Nisimazine monthly January 2009

NisiMazine January 09

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Latin America

© Still from L'Homme de Rio by Philippe de Broca (In: La Ville au Cinéma, T. Jousse & T. Paquot, Cahiers du Cinéma, 2005, P. 549)

Editorial I

mmersed in difficulties of all kinds, always fighting with Hollywood’s omnipotence, Latin American cinema grows and matures, always looking for alternative short cuts in its race towards a deserved imaginary site within the international market.

Different laws have been created in order to stimulate the cinemas of each country, many of them still insufficient. The increase in the number of the films is due to the reduction of the costs which brought the advance of the digital technique and of postproduction systems, but the greater preoccupation of film directors is to be able to commercially position their films in the international markets. Even today, these cinemas find more acceptance in independent circuits that in the big chains of distributors.

From an aesthetic point of view, Latin American cinema has continued forming, for several years, parallel tendencies that have developed together, without excluding one another.

Realism, a language assumed by no small number of film directors, considers the evils endemic of the region (social violence, hunger, inequalities, immigration); that part of history which weighs heavily on the present and largely determines it, or at least influences it considerably. Films such as Perro como perro by Carlos Moreno (Columbia), Cordero de Dios by Lucía Cedrón (Argentina), Tropa de élite by José Padilla (Brazil); all of them are debut films, which is indicative of just how much the naked treatment, without make up, of the Latin American reality continues to provide new interest.

In this issue you will find articles on the European view over South America and its cinema, about projects in Latin America which are similar to NISI MASA ones and from two Latin American Nisimasians living in Europe. All this will give you a foretaste of the NISI MASA film journalism workshops in Lima and Rio this summer!

Martin Capatinta

For more info on NISI MASA activities, check out www.nisimasa.com!

Agenda January, 5 All the network Deadline for Nisimazine Alba film journalism workshop January, 17 - 20 Angers (France) Script & Pitch, Alumni Meeting January, 31 All the network Applications for becoming a NISI MASA board member!

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Next Issue...

NISIMAZINE # 18 ~ February 2009 Special focus: Cinema & Music

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: NISI MINI (SWEDEN)

PORTRAIT: Beril Sonmez (TURKEY)

Nisimazine is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Director of publication Esra Demirkiran Editor-in-chief Nina Henke Secretary of the editorial Jude Lister Layout Nina Henke Contributors to this issue Martin Capatinta, Mercedes Cubria, Lura Limani, Arturo Mestanza, Elena Mosholova, Veronica Mota Galindo, Atso Pärnänen NISI MASA (European Office) 10 rue de l’Echiquier, 75010, Paris, France; Tel/Fax: + 33 (0)1 53 34 62 78 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

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Latin American Cinema projects

As you may already know, there are four NISI MASA film journalism workshops taking place this year in Europe and Latin America: Alba, Italy (March), Cannes, France (May), Lima, Peru (Au­ gust) and Rio, Brazil (September/October). But there are also projects created in Latin America which are similar to NISI MASA ones, and many European film collaborations with Latin America ...

Films on wheels (Peru)

I

was 8 years old when I went to the cinema for the first time.

My parents dressed me in my best suit, my best shoes, and after my mama combed my hair they gave me some money for the entrance and the popcorn. In the cinema I saw other boys who were very happy like me - maybe it was their first time too. In Latin American countries like Peru, with a 48% level of poverty, cinema - as other arts - is a luxury which many people cannot easily access. It’s cheaper to stay at home and watch TV. If Mohammed will not go to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed. This is the work of NÓMADAS: to take cinema to that majority. NÓMADAS is a non-governmental project supported by Peruvian and Spanish film directors. They have an archive of fiction and documentary films, and their mission is to take cinema on wheels.

First they coordinate the logistics with the authorities of the towns that they will visit, such as finding out if there is an electricity supply, etc. It is a long way, sometimes thousands of km, over mountains of 5000 metres above sea level, or crossing rivers. When they arrive in the town the tasks are then divided.

One group is in charge of setting up the screen, the video projector, the seating, etc; the other group, amplifier in hand, crosses the streets inviting the people to the great event: COME! COME! FREE CINEMA TODAY ON A GIANT SCREEN!

Cine en construcción (Spain & France)

Y

our movie is almost finished. You have spent a long time writing the script. The shooting ended months ago and you are at a dead end: you have no more funds to continue with its post-production. The audiovisual industry proposes some help for Latin-American cinematography with “Cine en construccion" ("Films in Progress”). In the frame of the San Sebastián International Film Festival (Spain) and the Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latine de Toulouse (France), professionals from different companies evaluate amongst the movies selected which of them deserve to win.

In 2007 the Guatemalan film Gasolina won the “Films in Progress 12” award. Cinema production in Guatemala has been quiet longer than in Mexico or Brazil. I analyzed the consensus of professionals as a way to promote a movie which wouldn’t have many chances on its own. When working for the organization I watched the very young director Julio Hernández (it was his first feature) waiting shyly during the prize-giving. It was his first time in Spain, maybe in Europe. He seemed to wear a suit which was too big for him. I thought that he would prefer walking along the beach, alone, to being the centre of attention. He approached the platform, disbelieving and excited, three times. That night he slept (I’m not sure how much the emotion allowed him to be relaxed) with the Casa de América, Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et Essai (CICAE) and “Films in Progress” awards. Some people around me disapproved the jury decision. “It’s not a good film”, they said. Professionals opted to bet on the young director offering an opportunity to the small Guatemalan industry.

This kind of help is still necessary to strengthen production in Latin-American countries, giving them a voice, but wouldn’t it be better to stimulate their financial independence? Is it possible to gain success with the strong North American industry nearby? Europe, to a lesser degree, is also attached to public funds. Is this the price of conceiving cinema as an art? www. sansebastianfestival.com www.cinelatino.com.fr

Mercedes Cubría

When the time arrives, a lot of people don’t believe that it is for free: many children have never been to the cinema and have only an abstract idea of that dark space with many chairs and that great light that crosses over their heads and turns white canvas into a giant televisión. The magic of cinema begins some of them are fascinated with those giant men and others are scared and laugh nervously. It is spellbinding.

They have a lot of stories about what happened in every little village: somebody stole their equipment, people didn't let them to leave the town, or people asked them where to buy a giant TV like that… www.nomadasperu.com. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_KUMqnLY3w

Martin Capatinta

Euro-Latin American production workshop For the first time in 2009, a joint workshop for Latin American and European producers will be organised with the support of MEDIA International: The PUENTES Europe-Latin America Producers Workshop will take place in Buenos Aires from March 26-30, 2009 within the framework of the BAFICI (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente).

The workshop will enable ten feature film producers from both continents to work together in a five-day workshop.

Send your applications until the 15th of January!!! www.bafici.gov.ar & www.eave.org

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ig are the prejudices that Europe has towards Latin America and its cinema. We outlined some key moments of the Latin American cinema history and Atso prepared a special Latin-American cinema quiz for you, so you can check your knowledge...

??? NisIQuiz !!!

1. In Werner Hertzog's Fitzcarraldo Klaus Kinski's character must get a ship over a hill in order to get access to what?

2. In which country was the first Latin American 3D movie produced?

3. In 1933 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers flew down to which Latin American city in the RKO musical?

4. Which Latin American film did John Lennon name as his favourite film?

5. Name the three countries in which the first telenovelas were produced.

Due South, past the equator

J

ungles or ancient cities, slums or endless lines of cabs, tourists heading down South for some party time or archaeologists taking a step or two on the path of the Incas... Latin America is in our minds still the great continent of adventure.

Just as Africa is Tarzan's home and the plains and prairies of America forever cowboy land, then surely we cannot see or have an image of Latin America without having first visited our viewing experiences.

Whether it be the young doctor who would turn out to be a rebel in The Motorcycle Diaries of Walter Salles or hunting down evil in Schaffner's The Boys from Brazil, in which Gregory Peck performs the kind of role we are certainly not used to seeing him in, Latin America has been one big studio backlot for stories of passion, fighting, treasures, wars, romances and holiday comedies. The list is endless but as we see the sun shining over the beaches, the rain dropping on the leaves of the rubber trees only suddenly to turn into a monsoon, it is easy to forget the real Southern continent of the Americas. We have the stereotypes: the dictators, the rebels and the telenovelas with endless plot turns. A continent with its own passing of time.

Atso Pärnänen Still from Viva México by Sergej Eisenstein

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Latin-American Cinema seen from Europe

6. For which star was the film Rua Alguem 5555, shot in Brazil, to be his final film?

7. Who plays Che Guevara in Soderbergh's new film?

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1. Rich rubber territory in Peru 2. Peru 3. Rio de Janeiro (Flying down to Rio) 4. El Topo 5. Brazil, Cuba and Mexico 6 Charlton Heston 7. Benicio Del Toro

Historical Approach to Latin-American Cinema

T

rying to generalize Latin America as if it was all the same is a big mistake. There are 21 different countries, with Spanish and Portuguese as the main spoken languages, but also a bunch of native ones such as Quechua and Guarani.

Considering the complexity of this region makes it possible to avoid a myopic and reductive way of understanding its cultural production.

It is well-known that Latin America was a European Colony, most notably Spain and Portugal. In many regions native people got almost exterminated but there are also places where they survived and even mixed with Europeans or Africans, giving existence to a new kind: Mestizo.

The goal of this article was to write about Latin American Cinema, but how can one understand a specific creative production without its historical and sociological context?

Europe and the United States brought the technique needed to shoot the first Latin American films at the end of the 19th century. In the beginning only relevant social events were shot, without any scripts or fictional stories to tell. The first cinema was about propaganda, the search for identity and contemplation, with a kind of documentary style:

Sergej Eisenstein's Viva México (1930-1979, Russia) or Mario Peixoto's Limite (1931, Brazil).

El Indio Fernández was the founder of Mexican Cinema.

He was influenced by Eisenstein’s Viva México, a film which helped him to find the beauty of “mestizaje” (interculturality) and “indigena” culture. This was a strong inspiration for the subsequent Latin American cinema.

The 60s and 70s were pretty important for the documentary school in Cuba and the “Cine Novo” in Brazil. The cinema of this period criticized all kind of power networks and made films based on political themes which gave a voice to the oppressed community (e.g. Glauber Rocha - Terra em Transe, 1967).

The cinema produced in 80s was not as important or powerful as in the four decades before. Directors of the 60s and 70s had continuously shot and developed new films. It wasn’t until the 90s when Latin American Cinema became strong again with a New Cinema exploring local narratives with a contemporary aesthetic. Since then, the most important countries have been Brazil, México and Argentina.

Verónica Mota Galindo

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Nisimasians from Latin America

The Latin and the EuropeanFrom Glauber Rocha to Godard

I

was born in the same country as Glauber Rocha, the famous Brazilian filmmaker who aroused Europe's interest for things being done there.

In Brazil, as in anywhere in the world, the larger film theatres are reserved for the blockbusters, so it was not usual to find movies produced by our neighbours there. In order to get acquainted with the so-called “Latin American cinema”, I had to venture into what we often know as "art rooms".

Due to the fact that its countries are poor, Latin American cinema is compelled to show this reality. The first shout-out was given in the late 60s by Argentinean filmmakers in a manifesto called “Third Cinema”, which proclaimed a no strings attached cinema (“First Cinema” referred to Hollywood, “Second Cinema” to European art films). According to them, it would be Seventh Art for the brains, not for the pocket, and focus on collective work rather than the personal expression of the director.

In order to distinguish themselves from mainstream North American movies, new forms of expression started to grasp the general public's interest - and special Latino festivals burst out all over the world, making the films more accessible.

T

here are NISI MASA projects in Latin America but there are also Nisimasians with a Latin American background living in Europe. You can read here how they see the differences between Europe and Latin America ...

I suspect you, dear reader, to have by now your own perspective of our cinema.

Ironically, it was Glauber Rocha who captivated my interest for European movies. Following the "Nouvelle Vague" of the French industry, Rocha created the so-called "New Cinema" for the Latin world. It was a communication between the European and Latin film industries - a link refused by the earlier Third Cinema movement.

I used to see European cinema as being in opposition to American productions. It was a breath of hope for those tired of special effects and shallow plots.

If Latin movies were about poverty and violence, European ones were about silence and human nature's metaphor.

Today I don't carry these impressions anymore; I can even see similarities in all of them. It's not hard to fall under the open plain of globalization and realize that there are influences from everyone everywhere. We can easily find the same cinematic themes in Latin, Asian, African, European, Nissei, Yellow, Blue, Green, etc. It's not utopian to say that what matters is the art, excluding any geographical boundaries. It's all cinema!

Arturo Mestanza

A Latin-American cineast in Berlin

I

t always surprises me that there are not many female filmmakers on the big lists all around the world. I do directing, editing and sound, and it’s always the same phenomenon: not many female cineasts. Women are still a minority and I think that must be changed.

Based in Berlin since 2002, here I have gained the technical skills to shoot films in video format.

I learnt the basics about storytelling and linear scriptwriting. After two years of traditional cinema I started getting more and more influenced by independent cinema and video art. Avant-garde storytelling with a strong political commitment is what I find best after documentary style.

The city of Berlin has been an amazing place for getting to know contemporary artists and filmmakers from all over the world. This city is still a bridge between East and West, but also a meeting place for alternative people who want to express themselves in the way they want, outside of institutional rules or intellectual arrogance. All the rebels come to live here in order to make a shared dream true: to do creative work in our own way.

Another peculiarity about Berlin is the communist ghost which hangs over the city.

In the most working-class neighbourhoods such as Mitte, Kreuzberg and Neukölln people have a political background, so there is a notorious sense o f s o l i d a r i t y and community.

Ar tists, m u sic ia n s a n d f i l m m a kers help each other most of the time.

Berlin is not a hippie island but as a Mexican, coming from such a classist and racist country, I have learnt what in México would be almost impossible for women with a proletarian background: filmmaking and the technical skills for creating sound compositions. This context has strongly influenced my way of shooting films. I don’t feel myself to be a filmmaker influenced only

by European Cinema, but by a good and critical one made by humans all over the world.

Verónica Mota Galindo

Latest news CALL for Mediterranean films

On the 9th of January at 18h30, Nisi Masa Turkey is organizing a short film screening in Istanbul, in an art gallery called "Karsi Sanat Calismalari" (literally: “Counter Art Works”).

The “Centre Méditerranéen de la Communication et de l’Audiovisuel” is calling for films for the 14th edition of the international prize for documentaries and reportages made in the Mediterranean area or dealing with related subjects. The documentaries have to have been produced after the 1st of January 2007, the reportages have to have been produced after the 1st of January 2008. Deadline for submissions 28th of February 2008.

Still from Egofixe

Film screening in istanbul (turkey)

During the screening, three short films by NISI MASA board member Fedor Limperg:

Still from Egofixe

- Egofixe (suspense/mystery 2003, 26 min., 16mm) A mystic thriller about a journalist investigating an artist's mysterious suicide.

There will also be a selection of other shorts and a Q&A. www.karsi.com nisimasaturkey.blogspot.com

Mirtha, who was doing a five month internship, left the European Office in December. She did a great job in coordinating projects in Kars and Torino this autumn!

Atso finished his EVS in December but will stay in Paris until the end of March as a tutor for European Short Pitch.

prix@cmca-med.org www.cmca-med.org

- Celluloid (theatre clip, 8 min., 16mm) In a former factory some strange inhabitants appeared. They eat, fight, spent time, play music and... work!

- Warning (theatre clip, 6 min. , 16mm) Observations of strange creatures, their awkward rituals and habits.

From day to night.

European office staff (france)

On the 7th of January, Gülcin from Turkey started her European Voluntary Service in Paris. She will stay for 10 months and will be in charge of several missions, including networking the member associations.

Welcome Gülcin!

Festival "territories in images" (France) The association “Arrimage” is organising the 13th edition of the festival “Territories in Images” between the 26 and the 28th of March at the Institute of Geography in Paris. One the one hand, the festival is doing a photography contest with the subject “climate(s)”, on the other hand they are doing a video contest with the subject “Territories in images”. 12 - 15 films will be selected and three of them will be awarded. http://www.arrimage.asso.fr

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DocPoint Filmfestival (Finland) The 8th edition of the DocPoint - Helsinki International Documentary Film Festival will be held from the 20th to the 25th of January 2009. Nisimazine will sadly not be covering the festival this year, but we wish them all the best! www.docpoint.info

In the spotlight: SEVEN Activities

Some Members

Association SEVEN is a Bulgarian non-profit organization.

No superstition about it, the name comes from cinema, as the seventh art, and the fact that seven people created it in 2007. In that spirit, one aim of the association could be to create seven cinema projects that will make a difference, but we will see about that on its seventh anniversary. Even if "the aim" doesn't get accomplished, we hope to have been enjoying our time. In fact, this is actually what we are looking for the most.

The youngest in the association, Yana Mosholova and Vasilia Drebova, have been best friends for quite a long time now. They are both students of acting and great partners on stage. Even at work they stick to each other, being bar tenders in one of the trendy underground bars in Sofia. Still, certain differences are obvious - Vasilia is in Portuguese language and culture, whilst Yana is tempted by applied arts, spending her time on handmade earrings, strange-looking lamps and knitwear.

The main activity of Association SEVEN is the Filmini International Short Film Festival, the only one of the kind in Sofia, held every year in October.

The festival is not a huge one, yet submitted films still pass through a strong selection and the programme consists of diverse short films that compete in different sections. Special attention is drawn to Balkan directors and their works and, of course, to national filmmakers.

Among the other projects of the association is a film panorama of Nordic long features, which have always been quite appreciated by local audiences. The panorama is about to become a bigger project, with a few parallel events by artists from Scandinavia and the Nordic region.

One of the aims of the association is to encourage young film professionals in their work, thus we organize many workshops, master classes, seminars and discussions with local and international tutors. These have been very successful and are motivating us to work in that direction.

Pictures on the left from the top: Yvan & Yvan, Vasilia, Jury, Yana, Krasimira, Elena, Borislav Compiled by Elena Thanks!

Krasimira Maslarova and Ivan Yosifov are the ones dealing with business, but with their hearts in the arts. Graduated in film directing, Krasimira works for new technology projects, audiovisual programming and film distribution.

Ivan, on the other hand, is the head of an advertising company.

Juri Staikov is someone who can be depicted in many ways.

Probably the most important thing about him for the moment is that he is preparing his second book of short stories to be published.

Normally an actor at the National Theatre, for the last couple of years Ivan Yurukov has been interested in film directing. He just had a premiere of his third short film and is already making plans for a long feature.

Being a lawyer, Borislav Gospodinov might seem a strange bird in the flock. Well, he is not that kind of lawyer: stone-faced, in a suit. Quite the opposite, his sense of humour turns up in the most unexpected situations. Also, he has been in Nisi Masa for quite a long time.

Elena Mosholova is the chairperson of the association and loves nature. www.filmini.org

Elena Mosholova

© Photo by Fatos Hoti

PORTRAIT

Lulzim Hoti (7arte, Kosovo)

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n an age when whoever has the impulse to can grab a camera and start shooting, ideas count. The ideas and the story. Lulzim Hoti's ideas and stories might be a bit more complex than your usual YouTube video, though.

One of NISI MASA's board members, Hoti has not only tried to pursue his own autodidactic film career – but contribute to the development of Kosovan cinema, which hardly exists.

Born in Mitroviça, a city in the northern part of Kosovo, which still remains divided between the Serb and Albanian populations, Hoti's history is not one-of-a-kind, but certainly intriguing. Being raised in a country prey to a conflict, and with no terrain for any kind of artistic development, meant that Hoti's filmmaking dream came true through self-taught abilities and determination.

"I believe that there is still place for me to form my personal philosophy on filmmaking, although I do have the impression that if I had studied filmmaking I would be limited in ideas, I would try to imitate my professor", says Hoti, who like many other self-taught directors does not believe that a formal education is essential in order to be able to make a film or tell a story well. However, he does think that education is really important for future filmmakers. The Academy in Kosovo has produced many "graduated directors" who are happy to be named as such, but who have yet to make any remarkable works. This to him clearly indicates a lack of concrete practise of filmmaking in the curriculum, along with a lack of films from young directors which aimed at wider international audiences – a situation that should be improved.

Director of three short films (L-Iber – for which he won “cameraman of the year” from the RTK national TV in 2004, First Vision of Paris, and The Album) and producer of many others, Lulzim has certainly contributed a fair share to a cinema that mainly produces short films. However, these days his main duties have nothing to do with his own personal achievements in filmmaking. As one of the founders of the non-governmental arts organization 7Arte, based in Mitroviça, he is fully focused on its projects.

Just last year, 7Arte organized a documentary film workshop for youngsters and a film festival called "Youth in Focus". To a city which is separated in two, and has almost no economic activity, NGOs might just be the only thing that could allow youngsters to do something productive.

However, 7 Arte’s goal is not to do just anything. Hoti knows how it is to start from scratch – he revived his directing dream in 2003, a long time after he had finished studies in Literature. One could say that this was a strike of luck; it was a journalist's question that made him seek out something he had in fact desired for so long, a wish that one could easily assume more youngsters have – but in Kosovo, they can hardly pursue it.

His main duties nowadays are to encourage young Kosovans to directly pursue their art-related dreams; DOKO YOMI, the documentary film workshop organized by his organ i z a tion in 2006, intended to do exactly this.

But there is more, such as the organising of the European Script Contest in Kosovo. “We are very proud of the selection of a Kosovan script as one of the three winners”, says Hoti, who obviously sees this as an indicator of his good work – one that encourages him to continue supporting the local artists.

Hoti is a filmmaker himself, without a doubt; but the fervour and passion he has in working with the youth in his hometown is inspiring – especially in a field that’s hardly fruitful, financially speaking.

“Currently I’m assisting in the project Let me speak, in which video is used as a means by the youth to communicate with the decision-makers on different issues”, tells Hoti, whose recent agenda is full of civil society obligations and responsibilities.

The future looks equally bright: “Besides my contribution in 7 Arte association, I do plan to raise my own capacities by continuing my studies”, he says. And who could blame him?

After all, he is the guy who just might have offered others a platform he never had for himself.

Lura Limani