Nifty idea. To promote the release of BABIES, Focus Features commissioned several “indie” filmmakers to make short vignettes featuring their own babies. A new genre is born.
Though, Stan Brakhage’s WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING set the precedent, not to mention the benchmark. Fond memories of watching this in film school, and somebody asking our prof, “Is that a normal sized placenta?”
Brakhage – Window Water
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It was at dinner last Fall with two Finnish colleagues, a male and a female, that I first learned of the crisis in Finnish masculinity. The typical Finnish male, I was told, was adrift, disorientated in a culture of gregarious, dominant, upwardly mobile women. We had some fun with the notion, playing on cliches of the stolid, silent Finnish male emasculated within a matriarchal culture. Yet, just a few months later and Hot Docs is set to present three Finnish productions steeped in male anxieties, not to mention that delightfully deadpan Finnish irony.
FREETIME MACHOS follows the bonding rituals of an amateur rugby team, but is about rugby in the same way that HOOP DREAMS is about basketball. I love the dialogue between the men here, which really captures the way men talk to each other in this context (and which is probably why this film was a particular favourite of many of the women on our staff).
Very closely related is STEAM OF LIFE, a series of tableaus constructed around male sauna culture in Finland. I was surprised and quite moved by the depth of emotion that surfaces in this film. While the more serious side is balanced by many funny scenes and observations, this is definitely a male weepie.
As well, the no-fuss titled PORTRAIT OF A MAN follows the daily struggles of a single-father dealing with divorce and the legacy of alcoholism and suicide. Again, this a strong narrative doc with much emotion, as we follow Kalle trying to break a patriarchal downward spiral.
While not directly linked in terms of theme, our other Finnish feature doc, ITO – DIARY OF AN URBAN PRIEST, is set in Japan and does feature a particularly male kind of existential journey. Directed by the great Pirjo Honkasalo, the film follows a young boxer, Fujioka, who is now a Buddhist priest. While one of the first films I screened (way back in October) for this year’s programme, the meditative mood evoked here remains very tangible for me.
Each of these docs is linked by another quality that is consistent in Finnish documentary, a meticulous attention to form and craft. While only STEAM OF LIFE prominently relies on the bread and butter of Finnish filmmaking – the frontal, static long take (which always works for me) – each of these productions have those uniquely Finnish observational rhythms, at once stately and somehow awkward, raw, uncomfortably honest and direct.
- from INTO GREAT SILENCE
Sky Sitney, Director of Programming at Silverdocs, has sent us her list of essential nonfiction works from the past decade (give or take). It seems to split between doc masters and stunning debuts, with a nice balance of poetry (form) and politics (content). Silverdocs is one of several documentary festivals in the United States to be launched over the past decade (along with True/False, Camden, and now DOCNY).
These festivals, along the many new doc events around the world, have been significant catalysts in the new documentary movement. While there was a short bubble (at least in North America) in which some docs were getting out theatrically, in general it’s film festivals which have fostered and have been the primary platform for the doc phenomenon. The current challenge, as increasingly broadcasters pull away from the form, is for festivals to extend a successful model and continue to grow audiences and opportunities for documentaries.
The goal being to sustain the conditions in which great works such as Sky mentions below can be made and seen. She writes:
13 LAKES (James Benning, USA, 2004) - Documentary as Art. 13 Lakes is precisely what it claims to be, images of 13 lakes, filmed in equivalent ten-minute takes. The film does not follow anything resembling a traditional narrative trajectory, but is a work of abstract art unto itself. Minor natural transformations and movements take on transcendent qualities, and Benning quietly reminds us that film can be used to simply look – and that there is, indeed, nothing all that simple about it.
BUS 174 (Jose Padhila, Brazil, 2002) – Almost like being there. On June 12, 2000 a hijack took place on a bus in Rio. As news cameras dashes to the scene to catch nearly every detail, the whole country remained glued to their TV screens watching the horror unfold. Padhila’s film elevates the news footage to a comprehensive, complex story that looks beyond the headlines, and provides riveting back-stories – both of the hijacker’s psyche and motivations, as well as the mindset of the police department, and ultimately – and by extension – the mind set of the country.
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (Andrew Jarecki, USA, 2003) – Unreliable narrators. A fascinating portrait of a family, told in part by Jarecki’s observational, and presumably unbiased camera, and in part by family home movies. The film follows an investigation into the truth behind serious accusations of pedophilia – and takes on many twists and turns, as every subject in the film seems at times to be morally suspect. Jarecki does not rush to judgment, but allows the facts – elusive as they may be – to speak for themselves.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Frederick Wiseman, USA, 2001) - Direct Cinema lives. Wiseman proves that the genre he helped create and to whose form he strictly adheres, is still as resonant and palpable today as it was over four decades ago. “Domestic Violence” is his example par excellence; an unblinking three-hour plus observation – without judgment or bias – on the perpetrators, victims, and social systems implicated in domestic violence.
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (Alex Gibney, USA, 2005) – Scandals make good stories. Based on the best selling book of the same name, Gibney proved himself to be a filmmaker to watch out for (and that we all have done) in his riveting account of the 2001 collapse of the Enron Corporation, and the resultant criminal trials of the company’s top executives.
EPISODE 3 – ENJOY POVERTY (Renzo Martens, Netherlands, 2009) - Filmmaker as provocateur. Dutch artist Renzo Martens investigates the emotional and economic value of Africa’s most significant export: poverty. And as he points a finger, he doesn’t let himself off the hook. With constant self-reflection and self-reference, Martens creates very uneasy and uncomfortable viewing, that to this viewer, was bold, brave, utterly necessary and all too rare.
FAHRENHEIT 911 (Michael Moore, USA, 2004) / BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (Michael Moore, USA, 2002) – Michael Moore as a genre unto himself. Love him, or leave him – Michael Moore has probably done more to elevate documentary into mainstream culture than any other filmmaker. With four films in the top ten highest grossing documentaries of all time (excluding IMAX) in this decade alone – Michael Moore not only invented the now ubiquitous ‘documentarian as subject’ sub-genre (which has inspired numerous protégées, like Spurlock) but the (far less ubiquitous) blockbuster documentary.
THE FOG OF WAR (Errol Morris, USA, 2003) – Character study. Errol Morris interviews 85-year-old Robert McNamara, cut against TV clippings, still photos, footage of World War II bombing runs and air attacks over Vietnam, and audio of taped phone conversations between LBJ and his Defense Secretary. Morris allows McNamara to (at least on the surface) control the interview, and gives the time and space for his subject to reveal and contradict himself, noting occasional ironies along the way.
THE GLEANERS AND I (Agnès Varda, France, 2000) - The Diary & Essay film. The Gleaners and I’ is both diary and essay – Varda is infectiously curious, genuine and warm, and she uses film as a tool in her personal journey of discovery, on which we are privileged to go along for the ride.
GRIZZLY MAN (Werner Herzog, USA, 2005) – Second hand footage. Werner Herzog is able to, first recognize, and than excavate the inherent lyricism in the otherwise banal footage left behind by Timothy Treadwell, who died in a ferocious attack by a grizzly bear. Transforming a mere document into poetic documentary, Herzog creates a duet of sorts between his own inspired observations and Treadwell’s unique world view – culminating in a remarkable new voice.
INTO GREAT SILENCE (Philip Gröning, Germany, 2005) – A documentary at its most elemental – no crew, no artificial lighting, no musical score, no voiceover, no archival footage, no direct exposition – but, the patience to wait 16 years to be given permission to film, and then, the patience to live for six months more with the monks who are the subjects of his film, Groning’s masterpiece doesn’t merely depict life in a monastery, but embodies it – it is a total immersion.
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS (James Longley, USA, 2006) – Poetic War Film. Described as an opus in three parts, Fragments culminates in a series of portraits that resulted from the two years that Longley spent in war torn Iraq. The film offers an intimacy and lyricism seldom seen in this sub-genre.
LAKE OF FIRE (Tony Kaye, USA, 2006) - An oxymoron – a beautiful ‘issue’ film. A gorgeously shot, and extraordinarily balanced film on the most divisive of subjects – abortion. An extraordinary cinematic and moral achievement – showing all sides, and then some (with many images difficult, but important, to watch) causing audiences to reassess their own attitudes toward this controversial issue.
MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, USA/UK, 2008) – The resuscitation of re-enactment and archival footage. Just when we thought that re-enactment was for the birds, James Marsh brings it back in high style. His meticulous interweaving of archival footage, contemporary interviews, and playful re-enactment, bring back to life the ‘artistic crime of the century’ – Philippe Petit’s 1974 high-wire walk between NYC’s World Trade Center’s twin towers.
SPELLBOUND (Jeffrey Blitz, USA, 2002) – Competition sub-genre. Cute kids, the inherent drama of a spelling bee, what’s not to love? Audiences flocked to this feel-good film in droves, and it inspired a sub-genre all its own – the competition documentary film (with Word Play, Mad Hot Ballroom, King of Kong, and numerous others following suit).
WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany, 2008) – Animated documentary. While it may seem paradoxical, Ari Folman’s use of animation as a form of documentary dramatization reveals a deeper truth than may have been possible if relying on a raw footage alone. The animation makes bearable the unbearable, and gives clarity to devastating and murky terrain of trauma and PTSD.
WHEN THE LEVEE BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS (Spike Lee, USA, 2006) - Beyond news. Known more for his feature narratives, Lee delivered one of the most powerful, comprehensive and devastating films on the subject of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Interspersing second-hand news footage, still photographs and contemporary interviews, this film took on a topical issue on which we thought we had seen all there was to see, and lays bare the limitations of our new media outlets and the power of testimony.
- the riverbed cinema at Dokufest. (photo taken by Veton Nurkollari)
Veton Nurkollari is not only one of my favourite people in the festival community, Dokufest, the festival he runs in Prizen, Kosovo, remains the fondest experience I’ve had on the circuit. The city has a special energy and warmth, boosted by the fact that the Festival is held during the peak of wedding season.
It seems that half of Prizren’s youth volunteer for Dokufest, and in the evenings most of them become the audience for atmospheric outdoor screenings. While these events can be unruly and a technical challenge in a place where power disruptions are common, I recall stone silence during a presentation of JAMES BLUNT: RETURN TO KOSOVO.
Blunt, a Brit pop singer, had a tour of duty as a Captain in the British Army in Kosovo during the conflict in that country. In the doc he returns to perform a concert, and in one scene visits the site of a mass grave his squadron had identified during his service. That this young audience was watching their very recent history reflected on screen, even as with a glance over the screen, into the hills surrounding Prizren, one could see burned out homes, was a complex, profoundly moving experience. It still gives me chills, the power of documentary at its most immediate.
With a disclaimer that he could have went on forever, Veton has sent us the following list of some of his essentials (the fact he’s a photographer himself is evident here):
11. DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE (Hubert Sauper, Austria/France, 2004): An eye opening film that plays like a thriller, Darwin’s Nightmare is a shocking tale of environmental disaster that no one cares about and greed that knows no boundary. Russian pilots, prostitutes, fishermen and watchmen are only a part of the gallery of characters in this almost bizarre documentary.
10. BORN INTO BROTHELS (Ross Kaufmann, Zana Briski, USA, 2004 ): Zana Briski’s film about the young inhabitants of Calcutta’s Red Light district is an emotional travel where each of us cannot help but care about them as the film goes along. Unpretentious and full of love it succeeds in showing how misery can be overcome with simple acts, like giving cameras to kids and teaching them a joy of photography.
9. IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS (James Longley, USA, 2006): First in a series of great films about Iraq, James Longley’s Iraq in Fragment is a record of a country caught in violence and despair without ever asking for it. Combined with Longley’s stunning cinematography the film tells a story of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds with such a humanity that one can hardly label it a war documentary.
8. DEAR ZACHARY: A LETTER TO A SON ABOUT HIS FATHER (Kurt Kuenne, USA, 2008): Dear Zachary is like no other film in that it would have been much better if a need to make it never occurred to Kurt Kuenne, its director. But when Andrew Bagby, his best friend is murdered and his ex-girlfriend and murderer escapes to Canada, where she announces that she was pregnant with Andrew, Kurt sets on a journey to make a film about his friend as a gift to a soon to be born Zachary. The result is a film never seen before in it’s emotional impact to a viewer and the one you’ll find difficult not to think about long after the credits roll.
7. WALTZ WITH BASHIR (Ari Folman, Israel, 2008): What is it to live in a country that wants to forget its past? Waltz with Bashir, the breakthrough animated documentary tells exactly this by examining the memory of the nation through stories of former army friends of director Ari Folman. The stories that slowly lead the viewer into the big picture of notorious massacre in Sabra and Shatila refuge camps. A truly fascinating and haunting film.
6. THE WHITE DIAMOND (Werner Herzog, USA, 2004): Herzog’s amazing film about a dream and a daydreamer in all of us. Breathtaking images of a jungle in Guyana are backdrop for a film about Dr. Graham Dorrington, an airspace engineer and his dream of flying over the jungle in self-built light aircraft.
5. LOST IN LA MANCHA (Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe, UK, 2002): Terry Gilliam as modern Don Quixote in one of the best “making-off’s” in recent years. Shot during the failed attempt of filming “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”, the film is as funny and entertaining as anything you’ve seen before despite the fact that everything was falling apart for Gilliam and his film crew during the shooting.
4. MAN ON WIRE (James Marsh, USA/UK, 2008): One can not help but admire Philippe Petit, the subject of extraordinary documentary Man on Wire and the author of one of the most impressive stunts of the 20th Century. His dream of walking between Twin Towers on wire is of majestic proportions, and the one that lifts the film above the mere reconstruction of event.
3. THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA (Pirjo Honkasalo, Finland, 2004): Art documentary about Chechen war!! One doesn’t get too many chances to see that and Pirjo Honkasalo’s The 3 Rooms of Melancholia is so beautifully crafted and mysterious that even evokes a mood of Tarkovsky. An important film, both aesthetically and in conveying the message of violation of children rights.
2. GRIZZLY MAN (Werner Herzog, USA, 2005): Madmen and eccentrics populate Herzog’s film in large and Timothy Treadwell is no exception. As a self proclaimed “guardian of bears” Treadwell meticulously filmed himself during 13 years of his “expeditions” in Alaska among grizzly bears, the fact that ultimately led to his tragic death in the end. Grizzly Man is yet another masterpiece from master director Werner Herzog.
1. THE FOG OF WAR (Errol Morris, USA, 2003): Fifty years of the history of American Military, portrait of the architect of the Vietnam War, ethics of war and lessons learned, or maybe not, are part of Errol Morris’s fascinating film with one of the most fascinating characters, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. As there is no end in sight on two wars that America is waging at the moment, the echo of McNamara’s words and the strength of the film are becoming even more important.
- from CZECH DREAM
In the second entry in the Ripping Reality series of “essential works,” Tue Steen Müller directs our attention to the documentary new wave(s) as manifested in Central and Eastern Europe. Indeed, not unlike the way related strains of Direct Cinema/Cinéma Vérité/Free Cinema grew in the last great flourishing of documentary cinema (roughly the mid-1950’s through mid-1960’s), the current movement is very much an international phenomenon.
One characteristic of note in this region is the importance of film schools as hubs for developing much of this new talent. I’m thinking particularly of FAMU in Prague, and in Poland the Andrzej Wadja Master School and the National Film School (Lodz) (and I’m sure there are others). And of course the tremendous social-political upheavals engendered by the post-Communist realities has provided rich material for documentary filmmakers.
You can read more from Tue Steen Müller on the Filmkommentaren blog. One of those smart Danish doc dudes, he’s been a central figure in European documentary culture for over twenty years. He writes:
The last decade of documentaries, a new wave or new waves… well, you can have a look at it from different angles.
As a documentary workshop organizer, both in my time as director of EDN (European Documentary Network) and now as a free lancer, I see more and more upcoming talents who try to fight their ways through endless sessions of pitching projects to public broadcasters, whose editors have been forced to go more and more mainstream. The battle is lost as it was said by ex-leader of Arte France documentary section, Thierry Garrel, and what he meant was that in the most important place for creative documentaries, Arte, the formatting has arrived and will stay. The same can be said for ”Storyville”, where Nick Fraser a decade ago could take risks, where he today is threatened by the BBC wish for higher ratings. Play safe, this is what we have to do nowadays, another Arte editor said to me the other day. Continue reading…
- from SINS OF MY FATHER. Tough to top Pablo Escobar, bad dad wise…but doable.
While the theme programme at Hot Docs this year is SMALL ACTS, a selection of films based around acts of kindness, leadership and all around goodness, the unofficial theme is certainly fatherhood. We have twelve films dealing very directly with fathers as the central subject, and several others in which they are on the periphery of the story.
Fathers, prison, peak oil, transgender, basketball, Africa, kids competing, Burning Man and docs with Noam Chomsky interviews are genres all their own in nonfiction filmmaking. We also have transgender quite covered this year, and “Africa” too…but twelve father docs! I’d beg forgiveness, except that they’re all really good, very different, and together make for a fascinating study of what is clearly a very problematic figure.
If I had the time I’d attempt to muster some insights on this, and I hope somebody sees them all and does. I will note, however, that most of these docs were not made to thank fathers for a job well done. And, if there’s any redemption for bad dads it’s that they raise good documentary filmmakers. The worst father? Me, for kicking my kids out of the room while I was writing this post. They probably went off to make a doc about the trauma of being denied access to the Club Penguin website.
Directed by sons about their father:
BEYOND THIS PLACE
FAMILY AFFAIR
MY LIFE WITH CARLOS
THE PLAYER
FAMILY
Directed by daughters about their fathers:
A MOTH IN SPRING (short)
DADDY’S GIRLS
PETER IN RADIOLAND (short)
Directed by a father about his daughter:
THE KIDS GROW UP
Directed by a neutral observer clearly working out their own father issues through a third-party (joking):
PORTRAIT OF A MAN
SINS OF MY FATHER
THIS WAY OF LIFE
- from FAMILY (Sami Saif, Phie Ambo, Denmark, 2001)
As part of the coalescing Ripping Reality project, we asked festival programmers from around the world to send us lists of contemporary works they consider to be essential to the new documentary. From these we selected ten for a modest retro at this year’s Hot Docs.
Again, Ripping Reality is proceeding from the premise that something special has happened over the past decade or so in documentary film culture. We’re proposing a collaborative endeavor to reflect on this movement at a crucial time in its development.
After a period of phenomenal creative renewal and industrial growth for feature-length documentaries, we seem to be on a tenuous plateau. This isn’t a passive exercise in nostalgia, but a means of actively looking forward by reaching back. That, and, wow, an incredible body of nonfiction filmmaking has been produced over the past decade. Let’s celebrate it.
Here’s a list from Steven Markovitz, Co-Founder, Encounters- South African International Documentary Festival. Steven also produced an omnibus doc, CONGO IN FOUR ACTS, that premiered at Berlin, and will be presented at Hot Docs.
Steven writes:
Documentaries are getting funnier….
VHS KAHLOUCHA (Néjib Belkadhi, Tunisia, 2006)
HOW TO BECOME A HERO (Mladen Matičević, Serbia, 2008)
THE SHUTKA BOOK OF RECORDS (Aleksandar Manic, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, 2005)
GEORGI AND THE BUTTERFLIES (Andrey Paounov, Bulgaria, 2004)
Documentaries often feel more like feature films….
CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (Andrew Jarecki, USA, 2003)
METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER (Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, USA, 2004)
TOUCHING THE VOID (Kevin MacDonald, UK, 2003)
FAMILY (Sami Saif, Phie Ambo, Denmark, 2001)
Filmmakers are playing with form…..
THE SEVEN SONGS FROM THE TUNDRA (Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland, 1999)
HUSH (Victor Kosakovsky, Russia, 2002)
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS (Lars von Trier, Jorgen Leth, Denmark, 2003)
Political documentaries are getting sharper…..
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (Alex Gibney, USA, 2007)
CUBA: AN AFRICAN ODYSSEY (Jihan El-Tahri, France/Egypt, 2007)
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (Alex Gibney, USA, 2005)
RIP: A REMIX MANIFESTO (Brett Gaylor, Canada, 2009)
THE CORPORATION (Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Joel Bakan, Canada, 2004)
SACRIFICIO: WHO BETRAYED CHE GUEVARA (Erik Gandini, Tarik Saleh, Sweden, 2001)
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS (Rachel Boynton, USA, 2005)
CHAVEZ: INSIDE THE COUP (Kim Bartley, Donnacha O’Briain, Ireland, 2002)
A few words written for this year’s Hot Docs programme book….
I bid you to a one-man revolution -
The only revolution that is coming.
- Robert Frost, from “Build Soil: A Political Pastoral”
“If we find the consequences of our arrogant ignorance to be humbling, and we are humbled, then we have at hand the first fact of hope: We can change ourselves. We, each of us severally, can remove our minds from the corporate ignorance and arrogance that is leading the world to destruction; we can honestly confront our ignorance and our need; we can take guidance from the knowledge we most authentically possess, from experience, from tradition, and from inward promptings of affection, conscience, decency, compassion, even inspiration.” – Wendell Berry, from “The Way of Ignorance”
It is impossible to watch several hundred documentaries, as our programmers each have done over the past few months, and not feel that the state of things, in the broadest sense, are bad. Very bad. Yet, I agree with Wendell Berry, a prolific, wise writer of poetry, fiction and essays, and for over forty years a farmer in Henry County, Kentucky: “If the ability to change oneself is the first fact of hope, then the second surely must be an honest assessment of the badness of the situation.”
Anybody who has been following documentary over the past decade knows that assessing and confronting badness is something our nonfiction filmmakers approach with gusto. They don’t flinch. They commonly take on difficult subjects and often travel to dangerous places. Sometimes those places are within their own communities, or their families, or their selves (more so then ever in this year’s Festival).
Those of us who have championed and promoted documentary over this period of the flourishing of the form, which has flirted with something like popular appeal, often downplay the more difficult, consumer unfriendly, subject matter that is at the core of the movement. Isn’t going to the movies supposed to be a vacation from reality? Continue reading…
For those looking for a snapshot of the current state of documentary funding, a preview of 28 upcoming productions at pitch or production stage, and endless opportunities for professional insights and networking, I recommend registering as an Observer at Hot Docs’ Toronto Documentary Forum. The deadline is this Friday, March 19.
In other Hot Docs news, we closed the programme late last week (sorry, truly, to those that missed the cut), and after a head clearing weekend at sxsw (fave event was the Ze Frank talk), I’m now just trying to make sense of it all in preparation for our media conference next Tuesday, March 23.
It was a tough delivery, but we think we’ve assembled a darn swell survey of the season’s new docs.
Having emerged from the screening bubble, totally intend and feel motivated to post a little run of entries here, so watch this space.
While the juicy, spoiler susceptible story has been the focus of first responses to CATFISH, the sensation of Sundance TwentyTen, its the zippy storytelling style itself that caught my eye.
Facebook, Google Maps, Iphones, email, texts, instant messaging, etc. are not only the basis of the film’s content, they are its form. CATFISH may be the first aesthetically successful example of cross-platform cinema, not as a distribution strategy, but as the primary syntactic spine of the work itself.
BUT….that’s all you need to know for the present. In fact, herein, DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT CATFISH. Do not let any programmer blogger geeks offer a single superlative or even a spoiler free teaser. JUST WALK AWAY. And keep expectations low…I mean, how can it be THAT good? It’s better when you don’t think it’s that good.
Now, forget you read this.