Fuck Off 2 – Images from Finland[/caption]
The documentary program for this year’s 60th Nordische Filmtage Lübeck (Oct. 30 – Nov. 4, 2018) promises to deliver an exciting cross-section of films on ways of life in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as vivid histories in Europe over the last 100 years. Of the 28 documentaries in the section, 16 will be in the running for the Documentary Film Prize awarded by the Lübeck trade unions.The award, to be presented at the 60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck on November 3, 2018, is given to a “socially and politically committed film”.
Among this year’s documentarians is one of Finland’s most renowned directors and producers, Jörn Donner, who attempts in “Fuck Off 2 – Images from Finland” (FIN 2017) to capture the enormous changes that have occurred in the country since he made the classic documentary “Fuck Off – Images from Finland” in 1971. As he journeyed around the country and spoke with a wide diversity of people, he shed light on immense income disparity, rural depopulation, and attitudes towards migrants – subjects that are also addressed in some of the section’s other films. Jörn Donner, born in 1933, will be guest in Lübeck. Husband and wife team Janus Metz and Sine Plambech, who won the NFL Documentary prize in 2009, have also made a sequel of sorts with “Heartbound – a Different Kind of Love Story” (DEN/HOL/SWE 2018). The film shows an anthropological bent as it looks at marriages between Danes and Thais, providing deep insight into those special inter-cultural relationships in Denmark’s northern reaches.
The films in the documentary section also look at other topical issues, such as the de-population of isolated European regions in “Estonian Stories. Kerro 40” (EST 2017) and “690 Vopnafjörður” (ICE 2017). The ramifications of technological progress for residents is the subject of “The River, My Friend” (SWI 2018) and “The Illuminators”, while changes to the working world in traditional trades such as commercial fishing play a role in “The Ocean – Fishing with Love” (DEN/FAR 2018) and “The Last in a Line of Fishermen” (SWE 2018).
Lastly, the rise and fall of a modern high-tech company is examined in “Nokia Mobile – We Were Connecting People” (FIN/NOR/GER 2017).
The importance of a structured life, education, and school systems for children and young adults is the subject of the two films “14 Cases” (EST 2017) and “To Be Continued” (LAT 2018), while by contrast, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” (NOR/SWE 2018) and “The Night” (NOR/BEL/SWE 2017) look at the effects of drug addiction on families.
Among the films that look back at history are “Bad Circumstances” (DEN 2018), about the conquest of Greenland, and “The Raven and the Seagull” (DEN/GL 2018) about the relationship between colony and colonial powers. Other films on historical subjects are “The Eyes of a War” (FIN 2018) by Jouko Aaltonen and Seppo Rustanius, about child soldiers in Finland’s civil war, as well as “Iceland Defense Force – Cold War Frontier” (ICE 2017), in which directors Guðbergur Davíðsson and Konráð Gylfason take a close look at a NATO base in Keflavik, Iceland.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Icelandic independence provides the perfect occasion for other films in the documentary section. For instance, directors Raimo Jõeran and Kiur Aarma look back at the first Estonian government, portraying it as a wild “Rodeo” (EST/FIN 2018). “Bridges of Time” (LAT/LIT/EST 2018) also brings back memories – in this case of the Baltic New Wave cinema that provided a counterpoint to the official Soviet film regime of the time. It’s a documentary about documentaries whose directors developed a poetic cinematic language in the 1960s. One of those filmmakers is Lette Ivars Seleckis, born in 1934, who is expected in Lübeck this year, where he will not only join director Kristine Briede to present “Bridges of Time”, but also screen his newest documentary “To Be Continued” (LAT 2018), which observes Latvian children as they go through their first school year.
A very special relationship is at the centre of this year’s Master Class on “Reality and Morality”, which focusses on the latest documentary by Norwegian director Erik Poppe, who recently created a bit of a sensation with “U – July 22” (NOR 2018, showing this year in the Specials section). In “Per Fugelli – I Die” (NOR 2018), Poppe accompanies his friend, the Norwegian physician and public health pioneer, through the final stages of Fugelli’s fatal cancer. The resulting film is both profound and absorbing. Erik Poppe himself will be at the Master Class to talk with young filmmakers about how to deal with highly sensitive subjects, and the filmmaker’s responsibility to his protagonists. He will also discuss the use of narrative filmmaking methods on documentary storytelling.
The Night (Natta pappa henta oss) (2017)
An autobiographical story about his childhood – director Steffan Strandberg’s mother was an alcoholic. In his film, he tackles difficult memories.
Directed by Steffan Strandberg
Genre(s) Documentary Film
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60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck Documentary Lineup Focused on Life in Nordic and Baltic Countries
[caption id="attachment_32252" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Fuck Off 2 – Images from Finland[/caption]
The documentary program for this year’s 60th Nordische Filmtage Lübeck (Oct. 30 – Nov. 4, 2018) promises to deliver an exciting cross-section of films on ways of life in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as vivid histories in Europe over the last 100 years. Of the 28 documentaries in the section, 16 will be in the running for the Documentary Film Prize awarded by the Lübeck trade unions.The award, to be presented at the 60th Nordic Film Days Lübeck on November 3, 2018, is given to a “socially and politically committed film”.
Among this year’s documentarians is one of Finland’s most renowned directors and producers, Jörn Donner, who attempts in “Fuck Off 2 – Images from Finland” (FIN 2017) to capture the enormous changes that have occurred in the country since he made the classic documentary “Fuck Off – Images from Finland” in 1971. As he journeyed around the country and spoke with a wide diversity of people, he shed light on immense income disparity, rural depopulation, and attitudes towards migrants – subjects that are also addressed in some of the section’s other films. Jörn Donner, born in 1933, will be guest in Lübeck. Husband and wife team Janus Metz and Sine Plambech, who won the NFL Documentary prize in 2009, have also made a sequel of sorts with “Heartbound – a Different Kind of Love Story” (DEN/HOL/SWE 2018). The film shows an anthropological bent as it looks at marriages between Danes and Thais, providing deep insight into those special inter-cultural relationships in Denmark’s northern reaches.
The films in the documentary section also look at other topical issues, such as the de-population of isolated European regions in “Estonian Stories. Kerro 40” (EST 2017) and “690 Vopnafjörður” (ICE 2017). The ramifications of technological progress for residents is the subject of “The River, My Friend” (SWI 2018) and “The Illuminators”, while changes to the working world in traditional trades such as commercial fishing play a role in “The Ocean – Fishing with Love” (DEN/FAR 2018) and “The Last in a Line of Fishermen” (SWE 2018).
Lastly, the rise and fall of a modern high-tech company is examined in “Nokia Mobile – We Were Connecting People” (FIN/NOR/GER 2017).
The importance of a structured life, education, and school systems for children and young adults is the subject of the two films “14 Cases” (EST 2017) and “To Be Continued” (LAT 2018), while by contrast, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” (NOR/SWE 2018) and “The Night” (NOR/BEL/SWE 2017) look at the effects of drug addiction on families.
Among the films that look back at history are “Bad Circumstances” (DEN 2018), about the conquest of Greenland, and “The Raven and the Seagull” (DEN/GL 2018) about the relationship between colony and colonial powers. Other films on historical subjects are “The Eyes of a War” (FIN 2018) by Jouko Aaltonen and Seppo Rustanius, about child soldiers in Finland’s civil war, as well as “Iceland Defense Force – Cold War Frontier” (ICE 2017), in which directors Guðbergur Davíðsson and Konráð Gylfason take a close look at a NATO base in Keflavik, Iceland.
The 100th anniversary of the founding of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Icelandic independence provides the perfect occasion for other films in the documentary section. For instance, directors Raimo Jõeran and Kiur Aarma look back at the first Estonian government, portraying it as a wild “Rodeo” (EST/FIN 2018). “Bridges of Time” (LAT/LIT/EST 2018) also brings back memories – in this case of the Baltic New Wave cinema that provided a counterpoint to the official Soviet film regime of the time. It’s a documentary about documentaries whose directors developed a poetic cinematic language in the 1960s. One of those filmmakers is Lette Ivars Seleckis, born in 1934, who is expected in Lübeck this year, where he will not only join director Kristine Briede to present “Bridges of Time”, but also screen his newest documentary “To Be Continued” (LAT 2018), which observes Latvian children as they go through their first school year.
A very special relationship is at the centre of this year’s Master Class on “Reality and Morality”, which focusses on the latest documentary by Norwegian director Erik Poppe, who recently created a bit of a sensation with “U – July 22” (NOR 2018, showing this year in the Specials section). In “Per Fugelli – I Die” (NOR 2018), Poppe accompanies his friend, the Norwegian physician and public health pioneer, through the final stages of Fugelli’s fatal cancer. The resulting film is both profound and absorbing. Erik Poppe himself will be at the Master Class to talk with young filmmakers about how to deal with highly sensitive subjects, and the filmmaker’s responsibility to his protagonists. He will also discuss the use of narrative filmmaking methods on documentary storytelling.
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‘The Raft’ ‘Laila at the Bridge’ ‘Beautiful Things’ and More Win at CPH:DOX 2018
[caption id="attachment_27775" align="aligncenter" width="960"]
2018 CPH-DOX Awards. The winner of DOX:Award: The Raft[/caption]
‘The Raft’ by the Swedish director Marcus Lindeen, which tells the story of one of the strangest social experiments of all times ,and told by those who took part in it, took the top prize – the Dox:Award 2018 at the 15th edition of CPH:DOX – Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. The film held its world premiere at as CPH:DOX.
In 1973, five men and six women sailed across the Atlantic on a raft. A social experiment and a scientific study of violence, aggression, sex and group behaviour, conducted by a radical Mexican anthropologist. Everything was filmed and documented in a diary. But theory is one thing, practice is another. And without wanting to reveal too much, the experiment didn’t exactly work out as planned. Over 40 years later, Swedish artist and filmmaker Marcus Lindeen brings the crew together again for the first time since the experiment, on a faithful copy of the raft in a film studio, to look back at the three intense months they spent together, isolated and without privacy, on ‘The Sex Raft’, as the press called it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-diO4_Y0i8
The jury gave a Special Mention to ‘América’, a charming, Mexican adventure about three mismatched brothers and their 93-year-old grandmother in a film about family ties.
‘Laila at the Bridge’ by Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei, which had its world premiere at CPH:DOX won the F:ACT Award – dedicated to auteur filmmaking in the field between research-based, investigative journalism, activism and documentary cinema.
A powerful film about a woman who is willpower in its purest form. Day after day, the charismatic and strong-willed woman puts on her small ballerina shoes and colourful scarves and heads under the bridge to take them to her private rehab centre, where the aim is to get them out of their addiction with ice-cold baths, communal prayers and motherly reprimands. It is not a miracle factory. Many experience a relapse, and Laila has to struggle with constant financial problems. When the Taliban’s arrival in the city scares customers away from the restaurant she is running to finance her centres, things start looking bleak. But Laila threatens corrupt ministers in their marble offices, shoots mafia thugs in her bedroom with a shotgun and with equal measures of care and indignation has a serious word with the opium-addled men under the bridge.
The winner of the New:Vision Award is the film ‘Wild Relatives’ by Jumana Manna. Jumana Manna’s original and politically sensitive new work draws lines between three distant spots on the world map: Syria, Lebanon and Svalbard. The lines chart a route and a complex network of relationships. ‘Wild Relatives’ exposes the exchange of ecological currency between two of the world’s grain banks, which are the archives of the smallest basic ingredient of agriculture: Seeds. Biodiversity, conflicts and international politics are parts of a game with perspectives reaching far out into the most distant future, and form the the basis for a humorous and thought-provoking conversation between a priest and a scientist far out in the middle of nowhere.
The jury gave a Special Mention to ‘Translations’ by Tinne Zenner, a critical and graceful 16mm film in which the vistas of Greenland create a space for free thinking.
The winner of the Nordic:Dox Award – recognizing the best and brightest in cinema from the Nordic countries – is the film ‘Lykkelænder’ by the Danish director Lasse Lau. The film held its world premiere at the festival.
The relationship between Greenland and Denmark is full of fantasy and myths. And these are exactly what Danish artist Lasse Lau reflects upon – and in turn documents – in his first feature-length film. But how do you give a form to the Greenlandic experience when you are an outsider yourself? Lau has created a sensitive film about authenticity and recreation by letting both elements become a part of the work, together with his performers.
The jury gave a Special Mention to the Norwegian film ‘The Night’ by Steffan Strandberg, a beautifully animated and bittersweet film about two brothers and their upbringing with an alcoholic mother and musician father.
The winner of the Next:Wave Award given to emerging filmmakers, is the film ‘Beautiful Things’ by the Italian directors Giorgio Ferrero & Federico Biasin. If documentary science fiction was a genre – and it is now! – then ‘Beautiful Things’ is the film that locates the future in the midst of our present age. A machine engineer on a supertanker and a scientist specialising in mathematics and audio studies are two of the human cogs in a bulimic cycle of (over)production and (over)consumption of the material objects that surround us – a cycle we never even think about. A chain with many segments, which the filmmaker duo of Giorgio Ferrero and Federico Biasin brings together in an accomplished audiovisual study of our times, but with room for the human quirks that constitute the grit in the machinery.
The jury gave a Special Mention to Minding the Gap (Bing Liu, United States), where three young friends grow up, become young men and make life choices in front of rolling cameras, and Conventional Sins (Anat Yuta Zuria & Shira-Clara Winther, Israel), a Docu-noir about sexual abuse in the ultra-orthodox environment in Jerusalem.
The winner of the Politiken Audience Award is ‘False Confessions’ by the director Katrine Philp, a legal thriller about a pro-bono idealist’s work for justice in a cynical justice system. The film held its world premiere at the festival.
During an interrogation in the United States, it is both legal and commonplace to use special psychological techniques to make the suspect confess. In a closed room, coached interrogators can not only get anyone to confess to anything – they can also make innocent people believe that they have actually committed crimes such as murder and child assault. In New York, the Danish-born defence attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen is working to prevent false confessions, so that less people end up in prison for crimes they have not committed.
image via Facebook – The winner of DOX:Award: “The Raft” Photo by Inger Rønnenfelt