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Michael Hammon & Jacqueline Görgen: Hillbrow Kids
(1999)
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an
unknown reality
The
recent short films and documentaries from South Africa featured
in four screenings of Tampere Film Festival 2000 provide
an extensive look of the country today. Young directors'
short films deal boldly with issues brought by the era of
emerging democracy. Reasons for street violence and the
bleak crime rate are often contemplated by means of drama.
Home
Sweet Home (1999), a powerful student film by
the 20-year-old Norman Maake, is a rough story about
the homecoming of a young girl after her studies abroad.
Democracy has not helped to put an end to corruption, violence,
and rape; instead, she encounters them even in her own family.
Zola
Maseko's The Foreigner (1998) deals with a
topical subject: other Africans, who immigrate to South
Africa in search of work, are not tolerated. Teboho
Mahlatsi's Portrait of a Young Man Drowning
(1999), awarded in Venice, is a visually magnificent, multi-layered
story of a killer.
Jeremy
Handler's Husk (1999), which was accepted
to the official Cannes Short Film Festival, is a thriller
about a young girl who lives in a small town. An Old
Wife's Tale (1998) is an entertaining film about a Boer
farmer contemplating the new opportunities brought by equality.
The
theme of the documentary screening is the destiny of the
people who were in exile during the era of apartheid. The
Land Is White, The Seed Is Black (1995) by Koto Bofolo
is a documentary in which the father of the director returns
home after a number of years in exile. Khalo Matebane's
The Waiter (1998) features interviews with the family
members of the freedom fighters who disappeared during their
years as refugees.
HILLBROW
KIDS, Michael Hammon, Jacqueline Görgen, South
Africa 1999, 94 min
The end of apartheid drove many children from the townships
to Johannesburg, where they hoped to make some money. The
grim reality, however, is that they spend their time begging
and sniffing glue. Street kids in the violent jungle of
Johannesburg.
KIRIKOU
AND THE SORCERESS, Michel Ocelot, France 1998, 75 min
Based on a West African folktale the animated film tells
about the tiny Kirikou who saves his village from a wickedd
sorceress.
Michel
Ocelot´s first animation feature follows several award-winning
short animations.
Fresh
directors, new stories
Family and catholic church, two solid foundations, are strongly
present in the Irish short films of the 90's. Their approach
to these themes is spiced with typical Irish wild humour,
so the audience is in for something which is very far from
prayers and devotion.
The
breakthrough of Irish cinema took place in the 1990's, with
the introduction of new subsidies. The two screenings of
short films at Tampere Film Festival present the best Irish
films of last decade, focusing on fiction films and animations.
Kirsten
Sheridan: Thirty Five Aside (1995)
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Blessed
Fruit (1999) by Orla Walsh is a Snapper-style
comedy about a pregnant woman, whose child has two father
candidates. The same topic can be seen in Fruit 15
(1991), which turned out to be the only film Claire Lynch
made. In Dream Kitchen (1999) a gay boy dreams of
being accepted by his parents. Kirsten Sheridan's
Patterns (1998) is a fine film of two brothers, one
of whom is autistic, while Thirty Five Aside (1995)
is a film about the madcap family of a boy who is bullied
at school.
Irish
animation is also doing well in international comparison.
Rory Bresnihan's Gyu´s Dog (1998) is
an Aardman-style clay animation about a dog who is a frustrated
alcoholic. The animations by Steve Woods deal with
history of Ireland, for example the great famine of 1848.
An Bonnan Bui (1995), the story of which takes place
on New Year's Eve, is an animation in the Irish language,
while the Northern Irish fiction film Lipservice (1998)
makes fun of an Irish language test.
Luke
(1999), the brand new film by Sinéad O'Brien,
is a long portrait and music documentary about Luke Kelly
(1940-1984), the vocalist of the band The Dubliners.
Together
with his band, Luke Kelly made Irish folk music world famous
in the 1960's. Music and political awareness, helping the
underprivileged, were equally important for Luke Kelly.
The history of The Dubliners is an integral part of the
development of Irish popular and urban culture.
This
impressive film includes plenty of previously unseen archive
material about Luke Kelly's childhood, youth, and the early
years of The Dubliners. Various contemporary artists, including
Bono of U2, share their view of Kelly's importance to Irish
music.
Felix
the Cat
©
Felix the Cat Creations Inc.
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Felix
the Cat is the second oldest animated film character
in the world with an original personality of his own. The
screenings at the Tampere Film Festival demonstrate the
development of this character which was created by Otto
Messmer and Pat Sullivan. When Mickey Mouse was
born, Felix the Cat had already been the star of dozens
of animated films drawn by Otto Messmer and produced by
Pat Sullivan.
The
first film of the Tampere screening is the first-ever Felix
the Cat film Feline Follies (1919), in which the
cat was still called Tom. The four-minute film ends with
the cat committing suicide, devastated by a broken heart.
Contrary to the film-makers' expectations, the movie-going
public was excited by the vivacious and briskly moving cat,
so Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan carried on, producing a
series of animations with Felix the Cat.
A
new era started with Felix Saves the Day (1922),
resulting from demands for higher quality animations by
a new distributor. The reasons for Felix's popularity are
clearly visible in this film: unexpected visual gags and
the cat's trademark moment of contemplation, walking back
and forth with hands behind his back. Felix in Hollywood
(1923) takes our animated film star inside film studios
where Felix meets up with Charlie Chaplin.
Just
like Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Felix was a star of the
silent era, celebrated and loved by the general public.
Soon Felix's popularity spread all over the world: he could
be seen in magazine covers and comic strips published in
more than 60 papers world wide, and the character was turned
into a number of different merchandise.
The
arrival of the sound film in 1927 brought an inevitable
end to the Felix animations, while for Mickey Mouse it marked
the beginning of his career with Steamboat Willie
(1928). Still, a number of fabulous Felix episodes were
produced at the end of the decade, like Felix the Cat
Woos Whoopee (1928 / 1930) in which Felix wanders drunkenly
in a nocturnal city.
Fritz
the Cat
Fritz
the Cat
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The
naughtiest representative of the extensive herd of cartoon
cats must be Fritz the Cat, drawn by Robert Crumb,
with its first episodes published in 1964. The cat, who
has had more than his share of censorship, ended up on the
silver screen in 1971 with the full-length animation Fritz
the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. Fritz's adventures
in the late 60's hippie scene are a rollercoaster of outrageous
parody and gleeful obscenities.
Fyodor
Khitruk and animated satire
The
festival's Guest of honour from Moscow
Fyodor
Khitruk: The Island (1973)
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Fyodor
Khitruk (b. 1917) began his career as an animator, and
came to be one of the pioneers of Soviet animation. Apart
from animated satires of topical issues that sharply criticise
everyday phenomena and are directed towards adult audience,
Khitruk has also made many lovely children’s animations.
The festival presents a comprehensive screening of Khitruk’s
films that are both cheerful and visually very inventive.
The screening includes Khitruk’s direction debut Story
of a Crime (1962), Man in Frame (1966) and The
Island (1973).
Otto
Alder’s documentary The Spirit of Genius (1998)
paints a vivid portrait of this renowned master of animation,
who has twice before been awarded at the Tampere Film Festival,
and whom the festival has the pleasure to receive as a guest
of honour this year.
Winnie-the-Pooh
from East and West
Disney:
Winnie-the-Pooh
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The
original Winnie-the-Pooh that we all remember from
our childhood is the star of two screenings. We are treated
to Pooh philosophy at its purest, from both the east and
the west, for both children and adults.
The
three charming Disney classics are based on the Winnie-the-Pooh
stories by A. A. Milne, and their animation follows the
original style of illustration of Ernest H. Shepard. Winnie
the Pooh and the Honey Tree was made in 1966. The second
animation, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day(1968)
came out after Disney’s death and won an Academy Award.
Based on an idea of Walt Disney’s, another animation, Winnie
the Pooh and Tigger Too was made in 1974. The modern
Winnie-the-Pooh that is currently in video circulation plays
in an altogether different league.
Fedor
Hitruk: Vinni-Puh
(1969-1972)
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At
the turn of the 70’s, the Soviet animation director, Fyodor
Khitruk, was inspired by the philosophical insight of
the Pooh stories. Khitruk’s first Pooh animation, that came
out in 1969, became an immediate success. Khitruk, as well
as Disney, made three Winnie-the-Pooh animations, and many
generations have grown up watching them. Khitruk’s Winnie-the-Pooh
has a completely different look than that of the Disney
animations.
The
animators of Disney's Pooh films have praised Khitruk’s
versions, even giving them the credit of being better than
their own. What might then be the truth? That we can all
decide for ourselves in these two unique screenings.
Wallace
and Gromit in full swing
The
animations directed by Nick Park have been the biggest
hit in the history of the Tampere Film Festival. Wallace,
an inventor who always finds himself in unusual circumstances,
and his forbearing canine companion, Gromit, have earned
Nick Park Academy Awards and the first prize at the Tampere
Film Festival for two films: The Wrong Trousers
(1993) and A Close Shave (1995). Whilst waiting
for Park’s first feature-length animation, The Chicken
Run (2000)... This is where it all began!
The
Screen Sings treats us to a series of entertaining short
films that play the tunes of such Finnish icons as Tapio
Rautavaara, Olavi Virta, Toivo Kärki and Harry Bergström.
Liable to cause a small sensation is the very first Finnish
sound film: we see Rafu Ramsted singing traditional comic
songs in the autumn of 1929.
Moving
images features nostalgic short films about films, from
the 1930’s to the 1960’s. The unveiling of a monument erected
for the victims of a fire in the movie theatre Imatra
in a Tampere cemetery in the autumn of 1928 is a rarity.
An educational film Movie Theatres of Past and Present
(1929) introduces us to audience safety from 70 years
ago.
Urho
Kekkonen 100 Years provides impressive images of the
most legendary and long-standing of Finnish Presidents:
President Kekkonen skiing, President Kekkonen fishing, President
Kekkonen travelling... from the President’s official residence
to Tampere and Tunisia... The earliest film about President
Kekkonen is from 1933. In addition, the screening of footage
from the Finnish Broadcasting Company features President
Kekkonen’s recorded television performances.
Acclaimed
Finnish film-makers: Six Finnish film-makers have so
far been granted the honorary film council title: T. J.
Särkkä, Aimo Jäderholm, Hans Haataja, Veikko
Laihanen, Kari Uusitalo and Ere Kokkonen. Their films will
be shown in two screenings.
Risto
Orko: The Road of the Battle (1940), a touching
documentary directed by Risto Orko is screened exactly 60
years after the ending the Finnish Winter War. This is the
first time the film is shown in Tampere since the spring
of 1940.
Buñuel
and Surrealism
Luis
Buñuel: L´Age d´Or (1930)
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In
the course of 70 years, the first films of Luis Buñuel
(1900 - 1983) have not lost a bit of their intensity. Un
Chien Andalou (1928), a manifesto of surrealistic aesthetics
Buñuel made together with Salvador Dalí, and
L´Age d´Or (1930), a depiction of Freudist ideas,
created an enormous sensation when they came out.
Las
Hurdes - The Land without Bread (1933) is a unique surrealistic
documentary, a startling depiction of people living in immense
poverty on the mountains. Paired with Las Hurdes is
Simon of the Desert (1965), a film made in Mexico,
that follows up the themes Buñuel introduced in his
early films.
J.
S. Bach and Short Film
In short films, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is much
more lively than you would except the music of this robust
composer to be. This is because Bach’s music mainly accompanies
animations.
Bach's
music has served as the basis of A Divided World (1948),
a documentary by the Swedish Arne Sucksdorff. A Divided
World depicts animals’ fight for existence in the grip
of wintery weather. The two other films in the same series
are a Canadian animation, Spheres (1969), by Norman
McLaren and Rene Jodoi and a Czech film made in the spirit
of Kafka, J. S. Bach - Fantasia G-minor (1965), by
Jan Svankmajer.
The
direction debut of the influential man in Finnish film,
Aito Mäkinen, was A Concert - Bach´s Music in Ateneum
(1963). Equally interesting is the sci-fi animation,
Moon Story (1975), of the Hungarian Sándor
Reisenbüchler.
Student
films by the masters
Three of the most famous student films of all time will
be shown at the Tampere Film Festival. Two Men and a
Wardrobe (1958), Roman Polanski's breakthrough
film made at the Lodz film school, is an absurd story about
the dullening effects of society. The Steam-Roller and
the Violin (1960) by Andrej Tarkovsky,
who studied at VGIK in Moscow, is a visually lyrical story
of a friendship. István Szabó's
experimental Concert (1961) was produced at the Budapest
film school. These three films were made when socialist
governments were not yet placing as strict restrictions
as a few years later.
Other
films in this screening are also products of famous film
schools: Jan Sverak's Oil Guzzler (1988),
Nick Park's A Grand Day Out (1989),
and Marie Paccou's Tampere Film Festival Grand
Prix winning animation A Day (1997).
Tampere
and Third World
During its 30 years, Tampere Film Festival has featured
a number of superb documentaries which have helped to further
our awareness of developing countries. This year, several
of these impressive films will be screened, including 79
Springs (1969) by the Cuban director Santiago Alvarez,
a documentary of Ho Chi Minh and the winner of the first-ever
Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival.
The
Colombian film Brickmakers (1972) and The Children
of Fustat(1985) by Finnish directors Heikki
Partanen and Riitta Rautoma are documentaries
about the use of child labour. Island of Flowers
(1989) from Brazil finds the essence of capitalism at a
dumping-ground. Finnish-Chilean Gracias a la vida (1980)
depicts the first encounters of Finns and Chilean refugees.
Another
film receiving a second screening is Kisangani Diary
(1997) by Hubert Sauper, a documentary about
Hutu refugees which is bound to make the audience restless.
M.A.
Numminen All Night Long
M.A.Numminen
Goes Tech-No (1995)
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The
Finnish underground veteran Mauri Antero Numminen is celebrated
with a screening of the cinematic side of his oeuvre very
early on the Sunday of the festival week, at the exact moment
of Numminen's 60th birthday.
The
best-known Numminen films are M.A. Numminen Sings Wittgenstein
(1993), directed by Claes Olsson and featuring
M.A.'s vocal performances, ...Goes Tech-no (1995),
...Meets Schubert (1997). The first of Numminen's
own short films from 1963 is a presentation of various ways
to drink water. Later M.A. became known as a friend of bars
and beers, as documented by Matti Hartikainen's Baarissa
on totuus (1992).
The
programme of the M.A. Numminen all-nighter includes a lot
of additional off-the-wall entertainment: Perkele! Kuvia
Suomesta (1971) by Jörn Donner, Hurjan
pojan koti (1987) by KJ. Koski, Tini Sauvo's
animated opera Kukon ja kanan sauna (1991), and Polkupyörällä
ajaminen on tarpeellista (1999) by Sökö
Kaukoranta.
Die Zehnte Trash Nite aus Hamburg
Friday night like they do it at Hamburg Short Film Festival:
trash films and loud music chosen by the audience. A video
Dj will make your wishes true. Live music by Hü Schenkel
& The Pygmies.
Commercials
and education for general public
This
screening includes both nostalgia for the 70's with incredible
Finnish vintage TV commercials and educational inserts,
and the cutting edge of today with the Lions winners of
1999 Cannes competition for commercial films, directed by
Luc Besson and Tarsem, among others.
Imagina
Prix Pixel 2000
The
Imagina festival is held in France, Paris and Monaco, in
Feabruary 2000. Tampere Film Festival has a screening of
the best new computer animations in the world, Prix Pixel
2000 Prize Winners.
Music
Documentaries
THIS WAY UP, Nick Wickham, United Kingdom 1999,
At the start of ´98 R.E.M. entered the recording studio
without their founder member and drummer, Bill Berry. With
intimate access, This Way Up traces the mounting
internal and external pressures on one of the world´s biggest
bands through the year 1998 and the recording process of
their latest album.
R.E.M.
UPTAKE, United Kingdom 1999, 30’
The new three man R.E.M. come together with supporting musicians
to play a selection of new songs from their album "Up".
Tracklisting: Daysleeper, Lotus, St My Most Beautiful, Suspicion,
Sad Professor, Parakeet.
BORN
TO LOSE (THE LAST ROCK´N´ROLL MOVIE),Lech Kowalski,
United States 1999,
A documentary film of punk legend Johnny Thunders. The film
covers his career from the beginning with the New York Dolls
until his last solo recordings and his death in 1991.
New
documentaries
JAUNI LAIKI SKÉRSIELÁ / NEW TIMES
AR CROSSROAD STREET,
Ivars Seleckis, Latvia 1999, 85 min
Ivars Seleckis returns to the suburbs of Riga to meet the
same people that he filmed at Crossroad Street in 1988.
During the ten years a lot has changed - Latvia has become
an independent state. Says the director: "Crossroad
Street is a palm of Latvia, where you can discover the life
lines and destination of the entire country."
42
UP, Michael Apted, United Kingdom 1999, 142 min
42 Up is a series of documentaries which started in 1964
when he interviewed 14 British school children at the age
of seven trying to answer the question: "Is a persons
fate sealed at birth?"
The
series that ensued has returned to those children every
seventh year to chart their brogress through life. Of the
originals 14 subjects, 11 remain.
Director
Michael Apted has managed to build a career out of many
genres, includind documentary, television and features.
The latest of them is The World is Not Enough, the
new James Bond -movie.
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