DocLisboa Diary 5

”A sermon has to be like a woman´s dress. It should long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting”. These wise words (by the way try to change ”sermon” with film) come from the mouth of Father LeDoux, the 76 year old charismatic main character of ”Shake the Devil Off” by Peter Entell, a wonderful warm film about a small New Orleans community fighting to keep their parish and their Father – half a year after the hurricane Katrina put everything into chaos. The Father is their hope but the catholic administration wants to get rid of him.

In tone and approach this is a film that grows out of a European tradition for documentaries, leaving space for the audience to think and feel, whereas the latest film by Errol Morris, ”Standard Operationg Procedure”, is a constant bombardment of noise for every cut, music (that functions like muzak) all over, making every attempt to simplify with a strong graphic design from start till end. One-dimensional. A film playing according to main stream American dramaturgy… what is it about, well it tells about some American soldiers, or rather it lets American soldiers tell what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Accompanied by the photos we have seen so often. But why Morris made the film, what his point is… is totally hidden by style and graphics and sound design.

I am off to Jihlava in Czech Republic. A long journey. It has been a pleasure to be here in Lisbon for a festival with a big audience, a well chosen film programme and a warm hospitality.  

www.doclisboa.org

Ada Bligaard Søby: Black Heart

Vedholdende og inspirerende og fascinerende fortsætter Ada Bligaard Søby sit filmarbejde, hvor hun dels lag for lag undersøger den moderne kærlighed mellem ham og hende og dels i fremstillingen disciplinerer balancen mellem disse to karakterer med en milligram-vægt uden den flimrende lethed i fortællingerne ét sekund slippes. Dertil fornyr hun vores samtids filmbillede med smukke tilføjelser, ganske nye kvaliteter af sikre, personlige valg i både andres arkiv, i instruerede nyoptagelser og sit eget fotografiske materiale. I hendes film bliver alt musik ved siden af den egentlige musik som igen omhyggeligt afmålt slutter sig til billedernes og sætningernes og sindsstemningernes kadencer. Genren er lyrisk film, indholdet poetisk indsigt, stemningen humørfyldt vemod.

De tidligere film var American Losers, 2006 og Meet Me in Berlin, 2007 (anmeldt her på siden) og nu kommer så en satsning, Black Heart, hvor de to, manden og kvinden, som aldrig så hinanden i den første film, mens de i film to i det mindste nåede til at tale i telefon med hinanden, nu (i et flash-back ganske vist) når at blive gift, men hvad sker der så med deres karakterer? En joker, kunstneren bag det sorte hjerte, indføres..

Ada Bligaard Søby: Black Heart, 2008. 23 min. 35 mm. Premiere i Dagmar, København 23. oktober sammen med de øvrige film fra Super16. Vises også på CPH:DOX.

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