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Monthly Archives: March 2009

Marmite (JAPAN: A STORY OF LOVE & HATE, 2008, by Sean McAllister)

All we want is to be human

Courtesy of CBC

Courtesy of CBC

What do you get when you mix a 56 year old anarchist-turned- postman with a woman half his age who relies on pills to get her to sleep? Well, I’ll tell you – you get one utterly compulsive hour of television, and a whole lot more. The latest in BBC Four‘s Hidden Japan series, Japan: A Story of Love and Hate is unlike anything I’ve ever watched before.

A hopeless relationship doomed to fail, but somehow still keeps going is juxtaposed with a side of Japan one rarely sees. Suicide, poverty and mental breakdowns make for a very serious subject matter, but at the same time there is a something of a soap opera about the extraordinary lives of Naoki and Yoshie (the main protagonists).

The gap between rich and poor in Japan is said to be more overt than ever before and with Yoshie working all hours to support her boyfriend, who happens to be the same age as her father (and , the documentary exposes a new class, known as the new poor or working poor.

Naoki is quite happy to have the cameras follow him everywhere, even whilst the pair argue, eager for the world to finally see what he calls the real Japan.

A key component in the documentary is its maker, the unstoppably inquisitive Sean Mcallister. Unlike many who stick to observing, he plays a vital role, even confessing on his website, I get as close as I can… I pull the trigger. Right in the thick of it, tossing aside quintessential British politeness he asks the most personal of questions, and even sees fit to turn up with Viagra pills as a gift for Yoshie’s father! Click here to watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer and find out why…

A Helping Hand… WOULD YOU SAVE A STRANGER? Cutting Edge, Channel 4

Courtesy of boston.com

Courtesy of boston.com

Unfortunately it is a dilemma that crosses everyone’s minds all too often… You find yourself in the thick of a public attack, would you step in or decide to stay out?

Forever on the pulse, Channel 4‘s flagship documentary strand has produced a film with this provocative question at its core.

Would You Save a Stranger, Cutting Edge’s latest offering, examines events leading up to vicious, public attacks on complete strangers, asking – has the fabric of our society disintegrated? Or can we still look out for one another?

The film will be aired this Thursday, April 2nd at 9pm on Channel 4.                                       

 

I’M VEGAN: A Documentary Project [2009] by Spencer Campo, Matthew Goodwin & Eric Prescott

 

Courtesy of Natalie Dee

Courtesy of Natalie Dee

Years of being the butt of the joke have culminated in this, a film dedicated entirely to the vegan cause. A trio of vegans, Spencer Campo, Matthew Goodwin and Eric Prescott haven’t got mad, instead they’re busy getting even. 

I’m Vegan is a series of short documentary profiles that will feature vegans from all walks of life. The project is being produced to address preconceptions about vegans and veganism. The profiles – or ‘vignettes’ – will be distributed for free over the web so that people can share the videos with family, friends, and visitors to their own sites.

It will be interesting to see how they counter the longstanding objections to veganism. I wonder how many converts they pick up on the way…

Click here to find out mooooooooooo-re!

LIDF – The London International Documentary Festival 2009 [31 March – 2 April] featuring KEEP LOOKING (CHERCHE TOUJOURS) by Mathias Théry & Etienne Chaillo, THE DEVIL HIDES IN DOUBT by Eva Stotz, HIDDEN ART (L’ARTE NACOSTA) by Alfredo de Giuseppe, CITY OF THE ROMA (LA CITE DES ROMS) by Frédéric Castaignède, KAROSTA: LIFE AFTER THE USSR by Peter King, PALNA’S DAUGHTERS (PALNAN TYTTARET) by Kiti Luostarinen, BIG BOY (ISO POIKA) by Mia Halme, LEFT BEHIND by Fabian Daub, RED SANDS by David Procter, LIKE A MAN ON EARTH by Andrea Segre & Dagmawi Yimer, INSIDE OUT (DIRITTO ROVESCIO) by Maria Tarantino, RECIPES FOR DISASTER, (KATASTROFIN AINEKSIA) by John Webster and APOCALYPSE ON WHEELS (APOCALIPSA DUP A OFERI) by Ada Solomon.

 

Courtesy of NOKTEEZ.com

Courtesy of NOKTEEZ.com

The annual pan-London festival of the best documentaries from around the world returns to the Barbican with the festival strand A Conversation in Europe.

The London International Documentary Festival starts next week at London’s Barbican with a great many documentaries, a handful of world premieres, and a few Q& A sessions thrown in for good measure…

 

Keep Looking (Cherche toujours) by Mathias Théry & Etienne Chaillo. (France 2008).

All what-s, why-s and how-s you wanted to know, but never thought of asking.

The Devil Hides in Doubt (Sollbruchstelle) by Eva Stotz. (Germany 2008).

A film about the emotional push and pull of work, its demands and its absurdities. 

Hidden Art (L’Arte Nacosta) by Alfredo De Guiseppe. (Italy 2008).

The film follows the relationship of four characters with their various muses & ways in which they try to express their creativity.

Courtesy of LIDF

Courtesy of LIDF

 

City of the Roma (La Cité des Roms) by Frédéric Castaignède. (France 2008).

Depiction of the obstinate efforts to integrate a Roma ghetto into the majority society and the co-existence of ethnic groups.

Karosta: Life After the USSR by Peter King. (UK/Latvia 2008).

A view on the life of a Latvian town, left in anarchic autonomy after the end of authoritarian legacy and the attempt of the local artists to restore order through creativity.

Palna’s Daughters (Palnan Tyttäret) by Kiti Luostarinen. (Finland 2008).

A film about memory, identity and the overwhelming power of love.

Courtesy of OUKA

Courtesy of OUKA

 

Big Boy (Iso poika) by Mia Halme. (Finland 2007).

A story about one intense year of childhood.

Left Behind by Fabian Daub. (Germany 2008).

In Waldenburg all mines are closed down. Lukasz and his friend Jacek have been digging coal at their own risk for several years now. Like hundreds of other former miners who are illegally digging for the black gold on the outskirts of the city, the local police are constantly after them and they have been trapped in the dangerous tunnels several times. But they keep on going.

Red Sands by David Procter. (UK 2008).

Pamploma, Spain, the San Firmin festival. A dramatic montage of image and sound raises questions about the place of bullfighting in modern Spain. Where once the sun rose, might it now set?

Like a Man on Earth by Andrea Segre & Dagmawi Yimer. (Italy 2008).

Giving voice to the Ethiopian refugees living in Rome, Segre provides us with a direct insight into the brutal ways in which Libya, aided also by Italian and European funds, is operating to control the immigration movements of people from Africa.

Inside Out (Diritto Rovescio) by Maria Tarantino. (Belgium/Italy 2008).

The prisoners use their theatre play to denounce the living conditions inside the jail.

Courtesy of KVS

Courtesy of KVS

 

Recipes for Disaster (Katastrofin Aineksia) by John Webster. (Finland 2008).

This is a film about climate change. About catastrophe. And it´s funny, painfully funny. We love to blame the corporations for what´s going wrong with the planet, but we’re mistaken. It´s us, baby. You and me. We´re the real bad guys…

Apocalypse on Wheels (Apocalipsa dup ă oferi) by Ada Solomon. (Romania 2008).

The streets of Bucharest are busy with fast cars and no driver seems to follow any rules – the result is complete chaos. Director Solomon explores how the streets and the traffic in them could be seen as a metaphor for contemporary Romanian society.


This is just a selection of what’s on offer, click here for the full list of films at this year’s LIDF and here to read more.

Eye Don’t Believe It! (PROJECT EYEBORG by Rob Spence)

Courtesy of Mobishark

Courtesy of Mobishark

 

We’ve all heard of implants, they’re certainly nothing new, but this, I believe, is an absolute first – one-eyed documentary maker Rob Spence is to implant a camera into his prosthetic eye and in so doing will become the world’s first ‘Eyeborg’. It may well sound like something I should be blogging about on April 1st, but I can assure you this is no joke. 

Taking inspiration from the tiny camera built into his mobile phone, Spence, 36, who as a teenager lost one eye in an accident, wants to insert a similar device into his empty socket. He will therefore soon be launching what he calls ‘Project Eyeborg‘ –  consisting of a camera, battery and a wireless transmitter mounter on a tiny circuit board. In so doing, Spence will come closer than ever before to actualising what Soviet pioneer filmmaker Dziga Vertov dreamed of when he coined the term Cine-Eye almost a century ago. It is as though he has taken the words I am an eye. I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, I am showing you a world, the likes of which only I can see, right out of Vertov’s mouth.

With the camera tucked inside a prosthetic eye, he hopes to be able to record the same things he sees with his working eye, his muscles moving the camera eye just like his real one. Spence said no part of the camera would be connected to his nerves or brain. He does not intend to create a reality TV show and the camera will be switched off when not needed, he said.

What is even more extraordinary is the subject matter Spence has chosen. Surveillance cameras and the Orwellian nature of modern-day existence are to be at the heart of Project Eyeborg… Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered The Twilight Zone.

I for one (no pun intended!) cannot wait to see what becomes of Mr Eyeborg.

Yes We Can!

 

Courtesy of Neuro Anthropology

Courtesy of Neuro Anthropology

Artists take inspiration from everywhere, even from politicians. Usually its their apathy or arrogance provoking an impassioned reaction, but Barack Obama, true to form, is breaking the mould. Once again he is proving to be an inspiration to more than just the American voting public.

Internet culture and technology are changing the business of making documentary films, from how producers find important stories to how finished works reach viewers, according to The Good Pitch chief executive Jess Search.

In their bid to keep up with the ever-changing nature of today’s film industry, documentary-makers are looking to the US president, the freshly crowned king of online community organizing for a little je ne sais quoi.

Click here to find out more…

Forget Me Not. (STILL HUMAN STILL HERE by Abbie Trayler-Smith at the Host Gallery, London: March 18 – April 4 2009).

As asylum seekers we have been punished twice, once back home and once here.

Courtesy of BAPLA.

Courtesy of BAPLA.

I’ve just come back from Abbie Trayler-Smith‘s private view and two hours after seeing it, I am still in awe. Held at the Host Gallery off London’s Old Street, the gallery is home to the Still Human Still Here photographic exhibition, or at least for the next two weeks it is. Arriving at the gallery I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a show offering an insight into the underground world of destitute asylum seekers.

A brief word from one of the organisers and then straight down to business. Alain, an asylum seeker from the Congo shared his horrific experiences with the bustling crowd, not that the exhibition needed to be brought to life. That said, hearing his tale only served to enhance the authenticity of what we were seeing.

Each image was as striking and as telling as the next. Beautifully curated, each asylum seeker had their own section detailing their personal journey to the UK – at last getting a taste, albeit momentary, of the humanity and even compassion Alain spoke of with such yearning and desperation.

Then came a brief plea from a really passionate lady named Diana, with lots of encouraging words, some more realistic than others – urging people to contact their MP, volunteer or write a cheque for £1million!

And so beyond the copious amounts of red wine flowing and the overly eccentric hairdos one inevitably encounters at such an event, lay a fantastically bold message: change is there for the taking. For once arty-farty-ness was eclipsed by something far less vain and far more important.

For a breathtaking cocktail of reality and creativity, why not head down to the Host Gallery?

[Portraits by Panos Pictures photographer Abbie Trayler-Smith of poverty-stricken asylum seekers in the UK from countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Zimbabwe. The exhibition is a collaboration between Amnesty International and the Refugee Council.]

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (IN SEARCH OF WABI SABI WITH MARCEL THEROUX, by Marcel Theroux)

Courtesy of the BBC

Courtesy of the BBC

No, it’s got nothing to do with wasabi, Wabi Sabi is a whole different kettle of fish. We all know grey is the new black, but I bet you didn’t know that imperfection is the new perfection, in Japan at least. In a bid to understand what makes the Japanese tick, aesthetically, Marcel Theroux travelled the country, all part of BBC Four’s Hidden Japan season.

Determined to get to the bottom of what Wabi Sabi means, Marcel approaches every Tom, Dick and Harry on the streets of busy Tokyo asking, What is Wabi Sabi?, but to no avail, poor chap. Undeterred and in fact encouraged by its mystery, the next ninety minutes see Marcel scour the land for an answer to his question. There is a slight pause for indulging in the very British love of tea-making, but there isn’t a box of PG Tips in sight. Back to Wabi Sabi-hunting and Marcel engages in the task at hand with every bit as much zeal and quirkiness as his younger brother Louis. The more serious of the two, Marcel does however generate, albeit unwittingly, a great many laughs. From prompting one seriously giggly woman to announce It means, sorry, I have had an accident to Marcel comparing his hotel to a medium security mental hospital, he could definitely give Louis a run for his money in the comedy stakes.

And no, I can’t tell you what Wabi Sabi is, partly because I don’t quite know, so you will just have to find out for yourself… click here to join Marcel on his quest. 

Sting in the Tale (MALARIA: RETURN TO FEVER ROAD: 2008, by Kevin Hull)

 

Courtesy of Films of Record.

Courtesy of Films of Record.

Days after the record-breaking success of this year’s Comic Relief appeal comes the aptly timed screening of Malaria: Return to Fever Road. Billed as a documentary about the harsh realities of malaria within a rural Kenyan village, what film maker Kevin Hull does is so much than merely hold a magnifying glass over Kiagware. That something as small as a mosquito can cause a seemingly never ending cycle of grief really hits home. Despite the harrowing subject  matter, however, it is not all doom and gloom. Reality bites, but thankfully opportunity knocks. In this, the second installment, Hull revisits Kiagware four years on, revealing that the generosity of viewers had transformed the village beyond recognition. The construction of a local health centre brought down the monthly death toll from malaria to just 4, from a shocking 180. The winner of a One World Broadcasting Trust award is about as far away as you can get from being preachy or gratuitous. Hull’s film has the power not only to restore one’s faith in humanity, but so too does it have the power to defeat malaria once and for all.

Click here to watch it on BBC iPlayer (for a limited time only).