- 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.