What a pleasure to listen to Peter Entell at the masterclass in Belgrade in connection with the Magnificent7 festival. Well prepared he showed clips from his previous films, talked about them and about his way of filmmaking,  especially related to his latest film, ”Shake the Devil Off”. I made some notes that I will share with you.

I dont know what I am filming, he said. I am going there to find the story. My cameraman for the New Orleans film wrote with his camera. I had the second camera, did the reaction shots and together we were filming all these unrepeatable moments, hoping that we could get something in which we could find the story. I sense the emotions but I dont really know what goes on when I am on location. One take, thats all. This is storytelling, I dont believe in reality, there is none, there is perhaps a truth, but truth is not reality. I love the editing process. I go over the rushes again and again, I ask friends to come in and give me their reactions to what they see. I never do rough cuts, I edit the scenes immediately. I love the revealing silences in a story.  

It is sick to think about an audience and I dont want to pretend that I am targeting such one, Entell says. I dont ever set up anything, I aim for the emotional possibilities.

I had seen a couple of Entell’s films in beforehand, the masterly told story ”Rolling” and the reflective essayistic ”The Tube” about the impact of television. American born Entell, who lives in Switzerland, has now added another great work to his filmography, ”Shake the Devil Off”.

Magnificent7

You might say that the films should be able to stand on their own. And right you are. You should be able to understand and sense a film without any introduction or comment or explanation. To watch it on your own on your computer or tv set, or together with others in a cinema.

Nevertheless, what a pleasure it is to meet a filmmaker, who can give us, the spectators some background, some motivation and some inside info on how the film was born in his or her mind.

I write this after Magnificent7 in Belgrade and on the last day of DOCSBarcelona. In both festivals the meeting of an audience with the filmmakers have played a key role for the success of both festivals. Both festivals are actually built up around this concept. The audience will have the chance to ask questions or give comments, the filmmakers will profit from the reactions they get. They will discover weaknesses in their work or see that the intentions were fulfilled. And they will have the chance to express again and again that a documentary is a Film and that the word documentary does not really make sense! This is what Peter Entell and Gideon Koppel did in Belgrade, and what Avi Mograbi did yesterday here in Barcelona. And what they and other filmmakers have done again and again when travelling around. Full respect for the directors who take their time to accept the many invitations to go and meet an audience and colleagues, and eventual investors in the next film. It is in most cases a not paId job they do. More about some of the meetings will follow.

Photo: Shake the Devil Off by Peter Entell.  Magnificent7  DOCSBarcelona

Look at the picture. This couple, Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, stands behind the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade. I have known them for years and have had the privilege to work with them for five years on the selection for the festival, see below.

They look so serious. And they are, when it comes to bring dedication and generosity and hospitality to their festival. They run it with warmth and humour and respect for the audience. And respect for the filmmakers and for quality. They have built up a large audience that comes back year after year to look at films that will stay in their minds. And who come to meet the makers and talk to them, or hear what they have to say in q & a’s that are masterly moderated by Zoran Popovic.

Hvala! Thank you!

We experience right now the golden age of documentary. There has never been such a huge interest from an audience that age-wise mostly is young and has given up on television! And there have never been such an amount of good films made. And thus festivals that show documentaries are growing like mushrooms. Watching documentaries has become part of an event culture.

The popularity of documentaries is also due to the widening of their narrative structures. It seems like all is allowed: animation documentaries, lots of documentaries that mix the genres fiction and documentary, reconstructions, docu-fiction as the French call it. And humour – ladies and gentlemen, documentaries of today can be funny! Just have a look at this year’s selection. You will be invited to laugh a lot, but there are always other layers, which for me is the quality stamp, well the core of what is a documentary. Multilayered interpretation of our reality. Raising questions, not necessarily giving answers. From a humanistic pov. And if a mixed genre approach is used the truthfulness must never be doubted. And please let us sense that there is a voice behind the film, a temperament, passion, a need to say something to others. A personal touch. If the terminology is still remembered, what we find for you in Magnificent7, are films from the European auteur tradition.

Public funding through film institutes, film funds or ministries is a must for the future of the documentary as an art. As is the funding from the EU through the MEDIA Programme – that has changed the documentary situation in Europe immensely. Never have so many documentaries been co-financed helped by the EU, as now, and never has so many clever young producers been educated to work internationally. And that is what documentaries are made for is it not – to be seen and experienced all over.

Excerpt from welcoming words in catalogue, by Tue Steen Müller.

Photo from Sleep Furiously.