Dmytro Tiazhlov: I am a Monument to Myself

Ukraine, in the countryside. A man who talks. A real talker. A man full of Life and energy. And a man with a mission: he wants to honour people. Which he does in his own way by constructing and placing monuments on the cemeteries without any discrimination of where the dead come from. Whether they were Poles, Jews or Russians. He restores and improves the simple graves, we see him in his outdoor workshop in his garden, we see him inside in his modest home writing a letter to his brother in London, or putting down on paper short notes on what he has been doing during the day. And away he goes again on his bike for new works and new stories that he conveys to the cameraman and director – the same person. Choirs and masses in the church, veterans in uniforms, hymns to the liberation of Ukraine. Patriotic, yes, but also a meeting with a man that you cant help have sympathy for. A good meeting because of a good observant and situational documentary film.

Contact for the film: ellash@rambler.ru

Ukraine, 2009, 70 mins.

Marc Eberle: The Most Secret Place on Earth

… with the subtitle: The CIA´s covert war in Laos… is a brilliant piece of journalistic research combined with a very effective documentary tv language in the best sense of the word: strong characters interviewed, a precise commentary, characterizing tone-setting music, wonderful archive, and a beginning, middle and an end. In that order.

There is reason for huge respect for the work of Marc Eberle, he gets very close to his witnesses and makes them open up, and contrary to a BBC approach he does not take the official line and make politicians speak and make statements. On the contrary he goes for emotions among the so-called ordinary people, who became the victims.

It is all about another blood filled action or series of actions performed by the Americans to make Laos the place from where the Vietnam war could be led through air raids and illegal bombardements. Long Chen is the name of the air base in Laos, a whole community of heroin addicts among the soldiers, hmong people dragged in to beat the Pathet Lao, brutality, prostitution. If today, this would have been the perfect research material for Coppola and his ”Apocalypse Now”. It is an exciting piece of modern unrevealed history from beginning till end. And it includes material never seen before.

Germany, 2008, 52 mins. and 72 mins.

www.beetz-brothers.de

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JH26Ae01.html

DOCLisboa 09/5

What is it that makes a festival nice to visit? The atmosphere of course, which is about the venue and the people hosting you. The information given to you about the programme – website, catalogue, introduction of visiting directors – and the programme itself. Being serious about the art of documentary but in a unpretentious setting. And daring to fight for better conditions for the documentary on a national and international level.

They have it all in DOCLisboa. Thank you and please stay on this high level! I have left the festival that is still running, wish you all the best! And dear readers and professionals, there is a new festival next year.

Photo is from Reminiscenses from a Journey Back to Lithuania by Jonas Mekas, who is the guest of honour of DOCLisboa with a 25 hour retrospective of the director´s work. Several clips can be watched on the site of the festival, inclusing a new film he made on Martin Scorcese.

www.doclisboa.org

DOCLisboa 09/4

This is the start: A monkey looking into your eyes, an orangutan’s gaze into the camera. At US, those who are outside the glass. Or just looking into nothing. No sound, or very soft sound from the streets around the Parisian Jardin des Plantes, that has been the home of Nénette, since she was 3 years old. She is now 40, an usual high age for an orangutan. Alone she is, having survived three marriages. They all died, the males. She has children around her, and she gets pills so no incest happens. Because what do we actually know about monkeys and their behaviours, what they think, how they behave, if they are as sad as they look or if this is just something that we on the outside of the glass project into them as we are in need of these emotions?

Nicolas Philibert, master of documentary, celebrated on this site many times, has made this 55 minutes long documentary that never leaves Nénette and uses a voice-off very intelligently. Spontaneous comments from children vary with those from couples, and with thoughtful reflections from so-called experts, anthropologists and from a man who as been working in the Jardin des Plantes for 35 years. Music and a song to the orangutans.

Do you think Nénette understands where she is and who we are, she who has spent her life doing nothing as it is said!

I saw the film on a small computer screen, I look forward to the big screen but I can see that Philibert again has made something special with his fine humanistic, non-intellectual approach to Film and Life. Nénette was looking at him behind the camera, as if the camera was not there, an old wise creature she seems to be and you can’t help feel sorry for her at the same time as you are grateful to have met her. And for a film that brings you in an almost meditative mood.

Nénette, France, 2009, 55 mins.

www.doclisboa.org

DOCLisboa 09/3

”Kill the Referee” is a film of Belgian and Swiss nationality, directed by Yves Hiant, a film for football fans like this blog writer – as loyal readers and friends have noticed. And it is amazing because of its unique access to a handful of referees and to the back stage of the Euro08. The film crew follows the referees into the dressing room, at the internal meetings where the selection of the teams take place and through the video evaluation of the matches, and into the hotel rooms, and at the homes where parents and wives follow their heroes in action. And heroes, well this is not what the players consider them to be, it is a hell of a job that takes lot of courage. Howard Webb, English referee, was haunted by the whole Polish nation (including death threats againgst him and his family) after his performance in the match Austria against Poland. He gave a penalty to Austria in the last minute of the match – which was absolutely correct and a very brave decision – but had allowed an off side goal to Poland earlier in the match, for which he did not go to the knock-out stage of the tournament. Webb is the hero of the film but there are also fine sequences and follow-ups on a Spanish and an Italian referee. What is the most astonishing in the film is actually that you hear the communication that is done between the referee and his linesmen during the match. Wow, for this technology, and bravo UEFA for letting a film like that be made. Good publicity for the job of being a referee – which does not mean that I will not shout the next time I see an unfair decision from one of those in black!

Kill the Referee, 2009, 75 mins.

www.doclisboa.org

DOCLisboa 09/2

Opening film at the festival: ”The Fortress” (PHOTO) by Swiss director Fernand Melgar, who was not present at the screening as his documentary was released in theatres in Japan. The story, a real European one, I would say, at least it could perfectly have been Denmark as location, is told in a Wiseman-like observational style from an institution for asylum seekers. The camera is omnipresent and catches moments of despair and hope from the side of the seekers, the people who wish for a better life in another country than their own and have to go through the endless interviews that are performed to check their stories. It is very moving, but also comic-tragic when you see and hear that the seekers change their stories to get a better chance to stay in what they can only consider as Wonderland = Switzerland. The people who represent the authorities are in general very kind and take part in scenes far away from their own reality, like the white office manager who goes to a mass for black seekers and try hard to find the rythm of the music. Hilarious!

Some people try desperately to get into modern society, other leave it. The documentary of Gianfranco Rosi, ”Below Sea Level”, has already been awarded several times, so well deserved, for this big film about a series of men and women, who for different reasons have moved to the desert to live a different life in their campers or in buses turned into homes, or in tents. Whatever, the originality is proven to be of huge format, and it is a film made over such a long period, that you sense that the characters are totally confident with the presence of the camera. There is humour but also grief as their back stories are being presented. There is love and argument between them. There are great thoughts on Life. The people come out of the films as individuals and not as weird subjects being observed.

The Fortress, 2008, 100 mins.

Below Sea Level, 2008, 110 mins.

www.doclisboa.org

Steen Møller Rasmussen: Richard Winthers hus

Endelig er Per Kirkeby kommet ind i det legendariske hus i Vindeby. Godt nok for sent til at træffe Richard Winther. Han er der ikke. Han er død. Men i tide til at møde hans værk i huset, billederne på vægge og lofter. Man er med på besøget i de kolde rum. Berørt af situationen som Kirkeby er det. Han havde sammen med John Hunov planlagt eller i hvert fald talt om at køre dertil. Men de kom aldrig af sted. Og så lagde Winther sig som Kirkeby udtrykker det. Mildt bebrejdende. Nu er huset tømt for de mange, mange ting, som før fyldte det. De er flyttet langt væk. Men billederne på pudset og betonen og brædderne er der endnu, og Kirkeby er tydeligt rørt og ærligt overbevist. Dette er stort. Det er ikke vitserne fra Gl. Holtegaard udstillingen. Dette er den gamle og alvorlige akademiker. Og det er i den historiske sammenhæng Picasso og Goya. Det er derimod ikke Matisse. Kirkeby forklarer præcist hvorfor og hvordan.

Steen Møller Rasmussen har begge sider af manden med på sit fotografi af maleren i kurvestolen med opsatshat. Både det vitsede og det akademisk/statuariske. Begge sider skildret i en tydelig alvor. Men filmen koncentrerer sig udelukkende om denne særlige storhed, som overrasker Kirkeby, fastholder den i Kirkebys tøvende uforsigtige fremstilling. Usentimentalt og klart i en reportage delt på tre fortællende og kommenterende medvirkende vidner, ud over Kirkeby keramikeren Grethe Bull Sarning og kunsthistorikeren Christian Vind. En tredelt reportage (tredelt i stil, indhold og emotionel egenart), som tager sig selv alvorlig som gennemført metode hos en fotograf, som tør tage reportagen på ordet: at fortælle det som det er – og på den måde som det der var.

Steen Møller Rasmussen: Richard Winthers hus, 2008, 78 min. Findes på dvd-udgivelsen Tjener for en bydreng – Richard Winther og mig, 2009, sammen med to ældre film, Richard Winther – en undersøgelse, 1999, 21 min. og Wie, 2005, 16 min. + bog, 160 sider med biografisk essay af fotografier og tekster. Forlaget Plagiat, 2009 www.kunsteen.dk  

DOCLisboa 09/1

Festival director Serge Trefaut launched a passionate attack on Portuguese public broadcaster RTP at the opening of the festival. The young festival (7 years of age with an audience of 40.000 last year!) and its director has managed to get the message to newspapers, radio and  television: RTP does not live up to its public service obligations and does not at all care about the creative documentary.

A panel was put together to discuss the state of the art in other European countries. Anna Glogowski, commissioning editor in France, talked about the situation in a country where the re-organisation of the public channels (FR 2,3,4,5) is in process. Jordi Ambros painted the picture of TV3 Catalunya where he is responsible for coproductions and acquisitions for his late night slot for creative documentaries. And I talked about Danish DR and its new prime time slot Dokumania on tuesday evenings – as well as the upcoming digital channel for history and culture. With the addition of a well deserved praise of the Finnish YLE and its many slots for documentaries and internationally active commissioning editors.

The input was meant to be an inspiration for the Portuguese to continue their action for a better documentary environment in a country with many fine filmmakers, I could add. A festival doing film policy. Next step probably an open letter to the government. Bravo!

Photo: From the new film of Serge Tréfaut, “City of the Dead”, selected for idfa competion 2009.

http://www.doclisboa.org/

Jan Vrijman Fund Films at idfa

It is a very good move that the Jan Vrijman Fund supported films are to be seen at idfa. It is very often among these low budget documentaries that you find films that are made out of necessity and heart. By filmmakers who do not live in countries with strong support systems, and/or in political systems where political and social criticism is not welcomed. Here is the press release inclding the list of the films: A total of 22 films realised with support from the Jan Vrijman Fund have been selected for IDFA 2009. A variety of films representing all Southern continents and made in different styles. Films dealing with a diversity of subjects ranging from a portrait of Pablo Escobar’s Son, keeping a family together in changing China to the survival of the last tightrope dancer in Armenia.

The Jan Vrijman Fund films selected for IDFA 2009 have been programmed in the following sections:
Feature Length Competition: Last Train Home by Lixin Fan, 9 Months 9 Days by Oscar Ramírez Gonzalez 
Short Length Competition: All Restrictions End by Reza Haeri 
First Appearance Competition: Addicted in Afghanistan by Jawed Taiman, Sins of my Father by Nicolas Entel 
Reflecting Images – Panaroma: The Belgrade Phantom by Jovan Todorovic, Dead Youth by Leandro Listorti, For Home Viewing by Mikhail Zheleznikov, Gipsy in the Flower by Ju Anqi, Island Belarus by Victor Asliuk, The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia (PHOTO) by Inna Sahakyan and Arman Yeritsyan, NARGIS when time stopped breathing by young Burmese filmmakers, Nero’s Guests by Deepa Bhatia, News by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnovikoff, The Peddler by Adriana Yurcovich, Eduardo de la Serna and Lucas Marcheggiano, A Place called los Pereyra by Andrés Livov-Macklin, Shungu: The Resilience of a People by Saki Mafundikwa, Story of a Day by Rosana Matecki, The Tight Rope by Nuria Ibáñez, They Come for the Gold, They Come for it All by Cristian Harbaruk and Pablo d’Aló Abbá, Together by Nenad Puhovski, Women in Shroud by Farid Haerinejad and Mohammad Reza Kazemi.

www.idfa.nl

The Sound of Insects

The European Film Academy proudly announces that the award EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2009 – Prix ARTE goes to the film THE SOUND OF INSECTS – Record of a Mummy by Peter Liechti, Switzerland.

The incredible story of how the mummified corpse of a 40-year-old man was discovered by a hunter in one of the most remote parts of the country. The dead man’s detailed notes reveal that he actually committed suicide through self-imposed starvation only the summer before. Liechti’s film is a stunning rapprochement of a fictional text, which itself is based upon a true event: a cinematic manifesto for life, challenged by the main character’s radical renunciation of life itself.

2009, 88 mins.

For the nominated films, see below.

www.docuinter.net