Gary Hustwit: Helvetica

Why is it that I – without really reflecting upon it – always choose helvetica as my font when I write emails or write a text on this site? Why don’t I take Lucida Bright or TrueOfficinaSansBooKItalic or Times New Roman?

This informative and entertaining feature duration documentary gives me some of the answers: I write on a MacBook and Apple has from the very beginning chosen Helvetica. One answer is like that. Others point in the direction that I like it because it is “beautiful and timeless”, “neutral”, it is “all over”, it has become a standard, it’s clear visual communication.

The director has been all over, talked to designers, found out where it comes from, this 50 year old “sans serif” phenomenon, looked upon Helvetica from a social, political and aesthetic angle – including opponents who find it boring with this “horrible slickness” that the typeface can also be seen to be, and was considered, especially in the 70’es with the psychedelic typography.

It is a very interesting film, well told, veeery wordy, maybe too much, but take a look. It runs in festivals, on tv (I saw it on DR2 in Denmark) everywhere and you can buy it on dvd.

Switzerland, 2008, 80 mins.

http://plexifilm.shop.musictoday.com/Dept.aspx?cp=377_12736

http://www.helveticafilm.com/index.html

De hjemvendte 2

Der er for meget flødeskum på fødselsdagslagkagen, for meget falsk iscenesættelse af  en jovial vikingehøvding, for mange billedpåstande om at soldaten er glad for børn (mere end andre), for lidt om, hvad han læser (når det nu er næsten det eneste han foretager sig) for lidt af hans tanker om de nuværende krige for eksempel (når han ikke læser, ser han TV2 News). Historien om soldaten i borgerkrigen i Bosnien og Kosovo forsvinder i udvendig iscenesættelse af “dagligdag”, så alt dette truer med at producere den forklaring på traumet, som interviewet ikke formår at afdække. Så det står klart for mig. Jeg sidder med dokumentarens postulat, men er i tvivl. Tror at det der er i vejen med Martin er langt mere kompliceret og måske noget helt andet end diagnosen med det korte, lange navn, som ligger til grund for pensionen.

Det er ikke den medvirkende soldat, Martin Arbons skyld, han kæmper bravt for at fatte det, som er sket med ham. Som jeg opfatter det, slår interviewet ikke til… Det er så tyst, det forfærdelige, som ord ikke kan beskrive. Det kræver plads og tid og pauser. Og nu er der er så meget støj omkring. Bumbummelum som åbningstemaet fortsætter i mit hoved.

Helle Lyster: De hjemvendte, del 2, DR2 i aftes. I aften sendes del 3.

Anne Andreu: Isabelle Huppert

Normally documentaries about actors are built around anecdotes, told by the actor in question him/herself or by people with whom the actor has been working.

With Isabelle Huppert it is different. She says herself in this tv documentary that she is not an anecdote teller – and apart from some great clips with Jean-Luc Godard and Maurice Pialat, the documentary is built around her profession and her reflection and commitment to her profession, being an actor. Respect for that decision that also includes that we get no disturbing gossip about her private life. It’s all about acting.

In many ways the documentary is one long monologue (sometimes exciting, sometimes a bit boring) by Isabelle Huppert, with film clips in between, from ”La dentellière” (The Lacemaker) by Claude Goretta from 1977, over several films she made with Claude Chabrol and Pialat, including gorgeous clips with Haneke from ”Le Pianiste”, to the shootings in Cambodia where she is making a film with Rithy Panh, ”Un barrage contre le Pacifique”, based on a novel by Marguerite Duras and to be released in 2009.

Saw the documentary on svt (Swedish television) at K Special.

France, 2008, 50 mins. Still: Haneke: “Le pianiste”.

De hjemvendte

Musikken bygger på visen om de tre små soldater, der vender hjem fra krigen. Det er da smukt og fangende, men dokumentaren taber hurtigt denne stramhed i kompositionen og dynger sine fragmenter af et stof op i en uaflæselig fortælling, som efter del 1’s 35 minutter forlader mig på første niveau i en sentimental stemning. Det sentimentale studeres ikke, bearbejdes ikke, bruges ikke. Er der blot som en forhindring. Dokumentaren har ikke nået visens indsigt. Som ligger i dens stramme form.

Jeg kan rigtig godt lide den medvirkende. Jeg synes hans fortælling om manden ved siden af på patrulje, i kamp, makkeren, han stoler på og omvendt, er en præcis og stor historie. Som jeg ikke mere glemmer. Den fortælling er en enhed af autentisk indhold og folkelig form. Det samme kan ikke siges om dokumentaren som sådan. Dens fortælling vil det, den ikke kan, og svigter sin medvirkende ved at overse, hvad han kan.

Det har med sentimentaliteten at gøre…

Helle Lyster: De hjemvendte, del 1. DR2 i aftes. Genudsendes 31. august 19:25.

Odense Film Fest Documentary Prizes

The festival has finished and prizes have been given:
Grand Prix: “Milosevic on trial” by Michael Christoffersen.
Best Danish Documentary: “Kun med hjertet kan man rigtigt se” by Ulla Boye.
Audience Award: “Fra Thailand til Thy” af Janus Metz.

All three films have been reviewed/written about on this site, the first one in English, the two others in Danish.

Photo: Michael Christoffersen, director.

Yang Fudong

I went to an art exhibition in Copenhagen. It was a wonderful, surprising experience. I am normally not into video installations but here I met an artist, who has entered film and photography from painting with a subtle sense of composing images and who does not refrain from telling stories, in his case from the young China of today. I had never heard about him before: Yang Fudong, who (b.1971) lives and works in Shanghai. Here is a quote from a presentation from the site of ShangART Gallery:

”Yang Fudong’s films and photographs articulate multiple perspectives. His works investigate the structure and formation of identity through myth, personal memory and lived experience. Each of his works is a dramatic existential experience and a challenge to take on. His work is open-ended and inconclusive, therefore open to individual interpretation. Each film and video is about the human condition. He mostly portrays his own generation of individuals in their late 20’s and early 30’s, young people who seem confused and appear to hover between the past and present…”

I saw a short love story, ”Li Lang”, b/w fairy tale style, no words, music from a flute. I saw an 8 screen 11 minutes long Antonioni (L’Avventura)-like film about young rich people in a beautiful landscape near a lake, walking around like they do not know what to do with each other and with Life,  title “No Snow on the Broken Bridge” (2006). And I saw a series of photographs that also conveyed a decadence with a glimpse of irony: “Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest”.

His works travel all over. In Copenhagen the exhibition is open until October 26.

http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/artists/name/yangfudong

http://www.glstrand.dk/English/index.htm

Ben Kempas:Upstream Battle:The Story

This is one of those films that you can only appreciate: It takes you to a place in the world that you (I) don’t know anything about. It has some charismatic characters who fight for a cause. You get to know and love them. It has a strong and relevant, universal story that is straight forwardly well told. With a development. Something happens, it is complex but you are well informed about what.

A rich film in other words, because the director-cameraman has taken his time – years – to do a deep research and to get close to the characters to gain their trust. Which goes both for the native Americans, who see their life and culture at the Klamath river north of California threatened by the big hydroelectric dams that they want to be taken down – and for their opponents who work for the energy companies that make a profit but also claim that they have an environmental profile. The consequences of the dams are that the salmon that used to swim upstream the river has almost disappeared. Bring the salmon home, is the message from the tribes.

People from several tribes are in the film, I can’t mention them all, so let me highlight the couple, Merv and Wendy, he a big tattooed man, who beautifully explains to us the rituals and religion attached to the Hoopa tribe, she, a mother of four, the spokeswoman for the battle, emotional – a great couple with four children that you are surprised to see at the same time live a modern American life, totally skilled when it comes to modern communication. The fight goes on, as it is said on the site of the film: Their struggle may trigger the largest dam removal project in history.

Photo: To the left the couple Merv and Wendy George, to the right the director.

http://www.upstreambattle.com/

MandagsDokumentar – turné

Vi har tidligere rost Ebbe Preisler og hans formidlingsinitiativ, forevisningerne af nye og gamle dokumentar- og kortfilm i PH Caféen i København.

Vi vil gerne fortsætte i samme spor og gøre opmærksom på det flotte tilbud, som Preisler videregiver: at komme ud på biblioteker og kulturhuse. Han forklarer selv hvordan:

”Jeg arbejder nu også med en ‘mandagsdokumentar.turné’. Jeg tilbyder otte film til primært biblioteker og kulturhuse. Visningsstedet vælger en som hovedfilm, og jeg ankommer med instruktøren(e). Vi ser hovedfilmen og diskuterer, hvorefter jeg viser brudstykker af de øvrige film og knytter kommentarer af alle mulige slags til dem… til efteråret begynder jeg på min tredje tur til alt fra Ikast til Lyngby. DFI finansierer, og projektet er virkelig godt – det siger både bibliotekarer og (ikke mindst) publikum.
“Man får lyst til at se alle filmene. Det var vel nok en dejlig oplevelse.”

Still fra “Forførerens Fald” af Frank Piasecki Poulsen og Laurits Munch Petersen. Filmen er med på turnéen.

http://www.mandagsdokumentar.dk/

Ada Bligaard Søby: Meet Me in Berlin

Selvfølgelig er Ada Bligaard Søby en ny instruktør, man skal mærke sig. Hendes lange dokumentarfilm “American Losers” fra forrige år er en bedrift af indlevelse, myndighed, billedmæssig opfindsomhed og fortællemæssig balancekunst. Så jeg var, da jeg så hendes midtvejsfilm fra Super 16, den lille kortfilm om at mødes i Berlin, ekstra på mærkerne. Og det samme nu igen, da den deltager i Odense festivalen. Og det er altså sådan… Jeg bliver sært grebet og konstant optaget og sidder og nikker og mumler: ja, ja… Og det er ikke kun fordi, jeg kender instruktøren, nej, det er den offentlige film, som i den grad optager mig på meget private områder.

Det lader vi ligge. Tilbage til det med balancen. Igen afvejer instruktøren ham og hende på milligram, smukt. Og denne gang skulle de så mødes, lover titlen næsten, vildt. Og jeg røber det: ja, de mødes. Deres samvær er en række telefonsamtaler af et indhold, som jeg ikke finder spor af det hedder vel “litterær” dybde i (det bliver mit studium ved næste gang jeg ser filmen at udrede det..), men en dialog, som i stedet udvides smerteligt i personernes umærkelige træk i kroppen, minimale bevægelser i ansigtet. Lars Reinholdts kameraarbejde fastholder det i én lang frydefuld række.

Ja, Ada Bligaard kan altså også instruere sådan fint kammerspil. Og mest af alt ønskede jeg, da jeg genså filmen i aftes, at kortfilmens 17 minutter var begyndelsen blot. Til en rigtig spillefilm i fuld længde. Jeg måtte da følge de to i deres snublende, uheldsvangre kurs mod hinanden i et foretagende, som da ikke kan afbrydes.

Ada Bligaard Søby: Meet Me in Berlin, 2007. Odense Film Festival, katalog s. 37: 

Læs mere her 

Sally Mann

Copenhagen, The Royal Library, The Black Diamond: I went to see the exhibition with photographs by Sally Mann. Wonderful experience. Made me think about her approach to her work. I found an article by Richard Woodward from NYTimes, who calls her “a confessional documentarian”. Read this quote from her taken from his article from September 27, 1992:

“I don’t remember the things that other people remember from their childhood,” Mann says one day as she drives the children home from a photo session. “Sometimes I think the only memories I have are those that I’ve created around photographs of me as a child. Maybe I’m creating my own life. I distrust any memories I do have. They may be fictions, too.”

Food for thought for any documentarian, photographer or filmmaker.

Photo from “Immediate Family” series of Sally Mann.

Exhibition runs till September 20. Lots of books have been published on Sally Mann.

http://www.kb.dk/en/dia/index.html