myDylarama

Q&A with Sema Basharan, director of The Branches are Hope; The Roots are Memory - Leeds award winner

Mydylarama team — 2021-11-21T20:30:58Z

Sema Basharan's short documentary explores the history of peace activism and grassroots resistance in Bradford and the way the city's religious diversity inspired movements towards peacebuilding, through a creative use of experimental art and visuals, archive footage and interviews.

What inspired you to make a documentary about Bradford? And why the specific focus on concepts like peace?

I'd previously made a film exploring Christian attitudes to war and peace through the story of some conscientious objectors in WW2, so it was a subject I'd been interested in for a while. I was really interested in how they saw peace through the lens of their faith, and the actions it led them to take as a result. In The Branches are Hope; The Roots are Memory I wanted to explore this topic further by looking at other faith groups and how faith and peace work together in people's lives to inspire them to act. Finding myself back in my home city of Bradford at this time felt like the perfect place to explore this idea. It's a city with a rich heritage of peace and is a melting pot of cultures, with a real independent spirit, so there was so much to dig into. It was also a chance for me to explore my own connection with the city after some time away, which was part of the journey of this film.

Can you tell us a bit more about the process? How did you choose the archives, the testimonies... Was there some level of collaboration with the Peace Museum?

The testimonies mostly came by recommendation, although I put out an open call looking for people to take part. A lot of the faith communities in Bradford are well connected, as are people involved in the peace movement, so most people were suggested to me by others I'd met, including by the Peace Museum. Bradford is full of people who would fit what I was looking for though, I could have spent a year interviewing people! I only had a month to fit in as many as I could. Choosing the archive was more tricky and there was a lot of experimentation, along with the other visuals, to weave the images and testimonies together and build up the picture bit by bit. I worked with the Yorkshire Film Archive for this who were really supportive in helping me find what I needed.

You integrated art and experimental imagery into the documentary. What's your background in fine arts?

I originally studied fine art, but couldn't really see myself working as an artist at that time, and didn't pursue my own creative practice until I started making documentaries ten years later. My first two documentaries were more of a mainstream style, but with this one I was feeling much more confident in developing my own voice that I wanted to revisit some of my past work. What's interesting is that I discovered the themes I was working with way back on my art foundation and undergraduate degree were the same themes I'm interested in now as a filmmaker, such as memory and identity. It felt so easy and natural to bring these together in this film.

You're primarily a documentary filmmaker. Are you looking to explore other formats? What would you like to work on in the near future?

Right now I'm sticking with documentary, although I wouldn't rule out other genres in future! This was the first film where I'd written something of a script, and it turns out I really enjoy writing, so I would like to explore that more for sure! I have a couple of other ideas in development right now, but with very film I make, I try to challenge myself to try something new, or tell the story differently, so that's on my mind now with the next one. I like to build on what I've learned but also to experiment where I can.

What have been your highlights from the film's festival run? Any comments or reactions that stood out?

The film premiered at Sheffield DocFest this year, so I have to say that was a definite highlight and
completely outdid my expectations. It was nominated for an award there too, so the whole experience was really amazing! Picking up an award at Leeds International Film Festival was the absolute icing on the cake, and I'm still a bit shocked that a film about peacemakers in Bradford would be of interest to other people! But people really seem to connect with the film, and I've had some great conversations with people who were really touched by it and have wanted to screen it at local community events, including an inter-faith group run by one of my contributors. For me that's one of the big successes of the film, that it doesn't just appeal to festival audiences. It is screening in the communities that it came out of and inspires further discussion on topics of faith and peace.

What best bits of advice would you have for aspiring documentary filmmakers?

Honestly, just make films. Do what you can with the resources you have. You can do so much with a smartphone and a laptop. It doesn't matter how big an audience you get just keep making and honing your skills. The other thing I'd say is find people you trust who can give you really honest, constructive feedback, even if it's hard to hear sometimes. Those people are vital for the process so seek them out and take them on the journey with you.

Find out more about Sema's work on her website.

Top 5 on Netflix - The Black Middle Classes

Abla Kandalaft, Coco Green — 2020-07-09T13:15:15Z

Mydy's second podcast! It's the second part Secorro's look at the Netflix Black Lives Matter collection and associated films. We're still tinkering with tech and format. Other episodes will feature discussions with more back and forth, as well as interviews and guest spots. As always, comments welcome!

This week, from five films on Netflix, (1) Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020); (2) Strong Island (2017); (3) Skin (2019); (4) I Am Not Your Negro (2016); and (5) Black Privilege (2019) emerges the theme of the ‘Black Middle Classes.' While they all hit the mark for entertainment value, some fall short in misrepresenting a fantasy of black life that is more based-on-aspirational than matter-of-fact; and the documentaries provide insights on the functions, politics, and practices of black middle classes.

In light of the solidarity expressed by the Black Lives Matter movement - and other protesters and campaigners - with Palestinians, our intro is about Palestinian films that shed light on the current issue of annexation. Abla talks about the London Palestine Film Festival collection, Mats Grorud's The Tower (available via Amazon Prime), Wassim Safadi's State of Siege (available on YouTube) and Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours (also Amazon Prime). Get in touch if you want more info about any of these!

Q&A with Farah Nabulsi, dir. The Present - Clermont 2020 Audience Award

Abla Kandalaft — 2020-02-09T19:23:21Z

On his wedding anniversary, Yusef and his young daughter set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift. Between soldiers, segregated roads and checkpoints, how easy would it be to go shopping?

British-Palestinian Farah Nabulsi is relatively new to filmmaking, which can come as a surprise given just how adept she is at provoking the most rousing emotions in her viewers by telling a fairly simple story. The audience award that she deservedly won in Clermont clearly highlights just how effectively The Present achieves its aim, moving its audience and hopefully provoking some level of outrage and anger at the injustice faced by father Yusef (and through the prism of his story, all Palestinians). Seasoned Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri is unsurprisingly excellent and Maryam Kanj who plays his daughter delivers a wonderfully mature performance. Finally, kudos to Farah for managing to film across checkpoints and endless limitations.

More on the film...

Can you tell us a bit about your background as a filmmaker?

Actually, I don't have a background in filmmaking! After a life-changing trip to the Occupied Palestinian Territories around five years ago, I started to write privately and therapeutically on what I had seen, felt and begun to imagine as I naturally found myself exercising empathy by placing myself into the shoes of those who are suffering gross injustice. Around two years later, I “chose” to become a filmmaker at the age of 38, by adapting those initial written pieces and producing them as short films. I had never worked in the industry, had absolutely no past experience in making films or any formal training or education in film, but I always loved film and that was enough. Put that together with my vivid visual and verbal imagination and my enjoyment in telling stories – and it made sense. The great Stanley Kubrick said: “The best education in film is to make one,” and I couldn't agree more. That brings us to The Present. This is the fourth short film I have written, but the first one that I have also directed, so the learning curve was huge. The process was daunting and thrilling at the same time!

Where is the film shot? How difficult was the shoot? What were the main hurdles?

The film was shot 100% in Occupied Palestine, in the Bethlehem area. Shooting in Palestine is never going to be easy. The cast and crew have different IDs and can come and go with different freedoms, which can mean unnecessary delays and restrictions. It is in a landscape under military occupation, so during the shoot we could be prevented from filming at any moment, but thankfully we were not. When we did recce we found great locations, but they were usually in Area C, which is completely under Israeli military control and obtaining permits to film there would have been next to impossible, but shooting without them would be too risky, so we had to give those up and settle for locations that were mostly not ideal at all, in more central areas with lots of traffic and noise that needed to be controlled although we had wanted quieter and less busy areas, etc. One of the hardest things we did, and took a big risk on, was filming at the infamous real Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem (scene 2 of the film), where hundreds of Palestinians pass through every morning like cattle. The only fiction in that scene is our protagonist, Yusef (Saleh Bakri). Filming that morning was intense, as we had taken no permissions from anyone and were surrounded by real people who were being humiliated in actual fact by a military who were just around the corner. The more philosophical question though is – who has the right to give or refuse permission to film such a monstrosity and why is such a monstrosity there in the first place? It was intense and tough, and we risked attracting military attention at any moment, but it felt extremely rewarding once we were done.

Did you work with Israeli actors as well?

Everyone who worked on the shoot of the film was Palestinian, except our DOP, Benoît Chamaillard, who is French. I worked with a number of Palestinian Israelis, whom the Israeli government like to call “Arab-Israelis”. So, for example, Saleh Bakri, my lead actor, is a Palestinian who resides in Haifa and holds an Israeli passport. Or Nael Kanj, the production designer, from Nazareth and a few others. I also had a team of Palestinians from the West Bank.

What made you choose to cast Saleh Bakri?

Saleh is a brilliant actor. I had seen him in a number of other films and when I wrote the initial story, The Present, he was the actor that kept coming into my mind who I felt could and should play the role of Yusef. It's funny, because I did not know him personally, but the world conspired. When I started to co-write the actual script, a bit later with Hind Shoufani, and we discussed who I envisaged for the role, she in fact did happen to know him. So, the introduction was made. Saleh is a sensitive soul with an incredible talent who immediately understood the character (could even relate, of course, as a Palestinian himself), and appreciated the simplicity of the story. I had no doubt he could embody Yusef and I needed someone who could really dig deep into what it means to be a man like Yusef, living his frustrations and humiliations every day.

What do you hope the audience will take home from the film?

Of course, I want the film to do what all good films should do – give the audience an emotional experience. When we feel emotion, we feel alive. But I also want them to contemplate the film, even after they go home. To feel and wonder what such a life means for people like Yusef. This is a fiction film about an absurd situation which is sadly a current reality in Palestine, so I want the film to do what Alejandro Inarritu meant when he said “Cinema must try to raise the global social conscience.”

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?

Initially, yes, in the sense that you can make more, faster and at a lower cost than the long form, and as mentioned, I had no background in film at all, so the stakes were not as high if I aimed for feature length prematurely. But then almost all filmmakers start off in the short format I guess for the same reasons. It has also afforded me the freedom and flexibility to try and find my identity as a filmmaker and as a Palestinian – if you agree, as I do, with what an art critic said in an article I read recently, that “you cannot make art without a sense of identity, yet it is identity you seek in making art”. But recently, I have naturally started to write and think in the long form feature length, even potential series format, which I didn't initially plan or think I would do. I will have to go where my creativity takes me.

Updates on the film and Farah's work are available on her website.

Q&A with Mehdi Benallal, dir. Madame Baurès - Clermont 2020

Abla Kandalaft — 2020-02-07T14:21:00Z

A stroll through the present-day municipalities of Vincennes and Saint Mandé, once home to Madame Baurès, a woman and Communist. The filmmaker's voice-over recounts the memory of the story that Raymonde had entrusted to him. (Cinéma du Réel)

This is a very moving film about memory and legacy, as we are given a glimpse into Madame Baurès's life as it is now, in a world that seems to have forgotten and openly turned its back on everything she spent most of her life fighting for. Through this intimate portrait, Benallal encourages us to reflect on how those that, like Madame Baurès, find their place in a world that is so forcefully rejecting so many ideals that have informed and guided them through life.

Trailer

MADAME BAURÈS - un film de Mehdi Benallal - bande-annonce from Triptyque Films on Vimeo.

More on the film...

Why did you want to make a film about Madame Baurès?

I really wanted to make a film with her, but that wasn't possible. This film stems from this impossibility.

What interested you regarding the lonely situation of this person in her last days?

I didn't suspect that I would accompany her in her final days. Initially, I wanted her to tell me about her lengthy past as a militant communist (she joined the party at the end of World War II), but then I became interested in everything she could tell me. She remembered her childhood very well, in the 20's and 30's, living in the first social-housing units. She also described her job as a worker in the factory to me but in a more fragmented way. We were preparing a documentary together where she would recount her life.

How did you manage the balance between shooting and oral testimony? With which did you begin?

I had just one way forward, the path I took to go see her. I walked this path that you see in the film many a time looking for the way to evoke our meeting. Writing the script and shooting took place in parallel. Once the filming was finished, I worked to bring it all together.

At one point, you are harassed rather aggressively for filming the façade of a building. For what reason?

We were filming a statue that was in the center of a property facing the street. I don't understand why that bothered the people who lived there.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?

I didn't ask myself about the format even if I suspected that it would be a short. What really left me free was to film with a very small team and to have “my” material (in fact, my producer's, Tryptique Films, camera.) I also had time to shape my film. But a constraint can be beneficial, just as freedom can sometimes be useless or dangerous. It all depends on what you do with this freedom.

What are your works of reference?

I like lots of very different kinds of films, but I forget them all when I am making a film. I concentrate on the composition and on my subject. Afterwards, you can see a connection, or friends point it out to you. Regarding Madame Baurès, they said that my panorama at the end is very similar to the panorama that goes from the keyboard to the face of Gustav Leonhardt in Chronique d'Anna Magdalena Bach by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. It's a film I've watched many times which certainly affected me deep inside.

Soviet Hippies, directed by Terje Toomistu - UK Premiere

Tommy Hodgson — 2019-11-14T14:09:33Z

Soviet Hippies, director Terje Toomistu's second creation, is a thoughtful, insightful piece which effortlessly draws you into a counter-cultural pocket of resistance, transporting you to a time of contrasting repression and upheaval. Through the use of archival footage - crisp, clear and naked material - this film documents not just the developments of a hippie subculture in the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 70s, but the mood surrounding the ongoing passive resistance against the state. From its inception, the film produces a pang of nostalgia - even for a time and place you have no stake in - through the use of grainy and intimate footage, and splashes of dated, psychedelic animations to ensure you step lively into the time warp before you.

The narrative of the film follows a loose thread of hazy tales, heady beliefs, mystic societies and psychedelic exploration. The viewer is invited to examine the hippie warriors of yesteryear in their shaggy prime - optimistic and adamant – then, directly alongside, as starkly aged relics still grasping a core belief system, just as righteous if a bit weathered. The archival footage is incredible and really makes the film, which is all the more remarkable as Toomistu only stumbled upon the footage – a box of Super 8mm film rolls - during her research, giving the project a generous artistic boost by way of this never before seen hippie treasure trove. Considering that the history of the hippie movement in the USSR was previously widely unknown, partly due to Soviet archives which were closed until fairly recently, this was a feat – the director worked from scratch and interviewed all the participants anew, and this hard work is reflected through the consistent tone of the movie. In the Q&A after the premiere, Toomistu articulated that the original plan was to focus primarily on a reunion of old hippies in the present day. But without the real, raw historic material, the movie surely would not have been as impactful or clear in its narrative.

Throughout the documentary, the contrast between the uniformity of Soviet culture and the hippies' pursuit of individualistic rebellion is blunt; an obvious juxtaposition which means that sprinkling the film with snapshots of regular Soviet life as way of illustration merely underlines the point. But the bigger takeaway from the film is that the repressive aspects of any society harbours dissent, and the example of Soviet hippies, which took huge inspiration from their Western and more well-known counterparts, followed a loose pattern of international turmoil and exploration of new ideas in the post-war era. And based on the film's archival interviews with older or more conservative members of the Soviet public, reaction to these long- haired ‘modern forest folk' would have elicited the same reactionary sentiments in Los Angeles or London (‘get a haircut!').

One of the most interesting aspects of the film was the network that Soviet hippies established, pre-mass communication, simply using notebooks and word of mouth. Ironically named ‘the system', its creation allowed the freedom of movement of like-minded outsiders from across the Soviet states to find each other and know where to stay in each city, outside of KGB detection. It speaks to the wonderfully subversive nature of these Soviet hippies, and of humans in difficult situations more widely. That feeling of not being alone should not be underestimated, in any cultural endeavours. As one of the many hippies interviewed in the film put it, ‘deviance was an act of power'. One suspects Toomistu, whose academic research includes transgender women in Indonesia, meant her documentary as a celebration of diversity of thought and experimentation – and ‘the system' is a good illustration of this.

The Soviet hippie movement itself was forced underground - to the fringes of an already-hostile society or even externally - when a public meeting was shut down by the authorities on 1st June 1971. Though the annual meeting of hippies still takes place on the same date every year in Moscow, the film truly emphasises how, though traces remain, this movement really existed in not just a different time but a separate sociopolitical space. The challenges and backlash of the counterculture years, viewed through the prism of this subculture but widely applicable, are ultimately captured here through music, visuals, deeply-held opinions and emotion – building up to a worldly but raw experience, courtesy of a thorough, research-minded director. The night, hosted by Dash Arts and featuring an extensive Q&A, was even followed by a mystic ritual courtesy of one of the film's stars Vladimir Wiedemann, just to try to keep some essence of the Soviet hippies alive. Overall, the film succeeds in giving a little burst of recognition and life to a movement which, in the words of Toomistu, had ‘no centre, no edges'.

More info on the film's website!

Nightcleaners at Bertha DocHouse

Benjamin Hollis — 2019-11-02T10:01:07Z

Nightcleaners – An oddity of its time that captures the British working class struggle of the early 1970s

« Nightcleaners » is an early 70s observational account of London's female office cleaners embroiled in an arduous struggle for fair pay and fair treatment by their male and middle-class bosses. The film has an admirable grip on the public conscience, garnering sustained attention from activists and doc-lovers alike over the years and prompting a well-received screening at Bertha Dochouse on Thursday. Sally Alexander, a leading figure in the Cleaners Action Group during the campaign, was alongside Humphry Trevelyan, a member of the film's production team, to introduce it.

Starting life as a leafleting campaign to unionise the cleaners, the film snowballed into a four-year project, resulting in a 90 minute piece that in 1975 at its time of release, baffled its subjects.

As she described on Wednesday, this was not the punchy campaign film Sally had hoped to unveil to her fellow activists as a recruitment tool. What Humphrey and the rest of the Berwick Street Collective had produced was an experimental, patient and deeply artistic piece. Although that seemed to stymie its purpose at the time, its qualities have granted it the longevity and admiration that it enjoys to this day.

What the film does particularly well is demonstrate the tedium, monotony and physicality of the women's work. With painstaking precision and repetition, the women are shown scouring the offices of London's high-rises, floor by floor, desk by desk, toilet by toilet. In the early stages of the film, the audience is only spared from the experience to be given excerpts of infuriating conversations with the bosses, who show a bewildering lack of understanding for their employees. It's revealed that one boss has never been seen by any of his cleaners in over five years of work.

With despair, the women describe the helplessness of their situations. Too poor to clothe their children and too busy with childcare to take regular work, they are forced to work unthinkable hours on little pay, most of them surviving on just two hours of sleep a day. Worst of all, they don't have the time, energy or courage to stand up to their employers. Frequent close-ups of the women's faces show a fatigue that is etched deep into their features.

We then discover former cleaner May Hobbs who, assisted by members of the Women's Liberation Movement, gradually persuades the women to consider mounting a resistance against their bosses and increasingly against the patriarchal system in which they find themselves.

As the women continue to encounter obstacles, chairing desperate meeting after desperate meeting, the picture widens to capture a snapshot of working class British society at a fascinating time. Hope of a better future is spreading amongst workers who, like the nightcleaners, had once abandoned themselves to their fate. The words « socialism », « equality » and even « communism » are cautiously being spread amongst co-workers as protests increase out on the streets and trade unions grow in power and influence.

« Nightcleaners » is a beautiful and artistic interpretation of class struggle in its clearest form. It shows an admirable sensitivity for its subjects and successfully translates the acute pain they and other working people's situation brings them.

The sequel, « '36 to '77 », will be showing at Bertha Dochouse on Wednesday the 6th of November, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Support The Girls by Andrew Bujalski

Ania D. Brett — 2019-06-27T13:20:16Z

COMING OUT TOMORROW Excellent statement on the dynamic of precarious work and the women taking it on - SUPPORT THE GIRLS by Andrew Bujalski

SUPPORT THE GIRLS follows Lisa (Regina Hall), the general manager at Double Whammies, a highway-side ‘sports bar with curves', who has her normally unstoppable optimism and faith – in her girls, her customers, and herself – tested over the course of a long, strange day.

Double Whammies, a low-budget Hooters, is a typical sports bar and “brestaurant” facing competition from strip bars (should they ever decide to install TVs), casual dining restaurants with TVs in the bars, and the actual Hooters (in this universe, named Mancave). Of course it doesn't look like that in the day-to-day. For manager and mother hen, Lisa, on her last day, she only sees problems with staff, customers and life. There is also the problem of the job itself—as the restaurant manager shares the precarious employment situation and income bracket with the front- and back-of-house staff, and shares the responsibilities of the restaurant owner, but none of the real power.

Support the Girls does not centre on workers' personal dramas, like Waitress (2007) or Clerks II (2006)—essentially soap operas with poor people—but is a statement on this dynamic. In the world of 2019 the bottom rungs of the restaurant industry are not entry-level, summer, or student jobs; it's how working people support their working families. As such, Double Whammies is simply an expression of social and economic stratification, with working-class problems like lack of child care, lack of options and lack of wealth expressed as bringing your child to work and stealing. Both Lisa and owner Cubby ask waitress Danyelle if she likes working at DW and both misunderstand her “yes” response. Danyelle likes that Lisa actually cares about the staff, and, when Cubby asks her, she clearly means she likes earning money to live.

Writer and director Andrew Bujalski understands that, in the service environment, it is the colleagues that keep you there since, ultimately, your only option is to waitress, cook, or sell elsewhere, which could be an even worse situation. Think less girl power and more surviving sexism. Thus, the film has no theme or plot, which is why there is no ending. The nature of the new working-class life, and old/ongoing Black life, is characterised by uncertainty, so the girls are doing what they can with what they have—hoping for more but are unlikely to get it.

RELEASED IN UK CINEMAS ON 28 JUNE 2019

Woman at War by Benedikt Erlingsson - Q&A

Abla Kandalaft — 2019-05-01T14:09:57Z

Benedikt Erlingsson is an Icelandic director, author and actor. His first feature, Of Horses and Men, was a hit on the festival circuit and won many international awards, including the New Directors Prize at the 2013 San Sebastián Film Festival and the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. His latest film, Woman at War, tells the story of Halla, an environmental activist fighting the local aluminum industry in Iceland through acts of sabotage, some of them large-scale enough to become the focus of international intelligence services. Her plans are thrown into disarray by a letter she receives finally granting her permission to adopt a girl from the Ukraine.

Benedikt Erlingsson, ©Juan Camillo Estrada. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Tell us a bit about your background as a filmmaker.

I've been making films for 30 years, they're just not all films, they're called plays. I'm an old dog in show business. I've been involved in story-telling [briefly interrupts the interview to open the door to someone delivering chocolate] Sorry, I turned this whole hotel upside down because I wanted chocolate - I'm a theatre director and actor. I began performing one-man shows then did one with Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir [Halla in Woman at War] . I was into storyteeling theatre, Dario Fo's work...I started writing film scripts in 2003 and made my first shorts in 2006, 2007.

Both Of Horses and Men and Woman at War have been described by critics as stylish, stylised and quirky. Has your background as a theatre director influenced your approach to film?

Everything comes from something, I'm a storyteller, and like all storytellers, I have a personal style, which bleeds through all my work but it's on a more unconscious level. I don't necessarily think about this, I try to avoid over-analysing it. Of course, things like the musicians [occasionally folk musicians play their instruments, incongruous in the scene and ignored by the other characters] are a theatrical device. In this film, this device is a way to visualise the inner struggle of the character. I think films should turn to theatre today, especially German theatre, it would make them more fun!

Tell us more about casting Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir.

I had her in mind. We first performed together in 1979, on stage at the National Theatre of Iceland, in a children's play. She had the lead part. It was a play about domestic violence, a very Scandinavian theme for children! The idea was that the adults played the children and vice versa. I was playing a schoolmaster and she was a housewife or mother, and the children characters were played by adults. We performed it for 2 or 3 years, it was slavery! We were brought up in this showbiz slave factory. Her mother was an actress and my mother was a director, we come from the same milieu. Later, she was involved in the punk rock movement, moved to Germany and became a big admirer of Nina Hagen. I began writing for film.

Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

What inspired you to write about the sabotage of an aluminium plant?

I began to educate myself about climate change in 2013. I understood that our world needs saving. II wanted to make a fairytale about saving the world. More specifically, I wanted to make a feel-good accessible film about this apocalyptic scenario, as it's a complicated issue. I wanted the film to save the world! I wanted to talk about those everyday heroes, like [Swedish student climate activist] Greta Thunberg, for example, who is a real leader. She's effectively highlighted the size of this challenge and how slowly we are reacting. And the instrument we have to react with is the State. Some would say this film is advocating civil disobedience or sabotage but ultimately the power is with the State. The power it has means it's the producers' problem. You cannot look at the consumers anymore and say small, individual changes matter. It's too late and that would take too long. The State has to make it the producers' problem. We need to act like we're in a war, we're in war against our lifestyles. We have to introduce rules and regulations. I do think a shift is possible, we are cognitive beings, we can change our minds. We are in a very interesting phase, it's a happy thing to be part of a generation that can save the world.

Should the film motivate us to take action?

It's one of the biggest challenges of art to be morally good. I have an artist friend who said it's impossible to make art that has good intentions and yet, he said, this is the first piece of art he's seen that he believes has good intentions. In a way, it is a critique of dystopias. We should actually be making utopias. We need more hope in this fight. I can recommend a beautiful film from Macedonia called Honeyland, a masterpiece about the human dilemma.

How has having your films on the festival circuit helped you?

In the European filmmaking model, you need co-producers, so it's helpful if you have some kind of stamp. There are so many films made, so festivals are a way to help the audience choose - I don't know if they truly take notice or choose to go see a film because it won an award at a festival - but it gives it that level of recognition. I struggle a lot financing my films even with my excellent producer Marianne Slot, but now these honours from abroad will hopefully make me more acceptable to the Icelandic Film Centre!

How was your experience of Clermont-Ferrand?

My first experience of Clermont-Ferrand was in 2009 when I had my short film Naglinn selected. The team was initially disappointed because they thought my name was Benedicte, so assumed I was a woman. Everybody was disappointed that there was this bald man that had come instead. It was a fantastic experience. It was good preparation for everything that came afterwards. Nobody knew who I was, and I got a Special Mention for this film. I was even invited onto the stage but there was a misunderstanding, so I was just sat there on the third balcony. I was flabbergasted, I was so intrigued by the focus that I got. I was in tears seeing this panel, this audience of French intellectuals that all watched my short film, all wanted to talk about it and analyse it. I had to hold my tears, I was like a little child. I was overwhelmed by this film culture and love of film. I'm very grateful for my first experience in Clermont-Ferrand.

At times perhaps overly quirky, Woman at War is a moving and upbeat portrait of a regular woman who manages to upset a powerful industry, and make a mark on the overwhelmingly ambitious but much needed fight against climate change. Erlingsson's decision of making his protagonist a woman in her fifties and the determinedly hopeful tone he injects in the story make Woman at War a refreshingly bold second feature, offering us the same stunning, sweeping tableaux as Of Horses And Men.

WOMAN AT WAR WILL BE RELEASED IN CINEMAS ON 3 MAY 2019. More about upcoming screenings on the film's website.
An American version of the film is in the pipeline, directed by and starring Jodie Foster! Benedikt will be involved in a "friendly" way...

ClermontFF2019 Lobo Mauro, director of Mais Triste que Chuva num Recreio de Colégio

Abla Kandalaft, Brasserie du Court team — 2019-03-01T11:54:37Z

Can you explain your choice of title? Is it a Brazilian saying?

It's not a Brazilian saying. There's a sentence in a book called Os Cus de Judas (“The Land at the End of the World”), by António Lobo Antunes, a Portuguese writer, which says “triste como a chuva num recreio de colégio” (“sad like rain during recess time” in English) that I really liked. I remembered this sentence when I started thinking about the film. I changed its intensity by adding “mais triste que” (“sadder than”), for I felt that this way it could better explain a feeling many Brazilians feel in this current time when hate is being stirred through a hybrid war that has been taking over since 2013. Today, Brazil is a success case in the financial markets that walk hand in hand with the Far-Right.

What links all the events covered in the film (the stadium, the football game, the coup etc.)?

The film makes narrative provocations with the intention of collecting comprehension clues for the current time in Brazil. To that intent, the film promotes clashes by mixing different spaces and historical periods: images of the renovation of the Maracanã Stadium in 2011; the narration of the biggest catastrophe in the history of Brazilian soccer during the 2014 World Cup, which took place in Brazil; the voting for the impeachment of the President Dilma Rousseff in 2016; the speech for the Labor Reform in 2017 by Michel Temer, who became the President of Brazil after the coup-impeachment. We used soccer as a common thread for the narrative, because it is one of the foundations that allow us to understand Brazil after the 20th century. In 2014, an idiom came about after the humiliating defeat suffered by the Brazilian national team. Whenever something bad happens to Brazil, we say “Another goal for Germany”. Some say that the defeat suffered by Brazil by 7 against 1 was a milestone in the purely emotional rivalry of the party-political discussions, when a conversation is replaced by name-calling and by the incorrect belief that anything that goes against the ideological bias is a lie or is wrong, as if it were a game that's played between soccer rivals in a hostile context.

How did you choose which speeches to play?

Choosing the speeches was the first hands-on stage of the film editing process. The voting session of president Dilma's impeachment in the Deputy's Chamber lasted over 9 hours. I decided not to listen to it fully, and did an initial screening using the Internet. Many of the speeches are comic, absurdly pathetic and extremely moralist. I was tempted to use them, but I chose the ones that represented the situation better, and also some of Rio de Janeiro's deputies' speeches, in order to link them to the images of the Maracanã Stadium, which is also in Rio de Janeiro. I also used the speech of the only female deputy – who was at the same time the only one who defended Dilma in the film – in order to represent another 7 X 1 defeat against a male deputy majority. As for the second part of the film, I listened to the entire transmission of the Brazil/Germany match. This transmission was made by the main television network of Brazil, which decades ago supported and grew because of a military coup which initiated a long and bloody dictatorial period in Brazil and which, once again, had a major role in another coup, with the fall of Dilma Rousseff and later imprisonment of Lula, stopping him from running in the presidential elections. Such elections were won by one of Rio de Janeiro's deputies, a former military man, which you can hear in the first segment of the film as he commended a former colonel who tortured Dilma Rousseff during the Military Dictatorship regime. The narrator in this transmission is the most popular narrator in Brazil and could be considered the best representative of Brazilian patriotism, of the “nation in soccer boots”, of the country where everything works out even when it loses a game. So, I created a conversation between this narration from the game and the draconian labor reform of the then President Michel Temer, the former vice-president of Dilma Rousseff, who helped coordinate the coup behind the scenes.

Can you tell us more about your choice of images?

I could say that the images are of a personal archive, because they were filmed between 2011 and 2014 for an unfinished project. The opening image, by the cinematographer John C.M., was what started everything for me; the idea of the whole narrative structure of the film, from choosing the narrations to the images. Because I had a lot of rough and diverse material, a kaleidoscope that pointed to different sides, I decided to concentrate the film's imagery around the renovation of the Maracanã Stadium, which, besides being the hardest ones to make, were also the most representative and aesthetically powerful for the idea of the film. To note that the renovation happened still during a Worker's Party (PT) Government, with Dilma as President, accelerating the developmental aspect of the PT government. For better or worse. From then on, first I edited the sound part of the narrative (votes of the Federal Deputies, narration of the match and the President's speech). Then, it was similar to editing a video clip, where these edited narrations work are the song, and the images, a puzzle in which the pieces could fit freely into each other. However, every choice of fit of these images would create changes that would at times be subtle, and at times radical, including causing snippets of the sound part to be changed. I experimented a lot. The movie is ready because at some point I gave up on it, I gave up on changing it once more. Otherwise, I could have still been playing with this image puzzle.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
Yes. In two different spheres. Most of my audiovisual work is related to the Education and Cinema area. The short film format is a perfect fit for the classroom, and, in practical terms, the most producible format. It was when I was a film student in Universidade Federal Fluminense. A few years ago, I had the urge to make my own movies, with projects that I could afford, that I could produce almost by myself and during the time I had off work. The short film was almost a natural consequence, for it brought to me a great freedom of creation, but still inside the dome of the low budget, small team and little time logistic limitation. The exchange of ideas was intense, but in low quantity, in the few films I've made. Being a director, almost sole producer, writer, editor, sound editor of my own films gave me agility, as well as aesthetic limitations. It's a choice, however, of a strategy to make movies that are in context with myself. Being a filmmaker of gaps, if you wish. Being in constant movement is what matters. And making a short film is like writing a short story or a chronicle. It's film and literature, no matter the size. It's magical and powerful either way, and there's the bonus of making more works and, with that, most importantly, building bridges where one can meet the other. Here's a living proof: me writing, while you read, and we increase our possibilities of exchange. After all, why make films? Why are we alive after all?

Get in touch if you'd like more info about the film.

Deptford double-bill from the London Migration Film Festival

Abla Kandalaft — 2018-11-30T13:36:03Z

Revenir by David Fedele and Kumut Imesh

Revenir is an immensely valuable film. Now living in France, Kumut Imesh, a refugee from the Ivory Coast, teams up with filmmaker David Fedele to retrace his journey through African and into Europe. With his current residency status still dangerously precarious, Kumut heads back to Africa alone, camera in hand.

And thus starts a truly brave, audacious and very risky endeavour that gives the viewing public in Europe the chance to see what that journey looks like for the desperate people undertaking it, in all its detail and humanity. The minute-to-minute struggles faced by Kumut are ultimately what provoke the most sympathy and outrage, more so than the macro-narratives of escape from war and poverty; Kumut falls seriously ill, he doesn't have access to a bed or a shower, he is detained, his equipment is stolen... he is increasingly exhausted and depressed.

Ideally, Revenir would enjoy the widest possible distribution. I would love for it to be broadcast in schools and on television. This might go some way to change the all-pervasive ignorant narrative currently woven about African refugees.

More info about the film here.
Revenir will be screened at Deptford Cinema Monday 3 December, 7pm

Royal Cafe by Tenzin Dazel & Rémy Caritey

This is Swiss-Tibetan filmmaker Tenzin Dazel's no-budget short about Paris's Tibetan community in all its mundanity. Funny, sad, trivial little stories and interactions flourish around the central hub of the Royal Cafe, a popular meeting place. Sober, unexpectedly funny and touching, Dazel's second effort establishes her as a serious, talented film director.

The film will be screened as part of an afternoon of shorts about gender and community at Deptford Cinema on 2 December at 5.30.