discussions, presentations, screenings
- Within the framework of the project Cordially Invited, IDFA (International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam) presents Europe.doc, IDFA’s gaze on the EU at BAK every Sunday from 16.00 hours.
- On the occasion of the Dutch presidency of the enlarged, twenty-five member European Union, IDFA brings together a series of twelve films from recent years that deal with urgent topics related to the processes of European integration. “Fortress Europe” and national and cultural identity, migration and asylum, hospitality, and the potentialities of transnational co-existence reaching beyond state boundaries are the themes that permeate the film selection. In addition to screenings at BAK, Europe.doc is presented at major film and documentary film festivals in the ten new member states of the EU, including among others Riga, Bratislava, Ljubljana, and Vilnius. For further information about the project and IDFA 2004 (18—28 November 2004) see: www.idfa.nl
Sunday 31 October 2004, 16.00 hours
Marcel Lozinski
89 mm od Europy / 89 mm from Europe, Poland, 1993
black & white, video / 35 mm, 12 min.- The European rail network ends at Brest-Litovsk, on the border between Poland and the former Soviet Union. Past this city, the rails are 89 millimeters wider. To allow a number of international trains to pass through this point each day, workers must change several thousand wheels below the carriages. Travelers from France, Germany, and The Netherlands watch the work taking place from behind the windows of the train. Are they really traveling through two different worlds?
- Jos de Putter
Het is een schone Dag geweest / It’s been a Lovely Day, The Netherlands, 1993
color, video / 16 mm, 75 min. - On the morning of New Years Day 1992, filmmaker Jos de Putter is having breakfast with his father. This next year will be the last in which Willem de Putter is active as a farmer. Jos de Putter captures the four seasons in long, subdued shots, showing working the land, sowing, and reaping. The film is an intimate portrait of the director’s parents, but above all an ode to a way of life that is rapidly disappearing in The Netherlands and other Western countries.
Sunday 7 November 2004, 16.00 hours- Leszek Dawid
Bar na Victorii / A Bar at the Victoria Station, Poland, 2003
color, video, 56 min. - A Bar at the Victoria Station shows how prosperous Western Europe remains an unattainable mirage for many Poles—even after Poland has joined the EU. Piotr is 26 and unemployed. Frustrated, he and his friend Marek decide to seek their fortunes in England. But soon reality comes as a bitter disappointment: the promises of a job turn out to be false, and without work permits their options are virtually zero. The young men are homesick, but continue to cherish an ideal: to one day open a bar at Victoria Station in London.
- Marjoleine Boonstra
Britanya, The Netherlands, 2003
color, video / 35 mm / dvd, 35 min. - To make her probing documentary, Boonstra traveled to Calais. The city is the last obstacle for many illegal immigrants, who have already traversed thousands of kilometers. Time and again, they try to hitch a lift in or under trucks to England—in their eyes the Promised Land—but equally often, they are caught by the police and sent back. In Britanya, the night filming at petrol stations and border posts creates a chilling atmosphere, while the interviews with refugees—always indirect, filmed via a mirror—are impressively frank.
Sunday 14 November 2004, 16.00 hours- Ulrich Seidl
Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen / Losses to be Expected, Austria, 1992
color, video / 35 mm, 118 min. - Austrian Sepp Paur has been a widower for almost a year, and so he goes in search of a new spouse. True, he has a lot to offer—a nice house, a reasonable pension, and some savings in the bank—but he rejects all the women who express interest in him. Yet, Sepp’s dream woman lives a few kilometers away, just over the Czech border. The sharp contrast between a Western country and a country from the former Eastern bloc forms the background to Paur’s odyssey.
Sunday 21 November 2004, 16.00 hours
Joost Conijn
Hout Auto / Wood Car, The Netherlands, 2002
color, video, 31 min.- In Hout Auto, Joost Conijn travels to Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Albania in a car he put together himself. The car, based on an old Citroën DS model, doesn’t run on petrol, but on wood. Along the way, passers-by help Conijn gather wood. They stare in amazement at the smoke-billowing contraption that he always manages to get going again. For two months, without a set route or a final objective, he drove through the former Eastern bloc with a companion and a digital camera, discovering the region in a new light.
- Joakim Demmer
Tarifa Traffic–Death in the Straits of Gibraltar, Germany / Switzerland, 2003
color, video, 60 min. - Tarifa, located on the most southeasterly point of Spain, is seen by many Africans as the gateway to Europe. Only twenty kilometers separate Morocco from Spain, but the crossing is particularly hazardous. Many of the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who hope to reach Europe by this route each year perish in the treacherous waters. The beautiful camerawork of Tarifa Traffic contrasts critically with the tragic subject matter. The film shows how impregnable “Fortress Europe” can be, and indirectly asks: to what extent should Europe take responsibility for these deaths?
Sunday 28 November 2004, 16.00 hours- Paul Devlin
Power Trip, USA, 2003
color, video, 85 min. - The fascinating and disconcerting Power Trip is a record of the attempts by a multinational corporation to impose order on the chaos of post-communist Georgia’s electricity market. In 1999, the American power company AES took over the electricity distribution company Telasi from the Georgian government. In the film, director Paul Devlin gives a crystal-clear account of the consequences of corruption, cultural differences, and the difficult transition from communism to capitalism.
Sunday 5 December 2004, 16.00 hours- Raymond Depardon
Profils Paysans: L’Approche / Peasants Profile: The Approach, France, 2000
color, video / 35 mm, 90 min. - Profils Paysans is a somber, penetrating portrait of the French villages in Lozère, where small-time farmers govern their farms the old-fashioned way, contrary to the spirit of the times. The farmers, many of whom are very advanced in years, but not yet ready to say goodbye to the farming life. Director Raymond Depardon, who himself comes from a farming family, records the farmers’ way of life with compassion and curiosity. For Depardon, these inflexible, shy but intelligent farmers represent the essence of French culture—albeit a culture that has almost been forgotten.
Sunday 12 December 2004, 16.00 hours- Angus Macqueen
The Last Peasants, England / France, 2003
color, video, 150 min. - To an outsider, the countryside of northern Romania looks idyllic. The inhabitants of the village of Budesti find life a burden, however. Almost every family has members who have sought their fortunes abroad, and those left behind would like nothing more than to follow them, the sooner the better. Director Angus Macqueen and cameraman Roger Chapman worked for no less than sixteen months on The Last Peasants, which is not only about the problems of migration—disrupted families, illegality, failures—but also about a disappearing culture.
Sunday 19 December 2004, 16.00 hours- Sarah Vos
‘Welcome to Holland’–Campus Vught, The Netherlands, 2003
color, video, 100 min. - Just like the much of Western Europe, The Netherlands is struggling with the humane treatment of its asylum seekers. Take Camp Vught, a place set up to accommodate minor asylum seekers entering the country alone (AMAs) until they turn eighteen and can be sent back to their country of origin. Director Sarah Vos was allowed to document the demise of Camp Vught—which was closed following many disturbances and changes of personnel—silently with her camera. She observes the futile discussions, the anger of the AMAs, and the powerlessness of the managers.