In its 14^th edition Documentary Fortnight 2015, MoMA’s International Festival of nonfiction Film and Media’ showcased from February 13 – 27 twenty one feature films, seven shorts, archival films, a seminar and a media installation. As with other major festivals Documentary Fortnight is expanding its wide range of themes and creative approaches. Held at one of New York’s most prominent museums, the Museum of Modern Art, programming the festival had more flexibility because MoMA serves an educated upscale trending audience. Thus productions could be selected which break the boundaries of traditional documentary film making. Among this year’s approaches were historical, experimental and ethno-fictional departures, with a frequent emphasis on the image and atmosphere.  Yet there was no neglect of conflict areas. Issues tied to migration, natural and man-made disasters, the media, minorities and homelessness were well presented in the program.

BRULE LA MER (Burn the Sea) 2014 Tunisia/France, Nathalie Nambot, Maki Berchache

After the overthrow of Tunisian Dictator Ben Ali leaving the country became possible. The documentary follows the survival of some young Tunisians who decided to emigrate. Interlaced with images of the sea and coast the documentary depicts their passage through Milan and Marseille with Paris as the final destination. They have little success looking for a home or permanent work and find themselves with despair and hopelessness in a country that confines them. Liberation and economic independence in France is as far away as it was in Tunisia and their longing for a home and their lost childhood remains unfulfilled. Their families give them strength but that joy is diminished by the split existence of their bodies in France and their hearts in Tunisia, not having a home in either place

HOTEL NUEVA ISLA, 2014 Spain and   Cuba, Irene Gutierrez Torres

Jorge de los Rios, a retired and unemployed worker uses a decrepit former luxury hotel in Havana as his shelter with a few other homeless people. He meanders through the building looking for objects and material to save, yet has no clear objective. There is scarce communication between him and the others, a women friend and her little daughter. They decide to leave fearing the building’s collapse as does a young man he befriends. Like a vestige from the past Jorge decides to stay. His passage through hallways and rooms which are falling apart and his encounters are beautifully recorded in the mostly slow and stationary cinematography

OF MEN AND WAR, 2014 France/Switzerland, Laurent Becue-Renard

In this compelling documentary Becue-Renard provides a human face to the suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As distinct from other superb productions on that problematic issue like HBO’s War Torn we learn through numerous statements by soldiers beset by the condition what happened to them during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan und how they tried to survive the aftermath. There is no footage from the war. Comments by a therapist running group sessions with the soldiers and affected family members who try to keep them grounded are kept to a minimum. Recollections from killing the enemy and civilians, witnessing close up the death of close friends and fellow soldiers, even of murder, permits us to better understand. But these experiences are frozen in the soldiers’ memories.  For the viewer it is difficult to grasp how overcoming the horror was possible, many soldiers considered killing themselves and a many combatants suffering from PTSD actually did so during the conflict and afterwards.  The camera recorded for nine months their interactions and the documentary becomes a record of the transformatory power of the war experience, an experience shared by less than 1 percent of the population, and not readily accessible to most.  Their actions had a lasting impact on the moral fiber of these war torn soldiers and their sense of self has become precarious.

PARK LANES, 2015, USA, Kevin Jerome Everson

Known in part because of its length, spanning eight hours, the film provides a real time record of the transactions in a factory producing and repairing equipment for bowling alleys covering a full day of work. The everyday working life of mostly minority workers in this setting is captured through fixed and slow motion cameras focusing on the working act and stations. We follow jobs ranging from the assembly of small mechanical parts to larger complex components. The production process is fragmented yet each worker is skillfully completing the assigned task. Apart from coffee breaks and lunches there is little communication between the workers, each of them has become part of the work process. The documentation of the aesthetic nature of work is superb, yet it is difficult to show the film outside festival settings and film departments.

CAFÉ: CANTOS DE HUMO (Coffee: Chants of Smoke) 2014, Mexico, Hatuey Viveros Lavielle

This enchanting production from Mexico presents in a subdued non-directive approach the life in a small indigenous Nahuati community in the Puebla region. Starting with the funeral of his father and ending with the memorial gathering one year later, the film centers on the son Jorge who studies to become a lawyer. Conflict and changes transpire through comments by family members and their views of work and education, having a family, abortion for the 16 year old sister, and the role of parents. They show the difficult passage to today’s times from traditions that ruled that community for generations. With Jorge as a lawyer his ethnic community will be able to better cope with the clash between past and present.

EPISODE OF THE SEA, 2014 Netherlands, Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan

Urk a former fishing village is now landlocked with a tightly knit very religious small population. It has remained in the fishing business, proud of its past and speaks a unique peculiar dialect, alien to Dutch. Having worked closely with the villagers for two years and gained their trust von Brummelen and de Haan completed an unusual documentary using cameras from the eighties corresponding to the age of the trawlers they filmed. Footage was shot in stunning black and white on 35 mm recording the fishing and processing work on the trawler and the unloading resulting in some amazing imagery of the moving sea and synchronized labor.  The delivery of statements by the fisher men is stunning since the film makers trained them how to recite the text reflecting the filmmaker’s distillation of their opinions.  The ship and land settings set the stage for their theatrical performance which seems stiff and bereft of motions. Yet in its ethno-fictional approach Episode of the Sea offers succinct insight into the fishermen’s interpretations of their conditions, from criticism of regulations forced on them by the Dutch and European Union authorities, their tricks of the trade, to the problem of market driven competition, the use of foreign labors on their boats, and the challenge of passing their vocation to the children.  This production breaks the boundaries of traditional documentaries but it certainly delivers a message.

HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION, 2015, USA, Barbara Kopple

The production offers a comprehensive history and current status of the United States most renowned left liberal weekly, The Nation. Archival material as well as pointed interviews with former and current contributing writers as well as full time staff editors provide a poignant overview of the changes and conflicts of American politics and the shifting media landscape. Special attention is paid to the current editor in chief Katrina vanden Heuvel and The Nation’s renowned internship program from which many of the current staff graduated. The grounded journalism of the Nation is well illustrated through documenting their research driven field work such as the staging of conventions, political struggles of Wisconsin, the Occupy Wall Street campaign, and current civil rights struggles in North Carolina to name just a few which are illustrated. Undoubtedly the Nation has printed crucial analytic and fact based reports on the issues the United States is facing before later media discovered them.

HAZE AND FOG, 2013, China, Cao Fei

This production provides an extraordinary artistic perspective on current human conditions in contemporary China which can be applied to many other advanced industrial societies. Images of individuals living and working in modern urban citiblocks are shown who seem to live a solitary existence disconnected from other people and immured in social isolation.  The company of others does not provoke responses and no communication can be observed but erratic behavior patterns such as individuals dancing in supermarket aisles, playing golf in a living room, taking a bath covered by balls or attacking a desk. There is a stark contrast in this film to a marauding band of zombies who engage in collective purposive action that make sense. The ‘normal’ people in this film are alienated and in their social isolation engage in meaningless action whereas the Zombies appear to be well and alive. The critical and satiric approach is similar to the work of the Swedish filmmaker Ruben Oestlund. Haze and Fog is one of the most original selections in the 2015 Documentary Fortnight program. Funded by European agencies the film is not made for theatrical distribution in China but can be accessed at festivals and the art house circuit.

The 2015 edition of Documentary Fortnight reflects a successful selection of stimulating and demanding production covering a broad thematic range.

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com