Documentary Film

“The reason we are here,” the emcee continues, “is to jubilate with them.” Jubilate. What a lovely, rarely heard piece of language. Were you to stumble on this film with no knowledge of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, you might take jubilation for its real concern. The success of the film, the success of the man at its heart, David Kato, is in its portrayal of a luta, a term for “struggle” that queer Ugandans adopted from Mozambique’s liberation movement, as just that: liberating.

Film adaptation of Stig Dagerman's "Our Need for Consolation is Insatiable," directed by Dan Levy Dagerman and featuring Stellan Skarsgård. Script based on early draft of "Our Need for Consolation is Insatiable," Steven Hartman's English translation of Dagerman's essay "Vårt behov av tröst är omättlig" (later published in Little Star 5 in significantly revised form). Full production details available at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2759318/ . Film available at http://www.amazon.com/Our-Need-Consolation-Stellan-Skarsgard/dp/B00D5TFY90 .

"Film making has been a very expensive hobby for ameteurs from the day it was discovered. Also it has not been taken as a professional tool for years. Especially after Griffth’s approaches on camera movements, camera angles, framing techniques such as medium shot or close-up. The quality level of filmmaking between amateurs and professionals has been highly spread. Today, by the help of new technologies these two fields got closer. Now we can make near-professional films by using amateur equipments; we can edit them at our home computer, we can even prepare some music at home by using the help of some softwares. Also we can freely share it by using websites such as Youtube, Vimeo or some others. So for amateurs its not only easy and cheap to produce a film but also it is easy and cheap to
distribute it. The number of amateur movies produced today are much more then professional movies. The enormous number of amateur productions also affected the audience and created
“a new way” of story telling like shaked camera movements, deficient lighting, grainy look. This way of story telling first was discomforting and disorienting for the audience, but later
they got used to it. This also affected the professionals: lots of production firms started to make professional films which used ‘amateur way’ of story telling. This study intends to
discuss this new way of telling a story and implications associated with this new approach. The discussion will focus on three selected professional films using this new approach,
namely “District 9” (2009), “Cloverfield” (2008) and “Paranormal Activity” (2007). These films use jump-cuts, deficient lighting and grainy pictures, contrasting strongly with traditional way of story telling. Thus, the study will explore the important points of using
editing applications, lighting, image composition and camera movements with their relationship to the existing cinematography, trying to find an explanation to this new perception of reality in digitalization.

Keywords: The elements of cinema, language of traditional cinema, Amateur video, Digital moviemaking."

Tras el derrumbe de la industria cinematográfica cubana a finales del siglo XX (resultado de los cambios radicales experimentados por el Cuba a partir del Periodo Especial), se ha producido en los últimos años un boom de películas independientes dentro de un contexto posnacional y globalizado.  Ann Marie Stock (On Location in Cuba 2009) se ha referido a este fenómeno como “Street Filmmaking” (“cine callejero”), ya que consiste en producciones realizadas al margen de la industria estatal y con una increíble precariedad de medios. Aunque la calidad de estos filmes es desigual, como se desprende de la Muestra de Jóvenes Realizadores que tiene lugar cada año en La Habana, destaca la obra profundamente innovadora de Esteban Insausti. Filmes documentales como “Las manos y el ángel” (2002), sobre el pianista de jazz latino Emiliano Salvador, “La sed de mirar”, homenaje al fotógrafo Jorge Herrera, “Existen” (2005), construido sobre la base de entrevistas a “ilustres” locos de La Habana, el mediometraje de ficción “Luz roja”, integrado en el filme-tríptico Tres veces dos (2003), o su primer largometraje, Larga distancia (2009), rinden homenaje a la tradición vanguardista del cine cubano al mismo tiempo que reciclan elementos de la estética del video arte, la publicidad y los video clips musicales dentro de una mirada interrogadora que busca desmarcarse de los mitos nacionales del origen que durante más de 50 años marcaron obsesivamente la producción del ICAIC (el Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industrias Cinematográficas). En mi ponencia analizaré esta paradójica amalgama de apropiación de modelos autóctonos y foráneos dentro de una cinematografía que tiende a alejarse de las imposiciones del aparato cultural del Estado para reafirmar su identidad en la subjetividad del autor.

"ABSTRACT (ENGLISH): "There are some Autobiographical or self-referential documentary films created during the last years, that try to reconstruct the life and memory of some relative during politically complicated epochs. Curiously, some of these movies share the singularity that its directors initiate them when the Alzheimer appears in their nearby environment. Two of these works, Bucarest. La memoria pe rdida (Albert Solé, 2008) and Nadar (Carla Subirana, 2008), are carried out in our country (doing memory of the epoch of the civil Wa r, the dictatorship or the Transition) and they are object of analysis in this communication about the special characteristics of this kind of works. On the one hand, the Alzheimer makes the filmmakers catch the camera as a medium to save the last remnants of the latent memory and as a shield in front of a difficult reality to assume. On the other hand, both movies are representative of a tendency of contemporary culture: that of trying to speak about complicated
themes (political, social or historically) returning the look toward the
intimacy, toward what is more personal. The director, son or grandson
of a sick relative "of the memory", investigates and documents with the camera the steps to that secret or unknown moments of its father or grandfathe r. The result is, usually, a very personal and emotional film that opens the door to the intra-history (Unamuno’s “intrahistoria”).
For that reason, both movies humanize the testimonies about a very complicated epoch and they empathize with the public on a way that would be really difficult to achieve by other documentaries, more "professionals"/“objectives”, about the complex and controversial "historic memory"".

RESUMEN (SPANISH): En los últimos años comienzan a aparecer algunos documentales de corte autorreferencial o autobiográfico que intentan reconstruir la vida y memoria de algún familiar durante épocas políticamente complicadas.
Curiosamente, algunas de estas películas comparten la singularidad de que sus directores las inician cuando el Alzheimer aparece en su entorno cercano. Dos de estas obras, “Bucarest. La memoria perdida” (Albert Solé, 2008) y “Nadar” (Carla Subirana, 2008) están realizadas en nuestro país (haciendo memoria de la época de la Guerra Civil, la dictadura o la Transición) y son objeto de análisis en esta comunicación que intenta analizar las peculiaridades de este tipo de obras.
Por un lado se comenta cómo el Alzheimer hace a los cineastas coger la cámara como medio para salvar los últimos retazos de la memoria latente y como escudo ante una realidad difícil de asumir. Por otro lado, ambas películas son representativas de una
tendencia muy actual: la de intentar hablar de aquello complicado (política, social o históricamente) volviendo la mirada hacia la intimidad, hacia lo más personal.
El director, hijo o nieto de un familiar enfermo “de la memoria”, investiga y documenta con la cámara los pasos hasta ese momento secretos o desconocidos de su padre o abuelo. El resultado suele ser un documento emotivo y personalísimo que abre el camino a la intrahistoria. Por este motivo, ambas películas humanizan los testimonios sobre una época muy complicada y empatizan con el público de un modo que dificilmente pueden lograr otros documentales más “profesionales”/"objetivos" realizados también sobre la compleja y polémica “memoria histórica”."

"In 30th January 1972 events 14 Catholic civilians were shouted by the British soldiers during the manifestation for the human rights. Deliberating shooting of the British soldiers to the crowd was strongly protested by Catholics of Northern Ireland while the British side insists on that the first shoot came from Catholic side. Refusing the accusations Northern Ireland side brought the case to the court of justice, which original position would prevent us from arguing for principles of justice for personal benefits.From this side on-ward Northern Ireland Catholics formed a strong opposition against British forces, which leaded to terrorist attacks. Today we are familiar to the name IRA which means protestation terrorist attacks and struggles within the country against British forces and British authorities. This Bloody Sunday events have deeply affected the politics of Great Britain in the second of the 20th century. In my opinion the movie is a very realistic depiction of the defining moment of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Moreover, the film style makes it feel more like a documentary than a movie, which of course is the intent. As the objectivity the movie is slanted, however it is not unreasonably slanted. On the other hand, Greengrass did not show the British are one-dimensional demons. In addition to that director Greengrass reflects the both sides of public and soldiers reflections and emotional basis successfully; we see the filled weapons and many of the bullets which were into the barrel; that is weapon is preparing for war.
"