ZagrebDOX

There he is, festival director, producer and teacher Nenad Puhovski, who now for the 5th time launches a documentary festival in Croatia, and thus welcomes the world of documentaries in the heart of Zagreb.

A clip from the welcome text on the site: ZagrebDox, the largest international documentary film festival in the region, is marking its 5th anniversary this year! As the Festival will celebrate its birthday very actively, you will have a chance to see 120 most interesting new documentaries from all over the world from 23 February – 1 March, 2009.

An enormous programme with a generous choice made for the visitors: 30 films are in the international competition, among them ”Burma Vj” by Anders Østergaard, ”Rough Aunties” by Kim Longinotto, ”The Mother” by Cattin and Kostomarov, Geoffrey Smith’s ”The English Surgeon”, ”Three Men and a Fish Pond” by Pakalnina and Maskalana, ”René” by Helena Trestikova. To be followed by an always interesting regional competition of 24 films including ”The 21st Second” by Serbian Zeljko Mirkovic, ”Lost World” by Hungarian Guyla Nemes, ”The Flower Bridge” by Thomas Ciulei and ”Testimony” by Razvan Georgescu, both of them from Romania. Not to forget a handful of very strong films that were pitched at earlier editions of the ZagrebDOX, see below.

Also there is a selection of music documentaries like ”Patti Smith – Dream of Life” by Steven Sebring and ”Roskilde” by Uilrik Wivel and a section dedicated to Happy Dox! And retrospectives with Israeli  documentaries, films by the director Jon Alpert and a variety of new and older Croatian short and long documentaries. Congratulations with this continuation of a succesful cultural effort.

http://www.zagrebdox.net/

ZagrebDOXPro

Within the festival ZagrebDOX, see above, a project development and pitching session has taken place for several years and will take place again in 2009, where 13 projects have been chosen. Cecilia Lidin from EDN and I have the privilige to run this session together with Tiha Gudac, responsible for the organisation.

Results of projects presented in previous years can be watched at the festival. 3 excellent documentaries started their international career at the ZagrebDox before going to bigger marketplaces around the world. All of them carry an artistic originality in form and content, a personal voice and ambition that I have so often highlighted on filmkommentaren.dk under the headline ”East Beats West”. All three got their first push and positive reaction in Zagreb.

Bulgarian Boris Despodov’s ”Corridor 8” has already been to several festivals and has taken awards, Serbian Dragan Nikolic is about to get his international breakthrough with ”The Caviar Connection” and ”Cash and Marry” by Atanas Georgiev (photo) will do the same, I am sure. It will, as the others, be shown at ZagrebDOX, and thereafter go to Visions du Réel in Nyon.

http://www.zagrebdox.net/

Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle

Prestigious BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) ceremony in London had Slumdog Millionaire nominated in 11 categories. It won in seven, including Best Cinematography, which gives us another chance to say bravo to Anthony Dod Mantle, about whom I wrote the following in connection with the megasuccess film:

”What makes it watchable is the stunning cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle, a cameraman with the ability to make every scene full of atmosphere and authenticity in terms of light and angle and framing. Composition in other words. And movement. And what I would call documentary presence.”

Best British film was the James Marsh documentary ”Man on Wire”, also reviewed on filmkommentaren.dk – Danish audience can watch it in the cinemas right now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7830076.stm

Jean-Luc Godard

Jeg har siden jeg så, at bokssættet var kommet, planlagt min genopdagelse af Jean-Luc Godards film. Jeg har siden 1970-erne kun set et par sjældenheder engang på museet i Bilbao i forbindelse med festivalen der. Og jeg besluttede også dengang at finde ud af at se alle filmene, den ene efter den anden. Men hvordan? Det kunne man jo til for et par år siden ikke bare beslutte, det var jo før dvd-erne.. Og så for nylig mistede jeg oven i købet Godard filmen på CPH:DOX i november, “Fragments of Conversations with Jean-Luc Godard” – det var jeg ked af – og mine gensyn blev igen udsat lidt – men til februar skulle Godard være månedens navn i filmklubben, bestemte jeg..

Anledningen var, at jeg kom i tanker om Christoffers Boes anmeldelse af det dobbelte bokssæt i “Ekko”: “For fans er Godard ursuppen…”, herfra får moderne instruktører deres råmælk, skriver han. Og jeg tænkte, at det gør et moderne publikum som mig og de andre i klubben nok også. For ” Godard er rastløs. Hans blik er altid søgende, altid på vej til noget nyt. Han hiver os med i sin jagt efter at forstå. Lader os komme så tæt på det levede liv, som filmlinsen vil tillade. Hans blik på verden er romantisk, men afviklet med en morders kølighed, og det er denne sitren mellem distance og nærvær, som giver filmene deres glød og varme. Bilerne, lejlighederne, caféerne, gaderne og kvinderne – alt manes til live.”

I min erindring var altid “En gift kvinde” den tydeligste, den vigtigste. Kammerspil som hos Rohmer. Og som det første i det her lille studium klikkede jeg ind på en stump fra netop den film. På You Tube. Og fandt netop det, jeg huskede, erotikken anbragt i en stemning af integreret litterær dialog og af afgørende vigtig lyd af strygekvartet, bare dette lille stykke Beethoven, tilsyneladende henkastet i dialogen, men fuldstændig integreret i den samlede konstruktion. Det med Godard var begyndt igen..

Alain Fleischer: Morceaux de conversations avec Jean-Luc Godard, Frankrig 2007, 125 min. Distribution: Les Films d’Ici. Christoffer Boe: The Jean-Luc Godard Collection i Ekko, #38, 2007. Bokssættet med ni Godard film fra 1959 til 1985 distribueres af Optimum Releasing. Franske versioner med engelske undertekster.

Festivals collaborate on vod

Good access news. Festivals help each other, we are not used to that, and establish a vod. Says the IDF site docuinter.net:

On February 10, 2009 Berlinale hosts a special presentation. Doc Alliance, an association of Europe’s five key documentary festivals – CPH: Dox Copenhagen, DOK Leipzig, IDFF Jihlava, Planete Doc Review Warsaw and Visions du Réel Nyon – is preparing to launch a new initiative for feature documentary films. In addition to Doc Alliance Selection under which five high-quality documentaries handpicked by the members compete for the annual Doc Alliance Award, the new online portal docalliancefilms.com will be up and running from March 1, 2009 will allow VOD access to some 250 documentary films.

von Platen et al.: Long Bien Bridge

Hanoi, Vietnam. A legendary bridge. People, people, people. Working, walking, exercising, motorbiking, repairing, waiting, cleaning, haircutting, cell phoning, water, steel, construction, trains from inside and outside. No dialogue, no interviews, pure observation, no arrangement, small sequences, small human interactions, small stories.

For what is a story? A story can be a raindrop on a chin. Or a mother counting with her small son. Finger by finger. Or woman in white crossing the square where everyone seems to cross on their motorbike. Or a hairdresser performing his profession under the dress. Or trading at a market. Like pearls on a string, the filmmakers bring us stories, one after the other with what seems to be an authentic sound design.

The 3 Danes were there in the spring 2007, I was there with 3 other Danes in December 2007. And can say that this is how it is. This is how I felt it. There is no such thing as an objective picture of a country, ans the filmmakers do not at all pretend to cover or prove anything, they were there, as we were, and the atmosphere they construct, the feeling of being there, is as it is. Watching, observing, being curious, there is a truthfulness in this documentary that is a much better invitation to go to Vietnam than hundreds of tourist clips and brochures.

The names of the filmmakers are Cai-Ulrich von Platen, Steen Møller Rasmussen and Peter Schultz Jørgensen. The film is 34:22 minutes long and was released in 2008.

Purchase:

Cai Ulrich von Platen
Værksted:
Værkstedsvej 40
2500 Valby
t: +4526716280
e: caiulrich@vonplaten.dk

Price: 100DKr. That goes to “Agent Orange Children”, Vietnam.

Avi Mograbi

At DOCSBarcelona Israeli director Avi Mograbi had two screenings of his latest film, ”Z 32”, a film that I have praised several times on filmkommentaren.dk

On top of that the director performed a three hour masterclass for 180 people according to this concept: a director chooses 7 clips from his films, clips that he has something special to say about. Mograbi went through a substantial part of his work, and made comments that were all an investigation into the position of the filmmaker towards his character(s). From humourous situations like the one where he has eye contact with Sharon in ”How I learned to overcome my fear and love Ariel Sharon” to his confrontation with the Israeli soldiers, who will not allow Palestinian children to pass a fence and go home from school, in ”Avenge but one of my two Eyes”, to his Brechtian choice of singing his reflections in ”Z 32”: ”Am I housing a murderer in my film”?

A masterclass, a master’s class, Mograbi is exactly as his films are: tense, sometimes comic, but always dealing with the embarrassing reality of the country he lives in. A frustrated artist, as he says himself, who wants to move something, raise a debate in Israel, but does not succeed, he is met with total silence, no reactions, whereas he now is an estimated artist in Western Europe! In the next issue of Cahiers du Cinema, the headline is characterising him as ”Le Grand sculpteur de notre temps”. ”Z32” will be released in French cinemas in this month.

www.docsbarcelona.com

Nils Vest: An Oppressed People is Always Right

Danish director Nils Vest offers his controversial Palestine film, shot in a refugee camp in Southern Lebaning in 1974, to be watched online for free, or to be bought at his company. His contact details are mentioned below.

Utrættelige Nils Vest har lagt sin Palæstinafilm fra 1974 på nettet til frit gennemsyn. Han skriver:

Så er der nu mulighed for at se den snart godt brugte, men desværre ikke forældede film om de palæstinensiske flygtninge og Palæstina/Israel-konflikten  –  ET UNDERTRYKT FOLK HAR ALTID RET  –  som streamet video på nettet. I både dansk og engelsk version.
http://www.vestfilm.dk/etundertryktfolk/filmen.html

Filmen blev optaget i 1974 i Libanon, havde premiere i 1975, modtog Guldmedalje på Palestine Film Festival i 1976 og måtte i 1977, hvor den også modtog PH-Prisen, trækkes tilbage i nogle måneder for mindre justeringer i speakerteksten, efter pres fra Israel-lobbyen.
At denne lobby så senere fik indgået en aftale med først Statens Filmcentral, siden Filminstituttet, om at filmen aldrig skulle over på video (den lå de første år udelukkende som 16-mm kopier), det kom frem under Operation Dagsværk i 1998. Og SÅ kom den i videodistribution!

Hvis man ikke er tilfreds med at se den på nettet  –  hvorfra den både kan ses direkte og downloades, gratis!  –  kan man købe en DVD-kopi med begge sprogversioner, i højere billedkvalitet for 125 kr. + forsendelse. Se http://www.vestfilm.dk/filmsalg.html

Manden der ville redde Saddam / Saving Saddam

Team Productions forsynede mig venligt med en kopi af den helt nye danske version (release 1. december) af filmen, så jeg på Den Skandinaviske Designskole i aftes kunne vise den sammen med Eva Mulvads “Vores lykkes fjender” fra 2006 for et bemærkelsesværdigt opmærksomt og engageret publikum, et halvt hundrede unge formgivere.. 

De fangede måske ikke mine usikre pointer i introduktionerne om lyddesign og karakterudvikling, men de fangede i hvert fald alle filmenes så sikkert konstruerede følelser. Fra først til sidst. Og de fik for et par timer så tydeligt for mig at mærke i mørket to nye helte fra det virkelige liv, den canadiske jurist Bill Wiley og den afghanske politiker Malalai Joya.

Det er meget, meget vigtigt, at Esteban Uyarras, Michael Christoffersens og Mette Heides overbevisende film om den skandaløse retssag mod Saddam Hussein og Baath-lederne nu snart kan ses på Filmstriben. Ved siden af “Milosevic on trial” fra 2007 og, kunne jeg sådan ønske og anbefale, Christoffersens “Genocide: The Judgement” fra 1999. Så havde vi tre vægtige skildringer af tre markante, historiske retssager og af udviklingen inden for den alvorlige del af international ret. Til skolerne og bibliotekerne i det mindste. Senere forhåbentlig til den øvrige offentlighed.

I have written about the film in English in FILM: The Crime of Crimes

Tom Alandh: Det finns bare en Ingemar Johansson

Se, det var en smuk tv-dokumentar. Set på SVT i går og udsendt i anledning af hovedpersonens død. Om én af de store bokse-legender, svenske Ingo = Ingemar Johansson. Med fine spørgsmål fra instruktøren, journalisten Tom Alandh, stillet til Ingo’s kone, som svarer lavmælt og kærligt på spørgsmålene om den mand, som hun blev gift med, men separeredes fra i 1969. Birgit er hendes navn, og de to holdt kontakt livet igennem, og filmen handler ligeså meget om hendes eget liv i søgelyset fra det øjeblik, hvor manden fra Sverige blev ”the champ” til hun forlod ham. Hun fører i filmen sin mand rundt blandt de mange trofæer, han lider af alzheimers sygdom og der kommer ingen selvstændige ord ud af hans mund. Det giver selvfølgelig filmen, optaget i 2005, et tragisk præg at se den store charmerende mand sidde og stirre ud i luften på et plejehjem. Lyttende til sin yndling Frank Sinatras sang. Men filmen i øvrigt er en herlig fortælling om boksning og om at blive en verdensstjerne og få et liv i sus og dus, det liv som Birgit forlod af kedsomhed. En amerikansk boksejournalist fortæller levende om Ingo som bokser og der er fremragende klip fra ”the trilogy”, de tre kampe Ingo og Floyd Patterson kæmpede mod hinanden. De to som blev tætte venner på trods af de gensidige øretæver.

2005, 96 mins.

Reprise: SVT2 Måndag 17 april kl 15.15. Eller se den på nettet