babelblogs

hosted by cafebabel.com

Babel Berlin in English

The German capital in the heart of Europe.

To content | To menu | To search

Film

What's on the Big Screen in Berlin?

Entries feed - Comments feed

Friday, 2008-02-15

Last Day at Berlinale Talent Campus: Embracing the Internet

By Karsten on Friday, 2008-02-15, 19:49

This is the last part of Babel Berlin's feature series, in which three Babel reporters covered a not so well-known aspect of the Berlinale, Berlin's famous film festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops. Lena Meier attended "The Indie Filmmaker's Guide to the Internet" for Babel Berlin.

by Lena Meier

It was about me! Today they were actually talking about me. Me – the audience. It’s 11a.m. at HAU2. Liz Rosenthal hosts the last session of „The Indie Filmmaker’s Guide to the Internet“. She and the experts on the panel explain the talents of the Campus how to dispose a film and the experience that’s related to it. But of course the way they propose is not to go through a sales agent who would have to find a distributor who in turn would try to attract an exhibitor. No, the best way to find the audience is through the internet. At least that is what M Dot Strange and Arin Crumley – to name just two of the four guest experts – argue for. M Dot Strange for instance has a huge fan community on YouTube where he presents all of his work free for everybody to watch it. In return the casual guy in the hoody plus cap can ask his audience for favours: „Please send me scary music.“ or „Please feel free to translate my movie into your language.“ „You can do crazy stuff, just what you want“, M Dot tells us.

The HAU: For one week, the future of indie filmmaking was discussed here.

Arin Crumley, the internet optimist from New York, relies on his audience in a different way. His movie „Four Eyed Monster“ about his relationship to his girlfriend Susan Buice is a feature film and has a website where you can – at times – see the movie in full length. There’s also a podcast with additional episodes about the two protagonists. What Arin and Susan ask the audience to do is watch the movie, like it, recommend it to other viewers and maybe support it by giving some money. Also they encourage their fans to leave the code of the place they come from thus collecting people who want to see the film in a theatre. „Online,“ Arin says and the thrill this gives him is obvious „you get directly commented. You give the audience a voice.“

In the afternoon, during the premiere of the the four short internet films that have each been shot and edited in one day during the Campus two things become clear: The directors, actors, editors, sound designers, etc. of these four productions did a great job. Their films tell interesting stories in perfect images. The video below is „The String Puppet“, an impressive short tale which is less than 36 hours old, and a perfect example for the dazzling creativity of the participants. But what is really striking is that the young filmmakers didn’t have the audience on their mind when they did the films. Very slowly they seem to grasp that their films are now „out there“. „The idea of one million people to see my film ... wow ...“ Victoria, one of the directors, remarks. And M Dot recommends to pay attention to how the audience reacts. So the future is really us – the filmloving consumers.

The other garage flicks that have been produced during the last week can be watched at the Campus' Youtube Channel or at Dailymotion.

Thursday, 2008-02-14

Day 5: Work Together!

By Karsten on Thursday, 2008-02-14, 12:34

This is part seven of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the Berlinale, Berlin's famous film festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Lena Meier

How are you going to approach your story? Is it a music documentary? Is there something Felliniesk about it? Will the war play a big role in your movie? How did you come across these people? The questions came from experts and they hoped to get answers from young talents – an upside-down world?

Not really, because the experts are still the ones to learn from. But on the fifth day of the Talent Campus the Doc Station and in the afternoon the Script Station at HAU2 give a selected group of talents the opportunity to present their work and get a feedback from people who know the business and also from the audience. Although the clattering metro trains outside of the windows are constantly reminding the audience of Berlin reality, Dick Fontaine, a veteran in documentary filmmaking and Doc Station jury member, is touched when Luis from Uruguay tells about his intention to do a film about female prisoners in his homecountry during the military dictatorship – „It had been boiling in me,“ Luis says. „And now I want to let it flow into a lake where people can mirror themselves.

Working together: Two Talents at the Campus.

Also Dick can already see an interesting film coming out of Pullulu’s story about a former football star in the Congo whose life got destroyed by the political system: „You come from an individual to tell a more general story. That’s very good.“ In two hours the audience gets a rare glimpse on 12 brand new projects that are still in progress. While having Linsen and Spätzle for lunch at loved and hated WAU I witness another work in progress. At the table next to me a Swiss cinematographer and a director from Iceland are talking about working together. Well, it’s rather the Swiss talking: „I don’t know if she likes me. But I saw her on the website and I had the feeling that we should meet and talk.“ What they have in common is their interest in fiction-documentary, he says. So maybe the Campus is the beginning of a wonderful international co-production?

The Script Station session at least shows a perfect collaboration. It’s between script writers and actors. Before the latter can show their skills, the screenwriters have to pitch their scripts – that is, they have to outline the story and make it sound as interesting as possible – while being observed by David Thompson, Head of BBC Films. Issues that the young generation is interested in are diversified: happy end in Rumania, teenage abuse in the US, life in Berlin, reincarnation, drugs and killing in Spain, coming of age in Argentina. David Thompson is very friendly in his questions but his advice is clear: „Be short an crisp! The relevant things you’ll get asked.“

When the actors visualize two excerpts from two different scripts one of the most important topics in feature films in general and also in the projects of the younger generation is tangible: love. And from the conversation that comes up after the performance love is also what accounts for the collaboration of authors and actors: the love for the characters.

no comment

Wednesday, 2008-02-13

Day 4: From Street Cred to Screen Credibility

By Jeko on Wednesday, 2008-02-13, 21:42

This is part six of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the Berlinale, Berlin's famous film festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Sandra Wickert

“Hip hop is life. Hip hop is a cultural force. Hip hop has nothing to do with politics. Hip hop has everything to do with politics. Hip hop discriminates against women. Hip hop empowers women. Hip hop is poor. Hip hop is bling.” The opinions on the true nature of hip hop expressed by Talents and visitors of the panel From Street Cred to Screen Credibility- Hip-Hop and the Movies were as different as the backgrounds of the experts on stage. The stage united Karim Chrobog, Volker Meyer-Dabisch, Atif Ghani, Fatoumata Kande Senghor, Donald Mugisha and Tyron Ricketts with moderators Kevin Fitzgerald and Satti R. Kujipers.

An expert in Hip Hop: Tyron Ricketts.

The panel gave an overview of the different approaches to bringing hip hop to the big screen. German director Volker Meyer-Dabisch, whose movie Love, Peace and Beatbox is featured in this year’s Berlinale, came only indirectly to this topic. Originally planning to make a film about a Turkish family in his neighbourhood (Kreuzberg, Berlin), their young son opened the door to hip hop music for him. In his adolescence, German actor and musician Tyron Ricketts found a role model in hip hoppers in a world where there were not many black people on screen in Germany. Hip hop has changed Tyron’s life: for him it is a tool to change the situation for foreigners in Germany and is an instrument to release emotions.

London underground filmmaker Atif Ghani shows the drastic side of hip hop and features Plan B MC who uses a lot of explicit lyrics. He wants to hear the voices from the streets and for him, hip hop is not at all a national thing but has provided an international identity with global points of reference. Senegalese activist and filmmaker Fatoumata Kandé Senghor wants to give a forum to her country, which has many things to say. She showed how hip hop influences every aspect of everyday life in Senegal and how it is used by politicians to address youth – but also how the youth uses it to get back at politics. In a country where 65% of the population consists of young people, hip hop is the overall language.

Teaching screen credibility: The experts helped bring Hip Hop to the Big Screen.

Donald Mugisha from Uganda uses not only hip hop but the local version of Dancehall in his movies and shows life 'how it is'. The extract of Karim Chrobog’s movie War Child, playing at Berlinale, was very impressive. It shows the story of Emmanuel, a child soldier in three civil wars, who now has exchanged his machine gun for hip hop in order to make himself heard. “Hip hop does not only touch the mind, but the hearts” was the message. Some discussion followed – about the raw language in the songs, the stereotypes that are still used, the long way from idealism in the Bronx to the 'bling bling' of West Coast hip hop. And finally the complaint that Africa is always portrayed in the media as a continent of war, crime, disaster – and not laughter, weddings, dances, beauty. “We do documentaries. We portray life. And when the houses in Uganda are flooded and the water stays there for five months and the government doesn’t do anything about it, that’s how it is, there’s nothing to euphemize”, was Kandé Seghor's response.

The discussion was just about to start, going deeper into the connection between film and hip hop and the different approaches and possiblities, when the two hours were already over. Fortunately, there was the hip hop lounge afterwards, where theory could be turned into practice. Yo!

no comment

Day 3: Who Needs Reality?

By Jeko on Wednesday, 2008-02-13, 11:50

This is part five of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the Berlinale, Berlin's famous film festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Lena Meier

„I don’t like boundaries. I want to control the scene.“ It’s lunchtime at WAU – the restaurant at HAU2. We happen to be served by a very friendly waitress – which is unusual for this place – as Didzis, a filmmaker from Latvia, is explaining why he prefers making feature movies to do a documentary. Didzis has quite some experience. He has been busy during the last year shooting short films. One is about throwing out garbage – but the filmmaker added a romantic feature to it: People come out in the street with their garbage and start dancing! How cool is that!

Didzis seems to be an exception at the Berlinale Talent Campus. Most of the young directors I met so far are into documentary. Even though Alberto from Italy (he is in our Saturday blog entry) told me that „if you want to reach a big audience don’t use the documentary style.“ The Serbian director Dušan Makavejev has had a big audience all over the world since the 1960s. People love him for his politically provocative, sexually liberal movies. A good impression of his esthetic is given by a slide show of film stills during his conversation with the film critic Peter Cowie at HAU2: a golden penis, Lenin’s head in stone taken down from a monument, sex in public, sex in a bath of sugar, the Berlin wall, a beheaded woman (we learn from the filmmaker she was beheaded with an ice skating shoe after she had sex).

„Film is bigger than life“ Makavejev says and the oversize pictures behind his back prove him right, „it can only be a construction.“. But of course all the pictures in his movies are taken from real life. „You should show everything that’s there and that is violence and sex and death.“ That’s why for the Serbian film veteran there are no taboos. Even though under communism but also in the „free world“ censorship has been most inventive to ban his movies without any legal foundation.

The One-Woman Show

Turn of the scene: At HAU1 Julie Delpy, the French-American one-woman-show is tackling the borders at least of what Rafael, an Israeli talent sitting next to me, can stand. „She’s crazy!“ he comments on her and leaves the place. The topic of the panel is „Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes“ and I find Julie Delpy most entertaining and in the end the only reason to stay at this otherwise rather lame arrangement: Ralph Ziman, director from South Africa talks irritating casually about violence in Johannesburg and the morals of the protagonist in his latest movie– a kind of Robin Hood in the townships. Julia Jentsch, the German celebrity on the panel obviously feels very uncomfortable and can’t explain what it is like to play the young anti-nazi activist Sophie Scholl, a real heroine in German history.

It is a small highlight to learn about Benjamin Gilmour’s latest project „The Son of the Lion“. The Canadian filmmaker went to Pakistan with a finished script in his bag about the Pashtuns, who are known in the world as the group that forms the Taliban. As he lived with them they started to reform his original story into their story. „I didn’t have much choice. I was their guest.“ So can we see the real Pashtuns in this feature film?

Meanwhile Julie Delpy has been biting her nails, drinking her tea, making all kinds of faces and changing her position in her armchair a lot before the interviewer turns to her. All of a sudden she is fully present and rocks the scene with her description of her favourite heroes – „I love obnoxious people!“ – and an estimation of the future of the hero in American cinema – „The anti-hero is back. I’m looking forward to that.“ What she leaves open is: Do we see the real Julie Delpy in „2 Days in Paris“?: „I’m not like that. This is a completely different person. I hate her. Well, I mean, of course, there are some things … Maybe, yes I am that person. No, nonsense. Ehm, I don’t know.“

no comment

Tuesday, 2008-02-12

Day 2: The Indie Filmmaker's Guide to the Internet

By Karsten on Tuesday, 2008-02-12, 10:38

This is part four of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the Berlinale, Berlin's famous film festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Lena Meier

There are three huge question marks hovering over the Berlinale Talent Campus and the heads of its international participants: Who can give me money to realize my ideas? Will it still be my film? And how can I attract people to see my story?

Producer Ian Smith
Take for example Didem from Istanbul. She wants to make a documentary about a famous Turkish singer who fled Turkey in the 60s and went to Paris. It’s a love story, she says. The way music and text come together is accurately written down in a folder she brought to Berlin. Of course the European Film Market is on her agenda where she’ll try to find financial help for her project – “This is the first time I’m trying to sell my stuff. So I don’t really know what to expect.” To get some ideas of how to deal with questions of financing and distribution as an independent filmmaker, many Talents follow the Campus' pink lights to HAU2 and two most interesting presentations.

In the morning Liz Rosenthal, an independent producer and creator from the UK, shows how using podcasts, iTunes, Google and social networking sites is the best way to get known and stay independent. For sure Shah Rukh Khan’s appearance in HAU1 at the same time is overwhelming, but so are the opportunities on the internet. “It can be incredibly laborious,” the expert admits. “But the more you share of your work, the more valuable it can become.” Part 2 and 3 of the Indie Filmmaker’s Guide to the Internet will take place on Tuesday, Feb 12 at 2 p.m. and Thursday, Feb 14, 11 a.m respectively. In the afternoon there is the chance to hear two experienced producers share their secrets: Iain Smith in conversation with Sandy Lieberson again in HAU2. Iain Smith is the producer of films like the Fifth Element and Children of Men. His secret is to be like a mother to the filmmakers he is working with - with all the severity but also the admiration this kind of relationship demands. “Zen is a good way to deal with the fear of the filmmaker.”

Producer Liz Rosenthal
Obviously both Smith and Lieberson try to make clear that the producer and the whole marketing machinery is not necessarily the enemy of the filmmaker. Yet you can hear from their questions that some Talents still need more proof of that, as these two kind men sitting comfy in their black armchairs might turn out to be wolves in sheep’s clothing. So Smith points out that the next generation has a clear advantage when it comes to the internet: “This is your chance. I know the traditional way but I feel uncomfortable with the internet.” Didem, the Turkish Talent, is enthusiastic, but one question remains: would Smith be interested in her documentary? One person, at least, doesn’t need to worry about attention at the moment. Will Hemming, a Canadian composer/sound designer, is busy with work in HAU3. Asked if he still has time to join all the activities on the Campus he laughs: “Yes, I do. I just don’t sleep.”

PS: Some people came here and expected snow, but unfortunately it’s spring weather and bright sunshine.

no comment

Screening African Emotions

By Karsten on Tuesday, 2008-02-12, 10:23

These days, it's film frenzy in Berlin again. Berlinale, the city's famous film festival is under way. This is the third part of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Paula Martinez

Sunday, 2 o’clock, HAU 2: the sun shines outside but dozens of Talents try to find a place in a crowded room. It’s the first round of the Focus Africa events. With a panel of experts from African cinema (producers, journalists, directors from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Nigeria...), the session "Hot Spot Africa" draws the attention of Talents from sub-Saharan Africa but also of Talents from all parts of the world. Like Alberto from Italy who told us he wanted to explore “a world which is far away from European independent production.”

Alby James, scriptwriter, Selina Ukwuoma, screenwriter and Michael Auret, distributor and former director of the Cape Town World Cinema Festival
For more than two hours the experts and the public analysed the panorama of sub-Saharan cinema and defended what Zimbabwe producer Pdero Pimenta described as the “African way of doing things.” Talk ranged from training new generations to broadcasting African cinema, from the very important issue of fundraising to the necessary cooperation between African countries and the incredible “Nollywood” phenomenon. Peace Aniyam-Fiberesima stated to the applause of many, “there’s a lot of raw talent in Africa” and there’s a real need for African movies made for an African public and focused on African topics, independent from Western influence. She also emphasized that it’s crucial to make cinema accessible to the majority of the population: for example, by setting the cinema entrance fees to one dollar (or less).

The round was followed by questions concentrated on the colossal issue of distribution. As one young speaker said, “the main problem starts when you have finished your movie”. It’s difficult to find a platform where young directors can show their work and thereby garner funding for the next film. Breeze, from South Africa, criticized the gap between younger and older, more professional generations and the latter's reluctance to bet on risky projects that explore new filmic language. Afterwards I spoke with Nyaradzo Muchena, a Campus participant from Zimbabwe. He said that the round table was interesting, but he didn’t agree with the general opinion on the Nigerian model as the only model for African cinema. Nyaradzo criticized the quality of filmmaking in Nigeria: “Nollywood is a great example of good film distribution, but definitely not a role model in film production”.

After a short break, I headed to the main stage in HAU 2 for the second Focus Africa session focussed on North Africa and the current state of independent filmmaking in Egypt. The discussion, entitled Cairo Underground, addressed the different forms of doing cinema away from mainstream channels. A modern artist who uses multimedia as a way of communicating (Shady El-Noshokaty), a female documentary filmmaker (Hala Galal) and two Egyptians participants of this edition of the Campus (Kaiser and Emad Mabrouk) showed their works and talked about multimedia language, independent cinema in Egypt and self-censorship. As Hala Galal said, “the main problem is that nobody knows that in Egypt there is also independent filmmaking”. The photos of Cairo taken by El-Noshokaty and screened on the backdrop during the talk were beautiful and a perfect touch.

no comment

Monday, 2008-02-11

The Long Road to Stardom

By Karsten on Monday, 2008-02-11, 15:05

These days, it's film frenzy in Berlin again. Berlinale, the city's famous film festival is under way. This is the second part of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Sandra Wickert

It was a big day yesterday for Campus participants that are actors or actresses. On top of the Love International panel featuring the stars of Indian, Nigerian and German cinema, Talent actors also received expert advice in the casting workshop Don't Call Us, We'll Call You.

"Develop a thick skin for rejection“ – this was the final advice that Ilene Kahn-Power, founder and head of Hollywood-based Kahn Power Pictures, gave to the talents participating in the casting workshop Don’t call us – we’ll call you. Together with Derek Power and casting director Nancy Bishop, she provided an interesting insight into the shark basin known as "auditions".

The workshop's goal was to shed light on the obscure procedure of castings, self-representation, finding an agent, finding autions and landing a role in the international market. Nancy Bishop got down to business and made it clear what casting directors do and do not want. This included advice on CVs: "In English if you want to work in the U.S.”; how the head shots should look: “Choose a photo that portrays what you really look like and not one that overly flatters you”; and, above all, how to act at a shooting: “Keep your shots simple. Don’t annoucne your age!”

The Power couple then came up with some examples to turn theory into practice, starting with the amazing story of how they casted the then 'unknown to the US market' Irish actor Jonathan-Rhys Myers as Elvis in a CBS-miniseries. “Johnny”, as Ilene affectionately calls him, ardently followed their instructions, because his tape had all the ingredients for success: a simple background with just the actor and real entertainment that leaves you wanting more. It was the first step in his path to a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries.

Together you are stronger

The overall reaction to the workshop among Talent participants was positive. Senad Alihodzic from Bosnia-Herzegovina was interested in the actor-agent-relationship: “We do not know about that in my country. I was interested in the concrete information, like how to make show reels. And I learned a lot from that”.

Young actress Erifili Stefanidou from Greece chose this workshop because it was one of the few events that was actor-oriented. She absolutely wants to work abroad and maybe has a job prospective in Sarajevo soon: “In Greece we do not have this system, it is still a long way. I wanted to know how I could promote myself as an actress and how to apply for international jobs."

Consodyne Buzabe from Uganda was enthusiastic: “Film is just beginning in Uganda and we need as much information as possible about film and actors. We don’t even know the basic process of this. We need to gain insight in what to do to get ourselves out there or what we can do to become actors that eventually will be hired for international movies.” For countries like Uganda, where neither agents, film schools nor casting agencies exist, Nancy Bishop’s advice is to create actors unions: “Together you can represent yourselves as a group. Together you are stronger”.

For a Croatian actress, the workshop was successful in a very concrete way. After complaining about not having received answers from casting agencies several times after having sent in her demo reel, Nancy Bishops nose for talents must have smelled something: “I would like to see your demo reel, if you want to give it to me”. From theory to practice, the best lesson of this workshop.

no comment

Sunday, 2008-02-10

Saturday Recap

By Karsten on Sunday, 2008-02-10, 15:26

These days, it's film frenzy in Berlin again. Berlinale, the city's famous film festival is under way. This is the first part of a special series on cafebabel.com's Berlin blog, in which three Babel reporters will cover a not so well-known aspect of the festival. It's called "Berlinale Talent Campus", a forum for 350 young filmmakers from all over the world to present their works, meet each other and improve their skills during various workshops.

by Lena Meier and Paula Martinez

It’s all pink, it’s amazing and it’s all about meeting: the 6th edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus. 350 young people have come from all over the world and are eager to meet each other: script writers want to meet screenwriting experts and filmmakers. Filmmakers want to meet producers. Actresses want to meet filmmakers with new ideas and a fresh way of realizing them.

My Life in Campus-Pink: Talent Campus participant enjoying a sunny moment in the magenta-hued lounge of HAU2.
And we want to meet the talents: For example Breeze from South Africa who attracts attention with his rasta hair-do. He is a documentary filmmaker who, in the past, has examined themes like black consciousness in Johannesburg. By using hip-hop as a film language he wants to break the rules of documentary filmmaking and make it more interesting for his generation: “People love to see movies but they don’t want to see anything didactic.” At lunch we get to talk to Alberto who came to do his first film because he was commissioned by a NGO to tell a story of post-war Bosnia. The topic of his latest project is also a socio-political: women’s rights in Morocco. The culmination of all meetings is the first round of the Speed Matching: about two hundred talents sit in two lines facing each other on cardboard stools on the main stage of HAU2.

The setting is pink. The air is vibrating with one hundred conversations. After three minutes one line moves one seat to the left – new partners, new topics. Janine Marmot from Skillset. introduced the game with the assumption that many participants are shy – it seems that she is wrong. Everyone is talking and gesturing, greeting, taking pictures and exchanging email addresses. In the lobby outside, three guys hang out on the pink bathroom-carpet-like platforms. The sun sends rays through the big windows. Although Gabriel, Carlos and Rezwan missed the speed matching for today, they were still able to meet each other and meet us as well. They come from Mexico, Ecuador and Bangladesh and all of them are directors.

Registration Day: Fresh off the plane, train and bus. Campus participants register in HAU2.
“It’s easy to make films in Bangladesh because there’s always a lot of stories to tell in a third world country”, Rezwan says. His latest short shows the huge gap between rich and poor, high tech and rural living. Berlin impressed him with its mix of modern and old. Carlos is interested in socio-political issues. His documentary Taromenani tells the story of a disconnected tribe in the Amazon and was already shown in Berlin at the human rights festival One World Berlin. In the end the first day of the Talent Campus was proof that it's the best place in town to meet the coolest people. And as Alberto said: “The Talent Campus is important because the most risky thing in filmmaking is to become lonely”.

one comment