(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[ntsu_row] [ntsu_column size = ”1/2 ″] We at Ny Tid try with small means to run grave journalism – and have received some support from Fritt Ord, as well as a couple of nominations for our critique of asylum policy. Now Erling Borgen and journalist Tarjei Leer-Salvesen have also joined the team (see the column "Dig where you stand" on page 5).
Investigative journalism is also the reason why Ny Tid has focused on criticism of documentaries. Movies that over the years dig into people's doings and barn. In this newspaper you will find as many as 15 films mentioned. The reason is that this year's most important documentary film festival Human Rights Human Wrongs (HRHW) is arranged at Cinemateket 16. – 21. February, while Eurodok then goes off the rails in the same place on 8-13. March. Among the exciting topics addressed in HRHW's 19 films are growing extremism; how we here in Norway relate to refugees; and how we can gain insight into the drug wars in Mexico. Eurodok, on the other hand, includes 12 Norwegian documentaries, among them Duma (see page 20), where director Pål Refsdal meets a couple of suicide candidates in Afghanistan just before they face life in order to carry out a terrorist act. Both HRHW and Eurodok are about abuse of power and injustice, but also about care and commitment.
Documentary film The connection to the people of reality – that something is at stake – is important for an ethical-political newspaper like ours. One example is the torturer of Guantánamo in the film Guantanamo's Child, like the movie Drone shows the man repentant of the violence he has exposed others to. Another example is the open corruption in China (The Road), and a third are people who take the law into their own hands (so-called vigilants) to prevent drug traffic at the Mexico border (Cartel Land). But equally interesting is how the directors behind these films operate writer-directors - where they almost write with camera and create script themselves. Not least, it is interesting that many of the directors venture into areas that do not usually dare to travel. The aforementioned Refsdal was kidnapped by rebels the last time he made a documentary – but has nevertheless traveled to Syria with some danger to his life. Another is Sean McAllister, who was imprisoned in Syria and deprived of camera. He once told me how he smuggled film ...
footage out of Yemen after he secretly filmed the inside of the sudden uprising, as one of the few Westerners at the time (The Reluctant Revolutionary, 2012). Director Hemal Trivedi is another example: She spent several years gaining enough confidence to get inside the Red Mosque in the film Among the Believers (see page 16), where the fundamentalists enlist children as young as four. Such directors show great courage to bring us their testimonies.[/ntsu_column] [ntsu_column size=”1/2″]At the same time can one wonders why we need these present documentary testimonies. It can often be easy to want to avoid relating to the world out there – or for that matter avoid seeing dead people on the front page of Ny Tid. Here perhaps Russian Victor Kossakovski's beautiful film varicella (see page 13) if growing up ballerinas are preferable. But again – you dig, it is far more under the aesthetics. Kossakovski's earlier films (for example Long live the Antipodes from 2011) has brought us views from all corners of the globe. In such ballet films, as also David Kinsella's documentary A Beautiful Tragedy (2008) from Russia is an example of, we see young girls' ambitions stand the test – and we get an insight into what expectations of a life in competition can mean when one grows up in the world, in play and in seriousness.
Documentary films that reflected testimonies are required because the world is changing so much: Unlike societies with established, long-standing traditions, we live in the West in a constant crisis. What do I really mean by that, in a welfare society like Norway? Yes, I am referring to the eternal, existential flaking: Today, one does not change jobs two to four times in life, but rather every four years; families dissolve just as often; and people switch partners at will. Housing, education, values, beliefs, fashions and resorts are constantly being reassessed and replaced. The national, which has previously been an identity-building factor, is gradually being replaced by the international. And then I'm not just talking about international interventions – and time will tell if we're right in our analysis of an upcoming huge, international collapse in the debt economy (see front page).
The reflections can also perform in debate form, something Ketil Magnussen behind HRHW has good experience with when he now organizes the festival for the eighth time. The themes for discussion after the films are many: eyewitnesses' videos; whether recordings are authentic; to live under siege; Russian bombers; democracy in Myanmar (see also front page); Norway as a peace broker; youth movements; Tibetan struggle; political and religious extremism; the difference between truth and propaganda.
Documentaries can – if they do – really investigate the context. A documentary usually takes two to three years to make. The short film maybe one year. Good video journalism takes a month. At the same time, a documentary or video is more than just textual content, unlike a newspaper text that can be informative and dry. The documentary likes to borrow something from the narrative front or visually from the world of fiction. As the old newcomer Jean-Luc Godard once wrote: “All great fiction films lean toward the documentary, just as all great documentaries lean toward fiction… a storytelling is only interesting when placed in a fiction context, but fiction is only interesting if it plays in a documentary context »(Godard on Godard.
At the same time, the digger should – an investigative journalist, a questioning video journalist or a reflected Writer-director – always leave the problem box displayed. It must be about convince you – so others can take care of the art of entertainment too persuade you. We want you to think for yourself.
