DOC Meeting Argentina/3

There were 24 film projects to be pitched to the panel of tv representatives, see below. And on top of that the organisers had reserved two mornings, where another 40 projects and their producers/directors could have one-to-one meetings with tv commissioners and buyers as well as sales agents. They made it work, quite a mathematic puzzle, Rodrigo Vila and his staff. Quite impressive – and they want to make DOC Meeting the biggest and most important market meeting place for documentarians in Latin America. I can’t see why they should not succeed with their competence and energy.

Back to the projects (sorry can only mention a handful of them, check the website) which were indeed quite as diverse as the many kind of subjects for documentaries which exist. It was joyful to hear about and watch a clip with ”Violeiros du Grotoes” by Brasilian couple Mario de Aratanha and Jeanne Duarte about the 10-string guitar and its arrival to Brasil with the Portuguese, a film that first of all will be about the legends and stories linked to the instrument. Also about music, but from a social angle is the Argentinian ”The Other Colon Theatre Art and Social Transformation” by Adolfo Cabanchik, who has shot 90% of his film that gives you emotional strong portraits of children from poor areas, who got an identity and a better life because of music. The best pitch award, however, a nice bottle of champagne, was deservedly given to Eliza Capai from Brasil. For six months she had been travelling Africa, on her own, bringing back stunning moving images to make into two versions (54 and 70 mins.) for the film ”African Women”.

Original in approach is the film proposal of Agustina Macri, ”Carnacalypse”, in which she wants to investigate, in a fake-documentary style, what could happen if there was no more meat in Argentina! The director goes for a feature length documentary to be produced by Fly Films in Buenos Aires. One of the most praised proposals was the ballet film by Juan Alvarez, presented by himself and the producer Virginia Bogliolo, both from Montevideo in Uruguay. The film is about Julio Bocca, world famous dancer, who has retired and dedicates his working life to the renaissance of ”an old forgotten National Ballet theatre”. The clip that was shown demonstrated an unusual director talent. Finally time to mention the presence of Finnish Kimmo Koskela about the artist Kimmo Pohjonen and his ”Ice Bellows”. Contrary to what many thought, including this blogger, the cinematic quality and the origiality of the artist convinced several panelists that they had to get involved even if the project is as far away from main stream television as it can be.

http://www.cineviola.com.br/

http://elizacapai.com/about/mais-dela/

www.flyfilms.com.ar

http://www.koskela.tv/home_koskela_art_media_ house_production_production_service.html

http://www.docmeeting.com.ar/english.php

DOC Meeting Argentina/2

”The first step for your doc” was the slogan for the very succesful pitching forum and conference held in Buenos Aires during the last three days. And for many of the film projects that was presented it was a very fine first step according to the reactions from a panel of tv representatives, which for me – an experienced forum participant – was refreshingly new. The Argentinian television Encuentro was there, two Brasilian channels (GNT-Globo and TV Cultura) took part, Colombian (RTVC), Venezuelan (Telesur) and Mexican (Canal22) made their voices hear as well as Turner LatAm and NatGeo LatAm. Of course it was obvious to have these channels for a meeting of filmmakers from Latin America, more surprising and impressive was it to see Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, Press TV from Iran, a sales agent from Magus Entertainment in India and from China, LIC. Of the ”usual suspects” in professional meetings like this the two American PBS representatives Tom Koch from WGBH and Simon Kilmurry from P.O.V. contributed as well as Lorenzo Hendel from RAI in Italy.

The pitching session included 24 film projects and both days had a full house of filmmakers (more than a hundred), who wanted to experience the dialogue between those who have the creative ideas and those who look for docs for their tv slots. The general reactions from the panelists were positive and sentences like ”let me see a rough cut” and ”we will buy it when it is finished” were often heard, but from what I heard from the individual business meetings on the third day, a handful of coproductions were also planned to happen.

I had the privilige to moderate the pitching session together with colleague Mikael Opstrup. Photo fom the PBS/POV supported documentary “Presumed Guilty” (Hernandez, Negrete and Smith) that was shown at DOC Meeting.

http://www.docmeeting.com.ar/english.php

Janus Metzs forbilleder

Vi skal diskutere Armadillo i min FOF filmklub på onsdag. Og vi vil se på de mulige filmiske forbilleder, fotografens og instruktørens, som så forbavsende udtrykkeligt er offentliggjort, 2 x 3 titler på film, hvoraf fem tidligere har været på filmklubbens program, og de har da også været anmeldt her på Filmkommentaren. Så jeg vil kalde det interessante oplysninger. Lars Skree røbede sine i Politiken 3. juli, og det skrev jeg om dengang. De tre film han nævnte var Tarkovskijs Stalker (vi har i filmklubben i stedet set Spejlet), Pirjo Honkasalos The three Rooms of Melancholia og Ari Folmans Waltz of Bashir. Og nu har Janus Metz i dagbladet 24Timer den 16. september givet tre bud på en god dokumentarfilm (som jeg tillader mig at opfatte som hans forbilleder sideordnet Skrees tre). Han peger i et lille interview på Man on Wire af James Marsh, Grizzly Man af Werner Herzog og Nede på jorden af Max Kestner. Han karakteriserer de tre film sådan:

”Forrige års oscar-vinder er en enestående og super spændende film om Philippe Petit, der kupper de to Twin Towers for at gå på line mellem dem. Filmen indeholder på mange måder essensen af kunst, da den tilbyder sublime øjeblikke af uforklarlig skønhed, en nærhed til døden og måske endda vanviddet. Og så er man skidegodt underholdt.”

”Filmen er et portræt af en mand, der vil være bjørn, og om grænsen mellem kultur og natur. Herzog er en af de få med en god fortællerstemme, der vækker undren frem for at påtvinge tilskueren en konklusion. Han udvider billederne og tilbyder en ny læsning af det, der umiddelbart foregår.”

”Denne her film fik mig til at ville lave dokumentarfilm. Den handler om en redningsbådsfabrik i Esbjerg, som skal flytte dele af produktionen til Thailand. Filmen indeholder en art poetisk socialrealisme, hvor magiske fiktive greb blander sig med virkeligheden. Det er en enorm smuk og virkelig sjov film, hvor man møder fabriksarbejderne i øjenhøjde.”

Disse tre valg kaster i lighed med Skrees tidligere naturligvis lys over den filmiske baggrund for Armadillo, Metz peger på ”skønhed, dødsnærhed og vanvid” (Man on Wire), ”undren uden konklusion” (Grizzly Man) og ”en art poetisk socialrealisme” (Nede på jorden). Det uddyber, det han mente, da han i Cannes vist nok kaldte filmen et filosofisk værk. Alvorlig meditation og ansvarlig journalistik.

Greg Barker: Sergio

Jeg går selvfølgelig til en film, som den kloge Nick Fraser har medproduceret til sit BBC Storyville, som det virkeligt vigtige DR2 Dokumania sender, som blev nomineret til Academy Award tidligere i år, som, så vidt jeg kan google mig frem til, er vel modtaget af en erfaren kritik, en biografisk film om den legendarisk sympatiske FN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello (tidligere blandt meget, meget andet højkommisær for menneskerettigheder og senest, i 2003, generalsekretærens særlige repræsentant i Irak) – jeg går til den film med temmelig store forventninger.

Og ok, jeg var limet til skærmen alle filmens hundrede minutter. Det er en spændende film, helt elementært, medrivende, overlegent gennemført efter den vestlige (britisk-nordamerikanske) fortællemodel med interviewede vidners erindringer og bedømmelser illustreret med et stort, stort arvivmateriale. Her tillige forsynet med en omfattende rekonstruktion, som dominerer fremstillingen totalt. Og det er i mine øjne netop filmens problem.

Den skaffer sig fortællemæssig fremdrift i den biografiske skildring ved at opdele redningsaktionen efter bombeattentatet mod FN hovedkvarteret i Bagdad, hvor blandt mange de Mello blev dræbt, i en dramatisk række episoder med især to redningsfolks beretning om det forgæves forsøg på at få ham ud levende. Store dele af billedsiden til dette lag er rekonstruerede scener. Det finder jeg i sig selv ikke problematisk. Det er hele elementets størrelse, som jeg oplever vælte filmen. Men måske vil den ikke være biografi?

Tilsyneladende vil den i virkeligheden være en heltehistorie om en hybrid af Bond og Kennedy, som det udtrykkes i et af interviewene. Og helten er flot og dygtig og handlekraftig, tror vi, ja tror, for det bliver på overfladen som i en underholdnings love story. Måske fordi det skal være netop en sådan kærlighedshistorie med en udvikling i en actionlinje. Og det er da ok, det holder jeg fint til.. Men jeg bliver jo skuffet af de forventninger, jeg kunne af af kombinationen Nick Fraser, Dokumania og Sergio de Mellos politiske sværvægt. Skuffet når jeg får underholdningens politiske moralisering, fortællemæssige manipulering samt intellektuelle nivellering og sentimentalisering i stedet for den håndfaste kerne af samfundsmæssig viden, kunstnerisk nøgternhed og udfordrende tænkning, som jeg egentlig synes Sergio de Mello har fortjent i en egentlig filmbiografi.

Greg Barker: Sergio, UK og USA 2009. 100 min. Baseret på Samantha Powers de Mello-biografi Chasing the Flame, 2008. DR2 Dokumania i aftes. Den i høj grad seværdige film kan pt. fanges på DR2  

DOC Meeting Argentina 2010

The first spring day in Buenos Aires, Argentina: Cool it is, was much warmer yesterday, and rain will come, says the receptionist of the hotel. I am here with Danish colleague Mikael Opstrup to tutor at a workshop for 24 filmmakers, who are to pitch their project in a couple of days. Always great to meet new people and new ways of documentary storytelling, some of them breaking the tyranny of narration, but also many who confirms that there is an international structure for telling stories.

The DOC Meeting was founded in 2007 by Guillermo Rossi, who is leading it together with Rodrigo Vila, producer and director of documentaries. The content of the Meeting can be checked at the website, it is actually impressive what they have been able to build in a few years – this year also including screening of films, among them a good selection of Finnish documentaries. Photo: Steam of Life.

The following is taken from the site of DOC Meeting Argentina: … a space devoted to documentaries meant to encourage the construction of networks among cinematography and television industry professionals, at the national,

regional and international levels; the development of projects under process; the creation of an area for the discussion of different strategies for co-production, marketing and distribution of the documentary genre; and, undoubtedly, a business area created to market documentaries filmed in various formats.

DOC Meeting Argentina 2010 Edition will have a three-day duration and is geared to cinema and television producers, leaders of state-owned or private national and international television networks, filmmakers and television producers, public officials, cultural managers, lawyers, educators and other film and television industry-related professionals.

DOC Meeting Argentina is divided into three distinct sections:

Conferences, Workshops and Seminars. Two-day duration. Representatives of television networks and co-production funds and forums, among other professionals, will be presenting lectures on topics such as co-production, acquisitions, distribution, new technologies, legislation and copyright.

One On One Meetings. One-day duration. A business roundtable will be held as part of DOC Meeting Argentina. In this roundtable, producers, buyers and sellers will have a chance to show their projects – completed or under development – to co-producers, television representatives and organizations.

Pitching Forum. In DOC Meeting Argentina, producers and/or directors will have a chance to present their projects to a group of 12 Commissioning Editors (representatives of international television networks who are responsible for the co-production or pre-purchase of documentaries), with the intention of receiving international financing for their projects. Twenty-four projects will be selected.

http://www.docmeeting.com.ar/english.php

La Bombonera

What a show! Film producer and organiser of the DocMeeting Argentina, Rodrigo Vila, has invited me to go and see a match at the home ground of the football club with most caps in the world, Boca Juniors. The name is Bombonera and for the visitor it is a view of constant action. When we arrived the reserve team was playing, before the match the world champion female hockey players took a round on the pitch to be celebrated by the fans. A man who decades ago was playing for Boca got an applause and a silver plate for his contribution. And – the most spectacular and hearable – the 12th player behind one of the goals were singing and jumping up and down – they did so for the 90 minutes of the match.

The match itself was a one man show. Far from the style of Messi, who has often been written about on this site, Martin Palermo, number 9, is a typical centreforward. They don’t make them like that any longer… 37 years young, Palermo, THE darling of the Bombonera from the moment he entered the pitch saluting his audience, a real star, made all three goals that led to the victory of Boca against Colon. As the captain of the team, Palermo constantly encouraged his team mates, and was the first one to run to thank the man who gave him the assists to score the goals. Palermo even contributed to the entertainment by missing a penalty. A personality, a gentleman and a visit to a stadium and an experience that no tv transmission can beat. Palermo was brought to Boca Juniors by Diego Maradona, who else.

If I should argument for this text to be on a (documentary) film blog, I want to quote my host Vila, who said that the life of Palermo is like a film. From the good to the bad to the good… From scoring the most impossible goals, and then in the next moment breaking his leg or knee, and to him publicly demonstrating his private life by kissing a tattoo on his arm, when he scores, three times yesterday, a tattoo made to never forget his son who died at birth. Paleeeeeermo!

http://www.bocajuniors.com.ar/home/sitio

Political Film Group Argentina

Sunday in Buenos Aires. As hundreds of other we decide to pay a visit to the St. Telmo market. At the main street of the market I see a stand with videos, and many of the covers are familiar to me. There are films by Glauber Rocha, Alea, Solanas and many others, all of them dealing with political resistance, and some of them classics in the history of documentary cinema. I try to get into a dialogue with the man at the stand (my Spanish is pretty limited) and understand that he represents an activist film group called Alavio. I buy some films and go home and find their website. That has an English language page from where the small quote below comes. It seems, however, that the website is not updated any longer. The other one, Agore Tv, is in Spanish and includes news, clips and a reference to available films.

Grupo Alavio is the name, they state that they have been participating in working class struggles for over 10 years. ”As activists struggling for social revolution, the debate of whether the reach of the camera is enough is an inevitable discussion”.

Photo from Glauber Rocha’s “Terra em transe”.

http://www.revolutionvideo.org/alavio/englishhome.html

http://www.agoratv.org/

Brassaï in Buenos Aires

Brassaï, original name Gyula Halász, is on exhibition in Buenos Aires. The photographer was one of many famous artists, who lived and worked in Paris, more specifically in Montparnasse (he lived from1899-1984). The National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, of many called the Paris of South America, has set up a small fine exhibition that lasts till the end of this week. The Brassaï photos include sections called ”Paris at Night”, ”Paris Nightlife” (see the photo of Madame Bijou!), ”Surrealism” and ”Picasso”, a close friend who loved to have his picture taken.

If you agree to a simplification and divide the documentary genre into ”the observational” and ”the staged”, Brassaï is definitely one who belongs to the latter, where his later compatriot, Cartier-Bresson, always talked about ”catching the moment”. It is pure delight to see the dreamerish and playful compository night photos of Brassaï, always seeking the balance between light and dark, as well as the portraits of the heroes of the nightlife, like the Madame!

There is an excellent directory to his work on

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/brassai.html

Jakob Rosenkrands: Jagten på de røde lejesvende

Erhard Jakobsen fik udtrykket indflettet i det danske sprog. Vi ved godt, hvad der er tale om, ved hvem de er, disse DR medarbejdere dengang. Men, men hvad ligger der i udtrykket? Hvori består forbrydelsen? Egentlige lejesvende var de måske ikke. Måske var de ikke betalt for, beordret til eller anmodet om at lave noget bestemt, på bestemte måder, med bestemt indhold og bestemte synspunkter. Måske stod DKP ikke bag. Måske havde de blot en personlig mening om tingene og gav tydelig udtryk for den i det, de lavede på tv.

Jakob Rosenkrands har læst grundigt på lektien, sat sig ned ved sit bord med bogstabler og citater og andre belæg klar, filmklippene linet op i computeren og nu inviterer han så lejesvendene fra dengang ind til forhør. De bliver placeret overfor ham, helt sikkert uforberedte. Det er spillets regel. Og så går han venligt og roligt i gang. Og det er rigtig godt at overvære.

Dokumentaren, som er kommet ud af dette set up, er delt i tre. Jeg så første del i aftes. Og jeg skal nok hænge på. Det er sandelig tankevækkende tv (som de siger i DR). Først og fremmest er der denne mærkelige Rosenkrands, som aldeles underspillet er sin egen hovedperson. Det er jo sært, han er ikke nysgerrig, han vil i og for sig ikke have mere at vide af dem, han forhører. Han lytter høfligt, men vil blot have bekræftet, hvad han ved i forvejen. Han spørger venligt, men skarpt. Jeg mærker en eller anden anklage, som ligger under.

Og det gør de anklagede også, men for sent. Rosenkrands har ved sin metode, en omhyggelig og omhyggelig valgt attitude fået deres parader ned, fået en ærlighed frem, en befriende ærlighed. Han er bare god der på den anden side af bordet. Og dokumentarens medvirkende, den 70-er tids hovedpersoner, Per Schultz først og fremmest, men også Jens Nauntofte bliver så nøgne og bløde og forståelige. Så erindringer og forklaringer og indrømmelser smelter ind i tidsbilledets gribende arkivstof.  

Det er altså ikke forhør, men det er anklager. En generations anklager mod den forgående. Men hvori bestod nærmere forbrydelsen? Var der egentlig tale om forbrydelse? Forhøret forsætter, det er spændende.

Jakob Rosenkrands: Jagten på de røde lejesvende, DR2, 2010.

Baltic Sea Forum 2010

As always perfectly organised by the team at the National Film Centre of Latvia, and supported by the EU MEDIA Programme, the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries was held in Riga September 7-12. There was a festival programme of new films (previously mentioned here), very well attended and with the presence of filmmakers to meet the audience. And there was the presentation of 21 projects to a panel of commissioning editors from tv stations in Europe: ETV (Estonian TV), ZDF/ARTE, DR (Denmark), SVT Sweden, YLE Finland, LTV Lithuania, Arte France, LTV Latvia, Lichtpunt Belgium –and the American based film funds ITV and Sundance, the Jan Vrijman Fund attached to the festival in Amsterdam idfa, and a representative from the sales company Autlook in Austria. Finally the documentary expert Grigory Libergal from Russia contributed positively giving advise on festivals and channels. Libergal was happy to announce that the prestigious Moscow International Film festival next year will include a competitive documentary section and that the channel Kultura will go for the acquisition of creative documentaries.

The panel responded to the projects presented, asked questions, agreed in general on a high quality… and reflected on a whole, covering different parts of the European broadcasting landscape, that there is a crisis for (creative documentary) financing. A decade ago the tv representatives would take risks and enter into pre-buys on occasions like this (”I like it, I take it”), this does not happen any longer. The talent is there, the good projects as well – but the message is clear: it will take time before we are able to commit. The producers need to develop more, have more material to show, pitch in other places, make coproductions that can open the national film funds. That is why the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries is such an important place to go and meet the market reality, have colleagues to comment on your project and get ready for a long journey. The EU MEDIA programme, through its financing, plays a central role for making projects and films cross borders. Photo: Rada Sesic, filmmaker, expert in Indian films, tutor at the Baltic Sea Forum for many years as well as representative for the Jan Vrijman Fund that has been a very important supporter of documentaries from the Eastern part of Europe.