DocsBarcelona Offers Creative Feedback

… on creative documentaries under the headline “Artistic Consultancies for Rough Cut Projects”. Prominent documentarians have agreed to take sessions – let me do the name-dropping: Salomé Jashi, Gitte Hansen, Noemy Schory, Elena Fortes, Marc Isaacs (PHOTO), Carles Bosch, Pawel Lozinski, Cecilia Lidin, Martijn te Pajs. It’s my privilege to pick the projects and find the right conversation partner for you. Here comes what DocsBarcelona writes on the website:

In this new edition, DocsBarcelona offers the opportunity to carry out creative consultations online for projects at rough cut stage. The aim is for the projects to be shown to international experts with a proven track record, who will help them improve the film’s final result.

Tue Steen Müller, will be the moderator of the sessions and will link each project with an international expert. Up to 3 members of the film crew may attend the sessions.

Each selected project will be eligible for a private consultation lasting 45 minutes. These will be scheduled between May 18th and 28th.

How to submit a project

Register on the DocsBarcelona&Me platform. Once registered, fill out the activity form and please remember to include a link to the rough cut and its password.

If the project is selected, once the information has been reviewed you will receive an email to make the payment and we will contact you regarding the date of the consultation.

Tal Amiran: Dafa Metti (Difficult)

3 years ago I posted a positive review of the short film «Sand Men” by Tal Amiran. (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4284/)

Now the director is back with another social engaged, well crafted short film that likewise deserves to be highlighted.

It takes place in Paris, the location is around the Eiffel Tower, a symbol for France, a place where millions of tourists come to take selfies or have photos taken of themselves. They – we – are not the only ones. Illegal Africans are there to sell miniature, glittering Eiffel towers, living a life in humiliation, chased by the police, sleeping in small rooms together with many others, all this to be able to send money back to their families. You don’t see the faces of those (Senegalese), who sell but you hear their voices expressing their life situation. There is nothing new in this documentation but there is a filmmaker behind the camera, who knows how to create an atmosphere of tough sadness.

You can find this and other films by Tal Amiran here: https://vimeo.com/talamiran

UK, 2020, 15 mins.

Grand Hjemmebio / Gensyn

GRAND HJEMMEBIO

Kim Foss meddelte for noget tid siden at biografen han leder, Grand Teatret i København ”udvider paletten og nu også tilbyder ’udbringning’ af film til din egen skærm.

På Grand Hjemmebio kan du fange nogle af de gode titler, du ikke nåede at se i biografen. Eller gense de bedste. Udbuddet er – som i biografen – nøje udvalgt efter, hvad vi synes, er det absolut bedste på filmfronten.

Vi tilbyder adgang til et filmkatalog med vokseværk. Vi vil løbende føje nye og spændende film til siden – med ambitionen om at blive dit foretrukne tilflugtssted, når du skal belønne dig selv med en filmoplevelse ud over det sædvanlige.

Der er flydt meget vand i åen siden Grand Teatret åbnede anden juledag 1913. Med over 100 års erfaring med kvalitetsfilm mener vi at ligge inde med nok viden og filmkærlighed til også at favne filmkigningen derhjemme.

Så derfor: Stort velkommen til Grand Hjemmebio! ”, slutter Kim Foss sin indbydelse.

EKSKLUSIVE TITLER

Disse dage Danmarkspremiere på nye eksklusive titler, stort bagkatalog af ældre udvalgte titler som nogle af os ikke fik ser i Grand Teatret dengang kan nu nås i Grand Hjemmebio:

https://www.grandhjemmebio.dk/ 

 

GENSYN

fælles essay af Sara Thelle, Tue Steen Müller og Allan Berg Nielsen

  Sydjysk landskab med stående kvinde og siddende mand…

Frelle Petersen: Onkel / Onkel (grandhjemmebio.dk)

7. 11. 2019: Med ét i filmens lange dybt tilfredsstillende forløb af forunderlige scener, diskrete flytninger og tankesamlende vignetter står der uventet Onkel på lærredet! Og så kommer slutteksterne, de vigtigste først i skilte og derefter alle de andre rullende. Jeg bliver siddende i stolen. Forbløffet. Er det allerede forbi? Er hun gået? Denne vidunderlige fortælling, denne dejlige kvinde.

I instruktørens forrige film og fortælling Hundeliv (2016) havde både de to piger og den sårede soldat i filmen og jeg i biografen fæstnet os særligt ved kassedamen i supermarkedet. Hun var bare så sød, og både i sin rolle og i virkeligheden, så ægte livligt venligt snakkende med kunderne hun jo kendte. Her var det gode menneske.

Nu er hun så landmand, sød og ægte. Men nu fåmælt som onklen. Hun er forældreløs forstår jeg, han er alene og hendes nærmeste. Hun har  gennem skoletiden boet hos ham på hans gård med køer og græsmarker og kornmarker, og nu som ung kvinde passer hun hans hus og driver hans landbrug sammen med ham. Begge er de tavse i dagenes arbejde og i aftenernes sagte tv-lyd fra det lille apparat oppe på skabet og aviser i stak på stolen: han. Og bøjet i den tykke krydsordsbog: hun. Han let studs, hun let indadvendt begge i en ægte jysk tavshed. Tryg og smuk. Og skildret af Frelle Petersen med kompetent indsigt…

… et drama af dage og nætter, af årstidernes gang (Flaherty / Grierson)

10.11.2019: Filmen vil ikke slippe mig, jeg noterer at den tegner døgnets tid, årets tid, kredsløbets tid med dagsrytmevignetter med solnedgange som i Hundeliv. Det er helt tydeligt. Mindre tydeligt tegnet, men ikke mindre vigtig, er den lineære tid, fortællelinjen, som manuskriptet håndfast, men personinstruktionen diskret, næsten umærkeligt tegner, udviklingen hos de medvirkende, især hos den unge kvinde som lader sig kalde Kris, som klipningen selvfølgeligt sikkert fuldfører i en dramatisk kurve af overvejelser og afprøvninger filmen igennem tilbage til den ufravigelige oprindelige situation. Og Frelle Petersen lader med hende kredsløbets tid vinde over den lineære tid, alt kommer igen, intet forsvinder, det bliver ikke væk, det er stadigvvæk et vækkeur på natbordet i Kris’ værelse som sætter dagene i gang, Kris ejer endnu ikke en mobiltelefon. Til side med dynen, blå arbejdsbukser og hvid bh på, hun ruller gardinet op ser ud i den tidlige morgen. Så arbejdsdagens storternede skjorte.

 Efter lang tid kommer musikken og streger ind og streger under. Det er høst og det er sensommer. Og som i alle rutiner er jeg bundet i årets stadig gentagne tid. Og i årenes, Kris har blidt overtaget onklens plads i førerhuset, hun ser hans kræfter svigte, glad kører hun videre, det er høstarbejdets tid.

Blikket over det storladne landskab i lavt aftenlys afslutter dagene, Kris’ blik forstår jeg…

 

Amy Berg: Janis: Little Girl Blue 2015 / Janis: Little Girl Blue (grandhjemmebio.dk)

…Just as with Scorsese’s Dylan portrait No Direction Home, Amy Berg owes some of Janis’ finest moments to D. A. Pennebaker. Not only with the strong scenes from his legendary concert film Monterey Pop (1968, filmed by Pennebaker, Leacock and Maysles, probably the most musical trio in film history), the film that sparked off Joplin’s route to stardom… 

  Nearly two hours in company of Janis Joplin, what’s not to like! I was so ready to just lean back and enjoy and I was… disappointed.

 Whoa, slow down, hold your horses! I’m being bombarded with talking heads at a speed so I can’t follow. Too fast a pace when all I want to do is to take my time, hear the music, feel the music and the person I’m about to discover.

 I’m disappointed because I’m sitting in the dark theatre all alert and ready to take in impressions, emotions, sound, images and Music and I’m not getting the cinematic experience I thought I would. And I’m annoyed because I think a big part of my disappointment is a question of the editing. I don’t mind a conventional portrait film, I don’t mind seeing a TV-documentary in a theatre, but I do mind the rushing.

 All the information, all the anecdotes and the archive footage lose sense if I don’t get the time it takes to “meet” the performer and her music. If there is not a moment where I hear something I haven’t heard before, suddenly discover the lyrics of a well-known song or just get to linger on a live performance…

 Having said that, award-winning American filmmaker Amy Berg (the Oscar-nominated Deliver Us from Evil, 2006, about child molestation within the Catholic Church) has made an impressively well-documented portrait of Janis Joplin. It has been a long-term project initiated by the Joplin estate who approached the director back in 2007 and behind the film lays a huge amount of work with archive research, funding and clearing rights.

 Part of Berg’s take on telling the story is a voice-over (the voice of another southern singer/musician Chan Marshall, known as Cat Power) reading Janis’ letters to her family and lovers. Dear family, she wrote continuously throughout the years, giving news to the Texan middle-class nuclear family she came from (the family letters was originally used by Joplins sister Laura in her book Love, Janis from 1992, later turned into a theatre play and a Broadway show). Joplins two younger siblings (Laura and Michael Joplin who manage their sisters estate), old friends, band mates and fellow musicians are looking back. The portrait seems less depressive and dramatic than I thought it would be, and I like that. Lots of life, fun, love and friendships, the story of a strong young woman who at 17, to her own big surprise, discovers she can sing and from then on the rise to fame, but also the beginning of a heroin and alcohol addiction that ends up causing her sudden death.

 Just as with Scorsese’s Dylan portrait No Direction Home, Berg owes some of Janis’ finest moments to D. A. Pennebaker. Not only with the strong scenes from his legendary concert film Monterey Pop (1968, filmed by Pennebaker, Leacock and Maysles, probably the most musical trio in film history), the film that sparked off Joplin’s route to stardom (Pennebaker is there himself to reveal how close Joplin was to not be in his movie!), but also with his footage of Joplin and the band Big Brother and the Holding Company in the recording studio and at concerts (material that Pennebaker and Hegedus have used in their short Joplin-film Comin’ Home from 1991, I now find out from the credits). The recently released Festival Express (2003) by Frank Cvitanovich and Bob Smeaton, documenting the 1970 tour by train through Canada gathering Joplin, Grateful Dead and The Band, is another invaluable source.

 The press material states that no one had ever explored Janis Joplin’s story on film. A quick search and I discover that Howard Alk (The Black Panther film The Murder of Fred Hampton, 1971, and editor on Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara) made the portraitJanis: The Way She was in 1974. I have to see that! I assume that old time conflicts between the estate and Alk must be the reason that the film is not quoted even though important and mostly unique scenes from it are reused in Berg’s portrait. I have promptly ordered the Howard Alk DVD, maybe a second Janis Joplin portrait film review will be coming up soon…

 I found Janis: Little Girl Blue to be out of rhythm, which is no good when we’re talking about Joplin. But please do go see for yourself, you might not agree with me…

 

 

Bridgend 2015 / Bridgend (grandhjemmebio.dk)

Vi var i biografen og så Jeppe Røndes ”Bridgend” – redaktørerne af dette site, Allan Berg og Tue Steen Müller ledsaget af sidstnævntes kone Ellen Fonnesbech-Sandberg. Hjemme i kolonihaven talte vi om filmen i timevis, læste Kim Skottes Politiken-anmeldelse og Ralf Christensens fra Information, begge meget rosende. Men noget mangler i deres vurderinger, blev vi enige om. Det kommer her fra Allan Berg:

 ”Jeg drukner i disse voldsomme store drenges uartikulerede støj, men jeg rammes til gengæld præcist af den unge kvindes gennemspillede bevægelse fra distant nysgerrighed over undrende analyse til beslutsom involvering. Jeg ser uundgåeligt, at den unge kvinde er i slægt med den unge kvinde i von Triers ”Breaking the Waves” og med den unge kvinde i hans ”Dancer in the Dark”, i slægt med Tarkovskijs unge kvinder i ”Solaris” og i ”Andrej Rubljov”. Disse kvinder griber alle ind i tilværelsen og trodser den samfundsbestemte skæbne ved at ofre sig selv. Filmene bliver således for mig elegier over denne kvindelige lidelse og offertemaet i Jeppe Røndes film samler sig om denne ene skuespiller, som også er den eneste, der skildres som helt menneske, som når hun låner sin elskede af sit liv og han styrket af dette forlader sin éndimensionelle rolle (i hans tilfælde som fardomineret kordreng), den afgrænsede rolle han og alle andre personer omhyggeligt er tildelt i Røndes overdådigt udstyrede og strengt stiliserede marionetspil…

Den unge kvinde bryder imidlertid ud af dette snoresystem, bryder alle regler og gennemfører suverænt sin rolle i det drama om en frihedskamp, som hedder kvinden og mændene, river sin mand ud af flokken, han er blevet udvalgt fordi han har sunget for hende, han er kunstner og således ægte og sanddru, og som Tarkovskijs nøgne kvinde fra det frie samfund i skoven forfulgt af massakrerende krigere går hun ud i vandet beslutsom, rank og sejrende som en Paionios’ Nike, jeg ser rygvendt. Hun vil hellere tage sit liv end underkaste sig og overgive sig til voldtægten. Hendes elskede og resten af den unge menighed følger hende. ’Hun er stærkere end alle os andre’, havde de sagt om hende.”

  

I Walk, 2019 / I Walk (grandhjemmebio.dk) 

Når det gælder Jørgen Leth, 2019 er det altid, og i høj grad i denne meget store og aldeles vigtige film, umuligt at skille manden fra værket. Og jeg, som i min ungdom var opdraget i det autonome værks ånd, jeg som dog trods dette har læst biografier og selvbiografier med begejstring, men vist som underholdning, ikke som nøgler til værkerne, jeg anbringer nu tryg I Walk på hylden med verdenslitteratur, de uomgængelige film og bøger: Godards framinger (Asger Leths bemærkning et sted), Herzogs vilde bjergbestigning (synopsens association et sted), Rilkes elegier og Inger Christensens sonetter (mine private tanker undervejs i mit møde med Jørgen Leths nye storværk.

Kære Jørgen, hele tiden mens jeg ser din film og hører din ustandselige, smukke og kloge stemme tænker jeg på Rembrandts tror jeg nok sene selvportrætter, hensynsløst fortvivlede, og skridt for skridt dybere erkendende det som ikke bliver væk, dette vigtige, du skriver til sidst i din seneste bog:

Det bliver ikke væk jeg har skrevet det ned det bliver / ikke væk Jeg skriver det ned så det er der / Så står det der Det behøver ikke være en blank side / Det forsvinder hele tiden / Det skal bare puttes på plads / Det må ikke blive væk / Og det er vigtigt at huske / Tankerne er gode men de forsvinder / De skal indfanges under glas, ligesom insekter / Pilles fra hinanden ligesom insekter

Nej, Jørgen. Du har ret, det bliver ikke væk, for det ligger længere fremme og venter. Din digterkollega Lea Marie Løppenthin kommer dig nemlig til undsætning: “Det var først for nylig, at jeg undersøgte etymologien for det korte, skrappe ord ”væk”: Fra middelaldertysk wech, afledt af weg ’vej’, jævnfør norrønt á veg ’på vej, bort, væk’ beslægtet med vej.

Det lykkelige ved opdagelsen sidder stadig i mig – / Det der er væk, er altså bare nede ad vejen. / Det, der er væk, er bare et andet sted end her.”

Løft højre fod og tag med din vilje et skridt frem og løft venstre fod og tag med vilje et skridt frem. Du Går…

 

 NOTER

 JANIS

 Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015, 103 min.) Production: Disarming Films and Jigsaw Productions. Danish distribution: Camera Film in collaboration with CPH:DOX Premiering in Danish theatres all over the country October 22nd. 2015. DR2 DOKUMANIA I MORGEN AFTEN tirsdag 18. oktober 20.45 og efterfølgende på DR TV. Filmkommentaren.dk review: 4/6 pens.

 Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYizdG42THg

BRIDGEND

Danmark 2015, 99 min.

 Still: Hannah Murray som den unge kvinde

 SYNOPSIS

 A Bridgend Story (working title) is a film about a teenage girl, SARA, who arrives with her father to a small village in the welsh valleys of Bridgend County that is haunted by suicides amongst its young inhabitants. She falls dangerously in love with one of the youngsters while her dad as the new town policeman tries to solve the mystery. The film is based on true events. (IMDb)

 Kim Skottes anmeldelse: politiken.dk/filmanmeldelser

 Ralf Christensens anmeldelse: http://www.information.dk/537714 

Film Mentoring Caucasus & Central Asia

I have not talked to anyone, who prefers zoom to face-to-face meetings. On the other hand the zoom or teams or skype make it possible to see and talk to each other in these times of pandemic. And it works well as I experience right now being part of the Film Mentoring Program of the International Documentary Film Festival CinéDOC-Tbilisi. The cast are 15 young and younger filmmakers from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan – and 5 mentors: Gitte Hansen Schnyder, Audrius Stonys, Sergey Dvortsevoy, Phil Jandaly and me. Organised by Ileana Stanculescu and Artchil Khetagouri, and their excellent team, who I know from the festival and from summer schools, online and physical. It’s super-professional and with warmth and enthusiasm in the spirit of ”we want to help”. 

The set-up is new and exciting for me: Each mentor works with 3 filmmakers 3 x three hours with weeks in between, where the filmmakers write or film or think… So far I – and the other mentors – have had the first round of individual meetings plus two times group meetings  with 3 filmmakers, who are not the ones with whom you have face-to-face meetings.

Face-to-face meetings are the ones, where I first of all find the zoom an excellent tool. You have time, you can watch material together and you can learn. And you are not waiting for your turn to say something! For me I have been privileged to zoom-travel – with the filmmakers – to mountain villages in Georgia and Dagestan, and to Uzbekistan, where the documentary photographer Eryol Nemat lives. He and the two female filmmakers Ana Barjadze and Sofia Melikova have opened my eyes to places and people and situations that I did not know about, and have very little chances to visit. I am waiting for the next meetings… for more conversation and moving images. To put questions and give answers, and listen. To have a dialogue.

The photo is from Tbilisi – taken by me in 2013 at one of the lovely visits to the capital of Georgia. Please Lord let us also meet face-to-face without a screen between us!

https://cinedoc-tbilisi.com/en

East Doc Platform 2021

Thanks to Veronika Zýková from IDF (Institute of Documentary Film) in Prague I got access to watch the pitches and trailers of the East Doc Platform that went online some days ago (https://dokweb.net/activities/east-doc-platform/2021/east-doc-forum). 10 projects were selected for the presentation plus the 12 from the Ex Oriente workshop, that includes three week long sessions. This one being the final one. Spread over three days with one day reserved for documentary series and interactive projects. As for the latter I popped in to watch producer Christian Popp being a fine moderator for two projects presented by Bulgarian Martichka Bozhilova and Croatian Dana Budisavljević. 

One of the 10 projects “outside” the Ex Oriente workshop was presented by good Latvian friends producer Guntis Trekteris and director Davis Simanis, who are not the best in verbal pitching but had a very inviting trailer for a film about (our?) the wish  for immortality, with the title ”Frankenstein 2.0”. I had contact with Trekteris after the presentation and he said that there were quite many meetings – unexpected, the experienced producer said.

I guess there was also interest in the project by talented director Russian Alina Rudnitskaya with Finnish Pertti Veijalainen as the main producer accompanied by Polish Dorota Roszkowska. The film project was also presented at the Baltic Sea Docs in Riga September 2020, „The Trans Syrian Express” with a trailer of high quality. Mikael Opstrup, representing DocsBarcelona picked the project to be presented at the Catalan event late May with this precise motivation:

”„Sometimes reality is so grotesque, that it takes an artist’s interpretation to fully comprehend it. This is the case with Alina Rudnitskaya’s The Trans Syrian Express, where her camera registers and undresses the militarization of the Russian society. Alina only managed to shoot a few scenes with the people who are exposed to this mindset before Covid-19 made further shooting impossible. But the tenderness of these scenes promises a film that, when all the shooting is done, will open the closed windows for us outsiders, hopefully enabling us to, if not understand, then at least experience what is at stake in Russia. Good luck with the rest of the shooting and welcome to Docs Barcelona.“

Yes, good luck to several other projects that I visited online. Like ”Expedition 49” by Ukranian Alisa Kovalenko, like ”Lagoons. A Battle for Paradise” also with a director from Ukraine, Sergey Lysenko , who won the main award of the East Doc Platform supported by strong producers Anna Kapustina, Oleksandra Kravchenko, not to forget ”Blix” about the Swedish diplomat of honour Hans Blix, who said that there was no evidence that Sadam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction… Blair, Bush and many others has a different opinion, well you know the story. Greta Stocklassa visits the fine old man in his home in Sweden, looks fascinating.

Even if I don’t understand why there should be so long from one project to the next at the online presentation… even if I don’t understand why all the participants end by saying the same ”we are looking for coproduction, pre-sales etc”, that’s why they are there, right, I salute the IDF for having selected good film projects that will be – hopefully – also good films when they are finished post-pandemic…

Christian Krönes m.fl.: Ein deutsches Leben

Christian Krönes, Olaf S. Müller, Roland Schrotthofer und Florian Weigensamer: Ein deutsches Leben

SYNOPSIS

Brunhilde Pomsel bezeichnet sich selbst als Randfigur. Dabei kam sie einem der größten Verbrecher der Geschichte so nah wie kaum jemand sonst: Von 1942 bis April 1945 arbeitete sie im Reichspropagandaministerium als persönliche Stenographin von Joseph Goebbels. Noch in den letzten Kriegstagen, nach Goebbels Suizid, tippte sie im Bunker Schriftsätze und wurde unmittelbare Zeugin des “Untergangs”. In EIN DEUTSCHES LEBEN spricht sie erstmals umfassend über ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen im engsten Zirkel um Hitlers größten Hetzer und Massenverführer, über ihre Zweifel, Ängste und ihr Schuldbewusstsein. Der Film ist zugleich ihr letztes Zeugnis: Im Januar 2017 verstarb Brunhilde Pomsel im Alter von 106 Jahren.

Die im konzentrierten Schwarz-Weiß gehaltenen Interview-Passagen werden durch neu erschlossenes Archivmaterial aus dem US Holocaust Memorial Museum und dem Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive ergänzt. Ausschnitte aus Nachrichten- und “Aufklärungs”- Filmen der verschiedenen kriegsführenden Nationen vermitteln ganz bewusst einseitige und subjektive Informationen und reflektieren so die Wirkung von Propaganda auf einer zeitdokumentarischen Ebene.

Die Erinnerungen Pomsels sind in Zeiten, in denen Populisten in aller Welt immer mehr Zuspruch erhalten und rechtes Gedankengut vor allem in Europa wieder um sich greift, von beklemmender Aktualität. Ihre Lebensgeschichte beleuchtet die Banalität des Schreckens, konfrontiert uns mit der brisanten Frage nach der Verantwortung des Einzelnen für das politische Zeitgeschehen und ist eine eindringliche Warnung aus der Vergangenheit an künftige Generationen. (Filmens hjemmeside)

NOTATER

Filmen som hel og uantastelig fortælling knækker for mig, da der blandt arkivmellemstykkerne skydes disse voldsomme optagelser ind, disse forfærdende billeder, citater fra registreringsfilm optaget af dels tyske, dels tror jeg nok mens jeg ser det, allierede troppeafdelinger, først af de udsultede døde i Warszawas ghetto, så fra åbningerne af koncentrationslejrene, så fra begravelserne i de store fællesgrave. Jeg føler det som for tidlig en indvending mod Brunhilde Pomsels omhyggelige vidneudsagn, filmens absolutte midtsamlende lag så udsøgt fotograferet og så fornemt klippet.

Jeg bliver jo sat i kvindens sted og må opgive at se filmen som essay og hendes omhyggelige overvejelse af hvordan det gik til at hun kunne fortrænge al viden som var ubærlig. Jeg må forlade den redegørelse og begynde et opgør med mig selv om det faktum, at jeg stadig nu som 78-årig, nu i 2018 undgår visse beretninger om ufattelig grusomhed, dengang i Tyskland og Polen, i dag i Syrien og Irak. Jeg springer artiklerne over, læser ikke bøgerne, ser ikke fotografierne, måske heller ikke filmene – kun disse værker der, som jeg ser det og måske selv forsøger, skyder det kunstneriske erkendelsessystem ind foran rædslen.

2

Jeg burde gennemføre en læsning og en skrivning og en tænkning som de store forfattere. Som Hannah Arendt, som W. G. Sebald – på mit niveau forstås! I det mindste læse deres bøger igen og se hvordan det er de gør. Bruger tænkningen. Jeg burde se Joshua Oppenheimers to film igen – og se godt efter – hvad er det han gør? Indbygger distancen ved humor og accentuering, ved overdocering, ved overdrivelse, tror jeg det er. Gør de under fuld kontrol.

3

Men filmen Ein deutsches Leben står enkel og rå for mig. Og det er godt. Den bringer Brunhilde Pomsels sindrige og i sig selv uangribelige fortælling, denne omhyggelige analyse af det at undvige ubekvem viden og alene konkludere: ”Ich könnte keinen Widerstand leisten, ich bin zu feige.”

4

Filmen har en storladen, enkel æstetik. Den skyder dokumentariske arkivstykker ind som ekskurser, som fordybelser, som kollektive erindingsglimt til Brunhilde Pomsels dybt personlige og til fuldstændig ærlig autenticitet litterært finpudset formulerede vidneudsagn. I begyndelsen er det hændelser, vi alle kender, Goebbels taler, også den endelige i Berliner Sportspalast, hvor jeg ved filmens overraskende disposition så indtryksfuldt alene får filmoptagelsernes lydside til sort lærred, hans stemme, som Brunhilde Pomsel opholder sig ved og undrer sig over i sin så besynderligt helt troværdige beskrivelse af denne mand, som alene i sin skuespilkunst viser eller røber sin kyniske modbydelighed i disse så forfærdende sært forførende taler.

Jeg hører alene stemmen og sætningerne, ser ikke billederne. Sådan fornyr dette filmværk disse længst forbrugte historiske optagelser med ny koncentration. Jeg der var immun efter at have set dem for længst og siden alt for mange gange, hører dem nu for første gang, jeg kan ikke lægge dem væk. I denne æstetiserede version er jeg ikke immun, følelsesmæssig. I en nyrenset skønhed tvinger de på ny min opmærksomhed.

5

Jeg tror der er sket det at de fire instruktører er lykkedes med en bearbejdning af de første arkivcitater, men så har givet op – dette kan vi ikke æsteticere, det må vi bare sætte ind, det må vi bringe, det er ukendt materiale, det er enestående… og filmen, deres film, Ein deutsches Lebenbliver de steder tavs. Uden bearbejdningen, uden den nye tænkning, uden den poetiske indsats, er det en tavs film, hvor alene Brunhilde Pomsels testamente lever i sin egen litterære højde. På dette sted altså knækker filmen, tror jeg – fejler som filmkunst og bliver anklage. Jura, international retsfølelse, moralfilosofi? Nej, blot tavs anklage, vender sig mod mig: du har en erkendelsesopgave. Du må selv gøre vores film færdig.

6

Brunhilde Promsel selv er derimod færdig med sit arbejde og kan sammenfatte: Jeg var fej. Jeg gjorde for sent noget for at hjælpe Eva Löwenthal – min bedste veninde. Efter mine fem år i russisk fangenskab kunne jeg blot opsøge arkivet i Berlin og spørge efter Eva. Hun var død i 1945, myrdet i en tysk lejr.

De fire filminstruktørers kunstneriske indsats er, oplever jeg, at de så værdifuldt har filmet og ordnet Brunhilde Promsels erindrings- og afklaringsarbejde – men efter at have gjort det så smukt loyalt, lever de kun delvist og usikkert op til hendes fortælleniveau og intellektuelle klarhed, som alligevel gør deres (alle fem) fælles film enestående, uomgængelig, aldeles vigtig og smuk.

Østrig 2016, 113 min. Blackbox Film & Medienproduktion GmbH Dansk distribution: Camera Film, dansk biografpremiere 25. januar. FILMKOMMENTARENS vurdering: 4/6.

http://www.eindeutschesleben.de/ (filmens hjemmeside)

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/fimfest-muenchen (anmeldelse)

http://www.eindeutschesleben.de/interview.html (interview om produktionen)

SYNOPSIS

Selv om Brunhilde Pomsel altid beskrev sig selv som en bifigur, der slet ikke var interesseret i politik, kom hun tættere end nogen anden person på en af de største krigsforbrydere, som verden nogensinde har oplevet. Pomsel, der døde sidste år, var sekretær og stenograf for den nazistiske propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels. Hendes liv afspejler nogle af de største historiske rystelser i de 20. århundrede, samt hvordan de påvirkede tilværelsen for almindelige tyskere.

I dag tænker mange, at fascismens farer for længst er blevet overvundet, men Brunhilde Pomsel viser tydeligt, at det på ingen måde er tilfældet. I Et Tysk Liv tvinger hun således tilskuerne til at tage stilling til, hvad de selv ville have gjort, og om de ville have ofret deres moralske principper for at fremme deres egen karriere?

Hendes unikke personlige rejse tilbage til fortiden leder frem til nogle foruroligende, tidløse spørgsmål: Har vi overhovedetudviklet os eller er vi stadig uklare omkring vores egen moral og menneskelighed? Og endnu vigtigere: Hvor står vi selv i forhold til disse spørgsmål i dag?(Pressemeddelelse, Freddy Neumann)

Copenhagen Jewish Film Festival

… is in its second day, it’s online, it goes on until March 1st and it has an interesting programme of fiction and documentaries. The films can be streamed in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Faroese Islands. For that reason I might as well continue in Danish…

og starte med at prise festivalen for sit valg af film, som omfatter nye og ældre film, som det fremgår – mere ros – af den klart oplysende og fint layoutede hjemmeside med adressen https://www.cjff.dk

Det er som skrevet online det foregår, jeg har set to film, begge i fin kvalitet og ved alle film er der enten en introduktion og/eller en Q&A tilknyttet, hvor kompetente navne som Hanne Foighel (nyder hende altid i DR’s Orientering), oversætterparret Jørgen Herman Monrad og Judyta Preis, overrabbiner emeritus Bent Melchior optræder ligesom der er samtaler med instruktørerne bag filmene. Jeg overværede én her til aften, hvor instruktøren Itzik Lerner talte om ”Crossings”, der først og fremmest følger unge mænd og kvinder som gennemgår den ofte hårde basis-uddannelse, som skal gøre dem til gode checkpoint-soldiers. Jeg havde nok forventet mig mere af Lerner efter hans bosætter-film fra 2015, ”God’s Messengers”.

Så var der mere bid i ”Paradise Lost” af Ibtisam Salh Mara’ana, en film fra 2003, produceret af instruktøren og producenten Duki Dror. Filmen tog mig til ”Landsbyen Fureidis (Paradis), (som) er den eneste palæstinensiske landsby ved Middelhavet, der ikke blev jævnet med jorden, da staten Israel blev oprettet i 1948. Her er instruktøren Ibtisam Salh Mara’ana født og vokset op. Fureidis er fattig, afsondret fra de øvrige arabiske israelske byer og omgivet af israelske landsbyer og kibbutzer.” Instruktøren er i billedet, taler med familie og andre borgere i landsbyen, som alle vægrer sig ved at tale om Suaad, som blev arresteret af israelerne for at ”vifte” med det palæstinensiske flag i aktioner for datidens PLO. Instruktøren opsøger Suaad, som er bosat i London og en fin og følsom dialog føres mellem de to om konservatismen og angsten for at sige israelerne imod i den lille landsby. Om at stå op imod magten. Fin film med en ægte tone. 

Andre film: ”Mayor” af David Osit, anmeldt på dette site, http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4728/, ”Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words” fra 2021, Ada Ushpiz (som er aktuel med filmen ”Children”, premiere i DOKLeipzig) og hendes ”Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt” fra 2015 – eller Margarethe von Trotta’s spillefilm ”Hannah Arendt”, eller Polanskis Dreyfuss-film, eller (!) Orson Welles ”Processen” efter Kafka. Det er et vidtspændende program. Spillefilm og dokumentarfilm. 

John Webster: Donner – Private

 I am hooked from the very first moment. Director John Webster puts a pillow behind the back of Jörn Donner (1933-2020) as the start of the last interview Donner did. He sits in an armchair, it’s December 2019, he has a tumor in his lungs, nothing can be done about it, he dies end of January 2020. He is visibly in pain but not more than he is able to talk to Webster behind the camera in sharp and precise sentences, interesting from start till end. There is never a dull moment in this documentary where Pirjo Honkasalo contributed with a script and the planning of this last interview…

From the armchair to a quickly edited prologue with clips and photos from the life of Jörn Donner – a writer, film director, film producer, film critic, journalist, politician, business man, and photographer. The latter forms the film as it turns out that Donner has taken photos his whole life, in Finland and round the world that he visited from, when he was quite young. Good photos also of his children, there are six of them. Two from his first marriage, two from his last and two extra-marriage children.

The film switches from the photos to clips from his films accompanied by sound interviews with some of the children and with lovely Harriet Andersson (born 1932) – Donner took some fantastic photos of her, who talks so wonderful about him and their year-long love relationship. 

Back to the armchair and the beginning of the film. The prologue is accompanied by a song, “Mr. Wonderful” from Donner’s film “69”, and right after that Donner talks about his creative life referring to himself as “the 95er”, who never committed himself totally to film or anything, but was closest to writing as he says later in the interview. “My life was phenomenal and yet a long-running failure”! A son from the last marriage characterizes his life as a performance, where he plays an arrogant, self-centrered male but also a loveable father. And we see home videos of Donner as the father with the two youngest, on a fishing tour, putting presents on a tree, in the swimming pool and on the football pitch. And building a house in the countryside for the children and his wife, 23 years younger than him. Johan Donner, his oldest son (I remember having seen a film of him at the Tampere FF way back, “En stad under huden” 1982) has quite different memories of his father, who did not want to accept him. In the interview Donner talks about his constant being away, he was 22 when Johan was born. He cut the connection to the two first children and their mother to realise his own ambitions as an artist. In archive clips Donner talks about himself, “I am an exhibitionist”; others characterise him as always being sarchastic. This is actually how I remember him the few times I heard him talk in Nordic film events, super-charismatic, provocative, a man who wants to be remembered as “swimming against the current”, as he says, a “nonconformist”. One of the sons comment on this: Yes, but the older he became, the more he became part of the establishment. That’s how it is, isn’t it? 

Jörn Donner, a globetrotter, a womaniser… talks in this last interview about how he still every day wants to plant a little flower – write something, “produce letters” as “writing is a cure to illness”, “I am a wordsmith”. And gosh how many books he ended up leaving us readers. Novels but also a handful of books on Ingmar Bergman. Yes, there he sat in the armchair answering questions, reflecting on his own life, talking beautifully on loneliness and friendships, “I did not have many”, and on how he was happy to be alone in periods… a fascinating film… an intellectual beacon in a frank conversation. But, he says, “the innermost memories I keep for myself”.

Finland, 2021, 78 mins.   

Jonas Poher Rasmussen: Flee

DANISH FILM INSTITUTE wrote yesterday: “Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee and Camilla Nielsson’s President took home top prizes at Sundance, as the festival celebrated this year’s winners during Tuesday night’s awards show. The two films, both produced by Final Cut for Real, have garnered rave reviews from international critics. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival announced their awards Tuesday night, with the list of winners including the two Danish documentaries.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for best international documentary went to Jonas Poher Rasmussen for his animated Flee. The film offers a gripping account of how the director’s close friend Amin arrived in Denmark as a young refugee from Afghanistan 25 years ago.

Shortly after its world premiere at Sundance on 28 January, Flee was bought for American distribution by Neon, the indie company behind the Oscar winning Parasite. British actor Riz Ahmed and his Danish colleague Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are set to voice the lead roles as Amin and Jonas Poher Rasmussen, respectively, in an English-language version of the film to debut later this year.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen, who has directed the documentary films Searching for Bill (2012) and What He Did (2015), was hailed by international critics for his new film.

“There have been countless movies about the immigration crisis, but none of them have the sheer ingenuity of ‘Flee’,” says IndieWire, furthermore characterising the film as “activism, therapy, and great cinema all at once”.

The Guardian praises the film as a “remarkably humanising and complex film, expanding and expounding the kind of story that’s too easily simplified. Rasmussen has created a loving and unsparing tribute to his friend, a brave survivor whose story I’ll find impossible to forget.”

The Hollywood Reporter describes the film as a “powerful and poetic memoir of personal struggle and self-discovery that expands the definition of documentary,” while Variety applauds it for its “unconventional portrait” and sees it as “an incredibly intimate act of sharing”. For Screen Daily, “Rasmussen’s consideration of one man’s journey sheds light on the emotional legacy that can linger even after sanctuary is found”.

Flee will be celebrating its European premiere in the Nordic competition at Göteborg Film Festival, ending 8 February.

Flee, which received the Cannes Official Selection stamp in June 2020, is produced by Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real and co-produced by Charlotte de La Gournerie of Sun Creature (Denmark), Vivement Lundi (France), Most Film (Sweden) and Mer Film (Norway), in collaboration with broadcasters ARTE France and VPRO in Holland. A domestic release is set for later this year.The film is supported by the Danish Film Institute. 

Camilla Nielsson: President

DANISH FILM INSTITUTE wrote yesterday: “Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee and Camilla Nielsson’s President took home top prizes at Sundance, as the festival celebrated this year’s winners during Tuesday night’s awards show. The two films, both produced by Final Cut for Real, have garnered rave reviews from international critics. The 2021 Sundance Film Festival announced their awards Tuesday night, with the list of winners including the two Danish documentaries.

The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for best international documentary went to Jonas Poher Rasmussen for his animated Flee. The film offers a gripping account of how the director’s close friend Amin arrived in Denmark as a young refugee from Afghanistan 25 years ago.

Shortly after its world premiere at Sundance on 28 January, Flee was bought for American distribution by Neon, the indie company behind the Oscar winning Parasite. British actor Riz Ahmed and his Danish colleague Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are set to voice the lead roles as Amin and Jonas Poher Rasmussen, respectively, in an English-language version of the film to debut later this year.”

A EPIC-SCALE DOCUTHRILLER

President, Camilla Nielsson’s follow-up to her festival hit Democrats from 2014, had a great start following its premiere at Sundance.

“A remarkable story of bravery and determination against daunting odds,” writes Screen Daily, also emphasising the work of DoP Henrik Bohn Ibsen, who “really captures the atmosphere of Zimbabwe: the dust and the decay, the motorcades, elaborate villas, feverish expectations and grinding corruption.”

“The way this film confronts the fragility of democracy and the ever-looming possibility of violence hit home for this American viewer in a way that was both harrowing and humbling,” says New York Times.

“An election documentary in which you’ll actually find yourself on the ‘stop the steal’ side, Camilla Nielsson’s brilliant ‘President’ is the follow-up I was hoping for to her brilliant ‘Democrats’,” Variety’s critic shares in a tweet, also naming the film a “gut-punch” and an “epic-scale docuthriller”. 

 President is produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen and Joslyn Barnes. Denmark’s Final Cut for Real is co-producing with Louverture Films (US) and Sant & Usant (Norway). Both films are supported by the Danish Film Institute.

Tue Steen Müllers anmeldelse af Democrats til 6 af 6 penne: Filmkommentaren – CPH:DOX 2014 /Camilla Nielsson