DocLisboa Diary 4

Sunday morning in Lisbon. Sunshine and empty streets. Perfect for a walk before going to sit in front of the video monitor and all the fine films of this festival. Strolled down (literally down) the streets to several great viewpoints and to the capturing of sounds and the observation of a city awakening. The smell of garlic to be used for the bacalau was already in the air as the +60 people, we had it all for ourselves. The cafés, the newspaper stands and the view and sound of the Lisbon trams, going slow through the city as if nothing had changed for the last decades. Could one live here, could one breathe here in the post-Salazar atmosphere of pleasant inactivity surrounded by beauty and melancholy?

Back to documentary festival reality. I ran into Nina Ramos, the producer of the festival, enjoying a cigarette outside the festival venue Culturgest, a rather ugly building but efficient  as location for the festival. We enjoyed the enormous development of a festival during 6 years: From 13.000 spectators at the first edition to 33.000 last year, and for this year, edition number 6, it will be even more. From 60 to 170 films. The typical festival viewer, Nina could not say, but agreed to my observation: students, yes many students. 3.50€ for a ticket, reduction for groups of students. Directors are invited with the full treatment: flight and accomodation. Budget: 900.000€ including a lot of in-kind contribution.

www.doclisboa.org

DocLisboa Diary 3

Talking faces. Normally you associate this stylistical element to journalistic programmes on television. And not to creative documentaries. The Israeli documentary, “To See if I’m Smiling” by Tamar Yaron, builds its whole narrative on talking faces. Young women who have served in IDF, the Israeli army, on the West Bank, look back on incidents of death and violence in which they have taken part. Interrupted by mostly home video material from the “happy” days in the army. Out comes a shocking documentary so well edited that you are nailed to the screen.

As you are with another masterpiece by another great documentarian from the UK, Molly Dineen. I have for years used her “Heart of the Angel” (1989) from the tube in London, whenever the talk was about bringing in several layers to your story. Now, almost 20 years later, she makes “The Lie of the Land”, a report from the British countryside where the farmers have their healthy mostly male animals shot because they are without any value on the market. This is the starting point for a human tragedy for people who have built their life on breeding animals, and who so far have been able to live from that. Molly Dineen is behind the camera constantly asking questions to the people whose confidence she has gained and she does so with all that curiosity, interest and yes compassion that a documentary director should have.

Wow, it’s a festival with strong stories I thought after another long day at the videothèque.

Still: To See if I’m Smiling by Tamar Yaron

www.doclisboa.org     

DocLisboa Diary 2

First full day at a festival in the South that does only schedule one film in the morning, the neo-classic ”The Long Holiday” by Johan van der Keuken. The hall was full of young people taken there by their cinéphile teachers from film school and university.

I went directly to the videothèque to watch films from the international competition programme to prepare my article for the DOX magazine. It was a long journey through the misery of this world filmed and conveyed by committed and sometimes narratively involved directors and cameramen and –women. Made by English (”All White in Barking” by Marc Isaacs), French-Iranian (”The Faces on the Wall” by Bijan Anquetil and Paul Costes), Chinese (”The Red Race” by Chao Gan) and Israeli (”Six Floors to Hell” by Jonathan Ben Efrat). To mention the four films that impressed me mostly. Themes: xenophobia and loss of identity, the forgotten martyrs, children paced to served the state and inhumanity in the state of Israel.

In all these films there were a lot of emotions. They want us to cry or at least be moved at this festival. And think, even if nothing compares to the opening film by Avi Mograbi in that respect. And in terms of stylistical innovation, Mograbi also has no competitors so far. Classical documentary approach, yes, but on the other hand I have not yet seen a film that I thought should have stayed at home.

Still: All White in Barking by Marc Isaacs.

www.doclisboa.org 

                                                                                          

DocLisboa Diary 1

I am in Lisbon for the festival. The 6th International Documentary Film Festival. A success in terms of attendance, and a festival with an excellent programme. So much to watch. International and national competition, a competition for investigative documentaries, Frederick Wiseman, ”made in China”, ”new families, new identities”, ”fim diaries and self portraits”, Raymond Depardon, Polish short films and so forth. From all over the world.

All selected according to a high sense of quality. Artistic quality.

And this year headed by filmmaker Serge Tréfaut, on behalf of the producers association, apordoc. In the catalogue foreword, he writes:

”For someone who lives in a deeply anaesthetised, provincial country almost governed by mediocrities with no vision, doclisboa is a kind of Carnival of the Spirit. A moment of celebration when values are turned upside down and the brain and the senses receive hyper stimulation.”

Well, I saw two films yesterday… the heartbreaking observational Kim Longinotto doc ”Hold me Tight, Let me go”, what a brilliant filmmaker and fine person she is, and Avi Mograbi´s ”Z32”, a mise-en-scène film that once again shows how clever this controversial filmmaker is, in finding new ways of dealing with strong themes of the world. This time in a Brechtian musical form. Read about it on the website:

www.doclisboa.org

Still: Z32 by Avi Mograbi.

… and in Haïti

On the plane yesterday from Paris to Lisbon, I read the editorial of Le Monde (October 16). A strong humanistic appeal to us all to remember what happened very shortly ago in one of the world´s poorest countries. I translate a quote from French, as well as I can:

Around 2400 kilometers from Wall Street the continuation of poverty resumes in one of the poorest countries in the world. In April Haïti suffered from violent break-outs of hunger. Between August 15 and September 15, it was hit by two cyclones and tropical storms. Around 800 died and the nutrition situation was worsened. But in Haïti, like elsewhere, far away from the markets, you die in silence. The international mobilisation around this scene lasts as long as the media care. With the financial crisis, the haïtian diaspora has reduced its funding to help. After its financial mistakes it is time that the world adresses its moral mistakes.

Still: Haiti. Untitled by Jørgen Leth, 1995.

DocuRegio- Second Edition

You might sigh when you hear about another training programme for documentary producers in Europe… but this one is different and adds to Discovery Campus, Ex Oriente, Eurodoc and many others supported by the EU MEDIA Programme. In a very creative way, as the initiative that was taken by general manager Vincent Leclercq from CRRAV in Tourcoing in the North of France, focuses on bringing the regional film funds together to develop a production collaboration across the borders. And to train the local producers to go international.

In times where the tv channels do not really increase their budgets for creative documentaries – on the contrary it can be witnessed almost all over – the public funding is crucial. And if the independent production companies on an international scale are able to not only help each other creatively, but can also profit from financial support from regional fund outside their own country, there is a vision for the future.

In Tourcoing this week, at the DocuRegio pitching session led by Cecilia Lidin from EDN and pitching guru Sibylle Kurz, we had the pleasure to meet representatives from regional funds from France, Austria, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Italy, Belgium and Denmark. There is still a long way to go to bend the local rules, but it is possible and several producers left the session with the intention to coproduce their project with a colleague company from another company, in order to open the door to local funding. And make a creative collaboration as well. Also with those, not to forget, broadcasters (YLE, Lichpunt, Arte, ZDF/3sat, ORF etc.) who fight for the survival of the creative documentary at tv.

www.crrav.com

Jon Bang Carlsen: Trilogi + 1

DVD-boksen indeholder fire film, den sydafrikanske trilogi, Addicted to Solitude, 1999, Portrait of God, 2001, Blinded Angels, 2007 og så Purity Beats Everything, 2007. Og jeg tager filmene op her, fordi de, og især den seneste film, bliver emne for næste aften i min filmklub. Vi er godt forberedt, vi har Tue Steen Müllers vidende og anerkendende anmeldelse her på filmkommentaren.dk den 21. maj (skriv ‘purity’ og klik), nogle har set filmene i forvejen, den seneste har været i biografen de senere måneder i en række byer, og instruktøren har været til stede, og den har været vist på DR2 på den sene kvalitetssending.

Men der står for mig stadigvæk en række spørgsmål tilbage at overveje, i første omgang om forbindelserne mellem de de tre plus én film, og om hvordan denne trilogi-konstruktion hænger sammen med den sidste titel, som sådan er løst tilknyttet. Og jeg må prøve at finde ud af, hvordan de fire film griber tilbage i det tidligere værk, måske helt tilbage til Jenny, 1977. For alt i dette filmarbejde over fire årtier væver sig for mig at se sammen i nye betydninger.

De medvirkende i Purity Beats Everything, Miriam Lichterman og Pinchas Gutter fortæller deres erindringer fra Auschwitz. Det vidste jeg på forhånd var det forfærdende indhold, men som Tue Steen Müller gør opmærksom på, peger filmens fortæller også på, at denne erindring for længst blevet til fortælling, til en kunstnerisk bearbejdelse. Og filmen fortsætter i det spor, bygger yderligt en række lag på beretningerne, først den frapperende del af billedsiden med optagelser fra en sjællandsk gård, og jeg ser, at grebene oven i de idylliske landskaber, som rigtignok tilvejebringer en udholdelig kontrast, eller i hvert fald anderledeshed, er talrige og fyldt med foruroligende tankebearbejdelser af de medvirkendes erindringer. 

De mange velkendte træk fra de tidligere film: lyden fra optagelserne i arbejdsværelsets computer (Portrait of God), den velkendte håndskrift på skiltene (Livet vil leves, breve fra en mor og mange gange siden), hver eneste beskæring, belysning og motivvalg i hvert eneste billede (Før gæsterne kommer ja, og Jenny og konstant siden). De mange velkendte træks tryghed gør, at jeg overhovedet kan lytte til de ufattelige detaljer og tage dem ind, men stadig uden at fatte dem. Forstå, ja det er umuligt. Der tager filmen fat på det afgørende lag i konstruktionen. Det har med de hjemlige ting at gøre. derfor denne vedholdende skildring af kunstnerhjemmet, hvor filmen er blevet til, hjemmet med vasketøjet og tørresnoren. Det hjem kender jeg også i forvejen. Fra flere steder, tydeligst fra Carmen og Babyface. Hvad det så betyder, vil jeg tænke videre over og snakke med dem om i filmklubben. Men her skal lige noteres, at med denne DVD-boks er endnu et umisteligt filmværk bevaret til et nyt liv i dette filmformat for alle hjemmene. Måtte de øvrige film snart følge efter.

Jon Bang Carlsen: My African trilogy plus one, 2008. C&C Production, distribution: Danish Filminstitute bookshop@dfi.dk  

Picasso and Artistic Variation

Picasso was obsessed with Manet´s painting from 1863, “Lunch on the Grass” (“Déjeuner sur l´herbe”). This may be witnessed in the great exhibition that just opened in Parisian Musée d’Orsay. Until February 1st 2009, more than 40 of the variations, copies, interpretations, whatever you wish to call them, made by Picasso, can be seen circling around Manet’s painting that has, by the way, also been an inspiration for Jean Renoir, who made a film with the same title.

An obsession, one of many that came from Picasso, who often made several of the works in one day. And you understand why the master wrote – on the back of an envelope – probably in 1932: “When I see Manet’s Lunch on the Grass I tell myself there is pain ahead”.

Artistic repetitions and variations of the same theme in documentary films… Where do we find them? I had this thought when I watched Picasso. I thought of Jørgen Leth and his two America-films, “66 Scenes from America” and “New Scenes from America”. The camerawork of Dan Holmberg is in both cases much more linked to visual art than to narrative (literary) structures. I thought of Steen Møller Rasmussen, also a Danish documentarian, who has searched to catch New York, inspired heavily by Leth as a filmmaker and Robert Frank as a filmmaker and photographer. I thought of Sergey Dvortsevoy and his Russian images, full of atmospheres and different moods, as are the Danes I mention above. And as are Picasso´s variations. Could it be possible to talk more about film and (visual) art?   

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/accueil.html

Mikael Opstrup: The documentary Narrative 2

Mikael Opstrup har skrevet en udvidelse af den dokumentarfilmens poetik, som vi tidligere bragt på FILMKOMMENTAREN.DK. Her følger teksten:

DEN DOKUMENTARISKE FORTÆLLING – Skabelsen af dokumentarfilmen, sammenholdt med dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen / THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE (English version after the Danish)  

1. Fiktionsfilmen er defineret af historien. Et handlingsforløb som nedfældes i manuskriptet og siden omsættes til film. Instruktørens arbejdsproces er lineær og fiktionsfilmen er dramaturgisk friktionsfri. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Fiktionsinstruktørens bestræbelse er fortælling.

2. Dokumentarprogrammet er defineret af emnet. En begivenhedsrække, som journalisten gengiver så objektivt som muligt. Selv om objektivitet er en umulighed og skabelsen af programmet dermed modsætningsfyldt, er journalistens bestræbelse entydig og vejen mod det uopnåelige er lineær, som i fiktionsfilmen. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Journalistens bestræbelse er gengivelse.

3. Dokumentarfilmen er defineret af både et begivenhedsforløb og en fortælling. Begivenhedsforløbet finder sted i den virkelighed dokumentarfilmen beskriver. Fortællingen er instruktørens genfortælling af begivenhedsforløbet. Der er to handlingsforløb og kernen i dokumentarfilmens dramaturgi er modsætningen mellem de to handlingsforløb, det faktuelle og det narrative. Dokumentarinstruktørens bestræbelse er genfortælling.

4. Både fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarprogrammet består ideelt set af to skarpt opdelte forløb: i fiktionsfilmen at skrive et manuskript og derpå omsætte dette til film; i dokumentarprogrammet at indsamle fakta og derpå at ordne disse begivenheder i et program; dokumentarfilmens forløb består ideelt set af en uendelig vekselvirkning mellem at skabe fortællingen, optage begivenhedsforløbet og ændre fortællingen.

5. Således har dokumentarfilmen noget til fælles med både dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen. De to dokumentargenrer har den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og formidling til fælles; men hvor journalistens bestræbelse vil være at minimere modsætningen, vil dokumentarinstruktørens være at uddybe den.De to filmgenrer har fortællingen til fælles, da der ingen dramaturgisk forskel er på fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarfilmen; men hvor fiktionsinstruktøren selv skaber fortællingens enkeltelementer – scenerne – må dokumentarinstruktøren beslutte, om den ene eller den anden begivenhed er bærer af enkeltscenen i den dokumentariske fortælling.

6. Dokumentarfilmens modsætning mellem det faktuelle og det narrative er antagonistisk i arbejdsmæssig henseende men komplementær i kunstnerisk forstand. Antagonisme er det forhold, at to ting er uforenelige modsætninger. At to modsætninger udelukker hinanden. Komplementaritet er det forhold, at to sider af en sag foruden at udelukke hinanden også kompletterer hinanden. At to modsætninger er hinandens forudsætninger.

7. Skabelsen af en dokumentarfilm er en antagonistisk proces. For instruktøren personligt fordi fortolkningen af virkeligheden kun bliver interessant, hvis den er resultat af en stræben mod objektivitet – velvidende at det er i fortolkningens møde med gengivelsen at dokumentarfilmen bliver til kunst. Og arbejdsmæssigt fordi vi skal formulere en fortælling på et tidspunkt, hvor vi endnu ikke kender det begivenhedsforløb, fortællingen gengiver. Det kan ikke lade sig gøre. Men det lader sig gøre. Det sker ved at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning til en komplementær.

8. Det betyder, at man hele tiden skal ændre fortællingen efter udviklingen i virkelighedsforløbet. Det vanskelige ligger i at hengive sig til den absolutte stræben, som er forudsætningen for en vellykket og forløst fortælling, velvidende at virkeligheden hele tiden vil ændre fortællingen. Konstant at stræbe mod at strukturere en virkelighedsfremstilling, som må korrigeres af virkeligheden. At kombinere absolut åbenhed med absolut beslutsomhed. At stræbe fuldt og helt mod det uopnåelige. Ja netop at finde styrken til at stræbe, fordi målet for denne stræben, er uopnåeligt.

9. Dette forhold er kernen i arbejdet med den dokumentariske fortælling. At erkende nødvendigheden af at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og fortælling til en kreativ komplementær modsætning, er en bevidsthedsmæssig forudsætning for at skabe dokumentarisk filmkunst. At skabe det fuldendte ved at stræbe mod det umulige.

10. Dokumentarfilmen forløses kunstnerisk, når kun det ene lag – virkeligheden – er synligt som kontinuerlig fortælling. Når genfortællingen ikke fungerer harmonisk, dvs. hvis enkeltelementerne fra virkelighedsforløbet ikke er fuldstændigt sammenfaldende med scenerne i fortællingen, åbenbares dette andet lag – fortællingen – som et postulat. Derved ændres det virkelige begivenhedsforløb fra at udgøre fortællingens elementer til at blive en ny og selvstændig fortælling. Filmen får dermed to uafhængige narrative forløb, hvorved værket falder fra hinanden. Men når instruktørens fortælling går op i en højere enhed med virkeligheden, ophører den med at være til stede i tid og rum og findes blot som dramaturgisk klarhed.

11. Evnen til at arbejde kreativt forløsende med uforenelige modsætninger er en central evne hos dokumentarfilm instruktøren.

 

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.

Mikael Opstrup is producer, Final Cut Productions. opstrup@final-cut.dk  http://www.final-cut.dk/  Mail private: mikael@opstrup-husum.dk

Festival dei Popoli 2008

It’s festival time. And classics change leadership.  Since 1986 Mario Simondi was the symbol of the documentary festival in Firenze, always searching for the high quality and hosting his guests perfectly. I can witness this as can Allan Berg, my colleague, who was there some years as a juror. Mario has retired, thanks for your contribution.

New people, new ideas: Luciano Barisone is the new director of the Festival dei Popoli. Born in Genoa in 1949, he is a journalist, film critic (Filmcritica, Cineforum, Duellanti, La Rivista del Cinematografo), proponent of Cineclub, and founder of the magazine Panoramiche, of which he is also director. This piece taken from the site, see below, where he also reflects on the status of the documentary today and advertises a policy like this:

What we are interested in doing is not so much to impose limits or boundaries, but rather to observe from year to year where reality cinema is heading, reflecting, through discussion on the underlying phenomena in progress. The 49th edition will therefore be the setting for a round table, which we have decided to entitle Nanook’s Legacy, as a tribute to the “first to be so baptised” and to the legacy with which it has endowed us. Our aim is to gather together critics, scholars, cineastes, producers and cinema propagators and to invite them to analyse and to debate the state of the art, with the aim of arriving not so much at a scientific conclusion but at thoughts which will stimulate further thoughts and future processing.

http://www.festivaldeipopoli.org/index_eng.html