TOUCH THE SOUND

Germany / UK 2004 99min
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Acclaimed Scottish percussionist Glennie takes us on this free-flowing, contemplative journey with the goal of sensitizing viewers to sound. Nearly deaf as a result of a neurological disorder, Glennie claims her entire body can hear. Director Thomas Riedelsheimer states, “I have never met anyone before who has such a finely developed sense of the quality of sounds as Evelyn.” Glennie performs in cities from New York to Kyoto with a variety of classical, found and experimental instruments, from which she is able to coax a startling variety of sounds. Performance footage is blended with breathtaking impressionistic prethodni_festivali/pages/2005/images of the world around us that implore spectators to be more attuned to their surroundings. Just as the film’s groundbreaking sound design focuses attention on the musical quality of every noise - including silence – Riedelsheimer’s remarkably rich cinematography invites viewers to see everything from busy streetscapes to the trembling grains of sand on a beach with new eyes. A constantly moving camera transforms the banal into the sublime and sweeps us into its transcendent vision with both intimate close-ups and epic landscapes.
Touch the Sound is a mesmerizing experience that demands to be seen on the big screen.


I was on the jury at the Leipzig festival in October and there was no doubt among us that Riedelsheimer’s film was unique, the best of the 2004 selection of this prestigious festival. From the very first moment you are aware that you look at a Film, you can see what a camera can achieve in the right hands and you meet this fantastic artist (Evelyn Glennie) who introduces you to a magic of sound that you have never before heard. Or seen!

Tue Steen Müller

Thomas Riedelsheimer

Born September 1963; studied at the Academy for Film and Television in Munich(1984-1991); since 1986 free-lance author, director and cameraman in Germany and abroad (Somalia, Tanzania, South Africa, New Zealand, Latvia, Russia, Tibet, Nepal, Japan, Canada, Scotland, etc.); lecturer at seminars on cinematography at the Film Academy in Munich.
2001 till present: director of the film production company Filmquadrat.

Rivers and Tides - Germany / UK 2000, 90 min
Metamorphosen - Germany 1997/98, 45 and 93 min
Lhasa und der Geist Tibets - Germany 1996/97, 60 min
“Schweben heißt Lieben” - Germany 1994, 80min
Bildschirmherrschaft - Germany 1988/89, 60min
Sponsae Christi - Germany 1991/92, 68min

JERUSALEM, MY LOVE

Denmark 2003 74min
Director: Jeppe Ronde

faith becomes the “little story” that mirrors Jerusalem ’s “big story” – a story about loss, repression and love. The film’s “outer” track follows the “prophets” in their daily work in the midst of Jerusalem ’s violence. Each represents the city’s three monotheistic religions. Three different and yet not so different men are thus presented to us: the Jewish charity worker, Israel ; the Muslim drug rehabilitator, Muhammad; and the American street-prophet, Ted. The “inner” track follows the director’s existential search to discover what faith consist of – and why he loses his lifelong faith, in Jerusalem of all places. Simultaneously, on the film’s inner track, we see the director undergoing hypnosis – in his persuit of an explanation to help him understand why his beloved Jerusalem and these men made him lose his faith.


Difficult to write about a country fellowman who is young, serious, stubborn, ambitious like hell - and maybe the clearest documentary talent that we have had in Denmark for many years. He did not make it to the film school but continued anyway and has now made two brilliant international documentaries that have conquered the documentary festival world. His many trips to Jerusalem and his sense for making interesting prethodni_festivali/pages/2005/images are evident in the story about a young man - himself and therefore many others of same age - looking for a meaning.
Tue Steen Müller

Jeppe Ronde

Born 1973. Director, cinematographer, composer. Roooonde has a BA degree in Film Science and Art History from the University of Copenhagen . He has directed the DFI Film Workshop production Son (Soooon). Jerusalem , My Love ( Jerusalem , Min Elskede) is his feature-length debu.

IN THE DARK

Russia / Finland 2004 40min
Director: Sergey Dvortsevoy

He is an old man: 80 years old and he has lost his sight. He lives in a small flat with a white cat. The man wants to do something useful and he spends his days making woollen bags. The cat messes up his work and everyday is a continuous battle between the two of them. But the cat – besides being an enemy – is also his only friend. The blind man listens through the window to the sounds of the Moscow streets and explains to the cat what is going on. He also goes out on to the streets - trying first to sell the bags and then to give them away for free. Nobody wants them - because everyone is carrying plastic bags. The film is a symphony of an everyday in a Soviet style suburb of Moscow . It is slow like blind man’s days are. Symbolically the blind man represents something old and traditional in Russia , and the outside world represents something modern which doesn’t have any use for the old blind man. Thus the film is also a metaphor for Russia in change.


Sergey Dvortsevoy came to Copenhagen in the middle of the 90’es to present his short documentary “ Paradise ”, the film that includes a scene that is unforgettable: a boy is eating his porridge, he cries a bit, is on his way to fall asleep, cries a bit again, and falls backwards in sleep. I made an interview with him for Danish tv and got to know a totally dedicated filmmaker who does not want to stage anything but wait till IT happens. His minimalistic style is fascinating as “Bread Day” and “Highway” also showed, and now comes this touchingly strong film about a blind man in a flat with his cats. A masterpiece, simply!
Tue Steen Müller

Sergey Dvortsevoy

Born in Kazakhstan in 1962. Studied aeronautics before learning film directing and scriptwriting in Moscow in 1993. Since then, he has worked as freelance director. He has won more than 50 international film prizes.

Selected filmography:

Tulpan , 2005.
V temnote , 2004.
Highway, 1999.
Hlebni den , 1998.
Castje , 1996.

THE MASTER AND HIS PUPIL

Holland 2003 85min
Director: Sonia Herman Dolz

In September 2002 the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev shared his knowledge, experience and vision with three especially selected international talents from the new generation of conductors during two Masterclass sessions in Rotterdam . The transmission from Valery Gergiev to his pupils, seen from within the orchestra, ‘captured’ by three camera’s, focuses in a precise manner on the drama developed between the ‘master’ and the ‘pupil’. “The Master and his Pupil” visualises the transmission of musical knowledge, the transmission of an art-form, of a ‘métier’, of power and of inspiration.


Sonia Hermann Dolz made years ago THE film about Cuban music, “Lagrimas Negras” (Black Tears), much better than the one of Wim Wenders. What a sense for creating an atmosphere I thought after this film, and what a feeling for catching the creative process, she demonstrated in this and in the film about the Russian conductor Gergiev. We showed the film in Copenhagen last January and I was anxious to hear what thought the music professionals who were present. No need to worry, they saluted the film as one of the few that really told what conducting is. Sonia is a real “auteur”!
Tue Steen Müller

Sonia Herman Dolz

Born Madrid , Spain , 1962. Has a Spanish mother and Czech/Peruvian father. Her parents moved to The Netherlands when she was three years old. She was educated in The Netherlands, and in 1984 she graduated from the film department of the Free Academy in The Hague . Since then she has worked on many different film and television productions in Holland and abroad, both as director of photography and as director. Her first feature-length documentary, Only the Brave (93), won several prizes at international film festivals. From 1993-96 she worked as a director for VPRO-TV’s foreign affairs documentary program ‘Diogenes’. In 1997, her second feature documentary, Black Tears, became an international hit and received many awards.

Selected filmography:

She Came To Win (‘Mans Genoeg’), 2004, 35 mm, 58 min.
The master and his pupil, 2003, Digital beta, 88 min.
Yo Soy Asi, 2000, 35 mm., 98 min.
Lagrimas negras, 1997, 35 mm., 75 min.

THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET

UK 2002 92min
Director: Kim Longinoto

After the eulogised documentary DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE, about the laborious divorce procedure for Iranian women, and RUNAWAY, about a shelter for runaway girls in Teheran, Kim Longinotto travelled to Nairobi , Kenya , where the circumcision of women is an everyday affair. She was even allowed into a messy room where an elderly woman circumcised two resisting, agonisingly groaning girls. The women who are introduced in this confronting, enlightening documentary do not mince their words and talk uneuphemistically about circumcision. The group discussions are very fierce: many women do not feel like having sex anymore, another one feels that you should liberate yourself from “that dirty thing”, so women will not sleep around anymore. The elderly woman that carries out the circumcisions explains in detail how it works (“you must leave the root, otherwise it will bleed too much”) and prides herself in being very happy after each operation. The men are very relaxed about it: it is a tradition that goes back to the idea that every human being is born with a female and a male sexual organ, and is only clean when one of the two has been removed. Longinotto also followed a nurse who opposes this belief. With sharp questions, she shatters the fallacies and proceeds to convince husbands, fathers and mothers of the right of self-determination. But for the time being, only a handful of brave boys and girls bring their parents to trial.


Kim Longinotto is one of the finest documentary makers of our time. She holds the camera herself and she has this wonderful gift of being present and gaining trust without intruding into people’s lives. This film is one of the most courageous she has made. She has told me about her doubts about whether she should film the circomcision scene or not - Kim always ends up in these situations where she has to consider ethical choices and she always ends up making a choice that reflects her basic humanistic approach to filmmaking.
Tue Steen Müller

Kim Longinotto

Studied film and directing at the National Film School . While there, she made Pride Of Place, a critical look at her boarding school, and Theater Girls, about a hostel for homeless women in London . After the NFS she worked as camera on a variety of documentaries. During this time she made Cross and Passion, about Catholic women on the Turf Lodge estate in Belfast and Underage, about unemployed adolescents in Conventry. She then made with Claire Hunt Fireraiser, Eat the Kimono, Hidden Faces about Egyptian women and The Good Wife Of Tokyo about women love and marriage in Japan . With Jano Williams, she then made Dream Girls and Shinjuko Boys about women in Tokyo who choose to live as men. After that, she made Rock Wives for Channel 4 about the wives and girlfriends of rock stars and the following year Divorce Iranian Style in Tehran , about women and divorce in Iran . Then she made Gaea Girls with Jano Williams about a young girl’s struggle to become a professional wrestler in Japan . Her Runaway is set in a refuge for girls in Tehran.

Selected filmography:

Runaway, 2001
Gaea Girls, 2000
Divorce Iranian Style, 1998
Shinjuku Boys, 1995
Dream Girls, 1993
Hidden Faces, 1990

CITIZEN BERLUSCONI

Italia 2003 56min
Director: Stefano Tealdi

Few politicians have managed to capture the public imagination quite so spectacularly as Silvio Berlusconi. He’s funny, charismatic and one of the most powerful men in Europe . A media mogul who just happens to run the country. Critics claim that his attempts to subvert the Italian judiciary and media censorship have severely damaged Italy ’s international reputation. They accuse him of re-writing the law to suit his personal and business interests. This investigative documentary, made as a major international co-production, offers the definitive insider’s guide to one of Europe ’s most convoluted political scandals.


Stefano Tealdi is a close friend of mine and absolutely THE example of a producer and filmmaker who knows the European market because he had to know it, living as he is in a country where the most influential commissioning editor is Signore Berlusconi! As a sort of revenge Tealdi has used his European contacts to raise money to produce a critical film about that very same Berlusconi. Never to be shown in Italy , be sure of that.
Tue Steen Müller

Stefano Tealdi

Born in 1955, Johannesburg (South Africa). Living in Italy since 1970. Founds STEFILM in 1984, an independent production company in Italy . In 1986 graduates with a Master Degree in Architecture at the Politecnico di Torino. Training on documentary making: stage directed by Jean Rouch on the film ENIGMA in 1987. In 1992 graduates at the EAVE-Europe of the MEDIA programme. Founds the F.E.R.T. (Filming with a European Regarde in Turin) Association together with Av and MM producers, authors, technicians in 1993. Head of audiovisual production, Faculty of Architecture - Politecnico di Torino from 1986 to 1996. Chairman of the European Documentary Network (EDN) from 1998 to 2001.

From 1998 - tutor on documentary production workshops for EDN, EAVE and others: Barcelona , Malaga , Thessaloniki , Riga , Rio de Janeiro , Marseilles , London , Lisbon , Malta , Ghent , Cairo , Tel Aviv, Amsterdam , Copenhagen , Bornholm , Thallinn , Washington DC. From 1999 - training courses on documentary financing and production: Pompeu-Fabra Univiversity (Barcelona, Zelig School of Cinema (Bolzano), Politecnico/Corep (Torino).

SCREAMING MEN

Finland 2003 76min
Director: Mika Ronkainen

A documentary about the Finnish choir, Screaming Men, and their authoritarian conductor Petri Sirviö. A film about power, nationalism, intransigence, and firm belief in one’s own art. The conductor’s creative methods often provoke conflicts between the choir and others. They perform mainly national anthems and it´s on the edge between serious and funny. The authority of political and national symbols is at stage of creative and witty analysis.


I have to confess that this is one of the darlings at the EDN office in Copenhagen . It was developed through one of our workshops and we had the privilige to see how two crazy Finns from way up there in Nokia-land slowly found their own voice that could fit for a documentary about a choir that performs their own musical interpretation of national anthems. Insultingly funny and visual!
Tue Steen Müller

Mika Ronkainen

The most productive documentary filmmaker in the northern half of Finland . SCREAMING MEN is his theatrical distribution debut. His previous work include the prize-winning and acclaimed documentaries Before the Flood, Father’s Day, Oulu Burning, and Car Bonus. Ronkainen has predominantly depicted social themes. The cultural board of the city Oulu rewarded Ronkainen with the Oulu City Culture Award of 2002 and the Art Committee of the Oulu Province named Ronkainen the young artist of 1998. Ronkainen was a member of Mieskuoro Huutajat 1994 -1998.e.