Author: Magnus Isacsson

Father Jerôme Ledoux, the main character from the film ‘Shake the Devil Off.’

The RIDM ended in beauty with a closing film which I loved, ‘ Shake the Devil Off ‘ by Peter Entell, from Switzerland. Filmed in News-Orléeans, it follows the struggle of a predominantly black population trying to maintain its parish of St Augustin. In this corner of the world which has been devastated by the hurricane Katrina, the church, with its incredible pastor, it is the symbol not only of it’s historical identity but also the solidarity of its people.Yet the hierarchy within the Catholic Church finds that St Agustine does not bring in enough dividents, and the archbishop trys to close it down, wanting to impose upon them a white priest from the parish next door.

The film follows a battle which ensues in an flawless manner, staying close to the characters, following evey twist and turn in the fight.
The choice of music reminds us of the past marked by slavery, and that the afro-American culture is simply marvellous – this complety impregnates this film which is a true work of art!

The priest Jerôme Ledoux is an extraordinary figure, and was there with Peter Entell for the closing ceremony, dancing on the stage. He even succeeded in drawing everyone into a singlong with gospel songs!

Thanks to the RIDM for the great programme and wonderful photos!

(Jeannette Pope. Translation.)

Angelina, one of the people from the film: De l’autre côté du pays, in a dormitory where her daughter, Charlotte was taken by the rebels and held captive for 8 years.

The RDIM began with force. I found the choice of the opening film, Junior – a film by Isabelle Lavigne and Stephane Thibault, really very good. The film-makers spent one year in Baie-Comeau on the north coast of the St Laurent immersed with a team of young ice hockey players. We live day by day the difficult decisions which have to be taken – and especially lived by these young players who have the dream and ambition to become future professionels. An original subject, with great access and clear esthetics (We never see the actual game, which is good because the real subject is elsewhere, in the revealing interactions between players and coaches. ) I admire the perseverance of the filmmakers and also the great editing by René Roberge. The support of the ONF ( NFB) and the producers Yves Bisaillon and Johanne Bergeron to have brought this film to the furthest possible point.

Amoung other films that I saw was : Catherine Hebert’s film : De l’autre cote du Pays, produced with Brigitte Dion – Mango films. A very beautiful film on the victims of the civil war in Uganda – filmed in the northern part of the country. We are able to get close to the people in a very intimate way; allowed to take the time to listen as well as get to know the people. This is a film where a certain structure rules between a poetic frugality from the filmmaker and the very hard and tough realities of war. I spoke with Catherine and this is what she recounted:
“This film was made clandestinely. The Ugandan government did not permit any journalist nor filmmaker to get anywhere less than 40 kilometres from the city. To get to the north we had to go at least 350 km, which meant that the equipment had to be light and discrete, yet we don’t really feel this in the quality of the film. At the same time electricity cuts were frequent, we could not reply on any sort of network, we had to frequently recharge our camera batteries with a car battery. The technical challenge was huge. Lastly, due to the state of the roads and being unable to see at night (because of the attacks by rebels), to move up north was particularly difficult. ”

The choice to make such a poetic film on such a hard subject was not easy. Can you speak to me about it?

” The first thing that I said to Annie Jean, the first day of editing was that I wanted to make a film that was political as well poetic. This was our motto the whole time during the work. As I had spent a lot of time in Uganda before filming, I had a clear idea of how I wanted to film this country as well as the people.

“The war in the north of Uganda is insidious and permanent. In other words this is a war, which shows itself the more that one observes it. The beauty of the luxurious countryside and the nonchalant slowness of the people do not allow us to feel at first glance that we are in the presence of a continuing war. We are far away from the war that is feed to us by CNN from the Orient. One has to spend some time here to feel the unhappiness and to understand the suffocating violence, which envelops everything here in the north of the country. I had to remind myself the whole time as I filmed that I wanted to use this contrast between the beauty of the country and the violence of the conflict. This is why I chose that the war should be revealed by people where daily life functions through violence and fear.

“The film exposes the war in such a way that the people live it every day, pushing them to hide, to move on, to fight, to carry children in their bellies…. ….Each person reveals something about how the war has ravaged their life and in which ways it has taken them – children who hide in the midst of night, of the deportation camps, which bind them so awfully together….
I wanted, with these images to feel a compassion but not to commiserate. Too often, films made by outsiders seem to find it hard to make this distinction with the political documentary which is sacrificed at times by form; which is inevitable in certain cases, yet I was convinced that it was possible to pay service to the form as well as the denunciation. A documentary can at times be political as well as aesthetic, it can be a rugged cinematographic search, yet deliciously filmed. I hoped to not only direct the camera towards these people, I also wanted to accompany them more then observe them. The camera is with them more than on them.
In this film I wanted to transmit this atmosphere where everything seemed possible. By the rhythm of the images and the editing and by the construction of the sound I hoped to create a counterpoint between the drama being evoked, and on the other side the serene betrayal of the people and the locations. The menace is not punctual nor routine, but is constantly present; although there are no real signs that let us know this. This tension makes up the numerous contradictions in Africa, and in this conflict.
“To finish with – one must not forget that these images are also born from the sensibility and the wonderful work that the DOP gave to this project – Sebeastien Gros. They were also influced by the numerous group discussions that we had ; including Melanie Gauthier the sound recordist who created the sound scape for the film.”

(Translation: Jeannette Pope.)

(This is a translation from a post from last week. Sorry it’s late! Jeannette Pope.)

Rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I saw more films at the RDIM. The Danish film –The Monastery tells a most extraordinary story, so well told that we completely ignore a certain lack of professionalism in the actual shooting of the film. In Denmark an old and eccentric man decides to leave his castle – which is in shambles – to the Russian Orthodox church to change it into a monastery. As a delegation of sisters arrive to take possession and install themselves, tensions begin to rise which at times become very amusing.
The filmmaker – Pernille Rose Gronkjaer manages to get close to the old man, Monsieur Vig and an attachment grows….The film won the Joris Ivens award at IDFA 2006

I also saw Ghosts of Abu Ghraib; very strong, about the inquest into scandal and tortures in this famous American-run prison in Iraq. Produced by HBO. It is efficient, television slick – and leaves absolutely no doubt that the ultimate responsibility for the torture lies higher up, with U.S. military and political leaders .

But I really want to speak about Raymonde Provencher’s new film. Les deshonneur des casques bleus, about the epidemic of rape and other sexual crimes committed by soldiers from the United Nations in several countries; in particular in The Democratic Republic of Congo where most of the film was shot.
This inquiry is without any complacency what so ever. It is solid and very well filmed, following up on Raymonde’s previous film : ‘War Babies’ on rape as a weapon of war. These are both from Macumba International Productions, a small company with a good track record based here in Montreal.

It is paramount to report what The Blue Beret’s are up to, this is clear; but it also takes courage to do so. I asked Raymonde if she had hesitated, if she had been afraid to give ammunition to the enemies of the United Nations, to the whole idea of multilateral intervention and peacekeeping.
Here is her answer:

“Don’t we always have to argue with ourselves when confronted with such situations. To say or not to say; that’s it, huh ? In this story I am completely on the victims’ side. I was so very shocked by the irresponsible attitude of certain people who work for the United Nations. People who have a moral authority, simply that, over the civil population who are so vulnerable.
From the beginning I specified in my scenario that I would not challenge the existence of the casques blues. Yet what to do about it? This tool of intervention used by the International community has to be held in place, but are we to tolerate the perversity which prevails? We’re not talking here about isolated cases, these are serious slip ups; crimes; pedophilic acts, which mostly go unpunished. These are victims of war and having lost everything they are put into camps and then along come the casques bleus, and they hope, these people, finally, that their nightmares may end. But no, they are victims of new indignities….This makes me think of the Rwandans who sought out refuge in churches to hide from the genocide to find out that the priest, or the sister were hand in hand with the killers…
I do not think that I am going to give ammunition to the enemies of the UN. I do not think that under this pretext, they must silence the truth. It is necessary to do something about the shootings, and it is urgent, otherwise, the United Nations will have no more credibility. It’s everyones job, including documentary filmmakers, to draw attention to the problems which have to be solved. ”

A must-see film !

(This is a translation of a post from last week, thanks to Jeannette Pope.)

The RIDM was at its peak yesterday.

I saw ‘The War on Democracy’ by John Pilger who was here for the occasion. Not my type of cinema – the moments of spontaneity are rare – but it has a very good analysis of the American intervention and progressive forces in Latin America. The passionate crowd at Concordia University received Pilger like a hero. (A screening jointly organized along with Cinema Politica.)

John Pilger, Photo: Simon Bujold

CARLOS FERRAND’S COUP DE COEUR: ‘DESCRIPTION OF A MEMORY’

Last week I asked the programmers of RIDM to give us their ‘coup de Coeur.’ This week it is the turn of my filmmaker friends.

The RIDM dedicated a page to Carlos Ferrand. The festival has presented three of his shorts as well as his new feature-length film – Americano – produced by Les films du tricycle.
Carlos is a visionary filmmaker full of contradiction and ambiguity and with one hell of a writing style!
Here is his ‘coup de Coeur’, a film that will be screened later this week in which an Israeli filmmaker reappropriates the material in a film by Chris Marker to construct his own vision of things.

Carlos Ferrand below, the Papa.

‘Description of a Memory’ the film by Dan Geva stays in the head and spirit like the good proverbial wine in the mouth. In contrast to the current fashion which puts simplicity and other synonyms of easiness into form the core; here is an ambitiously, complex, difficultly rich and over demanding piece of work.
Like the memory that Dan Geva tries to catch, the film has numerous facets. The surprising element is that the form and content are in harmony. What is absent in the work is that tyranny of content – which is so often present in documentaries – where the form lies flat in front of ‘Master Reality!’
No, not here – the viewer has to work almost harder than the filmmaker. Dan Geva nags into our brains, obliging us to constantly reconstruct his meanings and marry them with the images and decipher the signs in Chris Marker’s film and his own.
It is like a hunt of meaning with the film, filmed with a terrifying angular objective which seems to swallow the world.
Enough is not enough and the aggressivity of the images makes one think of the battle between the Mongoose and the snake. A fight till the death against all stupidity and age-old ideas!

Dan Geva has balls. Dan and his wide-angle lens stands up against Chris Marker, the sacred monster of independent cinema in a sort of game, but also with generosity which proves that he himself is worthy of being a monster and that we should bless him.
Dan the mongoose crunches his head – a sort of bitter taste – like most of the best tonics – to to be savored raw!”

From the film ‘Comme à Cuba.’

(This is a translation of the post from last week. Thanks Jeannette Pope)

Some weeks ago I attended a master workshop by Serge Giguère, one of our celebrated documentary filmmakers. His most recent film, the extraordinary – À Force des Réves – Productions du Rapide blanc – won the Jutra for the best documentary of 2006.
My friend Simon Bujold and I filmed the event and we’ll have the opportunity to discuss this at a later date.
Meanwhile I asked Serge to speak to us about a film which he liked at the Rencontres du documantaire de Montreal.
Here’s his choice:

“ I saw a film yesterday evening which touched me a lot – ‘Comme a Cuba’ – A film which the filmmaker Fernand Bélanger left unfinished before his death. His friends, Louise Dugal and Yves Angrignon luckily for all of us completed this work.

During more than an hour we are transported by images of workers doing simple trades and living their everyday life while the days tick by, driven along by a sound track of Cuban popular songs.
It’s incredible how the editing twines in perfect synchronicity between what we hear in the songs and what we see in the picture. It makes us feel so close to all the small daily gestures as it captures the Cuban soul. This is homage to ‘the people of people’ who, in spite of the pressure in their everyday life, the very precariousness of it, still manage to find moments of happiness.
As the theme song says which comes in like a lament, pulsing and pushing the film as it builds around the days: “When will I arrive home? ”. This is a nice metaphor for a film which steps towards freedom. I really suggest that you see it for it’s spellbinding images which cut into the heart of Cuban daily life.
I hope that it will be broadcast, for this is a film made with such a big personal investment by the filmmaker.”