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Festival Dei Popoli (Florence,
Italy)
review by Wendy Dent for
Filmfestivals.com December 2005:
Festival
dei Popoli
Redefines The Documentary Frame
What a superb stage for a film festival. In
spectacular Florence, perhaps the world's most
renowned city of art, the art of documentaries has been on show.
Attending this week's Festival dei Popoli, the oldest
documentary film festival in Europe, I have been
stunned by both the tragedy and joy of human existence
and constantly reminded of the ironic title of Roberto
Benigni's Italian film 'Life is Beautiful'. For
looking through the window of the world presented by
most documentary film festivals, there can be
little to smile about.
Thankfully Festival dei Popoli has been wise enough to
schedule 8 extensive programs in 8 days; including an
international competition, Italian competition,
'Documenting the present', and also honouring the
artistic heritage of the city itself by delivering
programs devoted to the worlds of music, fine arts and
architecture. In addition they also have featured
special events, such as 'A Breath With Pina Bausch',
documenting the latest production by this
breath-taking master of modern dance.
It is a master stroke of programming. The audience can
admire the masters of renaiisance art in bella
Firenze's exquisite galleries and streets, then be
moved by modern masters and the world's emerging new
talent of filmmaking on the cinema screen.
One of these magnificent masters of world cinema
screen must surely be Danish auteur Jorgen Leth.
The 46th Festival dei Popoli has honoured Leth by
inviting him as an jury member of the international competition and
featuring a retrospective of his iconic work, such as 'The Perfect Human'
and the classic '66 Scenes From America' which famously features a scene
with Andy Warhol simply eating a hamburger.
Jorgen Leth's intimate and ideosyncratic 'essays on
life' brought a light hearted relief and an exploring
eye to an otherwise demanding week of tour de force
political and sociological narratives. While Leth's
remarkably experimental observations of humanity defy
description, the eloquent clarity of his reflections
on documentary impressed the gathering and articulated
the true artistic potential of documentary.
One might wonder whether Michelangelo, another
connoseiur of anatomy, may have sculpted a film like
Jorgen Leth's 'The Perfect Human' had he had film as a
tool at the time of sculpting his masterpiece David
500 years ago.
Proving himself a true modern master of art, Jorgen
Leth's cool observations of humanity have inspired and
contributed to the work of such celebrated filmmakers
as Lars Von Trier, and no doubt inspired the many film
students and directors attending this weeks Festival
dei Popoli.
" I am probably the strangest Danish film-maker. I am
happy about that. I am priveleged about that. You can
envy me. I hate documentaries that know the answers.
They set out to prove what they know. Tell stories for
god's sake. But tell your own stories. Things that you
are obsessed by. What is important is what triggers
your mind".
And so the stage was set for Festival dei Popoli to
dramatically redefine the documentary frame. There
have been cinema verite observations, portraits,
sociological studies, film-maker narratives,
interrogations and interventions, Leth's
pseudo-documentaries... And then even the outright
sublime, such as 'Blush', a modern dance experience
featured as a festival special event.
The audience for this Flemish film left impressed and
possibly perplexed. By most definitions 'Blush' was no
more a documentary than I am Italian. But at any film
festival, and this one more than most, anything is
debatable. In the range of documentaries screened
this week it was proven that the brush stroke of style
is only as limited as one's imagination. Or one's taste.
Even more controversial than 'Blush', especially in
taste, was 'Bania'. It depicted the comings, goings and obsessive washings
at a Russian mens' bathhouse, for a
painstaking 67 minutes, delivering an overdose of
flobby flappy flesh. Did the filmmaker perhaps follow
Leth's tenet of setting rules and boundaries in films,
and decided 'don't edit', delivering the entire rushes
to his audience, literally warts and all? It was an
excercise in endurance to sit to the end, but it
challenged its audience in an unprecedented form.
The audience was also shocked and repulsed by 'Lost
Children' portraying former Ugandan child soldiers,
and 'Wetback', which delivered a disturbing indictment
of the dangers for illegal immigrants crossing the
Mexican borders to seek a better life . Both were so
blunt in their portrayal of torment that their
audience needed a strong stomach and a steely
desensitisation to face the onslaught of horror on
screen. In both films, audience members left the
cinema mid film, when they could endure no more of the
explicit photography and descriptions of brutality.
Thankfully there were moments of tenderness throughout
the festival selection also. In such an ancient city
it was original to find the Festival documenting the
family of the third Millenium. Heartfelt films of
remarkable spirit and sensitivity were screened, such
as 'Linda and Ali; Two Worlds Between Four Walls' and
'The Education of Shelby Knox'.
The unforgettably titled 'Don't Fuck With Me, I have
51 Brothers and Sisters' was a highlight of the
program. A loving spirit and open mind belied its
boldness. 10 points for the title - although it was
deceptive. The doc explored the filmmaker's own search
for a feeling of fatherhood and family, by seeking out his
51 brothers and sisters (of 11 mothers, and one father
now deceased). It is a unique story generously and
gently portrayed.
In stark contrast 'One Point Two' (the average birth
rate in Italy) studied its topic in an all too dry and
essayist style. The narrative delivered one powerful
statement; " In 1900 there was an average of 4.9 children per family,
my great-grandmother had five, my grandmother four, then the babyboom,
with three children per couple and my mother had three. My sister had
two...
And I made a documentary".
The art of observation at its best was shown The
Pipeline Next Door, which uncovered a small Georgian
community's struggle against BP, against the courts
and amongst themselves when their land is claimed for
an international pipeline. With grace, compassion and
a discreetly objective eye, it stole the stage on
opening night. Even Jorgen Leth, upon introducing his
own film directly afterwards, first paused to mention
how the film had moved him and left him somewhat
speechless from the experience.
Concrete Revolution portrayed the modernization of
Beijing on the road to 2008 Olympics, and the
struggles and sacrifices by builders in contributing
to its ever rising skyline. Director Guo Xiaolu's
quiet yet carefully targeted reflection and her
courage to confront the propaganda of the chinese
state won over the audience by stealth, and well
earned its audience applause.
President Mir Qanbar, the portrait of an elder from
Azerbaijan pursuing his dreams to be president of
Iran, was worthy of awards purely for its opening
scene; The documentary subject refused to be in the
film and confronted the filmmakers, (who were chasing
him with a boom microphone after he fell from his
bicycle), accusing "You are trying to take advantage
of me". The director's playful inclusion of the
film-crew at work within the frame broke the fourth
wall with a surprising playfulness.
'Brides of Krygistan' documented the common culture in
Kygistan where would-be husbands and families collude
for young men not to court a girl as a future wife,
but to kidnap her. 'And I think to myself, what a
wonderful world'. It was a disarming subject with a
distinctively straight forward style. Five chapters
for five kidnappings all with different outcomes. And
the effect was powerful. But the fact that the filmmaker
followed such crimes so intimately verged on condoning
and contributing to each case.
Conversely 'Avenge But One of My Two Eyes' was
outrightly interrogating, and interventionist art. It
was worth seeing purely for the scenes in which the
filmmaker confronts the Israeli army. Confronts is an understatement.
Abuses
is more accurate.
Brave filmmaking, provocative statements, passionate
portrayals. This is what modern documentary making is
about, whatever its frame. And the exhibition of these
outstanding films proved that Festival dei Popoli's
46th edition dares to deliver a confronting program
and to confront the borders of our art.
Lets just hope there will be less horrific atrocities
for documentary artists to deliver to the world next
year.And the winners were;
ITALIAN COMPETITION;
Best documentary; 'Excellent Cadavers', Dir Marco
Turco
Special Mention; 'Between Two Countries', Dir Michele
Carrillo
Special Mention; 'Rodolfo's Year', Dir Daniel Ruffino
& Federico Testardo TonozziI
NTERNATIONAL COMPETITION;
Best documentary; 'Moskatchka', Dir Annett Schutze
(Germany)
Special Mention; 'Phantom Limb', Dir Jay Rosenblatt
(USA)
Special Mention; 'Bania', Dir David Teboul (France)
Wendy Dent
Florence, Italy
9 December 2005
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