Anja Dalhoff: Når månen er sort

“Anja Dalhoff har modtaget Europas Kvinders Pris for sit engagement og arbejde i kampen mod menneskehandel. Anja Dalhoffs film fra 2007, “Når månen er sort”, dokumenterer for første gang, med levende billeder, problemet med trafficking af nigerianske kvinder til Danmark.

Filmen er siden marts sidste år blevet vist på utallige konferencer i både ind- og udland. Herhjemme er den blevet vist med foredrag på landets folkebiblioteker, ved Amnesty Internationals arrangementer, i kvindeorganisationer, på sygehuse og på Politiskolen.”

Dette redigerede DFI-presseklip kan kun glæde undertegnede, som i sine 20 år ved Statens Filmcentral hver dag konstaterede, at film kan bruges i oplysningens tjeneste. Det var akkurat, hvad John Grierson i Canada og fremsynede danske politikere så i 1939, da de to landes filmcentraler blev stiftet.

Lang indledning og jeg ved godt, at jeg er i færd med at skrive mig udenom. Min store respekt for Anja Dalhoff, for hendes stædighed og menneskelige engagement er usvækket, men kunne der dog ikke komme nogle bedre film ud af det? Det var meget bedre tidligere, nu svinger Dalhoffs filmiske stil over imod det kulørte og sensationsrettede og der pladres musik på fra start til slut. I håbet om at få flere i tale? Jo. Filmen kom på CNN og der blev sat fokus på problemet, men alligevel – det kan gøres meget bedre. Hvorfor skal jeg høre på og føres rundt af en utålelig, journalist-agtig “presenter” Michelle Mildwater i stedet for at få en visuel værdig fortolkning af de nigerianske pigers skæbne?

Det går så helt galt, når Anja Dalhoff får til opgave at skildre unge piger i fare for menneskehandel i Moldava, i den dramadokumentariske “Natasha is not for Sale”, “based on true stories”, med skuespillere i rollerne. Det er ikke en stil, der passer til emnet og til Anja Dalhoffs talent for indlevelse

“Når månen er sort” distribueres til skoler og biblioteker gennem Filmstriben: www.filmstriben.dk og på DVD via DFI-Kataloget
Private kan købe på filmen på DVD gennem: www.danishdoc.dk

Trento Diary 3

Last day of watching. I write this while another commercially thought tv documentary is running on the screen. Makes me think about this genre where you can argue that the scenography – the mountains with or without snow – is dramatic in itself, and that the relationship man and or maybe man against nature is what it is about. That leaves space for a strong narrative:  Men who fight for their lives, on camera, pain, and meant for us as entertainment, helped by visual and sound effects that are second to none.

This film is about a brother who climb the mountains to bring back his brother’s corpse to be buried back home. Pure tabloid!

Wonder if there in this very well established festival that include conferences on alpinism are discussions on ethics in mountain documentaries?

http://www.trentofestival.it/en/

Trento Diary 2

The jury has seen 25 films in 3 days. Diversity is the word that applies to the selection. But also quality in most of the films, in very different formats and storytelling traditions.

Diversity because there are several films for the big thematically interested audience, about mountain climbing – alpinist films they call it – and skiing, hero stories about all these skilled and courageous men (and a couple of women), who go up and down climbing or skiing, and about extreme sport disciplines. But also about people, who live in the mountains, about nature and man, or about the four elements earth, wind, air and water – we can not say there is a lack of drama. And we can not complain about lack of words.

Gosh, how many wall-to-wall narrations there are! And how much music there is being used. The fear of silence and pauses is evident. And I have got a lesson in how different the use of talking faces can be.

What concerns organisation this festival works perfect, I can say as a jury member, who is being taken care of and spoilt by attention and care. I am here to watch films! 9 more to go and at the end of the week I can deliver some reviews of films that I think you should see as well.

http://www.trentofestival.it/en/  

Juraj Lehotsky: Blind Loves 2

… have to break the news that “Blind Loves” made it to Cannes! As expected and as so well deserved. Juraj Lehotsky is in the Director´s Fortnight section with names as Jerzy Skolimowski and Claire Simon. Congratulations and may this result in theatrical releases in France and other countries that appreciate a real “auteur”!

http://www.quinzaine-realisateurs.com/download/Selection_40_quinzaine.pdf

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/default.asp?page_id=2

– see also the comment of Susanne Guggenberger to the right under “bemærkninger” 

Trento Diary 1

I am in Trento, in the jury of the Trento Film Festival that has the thematic subtitle: Montagna. Esplorazione. Avventura. The festival starts today and goes on until May 4. 34 films are in competition, short and long. It is edition 56 of this festival that has a strong reputation for quality, and that I know from my time at the Statens Filmcentral (National Film Board of Denmark), where we had difficulties in finding mountain films from a country, Denmark, that is flat as a pancake! Furthermore it is quite weird for a person like me, who do not really like to look down from heights, including from airplane windows – to sit here and watch people climb with enthusiasm.

As a jury member I can not reveal what we saw, liked and disliked so far, but reviews will follow after the festival of some strong films. And a bit of small talk will come in the following days from this fine, sunny town.

http://www.trentofestival.it/en/index.htm

Michael Glawogger: Megacities

Renata Medero, documentary film student at Zelig, Bolzano, Italy, writes this review of a neo- classic:

Unforgettable images… whether you like it or not.

Some films deliver images to never be forgotten, some beautiful, some not. But – what happens when the ugliness is so hypnotizing that one cannot stop watching? “Megacities” is a unique film because it brings toghether issues that by themselves seem irreconcilable. The worst of the megalopolis is brought together: dehumanization, cruelty, despair, all wrapped in a glossy and luxurious manufacturing, which makes the film as beautiful as mercyless.

The aesthetization of the poverty is not a new tendency in some films of the international scenario, but “Megacities” is tricky. Has a spotless photography, where the flawless and somewhat mysterious composition of images forces the spectator to keep watching the movie even when he might not want to.

And then, the big lettered question: Do I have the right to see this? What right did the director had to film it? And there is still another ethical issue to deal with: a group of russian street kids reveal that they were paid to be filmed. Does that mean that they were paid for showing the inhuman condition in which they live? How maquiavelic could such an idea be? In any case this film is not advisable to animal right activists, good consciences and weak hearts!

I think it is a masterpiece, because it achieves the impossible even though I don’t agree in some of the director’s views of the situations.

1998, 90 mins.

http://www.filminstitut.at/  

Thierry Paladino: At the Datcha

Holiday. The family goes to the countryside, to the datcha. We don’t know if it is far away, probably not if you judge from the condition of the car, that has severe problems in getting started. It can not have gone far! 

Mother, father and son have a good time. Father (deaf) is organising all the time, not with big talent, but he is constantly busy with the repair of the datcha or with the playing or teasing of the dogs. Mother is walking around in her black underwear enjoying the good weather, she sits in the white plastic chair and the son is helping out the father as well as he can. Actually nothing is really happening. Holiday time for all temperaments. A lesson in How-to-do-it-yourself!

And the filmmaker? He conveys beautifully the atmosphere with love for his characters and with great talent for situations and moments of absurdity. And he uses with talent the short film documentary observational language in a film practically without words.

Thierry Paladino: At the Datcha, 2006, Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, 30 mins.

http://www.deckert-distribution.com/films/deckert_237.htm

http://www.wajdaschool.pl/4

Original Documentaries… Vehkalahti

A quote from DOX Magazine 74 (www.edn.dk), page 16, from a discussion between Neelima Mathur and Iikka Vehkalahti on “Universality vs Diversity”. Vehkalahti from YLE Finland writes:

… perhaps it is that in the genre of cinéma vérité – as creative and wonderful as it is, too often the camera just records what takes place in front of the camera (of course I know that every shot, angle, direction is already a choice and at best a personal choice) but still, somehow, there is the idea of non-interference, to be objective in the obvious subjectivity.

But in how many films do you feel and see that the creator of this documentary sees the world differently, very differently, in a way that nobody else is seeing? … I visited MOMA in NY and went to those exhibition halls, where you have old masters of modern art. How recognisable they all are – Léger, Kandinsky, Picasso etc. Or even films of Aki Kaurismaki? I need to see only a litle and I know. How many documentary films have that kind of originality?

See the comment from Iikka to the right under “seneste bemærkninger”, Danish for latest comments. 

At begynde forfra, hver gang

Interessant og relevant diskussion. Personligt glæder jeg mig meget til at se, hvad der kommer ud af NDS’s på papiret meget spændende planer, og jeg forestiller mig de involverede tv-stationer overbyde hinanden i iver over at de mest eksperimenterende film skal over på konkurrentens tv-station – hehe.

For ja, vi er tvunget til at arbejde med tv, selvom man ofte har lyst til helt Villy’sk at bede dem om at skride af helvede til. Jeg mindes, da jeg lavede mit første dokumentarprogram på DR for år tilbage, hvor redaktøren gerne ville ha’ de bedste scener op i starten (altså den avis-journalistiske idé med, at man kan skære fra bunden, hvis nødvendigt), og hvor jeg indvendte, at jeg ikke var indstillet på, at mit program skulle blive dårligere og dårligere, som minutterne skred frem. Nu er trenden den, at en dokumentar skal have “en historie” og opfylde de klassiske dramaturgiske regler, hvilket sådan set bare øger risikoen for, at det hele bliver mere skematisk og forudsigeligt. Det virker nogle gange som om, at man ude i branchen blandt redaktører og film-lærere m.fl. tilsyneladende mener, at nu har man fundet frem til, hvordan film skal laves, og det anser jeg for direkte absurd.
De mest interessante film (og det uanset, om udgangspunktet er journalistisk eller kunstnerisk) er efter min mening dem, der tør starte forfra og se på, hvordan nu det her stof kan skæres – og ikke først og fremmest ser det som fortælling, og derefter finder de “rigtige” virkemidler, men hvor man kan mærke, at farverne, de flyvske tanker, lydene, følelserne og sågar de indbyggede idiosynkrasier har været vigtige i frembringelsen. Er det ikke Werner Herzog, der har sagt noget i retning af, at han påbegynder hver ny film, som om han aldrig har set en film før. Dét er en tiltalende tanke, og jeg håber for dokumentarfilmens fremtid, at NDS får held med sine ideer, og at tv faktisk bliver glade for at vise de film, der kommer ud af det.

Og hermed stiller jeg tilbage til jorden – haha.

Hele diskussionen om tv-stationerne og Det Danske Filminstitut, om journalistik og filmkunst findes i kategorien polemics, som klikkes frem fra forsidens venstre spalte.

Flying is Hell

A good title for a documentary? At least a title that calls for sympathy for the one flying? And for some experience shared by other people:

A man comes to the airport. He wants to check in, goes to the desk and hears that the flight is cancelled. But, Sir, we have booked you on a plane four hours later… No way, says the man, I must reach a train in Munich, where he was supposed to go to.

He ends up on another flight to Zürich, with a very short connection, 15 minutes actually, for the next flight going to Munich from Zürich. The man, not 20 years any longer, runs like a madman… reaches a security check, undresses again, to run one more time with belt and jackets over one arm, gets his plane, completely in sweat.

Gets on a bus in Munich, goes to the Hauptbahnhof, eats a quick meal and ends up in civilisation, on a train, with no delay. A happy ending, absolutely, 4 hours through the Brenner pass for Bolzano, where he teaches at the Zelig Documentary film school. F… SAS and poor me!