Myanmar Film Collective: Myanmar Diaries

From the website of the film (link below): A hybrid film about life under the regime of terror in Myanmar in the aftermath of its military coup of February 1st 2021, told through personal stories by a group of anonymous young Burmese filmmakers.The film is built up of short films by ten young anonymous Burmese filmmakers.

I don’t want to echo all the superlatives that have already been attached to this at the Berlinale awarded and praised film. I agree. I sit here with my MacBook after having watched the film twice and want to characterize ”Myanmar Diaries” as beautiful! Is that the right word to a film that has the goal to raise awareness about the horror regime and the courageous Civil Disobedience Movement, that wants to spread knowledge about the violence, the killings, the arrests in a dictatorship led by General Min Aung Hlaing.

Yes, it is beautiful even if I sit remembering scenes, where I was shouting to the computer images ”no, don’t do that”, when a soldier raises his club to beat a person, who is lying in the street, or when I with one in a room am looking at what happens on the other side of the street, where a person has been hit by a sniper. Or when a woman takes a razor blade to the artery of her hand. ”No, don’t do that!”.

The scoop of this film is that it – as a hybrid – mixes documentary and fiction so well, having a sequence – you could also say one of the 10 films – upfront with a beautiful female voice whispering that she wants to have a butterfly tattoo made, when ”all this is over” – words to that effect. When the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. It’s a wish, a vision and a theme that visually comes back in the narrative, also as a small animation… and then later a cut to a street scene reality, where a grandmother talks in the street to the soldiers in their military cars. The editing of the film is like that: it goes from scenes that tell about nightmares, losses of a dear one to scenes like the one I still have in my ear, a kid constantly shouting to the soldiers ”don’t touch my mum”. The camera is directed to the entrance of the house,where a group of soldiers are about to enter to pick the mother up. The scene ends when a soldier discovers the filming.

A girl who lives with her mother discovers that she is pregnant. She wants to tell the boyfriend but he has also something to tell her. He wants to go to the jungle, join the guerilla, it’s too dangerous to stay in the city. She never gets to tell him, he goes, we see guerilla training, and armed young people walking in the mountains. “Do You Hear Us?”

Beautiful – as a statement, a cry for help and as a Film. Composition, framing, rythm, music, it’s all put so well together by filmmakers who hopefully survive to come back with Butterfly-Films. Watch the film, I am going to reveal the start of the film. Beautiful!

Production : ZINDOC. Creative producer Petr Lom, producer Corinne van Egeraat.

The Netherlands, Norway, 70 mi

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Kostas Spiropoulos: Arcadia, Champagne d’Orient

A film about wine and greed… is the subtitle of this film that in many ways is closer to a fiction film than to a documentary. It is grandiose in its set-up and although it’s not always succesful in mixing the (much of it wonderful) archive with reenacted scenes , there is a drive in the narration based on diaries and documents of the time that made me enjoy the conflicts in the family with father Spyridon, the sons Nikos and Vasilis and the poor mother. They searched for fame, they got it, they were stubborn but had to deal with politics and politicians which had drastic consequences. With the wine as the loser, alas. In a good meaning: a fascinating old-fashioned documentary drama to be enjoyed.

And when I write old-fashioned I have to continue with some flowers to Kostas Spiropoulos: I can see how much he has enjoyed to make the film, to tell this story, how much effort and care he has put into the research to find the great archive material and turn some of the new scenes into b/w sequences. Is that old-fashioned, I am afraid so, when I think about the fast, non-aesthetic use of news material of today. Also chapeau for some of the composition of landscape images and interiors, there is thought about colours and framing. Paintings.

Une coupe de champagne, voilà!

Greece, 2022, 80 mins.

Read more here, also about the screening times in Thessaloniki.

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/movie/1228/14248

Ivars Zviedris: See You Never Ever

I am a big fan of Ivars Zviedris, Latvian director and cinematographer. His «Documentarian» and «Latvian Coyote» are films that I think high of and now there is his new work that was awarded at the National Cinema Ceremony, where Zviedris received the Best Documentary Director – the lielaja-kristapa – award.

Ivars Zviedris is in a way a classical documentarian – I have the impression that he graps his camera to go to film trusting his intuition and eye for situations. And People. It is obvious that he has no problems in getting in contact with those he wants to film, those whose stories he wants to convey. He is curious and pretty far from having an academic approach. He listens.

I have chosen to bring to you the synopsis of the film by copying it from the catalogue of the Riga FF. It is precise and thank you for calling the people in the film «protagonists» and not characters…:

The film begins with the closing of the oldest prison in Latvia – the Brasa Prison was built in 1905 and cannot ensure normal functioning. Inmates are leaving the place that has long been their only home. 

Our protagonists reside in Ward 207. They have really inhabited it – there is even a fish tank in the ward! They are not from a different planet. Humanity of the inmates may contrast with their records of committed crimes. All have their small pleasures and big plans. All are longing for changes and being afraid of them. Likewise, the term of imprisonment is running out for several of our protagonists. They are getting ready for life at large. They know how to survive in extreme circumstances but are unprepared for living a normal life. One’s return to the big world is one of the most accentuated marginal situations. 

Latvia, 2021, 80 mins.

The 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

There are many excellent documentary film festivals in Europe. The one in Thessaloniki is one of them. It runs until March 20 with a very rich program including tributes to Latvian director Laila Pakalnina and Finnish Virpi Suutari. Voices from the North to be screened at the Mediterranean Sea. Bravo!

It’s not the first time Pakalnina has been dedicated a retrospective. When she had one in Paris at Centre Pompidou, she was quoted to say “”I call my method of work “Fishing in the river of time”. As life is extremely talented, we just put camera, set composition and wait. And life happens. So film happens…” Well this ”just” means quite sme preparation and her work with her DOP Gints Berzins is second to none as you will see in “Spoon” and “Homes”, for me both wonderful personal films. 19 films from Pakalnina will be shown in Thessaloniki.

A tribute is given to Virpi Suutari, 6 films are shown, also the one about “Aalto”, the world famous architect and his wife. It was shown – among many places – in Belgrade at the Magnificent7 and I wrote on this site: “Suutari’s personal style is one of élegance, the film is simply a pleasure to watch and again composer – although not mentioned on the festival website – Sanna Salmenkallio must be praised for her extraordinary film music.” As Pakalnina Suutari is a true auteur.

The festival also – of course – has competition programs and I am happy to find there the Danish/Ukranian new film Simon Lereng Wilmont “A House Made of Splinters”, the director’s second film from Ukraine, the first one being “The Distant Barking of Dogs”. And in a side program called “Top Docs” I find a film that I will see one day on a big screen, “Republic of Silence”, by Syrian Diana El Jeiroudi, a dear friend who has been working on this film for 12 years, the duration is more than 3 hours, a dark cinema hall is needed for the projection, hoping for a screening in Copenhagen one day.

And there is so much more to enjoy in Thessaloniki, below some links for you to study, high quality.

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1223 (Pakalnina)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1233 (Suutari)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1222 (Intl. Competition)

https://www.filmfestival.gr/en/section-tdf/section/1232 (Top Docs)

Docudays UA at the Krakow Film Festival

08.03.2022news

The Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is the largest documentary film festival in Ukraine. This year’s edition was to begin on 25 March in Kyiv. It’s no longer possible due to Russia’s brutal attack and the ongoing war. The organizers of the Krakow Film Festival decided to support their friends, stand up to cruel fate, and hold a part of the Ukrainian festival in Kraków’s… Kijów (Kyiv) cinema. 

From the very first moments of the Russian invasion on Ukraine, our friends behind the eastern border have been in our thoughts. The relationships with festival organisers and filmmakers have long gone beyond the professional area. – says Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła, Head of KFF’s Programme Department – We quickly decided to invite the Docudays UA festival to Kraków – and in a completely different role than before.

The latest Ukrainian documentary films – qualified for Docudays UA’s prestigious national competition – will be presented during the Krakow Film Festival at the turn of May and June. In addition, to the extent possible, KFF will invite the organisers of Docudays UA and the filmmakers behind competing films, which will be judged by an international jury, while the awards will be presented during the final gala. The films screened in Kraków will be treated as domestic (Ukrainian) premieres, allowing them to maintain the status of international premieres and provide creators with an open path to apply to other prestigious film events.

For the past several days, we have been in constant contact with the organisers of Docudays UA who – unfortunately – remain in the most vulnerable regions of Ukraine. Just a few hours ago, we were relieved to learn that several of them managed to safely get to Poland. – adds Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła. 

  • Mizh nebom ta horamy (Mountains and heaven in between), dir. Dmytro Hreshko
  • Neskinchennistʹ za Florianom
    B (Infinity According to Florian), dir. Oleksiy Radynski
  • Plai (Плай Plai. A Mountain Path), dir. Eva Dzhyshyashvili
  • Privoz ( Привоз), dir. Eva Neymann

Traditionally national competition is the first program we announce. This year it was announced one day before Russia invaded Ukraine. – says Darya Bassel, programmer and head of industry at Docudays UA – In my introduction to the programme that was published on Docudays UA website I said: “This small, but extraordinarily powerful programme brings together the authors who see reality deeply, poignantly, with humour and love. And their work fills me with faith not only in the great future of our documentary filmmaking, but in the future in general.” And it still is.I am happy that these films will meet their audience on a big screen in Kijow cinema. I hope by the time of the screening our country will be free from Russian terrorists and we all can celebrate together and praise love, courage and freedom. I am extremely thankful to our colleagues from Krakow Film Festival for their support. 

I spent several hours watching these films with a heavy heart – concludes Krzysztof Gierat, director of the Krakow Film Festival. – They show Ukraine from before this criminal aggression, but the echoes of the war in Crimea are present there, and the threat to the entire country becomes increasingly real. It’s very painful when I try to imagine these places and these people now. I believe that we will show these films together with our friends from Kyiv and talk to their creators after the screenings. The presence of films, projects, and guests from Ukraine will be an expression of the Polish and international film community’s solidarity with our neighbours.

In addition, the latest Ukrainian documentary projects – which were to be presented to international industry representatives during Docudays UA in Kyiv – will be invited to participate in KFF Industry (event program for the film industry) and CEDOC Market (co-production market for Central and Eastern Europe organised by the Władysław Ślesicki Foundation).

Whole ticket sales income will be donated to the Docudays UA festival.

Artdocfest/Riga 2022

Press Release:

The 2nd International Documentary Film Festival Artdocfest/Riga starts this Thursday, March 3rd. As a sign of solidarity with Ukrainian colleagues and the people of Ukraine, the festival program includes a special selection of documentaries dedicated to Ukraine and telling about events since 2014.

The program dedicated to Ukraine includes 5 films. Directed by Iryna Tsilyk, The Earth is Blue as an Orange (2020) (PHOTO) tells about the efforts of a single mother and her four children living in the frontline zone of Donbass to preserve humanity by making a film about their life during the war. The film received a special award at the Artdocfest/Riga festival last year and won awards at many international festivals. The film Ukrainian Sheriffs (2016), directed by Roman Bondarchuk and co-produced by the Latvian film studio VFS Film, is a look at the recent history of Ukraine through the life of a small southern village. The program also includes the film Rodnye (Close relations) (2016) by Ukrainian-born director Vitaly Mansky. His family still lives there, and as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, its members had to make a choice, as a result of which some of them became implacable enemies. The film directed by Alisa Kovalenko Alisa in Warland (2015) is a very personal story about the director’s trip to the east of Ukraine at the beginning of the war, getting into hot front points and being captured by separatists. In turn, the film by Danish director Simon Lereng Wilmont The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017) touches on the theme of war and children and tells about the life of 10-year-old Oleg in eastern Ukraine, in the war zone.

The two competition programs of Artdocfest/Riga “Baltic Focus” and “Artdocfest” also include the Ukrainian-Latvian film This Rain Will Never Stop, in which the young Ukrainian director Alina Gorlova makes a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace.

“We were waiting for Alina in Riga, at the Latvian premiere of the film. Instead, she is now in Kyiv, experiencing the horrors of the Russian invasion and sleeping in a bomb shelter. The circle of active documentarians is relatively small, we are all well acquainted with each other, and what our friends and colleagues in Ukraine are now experiencing is incomprehensible and touches us very personally. That is why we decided to include films dedicated to Ukraine in the festival, and donate the proceeds, in cooperation with Lithuanian co-producers, to the heroes of the film The Earth is Blue as an Orange,” says festival producer Ieva Ubele about the decision made by the festival team.

Screenings of the Artdocfest/Riga festival will traditionally be held at the Splendid Palace cinema. Movie tickets can be purchased at the cinema box office or on the website www.splendidpalace.lv. The screenings will be organized in the “green mode” (upon presentation of a document certifying the fact of vaccination or previous Covid-19 disease).

The full program and detailed information about Artdocfest/Riga can be found here.

The international festival Artdocfest/Riga is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia and many international foundations. The partners of the festival are the American TV channel Current Time TV, the German TV channel Deutsche Welle and the cinema Splendid Palace.

Tomasz Wolski: 1970

Wolski is one of the excellent documentary film directors from Poland, together with Pawel Lozinski and Wojciech Staron and many many others. I say so from having seen ”Ordinary Country” (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4759/and now ”1970”.

Poland has a long tradition for documentaries and today there is – seen from outside – what I would call ”a documentary culture” that brings forward new talents, based on film schools, festivals, training initiatives, a film institute and broadcasters. Even if I don’t know how much political influence is executed from the latter nowadays?

I watched Wolski’s ”1970” the other day and was impressed by its originality in telling the story about the incidents in December 1970, where protests were performed strongly from citizens, who went to the streets due to extraordinary rise in prices for food and other everyday necessities, or on strike as did the workers at the shipyard cities up North. As in ”Ordinary Country”, Wolski uses archive – visual and oral, here recordings of tapes, authentic conversations by high‑ranking communist officials, in some dark rooms, a crisis group put together to lead a brutal battle against the demonstrators. The scoop is that the director has invited puppet maker Robert Sowa to make micro scale figurines of the group members to accompany the recordings. It works perfectly to have the story be dramatic, told by the communists and their voices in the dark rooms, and with the archive footage being quite strong; people were killed during the few days the rebellion lasted before it was knocked down.

To read more about the film go to

https://www.krakowfilmfestival.pl/en/new-issue-of-focus-on-poland/

the magazine Focus on Poland, where you will find a well illustrated case article on the film and its use of animation of the small puppets, size 20-28 cm. On how they were made etc. etc.

Focus on Poland is published by Krakow Film Foundation and with competence edited by two fine ladies, who are everywhere to promote Polish documentaries and animation films and who of course are closely linked to Krakow Film Festival: Barbara Orlicz-Szczyputa and Katarzyna Wilk.

Poland, 70 mins., 2021

IDFA Docs for Sale – Films

I have for years (decades?) benefited of having access to the Docs for Sale catalogue of IDFA to be kept up to date on new films as a programmer and first of all as one, who writes on this site, where time and energy does not allow me to review all the good films so here is some catch-up with some titles I have enjoyed and would like to recommend:

A Jewish Life

Direction Team: Christian Krönes, Florian Weigensamer, Christian Kermer, Roland Schrotthofer. Israel, Austria, 114 mins. 2021.

Catalogue: Marko Feingold, born in 1913, grew up in a Jewish working-class neighborhood of Vienna. Fateful twists and turns helped him survive the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Dachau and Buchenwald. After the War he (illegally) aided tens of thousands of survivors out of Europe to what would become Israel. At the age of 105, A Jewish Life is his story, in his own words shortly before his death. I was happy to meet this extraordinary man, who talks so well, with stunning archive in between. A true document.

The Balcony Movie

Director: Pawel Lozinski, Poland, 101 mins.

Catalogue: Can anyone be a movie hero? Can the world be locked in one film frame? Director Paweł Łoziński is watching people from his balcony as they are passing by: sad, thoughtful, glued to their phones, young and old. Neighbours, random visitors or simply passers-by. The filmmaker accosts them, asks questions, talks about how they deal with life. Standing there with his camera for over 2 years he has created a space for dialogue, a lay confessional of sorts, where everyone can stop by and tell their story. The protagonists carry secrets and mysteries, and are not easy to label. Every story is unique, and life always surpasses imagination. I saw this masterpiece for the second time on Docs For Sale, first time I had a link sent from the director – in this case I recommended the film to my colleagues at Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade, where the film will be screened in October this year.

Brotherhood

Director: Francesco Montagner, Czech Republic, 97 mins. 2021.

Catalogue: Jabir, Usama and Useir, are three young Bosnian brothers, born into a family of shepherds. They grew up in the shadow of their father, Ibrahim, a strict, radical Islamist preacher. When Ibrahim gets sentenced to two years in prison, for war participation and terrorism, the three brothers are suddenly left on their own. The absence of their father’s demands and strict commandments, changes their lives drastically. Brotherhood is an intimate exploration of the transition from youth to manhood, the search for identity, finding love and yourself. The film has so many of those „authentic now»s that editor Niels Pagh Andersen talks about in his book «Order in Chaos». I would add the importance of being multi-layered and not flat and fingerpointing at the father.

Cuban Dancer

Director : Roberto Salinas, 98 mins. Italy, 2021.

At 15 Alexis is already a promise of the Cuban National Ballet School when he discovers his family wants to move to the United States. Determined to continue dancing, Alexis will have to leave behind his teachers, his friends and his first love to get ahead in the difficult world of North American ballet, while yet staying true to his roots. I knew this film from different workshops and was happy to see the final result, full of life reminding us that documentaries are about people and that a film becomes better if the people are full of passion and energy and joy as this Cuban family is !

Writing With Fire

Directors : Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, India, 94 mins. 2021

In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions, be it on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues or within the confines of their homes, redefining what it means to be powerful. Oscar nominated, already awarded on several occasions, a film with protagonists you can only love for their courage and energy. 

www.idfa.nl

Magnus Gertten: Nelly & Nadine

 

“This is a film reel from April 28 1945…” beautiful material, black & white… of people arriving with the “white buses” to Malmö from German concentration camps. The third film by Swedish director Gertten digging into the 35mm footage bringing out of anonymity individuals as (title of the second one) “Every Face has a Name”. The director introduces the film with this first sentence of this paragraph. With a clear slowly put forward and precise voice. Stopping with the face of Nadine Hwang, one of the protagonists of this amazing love story about Nelly and Nadine, told by Sylvie Bianchi, the grandchild of Nelly.

That is one of the huge narrative successes of the film that Sylvie also becomes a protagonist with her own personality caught by the camera of Caroline Troedsson, who goes close to her face, when she step by step discovers the life of her beloved grandmother, whose life was never talked about at home for reasons that had to do with the love story betweeen Nelly and Nadine, two women. Sylvie’s mother did not like Nadine, it is being said.

Sylvie is such a wonderful person to have in the film. One thing is that she is the one who tells the story, another is that she is so much part of it: The camera catches her reluctance to open the big suitcase in the attic of the farm, her overcoming that obstacle, helped by her husband Christian, the farmer, her investigations in archives in Paris and Bruxelles, her listening to recordings of Nelly singing, her emotions watching the photos and the S8 films that was part of the huge written and visual inheritance from Nelly to her daughter ending up in the attic of a farm in Northern France. This farm (full of cats) and especially the fields are treated with love by the camera of Caroline Troedsson. 

Throughout the whole film the editor Jesper Osmund combines the landscape images with quotes from the diaries that Nelly wrote, full of love and poetic sentences. But also combined with b/w landscape images shot by legendary Belgian documentarian Henri Storck (”Borinage”), often connected to the diary paragraphs from the Ravensbrück camp, where Nelly and Nadine met each other one christmas, when Nadine asked Nelly to sing ”Un Bel di Vedremo” from Madame Butterfly. Just one of the many scoops late in the film: The image of the harvesting machine in the fields with Christian driving it to the music of Puccini. Marvellous.

Nadine came from the camp to Malmö without knowing if Nelly was alive, as the latter was taken from Ravensbrück to Mauthausen. They met again and settled in Caracas Venezuela, where they had a fine social life with parties according to the many photos with work in a bank and at the French embassy. This is where Nadine becomes a photographer as Nelly calls her and where they decide to put together in writing their experiences from the camps and their love to each other. They tried to have it published, in vain. (After the film, why not make a book as well, suggestion from this reviewer…). The numerous photographs taken by Nadine brings together a portrait of Nelly.

It’s an understatement to say that the film is rich. As well as saying that it is extremely well put together. Elegant montage, a true flow, you are never bored, care for the detail, taking its time, no hurry and using the old editing trick: give the necessary information but leave a lot open to be discovered as the love story unfolds. I was moved, had some tears in the eyes, when Sylvie was moved.

PS. Languages, how lovely to hear Swedish, French, Spanish and English in the same film. PLEASE PLEASE don’t make stupid dubbed versions. Respect for languages!

Sweden, 2022, 92 mins.

And links to reviews of the two previous films in the trilogy:

”Every Face Has a Name” (2015)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3084/

“Harbour of Hope” (2011)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/1778/

Docpoint Finest Market 22

The festival in Helsinki is running until the 6th of February with a national and international competition, a Finnish and an international selection, a retrospective of the master Pirjo Honkasalo – it’s all very good in terms of films to be shown – from Kurdish-Swedish Hogir Hirori’s strong ”Sabaya”, winner of several awards, to Pawel Lozinski’s original ”Balcon Movie” and the much talked about Indian ”Writing With Fire” by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh with brave female reporters, who have started a newspaper against all gender and official power odds. The best of the best the festival have tried to collect without having any exclusive restrictions like world premiere or alike.

I am not in Helsinki but have accreditation to the FinEst Market until the 13th of February inviting me to watch Fin-nish and Est-onian completed doc features, or short films or ”Works in Progress”. Very well presented, easy to operate. Good initiative, hope many will use it.

I went to ”Works in Progress” to watch a couple of projects that I knew from other pitching sessions as this is also meant as a pitching with clips from the films to come and comments from director and producer:

„The Long War” is the upcoming film by Russian Alina Rudnitskaya produced by Finnish veteran Pertti Veijalainen. The 23 minutes material shown demonstrates Rudnitskaya’s cinematic skills having long sequences letting the patriotism come forward through youngsters and kids, who swear their loyalty to the fatherland as does the archbishop (?) at one of the stations, where the war-train with material taken back from Syria stops. Rudnitskaya has a long, very strong sequence, where soldiers visit a grave of a fallen colleague taking off their headgear, placing a rose, hugging the parents. I am sure this will be a good film.

I also have great sympathy for ”The Cello” by Kira Jääskeläinen, who travels to places where the old cello she found in a container (!) must have/could have been, tracing its origin and journey through the 20th century. Making the director come back to play the instrument as she had been doing before. It’s a long way, she wants to go finding archive that fits but she will take her time and allow surprises to come forward in a project that is very original and promising.

One more that I did not know in beforehand: Suvi West and Anssi Kömi’s ”Homecoming”, fascinating because of the women in the film, who in museums in Finland and around Europe are looking for Sami heritage. What I saw was a very fresh and emotional in tone depiction of colonialism.

https://watch.eventive.org/docpointfinestmarket2022