Sarajevo FF Talks

More about what happens in Sarajevo, or rather organised online by the festival, in this case by the Cinelink, that presents the Cinelink Talks 2020 from August 15-20. In collaboration with the training programme Documentary Campus and the trade magazine Screen International. 

“The eleven 60-minute CineLink Talks will run from August 15-20, and focus on the opportunities and challenges facing both the region and the wider international film sector. All of the webinars will run via Zoom, and feature a live Q&A in which audience members will be able to ask questions of the panellists.”

Register for the free talks with the form below. You will receive a confirmation email for each panel you register for within 24 hours.”

Link below.

Let me just highlight one session, the one on the 20th of August dealing with the wonderful film “Honeyland” by Tamara Kotevska (by the way, it’s her birthday today! and Ljubomir Stefanov) – it’s a one hour case story on a film that took the world with its excellence and warmth. The producer and editor Atanas Georgiev will be in conversation with producer and Rough Cut co-organiser (with Rada Sesic) Martichka Bozhilova.

https://www.screendaily.com/CineLinkTalks

Doker 2020

I was in Moscow last year as member of the short film jury and I have followed the festival since 2015, when I was in the online feature jury – together with – among others – Viktor Kossakovsky. I have great admiration for the work of the team behind the Doker  – The Moscow International Documentary Film Festival. They have now announced their program for 2020, which is to go theatrical, unless the corona situation dictates something else before the dates August 21 – 30. With mask and distance regulations according to the Ministry for All Theatres.

Some words about the main competition that includes 12 titles. I have seen Romanian success « Acasa My Home » by Radu Ciorniciuc (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4775/) as well as Danish Eva Mulvad’s « Love Child » (PHOTO) that my colleague at filmkommentaren.dk Allan Berg praised in this Danish language review (http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4669/) and the Polish « Lessons of Love » by Kasia Mateja and Malgorzata Goliszewska. They are Russian premieres but among the 12 are also world premieres the selected documentaries.

And two quotes from the website of Doker: “Annually DOKer receives more than 2,000 applications from around the world. We have participants not just from Europe and North America, but many filmmakers from lesser-known Asian, African, South American and Oceanian also take part in the festival… « DOKer is the only Documentary Film Festival in Russia where the professional jury evaluates separately the work of the director, the cinematographer, the sound director and the film editor. »

Check the whole program, link below. 

I wish the festival all the best and cross fingers for a situation where the films will be screened in the cinema October as planned.

https://www.midff.com/post/main-2020

Sarajevo FF online via ondemand.sff.ba

Due to greatly increased concern regarding the epidemiological situation in Sarajevo, and record cases of COVID-19 infection in the city in the past several days, we at the Sarajevo Film Festival have made the decision to conduct the 2020 edition of all festival events entirely online  from 14 to 21 August. This confirms the Sarajevo Film Festival’s responsibility and commitment to its community. 

The world premiere of FOCUS, GRANDMA, the most recent film by Bosnian director Pjer alica, opens the programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival. The film will be available for viewing worldwide, at ondemand.sff.ba – the Sarajevo Film Festival’s online platform.

Ondemand.sff.ba is the central hub for all the film screenings, programmes and events of this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival – not just for local audiences but also for film lovers across the region and around the world. Ondemand.sff.ba is a VOD platform that allows users to subscribe to the entire festival programme for seven days, or select individual titles and content. Ondemand.sff.ba was developed in cooperation with Festival Scope and Shift72 Streaming Services, a leading on-demand content streaming company from New Zealand.

Ondemand.sff.ba will feature recent regional and world cinema titles including world and international premieres. By registering on ondemand.sff.ba, viewers will access films according to regional and territorial availability.

Users of ondemand.sff.ba may also access other festival content, including exclusive masterclasses with renowned filmmakers across the world. The Sarajevo Film Festival Masterclass Programme is organised in cooperation with Variety and will be available worldwide via the Variety Streaming Room. 

As previously announced, CineLink Industry Days will be held online from 15 to 20 August 2020. As with the rest of the festival events, there will be no onsite CineLink elements. Detailed information about this year’s industry programme will be available at cinelinkindustrydays.com. Talks on the latest industry trends with more than 40 film professionals from around the globe will be available on ondemand.sff.ba under CineLink Talks. The 10 hot topics of discussion will be debated online, in cooperation with the Documentary Campus and Screen International.

Jørgen Roos: Johannes Larsen

For those who can travel in Denmark: I Kerteminde ligger et dejligt museum, Johannes Larsen Museet med værker af Larsen selv og Fritz Syberg og andre af Fynboerne. Dejligt sted med en have, adgang til malerens hjem hvor han boede med sin kone Alhed, som også var kunstner. I 1957 lavede vor største dokumentarist Jørgen Roos en 12 minutter lang film om Larsen og Møllebakken, i anledning af maleren og bogillustratorens 90-års fødselsdag. Filmen kan ses på filmcentralen.dk, gratis og tilgængelig for alle. Jørgen Roos, døde i 1998 – som jeg skylder meget af min viden og begejstring for dokumentarfilmgenren – tog fotografier af Johannes Larsen. Dem har jeg hugget til denne lejlighed. Jeg er sikker på at Jørgen Roos ville have sagt ok til det!

(tsm)

Jeg holder meget af dit blogindlæg Tue, af tonen, af historien, af henvisninngen til Jørgen Roos’ film på det umistelige streamingsite filmcentralen.dk: 

https://filmcentralen.dk/museum/danmark-paa-film/film/johannes-larsen 

(abn)

Nordisk Panorama Forum 2020

First a copy paste from the press release that came to the inbox yesterday:

”We are thrilled to announce the projects selected for Nordisk Panorama Forum and wish to congratulate all who made the cut!

100 new documentary projects were submitted to the 27th edition of Nordisk Panorama Forum for Co-financing of Documentaries by some of the very best producers and directors the Nordic region has to offer.

Nordisk Panorama Forum is the main funding event for the Nordic documentary community. This year we are going online and adding more dates: the forum will be 18-23 September. At Nordisk Panorama Forum a selection of 20 brand new documentary projects will be pitched to around 70 attending decision-makers and 20 observer+ projects have been selected for special access to meetings with decision-makers. Projects will be pitched Mon-Tues 21-22 September…”

Let me mention a few of the projects to be presented at the online event: 

Talented Danish director Andreas Koefoed presents a film project with the title ”Bendtner” and then we football fans know that the protagonist is the once talented Danish football player, now celebrity, 32 year old Nicklas Bendtner, who has played 81 matches for Denmark.

In the list announced by Nordisk Panorama, taking place September 18-23, there is still no description of the films so curious to know from what non-tabloid (my guess) angle Koefoed will attack the subject Bendtner.

The same goes for ”Corona Film Club – My Life as a Film with Stig Björkman”, the excellent Swedish film critic and director of several films on Ingmar Bergman. Stine Gardell, experienced producer, is the director.

As is Finnish John Webster who is listed to make a film on legendary Jörn Donner, it has the subtitle ”Epilogue”.

The Forum has invited a delegation of Baltic filmmakers to take part – and three well known directors will pitch or observe: Latvian Una Celma, Estonian Marianna Kaat and Lithuanian Giedre Zickyté.

Photo from the Swedish ”Calendar Girls”. 

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/festival/

Finn Larsen: Dumpen

Fotografen Finn Larsen rejser, ser og tænker sit og fotograferer eller er hjemme i Malmø, ser og tænker sit og fotograferer og han laver udstillinger og bøger med materialet. Hans seneste arbejde er Dumpen en udstilling som vises på Ilulissat Kunstmuseum denne sommer. Den handler om byernes håndtering af affald. Her er der skildret i Grønland, men i eftertanken mange steder i nordiske lande. Finn Larsen har imidlertid arbejdet med grønlandske emner siden 1991 og han har besøgt landet mere end 30 gange og han skriver i sin indbydelse:

“… Jeg har mest opholdt mig i Sydgrønland, men i 2001, 2011 og 2019 har jeg besøgt ni byer på Grønlands vestkyst på månedslange rejser – fra Ilulissat i nord til Nanortalik i syd. Jeg har således besøgt og genbesøgt ni af de største dumpe mindst tre gange på knap tyve år. Et par af dem har jeg besøgt så mange gange, at jeg ikke har tal på det. ” Og Finn Larsen skriver en omhyggelig og interessant introduktion til udstillingen hvor han fortæller om sin metode i det hele taget:

”Jeg interesserer mig for, hvordan tillærte forestillinger stiller sig i vejen for, at vi kan se det, der faktisk er at se.

 Derfor er hele mit arbejde en bestræbelse på at se udenom gængse billeder af et givet sted for at kunne få øje på det, der også er at se…

Min metode er blevet at genbesøge bestemte steder gang på gang for at se, hvordan de ændrer sig over tid. Og i øvrigt forsøge at skaffe mig mest mulig viden.

 Urbanisering, boligblokke, haver og træer var nogle af de ting, jeg så, da jeg forsøgte at se uden om det gængse Grønlandsbillede.

Og så Dumpen, som er temaet for min udstilling på Ilulissat Kunstmuseum denne sommer.

 Jeg har arbejdet med Grønland siden 1991, og har besøgt landet mere end 30 gange.

Jeg har mest opholdt mig i Sydgrønland, men i 2001, 2011 og 2019 har jeg besøgt ni byer på Grønlands vestkyst på månedslange rejser – fra Ilulissat i nord til Nanortalik i syd.

Jeg har således besøgt og genbesøgt ni af de største dumpe mindst tre gange på knap tyve år. Et par af dem har jeg besøgt så mange gange, at jeg ikke har tal på det.

 Jeg har gravet mig ned i de sidste 20-30 års tilstandsrapporter og handlingsplaner for affaldet, og jeg har fulgt med i den offentlige diskussion. Jeg ved i dag mere om Grønlands affaldssituation som helhed end de fleste, og trods handlingsplanerne har jeg ikke kunnet se nogen forskel fra 2001 til 2019 – ud over at bjergene af blandet affald er vokset. Med koncentrerede bunker af flasker, batterier, træflis og baller af presset pap hist og pist mellem virvaret af madrester, olietønder, jernskrot, glasfiberbåde, asbest, fiskegarn, elektronik og så videre.

 Ifølge loven skal forureneren betale – men i praksis er det stadig gratis at dumpe hvad som helst hvor som helst på Dumpen.

 Hvorfor er det kommet til at se sådan ud og hvad betyder det?

 Den grønlandske affaldssituation er næppe principielt anderledes end affaldssituationen i de øvrige nordiske lande. Den er bare værre og især mere synlig.

Den måde, vi har indrettet vore moderne forbrugersamfund på, betyder, at vi hele tiden utilsigtet efterlader noget, som skader grundlaget for vores og andre organismers eksistens – klimagasser, som forurener atmosfæren og alle mulige kemiske og fysiske forureninger på jorden.

 Det hænger på mange niveauer sammen med udvikling af økonomi og samfund. Det er vor tids brændende aktuelle spørgsmål, som kræver vores engagement, og at vi kan holde mere end én tanke og mere ét billede i hovedet ad gangen.

 Min ambition er at give verden andre billeder og stof til at tænke andre tanker med.”

Udstillingen kan ses på Ilulissat Kunstmuseum indtil 14. auguat 2020.

VIDEO

Der indgår en ældre video i udstillingen: Dumpen – voksende bjerge af affald i Grønland, 2012, 26 minutter. Foto: Finn Larsen. Redigering: Jeanette Land Schou. Musik: Jens Hendriksen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cta1-rrX6Xs&feature=youtu.be

Filmen viser hvordan det ser ud på 18 lossepladser i Grønland. “Dump” er det danske ord som i Grønland bruges for ”losseplads”. 

FOTO

Finn Larsen: Dumpen og landskabet.

LINKS

www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3775/ (Finn Larsen: The Dump)

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3605/ (Om Finn Larsens fotografier og udstillinger)

Michael Jordan: The Last Dance

I knew nothing about basketball before watching ”The Last Dance”. I had never heard the name Michael Jordan before, or NBA, or Chicago Bulls. Football – and Barca – is my passion.

Now I ask myself, why I – in three days – watched the documentary series of 10 episodes. The answer is easy: It is sooo entertaining. It caught and kept my attention the whole way through. Because of the personality of Michael Jordan, the charismatic best player in the world, according to the film and himself, the many dramas and conflicts that the film unfolds, the side-characters – and of course the constant bombardment of clips from the games, all of them played in the 1990’es. The dunks, the scoring when there were few seconds left, the atmosphere in the halls with Madison Square Garden as the place Jordan loved to play. With Mike, Michael, number 23, the black cat… he had/has many nicknames, the man in focus, the man who was, before and after the games,  always well dressed in suits and tie, very often with a long cohiba in his mouth. Lots of footage from the changing rooms, lots of material from press conferences, television presenters, interviews of today with equally charismatic teammates and the coach Phil Jackson. The latter comes out as a very sympathetic character, who understood the players, especially the wild Dennis Rodman, who sometimes dropped the training after nights with booze and women but always turned up to deliver perfectly during the games.

And Scottie Pippen, Jordan’s closest, who sits there with a smile and a dark voice remembering the 6 championships of Chicago Bulls, and all the small and bigger stories connected. Including the conflicts with the management.

As a film? Very well crafted. Games, interviews around the games, year after year, with many comparisons between the first three wins (91/92/93) and the last three wins (96/97/98), with the break where Jordan turned to baseball as he had lost the energy after the tragic death of his father, who was always with him. There’s a fine build up to his return to basketball. In a scene his press man tells the story of how he drafted several press releases on the return, all of them rejected by Jordan, who writes it himself: “I’m Back”. Nothing more.

I have read that Jordan owns a lot of the material in the film – it is obvious that the film is seen from his perspective, and that there probably are many stories that could have put another light on the “larger than life” athlete. Who cares? 

Will I watch basketball on tv after this film. Probably not but I understand, why many find football/soccer boring compared to the dramatic and per se entertaining basketball.

Netflix, 2020, 10 episodes.         

Ivars Seleckis at Baltic Sea Docs 2020

A new film project by veteran documentary director and cinematographer Ivars Seleckis will be presented at the 24th edition of Baltic Sea Docs that starts on the 29th of August. The brief description goes like this: ”The documentary “The Land” will reveal the countryside of the 21st century through the individual and personal stories of the five protagonists living in the Latvian countryside and farming their land.” Producer is Gints Grube, Mistrus Media, who also stood behind Seleckis last big success ”To be Continued”.

”Ivars Seleckis began his career the same way many film people do – from the ‘bottom’. Though he had university education, he spent months lugging ‘boxes’ and the heavy film camera around the Riga Film Studio until he was allowed to switch it on. The first scenes he shot that appeared on film were in 1960 – in the documentary, “My Riga” – a film that became the first timid step away from the official propaganda and towards a more humanly intimate poetics. (source: http://nkc.gov.lv/en/uncategorized/ivars-seleckis-2/)”.

Since then, as cinematographer and later on as director, Seleckis name has 

 

appeared on numerous (an understatement!) documentaries during the time of Soviet Latvia and when his beloved country gained its independence. More than anyone the 85 year old Seleckis has documented the landscapes and trades of Latvia – through his eye for people. Of course he is one of the masters in ”Bridges of Time” by Kristine Briede and Audrius Stonys, the wonderful film on the Baltic poetic cinema. And of course he was one of the cameramen in the film ”235.000.000” from 1967, the unique documentary by Uldis Brauns. The film was censored by the Soviet regime – the original director’s cut has been found and a digital restored version is being made. Right Uldis Cekulis and Zane Balcus?

Ivars Seleckis trilogy from Šķērsiela street in Riga has been shown all over the world. The first one is from 1988, ”Crossroad Street”, the second called “New times at Crossroad Street” came out in 1999, and the third one, ”Capitalism at Crossroad Street” is from 2013. A sociological study it is, lovely portraits of lives of those who live in the street – as did (does?) the scriptwriter Tālivaldis Margēvičs.

Way back Ivars Seleckis and his colleague Piepers took me and my wife on a tour to the countryside of Latvia. We drank champagne at a river and visited ”horseradish Peter” and his wife in one of the gardens of Šķērsiela. Seleckis brought along smoked fish and brandy. The couple was very important in the first part of the trilogy. 

2019: A key person from the Latvian Film Centre, Lelda Ozola, has helped Ivars Seleckis through his carreer, so it was only natural that she accompanied him to ZagrebDOX in 2019, where ”To Be Continued” was shown and where festival director Nenad Puhovski gave his ”My Generation” award to the Latvian master. Another piece of memory: When in Zagreb I had to watch a football match with FC Barcelona. Lelda and Ivars joined me. The documentary skills of the latter were demonstrated from start till end of the match. Ivars knew actually very little about football but during the 90 minutes he commented and discovered the rules and tactics of the game, sitting or going close to the tv screen pointing and asking. Curiosity, without that, forget about being a documentarian!

A brilliant filmmaker, a man full of humour, always with a small bottle in his pocket – looking fwd to seeing him again in Riga!

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4783/

Baltic Sea Docs 2020

Riga, Latvia. 29.08 – 4.09.2020. The 24th Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries. For “professional filmmakers from the Baltic Sea region, as well as from Eastern and Central Europe”. It started in Denmark, had some years in the Baltic capitals before it found its permanent home in Riga in 2005. I have been “part of the furniture” since the beginning. With pleasure.

There is a film program to be announced later as well as seminars and list of tutors and decision makers, who will take part in an event that this year will be hybrid with some people based in Riga and many people attached to the Zoom presentations and questions and answers.

Project manager Zane Balcus and her team have made the selection of projects, 24 as usual, you can see them all via the link below.

Let me mention names that I already know from previous gatherings:

 

Directors: Alexander Koridze, Georgia (picked up from the recent CinéDOC Georgia pitch), Allaksei Paluyan, Belarus, Una Celma Latvia, Ivars Seleckis Latvia (who pitched at the first edition 24 years ago), Nerijus Milerius Lithuania, Virginija Vareikyte and Maximilien Dejoie Lithuania, Keti Machavariani Georgia, Alina Rudnitskaya Russia, Marko Raat Estonia, Konrad Szolajski Poland.

Producers: Oscar Hedin Sweden, Rebecca Houzel, Max Tuula, Maria Gavrilova France, Estonia, Russia, Natalia Libet Ukraine, Andres Maimik Estonia, Matiss Kaza Latvia, Gints Grube, Elina Gedina Latvia, Stasys Baltakis Lithuania, Vladislav Ketkovich Russia, Pertii Vijalainan Finland, Dagné Vildziunaité Lithuania, Antra Cilinska Latvia, Stephane Siohan, Olga Beskhmelnytsina Ukraine, Ivo Felt Estonia, Malgorzata Prociak Poland.

As far as I can read from the brief annotations (again, click below) there are personal, political, social, historical, informative, creative documentary projects to be presented – and there are many new people joining the party… it will be a party and one more hommage to the art of documentary.

ONE project makes me more than curious: “Podnieks On Podnieks” to be directed Anna Viduleja with Juris Podnieks close collaborator Antra Cilinska as producer and produced by Juris Podnieks Studio. Podnieks is one of my heroes in documentary history and I am happy that I had the chance to meet him on the island of Bornholm during the early years of the Balticum Film & TV Festival. 

The description of the film goes like this: ““I am convinced that we can live through several lives. That’s the best thought that intrigues me. And with each passing life we go through some development. I would, no doubt, like to do more in this life. But if I don’t manage, then I will continue in the next one.” This was once said by the outstanding Latvian documentary film director Juris Podnieks who during his lifetime had gained the fame of the fighter for justice. This film will serve as a metaphor – a conversation before infinity and will be built as Podnieks’ story about himself, his films, society and life.”

Juris Podnieks 1950-1992

http://balticseadocs.lv/

CinéDOC Summer School 2020

They had no choice the good people behind the Georgian documentary film festival CinéDOC. They already had organised three summer schools, this was to be the fourth and it had to be online… the intensive workshop dedicated to promising filmmakers from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Intensive? Indeed it was! 12 film projects. 4 tutors. And a (great) team of organisers led by Ileana Stanculescu and Artchil Khetagouri, the two filmmakers and directors of the festival CinéDOC that has not yet taken place because of the pandemic. Postponed. But not this summer school workshop.

Read more…

 

A challenge it is to make a summer school – of course – with five full days of Zoom meetings, a short day with summing up and a small relax for the organisers and the filmmakers, who will be given pitch training and meet a panel of 12: broadcasters, festival programmers, distributors and representatives from similar documentary initiatives. On Sunday July 5th.

The summer school was much better than expected, many of the filmmakers said at the evaluation this morning. Was that because we had no real idea about how hours and hours staring into a computer would work out.

“We” – I was one of the tutors – together with international producers Bulgarian Martichka Bozhilova and Latvian Uldis Cekulis, and Serbian/Dutch editor Srdjan Fink. My worry was more if the technique would work. Would our internet connections be strong enough? Would the Zoom format be good enough? As a technical idiot I had no idea but – there were problems but they were small – all went smoothly.

What did we do? The usual business, I would say from a long life of workshops. We talked, we watched trailers/teasers, scenes, rough material. And again – from my personal point of view – we learned a lot. Again I was invited to have a look into the realities as they are seen and interpreted by emerging filmmakers and filmmakers with more experience. From the three Caucasus countries. 

Working method: the 12 had been divided according to country and experience, into groups of 3, shifting tutors to get different input from different temperaments, tutors and colleagues – and every morning there was a one hour class made by the mentioned tutors. 

It is a great privilege to be asked to be part of a summer school like this. The projects yes, but also to meet young and younger filmmakers, even if it is online (we all prefer to meet face to face) to meet each other from home or in the offices with different backgrounds, different ways of sitting, different ways of talking, smiling, concentrating. Still this is for me the way to evaluate a project: Can this person to whom I am talking and listening, whose face I am looking at, whose visual material I am looking at, can she make it? 

I am writing She, because there were 9 female directors and 3 male!

On my FB post you can see everyone taking part in the workshop. On the photo above you see

me, Natuka Gabunia (a Georgian Anna Magnani), Medea Sharikadze (the two women are part of the organising team, warm and superprofessional), Gayne Petrosyan with an amazing personal story about her son who was born a girl, entitled „The Transition“, editor Srdjan Fink, producer Anna Khazaradzetogether with, below, director Luka Beradze, with the absurd „Smiling Georgia“ from a poor region, where teeth were pulled out promising the locals to have them replaced, so far it did not happen, the couple Elene Margvelashvili and Keko Chelidze with a project in early development, „Exposed“, about a 40 year old single mother who builds up her selfconfidence through bodybuilding, Ileana Stanculescu, the always engaged, committed and warm initiator and organiser of it all, Afaq Yusifli, who showed her cinematic skills in a teaser of „Granddaughter“, which will be a short film (general remark: loved to see short films coming up!), Chinara Majidova from Azerbaijan talking from Budapest, about to make a film „My Neighborhood“, the Sovjetski in Baku with material shot over 5 years and finally Turkan Huseynova, also from Azerbaijan, also with a project that has an area in Baku as the location, „Papanin“ and again a short film to be by an obvious visual talent… Personal note: Wow, what a lot of talent from Azerbaijan this year!

If you want to know more about CinéDOC Tbilisi and what the festival is doing in terms of screening films in the capital and around the country go to

https://www.cinedoctbilisi.com