British Documentary History Online

Need to brush up your documentary film history? If so, the BFI (British Film Institute) can help you. I have just spent a little hour in company with two brilliant British actors, Derek Jacobi and Malcolm McDowell, who have introduced me to the GPO Unit film tradition way back in the 30’es with John Grierson as the mastermind – and to the 50’es and the so called Free Cinema with Lindsay Anderson as the main player, who after his contribution to the documentary history picked McDowell to be his favourite actor in films like ”If” and ”O Lucky Man”. This interactive online elementary documentary course that you can reach and use for free is introduced like this:

”The General Post Office may seem an unlikely source for some of the most creative British filmmaking of the 1930s, but with a talent roster including W.H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Alberto Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Len Lye, Norman McLaren and J.B. Priestley, that’s exactly what it was. Here, Sir Derek Jacobi presents an extensively illustrated interactive guide to the history of the GPO Film Unit, with clips ranging from well-known classics like Night Mail (1936) to rarer but equally sparkling gems.”

”Fifty years ago, a programme of short documentary films changed British cinema for ever. In the third BFI series developed in partnership with BT,  Malcolm McDowell introduces an interactive history of Free Cinema, the pivotal but under-recognised film movement of the late 1950s.”  Some of these films can be watched on the FourDocs website, see below.

Photo: Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowell on the set of 1973’s O Lucky Man!

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/index.html

http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/

Carlo Lo Giudice: Padre Nostro

Scratch me! Hug me! Don’t act stupid! The father is 90 and the son around 50. They live together, they sleep in the same bed. They caress each other in the bed. The son constantly scratches the father´s back and sometimes it goes the other way around. The son gives the father a bath, shaves his face, brings him along to work – the son runs a gallery – shouts and laughs at him. The old man seems sometimes to be a bit confused, the doctor says you are dement, the son tells him laughing after he has been to hospital for check. The film has its funny moments in depicting these every day situations. I´m the boss, no I´m the boss. Stop this ”you can, you can not”, the father argues.

An observation it is, made with respect and love for the two of them, for me never felt as a peep show, but as a demonstration of strong emotional bonds  between the two Italians. And bravo for the closing scene where they go to harvest olives with the old man sitting in the car watching… Pure beauty!

Italy/Portugal, 2008, 40 mins.

www.faux.pt

Riga Diary 5

I attended the first handful of projects that were pitched at the Baltic Sea Forum. Before I had to leave back to Copenhagen. Again I heard a sentence that is often expressed at pitching sessions by the commissioning editors present. Those who represent US, the audience. Here it comes, this time passed to a Lithuanian project about the late writer Jurga Ivanauskaitė: The project is too artistic for me. Those were the words.

Too artistic for whom? For the commissioning editor and his/her personal taste or for the viewers? What a patronising attitude! And what is meant by “too artistic”? In this case the trailer that was shown included some reconstructions, some tableaux that should give us the audience some idea of a stylistical approach. Call it a personal handwriting. Nothing unusual, just a bit different from the mainstream but enough to scare some of the television people. Not all of them, fortunately, the representative from Estonian television liked the clip and dared to mention that the film could also be good for festivals.

Which pissed off the representatives from BBC and DR, who expressed their disrespect for “festival films”, i.e.for them are films for the happy few. Two comments to this: Well, this is just another confirmation that public television is run by the journalistic, mainstream approach, that programmes which are a bit different do not stand a chance. And that – with other words – you can forget all documentaries with artistic ambitions. Understandable it is that the audience feels that it is underestimated and choose to go to festivals instead. Which they do in big amounts, in full cinema halls that – added up – very often grap a bigger audience than the one that watches television.

Art and televison? Forget about it, except for some few exceptions.

Photo: Jurga Ivanauskaitė.

Riga Diary 4

The Boy from Riga: Sergei Eisenstein. Born in 1898, son of Mikhail and Julia. Lives in the city until 1915 where he goes to St. Petersburg to study. His father becomes the architect of beautiful Jugendstil buildings that are still to be watched and admired. And to be found are many of the architectural details that became an inspiration for the master.

This is to be studied in the fine exhibition at the Film Museum in the old town of Riga. Photos, drawings, clips from his films, quotes from his writings, anecdotes… the exhibition is open until the beginning of next year. It is situated in the house where also the National Film Centre of Latvia has its premises.

The NFC is the organiser of the Baltic Sea Forum that today opens for the public pitching of 24 film projects, and of documentary film screenings that have been totally sold out and makes it evident that Riga should set up an international documentary film festival. The public interest is there, the organisational skills, the press support. Go for it!

http://www.nfc.lv/news/?id=23  

Riga Diary 3

Salome Jashi is from Georgia. She is here for the Baltic Sea Forum. She has an interesting documentary project called ”Restaurant Bakhmaro and Those Who Work There” that is to be pitched in this coming weekend to television editors and film fund people. In Georgia she has with colleagues set up a company called Sakdoc Film, visit their site, see below.

Or get hold of her 22 mins. long documentary from 2006, ”Their Helicopter”, that has been at several festivals all over and demonstrates a clear talent for People and Life far away from everything. Here is a catalogue description of the film:

”A Chechen military helicopter crashed in Upper Khevsureti, Georgia, ten years ago. Although it seems to be useless, a family occupies the rusty wreck, cows find a shelter, and children set up their private playground in it. In a land without electric cables and modern buildings, the ruined helicopter turned out to be unique and precious. Filmed through the wrecked “eyes” of the helicopter, this observational documentary tells a story of the eldest, middle and youngest Ardoteli being exposed to just one piece of civilization.”

http://www.mediadesk.lv/index.php?d=147

www.sakdoc.ge 

Riga Diary 2

Guard dog or lap dog? Seems to be a very actual and relevant question that journalists in Belarus (and other countries as well) have to ask themselves. In the country of Lukashenko no criticism of the President and his regime will be tolerated, for which reason many journalists have been and are beaten up – or simply disappear.

As a world premiere in a full cinema hall, at the ”Is it Easy to be Different?” festival that runs parallel to the Baltic Sea Forum, this is what is the theme of the film ”Journalists” by Aleh Dashkevich (director) and Volha Nikalaichyk (producer). It follows some journalists, interviews them or their relatives, some of the journalists now live abroad, and brings images from demonstrations where journalists and cameramen are beaten up. Plus some of the well known sequences with the President himself. As a creative documentary ”Journalists” will not be prized but as another strong documentation of the appalling political situation in Belarus, it will travel the world to festivals and hopefully also to tv channels. And thus spread the message.

If anyone wants the film, feel free to contact the director at

adkpradukcyja@gmail.com  

Photo: Mr. Lukashenko.

Riga Diary 1

I am writing this in my room on the 8th floor at Hotel Albert (Einstein) in Riga, where the Baltic Sea Forum and the ”Is it Easy to be Different” mini festival starts today. Yesterday I had time to take a walk in this beautiful capital of Latvia and made my way to the park where two filmmakers were killed back in 1991 while filming a follow-up to “Homeland” by Juris Podnieks. The crew came under sniper fire during a Soviet coup in Riga. Andris Slapins and his crew-mate Gvido Zvaigzne got killed. Podnieks himself died in a diving accident in 1992.

The company, however, is still in existence thanks to Antra Cilinska, the editor of Juris Podnieks for masterpieces as ”Homeland” and ”End of Empire”, and now director and producer in the studio. Two years ago she directed ”Us and Them”, a 64 minutes long documentary on – quoted from the catalogue of the National Film Centre of Latvia – ”present day Latvia” and ”the existence of two parallel communities – one Latvian, the other Russian”.

http://www.mediadesk.lv/index.php?&s=150

Photo: Andris Slapins.

Jørgen Leth: Traberg

Jeg holder med, når jeg ser film. En af dem. Sådan har det altid været. Og nu holder jeg med Traberg. Ikke med stemmen. Erik Mørks, som fortæller om sin ven på fotografiet i det første filmbillede. Jeg holder med ‘Traberg som Traberg’ som der står på forteksten. Næste billede: en ung sort mand synger for. Nærbillede. Afrikansk musik, vi er i Haiti, uden tvivl. Og så er vi i Spanien, i en sportshal, hvor mænd på gulvet spiller op ad væggen. Mænd på stolerækker spiller. Om penge. Stemmen fortæller mig nødtørftigt om Traberg, som jeg nu ser der på stolen i hallen. Nær, energisk, til stede. Han er en mand, som bevæger sig fra sted til sted, fortæller stemmen, og den vil følge hans spor, for han må være forsvundet.

Sporet går til en lille spansk by, kameraet over de vidunderlige tegltage. Lyden er en skrivemaskine. Så ser jeg værelset, han er der ikke, men hans ting er der: skrivemaskinen, bøger og avisudklip. Stof om Haiti, et land i indbyrdes krig. Jeg ser tagene ud af vinduet. Det bliver sort, Trabergs hænder trækker skodderne for. I sin støvede 2 CV er han atter på rejse ad en ensom landevej i det vældige landskab. Alle elementer i filmen er på plads, nu følger jeg Traberg. Ham holder jeg med. Det er elementært.

Det er en stor film. Den samler flere af Filmens traditioner. Det er en surrealistisk film. Man kommer til at tænke på Buñuels ‘l’Age d’Or’ fra 1930, som handler om Roms grundlæggelse, statsmagten, banditter, borgerskab og et seksuelt-sadistisk præsteskabs kristendom. Alt kan ske i denne film, fordi alt kan ske i virkeligheden. Der er så mange logikker, der insisterer på at være reelle. Der er mange logikker, der er faktiske, og som mennesket får gennemført. Det er sjældent, at en film giver plads til dem alle. L’Age d’Or gjorde. Traberg gør. (Mogens Rukov i Information 19.12.1992).

Danmark, 1992. Plakat: Per Kirkeby

DVD-boksen “Fiktioner”, hvor Traberg er med, skulle udkomme i overmorgen. Den er blevet forsinket nogle dage, siger min boghandel. Jeg glæder mig vildt til at se Traberg igen, og Udenrigskorrespondenten igen.

http://www.filmupdate.dk/?p=1345 

Doc Air Impressive Online Catalogue

If you want to make your own festival, faced in front of your computer, Doc Air offers you quality. Check it yourself, and be aware that here you find an excellent selection of Czech directors to be carefully studied – like Karel Vachek, the late Pavel Koutecky, Jan Gogola, Miroslav Janek. But also films by international “stars” like Chris Marker, Jørgen Leth, Michael Glawogger and Ulrich Seidl. Around 250 short and long films, good annotations for each films and a well written newsletter to subscribe to. And cheap it is. End of my promotion. Here is a clip from the site´s own presentation:

Doc Air is the first and only portal for the online distribution of documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe. It does not matter whether you are a film professional or not. Doc Air is a documentary heaven for anyone who has a great interest and at least a little money… Doc Air offers a selection of important contemporary documentary films from all over the world. Doc Air films are presented in cooperation with various European documentary film festivals

Legally and for a minimum fee, you too can watch or buy a film by mere playing or downloading it in one of the three offered formats. The majority of the films are charged as follows: you will pay 1 Euro for a stream, DivX format download will cost you 2.5 Euro, DVD quality 5 Euro.

Photo from Glawogger: Megacities.

http://www.doc-air.com

Documentaries in Riga

Riga hosts two important documentary events this coming week. On wednesday, September 3rd, a small festival opens for everyone under the title: “Is it Easy to be Different”, a reference to the Juris Podnieks perestroika classic, “Is it Easy to be Young”. Readers of this blog will know how often I have claimed that “East Beats West” when it comes to creativity, originality and actuality in current documentaries. The festival demonstrates this point perfectly, showing films like “Blind Loves”, “Klucis – The Deconstruction of an Artist”, “Stone Silence”, “Music Partisans” and “Little Bird´s Diary”. You can read about these films on this blog. International premiere is given to a film from Belarus, “Journalists”, and there are also a couple of films from outside the East of Europe.

At the same time the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries take place with more than 20 film projects to be pitched to a 15 persons strong panel of commissioners from channels like arte, BBC, YLE, svt, DR. Together with five colleagues I will be there to train the producers and directors to pitch in the weekend of September 6-7.

The organiser, the National Film Centre of Latvia, has, as in the previous years, made a beautiful catalogue that for me stands as an example on how to promote quality documentaries. The cover, and the picture that you look at, is from the film “Art Star and the Sudanese Twins” by Pietra Brettkelly, New Zealand.

http://www.mediadesk.lv/index.php?d=147

http://www.theartstarandthesudanesetwins.com/