Annie Sundberg & Rickie Stern: The Devil came on H

The film was reviewed in August 2007, now we repeat the review for those Danish people who watched it on DR2’s new tuesday night documentary strand ”Dokumania”. The Danish language review went like this:

Darfur. Vi har hørt om det, vi har læst om det, vi ved at mennesker bliver dræbt i hundreder af tusindvis, men derfra til at få uhyrlighederne visualiseret som i Ricki Stern og Annie Sundbergs film er et langt stykke vej. Det her er en kampagnefilm, et råb om hjælp til verdensopinionen, så gør dog noget, og gøres der noget, næh sådan ser det ikke ud. Og hvorfor ikke, storpolitik, siger vi afmægtigt til hinanden uden at vide, hvad der så ligger i det. Det forklarer filmen heller ikke, dens ærinde er humanistisk og dens fortælling er personligt leveret gennem den amerikanske militære observatør Brian, der skriver breve hjem om, hvad han set – og dokumenteret med sit kamera. Han siger sit job op og beslutter sig for at offentliggøre sit materiale. Filmen følger hans nye mission, han får kontakt med politikere, han rejser til den Haag til den internationale domstol, han belejres af medierne.

Som sådan er filmen klassisk amerikansk – én mand tager affære – både i sin historie og i sin filmiske udformning. Heldigvis er denne mand sympatisk og man kan kun håbe på at hans mission må hjælpe bare en lille bitte smule. Som tilskuer kæmper du med at se på alle disse molesterede og forkullede lig, som er blevet fotograferet på tæt hold af Brian, samtidig med at du ved, at er der noget, der hjælper, er det netop sådanne billeder – hvis en opinion skal overbevises. Måbende ser du sudanesiske regeringsrepræsentanter antyde at billederne er arrangerede og fake.

Hvem kan hjælpe? En gribende scene viser Brian Steidl i samtale med en flygtning i Chad. Flygtningen gentager igen og igen at kun USA kan hjælpe, de arabiske lande gør intet. “Selvom vi også er muslimer”, siger manden, der rejser sig, går rundt om et hushjørne, fulgt af kameraet, standser op, vi ser at han tørrer øjnene, der er håbløshed i hans kropsprog.

USA, 2007, 85 mins.

www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com

http://www.dr.dk/dr2/dokumania

Planete Doc Review 4

The festival in Warsaw is over and the many prizes have been awarded. The following films awarded at Planete Doc Review are to be found reviewed or noted on filmkommentaren.dk:

Geoffrey Smith: The English Surgeon. Anders Østergaard: Burma VJ. Peter Kerekes: Cooking History. Bartek Konopka: Rabbit a la Berlin. Magnus Gertten & Elin Jönsson: Long Distance Love. Georg Misch: A Road to Mecca-the Journey of Mohammad Asad.

Crisis in the world of documentary films? No, on the contrary. If you have seen the 6 films mentioned, you will discover how it goes from classical documentary story telling like in ”The English Surgeon” to innovative narratives like in ”Cooking History” and ”Burma vj”.

http://www.docreview.pl/

Erlend E. Mo: Sandhedsjæger

OBS til danske læsere: Se denne smukke og gribende krimidokumentar om opklaringen af to justitsmord begået mod en handicappet mand, som sad i fængsel i over 18 år for to kvindemord, han ikke havde begået. Det er en krimi med rigtige mennesker i en rigtig historie, en skamplet på det oplyste og velorganiserede norske retssamfund. Filmen vises i Cinemateket i København torsdag den 21. Maj kl. 19.

But I continue in English as the film definitely has international potential and deserves to be shown at festivals all over as a fine piece of genre-conscious storytelling that appeals to both heart and brain. Of course the filmmakers have chosen to play as much as they can according to the rules of the crime series stereotype that we can watch every night on television if we want to.

Ex-newsreporter Tore Sandberg and his friend, ex-police investigator Frode Asbjørnsen constitute a couple like good old Morse and Lewis or other modern parallels or why not Sherlock Holmes and doctor Watson. They are indeed different in temperament but they are as characters so good together, these two older gentleman who have never visited a fitness centre and like the good side of (pub)life! The scoop of the film lies with the two characters in their chase for the truth. For Tore complemented with the motivation to rehabilitate Fritz Moen, who sat in jail for more than 18 years for two murders that he had not done. The two men can argue against each other, have funny conversations and at the same time be totally dedicated to the mission.

Tore covered the case way back and feels bad he was part of the media hysteria that hurried to condem Fritz Moen as the easy guilty person. Step by step Tore collects evidence that it could not have been Fritz – through interviews he makes with Fritz himself, with people who were involved in the investigation 20 years earlier and through all the court documents. The filmmakers create a story with dramatic flow, with repetitive tableau-like images of the water where the corpses of the young women were found, of Tore driving through a tunnel with a light at the end, and with reconstructions of the crimes done in an effective, yet discreet manner. Sorry, cant find anything to complain about!  
Norway, 2009, 86 mins.

http://www.exposed.no

Chaim Litewski: Citizen Boilesen

Danish born Henning Albert Boilesen was a succesful businessman during the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 60’es. He went to the top, had close contact to the rulers of the country, and as many other industrialists in Sao Paulo, he contributed financially to the operation of the OBAN that was set up by the government to fight the subversive revolutionary groups in the country. But not only was he contributing to the fight against the communists, he was said to hate, but he also, it is stated by several of the interviewed people in the documentary, personally witnessed or took part in the torture that was performed by the OBAN. In April 1971 he was brutally machine-gunned to death in the streets of Sao Paulo.

In this very well researched story, the narrative elements are constituted by interviews with former military people and historians, journalists, ex-militants – and people from his childhood community in Denmark, by clips from feature films, by an enormous amount of official and family photos and by archive material from the time where a climate of fear must have reigned in Brazil. In other words, an impressive piece of journalism. Serious stuff put in contrast to light (kind-of) bar music and quick, often playful editing. This is where I have my doubts and criticism of the otherwise convincing and maybe especially for a Dane interesting story about Boilesen, one of many who were on the side of the oppressors. Could another take on the story, some times during the story, have provoked more drama, more intensity through breaks in the format, through a different rythm and different sound design instead of having the same storytelling flow regardless the themes in the film? In order to show and not only tell that Boilesen had a dualism in his character – a sadist and a charming positive person as well. I can see the danger of making a story like this into something heavy and over-serious, but I also sense a touch of tabloid in the choice. (Like I saw in the recent film on Baader-Meinhof). Having said so, thanks for bringing this story to a Dane, who had never heard about Boilesen and his torture pianola sending electric shocks through the prisoners! And thanks for reminding us of the traumatic recent past of Brazil.    

2009, Brazil, 93 mins.
Winner 1st Prize National competition at It’s All True 2009

http://www.etudoverdade.com.br/2009/home.asp?lng=I

Bram Van Paesschen: Pale…

The title of the film is actually ”Pale Peko Bantu Mambo Ayikosake” which in swahili means ”Where there are people there will be problems”. And problems there are in Katanga, the location of this fresh and direct film that manages what most films do not when the subject is a foreign country with a foreign culture far away from wealthy Western Europe. The director has chosen to tell the story in first person, not through his own voice but through the main character. It is a very well written text that matches the intensity of a story that has a lot of humour in a dead serious context. Here is the catalogue annotation from when the film was shown at the idfa 2008 festival:

Isaac Mbuyi, a young Congolese man from Katanga, is a 21 years old and works as a ‘creuseur’, or a excavator. This means that he digs up cobalt using his bare hands or just a spade, in the abandoned mines in the once flourishing town of Kolwezi. Isaac’s dream is to go to university and through excavating he hopes to earn the money he needs to achieve this. But things are not that simple. The work is arduous and highly dangerous and moreover, excavators are an easy target for malafide dealers and profiteers. Isaac’s motto however is ‘qui ne risque rien, n’a rien’ (nothing ventured nothing gained) but he doesn’t realize that his story will come to a bitter end.

The film, selected for several festivals, is produced by Belgian broadcaster VRT/Canvas, a sequel by same director is on its way from Savage Film.

Belgium, 2008, 95 mins.

http://www.savagefilm.be

Input 2009/svt

For readers of Swedish language there is a fine service provided from Lars Säfström, documentary head of svt Malmö. Säfström writes about what he has seen and about the discussions at the public broadcaster’s yearly gathering that this year takes place in Warsaw.

Link to his diary

Still from RIP: A Remix Manifesto by Gregg Taylor

 

 

 

Det Danske Institut i Damaskus opretter filmotek

Rundt omkring i den store verden sidder der nogle kulturelle ildsjæle og bygger små læhegn omkring det hul, hjemlige politiske ildsjæle gør deres bedste for at begrave kulturen i.
En af disse sidder på Det Danske Institut i Damaskus (foto), han hedder Hans Christian Korsholm Nielsen, i daglig tale HC. Han gør meget for både den danske filmkultur og for at hjælpe den spirende syriske. Det konstaterede Tue Steen Müller og jeg ved selvsyn under den nye syriske dokumentarfilmfestival Dox Box, som HC i flere omgange gav uvurderlig hjælp. Og der er rigeligt at hjælpe med, når en håndfuld ihærdige syriske filmfolk sætter sig for at introducere kreativ dokumentarfilm i et land som Syrien. Derfor er mennesker som HC en repræsentant for Danmark, vi kan være glade for.
 
HC ville meget gerne have kopier af danske film stående på det lille bibliotek på Det Danske Institut, så besøgende kan se filmene under deres ophold. Det lovede vi at være behjælpelige med og henvendte os optimistiske til DFI. Men det kunne de ikke hjælpe med – jeg skal undlade at gå i detaljer med vores frustration.

Så skrev vi ud til gode kolleger i filmbranchen og på nogle få uger havde en række producenter stillet 60 DVD’ere til rådighed, som nu står i en af de smukkeste bygninger i Damaskus til inspiration for gæster og beboere.

Se det var et rigtigt eventyr – men han hedder jo også HC.

Og vil du også gerne bidrage med din film til en happy end, så kan du kontakte undertegnede

mikael@opstrup-husum.dk

www.damaskus.dk

PS. En udstilling om det smukke hus i Damaskus er åbnet i dag på Davids Samling i København.

Cinephilia!

Film History – The Finnish film critic and historian Peter von Bagh is the artistic director of this exciting week in June:

Il Cinema Ritrovato, the festival sponsored by the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema Libero and the Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, invites film lovers from around the world to Bologna from Saturday June 27th through Saturday July 4th, 2009. Eight days and evenings of cinephilic joy to be experienced in various locations: the twin screens of the Cineteca’s Lumière cinemas, one dedicated just to silent cinema, the other to sound; the Bologna Opera House and the Arlecchino Cinema (where we can experience the miracle of big screen projection as films were meant to be seen, but almost never are these days)…

… The underlying theme of this all is again cinephilia, the absolute love of cinema. Several programs will be dedicated to this theme: films on notable personalities (Bernard Chardère, Henri Langlois’s television interviews), the unsurpassed Cinéastes de notre temps programs by André S. Labarthe.

Photo: Henri Langlois.

http://www.cinetecadibologna.it/cinemaritrovato2009/ev/intro

Petr Lom: Letters to the President

Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, receives 10 million letters per year and 76% of them are answered! This is stated by an employee from the administration that takes care of this personal contact between the president and the population.

Ahmadinejad, a president, who does not like the red carpet, as it is said in the beginning of the film, by one of the people interviewed,. A man of the people. A man who constantly shouts for hate towards Israel and the US, as seen in the film. As in previous films by the film director and cameraman, same person: Petr Lom, meets the people with an open mind and the camera ready to catch what he can in a tongue-in-cheek journalistic documentary that gets much closer than the usual, normal tv-reportages shot in Iran. Due to the original letter-angle we as viewer are taken from place to place, including the birthplace of the president, to meet not only supporters and propagandists of Iranian politics, but also citizens who are critical and dare express themselves. ”He is like a gardener who plants seedlings but do not water them”, one says. Others ask repeatedly for help, and the president is filmed caressing some of his fellow-citizens and helping a woman who faints from emotion when she meets the president. ”I am your servant”, he says in this wonderfully open, non-conclusive and nuanced insight to an Iran that has its election in June 2009.

Canada/France, 2009, 74 mins. and 52 mins.

http://www.filmstransit.com/

www.letterstothepresidentmovie.com

Peter Kerekes: Cooking History

For a documentary veteran viewer it is pure pleasure, when you watch a film that gives you surprises you in structure, narration and content. I knew that Slovak/Hungarian Peter Kerekes after his wonderful ”66 Seasons” was working on a big budget film on a somewhat crazy subject: How did they cook for the soldiers on the front, what did they eat, under which circumstances, war and food… but I had no real idea on how he would materialise his idea and construct his film. I must say that I am amazed how innovative and playful and funny and moving and clever and original this great film is.

Chaptered it is – the prologue refers to Chechnya, then follows WW2 battles between Germany and Russia, post-WW2, Hungary 1956, Prague 1968, Balkan wars and much more –  told through interviews, b/w archive material, and reconstructions of soldiers on the fields and the best of all: the staging of the cooks with their transportable kitchen making food for the viewers. Placed – as the example in the epilogue – in the water, or in front of a ruin, or in other situations referring to where the battles took place.

But first of all Kerekes demonstrates again his enormous talent for (old) people. He has a brilliant gallery of characters who bring out their memories in a fresh and often humorous manner. Sometimes it is comedy, sometimes it is subtle and sometimes provocative. Storytellers they are, like the woman, who made blini pancakes for the Russian soldiers, and if they did not come home the pancakes were brought to be placed on the tombstone at the cemetery. And of course Kerekes takes the old lady to this venue and asks her several times – out of camera – why? The same old lady tells us in the kitchen that during the siege of Leningrad, there was 100g bread, two thin slices per person per day. In this moment she can’t stand talking about it any longer. Cut to the German baker who is likewise moved by thinking back… The excellent editing, according to the ”open structure” that the dramaturg of the film Jan Gogola always cleverly promotes, this editing is made so the characters, often on both sides of the wars, have a kind of dialogue with each other. That’s all, watch that film, get it to the audience, it is for everybody, for heart and brain.

Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, 2009, 88 mins.

http://www.eastsilver.net/home

http://www.jaksevaridejiny.cz/english.php#menu1