Magical World - Johanna Billing

Film by Johanna Billing
Produced by WHW/Rooseum
Cinematographer: Manne Lindwall
Sound: Petra Jezutkovic
Original Song: Sydney Barnes 1968 (Chevis Music publishing Corp, BMI)
Editing:
Copyright: 2005, WHW/Rooseum
6 minutes, Color

Magical World

For Magical World Johanna Billing colaborated with a group of schoolchildren. Together with a small orchestra, the children solemnly rehearse a song. The camera drifts past the children, often just showing the surroundings of the building. It is only than that we see a shattered country. In fact, the video is shot in Zagreb, Croatia. With this in mind, you begin to look at this work differently, more ambiguously. But even when you think about it, at the same time you just want to listen. You hear the kids quarrel, fooling around and you hear them sing.

To me, it is reminiscent of the epilogue of Ahn Hung Tran's feature film Xich Lo, where after an hallucinating, violent film we end up with schoolchildren singing, just singing. Magical World almost had the same impact on me, it is like a naive quiet little place to lay your head to rest.

Home 1 & Home 2 - Olaf Breuning

Films by Olaf Breuning
Produced by Olaf Breuning
Cinematographer: Olaf Breuning
Sound: Olaf Breuning
Editing: Olaf Breuning
Home 1 copyright: 2004, Studio Olaf Breuning
32 minutes, Color, Two channel
Home 2 copyright: 2007, Studio Olaf Breuning
30 minutes, Color

Home 1 production still

"I was staying in a hotel that looked exactly like Venice."

Home 1 was the work by Swiss video artist Olaf Breuning that both made me laugh and got me down. It is a video installation on which he spent more than two years traveling the world and on which I spent equally as much time wondering..
It is a two-screen video projection. On one screen we see the main character roaming around aimlessly through a deserted villa. He speaks to us in a dreamlike manner, engaging us in a Grande story. These dreams are shown simultaneously on the second screen. There the same actor performs a wide variety of roles, from a cowboy in the Wild West, to a drug dealer in a city by night or a tourist in Peru and Las Vegas.
They all add up to an absurd, hilarious and delusional story, they are full of references to film genres and (sub)cultures, they are a blend of documentary and fiction, of harsh reality and dream and artificiality.

Home 2

"This is all very scenic, but, I need metal, I need steel in my life."

Home 2 is a video which, like Home 1, tells a story of a man traveling around the world. This time the actor takes us with him, while he travels as a tourist through Africa and wonders (among other places) through Tokyo. He is engaged with his surroundings, often in a painful way. He uses the people around him as puppets, acts like your 'typical' tourist overseas and makes it painstakingly clear.

Whereas Home 1 is supported by a haunting, beautiful soundtrack and has an almost mystical feeling to it, Home 2 is more an anthropological film, that makes mockery of our (the Western) way of living and lack of respect for other cultures. Or I could be totally wrong and just make clear the cliche. Should we just giggle about the bizarre image of a naked Amish boy wearing an E.T. mask, or about a white guy handing out dollars to black kids on a dump? The works never explain themselves, so it is maybe a good thing to end with a quote by filmmaker John Cassavetes:

"When you see something that's different, and you can't get it out of your mind, you're still angry with that son of a gun. But.. you know.. ten years later you remember it, and you think "hm I saw something that's interesting"."

The Aluminum Fowl - James Clauer

Film by James Clauer
Produced by Harmony Korine, Nadja Romain
Cinematographer: Brent Stewart
Sound:
Editing: Brent Stewart
Copyright: 2006, O'Salvation production
13 minutes, Color

Aluminum Fowl

"They can't hurt you if you got some tin-foil on."

The Aluminum Fowl is a little gem made by James Clauer. It is not hard to compare this work to a famous and disputed filmmaker: Harmony Korine. The latter is even listed as the producer, and Clauer himself was working as an Assistant Director for Gummo.

Clauer films a band of brothers, who live there life hanging around, organizing cockfights and making fire. One of them contemplates his life, and while doing this introduces us to his brothers.
Cinematography is done by Brent Stewart and he did a great job. He stays close to skin, uses mostly handycam and shoots portraits. The result is often excellent.

It is a vivid, trashy, vulgar, violent, in some way funny and interesting film. In the end it did not have a overwhelming impact, but it sure is another great trash document, and a lively one it is.

Je Leven Waarderen - Jurgen Gude

Film by Jurgen Gude, Jaap Verhoeven
Produced by Jaap Verhoeven
Cinematographer: Jurgen Gude
Sound: Jaap Verhoeven
Editing:
Copyright: 2008, BOS productions
60 minutes, Color

Taizan Maezumi Roshi

Je Leven Waarderen (Appreciating ones Live) is a documentary in memory of the Japanese Zen teacher Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995). He came to the States not so much as a teacher, but in support of the Japanese society living over there. He was soon to be discovered by the 'beatnik' youth and ended up dedicating his live to spreading the Zen teachings in The West.

Jurgen Gude shows scenes from his live and interviews various of his followers. This way the viewer gets an inside look on the White Plum Asangha and its teachings. But most of all it tries to lift up the veil on Maezumi's personal live, his habit of heavy drinking, him being away from home most of the times, et cetera. Not to place the spotlight on the 'darker' side of his live, but to show that in fact, he is human. This may sound corny on paper, on film it is quite convincing.

The documentary ends with Maezumi's daughter sitting quite comfortably underneath a tree, smiling gently and singing a sweet lullaby, an ode to love.

Bodhidharma's Shoe - Tom Davenport

Film by Tom Davenport
Produced by Tom Davenport
Cinematographer: Tom Davenport
Sound:
Editing: Tom Davenport
Copyright: 2008, Tom Davenport
23 minutes, Color
Original format: Hi8, 2008

Bodhidharma's Shoe

Bodhidharma's Shoe is director Tom Davenport's personal account of a seven day intensive Zen retreat (sesshin) at Bodhi Manda Zen Center, Jemez Springs, New Mexico. He intercuts various drawings by Giei Sato - published in the book Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life - with video images of the retreat.

The Bodhi Manda Zen Center maintains many of the original Japanese traditions, which makes the place quite rigorous and conservative. Tom's monotone voice-over explains us what it is all about and gives us an inside view on his personal relationship with the practice. He shows us how difficult it is to not talk, sit for hours at a time and meditate. To explain this he enriches his story with various anecdotes from old Zen masters.

It is a pretty interesting documentary on Zen teachings in America, but what it most definitely lacks is atmosphere. It is merely an account on the seven days, nothing more, nothing less. This makes it ok to watch, but not so memorable at all.

Closing Time - Veronica Diaferia

Film by Veronica Diaferia
Produced by Special Team USA Inc
Cinematographer: Hoku Uchiyama
Sound: Kyle Schember, Juan Sosa
Editing: Michael Slavens
Copyright: 2006, Special Team USA Inc
33 minutes, Color
Original format: MiniDV, 2006

Closing Time

Closing Time shows the very few remaining days of an old store in New York Cities Little Italy. It is a very nostalgic, sentimental portrait, a love song to the history of the immigrants.
As a viewer, it's not all that hard to get the feeling of this little shop, with it's 'clutter' (to the Italians it is preferred to as gold) and visitors that are spellbound of what they encounter.

It is a cosy documentary on passing era's, on Italian traditions and most of all a nice portrait on a small village within New York. In any case, it's not your particular gangster film.

Old Believers - Margaret Hixon

Film by Margaret Hixon
Produced by Margaret Hixon
Cinematographer: Harry Dawson, John Stewart
Sound: Dan Adams, Glenn Micallef
Editing: Harry Dawson
Copyright: 1981, Margaret Hixon
29 minutes, Black and White
Original format: 16mm, 1981

Old Believers

Old Believers is a documentary about the live of the Old Believers - also know as the Old Ritualists. They are a Russian religious community that, since the restructuring of the Russian church in the 1660's, had to roam around the world to keep there traditions alive. They ended up in countries like Brazil, Turkey, Canada and the USA. Even with all the migrating throughout the centuries they were able to stick to there traditions. Up until this day - well, the day this documentary was shot for sure - they still live by there old beliefs.

Margaret Hixon's focus is on one of the villages in Oregon and here she is witness to a traditional wedding. The viewer gets to be with them throughout the whole process, the folkloristic art, the rituals, the praying and singing.

Some interest in this topic is required - and in my case there most definitely is - to truly enjoy this documentary. It is very interesting to see that in this ever changing world there are still some communities that stick with there traditions and beliefs. Old Believers makes you a witness.

"A strikingly beautiful film... the film's visual delights...lead us to a clearer understanding of the cultural values that lie at the heart of Old Believer society."
- Richard Meyer, Journal of American Folklore

The Shakers - Tom Davenport, Frank DeCola

Film by Tom Davenport, Frank DeCola
Produced by Tom Davenport, Frank DeCola, Daniel Patterson
Cinematographer: Tom Davenport
Sound: Mimi Davenport, Don Berman, Dan Barnett
Editing: Louise B. Steig
Copyright: 1974, Tom Davenport Films
30 minutes, Color
Original format: 16mm, 1974

The Shakers

The Shakers tells a story about some of the last remaining women of the oldest and most successful experiment on communal living in the United States. Over the last couple of centuries they were able to maintain there traditions and standard of living. They live peacefully, loving and celibate, and are generally open to new members.

Director Tom Davenport lets the Shaker women speak, he lets them tell the stories of there lives and gives them room to contemplate the rich history of there communities. While the women speak the viewer often sees archival photographs and drawings of era's long gone.

As a thorough research into the Shaker way of living this may not be the best document, but it is a great first gaze.

Mouth Music - Blaine Dunlap, Sol Korine

Film by Blaine Dunlap, Sol Korine
Produced by Blaine Dunlap, Sol Korine
Cinematographer: Blaine Dunlap
Editing: Blaine Dunlap
Copyright: 1981, Sol Korine, Blaine Dunlap
25 minutes, Color
Original format: 3/4 tape, 1981

Mouth Music

Mouth Music is a short documentary that can be seen as a research into the a cappella singing tradition in the American South. With various styles like Hollerin', the Nonsense Song, boot-camp songs and jumprope songs you get a pretty clear view of what the title is all about. On the other hand, covering all these different styles in half an hour gives the documentary a bit of a fragmented feel.

But there is much to enjoy. Especially the authentic Hollers are a pleasure to watch and listen to. The Hollerin' can be seen as a means of communication in the middle of the swamps, but with traffic noise coming closer it is almost impossible for the men to communicate this way anymore.
This makes it a sort of a time stamp, and quite important for those who are interested.

Sol Korine, one of the directors, is indeed Harmony "Gummo" Korine's father. Mouth Music shines a new light on Harmony's cinema.
And for those who are known with Herzog's Stroszek: watch out for the death rattle auctioning.

A good day to you, sir!

This blog will be dedicated to some of the (short) films and documentaries I come across. It will first of all be a database for myself, as I have the need to archive all the things I've seen over the years.