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

La Bocca del Lupo Awarded at Dokufest

The International Documentary Competition jury at Dokufest in Prizren, Kosovo, composed of Pamela Cohn (USA), Sonja Henrici (Scotland), AJ Schnack (USA), Adriatik Kelmendi (Kosovo) and Doug Block (USA) awarded the Italian film La Bocca Del Lupo (The Mouth of Wolf) by Pietro Marcello (photo, previously reviewed on this site) as Best Int’l Feature Documentary and Albert’s Winter by Danish director Andreas Koefoed as Best Int’l Short Documentary. About “The Mouth of the Wolf” the jury said: Using unique archive footage, Italian documentarist and Genoese native Pietro Marcello has succeeded in brilliantly reviving the unique atmosphere of Genoa’s port quarter, which he then uses as a backdrop to unfold a singular love story between a tough but goodhearted Sicilian named Enzo and transsexual Mary.

And about the Best International Short Documentary, “Albert’s Winter” by Andreas Koefoed, Denmark: Albert is at his window, watching the snow dance through the cold winter. Eight years old and feeling the pressure of the world. His mother is sick and in chemotherapy. Albert would rather not talk about it. Meanwhile his parents want him to start choir school.

The jury also gave two special mentions. First mention went to Brit Adam Stafford for his film The Shutdown and the second mention to American filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt for his suicide exposé The Darkness of Day. The jury noted the following for films: “The jury was incredibly impressed with the breadth and quality of the short films in this year’s international competition. We are giving two honorable mentions to films that expand the documentary

form in exciting new ways. The Jury Prize for Short Film goes to a beautiful, emotional and quietly moving portrait of a young boy as he adjusts to his life changing over the course of a single season. The prize goes to Andreas Koefoed’s Albert’s Winter. The feature films in the international competition were also incredibly strong. But there was one film that united the jury, far exceeding our expectations. For its haunting, lyrical and gorgeous depiction of one city and one remarkable love story, the jury is proud to award its prize to Pietro Marcello’s The Mouth of the Wolf.”

The Green Docs Competition jury composed of Nael Marandin (France), Ruben Khachatryan (Armenia) and Jaume Gill (Spain) gave the main award to documentary Garbage Dreams by Mai Iskander from USA and the special mention to the film Into Eternity by Danish director Michael Madsen. The jury noted the following about the winning films: “We have been seduced by this beautiful and touching testimony of the life of 3 teenagers that sheds light on the environmental and social situation of garbage collection and recycling in Cairo, especially because this film stresses the importance of people’s empowerment and local solutions in order to build a society more respectful of the people and our environment. The Jury has also decided to attribute a Special Mention to Into Eternity by Michael Madsen. The film takes the audience on a fascinating journey into the future raising vertiginous questions about mankind and bringing into light the long term impact, danger and costs of nuclear energy.”

The Human Rights jury composed of Katerina Bartoseva (Czech Republic), Ramadan Klisurica (Kosovo) and Kumjana Novakova (Macedonia) awarded Cambodia/UK co-production Enemies of the People by Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin with Best Human Rights film at DokuFest while at the same time giving the special mention to Macedonian documentary Tobacco Girl by Biljana Garvanlieva. The jury statement reads; “The presence of human rights award within an inspiring and prestigious, yet intimate creative documentary festival as DokuFest in Prizren is, comes as a recognition for the powers of creative documentary cinema to provoke and contribute to social justice as a space for alternative, critical and engaged inquiries, alongside its excellence in artistic and aesthetic terms. Doku Fest 2010 presents its human rights award to Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath’s inspiring, brave and illuminating film Enemies of the People. Through the personal facing the past process and documenting one of the bloodiest regimes humanity has witnessed, the Khmer Rouge, this documentary reflects on both past and present, thus breaking the silence and opening the incontestable “truth” none is allowed to question. The human rights award jury gives a special mention to the poetic confrontation of established social norms and multilayered inequalities of Biljana Garvanlieva, with her Tobacco Girl”

The Audience award, calculated from the votes casted by the audience went to the film Married to the Camera by Doga Kilciogly from Turkey. DokuKids award went to Finnish animation Benigni by Elli Vuorinen and Sorra prize to the short documentary Greetings from Kosovo by Suada Jahirovic.

www.dokufest.com 

The World According to Ion B. Awarded

The International Documentary and Short Film Festival in Prizren, Kosovo ended two days ago with an award ceremony – The Balkan Documentary Competition Award went to Romanian film The World According to Ion B. (photo) by Alexander Nanau. The jury composed of Emel Celebi (Turkey) Mike Palmieri (USA) and Sissi Korhonen (Finland) noted the following about the competition and awarded films:

“The Balkan Documentary competition films were all connected by their shared examinations of traditional values of family and place vs personal values that break with those traditions. Sometimes the characters in the films illustrated the break, other times by the unique craft of the filmmaking itself. The jury felt strongly about three films that managed to explore these themes in unique and special ways. The jury awards its main prize to a director whose filmmaking skill merges seamlessly with the character he portrays, leaving no opportunity wasted in the telling of his story. It is a deeply intimate portrait told with a grace and humor that won us over unanimously.”

Same jury also gave the Best Newcomer Award to two films from Balkan Documentary Competition. The winning films were 1717 Kilometers of Summer 2009 by Slovenian filmmaker Jurij Meden and Tobacco Girl by Macedonian Biljana Garvanlieva. Balkan Documentary Centre from Sofia, Bulgaria sponsored the award.

“The emerging Balkan filmmaker prize is shared between two filmmakers whose approach to their subjects could not be more different from one another, but whose films conveyed a powerful sense of character and place that left a lasting impression on us” the jury noted. 

http://www.dokufest.com/2010/

PeÅ Holmquist: Mitt Gaza/2

Et markant sted i sin gennemgående personligt erindrende speak siger Holmquist: ”.. jeg fandt mig selv fotograferende de unge døde kroppe.” Med de øvrige filmhold er han trængt ind i hospitalets modtagelse med sit kamera, mens de sårede, døende og døde bringes ind. En læge smider ham ud sammen med de andre. Hans anden kameramand filmer det: en kort scene med en ulykkelig og flov dokumentarist. Dette er jo ikke hans ærinde, opgaven, han har stillet sig. For ”..du filmer jo altid de almindelige ting”, som en af hans medvirkende udtrykker det et andet sted.

Og under den seneste krig var han der slet ikke, han fulgte begivenhederne ved sms-beskeder fra familien, filmen følger. En kameramand fra Gaza, som Holmquist tidligere havde oplært, lavede på hans sms-anvisninger optagelser under krigen, scener fra dette almindelige liv i denne ekstremt ualmindelige situation med israelernes bombardement og invasion.

Arne Bro var i det gode interview i lørdags alment inde på denne kunstneriske holdning. Disse særlige konstruktioner (tv og film), han talte om, skildrer alle det almindelige liv. Den første film, jeg så derefter, skulle så netop blive en sådan. Bro foreslog tre ting, da han blev aftvunget nogle bud for det rette liv på her på Jorden. Lige netop således er PeÅ Holmquists nye film om hans Gaza-familie, en skildring af dens almindelige liv, ”medfølende, sandfærdig og tillidsfuld”.

Dette måtte jeg lige bemærke efter filmen, som jeg så på SVT2 i aftes. Jeg håber og tror, at Tue Steen Müller skriver en rigtig anmeldelse. På siden nedenfor er der udførlig besked om genudsendelser:

http://svt.se/2.119844/1.1802518/mitt_gaza

Arne Bro i Agenda

Pludselig i mine to radiotimer med Orientering fordi det er sommer og lørdag, nok, er der en veltilrettelagt og velforberedt og veloplagt samtale med kloge og dybe og præcise Arne Bro. Om den poetiske konstruktion og sproget, som alt er båret af, skabt i. I en samtale med Mikkel Clausen analyserer han venligt og bestemt Paradise Hotel, en Libanon montage med Independent’s Robert Fisk, The Yes Men’s præsentation af en klimakrisens overlevelsesdragt og til sidst fra et sted ude i verdensrummet et syn på vores jord og tilværelse, hvor de nødvendige bud for poetisk konstruktion må ses at være medfølelse, sandfærdighed og tillid, nu han bliver bedt om at give nogle bud. Helst omgås Bro ikke med bud, men han lister disse ud. For folk, der som jeg desværre ikke færdes i hans nærhed, er her her min varmeste anbefaling af Arne Bros gennemtænkte, afdæmpede, gennem et langvarigt arbejde tilkæmpet selvfølgelige forståelse af journalistikkens og kunstens, tv’s og films alle fiktive værker.

http://podcast.dr.dk/P1/AGENDA/2010/agenda_100807.mp3

Bibliotekets filmsamling/3

Jeg har efterhånden vænnet mig til, at biblioteket i min by er en filial af mit lands samlede biblioteksvæsen. Så jeg kalder det bare biblioteket, det hele. Der er i samlingen ikke kun, hvad der står på hylderne lige derhenne, selv om det er afgørende vigtigt. Samlingen til rådighed er i princippet alle landets biblioteker. Det har været sådan meget længe for bøgernes vedkommende.

Nu er ved at blive på samme måde for med filmene. Og for filmsamlingens vedkommende er der jo to dele, DVD-samlingen, fordelt på en række filialer, som kan nås og bestilles via Bibliotek.dk og så den netbaserede samling på Filmstriben.dk, som endnu ikke er så omfattende.

Så den kigger jeg på først det er lettest. Jeg vil lige se, hvilke af de film, vi har været glade for og har skrevet om her på siden, hvilke at dem, der kan ses på Filmstriben.dk. Jeg tager dem, jeg finder vigtigst og laver link til vores omtale eller anmeldelse her på Filmkommentaren og til deres startside på Filmstriben, hvor man kan vælge at se de første par minutter eller hele filmen på sin computer:

Anders Østergaard: Burma VJ (2009) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben 

Jon Bang Carlsen: Purity Beats Everything (2007)Filmkommentaren Filmstriben 

Jytte Rex: Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen (2007) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Michael Christoffersen: Milosevic on Trial (2007) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Ari Folman: Waltz with Bashir (2008) Filmkommentaren + Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Annette Mari Olsen og Katia Forbert Petersen: Mit iranske paradis (2008) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Janus Metz: Fra Thailand til Thy (2007) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Ulla Boye: Kun med hjertet kan man rigtig se (2008) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Steen Møller Rasmussen: Fotografi (2006) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Michael Moore: Sicko (2007) Filmkommentaren Filmstriben

Se ovenstående som Filmkommentarens anbefaling af Filmstriben. 10 film, som vi kan lide, som vi har beskæftiget os med. 10 film af “vores slags”… Selvfølgelig kan vi finde flere.

www.filmstriben.dk