Viktor Kossakovsky Opens DocsBarcelona

Full house, of course, for the opening screening of “Aquarela” by Viktor Kossakovsky, who was there on stage answering a few questions, asking his first assistant director and editor on the film, Ainara Vera, to come to the stage and receive an applause for her contribution to the film, a fine gesture from the side of the Russian director.

The director of the festival Joan Gonzalez welcomed Kossakovsky with some Russian phrases and Roger de Gràcia, toastmaster for DocsBarcelona opening and closing ceremonies, created a fine atmosphere in the cinema playing with the colours of the festival: Green for Nature (many films), Yellow for Politics (several films) and Red for Women (many female directors and films about women). Political correct, yes, but conveyed in an unpretentious manner.

Back to Kossakovsky, who has been closely followed on this site. Colleague Allan Berg has made “Collected Posts on Viktor Kossakovsky”:

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4425/

and if you want to read the review of “Aquarela”: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4408/

http://www.docsbarcelona.com/en/

EDN Bylaws Violated – Action Needed/2

First there was this one – http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4530/ – “EDN Bylaws Violated…”

Then there was a letter from the (self-appointed) interim director Flore Deroose sent to EDN members via EDN Admin System, if you did not get it, ask her on flore@edn.network

Then there was this response to what the interim director wrote from my former EDN colleague at the time, where EDN was built up, Cecilia Lidin:

In response to the email sent by interim director Flore Deroose (that incidentally unfortunately did not reach all EDN members) the following issues were not correctly explained: It was not one member that stepped down, it was the whole board. Jan Riemen’s election as Chair was an interim measure, the rest of the new board was not appointed by the former board.

Jan Rofekamp was not in the former board (and not in the first board after the old board stepped down) and is therefore not a ‘remaining member’.
The wording in §7 ‘If a member of the Board during a term decides to step down, the remaining members of the Board may continue with a minimum of three members to act as a transitional until the next General Assembly’ is therefore no valid.

Furthermore the following issues were not addressed :

For a period there were only two board members.

‘The board may appoint an Executive director from outside the board’ §8, so Flore Deroose cannot be part of the board.

Three out of four members of the board needs to come from different countries.

Moving the office is against §1.

The termination of the old staff members contracts was executed by Paul Pauwels but while Jan Riemens was head of the board. As far as we know only one from the previous staff has a new contract with EDN, and this is one that is not working with content.

The main argument seems to be that an extreme situation called for extreme measures. But this is unacceptable. With a management (and I maintain that they are self-installed) that acts in total disrespect to the associations by-laws, how on earth can we trust that they work in the best interest of the paying members? And besides, what they are doing is basically against the law…

DocsBarcelona – Festival

Yes, it is tonight that DocsBarcelona opens with the screening of “Aquarela” by Viktor Kossakovsky, a dear friend of the festival and a true master of cinema. The festival runs until the 25th with films in the CCCB, cultural centre, and in the Aribau Cinema. After being in airplanes for six hours travelling from Tbilisi in Georgia, I reached Barcelona last night ready to introduce and talk with some of the 25 directors, who will be attending. First nice challenge is to have a talk with Kossakovsky tomorrow at the CCCB Theatre at 19.30.

As you have seen on the FB link, I had a haircut and a shave in Tbilisi for CinéDoc festival and DocsBarcelona.

Click below to see the good programme we have put together.

www.docsbarcelona.com

Winners of CinéDOC-Tbilisi 2019

International Competition

Best Film –The Disappearance of My Mother (Photo) – by Beniamino Barrese

Jury statement – “This film openly talks about respect, dignity, beauty and honesty. The film makes us think about how we treat privacy and who has the right to use it, which is a very important question for any documentary film. An emotional insight into a relationship between mother and son.”

Beniamino Barrese, Director of The Disappearance of My Mother – “A million times thank you for this great uplifting warming cinematic and human experience. It was so great! Looking forward to meet you all again and hopefully share more cinematic and human experience… We are full of the beauty of the last days, travelling to Poland. I haven’t seen my mum so happy for a while and I’m so thankful of that to you all.”

Current Time TV Award – My father is My Mother’s Bother” by Vadim Ilkov

Kenan Alyiev, Executive Editor of Current Times TV – “The award goes to My Father is My Mother’s Brother by Vadim Ilkov. In this touching and intimate documentary the director shows the fragility of parental bonds, and the mystery that imbues the relationship between a child and an underground artist in a family struggling for happiness and normality. With this award we recognize the power of the director to speak about current realities with an artistic approach, and the deep understanding he brings to the characters.”

Special Jury Mention – Honeyland by Lubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska

Jury Statement–“Exceptional images in a simple story that opens many

philosophical issues. By observing small insects who have incredible ability of collaboration we discover the greed of our society. If everyone could take away half of what they need the world would be a better place…”

Focus Caucasus Competition

Best Film – Wound by Arthur Sukiasyan

Jury statement–“For its superb cinematic qualities in every scene, for its rhythm and balance and focus on humans who live in a place, where time seems to stand still, the jury has decided to award as the best film in the Focus Caucasus section Wound by Arthur Sukiasyan.”

Georgian Public Broadcaster Award – Before Father Gets Back by Mari Gulbiani

Jury statement –“For its warm cinematically skilful portray of two girls, who survive everyday troubles through love and phantasy, for bringing up a current theme in the world of today, the jury has decided to award Before Father Gets Back by Mari Gulbiani.”

Special Jury Mention – A Life of Her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze –“For precisely, with beauty and solidarity, conveying the life of a woman full of energy and will to have a good life on her own, the jury has decided to give a special honorary mention to A Life of her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze.”

MAC Georgia-Shuki Movida Award – A Life of Her Own by Tamara Mshvenieradze

MAC Georgia Shuki Movida Statement–“All three films in this category – A Fear of the Past, A Life of her Own, and In the Land of Wolves, evidenced strong technical skill and offered the audience meaningful insights into life with a disability. For its skilled and sincere telling of Nunuka’s courageous steps towards overcoming challenges and establishing a life that is independent, we are pleased to give this year’s award to Tamara Mshvenieradze’s film A Life of Her Own.”

CinéDOC- Young (audience award – by children)

Best Film–Life is a beach by Jens Pedersen

Civil Pitch 2019 Awards

Production Award (USD 3000) – Missing My Body – The Georgian Center for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) – Nino Chimakadze and Alexander Kvatashidze

Jury Statement– “The production award is given to a project revealing the hidden sorrow of many Georgian families, told in a very original cinematographic way, adding different layers to the story.”

Development Award (USD 500) –Identity in Process – New Vector, Mariam Jibuti and Nino Memanishvili

Jury Statement – “Identity in Process is a special project for opening up a pressing issue in Georgian society, through a character who is looking for a hope in difficult circumstances.”

Current Time TV Award (1000 USD)–Vitali – Center for Participation and Development-Tamar Kapanadze and Keti Gigashvili

Kenan Alyiev, Executive Editor of Current Times TV – “The award the Civil Pitch the project with the title – Vitali. This is a Georgian project by Tamar Kapanadze and Keti Gigashvili that explores the rise of far-right extremism in Georgia. We hope the film helps people confront the rise of extremism, and its terrifying implications for Georgian democracy. This film is dedicated to Vitali, and Georgians need to know his story.”

New Talents Caucasus Awards

Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries Award –Ever Since I Know Myself, Maka Gogaladze

The Author of the project will participate at the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries held in Riga, Latvia, in September 3-7, 2019

Zane Balcus, Pitching Forum Representative of Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries –“For a poetical and personal, memory driven story connecting past and present in an original, and visually complex form.”

Current Time TV Award (USD 1000)–Mothers, Sons and Homeland Leyli Gafarova

Sergei Trofimov – Acquisition and Commissioning Manager of Current Time TV– “The film uses the stories of two families, two mothers and their sons, to try and understand a country still living between peace and war. Current Time always supports new talent, new voices, from some of the most difficult places, and today we are very proud to recognize Leyli Gafarova, this new talent from Azerbaijan.”

Eurasiadoc Awards –

Beauty and the Lawyer by Hovhannes Ishkhanian

and

Cadillac Dreams by Elene Mikaberidze

Mariam Chachia, Representative of Eurasiadoc– Eurasiadoc is a French programme which helps documentary filmmakers to transform their ideas to the films. This year Eurasiadoc is awarding prizes for one Georgian and one Armenian filmmaker. These authors will have the possibility to attend two weeks scriptwriting residency and develop their projects with EurasiaDoc trainers. Two brave projects grabbed our attention. They tell us stories about the fight for freedom. Even though the characters of the projects are totally different from each other, all of them choose to fight for equality and they try to break down the boarders which are made by humans. The prizes of Eurasiadoc 2019 for the Georgian residency goes to the project Cadillac Dreams by Elene Mikaberidze. The prize for Eurasiadoc 2019 for the Armenian residency goes to the project Beauty and the Lawyer by Hovhannes Ishkhanyan.”

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com

Arthur Sukiasyan: Wound

Csilla Kato, member of the Caucasus Jury at Cinédoc Tbilisi wrote this longer version of motivation for the winner:

Earthquake shakes our basic security feeling and the basic assumption, belief, that we can accommodate comfortable life on a supporting and peaceful earth.

Wound brings us into a human world where the Armenian earthquake stricken town people integrated this experience of living with open wounds of earthquake tragedy for a long run.

It is a state of being that can be spiritually rewarding, as one of the protagonists states, referring to the example of Job from Bible.The film builds up a special time world, with the slowly changing rhythm of the sequences, long takes with still images, as well as the rhythm of the movement of the people in the film. The jury appreciated the craft of minimalist cinema used by Arthur Sukiasyan, through which he succeeds to evoke the state of being of people on the edge of existence.

Armenia, 2019, 25 mins.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

Civil Pitch Tbilisi 2019

10 projects were part of the Civil Pitch in Tbilisi, one of the activities of the Industry section of Cinédoc Tbilisi festival in the capital of Georgia.

After a couple of days of training led by Daniel Abma and Brigid O’Shea, both from the DOKLeipzig, the NGO representatives and filmmakers were ready to present their projects to a panel including representatives from IDFA Bertha Fund, Baltic Sea Docs, Current Time TV, Golden Apricot Festival in Jerevan, One World Festival in Prague, DOK Leipzig…

The idea of the Civil Pitch is great: The NGO’s bring the subjects, the filmmakers the film skills. More or less, because many of the filmmakers were quite young and unexperienced – learning by doing.

They all did a good presentation, verbally, with passion and enthusiasm, more difficult with the visuals – the trailers/teasers – as many of the projects were very young as the filmmakers. What impressed me was the quality of language skills and that the NGO’s and filmmakers matched each other in a way that I sometimes had difficulties in understanding, who is who.

For me, who had the pleasure of moderating the session, the Civil Pitch gives me a fine inside to the troubles of the country, the issues needed to be discussed – like transgender, to be a young activist, to have lost a son in the war, people with disabilities, hate groups, pollution (yes, it’s terrible on the Rustaveli Boulevard) and North Ossetia that is a melting point of different cultures, the Ossetian, the Georgian and the Russian. Not to forget a project about a silent monk worshipped by thousands of people outside the official religious circles.

The venue – as previous years – was at the Open Society Georgia Foundation. Great hosts.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/

Klip vedrørende KLIPPEARBEJDE

STANLEY KUBRICK

Let no one forget this essential fact: ”Editing is the only unique aspect of filmmaking which doesnot resemble any other art form – a point so important it cannot be overstressed… It can make or break a film.” (Glem ikke denne væsentlige kendsgerning: “Klipning er det eneste unikke ved filmproduktion, som ikke ligner nogen anden kunstart – det er så vigtigt, at det ikke kan understreges nok… den kan skabe eller ødelægge en film.”

Still ovenfor: Stanley Kubrick: Eyes Wide Shut, 1999.

HENRIK VEILEBORG

Man ved nogenlunde godt, at vi gerne vil lave en film, som undersøger embedsmandsværket, hvordan foregår det egentlig, når nogle lovprocesser i Folketinget, blam, blam, blam? Hvordan er rundgangen, hvad sker der, hvad skal der til? Det ved vi sådan nogenlunde godt. Vi laver research, vi er meget optaget af at finde ud af, hvordan kommunikationsvejene er, af hvem, der bærer hvad hvorhen. Hvad sker der? Vi har øje for personer, fordi vi tænker: hov, hov, hov, vi er jo nødt til at få fat i nogen personer til vores B-niveau. På vores niveau her skal finde nogen personer, hvor vi kan investere noget identifikation. Nogen, vi ligesom kan holde med, nogen, som vi synes er nogen helte, som har en god sag. Og så nogen, som er modstandere. Der skal foregå noget. Måske er det to embedsmænd, som begge konkurrerer lidt om blive forfremmet, om at få den samme post. Det er sgu en meget spændende historie, lad os lige holde et særligt øje med, om der sker noget der…

Altså vi har ikke rigtig nogen sådan historie, vi ved ikke rigtig, hvad det er for en proces, der eventuelt kunne bære det der. Er der noget, der stærkt nok fremdrift i, som kan sørge for, at vi kan strukturere vores film?

Og i øvrigt, når der så er det, kan vi så overhovedet på nogen som helst måde lave en konstruktion, hvor niveauerne kommer til at spille sammen på en fornuftig måde? Det hjælper ikke noget, hvis vores personhistorie må fortælles først for at give mening, og så er den afviklet, og så kan en proceshistorie starte bagefter, og så falder det hele fra hinanden. Det skal netop spille samtidig, det hele.

Og det arbejde med dokumentarfilm indebærer, at man kan researche meget med en særlig årvågenhed, man kan være nysgerrig, man kan en masse ting, men hele det manuskriptarbejde, som for fiktionsfilmen ligger ved skrivebordet, det ligger for dokumentarfilmen i klippebordet bagefter, og jeg vil sige, det er utroligt, hvad man kan i et klippebord…

Still: Ulla Boye Rasmussen, instruktør og Henrik Veileborg, producer: Thors Saga, 2011

JOAN RANG CHRISTENSEN

Den vestlige verdens historiefortælling benytter i dag næsten udelukkende den kompositionsmodel, der hedder lineær dramaturgi. (Måske har du hørt om ”Berettermodellen” og ”Hollywoodmodellen”? Det er dem, jeg mener). Det betyder, at når vi laver film og teaterstykker, sætter vi vores historier sammen efter et bestemt forløb og med på forhånd definerede funktioner for rollerne. Modellen er effektiv, men når den rykker fra fiktionen og ind i den politiske tænkning, i vores verdensforståelse, bliver det farligt…

Hele modellen er koncentreret om konflikt. En konfliktfyldt situation, hvis eneste opgave er at udvikle sig, blive værre og værre og escalere ud i det uendelige. Indtil et klimaks opløser situationen. Så er historien slut, og en ny efter samme konflikthungrende struktur kan begynde…

Uden vi rigtigt er bevidste om det, begynder vi at tænke i modstande, hvis formål først og fremmest er at være i konflikt med hinanden – i en evig konfliktdans. Vi tænker i helte- og fjendebilleder, i ondskab og godhed, og det bliver fundamentet for vores forståelse af hinanden…

Foto: Joan Bang Christensen: I nat kommer krigen hjem, Teatret ved Sorte Hest frem til 11. maj 2019  

LINKS & LITT.

American Cinema Editors (ACE) Facebook side, 28. april 2019, oversættelse TSM. Stanley Kubrick citatet.

www.facebook.com/ACEFilmEditors/ 

ACE´s Facebookside har en diskussionstråd om hvorvidt musikproduktion og lydarbejde ikke i ét og alt ligner klippearbejdet)

Michel Chion: Eyes Wide Shut, analyse af denne, Kubricks sidste film, BFI, 2002

Henrik Veileborg: Filmfortælling, foredrag om filmdramaturgi trykt i Dansk Tidsskrift for Museumsformidling nr. 27, 2007, side 84-94.

Joan Rang Christensen: Det skal være slut med Hollywood-dramaturgiens fremstilling af et ”os” og et ”dem”, kronik i Information 20. april 2019.

Nicolas Philibert in Tbilisi

After the screening of a beautiful 2018 restored copy of “Etre et Avoir”, the film by Nicolas Philibert, that he made in 2001 to be premiered in 2002, to be an amazing audience success in cinemas in France, 2 mio. spectators (!) and elsewhere – a conversation (see photo taken by Georgian film director Nino Orjonikidze) took place at the Cinédoc festival in Tbilisi between Philibert and me. One hour of talk with a master about the film just shown and about filmmaking as Philibert sees it after having been making documentaries since the mid of the 1970’es.

He is such a generous and thoughtful cinéaste which is easy to see if you know (some of) his films, let me just mention wonderful films like ”Nénette” (the orangutang who is soon celebrating her 50th birthday!), ”Every Little Thing”, ”La Maison de la Radio”, ”In the Land of the Deaf”, ”Louvre City”…

The conversation was recorded and will later be found on the site of the festival.

When my wife and I saw the film the first time, in 2003 I think is was, we were talking about the film and the method, the pedagogics of the teacher, now 15 years later we were talking mostly about the children in the film, who enter the school for the first time as do “our” grandchildren back in Copenhagen. Oh, childhood… and thanks for conveying all these magic and poetic moments of curiosity and innocence to us, monsieur Philibert!

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com/ 

EDN Bylaws Violated – Action Needed

Calling all EDN members!!
It has come to our attention that dramatic changes have happened within the EDN organization – and as the members have not been notified, we hereby take it upon ourselves to point out a number of actions that are in direct violation of the EDN By Laws.

In § 6 of the EDN By Laws it is stated ‘The General Assembly annually elects the Board from candidates suggested by the sitting Board of the Association’.
The current board has not been elected by the members.

According to the EDN website the current board consists of 3 members – where 2 of them resides in Holland . 
According to the EDN By Laws, no less than 3 out of 4 members of the board must reside in DIFFERENT European countries.

The EDN office is in the process of moving from Copenhagen to Amsterdam.
In the EDN By Laws it is stated in §1 that ‘The association has its principal place of business in Copenhagen, Denmark with the right of having offices in different places elsewhere in Europe.’ To change this it needs to be brought to a vote amongst the members. Again, this has not happened.

Finally, we understand that all the EDN staff members that have worked with content at EDN, will stop during this summer.

Why have the EDN members not been informed of the abovementioned actions, and by this been stripped of our democratic rights as EDN members to vote on such essential issues? With this total lack of transparency, how can we as members trust that EDN as an organization represents the values and the needs of the members that for many years have supported the organization and its goals faithfully?

We call to action among all EDN members to make it clear to the new management of EDN, that nothing less than total transparency and democracy within a membership organization is acceptable, and violation of this should have grave consequences.

Expressing our deepest concern

Joan Gonzalez, Docs Barcelona/ Parallel 40, Claire Aguilar and Simon Kilmurry, IDA, Uldis Cekulis, VFS FILMS, Lelda Ozola, Baltic Sea Forum, Orwa Nyrabia, IDFA, Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen, IDFATor Vadseth, Anita Reher, Gitte Hansen, Iikka Vehkalahti, Tue Steen Müller, Ivana Pauerova Milosevic, Filip Remunda and Tereza Horska IDF, Emma Davie, Scottish Documentary Institute, Diana El Jeiroudi, Cecilia Lidin

CinéDOC-Tbilisi Opened Last Night

… in the Capital of Georgia. It was an unpretentious presentation with two skilled presenters and – unlike many international festivals – it happened in both Georgian and English language. With clips from all competitive sections (for the young, the Caucasus and the international competition) and from the Red Soul section that includes films by Vitaly Mansky, Dziga Vertov, Werner Herzog and others. A small section consequently includes a Red Soul Party with vodka, beer and Soviet food! Tonight. I am happy, see the photo, to be in the Caucasus jury, with Kenan Aliyev and Csilla Kato. Aliyev works with Current Time TV, that is sponsoring 3 awards at the festival (Intl. competition, Civil Doc and New Talent presentation), the channel is truly supporting new film people here and in other parts of Eastern Europe, bravo for that. Csilla Kato is from the reputed Astra Film festival in Sibiu in Romania. Which has been written about several times on this site – here is one of the links: http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4372/

The opening film was “Honeyland”, full house in the cinema for this masterpiece from North Macedonia. If you want to know more about that film, use the “search” and you will get there. Has been praised numerous times on this site.

http://www.cinedoc-tbilisi.com