(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Visits from space (The Visit)
Directed by Michael Madsen,
photographer: Heikki Färm
The Russian Woodpecker
Directed by: Chad Gracia, photo: Artem Ryshykov
That Sugar Film
Directed by: Damon Gameau, photo: Judd Overton
Jenica & Perla
Directed by: Rozálie Kohoutová, photo: Lukas Hyksa
In the period 23. – 30. September is the time for a new edition of Bergen International Film Festival. As usual, the festival presents a diverse selection of films which includes many feature films. But with its wide range of Norwegian and international documentaries, including several competition programs, BIFF has established itself as perhaps the most important festival in the country in this field.
We present here four selected titles, taken from the festival's many program sections for international documentaries.
Visits from space. Exploring questions like "what if the Earth is visited by aliens one day?" Is usually reserved for science fiction, and it is in the very concept of genre – and to a certain extent in the problem – that this is a matter of fiction. Nevertheless, the Danish filmmaker Michael Madsen (who should not be confused with the American actor) has made a kind of science fiction documentary that deals with this particular thought experiment. In other words, a documentary about events that probably did not happen, but which relates with all seriousness to a hypothetical scenario in which intelligent beings from space appear on our planet.
Madsen reportedly got the idea Visits from space when he discovered that the UN has an office dealing with extraterrestrial affairs, based in Vienna. The staff here are among the various experts he has interviewed in the film on how to imagine such a scenario will unfold. They outline three potential reasons for a visit from outer space: either that the extraterrestrials have arrived by accident (for example, an emergency landing), or that they are here to explore, or that they have some intention in our eyes. The film further raises a number of interesting questions, including how we will relate to the certainty that we are not alone in space, whether visitors will have any kind of concept of morality, whether we will be able to communicate with these creatures or in at all, perceive them with our senses, whether the encounter between the species will pose a risk of infection or the like, and what consequences the visit will have in the evolutionary perspective. This is a film that really appeals to the imagination, while emphasizing how limited our ability to imagine a foreign life form is – all our science fiction despite. Consequently, it is also limited how much we can prepare for such an event, even if employed by the United Nations Office for Extraterrestrial Affairs.
Visits from space uses the narrative techniques you see in the most conventional documentaries: interviews with talking heads, omniscient voice over-narration (by Madsen himself), illustration pictures and reconstructions as well as some observational sequence. The result, however, is anything but ordinary. The film's perhaps most original grip is that it tentatively allows us to see our world through the eyes of the visitors, ie with an extraterrestrial look – with the consequence that the film is more about us than about them. And on this globe one has ended up, it is undeniably strange, as Sigbjørn Obstfelder observed in his day.
Science faction. Some would even argue against that Visits from space can be said to be a documentary, but often it is the most interesting films that break with expectations of what fiction and documentary can be. Moreover, such definition discussions can quickly become more exhausting than constructive, and these categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. On the basis of interviews with existing professional communities in the field, it is also not right to call Madsen's film a pure fiction film, even though it deals with a hypothetical sequence of events. Perhaps it can best be described as a kind of poetic and philosophical science faction?
The movie's original title is The Visit, and can thus easily be mistaken for M. Night Shyamalan's fictional greats of the same name – who actually appear at the festival as well. But Madsen's film has thus received the Norwegian title Visits from space, presumably also because it is to be released in regular cinema distribution (the time is not yet determined). This is very gratifying, then Visits from space is an exceptionally fascinating and deeply original film that deserves to be seen by more people here in the country than just the festival audience in Bergen.
Chernobyl theories. Hypotheses are also addressed in the documentary The Russian Woodpecker, which follows Ukrainian artist Fedor Alexandrovich in pursuit of the truth about what led to the nuclear disaster in his native Chernobyl – a question to which no clear answer has ever been given. The eccentric, unflattering man is not a typical protagonist in an investigative political documentary, but nonetheless he is an important reason why the film has become both entertaining and unorthodox. Not to forget that he is actually getting on track for a very interesting model of explanation – which, admittedly, qualifies as a conspiracy theory, but which does not at all appear completely unlikely as Alexandrovich seeks out various sources and involved in the greatest nuclear accident ever.
Without describing this theory in detail here, it has to do with a huge and mysterious radar near the nuclear power plant, which among other things produced a deafening, chirping sound that has given the film its title. The Russian Woodpecker is a complex and distinctive documentary, which is also a story of Ukraine's relations with Russia, based on the riots and unrest in Kiev in recent times. Furthermore, it depicts how Fedor and others involved in the production are discouraged and threatened by powerful forces as they begin to see relationships, drawing on this an eerie picture of a Russia that has not necessarily moved as far away from the old Soviet state as many like to believe.
With The Russian Woodpecker the American director Chad Gracia has made a daily, engaging and personal documentary at the same time, without being unfocused. Even more impressive is this considering that it is his debut film.
Bittersweet truths. Another film on the festival program that combines the personal documentary genre with investigative journalism is Australian That Sugar Film, where Russell Brand-like filmmaker Damon Gameau places himself in front of the camera while trying to figure out how harmful sugar really is. The title, however, is not that precise, all the while it can give the impression of being the only movie about sugar. I myself recently wrote an article in this newspaper about two other documentaries (and there are even more) that deal with some bitter truths about the sweet substance, and to some extent complement each other in their approaches to the theme: a playful and visually imaginative way presented Canadian Sugar Coated by Michèle Hozer the fullest expert-based line of argumentation of the two, while Czech Andrea Culcovas Sugar blues for its part was a charming and far more personal documentary, based on the fact that the director himself has recently been diagnosed with diabetes, and consequently has to stay away from refined sugar. Common to both of them is that they focus on the sugar's partly unknown effects – and the sugar industry's attempts to negate these.
The same does That Sugar Film, albeit with a starting point more akin to Morgan Spurlock's well-known McDonald's documentary Super-Size Me from 2004. At the beginning of the film, Damon Gameau has stayed away from white sugar for three years, but is about to become a father and wants to find out how harmful it would be for the child to have a normal, sugary diet. He therefore starts an experiment where he goes back to eating sugar for 60 days – without the intake being in any way particularly exaggerated. He should have an Australian normal level of about 40 pieces of sugar a day, which limits Gameau to supposedly healthy foods such as juices, cereals and light yogurt. In other words, he still stays away from chocolate, soda, ice cream and junk food. Still, it does not take long for him to see negative consequences on both body and mind, in the form of fat in the liver, dramatically increasing the chance of getting diabetes 2, new centimeters around the waist and frequent mood swings – to name a few.
Sugar, found in far more foods than most people are aware of, is to be a direct cause of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and several forms of cancer. However, this has been hampered by resourceful forces in the food industry, which have, among other things, funded researchers to maintain the impression that there is widespread doubt about the harmful effects of the experts. The parallel to the tobacco industry's strategies a few decades back is obvious, and this is also a significant point in all the three sugar films mentioned.
Damon Gameau has created a seductive and thought-provoking enlightening film that combines the visual playfulness of Sugar Coated with the personal approach to Sugar blues (oddly enough, the pregnant filmmaker's upcoming child is also a theme in Culcova's film). All three documentaries make a number of experts in the field, some of them coincident – with research journalist Gary Taubes as the only one to appear in all the films. That Sugar Film does not bring as much new information to the square for us who have seen the other two documentaries, but for most, the film will probably offer a good deal of sensational and alarming news. Damon Gameau's comedic portrayal (though the other two films are also not humorless) and partly tabloid angles will probably reach the widest extent with this message, which undeniably should be heard by many. It probably also helps in that he can boast Stephen Fry and Hugh Jackman among the actors in the film.
segregated and integrated into the cultures of their countries. Jenica & Perla
European teenage life. There both Visit from space, The Russian Woodpecker og That Sugar Film has some kind of "program manager" and / or an all-knowing narrative voice, is i7a documentary of the observant kind. The Czech filmmaker Rozálie Kohoutová has created a portrait of two teenage girls who both belong to the space people and who once competed together as dancers in the TV program "Slovak talents". Now they live very different lives in each part of Europe. Perla lives in a poor Roman village with no running water in the Slovak countryside, while Jenica has moved to Paris, where she dreams of working as a hairdresser. Where Perla attends a class consisting only of Roman people, Jenica is the only one with such a background in her school, and has at times pretended to be Spanish.
Through its two main characters, Jenica & Perla show young Romanians as segregated and integrated in the cultures of their respective countries, and it is not an exclusively uncritical depiction of their own culture or the attitudes found here. Not least, the film testifies to rather misogynistic attitudes among the girls' parent generation. Jenica in particular is criticized by her mother for having been influenced by French society, and is pressured to find a husband rather than pursue a professional career. The more school-tired Perla, for her part, is encouraged to concentrate more on schooling, despite the fact that her opportunities in the excluding Slovak society seem to be very limited. Furthermore, begging and life on the streets is a not too distant backdrop in both the two girls' families – at the same time as the film paints a picture of a lively and diverse culture with a lot of music and warmth.
With its "fly on the wall" approach lets Jenica & Perla we get to know the two girls without any instructive statistics or expert interviews. Admittedly, the protagonists' own statements regularly act as explanatory narrative voices on the soundtrack, but this grasp basically underscores that the film is told on their premises and that it is about their reality. At a time when the public divide around Roman people is largely governed by certain populist forces that think begging is uncomfortable to relate to, this is a reality – or rather two different realities – that can be both enriching and necessary an insight into.
Huser is a film critic in Ny Tid.
