Shadow of the Holy Book festival blog

International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 23.-25.11.2008

2008-12-19T15:07:00.007+02:00

IDFA website

THE BIGGEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL

I reserved a 2-day trip to Amsterdam where the biggest and most significant festival of our trade, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), has commenced once again. My first IDFA night, however, is spent in an airport hotel in Oslo. It’s far from the relaxed and simultaneously bustling atmosphere of Amsterdam and IDFA.

Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in the grip of a snowstorm

A snowstorm takes over Finland just as our plane is supposed to depart. Delays, cancellations and a plane swap follow as well as a “snow- and ice-clearing operation” on the new plane. Finally, after a 7-hour wait, we manage to take off. There is a stopover in Oslo, and all the connecting flights to Amsterdam have already gone for the night. Therefore, the cold airport hotel, straight out of The Shining, is my accommodation for the first night. The hotel seems “alive” with passengers who have also missed their connecting flights, and there are plenty of them tonight. Many varieties of lonely dweller trample the hotel’s long corridors, and in addition to the single passengers at least a couple of groups of loud Estonian and Russian passengers have also found their way into this land of fjords.

I feel vexed about my cancelled meetings in Amsterdam, but try to utilise the waiting time by doing a big bunch of work assignments that have piled up: letters of reference, offers and contract propositions. The next morning the journey finally takes me to Amsterdam.

The festival's stylish main theatre, Tuschinski

We commenced Shadow of the Holy Book’s festival tour a year ago in this very place. Our world premiere took place in the main hall of the grand Tuschinski cinema. The theatre acts as IDFA's main stage now for the second time running. The premiere week was hectic: screenings, interviews, talk shows and Q&A sessions with the audience. Part of the audience considered our film as a mockumentary, a fake documentary (unbelievable as the story was/is to many viewers) and while we got to speak about the human rights situation in Turkmenistan, we had to keep proving the factual nature of our film. Now after a year has passed, the film has “proven itself” as a documentary and the point of our discussions has fortunately moved onto more relevant issues. An interesting year indeed is behind us.

Kevin with Farid and Ruslan Tuhbatullin at the IDFA 2007 premiere

This time I’m here to meet some colleagues and financiers - to talk about upcoming plans and possible collaborations. Amsterdam is an excellent place for that, because nearly all the people in our industry are here. Representatives of various festivals pop up here and there. Numerous colleagues are looking for funding and fortune in the financial forum, film market and in individual financier meetings. Fortunately there are also the films, their creators, and their audience. Here, all of them have value – in a slightly different way than at Nordisk Panorama. The screenings are bulging with people, and interesting talk show and discussion events have been created around many of the films. Amsterdam really does rock into the rhythm of documentaries at the end of November, and gathers nearly 150,000 viewers into the cinemas each year! Few fiction festivals can beat that.

IDFA takes over Amsterdam at the end of November

IDFA also arouses some envy, as the big and beautiful ones always do. Many think it’s too big, too hectic, too lacking in profile and too commercial, grabbing too many premieres for itself. This is true, at least from some perspectives. However, to a marginal art form, the existence of IDFA creates credibility and self-confidence. It is also an example for everyone and everywhere on how to reach the great masses with content at the forefront. To the industry, IDFA is like an oasis in the desert. It creates sex appeal for documentary film, and that’s something that the industry really needs in order to flourish and get our messages heard. The big audiences need important and moving stories too. That crowd should not be cordoned off from our domain by pushing it forcefully into becoming a victim of "the slush industry".

Many documentary festivals also try to compete with IDFA by fighting over premieres and criticising its profile. Why not, as everything needs to be shaken up and criticised in order to develop and make reforms. This is the case with IDFA too. However, the strength of IDFA is precisely its ability to keep up with the times. Led by the festival director Ally Derks, the team renews and modifies itself commendably with the times and also acts as a pioneer. That is one of the cornerstones of its success. Moreover, Amsterdam is an excellent place for our most important documentary festival. The documentary film crowd is not after palm trees and sunny beaches, but a fascinating, intelligent, artistic, historical, peculiar, and challenging environment. Amsterdam is all of these.

Laurien ten Houten, Director of IDFA Docs For Sale with Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, director of IDFA-Industry and one of the festival's founding members

Rush, however, does accumulate in this circus. The advantage of many smaller festivals is that one can take things easy and properly concentrate on encountering just a few people, projects and films. Here people and things rush past your eyes with great speed. The rush takes hold and the oxygen is sometimes about to run out, especially if one wants to achieve as much as possible. One feels like a sultan in his harem. It’s a nice place to visit, but it’s also nice to get out at times. The belly is full, but exhaustion can also strike when trying to eat too much at once.

One World Festival, Bratislava, Slovakia, 14.-16.11.2008

2008-12-19T14:49:00.010+02:00

One World Festival website

SALTY FOOD AND HUMAN RIGHTS

I have inexplicable bad luck with Slovakian food, as plates of over-salty food continually arrive in front of me. Either that, or the local food culture is very original. I also buy some spring water for the hotel, which turns out to be mineral water and very salty, Slovakian-style.

The remnants of the saltiest pasta in my life

My first dining experience in Bratislava, however, is a lunch at the Finnish Embassy, courtesy of the Ambassador, Mr Jukka Leino, and his wife. I left Istanbul early in the morning, and when I finally arrived at the Ambassador’s residence via Munich and Vienna, feeling more than a little stunned, I'm dying of hunger. The soup is excellent and quite balanced in terms of the salt level. The salmon is also ok, but there’s a salty slice of bacon on top of it. And I don’t eat so-called red meat. The bacon is taken away from my portion, but it remains, shrivelled from all the salt, as a ghost haunting my tired mind. From there onwards, all the dining in Bratislava goes downhill.

With Ambassador Jukka Leino and his wife Eva on the recidency's balcony on the banks of the Danube

I got to know Jukka Leino in New York, where he was working as the Finnish Consul. I organised a Finnish documentary film event, Norden Exposure, in New York in 2002, and it was supported strongly by the Finnish Consulate, headed by Jukka and the Attache Ilkka Kalliomaa. In Slovakia, Leino clearly wants to invigorate and support the presentation of Finnish culture, which sounds grand and is warmly embodied in his generosity this evening. Amongst the dining, Leino also introduces the interesting historical and geographical location of his residence: the Donau flows before it and, from the balcony, one can see directly to both Austria and Hungary. During the Communist era, many Czechoslovakians attempted to swim across the Donau to the West from this point, but were most often shot dead on the shore. A memorial has been erected nearby, which has the names of those shot in the Donau carved on it. It’s an excellent site for a human rights festival.

The festival is a positive surprise in many ways, and reminds me of the Lithuanian Human Rights film event. The programme consists of many great, well-known films, which at least mildly touch upon the human rights theme. Who knows how many times I have been to a festival with the same set of films, such as A Jihad for Love, Septembers, Up The Yangtze and Taxi to the Dark Side. Altogether 80 documentary films are presented at the festival. The films also interest the audience and the screenings have a strong turnout. The festival organisers estimate that the 5-day festival will gather 20 000 viewers, which is an incredible feat indeed.

The festival welcomes you

The discussion with the audience is also rewarding. For each festival we compile an information sheet on the country’s collaboration with the Turkmen dictatorship, which is also the case with Slovakia. The Slovakian foreign minister has instigated discussions with the Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov on developing trade between the two countries, and the collaboration began promptly. It is a common trend worldwide, and in Europe as well: very different states are all lurking for opportunities to collaborate with the oil-and-gas-rich Turkmenistan. Human rights issues are ignored. The plans for new gas pipelines create an even bigger urge for negotiations with the Turkmen president. The surface-level changes made in the country (the human rights and freedom of speech situation has in fact remained the same), as well as the president’s “facelift campaign” have increased the “security” as well as the sex-appeal for collaborating with this totalitarian state.

At the post-screening panel discussion

Some officials are very interested in our film, and the information on the Turkmen-Slovakian relationship. The head of Amnesty in Slovakia sees the information as a call to action. They have a meeting with the foreign minister within a couple of weeks, and aim to add to their list of issues the situation in Turkmenistan and the various problems involved in trade with dictatorships.

Bratislava’s One World is not a competitive festival, but the audience award is given out here as well. Apparently, the audience has taken a liking to our film, as it rises to second place in the poll. A film set in the Congo is the winner, which, unfortunately, I don’t manage to see. The sad fact when it comes to festivals is that (unless you’re a member of the Jury) the more activities there are for yourself and the film, the less opportunities there are for seeing other people’s works. It is often embarrassing, because at festival’s one constantly meets with new authors whose films one would like to see. In other words, the more you travel the more films you want to see. For someone having grown up in a Lutheran community it starts to pray on one's conscience.

The beautiful Slovakian banknotes will be replaced by the Euro in early 2009

International 1001 Documentary Film Festival, Istanbul 12.-14.11.2008

2008-11-21T23:20:00.010+02:00

International 1001 Documentary Film Festival website

AHMET THE GREEDY AND TURKEY’S MEDIA WAR

I step out of the airport bus into the Taksim central square. The scent of roasted chestnuts lingers in the air. Everything feels and smells familiar. It’s almost like I’d been here just a moment ago. It is, however, nearly two years since we shot in Istanbul for our film Shadow of the Holy Book. Alongside Tehran in Iran, this is one of those places I never thought I’d end up with the finished film, so sensitive it is from both of the countries perspective.

The long and deep neighbourly relations tie the histories of Turkey and Turkmenistan together. Turkmenistan’s late dictator Saparmurat Niyazov wrote the Ruhnama book (The Book of the Soul), through which he ruled and oppressed his people. In their greed Western companies translated the book into their own languages in order to get hold of the wondrous business opportunities. The megalomaniac Niyazov was flattered by the requests to translate the book. The new translations caressed his “artistic soul” and also gave new ammunition to oppress the opposition: all the letters praising the Ruhnama sent by companies were published in the media and read out, for example, in the news. Therefore an image was created for the people of Turkmenistan that the whole world stands behind Niyazov’s dictatorship.

The Turkish businessman Ahmet Chalik was the conductor of the propaganda orchestra and became Niyazov’s closest business partner, and even a minister in Niyazov’s government. Ahmet didn’t have to try to replace the Caliph, as while working as Niyazov’s and the Ruhnama’s shadow he became even more influential than Niyazov himself. Ahmet fed into Niyazov’s vanity and megalomania, and managed to secure a lasting place in the dictator’s heart. He pioneered, for example, the translation of Ruhnama into different languages, gave a statue of the Ruhnama book to Niyazov as a birthday present, and proposed the name-change of calendar months according to Niyazov’s relatives and the Ruhnama. Ahmet’s power and business activites grew in Turkmenistan at the same rate as Niyazov’s madness. From the textile and cotton industry Ahmet expanded out into the construction industry and finally into the gas and oil industry.

Saparmurat Niyazov and Ahmet Chalik studying construction plans

Now that the power structure has changed in Turkmenistan, the new leader Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov hasn’t managed to get rid of Chalik, even though he has skilfully cleared out Niyazov’s close circle from around him. Ahmet’s power is so significant, that the new president has to tolerate him. Chalik, for example, features in the new China-Turkmenistan gas pipeline deal as a third party. Right alongside the states.

When we started researching Chalik’s activities around 3 years ago, he was not very well known by the Turkish people. He was one of Turkey’s richest people, but still managed to avoid publicity skilfully. All of Turkey’s political quarters wanted Ahmet’s backup and support, and finally he was won over by Turkey’s current Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s AKP party. Just like in the Chalik-Niyazov scenario, Chalik has become a close friend of Erdogan as well as the Turkish President Abdullah Gül. At the end of 2007 Chalik and Erdogan made a big move. With the Prime Minister’s support Chalik bought Turkey’s second largest media complex, ATV-Sabah, which includes a TV-channel (ATV), radio channel (Radio City), 5 newspapers, headed by one of Turkey’s biggest (Sabah) and 10 magazines. The sale price for the media complex was suspiciously low and rumours circulated about the Prime Minister having manoeuvred the low price as well as the bank guarantees for the sale. In other words, the ruling political party grabbed a large chunk of Turkey’s media power and Chalik was made into a media mogul. In September 2008 the Prime Minister caused a scandal by advising people to boycott the opposition media. Now Ahmet is certainly known is Istanbul.

Chalik-owned newspapers and magazines

However, people are still not aware of Ahmet’s activities in Turkmenistan. That’s where he made his riches by questionable means, is now buying power with it in his own country and the whole of Central Asia. Ahmet’s story is part of our film Shadow of the Holy Book. He is the films so-called “bad boy”, or at least a counterforce to the democratisation fighters. International 1001 Documentary Film Festival has made a courageous move by selecting the film, and especially as the festival’s Opening Film. I wait for the audience reactions with great interest. Ahmet Chalik and the Prime Minister Erdogan have also been invited to the screening.

Opening ceremony audience at the 1001 festival

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is also holding a meeting with Erdogan. The meeting’s most important agenda is collaboration in the energy sphere. The planned gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Turkey and through to Europe is undoubtedly on the list of issues. Ahmet, of course, has a significant role in the project. In private discussions experiences on media ownership and the ruling and manipulating of people are bound to be shared. This is something that the media mogul Berlusconi has long-term experience in, and without his media power he would have never become a Prime Minister. I wonder whether Ahmet will take part in the discussions – or if he’s perhaps travelling in Turkmenistan or China.

Shadow of the Holy Book on the pages of Hürriyet with Erdogan and Berlusconi

The right-wing opposition newspaper Hürriyet wrote ambitiously about our film in advance. The journalist behind the article, Ersin Kalkan, has been brave in his writings and the state has charged him on nearly 30 accounts for “insulting Turkishness” according to the 301. article in the criminal law. Ersin has tackled the criminal cases victoriously, but has also received a lot of intimidation and blackmail. The Sabah newspaper, owned by Ahmet Chalik, also tried to buy him out and join their editorial team. The paycheck would have been much heftier than the current one. Ersin, however, was not to be bought and silenced. He does not want to sell himself to the new media mogul.

Journalist Ersin Kalkan and director Arto Halonen at the 1001 festival's opening ceremony

The festival is overshadowed by sad news. A remarkable documentary director and active member of the Documentary Filmmakers Association has suddenly passed away two days prior. The colleagues carry the director’s photograph around their necks, thereby honouring him and his meritorious work. The opening ceremony therefore features sorrow as well as joy. The Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey, responsible for the festival’s organisation, awards Shadow of the Holy Book with the Honorary Recognition. To my surprise the final applause is also vibrant. Ahmet and Erdogan cannot be seen in the audience, and their support troops remain silent. The feedback is supportive and the film is praised for its encouraging effect. There is a will to make the Turkish people aware of Ahmet Chalik’s activities. A director working for Chalik’s ATV-channel feels embarrassed. He asks for a copy of the film for the opposition MP’s to watch, and promises to try to get it to the opposition-owned TV-channel’s distribution. He is, however, afraid that even the opposition won’t have the courage to show the film on their channel, as in addition to Ahmet they would also get the Prime Minister and President on their backs. Turkey has a long history of ruling through fear and intimidation, and influential people’s deterrents still function effectively. This sounds familiar also in our country, tarnished by Finlandization. Small Finland seeks its Finlandization subject humbly and fearfully. After the Soviet Union and China, Nokia has risen as the big brother, at the feet of which the whole nation lies, fearfully and silently, with the Prime Minister in the front line.

1001 festival's Honorary Recognition for Shadow of the Holy Book

The Islamic liberal newspaper Zaman does an interview in relation to our film. Like Sabah and Hürriyet, Zaman is also one of Turkey’s leading newspapers. The journalist comes to the film’s opening screening and is excited about what he sees, praising the film. The article, however, never materialises. Ahmet is not the owner of Zaman, but is its important supporter and financier. The journalist is clearly not aware of this. The article gets stuck in the editorial office. The media control and power exerted by Ahmet and Erdogan functions disconcertingly well.

Sheffield Doc/Fest 07.-10.11.2008

2008-11-21T23:05:00.009+02:00

Sheffield Doc/Fest website

SHEFFIELD – THE CULTURAL FACE OF THE STEEL INDUSTRY

For a day it’s reasonably warm, an almost gentle kind of weather here. Then the rain comes down sideways and the wind blows tearing umbrellas and their owners. Sheffield, striving from the steel industry, shows the disfigured face of the autumn. The locals here are more interested in football than films, despite Sheffield Wednesday F.C. dropping out of the Premier League to the First Division some years ago. It was a hard knock for the city. Almost like the steel industry falling overnight. Culture isn’t something to lift the city’s confidence, but luckily documentary films are meaningful here too, at England’s leading documentary film festival, and to some they mean a great deal – even though the masses are sitting in the warmth of the pubs, eyes glued to the football match on TV.

Saturday night football match brings the police to the front of the pub

The festival delegations are plentiful here from around the world – so there is a reasonable amount of people in all the screenings. However, it would be wise to invest more into the local population. Of course it’s not easy. The festival is, in fact, represented excellently on the streets and the local campus area, but the cultural breach clearly takes some time.

Women Make Movies distribution company's Debra Zimmermann immersed in the Ruhnama

In many respects the festival has been organised exquisitely. The event is centered effectively around one cinema complex, with its festival clubs and offices. Communication functions well, and there are plenty of discussions, seminars and parties. The programme is also well selected. Another positive surprise is the good quality of British documentaries. Other than reportage made to the BBC mould can be also be found in this kingdom.

The festival centre in Sheffield

The festival’s programme director Hussain Currimbhoy does his job with piety, and stands as an exceptionally courageous example. He is personally present at the beginning of each screening, to make sure that everything is in order when it comes to technicalities. For once I don’t have to run between the screening room and the projectionist: Hussain and his assistants have walkie-talkies and a direct line to the projectionist’s room at all times. Therefore our film’s focus and “image speed” problems are taken care of in a trice this time.

Arto Halonen and Hussain Currimbhoy

There’s a party every night, and after last night’s one there is an additional farewell one for the staff. Partying is something that comes naturally here. For once I stay until the end of the festival. The festival workers are celebrating a job well done. They’re proud, and it’s worth it.

The doorman of the Scottish-themed party welcomes the guests

Taiwanin International Documentary Festival 01. – 06.11.2008

2008-11-21T22:48:00.008+02:00

Taiwan International Documentary Festival website

MEMORIES IN THE WARMTH OF TAICHUNG

After Lithuania I made a stopover in Helsinki for five hours. I manage to do some laundry, and even pause for a moment in my thoughts, about my travelling. When you travel, you always leave from one situation and when you return, in a way you return into the moment you left. The progress in the point of departure (=homeland), however, cannot be paused with a remote control, so things keep moving on while you’re gone. Time cannot be controlled, and it’s not physically possible to divide oneself into different locations at once. A trip is always a choice. It’s not only an “addition” – a new nuance amongst the old or a dessert after dinner. It’s an either-or – here or there – situation.

Excessive travelling affects personal relationships. Restless lifestyle alienates and frightens – and of course fascinates, at least in case of the traveller. How is one able, and dares to build anything around a restless lifestyle… or on the other hand, why not. Maybe being on the move creates a feeling of security and keeps away the fear of standing still, at least ostensibly. Perhaps it’s also a way for me to play overtime, so to speak. Especially when I know the importance of stopping and also feel drawn to it.

Taiwan brings up a lot of memories. I go through them a lot during the trip. Maybe I’ve previously experienced so much and so quickly here that I haven’t had the time to deal with it. I am at the Taiwan festival for the second time. The festival is organised every other year, and the first time being in 1998 when I was in Taipei with my film Karmapa – Two Ways of Divinity, set in Tibet. Now the festival has moved to the country’s (or county’s, according to the Chinese) second largest city, Taichung. This isn’t a small place either with its population of 2,3 million.

Festival advert outside the hotel

The festival started out 10 years ago ambitiously. The programme was great, and the prizes remarkable. From Finland Pirjo Honkasalo and Marita Hällfors also attended with their film Atman. The festival therefore offered a chance to get to know Pirjo a bit better, whose work I’ve appreciated a good deal over the years. Although festivals, in a way, have a restless nature, many deepening, calming and structuring moments take place, also with colleagues.

The facade of the Taichung art museum

It frustrates me that Taiwan doesn’t organise the festival every year. The gap years drop the event off the map and the persistent development of the festival and its organisation becomes more difficult and clumsy. The location and the audience seem like an excellent subject for doing something significant through persistent work. The centre of the festival is Taichung’s art museum, which has presented the festival in a magnificent way. Screenings take place on four screens simultaneously, and there is a surprisingly large audience even in the daytime screenings. The Taiwanese are also eager to have discussions. Shadow of the Holy Book generates long discussions after its screening, one of which lasts over an hour. My film about Tibet and being blacklisted by China also interests the Taiwanese, who clearly read Shadow of the Holy Book through their own situation and their relationship with China: worried, in a way, on how deep they can sink with China and how far will China go with its oppression.

The front of the Taichung art museum

Post-screening discussion

I have brought my Olympic shirt to the festival. I was invited to the Beijing Olympics by the Finnish Lottery and the Finnish Olympic Committee as part of their delegation, but in the end China refused my visa. All the delegation members received the “dress for the games” for the Olympics, including a shirt where Finland has been stylishly embroidered in the back in Chinese. I wear the shirt to the screenings and discussions as I am, after all, the Finnish representative here and the only one as well. Furthermore, I will never be allowed any closer than this to China – not during the current totalitarian rule anyway. I’ll let this be my Olympic representation. Shadow of the Holy Book had also been selected to be screened at a festival in Beijing, but after the Olympics it was also deemed for the blacklist and the festival removed it from its programme.

Arto wearing the Finnish representative shirt

The Taiwanese are very warm and cordial in their organisation – its of course part of the culture, but strongly appears to be genuine. Every guest receives a so-called assistant, who helps with the scheduling, practical matters and also acts as a local guide. The festival club is missing from the event, which is a small minus point. However, it’s clearly tied into the culture – instead of partying, people prefer to walk and take the guests to the night market, which is Taichung’s most active centre and meeting place.

The US elections conclude at the latter half of the festival. In the minds of many a miracle takes place through Obama’s victory. In Taiwan, too, many locals and festival guests are touched by it and feel pride – listen to Obama’s victory speech deeply moved, yours truly included. In Obama people’s anguish becomes concrete, as well as the hope for something better. An inconceivable possibility of change culminates in him, in which people want to believe. The world is at great emergency. It will make Obama’s mission impossible. Hopefully as much as possible will live on from this “symbol of purity” and hope – past the years and terms in office.

The same emergency and fear also lingers on around here, and it should somehow be unravelled from people’s minds. Obama will not be of any help, when China looms as a shadow around the corner like a developmentally distorted big brother.

"Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films" Human Rights Films Festival, Vilna, Lithuania 29.-31.10.2008

2008-11-21T22:35:00.006+02:00

"Ad Hoc: Inconvenient Films" website

HUMAN RIGHTS AND AN ATMOSPHERE OF YOUTH

From the airport straight to the screening via the hotel. I take a quick shower, and grab the Ruhnama and other props to take with me. The organisers have a surprise: they have managed to get the Lithuanian translation of the Ruhnama, which we then present to the audience alongside the English one. The Irish oil company Emerol translated the Ruhnama into both Lithuanian and Latvian. As the book couldn’t be translated into English twice and as there was a Lithuanian on the company’s managerial board, the book was translated into two new languages. By means of this, Emerol crowned its success in Turkmenistan.

The screening is full, and people have a lot of questions. The film’s cinematographer Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen has also come along for the trip, and we answer the audience’s questions together. In a couple of weeks Vitikainen will represent the film alone in Bosnia and Hercegovina, so the Q&A session is a good warm-up for him.

Cinematographer HP Vitikainen, festival director Gediminas Andriukaitis and the Lithuanian and English Ruhnamas

The festival’s human rights theme does not appear to put people off - more like the other way round. The audience is also plentiful in other screenings. This festival is in its second year. The organisers are young, but so is the audience. - 95% of the audience are under 30, which is something of an exception. Usually the festival audiences are varied, with a younger crowd often forming the majority, but older viewers are also found. I wonder what Lithuanian over-30s do with their spare time?

Festival audience in Vilnius

The cleaner wakes me up in the morning. Enters the hotel room by accident, gets confused and leaves. I am also feeling confused: where am I?

Batumi International Art-House Film Festival 25.-29.10.2008

2008-11-21T21:43:00.011+02:00

Batumi film festival’s website

FROM THE BOOK FAIR TO GEORGIA RECOVERING FROM WAR

The Ruhnama and Anti-Ruhnama at the Helsinki Book Fair

We received our Shadow of the Holy Book –book from the printing press, and a couple of days were spent marketing the book at the Helsinki Book Fair, as well as at the book’s own launch party. I crawl home from the party around 4 AM and my plane to Georgia (or to Riga, Istanbul and on to Batumi in Georgia) was due to leave just after 6 o’clock in the morning. Feeling slightly queasy I managed to pack the last few things, the Ruhnama book and a bunch of old unread Helsingin Sanomat newspapers. Then I’m on the road again.

Like Publishing Ltd’s Nora Varjama, Kevin and Arto at the book launch

The flights are tiring for someone with a hangover, but luckily I start to feel better “flight by flight”. The Poles and the Iranians seem to follow me to every festival. Like Tehran, the Batumi festival also features a wide Poland-retrospective, built around Kieslowski, and a smaller selection of Iranian films. There’s a big Polish group present, and a few people from Iran. Some of the Polish guests I already met in Tehran. Sometimes the filmmaker’s world is indeed a small one. The first evening continues through many turns with the Polish actives in the local disco, “Hollywood”. The atmosphere is comparable to a conquered war zone. The smoke machine puffs out smoke in the air momentarily, while the Poles bravely attempt to lift up the bland atmosphere.

Polish films were strongly represented at the festival

Batumi is Georgia’s largest harbour town on the shore of the Black Sea. There are hardly any signs of war. Around here the Russians bombed some military targets, but civilian victims were avoided. The war is of course talked about and it delayed the festival by over a month. It is great, though, that it was finally organised. Another one of Georgia’s film festivals in Tbilisi also hovers in the state of uncertainty. The festival was meant to take place in December, but a decision was made to move it to the beginning of next year, and could possibly get cancelled altogether.

Statue and city culture in Batumi

Alongside the retrospectives and special screenings the festival also has a competition series for both fiction and documentary films. The programme director of Chicago Film Festival, Christopher Kamyszev, is responsible for selecting the documentary programme. We are part of this quality series alongside 9 documentary films, such as the long-touring Up the Yangtse (Yung Chang, Canada), The Champagne Spy (Nadav Schirman, Israel), Revue (Sergei Loznitsa, Russia) and Echoes of Home (Stefan Schwietert, Germany-Switzerland). The Georgian but currently France-residing and successful Nino Kirtadze’s film Durakovo: Village of Fools is also featured in the series.

There are not many filmmaker guests present, in addition to the Polish and Iranian ones. Why did they want me here and pay for my travel expenses, I wonder… Of course I take it as a compliment and an honour. The organisers indeed take good care of the guests: the transport functions well and there’s plenty of food. However, every day the lunch and dinner is eaten according to the same menu pattern: cheese, bread, wheat bread, cheese bread, tomatoes, cucumber and saslik. Pretty good to begin with, but after a couple of days it starts to come out of my ears.

Dinner table

Despite the quality films and good spirits, the festival organisation sometimes appears home-spun. The screenings of the films are running late, and the projectionists have an old Soviet-style work moral and therefore aren’t exactly on top of things. We have managed to get a 35mm film copy of Shadow of the Holy Book to the festival. It’s great, but involves more of a risk for the screening to fail. Once again I run between the projection room and the cinema during the film and try to get the sound level up and the image format right. In addition, the film starts running from the first minute in, and is finished too soon. I wonder what the 35mm screenings of our film are like around the world when I’m not there. Although film is always film, DVD starts to show its benefits. At least its better suited for amateur use.

The festival’s main theatre in Batumi

On the last day of the festival, early in the morning, I head towards Lithuania through a weird route. As there are no flights to Istanbul on that day, I get a 3-hour taxi ride to Trabzon in Turkey. From there I get on a domestic flight to Istanbul and on to Helsinki, from where I continue immediately to Lithuania. When I step on the plane in Trabzon and walk through the aisle towards my seat with the Turkish passengers, I am filled with a peculiar feeling, a strange feeling of familiarity and comfort. Like I’m home again. On a plane. It sounds, and feels worrying. Have I been travelling too much?

CINEMA VERITE, TEHRAN, IRAN 15.-19.10.2008

2008-11-20T11:07:00.020+02:00

Cinema Verite festival's website

PACKAGE TOUR BEHIND THE VEIL

Shadow of the Holy Book poster at the festival cinema

After Shadow of the Holy Book was made I could never have imagined that within a year the film would be screened to an Iranian audience in Tehran. This took place, however, with the film being screened at Tehran’s Cinema Verite festival. The audience shuffles in and out of the theatre during the screening – this wandering continues from the beginning of the film until the end. Fortunately around a hundred viewers sit unflinchingly while the other half sustains this movement.

The Felestine cinema functioned as the center of Cinema Verite

In the discussion afterwards, a young director-student springs up, praises the film and points towards the image of Iran’s spiritual leader ajatollah Ali Khamenei, lodged in the front corner of the cinema: “Could you also make a film about Iran? You must make your next film about him, our leader. The same kind of film as Shadow of the Holy Book”. To my surprise the audience do not protest against this courageous comment. I refuse politely, but during the following days a couple of other people also repeat the request. Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also suggested as a subject.

The spiritual leader ajatollah Ali Khamenei supervises the festival posters

The works by Western filmmakers screened at the festival raise some interesting debate between local journalists, students and filmmakers. The Iranians are clearly encouraged by some of the stories and examples in the films, and are motivated by through them, which feels great. Encouraging authors to go forward. Receiving feedback from them and their artistic expression – Iranian cinema and aesthetics are, after all, fascinating and original – and at the same time give something back and create belief.

TV-interview at the Cinema Verite festival

Cinema Verite is in its second year, and summons respect in many ways. The international program has a wide range of good quality films. It also includes a good selection of the year’s documentary pearls from different genres and perspectives. There is a comprehensive overview of Polish documentary cinema, new Finnish documentary films, and tributes to the English Cinema Verite pioneer, Robert Leacock, Canadian Peter Wintonick and the Danish Jorgen Leth. The most surprising thing, however, is that amongst the international films, many sensitive subjects are touched upon, such as in our film, which one would not expect to be screened in Iran, a country known for its constraints. The festival organisers have most likely acted as masters of balance in this matter: they dare to be courageous and open, but at the same time remember to respect their own Islamic traditions and roots. Indeed, the festival draws substantial attention to the 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. The ceremonies are also in accord with the Islamic books, their national hymns and courtesies. The massive program has been crammed onto just 5 cinema screens over 6 days. There doesn’t appear to be any shortage of people, and the journalists are swarming around the festival guests, which is great, but for such a large amount of films there ought to be more screening days.

Peter Wintonick and one of the festival posters

Iikka Vehkalahti at the awards ceremony

Thanks to the program's Finnish series, the Finnish Documentary Guild's yearly festival trip was also in Persia. It’s a good, exotic choice. The jury for the international competition also includes a Finnish presence in the form of the Documentary Project producer Iikka Vehkalahti. I arrive in Tehran on the same flight with the Finnish group, and we are accommodated in the same hotel. The organisers take us around, according to the daily schedule, into the cinema, to the daily tourist attraction, to lunch and to dinner. We blend in with the larger group of international guests; minibuses in the wild Tehran traffic taking the group of international guests around. It’s quite nice for a while, but of course also a bit numbing. Sometimes while moving around in a big group it feels like being on a package tour in Tenerife.

The Documentary Guild tour leader Leena Kilpeläinen
testing Iranian flexibility with her scarf

The effective guides for the festival guests

Inka Achte taking a picture at the mosque

Carpet salesmen in Teheran

I was in Tehran two years earlier at the “educational” ROSHD (=development) festival as a member of the jury. The bureaucratic, “state-controlled” and closed-off nature of the festival was something wholly different to the Cinema Verite event. It's great to see that thanks to courageous people, even in problematic and reactionary places some glimmers of light and hope can exist. Communication, meeting people, and exchanging views can move things forward. Perhaps not immediately, but at least a slow crawl in the right direction. Because Western people are not living “behind the veil” in Iran’s reality, it’s likely to be difficult for many to understand the kind of brave, high-quality, cultural-societal achievement the Cinema Verite festival represents.

Camerawoman at the festival closing ceremony

ETNIA-FESTIVAL, TURKU 11.10.2008

2008-10-17T14:10:00.008+03:00

Etnia-festival's website

THE TRAVELLING PREACHER'S RETURN TO TURKU

To Turku, again. It's becoming a scary habit.
Etnia-festival focuses on screening films on so-called native cultures, and nowadays markets itself as "the festival of three continents". The festival has been held since 2000, and the Etnia organisation responsible for it also publishes a magazine called Ensimmäiset kansat. The festival is small, but activates people nicely and brings forth important themes. I am a guest here for the third time. My previous visits were associated with my films A Dreamer and the Dreamtribe and Conquistadors of Cuba.

Etnia-festival's poster wall

The screenings take place in a legendary, old cinema called Domino, which has since been named ML Media Liv Ltd auditorium. The cinema is used only seldom these days, and the equipment is already dated. Therefore a Dolby Digital sound system is lacking. The film's sound crackles and pops, and the volume is of course too low. I have struggled with the same problems at other festivals, and from at least ten screenings of Shadow of the Holy Book I've had to run to the projection room to stop the screening, or at least to give instructions on the sound level or the focusing of the image.

Here, the machine room maestro is Reino Vahteri, who started work as a projectionist 61 years ago! The sympathetic Vahteri announces straight off that he's half-deaf and half-blind nowadays, so we focus the image together during the film's screening. Everything works out, however, and Vahteri still has the magic touch of a film professional - due to which the reels and rolls move through his hands in an experienced manner. In the post-screening discussion I start thinking I sound like a travelling preacher, always repeating the same mantras in a monotonous fashion. The feeling creeps up that my explanations and sermons are the same mixed-up bunch from one night to another. It's a pity. The excitement and refreshing quality should always be discovered in a fresh, spontaneous way. It's not always easy, however.

Projectionist Reino Vahteri

The crowd-puller at the Etnia-festival is the Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi and his films Turtles can fly and Half Moon. It's a good move from the organisers, as his films always fill the room and even activate the immigrant population. I manage to exchange a few words with Ghobadi, and we arrange to meet up in Iran. Tehran's new documentary film festival Cinema Verite is approaching and I'm leaving for it next Tuesday. But now I hop on a train and arrive safely back in Helsinki. Tomorrow to Tampere, but this time to talk about a different film altogether.

TURKU BOOK FAIR 04.10.-05.10.2008

2008-10-17T13:37:00.003+03:00

Turku Book Fair's website

A BOOK MARKET IN TURKU

I guess this is a festival too. At least, the writers are partying here in the evenings just like the cinema people at their own festivals. Shadow of the Holy Book is about to be published as a book as well, and I've arrived here to market it with the Like Publishing Ltd. people. Luckily the flight from Iceland is early, so I manage to make it to the bus heading from the airport to Turku, the Mexico souvenirs still in my suitcases.

Like Publishing Ltd.'s department at the book fair

In the evening I take part in a short book discussion at the evening club, and the next day in a 20-minute discussion on the book in front of the book fair audience. There are around 20 people in the audience, and they're mostly pensioners. Few know anything about the film, or Turkmenistan. Fortunately, everyone is familiar with Nokia. I even get to write an autograph for a charming elderly lady.

On Saturday night, while walking from the club night to my hotel, my mind is filled with suspicion. The Turku dialect of the people rolling past sounds more like Spanish or Icelandic than Finnish. I focus. No... I am in Finland indeed, at home. In my home country? I guess so.

REYKJAVIK INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 1.10.-4.10.2008

2008-10-17T12:07:00.010+03:00

Reykjavik International Film Festival's website

ICELAND AND AN IDENTITY AT BREAKING POINT

I arrive in Iceland on Wednesday, where one Euro buys 122 Icelandic kronor. When I leave in three days time, one Euro already buys 155 kronor. A 20 per cent drop in currency value in three days. The pace continues after my departure. The bank system, built in a bubble on greed alone, crashes and the state takes hold of the banks one by one. Risk investments and profiteering on borrowed money becomes a reality. Putin and Russia offer financial aid to Iceland, obviously trying to buy into a significant strategic base. A NATO country up for sale. Quite a script, but unfortunately non-fictional. Many Icelanders - representatives of cinema and culture, at least - take the situation admirably calmly, although the crisis has an effect on everyone and shakes the foundations of ordinary households as well as the state's. The chairman of our jury, the great local director and actor Baltasar Kormákur encapsulates the situation well: of course it is tragic, but it's also important that things like values and foundations get shaken up. Otherwise nothing is learned, and one cannot move forward.

Snowstorm took over Reykjavik

As if to underline the catastrophe, the first snowstorm of the autumn arrives in Reykjavik bringing along its monsoon winds. I shiver in my Mexico gear and my thin Guinness jacket - at least I manage to buy new socks and a hat from the shops. The floor in my fancy design-hotel, in which I continue my DVD-watching shift, is ice cold. From the window I can see the city's music hall being built up, which is threatening to remain unfinished as the building's financier Landsbankinn comes crashing down and, like the other banks, drifts into the lap of the state.

A huge music house is still being constructed, at least for now

Good, impressive works begin to emerge from the 14 films in the New Vision competition series. The hotel room work starts to fill me up inside, too. With some films I feel moved and experience a sense of catharsis and pride in the importance of cinema - its possibilities to move and awaken our deeper levels. Such moments are arresting as a viewer, and also encourage belief in my own cinematic author self.

Working in the jury is interesting in many ways: one has the chance to get to know and exchange thoughts with unique, gifted people - which on this occasion aptly describes all the members of our jury. In addition to Baltasar, it includes the Icelandic actress Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir (who is featured in a leading role in Baltasar's latest film From Reykjavik to Rotterdam), the Armenian-born actress Arsinée Khanjian and Faroese director Katrin Ottarsdottir. We give the main prize to Sergei Dvortsevoy's (who was with me in another jury in St. Petersburg in June) magnificent film Tulpan, and an honorary mention to the skillfully constructed and moving Blind Loves (Juraj Lehotsky). The competition series is for so-called first- or second-time fiction directors, and the festival's programme director Dimitri Eipides has compiled it of films premiered at Cannes, Toronto, Venice or other large-scale festivals. It is pleasing to see that many of the featured directors have a background in documentary film, and are therefore able to use their documentary expression as an enrichment of the fiction world.

Actress Arsinée Khanjian and programme director Dimitri Eipides

Dimitri Eipides, together with the active and helpful festival staff, has compiled an excellent programme . It includes a strong documentary series, in which Shadow of the Holy Book features, and fictional films from various perspectives and continents. In conjunction with the festival, a previously independent event focusing on "gay and lesbian subjects", has joined up, enriching the programme nicely. The festival's honorary guest the previous year was the great Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, whose visit has left behind a plethora of epic stories about this fairytale island. This time the festival honours the master of political cinema, Costa-Gavras, in the form of a retrospective and a lifetime achievement award. He still seems like an energetic and enlightened observer of our society.

Political directors Arto Halonen and Costa-Gavras

Dimitri Eipides has his fingers in many pies. He has a deep love of film, both on the fictional and documentary side. Dimitri is the director of the successful Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and the programme director of the large-scale Toronto International Film Festival. In addition, he is the founder of a new documentary film festival in Cyprus, and also runs a festival in Montreal. Dimitri is a great believer in the power of cinema. Films are his life, and he their exceptional, big-souled representative.

Shadow of the Holy Book gets a good audience, and the discussion, as the nation fights an economic catastrophe, is an interesting and memorable one. I also give a lecture at the Talent Campus, aimed at film students, on making documentary films and the possibilities of political cinema.

My pick-up for the airport is at 5.30 in the morning. I hang around in bars until then with the other festival guests. Finally we end up at a packed drinking hole (previously owned by Baltasarin Kormákur) in the city centre, which is full to the brim even at 5 o'clock in the morning. Icelanders know how to party without frills, and move forward in the crowd using their elbows. Gender equality is strong here, as women push, shove and hover around just like the men. The atmosphere is equal to stock markets at the worst times of a currency boom. Maybe the markets will crash some day in the nightlife world, too.

Perhaps jostling in the crowd will somehow get politer then.

28.09.-01.10.2008. NORDISK PANORAMA

2008-10-15T13:59:00.016+03:00

Nordisk Panorama website

NORDIC BUREAUCRACY AND HOTEL ROOM EXPERIENCES

The flight from Mexico City to Copenhagen is a long one, but I'm so tired that I sleep successfully for most of the trip. From Copenhagen Airport one can get easily and effortlessly to Malmö by train.

Nordisk Panorama, the festival spanning five Nordic countries, tours around every year in a different northern location. Last year the event took place in Oulu, and now it's the turn of Sweden and Malmö. The empty streets of a Sunday afternoon, the cleanliness and order, stick out in the Malmö streets after lively Mexico.

Filmkontakt Nord is the event's umbrella organisation. Every year, the festival selects and screens the short films and documentaries it deems the best of the Nordic countries' output. The organisation is homespun but at the same time somehow arrogant: just like a family unit, into which, in principle, all the Nordic filmmakers belong to (most of which through forced adoption). In addition to film screenings, the Nordic finance forum, panel discussions and Master Class events form an important part of the festival. The leader of the Master Class, from outside the Nordic countries, is Kim Longinotto.

Even though the festival offers the so-called best of Nordic short and documentary films, it feels as though the films and their makers are the event's cross to bear. The Panorama's sideline activities and especially the running of the finance forum have developed into the central core of the event. Succesfully executed project presentations, i.e. pitches, at the forum are hyped up, which raises the spirit of the project and its crew. The most vital part of the pitches made for the financiers is a vivid and sexy presentation, which manipulates the situation and the general energy into a positive one for the project. The financiers, high on the positive energy, will then finance the project more easily and hope that the "hype" will maintain itself until the end of the process. A Nordic producer colleague of mine brushes off the "content/lack of content issue" in a way typical of our time: "if the project's well-made presentation manages to bring out laughs and to wake up the financiers, the project is bound to have levels of depth. Even if only on a hidden level." Exactly.

The finance forums have spread all over, and their behavioural rules and modes of action have met with amused approval. The filmmakers, financiers and organisers are aware that playing with manipulation skills is what it's all about. Real discussions about content are often secondary, and the show and the atmosphere it creates are more important. From the financiers' side it's of course important to get a good overall image of the project, as rich in content as possible. And there aren't many options on offer.

A Swedish producer colleague invites me to a meeting at the location of the Forum, but because I haven't bought a so-called spectator pass for the event, I am harshly shut out of the venue. After a long wait, the colleague and I find each other, and are not allowed to have a discussion in the venue. In the end, we have our meeting a few metres away from it.

Elsewhere, some American financier colleagues visiting the Panorama, representatives of ITVS, ask me along to a financier's dinner, but again the event organisers are watchful and send me back from the door of the restaurant. Here, the filmmaker has its place.

That place is found safely at the cinema, at the screening of my own film. Shadow of the Holy Book has two screenings, in fact. The first has 25 people present, and the second only 9. The second smallest audience in our festival history. I watch the crowd, and can't find a single so-called native who has dared to turn up. The audience appears to consist purely of film industry people accredited at the festival.

One problem with activating the local audience is that when a festival changes its location every year, it's difficult to creat a culture and a relationship between the audience and the event. Another reason might be that most of the organisers' energy is focused on the Forum and other sideline events, not so much on the screenings and their marketing. This so-called audience problem can be seen at Nordisk Panorama every year. And when it's about a so-called quality product, after all, "the best Nordic films", then why doesn't the organisation ask for consulting help from the organisers of, for example, Docpoint and/or the CPH-Dox in Copenhagen, who have succesfully managed to get big audiences for documentary films. But maybe this is not so important here. Maybe the internal communication within the family unit is more significant here than flirting with outsiders.

Well, in any case, the organisers and those responsible for the Malmö event this year are nice and active people, albeit trapped inside a recurring event, hands tied and modes of action programmed into their minds beforehand. In my opinion, the event needs some shaking up and revitalisation - no more formulaic bureaucracy. The festival's closing party, however, is very nice - the filmmakers can, after all, meet each other and exchange methods. That's always productive. It's also productive to have short fiction and animation as well as documentary filmmakers around, giving the communication a wider scope.

A bunch of DVDs have been delivered to my hotel from Iceland for me to watch. I am going to the Reykjavik International Film Festival, and have promised to join the Jury there to judge feature-length fiction films. As I will only be spending a few days in Iceland, I have received the "pre-assignment" in Malmö. On the table of my hotel room lie 14 films, each nearly 2 hours long. I won't have a lack of things to do then, even if the doors are closed to the Panorama events.

So I'm sitting in my hotel room for hours - sometimes "freshening up" in near-empty cinemas. When coming out of one film screening, tens of riot police are waiting outside with their horses and shields. What?! I am astonished. Has Nordisk Panorama or one of the films ignited some movement in people, a real mass movement? Of course not. Football fans from Malmö have started a rampage in a nearby bar. A football match is coming up, after all. Here, it is football that raises emotions. Not Nordic films.

MEXICO CITY 23.9.-27.9.2008 - DocsDF Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival and Cine Nordico

2008-10-14T13:10:00.011+03:00

DocsDF Mexico City International Film Festival's website

OFFICE WORK IN MEXICO

Usually, when embarking on a trip, I work during the night before: organising things, doing endless chores, delegating work to others and at the same time gathering up the most important work to take with me on the trip. The stress builds up at night and the oxygen sometimes nearly runs out, so to speak. I always end up putting myself down: why am I unable to schedule things better? Well at least I try to take this situation, one that has become almost unavoidable, in as relaxed a manner as possible… drangilo amigo.

This time, the flight to Mexico City to the DocsDF and Cine Nordico festivals is at 6 o’clock in the morning. I work at the office until nearly 3:30 AM. I am kept company by Kevin Frazier, who is working on summarising and elaborating on our book, Shadow of the Holy Book, in the room next door. Then into the cab and to pack at home and into the cab again and to the airport. On a plane to Mexico City via Amsterdam. The time difference is 8 hours (behind).

Although I always gather work to take with me on trips and even plan to do it, the festival schedules and daily rhythm are, almost without exception, so tight that doing extra work remains a fantasy. This time the situation is slightly different. I have some important work with me, the deadline of which is extremely pressing. The festival schedule therefore has to be accommodated around these responsibilities. I proofread our upcoming book, Shadow of the Holy Book, and go through travelling schedules and e-mails while working on a film script. I do practically a full day’s work on the trip every day with these so-called office duties. Then come the demands of the festival: screenings, press conferences and evening parties. Compared to Germany, however, the parties are rather lame – luckily. In the morning I always manage to get straight back to work. I don’t have time to see a single film (apart from our own one), which is a bit embarrassing, being at a festival.

This is DocsDF's third year. The festival is ambitious, and its organisers Pau Montagud, Inti Cordera & crew are energetic and creative. They do important work, after all. It is important to get successful documentary events into Latin America, which increase and deepen people’s awareness of the significance of documentary films and the possibilities they offer. After just two years, DocsDF is one of the continent's pioneers in this process. Creative documentary film, constrained in the midst of reality TV and dull soap operas, is not a genre to immediately attract big audiences, particularly in South America.

Opening ceremony atmosphere at the DocsDF festival. The festival's artistic director Pau Montagud and Arto Halonen

I visited the festival in its first year with our film Conquistadors of Cuba. Already back then, one could sense the energy which has driven things forward to this point, and clearly something has been learned from the difficulties encountered along the way. The festival has also been developed and expanded in many directions: they have founded (of course, according to the tradition) a financial forum, workshops, a Master Class and in addition to the normal cinema screenings, some refreshing tent screenings in the centre of Mexico City.

A screening of Shadow of the Holy Book is about to begin in a tent in the centre of Mexico City

Festival visits and getting to know different cities can be very different, so that when visiting the same place, one can somehow form a completely opposite image from the previous occasions. On this trip, I sit mostly in the hotel restaurant (due to the internet connection not functioning in my own room), typing on the computer and going from one event to another by car. Surprisingly it rains here, too, and its even quite chilly. The view is almost constantly grey. I stay in the Condesa area, which is modern and interesting, but aside from all the hurrying there is only time for observing the nearby park area.

Luckily my Mexico experience from two years back was completely different and in many ways an exceptional festival experience. Usually at festivals the city and its sights don't become very familiar, but previously Docpoint's then-artistic director Kristina Schulgin (who was choosing Mexican films for Docpoint) encouraged me to experience city culture: we visited the pyramids, anthropological museum, absurd bullfighting and show-wrestling events and the scruffy bars and corners of the city. I was fighting with back cramps at the time, but in the end tenaciously even went to see a couple of films. It was warm then, and the sun was shining.

Shadow of the Holy Book is the festival's opening film this year, which is a great honour. The opening ceremony is at an old historical church building, in which a cultural center operates nowadays. The programme includes as many as 150 films, some of which are great, prize-winning works. Unfortunately important films often get lost in the mass, which the audience can't find, the media doesn't manage to notice etc. It is the unfortunate side of even the best festivals. Thanks to the opening film status, we are lucky this time. All the main newspapers are writing stories about the film, and the word gets around, so that even Mexican MP's are in the end asking for DVD copies to watch in The Finnish Embassy.

DocsDF opening ceremony audience in an old church

The Finnish Embassy in Mexico takes an active part in organising the Cine Nordico event, held at the same time. It is also a sympathetic event, and is held at the Cineteca, the heart of Mexico City's cinema centre. I shuffle between the screenings of two festivals. The discussions with the audience are interesting. Anu Apo leads the helpful embassy crew, organising translation and transport help.

The energetic representatives of The Finnish Embassy in Mexico City. On the left translator Arja Perälä and on the right Anu Apo

My Finnish-Spanish colleague, Alvaro Pardo, is filming a fun-looking short documentary in the midst of the festival. The American documentary director Barbara Trent is in the festival's Jury, and she has brought with her the Oscar statue she won from her film Panama Deception. When receiving the prize she felt strongly that it belongs to all the people she has filmed and represented in her films. Therefore when Barbara travels the Oscar always comes along. Now Alvaro is following their movements, which include comical and peculiar moments when people meet the Oscar and Barbara.

Alvaro Pardo and the Oscar

In the end I manage to stick to my schedule - also in terms of the "office duties". I even manage to get myself a juicy hangover for the last morning. To balance it out I have the time to pay a Mexican gym a visit too.

BIG IDEAS: OLDENBURG/GERMANY, 11.-15.9.2008

2008-10-08T14:05:00.009+03:00

Oldenburg International Film Festival's website

Next to Bremen lies the wealthy German city of Oldenburg. Not so small, but quite modest for a festival city all the same. The population is around 160 000. A film festival is organised there, now in its 15^th year. From the beginning, the festival director has been the sympathetic and personable Torsten Neumann. As a matter of fact, I got to know him 10 years ago in New York, where we met at a mutual film director friend’s house. That time Torsten cooked us German traditional food for hours, which, despite all the persistent and dilligent work that was put into it, was just as everyday and boring as the German bratwurst. I was now invited to Oldenburg for the first time, and had higher expectations of the festival than of Torsten’s cooking.

Festival director Torsten Neumann, deep in contemplation

Oldenburg International Film Festival uses the film magazine Variety’s slogan when advertising themselves: “The European Sundance festival”. The festival is very sympathetic indeed, and a family-spirited event where many festival guests return again and again – like into a yearly family meeting. The festival focuses mainly on independent fiction films. This time the programme includes five documentary films, one of which is Shadow of the Holy Book. The festival is also our German premiere, which makes the situation interesting. Especially when German companies are heavily featured in the film.

Oldenburg has invested in shepherding and entertaining the festival guests in an exemplary fashion. There are festivals where the guest is like a lone wolf, wandering in the Bermuda triangle between the cinema, hotel and the local bar, trying to find potential fellows. But Oldenburg functions in differently. The guests are taken from one place to another in Audi (one of the event’s main sponsors) cars, there are parties and festivities every night, as well as meetings over lunch and dinner. It is clearly important for Torsten that the festival guests and audience enjoy themselves, so the wine keeps flowing and parties go on until morning, which makes it hard to adapt to the rhythm the following day… whew.

The marketing and locations of the documentary film screenings aren’t exactly top notch compared to the fiction films, but more careful and cautionary. Despite the small audiences, both screenings of our film generate interesting discussions with the audience afterwards. No-one comes forward or turns out to be a representative of Siemens, DaimlerChrysler or Zeppelin, but these things usually come to light later, so we’ll see whether the film’s visit to Germany will rejuvenate the activities of the German companies’ propaganda departments.

The festival honoured two filmmakers, James Toback and Michael Wadleigh, in the form of tribute and lifetime achievement awards. Michael Wadleigh, director of the legendary Woodstock, was a refreshing choice, and I was taken by how Oldenburg summed up his career and, through that, his significant “political-spiritual” influences, spanning generations.

Michael Wadleigh with the Oscar-nominated actor Seymour Cassel. Halonen in between the two

Michael, in his filmmaking years, got fed up with Hollywood's “calculative” nature. Several of his plans for political films fell through at the last minute and then the years went by. After Woodstock’s success he got to direct only one feature-length Hollywood fiction, Wolfen, starring Albert Finney, in 1981. Finally Michael packed his bags and retired to the Welsh countryside with his family, where they run a farm. Simultaneously he has developed and actioned some large-scale training and multimedia projects. The plans for these projects are grand, and the aims lofty: “if you want change, you need to have the courage to think big”. Thinking big, at least of themselves, are some of the American debutante-actors visiting the festival. Contacts are made, glasses are raised and dreams of Hollywood’s red carpets are in the air while pacing the red carpets in Oldenburg. Big ideas, however, often require depth and content – if you’re aiming for staying power and effectiveness. Michael has both of these. For this reason, the meeting left a very positive impression. Oldenburg also thinks big, at least in some modest sense, in its small and sympathetic form.