Crowds & the Tube

I was reading an article the other day in the Metro, about crowd behaviour. It made me think, that I don't think I'm like the majority of other commuters, in fact I think this on a regular basis. I sometimes might go as far as questioning my sanity.

General tube behaviour is head down, headphones in, phone to face, AVOID EYE CONTACT AT ALL COSTS. I quite enjoy a little look around, reading the posters, watching body language between others on the train and drifting off into a Walter Mitty-esque sea of imagination. I also quite enjoy being able to help lost tourists navigate their way to London landmarks.

The article also described how commuters tend to congregate near doors of tubes and buses to speed up their journeys when it does nothing but slow it down, as people struggle to get on and off because of our selfish friends. I do the opposite. I would rather walk the entire way down the platform and sit in a half empty carriage, or move along inside and stand freely, rather than bunch up with my head in someone's sweaty armpit by the door. I also quite enjoy knowing that I have given up my seat for someone. After a 15hr shoot, having been on my feet all day, I went to the National theatre to watch a long-awaited showing of 'Home'. Whilst waiting for it to start there were only two seats free in the cafe area. As soon as I sat down, I saw an older couple who'd just filled up their dinner trays - my feet might not have forgiven me for another three days but it felt good to know that they could eat their dinner at a table in peace. It's the same on the tube for me.

Although, I feel that the one time that my humanity falters is that time I'm thinking of my next toilet stop and a group of drunk teenagers are taking up the entire escalator. If I ever have murderous tendencies, it's then. I also feel like London transport brings out some rather suicidal tendencies...there's nothing more tempting than wanting to take a shortcut and slide down the central parting between the escalators or weirdly, take a heroic Matrix-style jump onto the front of a train (I am aware that's not normal). Walter Mitty and I are a little too similar sometimes I think.

My experiences with transport in London is like my sweet tooth's relationship with the new Wild Berry Skittles and custard creams. Some days dunking my biscuit into a storm-filled teacup is too much, some days I'll cram too many skittles into my mouth and some days there are just too many people trying to use the same train.

So, let's help each other out. Don't be one of the cattle of the common land. Stand on the right on an escalator. Move along the platform and down the carriage and for the love of god stop me from sliding down the escalator when I do eventually break and the temptation become too much!

Let's All be Free Festival: The People

Following on from my previous post about the films of the 'Let's all be Free Film Festival' - let's move on to the people of the festival and their reasons for making the films you've hopefully had a chance to watch! Creative Activism at the core!

Paul Woolwich - Head of Audio/Visual Amnesty UK

Paul admitted that he'd actually had nothing to do with the making of the film 'Life in the Camps' as he'd only been head of Audio Visual at Amnesty for two months! However, he did let us all in on Amnesty's plans going forward. Amnesty International have 160 offices worldwide, with 35 different youtube channels. 'Life in the Camps' was made by the UK offices, who now have decided on their campaign themes for the year ahead. The first - 'My Body, My Rights' - covering women's rights, gay marriage and anything else that fits the theme. The second, is 'torture', which they have been campaigning for 50yrs to ban. So, if any of you are thinking of making content on these themes, Amnesty might be onboard to offer a helping hand - worth a try!

He then went on to say that the films Amnesty make are all in tune with their role as advocates of peace and equality. People watch a film, they are moved, they are affected but the telling of a good film is in the action that follows it. Whether people DO SOMETHING or not. He says he wanted to make films that aim to make the world a better place, so that it's not 'Who Cares' but rather, an issue is personalised in a way that makes people care and do something. Paul also told us of a previous campaign that did just that, where Amnesty encouraged people to write letters to their government telling them to free Prisoners of Conscience. http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/cases The response was amazing.

Lucy Tcherniak - Co-writer of 'The Truth About Stanley'

Lucy was asked why she chose to write the Truth about Stanley and why she approached homelessness as a subject.

Lucy told us that she wrote the film two and a half years ago. It began with her and her friends walking down the street and seeing homeless people asleep in doorways and suddenly she asked herself, 'what happens when homeless people die on the street?' 

Research found that there was no distinctive answer. So she began to write. It was not her intention to approach the Big Issue, but it became a very sensible thing to do once the film developed. She began researching into those who created imaginative truths for nicer endings to their stories. Something that is actually quite common for those who have had a trauma in their past, which is common among the homeless.

The thing I loved about the film, was that it treated Stanley as a person, not as a 'homeless man'. We also saw how easy it is for any one of us to find ourselves in the same situation as Sam runs away from home. It was very 'human', if that's even a descriptive term. Particularly in the scenes in Covent Garden, we saw genuine reactions from the public to Stanley's behaviour, which makes us almost ashamed that we might react in that way too. Very clever directing to place the cameras out of sight to capture this.

It seems very in tune with what Lucy set out to do in the first place. It began as just a drama. They wanted to create characters that would encourage an emotional response. Lucy wanted people to care, 100,000+ views later, I think she succeeded.

Check out her website for more of her beautiful work: http://www.lucytcherniak.com/

Fred Branson - Co-Founder of Amantani

Fred Branson began his charity work in an orphanage in Cuzco, Peru. Whilst there he was astounded at just how many of the orphans came from indigenous backgrounds (approx 80%) which sparked a spirit inside him for a new path. 

The path took him to the creation Amantani who now work among indigenous Peruvian communities giving them education and support where needed. Part of their work includes the running of three boarding houses that help those children who trek a gruelling 4hours just to get to school.

Then he came on to 'Meet My World' where he asked 12 Peruvian children to write their own scripts to show the positive things within their communities. He furthered that the process took 12months to unfold, with him working closely with the children themselves to get their message across to people like us, who live in a completely different culture where values lie in capital rather than in community. Fred was questioned about the use of mainstream music for the trailer, over a Peruvian track and his reply was that he wanted to make it relevant. If no-one could connect with the subject matter, the children or the things they are talking about, then at least they might connect with the music choice.

He also furthered that, alike to Survival International's story, in Peru companies look to try to help indigenous communities by turning lakes into fresh water reservoirs for drinking and mountains into mines not realising that al of these are sacred to the people who live there. So if you're interested in that for a story, then you know where to go! 

I thought 'Meet My World' was a great idea. Not only is Peru somewhere I have wanted to travel to for over 5 years, the passion of the children and indeed Fred, for their culture makes the 12 films, films I want to watch!

Here's the Amantani website: http://www.amantani.org.uk/about-us1

Time to Mingle

Perhaps the most useful part of the evening for an aspiring producer, although the rest was certainly inspiring, was speaking to some of the attendees afterwards. I approached Fred to get details on whether I could do anything useful to help, during my tour of Peru when we go sometime next year. I then spoke to Paul Woolwich about his career in documentary filmmaking and asked his advice on how exactly I get myself known to people. Amongst his profound cynicism (meant in the best way possible) there were a few home-truths in his rather dated ethos to the business. For example, his question of why I care about factual production in terms of broadcasting was certainly something I hadn't thought about. He instead directed me online: you want to make factual content, do it online. A dog running into a glass door gets how many hits on youtube - from his editorial days on Panorama Paul shared that Panorama gets around 3million. So launching something online is likely to bring more views... Very good point.

Although I'm not sure I completely agree with his notion of 'there's no future in factual television at all'. Neither did I necessarily agree that to get a foot in the door you have to allow people to steal your ideas nor that no everyday man cares about the 'propaganda' films as he described the films at the festival. He did agree that the production companies I have set my sights on for the future were good choices though - Windfall Productions and October Films being among them - so at least there was reassurance alongside the challenging question of why should people care about MY documentary, how is it relatable? Fair point but a challenging one for a Monday evening! Thanks Paul!

Then arrived a fellow young - I say young but of course everyone is much my age superior -

producer/director from New York, Sabina Vajraca, whose prior projects include 'Back to Bosnia' which I'm still waiting to receive the link to watch! It sounded like a documentary I'd really love to watch particularly as it resonates with my documentary 'After Auschwitz' and the theme of fleeing genocide. Perhaps the thing that resonated with me personally was the fact that she had filmed the documentary within the 20days holiday she was allowed from her full-time job. Of course, with my new job I am in a similar situation but it made me realise I need to stop being lazy, wasting time being tired and get stuck in! So, ideas are now currently in development for the months to follow, so thanks for the advice Sabina! Needless to say I'd love to lend a helping hand if contributors are needed in the UK for future projects.

Here's the link for more about 'Back to Bosnia': http://www.backtobosnia.com/index.php

Jenny Horwell

My final conversation of the evening was with Jenny Horwell from DocHouse who screen a documentary a week across London venues. If you're interested in applying or attending screenings, here's the link! http://www.dochouse.org/

I approached Jenny as my documentary rarely falls into the category of short length or feature length. It was reassuring to hear that Jenny had no qualms about screening two mid-length films back to back if they had relating themes. So the plan ahead? To find a partner to screen my film with! 

'After Auschwitz' in short, runs at just under 60mins. The doc tells the harrowing stories of holocaust survivors Susan Pollack, born in Budapest and Freddie Knoller, born in Vienna, as well as touching upon the story of Zigi Shipper. We then move on to explain the relevance of the holocaust as an example of advocacy against discrimination and violence today. It explores issues such as the violence towards immigrants by the Golden Dawn in Greece, modern anti-semitism in Hungary and the mis-treatment of Roma communities in central Europe. 

Any recommendations for other films with similar themes, then please get in touch! My website has my contact details as well as a page dedicated to explaining more about my film 'After Auschwitz'.
www.katmace.co.uk


To Round-Off

'Inspiring Change' at #LABFFF was a night that left me more confused about my future than when I had entered. But at the same time it had clarified so much... Does that even make sense? It reminded me that factual productions are most definitely my future. I'm no good at entertainment or reality, it's factual I care about. The confusion comes with my love for people. I want to help people, I want to tell their stories but is that documentary film/making or is it (as Paul put it) propaganda? Either way, I know I now want to spring to action and save for a camera of my own so I can make lots of short form docs in my spare time. We'll see how long that one takes before I think beyond that, but there are some exciting stories to come!!!

Let's All Be Free - what a wonderful concept. The evening left us with the question: What does freedom mean to you? To be honest I don't know, but I do know that the freedom to have ideas and the power to make them happen, is a freedom I can scarcely find a comparison to!

Let's All Be Free Film Festival: The Films

On Monday this week I stumbled across an event in Brixton called the 'Let's All Be Free Film Festival'. It was a bit of a rush to get there for 7pm, leaving Stratford at 6:15 but I'm so glad I made the commitment to run through the rain!

Whirled Cinema - Brixton

I arrived at a hidden venue beneath the railway arches of Loughborough station to find an interior filled with comfy pews and like-minded people. 'Whirled Cinema' boasted a preview of 8 films all to do with freedom, and a panel of six for a short Q&A. People of the panel included Paul Woolwich of Amnesty International, Jade and Dania from Women for Refugee Women and Fred from Meet my World. Hosted by Jenny Horwell From DocHouse, the evening was certainly one to reacquaint yourself with the film-making community with issues that really matter. It was an evening that also rekindled my passion for telling stories based on people. Truly ordinary people. But all in a circumstance that allows them to become very extraordinary. It always reignites the belief I sometimes forget I have in human spirit.
I loved the Meet My World trailer. It presented the project that they set out to put in action, among indigenous Peruvian children that offer their spirit so prevalently to camera. They in turn tell us of what it is to be Peruvian. How to dye clothes with vegetables. How to catch fish with our bare hands. And yet, as pointless and unrelatable as these actions seem to a mainstream audience they do it with such passion and such pride that it makes me want to know. I want to listen. Maybe it has something to do with the fact I am utterly fascinated with Peru and plan to travel there next year, but either way the film (and we only saw the trailer) conveys a passion that I think we'd all like to have for where we come from! Particularly great was that all 12 children wrote their own scripts!



Another favourite was by Survival International, voiced by Joanna Lumley. They travelled to a community hidden deep within India's Niyamgiri Hills. The people of the Dongria Kondh worship the mountain, and the land around it but their sacred ground is threatened by the Vedanta Aluminium mine. They take energy from the slightly fermented palm juice and farm their crops in the lands of the mountain temple. The Vedanta mine is polluting the water sources, cutting off people from their land and deforesting large parts of the forest - the Dongria Kondh were not willing to let it slide by easily. They went as far as saying that they would die to protect it. Perhaps the most powerful part of the film was the end, when we hear from a young boy who, as passionately as his elders says 'We'll give up our lives for Niyamgiri'. A greatly passionate people and a story with a happy ending off the screen too, as Vedanta was denied expansion and the tribe's mountain protected!


Women for Refugee Women's 'Set Her Free' was a harder one to get my head around. Mainly because we did not get a chance to see enough in my opinion for the subject matter to really hit home. The stories we did hear however, were upsetting when we think of how many women flee to us for safety, only to face detention in specialist prisons. Once again their freedom is denied. For the documentary they interviewed 86 women, of which 1/2 thought of suicide and 1/5 had attempted it. Jade's own story was a powerful one, which she shared when asked what her motivation was for making the film. She revealed that she was one of those who thought of suicide, that she lost all hope and would cut her finger just to feel pain, anything so that she wasn't numb anymore. It followed that Jade had been imprisoned by her own people - tortured along with approximately 300 others who had been abducted - but she had escaped and lived in the bush for months before fleeing to the UK, where she was detained further.
She told us 'It is not MY country. If it can beat and rape you. It is not yours'. And so she came here. So why does she care about those still detained, because she too lost hope as they do. She fled a country to be free. Yet she was denied her freedom once again. When asked why she helped make the documentary, she maintained that, 'I'm ok, but inside I'm dead if those are still suffering'. I thank her for sharing that story with us. I think it made us all realise just how privileged we are to have our freedom, when there are so many that do not.


This PDF link explains more about the research that Women for Refugee Women have carried out: http://refugeewomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/WRWDetained.pdfIf this video moves you in any way please also think about signing this petition: https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/theresa-may-british-home-secretary-end-the-detention-of-women-who-seek-asylum

Among the success of those we saw, was 'The Truth About Stanley', a short film based on the idea of false realities and homelessness. Some really great casting from the young team saw a piece that got us right at the heart. A nice script too, that certainly took us above the level of the short films I saw at the London Independent Film Festival later in the week. That aside, we had some visually stunning locations with the gas tower and TFL building across the river. The film follows sam who runs away from home from his addict father. He meets old man Stanley dancing in the street next to a Big Issue seller. Can in hand, he is in completely another world and so Sam follows him to where he sleeps. The two bond over make believe stories about Stanley's past until one day it goes wrong. Sam finds Stanley dead, and runs to a phonebox where his entire world crumbles. At this moment the rumble of the trains overhead could not have been more well timed. As Sam falls to the ground and as the world's noise seems all too much, the ground of the cinema shook with his world. He then, in panic and mourning, loads His friends body into the trolley they played in together and wanders, more lost than he was before. Really touching film where the ending leads Sam to tell his own fantasy story of a happy ending for him and his father. A lesson for us all I think, freedom isn't just physical, it's very much a mental thing too. We can't be afraid to imagine.



And finally, Amnesty International's Film about North Korean prison camps where people are arrested, abducted, detained by association and often even publicly executed. The film told us of a place where a man spent 9yrs in political prison, working from 3:30am in the morning until darkness fell in the evening. Ploughing 12-14 miles a day. With women - 4 women - shifting an entire tonne of soil in a single oxcart. Where if women are pregnant, they are given hard manual labour to bring on a miscarriage - forced abortion. In a festival about what it means to be free, this film was one of those that told us exactly what it meant to NOT be free. One lady told us that she had lost all of her children, aged 9, 7, 3 and 1. Another man told us of the executions, where people are forced to dig their own graves before standing over it and being hit over the head so that it is the last thing they see before they die. Of those summoned to the office of the men charge, before being strangled with rubber rope. For me, when I was making my documentary 'After Auschwitz', I was made aware of ghettoised Roma communities in the Czech Republic, detained immigrants in Greece - but this proved that it goes much further than that. In the beginning that's why I made the documentary, as an example of what can happen, as a warning that it can happen again. This film, maintains just that. The severe mistreatment, discrimination, genocide of certain groups, still exists.



So, what an evening! It was great to come together with other people who were passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless and about making factual films, as I am. I urge you to check out my next post to find out more about our film-makers, their motivations and their Q&A answers!
I leave you with one question - What Does Freedom mean to You?
#LABFFF

x

The Power of Story

opencolleges.edu.au

Last November I wrote a blogpost about a keynote speech I attended entitled 'The Power of Story'. It was a truly inspired speech from Alison Owen, producer of Elizabeth I and the more recent hit 'Saving Mr Banks'. My previous post steered more towards what Owen said personally about her life and work, but having stumbled across my notes, there is more exciting stuff that I wish to share about the thing we all adore - STORYTELLING!

Stories exist in everything that we do. It is the latest news bulletin, the next X factor sob-story, the next TOWIE episode and in every play, song and piece of art that has ever been created. The problem is, that no matter how we tell these stories, how we symbolise them, they simply do not go to the same places that drama and cinema do. These are presented to the masses, critiqued by the hundreds and lapped up by an audience as though that Oreo milkshake was the last thing that would ever pass their lips. It has all that to battle. It also has a responsibility to suspend our disbelief and that is where it differs from other art forms. I share a wonderful quote from the evening,

'All art thrives on its restriction. Art does not move. Music has no image. Film has everything - but the challenge lies in leaving something out & inviting participation.'

eofdreams.com

Film must leave out the clues we read in books, it must eliminate obvious character developments that give the ending away, it must deny access to flaws in the creation of an entire visual world in which interesting characters must live.

The speech went on to tell us that the hook of a story is always a need to know what happens next? These interesting characters we mention must be sympathetic to human nature, they must have a motive, a reaction and a reason for everything that they do. Whether we walk out of the cinema satisfied or feeling that the film was rather far-fetched, is likely to depend on how well these characters were developed and how often we asked ourselves what happens next? It doesn't matter how many times I saw Captain America throw a a good punch at the Winter Soldier, it was his backstory that interested me!

Oxytocin!

www.psychologytoday.com

What? I hear you say. Oxytocin is otherwise referred to as 'the love hormone'. The hormone is referred to by Alison Owen, as the storyteller's job. Well it's true isn't it? A story well told is one that leaves us feeling utterly in love with the film we just saw. The kind of Gladiator effect, or Amistad condition, or the symptoms that you suffer having seen 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' for the first time. Particularly within a recession, the love hormone becomes an even greater necessity within our film experience. We don't want angsty existential problems, we want stories of justice and happiness, that reflect the prevalence of the human spirit. We want our screens to woo us, whether it be by showing us a very estranged Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin or indeed, the unbreakable nature and spirit of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup.

For me, it certainly doesn't matter what the critics say about amazing VFX or CGI brilliance, the STORY has always been central to our film experience. Gravity's amazing VFX still did not fail to alert me to the flaws in its script. I'll get back to you on this once I've seen Noah too. Story is not something that we can easily forget, it won't diminish with the advancement in technology to provide new ways to tell it. Social media, on demand, youtube sensations, viral videos, it is all simply another platform to utilise. We just haven't conquered it yet. The Power of Story will always surpass the power of technology, in my opinion. The power of Alison Owen's story about how producing 'Saving Mr Banks' brought her closer to her father, left me trapped inside the Curzon Soho surrounded by iron-hearted journalists and life-jaded professionals where I felt feeble, as all my being was holding me back from tears. Proof that stories are amazing! She didn't need a photoshopped image or CG projection to move me, it was her words alone that did that. I love story, the world does too, I just hope I get round to telling one.

OTHER LINKS: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/brit-producer-alison-owen-delivers-649424
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/alison-owen-keynote-bfi-london-film-festival-2013

The Tap Project - UNICEF

I never knew what a ruckus I could cause by simply sharing the link for the Tap Project from UNICEF. I sometimes wonder why we are all so practised in the art of cynicism. Of course, I'm not saying we should all walk around with a permanent smile etched into our faces that leaves cracks in our cheeks because of how forced it is. But I do wish that when something good comes along, such as the Tap Project, people would lay off with the doubt, stop convincing everyone it is some terrible government strategy to monitor us all and just get with it.

The Tap project, for those of you who don't know, ran from Valentine's day until yesterday, 31st March. It was created my UNICEF, sponsored mainly by Giorgio Armani and basically consists of participants setting their phones aside for as long as they can. For every ten minutes that they do, UNICEF pledged to provide 1 day of clean water to children in need among the 768million people who do not have regular access to clean water. All you need do is visit the weblink, settle your phone down and don't touch it. The moment you pick your phone up, the timer on the website stops and you are given the chance to donate actual cash, or just add your days of clean water to the UNICEF tap. Simple! - Of course, it would completely ruin my faith in humanity if, being April Fools Day, I was told it was all a joke. But what a great thing to do right?! 

My facebook post was then commented on by people asking 'how does it know', 'what stops us from leaving it all night, it's not really a challenge for us then' and 'I don't trust it. You don't know what it's doing... And just because it's a large organisation, it doesn't stop them from doing things against my ethical beliefs' - that meaning, collecting data or monitoring your phone usage etc.

All I wanted was to share something good. Add a little happiness and hope to the depressing world of morning status' on Facebook. Jeez, lighten up people. 

Personally I think the Tap Project is a great idea and I jumped at the chance to do something that so easily fit itself into my working day. I can't wait to hear the results.
Check here for UNICEF updates on all things water and the upcoming Soccer Aid: http://www.unicef.org.uk/