Pedro Costa

PEDRO COSTA

Efterhånden gik det op for mig, hvad det var for en kapacitet af indsigt og erfaring jeg og Marc Recha sad i jury med, Pedro Costa fra Lissabon og dengang lige så meget fra Paris. Det var på festivalen Zinibi i Bilbao november 2003, dokumentarfilm konkurrencen og vi tre havde travlt med at se film og snakke længe om dem.

Omsider om lørdagen fik jeg mulighed for at se en stor del af Costas arbejde som var en præsentation uden for konkurrencen, først hans No Quarto da Vanda som en installation, som en udstilling af en stor del af det optagne materiale, No Quarto da Vanda x 2, i alt 120 min. Det var i en dvd-projektion i en lille udstillingssal over for museets biograf. Og derefter så jeg så den tre timer lange film. Den var berømt, og jeg havde da hørt om den. I Paris eller Amsterdam? I Paris, vil jeg tro. Den havde da vist også været vist på en Natfilmfestival i København.

Men jeg fik den ikke set, og lige nu forbandt jeg den ikke med den mand lige overfor, hvis kloge og lange taler, når han omsider sagde noget, jeg begærligt lyttede til. Sjældent mødte og møder jeg mennesker, som i det præcise udtryk og vældige omfang udtrykker, hvad jeg troede og tror eller ønskede jeg selv tænkte. Costa er et højt begavet, meget følsomt, ansvarligt, præcist og muntert menneske. Og hans film, de to, jeg nu havde set og som jeg nu igen kan se under arkitektur festivalen, No Quarto da Vanda om den hårde virkelighed for en narkoman som bor i et fattigt Lissabonkvarter som er ved at blive fjernet og Où gît votre sourire enfoui? om klippearbejdet ved det tredje gennemklip af Danièle Huillets og Jean-Marie Straubs Sicilia! De to film, indså jeg, hørte nu for mig til de store dokumentarfilm i verden. Det gør de stadigvæk. Sådan er det med Pedro Costas egensindige film.

Det kan jeg få bekræftet når Pedro Costa kommer til København 3. og 4. oktober til arrangementer i Cinemateket i forbindelse med CAFx 2020, Copenhagen Architecture Festival. 

http://cafx.dk/program/

 NO QUARTO DA VANDA

Hvad er det med Vanda? Det er så let at sige, at hun lever under elendige betingelser og derfor er hun narkoman. Det er ikke helt så enkelt med hende, hun er også marginal inden for den marginale gruppe af hjemløse, som hun med sin mor, søster og lillebror lever iblandt. Og også i familien er hun alene. Det er lige der Costa finder forbindelsen. I en eller anden forstand deler de omverdenstolkning. De forsvinder ind i denne anden forståelse, Pedro Costa i poesiens skarphed, i tilvalget blandt indtrykkene, Vanda Duarte i narkotikaens blidhed, i bortvalget af indtryk – fra den samme virkelighed. I filmen mødes de i hvert fald, de to, i konstruktionen af et Flaherty’sk stedets drama, Vanda drømmende fraværende, Pedro Costa i allerhøjeste grad lysvågen til stede.

På den måde er filmen denne række af scener af tilstedeværelse: Vanda ryster og prøver den ene indsamlede lighter efter den anden, for hun skal bruge en konstant flamme til opvarmning af den narkotika, hun hele tiden ryger. Men der er langt mellem lightere, der fungerer. Alligevel afprøver hun hver gang hele samlingen. Det kunne jo være. Kameraet fastholder i stor ro hele begivenheden. I dens fulde længde. Og filmenn indeholder denne scene i en række af små variationer gennem Vandas døgn. Jeg kan ikke græde mere, jeg ville ønske jeg kunne, jeg tror det ville være lettere.

Portugal 2001, 170 min. Vises 4. oktober 16:00 i Cinemateket / CAFx som skriver: In Vanda’s Room med introduktion af instruktøren Pedro Costa. Costas fragmentarisk fordybede portræt af narkomanen Vanda omgivet af dealer og misbrugere og byfornyelsen, der æder sig ind på slummen.

 

CAVALO DINHEIRO

Venturas kærlighed er denne hviskende kvindestemme, denne forsigtige berøring, denne ærbødige beskrivelse af hans fingres skønhed. Neglenes form, deres hvidhed… Jeg har engang mødt Pedro Costa. Og efter det møde kan jeg ikke skille hans person fra hans film. I min erindring. I mig er han sine film. Vi var i jury sammen på en filmfestival i Bilbao. Jeg ved derfor, at Pedro Costa er venlig, men urokkelig, alvorlig, kritisk og stærk. Han har gjort stort indtryk på mig, påvirket min oplevelse af filmkunst. For al tid. Og det er selvfølgelig noget, jeg tænker på hele tiden, når jeg ser Horse Money / Cavalo dinheiro.

De interviews med Costa, som jeg læser, er farvet af dette forhold. Uanset intervieweren erobrer Costa rummet og taler med vægt. Det læser jeg gennem referatet. Hans svar har tyngde, den tyngde, at jeg ligesom kender dem i forvejen og alligevel overraskes.

Hans hovedperson Ventura er som Joyce’s Finnegan murer, han er ikke som Finnegan faldet ned fra stilladset og dræbt, i hvert fald ikke han (men vist nok flere af hans arbejdskammerater), men han er død den 23. juni 2013. Det ved jeg. Filmens nu kan være dødsøjeblikket, som Joyce’s romans nu er det wake, som finder sted på byens pub aftenen og natten efter. I dette nu gennemlever Ventura (ligesom Finnegan) sit livs afgørende scener. Disse scener har Pedro Costa skabt i dybt gribende clairobscur filmbilleder som Jacob Riis’ New York fotografier med det pludselige magnesiumlys. Filmens titelsekvens er en næsten lydløs suite Riis-fotografier af mennesker i fattigdom og nød i byens slum. Ventura lever eller har levet sådanne steder i Lissabon.

Pedro Costas Horse Money var en af mine store, store oplevelser under CPH:DOX 2014. En filmisk biografisk tragedie i store, uforglemmelige, langsomme scener af erindringer og samtaler og steders nærvær og uafbrudt autenticitet i og hos medvirkende. Et mishandlet, men rigt levet menneskeliv skildret i Venturas = Joaquim de Brito Varelas nervøst sitrende smertende krop gennem nogle døgn vel i et gammelt hospitals kældre, trapper, gange, sengestuer, undersøgelsesrum afløst af tilbageblikkenes mange steder og hændelser og til sidst i den allerlængste scene lukket inde med befrielseskrigenes og revolutionens erindring og en sort infanterist i en elevator på sygehuset før afskeden med den hvidklædte læge i portåbningen.

Portugal 2014, 104 min. Vises 14. oktober 19:30 i Cinemateket / CAFx som skriver: Cavalo Dinheiro / Horse Money med introduktion af Pedro Costa-eksperten Oscar Pedersen. Med Ventura i hovedrollen og en geografi af opløst tid dykker Costa endnu dybere ned i det fantastiske.

Foto fra Portugal News, August 2019

Nordisk Panorama Forum First Day

Same procedure as last year – NO:

Online pitching as in many/most of the industry events connected to festivals since March this year. No meetings face-to-face. 10 projects today and 10 tomorrow. 15 minutes per Project. 50% for presentation, 50% for feedback. Business as usual – individual meetings in the afternoon, pre-booked by the Forum staff. And individual meetings later in the afternoon with the North American Decision-Makers, pre-booked as well.

It started at 9 this morning. Moderators were as usual the Danish Gitte Hansen and Mikael Opstrup. Sitting in Malmö. They did not respect the rule of distance, but showed their test results on paper to the camera. Opstrup with the fine Covid-Pass document we make in Denmark, Gitte Hansen with an email from the Swiss authorities; she lives and works in Zürich. Fine to see the two on the screen, much closer than usual. They were fresh, well prepared, enjoying to sit there inviting the filmmakers to present their projects as well as calling for comments from the panelists, i.e broadcasters and film institute/fund consultants. No sales agents or distributors, I guess they will be there for the individual meetings…

I was one of – I think it was mentioned that there were 200 (!) observers. I could see the moderators, the filmmakers and the panelists, who made comments. Sometimes unfortunately with sound and image not being synchronous.

But I could not see, who else was observing. Too many to have on one screen, I guess ! On the website I read the names of those attending, and gosh there are many who – while this is being written – are now busy with the individual meetings.

The panelists – competent veterans like Jenny Westergaard (YLE), Erkko Lyttinen (also YLE, Finland), Charlotte Madsen (SVT, Sweden), Karolina Lidin (Nordic Film/TV Fund), Hanka Kastelicová (HBO Europe), Nathalie Windhorst (VPRO, Holland) – and newcomers like Frank Piasecki Poulsen from the Danish Film Institute, who did his job, positive and straight forward. From the Finnish and Swedish film institutes there were new people, who will have a lot of meetings, I suppose, and learn from that. Also interesting to see what Nils Bökamp can do, film director from Norway, who now works for Netflix. And I liked the energy of Hera Olafsdottir from RUV, the Icelandic television.

Arte, the European Cultural Channel, was there with a representative from NDR/arte, who was asked for comments several times and who was pretty brief saying that « we have no slots for that, sorry ». All right, but some constructive, critical comments or « you should go to my colleague xx » ? OMG is my comment, what happens to Arte.

Another critical point from my side… remember that this public pitch is also a place, where you as an observer can get updated on how broadcasters and film consultants evaluate film projects – content, style, director, production company, film language… I know it’s difficult to be brief but if the comment is only « we have a meeting this afternoon ». What do we observers, the audience get out of it ?

Tomorrow I will write about some of the projects, those that were pitched today and those that will be on screen tomorrow.

Photo is from the Swedish “Calendar Girls”, a project I liked a lot.

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/industry/forum/forum-2020/forum-programme-2020/

Niki Lindroth von Bahr

The Swedish animation director had her last work, “Something to Remember”, shown as the opening film at Nordisk Panorama, that runs until September 27 and is accessable for all citizens in the Nordic countries. For free. The film took me by surprise, a masterpiece, 5 minutes long, so I had to watch the previous 3 films she has made. Which I did with the generous addition of a masterclass with the artist, all available with some small clicks on the link below – and an easy creation of an account.

4 films during 11 years. Animal animation. Small puppets – a fish, monkeys, a rabbit, a snail… – put into human situations, in a musical as ”The Burden” (2017) that has won 82 awards ( !!!), 15 minutes long, a dark look at our civilisation, where – as she said in the masterclass – the surrounding is the main character. Dark, yes, yet the characters in this cold world sing and dance to make the burden bearable. Monkeys performs so you think of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers! Hilarious.

Different is ”Tord and Tord” (2010), 10 minutes, based on a short story by Jorun Jonasson, narrated by Thomas Lindholm. ” One day Tord accidently enters the apartment next to his own. A man, also named Tord, has just moved in. Tord and Tord start hanging out together.” Dark, yes, and sad, yes, but again with a subtle humour bringing my thoughts to Samuel Beckett, when the fox and the hare start to reduce their communication to codes – on small pieces of paper put through the letter slot of their doors. At the end there is nothing to say and do.

In 2014 she made ”Bath House”. In the masterclass she mentioned that this is a true Swedish local phenomenon that nowadays is falling apart – and that’s what you see in the film, when a handful of animals enter the institution to make life difficult for the manager, who wants all to be in order.

In the masterclass Niki Lindroth von Bahr talks about her upbringing in an art family, her education as an artist, her troubles with getting funding for her work, her place in the art world and in the film world, they are so very different. The masterclass was sent from Manchester, where she right now is working on a Netflix production.

https://nordiskpanorama.com/en/activity/masterclass-with-niki-lindroth-von-bahr/

Benjamin Ree: The Painter and the Thief

This fascinating film premiered at Sundance, is about to go into theatres in Sweden and Norway , and is in the Best Documentary Competition at Nordisk Panorama, that runs until September 27. It’s an amazing story with extraordinary characters with unusual personal backgrounds – it’s a thriller about stolen art, a psychological drama, a love story, shot over years , with characters that develop, to say the least, a dramaturgy that breaks rules, with several twists, it’s lovely off mainstream documentary storytelling. I was hooked from start till end.

It would be wrong of me to reveal totally, where the story goes, not so say where it ends. So, let me give you the starting point: Barbora, Czech painter living in Norway, has two of her paintings stolen from a gallery. One of the thiefs, Karl-Bertil, is identified via surveillance cameras, and in the courtroom the painter goes to the thief to ask if she may paint a portrait of him. They meet, she paints him, her style is photorealism – and the two builds up a strong emotional relationship. He is a drug addict, he can’t remember, where the stolen paintings went, they stay in contact, she helps him, he helps her; the story is told from the angles of them both. Barbora’s boyfriend, Øystein, who took her away from a violent relationship in Berlin, asks her why she is drawn to the destructive that Karl-Bertil represents, and if she is aware of the moral responsibility she takes helping him. The couple seeks therapy help. The un-chronologically told story gives the viewer surprising background information on Karl-Bertil, and the director of the film succeeds to paint (sorry!) a portrait of a man with many faces. Far from the usual “just another junkie”.

A film full of energetic scenes, touching, entertaining. Watch it!

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

Nordisk Panorama 2020 Opening

I was there. Not on the couch, sorry, but in my old armchair (Børge Mogensen, black leather, for you, at least the Danes, to know the quality…) from where I normally watch football on television, with my feet up on a footstool, wearing slippers. Just back from the garden house and the warm September day…

…with my laptop, ready for a festive opening. Anita Reher, the boss of Nordisk Panorama, welcomed with warm words to the filmmakers, the audience, the team behind her and the funders. She then passed the word to Nadia Jebril – Palestinian parents – from Malmö, on her couch, a superb host, who took us through the program in the warming-up for a festival mood, from her couch, including a couple of obligatory talks from funders from the city and the region. All in a very professional and inviting atmosphere…

continue reading…

 

Two opening films. The first one, five minutes long, «Something to Remember» by Niki Linderoth von Bahr. Magnificent. Big word. But that’s what this short film is. A visual poem with puppets (see the photo), arranged as a “lullaby before the big disaster”. So happy to have been given the chance to leave the documentaries for some few minutes to experience an artist that makes me smile and think about our civilisation exactly like Roy Andersson does. I have seen it a couple of times since this opening, the lyrics, the singing, the décor, “the locations”… I have read that the director has made many short films that have travelled the world, and thank you Nordisk Panorama to give us a retrospective  and a masterclass (on Sunday) with Niki Linderoth von Bahr. Must be a highlight of the festival.

The second film, the documentary “Lady Time” by Finnish Elina Talvensaari, did not catch my attention. The story about Sirkka-Liisa, an old woman who died alone leaving furniture and personal things in the flat that the director moves into, has a very sad tone to match the loneliness of the former resident in the flat. The director investigates her life through family photo albums, letters, diaries – to give her Life. And the director seeks to do so through a visual language that for me very often becomes demonstratively “filmic” and pathetic. In the Q&A, half an hour, where the director talks to festival programmer Cecilia Lidin, she stresses that she felt that she had to include herself in the story, and in some of these moments there is some humour, otherwise I had a hard time to stay with the monotonous bringing to life Sirkka-Liisa, who had a tough but also good life with her husband, and lived alone the last twenty years of her life – she died more than 90 years old. And I have to confess that I – during the watching –  was thinking of the ethics connected to the director opening very private letters from the dead woman, to make her film. Actually I remembered my own hesitation when I sat with my mother’s letters and diaries after her death. Same generation by the way.

www.nordiskpanorama.com

Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen: My Favourite War

Let me start by giving the word to the director:

“My Favorite War” is a personal animated documentary that tells the story of the director’s growing up in Latvia, part of the Soviet Union, during the years from 1970 to 1990. The Soviet regime used World War II as a significant ideological weapon to intimidate and oppress the population during the Cold War. When Ilze discovers the remains of a German soldier in her backyard sandbox, she begins looking for other stories buried underneath the propaganda. “I had to make a choice then – who do I want to become and what do I believe in? The same questions young generations are asking themselves today”.

… and let me stay with the word “personal” as this is what makes the film

 

different from hundreds of documentaries on the USSR and the oppression. Ilze Burkovska tells her story in first person starting from her childhood with her family as important protagonists. The grandfather is important. He was an “enemy of the state” and ended up in Siberia. His artworks could not be exhibited. Her father was a member of the Communist Party and had good civil positions. Her mother was not a member until she had to join as she otherwise would be without a job; single mother with two children – the father died when Ilze was 7 years old in a car accident.

The title refers to WW2 and the constant propaganda from the leaders of the Soviet Union: We have to be prepared for a WW3. Ilze learns how to handle a weapon , growing up in Saldus in the Courland (Kurland) region, where the Courland Couldron reminded the inhabitants of the German occupation during the last year of the war. A military camp was established in Soviet Latvia and the film includes many scenes of planes in the air of the childhood of Ilze…

… who decides to be a pioneer with the ambition of becoming a journalist. She becomes a very good one, is picked to be a delegate at a camp in Crimea, joined by her friend Ilga, with whom she has a very touching conversation (documentary) of today. Ilga had considered suicide, when she as a school kid had written an essay writing that there was a lack of freedom in the country. The essay had not been approved.

When she was 16, her mother fulfilled her dream to live as a farmer in the countryside leaving the flat for Ilze. It was the time of Gorbatchov and life became easier… 

I ask myself: Why is it that I really like an animation documentary film, a genre I know so little about and normally stay away from? The answer is simple: the story is so well written, cinematically conveyed and the child’s perspective accompanies perfectly the naïvity of the drawings. 

Mum and Dad and Ilze stands at the Baltic Sea behind the barbed wire, they are not allowed to go closer. The beginning of the film. Ilze and her two children at the Sea. The end of the film… where you also see the Baltic Way and the director organising an exhibition of her grandfather’s painting.

Norway, Latvia, 2020, 80 mins.

http://myfavoritewar.com

Boris Bertram: The Human Shelter

MoMA Magazine’s streaming of Boris Bertram’s The Human Shelter 14-20 september, free & worldwide:

https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/422 

From the Press release by Boris B. Bertram / Creative Alliance:

“The Danish documentary The Human Shelter by Boris B. Bertram, a universal examination of what our home means to us, will be presented in a free online screening by The Museum of Modern Art from September 14-20.

What does our home mean to us? The topic is as relevant as ever. After most of us have been confined to stay at home for the past many months as the global pandemic has swept around the world radically changing our everyday life, now is a good time to reflect on the universal idea of home.

In 2016 the Danish filmmaker Boris B. Bertram documented the exhibition Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter at The Museum of Modern Art in New York for his film The Human Shelter, curious to examine the question of how we create a home. This was to be the beginning of a longer expedition to four continents visiting the hot spots of a changing world challenged by climate change, migration and growing urbanization.

From September 14-20 MoMA Magazine is streaming The Human Shelterfollowed by the recorded live Q/A with curator Sean Anderson and director Boris B. Bertram, making both the film and the talk available to a broad audience worldwide for free.

Poetically man dwells on this Earth (Friedrich Hölderlin)

 The Human Shelter is a poetic and cinematic examination of what defines a home, told through personal stories from different parts of the world, reflecting both on diversity and what we all have in common. The chapters of the film takes us on an expedition from the snowy white landscape of the northern Norway, home of the nomadic Sami people, to a refugee shelter in Iraq, from the waterfront community of the Nigerian megacity Lagos to an Icelandic family living near a melting glacier, life in tiny apartments in Tokyo and the vision of what a home on Mars might look and feel like.”

The Human Shelter, Denmark 2018, 58 min. 

Trailer:https://vimeo.com/275253763 

 

FILMKOMMENTARENS ANMELDELSE

ved filmens premiere 2. maj 2018 i Grand Teatret, København

1

Kantokainen, Norge. Jeg bestemmer for mig selv med det samme at følge den unge kvindes forklaring på tid, et diktum som både er hendes opvækst og hendes beslutning. Tiden går ikke, den kommer. Det vante ur er her dyrenes selvfølgelige liv og landskabets skiftende lys. Jeg tror, det er hvad hendes smukke sang handler om. Denne alvorlige skønhed i rensdyr-nomadens fire hjem til de fire årstider.

2

New York City, USA. Kan den omhyggelige arkitektidé fra MoMA’s velordnede, perfekt ventilerede kontorer, tegnestuer og udstillingssale virkelig gennemføres i flygtningelejrenes kaotiske, overophedede og dybtfrysende vold?

3

Arabat, Irak. Ja, de kan, for han har penge, han har i sit hus en dyr pose til hvert af sine tøjsæt, som han husker prisen på. Kvinderne udsmykker arkitektektens og ingeniørens og udstillingsredaktørens shelters smukkere end deres drømme. De har vand og el og er undsluppet den visse død. Og de vil bo i digteriske hjem i UNHCR lejren. Og forfatteren på 13 år læser sin tekst op for mig.

4

Manha Loa, Hawaii. NASA, Hi-Seas, Mars habitat. Jeg er flyttet ind i Ridley Scotts film med Matt Damon som dyrker kartofler for at overleve til han bliver hentet igen, nu efter rumekspeditionen har måttet efterlade ham alene på Mars. Den dyrkede grønne plante i drivhuset smager af at være hjemme. De er en gruppe på seks, eller er det otte. Det er dag 223 på forsøgsstationens Marsbosættelse, men der er jo en asfalteret vej hjem, nemlig. Og kan jeg så tro på eksperimentet? Jeg er hos arkitekten som tegner det kommende hus på Mars, jeg er hos hans elektriske blyantspidser og hos hans overbevisning om tegningers skabende evne. Hvor er jeg altså skeptisk, selv astronautens violins country melodi finder jeg for optimistisk. Dog er jeg charmeret.

5

Kampala, Uganda. Huset i træet. Min barndoms evige drøm. Musikerens gennem 15 år. Men så også et færdigt hus inde i kronen og en trappe med repos og gelænder at gå ned ad i festtøj så der kan danses med en smuk kvinde på en veranda med betongulv. Og så tilbage, selvfølgelig, tænker jeg, op ad trappen, som bestemt ikke er en stige, op til Chesterfieldstolen og den brede seng. Et liv i musik og farver, mest grønne. Jeg er altid lykkelig i mit shelter, siger han.

6

Tokyo, Japan. Hun er gadefotograf, en nutidig og japansk Vivian Maier. Hun lever i sit badeværelse som er hendes mørkekammer og værksted og skærm og helle midt i storbyens larmende uoverskuelighed, som hun også her højt oppe fra i sit fotografis poesi skildrer som landskab af skønhed i tyst ro i en uendelig gråtoneskala må det være. Han derimod lever i et kollektiv med andre ligesindede unge undsluppet forældrenes hjem af snæverhed for med vennerne at kaste sig ud i bylivet nede på gaderne og deres støj og lyd og indtryk og nye møder for nu hjemme i kollektivet at spise og sove.

7

Lagos, Nigeria. At bo på havet. Gaderne er kanaler mellem husene på pæle, bilerne er kanoer. Hårkunsten er af særlige grunde vigtig i det så våde offentlige rum. Hjemmet er af bræddevægge. Opslagstavlen er minder fra familielivet i andre hjem tidligere i huse, vel på pæle som svømmede de i havet.

8

Jökulheimar, Island. Udflugt fra parcelhusets plæneklipper til geologernes gamle hus på øen med det øde landskab foran den vigende bræ. Geologen har børnene med. De åbner den gamle gæstebog og finder notatet fra farmorens og farfarens besøg engang for længe siden, da bræen var ganske nær forskningsstationen. De var unge og de byggede sig en dobbeltseng, læser børnene og faren som nu sidder på køjerne med bordet med gæstebogen mellem sig. Der står at de byggede sengen som vel huset før den på den stærkeste fundering. Barnet undrer sig: ville den måske brase sammen?

CITAT

Voll Verdienst, doch dichterisch, / wohnet der Mensch auf dieser Erde… (Friedrich Hölderlin: In lieblicher Bläue, 1808)

Citatets strofe lyder:

Ist unbekannt Gott? Ist er offenbar wie die Himmel?

dieses glaub’ ich eher. Des Menschen Maaß ist’s.

Voll Verdienst, doch dichterisch,

wohnet der Mensch auf dieser Erde. Doch reiner

ist nicht der Schatten der Nacht mit den Sternen,

wenn ich so sagen könnte,

als der Mensch, der heißet ein Bild der Gottheit.

VALG

Jeg vælger mig, skulle jeg genbosætte mig, de fire årstiders fire huse hos rensdyrene i Lapland. Eller jeg vælger mig en bræddehytte i et træ i Uganda med den vidunderlige musiker i nabotræet. Måske er der også en som vil danse med mig på verandaen i en dejlig film som den her, som jeg lige har set. (abn)

Danmark, 2018, 57 min. Havde oprindelig premiere under arkitektfestivalen CAFx’s åbning det år i Grand Teatret i København. 

Beldocs in Progress Awards

The Beldocs festival – in Belgrade – ended yesterday, having run since September 3. I have copy-pasted the following press release regarding awards handed out for documentaries that will be finished this year or in 2021:

During Beldocs in Progress pitching sessions, taking place on 9 September 2020 as a part of Beldocs Industry events, 8 documentary film projects from Croatia, Georgia, Moldova,  Ukraine and Slovenia were presented to a panel of international decision makers – TV broadcasters, sales and distribution companies, festivals, industry platforms and potential co-producers.

The jury consisting of Patrizia Mancini (Sunny Side of the Doc, France) Marek Hovorka (Jihlava IDFF, Czech Republic), Yorgos Krassakopoulos (Thessaloniki IFF/Thessaloniki IDFF, Greece) and Dragan Nikolic (film director, Serbia) decided to give Beldocs Best Project Award for Beldocs in Progress (1000 EUR cash award) to the project Sunny (dir. Keti Machavariani, Georgia). In its motivation for the main prize the jury wrote:

“A quietly affecting portrait not just of its main character, a woman conducting interviews for social research organizations, but also that of a society in flux and it’s changing attitudes and views, Sunny offers a look both inwards and outwards with distinct cinematic style and plenty of humanity.”

The jury also decided to give a Special Mention the documentary film project Funk Yu (director Franko Dujmić, Croatia). The jury was impressed by the the work of the first-time director and in its motivation said:

“Not just an inspired and lively exploration of a niche music subculture that of Yugo-funk, but also a tale of (mild) obsession that also works as a comment on our relationship with material things, told in a distinct visual style, with wit and energy to spare.”

The jury awarded VOD free visibility award by CinesquareVoD platform for movies from the South-eastern European countries to the project The Elf’s Tower (director Polina Kelm, Ukraine). The jury’s motivation for awarding the project says:

“Finding poetry, beauty and tenderness in a rather inhospitable place -that of a mental hospital- The Elf’s Tower creates a highly cinematic view of a facet of the real world and forces us to look into the “other” without prejudice or preconceptions.”

The Institute of Documentary Film (IDF, Czech Republic), one of the Beldocs IDFF partners gave an East Silver Caravan Awardto the project The Elf’s Tower (director Polina Kelm, Ukraine). In its motivation IDF wrote:

“We decided to support the project, which is a very sensitive story destroying all tabus about mental health. A story is uncovering not only the personal life of the main protagonist but it also introduces us to a specific situation and public status of the clients of the mental health institution. We appreciate the director asks difficult questions, seeks understanding and presents it in a very cinematic way.”

https://www.beldocs.rs/en/

Baltic Sea Docs News

 

 

 

 

With that headline Cineuropa sums up the Baltic Sea Docs 2020 mentioning, what has happened at the pitching sessions, that has also been covered on this site, plus brings a resumé of the two conversations with Audrius Stonys and Uldis Cekulis – on top of that Cineuropa has also collected the reviews of the films shown at BSD that the magazine has published, including the interviews made with some of the directors.

The photo shows Antra Gaile, project coordinator of BSD and the project manager Zane Balcus at the award ceremony friday night. Photo taken by Agnese Zeltina.

Read it all on:

https://cineuropa.org/en/nl/did/3668/

Baltic Sea Docs Pitch Day 2

Latvian Masters

One is no longer here, another is alive and kicking: Juris Podnieks and Ivars Seleckis. Names in Latvian and world documentary history. Directors and cameramen who have formed my understanding of what a good documentary is.

“Podnieks on Podnieks” was the first film project to be presented on the second day of the Baltic Sea Docs in Riga. September 4. To be produced by Juris Podnieks Studio, of course, with Juris long time creative collaborator and editor Antra Cilinska as the producer, who has asked feature film director Anna Viduleja to be the director. The couple showed a trailer with photos and footage of the director, with the focus on what most film lovers remember him from, his films depicting the fall of the Empire – and with the shocking scene, where his cameraman Andris Slapins was killed in Riga during a Soviet sniper coup in 1991.

Later that day Ivars Seleckis pitched – together with the Mistrus Media that 

also produced his wonderful “To Be Continued” about Latvian children – “The Land”. Seleckis has already made three films from the countryside, he himself lived his first 10 years in the countryside, and his trailer starts with footage from the previous films followed by material from the new film about farmers in nowadays Latvia. The film is shot, editing is going on. “Is it going to be critical”, one of the panelists asked the director. “No, my film is about Life”!

Ukrainian Talents

Awards were given at the end of the Baltic Sea Docs. Two out of four went to Ukranian young female directors. “Diary of a Bride of Christ” is directed by Marta Smerechynska, who started filming “when her sister, at 13, decided to become a nun…”. She, the director, tried to stop her. In vain. Now she is filming her in the monestary, and other smiling and engaged nuns. The trailer shown was full of joy and emotions, and it helped the young director to have experienced Natalia Libet at her side as the producer and promoter of the film.

The second Ukrainian talent awarded was Taisilia Kutuzova, whose “Shut the Fuck Up!” I met years ago in Kiev. A short film was made but the director cleverly continued to follow the teenager Serheyi, who lives in Hatne near Kiev, where he is fighting against corruption in the local community. He is asked to, the title, to shut up, is physically attacked by a politician – and has now, 20 year old, decided to run for office, i.e. a seat in the local council. To happen, the local elections, in October. French producer and journalist Stephane Siohan, likving in Ukraine, helps the director and made a clever introduction at the verbal pitch by letting us understand that the new president of the country, Zelinski, is totally running away from his promises when elected, to fight corruption. 

There is a lot of good things happening in Ukrainian documentary…

…and in Georgia

… where the project „Sunny“ comes from, a warm and interesting insight to (a part of) Georgian society through Sunny, „a 59 year old sociologist“ who knocks on doors to come into people’s homes to ask questions. About materialistic things (do you have a washing machine, internet etc.) but also politics, faith, homosexuality… The film to be has a joyful atmosphere – written by Tsiana Khundadze and directed by Keti Machavariani. Together with Nato Sikharulidze they formed an equally joyful trio on the zoom screen. It helps when a film project is presented with a smile!

“Atonal Glow” was presented by Alexander Koridze, who I as the moderator took the liberty to say looks like the American actor who played the main role in Mad Men. The film he pitched is the amazing story about a 10 year old boy Tsotne, who composes music and plays on the stage – a new Mozart? His grandmother is his musical mentor, herself a well-known piano teacher, he lives with her and his sister, their mother died young, but now the father wants the children to live with him – a court case is coming up that “radically might change Tsotne’s future if the court rules in favour of the father”. Koridze is the director and producer of the film.

Belarus…

“Courage”, “For 15 years an underground theatre in Minsk has been proving that artistic freedom in authoritarian regime is possible. But at what cost?” is how the catalogue description is on the site of Baltic Sea Docs. Since then the situation in Minsk has turned into one big demonstration against Lukashenko, a cry for freedom also from the side of the actors of the theatre group. The director of the film. Aliaksei Paluyan was during the week in Minsk for two of the demonstrations to film, bringing back material to Germany to his German producer Jörn Möllenkamp. I am sure that talented Paluyan will make a good and timely documentary.

 Precisely the reason for Current Time TV – with the always supporting Kenan Aliyev and Natalia Arshavskaya gave their 2000$ award to “Courage”.

Russian Militarism

Finally to mention is “The Trans Syrian Express » by Alina Rudnitskaya, who has been to the Forum several times with her documentaries. The militarism in the Russian society caught through the bizarre exhibition of the Russian “success” in Syria: “Organised by the Ministry of Defence and by the personal order of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the train exhibition “Syrian Breakthrough” transports the spoils of war from Syria around the country. The train stopped at all the major cities in Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok, from Vladivostok to Murmansk and then back again to Moscow. 62 cities in all.” Finnish producer Pertti Veijalainen and Polish Dorota Roszkowska will find the funding for the film, that was presented with an excellent trailer. The film was awarded with post-production facilities from Latvian BB Post House.

I asked Current Time TV’s Kenan how much they would give to the film… Nothing he said, Alina Rudnitskaya starts as a commissioner in our team in Prague. No conflict of interest wanted! Of course not and good luck to Alina – but finish your film, please!

http://balticseadocs.lv/industry/selected-projects-2020/