19 - 22 OCT
As we interpret ourselves differently, we also live ourselves differently. — Judith Butler
DHRFF / 2017 In 2003, when Document began, the festival’s stated aim was “to screen a large and diverse selection of documentary film which will offer the viewer a broader understanding of issues not often spoke about, ignored or not registered on any platform.” In our 15th year, Document continues to be a nexus for marginalised voices and a platform, an amplifier even, for points of view struggling to find voice. Document has always aimed to spark conversation rather than hand down prescribed conclusions. In 2017, while those in power obfuscate and destabilise to sustain themselves, while privilege blinds the well-meaning and basic equality must still be asserted rather than taken for granted, it’s important to ask questions of every storyteller, especially those who insist they’re delivering “truth”. How are we changed by the things we see? Is it a question of how far we allow ourselves to be changed? What is our responsibility to the things we witness? Are we, as viewers, often remote and removed, excused this responsibility? And how then do we trust what we are shown? This year at Document, we look to the past to try to make sense of the tumultuous, inscrutable now. We look to a war-torn land that may be sketching a blueprint for gender equality. We look at the worldwide refugee crisis and consider our own responsibility. We look to those speaking truth to power and those with the power to manage what we hear and see. This year, as every year, we aim to take different perspectives to find a broader understanding of issues not often spoken about, ignored or not registered on any platform. Welcome to the 15th edition of Document Film Festival.
The Document 2017 team
F R I DAY
C C A T H E AT R E
CCA CINEMA
12:00 CRITICAL FORUM p36
14:00 No Man Is An Island p26
18:00 Machines p10
16:00 Dil Leyla p16
20:00 Stranger In Paradise p20
18:00 Prison Sisters p16
20:00 Why Is Mr W Laughing? p13
22:00 Kim Jong-Il’s Comedy Club p20
S AT U R DAY
GWL
11:30 SPIN p21
12:00 Grab and Run p15
12:30 Resistance is Life p17
14:30 We’ll Be Alright + Discussion p13
14:30 A Filmless Festival p19
16:30 Forgetting Vietnam p15
16:00 SQIFF: Butterflies p8
18:30 The VaChina Monologues p15
18:00 LUX: Erase and Forget p10
20:00 I Want To Be A People’s Representative p19
SMHAFF
20:00 Rat Film p10
S U N DAY
GRAMNet screening:
12:20 Chauka Please Tell us the Time p25
12:00 Plastic China p12
14:00 We Are Humanity p23
13:40 Accidental Anarchist p8
16:00 Control Room p21
16:00 Left on Purpose p23
17:30 Eldorado XXI p9 Closing Gala
20:00 69 Minutes of 86 Days p7
autism-friendly screening
18:00 Normal Autistic Film p11
INTERMEDIA
EVENTS 12:00 Battle of Chile p9
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13:00 Children of War p27 14:00 Girl’s Club p27 15:00 Home p28
PANEL
14:00 Jin, Jiyan, Azadi p14
PANEL
16:00 The Control Room p18
16:00 There are no Syrian refugees in Turkey p28
17:00 Paper, Horse, and Birds p29
SUPERLUX workshop
13:00 Muñecas Bravas p29 14:00 Ne Pas Perdre Le Nord p30 15:00 Green Screen Gringo / Radio Ghetto Relay p30 16:00 Schrodinger’s Shoreditch p32 17:00 Rebalda p31
12:00 Erase and Forget p37 PANEL
14:00 Nowhere to Hide p24
PANEL
17:30 Ethics of Documentary FIlmmaker p22
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Opening Gala
Gulîstan, Land of Roses Zaynê Akyol Canada, Germany / 2016 / 1hr 27m Thurs 20:00, CCA Theatre They stand at the forefront of the fight for freedom in the Middle East. These young women belong to the armed wing of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is also an active guerrilla movement. From their camp hidden away in the mountains, the women lead a nomadic life, undergoing ideological and practical training before being sent out to the front lines. Their mission? Defend Kurdish territory in Iraq and Syria, and defeat ISIS. By capturing their ritualized daily activities, as well as the emotional and intellectual bonds that unite them, Gulîstan, Land of Roses sheds light on the lives of these women who are collectively fighting for a revolutionary ideal advocating female empowerment. The film also gives them a powerful voice, and in return, many of them openly share with us their most intimate thoughts and dreams. Even as fighting against ISIS intensifies in the Middle East, these women bravely continue their battle against barbarism. Offering a window into this largely unknown world, Gulîstan, Land of Roses exposes the hidden face of this highly mediatized war: the female, feminist face.
DHRFF / 2017
7
Closing Gala
69 Minutes of 86 Days Egil Haskjold Larsen Norway / 2017 / 1hr 9m Sun 20:00, CCA Theatre Through a crowd of refugees standing by a shoreline, a wide-eyed young girl with a puffy coat and a Frozen backpack emerges, about to start a very long excursion. Three-year-old Lean is our focal point as she and her family trek through Europe with the goal of reaching her grandfather and a new home in Sweden. With minimal dialogue, we travel alongside Lean and get to understand the deep courage and will Syrian refugees must have as they search for a better life. Part of a new wave of documentaries that depict the various elements of the Syrian crisis, 69 Minutes of 86 Days takes a poignantly humanistic approach. In its quiet beauty, it unravels the physical and emotional challenges refugee families face every day. While Lean may not fully understand what she’s experiencing, her strength and optimism shine through, giving hope to those who need it the most.
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Accidental Anarchist John Archer, Clara Glynn
Butterflies Dmitry Kubasov Russia / 2016 / 1hr 19m
UK / 2017 / 1hr 24m Sat 16:00, CCA Theatre Sun 13:40, CCA Cinema One man’s remarkable journey: from diplomat to anarchist. British diplomat Carne Ross worked on Iraq and its WMD, and resigned from the government over its lies before the 2003 invasion. His extraordinary personal and political odyssey culminates in a remarkable encounter with new forms of democracy in the midst of war – in Rojava, Syria. A profound examination of the political and economic problems that confront the world.
Young Alexei is openly homosexual. Although his peers have no problem with his sexual orientation, his mother is unable to accept it. This documentary portrait follows Alexei during summer break, as he spends time with his new lover Grisha. The film takes an unusual observational approach in that the camera is often right up against people’s bodies and faces during impassioned discussions, arguments, or testimony. Provocative, confrontational and unapologetic.
We will be joined after the screening for a Q&A with Director John Archer.
Presented in collaboration with SQIFF, Scottish Queer International Film Festival.
DHRFF / 2017
La Batalla de Chile/ The Battle of Chile: Interrupted Screening
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Eldorado XXI Salomé Lamas
Patricio Guzmán
Portugal, France / 2016 / 2hr 5m
Chile / 1975-79 / 4hr 25m
Sun 17:30, CCA Theatre
Fri 12:00-18:00, Andrew Stewart Cinema, University of Glasgow
Set in the highest settlement in the world, La Rinconada y Cerro Lunar (5500m), in the Peruvian Andes. Moved by the same interests as in the ancient times, people live and work in the most precarious of conditions. An illusion of gold and a better life leads men to self destruction.
On September 11, 1973, the democratically-elected socialist government in Chile was overthrown in a bloody coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The Battle of Chile is a three part documentary film, which catalogues the events leading up to the country’s open and peaceful revolution, the election of President Salvador Allende, and the violent right-wing counterrevolution. The film won countless awards on the international film festival circuit and this is an extremely rare opportunity to see all three instalments in one sitting. David Archibald and Maria Velez-Serna, with Martín Farías, researcher in Chilean cinema at the University of Edinburgh, will facilitate an interrupted screening, with the film paused at certain moments throughout for questions and discussion. Free, but ticketed. In association with the University of Glasgow
Questioning established documentary conventions, the film is a haunting and mysterious ethnographic reality cut-up. A challenging, sometimes hallucinatory, study of the human condition.
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Erase and Forget
Machines
Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Rahul Jain
USA / 2017 / 1hr 30m
India / 2016 / 1hr 11m
Sat 18:00, CCA Theatre
Fri 18:30, CCA Theatre
‘Bo’ Gritz is one of America’s highest decorated Vietnam veterans and the alleged real-life inspiration behind Rambo. A contentious public figure, he also killed 400 people, turned against Washington and moved to the Nevada desert where he now sleeps with many weapons. Filmed over ten years using impressive visual material, Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s portrait of Bo is an inquiry into the nature of human conscience and the limits of deniability, and embodies contemporary American society in all its dizzying complexity and contradictions.
Moving through the corridors and bowels of an enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a descent down to a dehumanized place of physical labor and intense hardship. This gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India might just as well be the decorum for a 21st century Dante’s Inferno. In his mindprovoking yet intimate portrayal, director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers, the suffering and the environment they can hardly escape from. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality, oppression and the huge divide between rich, poor and the perspectives of both.
Presented in collaboration with LUX Scotland. This screening is free to all SUPERLUX members. / We will be joined after the screening for a Q&A with Filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Director of LUX Scotland, Nicole Yip.
DHRFF / 2017
11
The Memory of the 25th Hour
Normal Autistic Film
Sungeon Kim
Miroslav Janek
Netherlands / 2016 / 1hr 30m
Czech Republic / 2016 / 1hr 30m
Thurs 21 Sept 19:30, Govanhill Baths
Sun 18:00, CCA Cinema
The film traces the memories of the villagers’ 10-year-long resistance against the naval base construction in Gangjeong village in Jeju Island, South Korea. Facing yet another police crackdown on the protesters’ encampment at the new military housing complex construction site on January 31, 2015, one of the activists said: “We’re living the 25th hour.” The sustainability of the hour becomes questioned throughout the film, as the day unfolds evoking different moments in the history of the struggle. Exploring the possibility of filmmaking as a means of active memory, this film follows the life of activism after its visible phases. UK Premiere.
A foremost Czech documentarist with a unique authorial vision challenges us once and for all to stop perceiving autism as a medical diagnosis and try to understand it as a fascinating way of thinking that’s often maddeningly difficult to decipher. Because who’s to determine what’s normal – living in a constant rush while disregarding the absurdity of modern life, or wistfully seeking order, peace and tranquility in the world?
Part of the Community Screenings programme (p36).
This is an autism-friendly screening.
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Plastic China
Rat Film
Jiuliang Wang
Theo Anthony
China / 2016 / 1hr 26m
USA / 2016 / 1hr 22m
Sun 12:00, CCA Cinema
Sat 20:00, CCA Theatre
This urgent and moving documentary focuses on the struggle of Yi Jie, a young girl who lives with her family in a plastic-sorting town in China where recycled waste from Europe, the United States and other parts of Asia winds up. China is the world’s largest importer of plastic waste. Throughout the country, there are nearly 30 towns engaged in processing this refuse in highly toxic environments. This highly intimate portrait reveals the human and environmental costs of living and working in these artificial, and truly plastic, landscapes.
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. A portrait of Baltimore as a laboratory for both rodent and human populations alike, Rat Film is an acerbic, seductive and hugely inventive documentary that explodes the American city’s ‘rat problem’ into a powerful and poetic tale of urban, social and racial inequalities. Combining elements including academic research, tender encounters with eccentric characters, Google Maps hacks, a Dan Deacon soundtrack, the tactics of rat hunters and the architectural adaptations of rat keepers, Rat Film tells a devastating tale of a city’s means of keeping its ‘undesirable’ elements in order.
DHRFF / 2017
Why is Mr W. Laughing? Jana Papenbroock Germany / 2016 / 1hr 16m Fri 20:00, CCA Cinema Why is Mr W. Laughing? is a portrait of three members of an atelier community of artists with different disabilities. Questioning the usual asymmetry of inclusion (meaning that often there is just a monologue about and not a dialogue with the persons concerned), the film is a cinematic experiment that politicizes boundary-practices in its form and content: Rather than making a film about inclusion, the film itself was produced inclusively. The juxtaposition of life and art doesn’t apply for the three who are artists in order to be citizens. Art for them is not a breakaway dream from normality, like for most neurotypical artists, but the quintessence of bourgeois work that enables them to participate in society and to solidarize.
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We’ll Be Alright Alexander Kuznetsov Russia, France | 2016 | 1hr 20m Sat 14:00, CCA Cinema In Siberia, Russia, Alexander Kuznetsov follows Yulia and Katia, who went from an orphanage to a neuropsychiatric institution. Deprived of freedom, work and family, they had no say in it and getting those fundamental rights back is a long and painful bureaucratic process. We’ll Be Alright is their path to freedom.
This screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the issues raised, chaired by Richard Warden of Mental Health Foundation and including Christine-Koulla Burke of Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities. Presented in collaboration with Mental Health Foundation (UK)
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Jin, Jiyan, Azadi Freedom of the Body and Mind The fight for gender equality is one of the body and of the mind. Women face attack and occupation both physically and mentally. How do you start to walk back thousands of years of history over which a cultural construct has become indistinguishable from the natural order? The films in this strand not only look at the continuing human rights abuses facing women but, critically, the active resistance undertaken against the global patriarchy. This year we are presenting a retrospective study of Trinh T Minh-ha, Vietnamese writer and filmmaker whose practice centres around and the intersection of feminism and postcoloniality. (p32) Also in this strand: Gulistan, Land of Roses (p6)
Panel Discussion Jin, Jiyan, Azadi: Gender Equality in Kurdish Society Sat 14:00, CCA Creative Lab Women, Life, Freedom. The YPJ, the women’s protection units of the Kurdish militia, have come increasing to the attention of the world’s media to the obvious shock of the west. How, they seem to ask, can a non-western society embody a progressive model without our intervention? Does the obvious gender equality within the military extend to Kurdish civil society? And can this homegrown feminism be seen as an alternative model for the broader east?
DHRFF / 2017
Forgetting Vietnam Trinh T Minh-ha USA, S Korea, Germany / 2015 / 1hr 30m Sat 16:30, CCA Cinema Influential feminist theorist and filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha’s lyrical film essay commemorating the 40th anniversary of the end of the war draws inspiration from ancient legend and from water as a force evoked in every aspect of Vietnamese culture. In Forgetting Vietnam images of contemporary life unfold as a dialogue between land and water—the elements that form the term “country.” Fragments of text and song evoke the echoes and traces of a trauma of international proportions. The encounter between the ancient as related to the solid earth, and the new as related to the liquid changes in a time of rapid globalization, creates a third space of historical and cultural re-memory—what local inhabitants, immigrants and veterans remember of yesterday’s stories to comment on today’s events.
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Grab and Run Roser Corella Spain / 2017 / 1hr 12m Sat 12:00, CCA Cinema Since Kyrgyzstan gained its Independence in 1991, there has been a revival of the ancient practice of Ala-Kachuu, which translates roughly as “grab and run”. More than half of Kyrgyz women are married after being kidnapped by the men who become their husbands. Some escape after violent ordeals, but most are persuaded to stay by tradition and fear of scandal. Although the practice is said to have its root in nomadic customs, the tradition remains at odds with modern Kyrgyzstan. Ala-Kachuu was outlawed during the Soviet era and remains illegal under the Kyrgyz criminal code, but the law has rarely been enforced to protect women from this violent practice. Today in Kyrgyzstan, sheep thieves are punished more severely than bride kidnappers.
Presented in collaboration with Glasgow Women’s Library.
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Prison Sisters
Dil Leyla
Nima Sarvestani
Asli Özarslan
Sweden / 2016 / 1hr 30m
Germany / 2016 / 1hr 12m
Fri 18:00, CCA Cinema
Fri 16:00, CCA Cinema
Prison Sisters takes us through the journey of two young women who have been released from prison in Afghanistan. Sara’s uncle has planned to kill her an attempt to save his honor in their small village. Fearing for her life Sara escapes to Sweden, but Najibeh stays behind. While Sara struggles with her newfound freedom, her prison-mate Najibeh disappears and soon Sara hears that she was stoned to death. Sara and the filmmaker want to find out the truth, only to encounter a maze of half- truths on the streets of Afghanistan. We follow the two main characters, revealing what happened to them - each with an exceptional fate depicting the horrific reality for women in Afghanistan.
At 26, Leyla is elected the youngest mayor in Turkey, in her hometown of Cizre, a Kurdish capital city near the Iraqi-Syrian border—a city she was forced to flee over 20 years ago, after her father was killed by the Turkish military when she was a little girl. Her goal is to heal and beautify the civil-war-torn city, which is enjoying a break in the violence. But on the eve of Turkey’s parliamentary elections, everything changes, and old memories become more real than ever.
DHRFF / 2017
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Resistance is Life
Radio Kobani
Apo Bazidi
Reber Dosky
Turkey, USA / 2017 / 1hr 13m
Netherlands / 2016 / 1hr 10m
Sat 12:30, CCA Theatre
Thurs 5 Oct 19:30, Kinning Park Complex
From a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border, an 8-year-old girl, Evlin, characterises the resistance of her homeland. Her heroes, the Kurdish female fighters, are defending the city of Kobane against the onslaught by ISIS militants. The power of the human spirit emanates through Evlin as she shows us that hope and resilience prevail even in the most tragic of circumstances. Evlin takes us on a journey that introduces the many different faces of the resistance on both sides of the border and provides a unique look at the extraordinary spirit behind the first major victory against ISIS.
Dilovan, a 20 year old Kurdish woman, sets up a radio station in the devastated town of Kobanî, Syria, during the liberation fight against IS. Dilovan’s programmes in which she interviews survivors, returning refugees, fighters and poets, bring a sense of belonging to the broken lives of the listeners who need to rebuild the city and their future. Dilovan tells her own story in a message to the child she may have one day. Shot over a period of three years during war and reconstruction in Kobanî, Radio Kobani is a bitter, intimate and poetic tale of traumas, healing, hope and love. Part of the Community Screenings programme (p36)
Gulîstan, Land of Roses Zaynê Akyol Canada, Germany / 2016 / 1hr 27m Thurs 20:00, CCA Theatre (see page 6)
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Truth and Power 1 Control Room and Other Stories Speaking truth to power has never been more vital, nor as fraught as it is in the post-Trump world. This year at Document, we consider a battle being fought on two fronts. Governments and non-state actors are increasingly bold in undermining previously sacrosanct ideals of freedom of speech and individual privacy. Meanwhile, news organisations that challenge the status quo or displease powerful entities are being marginalised, undermined and even destroyed. In this first of two connected strands, we consider how governments across the world block information and invade privacy to undermine democracy, while what used to be called propaganda, what used to be called spin, is being spun and propagated with increasing audacity. We pay particular attention to the case of the Beijing Independent Film Festival, screening in solidarity films originally programmed for the banned 11th edition.
Panel Discussion The Control Room Sat 16:00, CCA Creative Lab Panellists will discuss role of government in imposing narratives on filmmakers and the populace, dealing with the undermining of the concept of objective truth and “expert� testimony. With the rise of subjective opinion above scientific fact and the struggle to provide counter-testimony to mainstream narratives, how do we combat the weapon of media manipulation and control?
DHRFF / 2017
A Filmless Festival Wo Wang
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I Want To Be A People’s Representative
China / 2015 / 1hr 19m Sat 14:30, CCA Theatre Overnight, the 11th annual Beijing Independent Film Festival in the capital city of China was banned. It ended before it ever began. We follow the rapid sequence of events from the cutting off of the building’s water and electricity supply to the seizure of all festival property. What exactly threatens the organisers of cultural events in a country where artistic liberty is considered a crime? Will they succumb or will the screenings still take place? A look behind the scenes of the festival organisation and the steps taken after it was cancelled is tensely recorded using authentic footage, mainly from the mobile phones of the organisers, film makers, activists and passers-by.
Jia Zhitan China / 2013 / 1hr 18m Sat 18:30, CCA Cinema Can a documentary camera be a tool for democracy in China? Jia Zhitan certainly thinks so, and wields his camera like an anti-bureaucratic weapon. Jia, a member of Caochangdi’s influential Villagers Documentary Project (organizer Wu Wenguang has been training local villagers to use digital video cameras to record their participation in ultra-local politics), wants to run to be a delegate to the National People’s Congress. He wins the first round, but is deemed unqualified by officials for reasons they keep to themselves. As the irrepressibly scrappy and stubborn Jia seeks explanations and redress from ever higher levels of authority, he records their interactions scenes that would play as entertaining satiric comedy if they weren’t so frustratingly real. Part of the cancelled 11th Annual Beijing Independent Film Festival.
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The VaChina Monologues Fan Popo
Late Night Cult Classic: Kim Jongil’s Comedy Club
China / 2013 / 28m
Mads Brügger
Sat 18:30, CCA Cinema
USA / 2009 / 1hr 28m
“Vagina….I’ve said it!” Leading Chinese queer filmmaker Fan Popo chronicles the past 10 years of performances of Eve Ensler’s famous feminist episodic play throughout China following its debut by The Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in December 2003. At times banned and partly censored, performances have taken over university campuses, theatres, cafes, villages, streets and public transport. Popo’s film portrays its growing popularity as a process of self-awakening, of learning and of localisation, the ten-year look-back showing the many ways in which it has played a vital role in giving people courage to find their voice.
Fri 22:00, CCA Cinema
Part of the cancelled 11th Annual Beijing Independent Film Festival. We will be joined after the screening for a Q&A with filmmaker Fan Popo.
A journalist with no scruples and two comedians travel to North Korea with a mission – to challenge the conditions of the smile in one of the world’s most notorious regimes. On the pretext of being a small theatre troupe on a cultural exchange visit from Denmark, The Red Chapel was given permission to travel to North Korea with the objective of performing at special events for selected audiences. But in reality the small troupe was comprised of a group who had no such intentions. Presented in collaboration with Matchbox Cineclub.
DHRFF / 2017
21
SPIN
Control Room
Brian Springer
Jehane Noujaim
USA / 1995 / 57m
USA / 2004 / 1hr 24m
Sat 11:30, CCA Theatre
Sun 16:00, CCA Theatre
Donald Trump’s denunciation of “fake news” has been so effective a rallying cry it would be easy to conclude - and no doubt he’d do little to dissuade you - that his administration had pioneered the concept. Depending on who you ask, the denunciation of “fake news” is either an antidote to propaganda or simply next-level manipulation. Brian Springer’s 1995 documentary, which uses pirated satellite feeds to reveal US media personalities’ contempt for their viewers, puts the concept of fake news and a gaslighting presidency in context. TV outtakes appropriated from network satellite feeds unravel the tightly-spun fabric of television - a system that silences public debate and enforces the exclusion of anyone outside those who manufacture the news.
‘I’m not saying it’s the truth,’ director Jehane Noujaim once said of her award-winning film, ‘it’s our truth.’ Control Room provides insight into the Arabic network Al Jazeera’s presentation of the second Iraq war to their worldwide audience. Noujaim’s film follows the journey of three characters from Al Jazeera and US Central Command through the beginning of the Iraq war, in order to tell the larger story of how truth is gathered, presented, and ultimately created by those who deliver it. Control Room calls into question many of the prevailing images and positions offered up by the US news media, while exposing the institutional bias on both sides.
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Truth and Power 2 The Ethics of the Documentary Filmmaker While governments worldwide attempt to undermine the credibility of journalists, filmmakers and groups working to expose their mythmaking, it’s never been more important to safeguard that credibility. Meanwhile, several of the films in our 2017 programme push at the boundaries of standard documentary ethics. Filmmakers drawn to compelling subjects are often obliged to meet difficult topics head on, while juggling their ethical responsibility to the individuals involved. In this second of two connected strands, we consider the dilemma facing filmmakers who risk their integrity to deal with contentious issues.
Panel Discussion The Ethics of the Documentary Filmmaker Sun 17:30, CCA Creative Lab Documentary filmmakers claim the right to present their subjects however they see fit, free to manipulate, to skew and to lie to make their point. When speaking for the subject, what is documentary filmmaker’s artistic license? The greater good? And how do filmmakers respond to attacks on their artistic licence, in producing, presenting and defending their work and within the work itself? How do filmmakers first of all police themselves, self-censor or otherwise anticipate and adapt to an increasingly hostile environment?
Other films in this strand: • Stranger in Paradise (p25) • Kim Jong-il’s Comedy Club (p20)
DHRFF / 2017
23
Left on Purpose
We Are Humanity
Justin Schein, David Mehlman
Alexandre Dereims
USA / 2015 / 1hr 35m
India / 2017 / 1hr 30m
Sun 16:00, CCA Cinema
Sun 14:00, CCA Cinema
Midway through the filming of a documentary about his life as an anti war activist, Mayer Vishner declares that his time has passed and that his last political act will be to commit suicide - and he wants it all on camera. Now the director must decide whether to turn off his camera or use it to keep his friend alive. Left on Purpose is an award-winning feature length documentary that confronts the growing issues of aging, isolation and end of life choices through an intense character driven story of the relationship between filmmaker and subject. With humour and heart, it provides a rare cinematic look at what it means to be a friend to someone in pain.
We Are Humanity is a film about a way of life under threat. An emotionally-driven documentary that takes you on an immersive and revealing journey into the seemingly utopian lives of the Jarawa people. Living on the Andaman Islands of India, the Indian government are attempting to forcibly assimilate them into modern society. The Jarawas are treated like animals in zoo by tourists and Indian scientists attempting to “educate” them.
Preceded by Dan Goldes’ Arrested (Again) 4m, a profile of activist Karen Topakian’s unceasing commitment to exercising her first amendment rights.
We Are Humanity deals implicitly with the issues surrounding representing the Other, an Other with no access to a means to represent themselves. Through this film we come to understand not only the destructive effects of global capitalism, but also the complexity and commonality of the human experience.
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Nowhere To Hide Responsibility for the global refugee crisis “The whole picture has perhaps become too overwhelming and complex. Perhaps we push it aside because it has become too difficult to witness, but this only generates fear and selfishness.” — Egil Håskjold Larsen (director, 69 Minutes of 86 Days) With the rise of the right across the western world, and the increasing legitimisation of extreme points of view, filmmakers must challenge mainstream complacency, while audiences must confront their own complicity, responsibility and ability to affect change. Also in this strand: 69 minutes of 86 Days (p7)
Panel Discussion Nowhere To Hide Sun 14:00, CCA Creative Lab With the global refugee crisis increasingly politicised, allowing people in dire need to be dehumanised, abused and to die on points of abstract principle, basic assumptions are being challenged. What are the implications of this aggressive and regressive political landscape? How can documentary be used to shake audiences from lazy attitudes and platitudes, bubbles, presumptions and stubborn selfrighteousness?
DHRFF / 2017
Stranger in Paradise
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Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time
Guido Hendrikx Netherlands / 2016 / 1hr 17m Fri 20:30, CCA Theatre
Behrouz Boochani, Arash Kamali Sarvestani Papua New Guinea / 2017 / 1hr 30m
In a classroom in Sicily, just inside the walls of Fortress Europe, recently arrived refugees receive lessons from a teacher who has some rather unbalanced traits. One moment he mercilessly rejects the refugees – the next he embraces them. A plea that borders on the immoral; a welcome charged with a guilt complex; and the compromise between these, made policy. Operating at the intersection of documentary and fiction, Stranger in Paradise is an unflinching film essay investigating the power relations between Europe and refugees.
Sun 12:20, CCA Theatre Chauka is the name of a native bird on Manus Island and is also the name of the solitary confinement unit at Manus detention center. The Chauka is a symbol of the island and allows locals to tell the time from the Chauka’s regular singing. Over a period of several months, Iranian journalist and Manus Island detainee Behrouz Boochani had access to a phone. In secret, and with help from Iranian-Dutch filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani, Boochani created a film which portrays what he describes as “the coarsening banality and repetition” of indefinite detention. Scottish Premiere Presented in collaboration with GRAMNet.
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No Man Is an Island
Nowhere to Hide
Tim De Keersmaecker
Zaradasht Ahmed
Belgium / 2016 / 1hr 20m
Norway, Sweden / 2016 / 1hr 26m
Fri 14:00, CCA Cinema
Thurs 12 Oct 19:30, Platform
The tiny island of Lampedusa rests in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea—a prime gateway for African refugees into Europe and a jumping-off point into greater Italy. For the few who remain on the island, this sanctuary comes at a cost. For Adam, a 16-yearold Ghanaian boy adopted into the family that employs him, the push to assimilate into Italian culture is tempered by sinister undercurrents of racism. Fleeing with many Tunisians during the Arab Spring, 21-year-old Omar has also found an adoptive family, but it’s impossible to ignore his loneliness on the provincial island and his intense yearning for companionship. Both young men walk among the Lampedusiani looking for connection but finding only strangers. Like great poetry, this visually arresting and perceptive double portrait illustrates the ineffable qualities of their experience.
Winner of Best Feature-Length Documentary at IDFA 2017, Nowhere to Hide follows male nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change, providing unique access into one of the world’s most dangerous and inaccessible areas – the “triangle of death” in central Iraq. Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a better future as American and Coalition troops retreat from Iraq in 2011, conflicts continue with Iraqi militias, and the population flees accompanied by most of the hospital staff. Nori is one of the few who remain. When ISIS advances on Jalawla in 2014 and takes over the city, he too must flee with his family at a moment’s notice, and turns the camera on himself. - Part of the Community Screenings programme (p36)
69 Minutes of 86 days Egil Haskjold Larsen Norway / 2017 / 1hr 9m Sun 20:00, CCA Theatre (see page 6)
DHRFF / 2017
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Shorts Programme at Intermedia Gallery This year’s shorts programme demonstrates a huge amount of innovative style, untold stories, new insight - always in an impressively short space of time. *All of our shorts are free and unticketed.
Children of War: A Human Rights Anthology Various Various / 2017 / 10m
The Girls Club
Sat 13:00, Intermedia In 2017, Oscar-winning director Terry George (Hotel Rwanda) challenged filmmakers across the world to tell a human rights story important to them. There were two conditions: the film had to be 60 seconds and it could have no dialogue. Creative Armenia has anthologised a few of these visions in this short film about the effects of war on children across the world.
Stefania Donaera Italy / 2017 / 35m Sat 14:00, Intermedia Every Saturday, around 60 children gather at the primary school of Chicunguluine, in Mozambique. They dance, sing, play and enjoy together. Moreover they learn to express their opinion, take decisions and defend themselves, in case of any untoward situation.
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Home
There are No Syrian Refugees in Turkey
Berber Verpoest Belgium / 2017 / 24m Sat 15:00, Intermedia Muna Alkurd (18) is forced to share half of her house with Israeli settlers. Nayef Abassi (26) can’t get a building permit for his house and his animals’ barn has been demolished. The pressure of the occupation is very present for both young Palestinians. Yet they feel at home in East Jerusalem and they are trying to build a future for themselves in the city where they were born. They have similar ambitions as their peers elsewhere in the world, but when all policies are aimed at getting you out of the city, building a future in East Jerusalem becomes an act of resistance.
Oliver Ressler Austria, Turkey / 2016 / 30m Sat 16:00, Intermedia Refugees attempting to enter the European Union play a specific role in the relation between the EU and Turkey. The EU border regime is responsible for tens of thousands of drownings in the Mediterranean, while Turkey has opened its borders to nearly three million refugees, more than all EU states combined. The film channels voices of Syrian refugees who preferred not to seek a way into the EU, choosing to continue their lives in Istanbul instead. The Syrians describe their life as “guests” in the continent’s largest metropolis. One thing they discuss at length is the difficulty of making a living in Istanbul. Another is the reluctance of the EU to admit more than a pitiful number of refugees. Quietly reversing the entire perspective of the “refugee debate”, the film develops a political analysis of Turkish and European politics from the standpoint of Syrian refugees.
DHRFF / 2017
Paper, Horses, and Birds
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Muñecas Bravas
Zoran Tairovic
Maximiliano González, Julieta Cherep
Serbia / 2017 / 30m
Spain, Argentina / 2017 / 23m
Sat 17:00, Intermedia
Sun 13:00, Intermedia
The documentary Paper, Horse and Birds follows a day in the life of a Roma family, who collect secondary raw materials and live in Niš. The film follows their activities – collection and division of scrap metal and waste paper, a family lunch and their everyday discussions, which helps us to understand how they make ends meet and what their hardships are. Despite the de facto difficult financial situation, we see a complex family with solidarity and warm interpersonal relations.
What happens when prostitutes get older? Muñecas Bravas describes life at Xochiquetzal’s house. In the heart of Mexico City, it’s the only home in the world for the elderly prostitutes who have nowhere else to go. Alone, broke and rejected by their children, they fight for making their last dream come true: making up for lost time.
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Green Screen Gringo Douwe Dijkstra Brazil, Netherlands / 2016 / 16m
Radio Ghetto Relay Alessandra Ferrini UK, Poland, Italy / 2016 / 16m
Ne Pas Perdre Le Nord Antoine Chesne France, Mali / 2016 / 26m Sun 14:00, Intermedia January 9, 2013, Jihadi combatants attack the strategic city of Konna in order to invade southern Mali. Two years later, as the ruins still dot the town, journalist Hammidou Diarra returns to the scene of the fightings. Carried by the winds of the desert, the voice of the Malian soldiers echo the memories of the civilian population and tell the story of this decisive battle, that convinced the French army to become involved and to launch the reconquest of the country.
Sun 15:00, Intermedia Behind a green screen, a foreigner finds his way in an enchanting - and yet turbulent São Paulo, Brazil. Where the streets are a stage for politics, art and affection, a gringo can only watch. Dijkstra shows us São Paulo as a city of contrasts. Green Screen Gringo is a mixtape-portrait on a country and its inhabitants seen through the eyes of a visitor. Radio Ghetto Free Voices is a radio that gives a voice to the dwellers of the Gran Ghetto of Rignano (Apulia, Italy), a shantytown that, until recently, housed thousands of West African migrants. Heavily exploited in agricultural work, they were able to share their experiences through the radio, discussing their inhumane living conditions and exposing their struggles. Building on their desire not to be photographed or filmed, Radio Ghetto Relay combines text, Google Earth and Streetview images to amplify their voices, highlighting the radio’s power to cross borders, while looking for their traces in the rural landscape of southern Italy.
DHRFF / 2017
Schrodinger’s Shoreditch
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Rebalda Elena Otrepyeva
Ellen Evans, Matthew Holman
Russia / 2015 / 33m Sun 17:00 / Intermedia
UK / 2017 / 19m Sun 16:00, Intermedia Schrödinger’s Shoreditch is a film about lost and found cats, poetry, and taking on the powers that be. After a luxury high-rise housing proposal threatened the community - and light access - of St Leonard’s parish in Shoreditch, its congregation responded with ideas. By drawing on alternative histories and imagined futures for the area, they offered a forceful case for the role of poetry in an age of dormant penthouses. At once a celebration of artistic collaboration, an indictment of failing housing policy in the East End, and - most of all - a story of friendships old and new, this is a film for our askew times.
The time has been stopped on Rebalda. The modern slaves get the seaweed here, as raw material for glamour industry. Men, women and children have been working in the harsh conditions, the same way as the prisoners of Solovki concentration camps were doing about a century ago. The barbed wire on Rebalda becomes a symbol of the new slavery, which squeezes out the “little” person from modern society. Rebalda it isn’t just a point on the map, Rebalda is Russia.
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“He belongs to that fraction of humanity which for centuries has made other fractions the objects of contempt and exploitation, then, when it saw the handwriting on the wall, set about to give them back their humanity.�
DHRFF / Events
Woman, Native, Other Trinh T Minh-ha 6-15 October, Pipe Factory Trinh T. Minh-ha is a filmmaker, writer and composer. Her practice centres around intersection of gender and colonialism. Her film work exposes the processes of othering and the politics of representation. She is Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. Women, Native, Other at the Pipe Factory will present two of Trinh T Minh-ha’s early film works in series. Poignant and at times disorientating, these early films not only demonstrate the beauty of film but also demand the viewer to question oneself, as spectator.
Reassemblage (7-10 October) 1982 / 40m (loop) Women are the focus but not the object of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s influential first film, a complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a complicity of interaction between film and spectator, Reassemblage reflects on documentary filmmaking and the ethnographic representation of cultures. “With uncanny eloquence, Reassemblage distills sounds and images of Senegalese villagers and their surroundings to reconsider the premises and methods of ethnographic filmmaking. By disjunctive editing and a probing narration this ‘documentary’ strikingly counterpoints the authoritative stance typical of the National Geographic approach.” — Laura Thielan
Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (8-15 October) 1989 / 1hr 48m (loop) Of marriage and loyalty: “Daughter, she obeys her father/ Wife, she obeys her husband/ Widow, she obeys her son.” This profoundly personal documentary explores the role of Vietnamese women historically and in contemporary society. Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of Vietnamese women in Vietnam—from both North and South—and the United States, Trinh’s film challenges official culture with the voices of women. A theoretically and formally complex work, Surname Viet, Given Name Nam explores the difficulty of translation, and themes of dislocation and exile, critiquing both traditional society and life since the war.
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DHRFF / Events
Vertigo Sea at Talbot Rice Gallery This year, Document are collaborating with Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh to bring you two events to coincide with their exhibition Vertigo Sea. Vertigo Sea is an exhibition featuring two remarkable installations by acclaimed artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah. Recognised internationally for work that engages with the human condition, winning the 2017 Artes Mundi Award, his films are powerful visions of global diaspora, expansive historical narratives and lamentations on individual mortality. Evolving from his work with the Black Audio Film Collective (beginning in 1982) the works in this exhibition embody a political desire to allow those forgotten, displaced or repressed by history to haunt the present in order to inform alternative futures. In the face of recent political travesty, Vertigo Sea presents an opportunity to meditate upon our place within the world, against the immense spaces and epic timescales evoked by the films. It reminds us of our interconnectedness and the diverse, ghostly community that shapes who we are.
Stranger in Paradise Guido Hendrikx - Netherlands / 2016 / 1hr 17m - Thurs 2 Nov, 18:00 In collaboration with Talbot Rice, we will be screening Guido Hendrikx’s bold and unflinching look at the absurdities of the asylum system. The screening will be followed by an ‘in conversation’ event framing Stranger in Paradise (p25) in the context of Akromfrah’s work. The discussion will also consider filmmakers’ approaches to addressing questions of displacement and global migration, both throughout history and in the precarious present. Free, but ticketed.
Stateless in Lesvos Guy Smallman - UK / 2015 / 26m - Mon 30 Oct - Edinburgh Schools Screening Shot over three days on the Greek island now famous for receiving hundreds of thousands of refugees from Turkey. Filmmaker Guy Smallman concentrated not on the refugees themselves but on the incredible dedication and humanity of the Greek and international volunteers assisting the most vulnerable people on the planet as they attempt to reach a place of safety.
Image: John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea (film still), 2015. © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
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Community Screenings For Document 2017, we have a series of special features screening in venues outside of the city centre - including 2 multi-award winning documentaries and the UK premiere of The Memory of the 25th Hour which chronicles 10 years of community collective action in South Korea. Thursday 21 September The Memory of the 25th Hour (p11) Govanhill Baths Thursday 5 October Radio Kobani (p17) Kinning Park Complex Thursday 12 October Nowhere to Hide (p26) Platform
Telling True Stories: Developing Human Rights Documentaries (Critical Forum) Fri 13:00 - 17:00, CCA Theatre Many human rights documentary films are the result of a productive, creative and collaborative partnership between activists and filmmakers. This year, the Critical Forum at Document becomes a platform for yet untold and potentially powerful cinematic stories by inviting human rights organisations, activists, producers and filmmakers to share their work on the ground and spark collaborations. The forum will feature two parts: a panel with presentations of different film projects at different stages of development, focusing on challenges and collaborations. The second part will allow attendees to participate in a workshop tailored around their own projects and interests, challenges and experiences of working on human rights issues on screen and beyond. Finally, the workshop will end with a general discussion where the audience and the panelists will have the chance to give feedback and advice and inspire future projects and collaborations. Free but ticketed Presented in collaboration with Glasgow Human Rights Network
DHRFF / Events
SUPERLUX Masterclass with Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Ameenah Ayub Allen Sun 12:00 - 15:00, CCA Clubroom Join artist Andrea Luka Zimmerman and producer Ameenah Ayub Allen for a SUPERLUX Masterclass that surveys the process of making the film Erase and Forget (p10). This SUPERLUX Masterclass will focus on questions around the circulation of engaged artists’ documentary, the complexity of working with fair use material within film culture and the possibilities and difficulties that arise when choosing to work outside of mainstream funding structures. Free to SUPERLUX members. Booking through LUX Scotland website. SUPERLUX, LUX Scotland’s membership scheme, is a national initiative that supports artists and arts professionals to develop more sustainable practices through professional development, networking, skills development and training. It is available to all Scotland-based artists, researchers and organisers, and is free to join. Established in December 2015 with the generous support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, SUPERLUX currently has a core membership of over 500 members from across Scotland. SUPERLUX is free to join and open to all: http://membership.luxscotland.org.uk
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Grab and Run at Glasgow Women’s Library Thurs 14 Dec, 18:00 - 20:30 Our second screening of Grab and Run (p15) with Glasgow Women’s Library will take the form of an ‘interrupted screening’. Audience members join one another around tables and the film is interrupted at key points to allow time and space for discussion and reflection. Free but ticketed Tickets available from Glasgow Women’s Library.
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DHRFF / Events
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Venues
Credits
Centre for Contemporary Arts 350 Sauchiehall St Glasgow G2 3JD
Selection Panel Eileen Daily, Sean Welsh, Alexandra Maria Colta, Kate Coventry
Govanhill Baths 99 Calder St Glasgow G42 7RA
Festival Coordinator: Eileen Daily Production Coordinator: Sean Welsh Press and Marketing: Emma Mortimore Volunteer Coordinator: Tony Harris Technical Coordinator: Lewis Den Hertog Graphic Design: Hugo Rente Web Development: Ralph Mackenzie
Platform The Bridge 1000 Westerhouse Rd Glasgow G34 9JW Kinning Park Complex 43 Cornwall St Glasgow G41 1BA Andrew Stewart Cinema Gilmorehill Centre, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ Glasgow Women’s Library 23 Landressy Street Glasgow G40 1BP
Collaborators Glasgow Women’s Library; GHRN; LUX Scotland; Mental Health Foundation; Scottish Queer International Film Festival; Talbot Rice Gallery; University of Glasgow. Thank you: Document Board, Paula Larkin, Mona Rai, Chris Bowman, Sam Kenyon, CCA, Govanhill Baths Community Trust, Platform, Kinning Park Complex.
Talbot Rice Gallery University of Edinburgh South Bridge EH8 9YL
Tickets Tickets/Passes can be purchased online at documentfilmfestival.org, cca-glasgow.com
Day Passes £10/£8 (+£1 booking fee) - booking by phone/ in person for individual films required.
or in person and over the phone from the CCA box office, 0141 352 4900.
Events Free but ticketed (booking advised) All screenings and events are free to Refugees and Asylum Seekers, OAPs and those on income support.
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DHRFF / 2017 SPONSORS