Golden Prizes for Silver films

Sounds enigmatic the title of this blog text. It refers to a new initiative of the Institute of Documentary Film in Prague, often mentioned on this site. Organised together with the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival the East Silver ” is the first documentary market dedicated exclusively to Central and Eastern Europe. Its main goal is to provide an annual overview of new documentary releases, create a comprehensive catalogue and an open video library, accessible to a broad circle of film professionals (broadcasters, major film festivals, sales agents) throughout the year.” And it works very well, the above signed blog writer can confirm. And the new prize to be given in connection with the festival in Jihlava goes like this:

”The East Silver Market introduces the new Silver Eye Award. Silver Eye is an award presented to best short, mid-length and feature documentary films of the East Silver Market. Documentaries are selected from the 2009 East Silver Market submissions. Best films will each be awarded EUR 1500; winners will be announced October 31, 2009, during the Closing Ceremony of the 13th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival”.

Several of the nominated films have been reviewed and reported about on this site: The Bell by Audrius Stonys, Rabbit a la Berlin by Bartek Konopka, Disco and the Atomic War by Jaak Kilmi and one of the films in the superb series by Lukas Pribyl, Forgotten Transports to Poland (Photo).

www.docuinter.net

DR2 Dokumania: Armenien i krig og fred

The title is in Danish because I want our Danish readers to go to DR2 tomorrow,  tuesday night at 20.45 to watch a very strong and personal documentary by Vardan Hovhannisyan (photo), who took years to make this honest and touching war-and-peace film based on material shot by himself when he was part of the horror. A fine description of the film was found on the site of IDF, the initiator of the development of documentaries programme called Ex Oriente that I have been part of for more than 6 years. Vardan is one of most gentle persons I know from these years, a man who is totally dedicated to documentary making as a producer and director. I have often written about him and his company on this site. The text:

Many historians cite the Nagorno-Karabagh War (1989-1994) between Armenia and Azerbaijan as the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union. For journalist and former prisoner of war Vardan Hovhannisyan, who lived alongside Armenian soldiers for four years, the war is something he struggles to explain to his son and reconcile with his own sense of decency. Armed with video footage he shot on the front lines 12 years earlier, Hovhannisyan sets out to find his “brothers” from the war, only to discover that many of them have become “casualties of peace.” Felo, a loving and conscientious father, divorced following the war and became estranged from his family. Jude, a young soldier who distinguished himself so bravely in battle, is now in prison for marijuana possession. Kadjik hears voices in his head and is confined to a mental institution. A personal meditation on the horrors of war and its effects is shown through the eyes of Armenian journalist Vardan Hovhannisyan. Weaving together footage from his country’s 1994 conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Hovhannisyan creates a devastating portrait of lasting damage inflicted by the battlefield.

http://www.warandpeacefilm.com/
http://www.dr.dk/DR2/Dokumania
www.docuinter.net

Another Planet Awarded Again

A couple of months ago this was posted on filmkommentaren.dk: The city of Kazan in Tatarstan in Russia, around 800 km East of Moscow, hosts the 4th International festival of Muslim Cinema, ”Golden Minbar”, taking place September 30 to October 4. 14 films have been selected for the documentary competition, 3 of them have been reviewed on this site: Hungarian Ferenc Moldovanyi’s beautiful ”Another Planet” (photo top right of the site), Czech/Canadian Petr Lom’s actual Iran-film ”Letters to the President” and Polish Beata Dzianowicz film from Afghanistan, ”Kites” (photo).

Prizes were given last night, and first prize went as in many other festivals worldwide to the film of Moldovanyi, “Another Planet”, whereas Beata Dzianowicz received the prize as the best director. Both films deal with the lives of children.

www.miradox.ru

Festivals: CPH:DOX

… and the still young documentary festival in Copenhagen announces some audience attractions for its coming festival, November 6-15: We are now in the final stages of programming for CPH:DOX 2009, and we will regularly be announcing selected titles and revealing what else is in store in November here on the website. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the liberalisation of visual pornography in Denmark as the first place in the world. One of this year’s special series will focus on the most popular documentary genre of them all and will highlight what sex on film also is. Amongst other titles, we will screen the brand new Swedish feminist film project ‘DIRTY DIARIES’ by Mia Engberg, which provokes more than mere reflection.

There is also plenty political provocation in the political section of the programme, which is as strong as ever. We look forward to showing audiences the adaptation of Naomi Klein’s revealing bestseller ‘THE SHOCK DOCTRINE’, which she has headed in collaboration with Michael Winterbottom and Matt Whitecross. We also welcome the the fearless activist duo The Yes Men and their newest film ‘THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD’ (photo). (See filmkommentaren.dk).

In a videocracy the image rules. In Italy all images are owned by one man. The succesful and surreal media revolution of Silvio Berlusconi is the subject of ‘VIDEOCRACY’, which has been selected for the year’s DOX:AWARD competition. Politics and plastic boobs are part of a systematised symbiosis in the country, where Silvio Berlusconi has recently appointed one of his former TV bimbos Minister for Equality.

Director Erik Gandini of the Swedish film collective ATMO grew up in Italy himself and zaps from the hopeful karate-singer over the powerful TV agent with Mussolini on his phone to the ultra cynical pimp of the paparazzi, who blackmails celebrities with his photos. ‘VIDEOCRACY’ has been one of the most talked about films in the international film festivals in Venice and Toronto this autumn, and it is a frightening diagnosis of the state of democracy in a country, where the dream om fame has seduced all common sense, and where power and entertainment are two sides of the same complex matter.

http://www.cphdox.dk

Dola Bonfils: K-notatet

Tim Sloth Jørgensen er den gennemgående uheldige helt i tv´s fortsatte reportagefilm fra forsvarskommandoen. Jeg følger den med stigende spænding og voksende forfærdelse. Den mand er altså vores anfører i krigen, vi er havnet i, hvis vi altså er et vi, en samlet nation i dette. Jeg tøver lidt.

Hans forgænger i embedet, Jesper Helsø, var en noget anden type helt. Han havde hovedrollen i Dola Bonfils grundige skildring af ham, hans nærmeste folk og begivenhederne under pressede situationer på samme location. Helsø spiller rollen barsk og morsom. Med autoritet og udstråling. Tim Jørgensen ses hele tiden som hans nærmeste medarbejder. Det var dengang. Nu sidder han med det hele i egne hænder. Måske. Måske ikke.

I Bonfils fremragende film kommer vi helt ind i de inderste rum og overværer med fryd, hvordan i andre sager, pressechefens spin fabrikeres. Det er lærerigt og muntert skildret. Men filmens komedietone holdes i stram snor og autoriteten understreges af den kyndige fortællerstemme læst kongenialt af Lasse Jensen. Jeg ser en militær ledelse, som jeg respekterer, selv om jeg ikke just er tilhænger af organisationens berettigelse.

Nu er organisationen til grin på en ganske anden måde. I det daglige tv-afsnit. Og der er ikke forsonende kompetente træk at få øje på. På den baggrund er det yderst lærerigt at finde Dola Bonfils film frem og gøre sammenlignende studier af to forsvarschefer.

Dola Bonfils: K-notatet, 2005, 90 min. Kan lånes på biblioteket (dvd) www.bibliotek.dk  og ses på www.filmstriben.dk via visse bibliotekers hjemmesider.

Karin Westerlunds andre film

Karin Westerlunds film er fortsat aktuelle for os i FOF-filmklubben efter oplevelsen med Gud, lugt og hende, som ikke bare slipper og bliver til glemsel. Vi må have fat i de tidligere kortfilm og den ene lange film. Desværre kan man kun vanskeligt komme til at se dem, de findes godt nok på biblioteket, men kun i VHS kopier. Westerlunds film fortjener nu at udkomme på dvd. Samlet. Det drejer sig ud over Gud, lugt og hende om fire titler, tre kortfilm og en lang:

Lisanak hosanak insonto sanka, 1993, få minutter, som findes i SFC-antologien, Jeg civiliserer mig om morgenen (titlen på Kirsten Hammanns bidrag). Den understreger, at med Westerlunds film er det nødvendigt med forkundskaber. Nødvendigt at kende betydningen af titlens arabiske ordsprog: ”Min tunge er min hest, og passer jeg godt på den, passer den godt på mig.” Derefter er det helt enkelt. Den korte film er reduceret til en enkelt idé, én eneste sammenstilling af billedsidens smukke heste og en telefonsamtale mellem kvinden (i Stockholm vil jeg tro) og manden (i Cairo vil jeg tro). Kan sproget betvinges, så de to kan mødes? En tanke parat til at udfolde sig, hvad den så har ventet 15 år på. Hvilken vedholdenhed!

The last stranger, 1998, 46 min. Jeg har bestilt filmen via www.bibliotek.dk og venter og vender nok tilbage med en kommentar. Jeg så den dengang for ti år siden. Nu tror jeg, den falder helt på plads. I mig, fordi den hele tiden nok har været del af et værk på vej.

If I give you my humbleness, don’t take away my pride, 1999, 14 min. Gunilla Röör og Ashraf og Abdel Baki spiller og gennemlever en stor erotisk scene ude I den ægyptiske ørken. Jeg så den dengang, glemte den ikke, overhovedet ikke! Og det gjorde de to heller ikke, vil jeg tro. I Gud, lugt og hende mødes de så igen. I den samme ørken. I en videreudvikling af det forskelligt gensidige begær og den fortsat psykologiske magtkamp, kamp for at blive forstået af den anden.   

Helgoland, 2001, 12 min. Et film-frikvarter, som slet ikke har med de andre film at gøre. Men den skal jo være med, fordi instruktøren er med og fordi vi ser netop det, hun ser, når hun tager ud til badeanstalten sommer og vinter, gennemfører ritualet, fastholder fortagendet.

Og så. På den samlede dvd-udgivelse, som jeg sådan ønsker og anbefaler, skal jo forrest være den nye film, som lige har haft dansk premiere, Gud, lugt og hende, 2008, 93 min. Nu må Zentropa i gang med at finde pengene og få den dvd-ting lavet. Det skylder de os, og det skylder de Karin Westerlunds seje træk og dybe originalitet.

Festivals: MDOX Malmö

It might interest our DANISH READERS that something very interesting for documentarians takes place on the other side of Copenhagen. Cross the bridge and you are there. This is what it is about:

MDOX (22 – 25. October) is the yearly industry meeting for the Swedish documentary scene consisting of master classes, work in progress sessions, film screenings and a pitch for Swedish broadcaster SVT. MDOX is organised by the local film fund Film i Skåne.

And this is how it is presented in Swedish: Torsdag den 22/10 startar vi M:DOX med två Work in Progress-projekt presenterade av dokumentärfilmskonsulent Tove Torbiörnsson från SFI. EDN kommer också att presentera ett seminarium kring hur man bäst samproducerar med större europeiska tv-kanaler, och Media Desk Sverige bjuder in till mingel och samtal.

Fredag den 23/10 fortsätter vi med ytterligare två Work in Progress- projekt presenterade av Tove Torbiörnsson.  Du kommer även ha möjlighet att höra producenten Arik Bernstein berätta om det dokumentära crossmediaprojektet Gaza/Sderot (ARTE), och hur man i detta projekt gick till väga både berättarmässigt och produktionsmässigt för att skapa dokumentärt innehåll för webben. Lördag den 24/10 gästas vi av den holländska regissören Coco Schrijber, som presenterar sin film “Bloody Mondays and Strawberry Pies”. Efter filmen kommer Schrijber att hålla en master class i idé- och manusutveckling där hon berättar om hur man hanterar mer abstrakta teman i en dokumentärfilm.  Under lördagen kommer det också att hållas ett klippseminarium med klipparen Jesper Osmund och regissören Fredrik Gertten, där de utifrån arbetet med “Bananas!*” (foto) samtalar om de kreativa val man ställs inför som dokumentärfilmare, och vad som skiljer dokumentärfilm från journalistik.

http://www.filmiskane.se/content/view/235

http://www.edn.dk/art.lasso?-token.skip=&na=200404&ndd=1455

Festivals: DOCLisboa

”Kill the Referee” is one of the films that are included in the ”foot doc” section of the coming DOCLisboa (October 15.25). It is new, made by Yves Hinant, a Belgian/Swiss coproduction, 75 mins. long. 7 other films are there to be enjoyed by football freaks like me – Ken Loach with ”Looking for Eric” (Cantona), but also classics like the one about the legendary Brasilian magician Garrincha, made in 1962 by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade.

As previously highlighted on this site, the Portuguese festival also has a section called ”Love Stories” with ”Long Distance Love” (photo) (Elin Jönsson and Magnues Gertten) and ”Padre Nostro” (Carlo lo Giudice), both reviewed on this site. And a huge presentation of the work of Jonas Mekas, and music documentaries, and competition programmes for international as well as Portuguese documentaries. What a feast!

www.doclisboa.org

Festivals: Jihlava

You might not know it but Jihlava is in Czech Republic and hosts an international documentary festival (October 27-November 1) with an always interesting innovative selection of films, and a huge industry programme – a pitching session East European Forum, a market East Silver, masterclasses… you name it…

 A premiere is scheduled, read this press release:

October 30, 7pm, the gala premiere of five films collectively entitled Breathless, Dominance of the Moment takes place at the Dukla as part of the Jihlava IDFF. The Czech-German project dedicated to documentary film was launched in 2007 by Zipp – Czech-German Cultural Projects, the Institute of Documentary Film and DOK Leipzig.

Two Czech and three German directors who were selected by a panel of experts based on their proposals present original takes on the subject of time. Audiences may look forward to a visual rendering of diary entries of an ordinary woman (Jan Gogola ml.) (photo); a cinematic exploration of time as a physical quantity (Karel alud); a documentary about the performance of a John Cage composition set to last 639 years (Anca Miruna Lazarescu); a portrayal of the post-industrial stasis of a region in Montana (Rainer Komers), and a depiction of the endless moment of a car accident (Marie-Catherine Theiler, Jan Peters).

http://www.dokument-festival.cz

www.docuinter.net

Festivals: IDFA Amsterdam

The biggest of them all takes place in Amsterdam (November 19-29). The programme is not yet announced, that will happen on October 15, but here is a press release that again is an evidence of the growth of the political film:

The themes of the environment and globalisation will play an important role in the festival programme at the upcoming IDFA. As in previous years, various aspects of the environment issue and globalisation will be discussed under the title Green Screen. This year, the accent will be on the exploitation of natural resources and the global food industry.

What was still a special programme at IDFA 2005, is now a recurring theme at IDFA. Each year, under the title Green Screen, documentaries are screened on all manner of aspects of the worldwide environmental issue. Last year, for example, The Age of Stupid screened at IDFA and – contrary to recent reports in the media – the film had its world première on that occasion. This year too, Green Screen documentaries of great interest have been selected, both in the competition programmes and in Reflecting Images.

A number of these Green Screen films focus on the exploitation of natural resources and pollution by large companies. In Crude, Joe Berlinger follows the court case being conducted against Texaco by 30,000 Ecuadorians, whose living environment has been destroyed by oil extraction. Oil is also the topic of Nicole Torre’s Houston We Have a Problem. The film investigates how our dependence on oil has led to the current energy crisis, and looks at clean alternatives. Another sub-theme of Green Screen is the global food industry. Colony by Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn deals with the worrying phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), whereby colonies of bees become disoriented and disappear. Food Inc. by Carter Gunn focuses on the American food industry and investigates how the food sold in supermarkets is produced. In total, some fifteen Green Screen titles will be screened.

www.idfa.nl