Il futuro del mondo passa da qui

… is the beautiful Italian title of a film that is about to be completed. I saw it in Turin in connection with the first session of the DocuRegio training session and it is as beautiful visually as the title is verbally. The director is Andrea Deaglio, the English – more prosaic – subtitle is “City Veins” and this is a short promotion of a film that will be reviewed on filmkommentaren.dk when it is finished. The film is according to the director under consideration for the Locarno Film Festival, they should take it for sure, as should other festivals for creative documentaries. Short description: A river in the outskirt of an European metropolis (Torino), a no man’s land where a handful of people try to survive facing a strong urban transformation. Here flows the future, bringing the worry of the unknown together with the hope for a better chance… yes it is about people, who have decided to, or have been forced to establish a life outside our so-called urban civilisation. In a very gentle and respectful way, the director, with an original storytelling and unusual image framing, takes us on a poetic journey to everyday life of citizens of the world in the 21. century. (Photo: Reno, an artist in Life)

The DocuRegio session gave the participants an interesting insight to “producing in Piemonte”. Veteran producer Edoardo Fracchia outlined the international career of Stefilm, that is run by him, Elena Filippini and Stefano Tealdi. Based at a new venue, that also houses the office of the July event “Documentary in Europe” in Bardonecchia, the company is right now doing international, informational tv series (for instance on “coffee” and ”tea”) as well as going into edit of a long time developed, fascinating retro-project, “Vinylmania”. It has a website, visit it, great fun!

From the classic production company approach to the new and modern, represented by Alessandro Borrelli and his laSarraz. He talked about his decicison to make films for theatrical release and showed a clip from the succesful documentary of Sergio Basso Giallo a Milano (reviewed on this site). At DocuRegio 2009 Borelli’s company presented “Pink Gang” by Enrico Bisi. The story about Indian Sampat Pal, political activist for women’s rights, is now going to cinemas and a one hour version has also been made that Borrelli will take to the market “Sunny Side of the Doc”.

www.docineurope.org

www.docuregio.com

www.stefilm.it

www.lasarraz.com

www.cityveins.blogspot.com

Museo Nazionale del Cinema Torino

More than a museum. Indeed it is. It can only be described as magnificent the National Film Museum of Torino. I was there for hours and want to go back as soon as possible. To visit the fine collection of Lanterna Magica, take a look at Edison and Lumiere or the light and shadow shows in the ”Archaeology of Cinema” section, or stroll around and look at the posters of all the wonderful films one remembers from a long life in the dark. Or lie down in comfortable fauteuils and watch the Gianni Amelio (”l’America”) compilations of clips from Italian films: Olmi, Fellini, Bertolucci, Visconti, Amelio himself etc. New exhibitions all the time, the cinema theatre Massimo next door. What a feast! Here is a text clip from the website of the museum that was placed at the mole in 2000 and is run by the foundation that carries the name of the woman, who initiated the museum, Maria Adriana Prolo:

”The museum is located inside the Mole Antonelliana, a bizarre and fascinating monument which is the symbol of the City of Torino. And the various areas inside the Mole Antonelliana were the starting point for the Swiss set designer François Confino who, with talent and imagination, multiplied the museum’s itineraries. He created a spectacular presentation that offers visitors continuous and unexpected visual and acoustic stimuli, just like when we watch a film that involves and moves us.” (Poster – an exhibition of photos of the two mega-stars open this month).

http://www.museonazionaledelcinema.org/museo.php

Ole Bendtzen: Football is God

In the name of the Father, the Son and Diego Maradona. Amen… is the subtitle of this new Danish film that for a football addict, who will spend hours watching the coming World Cup, was a gift to watch at the premiere in Copenhagen. On a big screen. The film takes its audience to Buenos Aires,  the hometown of the legendary club Boca Juniors. It conveys – through three characters – what addiction in its most extreme version looks like, and it does it well. Hernan, the sportsjournalist, is a character you will not forget. You see him losing control when Boca wins, on the edge of breaking down, you see him at the shrink, who discusses his addiction and you hear him explain his addiction. Clear and understandable. La Tia (means The aunt) is a wonderful old lady who looks upon the players as her sons, byuing underpants for her favourite no. 9 on the team! And Pablo is the one who looks a bit like Maradona, comes from the bottom of the society and goes to the Maradona church where fan couple can be married.

The three characters are presented in an entertaining (although a bit schematically structured way) one hour documentary perfect for television and probably also fine for some festivals around.

So far the following broadcasters will show the film: DR (at the Dokumania slot tuesday evening June 8 9.25pm), SVT Sweden, YLE Finland, VPRO Holland, SBS Australia, Ceska TV. More will follow for sure….

And cross fingers for Argentina and their coach Diego in the coming weeks. Come on Messi, Milito, Higuain! 

Denmark, 2010, 52 mins.

http://www.final-cut.dk/home

http://www.footballisgod.dk/

Jan Tenhaven: Autumn Gold

Good subject: Old (some of them veeery old) people who are still fit for life and take part in an athletic World Champions competition in Lahti, Finland. But what about the treatment of the subject, can this sustain a feature length format?

That scepticism was taken away very early in the film. The director proved to know his five athletes very well, and was able to get much more out of them than ”just” their preparation for the tournament. We get their lives, their joys and sorrows, how to live alone as the life partner, or the live partners, have passed away – and we see how and where they live and cope with the daily things that one has to take care of. Like you and me.

But what about the narrative structure – how can 5 stories be told so you are not bored or lose concentration. Also that scepticism disappeared leaving nothing but a bravo to the editing. And to  Alfred (100!), Herbert (93) (photo), Ilse (82), Jiri (82), Gabre (93) for being so open to a film team that was able to convey the charm and visdom of being old!

The film will be released in German theatres by July 8. The following television channels are credited to broadcast the film, if it does not reach your festival and the big screen: arte, RTE (Ireland), TSR (Switzerland), ERT (Greece), YLE (Finland) and MAX (India!).

Germany, 94 mins., 2010

http://www.autumngold-movie.com/

http://www.gebrueder-beetz.de/

Docs Online: China, Soccer, Giro d’Italia

For viewers worldwide and for free – IDFA, the biggest documentary film festival in the world, based in Amsterdam, invites you to go online with IDFA TV, where there is an excellent selection of excellent documentaries.

IDFA staff is at the World Expo in China and for that reason you can watch films from and about China. World Cup in South Africa starts this coming friday and for that reason IDFA offers films about football, like Maziar Bahari’s ”Football, Iranian Style” from 2001. Giro d’Italia is over but you can still watch the classic of Jørgen Leth, ”Stars and Water Carriers” abour the bicycling race year 1973, premiered in 1974. As written on the site: ” These were the glory days of Eddie ‘The Cannibal’ Merckx (photo) who showed the entire field a clean pair of heels whether it was on the flats or up in the highest of mountain passes.”

The online service has several other neo-classics available like Florin Iepan’s Romanian masterpiece, ”Children of the Decree”. Starting point for the film: “Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women,” was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children…”

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/idfa-tv.aspx

MakeDox 1/Words of Documentary Enthusiasm

MakeDox is inspired and financed by people who love documentary film. People with a great desire to make their own festival, the kind of festival that I would like to visit myself. Petra Seliškar, Programme Selector..

I graduated in social work… I work in the film industry… I feel the need to exchange creative energy… I feel inspired to influence my everyday surroundings… I have a goal to share documentary creations with you… films that engage, inspire, enrich… Films that speak through their relevance, idea, message, thought, inner cry… that stratify, but do not insist on change, that dig up the roots and penetrate daringly without worrying about the soil and the dirt… that do not tend to wash it out or sort things through so that they would look better… And they do it in their own, powerful, unique way… they intrigue you, make you think, give you the shudders… they’ll maybe even change you against your will. That’s the kind of documentary films we focus on. Kirijana A. Nikoloska, Festival Director.

http://www.makedox.mk/indexen.html

MakeDox 2/ Words of Documentary Enthusiasm

More than 35 years ago, I broke my cousin’s Contaflex. Why? I wanted to see how that fascinating “eye” worked. I fixed it and ever since then I have been seeing with only one eye.

I lived to be fascinated again 30 years ago in the house of my favourite childhood dog Calvick. In the room where it slept, Victor kept different kinds of 8mm and 16mm cameras. I didn’t stop looking with one eye, but the photographs started to move. Shots of passers-by, insects, trees, animals, passengers… Unrelated images of the reality documented a moment, a particular space. After that I spent some time with the cinema amateurs, a period of exploration, and my love turned into a passion for documenting reality.

The next 15 years of professional engagement provoked my “eye” to return to its first love – creative documentary. For the last 10 years or so, I have dreamt about documentary films, I work on documentary films, and I find pleasure in every new film product. I am truly happy about the first edition of “MakeDox”, I am happy about the travelling cinema, I am happy that documentary film will reach every home in Macedonia, I am happy to see that the documentary dream has become a reality. (From the site of the new festival).

Brand Ferro, Producer

http://www.makedox.mk/indexen.html

MakeDox in Macedonia/3

Wonderful. Well done and good luck are the best words to congratulate the organisers of a new documentary festival in Macedonia. It starts tomorrow. My text –The following is taken from the IDF site: As nutritious and beneficial as the freshly pulled onion on its poster, the first edition of MakeDox – Creative Documentary Film Festival takes place June 5 – 11, 2010 in Skopje, Macedonia. The programme includes 62 films (official selection, Macedonian short documentaries, films by newcomers, etc.), as well as several lectures.

In its Official Selection, the festival will present The English Surgeon (dir. Geoffrey Smith, UK 2007); Burma VJ (dir. Anders Østergaard, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom 2008); Border (dir. Harutyun Khachatryan, Armenia 2009); Goodbye, How Are You? (dir. Boris Mitić, Serbia 2009); Cooking History (dir. Peter Kerekes, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic 2008); The Player (dir. John Appel, Netherlands 2009); Mostar United (dir. Claudia Tosi, Italy, Slovenia 2009); The Edge of Dreaming (dir. Amy Hardie, Scotland 2009); The One Man Village (dir. Simon El Habre, Lebanon 2008).

All of them (except “Border” and “Mostar United” have been reviewed and/or noted on filmkommentaren.dk)

http://www.dokweb.net/cs/

http://www.makedox.mk/indexen.html

News from Paris: Tarkovsky for children

In France kids have Wednesdays off from school. For those who have the possibility, it is a day to discover the multiple activities Paris has to offer children. Le centre Pompidou, Beaubourg to Parisians, holds every Wednesday of the school year the program L’Écran des enfants, an initiation to cinema for children under 13.

I went with my daughter Asta, 8 ½, to see Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Steamroller and the Violin (1960, 43 min.). This is Tarkovsky’s first longer short film and it was his graduating film from the film school in Moscow. The film tells the story of a friendship between a little boy, Sasha, who plays the violin and the worker Sergei and his (incredibly beautiful) red steamroller. The influence of Albert Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon (Le ballon rouge 1956) is very clear. The images of the film are sheer beauty, the mirrors, the reflections; the dreams are already there. Asta could not follow the story, I think because she was just taken by the visual impression. Here’s a more detailed description:

 http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/cteq/the-steamroller-and-the-violin/#2

A DVD is available from Facets Video (region 1) and bits can of course be seen on Youtube, but get it for your children’s film program if you have one, it has to be viewed on the big screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRaqcxk1YtM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SNPhp6mT6I

What we particularly appreciate about Beaubourg’s program is that the curators are there themselves to present the days film. They make a small introduction and offer to read aloud the subtitles on non-French films, should the children wish so. And they also leave time for comments and questions afterwards. Asta’s comment was “the film was very good”!

Link to Centre Pompidou

Paris has many other cinematographic offers for children, I can get back to that another time, and nothing beats the event of taking an actual trip to a movie theatre and sit down in the dark. It is important and a pleasure to be able to let your child grow up with a larger view of cinematography, than what is offered by mainstream cinema today.

I quote Chris Marker, from an interview Tue Steen Müller has linked to in an earlier comment, but can easily be repeated and counts for kids as well: “Godard nailed it once and for all: at the cinema, you raise your eyes to the screen; in front of the television, you lower them. Then there is the role of the shutter. Out of the two hours you spend in a movie theater, you spend one of them in the dark. It’s this nocturnal portion that stays with us, that fixes our memory of a film in a different way than the same film seen on television or on a monitor” (Chris Marker, interview Libération March 5. 2003 translated in Film Comment:

http://www.filmlinc.com/fcm/5-6-2003/markerint.htm).

The film made me plunge in to Tarkovsky’s own writing, though he hardly mentions The Steamroller and the Violin. I highly recommend his reflections on the art of cinema:

Andrei Tarkovski: Le temps scellé (Petite bibliothèque des Cahiers du Cinéma 2004). English edition: Sculpting in Time (University of Texas Press 1989).

Janus Metz: Armadillo/6

The Danish documentary “Armadillo” which premiered in cinemas last friday is a huge audience success. 22.282 tickets have been sold in three days, which is absolutely unusual for a documentary in Danish theatres. Earlier this month “Armadillo” by Janus Metz was awarded the Semaine de la Critique Prize in Cannes. 

I weekenden strømmede publikum i stort tal ind i biografens mørke for at se Janus Metzs meget anmelderroste og omtalte film. Alene torsdag, fredag, lørdag og søndag solgte filmen 22.882 billetter og gik direkte ind på førstepladsen på filmhitlisten, hvor den slog Prince of Persia af pinden.

“Jeg tror, Janus Metz har ramt den gyldne mellemvej mellem debatskabende og stærkt rørende film med en masse action og følelser. Det er derfor, den får så stor succes. Men vigtigst af alt skaber filmen en debat hos alle unge som gamle uanset baggrund. Den debat har fra starten været vores drøm, så jeg er rigtigt glad for, at så mange går i biografen og ser den”, udtaler producenten Ronnie Fridthjof.