OFF Odense Film Festival/1

The 25th edition of the festival in Odense, Denmark takes place 23-28. August. There are many reasons to congratulate the municipality of Odense for keeping alive this film festival for all these years in spite of constant battles to raise the necessary funding. The 2010  festival, as it is being presented on its site, see address below (programme both in Danish and English), is communicated with a lot of fresh energy and proudness, now with a focus on the short film as it looks today, the one for the big screen and the one for the internet via YouTube etc. I switch to Danish language in this posting as well as in the one below, which is a tour down memory lane for this blogger.

Programmet er omfattende med den internationale konkurrence i centrum. Det er animation og fiktion og dokumentar, og det er film fra filmskoler verden over og fra lande som Finland, Canada og Frankrig, som stadig dyrker den trængte filmgenre professionelt. Programmerne er delt ind i temaer, desværre med besynderlige overskrifter som ”inderlig eksistens”, ”ejendommelig eksistens” og ”intet er som det syner” m.fl. Sælger det billetter til et ungt publikum?

Måske er det lige meget for der plejer at være fuldt hus i Odense til festivalen, der nu overalt i sin branding slår på at være OFF mainstream, et valg som også slår igennem i valget af nogle fremragende internationale dokumentarer. Publikum kan se ”RIP – A Remix Manifesto”, Ulrich Seidl’s controversial ”Tierische Liebe”  og ”Crumb” af Terry Zwigoff. Og så er der et pitching arrangement for kortfilm, YouTube konkurrence, masse af aktiviteter for børn og unge osv osv. Bravo!… Photo from the short film thriller “Kitchen Sink” by Alison MacLean, Australia, one of the many eternal hits (from 1989) from the retrospective festival section.

OFF Odense Film Festival/2

En lille tur ned ad Memory Lane: Klokken er fem, sagde festivaldirektøren, så er det tid til en kold øl. Der havde vi 4-5 udvælgere siddet fra morgenstunden i et af kommunens mødelokaler og set bunker af kortfilm tilsendt fra hele verden. Direktøren hed Jørgen Roos, dansk kort- og dokumentarfilms største navn (1922-98). Fra 1985 og 12 år frem var han leder af festivalen, og havde folk som journalist Mogens Damgaard, filmkonsulent Ulrich Breuning og undertegnede til at hjælpe sig med at sammensætte et program, der havde et højt kunstnerisk niveau og samtidig var overraskende, fantasifuldt og eventyrligt. For det skulle det være for en festival, der foregik – og foregår – i H.C. Andersens by, den forfatter som samme Jørgen Roos nåede at lave flere film om. (”Mit livs eventyr” og ”Andersen hos fotografen” er med i en antologi, som er tilgængelig via filmstriben.dk). Vi så film i en uge og hvert år udspilledes det samme lille drama efter et par dage. Jørgen Roos sukkede og erklærede, at der nok ikke blev en festival i år for der var ikke film nok af høj kvalitet! Det var hans ene holdning, der ofte var præget af at vi i timevis kunne rende ind i en stime af amerikanske universitetsfilm, som var mere eller mindre håbløst umodne jokes. Den anden holdning var filminstruktørens generøse indstilling til sin métier – jamen, tænk at han/hun har arbejdet i et år eller mere på sin film, og den er måske ikke helt vellykket men der er vilje og ambition og talent… der kom et par film fra Uruguay og Ecuador med på den konto! Den frie film kæmpede Jørgen Roos for, den film der ikke skulle igennem rækker af tv-redaktører eller filmkonsulenter, den film der var personlig og modig. Og helst på film, 35 eller 16mm, tænk, sagde han engang med henvisning til videoens fremmarch, tænk på den dag, hvor vi ikke længere kan se ridser på lærredet, hvor det hele er sterilt! Jeg tror, han ville have hadet YouTube for det lille billede og (ofte) manglen på æstetisk overvejelse, men han ville have glædet sig over at her lever den frie film i bedste velgående.

Magdalena Pieta: Planet Kirsan

I have never heard about Kalmykia before. Have you? I checked it: An autonomous republic it is, member of the SNG, close friends to Russia with ONE leader, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who himself was a chess champion and wants to turn his country into a country for chess players, masters of the game. Around 300.000 inhabitants, and ” a nearly empty desert the size of Scotland” (according to an article in New Yorker)

Demographic and political Information is not the subject of Magdalena Pieta’s film. She goes mostly for the chess and the children. Politics is in the background shown through huge official ceremonies and parades, sometimes intercut with the chess games and preparations, that form the foreground of a film that is surprising and fascinating to watch. First of all because of the filmic qualities and the quite challenging structure of the film. It has no real classical narrative to go from, and yet there is a red thread that takes the viewer with and to a tournament for a couple of kids, who she follows and sometimes gets pretty close to. She catches dialogues, faces, emotions and she conveys the extreme competitive atmosphere. That is the hard reality for the kids. ”Only winning matters” as it is being said by one of the tough charismatic teachers of Alekhan and Amir. They win and they lose. They cry and they laugh. Intruding into this docu observation is a little girl wearing a hat as a chess brick. She is not noticed, she is visible for the viewer but not for the ones in the picture.

The sound of the film contributes to this fairy tale tone that is the aim of the director. Almost through the whole film you hear the wind of the steppes that surround the chess city, Elista is the name. Combined with the presence of the small girl and the excellent wordless close-ups of the kids, you sense the kind of fascination that has been the motivation for the director to go there. And the surrealistic feel she must have had being there. And, yes, the one responsible for the construction of this dreamerish situation, Kirsan himself is being interviewed. Or rather he talks, about chess. ”When everything else might change, chess remains”, he says with a smile. Charisma, he has.

Poland, 2010, 50 mins.

http://www.dokweb.net/en/ex-oriente-film/upcoming-films/-planet-kirsan-166/?off=30 (trailer9

Zeljko Mirkovic: I will Marry the Whole Village

If you think you have read about films by Mirkovic from Serbia before, you are right! He has developed a special touch in documentary filmmaking and he chooses subjects that appeal not only to a local audience but also internationally for tv. Like this new one from the productive director and producer, an edited quote from his site:           

”The village of Matejevac, in the south of Serbia, has over 300 unmarried men (almost one third of the men living there). The village is only a ten-minute drive from the city of Niš with the population of around 400,000 citizens, but the women there do not want to live in the countryside… Peca, an unmarried accordion player, has decided to take the matter into his own hands and to carry out a great project aiming at marrying the young and old by attracting women to the village. And to get married himself in the end.”

The film is full of humour, Peca is a sympathethic character, and nice music is the element that binds the story together with a classic storyteller, who addresses the camera directly. As do the bachelors when they make their small promotion video. There is a bit of amateur comedy in the film when Peca goes around to do publicity for his mission. It is all together light-hearted and joyful to watch. They get together, the men and the women, they have fun, they sing and dance, and drink… and Peca, a text at the end says, continues to matchmake.

Serbia, 2010, 57 mins.

http://www.optimisticfilm.com/eprojekti.html

Tomás Kudrna: All that Glitters

It is a very rich film that Czech director and journalist Kudrna has made from post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan. From the gold mine Kumtor, co-owned by a Canadian company. The creative documentary elements are obvious. Cinematography is stunning – there is a standpoint already here: If you want to make a film about man destroying nature, you have to make it magic and beautiful to watch. It is, indeed. Characters match each other perfectly – the tractor driver/obedient worker Nurbek, the local boss/mediator to the Canadian management Kerim and the doctor/social activist Baktigul. Around them there are several important side characters, including the Canadian director of the gold mine. And the narrative line is clear – slowly Kudrna, showing his journalistic skills, gets more and more into the core of the story. By insisting and by being there for a long time, doors are opened and he can go deeper and deeper.

In the beginning he is not allowed to film at the mine. Then he is being ”given” Nurbek as the super worker, you may follow him, he was told. He does and is able to open up Nurbek, to make him a human being and not just a tool for propaganda. This happens very much by including Nurbek’s wife, who also works at the mine and who is vey much in doubt about their participation in

the film. Her point is that if they say something positive about the mine, they will be met with criticism from their neighbours (who are already jealous because of their relative wealthiness), and if they something bad, they will get problems with their superiors at the mine. The theme of what to say and what not grows gradually in the film.

Kerim was already at Soviet time a leader. He is energetic and does not refrain from involving himself in heavy discussions on camera, especially with the doctor Baktigul, who is the link to the fatal cyanide accidents that happened at the mine more than 10 years ago – as well as she is the one, who fights for better social conditions for her fellow citizens in the town. She points at the responsibility of Kumtor in this respect. AND they do help, the Canadians, to a certain degree, and make a lot of publicity out of this when for instance Kerim hands out gifts and money to WW2war veterans!

Kudrna tells his story in an unusual way. He does not use a spoken commentary. In the beginning I was doubtful if it would work with the first person texts on black, but you get used to it as the film develops and are happy that images and action can unfold without a voice-off. And you are never uncertain about the open-minded, respectful and yet critical position of the director – you hear him once in a while put questions, and you hear the characters address him. At the end of the film he turns brilliantly to Kerim and Nurbek and make them dialogue about if it would have consequences if Nurbek were critical to Kumtor. (I am very curious to hear IF the film has had any consequences for any of the three main characters?)

The bigger political and business frame is also in the film. The president of the republic, Bakiyev (who is now ex-p after the riots in the country in April this year) is in the film as well as the president of the Canadian company, who agrees to an interview, is sympathetic but also very careful about what he says. There is money in all that glitters and you don’t want to lose the contract with the government in a post-soviet country that in many ways still act as was it a Soviet republic.

A character driven, informative and creative investigation into the conflict between man and nature, between business and environment, between profit and social security, told through engaging characters, who live in a new system, or do they? Yes, rich it is, this film, rasing questions, giving no easy answers, a real documentary!

Czech Republic, 2010, 99 mins.

http://www.catndocs.com/

http://www.dokweb.net/en/documentary-network/articles/film-of-the-week-all-that-glitters-1014 (trailer)

Last Train Home i Cinemateket

The Danish Cinemateket, that is part of the Danish Film Institute, and works from the Film House in the centre of Copenhagen, shows many documentaries (at one or two screenings) in their fine monthly programme. Recently, Cinemateket, the festival cph:dox and EDN (European Documentary Network) has decided to go one step fuether to introduce a regular “Documentary of the Month”, having one film run for a week with several screenings. First title is “Last Train Home” by Lixin Fang. It is shown in Cinemateket September 9-15. Here follows a repost of the Danish language review of Allan Berg on this site. Berg saw the film at Cinema du Réel this year in March:

Åbningen er voldsom indtryksfuld. Set fra en høj kran skildrer kameraet en mængde kinesere – jeg ved jo i forvejen, det er kinesere, men ville heller ikke være i tvivl – det regner, alle farvers paraplyer ses deroppefra og kinesernes tøj som pletter af kulør. Denne uforglemmelige mumlen af folkemængde høres sagte, men den stiger til højdepunktet af larm samtidig med, at kameraet udvider beskæringen af billedet, og mængdens antal vokser og vokser. Det er en uoverskuelig mængde. Det må være alle kinesere samlet. Det land er forfærdende stort, jeg føler jeg drukner.

Det er snart nytår og nytårsfesten er familiens fest. Millioner af arbejdere i byen skal hjem til familien i landsbyerne. Hundreder af kilometre. Og de skal jo alle hjem på én gang. Det er dette sceneri, filmen skildrer. Vi følger et ægtepar, som arbejder på en meget stor systue, hvor der sys blå jeans til eksport. De lever der, yderst beskedent og midlertidigt i årevis. Børnene er hjemme i landsbyen hos farmoderen. Én gang om året rejser de hjem. Det er til nytårsfesten. Og det er nu, de befinder sig et sted nede i mængden som to

farvede pletter blandt tusinder og venter på at blive lukket ud på perronerne til togene. Til det sidste tog hjem. Arbejdet på fabrikken, kampen om pladsen i toget, samværet i familien. Det er filmens hele indhold – men en meget stor rigdom af iagttagelse og forståelse er arbejdet ind i skildringen. 

Filmen har disse to blik, det store oversigtlige fra oven, hvor alle venter på at blive lukket ind på perronen, og politi og militær forsøger at holde orden i det angstfyldte. Beskytte den enkelte ser vi. For kameraet, som er vokset ud i den svimlende oversigt fra det nære, vender tilbage til det nære. Det er filmens andet blik. Med det er vi er nede i flokken, nede hos parret, som er vores medvirkende, medvidere. Her er kampen mod angsten, for trygheden. Og trygheden er indkomsten, som kan opretholde hjemmet ude på landet ved den smukke flod og hønen med kyllingerne omkring sig som dengang, som altid. Det nære blik er titlens andet led, det hjemlige.

Men der er ingen nåde. I en ro af smukke, sceniske fastholdelser demonstreres opløsningen af de gamle værdier. Højdepunktet er dels et voldsomt slagsmål mellem far og datter – og senere en lang samtale mellem kvinden og manden tilbage i storbyboligen. To slags kammerspil i en række. Store, lange filmscener, som klippet føjer sammen og hviler i.

Det er forbavsende, at dette tilværelsens overblik, denne gennemarbejdede film er instruktørens første. Fan Lixin har også lavet lyden og det imponerende kameraarbejde. Han er født kinesisk, uddannet i Canada.

Fan Lixin: Last Train Home, Canada 2009, 87min.Manuskript, fotografi og lyd: Fan Lixin, klip: Mary Stephens. Produceret af Eyesteel Films, distribution: Cats & Docs  

http://www.eyesteelfilm.com/lasttrainhome

info@catdocs.com 

EU Support for Creative Documentaries

The importance of the EU MEDIA Programme for the creative documentary can not be underestimated. Since 1990 the countries, who are members of the EU (plus now also countries like Norway, Switzerland and Croatia), have been able to achieve funding for the development of documentaries as well getting non-repayable grants through the so-called TV Broadcasting scheme, where the applying production companies can get a financing that can go up to 20% of their production budget.

A list has just been published announcing ”the winners” of the March application deadline for the mentioned TV broadcasting. 17 documentaries are on the list, only 3 feature films and 3 animation! Must say something about the international potential of documentaries as no films projects are selected if they do not have a good handful of broadcasters committed on paper to either a coproduction or a prebuy of the finished film.

It takes a lot of energy, markets and pitching sessions to get these necessary commitments, that often are only from 2-10.000€ for a pre-buy of a film project, but if you have the good handful of projects you are eligible for the MEDIA support, which is a fine addition to local film funding. Example: The Danish Film Institute has a yearly budget for creative documentaries of around 3.5 mio.€. In this round MEDIA support was given to 3 Danish companies with a total of around 400.000€ (Final Cut with 160.000€ for Freemen, Zentropa with 130.000€ for The Ambassador and Danish Documentary Production with 116.000€ for Love Addiction (director Pernille Rose Grønkjær, director of award winning ”The Monastery”)). Danish documentaries have big budgets, in other countries it is much less – great it is, on the list, to see a very promising film project, “Larger than Life” (photo) about the Latvian theatre phenomenon Alvis Hermanis to be directed by Latvian Gints Grube. He and his company Mistrus Media achieved 16.000€, which is almost 20% of their budget.

http://www.mediafrance.eu/spip.php?article137

Baltic Sea Forum in Riga

Documentarians meet in Riga at the beginning of September. The Baltic Sea Forum includes a meeting for professionals – film projects will be presented to broadcasters, mostly by filmmakers from the region. But the Forum – organised by National Film Centre of Latvia – also invites the Riga audience to see new documentaries at the cinema K.Suns. It starts September 8 with the Dutch film ”The Erectionman” by Michael Schaap and ”Beauty Refugee” by Claudia Lisboa from Sweden. Later that night the mega-success ”Waltz with Bashir” (photo) by Israeli Ari Folman is screened. Check what we wrote on this site.

The festival runs until September 12 and has the theme ”Footprints in the Future”. The audience may thus also enjoy Danish Michael Madsen’s ”Into Eternity” and the American ”Future by Design”. For the politically interested Riga citizens two strong documentaries are offered – ”Bananas” by Fredrik Gertten (many times noticed on this site) and ”Russian Lessons” by Andrei Nekrasov, a film on the Russian-Georgian war.

This minifestival as well as the Forum is always a joyful event with young talent and experienced competence and (this year) an old time master as Ivars Seleckis, who wants to make a follow-up to his two previous works from a street in Riga: ”Crossroad Street” and ”New Times at Crossroad Street”. For Riga citizens and visitors: The films will be shown in their original language with subtitles in English and translation into Latvian.Tickets Ls 2.10. Forum participants, children, students, pensioners and film professionals can view the films free of charge, obtaining free passes at the Cinema K.Suns box office prior to the screening time.

http://www.mediadesklatvia.eu/baltic-sea-forum-for-documentaries-2010/

The Spirit of Robert Flaherty

The tenth edition of the festival “Flahertiana” takes place in Perm, Russia October 14-20. The selection for the competition programme (including of course several “Nanook” prizes) has been announced, and it is a pleasure to see a list of films that communicate quality. At least this is what I conclude from the titles that I know and have written about on this site: Pawel Lozinski’s Chemo (photo), Mika Ronkainen’s “Freetime Machos”, Lixin Fan’s “Last Train Home” and “Village Without Women” by Srdan Sarenac from Serbia. A text from the website of the festival:

“The more your work corresponds to real life, the better it seems…” — these words said by Dürer, an artist of the Renaissance, are the most laconic expression of the aesthetic conception of the film festival Flahertiana.Our festival is dedicated to films which show a character that lives on the screen a part of his life, directed by the author according to the laws of dramatic art. The first film of this genre, Nanook from the North, was made by Robert Flaherty in 1922. The film became the aesthetical manifest for the subsequent generations of cinema-makers.

Unlike his colleague from the Soviet Union Dziga Vertov, who at that time experimented a lot with montage, working out the type of screen thinking which we now call clip, Flaherty was focused on a prolonged observation of his characters. The naturalness of a documentary character’s behavior in front of the camera is the main task of the film-director who works in the genre discovered by the American documentary film-maker. Our festival is dedicated to practical and theoretical questions of this genre of the documentary cinema.”

http://flahertiana.perm.ru/eng/

Werner Herzog films for Purchase

Herzog is – mostly due to this blog’s Allan Berg – a true admirer of the work of the German director – one of the most noticed and praised names of this site. If you write his name in the ”search”, you get 33 hits. From being an arthouse feature film director known for extravagance and his work with legendary Klaus Kinski, he is now (also) a hit among documentary lovers, even if he would not accept to be a documentarian as his many joyful ”attacks” on the direct cinema people have shown.

Anyhow, it is now not difficult to get hold of his films, dvd boxes have been published, download is possible and festivals are making retrospectives of his work. AND the director is still enormously productive. Recently the upcoming Toronto IFF announced the world premiere of a new Herzogian piece – ”Cave of forgotten Dreams”, the title of a film that offers an ”exclusive access to the Chauvet caves of southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting. He (Herzog, ed.) puts 3-D technology to a profound use, taking us back in time over 30,000 years.”

Indiepixfilms is the one that now offers a Werner Herzog Collection for purchase. Mostly of his feature films but also including a neo-classic documentary as ”Little Dieter Needs to Fly”. (dvd – Region 1).

www.indiepixfilms.com