EDN Prize to IDF

May sound very “internal” to many of you, and it is indeed. But you should know about the fact that Institute of Documentary Film in Prague has been rightfully honoured by its sister/brother institution European Documentary Network. I am very much biased in this matter as I was director of the latter when the prize was initiated, and as I am now working for the IDF activity Ex Oriente. Nevertheless, here come the motivating words from EDN director Leena Pasanen to IDF director Andrea Prenghyova:

It is a great honour to present the EDN Award 2008 to IDF. Their work with establishing a documentary institute and all their activities to develop, encourage and promote documentary films have been of great importance for filmmakers and producers in the Central and Eastern European countries. Their tireless effort to contribute to the development of the documentary genre and industry is outstanding. IDF’s work with creating better conditions for this region’s documentary filmmaking and bring the regional films to the international scene serves as an excellent example of outstanding pioneer work.
Both institutions have very useful sites for those of you, who are interested in international documentary matters:

www.docuinter.net www.edn.dk

Citizen Havel cinema success

The documentary film about Vaclav Havel (directed by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek) has now been seen by 100.000 viewers in the Czech Republic. The film was released in January 2008, runs 119 minutes but can now also be seen in a director’s cut version that runs twenty minutes longer.

I had the chance to watch a rough cut version back in September last year, which I wrote about for this blog – title ”Documentary on Vaclav Havel”. Here follows a brief excerpt:

The film is wonderful being the result of 12 years of shooting by Pavel Koutecky who died last year in a tragic accident. The film has been completed by Mira Janek, and covers sequences from the life of Havel when president until the moment he steps down and leaves the castle in Prague. Private life and official life…  A film full of humour about a gentle man, who – as he says himself – is unwilling to conform to the stereotypes…

Apart from the joyful meeting with a man of great modest charisma, the film gives you an inside to important moments in Czech politics when EU is to be the reality for the former communist country.

http://www.obcanhavel.cz/

Volker Koepp: Holunderblüte

Filmen, som i lørdags vandt hovedprisen på Cinéma du Réel i Paris, er en vidunderlig fortælling om en flok børn og deres frie liv sammen uden mange voksne omkring sig. Jo, de går da i skole, men det er uden for filmens fokus. Og det er godt. De har forældre, som arbejder, eller er gået i hundene, det er vel en forudsætning for børnenes situation, men filmen behandler det ikke direkte. Og det er godt. Det er en slags nutidig Alle vi børn i Bulderby, i et nutidigt landsbysamfund som datidens svenske, men uden voksne altså. Og det er også fint..

Men filmen vil alligevel for meget. Den uddyber børneflokkens sammenhæng med landskabet i smukke naturbilleder, men fortaber sig i det. Den vil stedets historie og topografi, men skildringen knækker over på halvvejen. Den vil studiet af samfundsforholdene. Det, at det engang var en tysk by oplyses i filmens voice-over, men det får ikke betydning for vores opfattelse af disse børn, som alle er russiske i tredje generation, og det får ikke betydning for filmen, som er og bliver børnenes. Og i den enestående serie af lange interviews med børnene, hvor denne viden er indlejret, erobrer disse meget levende medvirkende på hver deres måde optagesituationen, så filmen bliver til “Børnene og kameraet”, og det er dens store, store fortjeneste. Koepps faste greb, at lade kameraet køre og køre – fortæller Tue Steen Müller mig – kaster de smukkeste resultater af sig.

Filmen er således en ok vinder. En fremragende casting, en mere end grundig research og en bevægende historie, bundet i en kompetent instruktion af de livlige og nærværende medvirkende og forstået i et bemærkelsesværdigt kameraarbejde, bærer således en film, som trods (efter min opfattelse) slemme svigt i fortællingens konstruktion og klarhed er i høj grad seværdig og et vigtigt bidrag til denne tilsyneladende uudtømmelige tradition af klassiske kollektive historier som Philiberts Étre et avoir, og på årets Cinéma du réel film som Ciuleis Podul de Flori og Naglowskis og Dubczaks Gugara.

Volker Koepp arbejdede som dokumentarist ved DEFA i Berlin fra 1970 til 1992. Siden er han som selvstændig filminstruktør fortsat med at lave talrige film, senest Uckermark, 2001, Kurische Nehrung, 2001, Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz, 2004 og Söhne, 2007.

Volker Koepp: Holunderblüte, 2007. Fotografi: Thomas Plenert, klip: Béatrice Babin, produktion og distribution: Vineta Film.

Cinéma du Réel Report 5

The festival is over. The prizes have been given. It happened saturday night and the winner was Volker Koepp with his story about the children in Kaliningrad, ”Holunderblüte”. No objections, not at all, Koepp is a master and deserves to be appreciated.

Whereas I could come up with some critical remarks about the selection for the international competition. Several films left me asking: why is this film in Cinéma du Réel?

A tribute to the special programmes, however. My co-blogger Allan Berg discovered Shirley Clarke and Jim McBride, and many people expressed their enthusiasm over the programme ”tourism”.

Full houses. There is an audience for Cinéma du Réel, the stories from all over the world, stories about how people survive hard living conditions. A look at the world of today away from urban richness, from other continents. Not bad at all.

That´s all for now.

http://www.cinereel.org Still: Shirley Clarke: The Cool World, 1964.

Cinéma du Réel Report 4

Maybe – at the end of the day – documentary festivals will be events that you travel to in big numbers as you travel to visit art exhibitions, says Allan, my co-blogger. He could be right if you consider the enormous number of people who visit this year’s Cinéma du Réel.

Festivals have changed completely. When I started to go in the late 70’es, the festival in Paris was for the professionals, first of all. Festivals in general were for the community, they tended to be élitaire, those days are over. Luckily. Most festivals are for the audience and the average age is low. Festivals are part of the distribution scheme strategy for the producer and distributor. Young people want to watch documentaries. They have given up on television, and right they are.

Apropos. I talked to a French producer, who told me about the stand still of French documentary production due to the discussions initiated by monsieur le président Sarkozy. He wants to get commercials out of France Télévisions, i.e. FR2, FR3, FR5 and Arté France. But who is to finance the funding that does not come in when the commercials are no longer there. Remains to be seen! No commissions for the moment.

Cinéma du Réel Report 3

Saturday morning in the café. The sun is shining in Paris today. In 90 minutes we have booked the videotheque to catch up with some films in the international competition. And then a couple of films later this day. Here are some words from yesterday…

… which was not that easy a day to be visitor at Cinéma du Réel. It made me think of the late Danish cinema owner of the Grand in Copenhagen, still the most important Danish cinema for art films, his name was Peter Refn and he always said – with a smile – that you had to suffer for the art! He was referring to bad projection or lack of comfort.

We “suffered” yesterday. We had to stand in queus for a long time to get in to the Cinéma 2. The people like us who have an accreditation have the second priority after the paying audience, which is absolutely ok but the balance between sold tickets and badges have to be established in a way so the guests of the festival, coming from far away continents, can get a seat. Many who don’t know the system – like we do – were rejected entrance.

This is one of the problems that the festival has: It has one big hall, where you can almost always get a seat, and then two smaller that lack seats and comfort (=oxygene). There should be one in between big and small.

On the other hand, no more complaints, because it is nice to be to a festival that is a pitching free zone, where the focus is totally on the films that have been made. Yesterday the entertaining Swiss film “Glorious Exit” by Kevin Merz was followed by a short film programme by Danish/Polish Jacob Dammas (“Kredens”), which had some charm, Oksana Buraja (“Kretos Sala”), a new Lithuanian talent, and American “Minot, North Dakota” by Madansky and Brudniak, which there is no reason at all to say something about.

The last film we saw, however, first film by Polish Jacek Naglowski and Andrzej Dybczak, “Gugara”, was a beautiful visit to the Evenki people in far away taiga in Russia. Classical and as usual well crafted cinematography.

www.cinereel.org Still: Naglowski og Dybczak: Gugara

Cinéma du Réel Report 2

It is raining cats and stones in Paris. No spring feeling yet. Nevertheless the cafés are full outside as all the smokers are situated there now. No smoking inside. 

Full houses at the festival for the two screenings in the Cinéma 1 that I attended. The series “Americana” draws a lot of people. Not only people who experienced the happy 60’es but also a young generation, who wants to know what it was all about. Ed Pincus “One Step Away” and “Pictures from Life’s Other Side” by Jim McBride. The first one far the most interesting about the totally stoned long haired hippies, who live in a commune in the year of 1967. Harru wants to leave for New York with child and girl friend but it takes a looong time before he realises his intention. Funny to look. Nostalgia? Not for me even if the main character reminds me of a good friend, who also had big difficulties in moving.
And then “Holunderblüte” by our old friend Volker Koepp, this time from Kaliningrad with a complete children cast. Allan will review this later in this place.
Full houses but a lot of audience leaving the cinema before the films are over. Why this disrespect for the film? It disturbs the rest of us and it is seldom that I experience this. French arrogance?
Joaquin Jorda, the late Catalan documentarian, said that “you only sleep at good films, for the bad ones you stay awake”. Volker Koepp does not make bad films. Grand old man in (East)German documentary, wonderful memories from his films that we showed on Baltic Film/TV Festival on Bornholm in the 90’es. 
Neil Young is played in the café where this is written. The 60’es never end. 
www.cinereel.org Still: Ed Pincus to-day.

Cinema du Réel Report 1

I am sitting in the niveau -1 in the Centre Pompidou. This is where the acceuil for the Cinema du Réel is situated. As always in the Centre during the festival, it is difficult to create anything just close to be called a joyful or cosy atmosphere. I love the Centre Pompidou, as an old librarian, I am so happy to see all the people who go to read books, or seek information online, or watch films in the library – but for a festival it has never been a good place. It is difficult to meet the filmmakers, people come here to get their papers, go to the cinemas (there are three of them), watch films, this is how it is and always has been. And it’s ok like that. Of course it is. Coffee drinking and talking can be done elsewhere in the small cafés around Beaubourg.

We got the catalogue, we made our day plan, I wanted to go to the videotheque to watch some films, that have already passed, but all booths were occupied.

Impressions… the wall of news clips are full. The festival has got its mention in le Monde and Libération, there is a lot of focus on the series “Americana”, Shirley Clarke and Jim McBride, an interesting series that other festivals could pick up.

The director of the festival Marrie-Pierre Duhamel-Müller tells that she received 2300 films for the international and French competition. To end up by selecting 40.

www.cinereel.org Still: Centre Pompidou, nat.

Cinéma du Réel

Yes, for those who do not read Danish, “we” (Allan Berg Nielsen and me, Tue Steen Müller) leave for Paris tomorrow to follow the 30th edition of Cinéma du Réel, which took off with the subtitle “antropological and ethnographic films”. It has always for me been the place for watching films about the world we live in. Interpreted by, seen through the eyes of filmmakers like Joris Ivens (his last film “Histoire du Vent” I saw there), Jean Rouch, even if this founder of cinéma vérité  has never really meant something to me, Helga Reidemeister, Sergey Dvortsevoy, Volker Koepp – and all the retrospectives that the former director Suzette Glenadel put together against any kind of what was “a la mode” at that time: The czekoslovak documentaries, where I met Dusan Hanak, and the Baltics where we had the pleasure of meeting them all, these great filmmakers like Herz Frank, Ivas Seleckis, Arunas Matelis, Navasaitis, Stonys, Mark Soosaar and so on.

Cinéma du Réel has always been excellent in making clever and thoughtful side programmes, next to the international programme.

This year there is themes like Americana, In South-East Asia, Images / Prison: visions from inside, Figures of tourism : for a history of the “view” , special screenings of for instance Bernardo Bertolucci’s “La Via del petrolio”.

I am there to watch the international programme and write an article and make interviews for DOX – www.edn.dk – but there will also be some English words from me and many Danish from Allan.

www.cinereel.org Still: Former director Suzette Glenadel.

Werner Herzogs poetik 5

Jeg må gøre Herzog-genfortællingen færdig. (Før jeg i morgen er på Cinéma du réel festivalen i Paris. I fjendens lejr.) Tue Steen Müller bragte det forleden frem til til Minnesota-erklæringens punkt 5, om de dybere lag i filmkunsten.

5. Herzog slår fast at de findes der i den filmiske konstruktion. I modsætning til den journalistiske reportage, hvor de ville forstyrre. Men det må ikke få os til at det samme gælder film, hvor der findes sådan noget som poetisk og henreven sandhed. Den er mystisk og flygtig og kan kun nås ved digtning, fantasi og stilisering.

6. Cinémá verité folk ligner turister som tager billeder midt iblandt kendsgerningers ældgamle ruiner, erklærer han bekymret. Jeg tror han tænker på om hans egne reportager slår til, om de mange fluen på væggen film nu virkelig tænkes færdige. Jo, ok, mestrenes gør, Dvortsevoys gør. Franks, men Wisemans? Altid? Bang Carlsens? Wivels? Aldrig turismens lethed? Jo, da, som vi andre. Dog, Leth digter, fantaserer og stiliserer hele tiden.

7. Men tordner den evigt kontinent-vandrende Herzog: turisme er synd, fodrejse er dyd!

8. Og så fortæller han en historie om de snesevis på snescootere som i det smeltende forår braser igennem isen på søerne i Minnesota. Presset på guvernøren er stort for at få ham til at lovgive om det. Men denne forhenværende bryder og bodyguard har svaret: man kan ikke lave love imod dumhed.

9. Så er handsken kastet, noterer Herzog. Dette er modstanderen. Og det bliver hovedtema i speaken til Grizzly Man, naiviteten over for naturens virkelighed set gennem mange erkendelseslag i et filmværk.

10. For månen er mat, moder natur kalder ikke, taler ikke til dig, lige meget hvor meget gletscheren giver lyd fra sig. Og lad være med at lytte til livets sang. Bedrøvede råd til Amie Huguenard og Timothy Threadwell, som forførte af et naivt natursyn leverede den ultimative reportage.

11. Så vi skal være taknemmelige for, at universet derude ikke kender noget smil.

12. Werner Herzog konkluderer sin erklæring og filmkunstneriske program: Livet i oceanerne må være et rent helvede. Et umådeligt, nådeløst helvede af permanent og direkte fare. Så meget helvede, at nogle arter, herunder mennesket, under evolutionen kravlede og flød op på nogle små stykker fastland, hvor mørkets lære fortsætter.