promotes the making of documentaries in Israel by arranging for Israeli filmmakers and producers to meet television network executives and producers from around the world, thereby creating a cultural dialogue and encouraging joint productions… CoPro works to pass on to millions of households around the world the message of Israeli and Palestinian documentary filmmakers and their angle on the complexities of Israeli society. This way it provides audiences with fresh viewpoints and understandings of life in Israel…”

I spent three days in Tel Aviv meeting the filmmakers of the 24 projects that have been selected to be pitched to a panel of film fund representatives and broadcasters from all over the world at the ned of May. Many of the projects had a link to holocaust and to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For the latter category all with a criticism of the Israeli policy as it unfolds right now, many with quite a courageous attack on the settlement policy or the activities around the checkpoints or interviews with soldiers who took part in the non-media-coverage war in Gaza. Luckily there were also positive, yet conflicted stories, like one that has a young Arab Israeli teacher as the leading character, who teaches arabic language and tolerance to kids in a Jewish school.

Israeli documentaries have been quite strong in the past decade. Compared to many other countries the filmmakers have quite a few options for funding – tv stations like YesDocu and several funds play a role, to put it in another way, there are many doors to knock on for the filmmakers. And with Orna Yarmut and her initiative they have the best promoter they could ask for.

http://www.copro.co.il/ 

Still: A Film Unfinished by Yael Hersonski (2008) was pitched at CoPro some years ago.

Herz Frank 2011

We have posted texts about the master of documentary, Herz Frank, at least 6 times on this site. He is for this blogger the intellectual observer and interpretor of Life, where Richard Leacock (see below) was the instinctive reporter and interpretor. I met Herz Frank in Tel Aviv the other day. He, 85 years of age, is in a very good shape. We talked about the good days on the Bornholm festival (Balticum Film & TV Festival 1990-2000), about his living in Jerusalem close to one of his daughters (the other lives in Moscow), about the Latvians soon doing a retrospective celebration to him, about the Jerusalem Cinématheque having fine 35mm prints of 20 of his films. He showed me his book on his life and thoughts on documentary film making, it exists in a Russian version, and in a shorter German one, but not in an English version. Who could help with that, he asked. I had no spontaneous answer.

Another undone matter – it would be obvious to make a dvd-box collection with his films, who could help with that?

Herz Frank understands English, speaks ok German, and is fluent in Hebrew. During our small café meeting he adressed, in Hebrew, Kearn Telias, who works for the CoPro (more about that is posted elsewhere) (Kearn took the photo of Herz Frank and me) and was immediately invited to visit Herz Frank to watch works like ”Ten Minutes Older” and ”235.000.000”, the film from 1967 made by Uldis Brauns and Herz Frank to celebrate the 50 years of USSR. The film was not celebratory enough for the Soviet leaders and was put away. And has therefore not taken the place in the hall of fame for documentaries that it deserves.

New film project? Yes? What about and how? Herz Frank will send me an exposé and trailer, what I can disclose is the name of the character he wants to make a film about/with. Larissa Trimbobler. Read this text from an article I found online, to give you an idea of the context: Yigal Amir, an ultra-nationalist Jew, shot Rabin to death after a peace rally on November 4, 1995, because he opposed the prime minister’s policy of ceding West Bank land to the Palestinians. He was sentenced to life in prison. Although he is held in isolation, Amir has been permitted conjugal visits over the past year with his wife, Larissa Trimbobler, whom he married while in prison. Their son was born in 2007…

http://www.herz-frank.com/

http://www.copro.co.il/

Photo: Herz Frank and Tue Steen Müller in Tel Aviv 2011 (Kearn Telias)

Being There – Leacock

I am in Ramallah in Palestine and have just completed a three day workshop with filmmakers from the West Bank and Gaza – the ones from Gaza connected through a videoconference. I am on the 8th floor of the Red Crescent Centre just outside the city, children are still playing football down on the pitch near the school, cars are passing on the motorroad, it is getting dark and chilly after a sunny sunday, which we (20 filmmakers and 6 tutors) could only enjoy from inside out. We have seen clips during the three days and I reminded the filmmakers about the always actual sentence of Richard Leacock: It is about being there. I remember him from the few workshops I attended with him, I remember his passion and commitment, and his wonderful enthusiasm when he was telling the new generations: Go there, observe, find the details which are interesting, be present, listen and watch, and bring it back home to the editing table to make it interesting and present for the audience. Make them feel that they are there. I am sure the words were not like that, but this is what he meant, and this is what the observational documentary has brought us at its best.

And being there… well, we have seen Israeli and Palestinian documentaries about being there… at the checkpoints, at the wall when soldiers have pointed their machine guns at Palestinians who try to make their pass into Israel, or when families mourn their dead relatives, or when humiliated women tear their passing-a-checkpoint paper into pieces, or when Israeli settlers get into fights with fellow Israelis and call them “nazi capo”! I could continue and can only admire the courage of the cameramen and –women on both sides of the wall. They are there, and some have a Leacock’s eye for the human detail just next to what is obviously the main focus, which is to be recorded as well. Being There. Where something happens that is important for all of us.

Still: Louisiana Story (1948) , camera Richard Leacock

Richard Leacock 1921-2011

Sad news. Documentary pioneer Richard Leacock died this Wednesday in his home in Paris. He would have celebrated his ninetieth birthday in July. He played a crucial role in the history of documentary film, as a filmmaker and cinematographer and as a forerunner on its technological field.

Friday the 25th of March he should have presented his book-project “The Feeling of Being There – a filmmaker’s memoir” at the festival Cinéma du reel in Paris before the projection of a selection of his films (Soirée spéciale Richard Leacock: Canary Island Bananas, Primary, Happy Mother’s Day and Chiefs). The tribute the festival has chosen to pay Leacock with the program Dédicace Richard Leacock has now taken a whole other signification.

Richard Leacock had written his memoirs and was preparing the publication of the DVBook, his invention of combining text with actual film-quotes, this summer. The project was, and is, a truly independent venture. And what a life!

We should have honoured and celebrated Ricky together with him, sadly he is no longer here.

My thoughts go to his family and in particular to his beloved Valerie Lalonde.

 

Cinéma du réel, Dédicace Richard Leacock, March 25th , April 2nd and 4th:

http://www.cinemadureel.org/rubrique677.html

Read more about the book-project:

http://www.canarybananafilms.com   

 

Obituaries:

The Guardian  The Telegraph  Boston Herald  L. A. Times

Doc Fest 13

.. is the name of the newsletter of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival that also carries the name: Images of the 21st Century. A clip from the newsletter text:

The 13th Thessaloniki Documentary – Images of the 21st Century ended on Saturday, March 19, 2011. The closing ceremony was held in the packed Olympion theatre, flagship venue of the TDF. Festival Director Dimitris Eipides welcomed the audience by saying that “the Documentary Festival’s goal is always geared towards the audience. We want to see our theatres filling up, because today documentaries are more than ever a necessity. Current events are shaking us up and the Festival aims to address our worries; it constitutes a hopeful effort to move and motivate people. We believe that these goals were achieved, as attendance this year showed a 20% increase. For us, this is the biggest and most meaningful reward”.

Mr Eipides noted that during the 13th TDF, 233 films were screened, coming from 52 different countries. He took stock of the event’s most powerful moments and themes, such as the Panel Discussion of the How I Am: Challenging Perceptions tribute (on developmental and intellectual disabilities); the compelling presence of this year’s Greek documentary production; the 2 scholarships going out to immigrant children towards studying; the live streaming project that connected Thessaloniki with Corfu, Patras, Rethymno and Nicosia, where audiences were able to simultaneously enjoy films screened during the TDF, as well as the directors’ post-screening Q&As.

An award ceremony followed – check the website – a prize had already been given to the festival director himself: “The EDN Award is presented annually during Docs in Thessaloniki to an institution, group or private person for outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture. 
The EDN Award 2011 goes to Dimitri Eipides, Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. He receives the award for his enthusiastic and energetic work with establishing and continuously developing the documentary film festival in Thessaloniki.” Photo: The prizewinner and Hanne Skjødt from EDN.

www.edn.dk

http://www.filmfestival.gr/

POV: Cakes, Ellsberg and A World in Conflict

POV means Point of View and is the name of ” American television’s longest-running independent documentary series”, part of the PBS in the US and led by executive producer Simon Kilmurry, who is a frequent visitor to documentary events all over. From him a press release was sent to filmkommentaren.dk – here is an excerpt that gives you the idea that the American audience can watch high quality, creative documentaries. If you want to know more about POV, go to the website, that has trailers, background articles, a blog etc.:

The new season in June kicks off with Kings of Pastry. D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’ behind-the-scenes account of France’s greatest pastry competition, an epic, a three-day test of passion, perseverance, artistry amd nerves. In advance of the new season, on June 7, POV will present a special encore broadcast of the Oscar nominated film The Most Dangerous Man in America, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Daniel Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers, an event that changed the course of the Vietnam War and world history. POV airs on PBS on Tuesdays at 10 pm…

The season programme tells of people as different as cowboys herding sheep into Montana’s rugged mountains for the last time and aspiring teenage NASCAR drivers whirling around tracks at 70 miles per hour before they’re old enough for driver’s licenses. In addition, POV and the renowned oral-history project StoryCorps will team up for the second year to present everyday people’s intimate conversations in five imaginative and whimsical animated shorts, on television and online.

Also included are soldiers at war and at home, in Armadillo and Where Soldiers Come From; political activists who cross the line into law-breaking and authorities who may be crossing their own lines to catch them, in Better This World and If a Tree Falls; Chinese workers caught in the largest human migration in history, in Last Train Home; a Colombian librarian whose books travel on hooves through inhospitable jungles, in Biblioburro; Finnish men unburdening themselves in a most surprising fashion, in Steam of Life; Russian classmates reflecting on their country’s sweeping transformations on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, in My Perestroika; and a cunning Cambodian journalist who elicits a startling admission about the 1970s “killing fields” from the highest-ranking surviving Khmer Rouge leader, in Enemies of the People.

www.pbs.org/pov. 

US Documentary Channel

Wish we had a documentary channel in Europe! We do not. The Americans have: The Documentary Channel, that also offers a very valauable newsletter that advertises the broadcasts of the channel AND a so-called Docstore, where films can be bought or downloaded.

Coming soon is a series of Robert Drew documentaries, including the classics ”Primary”, ”The Chair” and ”Crisis” (these films can also be bought in Europe, of course). In clips Drew gives anecdotes about the shooting of these and other films in his retrospective. Entertaining and informative doc film history.

http://www.documentarychannel.com/

Sergei Loznitsa – from Mathematics to Filmmaking

Ukranian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa is being honoured with a big retrospective of his work (11 documentaries) at Doc Fest in Thessaloniki, that runs until March 20. The festival has a fine newsletter (free subscription) from where this press text – in an edited form – has been taken:

Loznitsa talked about his sources of inspiration, the differences between fiction and documentary films and his relationship with audiences during a press conference he gave on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 in the framework of the 13th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

His career in the documentary genre began during a very fruitful time of his life, even though he was not as yet devoted to art, but to science. He was born in 1964 in Belarus. Shortly after, his family moved to the Ukraine, were he studied applied mathematics and control systems at Kiev’s Polytechnic. The director said that he decided to change profession because of the low-quality training he received in Kiev, but he added that mathematics helped him in his transition to filmmaking. “A film is, in a way, a means to control things, and also a language used by people to communicate. Control systems are not all that different from films. In my view, anyone who wants to work in

film should start from something more abstract, like mathematics or music. From there, you can move to whatever you want and become, say, a politician or manager.

Loznitsa records simple, everyday aspects of life in the form of a historical testimony. He starts from things immediately apparent and then moves on to shed light on sensitive, hidden aspects, leaving nothing to chance. Aesthetics, form, style work latently, without making any noise. Referring to his method of work, he noted: “It is personal and I might say similar to hunting. I look for ideas all around me, like a hunter seeking out his pray. In this process, you have to let go of your mind and operate on feelings alone. Usually, when we are about to start work on a film, two or three of us gather together with a camera, sound equipment and a car. We spend two weeks traveling before shooting, with no specific idea in our minds, just looking around for something that will catch our eye“.

The “secret” of success in this process, according to the director, is this: “you have to cleanse yourself from all signs of life around you; you need to lose contact with the things that hold you back and see things more clearly. It is a mystical process“. 

The major goal of his films is to keep the viewer alert. This purpose is served by the lack of narration – the trademark of his films. “The most important thing is to allow the viewer to understand who he is. To allow him to get something from the film, to be influenced by it and be able to build on that influence”, he noted.

The director had once said that “cinema takes us back to time lost”. What is his relationship with time when making a film? “Sometimes I do realize I have to put an end to it. It is easier when we are using film, because it is bound to run out eventually”, he said jokingly, adding: “Any kind of pressure is welcome. Besides, this is the second law of Thermodynamics”. Illustrating his point, the director told a story from the time he was shooting Northern Light. The crew had to travel thousands of kilometers from Saint Petersburg to reach a remote village. “We had been shooting there for two weeks, when the local KGB came and took us in for a day and a half, in order to ascertain we weren’t spies. I took this as a sign that we should probably wrap it up”. 

Commenting on the differences between feature films and documentaries, he said they only exist “in our mind”. “If I showed you a shot of a suicide scene, it might impress you enough to ask me who this amazing actor is. But if I told you this was a documentary and that the person did actually take his life, you would be shocked. Nothing would have changed in the material per se – the difference is in our minds and reflects our ethics and norms”.

www.filmfestival.gr