Niall McKay: The Bass Player – A Song for Dad

It is one of those films where you wonder if this is going to be private OR personal = something that would have been better to keep in the family circle OR a film with a universal appeal. The latter is absolutely the case and the reason is obvious – Irish director Niall McKay is a skilled storyteller and the character he brings to us, the bass player, his father, appears to be charming and charismatic in a very relaxed and reflective way.

The narrative is quite simple. Niall, the director and son, goes to Zürich to help his father pack his things for a return to Ireland after the death of the woman with whom he lived. Jim, the father, tells wonderfully how he met her, and in general these conversations on the journey, between father and son, are quite light hearted and warm. It is very often a son who asks his father to give him some tricks on Life. The father says, he can’t, but he does so anyway to a son, who is just about to get married, and who makes his proposing to his dear Marissa, on camera. The same goes for the wedding. The two also go back in time to talk about the mother, who took her own life. Yes, there are dramatic events in this family story but they are always presented in a decent manner that makes you able to reflect and make parallels to your own life. And in this way the film becomes moving through a tone that is never aggressive but always full of respect.

Irish can be difficult to understand, and I was happy that the director provided me with a subtitled version.

Ireland, 62 mins., 2008/9, taster and director-interview on sites below

http://www.asongfordad.net/

http://mediafactory.tv/

http://www.filmireland.net/2009/07/31/niall-mckay-director-of-a-song-for-dad/

The Danish Roos Award

The award, named after the documentary film pioneer Jørgen Roos, was established in 1995 for the purpose of rewarding outstanding efforts in Danish documentary filmmaking – went this year to director Anders Østergaard and producer Lise Lense-Møller, the duo behind ‘Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country’”. The award ceremony took place yesterday at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark.

The motivation went as follows: They have created a moving film that evokes sympathetic insight, even though the audience does not see the leading person who remains anonymous for security reasons. They have created a film with visual strength, an authentic historical document from thousands of small clips — out of focus, incoherent, and shot by different individuals under chaotic conditions. They have persisted in sticking to their ambition of making ‘a documentary film that mattered’, even though it would have been easier and less expensive to produce an efficient news version of the film, which there was a demand for. They have taken chances; the film had to be made, even before an unsigned contract and even though necessary finances were yet to be met. And they have persisted long after the completion of the film — followed it around the world —with their engagement in those who took part in the film and with their interest in the themes dwelt on in the film.

May I add a big bravo that Lise Lense-Møller in this way is being praised for her fine work in Danish documentary for decades. For those who don’t know her: She is a fim producer and CEO and founder of Magic Hour Films. She has produced films, co-written scripts and been a consultant on the development and production of feature films, short fiction, documentaries, and TV-series. She is also one of the experts at EU’s EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs).

www.dfi.dk

Sergey Dvortsevoy – Letter to the Director

Dear Sergey. Around 10 years ago you were in Copenhagen to present your film school diploma work, ”Paradise”. You declared yourself as a dedicated documentarian, and you proved to be one of the best with the films that followed: ”Bread Day”, ”Highway” and ”In the Dark”. You have been awarded for your work, you have deserved it as the brilliant filmmaker you are, who can catch the magic moments, the ones you have been waiting for to appear after long research, as you did with ”Paradise” from the steppes of the Kazakhstan with the people you love so much. Now you have returned to the same theme with your ”Tulpan”, a film that is touring the world with success. When we met last December in Copenhagen, you told me that you were happy to have switched to fiction – you have reached a bigger audience and you don’t have the ethical problem that you were told to have created for the people in ”Paradise”, who had been critizised heavily for taking part in a film that represents kazakh reality as poor and miserable. I saw ”Tulpan” yesterday and I love it – for being a continuation of your documentary work with scenes that I will never forget. The birth of a lamb, you keep the scene for a wonderful long time. The little boy running on the steppes as in ”Paradise”. The nature images. The sheep being kept as a flock… and so on. You got some of the magical documentary moments that you can not put into a script. But you also have a story and it is full of humour and warmth. It is close to the reality you know, but they act, you can see that they perform, some of them over-act. I like it but you lose something in terms of the truthfulness you have in your previous work. I can not help compare the mother in ”Paradise” with the mother in ”Tulpan”. There is a world of difference. The first is the mother, the other acts a mother, and she does that well. In the first film you wait for things to happen, in ”Tulpan” you say ”action”. Hope you understand this small reflection on documentary and fiction – there is a small fine drama in ”Tulpan” surrounded by magic images and situations that has that documentary presence that is your quality stamp! Best wishes from your true admirer Tue. Photo from “Paradise”.

Cinemateket i September

2nd message to the lucky Copenhageners about a film offer – presented in Danish:

Så kom der endelig en lejlighed til at glæde læserne med et foto af Juliette Binoche, den fremragende franske skuespiller, hvis evner kan nydes i 11 film, som Cinemateket præsenterer i september måned. ”Skjult” (Haneke), ”Blå” (Kieslowski) og ”De elskende fra Pont-Neuf” (Carax) for blot at nævne tre mesterlige film og præstationer af Binoche. Og så er der ellers Cassavetes, Capra and masser af andre godter på programmet.

www.cinemateket.dk

Mandagsdokumentar

1st message to the lucky Copenhageners about a film offer – presented in Danish:

Så er det sæson for MandagsDokumentar. Utrættelige Ebbe Preisler inviterer som sædvanlig og han insisterer vanen tro på at det er en god idé at filmskaberne møder sit publikum. Så check hjemmesiden og se hvilken herlig blanding af film og folk, der vil indfinde sig i PH Caféen på Halmtorvet 9A. Og det er ikke blot filmfolk, men også filmformidlere der optræder, således kan publikum glæde sig til den 2. November hvor Danmarks bedste i den genre, højskolelærer og filmskolelærer Niels Jensen er aftenens midtpunkt. Flere af filmene er anmeldt eller omtalt på dette sted: Den bevægede jord (Lars Becker Larsen), Cikaderne findes (Jytte Rex), Kirsten Kjær (Jørgen Vestergaard), De fem benspænd (Let og Trier), Tulpan (Sergey Dvortsevoy) og Long Bien Bridge (Steen Møller Rasmussen, foto)

www.mandagsdokumentar.dk

Karin Westerlund: God, Smell and Her

My colleague, Allan Berg, has posted two texts in Danish about the new film by Karin Westerlund, Swedish visual artist and filmmaker, based in Denmark and Cairo, Egypt. I saw the film yesterday, it is as Allan Berg writes, quite extraordinary, a bombardment of images from all over, a film about love, about what you don’t see but sense, about culture, religion, a philosophical statement. As it has been said, the film can be categorized as poetic-political if that adds anything, probably not, as this film is hard to describe due to its richness. I watched it yesterday in a completely sold out art cinema in Copenhagen (extra screening sunday at 10am in Grand Teatret Copenhagen), and write this to make film festival people and tv buyers aware of a film that does not look like anything else, an experiment someone will say, if so let’s have more of that. Go to the website of the unique filmmaker Karin Westerlund and enjoy clips from the work, she has done, including this new one. A dvd edition for public purchase is on its way. (photo from the book of KW: It started in Cairo)

http://www.kamerakairo.com/glh.html

Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende 2

Den syriske digter Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Asbar), (still fra filmen) er en af seværdighederne, som Gunilla Röör opsøger i filmens rejseforløb. Et monument som de store og små bygningsværker, hun også besøger. Jeg tror hans tekster er vigtige dele i filmens konstruktion. Måske en arkitektur som trappen i Varanasi ned til Ganges. Jeg ved det ikke, mærker det kun. Hvordan skal jeg dog få tag i dette geniale monstrum af en film? 

“Jeg mærker de gode vibrationer”, siger hun til den vise mand, som har vist hende om i moskeen. “Det er et billede, som du henter fra fysikken”, replicerer han. “Jeg tror, det er nærvær, du mærker”.  

“The truth is a house / without people / without neighbours / without visitors…” skriver Adonis. Et sted kommer Röor – i en drøm måske, i hvert fald i en virkelighed – til en række tomme, smukt okkerkalkede rum i en bygning, hvor jeg gerne slog mig ned. Men hun er fortvivlet. Bevæger sig omkring i angstfyldte ryk, kan intet genkende. Det er ikke, som det skulle være. Er ikke, som det måske var. Engang. Til slut ser hun fra balkonen ud over landskabet. Som ikke er der mere.

Filmens juxtapositioner (som de snakker om under seminaret i Århus) kaster mig fra side til side, frem og tilbage. Jeg må se den igen..

Karin Westerlund: Gud, lugt og hende, Danmark, 2008. 93 min. Grand biografen, København. EKSTRAFORESTILLING I GRAND SØNDAG DEN 30. AUGUST KL. 10.00 (OM FORMIDDAGEN). INSTRUKTØREN KARIN WESTERLUND ER TIL STEDE. Billetter bestilles på 33151611 eller www.grandteatret.dk

Lukas Pribyl: Forgotten Transports 1-4/ 1

What an achievement! I don’t recall, when was the last time that I witnessed so captivating a historical documentary, here told by Czech Jewish survivors of the holocaust. They were interviewed between 2000-2006 by Lukas Pribyl, the researcher, writer and director behind the four 90 minutes long films that share the same title, ”Forgotten Transports”, with the adding of where the transports went: ”to Latvia”, ”to Estonia”, ”to Belarus”, ”to Poland”. (The photo represents the “Estonian “Czech Girls”” in “to Estonia”).

Put together in a clearly edited non-sensationalistic chronological structure each of the four films takes the viewer on a journey from Czekoslovakia to the ghettos in the countries mentioned and from there to camps – concentration camps, extermination camps. Or to be more precise: the survivors take the viewer with their personal stories, told with shocking and moving details, but also with humour. Watching the film you wonder how it was possible for these people to continue living after they (most of them) lost their families and were so close to the most horrifying brutality and death in circumstances beyond description.

But the film director does so in a way that deserves all respect. All archive material – moving or still images, much of it I guess shown for the first time  – are connected to the places, events and time that the storytellers refer to. Discreetly a text is placed in the frame giving the information of name of person talking, or the place we are taken to. With the addition of private photos of the survivors as young people, as well as the killed relatives or friends, or the German SS people and camp superiors. This is not a film about the 2nd WW, there is not a single word from Hitler, there is not a single reconstruction, it is totally based on what human beings remember from their childhood and youth. Put together in four films that are different as their fates were different, some timesvery hard to watch and listen to, some times you smile. It is about Czech Jews but the stories have an universal appeal.

The musical score also deserves a mention for its high quality. Peter Ostrouchov avoids all film music klichés and pushes for sentimentality, for me his music places the viewer in a state of reflection.

www.forgottentransports.com

Lukas Pribyl: Forgotten Transports 1-4/ 2

I had an email contact with the director of ”Forgotten Transports”, Lukas Pribyl. Here follows some quotes from his side – and please do also go to the very good site of the film:

How did you make the people talk so fine and precise?” The people talk so precisely because most of them were interviewed for the very first time and did not have anyone to share their recollections with, therefore they only told me what really remembered – no second hand information. Then, the films were edited from 270 hours of interview footage, so I had a lot to choose from. I developed my own interviewing technique, which allows for some repetition and is therefore well suited for editing work.”

You refrain totally from the use of nowadays trend for reconstruction in historial documentaries?” What can be more real than reality? Why reenact and reconstruct something that can be shown through authentic photographs and footage and why speak for people who are perfectly capable of telling their story themselves? (It is their story after all…) The photos used in the film are really of the people themselves, in the places they talk about. So when the women in the film about Estonia speak about a diver in the port of Tallinn, I go to the archives, find the names of all the German divers working in the Baltics between 1941 and 1944, trace them or their families, until I find Mr. Ruehmann’s family and get the picture of the Czech Jewish women helping him onto a boat. That’s why the series took ten years to make. I don’t use any look-alike footage or photos, only time and place precise material. I have had extremely good experience with audiences – they don’t find the stories too complicated or incomprehensible and actually find them “dramatic”enough.”

And a line from the site of the film: The series of four feature length documentary films on the topic of virtually unknown concentration camps and ghettos and little known modes of survival is Pribyl’s directorial debut.

www.forgottentransports.com