Nisimazine Bratislava #1

#1

Nisimazine A Magazine by NISI MASA, European Network Of Young Cinema

29//11//11

editorial

from The Green Wave by Ali Samadi Ahadi , Iran

The One World Festival connects two great passions of mine: cinema and activism. So it is amazing that Nisimazine is going to reflect on activist cinema at this festival for the first time. Human rights films have something extraordinary to them – the specific aim to change the world and fight injustice via cinematic means. Such cinema has to be intrinsically political and challenging.

Thus at festivals such as this one, there is no glitter and very little ‘business’; however, there is much more cordiality and warmth as people engaged in such events never do it for the show or the money.

These kinds of initiatives need greater reflection, and that is why Nisimazine is here!

We will engage in discussions about Burma, Arab revolutions, eco-activism and GL-

BTIQ rights. We will provide you with interviews with the filmmakers and important figures in human rights cinema, starting off today with Nora Beňáková, director of the One World Film Festival in Bratislava. In this issue you’ll also read reviews of Budrus, a film that shows how the Palestinian resistance can be a peaceful one, and The Green Wave, which talks about the ways in which new

media were involved in the Iranian protests surrounding the 2009 elections. Moreover, there is an analysis of the eco-film trend.

The festival has started, and its exciting first day is behind us. I am very curious about what comes next. Aren’t you?

By Michaela Pnacekova

reviews Budrus

Julie Bacha, Israel/Palestine/USA

Budrus has nothing to do with hummus. However, Hamas is a bit involved. Director and writer Julia Bacha has had enough courage to subvert one of the TV news’ best-known stereotypes: that Muslim equals terrorist.

Once upon a time, there was a little Palestinian village called Budrus. Not far away from this calm and rustic place, there was a construction site for Israel’s separation barrier, a modern prophylactic

The Green Wave Ali Samadi Ahadi , Iran

Iran, summer 2009. A painted skyline of Tehran. A voice talks about the authentic excerpts from blogs of courageous people who testified about the days around the election.

Crowds of people protesting, the election day and the massive violence against the demonstrators as well as the days afterwards are the key linear structure for the events which took place. Interviews with Dr. Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel peace prize in 2003, with Prof.

Dr. Payam Akhavan, who was once chief advisor at the International Court of Justice for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and other representatives of the movement give a multidimensional view of the events of that time.

Ali Samadi Ahadi has made a patchwork film using different media from devices like mobile phones, TV and sound recordings, Twitter and blogs. Even if the film follows Waltz with Bashir in its style of animation, the main interest of The Green Wave lies in the intention to produce common sense out of the events. Consequently, the film adapts stories from different people and tries to re-enact them through the combination of real live footage with animation. Evoked by the melancholic and often sentimental music, the rough surface of the animation and its dark colours, and the sad and tired voices which read the testimonies,

the film establishes a disillusioned perspective that is presented to the audience. Presenting “authentic” testimonies from people who took part in the demonstrations, Ali Samadi Ahadi has used this material to supersede the events, integrating them into a straight production of a myth.

The Green Wave is at its core a materialisation of a modern and bourgeois concept of freedom and democracy. The time around summer 2009 is interpreted as a passage of a timeless truth, which exists as an eternal idea of humankind that is being repressed by a totalitarian and militaristic regime. The film is not only a memorial for the demonstrators but also for an idea of the day of justice that is still to come. The film sets a hope that waits to be fulfilled in the future in order to believe again in the state of Iran, its people and in God. Through the tears of women within the masses and those of the interviewees, as well as the sometimes unbearable re-enacted stories of witnesses, the film stages the fate of the individual against the background of historical events. The fight is lost but not the whole struggle.

By Johannes Bennke

against modern disease - suicide bombers. To be able to build the barrier, Israelis had to uproot hundreds of olive trees. For the humble folk from Budrus olive trees were not only the daily bread, but the symbol of cultural and national identity: a unique legacy that means the world to them.

If we do not take into account the chronic conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, the filmmakers are giving us a rare device to demystify prejudices fed to us by the media. The polite people of Budrus (they call themselves the politest people in the world) stand against armed Israeli forces, metaphorically naked, in a non-violent defence of their legal land.

The filmmaker pays special attention to certain aspects such as gender - more precisely, to the role of women on both sides, and not only in the conflict. To spice things up a bit, Fatah and Hamas are engaged in this clash, without a single drop of blood spilled. Julia Bacha uses the prism of one man uniting a whole village against the mischief. The statement of the documentary is even bigger, seeing that not only do Palestinians unite, but Israelis also come to help. Budrus is the perfect example of when a tiny victory means a great triumph, which in this case inspired tens of other villages and possibly changed the stream of history.

By Martin Kudláč

A very, if not the most important element of the Global Eco-Film is the orientation towards a bodybased personal experience. Be it the hand-made organic food, the craftsmanship to build a high-tech solar car, or just being next to a tree in the rainforest, it’s all about incorporating the experience of one’s own bodily based existence.

number exchange, one can actually see the combination - if not resurrection - of irrational elements. In South America people form a circle around a tree stump in order to mourn over the loss. In Iceland someone built a globe with all the major religious symbols on it: a strong symbol for a global community still to come.

In Africa some tribes establish their connection with nature through It´s hard to imagine a more striking dance, while at the same time using contrast to the invisible, abstract a self-made high-tech solar cooker and virtual financial system. Far to prepare rice. away from the rational virtuality of

// NISIMAZINE BRATISLAVA

Tuesday 29 November 2011//# 1 A magazine published by the NISI MASA in the framework of a film journalism workshop for young Europeans Avec le soutien du Fonds franco-allemand en pays

Hook for Hope

from I Bought a Rainforest, by Helena Nygren and Jacob Andrén

In Solartaxi, Louis Palmer drives around the world pushed by events like the World Climate Conference in Bali. The restless movement of the solar car, as well as the film‘s fast change of locations (Eastern Europe in five seconds), gives an impression of a lack of time. Now is the moment to act and think differently! Climate change is the main backdrop for different yet common purposes. Firstly, to establish a global perspective through media by editing together voices from different places on earth.

Secondly, as a kind of hook for national identity, and especially in the case of Iceland (Future of Hope), for innovations in a time of financial crises. Thirdly, to set free the searches for paradise lost, like in I bought a rainforest.

The Global Eco-Film Trend

focus

It appears to be two steps forward through advanced technology yet one step back when looking to craftsmanship for fulfilling basic human needs. Even radical representatives from grass roots movements use high-tech to profit from renewable energy. In general it is taken for granted that it is not the technology that does harm to the environment, it is the mindset of economically oriented people and consumers. On the contrary: it is especially the high developed technology in combination with the unbroken belief in human intelligence and creativity that plays the key role in a Future of Hope.

In that regard it doesn’t surprise anymore that eco films are full of patriotism and self-affirmative pathos whose effects serve to establish a global community. Time shrinks. Contemporary decisions set the future and this is where a romantic element ar-

tiers, de l’Institut Francais et du Goethe Institut

EDITORIAL STAFF Director of Publication Matthieu Darras Editor-in-Chief/Layout Maartje Alders Editor Jude Lister Contributors to this issue Johannes Bennke, Lucille Caballero Martin Kudláč, Michaela Pnacekova

NISI MASA 99 rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, 75010, Paris, France.

Phone: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 europe@nisimasa.com, www.nisimasa.com

rives: the ruin of human civilisation is imagined not in terms of architecture but in terms of an anthropomorphic earth. Some films even try to anticipate the language and thoughts of a future generation, as in Climate of Change, in which the earth is described as a human body which has beheaded mountains, wounds, scars, a skin and even an inner organic system that floats in harmony.

Something will be finished in the future. All that is connected with the idea of sustainability is based on the consciousness that everything and everybody will die some day in the future – and leave a legacy.

Not only time but also space shrinks in order to serve the romantic fantasy of a global community – maybe one of the strongest mindsets the film has to offer. People’s mentalities as well as the surface of the earth become the battlefield.

All of these elements and perspectives serve a global bourgeoisie that thinks globally and acts locally in terms of sustainability. Its identity is based on experiences of the individual body as well as the consciousness about the decay of things and the anticipation of the language of future generations. At its core, the Global Eco-Film takes into account an ethical approach that encourages us to set free a pioneering spirit, while at the same time the idea of a global community violates alternatives outside of this imaginary dream of a common fate.

By Johannes Bennke

interview

Festival Director

She is head of the One World Festival, also serving as its programmer. Nora Beňáková is no ordinary woman. After finishing studies in marketing, she worked for a foundation supporting civil activities.

She is part of the organization People in Peril as the director of expertise bureau in the area of humanitarian intervention in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sudan, and has also realized several projects in the Balkans. She is chairman of the NGDO Platform, an umbrella structure of Slovak non-governmental organizations which deals mainly with international development and humanitarian assistance.

How does it feel to be president of the One World Festival?

It depends when you ask me the question. Half a year before the festival it’s great that I can watch hundreds of documentary films at home as I am responsible also for dramaturgy. One month before and during the festival, it’s particularly a great deal of stress and responsibility. After the festival, if everything was good and visitors are happy, it’s a good feeling that an event of this kind exists thanks to me and my closest colleagues – Katka Ďurovková and Martin Horák. And in recent months thanks to Eva Sládková

and Paula Tomanovičová who help us with promotion.

How do you rate previous years and what are you expecting from this year’s edition?

The One World Festival was born in Slovakia in 2000. We started with 39 documentaries in four temporary theatres. Currently, we are offering 70 documentaries from abroad as well as a selection of Slovak productions, which we try to expand each year. We are screening at five places. Over the years we have extended the programming by adding other genres, and as

well as film, organizing discussions not only with foreign directors but also with Slovak personalities, starting with screenings for schools, competitions, increasing our presence on the internet and on social networks. Over the years, we have been adding new themes and film sections – only a few years ago we added themes reflecting globalization as well as our history to the classical sections such as “You have the right to see”, films about violations of human rights, and the ecological section.

The current edition has an interesting programme. Which sections/ films drew your attention particularly?

Definitely the new section ”New media are changing the world”, where we managed to get films about the WikiLeaks cause, censorship on the internet in democratic countries, and mostly films about Arab revolutions, which the phenomenon of social networks significantly helped.

Moreover, the section “Our r/evolution” is also very interesting; it contains several humorous or rather ironic probes reflecting the progress of a society in our space, whether it is the Romanian film Kapitalism – Our Improved Formula or The Other Chelsea.

Which film changed your life?

I have been devoted to the One World Festival for over 10 years and after watching hundreds of documentaries, your perception is going to change.

Scenes in films don’t shock me anymore or don’t surprise me as they would a viewer who sees a documentary about a serious theme for the first time. However I remember from the past one film which really struck me and changed my perception of the world as you are asking, and it was Shake hands with the Devil, about the Canadian Commander in Chief of UN troops who helplessly watched mass genocide in Rwanda (since he did not possess any rights to intervene). It’s impossible to witness injustice and do nothing in our century.

What are your plans for the future?

After the festival, mainly to relax and watch several “normal” films in cinemas which I will have missed. Our three-member team in the association People in Peril is to participate not only in the next edition of the festival, but also in a new project to support free access to information in Belarus and in an educational project for schools on the reflection of our history during the period of communism.

By Martin Kudláč

photo by Lucille Caballero

Nora Beňáková