Doc/Fest Blog
IFFR 2009
By Hussain Currimbhoy 04 February, 2010
Michael Almereyda put it very well this morning before his screening of 'Paradise': Something like: "Try not to look at this film like its a ladder where you think about where you are going. This film is more of a trampoline."
That is exactly the creedo of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has taken and its especially acute this year with some exceptional experimental and creative documentaries. Fresh from Sundance, 'Russian Lessons', charting the genocides in Ossetia and Chechnya left not a dry eye in the house - hard truth: nothing quite beats a character just telling their story to camera if you want to reach the heart of the audience and stay there. Canadian Mike Hoolboom's experimental film, 'Mark' was a surprising treat with its gradual, undulating story of the suicide of an animal activist and all-round-lovely-human that gently displays the simultaneous closeness and distance we all share with people we think we know so well.
A topper on the audience list is a doc no less: 'Do It Again' by Robert Patton-Sproull (of Public Enemy doc fame). And no wonder - when a music journalist from the USA decides to make it his life mission to legendary British band 'The Kinks' back together you can only laugh at the man's madness and admire his determination.
If you like it musical, digital an personal please do NOT miss Pedro Costa's 'Ne change rien'. Without question one of the most original and intimate music docs I've ever seen.
The power of the personal connection is somewhat ubiquitous at IFFR this year. The CPH DOX team gave us an update on their new Dox Lab project - 12 Scandinavian filmmakers are hand picked and matched up with 12 internationals from Palestine, Lebanon, Rwanda, the Philippines (and others) to make whateva they like with €11,000 and a residency in Paris. Long-gestation filmmakers working with people like Khavn de la Cruz (the personification of prolific, he often makes his films in an afternoon) for example will no doubt bring some very exciting results as cultures and working practices collide in 2010. I can't wait.
And of course, the 'Where is Africa?' and 'Forget Africa' Programmes by IFFR have come about only because Gertjan and his team spent most of 2009 in around a dozen African nations getting to know filmmakers and encouraging new work with funding schemes. If Herzog's new 4 min film, a speechless love song whose simplicity belies what must have been a rather profound experience for him in Africa, the nascent creative trade between Africa and the West will bear fruit that has the power to produce a cinema renaissance comparable to the Iranian new wave - mark my words.
Day 5 and Eduardo Coutinho's 'Moscow' awaits tonight dear friends. I'm ready for anything.