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9 euro | SPRING 2020 MODERN TIMES REVIEW THE EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY MAGAZINE

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[page 10–11] THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF THE PAINTER

HUMAN IDFF MAJORDOCS BOOKS PHOTOGRAPHY Oslo, Norway Palma, Mallorca New Big Tech, New Left Cinema The Self Portrait; Dear Mr. Picasso Animation! [page 8–9] 772535 293004 THE TOWER 9> Playing in the online dark

In its more halcyon early days, nature of these interactions. ABUSE: In a radical the internet was welcomed Still, the messages and shared psychosocial experiment, into households for its utopi- (albeit blurred for us) images an possibilities. A constantly are highly disturbing, the bra- the scope of online updating trove of searchable zenness and sheer volume of child abuse in the Czech information made bound en- the approaches enough to sha- Republic is uncovered. cyclopaedia sets all but obso- ke anyone’s trust in basic hu- lete; email and social media manity to the core («potential- BY CARMEN GRAY promised to connect citizens ly triggering» is a word applied of the world, no longer seg- to films liberally these days, Caught in the Net mented into tribes by physical but if any film warrants it, it is distance, in greater cultural un- surely this one). Director Vit Klusák, Barbora derstanding. The make-up artist recog- Chalupová In the rush of enthusiasm, nises one of the men and is Czech Republic, Slovakia the old truth was suspended, chilled to witness this behav- that tools are only as enlight- iour from someone she knows, ened as their users. Darker especially as he works in chil- recesses of networked life, it dren’s camps. The counter- has since emerged, are mani- point of one kindly young man fold. The purportedly benign ra Chalupová, which screens following a strict code of con- who offers encouragement of but aggressively vocal form at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, duct whereby predators must a non-sexual nature is the ex- of public peer surveillance confronts the most egregious always initiate their crimes, the ception that proves the rule; a that is social media has flat- abuses of online connectivity. women, who repeatedly state decent anomaly in a sea of per- tened the complexity of hu- Labeled a «psychosocial expe- they are twelve, interact with verse threat. man interactions, and the riment,» it is stomach-churning men (whose faces are blurred) One wonders about the im- private, once inaccessible to in its unflinching revelations, who push them to watch and pact on the actresses. The strangers, can feel less cor- as it reveals the mind-boggling engage in sexually explic- imposed regression back to doned off. Anyone can «slide scale and nature of online child it acts. Some men blackmail childhood, as they dress up into your DMs» with the sexual abuse in the Czech Re- them, threatening to publish as twelve-year-olds and bring brashness of near-anonymity, public. Three nineteen-year-old images of them online or to out personal effects to their stu- hiding behind a screen. Soci- female actresses were hired to their behaviour to parents and dio rooms (from sheet music ety’s dubious, even malevo- pretend to be twelve-year-olds teachers. Over the ten days to a dollhouse) to take them lent elements can seek each and set up with fake online pro- of the experiment, 2,458 men back to the age, is queasy to other out more efficiently, files and children’s bedrooms contacted the three actresses, watch, even before they are unchecked and unseen, and built in a studio, in order to and they attended 21 secretly subjected to explicit preda- build sub-communities; they fool predators. monitored person- tory attention. Enraged, one can also find direct routes to The opening sta- al meetings with throws a drink in the face the vulnerable, amid a deluge tistics alone are stag- They dress up them in the weeks of her blackmailer in a cafe of virtual, unregulated traffic. gering. Well over half as twelve-year- that followed, meet-up, unable to contain of Czech children olds and bring as the predators her disgust at the exploita- Egregious abuses. Czech do- spend time online personal effects to sought to take the tion she has experienced. She cumentarian Vit Klusák tou- alone with no paren- their studio rooms. relationships of- later says she’s now suffering ched on the way in which the tal limits, and 41% fline. All informa- from nightmares. But wheth- internet can be harnessed by have received por- tion was shared er or not the project could, in less edifying personalities in nographic images from another with the Czech police, with some ways, feed into and off his previous documentary, The person. Of the 23 women who criminal proceedings initiated. of covert online horror, its de- White World According to Dali- attend the casting call, 19 say monstrable positive impacts borek. It portrayed the daily they experienced some form Triggering. Psychologists, sexo- – raising public awareness life of a hapless, middle-aged of online abuse in childhood. logists, lawyers, and criminal about a pervasive and little neo-Nazi, living in smalltown Service providers, fearing a investigators are visibly on understood societal danger, Moravia with his chain-smo- loss in ad revenue, do little to hand at all stages in what is a and exposing and reporting king mother. Resentful after block illegal communication. project obviously fraught with numerous perpetrators, posi- she finds a boyfriend through As soon as the team activates ethical complexities and po- tions its makers with robust an online dating site, he falls the women’s fake profiles tential controversy. As specta- arguments that it’s on the side deeper into nationalism as a (on sites including Facebook, tors, we often view the wider of the public good. bedroom hobbyist, making Skype, Lide.cz, Snapchat, and set as a whole, observing the and posting bigoted songs and Omegle), they are bombarded production team, as well as Plays at CPH:DOX in videos to YouTube. Klusák’s with friend requests from adult the actresses, at their laptops Copenhagen and other festivals. latest feature Caught in the strangers. so that we can never lose sight Net, co-directed with Barbo- Coached on what to say and of the constructed, performed [email protected]

2 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 MODERN TIMES REVIEW

THE INTERNATIONAL men of Kadyrov in Chechnya, DOCUMENTARY polluted and toxic environment, MAGAZINE Docs qualitative or artificial needs, tormented souls, ecological Editor-in-chief: imprint, beauty in pain, regimes Truls Lie of despots, colonization, image [email protected] and de- overflow, urban escape, Putin and his cronies, risking lives, Communication manager: futurism, indigenous people, Steve Rickinson powering surveillance mentality, lost [email protected] children, anorexia, etc. Translators/proofreading: FESTIVALS: Can docu- Destitution. We are living in POPULISM. ©BERTRAMS JOEP (NETHERLAND), SEE WWW .LIBEX.EU JOEP (NETHERLAND), POPULISM. ©BERTRAMS Tristen Bakker, Anders mentaries be a part of the ongoing metaphysics of Dunker, Steve Rickinson have become more and more social-liberal or eco-anarchistic the western military-industrial de-powering – «desti- ridden by populism and easily worldview? Maybe. complex, with consumerism Subscription: 9 euro/quarter tution» – most needed digested trivial articles blurred As you can see in several and competition as ongoing (3–4 print issues + weekly in today’s power-driven by the streams of social media. articles in our issues, we care aims. A race to the bottom online) Luckily, a lot of doc directors about modern times, about the exploiting the planet – also e-mail: subscription@modern- societies? have taken on the role of inves- coming decades of big tech with nations against nations times.review BY TRULS LIE tigative journalists with years (page 32), futurism/hyperintel- (or refugees), company against www.moderntimes.review/ of work voluntarily invested ligence (page 43), and artificial company, person against account/subscription You are now one – combined with visual style. intelligence (page 16–17). person … of the around One great example is Caught in We also care about the «eco- Maybe we should listen Print: Nr1Trykk/Amedia, 20 000 people the Net (page 2) which shows a grief», expressed by Extinction more to the new movements Lillestrøm, Norway who will have social media setup, where 2500 Rebellion (page 14–15). Our of «destitution», a way of being this European sexually single-minded men «minority» care about where we that makes the powers that be Publisher: documentary quickly showed up at screens humans are going, and what our lose their grip on you. A kind of Film AS magazine in to chat with who they think legacy will be. Life is short – as de-powering – and not repow- their hands. Our independent are 12-year old vulnerable girls we know. ering to the same. Why not a Post Office address: journalism is written by more – apparently curious to talk to de-powering of «enemy images» Dronningensgt 16 than ten regular doc critics someone through social media. Festivals. The hundreds of sold by governments, the mass 0152 Oslo, Norway from all over Europe. Modern Statistics shows that there are festival docs this spring gives media and the fiction film -in Organisation number: Times Review (MTR) is now in many young girls out there us a lot of stories and visuals dustry? 997460103 MVA its fourth year, planning to be chatting, who can be exposed to to reflect on. But how do we in- Are we the minority of a quarterly magazine. And we this – as the film tells. The four terpret reality? As humans we open-minded, accepting, and Modern Times Review has are doing podcasts – so maybe paid female actors are actually have «dispo- living with the Other – the per- received support from the you will meet me around with 19 years old – and we also see tifs» as Michel son with a different religion, Norwegian Foundation of a microphone … (See also our them meet some of these men We are Foucault once different skin, different values? Free Expression. article on DIY Podcast on page at cafes, where directors Klusák living in talked about, I guess so. So how can we 36). & Chalupová and their crew the ongoing or as another de-power how African-Amer- The magazine is also a co- This spring issue is handed film the men's offences through metaphysics philosopher icans are treated in the US or operation with the monthly out to professionals at six key hidden cameras. Blackmailing of the before him, how Muslims are treated in newspaper NY TID, Oslo doc festivals in Europe. From etc is a criminal offence, and the western Martin Hei- India? How can we with Europe- thousands of docs sent to festi- Czech police got all the material military- degger, called an values de-power how China Regular critics: vals, festivals carefully do their to follow up with charges. industrial ways of being «owns» their citizens by extend- Nina Trige Andersen, Ber- selections: Some are looking complex, with – our possibi- ed surveillance or how they nard Dichek, Anders Dunker, for the «auteur» aspect (Ma- «Minority». Our editorial line consumerism lities, or how treat their Uyghurs? Or help Marc and Daniel Glassman, jordocs), others for ecological here at MTR is more social- and we interpret Russia to see freedom of speech Carmen Gray, Aleksander ones (One World), or Human political than personal-priva- competition life. Meaning as fruitful? Rights oriented films (Human), te. As an alternative to today’s much more Two docs in this issue show Huser, Ellen Lande, Tue Steen as ongoing as one of several selection crime-me-me social media culture, than the «glas- a withdrawal from power. A Müller, Bianca-Olivia Nita, aims. Nick Holdsworth, Willemien teria. Or could it be the dispotif and overload of «news», we beli- ses» we look shepherd’s life (page 27), or a Sanders, Harriette Yahr, Jo- (Cinéma du réel), something eve the in-depth critical review trough. In this Norwegian seeking the jungle Anne Velin, Dieter Wieczorek, with structure? As you can are relevant. But the personal way we can also say taht aut- life (page 38–39). This sounds Neil Young, Melita Zajc, Astra read in our interviews, festival can still be political, as we can horitarian regimes has already great – but the coin has two Zoldnere. futures are discussed: With see a person’s fight for justice, layed out ways of being for the sides … increasing online activity, one combining personal courage majority of its citizens. Anyway, welcome to the 20’s! The magazine’ focus is political tells how important it is to keep with political matters – like the Some keywords from this is- and existential, and typically up «meeting places» to discuss doc Scars (page 23). sue can give a clue: The hench- [email protected] covers topics like: military and films. My guess is that in the fu- In MTR you will continue peace activism, surveillance, ture several festivals will follow to read doc reviews on con- financial power, state and Human in Oslo’s lead, which flicts/militarism; surveillance, has expanded the concept of new-tech and financialisaton bureaucracy, ecology and doc festival into documentary in today’s control societies; philosophical reflection. See more festival reviews online, theatre, art exhibition, and a lot and reviews on ecological and of in-depth debates connected philosophical-existential films. especially HUMAN (Oslo). (or not connected) to doc films. We think our readers are in Also other festivals, like Visions du Reel And here in MTR we too ex- this «minority» of humans who tend the D-word into documen- wants to know, who cares for in- in Nyon – will follow. tary photos, books, and interac- dividual freedom, humans that tive projects as you can see on identify with an international www.moderntimes.review several pages in thos issue. solidarity – and, at least, mini- Unfortunately, mass media mum standards to live by. As a

SPRING 2019 N# 5 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 3 Dissidence and the disappeared

REPRESSION: Through sion on Human Rights. Vivos, nomic hardship. intimate interviews and the latest documentary from Labour itself is tougher with Chinese dissident, artist and fewer hands – and the govern- meditative photography, filmmaker Ai Weiwei, which ment, which finds its monetary Ai Weiwei provides screens at CPH:DOX in Copen- value in drugs, not corn, can- visualisation of the hagen, portrays the impact of not be looked to for support. collusion between the fateful night on the victims’ Several parents relate how families, and a society in which they had put all into menial organised crime and state trust in authority has been en- labour (one woman worked institutions is in Mexico. tirely corroded. years at a Burger King in the BY CARMEN GRAY U.S. away from her small chil- Bedrooms-turned-shrines. As a dren) just to secure access documentarian, Ai is ever the to education for their sons, a Vivos artist, with an eye for evocati- dream now snuffed out in the ve detail, and an ear for deep, most horrifying manner. Director Ai Weiwei commonly shared humanity The families’ lack of trust in Germany, Mexico within a person’s retelling of family members of the miss- humanitarian catastrophe as the official account worsens their own experience. Investi- ing students through a human it is summarised by the news their suffering: «We’re farmers It was pouring rain in Iguala gative rigour is not his strong rights organisation and talked media. – we know how much a fire can on the night of 26 September suit, and on this level, Vivos with them about social justice. In Vivos, Ai interviews family burn,» says one parent, sug- 2014. Students from a teachers’ feels somewhat superficial Rather than trying to grasp members of those disappeared, gesting the claim that the bod- college had hijacked or «borro- alongside more extensively every inch of the mauling beast as they struggle to move on ies were incinerated during the wed» a bus, as they routinely researched, recent documen- of institutionalised corrup- without the closure of knowing night’s downpour was an insult did, to get to a march in Mexico taries on the topic. Julien Elie’s tion in Mexico, he precisely what hap- to their intelligence. City, when six were shot, and Dark Suns (2019), for instance, keeps his sights on pened to their loved 43 abducted and disappeared. transmitted in its devastating a fragment, draw- Ai is ever the ones. Even if alive or «Human rights defenders». Te- In the confused aftermath, sprawl some sense of just how ing a broad parallel artist, with an dead, they are emo- sting of the contents of the the government set out an of- totalising and entrenched the outward to his own eye for evocative tionally resonant. dump abroad in Innsbruck ficial account it declared to be architecture of collusion bet- personal knowl- detail, and an The disappeared are found its remains were not of the «historic truth» – that po- ween organised crime and sta- edge of oppression ear for deep, hauntingly present in the students. Several theories lice had handed the students te institutions is in Mexico. and resistance in commonly absence, their trac- on what really happened that over to a local drug cartel, It is not so much the facts China. shared humanity. es all around, from night are proffered, though who’d killed them in a garbage or socio-political context Ai is Ai’s previous posters bearing their Ai seems less concerned with dump and disposed of their wishing to elucidate in his for- documentaries on photographs calling establishing concrete detail incinerated remains because ay into this single, tragic chap- the refugee crisis, for information to than with positioning the tra- they’d mistaken them for mem- ter of Mexico’s contemporary Human Flow (2017) and The bedrooms-turned-shrines. The gedy as symptomatic of state bers of a rival gang. reality, but something more Rest (2019), are works of empa- students were from very poor, repression of grassroots dis- The state’s version has been ineffably universal. Ai came to thetic identification; tapestries marginalised peasant commu- sidence. We learn that 42% of widely disputed and declared the topic while on a residen- of voices and singular points of nities. The families ongoing American continental heroin «scientifically impossible» by cy at the University Museum experience through which we grief dampens their motivation production comes from the a panel of experts assembled of Contemporary Art in Mex- might put a human face to the for the toil required to simply Guerrero region, and has to go by the Inter-American Commis- ico City in 2016, when he met dry words and numbers of the survive their incessant eco- through Iguala hidden in bu-

4 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 No escape

MILITARY running or huddled under bus- men – represented by Pierre V. FOOTAGE: Eléonore hes. There is no escape – the who insists that he would not cameras see as clearly at night want to see a war in his own Weber's chilling as during the day and can country, but would welcome compilation reveals the zoom in close enough to pick another foreign incursion casual killing by men in up the colours and contours of (even as he insists, he has nev- flying machines who risk their targets' clothing. er «seen» death himself.) Weber, who viewed count- nothing in the pursuit of less hours of horror from mil- A long tradition. The film inclu- state-sanctioned murder. itary footage, that was never des the infamous Wikileaks BY NICK HOLDSWORTH meant to be seen by civilians, footage of the killing of Saeed consults a French pilot named Chmagh, an Iraqi photograp- only as Pierre V. to help in- her and driver working for terpret the images. He con- Reuters, when along with his ses. It’s possible the students he enlists American journalist There Will Be No More sistently refuses to entertain colleague Namir Noor-Eldeen accidentally commandeered John Gibler to point out that Night doubts and sees all the images and others he was slaughtered the wrong bus, sparking a car- the United States also lies on as men who were «threats». by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad tel into action to recover their an overwhelming scale. It mis- Director Eléonore Weber But it is too easy and – on July 12, 2007. stash. But why then were the lead the public during the Iraq France though Weber does not voice It was this horrific footage military and state police invol- War, for example. «Don’t look at direct criticism of Pierre V. – – where the pilots insist they ved in the operation? Mexico through some kind of There is a hypnotic horror the steady, reasoned narration can see Saeed carrying an RPG The lawless reign of the car- exotic lens,» he instructs. and compulsion to watching of a film almost en- grenade launcher (it tels is almost downplayed in Ai himself cannot quite re- Eléonore Weber's chilling The- tirely made up of was, in fact, a camera a film that seeks to hold the sist a touristic gaze, with foot- re Will Be No More Night. Scene military footage, is The pilots tripod) – that brought government to account for its age of Lucha Libre wrestling after scene of brutal murder is a steady drum roll of military the modern way of failure of responsibility. matches and Day of the Dead played out in the crosshairs of of condemnation. helicopters… warfare to interna- The victims’ school, the Ay- street celebrations, presuma- gritty black-and-white footage, The viewer is will argue that tional attention. otzinapa Rural Teaching Col- bly there to add local colour. as if from a low-grade 1980s not spared – for they are soldiers, Weber's film per- lege, is historically associated But, outsider view or not, Vi- computer game. we are all in the engaging the haps lacks the flinch- with radical activism and its vos powerfully captures how The pilots of military hel- western «democ- enemy under ing horror of other ties with leftist guerillas mean fear becomes the dominant icopters – from America, racies» complicit clear rules of recent films on the it is eyed with suspicion by the force in any society whose France, Britain, or any other of in allowing our engagement. war of the rich west authorities. A large mural of Che rulers so flagrantly disregard the world powers playing God governments to against the desper- Guevara is shown on a school truth and transparency. in the skies above poor, trou- pursue wars in far- ate east, such as For wall; the students are referred bled countries from Afghani- away places, where human life Sama and The Cave, but in its to as «human rights defenders». Plays at CPH:DOX in stan to Syria – will argue that is cheap and omnipotent tech- anonymity, the icy knowledge Lest Ai be echoing a colonial- Copenhagen and other festivals. they are soldiers, engaging the no-warriors can kill on a whim. that these running blurry fig- ist gaze in singling out Mexico enemy under clear rules of en- ures are about to die in a hail of as uniquely morally bankrupt, [email protected] gagement. Computer game pilots. The gunfire and rockets, has a sick- But what risk do these mod- only thing the pilots fear, We- ening impact that will linger. ern-day macho men take when ber tells us, is that they may In a long and fine tradition of they casually agree – yet again make a «mistake» – and kill a anti-war films, Weber's docu- – that what they see through clearly identifiable, peaceful mentary is powerful and point- the sophisticated technolo- civilian and then face legal re- ed. Whether it – along with all Any chance you would subscribe to gy of their helmet-mounted, tribution. But that is so rare as the other valued and valuable gun-toting camera is a group to make it more of a barroom similar works – can ever hope MODERN TIMES REVIEW of armed men, intent on kill- joke back at base, rather than a to prompt enough of us to being. Killing who? Certainly not serious worry. come conscious enough to to support us for 9 euro a quarter? known by the remote helicop- Post-traumatic stress dis- stop political killing machines, ter jockeys hundreds, even order may, one day, stalk is a moot point. thousands of metres distant these computer-game playing See moderntimes.review/account/ from their prey. soulless killers, but even that Plays at Cinéma du réel in seems remote in the dream-like Paris and other festivals. subscription Silhouettes. The silhouettes of world today's military fliers peasants – armed or not – are and life-takers inhabit. There «suspicious» whether they are is schizophrenia about these [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 5 tier fantasies? The directors, SURVIVAL: Provocative amply onside with his prickly, questions about eccentric charms, do not dig environment and survival deep into this. amidst the specter of The stakes. Sniadecki first enco- global collapse arise from untered Sundog when making Sundog, a recluse living in El Mar La Mar (2017), co-dire- Anarchic freedom fighter cted with Joshua Bonnetta, a the Sonoran Desert. darkly poetic and experimental BY CARMEN GRAY immersion into the extreme natural phenomena of the Sonor- ceful utopia in which citizens of Things to Come, co-directed on planet Earth». We’re never an Desert and its politicisation are enlightened super-talents by J.P. Sniadecki and Lisa Mal- quite sure how he came to be as a highly treacherous refu- who no longer need dictators loy, recalls this thematic ter- here, other than an aversion gee-crossing from Mexico into to oversee and command their ritory of large-scale strife and to a «dominant culture» prone the United States. lives, and national divisions fanciful conjecture over the to pounding its chest and de- A Shape of Things to Come is are abolished. best recourse for human sur- manding others serve it as possessed of that film’s appre- The spectre of modern civili- vival. But in feeling out just one «cannon fodder» – the clout ciation of the awesome power sation’s collapse and the strug- idiosyncratic, dreamed shape, of a corrupt political class an of the desert and its sublime, A Shape of Things to gle of isolated survivors in the it makes no claim to offer a aggravation that border patrol aesthetic potentialities (Snia- Come wake of catastrophe fired the definitive, overarching picture surveillance towers, drones, decki emerged from Harvard’s imaginations of numerous sci-fi of what may await us. Rather, and aircraft overhead remind Sensory Ethnography Lab). Director J.P. Sniadecki, Lisa greats that followed. It‘s a pre- in our world of fragmented him of constantly. But this is a quieter, more un- Malloy occupation that has become tribalism, we find an aging, He’s a fascinatingly ambig- assuming film. USA entwined closely with non-fic- anti-establishment misfit guar- uous figure for ethnographic A rattlesnake, bats, the tion, as climate apocalypse ding a hideaway beyond capi- treatment, in the moon, pink blooms: el- Published in 1933 just after looms and mass displacement talism’s fringes, as the oppres- sense that he has His is an insular, ements and creatures the Nazis came to power in of refugees is fuelled by con- sive hand of the state becomes rejected some of individualistic of the natural world Germany, The Shape of Things flict and resource shortage. harder to ignore. the social con- lifestyle almost enter the frame, ob- to Come by sci-fi prophet H.G. Yet, as world leaders fail to act Sundog is a sixty-year-old structions of mod- hedonistic in its served but unjudged, Wells set out a vision of a futu- and ultra-nationalist populism white man with a long, strag- ern, urbanised life, insistence on as the rhythms of re stretching into the start of rises, the wise wielders of pow- gly beard living in the Sonoran such as frenzied the primacy of life play out. Sundog the 22nd century. In the novel, er that Wells so optimistically Desert. We accompany him in productivity, but simply enjoying catches a Sonoran benevolent dictators use their envisaged seem all but an out- some of his routines as he lives lives to some de- toad and scrapes its being power to pull humanity up out landish fantasy. off the land, hunting wild ani- gree perched atop back to collect and from the devastation of a mas- mals and cooking them on an the land, picking off dry the psychedelic sive war and the threat of pla- The fringes of capitalism. The open fire, scavenging and as food with his high-powered ri- venom. gue, paving the way for a pea- title of documentary A Shape he puts it, simply «enjoying life fle, in little symbiotic harmony It’s interesting to compare beyond use-value with his nat- the treatment of this practice ural surroundings. He smokes to the use of ayahuasca by Co- in the evening, listens to the lombian shaman Don William radio (a Hungarian composer, in last year’s documentary A dokweb.net a philharmonic: the trappings Tree is Like a Man, by Icelan- of civilisation are never too dic artist Thorbjorg Jonsdottir. far removed), or reads, driving Don William contextualises the in his bulky vehicle to stock practice in inherited, collec- up on new reading material tive legend, and a lineage dying from the local bookstore (but out; Sundog is probably, after nothing about «snitches,» he smoking the psychedelic, also EX crankily chides the staff, his able to access an obliteration aversion to peer control bor- of the ego, but he dips in as a dering on the obsessive). Back hobbyist, his usage divorced ORIEN at his haphazardly roofed, from tradition. Maybe it’s all greenhouse-attached abode, the same to the frog. But it’s he relies on his cat, Sparkles, difficult to feel there is much at for companionship. His is an stake in any aspect of Sundog’s FILM insular, individualistic lifestyle existence, as it’s portrayed to almost hedonistic in its insist- us. ence on the primacy of simply Then again, without the ur- An international training programme enjoying being; doing what one gent spectacle of life-threaten- for creative documentary likes, subject to no rules. ing drama, should his aliena- ﬁ lms in development. He fantasises about taking tion sting any less? out surveillance towers with ▶ 3 workshops one of his high-powered weap- Plays at CPH:DOX in ▶ 3 cities ▶ 12 projects Deadline: April 19, 2020 ons. Anarchic freedom fighter, Copenhagen and other festivals. or just another uninvited guest on the land, with macho fron- [email protected]

6 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 The fishermen’s last stand

TRADITION: 150 vention at the hands of the of «no kings» more insistently brings. She chides Mello for be- of life outside urban capitalism, miles from Rio de government. A lack of access prescriptive and celebratory ing «weak» in helping her hold a but rather tries to mirror the air to education and the criminal- than it is an admonition of po- stick tight as she ties rope to it; of easygoing liberty Mello finds. Janeiro exists a hidden isation of practices based on werlessness. the physical work that is part of We follow in ragged, lively pro- community descended traditional knowledge (hunting «Come on Emilia, film us daily life on the coast. The val- cession as a canoe hollowed out from indigenous people, is now illegal, and fishing is reg- over here!» shouts one child, ue of various skillsets and life- from a tree, a traditional craft escaped African slaves, ulated by environmental agen- boisterously. As director, Mel- styles as non-hierarchical and that persists despite bureau- cies) is compounding the push lo is often in the frame, par- relative is a loose theme that cratic obstacles to sourcing the and European pirates. to move into the cities. Beyond ticipating in work or play with reverberates through a film that wood, is dragged through the BY CARMEN GRAY roads, they lived in relative her protagonists, or rushing to is infused with a life-and-let-live forest. isolation until recently, though keep up with whatever activity philosophy. «In my blood, I am «I live without God or de- Rio de Janeiro is only fifteen is the day’s focus. It’s a formal a fisherman,» a sea captain demons, I’m neutral, that’s it,» No Kings miles away. Brazilian director decision that seems designed clares, not without adding, «but says a local who had dreamt Emilia Mello sets out most of to emphasise the collaborato- I think there are many ways to of becoming a preacher, be- Director Emilia Mello this factual information only ry nature of the film, the locals’ live.» fore altering his beliefs upon Brazil at the end of her debut feature agency in the shape of the pro- acquaintance with scientific documentary No Kings, just be- ject, and the repudiation of any Incidental beauty. Day and night; theories. It suggests a kind «You can have the rich life; I fore the credits roll. For most colonialist mindset that might pouring rain, wind, and blazing of open, flexible adaptability, prefer the cheap one,» laughs of the film, which has its world define – with patronising au- sun: accepting of what comes and a fisherman, clearly in no thrall premiere at CPH:DOX in Co- thority – the experience of the The cycles of time and weath- owning action around it, that to the allure of city ways as he penhagen, she prefers to sim- Caiçara without deference to er are loops through which day- may go some way to explaining sorts a net’s thras- ply immerse us in the their own voices. to-day life plays out, and are a the remarkable resilience of hing, a mound-high No Kings is a rhythms of the life of The blonde tomboy, vocal focus of rich, incidental beauty the Caiçara. haul of octopi, fish, dynamic and the community. and headstrong, bosses Mello for the camera (underwater How long it will last, under a and crustaceans. and her fellow children about photography even plunges us Brazilian ruling class intent on poetic drift of He is a member of Poetic drifts. No Kings with verve. A tiny powerhouse into turquoise depths with the making the rules for them, re- a portrait, that one of the few sur- is a dynamic and poetic of alpha energy, she carries fish). The moon glows above, its mains to be seen. viving communities feels guided by drift of a portrait, that aloft her wooden rod to the phases providing a natural cal- of Caiçara, traditi- the romance of feels guided by the ro- sea’s rocks, where she’ll fish endar. Alcohol and cocaine also Plays at CPH:DOX in onal inhabitants of the idea that mance of the idea that for creatures, as if it’s a sceptre figure in one fishing expedition, Copenhagen and other festivals. the southeastern there are free there are free enclaves or sword, seeming to thrive on in a film that does not sink into coast of Brazil’s At- enclaves that that still exist, holding the attention that the camera being too worthy or fetishistic [email protected] lantic Forest, which still exist. on, in a planet of ag- stands only in rem- gressive capitalist en- nants after massive croachment teetering deforestation for timber, cattle on the verge of environmental ranching, and the construction collapse. There is no air of ine- of cities over five centuries of vitable doom, as Mello gently Cinéma du réel colonisation. alights on sparks of vitality and 42e festival international du film documentaire Descended from indigenous the innocence of simply being – Tupinambá Indians, colonisers a vision in which it is no coinci- 13 – 22 mars 2020 from Portugal, and escaped dence that children, with their slaves from Africa, the Caiçara unfiltered sense of nowness, live on trapping animals, are prominent. This refusal to fishing, and sustainable agri- let the machinations of Brazil’s culture, and face ever-great- authorities determine any sen- er pressure from real estate se of narrative feels like a poin- speculation and violent inter- ted act of resistance – the idea

www.cinemadureel.org

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 7 WALTZ WITH BASHIR Lucid dreaming: animated documentary

THESSALONIKI: Three Tower unborn baby has been killed yellow-orange sky looms over- mospheric effects are fore- films from the Thessaloniki by the attack, as has her boy- head. The opening sequence of grounded. This rich senso- On August 1, 1966, a sniper friend Tom Eckman, who lies Ari Folman’s autobiographical ry immediacy, which can Documentary Festival opened fire indiscriminately dead beside her. Fellow stu- Waltz With Bashir (2008) is a become too overwhelming prove the multi- from the observation deck of dents can see she’s alive and sensory onslaught that is no and cognitively unassimila- dimensional power of the University of Texas Tower, injured, but agonisingly, would less menacing when we learn it ble amid atrocity, stands in animation in non-fiction shooting 16 people in a 96-mi- put themselves in sitting duck is a nightmare. tension with the unreliability nute campus siege, before he range to rescue her. She he- A friend of Folman tells him of memory, a dynamic force storytelling. BY CARMEN GRAY was shot himself. It was the ars, in earshot, a call to leave he has seen the 26 hounds that can repress or invent en- first mass school shooting in her there, in favour of helping converge on his apartment tire stretches of time. Anima- If fumbling for a definition of U.S. history and left the na- «the ones there’s still hope for.» regularly in his sleep – the psy- tion’s obvious constructed- documentary, the «observation tion shaken. Director Keith Miraculously, however, a wo- chic return of dogs he’d been ness, every inch of its frame of reality» might initially spring Maitland does a fine job of man, Rita Starpattern, runs to tasked to shoot decades earli- creatively rendered, helps us to one’s mind. But the idea of tapping the meaning and col- her aid, hunkering down and er when entering a grasp the mind’s ten- simply pointing a camera at the lective catharsis to be found talking to keep her conscio- Lebanese village to uous ability to salvage world around us and record- within a recreation of the day’s us. The animation is glorious search for wanted Perhaps the past. Perhaps ani- ing it, as if seen by our own events with Tower (2016), fil- here in bringing us inside the Palestinians. «I re- animated mated documentary eyes, barely scratches the sur- tered through the first-person woozy, heightened sensory member every one documentary can serve as a bridge face of attempts to represent accounts of seven survivors. experience of this near-death of them – their fac- can serve as or gateway to repair what is true – and how little of Realising they would most li- situation, from the psychedelic es, the looks in their a bridge or glitches in the memo- it is rawly visible before us. kely not be permitted to film sense of having been «shot by eyes,» he says as he gateway to ry archive? In the ‘20s, animation was a reconstruction on campus, an anti-matter gun, dissolving,» relates his predica- repair glitches In Folman’s hallu- turned to as a way to illustrate the team used rotoscopic ani- to the flush of bright colour ment, one night in a in the memory cinatory flashback, abstract concepts in educa- mation, deftly blending it with that infuses memories of her bar as rain, almost archive? flares emit a golden tional films such as the Fleis- archival footage of Austin in and Tom’s courtship. tactile, streaks the light, as he wades cher brothers’ The Einstein the ‘60s and the massacre, to And most of all, the existen- window. Isn’t direc- out of the sea onto a Theory of Relativity. These create both a textured sense of tial hope that comes with this tor Folman similarly haunted corpse-strewn beach. He can’t days, non-fiction exists in an the lived era and an immediacy stranger’s hand. «It was beauti- by his war experience? «That’s place it. Was it during the Sa- ever-more complicated dance that immerses viewers into the ful, a selfless act,» she recol- not stored in my system,» he bra and Shatila massacre in with the acknowledgment of dramatic moment alongside its lects – a signal to hang on so replies – but the shared dream 1982, when Israeli forces know- subjectivity and unreliable per- witnesses. gorgeously realised, it trans- triggers repressed trauma of ingly oversaw (and lit the way ception. Animation has proved The danger of glorifying the mits the deep meaning beyond his own. for) the killing by Christian an effective tool in breathing perpetrator that comes with the heroic platitudes that we Folman examines the experi- Lebanese allies of multitudes life into, not only, testimonies this kind of reconstruction cling to in the face of such sen- ence of Israeli troops, himself of civilians? Then why is he in of the past, but also is admirably avoided. seless cruelty. Other survivors’ included, who served in the the water? To recover his lost the inextricability of Trauma We are never taken in- acts, of hesitation or bravery, Lebanon War, and a society memories, he seeks out others imagination, emotion, can wreak side the killer’s point of are animated with equal vivid- marked by cross-generation- who were in Beirut at the same and the hallucinato- havoc on view, and learn very litt- ness, showing how such atroci- al trauma. The film is almost time. Recorded interviews con- ry plane of dreams. our ability le about him: a former ties test communities, and how entirely animation, befitting a stitute the verbal backbone of This year, a tribute to store marine whose violent our responses can define anew work of memory reclamation the puzzle. programme at 2020 impulses may have been our humanity. in which the very status of re- A shift to live-action archival history Thessaloniki Docu- driven by a brain tumour. ality is under negotiation and footage at the end eventually mentary Festival ex- As the horror plays out, Waltz With Bashir never taken for granted. Trau- jolts us. It’s crucial in acknowl- plores ways in which we are brought back time ma can wreak havoc on our edging that beyond the repres- animation has enriched the and again to the scorching con- A pack of black, snarling dogs ability to store history, as the sions and reinventions of the documentary form, creating crete in front of the tower, as runs through the night streets mind dissociatively checks out mind there is an unassailable a hybrid sub-genre. Below, we the first shooting victim, an- of Tel Aviv. Their paws splash from events it is not resilient truth of historical events. We revisit several selection high- thropology student Claire Wil- through puddles; glasses enough to bear. move beyond Folman’s story, lights: son, struggles to survive. Her smash off bar-side tables. A Music, light, and other at- as he too comes to terms with

8 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Recreate it

!INTERVIEW: Artistic director at The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Orestis Andreadakis. BY TRULS LIE

What is your overall concept behind your festival this year? This year’s concept is the Anthropocene, a tribute that challenges the audience to approach films through an unexpected point of view. The word derives from the Greek words Anthropos (hu- TOWER man) and kainos (new). In our era, the human species does not simply adapt to its surrounding ecosystems. It changes them according to its needs. We do not touch upon the anthropocene simply through the lens of the environment, or from a technocentric angle the deed’s replication. When but mainly philosophically watching a documentary, and existentially. We discuss bear in mind that the es- the turbulent relationship sence and the foundation of between humans and nature, all spectacles was that these a relationship that started were invented in order not to off with the illusion dictating authenticate reality – but to we are the dominant species, recreate it. Gods’ own chosen people – and that led to a tsunami of Why or what event made reprimands. you personally enter into To frame the above, we are the doc world? also going to print a special It was 22 years ago when NUTS book actually, with a collec- Dimitri Eipides founded the the part he played in a wider ulterior motives abound. The fect is a warning alarm sound- tion of texts which explain Thessaloniki Documenta- whole. Pain of Others (2018) is com- ed on our own gullibility and things further. ry Festival and through his piled of YouTube clips posted our face-value faith in familiar programming, he aimed at NUTS! by women with Morgellons, a conventions of documentary More topics special for providing the Greek audi- disease doctors insist is a de- «truth». The film presents, at your festival? ence with alternative sourc- Penny Lane interrogates the lusion, while her most first, as the exact This year we are comes of information. He has reliability not of memory but of recent film Hail Satan? kind of outlandish piling a program full of achieved that and brought the documentary form itself in (2019), charts the fight As a doctor in tale of entrepreneuri- groundbreaking animat- Documentary filmmaking to her retelling of the bizarre tale of of The Satanic Temple a Kansas «one- al chutzpah that con- ed documentaries which the spotlight. We embraced John R. Brinkley, NUTS! (2016). to be accepted as a re- horse town» firms the American demonstrate how reality this vision, this is why now, This colourful figure from early ligion. But it was with he pioneered Dream. can be documented and un- our festival includes four twentieth-century America rose NUTS! that she enlist- goat gland We might have derstood. Also, since docu- very vibrant competition from poor beginnings to fame ed animation to prank implants in been tipped off to mentaries have always been sections and the Agora – as a medical innovator, when as us with a wildly enter- humans as a its wildly invented mimicking an action, we which has become the most a doctor in a Kansas «one-horse taining yarn of dubious means to cure nature by the rough- gather films which discuss important and lively indus- town» he pioneered goat gland provenance. impotence. ly drawn animation Memes, starting from every- try event in the Southeast implants in humans as a means The screenplay of – but don’t the au- day life and elevate these to Europe and the Mediterra- to cure impotence. From early NUTS!, by Thom Stylin- thoritative-sounding the field of social anthropol- nean. on, he understood the powers ski, is based on a 1934 biogra- narrator, and all those meticu- ogy. Contemporary culture Was any documentary of self-promotion and the se- phy of Brinkley, Life of a Man, lously typed stickers, signal a seems to be predominantly seminal to your interest with ductive allure of a good story, by hack Clement Wood. It’s concern for factual signposting consisted by memes – this the genre? launching his own far-reaching only in the film’s final stretches we’re meant to trust? Lane, by «techno-pop» flavored term One of the first films I saw radio station and making a for- that the book’s claims are held revealing different levels of ve- codifies the current over- when I set foot in film school tune from peddling false hope up to scrutiny, as Brinkley’s racity and falsehood at play, flow of images, which grad- was Man with a Movie Cam- to the ailing. nemesis Morris Fishbein of the trains us for healthy skepti- ually tend to assert their era by Dziga Vertov. I had to With a bold curiosity for ec- American Medical Association, cism, and a contemporary era autonomy and obtain an contemplate long as to what centricity and a commitment on a crusade against quackery, in which the media’s snake-oil otherworldly substance. this film is exactly. It made to feeling out the boundaries exposes him in court. salesmen are ever-more some dispute the boundaries of of authenticity, Penny Lane NUTS! weaves comically sur- phisticated in their hoaxes. Any advice about docu- cinema and narrative forms. often reminds us through her real, sepia-toned animation mentary in the future? This was the first film I could films how to look, and not be (copulating billy-goats and See Thessaloniki When watching a documen- see being screened at a docu- scammed by, our heavily me- all) in with carefully labeled Documentary Festival. tary, always bear in mind not mentary festival. diated world of smoke and archival material, and contem- to seek the truth in every ac- mirrors in which every story porary talking-head interviews tion but look for the truth in [email protected] is crazier than the next and with historical experts. The ef- [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 9 COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE | PHOTO BY BENJAMIN REE BENJAMIN BY | PHOTO INSTITUTE OF SUNDANCE COURTESY

Shifting perspectives on art and identity

IDENTITY: Benjamin ter and the Thief, directed by vasses!»). We don’t know it yet, tist sketches of the courtroom with which Kysilkova treats Ree's spin on the art heist Norwegian filmmaker Benja- but this meta-observational – instead of pressing one of the Nordland is affecting. And her min Ree. mode sets the tone for the per- thieves (Karl-Bertil Nordland) paintings of Nordland – let’s surprises and invites. Oslo residents might recall spective-shifting ride on which to reveal where her paintings just say they make you won- BY HARIETTE YAHR the robbery, which occurred we are about to embark. are, Kysilkova asks him to sit der what life might have been on April 20, 2015. Czech artist for her so she can paint his like for him if anyone ever Barbora Kysilkova was prepar- A new spin. Films about the art portrait. He agrees. cared to really «see» him. If ing for an upcoming show at world are nothing Then you have the this documentary teaches us Oslo’s Galleri Nobel. At lunch- new. Forgery, theft, If this film’s structure, which anything, it’s that it’s best not time, two men broke into the legal wrangling over documentary shifts between Kysilko- to generalize. gallery and meticulously re- ownership, profiles teaches us va and Nordland’s per- moved two large canvasses, of unsung geniuses, anything, spectives, sometimes Firsts. The Painter and The nail by nail, from their frames. they’ve all found visiting the same con- Thief premiered opening night it’s that it’s Ree’s film takes over from their way to the versation. This inven- at Sundance. It’s the only Nor- best not to there, thanks to the sur- screen. What’s new tive storytelling form wegian film honored with this generalize. The Painter and The Thief veillance video that helped here is Ree’s spin on lays bare assumptions slot and Ree is the first Nor- the police nab the thieves. the art heist, both in we make, including wegian director to be invited Director Benjamin Ree Through the camera’s eye, we premise and structure. First, about appearance – Nordland into the World Documentary Norway see Kysilkova watch the crime you have a premise that might is a tattooed drug addict who Competition. For Ree, landing unfold. Yes, her paintings are test your suspension of disbe- sports irreverent t-shirts with at Sundance was like the rest One of the buzzed-about being stolen («They even tied lief if this were a work of ficti- slogans like «Crime Pays». of the journey of this film – a films at the 2020 Sundance it with rope» she witnesses. on. At the trial – we hear this in And motivation – at one point, surprise. «I did not know anyt- Film Festival was The Pain- «Tape and rope around the can- voice-over accompanied by ar- Kysilkova’s fiancé, Øystein hing that would happen in this Stene, challenges her to look story,» says Ree, who thought deeper at her friendship with his film would at first be a 10 Norland. (Stene is a secondary min short doc, then a 30-minu- yet pivotal character in the te doc, then a 60-minute doc. story). And then there are our He ended up shooting for three assumptions about truth: How years. (The final running time much are we projecting? Or ob- is 102 minutes.) scuring? And what might we be Screenings at Sundance missing? were sold out and audience en- The director says he’s ex- gagement was high. Standing ploring questions that will ovations were the norm and confront an audience. «This is post-screening discussions a film that will give audiences were packed (people had burn- lots of questions they don’t ing questions about what hap- necessarily get answers to», pened to Nordland). he says. At times we go deep, And, in another surprise thanks to the vérité style that thread of this story, Kysilkova captures intense, therapeu- became a bit of a celebrity at tic conversations. There is Sundance. Up and down Main also Nordland's vulnerability, Street, festival attendees ap- his willingness to share his proached Kysilkova, asking to trauma-filled past. Any con- take selfies with her. cern about the performative nature of the film – after all See interview next page. posing and representation are Plays at Thessaloniki DF endemic to the story—is miti- and others festivals. gated in a moment of humanity that may leave you in tears as it did me. The gentleness [email protected]

10 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 «To ask questions that are intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging»

INTERVIEW: «My background was from journalism, I Lifting the heavy hand of hatred had to learn film language,» says director Benjamin Ree REHABILITATION: A set on fire by her boyfriend in a selves? about The Painter and the Thief. BY LAUREN WISSOT touching story of the silly dispute over a stolen bot- Although it is difficult to tle of vodka. Webster reveals show the inner struggle the rel- power of forgiveness the agonising details slowly – atives go through as they ap- What were the biggest that poses difficult starting with the incompetent proach that first meeting, the challenges in following these questions for the families local police who fail to inform scenes when, Pia's mother, and often emotionally precarious of murder victims – and the victim's parents before a then Ville's father, meet their protagonists Barbora and nurse from the intensive care children's murderers are both Karl-Bertil over so many the perpetrators. BY NICK unit calls to enquire why they shocking and surprising. years? HOLDSWORTH are not at their daughter's bed- Pia's mother asks for a short The biggest challenge was side. delay to finish her coffee before to watch people suffering The sheer horror of losing a meeting the man who killed her emotionally and to film that. Eye to Eye loved one to murder; the ha- daughter. It is 11 years after I think that’s a huge dilemma tred that grows in a parent's the murder and she has only for a documentary filmmaker. Director John Webster heart for the killer; the aching glimpsed him once before – Should you give the person a Finland incomprehension of all the un- an accidental sighting during hug, or should you continue answered questions – creates his trial. Now she is confront- filming? Most of the time I con- Populist politicians the world a wave of secondary victims ed with a man of 28 who looks tinued filming, before I gave a over love to fire up voters with from one, brief, violent act. like a naïve, overgrown child, hug towards the end. The rea- Considering how artistic phrases such as «tough on law Then there is Ville, who wearing a T-shirt proclaiming son I did this was that we had this film is, I was surprised to and order», «lock 'em up!», and was bludgeoned to death by a faith in Jesus. He looks both a common understanding that learn that you actually began «we'll put them behind bars friend acting in cahoots with blank and terrified at the same it was important for us – Bertil, your career with the BBC and and throw away the key». the 17-year-old's stepfather. time. She maintains a mask of Barbora and me – to document Reuters. It's good for business if you Ville's biological father is more composure that gradually sof- the uncensored, rough reality Filmmaking for me is to are a right-wing rabble-rouser. bewildered and guilt-ridden tens to something approaching they were facing. try to ask questions that are It fires up the emotions of the than hell-bent on revenge: by compassion as they talk. Is his intellectually stimulating and majority who prefer to not the time he has the chance to faith genuine? Does he truly re- The film is not only strik- emotionally engaging in a cine- think, to not question. meet the murderer some years pent of his sins? Can she truly ingly cinematic but unusually matic way by observing human have passed and his own mur- forgive him? structured. How did you de- behavior. Since my background Far from easy. John Webster's derous impulses have faded. cide on the overall aesthetic? was from journalism, I had to unsettling film Eye to Eye takes And we also meet the wom- Lifting the heavy hand. Later, I thought a lot about wanting learn film language and relearn a stonier path. The award-win- an who's older brother, Janne, she confesses that that mee- to show Bertil as the complex what I thought about storytell- ning Finnish documentary di- was killed around the time of ting had helped her. There will and intelligent guy that he is. I ing. That I could transfer the rector – who produces through her 18th birthday. A decade never be closure, but the hea- couldn’t achieve that without interviews to a universal, non- his own company – follows the later, displaying tattoos of her vy hand of hatred on her heart seeing the world from his point verbal cinematic language. I story of three people who have lost sibling, she admits that has lifted, she says. of view. have made films since I was 11 lost children or siblings to mur- meeting his killer – and hear- Ville's father also seems to I got the inspiration from a – I have had a huge film inter- der. ing an apology and pledge to find relief in simply talking particular therapeutic, prac- est since I was a child. Born in Finland in 1968 to lead a good life – had helped with the young man who had tical exercise – where you are parents who had moved to the her, even if she can never truly been his son's chum since jun- challenged to see the world Though your films screen country to teach English, Web- know if one reformed murderer ior school. Just being able to from your own and another internationally. Do you prefer ster brings an almost anthro- can ever make up for the lost express his feelings and hear person’s perspective. You to tell local stories? Is it just pological distance to his story life of her brother. the torn, tortured answers to change this many time during easier to get financing? and its subjects. questions he had sent in ad- the exercise. This therapy (per- I like to tell stories from In a Finnish prison, where lif- The heart of the matter. Having vance, seems to bring healing ceptual perception) has made a Norway. It is here that I know ers are nearing the end of their set out his agenda, gently and succour. huge impression on me. I tried the people and read the news. sentences for violent crimes without any scene-of-crime There are no palatable rea- to apply that to the film. The It’s so much easier to film (a relative rarity in Finland, photos, contemporary news- sons for murder. Whatever same with the voiceover – they someone when you live in the but still the Nordic country of paper reports, or police/hospi- its perpetrators believe it will were very inspired by how peo- same city as them. If something 5.5 million people records 100 tal/official talking heads, Webs- achieve, in the end, it only ple talk in psychoanalysis, with happens you can just go there homicides a year), a special ter draws viewers to the heart brings pain and destruction. the stream of consciousness. and shoot. That’s what I did restitution programme brings of the matter: the face to face Murderers should face the I tried to «interview» them in with The Painter and the Thief. inmates together with their vic- meetings between the family of consequences of their actions this way and hope they would Something dramatic happened tims relatives in an attempt to victims and the men (and yes, and be locked up for a long feel free to speak in an open all the time, and I could just bring healing to both sides. they are all men) who did the time. But unless more intelli- and introspective way. leave my home and run to the It has «bleeding heart lib- deed. gence is brought to addressing I was also inspired by the place with a camera. That has eral» scrawled all over it, but It is notable that Webster this most shocking of crimes silent films Man with a Movie been helpful, capturing these as Webster's film shows, ap- does not avoid probing the – and forging new ways to ap- Camera and The Phantom Car- decisive moments in Barbora proaching the consequences motives and emotions of those proach reducing it – there is riage – how they dared to find a and Bertil’s life. of violent crime in this way is locked up from the crimes. little hope for change. form and structure that worked far from easy. What do they seek from meet- well with the theme and story. See previous page. First, we meet a mother ing mothers and fathers they Plays in Prague at One World This they did already in the whose teenage daughter Pia have robbed of their children? and other festivals. 1920s. [email protected] died a horrific death weeks af- Do they hope for forgiveness? ter being doused in petrol and Can they ever forgive them- [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 11 SUNDANCE 2020: JEFF DILEMMA, A FILM BY THE SOCIAL OF SUNDANCE | COURTESY ORLOWSKI INSTITUTE The promise and pitfalls of technology

TECHNOLOGY: Sundance other electronic devices, play (or lack thereof) that results technology but also because it even more affecting: she met 2020 featured several in our day-to-day. What can be from our human need for con- offers a counterpoint to Saudi Muna in an online chat room said about the consequences nection and approval. The re- Runaway, a standout Sundance where women were connecting films with tech at their of our attachment to devices? sulting silence of thought, the 2020 documentary that illu- about their shared plights. Of center. BY HARIETTE YAHR Can we celebrate the gifts of disappearance of discourse, minates the transformational note, and a Sundance first for technology while remaining the fostering of fake news, and power of technology. me – it seemed like a couple mindful of the problems of the implications to democracy, «plants» came to the film to rile The Social Dilemma, overuse? Two Sundance docs it's all in this film, cleverly laid Saudi Runaway. Saudi Runaway up progressive thinkers. At one Saudi Runaway offered lessons on how to stri- out in a storyline that fictiona- is a courageous, life-changing point in the Q&A, the director ke this balance. lizes these issues as they are film directed by Swiss-Ger- shut down a man who asked a Director Jeff Orlowski, Susanne illuminated by the Silicon Val- man Susanne Regina Meures. dismissive question. The audi- Regina Meures The Social Dilemma. The Social ley wizards who built the so- The story focuses on Muna, ence howled with applause. No Dilemma is a film that I wande- cial media tools to begin with. a young, determined woman one was going to let gaslighting The role of technology in our red into kind of agnostically. You’ve even got the engineer who has decided she has had affect the positive energy cre- lives —and in the creative It looked interesting enough, who helped create Facebook’s enough of restrictive life she ated by the film. It was an in- process—showed up as story but I did not think I’d be too «like» button. These tech inno- endures as a woman living in teresting film festival moment and backstory in several films affected. I ended up staying, vators acknowledge they crea- Saudi Arabia. So, she docu- that underscored the power of at this year’s Sundance Film captivated and transfixed. The ted a monster and they want us ments her life, often covertly, courageous, transformational Festival. This makes sense sin- film directed by Jeff Orlowski to wake up before it's too late. with two smartphones. She filmmaking. Off of the screen ce it is 2020 and the iPhone, (Chasing Ice), sounds a strong But will we? hatches a plan to leave the and into the minds and hearts for instance, is now a viable warning about the perils of I mention Social Dilemma country and escape on the of the audience. Palpably. filmmaking tool. But how do social media and the slippe- not only as a clarion call doc- eve of her arranged marriage. the outsized role phones, and ry slope of civic engagement umentary about the perils of Everyone was on the edge of Standouts. And about courage their seat watching this film, and transformational stories, which plays out like a thriller it’s worth mentioning anoth- if you can somehow forget it is er film at this year’s festival actually someone’s life on the which integrated technology line here. You can’t forget that in groundbreaking ways. Wel- of course—and it’s an emotio- come to Chechnya, directed by nal ride to sit through because David France (How to Survive you care so much about Muna. a Plague), shadows a group of She’s remarkable (and shows activists confronting the an- great potential as a storytel- ti-LGBTQ+ persecution in the ler as well). There’s so much Russian republic. Disturbing about Saudi Runaway that is footage captured by activists noteworthy, from the filmma- and the use of mind-blowing king process and the footage technology to protect the Muna fearlessly records (inclu- identity of the subjects helps ding that she downloads the tell this urgent story. Welcome footage to Meures via Drop- to Chechnya took home a U.S. box). And, of course, the most Documentary Special Jury remarkable element of the film Award for Editing, and like is Muna and her courage—her Social Dilemma and Saudi Ru- courage to share her story and naway— as well as The Painter her willingness to vision ano- and the Thief and Spaceship ther possible life for herself. Earth (also reviewed from Does she get there? You’re go- Sundance this year) – the film ing to have to see the film. It ought be on everyone's mus- will surprise and inspire you as t-see list. it did all of us at Sundance. Post-screening discussions 'Saudi Runaway' were spirited. Director Meures plays at Berlinale. revealed the genesis of the project which made Saudi Runaway [email protected]

12 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 «artificial elitism doesn’t make sense»

ONE WORLD: Festival director Ondrej Kamenický offers insight into Prague's Children in Human Rights Documentary Film the free Festival. BY STEVE RICKINSON

to this land where he fathered as erratic as when a wild fox SOCIETY: On the nine children. Acasa, My Home attempts to cross a busy hig- outskirts of Bucharest, is a film that observes this fa- hway. However, there is also mily over four years. kindness in the modern world. This festival has grown into festivals on a sound and in- a family lives in harmony The film is beautifully cin- What strikes us is the hu- the largest human rights do- dependent basis. with nature until forced to ematographed following this mane and vigorous attempts cumentary film festival in What makes a film worthy adapt to big city life. flock of children through each by the Romanian social worker the world over the past 20 of screening at One World season. The story begins with to protect this family. In other years. Prague? BY MARGARETA HRUZA summer, a season full of play welfare states such as Norway, Can you give us some in- The topic of the film is the and laughter. The children the children would most cer- sight into what makes this key for us when we talk on the Acasa, My Home and the animals roam around, tainly be separated and put year’s edition of One World selection process. One World fetching food and playing all into new families. And yet, de- Prague unique? is primarily a festival for the Director Radu Ciorniciuc day long. Only when the child spite all the help they get, it Among the topics ad- general public and strives for Romania, Finland, Germany welfare agency shows up do seems hard for Mr. Gica's fam- dressed at this year’s festival mainstreaming human rights the children flee into the fields. ily to adapt to a modern life- will be the various manifes- (in many cases unpopular) On the outskirts of Bucharest, A startling contrast is the style. tations of the environmental issues as much as possible there was once a romantic winter when we see how hard At first, the children's eyes crisis within the context of within Czech society. neighborhood called Vacaresti such camp life can be, espe- beam with eagerness as the so- the local landscape, as well Do you have a seminal with cobblestones roads and cially for Vial, the oldest of the cial workers teach them to not as the role humans play in it. documentary film that en- quaint little houses with small boys. Although he is just an ad- only recycle but also to read One World has been address- couraged ypu to work with kitchen gardens. During the olescent, he is the true bread- and write. However, soon frus- ing environmental themes docs? 1970s, the area was bulldozed winner of the family, forced tration is expressed as they for a long time in the Un- Yes, 5 Broken Cameras as part of the brutal commu- to go out on rainy cold winter encounter the new rules of Earthed category, which just (2011), the documentary film nist urban planning program- nights, fishing and making the their lives. Instead of running happens to be the festival’s co-directed by Palestinian me. A huge field was dug up little money the family needs barefoot in the mud and catch- most important thematic Emad Burnat and Israeli Guy in order to create a reservoir for survival. Their lives seem all ing fish with their bare hands, grouping this year. The fes- Davidi. It is seminal in terms that was supposed to provide but romantic while they stand they now sit complacent in tival’s virtual reality section, of finding out what kind of water for an enormous housing there improperly dressed and front of the computer watching which is this year entirely fo- incredible things can be project that was never, leaving freezing in the howling wind. A violent television programme. cused on ecology and nature, captured on camera. It also this vast area abandoned for charity comes over for Christ- Not only does Mr. Gica become will allow visitors to travel to helped me to raise aware- decades. Through time and mas Eve and hands out gifts. physically ill and resigns in ap- forests, to the desert, and ness of critical filmmaking paradoxically, through the luck Mr. Gica picks up one of those athy, but the children also with- even to the highest peaks of and everyday struggles of of being a country with econ- talking children’s books and er away slowly due to boredom an iceberg. filmmakers working under omic upheavals, developers puts it straight into the burning and frustration. The younger By screening films that pressure in dangerous envi- were discouraged from inves- furnace clearly making a state- children cry, complaining that are (not just) about the en- roments. ting in this landscape, crea- ment while mumbling how not even the food taste as good vironmental crisis, we want How do you see the genre ting a unique opportunity for they don’t need this shit. as it did out in the open. to show the global dimen- of documentary trending in nature. Without any human sion of the entire problem the next decade? intervention or planning, natu- Kindness and frustration. Mr. Natural acceptance. The film is while focusing chiefly on its It’s not possible to keep re itself created a green oasis Gica, who is fully dedicated to nonjudgmental in its approach impact at the local level. We current «eternal growth» and that stands in contrast to the protecting his family and this to the subjects and does not not only want to draw atten- competitive angle of the film highways and skyscrapers sur- land, is not only worried over try to guide the viewer into mation to the issue but to also industry – which only causes rounding it. What used to be a the intruding authorities but king assumptions nor create a look for a solution and find pressure on filmmakers and gigantic mud hole in the midd- also the rising attention from point-of-view, it merely makes inspiration in the specific film festivals to have exclu- le of a concrete landscape has ecological interest groups who us reflect the challenges mo- events. sive access to new films and turned into one of Romania's circle the area like vultures, dern civilization brings upon One World Prague is part screen them in a very re- richest biodiverse ecosystems dreaming of turning this place families and children in gene- of a network of International stricted way. The main goal – a true sanctuary for 100 dif- into the largest urban natural ral. However, the true secret Human Rights Documentary is to inspire people and make ferent bird species, and for Mr. park in Europe. The mere pre- of why this film will warm your Film Festivals? them think critically – not Gica and his family who settled sence of Prince Charles visiting heart is that the main charac- One World is one of the to make big money. Laurels here 18 years ago. the wetlands foreshadows the ters are totally enchanting with co-founders of The Human and artificial elitism doesn’t seriousness of the matter. The their natural acceptance. They Rights Film Network (HRFN) make sense as it leads to di- Mr. Gica & family. Mr. Gica, a threat soon becomes a reality were raised to be kind and po- which is a partnership of viding the society instead of chief, a drunken father, and a when the family's shed is torn lite, and we observe head on 43 independent festivals. opening dialogue and culti- self-appointed park ranger, is down and they are chased into how the system slowly breaks Through the network, festi- vation of the whole film eco- not just any ordinary Rom. He the city. The children face mo- them down, regardless of their vals exchange ideas on how system, – so necessary in our is educated and had a decent dern civilization for the first good intentions. to promote human rights time. job as a laboratory assistant. time. We observe the mother films through festivals, At some point in his life, he with her children being genui- Plays at Thessaloniki broadcasting, and educa- See reviews at made a conscious choice to lene bewildered as they put their Documentary Festival tional programmes. They several pages. ave the civilized world, which lives in danger while attemp- and other festivals.. assist the emergence and he refers to as the «wicked ting to cross a heavily traffic- establishment of new film [email protected] world», bringing his young wife ked road. Her attempts are [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 13 From ecological grief to rebellion ACTIVISM: Extinction Rebellion is a rapidly growing climate protest movement, which seeks to convert love of nature, and the rage over the political inaction into collective action. But what is the political potential of grief? BY ANDERS DUNKER

tive second principle: «Act as talking about the environment Make your grief public. I was price for loving nature these Grief if the truth is real». With this and the mother talks about how surprised at the focus on grief days – and without that love, allusion to climate denial, ubi- the grief comes and goes, how and trauma at the Extinction there is no credible environ- Director Andrea Culková quitous both on political and it is hard even to stay with it, Rebellion event, I attended. mental movement. As this film Czech Republic personal levels, they directly perhaps since we need to pro- Grief is what you feel when the demonstrates, grief can build address the explosively con- tect ourselves. The daughter, loss is accepted as a fact. Is a community. Haven’t many In the US, I recently decided to flicted feelings caused in each less moderate in her reactions, this a kind of resignation, then? societies been built upon the attend an Extinction Rebellion of us by the emerging global starts crying when she hears One answer might be that a acknowledgment of a shared briefing, and found that their disaster. Feelings are, after all, about the fires in Australia and great amount of grief is the trauma or a collective loss? main message is actually basic what must fuel the change that asks about the koalas. «I don’t facts: in numbers and charts lo- is needed – beyond knowledge want them to die» she exclaims cal representatives sum up our of the facts. before she explodes with a climate predicament and the si- Among themselves, partic- frustrated love for nature that nister statistics of the so-called ipants in Extinction Rebellion has turned into grief, anger, sixth extinction – the ongoing often begin and end their com- and prophetic desperation: dying out of species and beings munications with the phrase «All the animals will die! All the in the wake of mankind’s in- «with love and rage», which humans too! It will all be over!» dustrialized civilization. This also precede the opening title The mother is accepting. There is the kind of knowledge that of the Czech documentary Žal is nothing wrong with crying demands a response. The first Žen – «Grief». In the opening over the future in front of the principle of Extinction Rebelli- scene of Andrea Culková’s new children, one woman in the film on is «Tell the truth» is followed film, a mother and her daughter says. These reactions are ap- up by the elegant and provoca- are sitting in front of a bonfire propriate.

14 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Yet, summoning people together to grieve remains an unusual and innovative strategy for a political movement. Žal Žen is a portrait of activists, mostly women, who in coming to terms with their en- The Ashura holiday vironmental depression, have found a way to turn the feeling of sadness into political action. ROTTERDAM: Experience Environmental grief, some- from Pakistan, and beyond. times termed solastalgia, is becoming a real and widespread BY NEIL YOUNG. phenomenon. From a psycho- find they no longer live on the logical point of view, we are same planet. The Lost Procession told, activism proves to allevi- Long clips are dedicated to ate the worst symptoms of de- people on the street claiming Director Bani Abidi pression. In other words, work- that the rebellion is misguid- ing for change and expressing ed, exhibitionist and alarmist. «United in faith but at odds yourself, is both a release and This gives the storytelling some with each other culturally»: a form of therapy. two-sidedness. We recognize this is how artist/filmmaker the perspective of the critics, Bani Abidi describes the Shi'te Activist art and artistic acti- but also have to recognize Muslim men she encounters vism. Artists have long known their prejudice. Also, the film ritually and energetically ob- this, and pain is an integra- doesn’t underplay the activist’s serving the Ashura holiday at a period when suicide bomb- thing of a social media sensa- ted stimulant to much artistic own doubts and disorientation. -- which marks the death in ings were exacting a heavy toll. tion in the last couple of years, expression. As the film amply They feel that people don’t get battle of Husayn Ibn Ali, grand- More than half a decade later, their buoyant enthusiasm an illustrates, arts also play a signi- it, they feel powerless to cause son of the Prophet, on a Berlin an uncertain kind of peace implicit rebuke to the hostile ficant part in the public real change as they are street, and is traditionally the reigns: the Quetta skyline is a environment in which they campaigns and demon- Feelings trying to rise to the oc- occasion of pilgrimages among hazy brown landscape of low- find themselves. strations of Extinction are, after casion. Can a message the devout. rise buildings, the only splash- A 2013 BBC report dubbed Rebellion. Solemn and of grief and desperation Herself from a mixed Punja- es of colour provided by blue these enclaves «hell on earth,» all, what theatrical performan- create a mass move- bi-Hazari background based plastic water-barrels on the at a period when suicide must fuel ces; The die-ins where ment? Perhaps – when it now in Berlin and Karachi, roofs. bombings were exacting a people lie down making the change becomes clear that grief Abidi takes the encounter with Abidi, who provides salient heavy toll. foreboding scenes of that is comes from love, and Berlin's pared-down version of information via her own voice- Abidi's film likewise empha- mass death, prefiguring needed that love sparks justi- the Ashura festivities as the over, is drawn to local pho- sises positivity and the possi- and testifying to the – beyond fied anger, the emotion- starting point for a journey tographer Asef Ali Mohammad, bility of hope; her camera du- mass extinctions co- knowledge al ally of all revolutions. that will take her thousands whose work empathetically tifully records the pain of exile ming down on us and of the facts. Despite the despera- of miles to Quetta in northern chronicles the daily realities and the hassles of staying put, other living beings; the tion, the tone and style Pakistan, and the «ghettoes» faced by the Hazari Shi'ites the problems of the " «left be- silent pantomime of the movement, as the inhabited by the large but per- here. A second, quieter pro- hind». Her miniature provides movements of the mysterious film beautifully captures, is one secuted Hazara Shi'ite minority tagonist is black-shawled Nar- privileged access to a place «red brigades» with their pale of humble humanity. in this mainly Sunni area. gis Bibi, a bereaved relative of which now seldom intrudes faces; the people under the gal- In my local XR gathering, the These ghettoes, specifical- one of the cemetery's martyrs upon the global conscious- lows, ropes around their necks, speaker reminded us that sta- ly one cemetery where many -- as commemorated in fading ness: quotidian scenes in ar- standing on melting ice-cubes. tistically you only need to en- victims of violence are revered colour photographs proudly eas and populations formed On a more humorous and sar- gage 3,5% of the population to as martyrs (more than 2000 displayed, each of them male, and forged in violent upheaval castic note, in another scene, cause drastic societal change. have been killed in the pres- most of them teenagers or both natural and bloodily man- people clad in plastic bags inva- In groups we were encouraged ent century) are the focus of slightly older. made. de a shopping center in a bur- to talk about our fears and Abidi's 14-minute film The Lost A wild-card element of lesque and ironically ecstatic concerns, as well as the parts Procession, a fragmentary and punctuation is provided by Played at the celebration of consumerism. of nature that we loved. In the impressionistic immersion into the acrobatic teenagers who International Film Festival, end, we also ended up becom- areas long considered no-goes perform solo «parkour» stunts Rotterdam (IFFR). A troubled tribe. The intimate, ing connecting and forming for outsiders. against the dusty walls of almost private, portraits of the friendships. This Czech film is A 2013 BBC report dubbed the settlements. These lithe activist at home and with their most of all about commitment these enclaves «hell on earth,» youths have become some- [email protected] kids portray all the different – and what it means to take in nuances of dedicating oneself an indigestible, incomprehen- to a cause. Identifying with the sible, unmanageable truth, and global environmental disaster to try to work on it together. An becomes a worldview, a way of almost tribal experience – rare experiencing life in the present in our modern age. The trou- moment. Some activists experi- bled tribe whose problems are EVENTIVAL ence conflicts and discussions discussed in these little coun- with other family members. cils, however, is not the activ- Some couples find a new ener- ists – but humanity as such. gy in sharing a common cause, MAKES THE BEST while other couples end up Plays at One World (Prague) drifting apart, because they and other festivals. disagree on the seriousness DOCUMENTARY of the situation, and somehow [email protected] FESTIVALS IN THE WORLD EVEN BETTER

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TECHNOLOGY: This Max Tegmark assures us that the alpine slopes, as if he was baffled apprehension, could terns for potential criminals. chilling and critical AI will change everything, but observing human life from an easily be capable of creating an He insists that he explores the it is also like a gamble: It might elevated perspective, while infinitely stable dictatorship. powers of AI to know what is AI-documentary almost solve all our problems, but it he explains his visions of an Elements of possible so that we succumbs to the dark might also spell disaster. The immortal silicone intelligence. such an Orwellian We have to face can stay abreast of fascinations it depicts, film focuses on the latter pos- Being only human, he is con- future dystopia are the inconvenient the development and leaving a strong and sibility, as digital technologies tent to see himself as a mere shown to be a con- truth that take our measures for already propel us into a world stepping-stone: the interme- temporary reality safety. Yet – oh, yes! privacy is gone – unsettling impression of we so far have associated with diary stage in a cosmic evo- later in the film: In – this data might be forever.» nascent digital powers science-fiction. lution, a means for superior China, the Muslim misused. As with so outgrowing human control. beings to create themselves. Uyghur population many dystopian tech The god-father. The Swiss infor- In raising these new and high- in the North-Western provinc- futurologists, his dramatic BY ANDERS DUNKER matician and engineer Jürgen er beings, he insists, we will es are subjected to face scans, warnings sound more like ad- Schmidhüber willingly let him- need to set them free. Artificial constant surveillance and dig- vertisements. iHUMAN self be portrayed as an arche- Intelligence (AI) is not enough: ital barriers. Such a unilateral typical megalomaniac inven- we must create an Artificial information war cuts off their Reality dissolves. The dangero- Director Tonje Hessen Schei tor. His civilized and restrained Curiosity, too, so that the ma- access and capacity to act us half-truth that is constantly Norway excitement may be like forebo- chines can learn by their own politically while accessing all repeated by the experts in the ding déja vu to those familiar explorations and reprogram their most intimate data and film – «it is impossible to stop Director Tonje Hessen Schei with Anthony Hopkins’ charac- themselves. screening all their actions. this development» – should has formerly probed digital me- ter in the TV-series Westworld: perhaps have been challenged dia addiction among children Dr. Ford, the robot engineer Endless manipulation. From What about the West?. We more actively in the film. The in Play Again (2010) and exa- who quietly plans the rebellion his dimly lit minimalist home, also meet Michal Kosinski, the AI dystopia is evidently about mined automated weapon sys- of his own creations. AI developer Ilya Stuskever, «most controversial data sci- to become a self-fulfilling prop- tems in Drone (2014). Backed Schmidhüber plays with solemnly explains our predica- entist of our time» and the man hecy. Not even the program- by this extensive understan- his sweet-looking child-robot, ment, working on his computer behind the algorithms of Cam- mers and creators seem to ding, her perspective in iHU- a modern time Pinocchio, in while pacing on his treadmill. bridge Analytica that helped believe in earnest that they are MAN widens to a full panorama his alpine laboratory – and it His blunt and shocking state- Trump win the US elections. creating a miracle-working god of AI developments. Through would be tempting to dismiss ments give him an air of the tor- By targeting voters based on that can save us. Instead, there a series of exceptional state- him as a caricature of the mad mented insider, quivering with psychological profiles based is a strong sense of letting loo- ments from major experts, we genius. But this man is no secret and prophetic knowled- on data harvested from social se a malicious demonic force. witness a beginning avalanche crackpot: He is the father of ge. He is convinced media, they could use So why do it? of changes, as the globally con- modern AI and deep learning – that computers not their fears, attach- nected society is pervaded by foremost in his field. We should only will outper- Jürgen ments, and vulnera- Irresistible attraction. Despi- algorithms that increasingly therefore believe him when he form us on speci- Schmidhüber bilities to nudge their te its warped sci-fi atmosp- dictate the terms of our human says that soon, we’ll teach the fic tasks but that willingly let voting behavior. His here, the film shows that the condition. robots how to do things simply General Artificialhimself be informed assessment? unstoppable forces that push A few years back one of the by showing them how some- Intelligence (GAI) portrayed as «We have to face the AI developments are themsel- main interviewees in the film, thing is done – like we instruct is on its way. While an archetypical inconvenient truth ves not mysterious. The mili- the Swedish-American pro- a child. «Once they learn, they the breakthrough megalomaniac that privacy is gone – tary and strategic advantages grammer Max Tegmark, co-au- will perform their tasks flaw- simply depends on inventor. forever.» of AI causes intense compe- thored an article with Stephen lessly», he points out, smiling brute computing «Kosinski currently tition and engenders secrecy Hawking in 2014 – warning us with contentment, «and then power, the GAI will works on facial rec- on a national as well as an that we should not dismiss we’ll make a million of them». undoubtedly reprogram it- ognition software that can tell international level. The eco- films portraying an AI take- In a series of segments self through advanced forms gay people from straight with nomic gains of information over as mere fictions. In the through the film, we encoun- of machine learning. Such an great accuracy – and fantasiz- markets also turn the media opening of iHUMAN the same ter Schmidhüber high up on intelligence, he explains with es about finding similar pat- platforms into global intelli-

16 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 observational study of mass boys dressed up as captains, At the same time, the film is a Luxury for tourism aboard a so-called followed by the girls wearing sharp and precise commen- all-inclusive cruise ship, wit- princess costumes. In one of tary on our time’s mass con- hout dialogue. Director Corina the few scenes that do not in- sumption and entertainment, the masses Schwingruber Ilic and photo- clude tightly packed groups of with the crowded holiday life grapher Nikola Ilic capture life people, we witness a couple as a compressed image of so- CONSUMPTION: A on the gigantic boat in more or being portrayed by the boat’s ciety as a whole. Everyone is less static tableaux, while the photographer in a Titanic-like supposed to take part in the humorous and poignant sound consists of the music setting, presumably more in- luxurious life – even though it commentary on the mass played in the various situati- spired by the romantic side of may very well steer towards consumption of our time. ons, or the hum of the hordes James Cameron’s film than by the iceberg, on a more metap- enjoying their holiday. the historical ship’s encounter horical level. gence agencies with strong BY ALEKSANDER HUSER The film shows the tourists with the iceberg. vested interests. The busi- as they sunbathe on the deck, All Inclusive has been shown at ness sector and the military All Inclusive eat from the buffets, view the Crowded holiday life. All Inclu- a number of festivals, including increasingly cooperate, as is spectacular stage shows, and sive is a humorous and slightly IDFA, Viennale and Message to shown in the critical passages Director Corina Schwingruber Ilic dance at the disco. There is of absurd depiction of a form of Man festival in St. Petersburg. about Google’s hotly debated Switzerland course also entertainment and mass tourism where the expe- (Translated from NY TID) Project Maven, using AI algo- activities provided for the chil- rience of staying at the floating rithms to teach drone bom- All Inclusive is in a sense a small dren. Gender stereotypically, a hotel is the goal in itself, not bers to pick human targets. short film: a ten-minute short sequence shows all the young the destination of the journey. [email protected] In everyday life, more than anything, AI is used as an in- vasive marketing tool: a soft manipulation we all to easily accept out of convenience, submitting, willy-nilly, to the To be a meeting place yoke of the AI dominion. What is invented cannot be INTERVIEW: Ketil way. We have talks about pris- taken away from humans. It is un-invented. This fact alone Magnussen, festival ons in Israel – where we have very dystopic, but informative makes technological evolution both Israelis and Palestinians on what is happening. a destiny. At the end of the film, director at Human in the panel. Do you see festivals chang- the AI genius Schmidhüber International So, did you invite the am- ing for the future? adds another crucial factor: Documentary Festival in bassador from Israel here in Yes, this is complex. People You can try to stop the scien- Norway to the prison discus- get more home cinemas, and Oslo. BY TRULS LIE tists, but they are simply too sion? they like to travel less. We curious to hold back. What makes Human differ- No. From earlier experienc- have to think more about the For all its outspoken criti- ent from other festivals? es here, I am not sure what he online scene – but still most cism, the film also ambiguous- The number of talks and can contribute to the discus- important is to be a meeting ly plays with our own curiosi- debates. Beside the Q&As, we sion, or if he has knowledge of place – where people can talk ty, eliciting a dark excitement also have debates going into the topic. about films with others in the that is not fully accounted for. the content of documentaries. Why do you have theatre audience. Maybe fascination comes with But we also have separate in a documentary festival? Any film early on that in- the realization that this might panel debates just connected We have done this before, spired you into documenta- be the greatest story ever, and to the Human Rights topic of including documentary the- ries? that with the best of sources at our international program. atre as a part. It is about try- I started the festival in 2003, hand, this is a golden oppor- We are actually sponsored by ing to communicate the real- Lea Tsemel works. Or Behind but before Sagolandet (Land of tunity to make it supremely Amnesty and The Norwegian ity. And in our theatre plays, the Blood, which comes inside Dreams,1988) by Jan Troell, and thrilling. Thrills, we should re- Helsinki Committee. some of the actors has actu- hard violence in Honduras. Michael Moore’s Roger and Me mind ourselves, are felt in the In your program there is ally experienced the content They bring knowledge that is (1989), inspired me in the 80s. vicinity of powers greater than a lot on the Middle East and they are communicating. impossible to get from a text. They had a huge impact on me. us – that we dream to master, Palestine. Why? Do you think the festival Any Norwegian Example? but which might just as easily Yes, Palestine is in focus. We films has a possible impact iHuman by Tonje Hessen Listen to our 24 min podcast devour us. have two theatre plays about for change? Schei. It is about Artificial In- with Magnussen on more po- Palestinians, and relevant To create change, films can telligence. About the conse- litical matters and European Plays at Human in Oslo films. And also an exhibition have a part – by sharing light quences for our society – like critical thinking at our website. and other festivals. by Mohamed Jabaly, who is a on complex issues. Like Advo- what face recognition can do filmmaker and refugee in Nor- cate, showing how the lawyer or when decision making is [email protected] [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 17 The forgotten genius of Nikola Tesla

BIOGRAPHY: Written out sticking steadfastly to its core vice that could «fit into your That did not stop Edison ised solar energy trapped in of textbooks, neglected by message: that humanity igno- pocket.» running a campaign to discred- carbon deposits, when all the res his legacy at its peril. As with so many visionaries it Tesla that included electro- electricity one could ever wish historians, Tesla's gifts are The man whose pioneering born before their time, Tesla’s cuting an elephant on a New for was available by tapping only now being recognised, work in wireless transmission ideas threatened those with York street to demonstrate the into the atmosphere and the Jana Glogovac's film and genius for combining the less imagination and those dangers of Tesla's electrical earth. argues. scientific and the mystical is who stood to lose money from current. (Edison himself was Backed by wealthy benefac- today all but forgotten, his inventions he was felt should so afraid of being electrocuted, tors, he built an experimental BY NICK HOLDSWORTH name known to most people give free energy to people the film claims, that he main- station, complete with his in- only by association with Elon across the world. tained his lighting networks at triguing Wardenclyffe Tower Musk's electric car. a steady 100 volts.) that was designed to pulse But the scores of incredible Rivals. Glogo- energy wirelessly around the inventions he patented – and vac's film co- As with Inspiration. Glogovac, world. But when investors battled to protect for much of vers this gro- so many who studied at Prague's pulled the plug after Marconi the second part of his long life – und thoroughly, visionaries famous film school FAMU demonstrated that wireless form the very basis for today's opening with Edi- born before – where she was a stu- messages could be sent from globally connected world. son's notorious their time, dent of the veteran Cze- Europe to America (basing his Teslafy Me attempt to steal Tesla’s ideas ch director Otakar Vavra work on Tesla's pioneering dis- Foreseeing. Tesla, who wor- Tesla's ideas, threatened and is Slovenian by birth, coveries), Tesla hit hard times. Director Janja Glogovac ked through some kind of after promising those with less does not neglect Tesla's Debtors eventually demol- Slovenia direct communion with the him big money imagination Balkan roots, with inven- ished the tower for scrap to intrinsic intelligence of the to work with him tors, engineers, and an recover money he owed them. Jana Glovocav's entertaining universe, foresaw a world in and then breaking actress from And, although the documentary on the life and which we could speak – and his word. Tesla knew his own the region, that are Nobel Prize commit- incredible inventions of Niko- see – others at the touch of value and swiftly patented his among the eclectic The sense tee recognised Tesla's la Tesla (1856–1943) leans to- the button on the other side work and soon teamed up with cast of characters that the genius, in 1937 they wards the popular treatment of it. He even predicted this George Westinghouse, and la- (Serbian-American world missed declined to make him of an astounding genius while would be possible on a deter, J.P. Morgan. performance artist a massive a laureate, arguing that Marina Abramovic opportunity his patents – stretch- even gets a look) fo- to avoid ing back 40 years – und in the film. the global were too old and had There is enough warming not been developed. science and techni- that is today Again, blinkered, nar- cal information to pushing it into row-minded people satisfy engineers and irrevocable vastly inferior to Tes- electricians, though la's brilliance thwarted climate crisis, many viewers are the visionary. suffuses the likely to be more «I don’t care that comfortable with film they stole my idea,» (admittedly esoter- Tesla once said. «I care ic) statements such as Tesla's that they don't have any of research into the natural elec- their own.» tro-magnetism of the human Perhaps in telling Tesla's body and its individual organs, story in a popular, accessible where he found that the earth way, Teslafy Me, which has vibrates at a frequency that is already got U.S and Canada the same as the brain. distribution deals, can refresh The sense that the world attention on the value of his in- missed a massive opportunity ventions. And, as Tesla said on to avoid the global warming another occasion: «The energy that is today pushing it into of a single thought may deter- irrevocable climate crisis, suf- mine the motion of an entire fuses the film. Tesla certainly universe.» foresaw the dangers of burning fossil fuels and railed against the insanity of digging fossil- [email protected]

18 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 The depths of memory

MEMORY: This intriguing ing to a range of long – and al- himself in the forested river trip down memory lane, ways beautiful – studies of sky, banks, becoming like a Green water, vegetation, trees, birds, Man (the ancient European to the Basque country and various nocturnal forest symbol of rebirth) at one with of idyllic summers, is an denizens seen through the lens nature. exercise in transcendence. of motion-triggered cameras. Intrigued by the mysterious cowpat (he speculates that it BY NICK HOLDSWORTH Metaphysical questions. Ale- belongs to the one cow of the gria is an affable Robinson long-dead farmer that escaped Zumiriki Crusoe seeking to recapture the slaughterhouse in 2001), memories of the halcyon days Alegria builds another hide, Director Oskar Alegria of childhood (which were, in smearing himself in mud first Spain their turn, captured on 8mm to ensure his scent is that of coloured film footage shot by easily penetrable context, to wooden box, along the banks the forest. He eventually spies You might like to spend a day his sometime shepherd fath- this philosophical essay. of a river overlooking the site on the cow, but why this is of fasting and meditating before er). There are also odd asides of an island where he and his such tremendous moment in watching Oskar Alegria's Bas- There is a depth and where various aged charac- siblings played as children. his four-month sojourn some- que-language two-hour poetic range to Alegria's memo- ters attempt to recapture the As if to underline his central how escaped this reviewer. musing unfold before ries of land and people sounds from a recently redis- thesis – that the past is but a your eyes. Bringing a An ode that is slightly lost on covered Basque documentary ghost – the island is now sub- Twice a day. Time often seems calm, transcendent to the those of us lacking the of 1947 (where the merged, thanks to an to stand still in a film where the attitude to this odd, endangered necessary cultural and images, but not the Alegria is upstream dam, and director and subject mark the arty, and strangely Basque religious references. soundtrack, sur- an affable all that remains are passing of days with stones and beguiling film about language Opening shots of a reli- vive); and an inter- Robinson dead trees where cor- hangs an old clock that stopped memory, nostalgia, gious procession in the view with a woman Crusoe seeking morants roost more long ago at 11.36 and 22 secon- nature, and loss will (presumably) 1970s – ef- born just as her than 60 miles from the ds on a wall of his small living to recapture definitely benefit the viewing figies of the Virgin Mary held mother was slaugh- coast. space. There is a twist at the memories of experience. aloft – are juxtaposed with to- tering a pig. To this end that belies Alegria's asserti- the halcyon For those who prefer more day's version, where 4-wheel day she recalls the Forgotten artefacts. Se- on that the clock is right twice a cutting edge, politically point- drives with the plaster Virgin sound through a days of eking out various for- day, but you'll have to watch to ed, and topical documenta- safely strapped into the pas- filter as gentle and childhood gotten artefacts from near the end of the two hours to ries, this could be a welcome senger seat, trundle up to an melodic, rather than those that once lived catch the joke. change of pace. For a some- ancient rock-built shrine. harsh and fatal. here – such as the re- what fidgety reviewer, accus- Interviews with the few recluse who inhabited the now tomed to more newsy fare, it maining octogenarian shep- Basque. In its way, an ode to derelict and deserted farmho- Plays at Thessaloniki took a while to settle into a film herds – with a range of meta- the endangered Basque lan- use above the opposite river Documentary Festival and that pretty much begins with a physical questions that centre guage, Zumiriki is built around bank – Alegria dons a pair of other festivals. tender, loving static shot of a on life, dreams, and death – the four months Alegria spent black overalls that had served crusty cowpat, before proceed- add colour, if not necessarily living in a well-camouflaged as a scarecrow and immerses [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 19 called the Synergists, without whom Biosphere 2 would not have existed. And it’s the Sy- nergists – who they were, their ethos, and what they were able to accomplish—that is the heart and delight of the film. The interests of the Syner- gists (they hailed from Syn- ergia Ranch in New Mexico), might read like an encyclope- dia of 1960s memes: Buckmin- ster Fuller, Theater of the Ab- surd, communal living. There even was a charismatic leader (John Allen). But any attempt to sideline the Synergists as countercultural hippies would miss the point. The Synergists, for instance, did not believe in taking drugs. And with their IMAGE COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE OF SUNDANCE COURTESY IMAGE intense work ethic, they could move mountains or, at least, build a ship from Chinese scrap metal (with no previous A reminder about the power of imagination shipbuilding experience) then sail around the world. The SUSTAINABILITY: A Sundance had a strong Biosphere 2, an airtight terrar- Biosphere 2. Spaceship Earth is Synergists’ story is one of im- spirited documentary showing of documentary ium in the Arizona desert con- a film that appears to be about agination and creation, and it’s films this year. The slate was taining a miniature replica of one thing—on face, people amazing to think their story following a visionary noteworthy for the subjects Earth’s environment. Funded might call it “ «that Biosphere had not yet been told. counterculture collective, covered and also for inven- by a Texas oil tycoon hoping 2» documentary. But once the What makes this film so re- as well as a cautionary tive storytelling techniques. to acquire licensable technolo- film gets rolling, you quickly markable is the treasure trove tale about the forces Spaceship Earth stood out for gies for space colonization, the realize it is about much more. of 16mm black and white foot- its expert storytelling. The mission of Biosphere 2 was to Sure, Spaceship Earth does age that the Synergists shot destroying the planet. film, which premiered in the maintain an isolated, sustaina- chronicle the tale of the mas- (it’s expertly integrated into BY HARIETTE YAHR U.S Documentary Competiti- ble environment for two years. sive airtight terrarium built in Spaceship Earth). They docu- on, was directed by Matt Wolf It was a mission that became the Arizona desert, you won’t mented so much, from work- (Teenage, Recorder). a dystopian simulation of eco- need to ask for a refund if that’s ing in the garden to theater Spaceship Earth Here’s the blurb from the logical crisis, after which a cor- what you’re after. But the film rehearsals to even building Sundance Catalog: porate consultant took over transcends that historical that wild ship. They created a Director Matt Wolf «In 1991, eight capable men the venture—and disappeared event to illuminate the people living archive of their process- USA and women were sealed into the data.» behind the project, a group es and adventures. It’s hard to

generations, embedded into in- stitutional structures. Page’s first stop is Shelburne, which once had the highest population of freed blacks in North America. A dump placed in their hometown in the ‘40s, and finally closed in 2016, continues to harm residents, who are subjected to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water. Many have died from cancer. There has been little will from the local government to help, despite calls for a provincial bill of rights and the fact that the annual Founders' Day festival costs «Canada is not a nation, it’s a corporation» more than five times as much as a clean community well. «Stop CAPITALISM: Indigenous ons woman who has to go to see in retro, carefree archi- ence ready to listen and learn playing the race card,» activist and African Nova Scotian absurd lengths to protect her val footage, was less than an from the stories of those who Louise Delisle was told by the people's basic right to clean hour’s drive away, and during have disproportionately borne mayor, a hostile mode of denial women fight for their water. The undue sway of bu- her childhood seemed to be the brunt of profit-driven pollu- in a nation that obscures its big- communities, land, siness interests over govern- the embodiment of Canada’s tion. otry through making it a conver- and future in the face of ment at the expense of indi- reputation as a «sweet escape,» sational taboo. environmental racism. genous and black communities open-hearted and connected Embedded oppressions. The The toxic legacy of govern- in Nova Scotia is the subject of to nature. That wholesome sur- film draws upon the book of mental neglect and subjugation BY CARMEN GRAY There’s Something in the Water, face image later cracked. Her the same name by Dr. Ingrid R. continues as we move on to the directed by Ellen Page and Ian on-the-ground research into G. Waldron, which revealed the territory of the Pictou Landing There’s Something in the Daniel, a social issue documen- environmental racism is, then, impact of environmental racism First Nations. Michelle Franc- Water tary that, with its DIY aesthetic framed as a coming-of-age jour- on indigenous and black cities-Denny tells the tragic story of and personal approach, feels ney from white privilege and zens, whose historical homes how her grandfather, chief in the Director Ellen Page, Ian Daniel as heartfelt as it does urgent. ignorance to a more informed tend to be considered prime ‘60s, was maliciously deceived Canada Page, an actress well-known and active role in the health of dumping site locations by tho- over the environmental impact for indie hits such as Juno, her community. But far from se authorities unwilling to allow of a new pulp and paper mill. «Canada is not a nation, it’s a speaks in voice-over of grow- making the film self-indulgent, this toxicity near their own ho- Planning to channel its raw, un- corporation.» These indignant ing up in Nova Scotia’s capital, she wisely positions herself as mes. Colonial oppression has in treated effluent into the harbour, words come from a First Nati- Halifax. The beach, which we a secondary, facilitating pres- this way continued through the mill bigwigs used a fake demon-

20 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 imagine Spaceship Earth exist- stories that have an enhanced ing without this footage. Wolf contemporary relevance and Filmatic says he was astonished when to resurrect these stores that he realized the breadth of foot- have either been forgotten or age that was archived (which overlooked. » rebellion also included broad- Spaceship Earth cer- cast media from the tainly answers that 1960s, film became a fighting for rebellion and resistance. What makes CINEMA: Morgan time of Biospehere charge. The film touch- arena for a whole generation of Capitalism had managed to this film so Adamson's Enduring Images 2). Says Wolf, «To es on a lot of history, filmmakers who sought to use penetrate into the very core imagine having been remarkable is more than this short re- brings new life to the 1960s the medium in a revolutionary of the human, but it was still together for half a the treasure view does. And there's revolutionary film and struggle against imperialism possible to strike back. Adam- trove of century and to have more in the film about reminds us of the need to and the mass media (the spe- son analyzes several film pro- all of this material 16mm black science, Biosphere 2 ctacle). jects in which the filmmakers which they probably and white and its flaws, and lots fight the prevailing forms of Adamson constructs his struck back and anya, the used hadn't seen or didn’t footage more about human con- representation. analysis as a contribution to the film medium as a tool of re- have the ability to nections and potential. BY MIKKEL BOLT the analysis that characterized sistance, highlighting the bru- see, and for us to be I am sorry to not talk the new left, which emerged tal violence of the unfair and able to make use of it, felt like more about the remarkable in the 1960s in opposition to all-encompassing development such an extraordinary oppor- people interviewed in the film, Author Morgan Adamson: the Stalinist version of com- of capital (Trotsky). tunity.» hearing from them is worth the Enduring Images: A Future munism with its harsh devel- price of admission alone. History of New Left Cinema opmental laws and privileges Analysis and confrontation. The An exercise in storytelling. In the end, Spaceship Earth USA of the male industrial working films Adamson analyzes inclu- When I was reflecting on this is an epic story told over the class. de The Society of the Spectacle film, I thought about an exer- course of 50 years about epic Not only The New Left sought to high- by Guy Debord from 1973, Co- cise from film school where people. That we could imagine do revo- light new revolutionary sub- lumbia Revolt of the Newsreel everyone is given copies of the everyday humans being as lutionary jects, such as women and mi- collective from 1968, The Battle same footage and told to craft epic as the Synergists and Bio- movements grants, that did not fit into the Front for the Liberation of Ja- a story from it. The exercise spherians is the invitation of attack the dialectical-materialist model pan – Summer in Sanrizuka of is all about storytelling. Eve- the film. What would it take for prevailing prevailing in the Soviet Union the 1968 Ogawa Pro collective, ryone has their own take on a small group of people to set representa- and its local communist par- Finally Got the News from 1970 what story the footage is tel- their vision and imagination tions, but ties throughout Europe and the by the Detroit Newsreel Colle- ling. Watching Spaceship Earth, on a wild goal and get up every they also so-called Third World. ctive and Roman Feminist Ci- I was affected by what seemed day to accomplish it? Does that create their According to Adamson, it nema Collectives The Adjective like Wolf's deep commitment to have to be such a wild propo- own images. turned out that the film became Woman from 1971. They are all get the story of the Synergists sition? Have we become too We saw it in 2011 during the an important medi- essay films. But not and Biosphere 2 right. It's like cynical? Has our belief in pos- Arab Spring, where social me- um that brought up essay films in the The book is you can feel how committed sibility diminished? If you need dia played a key role in organi- new subjectivities traditional sense, a compelling Wolf was (and editor David a reminder about the awesome zing and spreading the demon- and new lines of that is, author films. Teague) to this task. Wolf says creative potential of humanity, strations against the despotic breaking that crit- analysis of a The New Left films he’s motivated by forgotten see this film. regimes of Ben Ali, Mubarak, ically followed the previous protest were characterized stories. «I’m mostly interested Played at Sundance. Assad, and others. dictates of dialecti- cycle in which by a movement from as a filmmaker in looking at Of course, it was the pres- cal materialism. The films played a expressive subjec- hidden histories or forgotten [email protected] ence of thousands of people new left challenged central role in tivity to collective in the streets, who occupied, the «economism» the fight against thinking, in which marched and protested while of dialectical mate- the ruling order. the expressive prin- stration to «prove» the waste’s an underground storage faci- fighting the police and mili- rialism, pointing to ciples of the author harmlessness. The chief sold lity for natural gas that would tary, which caused the regime new forms of control film were rejected. the harbour’s rights to the local dump tonnes of salt into the changes in Tunisia and Egypt, and submission that took place As Adamson writes, «The New government to support his eco- river, inevitably killing the fish. but social media was an im- outside the factory areas. Left film opens up a conflict are- nomically struggling communi- «Grassroots grandmothers» portant tool in the preparation Adamson uses Guy Debord's na in which every self-sufficient ty; within days of effluent start- and local water protectors Mic- and mobilization of the rebel- «Spectacle» thesis as an en- entity – including the originator ing to pour out, all the fish were helle Paul and Doreen Bernard lion against the despots. trance to the expansion and – is the victim of an invasion dead. The guilt and sadness have been actively disrupting The movements that occu- rethinking of Marxism that from outside.» over this mass destruction and the project, and take us to whe- pied large spaces across South took place in the 1960s. De- The film was not a medium of cynical trickery reached down re the authorities have caged Europe, and the Occupy Wall bord claimed that the alien- ideas for the individual filmmak- to the next generation. Not only off a «designated protest area» Street movement in the United ation in the factory was super but became a collective form did the chief die young, but elev- to restrict their access, essenti- States, which took over the ba- plemented by a new form of of rebellion in which structural en of his thirteen children were ally criminalising their actions ton in 2011, was also character- alienation that took place in problems such as colonization lost early to cancer, suicide or rather than those destroying ized by a combination of physi- everyday life. and alienation were subject to addiction. «So what?» says a the habitat for gain. Canadian cal slowness in the occupation Everyday life was colonized, analysis and criticism. culprit, confronted. The Pictou prime minister Justin Trudeau of places and public places and as he put it. More and more Film was the battlefield «weren’t living in the water.» has challenged legislation as the rapidity of the new media. areas of human life, leisure, where new politics came into The interconnectivity of all a means to allow the project The protests were recorded culture, the family and human being. the planet’s creatures has never to become compliant yet still directly with cameras in Cairo, imagination as such were sub- We still live in that room – seemed so callously disregard- dump salt, in contempt of indi- Athens, and New York in 2011. jected to the image form of the which we can call the Picture ed. In 2014, when a burst pipe genous rights. Mobile phones and platforms product. The late capitalist Room («Bildraum») – where pol- spilled 47 million litres of toxic «They're opening our territory such as Facebook enabled pro- society is characterized by an itics is not only represented by effluent onto Mi'kmaq burial for business,» the grandmothers testers to become a new Victor intense and accelerating pro- images but also takes the form grounds, it prompted a First Na- say. «They're doing it and they're Serge, documenting and broad- duction and circulation of im- of an overwhelming amount of tions blockade. Under pressure not even tricking us now; they're casting the formation of new ages that reproduce a number images in circulation. The elec- to close the waste facility, the doing it blatantly.» As these collective protest movements of increasingly meaningless tion of Donald Trump in 2016 is mill outrageously proposed re- battles continue, Page ends while taking place, outside the subjects. the banal confirmation of the directing the effluent into other on an upbeat note, inspired by traditional mass media. As Adamson shows, Debord development. One develop- Pictou fishing grounds – moving these women who boldly speak and the new left considered the ment the new left-wing movies it from their backyard to their truth to power to believe that Game arena. Morgan Adam- cinematic image to be a con- tried to break with – to visual- front. accountability, and a love of na- son's book Enduring Images: trolled form. But a controlled ize another world. In a time of ture, will and must prevail. A Future History of New Left form that could be broken free intense counter-revolution, it «Grassroots grandmothers». Fi- Cinema provides a compelling from the mass media and used is well worth looking back on nally, we come to the town of analysis of an earlier cycle of against them, through analysis. previous attempts to intervene Stewiacke, where the Alton Gas Plays at One World (Prague) protest in which cinematic As in Debord's case, analysis of in the saturated world of image Corporation is trying to over- and other festivals. representations played a cen- an almost total poor life was capitalism. ride Mi'kmaq treaty rights to tral role in the fight against devoted to simple survival, territory in order to create [email protected] the ruling order. Late in the combined with strict demands [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 21 Tempelhof: A field for a changing society

BERLIN: A former airfield, where experimental and utopi- port surrounded by fences. now one of the world’s an models of living and inno- The fences also appear in the vative human expressions are short documentary Tempelhof, largest urban parks, practiced. which Eva Stotz released in Tempelhof Field acts as In the interactive online doc- 2004. In that film, the director one of the city’s most umentary Field Trip, the viewer captured the local residents vibrant and juxtaposing is invited to take a virtual jour- who would spend hours upon ney through Tempelhof Field hours watching airplanes com- locations. where users create their own ing and leaving. For her charac- BY ASTRA ZOLDNERE walking routes while switching ters, the airports were related between conversation part- to dreams and unreachable ners. destinations. INTERACTIVE: Field Trip Stotz re-uses this material Tempelhof Field and Gezi Park. exile. In one of the 14 episodes, for Vietnam in Paris. A French in Field Trip but, together with Director Eva Stotz, Frédéric Tempelhof Field succeeded he suggests shooting a film filmmaker’s struggles against her chief technologist Joscha Dubois where Istanbul’s Gezi Park about the Gezi protests in Tem- «economist and aesthetic im- Jäger and creative team, goes Germany failed. The initiatives to save pelhof Field. The idea seems perialism of American cine- even further – suggesting that both took place around the similar to the ma» are juxtaposed everybody can use shots from Berlin’s Tempelhof Field is a same time. In Berlin, everyt- approach Jean- with the Vietnam- the online documentary as powerful example of how civil hing went peacefully, whereas Luc Godard took Berlin’s Templehof ese fighting against they see fit. Most of the film is society can make changes. A in Istanbul the protesters met when making his Field is a powerful American soldiers. available as Creative Commons former airport, now one of the violent opposition. In both film about the example of how civil Also, the Tem- material. largest city parks in the world, cities, the parks mean more war in Vietnam. society can make pelhof Field is only it was originally planned to be than a simple green area. The The French New changes. safe for now. In the A neverending story. Dialogue, a new area for developers and movements supported human Wave filmmaker German capital, innovation, and participation real estate magnates. Locals, rights and freedom of expres- proved that one like in many other were all a part of the filmmaking however, wanted to keep it for sion. doesn’t need to visit the actu- world metropolises, some of process here. In collaboration their own recreational activi- Taking into account the simi- al place to be able to reflect the greatest challenges are ris- with the book exchange initi- ties and creative expression. larities of both events, it seems on it. Godard’s Camera-Eye is ing rental and property prices. ative, the Field Trip team also After the 2014 referendum, the logical that one of the char- a part of the omnibus film Far Investors keep insisting that installed a former phone booth Tempelhof Field was decreed acters in Field Trip is Mustafa From Vietnam (1967). Instead it’s impractical to waste such a on the field. It was transformed to stay as it is. Now, it has tur- Altioklar, a Turkish filmmaker of invading Vietnam with his huge area for recreation when into a «StoryboXX» where eve- ned into a creative urban space and political oppositionist in camera, Godard offers a space many people are in need of liv- rybody can leave a story about ing space. Tempelhof Field. We hear a sex worker whose client canceled Unfinished society. Despite an appointment, a scriptwriter being available to the larger looking for inspiration, and a public, Field Trip is still unfinis- woman waiting for the rain to hed. If the filmmakers manage stop. We are also faced with the to attract additional financing, childhood memories of a post- new episodes will be added to war child who thought the an- the project. The word «unfinis- gels were flying in the sky. CANNES hed» also relates to the field These stories invite the 12–21 itself. One of the film’s charac- audience to share their own ters, a feminist author Kübra experiences and thoughts. MAY 2020 Gümüsay, argues that normal- That’s why it is surprising that ly in large cities every spot is the creators of Field Trip have DOCS thought-out and finished. But not provided an option to add society is unfinished and needs custom stories on its web site. space for developing new ideas Co-author and interactive pro- and new forms of co-existence. ducer Frédéric Dubois argues In Tempelhof Field, this is true that the audience usually isn’t for urban gardeners, refugees, particularly active in adding artists, activists, and other content to interactive docu- park visitors. mentaries. Even so, Field Trip The fences and strong reg- is definitely an invitation to ulations that dominated the discuss both – new ways of or- airfield in the past counter- ganizing society and creating JOIN THE COMMUNITY! point the new openness. In innovative forms of documen- WWW.MARCHEDUFILM.COM/CANNES-DOCS Nazi times, the space hosted tary film. forced laborers. In the Cold War era, it was a military air- [email protected]

22 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 The painful destiny of the Tamils

SRI LANKA: The never ppened to them and what they ding and silencing, which most Sri Lanka started again. With change in this country is before told story of Sri think today. others have chosen as their them, the Tamils will be con- racism». This leads us to be This is no easy task, be- current survival model. As a fronted again with a harder reminded of the fact, which Lanka’s forcibly recruited cause the 25 years long civil public person, Vetrichelvi is phase of suppression after just was pointed out more clearly female soldiers war, – having just ended in under permanent surveillance. a short relief. Engaged persons in Jude Ratmans panoramic BY DIETER WIECZOREK 2009 – claimed around 100,000 For her to keep up the memory like Vetrichelvi risk imprison- documentary Demons in Para- victims. Thousands have also of their political quest fight, ho- ment. dise, that the Tamil resistance Scars disappeared. The women Ve- wever, is essential. breaks apart and members of trichelvi finally does find are What aggravates Internal struggles. With its 16 different groups tortured Director Agnieszka Zwiefka mostly corporally affected the situation is the «The only her mother, Vetrichelvi and killed each other on a large Poland, Germany with missing limbs. The worst fact that war can thing that discussed the option scale. Estimations find nearly of her encounters is a woman suddenly break out doesn't of emigration, as many 30,000 victims of this violent That history is written by the who lost half of her face and again. Recently, the change in Tamils had already cho- internal struggle. winners is an often-approved now prefers isolated living. But former president of this country sen, but her attachment Despite all the threats from fact. However, if the losers lose even she does not regret being Sri Lanka, Malinda is racism» to her homeland, family, the Sinhalese majority, how- even a recognisable existence active in this ultimately lost Rajapaksa, won the and environment is too ever, Vetrichelvi continues to and are deprecated from basic battle. Here, the tasteful cam- local election and strong. Even more de- write and work for her com- human rights – cultural sover- era work of Kacper Czubak has returned to power. During the cisive is the argument that le- munity and Agnieszka Zwiefka eignty, freedom of speech and to be pointed out: acting on the war, he had directed a military aving the country would mean has let us understand why per- reunion – the question of domi- fragile border between not hid- offensive that massacred tens running away from the people fectly. nance turns into one of crime. ing the most shocking physical of thousands of Tamils. He is who truly believed that there is This factual situation of Tamils damages and still not allowing accused of war crimes by inter- a life after war. Plays at One World Prague. in today's Sri Lanka is the politi- a voyeuristic view on these national observers. After his But clear-sighted she notes: cal and social frame of Agniesz- women, keeping their dignity election riots in the streets of «The only thing that doesn't [email protected] ka Zwiefka’s documentary Scars. as intact as possible. These painful meetings lead A portrait forms. The prota- Vetrichelvi to the founding of gonist Vetrichelvi, is a midd- an organisation for disabled le-aged woman who was with women, who now mostly live the Tamil Tigers, the group isolated and abandoned. They who fought a restless war for need a place for togetherness, a sovereign Tamil for communication, state after years of That history a place which even – discrimination by is written by Zwiefka captures these the Sinhalese ma- precious moments – al- the winners jority. The narrow lows them to laugh and is an often- personal perspecti- dance. What is even ve – only sometimes approved fact more needed, is a place interrupted by me- to take care of each oth- taphorical images, like women er as the women age. walking in the night – allow director Zwiefka an intimate view A risky act. In a political con- on what the Tamils suffer and text, where the existence of support today. Vetrichelvi lost the Tamils is disowned and her hand and one eye in the even their cemetery had been battles, but she never doubted destroyed, the creation of a pu- that her fight had been just. blic space such as this is a rat- Half of the other combatants her risky act. Already for her have also been women, very readings in public spaces, Ve-  young when they entered the trichelvi has been confronted war. Vetrichelvi sought these with threats. She, however, has women out to find out what ha- decided to break with the hi-

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 23 A young man’s tormented soul

IDENTITY: An snow. A group of sheep is blea- «I can walk like the strongest, This, perhaps, is his worst tor- ethnographic study of a ting in front of a wooden door. happiest man in the world. Be- ment of all, considering the The protagonist – a man dressed cause I know it, I feel the «hid- others, starting with praising strange world, presented in a black jacket with a hood – den power» in me… with that the beauty caused by pain and in highly personal, never leaves the old farmhou- camera in my hand». «The girl from Sarajevo» episo- experimental film language. se, where he lies on the narrow de, where we learn that he was wooden bed under the window The torments. The voice-over, almost destroyed by a look at a BY MELITA ZAJC partly covered by a transparent the same male voice throug- woman’s face: «In a woman, in light blue scarf, or kneels below hout the film, is accompanied a face, where is this power co- Nails In My Brain the door arch, back towards the by three types of sounds – chur- ming from?» audience, a pair of boots on his ch bells, a piano playing the Director Hilal Baydrov side. Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1, His religion. As the orange of Azerbaijan The camera remains immobile and the sound of the ambient, khakis turns into the orange of too. For the first fifty minutes, an isolated farm covered with fire produced by the book pages The protagonist. In Nails in My the viewer never sees the loca- snow. In this order, repeated- burning on the wall, the prota- Brain, «a young man goes to the tion in full but only receives bits ly. Together with the ambient, gonist challenges God: «Is He places in which he has strong of information – close-ups of a depressing black and white afraid of Himself?... Is He ugly?... memories. Each memory helps electrical outlets, spider webs rural setting where the only Is He hopeless?... Is He uncer- him to open a new horizon but covered with dirt, or a wooden other colour is the orange of tain?... Does He not believe in no matter how far he goes, he al- stool with, or without, boots on khakis hanging on black bran- when I hear something or light Himself?... Did He make humans ways returns to the same places, top. ches covered with white snow, goes off momentarily, I become to believe in Him because He same memories, same faces, The thoughts, however, is in the sounds further underline an insect because of fear, fell on lost His own belief?... Is this why same questions, same nails on constant motion, expressed via the pain, caused by the ideas my knees and start begging ‘for- He threatens us with hell, with his brain», says the film’s publi- voice-over, addressing topics – nails in the brain – and the give me, God, you are the big- endless torture?...» city. Actually, there is not much such as, «Weakest hand can turn torments of the protagonist’s gest’». Towards the film’s end, I find it hard identifying with physical movement in this film. into the strongest creature with soul: «Sometimes I feel strong the protagonist claims, «I want anyone burning books, even if in We see a chicken walking on a small camera,» comparing it to like a crazy, smarter than any- to be in the middle, neither a an act of communication. the ground, barely covered with Dostojevsky's «hidden power»: one, higher than anyone…. But believer nor non-believer.» Not only is Baydarov trying

24 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 A cinema of prototypes

INTERVIEW: Art director Catherine Bizern at Cinéma du réel. BY TRULS LIE

– Why or what event made ways of creating, for example you personally enter into the this year in the programme doc world? «Face to face with power», – In 1992, a group of docu- where what interests us is mentary filmmakers created less men of power than film- the association ADDOC, in makers themselves. We ques- order to raise awareness on tion what cinema can do in their specific practice of cin- popular protest movements ema. They asked me to be- in the framework of our sec- come their general delegate tion «Popular front(s)», which in 1993 (I remained in post this year asks the question until 1997). At that point, «What to do with ‘us’?» In our documentary became part of competition, we also take my daily life. In 2002, we pub- care to choose films that are lished a book that gave an ac- singular, unique, defy genre count of the creation methods or script boundaries, each of documentary filmmakers one embodying a hypothesis, such as Claire Simon, Nicolas a possibility of cinema. Philibert, Jean-Louis Comolli, Robert Kramer, Raymond De- – Where would you like pardon, Frederick Wiseman, to see the documentary pro- Mariana Otero, among many gressing in the next decade? others, where they voiced – I believe that what is at their concerns as authors. stake in documentary is not very different from what is – What is the overall con- at stake in auteur cinema, a cept behind your festival cinema that disregards gen- this year? re boundaries and makes at- – In a prospective ap- tempts at reinventing the way proach, Cinéma du éel gives films are made. It is a cinema an account of contemporary of prototypes: each film in- to communicate, but he has also people he knows in real life are Some might admire his ability documentary creation, of its vents its own dispositif. been very successful at it. real people in his films also, so to create with limited resources evolutions and experiments, Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he «when we want to make a film, and to use the conventions of Eu- in dialogue with the memory – Do you have a documen- studied film directing with Bela the only extra thing out there ropean art cinema to challenge of the genre. To explore the tary that was seminal to your Tarr in Sarajevo and is the camera». This the foundations it is built on. He history of the documentary interest with the genre? in 2019 participated explains the speed of surely manages to present the genre, we will invite Pedro – I can name the film, and at the Berlinale Tal- The protagonist his filmmaking and most abhorrent ideas, but never Costa and will question the even the exact moment, ents event. His first challenges God why every film he really goes over the limits. But effect of his pivotal film In when I understood what I film Hills Without makes is a documen- his view, which sees beauty in Vanda's room. With Mosco like about cinema: it was The Names premiered at tary. He can even pain and is afraid of a woman’s Boucault, we will question Ballad of Bruno by Werner the Montreal Film Festival in recycle. In Nails in My Brain, for face, can only be observed from the experience of documenta- Herzog. Actually, if I think 2018. Until now, he has made example, the only other face we afar, as an ethnographic study of ry versus fiction. On the pro- about it, this film contains seven films, which have shown see is a close up of his moth- a strange world. spective side, the festival will everything that interests me and won prizes at prestigious er’s from When the Persimmons include screenings of works about documentary film: a film festivals all over the world. Grew. in progress, previews, panel relationship to time that is At the Fajr International Film Some might appreciate the Plays at Cinéma du réel discussions, and very first close to real time, a drama- Festival in 2019, Baydarov pre- candidness with which Baydarov and other festivals. documentary gestures in a turgy that gives the viewer sented his method: he writes offers insight into his deepest section called First Window. all the space he or she needs, voice-overs while editing, and thoughts in Nails in My Brain. [email protected] something anti-spectacular – Can you provide some and even about the pho- insight into your selection tography, a care for detail process? and description – and a rela- Any chance you would subscribe to MODERN TIMES REVIEW – What is documentary? tionship to the people filmed Our goal is not to assert any- that preserves the charac- to support us for 9 euro a quarter? thing, but to exhibit attempts ter’s otherness. to answer that question. We See moderntimes.review/account/subscription want to question filmmakers’ [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 25 «I believe that we’re going through a a sense, the film is a lesson on nizing view, especially for a how to submerge oneself in younger audience. vibrant yet quite confusing moment» reality from a free and non-re- That’s why film festivals, strictive point of view. Think- independent cinemas, and ing of international films –La schools are playing a key role MAJORDOCS: Artistic auteur at the center of our Batalla de Chile (The Battle in protecting the tranquil ex- director Miguel Eek experience and to develop a of Chile) by Patricio Guzmán perience of cinema over the pedagogy of documentary cin- in 1975, and Herzog’s cinema. next decade. The evolution of speaks on the unique ema amongst youngsters and They were both open windows television networks feeding «slow experience». teachers. to a type of cinema that marked the growing trend of view-on- BY BIANCA-OLIVIA NITA my professional career. demand will condition the fi- – What makes the films in nancing of auteur cinema and MAJORDOCS Creative Docu- this year’s selection ‘risky’?. – Where would you like to will probably affect the riski- mentary Film Festival meets – We focus on the auteur’s see the documentary land- est forms of documentary. across 6 days each year in gaze, on bold films and on scape progressing in the next Mallorca, where the festival's challenging ourselves to face decade? – What event or moment unique slow experience ap- our own prejudices, through – On a creative level, I be- marked your entry to the proach provides a space to other rhythms and different lieve that we’re going through documentary world?. discover other realities and points of view. The selection a vibrant yet quite confusing – From a very early age, perspectives through eight ca- reflects this and our intention tivals. This year we received moment, where auteurs are documentaries have acted refully selected creative docu- to short-circuit the standard a great variety of films from experimenting with the limits as a rendezvous, as a cultur- mentaries. content Hollywood-style plat- more than 50 different coun- between documentary and al focus in my family. When I forms promote. With an un- tries. The committee is loyal fiction with less fear. There’s was twelve, I started shooting – What is the concept be- prepared audience that could to the Majordocs’ manifesto: a proliferation of this mix of fiction pieces, as well as docu- hind Majordocs and what either be a big success or a risky and profound films, able both genres which forces the mentary diaries, in a very nat- makes it a «slow festival»?. complete failure. But we’re to transcend the present, in audience to take an active and ural and also thoughtless way. – Majordocs is based in Mal- willing to take the risk. which the auteur’s gaze pre- critical stance towards it and It was during my early years at lorca, an island torn between vails and is free from the limits that’s positive. Regarding the the Film Academy in Barcelo- remaining the quiet place it – Can you provide some of the classic narrative. audience, there’s a general na that I understood, through has always been, and the dy- insight into the selection pro- awareness that the weaken- an interview about the early namic, modern and consum- cess? – Do you have a documen- ing of certain fiction formulas years of Kieslowski as a docu- erism-defined setting it has – We rely on an internation- tary that was seminal to your is attracting a new public to- mentarian, that the documen- become. Majordocs proposes al selection committee – that interest in the genre? wards documentary cinema. tary form was not only the a «slow experience» through reviewed more than 400 films – There is a generation of However, what’s sad is that it’s best way to tell an interesting a limited selection of films this year – the promotional Spanish filmmakers on which attracting people to the most story but also the best way to that expand the view and gen- work of distributors, as well the documentary, En Construc- sensationalist and formulaic live my life. erates debate. We have two as on suggestions from profes- ción (Work in Progress) by José type of documentary. I’m very important aims: to place the sionals from different film fes- Luis Guerín made an impact. In worried about this homoge- [email protected]

it like that when you watch the director, cut to a scene where fantastic tableaux created by a boy is eating with a plas- the cameraman Gints Bērziņš. tic spoon, in a scene that is What image composers he not clear to see as it is filmed and his director are! There are through a window or some no words needed, the images plastic...And then the title invite you to enter the scene comes up: Spoon. that is set up for you, see and And from there you are tak- understand/interpret for your- en around the industrial world self. Here is the opening one: of our times – factories, urban ...that is enigmatic in many landscapes, tubes, trains trans- ways. A woman is instructed to porting chemicals, movements sit at a table with some papers from right to left within the in front of her. In a room with image, like people entering the a big machine – I have no idea stage, the theatre of life, in (I what it is. But there is a display read at the end credits) Azer- on this machine, that the wom- badjan, China, Norway, Latvia. an worker looks at after she It’s not a world you want to be has put on protective glasses in, but it’s part of our world. and helmet, and after some People are there, are working men have given her advice there, no working man’s death, on what her job is. The sound they are protected, produc- Everything connects score is strong, mechanic and ing. It’s not fun you think and metallic, with sounds from are supported in that feeling the room but not only that, by the electric sounds of the to everything else but also music elements. The score, electro music, I don’t scene stays long, it’s a slow know how to characterise it. cinema film genre, the woman Multilayered, a film open for SOCIETY: Slow cinema about a plastic spoon and a society at looks in the direction of the interpretation and reflection, a the highest levels of development. BY TUE STEEN MÜLLER camera, smiles, puts her hand film for everyone who loves to to her hair, wants to look see how image and sound and Spoon films, she makes fiction, and the film is much more than good; it’s an amazing start of editing, without a word being she makes documentaries, indicating how spoons are an amazing film. said, can be put together, Cin- Director Laila Pakalnica which are far from mainstream, made: It is a highly sophisti- Some minutes later a ema! Latvia, Norway, Lithuania with quite their own language cated black&white visual es- text appears on the screen: and definitely Cinema. say on the industrial world we «Everything here connects to The article has been published You never know what to expe- Like this one, Spoon, she calls live in. It sounds very serious, everything else. Really.» Said on filmkommentaren.dk ct from Latvian director Laila it, and yes, there are spoons in and in a way it is, but it’s not a by Leonardo da Vinci...did he Pakalnina. She makes short the film, plastic spoons, but doomsday film. You don’t feel really say that? A hint from the [email protected]

26 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Under the heavenly blue sky CULTURE: A vulnerable, of plastic and other waste, tox- While the formal unity of the chaos of the cities, with clear you are not from that village, vivid and sprawling story ic additives in processed food film is guaranteed by this edit- air and «zero kilometer» food, there’s little chance of them of uncontrolled origins, lack of ing by association, the content risk becoming abandoned? accepting you properly.» Jor- about the challenges potable water, high crime rates that runs through all these ge might be hoping to find fre- present for a group of and costs of living, and recent- scenes is the media, clearly in- Sounds. Ever since digital te- edom, but is forced to leave by farmers in a remote yet ly even epidemics that spread dicating that we should make chnology arrived, the realism the local population’s hatred – beautiful village. much faster in places where no mistake in believing we are of the image compromised, or was it fear? lots of people live together. peeking into an unmediated more and more documenta- There are two little girls un- BY MELITA ZAJC That is, in the cities. Nothing nature. On the contrary, this ry filmmakers use sound as der the heavenly blue sky too, of this exists in Inland. If you nature, too, is our the main means of searching for Pokemon. The will not fall in love with the culture, since it How come that all expression, thus lea- oldest narrates the story about heavenly blue sky, then you has been mediat- this beauty, these ving more space for the Bogeyman and, amused by certainly will with the kind and ed to us through imagination. Inland the fear of the little one, sug- charming villages loving way the shepherd talks said media. is such a film. Not gest to go to see his lair. The far from the chaos to the sheep as he carefully At one point, only the colourful little one refuses at first but is leads them on a narrow path. along with the of the cities, with parts, such as the convinced by a promise that Or with the eyes of the sheep image of a huge clear air and «zero past and faraway they might find some Pokemon kilometer» food, Inland that look into the camera as satellite dish, we places where the on the way. No need to specify the heard passes by. And when hear a radio host risk becoming man’s online friends that Pokemon, as alternate-re- Director Juan Palacios they enter the tunnel and the saying, «In Spain, abandoned? come but also es- ality game monsters, are as Spain screen turns black, which then we have marve- sentials such as the virtual as the Bogeyman. Both, turns into the surface where lous beaches, difficulties associ- alternate reality games and It is hard to describe the be- the title of the film appears, beaches envied by the world ated with farm life are mostly fairytales are devices to do- auty of the blue color of the you will instinctively know that for its water, sand and sun- dealt with in the interviews. mesticate fears. Pokemon sure- sky above a field where the you are about to see a part of sets…but we also have the vil- And so it is also the question ly are more suitable for dealing shepherd leads his sheep. It the world that is often exclud- lages, our hometowns, where about why, regardless of all its with contemporary fears, but makes one remember that, ed from our everyday life – the our parents or grandparents advantages, this land is turning the land under the heavenly except for the sky, blue is the countryside. were born, that also have their into such a phantom territory? blue sky is the land of the Bo- rarest color in nature, and for charm». Indeed, a look at the During a radio show, with the geyman. People initially moved this reason, people started to Mediated through media. In this heavenly blue sky says it all. heavenly blue sky in the back- to the cities, and some still do, associate it with heaven. Hea- smoothly cut film, one shot lite- So our memory returns to ground, several listeners, city in their search for freedom. As venly blue. There is plenty of rally calls the other: an immen- the guided tour earlier in the people of course, nostalgically life in the cities gets more and it in Inland (Meseta, 2019), the se field of golden wheat shows film when driving on a road remembered visits to the villa- more unbearable, knowing that second feature film by Juan Pa- to be a scenery for a photo covered with weeds, we hear ge of grandparents and explai- there is no way back is the pre- lacios, a filmmaker born in Bas- session, the farmers observe that people who own this land ned their feelings as freedom. condition for a solution. But que Country, Spain, working themselves on the pictures, sometimes don’t even know But one of them, Jorge, had a the real key to finding a solu- with observational documen- the driver is watching a tractor where their land is, so instead different experience. He actual- tion is imagination, and this is tary, experimental video, and on television, the tractor is mo- of potato and rye, there is «the ly wanted «to go away from the why this film is so important: it visual-diary. ving through the woods, a man jungle» where only rockrose, routine, people, bustle. We left creates free space for imagina- Under the heavenly blue is walking among the trees and broom, heather, and brush everything behind, jobs and tion. sky, the other side of the most is repairing a water damp, wa- grow. So, here is the question all, I bought a van and we mo- Plays at CPH:DOX (Copenha- acute contemporary problems ter is running in the stream, a that we, together with the film ved to the village. The first few gen), MAJORDOCS (Mallorca) is being narrated. Air pollution, woman by the creek is washing crew, would like to ask. How months were fantastic, but pe- and other festivals. emission from fossil fuel com- a table cloth, a man is sitting at come that all this beauty, these ople are distrusting, and they bustion, excessive production the table tying cord to CDs. charming villages far from the don’t give you any options. If [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 27 Forty years in Nicaragua, dreaming

LIFE: Shot over 40 ry series followed the lives of talgia. It can trap the past for support her children as she stark focus the discrepancy years, an epic about one fourteen children as they grew the future, but not ward off breaks from subjugation to vio- between dream and reality. up, checking in on them every mortality and the loss of naive lent machismo. There is little work, and the woman’s struggle for seven years for 56 years; in- idealism. Swedish documentar- Torbiörnsson’s family is living hand independence requiring die auteur Richard Linklater’s ian Peter Torbiörnsson’s Ninos- position as direc- to mouth. «I thought her to face her past in the fictional drama Boyhood drew ca is another such film. tor is somewhat There’s a sense of marriage would set macho-culture of Central its pathos from capturing the fluid. The tall,awe that comes me free, but I ended real passage of time of a boy's Sandinista. Ninosca was born calm Scandanavi- from watching up under the yoke,» America. BY CARMEN GRAY coming-of-age, over a 12-year into a family of leftist Sandi- an is in the frame films that says Ninosca. Now period. nista revolutionaries in Ni- a lot, interacting were shot over raising children, she Ninosca Cinema’s relationship to time caragua’s rural mountains, in important fam- decades. is trapped in a cycle is contradictory: it’s an ephem- and the film follows her into ily dramas as a of hidden domestic Director Peter Torbiörnsson eral and condensed, boxed-in adulthood over 40 years. What sounding board. violence. Tinosco is Sweden experience, yet it can preserve begins as a fascinating snaps- He is part family friend (they chairman of the family co-op, split seconds for recurring lon- hot of Nicaragua’s politically greet him affectionately as but an angry falling out occurs There’s a sense of awe that co- gevity of playback. To see fac- volatile ‘80s develops into an «The Swede») but also hangs with her brothers, as he tries mes from watching films that es wrinkling and body forms intimate depiction of the disin- back as a detached observer, to sell timber behind the oth- were shot over decades. The changing intensifies cinema’s tegration of Ninosca’s marriage even voyeur. «I have become ers’ back for his own benefit. famed British Up documenta- sway over the domain of nos- and her struggle to financially your witness», he says in a Another ten years on, and voice-over addressed to Ninos- despite Ninosca’s reluctance, ca. Whether he ever remuner- the couple has moved to his ated her, as star of this saga, to hometown. Financial hardship assist her out of her extreme is greater than ever in Leon, hardship, we are not privy to amid worsening conditions for on-camera. We do know that the poor in the country, and Ni- he first encountered Ninosca nosca’s office job income must when in Nicaragua covering cover the shortcomings from the war. It was 1983, and dicta- Tinosco’s earnings to fund tor Somoza had just been over- their children’s school expens- thrown by the Sandinistas. The es. She makes the decision to U.S., in its aggressive anti-com- leave him and go to Spain to munism drive, had built an work, projecting hopes again army of Contras in the region into the future. and Torbiörnsson walked into Five years on, in Bilbao, and Nicaragua with them, wanting, she is dealing with exploitation as he puts it, to record the war as an undocumented worker, Enhance the international recognition from both sides. One of its sol- for employers with no qualms diers described proudly mur- about treating her as a slave. of your documentary projects. dering a Sandinista neighbour. As an elderly carer, her ageing Torbiörnsson sought out the and ill clients regularly die, in murdered man’s family – and a cycle of abrupt endings and his sister was Ninosca. Her fa- grief. Awaiting legal status, she ther had cultivated coffee, but cannot see her offspring for six professional could no longer do it, as the years. Contras had planted mines. Web-based production packages Ninosca’s parents, in their Reunion. Her Spanish residen- of curated documentary projects. Sandinista embrace of gender ce permit finally granted, Ni- equality, encouraged her plan nosca returns home to an emo- to become a teacher. But at tional family reunion. Although versatile just 17, having fallen in love, the years apart have been she decides instead to marry. tough, her daughter is now a No limitations on type, theme, or partners: Tinosco, her husband-to-be, qualified pharmacist. Scared production stage of film projects. is regarded with skepticism Tinosco will kill her for having by the family but promises to left, she moves tentatively to work hard to support her. He is defuse the threat he poses and worldwide from the coastal town of Leon, his tearful calls. Since a mine Available anytime & anywhere, and moves to San Fernando as clearance operation has been an outsider, with no prior expe- completed, she can now take for users around the world. rience in agriculture. Adapting over her father’s coffee planta- co-financed by: is difficult; he feels disempow- tion, her dream of building and ered since his soldier days. settling into a new home with «Here, I am a nobody», he says. her children around now in Tensions simmer, as the couple close reach. We see through Ni- build a house next to the neigh- nosca’s story that life, as ever, bours who had killed Ninosca’s is stunningly resilient. online platform for documentary professionals brother. Plays at One World (Prague) Time leaps. The film leaps to and other festivals. ten years later, one of several jumps forward that bring into [email protected]

28 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 AEQUADOR (2011) AEQUADOR BLACK SUN (SOL NEGRO, 2016) NEGRO, SUN (SOL BLACK

ETHNOGRAPHIC FICTIONS: A portrait of Laura Huertas Millán

THESSALONIKI: their research without fictional flows of global culture and continues throughout the film Alters. Huertas Millán also wri- Challenging the alising their accounts seems the ambiguous role of the USA – breathing in, breathing out tes fiction as Arturo Lucía, a long forgotten. I can’t think in Colombia are addressed. In –– in episodes elliptically nar- transvestite alter ego. Her re- authoritative colonial of a person who was more her early hybrid films Aequa- rating the singer’s quest to find cent solo exhibitions include views about exoticism, successful in merging ethnog- dor (2012) and Journey to a the origins of her melancholic Maison des Arts de Malakoff ethnography, and raphy and fiction than Jean land otherwise known (2011), and suicidal drives: «an eclipse (France) and Museo de Arte de anthropology, filmmaker Rouch, one of the founders of the contrasts between the ge- of the mind», a black sun. The Medellín (Colombia). Her films visual ethnography and the in- ometry of palm leaves and the echo of her beautiful voice in have been screened in art cen- and artist Laura Huertas ventor of «ethnofiction,» who concrete architectural con- the huge space brings no re- tres such as the Centre Pompi- Millán is transforming used film as the main tool for structions, and between the lief. On the contrary, it further dou (Paris), Solomon R. Gug- filmmaking itself as their research and presentation of leaves surface and the depth underlines the physical experi- genheim Museum (New York), results. He was later criticised of tropical forests, are used to ence of anxiety, meticulously Museo de Arte Moderno de Bu- traditionally expressive for speaking on behalf of his challenge the colonisers views. created throughout this hybrid enos Aires, and were also part form. BY MELITA ZAJC subjects, and Huertas Millán is film. of the Toronto International well aware of this impasse: On Black Sun. In Black Sun (Sol The singer, Antonia, is the Film Festival, amongst others, Digital storytelling has become the one hand, if one considers Negro, 2016), as the protago- director’s aunt and her quest Her work has also earned pri- a keyword in various domains ethnography as an ensemble nists narrate about their min- for truth is simultaneously zes from festivals like Doclis- from entertainment to adverti- of narratives rooted in coloni- ds, various physical spaces Huertas Millán’s investigation boa, Fronteira Film Festival, sing. Social media users strive alism, it might be understood are investigated, reminiscent into her family’s fate. It also MIDBO, Videobrasil, and Bienal to develop their own stories. as a form of fiction-making. On of Freud’s thesis that physical serves as a broader explora- de la Imagen en Movimiento in We are even accustomed to the other hand, some of the spaces within dreams repre- tion of how trauma affects the Buenos Aires. journalists and scientists pre- most interesting contempo- sent the human mind. community, resulting in an in- senting historic events as rary practices of ethnography The film evolves from a timate portrait addressing the Spotlight at Thessaloniki «stories». have embraced a de-colonial breathing lesson to a sopra- legacy of La Violencia, i.e. the Documentary Festival. The practice that ethnog- turn, sometimes by integrat- no singing in an empty hall. Colombian civil war between raphers simply report about ing the fictional language tools The initial, irregular rhythm 1948 and 1958. [email protected] within their own elaboration. Huertas Millán represents a Laura Huertas Millán who voice from within and is, in her Dora García - Second Time Around was born in Bogotá and lives own words, «eager to include Emma Davie, Peter Mettler - Becoming Animal and works in Paris has a Ph.D. non-European / North Ameri- ntar in Visual Arts. She has also can practices in my research, e y been involved in Harvard Uni- as well as highlight female and m C versity’s Sensory Ethnography non-binary voices in critical di- u in Lab. With her minimalist, visual- alogue with anthropology». c e ly perfected, and precisely stru- In the legacy of Rouch's o Subscribe for only €6 a month ctured cinema works, she con- «ethnofictions» she, too, is in- m siders aesthetics and politics troducing new explores new D through a range of narratives forms of expression. Particular- Jørgen Leth - The Perfect Human and formats. Her distinct way ly outstanding is her treatment e a of expanding documentary’s and sensitivity for space. In n boundaries stems from an inn- Black Sun, as the protagonists i

ovative approach to visual ethn- narrate about their minds, var- l ography, defined – by herself – ious physical spaces are inves-

as ethnographic fiction. Aiming tigated, reminiscent of Freud’s n

to expose colonial injustices thesis that physical spaces O

and post-colonial realities of within dreams represent the Latin America from within, her human mind. In The Labyrinth r

ethnographic fictions subvert (El laberynto, 2018), the ruins Joris Ivens - A Valparaíso

and deconstruct the colonised of the mansion replica from the u

gaze. American TV series Dynasty, FINANCIAL PARTNERS o built by the former drug lord Y Thessaloniki IFF will feature Evaristo Porras in midsts of her in a Spotlight. the Colombian forest, provide the set on which transnation-

MTR_dafilms_150x105_en.indd 1 18.10.19 10:07 SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 29 Under the rubble, vital signs persist

SYRIA: The renowned new as bombardments strike and ffer malnourishment on top of documentary from Feras Russian planes swarm over- the usual ailments. The gritty head. resourcefulness of the staff as Fayyad is an unflinching they contend with the ongoing depiction of courage, Dr. Amani Ballour. If cinema is carnage and lack of supplies is resilience and female indeed an empathy machine, humbling, from surgeon Salim coaxing us into a greater un- cranking up classical music on solidarity. BY CARMEN GRAY derstanding of the humans we his iPhone to ease the lack of share the planet with, by expo- anaesthetic in the operating The Cave sing us to their way of seeing, room, to nurse Samaher surpri- one would be hard-pressed to sing Amani despite the scarcity Director Feras Fayyad find a more sympathetic sub- of food with popcorn for her Denmark, Syria ject than Dr. Amani Ballour. In 30th birthday, which they all her late twenties at the time of have a laugh with pretending How to film the human toll of filming, she is the manager and that it’s pizza. war? As technology prolifera- mersed in the experiences of Douma Underground while shel- lynchpin of a tight-knit team The trauma of dealing with tes and the means to record individuals we are brought to tering in a basement with loved operating a hospital with a sub- the war-wounded and the one’s own experiences are intensely identify with, in their ones from barrel bombs. Waad terranean network of tunnels threat of airstrikes (the team more accessible than ever, most basic desire for the funda- al-Kateab recorded five years dubbed «the cave». She trained are on constant edge, jittery each new hostility and crisis mental conditions of sustained of resistance in For Sama (on as a pediatrician, at the sound of any of displacement brings with it community and security. which Edward Watts shares di- and her sensitive Violent conflict plane above). Also pa- a deluge of documentaries. It’s Some of the year’s strongest recting credit), getting married affinity with chil- threatens all, triarchal bias shows perhaps only natural that there documentaries on the Syrian and giving birth while holding dren as she treats but other forms that Amani’s work has been a move away from the war are of citizens under siege, out in Aleppo under constant and reassures them of oppression can be thankless, with pretense of making the definiti- each as compelling and heart- danger. is touching. But she persist, too, her very right to work ve film of any conflict, toward breaking as the next in depict- And, from director Feras now dives headfirst under bombs. called into question. more personal, fly-on-the-wall ing fortitude under desperate Fayyad, following his film on with unwavering, le- Demands are made windows into the lives of those conditions. It’s not a case of the White Helmets Last Men vel-headed compas- upon her to justify afflicted, given the sheer volu- choosing between them for in Aleppo, there is now The sion into dealing with anything her obviously high capabili- me of output. «the one» to see – each in the Cave, which shows the daily and everything that comes at ty. The husband of a woman Such films often leave politi- very singularity of their protag- struggles of a female doctor the crew – as the heavily inju- she’s been treating blames cal analysis in the background, onists grabs one’s worthwhile and hospital manager in re- red pour in and the 40,000 citi- her gender rather than the but become all the more dev- attention. bel-held eastern Ghouta, in zens under siege in the vicinity supply shortage on his wife’s astating for it, as we are im- Tim Alsiofi shot his short the suburbs of Damascus, lucky enough not to be hit, su- lack of medication, saying she

30 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Democracy in action

DEMOCRACY: Ahmed Mansour has made a verité film about democracy in action BY MARC GLASSMAN

ian, he had two Jewish produc- about getting registrations to Brooklyn Inshallah ers, Seth Morrison and Sarah take place—but with so much Friedland, who believed in fol- Islamophobia everywhere, it’s Director Ahmed Mansour lowing Khader’s campaign as obvious that people are afraid USA well as an executive producer, to make their presence known Paul Costello, who is a veteran to authorities. Sometimes truth can seem involved in peace-making at- Brooklyn Inshallah highlights stranger than fiction. How’s tempts between Palestine and others who are working to get this for an elevator pitch for a Israel. (Well, Ok, maybe this El-Yateem elected, particularly drama? «We’re going to focus also seems fictional). the remarkable Linda Sarsour, on a Lutheran minister in Broo- Mansour’s camera is there, a Muslim activist, who is a dy- klyn, who wants to represent documenting the very charis- namic force in her own right. the Arab community in Bay matic and articulate El-Yateem In the last quarter of the doc, Ridge by running for office in throughout the highly charged many things change as they of- the New York city council. See, campaign. At a Republican ral- ten do in real life, but one thing the thing is the minister is from ly to which he’s been invited, remains sure: Sarsour and oth- Palestine, where he was brutal- El-Yateem encounters a very ers like her will get many more ly tortured by Israeli authoriti- angry and dismissive member Arab-Americans to vote in fu- es for nearly two months, but of Trump’s party who vicious- ture elections. he’s dealt with it and believes ly attacks him. As he walks the Mansour has made a verité in American democracy. We streets, some people are clear- film about democracy in ac- follow this guy, Khader El-Yate- ly non-plussed by his pres- tion, a real-life drama that de- em, in the weeks leading up to ence. A major issue emerges: serves a wide audience. the primaries.» of the 40,000 Arab-Americans Luckily, director Ahmed in Bay Ridge only about 400 Previously in POV Magazine. Mansour didn’t have to make a have registered to vote. Part of drama pitch. As a documentar- the campaign simply becomes [email protected]

but the friendship is still solid nearly fifty years later. When Bloodroot started later in the decade, Selma took the lead role in what was started as a collective. During the Eighties, the bookshop/restaurant turned into an idealistic is not cut out to be a manager, affiliation, but of the near-im- business run just by Selma despite the fact she has been possible dilemma of whether and Noel. Bloodroot has had re-elected by her colleagues, to stay or to flee; to hang on very successful times, first as who trust in her guidance. and work to maintain life, cul- a bookshop and latterly as a Amani’s father frets over vid- ture and identity in a city ren- restaurant and it has received eo chat that women are often dered all but inhabitable, with great press from the New York used as tools in war. Violent the bare essentials of shelter Times several times, which has conflict threatens all, but oth- and sustenance lacking, or The courage of being themselves helped to maintain business er forms of oppression persist, to continue the struggle from even during fallow periods. too, under bombs. afar. «Who would have a baby FEMINISM: A nostalgic such writers as Betty Friedan Tirola’s doc is slow-paced here?» Amani exclaims in total tale of food and feminism. and Germain Greer while still but it finally reaches fruition as «Damn you, Bashar». The hospi- exasperation at the decimation being enmeshed in the old-sty- Bloodroot celebrates its 40th BY MARC GLASSMAN tal team’s profound humanity of the city. She persists as long le American Dream. Selma and anniversary, with good speech- amid the suffering is left to as she can to keep the city alive Noel—you get to know them es and, one assumes, excellent speak for itself, the calling to before evacuation. so well, it feels inaccurate not food, at several filled-to-the- preserve life being so essenti- The director Fayyad, im- Bloodroot to use their first names—mar- brim evening events. Blood- ally anti-war. Injured are rus- prisoned and tortured by the ried, had children and moved roots brings back the spirit hed in for treatment in a daily Assad regime in 2001, now Director Douglas Tirola to Westport, Connecticut whi- of early radical feminist and onslaught until one day in 2018 lives in Denmark. Given the USA le watching and reading about lesbian thought and collective something different occurs: inaccessibility of besieged the changed lives and percepti- action. For those of us—and, chemical attack. The bone-de- Ghouta, he enlisted three You have to be of a certain age ons of liberated women. yes, I know I’m a man—who ep disquiet of the team as they camera people to shoot inside to remember when being part As they recount their stories, remember the period with ascertain that this is not a nor- the hospital, with the footage of a vegetarian restaurant and it didn’t take long for things to great fondness, it’s a bit of a mal assault, as citizens without smuggled out – to be edited feminist bookshop run by a col- change. Noel, an ex-teen model nostalgia trip. For those who apparent injuries are struggling into a document of the bold- lective was a very radical thing and former worker in a Play- are younger, it provides the to breathe and a smell of chlor- est, heartfelt commitment to to do. Douglas Tirola’s warm boy restaurant, divorced her opportunity to acknowledge ine is detectable, shakes one to what Syria once was, for fu- new documentary Bloodroot husband as did Selma, who women like Selma and Noel, the core. «Damn you, Bashar,» ture generations who may yet brings back those times with was raised as a working-class who made a difference in the says Amani, a reference to the return to rebuild. a dual portrait of two remarka- Jewish leftist and seemed quite world through the courage of Syrian regime that carries a pe- ble women, Selma Miriam and ready for a different lifestyle. In being themselves. ople’s heartache in its simple Played at FIPADOC and Noel Furie. Both were raised 1972, they met at a National Or- utterance. other festivals. in the conservative Fifties and ganization for Women meeting Previously in POV Magazine. The real choice the film inter- encountered the first Feminist and briefly had an affair. The rogates is not one of political [email protected] wave in the Sixties through love relationship didn’t last [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 31 This new big tech decade ILL .: RAMSES, SEE WWW .LIBEX.EU

ESSAY: Will increased control help you with your purchase. Remote a data cloud. After all, your insurance China has also set itself the goal of or monitoring in this decade controlled heating provides a warm company would like to earn more by becoming a leader in artificial intelli- homely welcome. Your doorbell with offering «individually tailored» car and gence by the end of the decade – their eventually leave more to a camera and auto-lock can lock in the life insurance based on what they get state monitoring of citizens' behaviour algorithms that carry out actions ones you want, even when you're away from such big data. when, as it is known, has reached new based on so-called «actionable from home. Today – at least in Italy – heights with punishment and awards. surveillance cameras are automatically Surveillance. Let me change my perspe- And Putin states that «whoever be- intelligence»? BY TRULS LIE included when you install the Internet. ctive. Who helps politocal powers with comes a leader in this area will become But what about this connected surveillance? As Google was close to in the ruler of the world». world's hackers? Do you have one of China … Where battles were fought physically Artificial intelligence those hospital-controlled pacemakers Well, for example, there are com- in the past, this decade will see «acts of (AI) and biotechnology or insulin pumps? Then one day you panies with like NSO Group, Gamma war» intensified in more indirect areas. will change what it might be exposed to a new killing Group (their FinSpy) or Memento Labs. These include switching off the power means to be human – method if someone wants to stop you. The former is currently being sued for in cities (like 14 locations in Venezuela regarding our freedom We will probably also see an in- licensing Pegasus, spyware that sup- last summer?). Or the use of drones and values. Shall we crease in criminality, hackers who posedly monitored Jamal Khashoggi, and «break-ins» of other countries' believe Yuval Noah infects your computer with so-called the journalist who computer systems. Harari (Sapiens, 2011), the change will ransomware; or threat to disseminate was killed in the The question becomes, whether be greater in our century than in the publicly what you have stored private- With the Saudi Arabian em- increased control or monitoring will entire history of mankind. ly there; or trough Internet of Things surveillance bassy in Istanbul. eventually be left to algorithms that My theme here is this new decade (iOT) let the light in the living room mentality Well, in October carry out actions based on so-called from 2020. For example, someones flicker? Or what about threats against comes this Israeli company actionable intelligence. Tesla can be controlled via a keystroke your mentioned connected pace- sanctioning was, according to And with the surveillance mentality from Musk & Co in Palo Alto – for ex- maker – until you have transferred – especially The Economist, also comes sanctioning – especially for ample, they can decide how far the bat- an amount to a crypto account? And for deviant sued by WhatsApp deviant behavior. If you move beyond tery will reach. When Tesla has such do you run one of Starbucks coffee behavior. for using the soft- what is normal, you are exposed. control capability, do they really own shops with internet-controlled coffee ware to hack the the car or do they only have a license? machines – what do you do when a account of 1400 Freedom. In the decade we now have And what about Fiat Chrysler, which hacker causes them all to continuous- WhatsApp users. And in November, entered, we will also see a greater dis- recalled 1,4 million cars when it turned ly vaporize steam? some of NGO Group's employees again tinction between the «minority», who out that an external hacker managed to sued Facebook for blocking their Face- use and master technology optimally, remotely control one – stereo system, The algorithms. In this coming deca- book profiles. and the «majority», who are affected wiper, motor, brakes, and steering? de, newer technology will take away Said companies also sell data or by increased automation in today's And how long do you really own control from many. But also the control software to powerful authorities who job market and must cope with more your smartphone, when it is not guar- over yourself: Artificial Intelligence want to monitor their citizens. Me- low-paying professions – or get state anteed updatable for more than two which processes collected big data, mento Labs, for example, has the FBI aid as long as it lasts. years (Android) or five (iPhone)? The whether through Facebook, Google and a Saudi spy company as custom- In one way, expanding assistive tech- consumption of new things is so fre- or other monitoring of what you do ers. nology, artificial intelligence, biotech- netic, that in this decade we must get on the internet. We then talk not only On the other hand, the arguments nology, and various technical aspects used to the fact that we only own a about customized ads or recommen- for doing surveillance points to com- of the human sphere gives freedom to license. ded book purchases on Amazon, but bating crime such as the ubiquitous some. In this new decade, your home will also where you move with your car, «terrorism» or narcotics smuggling. The question is whether such a be equipped with smart TVs, smart your smartphone and who you talk to One example of state surveillance «minority» of independent resourceful lighting and connected speakers – if not also what you say and write via was where, according to The Econo- humans do have social liberal or eco- (Google Home). How about a more «vi- US NSA's XKEYSCORE. mist, in 2011, the United States pro- anarchist values, thinking of both indi- brant» everyday life where the horror In this coming decade, some will cured around 327 hours of surveillance vidual freedom and international film is combined with the living room probably think that the algorithms will material from its around 37 drones. solidarity – unlike the «majority» of lamps that flicker and change colour, know you better than you do yourself. The US Department of Defense has neoliberals, nationalists, and populists, sounds heard from other rooms, and Perhaps it is helped by your smart now stated that artificial intelligence is who selfishly think mostly of them- you feel vibrations that you don't know mattress that measures your heartbeat «poised to change the character of the selves. where came from? while you sleep, or your Apple Watch future battlefield». That means a huge Welcome to the 20s! You will still get camera-monitored that records your daily rhythm and commitment to warfare in today's con- refrigerators in your everyday life that body movements. And it's all stored in nected cyberspace. [email protected]

32 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Hopeless endeavours down the supply chain

CAPITALISM: No justice International Labor Organisati- is able to bring its case to the in a world where Third on, the UN agency for creating German courts. decent working conditions the But first, the filmmakers and World workers are as world over) – for compensati- campaigners for reparations disposable as the cheap on and better conditions. stop outside an outlet of KIK, garments they make. Discount Workers is a grind- the German company that had ing tale of poverty and injus- its cheap throw-away fashion BY NICK HOLDSWORTH tice that feels longer than its items run manufactured in the just over one hour span. Per- Karachi factory. Discount Workers haps that is to do with both the grim subject and the plodding Customer is king. KIK stands Director Christopher Patz, Amir nature of international legal for «Kunde ist König» – German Aziz cases. for Customer is King. Despite Germany, Pakistan Opening with images of the an initial court ruling that em- sweatshop conditions of the ployees of a far-away suppli- Such stories come and go from rag trade in Pakistan – although er should also be valued and heart-wrenching grainy vid- ments the directors state: «In the media's 24/7 news feed – a these sparse Dickensian work- compensation paid to the fa- eo shot on a mobile phone in January 2019 the German court fire or collapsed building so- shops could be anywhere in milies of the dead and injured, the workshop that burned in dismissed the case…. KIK ar- mewhere in the Third World the Indian subcontinent – the KIK drags its heels over paying happier days when a group of gued it was not responsible for crushes, burns, maims, and film swiftly moves to follow the out any money. workers jokes about not know- the lack of factory fire safety, kills a few dozen or more ano- struggle of the one of the dead Outside a German branch of ing whether they would «be because it was merely the pay- nymous poor brown Muslim machinists family for compen- the company, Germany's big- here tomorrow». ing customer. The counterar- (or Hindu or some other reli- sation for their son's loss, and gest fashion discounter with a Finally, the story winds its gument… was that because of gion) people. All of them indi- the loss of many other families. chain of more than 3,500 stores tortuous way to a German civil KIK's effective control, power rectly employed by a rich and in Germany and across cen- court, tasked with determining and influence over the facto- powerful Western corporation. Chaos and filth. The chaos and tral Europe, the mother of one whether the case can be tak- ry, it was more like the paying The disasters hog the head- filth of the sweatshops is little young worker who died in the en further. No surprises here. boss, and therefore responsi- lines for a few days and then different from the chaos and fire in interviewed by a group The grieving mother ble for the factory con- are gone, forgotten in the re- filth of the dusty streets of Ka- of television crews and report- is not even asked to ditions.» lentless grind of rachi, where plastic ers. She is dignified and angry. give a statement and The six They add: «By de- non-information rubbish and streets No one from KIK appears, ei- the dusty German years it has ciding to dismiss the that passes for The disasters hog choked with smo- ther here or in the film at all. judges dismiss the taken the case on procedural news these days. the headlines ke-belching buses The directors don't explain case on procedural determined grounds, the German for a few days merge in a mix of po- this absence – perhaps the grounds – the six families to court avoided answer- Behind the head- and then are verty and exhaustion. company refused to appear. years it has taken get this far is ing important questions lines. Christopher gone, forgotten The struggle just to An explanation at some point the determined fam- deemed too around the corporate Patz and Amir in the relentless get a lawyer along to would be useful. ilies to get this far is long. responsibility and lia- Aziz get behind grind of non- a local courthouse, Back in Karachi, the cam- deemed too long. bility of European com- the headlines and information that where mountains of paigning continues with the panies in global supply get down low and passes for news dusty files are stacked backing of left-wing trade un- Fixed. The filmmakers see the chains.» dirty with the gri- these days. on desks in a building ion demonstrations, complete court decision as a fix (alt- «Customer is King?» eving families who that looks as a much with workers hoisting placards hough lawyers had assured the have lost children, of a fire-trap as the of Marx and Engels aloft. Pakistani family that courts in 'Plays at One World (Prague) partners, bread-winners and fateful garment factory, sig- There are brief excerpts Germany are free of political and other festivals. are fighting – in this case with nals the start of a struggle that from the testimony of those influence). the backing of the ILO, (the takes 6 years before the family that survived the fire and a In closing on-screen state- [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 33 Cinema's hidden power

SOUND: A new a comprehensive and entertai- The foundations of Making Man. Also amongst them is «no crying in baseball» se- documentary seeks to ning documentary tracing both Waves deal with the simple the revolutionary approach of quence from A League of Their the history of sound design, as idea that sound and storytell- Murray Spivack, who's rebel- Own, while, as part for sound give insight into and credit well as providing an informati- ing have always been intricate- lion against stock sound pro- effects, CeCe Hall describes to those unsung heroes ve breakdown of the teams that ly related. From the first mo- duced the innovative roars of her use of animal growls for responsible for the sound make up a film's final audio out- ments of life, sound acts as the 1939's King Kong. Top Gun's roaring fighter plane of contemporary cinema as put – The Circle of Talent. premiere sense we, as humans, Moving through the years, engines. The current Chair of Sound are cognitive toward. Thus, a from Citizen Kane and its War we know it. Design at the University of vital aspect of our of the Worlds in- No more boys club. It is in this BY STEVE RICKINSON Southern California (USC), and psychological rela- A who's who of spired radio realism, section where Costin is able to with a decades-long career in tionship with cine- cinema's most to The Matrix and depict the demographic shift Hollywood (credits include ma. Growing from prominent sound Pixar's digital sound away from the almost exclusi- Crimson Tide, Days of Thun- this central thesis, pallettes, Making vely boys club of Murch, Burtt, professionals in der, Armageddon, and Hocus Making Waves then Waves makes its and company, to the pione- Making Waves: The Art sharing first- of Cinematic Sound Pocus), Costin is able to gather follows a linear tra- case by offering cer- ering and prominent women a highly reputable collection jectory in making hand experience tain figures instru- who have attributed to cine- Director Midge Costin of prominent filmmakers and its case, stopping from the sets of mental status within matic sound over the years. USA sound designers to provide at some of cinema's some of sound's the field. Amongst Starting with Barbara Strei- insight and context on the most known, loved, most watershed them are, perhaps sand's meticulous sound edits Since the beginnings of the topic. Directing titans like Ste- and seminal mo- cinematic the godfather of on A Star is Born and Funny Girl motion picture, understanding ven Spielberg, George Lucas, ments in sound his- moments. cinema sound, Wal- (where she apparently con- and acknowledgment of film Ang Lee, Ryan Coogler, Robert tory. ter Murch, whose vinced Director William Wyler sound has often been overs- Redford, David Lynch, Barbara collaboration with to record music on-set), and hadowed by its visual coun- Streisand, and Sofia Coppola A new roar. The film's first half Francis Ford Copolla on films leading into Ordinary People's terpart. With Making Waves: joins a who's who of cinema's deals with the history of sound like The Conversation and Apoc- mother/daughter team of Kay The Art of Cinematic Sound most prominent sound profes- design and recording techn- alypse Now set the template for and Victoria Rose Sampson, (screened at DokuArts 2019), sionals in sharing first-hand ex- iques. Naturally, this starts a complete and sensory au- all the way through La La Land director & co-producer Midge perience from the sets of some with The Jazz Singer and the dio experience. Star Wars Ben and Wild's in demand supervi- Costin looks to rectify this ill, of sound's most watershed cin- beginnings of cinematic sound, Burtt, Saving Private Ryan's and sing sound editor Ai-Ling Lee, informing along the way, with ematic moments. including Tarzan and The Tin Jurassic Park's Gary Rydstrom, Costin balances representation and The Elephant Man (and Da- and respect across gender and vid Lynch collaborator) Alan discipline. Splet also receive the integral Making Waves: The Art of treatment, with the film break- Cinematic Sound is a cinemat- ing down specific examples of ic love letter to some of cine- each's contribution and ap- ma's most unsung heroes. An proach: recordings of a young informative and easy to digest bear coaxed by food for Chew- take presentation, insightful bacca; sound as world-building stories from truly influential for the otherwise intimately figures, and the use of much- shot opening sequence of Sav- loved examples, fuel this doc- ing Private Ryan, to name but a umentary into a thoughtful few examples. deconstruction of the hidden With this introduction to the power of sound in cinema world of digital sound design Whether you believe that and mixing, The second part sound is even more important of Making Waves then offers than image or you're record- a deeper dive into the sound ing cars outside your window community, each role respon- right now, we can all agree sible for a different aspect of a that without sound, and the film's final audio presentation. myriad of figures behind it, This Circle of Talent is broken cinema simply would not pack down into three sections – the emotional potential that it voice, sound effects, music – does. with various roles within each. For example, as part of the Plays at CPH:DOX (Copenha- voice section, Automated Di- gen) and other festivals. alogue Replacement (ADR) is explained through the famous [email protected]

34 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 The true face of Chechnya’s invisibles

CONTROL: A group of spite the regime’s effective work tirelessly, risking their apartment at an undisclosed clares, has no gay people – and activists risk unimaginable silencing methods. American own lives on missions, and location in Eurasia. She has insists that if it did, their fami- documentarian and investiga- fighting to keep the immense never been at home alone belies would kill them before any peril to confront the tive reporter on LGBTQ issues stress at bay. The work makes fore but must wait indoors, as state intervention. ongoing anti-LGBTQ David France now brings them them, too, the targets of death the activists try to arrange for Maxim Lapunov (who goes programme raging in to wider attention in his har- threats. Olga has incensed the any country to take her in. Six by the alias «Grisha» before go- the Russian republic of rowing, essential film, which family of a lesbian she helped months pass, a visa elusive. ing public) is the first to talk, debuted at Sundance and has flee, whose father intercepted The dislocation and claustro- going to the authorities to try Chechnya. BY CARMEN GRAY its International Premiere at her passage at Minsk airport, phobia is too much to bear, to prompt an investigation, the Berlinale. It is taut with and she must herself set sigh- she takes off and has not been and holding a press conference Welcome to Chechnya white-knuckle suspense, as ts on a safer country in which heard of since. in Moscow. The experience of we are brought along on the to raise her infant son. She has This US-made production is the former aspiring event plan- Director David France perilous escape route out of crossed the code that consi- very pointed in noting that, ner is that of many: bundled USA Chechnya and into hiding with ders Chechen women as pro- while Canada has taken in into a car and taken to a camp some who flee, getting a tiny perty, and vengeance a questi- 44 of the 151 survivors that full of other detainees, who are «It's politics. People have not- taste of the all-consuming fear on of honour. the Russian LGBT Network tortured, and whose mobiles hing to do with it.» This attitu- that a regime known for carry- For the refugees, reaching a has helped out of Chechnya, are scanned for other contacts de is ascribed to Putin in Wel- ing out hits far beyond its own safe house outside Chechnya Trump’s adminis- to target. Cru- come to Chechnya, by way of borders can engender. The is by no means the end of their tration has agreed cially, Lapunov is They work explaining how it is that a wave intensely intimate, emotional ordeal. By leaving, they arrive to harbour none. Russian, a visitor of state-orchestrated atrocities yet straightforward and una- at zero, with little chance to tirelessly, risking to the region, so against LGBTQ people could dorned tenor of the documen- speak their own language, re- Global reach. Fa- their own lives was let go – a de- be systematically carried out tary floors us with what Putin sume their professions, or talk ce-altering techn- on missions, and cision the regime without the Russian president and his cronies cannot seem to relatives. Their ties to all ology ingeniously fighting to keep the quickly regretted. batting an eye in one of his to see: that people, and their they have known, irrevocably allows the film’s immense stress at He’s been chang- North Caucasus republics. undeserved suffering, have cut. The stigma of «a shame subjects to be «di- bay. ing locations for When terrorism was grow- precisely everything to do with so strong it has to be washed gitally disguised,» six months with ing from Chechnya in the ear- these inhuman policies. away by blood» does not, af- to safeguard their his entire family, ly 2000s, Putin responded by ter a lifetime of socialisation identities. The repression wit- who have been terrorised by a installing a pro-Russia regime, Clandestine. David Isteev and and violent reinforcement, in- hin Chechnya is so brutal, and campaign of threats, and also with Ramzan Kadyrov at the Olga Baranova, activists of stantly evaporate; the trauma the hand of Kadyrov’s hench- his boyfriend of ten years, with helm. In return for the strong- the Russian LGBT Network, a of what they have undergone, men so global in its reach, that whom he has been emotionally man’s loyalty, he gave him free non-governmental rights or- detained and tortured, lingers. scarcely any of those perse- reunited. The grave stress and rein to run his country how he ganisation, assist those at risk For some, it is too much. cuted are willing to go public curtailed possibilities of a po- wanted – the seed of a growing in their clandestine escape One arrival attempts suicide about their experiences in the tential lifetime lived in hiding cult of personality. This lack bids. With no prior experien- by cutting his wrists in the purge, It is suspected they is palpable for them all – but of accountability has enabled ce in how to hide people in Moscow safe house; the oth- have even claimed a promi- against this, Lapunov’s act of a brutal anti-gay purge of en- danger, or obtain the necess- ers rush to bandage him, as nent pop star, Zelim Bakaev, the highest courage in speak- forced disappearances, tor- ary paperwork for them, they the hospital, due to the ne- who disappeared in Grozny in ing out, is the very essence of ture, and extra-judicial killings have plunged in to meet such cessity of secrecy, is not an 2017 while on a brief visit from a life lived well. in the corrupt, ultra-conserva- urgent need, taking in around option. Moscow. tive, and predominantly Mus- 25 people per month to their Anya, the daughter of a Grainy mobile footage of lim republic. secret shelter in Moscow – a high-ranking official in the homophobic attacks provides Plays at Thessaloniki Details of the purge, which city that, despite its own poor Chechen government and ex- distressing eyewitness evi- and other festivals. started in 2017 and are still LGBTQ rights record, is safe in tensive resources to track her dence of a fraction of atrocities ongoing, have leaked out de- comparison to Grozny. They down, is deposited into an in a nation that, its leader de- [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 35 digital optimization, and being podcast is thought of in the privileged in a crowded field same breath as your overall via correct metadata presen- format. Your artwork is the tation is vital. Think about first thing that listeners, and the blogging world of online ultimately subscribers, will see written content – you can have when they search in Apple or the best, most original content Spotify. Just like your title and in the world, but if no one can description, the artwork too find it, does it really matter? must convey the point and feel With blog posts, you optimize of your podcast, and must also for search engines and with adhere to certain technical spe- podcasts, you optimize with cifications. Apple, for example, data points. Take podcasts requires 3000px square images hosted on Apple. In their vast of at least 72 dpi. Do remember landscape of such content, that your podcast's visuals will how do you get your podcast probably be used across social to the top of the results page? platforms in some way, shape, Apple Podcasts privileges or form, so make sure you do 5 things to consider when starting clear yet comprehensive title, create all kinds of relevant author, and description fields sizes. in their search bar. In terms of title, don't overstuff it with Use the right equipment. Now a documentary podcast keywords but do make it «sear- that your idea and process chable». are laid out, the technological INDUSTRY: With podcasting a relatively new, and surging, terrain for filmmakers, we In terms of the podcast host- reality of starting a documen- look at 5 things to consider when starting a documentary podcast. ing landscape, Apple holds tary podcast comes into play. BY STEVE RICKINSON the market share, followed by Good thing is, Spotify and Google Podcast. just like the Podcasts A relatively where the camera, and its Develop an interesting idea. These three make up some other aspects offer media new medi- image, cannot go. Just like in any documentary 95% of the podcast market, of the medium drawing With that, is podcasting content, podcasters, like film- however, there are other pod- personalities, um, there is inspiration the wave of the future for makers, must ask themselves cast directories like Stitcher, journalists, no set status from the documentary storytellers? if the topic they are presen- IHeartRadio, Alexa, Overcast, and quo when traditional Well, with the sheer volume of ting is of inherent interest to PlayerFM, and more. Each filmmakers it comes to airwaves of non-fiction content available in audiences. Of course, these one of these acts like a search a relatively equipment radio, podcasting has seen the podcasting world, perhaps audiences do not have to be engine and requires its own new and easy and tools something of a popularity it is. Whether it is true crime vast swathes of the internati- respective protocols for inclu- way to reach when making surge, and profits, over the (like Serial), educational (TED onal population, but is there sion. Consider a podcast host- audiences, a podcast. last half-decade. In fact, its Radio Hour) or investigative a segment, niche, or ideology ing service like BuzzSprout or expand Of course, more than a surge. In the U.S. work (S-Town), there seems to that you can appeal to with PodBean to aid in this process. narratives, as it is an alone, some 90 million people be a host of formats and op- your content. Why are you and take audio-based subscribe to podcasts, and portunities in this, the newest starting this podcast? What is Pick your format, and stick them further medium, so- their popularity has grown platform for content creation. it about? How is it interesting? with it. What is the format of into realms und quality is 120% between 2015 – 2019. But, despite its undersatu- How is it different? These seem your podcast? Is it single host? where the key. So don't With such an increase in ration (relative in terms of straightforward questions to Will it feature guests? Do you camera, and go cheap on consumption, podcasting Youtube channels or blogs, ask yourself, especially if you include advertisements? How the sound its image, becoming a vital aspect of a for example), one doesn't just are a creator – but, still having long will it be? What are your quality, or cannot go. brand's success is inevitable. turn the recorder on, upload, definitive answers to such segments, and how are they else you will Long-form, accessible, and and acquire a successful pod- simple questions tend to come broken down? How often will alienate your direct, podcasts offer media casting career. less often than one may think. your podcast be adding new listeners with an air of unpro- personalities, journalists, and Here are a few points for episodes? What is the ratio of fessionalism. filmmakers a relatively new those interested in starting Name (and describe) it corre- scripted vs unscripted? Equipment basics here are a and easy way to reach audi- a documentary podcast to ctly. For any modern blogger These are all questions to microphone (or audio record- ences, expand narratives, and consider prior to taking the or online content creator, ask yourself when deciding er), preamp, headphones, and take them further into realms dive: abiding by the parameters of and finalizing a specific format pop filter. Once you have these when starting a documentary basics, you will need to move

Image: Vanishing City by Nie Lanshall podcast. Though no absolute onto audio editing software. answers to any, with podcasts, There are basic editing capa- This unique practical MA programme is based out just like everything else in bilities available on most iOS of UCL but run by leading film practitioners, offering the world of content creation, and Android phones, natively, high-quality practice-based learning in consistency is key. Make sure however, there is also third a top level university research environment. that you are publishing your party software like Audacity, podcast on a regular, consist- Hindenburg, Alitu, and De- Offers the choice of 4 Studios (‘Experimental & Cinematic ent schedule. This builds up script. Or on laptop software Non-Fiction’, ‘Documentary For Broadcast & Beyond’, a rapport and trust with your like Adobe Audition, Reaper or ‘Cinematic Documentary Storytelling’, and‘UCL 360: Immersive audience and, eventually, your Apple Logic Pro. Factual Storytelling (VR/AR)’. podcast will become part of One caveat to consider here

Students produce 3 non-fiction films in various modes, developing your audience's day-to-day. is software that aids in mul- a diverse portfolio of work, before producing a graduation film of Likewise, keep your format ti-person podcasts when those 15-25 minutes in length. and presentation consistent. involved are not in the same Even if things start slow, let room. Surely you have heard Students have their own camera equipment and editing suites year-round, and a dedicated senior mentor guiding your listeners get used to what the compromised audio when them through their final graduation film. you are saying, and how you a skype interview is played on are saying it. air? To avoid this, try software For more information please visit: like Squadcast or Zoom. opencitylondon.com/school Artwork. Some may say that Now that you have consid- artwork should come after ered these steps to starting a you have recorded your first documentary podcast, don't podcast, but visual identity forget to market it and keep is also vital to branding and, that consistent too.

MA in Ethnographic and in Ethnographic MA Practice Documentary Film UCL Anthropology at thus, to the immediate success of your podcast. It is my view that the visual identity of your [email protected]

36 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 Filoktitis of Lemnos

IDENTITY: Never mind Greek narrative. There is talk military tactical video game ities admit that the two were what is not? The war keeps co- about crisis and morphine. Fi- ARMA 3. It is a single-play- not spies, but employees of ming back – be it the Athens ri- how hard you try, you can loktitis has not escaped into er game where one US Army Bohemia Interactive, the devel- ots, the virtual struggle against never escape the world. drug use, but he is constantly soldier is facing a number of oper of the video game. They The East Wind, the Asian hor- BY HANS HENRIK FAFNER moving through various hallu- different missions against an were just researching in the des attacking virtual Lemnos, cinations, experiencing diffe- unseen and mighty enemy. The abandoned barracks of Lem- or the Greek authorities’ at- rent states of embodiment and actions are going on in a fu- nos and posed no security risk tempt to protect a non-existing Back to 2069 disembodiment. The physical ture where the global strategic whatsoever. military secret against imagi- space is Lemnos, but the story setup has changed radically. ned spies. Director Elise Florenty, Marcel of the film moves through so NATO is badly battered and on Doc-fiction hybrid. This mixed Florenty and Türcowsky Türkowsky many registers, from news retreat while the new military bag of real and virtual realiti- weave a fascinating doc-fiction Belgium, France, Germany footage to video games, that powerhouse is coming from es is constantly hovering aro- hybrid. It captures the core of most of the time it is hard to somewhere in South East Asia. und Filoktitis. The underlying what it is like to exist in a se- «The War will still be here To- tell what is real and what is In the very real world of question is whether you are cluded space, where one can morrow!» The sentence is pain- virtual. September 2012, Greek police able to escape the world by either fold into the surrounding ted with crude letters on an Although he left Athens in arrested two Czechs on Lem- exiling yourself to Lemnos, or history or step into technolog- abandoned wagon. It is rusty order to escape the crisis, past nos. They were charged with to Siberia for that matter. Fi- ical realms. That is the reality. and beaten up. Its former use and future scenarios of conflict espionage because they were loktitis changes shape all the Never mind how dedicated you a bit unclear. Probably a rem- are catching up with him. Mul- recording videos of the aban- time, from argonaut to avatar are, you can never fully exit the nant of some military presence tilayered reality is all around doned army camp. According and back again. The soldiers in world because the world will in the rugged landscape. Filoktitis when he ventures off to Greek law, taking photo- the video game are crying for always catch up with you. A man is passing by on a on the island. graphs of army installations morphine to ease the pain of small motorbike. He stops to Lemnos is an important part is a matter of national securi- their wounded comrades, and Plays at Cinéma du réel ponder. Then he continues. of the Greek narrative. When ty, and the two transgressors that only adds to the delirium (Paris) and other festivals. He exiled himself from Athens the hero Odysseus was on his were held in custody for 128 that follows the story all the during the crisis, and now he way to the war against Troy days. Only later did the author- way. Who and what is real, and [email protected] lives all by himself on an is- the passed it and set up quar- land. He left after a boy was ter in and around a grotto in its killed at Exarceia, the tech- mountain landscape. The story nical university in the Greek says that when he continued capital. He keeps thinking of his famous travel, he left be- 24 Feb — 1 Mar 2020 the slogans back then – «Cops, hind one of his men, Filoktitis pigs, killers!» December 2008 – or Philoctetes. He had been was not a response, but an- bitten on the foot by a snake, other question. The man, who and the smell of the infection humanfilm.no RIGHTS WRONGS calls himself Filoktitis, now was so bad that Odysseus’ men claims to have left behind his could not be near him. But be- addictions and the explosive ing the best man with a bow situations. and an arrow, Odysseus knew This is the frame of a new that he could not win the war film by Belgian artist/director without Filoktitis, so ten years duo Elise Florenty and Marcel later he came to pick him up. Türcowsky. They are known In modern times, Lemnos for their experimental work, was home to a large Greek and their latest certainly fol- army base that was later aban- International Documentary lows that tradition. The film doned. This is where Filoktitis is set on the Aegean island of roams on his small motorbike. Lemnos where Filoktitis has He calls the island «the Siberia Film Festival Oslo taken refuge. He is squatting in of Greece», a desolated space the eroded landscape, keeping that is part of reality and at the to himself after participating same time seemingly cut off in the Athens riots in reaction from everything. to the economic meltdown of Lemnos also gained fame as CINEMATEKET VEGA SCENE KUNSTPLASS KHARTOUM KCAC Greece in 2008. the setting of the open-world,

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 37 The shaman and the Norwegian engineer

MODERNITY: The expectation of a paradise free of modern progress become the opposite. BY ELLEN LANDE

Newtopia remain untouched by present wants to edit reality, but must opportunities and advance- adhere to the cruel truth. Director Audun Amundsen ments: «I'm not very excited Suddenly someone else is Norway about all the plastic and cloth- filming Amundsen. The pho- ing they [mentawa people, ed.] to is beautifully composed. The primeval forest is eme- have purchased. Even though It takes me a while to realize rald green, and a river curves their lifestyle is essentially the that it is Paksa. The fact that inward towards an unspoiled same, I find it ruins my movie.» he mastered this from the oak. Audun Amundsen was a first moment, however, is per- long-haired backpacking tou- Jungle life. Norwegian Audun fectly understandable. Paksa rist when, for the first time in Amundsen is pale and short- is a unique human being who 2004, he met the indigenous cut when he returns to sha- grasps what is in front of him. people of the Mentawai Islands man Paksa and his clan four in Indonesia, where he was fe- years after his first stay there. Rituals and everyday life. The athered. He lived in the jungle He has hired a motorboat and story is larger than Amund- with them for a whole month. crew and enjoys the rain on his sen's conscious – or uncon- For fourteen years he has re- face as he is transported effort- scious – parts. As I google turned to photograph and film, lessly and swiftly up the river Amundsen, I find a major NITO what he thought would remain, towards, what in his head will project where, as an engineer, authentic life. The visuals are always remain the Promised he procured the clan's many spectacular, at times almost Land. members' solar panels and mesmerizing. Amundsen reminds me of lamps to ensure indigenous in- The expectation of a para- Klaus Kinski in the feature films dependence and sustainability dise free of all modernity be- of Werner Herzog. Kinski on his when it comes to electricity. came the story of the opposite. way to Eldorado in Aguirre – The man is now emerging as With his close, long-standing The Wrath of God or his other something else in my eyes. relationship with shaman brilliant role in Fitzcarraldo. Along the way, I kept coming Aman Paksa, the director finds In both films, Kinski is in the across various things. By look- himself on the inside when the same position as Amundsen – ing through video clips and indigenous peoples' traditions in front of the boat on his way lies heavily in the water with in the process of processing text on Amundsen's NITO blog, are challenged and crackle in with an important mission. camera equipment and solar sago – ho, the source of nutri- it all becomes clearer. There the desire for the comforts of Kinski came both as a conquer- panels. tion. The irritation of this aes- are clips that show irresistible today. Related to Amundsen's or in metal armour and as a Paksa and the clan receive thetic is there again with the golden moments between Pak- typical western romanticiza- philanthropist in lime dress. In Amundsen with open arms, director. Contradictions such sa and Amundsen in games, tion of the tough and hard life one account, Kinski wanted the they comment loudly that he as these are repetitive and rituals, and everyday life, but in the jungle, the film becomes gold treasure of the indigenous no longer looks like a bomb. drive the movie forward. the film also brings out the re- an important reflection on what people; in the other, he would They perform a special ritual Amundsen gives way to his lationship between these two contradictory gaze we give the bring opera to the jungle. Both of dance, feather, and smoke own reflection: «If this had incredible men. They manage others versus ourselves. would upset a balance. The so that all the foreign technolo- been others who were filming, to communicate and open up Early in the film, the direc- boat to Amundsen is loaded gy Amundsen carries with him they would have taken off your to each other despite the gap tor uses a well-functioning ap- to bring jungle life back to civ- will be accepted by the jungle watch and rubber boots,» he in lifestyle and opportunities. proach where he represents ilization in the form of movie country. Then Paksa brings out tells Paksa. The scene makes Amundsen does as best he the view that the others shall recording, therefore the canoe a plastic cloth to prevent spills me hum. Amundsen clearly can and a little more. All glo-

38 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 ZELIG FILM SCHOOL ESSAY: What is a Documentary?

VIEWS: Three Zelig world around them, to listen Film School students and watch closely, to exercise patience, to pay attention to agreed to write a small details. They emphasize spe- essay when asked which cific problems and often help three words come to underprivileged people to your mind when you hear gain wider recognition. Free- dom is just one of the various DOCUMENTARY feelings alongside sensibility BY TUE STEEN MÜLLER and empathy that drive us to both do and watch docu- This post was earlier published mentaries. A cinema that tells on filmkommentaren.dk stories by portraying many ups and downs we as humans In November I was at the Ze- experience throughout our lig Film School in Bolzano to lives is an intense experience meet the new students. I or- in itself and has the immense ganised a small game: Which power of hopefully bringing three words come to your us closer. It is a rather alluring mind when I say DOCUMEN- their dream of making sure a concept. TARY.We put the words on the good deal of fascinating but Nevertheless, the choices whiteboard: Freedom Willing often disturbing aspects of that one has to make when Choice Poetic Detail Glimmer humanity are remembered. It the camera is turned on are Accidential Case Patience is a poetic quest for revealing always deliberate and can Strings Impact Storytelling the insatiable human curiosi- never be objective. Camera, a Memorable Curiosity Con- ty for intimate connections, device used for telling inspir- nection Testimony Creative the honest ing stories with a Chance Vessel Sensibility In- pursuit of the Documentaries are potential impact, stinct Relationship Perspecti- meaning of life in a way some kind is nothing more ve Feel Aesthetic Subjective which takes into of a subjective visual than a simple ves- Respectful Visual Empathy consideration sel and thus, we testimony of life at ry to him, who has learned paralysis. I wish this was incor- Recognition Heritage Job Me- different per- are to constantly a certain place and Indonesian and indigenous porated into the movie. diation Responsibility Game spectives on the remind ourselves languages in order to commu- The fate cross, on the other Trade Cheating Time Place stunning world time. of its subjectivity. nicate with Paksa's wife. hand, is conveyed in the film POV Unpretentious Free Per- around us. Nev- However, it is our One of the scenes with her regarding Paksa. A short scene sonal Quest Passion Opinion ertheless, what responsibility to getting clean running water shows a hand and a foot carved Teamwork Observing Infor- makes it possible for a story keep observing, researching, provided by engineer Amund- into a tree. He has buried sev- ming Meaning Intense Iden- to be told is teamwork, a rath- discovering and stumbling sen is priceless: «Look, now en out of ten children, we tity Summerbreeze Evidence er important element which upon true stories that have it becomes easy to wash the know. As he also loses his wife Pursuit Intuition Honest Pure often requires filmmakers to to be told in order to leave a smelly pussy.» As Amundsen abruptly to sickness, when he Humanity Thoughtprovoking make a conscious decision to mark and not to be forgotten. replicates in her own language, decides to travel to get himself Contact Problems Forgot- follow their instincts, to wit- Documentaries play a crucial she squeals. He has learned to progress and prosperity. His ten Improvisation Discovery ness many risky, accidental role in this. Only through in- those words too. introduction to the metropolis Growth Research Portrait events, to be exposed to the forming and being informed The effortless tone and home- and urbanity is breathtaking Listening Memory Cinema unexpected, but also a lot of can we become a more re- grown feeling that has arisen be- and occasionally entertaining. Art Microcosmos Serendipity pure improvisation. spectful society, encourage tween Amundsen and the peo- Not least that modern metro- Nuance Undermine Exposure Moreover, time and pa- growth on the personal lev- ple he portrays is not something politan life requires short hair. Life Love Lagrein. tience to consider nuances el and question our point of that everyone is aware of how Here, the film changes tempo And three students agreed and numerous choices that view on specific issues. It to do. Even not very and expression. to write a small essay inspired need to be made are an ad- gives us an opportunity to es- experienced docu- A highlight of the by the words and our discus- ditional necessity. These tablish contact with other hu- mentaries can create Amundsen friendship story is the sions during this first week passionate women and men man beings and form strong such an under-skin reminds scene where Amundsen of their three-year stay at from the documentary film relationships. Documentary relationship. me of Klaus buys a long-haired wig the school: Lucija Ilijić wrote microcosm, which are often filmmaking is a wonderful Kinski in the for the now short-cut in English, Kaspar Panizza in mediators between two sides, job, but it is also a vocation, Friendship. It is the feature films former shaman. Rarely German and Matilde Ramini in use their remarkable skills to an art, a perfect example of friendship and what of Werner have I seen a nicer and Italian. gather evidence and bring us our intuition navigating us to Amundsen and Pak- Herzog. more sincere smile than The first one by Lucija Ilijić closer to both various socie- this moment of serendipity, sa share that is the Paksa's. He takes the comes here, the other two will ties full of cultural heritage as a moment which reminds me mainstay of this story. The wig with him and continues follow soon: well as to unique individuals of a gentle summer breeze on 350 hours material behind to to wear it, finally returning to The task to write an essay of diverse identities. Through a warm, tranquil afternoon, the film could have been bet- the jungle. Using something as consisting of words we have thought-provoking topics and where this perplexing human ter managed to highlight more simple as hair shape, the film used during a lecture with Tue many a time conflicting opin- condition makes sense for at history, but it shines through is able to speak on the need Steen Muller at ZeLig was not ions they tell stories of love least a short period of time. anyway. Two people with vast- for identity and what happens an easy one, but this is what I and hate, they guard memo- ly different starting points find, when a person has to agree have come up with: rable moments giving them a See also http://www. support, and help each other with their own markers of cul- What is a documentary? chance to last forever. Docu- filmkommentaren.dk/blog/ when life is at its most brutal. tural belonging. Although answering the ques- mentaries are in a way some blogpost/4678/ and /4679/ Amundsen has written about tion might seem hopeless at kind of a subjective visual for the other two answers from his crippling stroke a few years Plays at Human (Oslo)and first, this baffling documen- testimony of life at a certain Kaspar Panizza and Matilde after his first visit to Paksa, other festivals. tary case should be seen as place and time. Ramini. and that it was his dream of Translated from NY TID. a creative and artistic game They allow one to feel con- going back that enabled him to of a few enthusiasts pursuing nected to the astounding [email protected] recover from as much as 99% [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 39 Her images touch on a disturbing point of view where the anxiety of life crosses the threshold of mortality. Skinless exposure DOC ON PHOTOGRAPHY: Lene Marie Fossen's own tortured body as a canvas for grief, pain and longing in her series of self portraits. BY ELLEN LANDE agnosis through photography. The raw only gives a face to the refusal to eat, necessary nutrition. The Self Portrait and exceptional power of her images but also the slow, strong human suffer- With that, it is not that she and her placed her among today's few interna- ing we can recognize. struggling, loving family did not receive Director Katja Høgset, Margreth Olin, tional photographic geniuses. It is important for recognition and the necessary support. It is Lene her- Espen Wallin The film has the ability to take me empathy that her appearance is sim- self and the unlived life she longed for. Norway into her bitter existential struggle. From ilar to ours. That she has been – and It is that she, as a human being with time to time I sense something bigger, is – one of us. In the film, she crosses thoughts, needs, and dreams, is not The photographer undresses in front a sacred feeling. Lene admits that she an unspoken border by documenting hidden in the third of all deaths among of her own camera until there are only wanted to stop time, that she just want- her own bodily decay. The power of her adolescents caused by anorexia. bones left. The skinny body's helpless- ed everything to be as it was. Gradu- actions break with the ideas and ideas ness is heartbreaking. Despite a lifeti- ally, she stopped eating, she says, but we quickly form of this disease: Lene is Hunger artist. Although Lene is just skin me of anorexia, the poses Lene Marie admits she was trapped in the disease's a strong anorectic, but equally a fully and bone, she laughingly replies that Fossen (1986–2019) takes on are both jail and did not achieve what she had active performer. She cares for refugee she might find herself a husband in Gre- graceful and timeless. The colour, the envisioned. children and photographs them, and ece, where her photography really took room, and the staging are like the old Lene's open, vulnerable gaze has also older Greek widows. She occasion- off. Hunger artist is the unspoken word, masters. etched into my retina. It was good to ally escapes her own diagnosis and for her sincere, artistic exploration is spend time with her through the film the awful repetitive forced treatment. at its best when it is linked to her own Change anxiety. Lene Marie Fossen ma- and see the joy in her face for recog- The last has been her nightmare, with troubled body and the disease that we- naged to give a face to the disease of nition and her own photography. With almost all treatment programs through ars the life out of her. The many pictu- anorexia and found a haven from the di- her picturesque self-portraits, she not her 22 years left her body without the res, for me, are filled with a soundtrack

to Lene's pain, but also her calmness mercilessly as the disease it is. Her over having found a method of expres- images touch on a disturbing point of sing herself in the middle of it all. The view where the anxiety of life crosses disease is constantly threatening to the threshold of mortality. take over her identity, she says. A soft voice takes me back to the here The film becomes a biting commen- and now. It is Lene who says that anorex- tary on how quickly we forget those ia is a heinous disease she would never behind the diagnosis, as in the scene have chosen for herself, but that she where a greasy American photojour- has not mastered anything other than to nalist wants to hug Lene. He confesses stop eating. Why didn't she get help to that he was not allowed to embrace love food again? Her words hit me in the the victims of the famine disaster in stomach. No matter how widespread Somalia. A seemingly experienced re- anorexia is, it is impossible to under- porter's clumsy attempt at proximity stand, but in meeting Lene and her pho- to a human disaster is appalling. Lene tographs I still manage to feel something keeps up. She takes ownership of the – only I let my gaze follow her. production of herself, but she doesn't stop there. Translated from NY TID She wraps herself and her tragedy

like a religious icon but exposes it as OLD GREEK WOMAN. [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 41 Careful Animal Imago (cover) by Lucia Nimcova explorations on human impermanence

PHOTOGRAPHY: A global range of 21st-century photobooks by female photographers. BY BIANCA-OLIVIA NITA

When looking at top prizes es toward private space, or discourses, racism, and slavery. How We See: Photobooks by in photography, at «book on looking outwards at the world She experimented with tech- Women books» anthologies or esta- around, each of the books se- nique but, facing censorship Author Russet Lederman, blished photobook publishers’ lected uncovers a personal or in Nazi Germany, never found Olga Yatskevich, Michael inventories, it becomes clear social angle you might or might a publisher for her photobook Lang that the representation of wo- not have considered before. named Bilderbuch (Picture USA men is small in comparison Book). Eventually, it was pub- with their male peers. How We Hannah Höch. It is important lished as a facsimile in 2008. See: Photobooks by Women is to say that the idea of having a book on books that came to a carefully curated anthology A challenging micro univer- life as a result of this discovery of women photographers is With each page, the se The book is full of many – a little gem of carefully selec- generous, yet if this was How readers are drawn other gems and surprising ted photo projects that call for We See's main selling point, it into an experience projects. In uncovering this slow and careful exploration, wouldn’t be enough. Its true that goes beyond emotionally and intellectually and that appeal to the curiosity value is not in the fact that it what the images challenging micro-universe, of both heart and mind. «supports women,» but that it depict the book is in itself an expe- To create this collection, ten turns the spotlight on powerful rience. With each page, the women experts in the photo- work that otherwise might be readers are drawn into an book field from ten diverse ge- forgotten or unseen. experience that goes beyond ographic regions were invited One of my favorite projects what the images depict, a full to shed light on their favorite featured is on Hannah Höch, dive into a world of symbols, photobooks made by female one of the only women pho- textures, and framed concepts photographers. The books se- tographer members of the Dada expressed through a variety of lected had to be in print, pub- movement, which pioneered photos and mixed media. Each lished between 1843 and 2010, the political photomontage. page calls for full presence and and had to be historically sig- While working as an editor for attention, to decipher how nificant, preferably reflecting women’s magazines in the 20s, immediate visuals hide subtle the regions their makers came she collected magazine ads meanings and feelings, and the from. The result is a mosaic and newspapers that address juxtaposing images and words of conceptually well-defined women’s emancipation and do- can be used to create irony, projects. By turning their lens- mesticity, gender roles, political critique or capture experience,

42 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 emotions, and absurdity. Many of photo projects fea- THE SEOUL SHINMUN AI ROBOT tured don’t touch on a general theme and surprise by the subtle observations and commentary they contain (Lucia Man is like a flower Nimcova’s Animal Imago and Justyna Wierzchowiecka’s Mu- TECHNOLOGY: We live lieves we are on the threshold on the contrary, we rejoice in lieves that our resistance to it seum Studies 1; Ting Cheng’s in modern times where of. Well, maybe the one we just their existence. Because they is the clearest example of the Baker Salon; Eugenia Maxi- entered. Prior to the Novacean will help us keep the planet limits of our intelligence. mova’s Associated Nostalgia). artificial intelligence era, we had the Anthropocene habitable longer than usu- However, the fight against Yet, some themes are clearly evolves on its own and age, a time characterised by al. But at some point, they temperature rise cannot be recurring throughout – such can become our rescue, the human ability to influence probably won't have to use won by nuclear power alone. as engagement in political and the planet's ecosystem. The us anymore. Our extinction is This is where artificial intel- social issues (Maria Isabel not our death. Novacean era is a time when inevitable, but whether it hap- ligence must come into play. Arango’s Los Gestos Muertos; BY STEFFEN MOESTRUP technology grows out of our pens by natural consequences The main essence of Love- Hitomi Watanabe’s Tekiya; Ce- control and where artificial or whether we are lock's new work, there- leste Rojas Mugica’s Una Som- intelligence gains the ability wiped out by these fore, is that the natural bra Oscilante). Patriarchy and to refine and further develop artificial intelligenc- intuition, evolution that created women’s condition (Frederique itself and, thus, become an in- es, Lovelock does autonomy, man also led to a man Bangerter’s Lucha Libre; Amak Author James Lovelock: dependent being. not respond une- and learning who engages in preda- Mahmoodian’s Shenasnameh; Novacene – The Coming of We've already seen examples quivocally. But we ability become tion and, thus, destroys Abigail Heyman’s Growing Up Age of Hyperintelligence of that, Lovelock points out, die. properties Gaia's self-regulatory Female; Cemre Yesil’s For Birds’ UK and mentions Google's com- that artificial ability. They should Sake; Laia Abril’s On Abortion). puter program AphaGo as a Fantastic or visiona- intelligence now be replaced by a Family (Sophie Calle’s Rachel, telling example. Back in 2015, ry?. Who is this fan- possesses. mechanical evolution Monique…; Mayumi Suzuki’s These we- the program won over a hu- tastic and futurist, that will allow the ar- The Restoration Will; Arlene eks, anot- man in the game of Go, which Lovelock? He is a tificial intelligences to Gottfried’s Mommie: Three her chap- is far more complicated than, 100-year-old Englishman who develop on their own and take Generations of Women). Sex- ter of the for example, chess. And unlike has just published another over where we can no longer uality and relationships (Lau- endless IBM's Deep Blu computer that book. He is also a scientist and be involved. rence Rasti’s There Are No Ho- Terminator defeated Kasparov in chess almost considered a renaissan- mosexuals in Iran). The female film sagaback in the 1990s, AlphaGo was ce man with expertise in che- A rare work. Although the book body (Anne Collier’s Women rolls over not created by the machine mistry, physics, medicine, phi- suffers a bit from too many With Cameras; Susan Meise- the cine- being fed with a lot of losophy, and geology. repetitions and some messy las’ Carnival Strippers; Barbara ma screen. data from which it then In the 1970s, Lovelock editing, it is a pleasure to read Kasten’s The Diazotypes). All a And once navigated. Instead, Al- In the put forward the Gaia a work that makes such great reflection of how these issues again, we're dealing with a no- phaGo combined two 1970s, theory, which involves thoughts. And it is striking how might have specific local traits tion of cyborgs that reminds us systems: partly human Lovelock the notion of the earth rare this kind of book actually and might vary in details, but of humans – but who are sim- input in the form of put forward as a self-regulating sys- sees the light of day. Maybe they have an universal rele- ply superior to us in terms of data and partly by de- the Gaia tem that constantly because big thoughts are of- vance, transcending geograph- strength, speed, and surviva- veloping the ability to theory seeks to create ideal li- ten easy targets for shit and ical, generational and time bar- bility. learn the game on its ving conditions. ridicule. Occasionally, you can riers. But what if we dropped these own along the way. The In Novacene – The also not hesitate but to hesita- Eventually, what all pro- cyborg clichés and instead im- latter is revolutionary, Love- Coming of Age of Hyperintelli- te. You will have doubts about jects truly have in common agined a creature that is not at lock argues, because it means gence it seems that Lovelock what is real and what seems is their makers’ sensible eyes all anthropomorphic. A crea- that artificial intelligence has steps away from the theory of like fantasy and pure specula- on human condition and im- ture that may have the form of now reached a stage where in- self-regulation, at least under- tion. But this is one of the at- permanence, and the feelings, a droplet, a sphere, or a micro- tuition, autonomy, and learning stood as a certainty that it will tractions of the book. thoughts, and reflections they organism. This being will ob- ability become properties that all go well, all while the planet Something I boxed with inspire. The sum of them, print- serve us and think about us in artificial intelligence possess- is regulating itself anyway. along the way was whether ed in one book, is a showcase the same way that we observe es. And, when coupled with in- Lovelock spends part of it is also a natural evolution for some of the best photogra- and think about a flower. formation handling thousands the work advocating that we when it is no longer organic? phy made by women, a book to The big step has already of times faster than the human should put all our energy into And with the natural part out, experience page by page and been taken. These are the brain, we have the prospect counteracting the rise in tem- so is good? Lovelock does not get a taste of what is possible, kind of thoughts James Love- of artificial intelligence that perature on the planet. That provide clear answers to this. and later on, decide which of lock makes in the book Nova- is far superior to us. Then we we drop the many resources to He speculates and ponders fur- the many windows it opens are cene – The Coming of Age of have artificial intelligence that look for life in space, as he be- ther. the ones you would like to see Hyperintelligence. The book is will see us as we consider the lieves, all indicate that we are better through. something as rare as a deeply flower. alone in the universe. Lovelock, From NY TID visionary work. The title refers Lovelock does not think we on the other hand, is a propo- [email protected] to the age that Lovelock be- should fear these beings – but nent of nuclear power and be- [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 43 Kafka in Harlem JUSTICE: Lene Berg's False Belief is playful, disturbing, and sensory-rich. BY ELLEN LANDE

to the name reference. couple's shadows move or are first narrative voice, the dire- es. The film illustrates how introduced through multiple ctor mentions that she beli- vulnerable groups are set up Cynical play. The experience of photo collages. The handles eves in this just being a bad against each other: Blacks unreality and alienation in the recreate some of the enormo- dream – that she would like to against gays. As a coincidental face of a system that has its us claustrophobia the couple's wake up soon. Does the film irony, the film reveals that Mr. own rules without possible vi- detention and false accusa- crawl too tightly under our D should first be accused of sibility is daunting. False Belief tions have inflicted on them. skin through our identificati- being a racist, but the Norwe- is a disturbing portrayal of a In my head, a graph appears on with an upstanding resour- gian boyfriend led to the homo- situation that persists. Through with rising market prices on ceful human being similar to phobia card being played. The e-mail contact with the filmma- one axis, personal degradation you and me? I guess that's flock or trap he has landed in ker, I find out that Mr. D's appeal and damage on the other, and why it seems so annoying seems impossible to get out of is extremely difficult precisely corrupt police and judicial sys- that Mr. D admits to the sta- D. is one of the countless exam- because even the verdict in the tems in the middle. tement «faggot», knowing that ples. case is based on such unclear The English word «framed» he is thus creating evidence The grotesque methods of charges and evidence that neit- does not just mean to be hit, of his own criminalization. He gentrification save no one, and her the couple themselves nor but just as much to be cheated himself emphasizes how the market prices are skyrocketing. their defender has gained full on. Conscious camera angles word «nigger» is something he False Belief access. and narrative formulations and others without caucasian Plays at HUMAN (Oslo) and The anonymity grip further convey how, step by step, Mr. D appearance must constantly other festivals Director Lene Berg points to other victims of sim- was transformed into a threat- endure. Norway ilar wrongs, but at the same ening hate criminal. A doubt There are many paradox- [email protected] time protects the film's protag- nags, isn't D guilty? Not in the This film thematically of a uni- onist. If it had been known that charges, but in blindly rely- que burning importance. Film- the case was filmed, it could ing on the system and the law maker and renowned multi-ar- soon have escalated charges that protects against abuse by tist Lene Berg's partner, the and prosecution according to corrupt officials. This all is fol- A new film African-American publisher Mr. the couple. This movie is also lowed by a cunning campaign D, is accused and subsequently Mr. D's best defense, and the and fabricated evidence. Noth- arrested, but for what? Already collage puzzle in the movie ing to worry about, most of us with the suggestive sound in exposed the couple's own evi- would think. I did nothing then movement on the rise the opening scenes, the docu- dence. By making the film, they and am confident. Are we real- mentary points to the connecti- have found a way to express ly? The film shows the cracks ENVIRONMENT: Humans are extraordinary in how they on with Harlem's gentrification and clarify to themselves and in the foundation of legal cer- manage to isolate themselves away from their problems. process. An absurd nightmare others what cynical games tainty as capital forces expand. is conveyed so sensuously via they have been exposed to. The documentary pain – our BY MARGARETA HRUZA multifaceted and different artis- own recognition of D's creduli- tic approaches that we get the Proximity requires self-refle- ty becomes challenging. Films feeling of sharing the protago- ction. At times False Belief so are so much easier about the The Czechs are excellent storytelling that is pungent with nist's panic. What trap he has intense that I gasp for breath. others, far out there in the mushroom pickers a great amount of self-irony and fallen into, and why, is among This, despite simple and un- front lines of the hard conflicts. humor. The graver the topic, it the film's central and profound dramatic means; Mr. D is trap- The possibility of distancing Director Apolena Rychlíkova seems the more surrealistic the issues. This cinematic attempt ped in a half-naked picture mitigates the seriousness. The Czech Republic storytellers’ approach. at dissolution and interpretati- where only the colour of the closeness of the story quickly Apolena Rychlíkova's The on fascinates. Mr. D's similariti- monochrome background and demands self-reflection. Most of us have heard about Czechs are excellent mushroom es to Kafka's character Jozef F his clothes change. In all out- the famous Czech New Wave pickers is a great example of in process does not limit itself door scenes, we only see the Paradoxes. Through the film's film movement of the 1960s, this. It is a movie that could but few have woken up to the easily be defined as a «classic» fact that there is a strong new upon first viewing if it hadn't generation of Czech documen- been for that quirky title, but MODERN TIMES REVIEW tary filmmakers, making a new then again, that is the daring wave into film history. Plea- beauty of this film. It wasn't 2 weekly online doc reviews and singly to see, this movement made with the eye for reaching is well represented by a sub- the gold mine of Netflix, nor was 4 printed editions every year. stantial group of strong female it marketed for the world pub- directors and they build their lic, although it definitely could only 9 euro per quarter language on a rich cultural he- have, considering it is a gaily ritage. What characterizes their summarization of how horrible films is the playfulness of their the state of our planet is.

44 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 «I see the genre’s remarkable momentum going on for some time»

FESTIVAL de CANNES: ambition with the Cannes makers in selection at Cannes Lady Jaye by Marie Losier, Li The head of Cannes Docs event? and high-level industry ex- Ké Terra by Filipa Reis, João I see it continuing to expand ecutives, plus the not-to-be- Miller Guerra and Nuno Bapti- Docs, Marché du qualitatively, little by little, missed Doc Lovers Mixer and sta, Voir ce que devient l’ombre Film – Festival de and basically trying to be bet- a closing screening. by Matthieu Chatellier… Cannes, Pierre-Alexis ter and better at meeting the Chevit, speaks on the needs of documentary film What was your first intro- How do you see the genre professionals. Beyond that, duction to the documentary of documentary trending in documentary focused Cannes Docs’ substantive genre? the next decade, or so? initiative at the world- challenge will probably be to I do remember having been I see the genre’s remarkable renowned film festival. really make the most of its first quite touched by Ivens and momentum going on for some and foremost characteristic: Marker’s À Valparaíso. Loved time, fueled by the streamers’ BY STEVE RICKINSON taking place at the very core it even more after having interest for documentaries of the world’s number one fes- been to Valparaíso myself, a and by the audience’s craving. The festival offers multiple tival and market dedicated to few years later! Actually, I saw As well as by the impact docs opportunities to all professi- the art of filmmaking. and loved a lot of short docs wave – surely a purposeful onals working with creative around the time I was finishing and sustainable way to fos- documentary, with particular Can you discuss some my studies, as a programmer ter production and creativity focus on sales agents and top ner was created. It started out «highlights» of the 2020 for a great open-air short film while crucially raising aware- international festival program- modest in size and scope, but Cannes Docs program? festival in Paris, Silhouette. ness on numerous urgent chal- mers. the whole program expanded Cannes Docs offers a mix of Then came along two key lenges of our time. It means continuously, offering more exhibitors, workshops, panels, moments/places in my under- advocate sanctuarized public Can you give us some in- opportunities and gathering presentations, speed-meet- standing of the power of docs: funding, among other stances. sight into Cannes Docs histo- an ever-growing number of ings, and consultations with the «documentary village» of Just like we need to support ry? How does it place into the decision-makers from the doc- decision-makers, experts or Lussas, France – truly a one of independent distributors and wider scope of the Cannes umentary scene. This year, potential co-producers, and an a kind place on the doc-lovers exhibitors, and treasure the Film Festival? Doc Corner becomes Cannes extensive series of showcases planet – and Cinéma du réel, in cinema-going experience! Cannes Docs is an initiative Docs, expressing our desire of docs-in-progress from Chile, Paris. I vividly recall the first of Marché du Film – Festival de to deghettoize the craft of Norway, Italy, Canada, Argen- time I programmed and host- Cannes. It is one of its themat- documentary filmmaking and tina, New Zealand, and more. ed Q&As for Cinéma du réel, Cannes Docs will be held ic programs, alongside Cannes its entire community, making The program also includes in 2011, how exciting and ful- 12–21 May, and Modern Times XR, Producers Network, Ani- sure they are fully embraced Doc Day, our main event – this filling it all was, getting to dis- Review will come back in its mation Day, and many more. by Cannes’ fundamental rai- year on Tuesday, May 19th – a cover beautiful films (lots of next issue with reviews. First, there was Doc Brunch, son d’être: cinema. full day of keynotes, panel dis- first or second features) and which was launched back in cussions, and masterclasses, meet great young filmmakers, 2010, then in 2012 the Doc Cor- Ultimately, what is your featuring inspiring doc film- like The Ballad of Genesis and [email protected]

Inspecting the human species. If not only humor to the picture, Koyaanisqatsi was a grave mov- of ecological movements, it did you ever fantasized of watching but it also enables us to digest ie constructed as visual tone not change the way the wheels a David Attenborough program some dreadful truths about our poem without dialogue nor vo- are turning. Francis Ford Copp- inspecting the human species existence. Told with an anthro- calized narration, The Czechs ola produced the mesmerizing and their absurd behaviors, pological point of view, as if are excellent mushroom pick- Koyaanisqatsi in 1982 thinking with the same scrutiny as he he had studied a far-off exotic ers has a playful story frame it was his life responsibility. has studied ants or apes, then tribe, he is stating simple stark built on a witty scripted nar- Despite becoming a cult film, this film is a witty take-off of just facts on the Czech sapiens with ration done by the director it did not halt our progress to- that. The film is wrapped up their recently adapted Amer- herself in cooperation with ward self-destruction. All in all, like a typical Czech children's ican lifestyle. Scene by scene Hynek Trojanek. The symbolic it is actually very depressing television program, with a kind, he comments on their absurd film language is captured with when we realize how fast things nice male voice commenting on relationship with their private beautiful cinematography. are spinning in the wrong dire- what we see, although this time pools, their lawns, their wa- The highly polluted landscape ction, but as the voice tells us the male is in a dialog ter resources, the becomes «beautiful» imagery before he leaves the planet for PHOTO: PIXABAY PHOTO: with a female machine. The graver heat, the cows, counterpointed with effective, good, «the humans are extraor- He has just returned the topic, it the soil, the trees, minimalistic music composed dinary in how they manage to from an expedition on seems the more and. of course, scene leads us to the conclusi- by Dominik Gajarský. isolate themselves away from planet Earth where he surrealistic the the mushrooms. on that we are not only killing their problems.» made a study of the storytellers’ It is first when the the mushrooms but also ours- All generations. The movie is The Czechs are excellent Czech sapiens (a me- Czech sapiens can elves by diminishing the grea- an excellent wakeup call that mushroom pickers is a film gem approach. taphor for Homo sapi- no longer find a test gift given to Earth, namely will apply to all generations that certainly will shine bright ens) and he feels really mushroom in the the forests. of viewers. Children might through time and it would sur- tired, actually, almost too tired forest that they realize some- This film brings back mem- even think they are watching prise me if it didn't become a to comment the whole film as thing is wrong. ories of when I, as a naive six- a children's program lured little Czech cult film. I keep he says himself. When asked by teen-year-old, student watched by the fairytale voice guiding my fingers crossed and make the machine if he would like to Common denominators. Mush- Koyaanisqatsi – Life out of Bal- them through. The question a wish that it will travel the return to planet Earth he says room picking is about the only ance for the first time. It was a remains, what good will it do? world. If we cannot save the definitely not as he sees the hu- common denominator for the film that sent chills down my When the newsbreaking The planet, let us at least be in- man situation on the beautiful highly diverse Czech popula- spine and set my worldview Silent Spring by Rachel Carson spired by the Czechs and laugh planet rather futile. tion, and the film is after all, for life. The Czechs are excel- was published in 1962, it cle- at our own absurdity. The naive questions from about the Czech sapiens, alt- lent mushroom pickers has arly pointed out that our agri- The film premiered at the the female machine and his an- hough, in reality, it is about all the same strong message and culture and food production One World Festival in Prague. swers describing the absurd- of us living within a modern use some of the same cine- was depleting life on Earth. Alt- ity of human actions brings consuming society. The final matographic language. While hough the book trigged the rise [email protected]

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 45 Sapphire, Afghanistan, Passage to India (c) Fred Baldwin Saying something substantial about others

PHOTOGRAPHY: World renowned photographer Fred Baldwin has published his memoirs at the age of 90. Is this a peculiar insight into a person who, through everything and everyone Judging by the reviews, it has Look at me, Mom. Fred Baldwin he meets, first and been a pleasure for many, but for grew up in a white upper-class me, it was a tear-jerking struggle family in the southern states, foremost sees himself? to get through photographer lost his diplomatic father at BY NINA TRIGE ANDERSEN Fred Baldwin's endless autobio- the age of five, and never really graphy. Almost 700 pages, not- managed to live up to his fe- hing less could do it, and if it's male-dominated family's expe- Baldwin's images you are fasci- ctations. He was just as unable Dear Mr. Picasso. An illustrated nated by, then it's not Dear Mr. to concentrate on studies as the distinguished blood in his to them. But purely narratively, love affair with freedom Picasso. An illustrated love affair he was to socialize in the finer veins? it seems somewhat comical to Author Fred Baldwin with freedom you must seize. circles. build the memoirs – and their The Netherlands Without being able to count, The autobiography opens Picasso's house. From here, titles – around a «meeting» be- it seems to me that the num- with the description of a meet- we are drawn through the lar- tween Fred Baldwin and Pablo ber of photos is unreasona- ing Fred Baldwin had with his ge and small that have happe- Picasso. bly exceeded by, for example, mother – after finding his pho- ned to Fred Baldwin through After camping for a few the number of descriptions tographic calling. Finally, he a very long life. When he re- days outside Picasso's house, of Baldwin's encounters with had to show her that he was ached the Korean War, where a young Baldwin was allowed «girls» that he found, more or due something. To say the he took amateur photographs to come in with a large group less, interesting and beautiful. least, that meeting did not go not freezing in the foxholes of of other guests – in a classic Baldwin is – or became over as the prodigal son had hoped. the Korean winter – or failed to Baldwinian way, it doesn't mat- time – a gifted photographer, In contrast to many other intervene when fellow soldiers ter who these others were and according to his own making parts of the book, this drama is burned civilian villages – I reali- what they are doing there – because he was too dyslexic to actually quite intriguing, albeit zed what the text's big problem and exchange a few sentences become a writer. Even without sometimes difficult to find: Is is: Fred Baldwin is a man who with Picasso that allow him to spell check and proofreading, Fred Baldwin's meticulous re- knows how to get a little out of photograph in the house. however, dyslexia would be his view of his own family tree in- a lot. At least when he has to It is understood that there smallest problem. The biggest tended as a backdrop to under- convey it in words. is a kinship between Baldwin thing is that he doesn't find standing his role as the family's Of course, one should nev- and Picasso, which Baldwin any details in his life too small black sheep? Or is it also a kind er make judgments about the honestly describes as utterly to overshadow the big events of (perhaps unconscious, but lives of others and what has one-sided: Baldwin seeks a fa- he's been in. certainly bizarre) boast about been of value and importance ther figure and inspiration and

46 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 7 SPRING 2020 thetic person who has written how, for example, the KKK's re- himself. Yet one must note that his memories. A man who is cruiting mechanisms were also in a marvellous way, Baldwin aware of the civil assaults he linked to the brutality of class. – through his camera, not his committed on his fellow sol- A man who will do good to text – still manages to express diers Korea should not have others and especially to those something significant about occurred. A man who, despite who are outside in different others. his whiteness and upper-class ways, as he himself felt. That's upbringing, realized early that not to say what might have Translated from the original racism was killing and that come out of Baldwin's pho- via NY TID. black Americans were in their tography if he had been able to good right to take up the fight. see the world to a greater ex- [email protected] A person who also looked at tent without ever having to see

North to Lappland, Civil Rights (x2), Ben and Jeanette. (c) Fred Baldwin Submissions are open for finds it in the notion of Picasso, Baldwin writes about himself a performance that, to his luck, and meeting people. He also Open City remains intact after «MODET». finds it appropriate to inform Windows like mirrors. But in the reader that he doesn't even fact, the two have something remember the names (until he Documentary very obvious in common: their meets his life partner, journal- (for) use of girls/women as win- ist Wendy Watriss, who we are Festival 2020 dows they mirror, rather than first introduced to at the very trying to spot what's behind end of the memoirs). them. Where this feature of We are accepting short, mid and feature length non- Picasso is expressed in his art Outside. After experiencing 700 fiction films, short audio documentaries and cross- (which curators have support- pages, Baldwin uses not just ed with exhibitions such as women, but everything and media projects now. «Picasso's women», surpassed everyone – including the Kore- only by the tiring clamour of an War and the Ku Klux Klan – Deadline: May 8th 2020 «Picasso's horses»), Baldwin's as a window into which to look, Submit via: opencitylondon.com expression is in his written ac- it's hard to detach his reading count. of his photos from this new in- TW: opencitydocs Fred Baldwin is a man who sight into the photographer's knows how to get a little out of understanding of the relations- FB: opencitylondon a lot. hip between himself and the IG: opencitydocs «I loved the girls, I loved each world. and every one of them,» as It is, in many ways, a sympa-

SPRING 2020 N# 7 | MODERN TIMES REVIEW 47 to her many elegant establish- But to balance this cathar- ing shots, Tsilyk composes a tic fiction, Mira (and thus, Tsi- beautifully framed image of lyk) also choose to document Mira and a friend dressed to each family member as they the nines on graduation day sit, one by one, in front of a – happily posed in front of a black backdrop to deliver a disintegrating building bat- confessional of sorts – on how tle-scarred with scaffolding. the war has affected them, When Mira and her mom travel how its sights and sounds are across the country to Kyiv so now part of their personal she can apply for a film school landscape. When Mira holds scholarship, their faces reveal forth with a lovely soliloquy more than merely a longing for on «war is emptiness,» Tsi- higher education. lyk’s framing be- For Mira, it’s a The precariousness comes equally riv- chance at a life. eting. The aspiring of life somewhat DOP is seen in pro- counterintuitively The act of creation. file, but the camera And yet, the pre- leads to the sheer is pointed squarely cariousness of life joy of being alive at her mother as The healing power of cinema somewhat counte- she fights to hold rintuitively leads back tears. Then DONBASS: A single Earth Is Blue as an Orange is an the filmmaker is also a celebra- to the sheer joy of being alive. it’s the mother's turn to ex- mother and her four unusual addition to the recent ted author) are bound together Even when Anna and Mira ar- plain how her decision to stay slew of nonfiction films por- by a shared project: an attempt gue about specific shots – like was not an easy one. Just be- children cope with life traying everyday life in war zo- to create a narrative work ba- how best to go about showing cause she is unable to leave inside a war zone through nes. This particular frontline is sed on their own wartime expe- their destroyed city, artisti- the extended family – and their collective artistic the «red zone» of eastern Ukrai- riences. cally – we see how the act of poignantly asks if she leaves, ne, a place where a young boy Headed by eldest sibling creation can be both an exerci- «Who will rebuild?» – doesn’t project. BY LAUREN WISSOT can look straight into (Kyiv na- Mira, whose sole life dream is se in bonding and a means of mean she isn’t gravely aware tive) Tsilyk’s lens and explain to become a cinematographer, processing an incomprehensi- of what she’s putting her chil- how one can tell, just by the and aided by her single mom ble reality. dren through. The Earth Is Blue as an sound, if a shell is heading to- Anna, two brothers, and sis- A nail-biting tracking shot By the time we reach the Orange wards you, or moving away. ter, the quartet craft sequenc- from behind a tank leads to a doc’s grand finale, the very es that Mira then directs and panicked woman dashing up necessity of art becomes stun- Director Iryna Tsilyk Cinema vérité. Or, is it really his films – which Tsilyk, in turn, to the camouflaged soldiers, ningly apparent. – A portrait of Ukraine, Lithuania big sister’s lens? What makes captures cinema vérité style. pleading for medicine for her unified survival. Tsilyk’s film so unexpected is Interestingly, Tsilyk’s most sick child. Suddenly, we hear Winner of the World Cinema that it is also a meta meditation powerful scenes involve the «cut». Then, the men in uniform Plays at Thessaloniki Documentary Directing Award on the healing power of cinema unspoken, the ones in which are on the ground, smiling for Documentary Festival at this year’s Sundance Film itself. The family at the heart of the war in Donbass hovers like Mira’s camera (and, of course, Festival, Iryna Tsilyk’s The Tsilyk’s story (not incidentally, a ghost offscreen. In addition Tsilyk’s too). [email protected]

48 MODERN TIMES REVIEW | N# 6 FALL 2019