IFFI Goa 2015, Festival Diary, III

Diary pages have got juggled, inadvertently, so, though numbered III, this page should have been IV. Please excuse the oversight and treat this as IV. Although posted earlier, IV is actually III.

Austerity is the name of the game, mismanagement is the characteristic and continuing hostility towards media, and, in some cases, delegates too, are factors that dominate IFFI Goa 2015. A circus called the Film Bazaar, organised by the National Film Development Corporation, in association with the India Tourism Development Corporation, continues to try and exploit the main event, in a crass, buying of favours manner, while the three bodies that really run the festival: Directorate of Film Festivals, Entertainment Society of Goa and Press information Bureau—seem to have learnt nothing from decades of holding IFFI. But I’ll save all that for another day. Here is a look at the five films I managed to catch on the first day.

*The Man Who Knew Infinity: UK: Director Matthew Brown

Little-known British director Brown spent 10 years on this project, a bio-pic based oin a book about mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), focussing on his years at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the company of prodigies like Bertrand Russell and under the tutelage of G.H Hardy (Jeremy Irons). Cast includes Dhritiman Chatterji (Bengal) and Swati Bhise (Goa). All Indians play Madrasis, never mind their real roots. Brown talks liberties with age as well, by casting Jeremy Irons. Coming from the man who made the Ian Fleming bio-pic, this is good stuff. Dev Patel, always challenged for a range of expressions, digs out a few hitherto unseen ones, Irons is competent, as usual, and the film takes ***.

*Mina Walking: Afghanistan/Canada: Yosef Baraki

Mina is walking tall at IFFI. Made in extremely difficult circumstances by an Afghan who grew up in Canada, the film scores remarkably high on performances, especially Farzana Nawabi as the 12 year-old lead actress.  The film does what acclaimed Indian Kabir Khan has been doing earlier in his ancestral Afghanistan—break stereo-types about life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Your heart will surely go out to brave-heart Mina, whose mother is killed by the Taliban, father a junkie and homosexual and grand-father senile. Yes, the constantly jerky hand-held camera, the single camera shots and the natural light shooting make it a bit tough on the eyes and neck. Rise above these distractions and you have a ****1/2 film.

*Enclave: Serbia/Montenegro/German: Goran Radovanovic

Some two decades after a superficial sense of normalcy returned to the Balkans, the latent tensions in the region are still simmering--being a Christian or a Muslim still matters, in the most unexpected ways. Using religion (an old, dying Christian, a mobile priest, a huge church bell) and a tank (used as transport vehicle for hidden occupants), Radovanovic continues in the tradition of No Man’s Land, minus the sarcasm, satire and live action of the latter.  Like Mina of Afghanistan, 10 year-old Nenad faces huge challenges, including his friendship with Muslim boys across the border, when the tinder-box could spread flames of ethnic hatred, and even death. The climax is particularly imaginative. ***1/2

*Argentina (Zonda Folclore Argentino): Argentina/France/Spain: Carlos Saura

A documentary on the folk singing traditions of Argentina, in true Saura style, the film is a visual treat and aural mosaic. Some of the melodies keep you engaged. But unless you are a die-hard fan of anything Saura, the operatic treatment, minus any narrative, could lead you to forty winks. One cannot deny the master the basic courtesy of a **1/2 rating, though.

*Bajrangi Bhaijaan: India: Kabir Khan

Well, critics don’t necessarily see all films, whether big or small, at previews or in cinema halls. Sometimes, they have to wait till film festivals. Having attended Kabir Khan’s session at 17th Jio-MAMI MFF, and having had a chat with him at the IFFI inaugural dinner, I felt I just had to catch BB. I had not enjoyed his Ek Tha Tiger very much, and Phantom seemed, largely, an inspired genre, albeit slickly done. Its reputation preceded BB, but that did not come in the way of enjoying the box-office dynamite, which is also a very good film, though the two premises are not seen to co-exist too often. Salman acts way above expectations, Harshaali Malhotra is a natural, Kareena never ceases to surprise and Nawazuddin is brought in well into the second half, to give a further boost to the goings on. He is immensely gifted, but this is not one of his best outings.  Had it not been for a few clichés, the film would have been a much bigger milestone than it is. ***1/2

Continuing short reviews of films, seen at the 46th International Film Festival of India.

(See Festival Diary I, II, III, IV and V for more coverage)

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara: India: Zoya Akhtar

Dude, this was released in 2011! So how come you are writing about it now? Simple. I saw it NOW! Daughter of a writer-poet father, one of India’s best-known, and an actress who was famous as a child star, Zoya is perhaps not as famous as her brother Farhan, who is an actor-director-producer-writer. Farhan has worked under his sister’s direction before, and the duo is in great form here too. Very Western in its plot development and very Indian at its heart, ZNMD works wonderfully on several fronts. How you wish the obvious attempt to plug in Spanish tourism, though cleverly integrated, was not so obvious. Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif are admirable, while Abhay Deol is quite good. If you, like me, missed it earlier, do catch up, sooner or later. ***1/2

Sam Klemke’s Time Machine: Australia/USA: Matthew Bate

Now here’s something different. A self-documentation of the life of a man called Sam Klemke, who grew up in Denver, Colorado, over a period of some 50 years, with selected footage from each year! An Australian director got wind of it and bought the rights, and must have had a nightmare editing hundreds (thousands?) of hours of footage. It’s warts and all account, made for the heck of it, and nobody was more surprised than Sam Klemke himself when it went viral. Extremely jerky footage, very fast cutting and a motor-mouth protagonist do not detract from the merits of this off-beat effort. Certainly not every body’s cup of tea. Certainly worth a watch. ***

Lamb: Ethiopia/Norway/France/Germany/Qatar: Yared Zeleke

Heart-rending and compelling. Five countries come together to make this rustic, earthy, rooted in reality tale of a nine year-old motherless boy’s love for a barren lamb amidst the family’s struggle to make both ends meet, in the drought affected Ethiopian countryside. Yared Zeleke is a 37 year-old, New York educated Ethiopian director, and Lamb is his debut film. It draws from his own life and also underlines the religious orthodoxy in the country, which has both orthodox Christian and Jewish population. Shown at Cannes earlier this year, it is Ethiopia’s entry for the 2016 Oscars. Don’t miss it. ****

Mustang: Turkey/France/Germany: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Five young sisters brave orthodox Turkish elders to assert their sexuality. It will have drastic consequences for some of them, while two valiant sisters will battle the odds with true grit. Unfortunately, there are just four or five genuine moments in the film, where the audience actually responded with thunderous applause. For the rest, it is uneven going. Customs like checking the white nuptial bed-sheet for blood spilled by hymen rupture on the wedding night are still common in some parts of Africa and the Arab world. Not many women audiences will find such scenes easy to assimilate. Feminist, true, but cinematic standards are not too high. **1/2

My Mother’s Blue Sky: Iran: Ali Ghavitan

Where do Iranian directors dig out their subjects from? Just amazing diversity of scripts! This one is about a little boy and his widowed mother, who resist all attempts by the coal mafia to usurp their coal mine. The mother, too, dies leaving the pre-teens boy at the mercy of the unscrupulous boss, who uses cheap child labour to run his furnaces. But help arrives from an unexpected quarter, and the boy is blessed by his late mother. At just 82 minutes, it has some painstakingly written but wholly credible twists. ***1/2

These two films could not hold my interest till the end, and I walked out of them, at different stages.

Moor: Pakistan: Jamshed Mahmood Raza (Jami)

Great choice of subject—pilferage and plunder of the railroad system in Baluchistan—but handicapped by uneven screenplay and slightly stagey performances.

Cinemawala: India: Kaushik Ganguly

Again a good choice of subject—the disappearing single-screen cinemas in and around Kolkata--but painfully slow pace and stereo-typing of characters, especially father and son.

The International Short Film Festival ŻUBROFFKA is the event that creates positive energy and joins together people from around the world! The jubilee opening ceremony features MÚM, the legend of Icelandic electronic scene!

This year's festival is held between 2-6 December 2015. Our rich and diverse program includes more than 250 films, presented in special screenings and  seven competitions: national (Amateur, Students, Independent), international (Eastward Window and Whole Wide World) and global (Kids and Music Video). This year our programmers have chosen 105 films (from approx. 1700), which are going to be assessed by the international jury:

Konstantina Kotzamani - Greek director nominated for a European Film Award for her film "Washingtonia" which also won ŻUBROFFKA Grand Prix last year. Vahram Mkhitaryan - Armenian director and photographer, his films "Shepherd’s Song" and "Milky Brother" have been presented and awarded at film festivals around the world. Magnus von Horn - Swedish director whose feature debut "The Here After” was critcially acllaimed at international festivals (premiered in Cannes this year). Ryszard Jaźwiński– Polish Radio 3 journalist, a large part of his life he spends at the cinema as a viewer, juror and moderator of meetings with filmmakers. Paweł Chomczyk– Bialystok theatrical producer, actor and puppeteer, he also appears in films and radio dramas, co-founder of independent theatres Doomsday Company and Coincidentia Group

Additional programmes include specially selected sets of short films, namely "Chinese Alternative Transformations", "Various Faces of Current Czech Stop-Motion", "Single-Track Moving Force"  (a special cycling programme), "Russian Animated Madness", "Dances with Camera", "Midnight Shorts", "Balkan Blues", "Korean Independent Animation "," Mental Caucasus "," Refugees: Postcards from a Journey.”  There will also be, hugely popular in Bialystok, film breakfasts, this time Venezuelan, Bavarian and Scottish.

At the opening ceremony, the legend of Icelandic electronic scene MÚM are going to play live score for 1930 silent drama “People on Sunday”. The closing ceremony and awards gala will feature a special screening of 3D RARITIES to commemorate 100th anniversary of 3D cinema!

The festival is not just about films, but also energetic music. In Bialystok you will hear: a legendary English FREESTYLERS crew, constantly traversing the world and promoting breakbeat / bass; Munich SCHLACHTHOFBRONX - pioneers of global bass scene who took world playlists by storm with their mix of dancehall, kuduro, electro, baile funk and Balkan rhythms; CLAP! CLAP!– an Italian artist and producer, inflaming dancefloors with his mix of house and world music; LITTLE BIG - Russian rave group, 200%  energy plus amazing performance art (described as new, crazier Die Antwoord!); Jaaa! - sensation at Polish music scene, alluring freak electronic project, formed by musicians associated with Contemporary Noise Quartet, Quintet and Sextet, Napszykłat and Daktari.

During ŻUBROFFKA you will also see Justyna Mielnikiewicz’s photo exhibition: UKRAINE RUNS THROUGH IT; there will be meetings with artists, panel discussions and workshops. During "Seniors vs Dogme" workshop, together with director Grzegorz Jaroszuk we shall find out if seniors can strip cinema of illusion in just a few days. In animated documentary workshop "My Home, My Playground", Ewa Borysewicz will convince young animators that each of us has an interesting story to tell. In another workshop, film critic Jakub Socha will try to teach young participants to write and talk about films.

More information: www.zubroffka.pl
 

By Maria Esteves – November 27, 2015

The Sixth DOC NYC Festival Opening Night U.S. Premiere of MISS SHARON JONES! music documentary by two-time Academy award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, Lifetime Achievement recipient, 2015 DOC NYC, was held at SVA theater, New York, Thursday, November 26, 2015. A special Q&A discussion with director Kopple, Grammy Award nominee singer Miss Jones and the Dap-Kings band moderated by artistic director Thom Powers, DOC NYC, preceded the opening night gala reception. Red carpet arrivals included acting commissioner Luis Castro, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, celebrity guests, crew and cast members.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings new holiday album “It’s A Holiday Soul Party” now available!

By Maria Esteves

The Sixth DOC NYC Festival Opening Night U.S. Premiere of MISS SHARON JONES! directed by Barbara Kopple, Lifetime Achievement recipient, 2015 DOC NYC, was held at SVA theater, New York, Thursday, November 12, 2015. A special Q&A discussion immediately followed with director Kopple, singer Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings band moderated by artistic director Thom Powers, DOC NYC. Presented by executive director Raphaela Neihausen, artistic director Thom Powers, director of programming Basil Tsiokos, DOC NYC, and senior vice president/general manager John, Vanco, IFC Center, the opening night premiere gala reception was held at Lugo Cucina Italiana, New York.

Red carpet arrivals included two-time Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple, producer David Cassidy, Grammy Award nominee Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (David Guy, Starr Duncan-Lowe, Saundra Williams, Binky Griptite, Neal Sugarman, Fernando Velez) nutritionist Megan Holken, acting commissioner Luis Castro, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and celebrity guests.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings new holiday album “It’s A Holiday Soul Party” now available!

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!:
singer Sharon Jones.

Cast member nutritionist Megan Holken at
DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere
of Miss Sharon Jones!

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!: (from left rear),
director Barbara Kopple, with cast members Sharon Jones, and the Dap-Kings.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere
of Miss Sharon Jones!: director Barbara
Kopple, right, with Sharon Jones.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere
of Miss Sharon Jones!: director Barbara Kopple, left,
and producer David Cassidy.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss
Sharon Jones!: acting commissioner Luis Castro,
Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!: (L-R)
director Barbara Kopple, artistic director Thom Powers, DOC NYC,
Sharon Jones, and David Guy, the Dap-Kings.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon
Jones! Gala Reception: executive director Raphaela Neihausen,
DOC NYC, right, and director Barbara Kopple.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!:
director Barbara Kopple, right, with Sharon Jones, left,
and background singer Starr Duncan-Lowe, the Dap-Kings.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!: director Barbara
Kopple, right, with Sharon Jones, center, and (from left) background singer Saundra
Williams, singer John Castellano, background singer Starr Duncan-Lowe.

DOC NYC 2015 Opening Night U.S. Premiere of Miss Sharon Jones!: director Barbara
Kopple, right, and guitarist/emcee Binky Griptite, the Dap-Kings.

IFFI Goa 2015, Festival Diary, VII

This is being written the day before the closing ceremony, where the winners will be announced. I have missed Filosofi Kopi (Philosophy Coffee, Indonesia), Labyrinth of Lies (Germany) and Journey to the Shore (Japan/France). Moreover, one competition film has yet to be screened, so my front-runner list may face an upset. But then, the upset can come anyway, if the jury’s opinions differ from mine.

So, these are the films I have seen, and my favourites from the playing eleven I have seen are … read on!

3000 Nights: Palestine/France/Lebanon/Jordan: **1/2

Cinemawala: India: **

Eisenstein in Guanajuato: Netherlands/Mexico: ***

Embrace of the Serpent: Colombia/Venezuela/Argentina: ****

Enclave: Serbia/Germany: ****

Kapo in Jerusalem: Israel: **

Natoker Moto: India: **

The Man Who Became a Horse: Iran: **

Mustang: Turkey: ***

Rams: Iceland: **1/2

Sealed Cargo: Bolivia/Mexico/Venezuela/France: ***1/2

So, so far, it is a toss between Enclave and Embrace of the Serpent. Maybe both will win a prize each.

The countdown has begun!

Aussie film Festival

26-31  Jan. 2016

One film  screening each TUES, WED, THURS, FRI &   SAT  nights

One film screening Saturday Sunday afternoon

Tickets available in advance at the festival info booth.

Registered festival attendees have seats held for each screening

Sponsored prizes for winning audience participants

Sponsored prizes for holidays  could be won by the audience

Sponsored after-parties for VIP registered attendants

Rewards for the deserving! Parties sponsored by contributing company’s for volunteers and VIP attendees of the festival

The Festival of German Film in Moscow maintains a promising future. Besides cinematic showings of current German productions with top-quality guests including directors and actors, German Films will be continuing its successful cooperation with the video-on-demand service ivi.ru from 2014: parallel to the 14th edition of the festival (2 – 6 December 2015) German films will be presented online as well, thus consolidating new exploitation possibilities.  

A total of 14 contributions, encompassing current German feature films, documentaries and shorts will be presented to Russian audiences and the local film industry in the Formula Cinema Horizont. Here, too, the special focus will be on the future, in the shape of young cinema from Germany.

The festival will be opened with the boxer-Drama A HEAVY HEART (DEPARTURES Film, deutschfilm), which celebrated its world premiere at the key Toronto International Film Festival. A HEAVY HEART is the full-length feature film debut of Student Oscar® prizewinner Thomas Stuber. Both the director and the leading actor Peter Kurth will be on the spot to introduce their film to a Russian audience.

Leading actors Clemens Schick and Paula Beer will be presenting Theresa von Eltz’s FOUR KINGS (C-Films, Tatami Films) – another full-length feature debut, which won the main prize in the independent section Alice nella città at Rome Film Festival.

Matthias Bittner can look back on an impressive festival career already with his graduation film from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg WAR OF LIES (Zischlermann Filmproduktion/Berlin, FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor/Ludwigsburg) about an Iraqi chemical engineer, whose information about mobile laboratories to produce weapons of mass-destruction was used to legitimize the invasion of Iraq. In Moscow he will face questions from a Russian audience. Director Pascal Flörks will also be attending in person to represent BÄR, an entry from the German Films NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2015 program of short films. 

The weak rouble exchange rate is making it difficult for Russian distributors to acquire European films at present. It is all the more important, therefore, to promote alternative forms of exploitation for German productions. Last year, German Films cooperated for the first time with the Russian VoD service ivi.ru , which adopted a German section into its program. This was a complete success – in the very first week, it was viewed around 23,000 times – and will be continued with 23 films this year. The German section at ivi.ru can be seen here.

All films in the program of the Festival of German Film in Moscow 2015:

Feature films: 
A HEAVY HEART (HERBERT) by Thomas Stuber (DEPARTURES Film, deutschfilm) (opening film)
AS WE WERE DREAMING (ALS WIR TRÄUMTEN) by Andreas Dresen (Rommel Film/Berlin, Iskremas Filmproduktion, Cinema Defacto
SANCTUARY (FREISTATT) by Marc Brummund (Zum Goldenen Lamm Filmproduktion)
TOUR DE FORCE (HIN UND WEG) by Christian Zübert (Majestic Filmproduktion, VIAFILM)
HEAD FULL OF HONEY (HONIG IM KOPF) by Til Schweiger (Warner Bros. GmbH, Barefoot Films)
WINDSTORM 2 (OSTWIND 2) by Katja von Garnier (SamFilm, Constantin Film Produktion, Alias Entertainment)
FOUR KINGS (VIER KÖNIGE) by Theresa von Eltz (C-Films, Tatami Films)
THE KINGS SURRENDER (WIR WAREN KÖNIGE) by Philipp Leinemann (Walker+Worm Film)
THE CHAMBERMAID LYNN (DAS ZIMMERMÄDCHEN LYNN) by Ingo Haeb (Sutor Kolonko, 58Filme, Pandora Film)

Documentary films: 
WAR OF LIES (KRIEG DER LÜGEN) by Matthias Bittner (Zischlermann Filmproduktion/Berlin, FFL Film- und Fernseh-Labor/Ludwigsburg)
SCORPIONS – FOREVER AND A DAY by Katja von Garnier (Tempest Film)

Short films:
LAMBS (LÄMMER) by Gottfried Mentor (Studio FILM BILDER)
CONNECTED (DIE SPINNERIN) by Manuela Buske (Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolff)
WE WILL STAY IN TOUCH ABOUT IT by Jan Zabeil (aug&ohr medien) 
NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2015


Partners of German Films at his year's festival are: Goethe-Institut Moscow, Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus, Coolconnections

Current information about the Festival of German Film in Moscow is available on the website as well as on Facebook.

German Films organizes festivals of German cinema worldwide, together with various partners, so presenting current German films internationally and helping to improve awareness, create a greater degree of popularity, and promote sales abroad. In addition to Moscow, such festivals take place e.g. in Paris, Madrid, New York, Buenos Aires, China and Australia.  

IFFI Goa 2015, Festival Diary, VIII: Did the best ones win?

Without any doubt, my favourite for Best Picture was Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia) directed by Ciro Guerra. The Jury, too, found the black and white film about the Amazon, its rape by greedy foreigners and the destruction of the mythical but pristine lives of its native inhabitants “mind-blowing”, which is reason for feeling vindicated. This is the eighth or ninth time, out of eleven IFFIs at Goa, that my pick for the Golden Peacock winner co-incided with the Jury’s verdict, which makes it ‘not a bad record’, doesn’t it!

Born in 1981, cinematographer-writer-director Guerra studied film and television at the National University of Colombia. After directing four short films, he wrote and directed Shadow Walker, his first feature, which was selected in more than 60 film festivals around the world, including Cannes. The Wind Journeys, his second feature, was a road movie, looking to foster a closer relationship between the viewer and Caribbean music.

Embrace of the Serpent, Official Selection, at the Directors' Fortnight, Cannes, this year, tells the epic story of first contact, meeting, approach, betrayal, and possible friendship that transcends life, between Karamakate, an Amazonian Shaman, the last survivor of his tribe, and two scientists, who forty years apart, travel the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that could cure their ills. It is based on the diaries of early explorers who travelled the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evan Schultes, and co-written by Guerra. You cannot help recalling Werner Herzog’s Aguirra-The Wrath of God, in terms of locale and subject, but the inspiration must cease there.

‘Best film’ was clearly deserved, but so were ‘best director’ and ‘best actor’. The only reason Guerra did not get the director’s prize must have been the need to be socialistic and distribute the prizes, rather than club them all together. EOTS actors    Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar Brionne Davis  , Yauenkü Migue and Nicolás Cancino could each walk away with an acting honour. That was not to be, as other options were considered and selected.

British Film director Peter Greenaway bagged the award for Best Director, for Eisenstein in Guanajuato (EIG), which has a Dutch producer of Indonesian extraction. A visual spectacle of form and style, it was the chronicling of a chapter in the life of Russian director Sergei Eisenstein, known for the all-time classic, Battleship Potemkin. (His surname is often mis-read as Einstein, after his almost namesake, the great American scientist, a fact addressed in the film too).

Russian archives reveal that he was born in 1898, in Latvia, as Sergei Mikhaylovich Eisenstein, of Jewish descent (through his paternal grandparents). His father worked in ship-building, until 1910, when the family moved to St. Petersburg, where his training as an architect and engineer had a great influence on his future film-making. Watching the insurgent crowds during the 1917 October revolution bearing down on the Winter Palace of the Czars in St. Petersburg, Eisenstein foresaw his future. He enlisted in the Red Army, helped organise and construct defenses and, as his first step in his career, produced entertainment for the troops.

In 1920, having decided that a military life was not for him, he entered the Proletkult Theater (the Theater of the People) in Moscow as an assistant stage designer, where he quickly became a co-director.  Eisenstein's first film, the revolutionary Strike, was produced in 1924. It recounts the repression of a strike by the soldiers of the Czar. Eisenstein juxtaposed shots of workers being mowed down by machine guns with shots of cattle being butchered in a slaughterhouse. The effect was striking, but the objective reality was falsified. Thus, he introduced a new editing form, the ‘montage of attractions’, in which arbitrarily chosen images, independent from the action, would be presented not in chronological sequence, but in whatever way would create the maximum psychological impact, in stark contrast with the  American-style ‘narrative montage’.

In 1925, in order to commemorate the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Communist Party commissioned the renowned film Potemkin (also called Battleship Potemkin). The film was made in the Black Sea port of Odessa. In 1958 it was voted the best film ever made, by an international poll of critics. Eisenstein's next film was the two hour film, October or Ten Days That Shook the World, dealing with the shifts of power between the 1917 February and October revolutions, Lenin's entering the scene and the struggle of the Bolsheviks with their opponents. Greenaway uses this title to give his present film an alternate name, Ten Days That Shook Eisenstein.           

Continually seeking to expand the film-making craft, Eisenstein drew upon his early interest in Japanese Kabuki theatre, Noh drama and their use of masks in his last film, Ivan the Terrible. During World War II, Eisenstein began work on this epic film about the 16th-century Czar, Ivan IV, whom Stalin admired. One battle scene, with Ivan’s close-up diagonally bisecting the frame in the foreground, remains an indelible image. Before he could finish the third part of the film, Eisenstein died, a few days after his 50th birthday.

But before his death, he had made a trip to Hollywood, and was commissioned to make a film tentatively titled Que Viva Mexico, in Mexico. During the shooting of this film, Eisenstein, apparently a latent homosexual, entered into a relationship with his local Mexican contact. He exposed hundreds of thousands of feet of film raw stock negative, but the film was never edited, completed or released. Greenaway has explored the sexuality in great, graphic detail, as his wont (The Draughtsman’s Contract; The Cook the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover—both films shown at earlier IFFIs). To me, this obsession with nudity and homosexuality detracts from the remarkable angles, excellent use of split-screen technique and some robust camera movements that underscore Greenaway’s directorial skills.

I would have given the Best Director award, albeit based on a thin margin, to Barcelona-based Julia Vargas-Weise (Sealed Cargo/Bolivia). Shekhar Kapur, Chairman of the Jury, said that he has been a Greenaway fan since the times when he was an accountant in London, so he might not have wanted to tilt the scales away from Greenaway. (There is a problem with chronology, though. Kapur had moved to India in the mid-70s, while Greenaway made his first feature in 1980. Perhaps Kapur was referring to his documentary films, beginning 1962). As it happened, Julia, a writer, actress and photographer, besides a director, had to be content with the Special Jury award.

Sealed Cargo is an absurd tale about a cargo train under the care of a railroad engineer and three policemen, with an innocent undercover woman passenger, that carries a hermetically sealed load, presumably toxic waste, that turns out to be cursed. They all seek their destiny on the Bolivian Altiplano in an unexpected adventure, during which the characters are attacked by enraged towns-people, betrayed and deceived, in ways that change their lives and affect the whole country. Seldom has an absurd black comedy, shot in an action thriller style, made so much sense, and dealt with a grave international issue like pollution in such a riveting manner. Vargas-Weise studied photography in Switzerland and is probably the first Bolivian woman to achieve international fame as a photographer.

Two days before the awards were announced, I met Serbian director Goran Radovanovic in the Maquinez Palace courtyard, which had been converted into an outdoor restaurant-cum-beer bar for IFFI 2015, and told him that his film Enclave was among the top five films I had seen at IFFI this year, so far. In the end, it was one of the five that bagged awards. The Special Mention Award was less than what the film deserved, but competition was hot. EOTS and EIG managed to pip Enclave at the post.

French actor Vincent Lindon (56, also director-writer) won the best Actor (male) award for The Measure of a Man, which was screened on the very last day, a mere four hours before the closing ceremony. I could not see it, so no comment on the choice.

The Best Actor (Female) award was shared by five actors (“actresses”, if you please, insisted host Kabir Bedi) of the Turkish film Mustang. Set in a remote Turkish village, Mustang depicts the life of five young orphaned sisters, and the challenges they face, growing up in a highly conservative society. Gunes Sensoy, Doga Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan and Ilayda Akdogan were awarded the Silver Peacock(s) at the ceremony, in absentia. This five-in-one must surely be unprecedented in IFFI history, and well-deserved too. As Kapur reminded us, the chemistry the five girls brought to the screen, especially when they were together in any scene, was palpable and electrifying.

An additional award, instituted this year, the ICFT-UNESCO Fellini Prize, was given to the Bengali movie Cinemawala by Kaushik Ganguly. The award, presented in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO is to be presented to a film which reflected the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship, promoted by UNESCO. Cinemawala is a laboured film, with ostensibly noble intentions, which could garner nothing at the main awards. Point is, what or who was it competing against, for this prize?

By Alex Deleon

 

The Marrakech Film Festival has slowly been gathering steam ever since the its inception

 in 2001.  With the fifteenth edition running from Dec. 4 ~ 12 this is not just an exotic place to visit with 

nice mild winter weather but a major new station on the European and international festival trail.

The most obvious indication that this festival has now come of age is that fact that  no less a figure than 

American Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola  will preside over the jury and special guests to receive tributes include such prestige actors as Bill Murray and Willem Defoe plus will-of-wisp German-Turkish director Fatih Akin. (He is known for not showing up at festivals to which he was invited -- (such as  Munich earlier thus year).  Others on this class jury include 

French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (62) helmer of the gigantic International French hit "Amélie", and Dutchman Anton Corbijn who diected George Clooney in "The American" (2010) and helmed the most unusual James Dean biopic "Life“ released earlier this year.  Clearly personalities of this ilk do not bother to attend minor festivals. 

The opening film will be Barry Levinson's latest opus "Rock the Kashbah" set in contemporary Afghanistan and starring Bill Murray and Bruce Willis.  Murray will undoubtedly be there to introduce the film.

The closure is another prestige film, CAROL, by Todd Haynes, an American lesbian love story set in the New York of the fifties and starring Cate Blanchett.  

A major new Moroccan film, "La Marche Verte" (Al Massira ~The Green March) dealing with an important incident in Moroccan political history, will have its world premiere out of competition.

Fifteen film competing for the festival grand prix - L'Étoile d'Or -- are primarily first or second works by emerging directors from as many countries; Belgium, France, Ivory Coast, Turkey, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Czech Republic, Spain, Argentina, Italy, South Korea, and Japan.  Many ifbthese films have islamic casts and take up Islamic migration themes in a variety of settings. 

Other prestige films to be screened are Atom Egoyan's post Holocaust thriller "Remember" which premiered  at Venice in September and "Mr. Holmes", the Sherlock Holmes in old age fantasy starring senior British  actor Ian McKellen. This popular festival film opened at Berlin in February and has been travelling the festival circuit ever since. A class lineup from stem to stern  promises that the fifteenth installment of this still young and growing festival will be the best ever.

Alex, Budapest

The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF), celebrating its 12th anniversary and taking place December 1-12, today revealed the lineup of films screening in the festival’s competition and sidebar sections. The program was announced by BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool.

This year, the Festival will showcase more than 130 films from 40 different countries including nine international premieres, 28 Caribbean premieres, and all are Bahamian premieres.

The four competition categories at BIFF are Spirit of Freedom: Narrative; Spirit of Freedom: Documentary; New Visions; and Short Film. Additional categories out of competition are World Cinema Narrative and World Cinema Documentary; Caribbean Spotlight Narrative and Caribbean Spotlight Documentary; Comedy; and non-Jury Short Films.

There will be special screenings throughout the Festival of Brian Klugman’s “Baby Baby Baby”, Ben Bowman’s “Knucklehead”, Daryl Wein’s “Consumed”, Julien Leclercq’s “The Crew”, Samuel Benchetrit’s “Asphalte” (Macadam Stories)” and Jean Michel Costeau’s “The Secret Ocean”.

“More than 500 films were submitted to BIFF this year and those films selected shape the festival and its overall global vision,” said Leslie Vanderpool, founder and Executive Director of BIFF. “The Bahamas International Film Festival is one of the world’s leading Caribbean film festivals. As the cultural gateway to the Caribbean, a region that is nascent and erupting for stories to be shared, it is important for BIFF to showcase films that speak to the country, the world and to our souls. Filmmakers expose the audiences to the world, raising social consciousness. The question of freedom of expression is crucial, especially with January’s events in France, the continuing debate over gun control in the USA, and the increasing tensions over immigration and wars of religion and values in Europe and Asia. This is the reason that BIFF is continuing for the 12th year the Spirit Of Freedomcategory.

“For 12 years, the Bahamas International Film Festival has offered a platform to promote diverse culture, introducing the film industry to our region and providing an economic booster to The Bahamas. The Festival has upgraded the scale of its events and in turn, its social impact through the years, and also helped substantially in promoting cultural exchanges and professional collaborations.”

The official BIFF feature lineup is comprised of the following films:

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY (Sponsored by CornèrTrader)

In addition, a list of the 94 short films screening at the festival in and out of competition can be found online at http://www.bintlfilmfest.com/the_festival/film_guide/program/89

BIFF 2015 kicks off on Tuesday, December 1stand will run through Saturday, December 12th. For the fourth consecutive year, BIFF will be coming to Harbour Island on December 1-4, showcasing ten feature and short films and hosting the Screenwriters Residency Program. BIFF will then screen all short films in a festival-within-a-festival on Governor’s Harbour December 5-8. The Festival then concludes in Nassau with the main program lineup of features and documentaries, along with some select shorts, screening from December 9-12.

Additional announcements pertaining to the Festival and filmmakers attending will be made in the coming weeks.  For additional information, please visit www.bintlfilmfest.com.

About the Bahamas International Film Festival

The Bahamas International Film Festival (BIFF) is a nonprofit organization committed to providing the local community and international festival-goers with a diverse presentation of films from The Bahamas and around the world. In addition to showcasing films that might not otherwise be released theatrically, BIFF provides unique cultural experiences, educational programs, and forums for exploring the past, present and future of cinema. BIFF aims to raise the level of filmmaking, participation and education throughout The Bahamas and the world. For additional information, please visit www.bintlfilmfest.com.

Established in 2010 DOC NYC had become by 2014 the largest documentary festival in the United States and is considered by Movie Maker  as one of the top five documentary film festivals in the world, and by the Wall Street Journal  as “One of the city’s grandest  cinematic events”. DOC NYC was presented from November 12-19 in three Manhattan locations with over 200 films of which 107 were feature length productions. The program included 27 world and 15 U.S. premieres. The festival continues to expand, adding this year 50 more films. Though some observers question the rapid growth, virtually all of the 2015 screenings were sold out and many of the top documentary film makers showed up.  Continuing its 2013 and 2014 track record, numerous 2015 DOC NYC titles are contenders for the Oscar documentary awards. The mission of the fest covers education and audience growth, networking, expansion of distribution, a stronger social component, ’create social space’, and ‘make the most of New York City’. Mission building involved several day long conferences, an outstanding selection of films, galas, special events and visionary tributes to Jon Alpert, Barbara Kopple, Frederick Wiseman, Kim Longinotto, and Tom Quinn. The conferences covered first-time filmmakers, pitching productions, masterclasses, funding, and reaching the audience to name but a few. The interests of the audience were certainly met by the careful selection of films and topical seminars and conferences.

The Anthropologist, Daniel A. Miller / Jeremy Newberger, USA, 2015     Depicting the insights of two prominent anthropologists, Margaret Meade and Susie Crate, and the work of their daughters who focus on climate change, the documentary provides through its case studies investigated by Mary Catherine Bateson, and Susie Crate, a rather depressing view of our condition and ability of adapting to the rapid ecological changes faced. Certainly, anthropological knowledge is an important repository, and salvaging of cultural systems and human reactions to disruptions, yet global warming has consequences beyond our control to which Miller and Newberger’s documentary offers a superb introduction. Warming of US coastal waters has resulted in declining fishing catches. In remote Siberian regions the permafrost under the land is thawing leading to a flooding of agricultural lands and forests depriving the rural population of their livelihood. Rising sea levels threaten the very existence of low level island nations, destroying agriculture through sea water, and settlements through storms. The only adaptive option available is resettlement of the inhabitants to other countries. In the Peruvian highlands, and other regions, ice caps of the mountain areas melting has led to severe water shortages. Due to atmospheric warming,  crops in Peru must be planted at a higher altitude resulting in a reduction of plant diversity and lower yields. An effective adaptive response is not in sight. What is troublesome in these well documented field studies as supported by empirical data and extensive interviews is the impotence of the people who are impacted. Anthropological concern about climate change is certainly supported by scientific estimates of a possible rise of sea levels by about 20 feet in this century if Greenland’s ice sheet and polar icecaps continue to melt and global warming is not constrained.

Thank You For Your Service, Tom Donahue, USA, 2015   Superbly filmed, the documentary revisits in the American Perspectives section of the fest, focusing on the unresolved fundamental mental health problem soldiers are facing returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder. More than half of the soldiers receiving VA treatment suffer from PTSD as intensified by the non-linear untraditional combat they experienced and aggravated if they had several tours of duty. These soldiers have severe problems readapting to their private lives and assuming their old identities, as evidenced by higher family break ups, criminal offence rates, and suicides. As in the case of the Vietnam War, where 54.000 soldiers died in combat but 150,000 killed themselves after the war, a similar scenario is arising now. Twenty two veterans commit suicide each day. Being haunted by the guilt of having survived, of having killed civilians, and suffering from various forms of PTSD they experience an inner void and difficulty reconnecting with civilian life. Through interviews with several veterans and senior department of defense officials and officers, as well as empirical data, the documentary provides persuasive evidence that PTSD treatment has not been a priority for the military and that no significant steps have been taken to date to provide mental health and behavior services to PTSD victims. As depicted in the documentary’s call for action, there are some privately run effective treatment models such as the Save a Warrior program, and successful steps have been taken by some veterans to get closure. But in spite of universal agreement of the severity of the PTSD problem and its devastating impact, no major initiatives have been taken by the Department of Defense to remedy it. Rather, there is a massive policy failure. Amazingly, this isn’t a new problem, during World War II Roosevelt ordered the establishment of remedial programs for affected soldiers to attend before being released from the armed force. 

Newman, Jon Fox, USA, 2015   Joseph Newman invented in 1978 a perpetual motion machine that generated more energy than it consumed, apparently overturning century old laws of physics and contradicting the majority of opinions of the scientific communities. His evidence based invention created a revolutionary magnetic motor which could have terminated the dependence on carbon generated energy. The Newman machine and its support by close to 50 scientists, public presentation of the unit, congressional hearings, and law suits generated massive media attention. Thus Jon Fox was able to reconstruct the history of the Newman machine as supplemented by interviews with scientists who worked with and supported Newman. His documentary covers 37 years and ends with filming a lengthy disputation between Newman and a potential investor shorty before Newman’s death in 2015 after he had destroyed in his remaining days the only remaining perpetual motion machine. Fox covers the life of an individual who fought for his invention and sacrificed his marriage and fortune in that obsessive pursuit He demonstrates how a genius inventor is slowly driven into embittered isolation and is no longer able to communicate rationally. The film also shows that thinking and acting outside the conventional mental box can have punishing results.

A Journey Of A Thousand Miles: Peace Keepers, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Greeta Gandbhir, USA/Pakistan, 2014    This somehow puzzling documentary records the peacekeeping mission of 150 Bangladeshi women who spent one year on a mission in Haiti assisting the local authorities in crowd control, public safety and police work. After some para-military training they embark on their assignment to a country without knowledge of the local language, its culture or customs. As mostly Muslim women from traditional backgrounds their assignment was, with some exceptions, not fully supported by their families. Not all are treated with a warm welcome after their return. In Haiti’s shaky environment their only safe place is the barracks they live in, but even the competence of the Bangladeshi group is questioned by a male training officer. The population encounters them with suspicion and resentment because UN peace keepers from Nepal had brought Cholera to Haiti with devastating consequences, a situation the women were not prepared for. They were also struck by the poverty and violence prevalent in Haiti, conditions they knew only from Bangladesh.  On a more positive note, the emancipatory actions and courage of Muslim women getting engaged in police work and travelling abroad demonstrated that the patriarchal culture they are born into has its limits. The filmmakers provide a rounded picture. By focusing on several women of the group the audience gets a grasp on their home life and of the family conflicts of the mission, recording reactions before and after their mission to Haiti.

I Am Sun Mu, Adam Sjoeberg, 2015, USA    Sun Mu or ‘no boundaries’, is the pseudonym of an established Korean artist who escaped famine by defecting from North Korea in 1998. He wants to remain unknown and refuses to be photographed. He remains faceless because he fears for the life of his parents and South Korean family. Sjoeberg’s documentary covers his life and work on an exhibition scheduled for Beijing. The film maker creates a fabulous production which is superbly edited. He shares outstanding visual imagery of the work Sun Mu is creating and innovative animation underlies most of the commentary. Sun Mu worked in North Korea as a gifted propaganda artist for several years, creating posters and paintings for the regime. After arriving in South Korea in 2001 he transformed the imagery and style of North Korean poster propaganda and mass manifestations into a unique visual style that has been called political pop art by observers. It also could be characterized as a purified version of subverted socialist realism focusing on individuals and events rather than glorifying work and collectives.  His mastery of color is impressive. Much of his art work is satirical and the idealized pictures of children and North Korean leaders are surreal or too good to be true. His paintings frequently offer commentaries on political events. We accompany Sun Mu as he prepares his Beijing art show and hides his identity when going to China. After the exhibitions opens it is closed immediately by the Chinese police and he narrowly escapes from being arrested. His art work for the show, a commentary on North Korean society, is still locked up in Beijing.

Class Divide, Marc Levin, USA 2014   Two worlds face each other, mostly minority children living in the Chelsea-Elliott public housing project and primarily white students attending the Avenues: World School across 10th Avenue at the West 26^th street intersection.  Average annual family income in the housing project is about $20,000. A high proportion of the residents are unemployed and survive on welfare, including many without working papers. Across the street parents pay about $50,000.00 per student in annual tuition for the Avenues World School. Their large luxurious apartments and homes provide a stark contrast to the overcrowded flats in the housing project. Interviewing students from that school and the project, Levin detects communalities and the tremendous socio-economic class gap separating both groups. There is an obvious concern with money and education and a shared anxiety. The low-income minority students are afraid of losing their safety net and not getting jobs after leaving school. The high income white students are anxious about not meeting their parents’ expectations and not matching their success.  Both groups cannot cross the class divide, and to date there not a single scholarship student at the World School has come from the housing project.  The class segregation of the school system is pushed to the extreme here, though one must note that New York City is notorious for the segregation, only 20% of its schools and just 24% of the white students are exposed to low income students. Social class is the determining factor driving the gentrification of most New York City neighborhoods and eradicating economic diversity. Over the last decade rents have risen steeply and much low income housing has disappeared. Though Marc Levin did not intend to produce a political film, the message about growing disparity has clear political overtones. The public educational system is underfunded, whereas the private system can use the most advanced educational technologies and hire the best teachers. The Avenues World School is funded by private investors from equity firms expecting a return of at least 10%.  The school is marketed as an alternative to the top rated private schools such as Horace Mann, Dalton, and Brierley which have  admission rates  below that of Harvard.  If their children are not admitted to these schools, the Avenues World School becomes instantly appealing for affluent upscale white parents. Nevertheless, when opened, only 25 of the 350 applicants for a kindergarten slot could be accommodated. It is noteworthy that the SAT scores of World School students are below those from the top private schools.

Motley’s Law, Nicole Horanyi, Denmark, 2015  The Grand Jury Prize winner of the  2015 the DOC NYC festival, this documentary provides a unique insight into the seven year law practice of the  Afro-American Kimberly Motley in Afghanistan as a defense attorney. As the only female Western lawyer accredited at Afghani Courts, Motley represents U.S and Western expats who are caught in that country’s system of justice, but also takes on pro-bono cases of imprisoned Afghan women entangled in an apparently archaic traditional legal system. Practicing under life threatening circumstances and growing political instabilities in Kabul Motley left her husband and children in the United States, only seeing them periodically. She started her work in Kabul motivated by income but developed a commitment for human rights which are disregarded by the local legal system and neglected by the international community. Motley’s Law offers perceptive insights into a disorganized and inefficient Afghani justice system and depicts prevailing corruption and the threats Motley experiences. Her work seems to be ending there because the withdrawal of foreign troops from that country has generated more threats and chaos.

There is no question that this year’s edition of DOC NYC provided a comprehensive overview of the problems faced by contemporary societies and of the domestic and international issues we are confronted with. There does not seem to be much room for optimism.

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com