D-Word 10 Years!

A worldwide community of documentary professionals it is, the D-word that announces that by September 3 it has existed for 10 years. As a place for documentary people from all over the world to talk to each other, as colleagues sharing experience and knowledge. Warm congratulations from a member who visits The D-Word and profits… and would love to have participated much more than has been the case. Let me give the floor to the founder Doug Block who together with Ben Kempas are the ones with whom I have only fine memories from the time when I was in the EDN. And to readers – sign up, you wont regret it:

It’s hard to believe that on September 3rd we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the very first posting on The D-Word.  And that this total lark of an idea I had back in 1999 would grow to become the foremost virtual community for documentary filmmakers, with thousands of members from 80 countries.

For a while now we’ve been thinking about having some kind of ambitious global event for The D-Word’s 10th birthday (I know I just said anniversary but it feels much more like a birthday).  However, that’s not really our style.  What we’d like to encourage, instead, is for members everywhere to organize gatherings in their local cities on September 3rd.  It need not be anything big.  The point is to use the date as an excuse to meet fellow doc makers in your area in person.  And, like we do everyday online, together celebrate the art and craft and joy and angst of documentary filmmaking.

http://www.d-word.com

The Beetz Brothers

The Beetz Brothers … sounds like a film title but is the name of a very active independent production company in Germany, which I would like to draw your attention to as an example of a production company that not only makes a lot of interesting films for tv and cinema, but also puts a lot of energy into the promotion of the films. I am the interested receiver of their regular newsletter and reader of a very well constructed website. Check it:

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

Later I will review a couple of films from the company, one of them being Marc Eberle’s film from Laos, a quote from the annotation of the film:

The Vietnam War was the most intensely televised war ever. However, next door in neighboring Laos, the longest and largest air war in human history was underway, which eventually made Laos the most bombed country on earth. The Secret War was the largest operation ever conducted by the CIA, yet to this day, hardly anyone knows anything about it. Critics call it the biggest war crime of the Vietnam War era and point to striking similarities to the present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; similarities that were tested and set in motion back in Laos in the 1960s.

Glawogger Masterpiece Available

Time for a commercial – to illustrate through just one example that many of the creative documentary films reviewed on filmkommentaren.dk are available to be watched whenever you want and for little money:

“joiningthedocs.tv is a new documentary channel offering the very best director-led films on demand, via streaming.The films are made by a passionate, international group of socially committed people who have a mission to try and make sense of the world. They illuminate our times and help to support a fully-functioning society. But they are hard to see. Although some are shown by public service and public-minded tv broadcasters, they tend to be on specialist channels, in the corners of schedules and rarely repeated.

Many films play at international festivals, and on occasion are theatrically released. But how often have you read a great review of a film and then not had the chance to watch it? We know that audiences expect to find what they want, when they want, at a time and price that suits them. That’s where joiningthedocs.tv comes in.a new documentary channel offering the very best director-led films on demand, via streaming.”

End of commercial: The reason choosing specifically this one is the advertising they do for a new title, the masterpiece of Austrian director Michael Glawogger (photo), “Workingman’s Death”. As convincing as his “Megacities” by one of the real auteurs in modern documentary. Take a look at the trailer.

http://www.joiningthedocs.tv/

http://www.workingmansdeath.com

Paul Pauwels Interview

He is now the head of The European Television & Media Management Academy in Strasbourg. Before he was a documentary film producer, one of the best in Europe, and for a short while a commissioning editor at the VRT in Belgium, the country he comes from. I know him from his pioneer work for years for EDN (European Documentary Network), as a chairman of the Executive Committee and I won’t hesitate to say as the best tutor and promoter of international cooperation, I met when a director of EDN. One of the filmmakers Paul Pauwels met on his many travels for EDN was Serbian Zelkjo Mirkovic, who made this interview that can be read in full length on www.docuinter.net Here is a brief clip:

eljko Mirkovic: How do you see the future of documentary film? Paul Pauwels: Reality is always stronger than fiction, certainly when filmed and edited by professionals. Documentary will never disappear. There will come good times, there will come bad times, but it will always survive. I suppose that you’re question really means: how do you see the future of creative documentaries? Well, there I’m also optimistic about the fact that they will always be there and will warm many hearts, but I’m less optimistic about their production circumstances. I fear that the percentage of creative documentaries on traditional tv-screens will quickly diminish and certainly they will be banned from prime-time. But… another big but… thanks to the new platforms (VOD, IP-TV …) there will be other forms of financing, production and distribution available. There is a niche audience for them that can be served through alternative channels and believe me, the commercial world (who often has to come up with the money to produce them) will be very interested in this audience. Apologies if this sounds too much business-like, but that’s the reality that will keep people like you in the business. On the other hand it is the responsibility of commissioning editors to keep fighting to keep documentaries on the traditional main channels too. So I see a lot of fighting and hardship, but I’m certainly not pessimistic: there are so many creative and talented people around that they will always find ways to surprise and seduce audiences, and they are the blood and the force of documentaries. Photo: Mirkovic left, Pauwels right.

www.docuinter.net

http://www.etma-academy.eu/

http://www.optimisticfilm.com/

Football Referees get their own Film

According to the newspaper The Guardian (August 13) a new documentary about football referees has been premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. Director is Yves Hinant and the film runs time-wise a bit less than a football match: 77 mins. This is how the intro to the article by Simon Hart runs:

“Nobody knows them, nobody likes them. So it is very interesting to make a movie against the common perception.” Belgian film-maker Yves Hinant is not talking about paedophiles or serial killers, but football referees. The ref may be a popular figure of contempt for frustrated managers, players and fans but Hinant’s film could cause you to think twice before badmouthing the next hapless official. Les Arbitres (The Referees), which had its premiere at the Locarno film festival in Switzerland on Monday, is a revealing fly-on-the-wall documentary about the men in the middle at the Euro 08 finals last year – among them the leading English match official, Howard Webb (photo). Remarkably for the image-obsessed world of modern sport, Hinant gained unfettered access to a handful of these referees, whom we see not just on the pitch but off it, too: in dressing rooms, at debriefs, even at home with their families…”

Can’t wait to watch it!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/13/the-referees-documentary

Muslim Cinema Festival

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”, Czech/Canadian Petr Lom’s actual Iran-film ”Letters to the President” and Polish Beata Dzianowicz film from Afghanistan, ”Kites” (photo). The programme looks interesting from a festival that I regret to say that I had never heard about before. Films from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Italy, Lebanon – quite a wide range of countries are represented.

www.miradox.ru

Latvian Film 3

… and as a follow-up this mail from Ilze Gailite Holmberg, managing director of the National Film Centre of Latvia, to the big amount of European colleagues and film funds/centres/associations/institutes:

Dear Colleagues, This is to thank you for all your support to the independence of the National Film Centre of Latvia. Currently we have had the first victory – Mr. Ints Dalderis, the Minister of Culture has announced his decision to support NFC’ s independent status at the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia. Thus, the final decision will be taken by the government. I am very convinced that the positive move of the Minister towards us has happened thanks to the great support we have received from you, widely from the local media, from Latvian filmmakers and a number of international institutions.

During the decisive meeting between Film Council and Minister of Culture Latvian filmmakers were united in a demonstration – filmmaking of a short film The Dream of Eisenstein, based on the boyhood dream of Latvia- born Eisenstein to make a film in Riga, in order to remind the Ministry on the significance of continuation of film culture. You can see some pictures from the set at this link: http://www.pozitivaszinas.lv/posts/view/par-kino

I truly hope the government will follow the decision of the Minister of Culture.

Latvian Film 2

I received this mail from Latvian Lelda Ozola last night, and got her permission to publish it like this:

Dearest Tue, this is a deja vu situation of some 5 years ago … I start thinking why me, why again, why now. What is happening here is close to a nightmare. Every day the feeling strenghtens that this country is meant for destruction. The earth will very soon be unable to bear what is happening.

And in the middle of that we have to get ready for Baltic Sea Forum… (24 Eastern European projects to be pitched to more than 15 international commissioning editors, ed.) You will not recognise us when you come! However, yesterday we got 200% positive emotions, seeing the support from the industry. It was so touching that everybody could hardly suppress tears. Can you imagine 200 people – almost all the industry + actors, being there around the ministry, having brought rails, cameras, sound equipment and even lighting bus from Lithuania has arrived. We felt the solidarity. It was unbelievable. and the main thing – it is not vain, there will be another Laila Pakalnina short film (shot on 35 mm invested by the cinematographer !!!) as a result of all this (hopefully, award winning with fantastic PR from the very start).It is already agreed that we will try to get the film ready to open the National Film Festival at the end of September. All this and the papers and (film centre director, ed.) Ilze Gailite Holmberg’s efforts together with the NGOs have resulted that they allow us to try to preserve independence but cutting staff and functions… This still has to be defended in the cabinet of ministers and the ministry is not very enthusiastic about defending it! But Baltic Sea Forum in two weeks will definitely take place. The catalogue goes to print tomorrow!

Lelda Ozola. National Film Centre of Latvia & Media Desk Latvia

Shocking Film News from Latvia

”National Film Centre of Latvia is under the threat of reorganization” was the headline of this morning’s daily news from ”Film New Europe”, continued by these lines: ” The financial crisis in Latvia has triggered a chain of reorganization of cultural institutions that threatens the existence of the National Film Centre of Latvia (NFC) as an independent establishment.” So not only has the budget for support for films in 2009 been cut 44% compared to 2008, but an eventual cut-away of the Film Centre to be reduced to an office in the Ministry of Culture is of course a severe perspective of catastrophy.

As one who has followed the Latvian film since the independence, I can only admire the work done by committed and clever people in and around the Film Centre. A well functioning, independent film institutional structure has been established, that serves the many fine film directors and producers from a country that especially in the documentary sector has long and proud traditions.

Anyone can understand that cuts are needed in times of financial crisis, but to destroy an independent structure that represents a country with such competence is political narrow-minded thinking. And if this reorganisation becomes a reality, the consequence will be that the EU-supported Baltic Sea Forum, that takes place in Riga for the 13th time in 3 weeks will cease to exist. At this forum Latvian producers, among others, come to find funding for their film projects. Protests have arrived from neighbouring countries, from Austria, from Slovenia, and more will come, I am sure. The Latvian filmmakers protest outside the Ministry of Culture. Allow me to send many warm thoughts to Latvian film friends. A fight for independence is going on.

http://www.filmneweurope.com

Luis Bunuel: Un Chien Andalou

Just this short note to accompany the posted still photo that everybody knows… it is 80 years ago that Bunuel made this 16 minutes long masterpiece with help from Salvador Dali. Lucky you who has not seen the film yet, and lucky us who can watch it again. Available it is in all dvd shops, and online, and maybe you have a cinematheque near you, that celebrates film history like this.