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.

Baltic Sea Forum: New Talent/1

The Baltic Sea Forum 2010 was very much a place for new talent to present their ideas at the same time as it was refreshing to see an old master like Ivars Seleckis, in this mid seventies, come forward with his proposal for a sequel to the two previous documentaries from Skersiela, the Crossroad Street in Riga. See below.

Davis Simanis brings something new to Latvian documentary. His film about the setting up of Wagner’s Valkyrie proved already the playfulness of the director, who is also an editor. Together with Gints Grube, who for many years worked in television but now comes out as a very skilled documentarian, Simanis has made a film, ”Sounds under the Sun”, that has its international premiere at the upcoming DOKLeipzig. And finally, the Forum saw Simanis launch his new project, ”Born in Riga”, which is a story about two geniuses who went each their own way: Isaiah Berlin and Sergey Eisenstein. They met in Albert Street in 1914 and in St. Petersburg in 1945. Simanis wants to tell their stories in a kind of film noir style where he  creates/reenacts the non-existing archives!

From Lithuania two female directors with the same first name, Giedre, brought forward their proposals with a strong proof that in Lithuania they spell film with a capital F. Giedre Beinoriute (photo from her previous film Vulkanovka) had a wonderful clip with children talking about existential questions: She had – contrary to many documentary directors today – a clear idea of narrative style wanting to film the kids on an empty background with two cameras building the story as an essay. Giedre Zickyte presented a powerful clip on the late Lithuanian photographer Luckus, who killed a man and himself in 1987, being more or less banned from his own country. His widow, lifving in the US, has opened the archive for the director to tell the touching story of their life and giving evidence of the bohemian artist scene in Moscow in the USSR in the 60’es and 70’es. 

Baltic Sea Forum: New Talent/2

Alina Rudnitskaya has previously been praised on this site – for her fine films ”Civil Status” and ”Bitch Academy” that have travelled the world festival circuit with success making her name mentioned as a big talent. Last year she pitched a project about people at both ends of the blood donation business in the St. Petersburg region; it is now being developed with German producer Heino Deckert. This year the director was represented by producer Anastasia Lobanova and script writer Mila Kudryashova who told the panelists that they wanted to make a follow-up of the ”Bitch Academy” to see how life is for the girls 3 years after they were trained to seduce. They pitched with humour and stressed that the film will not point fingers at the girls but treat them with respect.

Another couple was convincing in their presentation – the Ukranian Ramon Bondarchuk and Dar’ya Averchenko. Their subject was the rock singer Igor, who is making a career in Moscow fighting not to lose his roots in the Ukranian town of Kerson. The Ukranian filmmakers were supported by experienced Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis, who met them during the preparation of the project ”15 Young by Young” (mentioned on this site), where they are to make a film about chldren playing Dixie music.

Estonian Jaak Kilmi is at the Forum every year. This is where he presented ”Disco and the Atomic War” (mentioned on this site) that selles well internationally. This year he had just come back from research in Siberia on a film named ”Jesus of Siberia” on the notorious guru, Vissarion. Observational, he says that the film will be, but it would be a surprise me if the humourous touch of Kilmi will not be visible and hearable!

Humour there was in a film project from Georgia, that does not deal with war or Sakashvili! ”Auto-Tour” is the title of the project that – presented by producer Tinatin Kajrishvili –  follows the life of a couple of Georgian men who travel to Germany to find, buy and take back cars to their country – to try to sell them. It is a life style for them, they don’t get a lot out of it, financially speaking!

Antra Cilinska: Is it Easy…?

The Latvians write history with their films. Below a description of the ambition of Ivars Seleckis to make the third part of the epic about the Crossroad Street in Riga. A work that will cover more than 20 years of life in the street when it is finished.

Antra Cilinska has already done it through the sequels to the masterpiece of Juris Podnieks (photo) from 1986, ”is it easy to be Young?” from 1986. 10 years after she made ”is it easy to be?” and now title simply is asking whether it is easy…

… to live when you are around 40 and live in a country that is going through hard times? It is not, the protagonists, most of them, have lost illusions, several of them have divorced, some have career, some are in balance, some suffer from having taken part in the Afghan war on the Soviet side, in their youth, captured very well in the second film.

It is not easy to make a film with so many characters over a span of 25 years. You can not avoid the ”and the next one, and then the next one” but Cilinska manages to make it into a collective portrait of a generation that revolted against the Soviet system – with tough consequences for some of them – and they got the freedom but could they profit, were the dreams fulfilled. There is power and energy in the film that combines the shootings of today with short clips of the characters as they were 10 and 25 years ago. Igors, Raimonds (where are you?), Aivars, Sonita, Janis, Andris… and Juris and Juris G… And Juris Podnieks who died in 1992 and who Antra Cilinska starts and ends her film with, touching clips with him behind the camera, film history, moving for someone who had the privilige to meet him. A name in political documentary filmmaking, a master, don’t forget him!

Latvia, 2010, 80 mins.

Baltic Sea Forum: Ivars Seleckis

There is a street in Riga. A quite extraordinary street inhabited by ordinary people like you and me. I know them very well. Through films, of course. Actually I have known them for more than 20 years. Skersiela is the Latvian name for the street. Crossroad Street it is called in English. Grand old man in Latvian documentary film, Ivars Seleckis, and his script writer Talivaldis Margevics, who lives in the street, have made it and its inhabitants world famous. In 1988 they made the first film, in the late 90’es they made number two, titled ”New Times at Crossroad Street” and now they seek funding to make ”Capitalism at Crossroad Street”. Seleckis and Margevics pitched the project at the Baltic Sea Forum in Riga with a wonderful teaser that demonstrated that the old master had not lost his human and humourous observational touch for magical moments. The clip introduced one of the characters, Oris, who ten years ago lived with his mother, who died but lies at the cemetery where ”there is also a place waiting for me”. A little group of  Forum guests went to the street, took a walk around, saw the house of the gypsy on the corner and the unifinished tower house of Alvis, who wants to build high so he can see the centre of Riga. Never mind that he through that will shadow for the house of Daiga, one of the darlings of the first films! The generous sightseeing ended at Margevics place with vodka and salted cucumbers and small snacks on the wonderful black bread of Latvia.

Seleckis and his wife Maya, editor of most of her husband’s films, as well as editor for Juris Podnieks and Herz Frank, published last year a book, ”100 Yeras of Film” – referring to their being in the film business, each of them, for 50 years. I cant read the Latvian language book but the illustrations of loads of masterpieces confirm to me that Latvia was the documentary capital in the USSR… and with a lot lower volume due to crisis, still has a strong role to play today in this genre. The first of the films can be watched online – see below.

http://www.onlinefilm.org/-/film/31017

http://latviansonline.com/reviews/article/2098/

http://www.latfilma.lv/c/seleckis/indexLAT.html

Bjørn Lomborg: Cool It!

Today the audiovisual trade magazine Realscreen brings an article that informs about a new documentary coming out about Danish environmentalist Bjørn Lomborg, a controversial character in Denmark – though one of former prime minister Anders Fogh’s experts – but a man, who seems to be taken seriously outside his own country. The film, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is directed by Ondi Timoner (photo), who in the article constantly refers to “An inconvenient Truth” with and by Al Gore.

Lomborg: This is not about the idea of the world being doomed; we can actually fix global warming,” says Lomborg. “Global warming is a real problem but we can fix it and that’s the main difference, if you will, between the Gore version of global warming and what we’re trying to present with Cool It.

Timoner:  Initially, Lomborg was hesitant to open up, but eventually trusted the director’s instincts. Cool It begins with a short bio, delving into the media controversy surrounding his first book The Skeptical Environmentalist, his trial before a Danish panel on scientific dishonesty and his eventual exoneration, as well as a few personal tidbits, such as his relationship with his mother who suffers for Alzheimers.

“I have very poor taste,” says Lomborg. “I can see if I like stuff but I’m not able to put on clothes and see if they look well or buy a sofa and see whether it’ll fit into my apartment. I happily leave that to other people – people that I trust. So in that sense, I [thought], ‘Yeah, OK, if Ondi and everybody else is saying we need to hear about [me], we need to hear about me.”

…Timoner admits she probably would’ve used a similar approach if she had helmed An Inconvenient Truth, but says that now it’s time for the public attention to move on from that film and on to more realistic solutions. “We’re like the follow-up more than the anti-Inconvenient Truth,” she says. “It’s time for the next step.”

http://www.realscreen.com/articles/news/20100913/coolit.html?__b=yes&

Torben Glarbo: Decoding

… with the subtitle: Tim Rushton’s Enigma… is a making-of-film, a fascinating observation of the process of setting up of a contemporary dance performance conceived and conducted by Tim Rushton.

When the producer of the film – Ole John – passed the dvd to me, his comment was, ”well, ballet is not your strong side”. Right he is but taking the viewer into a new world and environment is precisely what a good documentary can do. You learn something and you actually discover the similarities between a documentary director and a choreographer like Rushton, who works without any script constantly ”editing” the performance, trying something new, rehearsing with the dancers, finding the right rythm and balance adding light and music to get the right sensual expression.

Torben Glarbo has followed the process for seven months and conveys brilliantly the different moods of doubt, the collaboration and the experimentation. Movements in a rehearsal room are as born for the camera of Glarbo.

Some background info on the film which can be bought through the site below: Enigma’s choreography is inspired by Bach, with his six unaccompanied cello suites as its musical base. Jakob Kullberg plays the cello, and the accompanying electronic soundscape is composed by Mathias Friis-Hansen… Tim Rushton is originally from Birmingham, England and educated at the The Royal Ballet School in London. He has spent the past 15 years in Denmark as a dancer and choreographer, among others at the Royal Danish Ballet. Rushton has been nominated for the Reumert Prize 10 times and received it 5 times: in 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2008 and in 2010 for Danish Dance Theatre.

Denmark, 2010, 58 mins.

http://www.torbenglarbo.dk/

http://www.decoding.dk/

Pirjo Honkasalo: My 10 best

Idfa – International Documentary Film festival Amsterdam – asks every year a prominent director to choose her/his 10 Best Film list, whihc are then screened at the festival. This year the director is Finnish Pirjo Honkasalo and her list goes like this:

The Earth, Aleksandr Dovzhenko (Russia, 1930)
The Mad Masters, Jean Rouch (France, 1955)
The Earth Trembles, Luchino Visconti (Italy, 1957)
Close-Up, Abbas Kiarostami (Iran, 1990)
Kyoto, My Mother’s Place, Nagisa Oshima (Japan, 1991)
Quince Tree of the Sun, Victor Erice (Spain, 1992)
Brass Unbound, Johan van der Keuken (Netherlands, 1993)
Tell Me What You Saw, Kiti Luostarinen (Finland, 1993)
The Smiling Man, Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann (Germany, 1996)
Blockade, Sergei Loznitsa (Russia, 2005)

Bravo is my warm greeting to the director (who will have a retrospective of her own list of masterpieces like “Tanjuska and 7 Devils” and “Three Rooms of Melancholia” (photo)), who has no English language film on the list contrary to what most critics and filmmakers, because of ignorance, normally include. I am looking forward to re-visit Luchino Visconti and Congo-Müller, the protagonist of “The Smiling Man”, not to mention the fabulous film of Victor Erice. The festival takes place November 17-28.

www.idfa.nl