Valentin Valchev: See you at the Eiffel tower

A Bulgarian filmmaker makes a film for a charming, warm and smiling American photographer, Marion Michelle. He met her during the research for a film to be made in the footsteps of Joris Ivens, who made his ”The First Years” about Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia just after the war. Michelle was the scriptwriter of the film and had a relationship with Ivens until 1950. She is old and will not live long, and yet – as she says to the director Valchev: you are giving me a new life in the film, thank you.

This is what he does but this is not the only element worth noting from an extensive work that brings the viewer to Poland to look for characters that took part in the film from that time, as well as to Prague, briefly in a not very important sequence, contrary to the trip to Bulgarian town Radilovo to visit families of men and women who played in the film. The construction, maybe sometimes a bit too gemacht, and there are scenes you would not miss if they were not there, makes Valchev go to meet the different places and characters, for afterwards to bring the material to be shown to Marion Michelle. There is a lot of gold in terms of moving scenes in this light hearted, unconventional documentary.

As for Ivens, clips are part of the story as are lots of stills, but he is really not an important character for Valchev, who gives his heart to his character and makes Marion Michelle grow narratively in her lovely French garden house. The film is shown at idfa festival.

Bulgaria, 2008, 95 mins.

www.idfa.nl

www.agitprop.bg

Isabel Grünwald: Brothers

Something went wrong. Difficult to say what. Anyhow, the two old brothers live together but do not communicate. Somewhere in the north of Bavaria, in the countryside, where Heiner has inherited the farm and Fritz takes care of the household. Fritz makes a wonderful cake according to the way, mother did, but Heiner comments to the camera that the one mother did was much better! ”It used to be different”. ”It started when he took away my puzzles. Yet he never solved one himself”.

There is so much unsaid in this well composed (editing, camera, music) diploma film from the Zelig Film School. The pauses are as important as the scenes where the brothers talk. You sense the soul of the mother in the rooms. The brothers are treated with love and respect, and you can’t help feel compassion when Heiner towards the end of the story shows the pictures from his youth. He was in the army during WW2 and was sent to a pow camp in England. A photo of a young woman is accompanied by Heiner’s remark that he regrets not to have learned English. Fritz is the philosopher, who lives his dreams between flowers and ripe grapes.

The film is to be found in the programme of idfa.

Italy/Germany, 2007, 50 mins.

www.idfa.nl
 
http://www.zeligfilm.it/

Ferenc Moldoványi: Another Planet

With German master director Edgar Reitz (”Heimat”) as the president of the jury, the International Film Festival of Mannheim-Heidelberg gave the Special Jury Award to ”Another Planet” (see also review, go to ”search”). Here follows the motivation:

“There are films which defy with persistence our willingness to forget quickly. “Another Planet” is such a film. It guides us, without ever striking a false note, into the depressing world of child labour and prostitution, which we never experienced before on the screen with such directness and intimacy. We admire the director Ferenc Moldoványi for his courage and his perseverance – he worked for over five years to accomplish this touching and just as much disturbing masterpiece. With its artistic forms of expression and its deep spirituality it transcends the limitations of documentary film.”

http://www.another-planet.eu/moldovanyi-uk.html

Opstrup: The documentary Narrative 4

THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE (Now in an English version)

The creation of the documentary – compared to the documentary programme and the fiction film.

Mikael Opstrup

1. Fiction is defined by the story. A course of events that is written down in the script and then converted into a film. The directors work process is linear and the fiction film is from a dramaturgic point of view frictionless. Only one course of events exists. The fiction director’s endeavour is storytelling.

2. The documentary programme is defined by the subject. A course of events that the journalist reproduces as objectively as possible. All though objectivity is an…

THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE

The creation of the documentary – compared to the documentary programme and the fiction film.

Mikael Opstrup

1. Fiction is defined by the story. A course of events that is written down in the script and then converted into a film. The directors work process is linear and the fiction film is from a dramaturgic point of view frictionless. Only one course of events exists. The fiction director’s endeavour is storytelling.

2. The documentary programme is defined by the subject. A course of events that the journalist reproduces as objectively as possible. All though objectivity is an impossibility and the creation of the programme thereby antagonistic, the journalist’s effort is unambiguous and the road towards the unattainable is linear as in fiction. Only one course of events exists. The journalist’s endeavour is reproduction.

3. The documentary film is defined by both a course of events and storytelling. The course of events takes place in the reality the documentary describes. The story is the director’s retelling of the event. There are two courses of events and the core of the documentary’s dramaturgy is the contradiction between the two courses of events, the factual and the narrative. The documentary director’s endeavour is retelling.

4. Both the fiction film and the documentary programme exist ideally of two clear-cut developments: In fiction to write a script and there after to transform it into film; in the documentary programme to collect facts and there after to put the events in order in a programme. The documentary film exists ideally of en endless interaction between the creation of the story, recording of the events and changing the story.

5. Hence the documentary has things in common with both the documentary programme and the fiction film. The two documentary genres have the antagonistic contradiction between reality and presentation in common; but where as the journalist’s endeavour is to minimize the contradiction the documentary director’s endeavour is to maximize it. The two film genres has the storytelling in common; but where as the fiction director creates the story’s components – the scenes – himself, the documentary director has to decide if the one or the other event is the bearer of a scene in the documentary story.

6. The documentary film’s contradiction between the factual and the narrative is antagonistic in work-related respect but complementary in artistic respect. Antagonism is the condition that two sides of an issue are inconsistent. That two contradictions exclude each other. Complementarity is the condition that two sides of an issue besides excluding one another at the same time complement one another. That two contradictions presuppose one another.

7. The creation of a documentary is an antagonistic process. On two levels. Personally for the director because the interpretation of reality only becomes interesting if it is the result of a strive for objectivity – well aware that it is in the interpretation’s encounter with the reproduction the documentary film becomes art. Work related because we have to put forward a story at a time where we do not know the course of events, the story reproduces. This is not possible. But it is done. Done by transforming the antagonistic contradiction into a complementary paradox.

8. This means to constantly modify the narrative one has created because the perception of reality constantly changes the story. The difficulty being the devotedness towards absolute aspiration, which is the essential prerequisite for a successful and released story, well aware that reality constantly will change the story. Constantly striving to organise a presentation of reality that must be corrected by reality.  Combining absolute openness with absolute resolve. Striving body and soul to achieve the unattainable. Actually finding the strength to strive because the very goal one is striving to attain is unattainable.

9. This condition is the essence of working with the documentary story. To realise the necessity of transforming the antagonistic contradiction between reality and storytelling into a creative complementary paradox is a conscious prerequisite for the creation of documentary film art. The creation of the complete by striving towards the unattainable.

10. The documentary film is released artistically, when only one layer – reality – is visible as a continual narrative. When the retelling is not harmonious, i.e. if the single elements from the course of events are not completely convergent with the single scenes in the story, this second layer – the narrative – is revealed as a postulate. Thus the actual sequence of events is reversed from representing the elements of the narrative to becoming a new and autonomous narrative. Thus the film gets two independent courses, by which the work falls apart. But when the director’s work comes together with reality it ceases its presence in time and space and exists only as dramatic clarity.

11. The ability to work creatively releasing with inconsistent contradictions is a key ability of the documentary film director.

Litt.: Mikael Opstrup: The Complementary Dramaturgi of the Documentary Film in FILM, published by Danish Film Institute #25 / 2002. (Danish: Kvanteskriptet-dokumentarfilmens komplementariske dramaturgi, KOSMORAMA #229 / 2002)

Mikael Opstrup: The documentary Narrative 3

Remark to Ib Bondebjerg by Mikael Opstrup

Thanks for Ib Bondebjergs comment on my ‘Den dokumentariske fortælling’ which I guess can be translated to ‘The documentary narrative’. However it misses my approach to the matter.

Remark to Ib Bondebjerg by Mikael Opstrup

Thanks for Ib Bondebjergs comment on my ‘Den dokumentariske fortælling’ which I guess can be translated to ‘The documentary narrative’. However it misses my approach to the matter.

First of all my view is the creators point of view, it’s an attempt to clarify the elements the documentary creator works with. It is not a genre classification. Secondly I deal with the narrative structure – not the format or the aesthetic solutions.

Making a documentary, the director needs to know whether the story is constructed by the theme or the narrative.The first one being the journalistic driven documentary program and the second the narrative driven documentary film.

By journalistic driven I mean that the next possible scene in the film is decided by the theme, the purpose being to deepen and improve the knowledge of the theme. In the narrative driven documentary the next scene is defined by the story you’re telling. Let me give an example: in ‘The Monastery’ it is just as impossible for Pernille Rose Grønkjær to include an informative scene about the roots and history of monasteries in Russia and Denmark as it is for Alistair Maclean to include a scene that describes the political role of Greece in WWII in ‘The guns of Navarone’.

The creation of this narrative documentary is what my poetic ‘The documentary narrative’ is about. A genre that is defined by the complementary conflict between re-telling reality and reconstructing it artistically.That – for the creator – contains an insoluble contradiction and it is the successful solution of the insolubleness that is the artistic core of documentary film making. And that fascinates me so much.

This point may not be so interesting from the point of view of the product – the documentary film that is finished. But from the creating point of view it is the key question.10 years as tutor at pitching workshops around Europe; 4 years as production adviser at The Danish Film Institute and 15 years as documentary producer has confronted me with an endless number of projects where the major struggle for the creators has been to find the creative narrative that is included in the actual reality the film apparently is about.This is the core of the director’s work when developing the project at the early stage and with trying to explain it to film consultants and commissioning editors.

On top of this comes HOW you choose to tell your story once you have found out WHAT the story is: do you include dramatizations; interviews; a strong narrator; poetic montage etc. But that’s another story…

Mikael Opstrup

Jørgen Leth: Portrætfilmene

Så er boksen med film 22 til 29 kommet. Portrætfilmene. Som malede portrætter handler de nok alle om kunstneren, som maler, i hvert fald mere end om kunstneren, som sidder, står, er model. Derfor er øvelsen for mig at finde ud af hvad det så er for et materiale, hvad det er for en iagttagelse, hvad det er for en udforskning, som ligger i disse film. Og hvordan det stof føjer sig til det øvrige i det monument af en sammenhængende omverdenstolkning, som The Jørgen Leth Collection nok også, måske især udgør.

The Jørgen Leth Collection, Portrætfilmene: Klaus Rifbjerg (1974), Peter Martins – en danser (1978), At danse Bournonville (1979), Kalule (1979), Step on Silence (1981), Dansk litteratur (1989), Michael Laudrup – en fodboldspiller (1993), Jeg er levende – Søren Ulrik Thomsen, digter (1999) + bonus, Leth om Laudrup (2007). Det Danske Filminstitut 2008 http://www.dfi.dk/boghandel/videoshop.htm

Still: Peter Martins – en danser

Ib Bondebjerg: A Poetics for the Documentary

A poetics for the Documentary – basic genres and formats

Ib Bondebjerg

I think it is a very valuable endeavour Opstrup (ed.: Mikael Opstrup: “The documentary Narrative / Den dokumentariske fortælling”, 9.10.08 on this site, written in Danish and English. Search on “opstrup” at the left column) has embarked on trying to define what is specific for a documentary narrative and comparing it with documentary (TV)programs and the fiction film narrative. To see the documentary project as a working with contradictions between reality and narrating reality is certainly an aspect worth noting…

Photo: Ib Bondejerg right.. Henning Camre left

A Poetics for the Documentary – basic genres and formats

Ib Bondebjerg

I think it is a very valuable endeavour Opstrup has embarked on trying to define what is specific for a documentary narrative and comparing it with documentary (TV)programs and the fiction film narrative. To see the documentary project as a working with contradictions between reality and narrating reality is certainly an aspect worth noting.

However, I think Opstrup misses some very important aspects of documentary poetics and aesthetics by not taking into consideration that it is impossible to talk about the fiction film, the documentary program and the documentary film in the singular. Both documentary films and fiction films have very different genres and forms of narration. In the case of documentary forms these cut across TV-programs and documentary films. To construct a basic difference between documentary TV-programs and documentary films is therefore problematic.

In my recent book “Virkelighedensfortællinger. Den danske tv-dokumentarismes historie” (Samfundslitteratur, 2008) I try to define the four basic formats and genres in documentary, and in doing so I continue the work of international scholars like Bill Nichols, Carl Plantinga and John Corner. In my coming book “Virkelighedsbilleder. Den moderne danske dokumentarfilm”, I will continue with a historical analysis of how the Danish documentary film made through Statens Film Central and later DFI have used the same fomats, but in different ways and with different accents.

I my view there are four basic genres and modes of narration in documentary films and tv-programs, each with a distinctly diferent relation to reality and the rhetorical, narrative and aesthetic way of describing reality:

1. The authoritative documentary is informational and investigative and uses a strong and explicit rethorical voice in narrating reality. But it also often uses narrative devices and dramaturgic structures.The authoritative voice can vary from the more objective and didactic to the more critical.

2. The observational documentary takes an ethnographic and open approach to reality and wants to show reality as it unfolds in a given milieu or setting. The voice of the observational documentary is part of the reality being shown. But the organisation and structure of the observational film or program can be narrative in many ways. But often it uses a multi-plot narative unfolding in a mosaic and thematic structure.

3. The dramatised documentary is a complex and often contested and controversial documentary form because it takes a clearly hypothetical approach to reality. When Peter Watkins, for instance made “Wargame” he clearly used a journalistic format, a kind of reportage of an ‘as if event’, namely what would happen if London was hit by an atomic bomb. But this was a hypothetical reportage on a hypothetical event, but based on careful research of the official policy documents on how to react in such an event. Another example is Morten Hartz Kaplers “AFR” mixing factual and fictional elements in a drama-documentary.

4. The poetic reflexive documentary on the other hand is characterized by a personal and asthetic approach to reality. Reality is filtered through an aesthetic principle that becomes dominant or points towards the way reality is portrayed and reflected. When Jytte Rex for instance wants to tell us about European culture she does that in a staggering and beautiful montage of images and forms in “Floden”. And Jørgen Leth is famous for his minimalistic and staged portraits of reality.

The important thing when discussing documentary narration and aesthetics is not to try to distinquish documentary film from fictional on a formal and aesthetic level or to make a sharp distinction between documentary (TV) programs and documentary films. The important thing is to define the aesthtic complexity of all documentary formats, to allow for difference and variation in the way documentary productions are done.To define four very basic formats allow us to start seeing this complexity in both film and tv. But it is also important to realize that when we look at concrete historical periods of documentary we will often see hybrids between de basic formats: the poetic authoritative documentary, the observational-poetic documentary etc. Many documentaries take elements from different basic formats. This is another way of defining the complexity and contradictions Opstrups defines in his poetics of the documentary.

Ib Bondebjerg, Professor Deputy Chair of Department & Head of Section Department of Media, Cognition and Communication Section of Film and Media Studies University of Copenhagen, Southern Campus Njalsgade 80, 2300 Copenhagen S  Phone: +45 35328102 Fax: +45 35328110  Mobile: +45 60241164  Mail:

bonde@hum.ku.dk

Web: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/aviva/ 

www.mef.ku.dk  

http://bonde.blogs.ku.dk/

Director Centre for Modern European Studies (CEMES)* University of Copenhagen Njalsgade 80, 2300 Copenhagen S Denmark

Web: www.cemes.ku.dk  Mail: mes@hum.ku.dk

Photo: Ib Bondejerg right.. Henning Camre left

Seth Gordon: The King of Kong

János Richter, direction student at the Zelig Documentary Film School in Bolzano has written this review:

Billy Mitchell has a carefully styled mullet haircut and wears patriotic ties. His whole appearance communicates his conception of perfection. He is the owner of a hot sauce company and the world record holder in the arcade game Donkey Kong. „There is a level of difference between people that translates into games“, Mitchell states in an interview. On high score lists he appears as „USA“.

Throughout his childhood Steve Wiebe’s mother suspected him of being a little autistic. Wiebe works as a science teacher and is an obssesive drummer and a would-be composer. He started off with lots of different things, but nothing came up to his expectations. His biggest dream is to establish a new world record in Donkey Kong.

The film follows Wiebe who seems to neglect his family while trying to gain immortality in the world of arcade games. On the contrary, Mitchell is never shown playing the game in the film, though he states the importance of playing in public. He rather exercises himself in psychological warfare by setting people on Wiebe during his attempts to set a new record. At a tournament in Mitchell’s hometown Wiebe desperately waits to play against Mitchell who eventually shows up, but refuses to play. When Wiebe finally breaks the record, Mitchell responds by sending a vhs tape which shows him gaining a higher score than Wiebe just did. Nonetheless Wiebe is convinced that Mitchell made him a better person.

The flim is made in a conventional way – lots of interviews, lots of music, clear storyline -, but succeeds to entertain. One of the few stylistic exceptions is a montage in which we watch and hear Wiebe playing drums. It is intercut with images showing traumatic experiences from Wiebe’s youth and him playing Donkey Kong. The men’s efforts aren’t really being questioned, although there is a scene in which Wiebe’s daughter remarks that some people „sort of ruin their lifes“ while trying to establish records. It would have been interesting to find out more about the men’s motivations.

USA, 2007, 77 min.

http://billyvssteve.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_king_of_kong

Møder/CPH:DOX 21

Det går sjældent som planlagt, når jeg er på festival. Billetter kan ikke fås, visninger ikke nås, titler ikke til stede i on-line samlingen på markedet. Men, men så er der til gengæld store overraskelser, nye opdagelser, uventede møder. Det begyndte i det planlagte, jeg måtte med det samme jeg kom se filmen om mordet på Anna Politkovskaya.

Eric Bergkraut: Letter to Anna (Det viste sig at være en velordnet, klar og uhyre vigtig journalistisk materialesamling til forståelse af dette usædvanlige menneske, vigtigst er interviewet med Politkovskayas redaktør)

Jonathan Cauette: Tarnation (.. og så løb jeg ind i en række film, som alle er lavet på privatlivsarkiver. Først et forrygende levet og klippet familiedrama. En kvindes opvækst i et helvede – påført eller selvforskyldt, faktisk eller digtet – det holder filmen svævende i sin musikfortælling, men hendes smerte er autentisk)

Michel Auder: The Feature (.. 184 minutters samvær med et menneskeliv i avant garde kunstens centrum, i udkanten af det, vi kalder det almindelige, men i så utildækket ærlighed, at jeg kan overføre selv det mest eksotiske til den historie jeg burde kende bedst – og herefter kender bedre. Mødet med Auder blev mit vigtigste, hans film min allerstørste oplevelse) 

Morgan Dews: Must Read After My Death (.. og så til den nok mest tunge, 73 minutter med det mest ordinære private smalfilmmateriale kombineret med noget så ualmindeligt som en dagbog på bånd, alt gemt som et testamente af denne ualmindeligt almindelige kvinde, hvis fortælling, Dews uhyre langsomt, men konsekvent lader vokse ud af kedsommeligheden ind i den klassiske tragedie)

Agnès Varda: Les Plages d’Agnès (.. herefter til den letteste, mest opfindsomt farverigt dansende film: Varda har ombygget sit vidunderlige privatarkiv og sine erindringer til en komedie, så jeg ler, så tårerne triller og opdager at de kommer af vemod og sorg over det tabte, og kun den energiske evige skabelse af scenernes kunstværker tager kampen op mod forgængeligheden, og den elskedes grav overstrøs med to slags røde blomster, hans og hendes, endnu friske) 

Amir Labaki: 27 Scenes About Jørgen Leth (.. dette arkiv administreres hengivent af en åbenlys beundrer, de præcist valgte citater fra filmene tegner deres billede af et værk, der hænger sammen i en forskning, som endnu en gang imponerer i omfang og konsistens)

Werner Herzog: Encounters At The End Of The World (.. og endelig flyttedes fokus for mig væk fra den tabte tid, og vemodet forvandledes til klaustrofobi med dykkerne under Antarktis havis og undren over naturforskningens galgenhumor, ja, der blev leet meget i salen, til simpel angst, at det efter dinosaurernes uddøen så pludseligt som art dengang i fortiden nu er vores tur, for det minder Herzogs alvor uden nåde og hans tydelige billeder af vore fremtidige ruiner mig om. Og dette møde bliver nok det uafrystelige)