CPH:DOX 2017 – desistfilm

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: BITTER MONEY BY WANG BING

By José Sarmiento Hinojosa

It seems that with each consecutive documentary, Wang Bing gets closer to narrate the real experience of human drama in rural China. In Bing’s camera, his country becomes a hostile environment which must be dealt head on, a rural and urban labyrinth to be traversed by these disenfranchised citizens, who seem to abandon any possibility of true hope to deal with the cruel reality of raging capitalism and its consequences.

2017.03.25

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: RAGE BY DOMINIQUE LOHLÉ AND GUY-MARC HINANT

By Ivonne Sheen

The sound vibrations you feel in a techno rave can be described as intense, kind of violent, raw, but mainly cathartic (to the ones we enjoy it), like the feeling of the drummer who opens this film. Rage addresses about Acid Techno music and all the underground culture around it. The film sets a dialogue about Anarchy and Techno which comes and goes from theoretical talks to sensorial documentary with found footage and lots of music. Through and anarchic narrative we are immersed in a ecosystem of philosophical and performative interviews, and hardcore beats, which gives us an organic point of view of social phenomenons against the system, such as Anarchy and Techno.

2017.03.23

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: CRAIGSLIST ALLSTARS BY SAMIRA ELAGOZ

By Morella Moret

Craigslist Allstars is a postmodern tale of the loneliness of man. The director Samira Elagoz opens the film with an e-mail: she contacts strangers so she can then record herself meeting them and anything that happens in the process. She listens to them, disinhibits them and creates a safe place for them to present their secrets and deepest pains, and we are there to witness this.

2017.03.22

CPH:DOX

CPH: DOX 2017: KÉKSZAKÁLLÚ BY GASTÓN SOLNICKI

By Ivonne Sheen

In a summer environment of the Argentinian upper class, Gaston Solnicki portraits a group of intergenerational girls, who seem to be in discomfort and bored with their surroundings. The narrative aspects are composed as a mosaic of the different points of views and emotions of each girl we get to meet. Nevertheless, along the film, our gaze is focused in one girl in particular, a young adult one, played by Laila Maltz, who starts a naive hunt of her independency.

2017.03.21

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: CRAIGSLIST ALLSTARS DE SAMIRA ELAGOZ

Por Morella Moret

Craigslist Allstars es el cuento postmoderno del hombre solitario. La directora, Samira Elagoz, nos recibe con un e-mail sobre la pantalla: ella manda un mensaje a personas desconocidas con el objetivo de grabarse mientras se conocen y cualquier cosa que pase en este proceso. Ella los escucha, los desinhibe y crea un ambiente seguro para que puedan presentar sus secretos o dolores más grandes frente a nosotros.

2017.03.21

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: BEUYS BY ANDRES VEIEL

By Monica Delgado

Premiered in the last Berlin film festival, German filmmaker Andres Veiel’s Beuys is a documentary that focuses on one of the most political passages in the life of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Through archive footage, (which includes installation recordings, happenings and interventions) and accompanied by interview extracts, photography and testimonies, we assembly the most political part of Beuys, the one dealing with his position towards the relationship of art and social transformation.

2017.03.21

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: THE UNFORGIVEN DE LARS FELDBALLE-PETERSEN

Por José Sarmiento

Tópicos sobre el arrepentimiento, perdón y reivindicación son cuidadosamente diseccionados en el nuevo documental de Lars Feldballe-Petersen, The Unforgiven. El director finlandés fija su mirada en Esad Lanzo, un hombre que intenta reconstruir su vida después de ser condenado por muertes y torturas en la antigua guerra civil de Yugoslavia. Lanzo, un hombre atormentado por sus demonios, intenta apaciguar su sufrimiento en una búsqueda agotadora de los prisioneros de guerra que torturó, para pedirles perdón y comprensión. Es difícil mostrar la confrontación con el criminal, especialmente por el contexto de una guerra tan brutal como la que vivió la ex Yugoslavia, pero Feldballe-Petersen le permite a su cámara no hacer juicios previos, y más bien seguir a este protagonista sin comprometerse más con una correspondencia empática.

2017.03.21

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: THE LOST DREAMS OF NAOKI HAYAKAWA BY ANE HJORT GUTTU AND DAISUKE KOSUGI

By Mónica Delgado

Screened in the New:Vision Award section of the CPH:DOX Film Festival, happening this week, The lost dreams of Naoki Hayakawa is interesting when the filmmakers see as a rarity this labor alienation, rescuing the poetic in the life of a character that lives for his work, single, alone, with broken dreams, but who fantasizes about bubbles in the elevators or a flag made of hair that flames near the sea.

2017.03.17

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: SWAGGER BY OLIVIER BABINET

By Morella Moret

Screened in the Kids & Youth section of the CPH:DOX Film Festival, happening this week, Swagger by Olivier Babinet tells us the story of a post-terror, fragmented France, as experienced by a diverse group of students. Babinet proposes a collective therapy session where the goal is avoiding judgment, either from the one who gazes or the one who is gazed at. The teenagers tell us their childhood dreams and adulthood nightmares. The director tries to show this through a sincere and wistful eye that is refreshing but sometimes overwhelming.

2017.03.17

CPH:DOX

CPH:DOX 2017: SWAGGER DE OLIVIER BABINET

Por Morella Moret

Presentada en la sección Kids & Youth del festival danés CPH:DOX, que se realiza esta semana, Swagger, de Olivier Babinet, nos cuenta la historia de una Francia post terror y fragmentada a partir de las vivencias colegiales de un grupo de jóvenes. Babinet crea una especie de terapia colectiva en donde el objetivo es que nadie va a ser juzgado ni por el observador ni por el observado. Ellos nos dicen sus nombres y así nos introducen a sus sueños de niños y a sus pesadillas adultas. El director nos trata de mostrar a través de ellos una mirada inocente y sincera que nos refresca pero a veces abruma.

2017.03.17