STORYDOC IN GOETHE
By Tue Steen Muller, Head of Studies
Filmmakers, broadcasters and sales agents were safe at the Goethe Institute in Athens, while riots were going on outside in the streets. While discussing upcoming projects in development, watching films, listening to clever and inspiring lectures or getting concrete information on the state of the art in terms of market, the demonstrations went on with burning of cars, smashing of windows and pavements. One or two of the filmmakers sneaked out to film a bit with their mobile phones or take some photos... and inside, during all three days of the seminar, the question was raised again and again: who can make a creative documentary on what is going on in Greece these years? The crisis, the demonstrations, why, who, what, where will it go?
The StoryDoc initiative is a sequel to HistoryDoc, founded by, and run by Kostas Spiropoulos, former general manager of the Greek public broadcaster ERT, a man with a vision, and with a strong energy and will to push the development of documentary in Greece – and abroad. The StoryDoc 2010 included three sessions – first a prologue in Ramallah, then (with the participation of 3 Palestinian projects) a session in Corfu during the summer and then now (December 5-7) the last session in Athens. The goal has been to offer around 20 filmmakers help and inspiration to develop their documentary projects. Projects about or coming from Europe and specially from Mediterranean.There were also guest projects from Middle East countries.
The tutors have been editors, directors, commissioning editors from tv stations, producers, sales agents, distributors, and generalists like me who has the privilege to put the programme together as Head of Studies.
Storydoc – Music in Documentaries
Sanna Salmenkallio, Finnish composer, working both in film and theatre, talked to the participants about music in documentaries stating from the start of her lecture that for her there is actually no difference in making music for documentaries and for feature films. By showing clips from three films, two Finnish and one Danish, Salmenkallio opened eyes and ears for all of us in the auditorium.
It is hard to summarize such a clever presentation so let me just quote the Finnish composer through the notes I made:
It is about what the audience feels... film music is like ritual music... we see things better through music... you have to think when composing that those are actually real people... film music should support the film... much less important is giving information... each musical theme has to be like a character... music is changing our sense of time... music is creating memories...the colour of music is very important...
Salmenkallio explained how she had been working with Danish director Phie Ambo on the film ”Mechanical Love” (2007), where the two of them went for music that has the atmosphere of a fairy tale. No techno, she said, which could maybe have been a more obvious solution for a film on this subject. I have seen ”Mechanical Love” before but never seen it like this time where I could see how the music score binds the beginning of the film together in a beautiful way. Ambo and Salmenkallio met before the rough cut of the film – please come to a composer before the picture side is closed, she said – the composer improvised on a piano while watching the material, they discussed and made the decisions on ”the colour” of the music and listed where music should appear. Salmenkallio also showed clips from the masterpiece of Pirjo Honkasalo, ”Three Rooms of Melancholia” (2004). Magnificent music, contra-tenor singing.
StoryDoc – Creative Documentary?
Emma Davie, Scottish filmmaker and film teacher at the Edinburgh College of Arts did a brilliant lecture on what a creative documentary can be. She was adressing her colleagues with advice and reflections that came from the clips from the films she had chosen.
She started with ”My Body” (2002) by Norwegian Margreth Olin, a personal film with a wonderful grainy texture – Olin had found her form, Emma Davie said, do the same, do not think about a big audience, make films that talk to your best friend.
”Do not make documentaries if you don’t have to”, is one of the Ten Points made by Russian director Viktor Kossakovski, who also said that you should not think during the filming but before and after. The clip from ”Belovs” (1993), the masterpiece of the Russian auteur, made Emma Davie say that it is so giving to see the ordinary changed. The joy of looking and be looked at were introductory words to Marc Isaacs ”The Lift” (2002), yes, filmed in a lift, people going in and out, a film that has its limitations in time and space. But what if you have a person, who actually do not want to be filmed. Like the father in Alan Berliner’s original ”Nobody’s Business” (1996), a neo-classic, full of humour and visual ideas, perfect in rythm.
The creative documentary does not pretend that it knows all, the simpler the more fascinating, Emma Davie said, and use suspense if you can. She referred to Berliner’s film, will the father give in and actually reveal anything from his past?
Davie ended with Marcel Lozinski’s ”Anything Can Happen” (1995), a unique film, one of the absolute favourites of this blogger. The little boy in the park going to old people on the benches, having dialogues with them about life and death, about being old, about religion. Pure pleasure.
As was the lecture of Emma Davie.
StoryDoc – Storytelling
Film is an emotional stream, Niels Pagh Andersen said, Danish editor, living in Finland, and working with films from many different countries. TV documentaries, feature duration docs for cinemas. Andersen has a long and strong cv. And he delivered an inspiring lecture. He started saying that we all want to bring order in chaos, don’t we? At least this is the job of an editor. Simplify, he said again and again, and referred to some drawings of Picasso, where he found the essence of a bull. The essence, find that, you get much deeper, the simpler you put things. If you want to teach something particular, write a book!
Give a minimum of information, Andersen emphasized, get to the emotions. Look for the inner development of the characters and hold back information, don’t tell everything up front. Create expectations, let the audience work, communicate that ”something is going to happen”. And remember the aspect of identification.
He showed two clips – one from the ”Cities on Speed” series, ”Mumbai Disconnected” (2009) by Camilla Nielsson and one from ”Prostitution Behind the Veil” (2004) by Swedish Nahid Persson. For the last one, Andersen stressed how important it is to love your characters, in this case two mothers, and prostitutes, who you get to know later in the films from a more dark side in their relation to their children.
