Dox Box Damascus 4

4 Polish documentaries and a Syrian. And again bravo to the organisers for putting an emphasis on the short documentary which is of course well targeted in a country with limited funding possibilities – where short film can be made – and for the rest of us, who have experienced this special art form disappear from public television to become a playground-like platform for young people, who want to experiment, develop their skills and find their own voice.

”Six Weeks” is a small masterpiece by Marcin Krawczyk. In 18 minutes he tells the story about a woman, who like many others decide not to keep her child because she does not think she can offer it a decent life. Visually it is strong, it is dealing with a tough subject in a respectful way. Polish short documentaries have a flow in storytelling, they have rythm, they go directly into the story… You can see the inspiration of old masters like Kieslowski and Lozinski.

”Mother” (theme: family), ”A Woman Sought” (theme: matchmaking), ”Till it Hurts” (theme: mother and son) were the other Polish film in the programme, high quality, right to the point, made with invitations to laugh at our crazy life.

Syrian ”Women’s Talk” was a film that pleased the full cinema. It has three acts, the first one full of male chauvinistic remarks from old men, who think that women are well of now – they have electricity, it is warm in the kitchen, and we don’t beat the women any longer… the middle act responds to the first one, you see a quick edited MTV-style sequence of women working in all professions, with no dialogue. Which there is in the last sequence where women around the fireplace comment on the men. Payback! They laughed in the theatre, it was funny, but also for a foreigner a terrible comment on the position of women in modern Syria. There is along way to equality!

http://www.dox-box.org/new/  Still: 6 Weeks.

Dox Box Damascus 3

German cameraman Peter Badel is one of the mentors of the Campus – together with Dutch producer Joan Morselt, Danish colleague Mikael Opstrup and myself. The participants in the workshop are aspiring young filmmakers, who have been grouped according to their wish to be a producer or a director – or ”I don’t know where I want to go yet”.

Badel gave a very inspiring lecture, ”The Narrative and the Image”. He told us about his close collaboration with excellent German director Thomas Heise (read about his ”Material” on this blog) and how they, as close friends, understood how the images should be – you do your job, Heise says to Badel, and I will not interfere. Technical details were given by Badel, who started with 35mm in the times of the GDR, and now works with a small digi camera. And he showed some photos, he had taken and talked about how they were composed and he gave us the stories connected. Much time was dedicated to clips from Heise’s masterpiece ”Vaterland” and to ”Heinz und Fred”, a one hour wonderful film by Mario Schneider, a composer who went to filmmaking. Fred is a handicapped old man but lives a good life with his father and all the old machines that he wants to repair. Badel showed us a great crane tour from the end of the film saying that in this case the crane was a kind of cameraman – two takes they made. 800€ for hiring the crane.

http://www.dox-box.org/new/

Dox Box Damascus 2

Bravo Dox Box, was the shout from the last row of a full cinema on the opening night of the festival. And ”Shout” was the title of the opening film, from the Netherlands, directed by Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Ester Gould, who were more than happy to have the world premiere of the film in Damascus, one of the locations of a film that literally starts with people shouting from one side of Golan Heights to the other. From the occupied mountain territory in Israel to the mountain area in Syria – on both sides members of Palestinian families gather and try to communicate through loudspeakers. In many cases the families have not seen each other for 40 years!

The film focuses on two young men, Golanis they are called, who go to study in Damascus. One is Ezat and the other Bayan, and both have used the opportunity that you once per year can cross the border. The filmmakers have followed them for a year  and go back with them for the summer holidays. Not a big film, but in several sequences the camera catches beautifully situations that reflect the absurdity and tragedy of the world we live in. Ezat’s father lives in Israel with no passport as he has refused Israeli citizenship. His grandfather lives in Damascus, quite old and ill, but a hero in Syrian eyes, greeted as such by the Asad, the late president. Ezat studies theatre in Damascus and decides to go back (Bayan stays in the occupied territories) after the holidays. The tone is light among the two, the emotions come in when they are with their families.

Holland, 54 mins., 2010

http://www.dox-box.org/new/

Dokumentarfilm-kursus i Ebeltoft

En uge i dokumentarfilmens verden, 1. – 7. august 2010 på Den Europæiske Filmhøjskole i Ebeltoft. Eva Mulvad (Vores lykkes fjender) og Mikala Krogh (Alt er relativt) leder kurset, som får besøg af denne række foredragsholdere: James Marsh (Man on Wire), Pernille Rose Grønkjær (The Monastery) Kasper Torsting (Søren Gade – de sidste 48 timer) Manuel Claro (fotograf på Alt er relativt) og Arne Bro.

Det koster 3900 kroner, og prisen inkluderer film, foredrag, overnatning på højskolens dobbeltværelser samt sund og lækker forplejning. Tillæg for enkeltværelse: 500 kroner.

Kursussekretæren Maria Høy fra den ellers fiktionsfokuserede skole oplyser som baggrund for denne dristige fornyelse, at de har opdaget, at “dansk dokumentarfilm de seneste år har høstet stor international anerkendelse, hvilket skyldes den stærke fortælletradition og den høje visuelle kvalitet der kendetegner film skabt i det danske produktionsmiljø.” På Den Europæiske Filmhøjskole i Ebeltoft “diskuterer de nævnte gæster og højt profilerede dokumentarfilminstruktører og –eksperter aktuelle film, tendenser og tematikker”, skriver hun.

Kursets program: www.europeanfilmcollege.com/i_dokumentarfilmens_verden.asp 
Du tilmelder dig på: www.europeanfilmcollege.com/sommerkurser.asp  

Foto: James Marsh (Man on Wire) underviser på kurset.  

Dox Box Damascus 1

”To our guests who come here every year and fill our hearts with pride and support: we promise to surprise you with our imperfections just the way we like our life, and cinema, to be!”.

These catalogue sequence taken from the welcoming catalogue foreword of the directors of the third edition of Dox Box International Documentary Film Festival in Damascus, Syria.. illustrate perfectly the spirit of hospitality and of humbleness, which characterises Diana El Jeiroubi and Orwa Nyrabia, the couple behind Pro Action Film and a festival that grows from year to year, both in programming and in a strong Campus programme for young filmmakers in the region.

They can be proud of their programme this year. They have succeeded to get D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus to Damascus with a fine retrospective (PHOTO: DONT LOOK BACK – Bob Dylan), as well as Patricio Guzman with his masterpiece ”The Battle of Chile” in three parts, and they have several great and good films that have been written about on this site: Boris Ryzhy, Zidane, Freetime Machos, The Moon inside you, Pink Taxi, Antoine, Hold me Tight let me go. There are Middle East documentaries and there are many guests from abroad, who can discover the professionalism and passion behind a new festival that clearly has a mission: to introduce the creative documentary in a country where there are limits to what can be said and shown.

The festival runs 3-11 March and I will report from there daily.

http://www.dox-box.org/new/

Jukka Kärkkäinen: Tomorrow was Yesterday

A very banal and normal story that all families have experienced: Old age hits grandmother or grandfather, or mother or father, who have started a life of forgetfullness, as is the case with Maja, the mother and grandmother of this film that due to a gifted filmmaker tells the story we all know not only in a recognisable way but also gives it a more universal, existential perspective on losing life and identity.

She is a lovely old lady but she is not able to cope with the practicalities any longer. She sits in her big bed with her doll, trying to reach the phone before it is too late, singing along with the songs of her youth coming from the radio. She is in another world. Her daughter visits her but it is too much for her to organise the life of her mother, so god bless the granddaughter who communicates with the authorities knowing that it is impossible to avoid that Maja must be moved to an old people’s home. They love her, the camera loves her and there are great moments of laughter in this film, where Jukka Kärkkäinen again (like in ”The Living Room of a Nation”) demonstrates an enormous talent for conveying contemporary life with beauty, respect and sadness.

http://www.mouka.fi/news.php?l=EN

Katrin Ottarsdóttir: Sporene gror ud af ord 3

”…Katrin Ottarsdóttirs empatiske og sympatiske film… Der står en nøgen sandhed om eksistensen tilbage, som ordene bærer vidnesbyrd om. Usmykkede, ligefremme og med klare linjer.” (Henrik Wivel i Weekendavisen Bøger 26. februar-4. marts 2010.)

Filmen vises i morgen, 3. marts 17:00 i Biffen, Aalborg og – NB flyttet til – mandag, 22. marts 19:00 i Nicolay Biograf, Kolding. 

Her i dette billede er kameraet en sjælden gang i øjenhøjde med Jóanes Nielsen. I øjenhøjde med den berømte mand, den store digter. Dette landskab er fotografen og han, filmens medvirkende fælles om. Han ligger også ned i en enkelt scene, fordi hans kæreste har lagt sig ned. Men ellers er den lave kameraposition gennemgående. Katrin Ottarsdóttir har nærmet sig den frygtindgydende mand med usikre skridt og i stor forsigtighed. Filmen er præget af det. Hendes tilstedeværelse i samtalerne er yderst nedtonet. Jeg havde ventet det modsatte, i film nummer tre ville hun træde ind i scenen, efter ganske lidt i samværet med Hans Pauli Olsen og noget mere sammen med Tóroddur Poulsen. Men hendes film er til gengæld yderst tilstedeværende hos et meget intenst levende menneske. Og så var det altså den udvikling hun ville, den rytme af indsigt gennem de tre arbejder.

Det handler om en digter i Torshavn. Om Jóanes Nielsen, velkendt i byen, velkendt i sin branche. Han causerer om sit liv og sit kunstneriske arbejde, underholdende, og han læser op af sine digte, medrivende. Det foregår i hans hus, i byens gader og havn og i byens omegn. Alt er set smukt, rummene, stederne, landskaberne.

Topografien dominerer og ordner. Nielsens fortælling er vist nok handlingstråden. Digtoplæsningerne er det egentlige indhold. De er stærke. Fra det barskt usentimentale til det ømt følsomme. To handlingsforløb knytter an, en aflivning af kattekillinger hen over midten af filmen og så i den store slutning selve samværet med kvinden fra så mange steder i digtene. Henrik Wivel kalder kombinationen af digtoplæsning (og monolog vel) og sted for ”pittoreske positurer”. Jeg tror det er mere end det. Jóanes Nielsen er selvfølgelig anbragt på steder og foran udsigter, som ikke kun er hans. Det er også Katrin Ottarsdóttirs og filmens og mine. Det er ikke en biografi, det her. Det er eksistens, og topografien er meddigtende i filmens lyrik. I hvert fald tænkt sådan. Måske er det bare ikke lykkedes helt.

Og det har med klipningen at gøre. De enkelte klip er ofte brutale, og de slår mere i stykker end de føjer sammen. Jeg forstår simpelthen ikke opklipningen af enkeltscenerne, som jo er så bundet af deres markante topografiske (og scenografiske) markering, den adskillelse af sammenhængende materiale danner i montagen ikke for mig efter første gennemsyn en ny sammenhæng, biografisk, tematisk i causeriet eller dramatisk i filmens forløb. Jeg synes indtil videre, det er en skam. For mig at se dog kun en lille – hedder det skønhedsplet – på et smukt, smukt filmværk. Empatisk og sympatisk, nemlig. 

Katrin Ottarsdóttir: Sporene gror ud af ord, Danmark 2009, 76 min. Manuskript, fotografi og klip: Katrin Ottarsdóttir, lyd: Iben Haar Andersen, produktion: Hugin Eide. Produceret af Blue Bird film www.bluebirdfilm  DVD-salg fra medio marts hos boghandlerne. Jóanes Nielsens seneste samling Broer af sultne ord er netop udkommet på forlaget Torgard www.forlagettorgard.dk

Scottish Short Documentaries

What a pleasure it is to watch short documentaries. Even more so because they have run out of slots for that classic genre on public broadcasting in Europe. The short films are still being shown in festivals all over but seldom as the main attraction. And at the short film festivals priority is given to the short fiction film. I wrote about the Bridging the Gap initiative in Edinburgh some days ago, that has a total focus on the short documentary, and not only for beginners, many of the applicants for the 7 films that mid March will be selected for production support had done short documentaries before… so I left Edinburgh with some works that deserve to be mentioned for their creative ambition and diversity in style. Talents all of them, keep an eye:

”Ma Bar” (PHOTO) features an old man, more than 70 years of age, who does bench pressing ignoring age and the youngsters around him. The film lets the protagonist comment on his passion in a film that is tense in atmosphere due to excellent cinematic close-ups and a totally balanced rythm. ”The Bees” takes the viewer to the South of Lebanon to a woman living next to the borders of Israel – I have been experiencing the war since I was a child, she says. The bees are free, they can cross without papers, the woman continues, one of the many victims of geography, presented in a warm humanistic film. Contrary to the situation in Lebanon nobody really cares when they cross ”the border” to enter the pilgrim’s road to Santiago de Compostela. ”Maria’s Way” is the title of this nice mini-portrait of a woman, who every day sets up her small table to greet the pilgrims who pass, and who maybe would want a stamp in their papers. She does that for herself – the counting of those passing by – to continue what her mother did. The camera stays behind her to watch how most of the people don’t bother, and to hear Maria’s wonderful bitter remarks about Life Today! ”Kirran and the Hatchmaker” takes us also to the countryside where a young charming boy conveys his passion and vision, breeding chickens, and planning to take them on a sea voyage. He has it all planned and written down and the way he treats the chickens is described with love. There is one scene that demonstrates an extraordinary talent for images: four chicken stand completely without moving with the boy’s feet in the picture, a beautiful Still Life and a director’s courage to let an image speak.

McDowell & Pretsell: Ma Bar, UK, 2009, 11 mins.

Rana Ayoub: The Bees, UK, 2009, 13 mins.

Anne Milne: Maria’s Way. UK, 2009, 15 mins.

Amy Rose: Kirran and the Harchmaker. UK, 2008, 19 mins.

http://www.eca.ac.uk/index.php?id=1162

http://www.docscene.org/

Ehrlich/Goldsmith: The Most Dangerous Man..

It is difficult to dislike Daniel Ellsberg, and why should you? An important name in new American history, a whistleblower, a man who was among those whose job it was to provide Robert McNamara with plans for an efficient war in Vietnam, and a man who saw how his superior lie to the American public, as did Lyndon Johnson. He changed his mind, and his life completely, by publishing the so-called Pentagon Papers – and became an example, some would say the example of non-violent civil disobedience. And he still is around when it comes to demonstrations against US in Iraq and Afghanistan – take a look at his website.

The film tells the story about a conscientiuos objector in a classical way, as the filmmakers have said it themselves: a three act character-driven drama, that uses interviews, archive material and the voice of Ellsberg to take us through his own story. He makes references back to his childhood and the tragic death of his mother and sister because the father fell asleep while they were out driving. And there is a constant love story running in the foreground through interviews with his wife Patricia, who is at his side in the numerous archive interviews with him back in 70’es. It is all very efficiently told with music and small reconstructions that help give the film a drive.

The film goes out theatrically in the US, is nominated for an Oscar 2010 (got a Special Jury Award at idfa 2009), let’s see if it will win as did Errol Morris in 2004 with his film on McNamara, ”Fog Of War”, a much more authored film than the one on Ellsberg…  interesting now to have a film on the war criminal and one on the activist and whistleblower, a very charming and charismatic character in a well crafted documentary. 

USA, 2009, 96 mins.

http://www.ellsberg.net/

http://www.mostdangerousman.org/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/feb/16/most-dangerous-man-in-america

Marathon DOK 2010

This yearly initiative of EDN (European Documentary Network) takes place March 6 from 2pm to 10 pm with breaks for coffee, talks and a a sandwich. The Danish Film School in Copenhagen rooms this mini festival that has proved to have a succesful format could easily be exported to other countries. The Danish Film Institute supports the Marathon Dok, that is open for participation to students and professionals from the film and TV industry only. The programme is still in its completion phase but this is what is confirmed so far. Chapeau for the emphasis on actuality and the short documentary. Click the titles and you can read – and in some cases watch – the titles online:

1st Screening Block – Starting at 14.00: Poste Restante (Poland, 2009, 14 min, DigiBeta) by Marcel Łoziński. Drona & Me (The Netherlands, 2009, 20 min, DigiBeta) by Catherine van Camp. Portrait of a Reluctant Gentleman (Sweden, 2008, 13 min, HD) by Gustav Danielsson. Civil Servant P327JUM (Sweden, 2008, 14 min, DVD) by Johan Bjerkner.

2nd Screening Block – starting at 16:00: Hanasaari A (Finland, 2009, 15 min, DigiBeta) by Hannes Vartiainen. What Remains (Austria, 2009, 33 min, DigiBeta) by Clarissa Thieme. I love my boring Life (Czech Republic, 2009, 27 min, 35mm) by Jan Gogola

3rd Screening Block – Starting at 18:00 TBA

4th Screening Block – Starting 20:00

Last Train Home (China, 2009) (PHOTO) by Lixin Fan. Idfa winner 2009

www.edn.dk