Antonioni on China

In 1972 Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni went to China to make a documentary for RAI with a duration of 3 ½ hours. The film, that was shown in cinemas in Italy and on television, and in a shorter version in other countries, has stayed unknown since then. Now it is released theatrically in France and on dvd.

French critic Jacques Mandelbaum writes with enthusiasm about it in le Monde April 7: C’est intrigant. A travers quelques grandes étapes – Pékin, la région du Hunan, puis les villes de Suzhou, Nankin et Shanghaï -, le film semble se chercher en permanence, hésiter entre plusieurs directions. Celle de la vocation pédagogique, celle de l’essai filmé, celle de la contemplation poétique. Antonioni filme ici les institutions, les monuments, les quartiers, en accompagnant ces images d’un commentaire qui les situe dans une perspective historique et politique. Il enregistre là, dans de longues échappées silencieuses, des visages choisis dans la foule, souvent ceux de très belles jeunes femmes, les hommes au travail, les activités quotidiennes. Quelque chose de l’ordre du désarroi, de l’impuissance, entre dans ces plans, qui multiplient panoramiques et zooms comme pour mieux saisir une réalité fuyante. Une impression renforcée par l’absence de traduction directe des paroles qui sont prononcées devant la caméra, et que s’approprie systématiquement le narrateur…

http://www.lemonde.fr/

DOK Leipzig wants German Premieres

Be careful if you are German, has made a good documentary and wants it to go to DOK Leipzig 2009. New regulations have been introduced, read this press release:

Starting in 2009, all films screened in DOK Leipzig’s German Competition for Documentary Film must be German premieres. The festival has introduced this ruling to match the regulations of all three documentary film competitions (International, German and the „Generation Dok” competition for young talents), while making the national competition more exclusive and attractive to audiences, the media and industry visitors.

In practical terms this means that every film in one of the documentary competitions must not be presented at any other German festival (including Prix Europa) or publically in Germany before. A festival screening abroad will not be considered a cause for exclusion from competition, although world and international premieres will be given preference. Productions screened at other German festivals before DOK Leipzig may still be accepted for the International Programme. A theatrical release or television broadcast in Germany previous to or during DOK Leipzig will automatically exclude films from being selected for the official programme.

Photo: 2008 winner at DOK Leipzig: Renè.

http://www.dok-leipzig.de/v2/cms/en/home/index.html

Maysles Brothers Competition Belfast

It is not very often that jury motivations are useful to read. This one is, from the documentary competition at the Belfast Film Festival, named after the Maysles Brothers. The members were Karolina Lidin, Charlie Philips and Ben Kempas. Here is their text:

In Belfast, we saw many excellent films, gripping and well-crafted. Yet, PRESUMED GUILTY by Roberto Hernandez stood out, with all the right ingredients a documentary can possibly have. With astonishing access to a prison in Mexico, we get to follow Tono, a young man who has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder he most likely did not commit. We witness legal proceedings that seem like a total farce, based on the assumption of guilt rather than innocence.

 

Not only are we incredibly close to Tono and the people fighting for his release. There are also unbelievably revealing moments with the judge, the prosecutor, and police officers, which make us question their concepts of justice. The documentary is very political and very personal at the same time, taking us onto an emotional rollercoaster.Very well shot and edited, the film literally had us on the edge of our seats, close to tears.

This documentary competition honours direct cinema in the tradition of the Maysles brothers, as well as particularly innovative work. Almost 90 minutes into this film, it suddenly switches from verité to intervention, and rightfully so. Tono has already spent more than two years in prison, and things look totally hopeless, when the filmmakers themselves get involved and start a final rescue attempt, using their very own powers. A presentation of their footage to the legal
authorities essentially leads to Tono’s acquittal. Never have we been more thankful to a documentary maker for interfering with his subject.

Watching this film in Northern Ireland, on a day when dissidents suddenly attempted to bring back chaos and fear to the streets of Belfast, it only felt natural to give the Maysles Award to a
documentary that truly makes a difference. Actually, this would apply to many of the films we’ve seen. But only PRESUMED GUILTY saved more than 17 years of a young man’s life.

Nanna Frank Møller: Let’s Be Together

7 biografer viser  Let’s Be Together i denne måned. In 7 Danish cinemas the new documentary by big talent Nanna Frank Møller is shown. Here is a repeat of the review made in connection with cph:dox last year:

That Nanna Frank Møller is an excellent editor has been proved many times, primarily in her collaboration with Danish director Max Kestner. That she has a talent for directing herself became obvious with the film about the circus sisters, ”Someone Like You”. Here she is with another proof: a film about 14 year old Hairon, who has Brasilian parents but lives in Denmark with his mother and her Danish husband, one more dad for Hairon.

”Let´s Be Together”, however, is the story about son and (Brasilian) dad, told in an intimate and gentle film language, full of respect for the drama that lies in a teenager, who loves to dress like girls and women do.

Hairon wants to be Cleopatra for his birthday and this forms the structural frame of the film. Mother and Hairon go to Brasil to see Brasilian father and to have the Cleopatra costume prepared. Strong conversations are unfolded, interpreted brilliantly in rythm and music and in an editing that have wonderful pauses that are full of information and emotion. ”You must know to control your life a bit”, the father says in one of the many scenes with the two together. Would be wrong of me to reveal the end scene of the film, it is so fine and impressive and well thought and performed by a big talent in new Danish documentary.

No Handshakes for You!

It’s one of those great documentary moments. Barack Obama walks with Gordon Brown towards Downing Street. Obama stretches out his hand to say hello to the policeman in front of the building, they shake hands, Brown moves in the same direction, the policeman stretches out his hand prepared for another vip handshake but Brown regrets and the handshake never comes. Great fun!

Sorry I am British!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K68THqDqPKc

Ventzislavova/Ničić: Fokus Pokus €uromat

It is an obvious story- to go to the amusement park in Vienna, the Prater, famous also for the Harry Lime tune, Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten, but in this case it is a documentary that brings us stories about people, who work at the Prater, many of them coming from the former Yugoslavia and other Balkan countries. As do the Bulgarian and Serbian directors of this impressionistic documentary with a somewhat enigmatic title. There are some quite charismatic and colourful characters among those, the two directors have talked to, and there are some great pieces of montage in the film that follows the back stage life of Prater during a year. The two directors do not come from the classical documentary environment, but from the art scene and the documentary is best when they go for the visual bombardment, whereas some of the talks with especially the foreigners are felt repititive in the global context.

A methaphor for the society it is described to be on the site of the film, and it can be seen like this, including a dose of xenophophia and unfulfilled dreams of a good life from all those who left their countries to live in €urope.

Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia, 2005/2006, 60min

http://www.fokus-pokus-euromatik.net/

Sergey Dvortsevoy in Nyon

If you happen to be around Nyon in Switzerland on tuesday April 28, you should go and meet one of the few real stars in documentary cinema, Russian director Sergey Dvortsevoy. He has been invited to Visions du Réel and a retrospective is being done in his honour. If you dont happen to be at the festival in Nyon, try otherwise to get hold of the films of Dvortsevoy: Paradise (25 mins), Bread Day (55 mins), Highway (57 mins), In the Dark (41 mins), Tulpan (fiction) (100 mins.). Or start by watching the director in small interviews on the sites mentioned below.

”You have to put all your energy into the filmmaking. You have to choose, to wait and to catch”, Dvortsevoy says in the Nyon-interview, and those who have seen Paradise about the Nomad family in Kazakhstan will remember the little boy who is eating, or the cow that has its head stuck in a churn, or the woman who is combing her hair – or the blind man in In the Dark who just sits there talking to his cat from his sofa – or the women pushing the train wagon in the snow in Bread Day. Magic moments given to us by a director with a minimalistic film language, always shooting on film, made with a big heart for people, and normally on small budgets!

http://www.visionsdureel.ch/agenda/atelier-2009-sergey-dvortsevoy.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RElu_2s4Z1k

Documentary DVDs to Belarus

Here is a call for help from Belarussian Lyceum Headmaster and documentary director Uladzimir Kolas (see picture). Kolaz, who recently made the fine festival touring documentary ”Ada Gallery” is setting up a film education in his lyceum that is the only one in Belarus that is not controlled by Lukasjenko and his gang. For his video library Kolaz kindly asks international documentary filmmakers and institutions to donate copies of their film.

For more on the lyceum and the plan to build an education, as well as how to donate go to

http://www.edn.dk/art.lasso?nd=200403&ns=1308

An Arc de Triomph for Danish Cinema!

Finally the succesful Danish cinema will be celebrated. By the Danes themselves. In the park next to the Film House in Copenhagen an Arc de Triomph will be raised that should be minimum 24 meter high. And have three dimensions and fit to the structure of the beautiful park and the Rosenborg Castle that neighbours the park and the Film House. The monument, financed by local private sponsors, will for sure have the same symbolic meaning as the equivalent in Paris. It will underlign the enormous succes and influence Denmark has had on the world of cinema. The building of the Arc will begin next spring, the proud director of the Danish Film Institute, Mr. Nielsen expresses in his press release of April 1st 2009.

Too many Production Companies?

Yves Jeanneau, well known character in French documentary, ex-television editor and ex-producer at Films d’Ici, now producer and CEO of the Sunny Side of the Docs, was interviewed by le Monde (March 29-30). One of the questions went like this:

Many producers fear that their companies will not survive after France Télévisions (FR2, FR3, FR4 and FR5) will have one documentary unit. And it is being said that France has too many and too fragile production companies. What is your comment?

Jeanneau: I have said so for 10 years. Most of these companies have had one year with one succesful film but will have to give up because of insufficient financing to do the necessary project development. It may sound provocative but talking in economical terms the French documentary production could very well be placed at 5 times less companies than the 700 that exist today.