CL 47-48

Uvod/Editorial

Umjetnost je meta-jezik, uz pomoć kojeg ljudi pokušavaju da komuniciraju jedni s drugima; da prenose informacije o sebi i asimiliraju iskustva drugih. Opet, ovo nema veze sa praktičnom prednošću već sa ostvarivanjem ideje ljubavi, čiji je smisao žrtvovanje: sama antiteza pragmatizma. Jednostavno ne mogu da vjerujem da umjetnik ikada može da radi samo radi „samoizražavanja“. Samoizražavanje, ako je besmisleno ukoliko ne naiđe na odgovor. Radi stvaranja duhovne veze sa drugima, to može biti samo mučan proces, koji ne uključuje nikakvu praktičnu korist: na kraju je to čin žrtvovanja. Ali sigurno ne može biti vrijedno truda samo zbog čuvanja sopstvenog odjeka?

Mora postojati neka vrsta pritiska; umjetnik postoji jer svijet nije savršen. Umjetnost bi bila beskorisna da je svijet savršen, jer čovjek ne bi tražio sklad, već bi jednostavno živio u njemu. Umjetnost se rađa iz loše postavljenog sveta.

Oduvijek sam volio ljude koji se ne mogu pragmatično prilagoditi životu.

AndreiTarkovsky,
Sculpting in Time

Suočeni sa sve većim i dubljim nesavršenostima svijeta, Camera Lucida nastavlja da slavi umjetnost bez praktične dobiti. Nastavlja intelektualno i umjetničko povezivanje sa ljudima širom svijeta, uprkos velikim ljudskim žrtvama i prijetećem otuđenju koje diktira Koronavirus pandemija i rastući globalni fašizmi, rasizmi i totalitarizmi.

U novom dvobroju 47-48, čitaćete sjajne tekstove koje potpisuju naši redovni Lucidnjaci: Jean-Michel Frodon: Filmovi za pamćenje 2020, Ida Lupino: Autorka prije autora, Zatvaranje kulture i potreba za reformulisanjem našeg savremenog svijeta. City Hall i značenje riječi demokratija u SAD-u; Jonathan Rosenbaum donosi pronicljive analize: Sinemaskopi, Lang, Welles itd., Bamako: process vijeka, 1985 povratak filmu Ivan Grozni. Novi broj predstavlja dva nova saradnika: iz Turske professor Ethem Özgüven donosi sveobuhvatnu i detaljnu analizu ekoloških katastrofa kojima je naša planeta zemlja izložena i njihov (ne)prikaz u dokumentarnim filmovima, u eseju Gledajući lijepu plavu planetu; u Retrospektivi Sara Đurović analizira umjetnost Waldo Salt-a (1. dio).

Uprkos pandemiji, film živi, a žive i filmski festivali. Rubrika Festivali donosi fascinantne izvještaje sa lica mjesta, iz Venecije u tekstovima Jean-Michel Frodon-a i našeg drugog redovnog pisca, Steven Yates-a. Slijede osvrti na Sarajevo FF, BIFED, Bozcaada, Podgorica FF, Green Montenegro International Film Festival (GMIFF), Ubrzaj FF o ljudskim pravima i Rokumentarni dani. Na žalost, ni teški uslovi pandemije nisu nas mogli naučiti lekcije o boljoj i efikasnijoj organizaciji, te su se tri glavna podgorička filmska festivala odvijala u skoro isto vrijeme, tj. u istoj sedmici decembra 2020, iako je ostatak godine bio skoro potpuno prazan u smislu festivalskih događaja.

Steven Yates razgovara, u ekskluzivnom intervjuu za Cameru Lucidu, sa Flavia Mastrella-om i Antonio Rezza-om, autorima filma Samp.

Maja Bogojević

Art is a meta-language, with the help of which people try to communicate with one another; to impart information about themselves and assimilate the experience of others. Again, this has not to do with practical advantage but with realising the idea of love, the meaning of which is in sacrifice: the very antithesis of pragmatism. I simply cannot believe that an artist can ever work only for the sake of 'self-expression.' Self-expression is meaningless unless it meets with a response. For the sake of creating a spiritual bond with others it can only be an agonising process, one that involves no practical gain: ultimately it is an act of sacrifice. But surely it cannot be worth the effort merely for the sake of hearing one's own echo?

Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect. Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony but would simply live in it. Art is born out of an ill-designed world.

I have always liked people who can't adapt themselves to life pragmatically.

Andrei Tarkovsky,
Sculpting in Time

Faced with increasing imperfections of the world, Camera Lucida continues to celebrate art with no practical gain. It continues to create spiritual bonds with other people, in spite of human sacrifices and threats of alienation dictated by Coronavirus-pandemic and global fascisms and racisms on the rise.

In our new 47-48 issue, you will read facinating texts by our Lucid regulars Jean-Michel Frodon on: Memorable films of 2020, Ida Lupino’s authorial work, Closure of cultural events and the necessity to reformulate our contemporary world, City Hall and the meaning of the word democracy in USA; Jonathan Rosenbaum’s insightful analyses on Cinemascopes, Lang, Welles etc., Bamako: trial of the century, and a 1985 review of Ivan the Terrible. We have two new contributors: our contributor from Turkey, professor Ethem Özgüven brings an in-depth analysis of ecological disasters threatening the planet Earth and their (non)reflection in documentary film works in Looking at the Blue Planet (part 1), while Sara Djurovic discusses the art of Waldo Salt in her essay (part 1) in Retrospectives.

In spite of Coronavirus pandemic, film is alive and so are film festivals. Thus, the Festival section brings illuminating reports on Venice film festival by Jean-Michel Frodon and our other regular Steven Yates, reviews on Sarajevo FF, BIFED, Bozcaada, Podgorica FF, Green Montenegro International Film Festival (GMIFF), Ubrzaj FF on human rights and Rockumentary Days. As usual, Montenegrin film scene cannot boast of huge organising thoughtfulness, so, even if there was almost no film event throughout the year, the three major film festivals occurred simultaneously within one week of December 2020.

Steven Yates brings an exclusive vibrant interview with Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza, the directors of Samp.

Maja Bogojević

Interview FLAVIA MASTRELLA and ANTONIO REZZA

Camera Lucida: Do you have any notable or major influences?

Flavia Mastrella: Antonio and I have two different formations. I’m interested in communication as well as film culture. I never lose sight of figurative art, photography, television, advertising and social media. Between the years 1990-2004 I had an enormous interest in video art: Pipilotti Rist, Magnus Wallin, Melik Ohanian, these are some of the authors imprinted in my visual memory.

Antonio Rezza: All the cinema that does not come to terms with the audience: Lynch, Kubrick, Fellini, Maresco, Pasolini and then Artaud. The uncompromising thought of Cioran and others who have never yielded to blandishment and manners.

Camera Lucida: Although it looks great and is professional in its production values, Samp has a DIY aesthetic, akin to a NO Wave or NO budget film. It even draws allusions to early films by the likes of Peter Jackson or Robert Rodriguez. Any thoughts on this?

Flavia Mastrella: Samp is self-released, it has a digital support that could be defined prehistoric but, like all our works, it runs through a stratified language, one could define it even “wrong”. It’s a really fake fiction, a true story counterfeited by the simulation.

Antonio Rezza: Samp is shot as you write a poem, with ease and selflessness. It’s like a painting, dissolved and reworked with maniacal care. It’s like us, spontaneous and obsessive. Nothing more. But, most importantly, nothing less.

Samp 4 1

Camera Lucida: Where did the idea for the story and the script of Samp come from?

Flavia Mastrella: As far as I am concerned I was inspired by the ancestral landscape of Puglia, by feeling deeply involved in the stories from “La terra del rimorso” (The Land of Remorse), written by anthropologist Ernesto De Martino. The film is also influenced by a television format that we had made the year before - “Troppolitani" - moveable interviews to people in motion. We had written a behavioural grid, a handful of questions and concepts we wanted to convey; the development was on-going performance, the construction of the dialogue was done in the editing room.

Antonio Rezza: Flavia made a location scouting in the Triana valley in the spring of 2001. The idea was born there. The screenplay is the result of a cycle of abandonment and reconnection with an on-again, off-again 20 years long work.

Camera Lucida: Was it easy casting the main character of Samp or was it a long process?

Flavia Mastrella: The idea of the killer came organically, as well as the extermination of traditions. The twin towers had just collapsed, and it was also a difficult moment in our career, we had perceived a cultural downfall in progress.

Antonio Rezza: Being me (Antonio) Samp, it was very simple. I am not an actor and therefore I am what I want to be, with immediacy and disruption. I am not too fond of actors; they do whatever comes their way, in exchange for money. I only do what I want. There is a huge difference.

Samp 6 1

Camera Lucida: How do you feel audiences should infer from this film and what would you like them to take away from it?

Flavia Mastrella: Our films are open to interpretation, we do not offer a truth, we just gather some thoughts. I would like the audience to grasp that sense of expressive liberty we encourage.

Antonio Rezza: The great sense of freedom and lack of interest in all forms of power.

Camera Lucida: What are your feelings of having the film play at Venice this year?

Flavia Mastrella: We are happy. We can finally see if our communicative experiment works, see the reactions of an audience of industry specialists and continue to seek new methods to surprise, ourselves and others. I enjoy the risk.

Antonio Rezza: I was moved by the great acclaim that welcomed the film. It's nice to feel emotions. It is very childish to vibrate to the sound of approval, but it is the only thing that keeps us attached to the animal world. And by animal I mean the human being.

Camera Lucida: Do you feel cheated a little bit by the Covid-19 crisis with less people attending the festival and getting less exposure than usual?

Flavia Mastrella: For us it is completely normal to be selected in times of crisis, it is our bizarre destiny.

Antonio Rezza: Of course, it was a penalty, but I believe that ours was the only film at the Biennale entirely produced by the authors, without any external funding. And even this should make you think. On a side note, the fact that people are crowded on the Venetian vaporetto but have to sit far away in the theatre is part of the deceitful exercise of power that dictates and brutalizes.

Camera Lucida: You also do plays for the Theatre. In the future do you think you will continue with plays, Television and various length films, or would you prefer to focus on one particular medium?

Flavia Mastrella: The future is cloudy.

Antonio Rezza: I’d rather make films all the time. We abandoned cinema in 2001, Samp is from that period. Unfortunately, cinema is a medium that is not very inclined to freedom. So I think we will return to doing everything as usual, mixing experiences, to reach a goal that never existed.

Steven Yates

Festivals UBRZAJ.ME

Filmski festival o ljudskim pravima UBRZAJ,
Crna Gora, 10-14. decembar, 2020

Festival filma o ljudskim pravima UBRZAJ, koji tradicionalno počinje na Međunarodni dan ljudskih prava (10. decembar) i ove godine je ispoštovao svioju tradiciju, naravno, u nešto drugačijem formatu usljed koronavirus pandemije. U proteklih deset izdanja Festivala, koji je pokrenut 2010.godine, u salama Kulturno informativnog centra «Budo Tomović», Crnogorskog narodnog pozorišta (CNP) i Rektorata Univerziteta Crne Gore u Podgorici, kao i Kino «Kulturi» u Kotoru, sali Skupštine opštine Berane, Centru za kulturu Berane i Gimnaziji “Panto Mališić” prikazano je blizu 140 filmova recentne produkcije, a dodatno je prikazano i nekoliko filmova u okviru tematskih panel diskusija na Fakultetu političkih nauka Univerziteta Crne Gore i u Centru za građansko obrazovanje (CGO). Time je koncept ljudskih prava privukao najširu lokalnu publiku. Rastući broj posjetilaca (preko 3,500 u 2019. godini) Festivala UBRZAJ potvrđuje popularnost ovog festivala.

Pored centralne aktivnosti koja se odnosi na projekciju filmova, tokom Festivala UBRZAJ, organizuju se panel diskusije kojima se aktuelizuju nepopularna pitanja i uvode u javni prostor kao relevantne teme artikulisanih debata.

Prikazani filmovi 2020:

Quo Vadis Aida? / režija Jasmila Žbanić / BiH / 2020
Posjeta / režija Đorđe Vojvodić / Crna Gora / 2020

Genderbende / režija Sophie Dros / Holandija / 2017
Jalda / režija Massoud Bakhshi / Francuska, Iran, Njemačka, Švajcarska, Luksemburg / 2019 /
Šta ćeš uraditi kad svijet gori? / režija Roberto Minervini / Italija, SAD, Francuska / 2018

Ozračeni / režija Rithy Panh / Francuska, Kambodža / 2020
Instinkt / režija Halina Rejin / Holandija / 2019
Forum / režija Marcus Vetter / Njemačka, Švajcarska / 2019

Nek je što šarenije / režija Ado Hasanović / BiH, Italija / 2020
XY Čelsi / režija Tim Travers Hawkins / UK / 2019
Mare / režija Andrea Štaka / Hrvatska, Švajcarska / 2020
Udarna vijest / režija Tomas Bojar / Češka / 2018

Proces Sandžak / režija Aleksandar Reljić / BiH, Srbija / 2020
Obojena ptica / režija Vaclav Marhoul / Češka, Slovačka, Ukrajina / 2019
Ema / režija Pablo Larain / Čile / 2019

https://ubrzaj.me/

Interview FLAVIA MASTRELLA and ANTONIOREZZA

Venice 2020: Samp and Interview with Directors Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza

Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza 1

The Venice Film Festival was comparatively lucky this year. Falling between two major outbreaks of Covid-19, it was able to put on a physical event, albeit in a little restrained form. Aside from the Main Competition and other awarded sections like Horizons (Orizzonti), Venice VR Expanded, Short Films and Critics Week, there were the sidebar sections, in particular the Venice Days section, which also gave a prize (this year to The Whaler Boy (Kitoboy) by Philipp Yuryev from Russia) and a non-competing selection called Venice Days Special Events. This contained a selection of films that were mainly from Italy but other countries too. Among these was the Italian film Samp, directed by Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza.

Samp is a professional killer who is also suffering from psychological disorders that he tries to cure with music. After randomly disposing of his mother, before ranting about her superficiality and how she somehow had failed him, he visits a powerful crime boss who commissions him to start doing the same to ordinary people. In his journey through Puglia he encounters people who lead a natural life, others in search of their origins, is paid by a pedestrian guarantor, meets poetic figures, and a peculiar musician with whom he seems to form a genuine friendship. He even falls for various problematic women who make him further lose his mind and sense of reality. Discovering a little humanity is something that will also have consequences for his mission.

The filming of Samp began nineteen years ago and ended in 2020 with the characters seen to age along the way, like the directors. Filming took place in Puglia, an appropriate backdrop for a land with archaic traditions, countered by a modernity filled with violence as a result of economic power. The directors consider Samp as a film with the pace of a journey and the dynamics of a performance. The stark colour images enliven the action and there seems to be more bullets fired here than even John Woo's Hard Boiled (1992). The frantic pace barely slows down, only when Samp briefly pauses to monologue, justify his actions or falls in love again. The insanity of what is projected in such a bizarre and anarchic way can be compared to Luis Bunuel at his most extreme. It is a road movie that shatters the script and captures the locations and actors in the moment, a metaphor for contemporary schizophrenia, a cultural disintegration without perspective

In their thirty-three years of working together, Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza have made six feature films, various television programmes and many short and medium-length films, as well as thirteen plays for the theatre. The co-current theme of their films is preoccupied with involuntary communication. All their works have been predominantly conceived, produced and realized in every detail by the directors themselves and they have had retrospectives of their work broadcast on the TV channel TELE+ in 1997, and also by RAI 3 in October 2000 and October 2002. In 2018 Antonio was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Biennale and in 2019 they were both awarded with the Golden Rose from La Milanesiana. When they are not working together, Flavia does sculpture and photography (exhibited in many museums) and Antonio Rezza writes published romantic literature.

During this year’s 77th Venice Film Festival edition in early September, both directors kindly agreed to an interview by e-mail.

Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza Samp

Interview with Samp directors Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza

Camera Lucida: This is your sixth feature film in a 30-year career that has encompassed Television, shorts and medium-length films. Just how difficult is it to get a film financed and is it getting harder?

Flavia Mastrella: Escoriandoli (our first movie) was the only film we shot with a producer. It was an interesting experience but we soon realized that it was impossible to replicate it. The production pressures had too much impact on our artistic choices. Almost all producers impose harmless visual languages and they believe they know what the audience wants to see, that’s the reason why films produced and distributed in Italy are all the same. In 1996 the Italian cultural landscape was still lively, but soon after producers and independent distributors started disappearing and Italian directors - those who had something to say - began to struggle. Now Italian cinema is downsized to a handful of directors, who manage to get funding for film but most of them are almost invariably unable to distribute it, for political reasons. A recent example is “La Mafia non è più quella di una volta” (The Mafia is no longer what it used to be) by Franco Maresco, a realistic overview of the cultural situation in Italy. We produce our films and use independent distribution channels, we are hungry for freedom. We are labelled naïve instead of being recognised as language investigators.

Antonio Rezza: For us, getting a budget is never the main issue. We can always sort something out. A budget is useful because it offers warranties to the film. Without that guarantee, we can’t start shooting. So we look for funders.

Camera Lucida: Do you in any way use your short films as a study for the potentials of production in your feature films?

Flavia Mastrella: Short films belong to our past. They were crucial in allowing us to develop a style. For us shooting is a necessity, an unstoppable motion.

Antonio Rezza: Absolutely not, they have a different poetics. Short movies are the result of an electrocution; they are electric shocks of short duration that make you regret the atmosphere.

Camera Lucida: How would you describe your films in terms of form and content?

Flavia Mastrella: I would call them antimovies: visual narratives that trap the body in the frame. The unusual movements and the voice of Antonio convey on an emotional level what we perceive on our skin. The protagonists in our films live metaphorical existences; others improvise for a few moments. We often describe the various aspects of power through reversed communication rules and the exasperation of everyday life.

Antonio Rezza: These films are invaded by a freedom that we could never do without. There is everything we want and too much of what we don't know. There is us, with our failure to compromise.

Festivals GMIFF 2020.

GREEN MONTENEGRO INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST: 6. izdanje, 18-20. decembar 2020.

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Usljed nove stvarnosti koju je uzokovala globalna pandemija Koronavirusa, Green Montenegro International Film Fest (GMIFF) svrstao se u grupu odgovornih produkcija, koje širom svijeta organizuju manifestacije putem online platformi, time ukazujući na obavezu očuvanja opšteg zdravlja i sigurnosti svih, ali i pokazujući posvećenost filmu i ekološkoj ideji zbog koje festival postoji,. Festival koji se održava tradicionalno u prvoj sedmici avgusta na Žabljaku u nacionalnom parku Durmitor, ove godine je održao svoje 6. izdanje, po prvi put, online posredstvom Vimeo Premium Platforme u periodu od 18-20. decembra. Organizator 6. GMIFF-a 2020 je Centar za multimedijalnu produkciju uz podršku Ministarstva za održivi razvoj i turizam, Ministarstva kulture, Filmskog centra Crne Gore, Delegacije EU u Crnoj Gori i drugih partnera.

Po riječima direktora festivala, Blagote Marunović, poziv za prijavu takmičarskih filmova iz čitavog svijeta na temu ekologije, zaštite životne
sredine i biodiverziteta za 6. GMIFF 2020 bio je otvoren šest mjeseci (januar - jun) na Film Free Way platformi putem koje su se prijavili stvaraoci iz 23 države svijeta. Selektor festivala je pored odabira iz pomenutog izvora za kategoriju „Zaštita životne sredine” napravio i selekciju u festivalskoj kategoriji „Ekologija duše“ u saradnji sa Beldocs - Međunarodnim festivalom dokumentarnog filma iz Beograda, te selekciju u festivalskoj kategoriji „Promo-turistički filmovi“ u saradnji sa sestrinskim festivalom Zagreb Tour Film Fest. Dodatno jedan dio filmova selektovan je u saradnji sa RTS-om i distribucijskom kućom Five Stars Distribution iz Srbije, Delegacijom Evropske unije u CG, NTOCG, NPCG.

Od ukupno 80 filmova, koji su ušli u uži izbor, u sve tri kategorije selektor festivala Slobodan Marunović odabrao je 40 filmova (iz Turske, Irana, Mađarske, Rusije, SAD-a, Crne Gore, Holandije, Srbije, Belgije, Španije, Hrvatske, Ukrajine, Italije, Švedske, Sjeverne Makedonije, Portugala, Japana, Norveške, Tajlanda, Njemačke itd.).

Međunarodni žiri festivala sačinjen od eminentnih umjetnika i ekoloških aktivista radio je u sastavu: Vesna Radunović, producentkinja (Njujork, SAD), Mariano Pozzi, scenarista i reditelj (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Blagoj Micevski, reditelj (Bitola, Sjeverna Makedonija), Rejčel Kaplan, aktivistkinja i producentkinja (Edinburg, Škotska) i Senad Šahmanović, reditelj (Podgorica, Crna Gora). Žiri u katerogiji Promo-turistički film sastojao se od Oskara Hutera, direktora TO Cetinje, Vanje Vukojičić, direktorke TO Pljevlja i Emila Kukalja, direktora TO Bar.

Nagrade:
U kategorijama „Zaštita životne sredine” i „Ekologije duše” dodjeljene su sljedeće nagrade:
Grand Prix: „Zemlja meda“ / Režija: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov / Sjeverna Makedonija;
2. nagrada: „Pacifički losos. Crvena riba“ / Režija: Dmitriy Shpilenok, Vladislav Grishin / Rusija;
3. nagrada: „Grudi“ / Režija: Marija Perović / Crna Gora;
Specijalna nagrada: „Tragovi“ / Režija: Pins Sébastien / Belgija.
U kategoriji „Promo – turistički film” dodjeljene su sljedeće nagrade:
1. nagrada: „U društvu prirode“ / Produkcija: Nacionalna turistička organizacija / Crna Gora;
2. nagrada: „Ja sam iz Principea!“/ Produkcija: HBD Príncipe / Sao Tome i Principe;
3. nagrada: „Skadarsko jezero“ / Produkcija: Nacionalni parkovi / Crna Gora;
Specijalna nagrada: „Vidaj – Život iz ugla nomada“ / Produkcija: Albert Sans / Španija;
Specijalna nagrada: „Crna Gora. Od crnih planina do mora“ / Produkcija: NDR TV, Nordmediaproduction / Njemačka.

Napravljen je re-design zvanične stranice festivala na kojoj je po prvi put integrisana sekcija pop-up sa jednostavnim instrukcijama za besplatan pristup svim festivalskim filmovima. Filmovima se moglo pristupiti jednim klikom i isti su mogli biti gledani na svim meridijanima svijeta bez ograničanja. Marketinški tim festivala je analitičkim praćenjem društvenih mreža, te Vimeo Premium platforme sa koje su emitovani filmovi, utvrdio da je filmove gledalo preko 3000 gledalaca, a da se oko 130.000 ljudi u Crnoj Gori i šire se informisalo da se ovogodišnje izdanje festivala održava i postoji. Analitika sa Vimeo Premium Platforme je registrovala da su se filmovi sa GMIFF 2020 gledali u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama, Norveškoj, Australiji, Francuskoj, Crnoj Gori, Južnoj Koreji, Hrvatskoj, Italiji, Turskoj, Sloveniji, Bosni i Hercegovini, Srbiji, Njemačkoj, Austriji i Albaniji.

Na svečanom zatvaranju festivala govorili su reditelj i član grupe The Books of Knjige Zoran Zonjo Marković, predsjednik Turističke organizacije Cetinje i član žirija Oskar Huter, članovi međunarodnog žirija Mariano Pozi iz Argenitine, Rejčel Kaplan iz Škotske i Senad Šahmanović iz Crne Gore, kao i nagrađeni autori iz Kamčatke, Belgije, Sjeverne Makedonije i Crne Gore.

Naredno, 7. izdanje Green Montenegro International Film Festa 2021 biće posvećeno obilježavanju 30 godina Crne Gore kao prve
ekološke države u svijetu.
Tom prilikom, organizatori planiraju da pošalju iz Crne Gore poruku i alarmantan apel o važnosti promišljanja i preduzimanja konkretnih akcija u pravcu održivog razvoja, zelene
ekonomije, šireći na taj način ekološku svijest
www.greenmontenegro.me