This month featured the work of LGBT activists Jackie Nunns & Angie West, Hybrid
documentarian Victoria Fiore and Nepalese visual artist Asmita Shrish.
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| outview.gr |
The couple’s first film, 'Child's Play' explored the response
of children, to the word 'gay'… although it didn’t go perhaps as well as they’d
have hoped, seeing as most children didn’t want to talk about it. So instead,
it became ‘Angie & Jackie Final Cut’, a film about how Jackie and Angie made their first film. I’m still not
sure whether the concept worked for me or not, it seemed a little like a lot of the first-time films any filmmaker makes at uni but worldwide film festivals
seemed to like it.
Here's what they DID manage to get from the kids:
Here's what they DID manage to get from the kids:
Their next project on the showcase was ‘Mark
Bunyan: Very Nearly Almost Famous’ which tells the story of gay rights activist
and 70s/80s cabaret singer, Mark Bunyan. It seems that Mark’s past almost slipped under
the radar completely but Jackie and Angie got in just in time and showed that in
fact, we all have a story to tell and Mark’s is quite remarkable. The
quality of the filming wasn’t always the best, particularly with the gentleman
with the dark glasses being filmed outside. However, again, I can’t argue with ‘Frameline’,
the world renowned LGBT film festival in San Francisco, LA that accepted both
entries into their programme. The storyline was good and Mark certainly has led an interesting life. It's a shame there wasn't more about him as a person now as I think it could have given the audience a point in time to identify with, but all in all, it was an interesting watch and I'd like to know more about others with similar histories in LGBT activism. The production value had improved a lot since 'Child's Play' so continued improvements are looking likely.
The two ladies certainly have an idea of the stories that should be
told, my only advice would be for them to find those with sufficient technical
experience, to do their stories justice – some advice I must heed too as a
filmmaker myself. I have to say though ladies, I’m rather excited to see a
screening of the new film about women’s arm wrestling, might even give it a
go myself!
Asmita Shrish –
Anahata Visions & Films
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| yourworldview.org.uk |
Her first film was made with a friend of hers from Kabul
where her role was as post-production producer. The film followed the children
of a village in northern Afghanistan and the state of their education. The children
walk 2 and a half hours to school each day, taking food with them to keep their
energy up. They are tired when they get to school and of course, face another 2
and half hour walk home again at the end of the day. I must say that the
education seems encouraging once they are in the classroom but the class sizes
are large and I doubt that after a walk like that each morning you’d have the energy
to take in much information. We only saw 3mins out of the 10min film, but I’d like
to see the rest. Here's the trailer: http://kalooschool.tumblr.com/post/34556042528/trailer
Then we watched a part of 'Little Nepal', filmed in Aldershot,
where it’s obvious there is a large ex-Gurkha community. A contributor explains
how British veterans get over £500 compensation/pension and Nepalese expats barely even get
£200. They explain how they had no education so they fought in the war and now
language is a problem. And so, many attend an English class to learn to
communicate where necessary. One man points out that when they go to hospital,
‘we cannot understand the doctors and the doctors cannot understand us’. It’s
not actually said directly, that they are Gurkhas, nor exactly what their role in the
war was, which perhaps would make the film’s message a little more powerful. It
is after all about language, but it carried with it an underlying social
inequality issue that perhaps should be discussed more directly too.
Her third film was a clip from a film she’d shot whilst
hiking in Nepal. She edited it in 1 night on the plane and is quick to
apologise for any lack of clarity or quality. However, for what it was, it was
a reasonable effort. The film follows a small boy who is selling peanuts and
popcorn to visitors to the Chitwun National Park. She says how she was hiking
and they got talking, becoming quite good friends. She also told us how he didn’t
like her filming him at first. She obviously got over that hurdle quickly and
we end with an observational piece on a boy we don’t quite get time to understand.
It is with this statement however that Asmita had me believe I may have found
my film-making soul-mate when she shares, ‘I’m not that good at camera actually,
but I love people’. And that’s something that shines throughout Asmita’s work.
Finally, we are treated to 'Aunty Ganga' a film about her 67yr old aunty,
who lives with her 78yr old uncle. I particularly liked with this how we saw
them as people, in their natural surroundings, saying natural things, rather
than just set up within an interview environment. That’s a technique I’ll be
looking to use in my next film. It helped the film that Asmita’s aunty really
is quite a character. She jokes that as they are old, ‘God is approving our
visa, like we needed visa to come here, we are awaiting approval from god’. She's
funny and what’s great is that she laughs at herself too, she makes herself
laugh, which is charming. The sound was well recorded in the scenes outside,
although the camera work was a little precarious. There is a serious undertone
to the film in addition, with the reveal of a marriage that exists without love as we
know it here in Britain, ‘we are married to the outside, but no-one knows’. She
is sad and spends much time with friends to keep her spirits up. Asmita admits,
‘I bothered her much, I followed her everywhere. I was there 2 months’, but
Asmita it was worth it. I think this was the best film of the bunch and it’s
obvious that it’s because aunty means a lot to you, and now she means a lot to
us too. Watch the film here:
Victoria Fiore – Fresco Collective
Victoria Fiore is a resident documentary filmmaker at the
BFI specializing in hybrid documentaries exploring social issues, through
theatre, dance and music. We began by watching a trailer of her work, in Spanish,
with French subtitles, which Victoria was determined to apologise profusely
for.
Victoria is a self-proclaimed traveler by nature, who has spent time with the circus and in making a film about sex workers using poetry and then her dad fell ill. He was in a coma and the day he woke up, Victoria asked him about his experiences, with the help of ‘this rubbish recorder recording his voice’. With no visuals Victoria instead swung towards Indonesian puppetry to help her create hybrid doc ‘Anesthesia’ that followed her dad’s voyage through a chemically induced black and white world. It was brilliantly done, with the sound of bells so overwhelmingly loud that it gave the impression of disorientation before it was shown visually. Perhaps a funny little insight is that her dad remains an atheist and even on visiting the land of the saint that appeared to him in his coma, he left his money and went without dwelling for even a second. Really interesting piece, watch the trailer here:
The third piece we watched was a piece about a friend of
hers; a dancer who suffers from epilepsy, commonly followed by amnesia. We were
asked how it made us feel. But to be honest I was actually more drawn to the fact
that they were filming in the middle of a road crossing, with cars waiting to
drive forwards and a flashing blue light approaching… how did you get away with
that one Victoria?! Although I have to say, the dancer in the light of the headlamps
was quite pleasing on the eye. Here’s the film:
Finally we were treated to a celebration of Roma gypsy
culture with ‘Gadjo’. The film is about a young boy who has grown up more for a
love of football than of being a gypsy, but it’s all about getting him to fall
in love with his culture, and getting us to fall in love with it too. The piece
was directed by the boy’s father Dudek and Victoria agreed to take a step back and
allow them to tell their own story. It wasn’t perhaps as rich as I hoped it
would be. I wanted to know more about the people, about their culture now as
well, but then, it wasn’t Victoria’s direction. It was dance, it was music, it
was theatre, with a basis in reality - but perhaps just not enough for my liking.
Check out the trailer here:
GADJO - The Trailer from Victoria Fiore on Vimeo.
So that’s that, the films of all three of our filmmakers
under the spotlight. Head over here to read about what happened when the audience grilled our film-makers about their current projects, their views on the documentary genre and what's next for them!
http://watchinabitotheatrenstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/whirlygig-cinemas-spotlights-docs-q.html
It’s a shame that this strand is coming to an end, I’d like to see more of these kinds of events to support emerging filmmakers as there clearly is a whole realm of the documentary genre still to explore. I have high hopes for the genre and I hope to join these three in shaping the future of documentary, who knows, I might see you all again sometime. Fingers crossed we can all pull something together to come back next year, ok?
http://watchinabitotheatrenstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/whirlygig-cinemas-spotlights-docs-q.html
It’s a shame that this strand is coming to an end, I’d like to see more of these kinds of events to support emerging filmmakers as there clearly is a whole realm of the documentary genre still to explore. I have high hopes for the genre and I hope to join these three in shaping the future of documentary, who knows, I might see you all again sometime. Fingers crossed we can all pull something together to come back next year, ok?
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