Helena Třeštiková: My Top 10

More documentary film history… chapeau for DOKLeipzig and IDFA that both festivals (more than before?) look back and not “only” take the temperature of what’s new in the documentary world. Here some words on the selection done by Czech documentary superstar (she will hate that I call her so!) Helena Třeštiková, who has been asked by IDFA to make her Top 10. The link below brings you to her article about the choice, she made, personal and with this wonderful quote by Věra Chytilová, whose film from 1963 “Something Different” is on the list: ““A film should have truth, aesthetics, intellect, feeling and a belief, because film should be true, exciting, necessary, beautiful and full of hope”.

 

Of course there must be a film by Milos Forman, “The Firemen’s Ball” (1967), and I loved her choice of Georges Rouquier, “Farrebique – The Four Seasons” from 1946, farmers in France; we had this gem in the catalogue of Statens Filmcentral (National Film Board of Denmark), no objection either to have “The Seine Meets Paris” (1957) by Ivens and Jacques Prévert, and Třeštiková reminds us about Havel, when she writes about “Citizen Havel”:

In 1992, I was present for the historic meeting where director Pavel Koutecký told then-president Václav Havel that he would like to follow him with a camera for 10 years. Havel agreed, thus clearing the way for one of the most noteworthy long-term film projects whose protagonist was a politician in office. Havel was extraordinary in many ways: originally a dramatist, then a dissident, prisoner, and after the revolution a president. He allows himself to be filmed in situations where other politicians would immediately shoo a filmmaker off. But he gives Koutecký and his crew his full trust. Part of the agreement was that the film would only be released five years after the president’s term in office. But the director tragically died just as the film was in its final stage, and it was completed by his colleague, Miroslav Janek, in 2007. I think that no one will ever make such an open film about a politician and his times again…

I think I have seen that film 10 times at least.

Having met Helena Třeštiková several times, including fine talks at the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade, I know how much, she cares about the protagonists, she has been filming over many years. The ethical question is raised by her in connection with her taking “First Love” (1974) by Kieślowski on her list. The Polish master follows over a year a young couple expecting a child but refrains from continuing afraid of how the filming would influence the lives of the couple. Whereas Třeštiková continued following a family for 37 years in the film that became the masterpiece “Private Universe”. OBS: If you are not going to IDFA, the films of Helena Třeštiková  can be found on

https://dafilms.com/director/167-helena-trestikova

She ends up with a very well deserved tribute to Slovak Peter Kerekes and his “66 Seasons” (2003), I agree when she writes “I consider this a beautiful example of inventiveness in filmmaking, imaginativeness in direction and walking a tight rope in editing. For me, it is something of a textbook for the opportunities of using film language in a documentary.”

 https://www.idfa.nl/en/article/101983/helena-on-her-top-10

Jonas Mekas on DocAlliance

 

I hurry to give you this news from Prague, where the excellent online cinema of DocAlliance keeps on offering film lovers high quality retrospectives into film history – to a very low price:

We present an extensive retrospective of Jonas Mekas, 95-year-old director straddled between Europe and the US, documentary and the avant-garde. Discover the work of the Lithuanian-American director, poet and visual artist often called the godfather of American avant-garde cinema and founder of the diary genre in documentary film.

The collection includes a cross-section of the works by Jonas Mekas which often follow a personal line. We present 13 films altogether, including The Brig about a Marine Corps jail in Japan. Following a day in the life of the inmates, the ultra-realistic film captures the tough treatment and shocking ways of physical and mental humiliation. The film won the Grand Prix at Venice Film Festival in 1964. This Side of Paradise follows the Kennedy family after the death of JFK. Jackie Kennedy decided to distract the children and hired Mekas as a film chronicler. The director spent several summer holidays at the house of Andy Warhol with the family, making a very personal film with a touch of home video and deep friendship which gradually emerged between him and the family. Made in diary style, Williamsburg, Brooklyn shows the neighborhood where Mekas settled after his arrival in the US; most of the scenes were shot between 1948 and 1951 and show the everyday life and little stories from the streets of New York. The film was screened at IFF Rotterdam.

https://dafilms.com/program/671-retrospective-jonas-mekas

Hampus Linder: Feministen

Politik er så forsigtig og strømlinet i dag, og Gudrun Schyman skiller sig ud. Hun er helt åben om, at hun har lavet fejl, hvilket gør hende til et menneske…

TV-KUNST

Jeg ser Hampus Linders biografiske film om den svenske politiker som et tv-program, ja, det fremtræder det faktisk som, det vil det være et interessant og seværdigt program med en kamerastil i fortællelagets reportage som i internationale tv-dokumentarer, altså ændret, distanceret siden den nærværende og intenst observerende kamerabrug fra helt tilbage til Richard Leacock mere og mere er forsvundet fra nye og unge produktioner (dog endnu bevaret hos få gamle mestre) uden egentlig at blive erstattet af en ny tv-kunst holdning. I dokumentarfilmene er samtidig dette klassiske direct cinema mere og mere afløst af et filmfotografi som henter sin erfaring fra spillefilmens omhyggeligt komponerede billede og lange forløb af arrangerede og instruerede scener. Og det derimod med en lige så omfattende filmkunstnerisk fordybelse, som jeg venter af spillefilmene.

Begge disse greb har Hampus Linder givet sig i kast med i sit arbejde med Schymanbiografien og for mig at se i kast med at definere en nutidig tv-kunst. Men jeg synes ikke det rigtigt helt er lykkedes, der er hverken spillefilmens myndige ro eller det gamle observerende kameras nærvær, dristighed, opdagelsestrang og iagttagelsesivers udvidelser af indsigten. Jeg mærker det især i reportageoptagelserne fra de mange politiske møder og demonstrationer.

Nogle scener lykkes for mig at se meget bedre i deres anderledes koncentrerede gammeldags filmambition: scenen med Gudrun Schyman og datteren i en tilbageskuende samtale, som Hampus Linder selv har fotograferet og scenerne med hendes tidligere mand, filminstruktøren Lars Westman, som er fine og tydelige klip fra to af hans film fra 1990-erne i en noget dristigere æstetik. De scener griber for alvor ned i mine følelser og rører ved smertende, men ellers ofte fortrængte erindringer. Her er Hampus Linder i sin professionelt seriøse TV-kunst ganske nær Lasse Wästmans personligt åbne filmkunst, som så smukt svarer til Gudrun Schymans undersøgelser og formuleringer, hendes enestående politiske arbejde.

MIKROPORT

Hampus Linder vil i sin nye filmambition, som vil aktualitet og samfundsdebat, bevare den gamle ambition om fordybelse, han skriver: ”Jeg mødte Gudrun Schyman, da jeg filmede hende under valgkampen i 2014, og der fødtes idéen om at lave en hel film om hende. Gudrun sagde ja til det, ’så længe du ikke er i vejen’. Det fortrolighedsforhold og den åbenhed, vi har fået fra Gudrun, har overrasket mig. Vi har fået lov til at være med hende på job, på rejser og privat. Jeg satte en trådløs mikrofon på hende om morgenen, og så glemte hun i princippet alt om mig. Jeg synes, Gudrun er en spændende karakter. Politik er så forsigtig og strømlinet i dag, og Gudrun skiller sig ud. Hun er helt åben om, at hun har lavet fejl, hvilket gør hende til et menneske og ikke en maskine. Under arbejdet med filmen ville jeg forstå, hvad der har formet og driver en person som Gudrun Schyman.”

Netop på denne glemte mikrofons indsigt bygger den usædvanlige kvinde sin gennemførte monolog, ofte i dialogform, men det er kun hende jeg hører, for her findes sammenhængen, så mit indtryk fæstnes ved noget overmåde værdifuldt og uforglemmekigt: hvilket flot og klogt og smukt menneske! Hvilken vidunderlig politisk sammenhængskraft og overbevisende nydannende styrke i en slags poetisk verdensanskuelse. Her er filmens egentlige fortælling, her er dens berettigelse som vigtigt dokument nu i det aktuelle, men især i den politiske historie langt tilbage, som Gudrun Schyman taler så smukt om, så overbevisende om.

Her er filmens alternative fortælling, her den dens berettigelse som uomgængeligt dokument at bevare i samme historie som kildeskrift, og her er dens værdi og egentlige aktualitet i de store politiske valg, udsatte menneskers flugt fra den rige verdens krige, kvinders oprør mod de dominerende mænds poliiske kultur og emtionelle brutalitet. Jeg ser tv, når jeg ser den her film, godt og seværdigt tv.

Men i det er mødet med Gudrun Schyman vigtigere for mig end filmens redegørelse er. Redegørelsen vil fortone sig i debatten nu, mødet vil fæstne sig i erindringen. Og frem for filmens danske titel Feministen vælger jeg dens originale overskrift Gudrun, ganske enkel og derfor uendelig rig til alle tider.

SYNOPSIS

En film om et feministisk ikon og et på én gang stærkt og skrøbeligt kvindeliv. Gudrun Schyman har ofte befundet sig i stormens øje. I 1993 blev hun partileder for Vänsterpartiet i Sverige, som hun sikrede det bedste valgresultat nogensinde. 10 år senere måtte hun gå af i utide under stor dramatik. Herefter dannede hun Feministisk Initiativ, som startede som en bevægelse og blev et parti, der nu har afdelinger over hele landet, søsterpartier i Danmark, Norge og Finland og en plads i Europa parlamentet.

Schyman er for længst skrevet ind i historiebøgerne og er i dag et ikon for svensk feminisme. Men vejen dertil har ikke bare været lang, men også fuld af alverdens forhindringer, hvor hendes egne dæmoner er nogle af de største. Vi får et indblik i det, der har formet Gudrun Schyman blandt andet en opvækst med en alkoholiseret far og hendes voksende problemer med at få den private person og den offentlige person til at mødes.

Filmen følger hende over 4 år i en periode (2014-2018), hvor fremgangen for Feministisk Initiativ, og Schymans appel bliver en del af det store billede af den kvindebevægelse, der vokser verden over og får sit største udtryk gennem Women’s March og #Metoo. (Lene Pia Madsen i pressematerialet)

http://doxbio.dk/movie-archive/feministen/ (Biografpremiere på onsdag 3. oktober)

Shevaun Mizrahi: Distant Constellation

You can’t see the wind a four year old family member said the other day.

Right she is. But you can hear it. And it can be part of a very excellent sound design as it is in this debut documentary film that I was happy to watch, having missed it in a couple of festivals, the last one Message2Man in St.Petersburg, where it received an award.

Music is an important part of the film of Shevaun Mizrahi. Within the walls of the house for old people, where the film is shot and where music forms a discreet background for scenes, creating atmosphere.

The atmosphere of the constant waiting the old people experience; those you can’t help loving from start till end. The old woman who comes from Armenia and remembers how her family had to change their names when they took home in Turkey. The old photographer (on the photo) who is almost blind and is repeating his sentences again and again. The charmeur who plays piano, reads an erotic text and asks the director if they should marry, “I need someone in my life”. And others.

They are on the edge of leaving Life with their memories in a dark film with bright absurd moments like the conversations in an elevator between the two old men, who go up and down talking to each other, hilarious it is, yes it reminds me of Beckett.

And outside there are construction workers, who are not from Turkey, who get out of their beds in poor container homes to go to work to earn money to send home. It looks like it is just outside the old people’s retirement home – it’s not important, for the old people it is another world than the one they lived in when younger.

A first film, a debut – bravo, a mature documentary film with many layers, visually with more interpretation than information, beautiful to watch, full of details, you see that the director, who is also the camerawoman was there for more than just a visit. Next film, please!    

Turkey, 82 mins., 2017

Guevara Namer Barcelona Photo

This is the second – and it will not be the last – time that we bring a photo taken by talented Guevara Namer. The first one was here

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/3349/

from the Damascus where Guevara lived and was part of the team behind the DOXBox festival’s four editions. A couple of weeks ago I met her again. She was pitching a project in Riga together with German Antonia Kilian, very succesful pitch, read

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4342/

DOKLeipzig New Section: Late Harvest

The festival in Leipzig works apparently according to film editing rules: Don’t give all the information up front, give it piece by piece. The official programme is not announced yet but the festival introduces a new section called Late Harvest. Read all about it in the press release:

In anticipation of announcing of the complete Official Selection for DOK Leipzig 2018, we give a little taste of what you can expect at this year’s edition. In introducing the new programme section LATE HARVEST, we aim to draw attention to important films from the current season, works which have managed to capture the cinematic and political spirit of this year – by winning awards at other festivals, serving as catalysts for heated debate, or making echoing contributions to social and cinematographic discourses which complement and enhance DOK Leipzig’s themes and perspectives…

Adina Pintilie’s intimate act of transgression Touch Me Not, Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlinale, is a prime example of the new section’s mission in action, as well as Barbara Miller’s #Female Pleasure, a film about women struggling to approach sexuality on their own terms, is also right at home here. The inaugural edition of LATE HARVEST also features Victor Kossakovsky’s most recent film Aquarela, fresh from a successful premiere in Venice. The Russian documentarian’s immersive new work is a meditation on the transformative beauty and raw power of water. Rounding off the programme for the new section is Vitaly Mansky’s revealing documentary Putin’s Witnesses that takes a look back at the dawn of the new millennium, as an ascendant Vladimir Putin was first assuming power in Russia.

The filmmakers will all attend the festival in Leipzig to present their works. Victor Kossakovsky, Romanian director Adina Pintilie and renowned Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky will speak about their recent films and their views on filmmaking in the new film talk series Meet the Filmmakers. Finally, Barbara Miller will take part in an extensive Q&A immediately following the screening of her film #Female Pleasure. You’ll find all screening dates and more information on the talks on 10 October on our website when the Official Selection for the 61st edition of DOK Leipzig will be announced.

https://www.dok-leipzig.de/en/dok/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018

IDFA – Dziga Vertov

 A mail arrived from IDFA announcing quite a film historical event as part of the festival: “You are cordially invited to the IDFA 2018 world premiere of Dziga Vertov’s recently found and restored film, The Anniversary of the Revolution. Possibly the first feature-length documentary film ever made, The Anniversary of the Revolution screens November 20th in Tuschinski 1.” And about the film it goes like this:

The Anniversary of the Revolution was made by pioneering filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) between early 1917 and 1918. Filming the developments surrounding the Russian Revolutions of February and October 1918, and the following civil war, Vertov documented events and protagonists that would change history. Using his own footage and occasionally the material of a few others, Vertov assembled his chronological account of the historical year into a two-hour film in 1918, making The Anniversary of the Revolution possibly the first feature-length documentary film ever made… to be continued

Consequently, inter-titles were added between scenes, explaining the political context, presenting the portrayed politicians, and manifesting a young Vertov’s revolutionary discourse. In this sense, The Anniversary of the Revolution presents us also with the earliest known use of documentary film as a tool for propaganda. 

Initially screened in 1918, the film was shown in various settings, traveled with Vertov on his agit-train trips with Mihail Kalinin around the country, and was screened in train stations until 1921, as per his memoirs. For reasons still unclear and open to interpretation and analysis, the film was lost after that. Scenes from the film were used in other films, by Vertov himself and others, as well as in propaganda reels during the early days of the Soviet era, but The Anniversary of the Revolution was never screened in full to an international audience until this year at IDFA.

The Anniversary of the Revolution was recently restored based on a listing of all scenes in the film, discovered by film scholar Svetlana Ishevskaia in the course of her research in Russian archives. Film historian Nikolai Izvolov spent several months thoroughly investigating film archives to find fragments of Vertov’s film and to demonstrate their authenticity. The virtually complete restoration project of the film was carried out at, and with the support of, the Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive at Krasnogorsk. 

Presented as part of IDFA on Stage, the special screening of The Anniversary of the Revolution at IDFA will include a unique live music component. For this celebratory event, an outstanding group of Russian musicians is preparing a performance that also respects the silent nature of the film. In addition to the screening on November 20th at Theater Tuschinski 1, an extended program of artistic interventions, debates and discussions on Vertov and his film, and questions on restoration and preservation of documentary film heritage will be one of the highlights of IDFA 2018.

www.idfa.nl

Sources Mentoring Workshop

I was meant to arrive in Herrsching at the Haus der bayerischen Landwirtschaft Sunday, the day before the day where I should speak to mentors, who had signed up for the workshop, that dealt with mentoring. But coming from the Zelig film school in Bolzano to Munich, I had hoped, as experienced before, for a stay in the city to visit museums and relax…. I had forgotten about Oktoberfest and there was NO hotel rooms available. None at all. Marion Gompper from Sources saved me, providing a room with a bed at the venue by the Ammersee from Saturday night. Sorry Germans and lovers of Oktoberfest, but great to get away from Lederhosen and liters of beer after having enjoyed wonderful Italian Lagrein wine and grappa in Bolzano.

The training course, described by the organisers as “intensive”, was meant to

“train mentors for European screenwriters and (documentary) filmmakers”, being one element of “a three month process involving three work groups of five participants each. Three Sources 2 advisers guide through work processes, case studies and discussions.”

The early arrival gave me the chance to experience (some of) a workshop that is totally different from the documentary ones I know from my time during “my” EDN (European Documentary Network) time and after, like Ex Oriente, Documentary Campus, Archidoc (that has unfortunately stopped, stupid decision of Media/Creative Europe) and others. Totally different in the way that it is based on lectures and didactically precise group work.

I had the chance to join a group session led by director, producer and pedagogue Arash T. Riahi. Pedagogue…? some will ask, who knows him very well as a filmmaker. Yes, I will answer, having attended his session an afternoon, where he presented a fiction treatment to the group of participants, who were script writers/editors, film consultants, commissioning editors, film school teacher, filmmaker. (Photo: Arash to the far right). He approached each of the participants asking them to respond to the treatment from their own perspective. And he did that with the role of being the young director/producer/script writer, who was proud of what he had done and wanted support from the people around the table: the arrogant applicant, the pleading (please give me money), the “well I know you can´t help me anyway”, the “did you read the text”. It was fun and educational in approach making the mentors think about, what they do in their daily work. And a scoop that the film – as a surprise – was shown in the very same night of the sessions.

For me personally it was fine to re-meet Arash. First time – if I remember right – was in Vienna 10 years ago, when the 10 years younger Iranian filmmaker showed me material from what was to be his “Exile Family Movie” that I loved so much and that won in DokLeipzig and went to Magnificent7 in Belgrade in 2007, where he was for the second time with his “Everyday Rebellion” in 2014, made together with his brother Arman.

Arash is a cool guy, a film lover and connaisseur, a workaholic, who has several projects on his desk, including interesting documentary co-productions, who has a feature film (his second) in post-production at the same time as he is a key person for the Sources training program as not only present at this mentoring workshop but also in workshops, where the headline is developing projects in other Sources workshops.

As for my own participation, talking about mentoring to mentors (at the workshop understood in a broader sense as teachers/tutors/consultants/c.editors) I was happy there were documentarians present – as Arash of course, but also people from Nordic film institutions like Ingrid Dokka from Nordnorsk Filmcenter, Pekka Uotila from the Finnish Film Foundation, film producer Brendan Culleton from Ireland and former arte commissioner Christine Reisen – as most of the talks were targeted to fiction, and it is a different world, I experienced, of storytelling approaches and writing methods, and less about Films and Film directors.

I had fine conversations with Finnish Pekka, who is a true documentarian with an amazing filmography as cameraman, first of all.

At a later point I will bring the whole or some of my speech at the Sources workshop – oh, so well organized it was – where I talked about being helping Russian Tatyana Sopoleva and Lithuanian Giedre Zickyte showing trailers from their work, and in general about watching rough cuts, how to behave with screenings, how – as a mentor – to say yes or no, writing in documentaries.

Thank you Marion Gompper and Julie Metzdorff – would have loved to meet documentarian Rolf Orthel, head of the board of Sources, again, but he had left, when I arrived.

https://www.sources2.de

 

Dok.Incubator: Play the Trailers

I could not be there – Sunday in Malmø at the Nordisk Panorama, where 8 projects developed at the Dok.Incubator were presented. For that reason I was happy to receive an email from the organisers saying “play the trailers” – the 8 films made by international talents right before release. I played the trailers.

I suppose the presentation in Malmø was as in the previous years, professional in an enthusiastic atmosphere: A verbal presentation, a trailer plus one or two scenes from the upcoming film. Especially the latter was for me important for getting an idea of the quality. Where a trailer is a trailer, in most cases a piece of information about the content.

Nevertheless, let me – from the trailer watching – mention three of the films that I definitely MUST see – to review on this site and/or consider to suggest for the festivals, where I am part of the programming team. Take a look and see if you agree:

“Of Friends and Gods” by Reetta Huhtanen. “Searching Eva” by Pia Hellenthal. “The Men’s Room” (PHOTO) by Petter Sommer

http://dokincubator.net/preview-2018/

M2M – Message to Man Fest Awards

The festival in St. Petersburg is over and awards were announced yesterday after a grandiose (experienced through photos on Facebook) closing evening that had Viktor Kossakovsky’s “Aquarela” on the program, of course, this is his home town!

Grand Prix and the Student Jury prize went to Hungarian “A Woman Captured” by Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, it must be one of (if not THE) most winning documentaries of the last year. If you want to read what I wrote on this site about the film:

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/blog/blogpost/4093/

There were 3 awards for the Russian documentary “White Mama” by Evgenia Ostanina and Zosya Rodkevich – Best full length documentary, TV Kultura and Fipresci. Here is the synopsis of the film: “Alina and her family have been put under severe strain. The woman, who has six black-skinned children born out of her relationship with an Ethiopian man, decides to adopt a white boy with mental health problems. Will the characters have enough good will and sufficient child-raising skills to tame – and love – the little tyrant? A film for those who have nerves of steel as it takes viewers to the very centre of the family hell.”

The festival has not yet published the whole list of winners, check it on the website or on FB.

https://message2man.com