FILMS AT THE SHADOW FESTIVAL 2008 - (Amsterdam) - EDITION 8 ½
Films in alphabetical order:
Chaiqian (Demolition)
J. P. Sniadecki (USA)
/ 62 min
Camera, Sound, Editing: J.P. Sniadecki
Post-production Sound Mix: Ernst Karel
Synopsis
Chaiqian (Demolition) is a portrait of urban space, migrant labor, and ephemeral relationships in the center of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in western China. Attending first to the formal dimensions of the transforming worksite – including the demands of physical labor and the relationship between human and machine – the film shifts focus to the social dynamics of a group of thirty men and women who have come from the countryside to work in this ever-changing urban landscape. In exploring the various banal yet striking interactions between these members of China’s ‘floating population’, the city’s residents, and the filmmaker, Chaiqian (Demolition) also simultaneously expresses and resists the fleeting nature of urban experience.
Director's Statement
Every city in China has housed me above, below, adjacent to, or within a worksite. Every walk in China has taken me past spaces of construction, demolition, renewal. This is not by design; it is nothing new to say that no matter where one turns in China, one beholds a sight of rapid change. And all these sights and sites magnify an atmosphere of ephemerality pervading the city. I'd always wanted to explore this atmosphere by focusing on two things: the processes that transform urban space and the experiences of the men and women whose labor realizes these changes. On a balmy July evening in 2007, the right confluence of elements made the exploration of transience a cinematic possibility. Walking through the center of Chengdu with my camera, I turned a corner and was immediately captivated by the sights featured in Chaiqian.
I am grateful for the hospitality of the workers and managers, and for their patience with my naivete, my slow pace, and my desire to hold on to a fleeting moment, a transitory tone, a fragile sense of place, a temporary community.
John Paul Sniadecki
Post-production Sound Mix: Ernst Karel
Synopsis
Chaiqian (Demolition) is a portrait of urban space, migrant labor, and ephemeral relationships in the center of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in western China. Attending first to the formal dimensions of the transforming worksite – including the demands of physical labor and the relationship between human and machine – the film shifts focus to the social dynamics of a group of thirty men and women who have come from the countryside to work in this ever-changing urban landscape. In exploring the various banal yet striking interactions between these members of China’s ‘floating population’, the city’s residents, and the filmmaker, Chaiqian (Demolition) also simultaneously expresses and resists the fleeting nature of urban experience.
Director's Statement
Every city in China has housed me above, below, adjacent to, or within a worksite. Every walk in China has taken me past spaces of construction, demolition, renewal. This is not by design; it is nothing new to say that no matter where one turns in China, one beholds a sight of rapid change. And all these sights and sites magnify an atmosphere of ephemerality pervading the city. I'd always wanted to explore this atmosphere by focusing on two things: the processes that transform urban space and the experiences of the men and women whose labor realizes these changes. On a balmy July evening in 2007, the right confluence of elements made the exploration of transience a cinematic possibility. Walking through the center of Chengdu with my camera, I turned a corner and was immediately captivated by the sights featured in Chaiqian.
I am grateful for the hospitality of the workers and managers, and for their patience with my naivete, my slow pace, and my desire to hold on to a fleeting moment, a transitory tone, a fragile sense of place, a temporary community.
John Paul Sniadecki
Doelenzaal - Friday, November 21st at 20:00
Currents of Destiny
George Kuchar (USA)
/ 25 min
Netherlands Premiere
Deep waters flow around the living, dead and inanimate objects that bring this picture to life. The film invites us to join the young and old of both eastern energies and western creative souls, including a conversation with Albert Maysles. As ever, Kuchar treats us to a hands-on lexicon of filmmaking.
Deep waters flow around the living, dead and inanimate objects that bring this picture to life. The film invites us to join the young and old of both eastern energies and western creative souls, including a conversation with Albert Maysles. As ever, Kuchar treats us to a hands-on lexicon of filmmaking.
Doelenzaal - Sunday, November 23rd at 19:30
Dwoboj Klasyczny (Classical Biathlon)
Bogdan Dziworski (Poland)
/ 11 min
Netherlands Premiere
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
Doelenzaal - Sunday, November 23rd at 19:30
Fechtmistrz (Fencing Master)
Bogdan Dziworski (Poland)
/ 12 min
Netherlands Premiere
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
Doelenzaal - Friday, November 21st at 20:00
Frauentag (Woman's Day)
Johannes Holzhausen (Austria)
/ 35 min
Director: Johannes Holzhausen
Cinematography: Helmut Wimmer and Joerg Burger
Editing: Michael Palm and Dieter Pichler
Sound: Johannes Holzhausen and Regina Höllbacher
Participants: Emma König, Herbert Hüttl and Wenzel Schottenhaml
Music: Baier Quartett
Executive Producer: Johannes Holzhausen
Sound Design: Michael Palm
Production: Navigator Film
Synopsis
Immediately at the beginning of the film we run up against a boundary stone, a relic of a past age, made of nearly indestructible granite. In the middle of a forest, which seems idyllic in the twilight, it marks an otherwise invisible division: Bavaria on one side, the Czech Republic on the other.
Woman’s Day clearly portrays the fault lines of history in the circumstances of a family and individual lives: A grouchy old man, a woman who was abruptly separated from her lover, a son who disappeared into the underground for ten years. They are the protagonists of an arrangement centered on borders, borders that still have an effect even if they are no longer officially recognized - as immobile as if they were made of granite.
Director’s Statement
At first I was intrigued by the hatred, that old Wenzel so passionately and tenaciously had been acting out on Emma, for more than sixty years now. Both Emma and Wenzel originally are Sudeten-Germans. In 1945/46 they had to leave their home towns and resettle in Germany.
However, I didn’t want to make a film about this specific event in history. I wanted to move within the microcosm of my protagonists, and allow them to tell us about their mutual history of being evicted, yet from two completely contrary perspectives.
Another angle is portrayed through the eyes of Herbert, Emma's son. In order to liberate himself from his background he joins the left wing protests of the Sixties only to realize later that because of German bureaucracy he cannot escape his past.
My main aim was to bring together in my film all three characters that were directly connected with each other sixty years ago.
Johannes Holzhausen
Cinematography: Helmut Wimmer and Joerg Burger
Editing: Michael Palm and Dieter Pichler
Sound: Johannes Holzhausen and Regina Höllbacher
Participants: Emma König, Herbert Hüttl and Wenzel Schottenhaml
Music: Baier Quartett
Executive Producer: Johannes Holzhausen
Sound Design: Michael Palm
Production: Navigator Film
Synopsis
Immediately at the beginning of the film we run up against a boundary stone, a relic of a past age, made of nearly indestructible granite. In the middle of a forest, which seems idyllic in the twilight, it marks an otherwise invisible division: Bavaria on one side, the Czech Republic on the other.
Woman’s Day clearly portrays the fault lines of history in the circumstances of a family and individual lives: A grouchy old man, a woman who was abruptly separated from her lover, a son who disappeared into the underground for ten years. They are the protagonists of an arrangement centered on borders, borders that still have an effect even if they are no longer officially recognized - as immobile as if they were made of granite.
Director’s Statement
At first I was intrigued by the hatred, that old Wenzel so passionately and tenaciously had been acting out on Emma, for more than sixty years now. Both Emma and Wenzel originally are Sudeten-Germans. In 1945/46 they had to leave their home towns and resettle in Germany.
However, I didn’t want to make a film about this specific event in history. I wanted to move within the microcosm of my protagonists, and allow them to tell us about their mutual history of being evicted, yet from two completely contrary perspectives.
Another angle is portrayed through the eyes of Herbert, Emma's son. In order to liberate himself from his background he joins the left wing protests of the Sixties only to realize later that because of German bureaucracy he cannot escape his past.
My main aim was to bring together in my film all three characters that were directly connected with each other sixty years ago.
Johannes Holzhausen
Cinema d'amis - Tuesday, November 25th at 19:30
Kilka opowiesci o czlowieku (A few stories about people)
Bogdan Dziworski (Poland)
/ 20 min
Netherlands Premiere
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
One of the three magical short films by Bogdan Dziworski that rely entirely on the image; not a word is spoken. Rhythm and lighting are given their proper place and the documentary can indeed rival fiction - something by now forgotten as the use of interview and the relevant subject have become the modern documentary’s straightjacket.
Doelenzaal - Sunday, November 23rd at 19:30
Mario and Nini
Chloe Ruthven (England)
/ 70 min
Production: Chloe Ruthven
Co-production: Olly Lambert and Simon Chambers
Editing: Lara Agnew
Synopsis
Filmed over seven years, Mario and Nini tells the moving and shocking story of two young boys coming of age in a world of street gangs and crime.
In 2001 the director got a job in a central London primary school, working with children who were failing in class. Nini and his friend Mario immediately stood out as two, bright adventurous Albanian refugees, and Chloe began working with them, encouraging them to use her video camera as way of exploring their own lives.
But as the bonds between them grow, the emotional stakes get higher as the boys threaten to slide back to gang life.
Director’s Statement
This film tells the disturbing story of two boys growing up in a world where childhood is under threat, and asks fundamental questions about how we view and raise our children. The film came out of a deep concern about the children I was teaching who were becoming alienated from the educational system as young as seven and turned to the culture of the street as a place to belong. I would like this to be seen by educators, politicians, teachers and parents, so that perhaps we can start to have the constructive conversations that might stop these negative cycles.
Chloe Ruthven
Co-production: Olly Lambert and Simon Chambers
Editing: Lara Agnew
Synopsis
Filmed over seven years, Mario and Nini tells the moving and shocking story of two young boys coming of age in a world of street gangs and crime.
In 2001 the director got a job in a central London primary school, working with children who were failing in class. Nini and his friend Mario immediately stood out as two, bright adventurous Albanian refugees, and Chloe began working with them, encouraging them to use her video camera as way of exploring their own lives.
But as the bonds between them grow, the emotional stakes get higher as the boys threaten to slide back to gang life.
Director’s Statement
This film tells the disturbing story of two boys growing up in a world where childhood is under threat, and asks fundamental questions about how we view and raise our children. The film came out of a deep concern about the children I was teaching who were becoming alienated from the educational system as young as seven and turned to the culture of the street as a place to belong. I would like this to be seen by educators, politicians, teachers and parents, so that perhaps we can start to have the constructive conversations that might stop these negative cycles.
Chloe Ruthven
Cinema d'amis - Wednesday, November 26th at 19:30
Serbian Epics
Pawel Pawlikowksi (UK)
/ 55 min
Synopsis
In Serbian Epics, set in Bosnia during the war, Pawlikowski steers clear of the usual clichés of films about war. He takes on a more anthropological perspective relying not on commentary but on the power of images: a mass baptism before the final battle, the bizarre antics of the remaining members of the Karadjordje dynasty and the tribal chants of Serbian peasant/soldiers on the front line. The result is a universal enquiry into the nature of the nation state and the ethnocentric view of the world. Serbian Epics includes close up footage of Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, the latter still wanted by the international court of justice, and the famous siege of Sarajevo.
In Serbian Epics, set in Bosnia during the war, Pawlikowski steers clear of the usual clichés of films about war. He takes on a more anthropological perspective relying not on commentary but on the power of images: a mass baptism before the final battle, the bizarre antics of the remaining members of the Karadjordje dynasty and the tribal chants of Serbian peasant/soldiers on the front line. The result is a universal enquiry into the nature of the nation state and the ethnocentric view of the world. Serbian Epics includes close up footage of Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic, the latter still wanted by the international court of justice, and the famous siege of Sarajevo.
Doelenzaal - Sunday, November 23rd at 16:30
Sonbol
Niko Apel (Germany)
/ 54 min
Camera: Beate Maria Scherer
Sound: Niko Apel
Editing: Ben von Grafenstein
Assistant director / translator: Sarah Buchenau
Production: Jochen Laube
Synopsis
‘Why can’t you actually find a man?’ Sonbol is asked by her mother. The answer is silence.
Sonbol Fatemi is 35; she is single, has her own dentist surgery and also a passion for rally races, competing against men. Sonbol lives in the Holy City of Mashad, in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Living a life like this means that she has to fight every day: Against her mother, who would love to arrange a marriage for her. Against the sports administration, that wants to exclude the women from the rally races. And not least, against her own doubts about God and if he is on her side.
Director’s Statement
I didn`t want to make a film about motorsports in Iran. The job of a rally driver interested me, but above all I was curious about the person behind that job.
Who is this woman, who, in a male dominated society like Iran, slips into a racing suit and speeds through the desert going over 100 mph?
I really feared the moment when Sonbol would realize that apart from rally driving this film was going to touch on far more aspects of her personality.
One day she invited us to her parent’s house. We sat in the beautiful garden enjoying our tea when Sonbol came out very frankly: ‘Niko, do you want to make a film about the rally driver Sonbol Fatemi, or do you want to make a film about me?’
I hesitated, but then replied: ‘Absolutely about you!’
After a very long second of thinking she said with a serious face: ‘Ok, count me in!’
I am still convinced that this was the key moment in the process of this film.
Niko Apel
Sound: Niko Apel
Editing: Ben von Grafenstein
Assistant director / translator: Sarah Buchenau
Production: Jochen Laube
Synopsis
‘Why can’t you actually find a man?’ Sonbol is asked by her mother. The answer is silence.
Sonbol Fatemi is 35; she is single, has her own dentist surgery and also a passion for rally races, competing against men. Sonbol lives in the Holy City of Mashad, in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Living a life like this means that she has to fight every day: Against her mother, who would love to arrange a marriage for her. Against the sports administration, that wants to exclude the women from the rally races. And not least, against her own doubts about God and if he is on her side.
Director’s Statement
I didn`t want to make a film about motorsports in Iran. The job of a rally driver interested me, but above all I was curious about the person behind that job.
Who is this woman, who, in a male dominated society like Iran, slips into a racing suit and speeds through the desert going over 100 mph?
I really feared the moment when Sonbol would realize that apart from rally driving this film was going to touch on far more aspects of her personality.
One day she invited us to her parent’s house. We sat in the beautiful garden enjoying our tea when Sonbol came out very frankly: ‘Niko, do you want to make a film about the rally driver Sonbol Fatemi, or do you want to make a film about me?’
I hesitated, but then replied: ‘Absolutely about you!’
After a very long second of thinking she said with a serious face: ‘Ok, count me in!’
I am still convinced that this was the key moment in the process of this film.
Niko Apel
Cinema d'amis - Tuesday, November 25th at 19:30
South Main
Kelly Parker (USA)
/ 77 min
Production, direction, photography, sound, editing: Kelly Parker
Sound-mix: Ben Huff
Featuring: Latisha Fikes, Tajuana Green and Tena McConico
Very special thanks to: Thom Andersen, Jem Cohen and Berenice Reynaud
Synopsis
Three African American single mothers struggle to raise their families and regain their lives after their South Central apartment complex, known within the community as ‘The Headquarters of Death’, is closed down in December 2004 by the city of Los Angeles due to rampant gang crime.
No lurid wallowing in myths of the ghetto, no conjuring up of the ‘social powder-keg’, no social kitsch, but instead a participatory, exact view, concentrating on the women themselves. Precise, strictly framed images result from this, which neither accuse us nor appeal to us, but that simply show. Images from the underclass, telling of poverty and the precarious living conditions on the social periphery.
Director’s Statement
In 2004 I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about the City of Los Angeles' plans to close down an apartment complex due to gang violence. The article noted that the families being evicted were comprised mostly of single mothers with few resources who were uncertain about whether or not they qualified for a relocation subsidy. My interest in the pressures that poverty places on families comes from my background.
As a child my mother, without an education and raising me alone, suffered from severe psychological distress. She and I moved a lot and at times lived in government-subsidized housing complexes. At the time I read the article my mother, who was living in Florida, had just become homeless again and had to move into a shelter. Our relationship fuelled my interest in the lives and survival skills of the mothers in South Main. My goal was to respect and show the reality of the family's situations, not to romanticize them or push viewers emotionally, not to fall back on typical or sensationalized images.
Kelly Parker
Sound-mix: Ben Huff
Featuring: Latisha Fikes, Tajuana Green and Tena McConico
Very special thanks to: Thom Andersen, Jem Cohen and Berenice Reynaud
Synopsis
Three African American single mothers struggle to raise their families and regain their lives after their South Central apartment complex, known within the community as ‘The Headquarters of Death’, is closed down in December 2004 by the city of Los Angeles due to rampant gang crime.
No lurid wallowing in myths of the ghetto, no conjuring up of the ‘social powder-keg’, no social kitsch, but instead a participatory, exact view, concentrating on the women themselves. Precise, strictly framed images result from this, which neither accuse us nor appeal to us, but that simply show. Images from the underclass, telling of poverty and the precarious living conditions on the social periphery.
Director’s Statement
In 2004 I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about the City of Los Angeles' plans to close down an apartment complex due to gang violence. The article noted that the families being evicted were comprised mostly of single mothers with few resources who were uncertain about whether or not they qualified for a relocation subsidy. My interest in the pressures that poverty places on families comes from my background.
As a child my mother, without an education and raising me alone, suffered from severe psychological distress. She and I moved a lot and at times lived in government-subsidized housing complexes. At the time I read the article my mother, who was living in Florida, had just become homeless again and had to move into a shelter. Our relationship fuelled my interest in the lives and survival skills of the mothers in South Main. My goal was to respect and show the reality of the family's situations, not to romanticize them or push viewers emotionally, not to fall back on typical or sensationalized images.
Kelly Parker
Cinema d'amis - Monday, November 24th at 19:30
The Minders
Sean McAllister (UK)
/ 50 min
Director: Sean McAllister
Producer: Ben Barker
Editor: Ollie Huddleston
Camera: Sean McAllister
Synopsis
The extraordinary film The Minders was made during the political crisis in Baghdad in February 1998. McAllister was stuck in Iraq with hundreds of other foreign journalists who came to cover the story. In the shadow of a pending war, McAllister decided to make a double portrait of two Ministry of Information minders, Kifah and Alla. The likeable and decent Kifah, a former English teacher enjoying a rare spell of paid work, is a football-mad Anglophile: ‘I can't forget Bobby Moore’, he sighs. Alla, Head of Protocol, is a suave ladies' man and pop fan (very taken with Chumbawumba). McAllister carries on filming Kifah after he is dropped as a minder and in doing so creates an illuminating and touching picture of the man and of everyday life in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Producer: Ben Barker
Editor: Ollie Huddleston
Camera: Sean McAllister
Synopsis
The extraordinary film The Minders was made during the political crisis in Baghdad in February 1998. McAllister was stuck in Iraq with hundreds of other foreign journalists who came to cover the story. In the shadow of a pending war, McAllister decided to make a double portrait of two Ministry of Information minders, Kifah and Alla. The likeable and decent Kifah, a former English teacher enjoying a rare spell of paid work, is a football-mad Anglophile: ‘I can't forget Bobby Moore’, he sighs. Alla, Head of Protocol, is a suave ladies' man and pop fan (very taken with Chumbawumba). McAllister carries on filming Kifah after he is dropped as a minder and in doing so creates an illuminating and touching picture of the man and of everyday life in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Doelenzaal - Saturday, November 22nd at 22:00