Art FIFA 2013: Award Winners

International Festival of 
Films on Art

31st Edition


Award winners

31st FIFA, more popular than ever!

A total of 248 films from 28 countries were screened, embracing a wide range of artistic disciplines. There were 5 Canadian works among the winning FIFA films.

Here is the complete list of all the Award Winners in this year's Montreal International Festival of Films on Art

Prizewinners – Films in Competition

Grand Prize
Sponsored by Astral
HELSINKI MUSIC CENTRE – PRELUDE
Matti Reinikka, Miisa Latikka (Finland)

Jury Award
Sponsored by Zone3
HARD LIGHT / LUMIÈRE CRUE
Justin Simms (Canada)

Award for Best Educational Film
Sponsored by Télé-Québec
JOHN CAGE – JOURNEYS IN SOUND
Paul Smaczny, Allan Miller (Germany)

Award for Creativity
Sponsored by Groupe Média TFO
GLAUSER
Christoph Kühn (Switzerland)

Award for Best Canadian Film
Sponsored by Digital Cut
DANS UN OCÉAN D’IMAGES
Helen Doyle (Canada)

Award for Best Essay
Sponsored by Le Devoir
BRANCUSI
Alain Fleischer (France)

Award for Best Portrait
Sponsored by Entreprises Video Service
SOL LEWITT
Chris Teerink (The Netherlands)

Award for Best Biography
Sponsored by Concept Audio-Visuel
HUGUETTE OLIGNY, LE GOÛT DE VIVRE
Pascal Gélinas (Canada)

Award for Best Film for Television
Sponsored by Digital Cut
THE DREAMS OF WILLIAM GOLDING
Adam Low (United Kingdom)

Liliane Stewart Award for Design Arts
Sponsored by the MacDonald Stewart Foundation
THE SUCCESSOR OF KAKIEMON
Suzanne Raes (The Netherlands)

Special Mention
THE MAN WHO INVENTED HIMSELF – DUANE MICHALS
Camille Guichard (France)

ARTV Springboard to the World Award
LA LONGUEUR DE L’ALPHABET / THE LENGTH OF THE ALPHABET
Joe Balass (Canada)

ARTV People’s Choice Award
CORNO
Guy Edoin (Canada)

You can read about several remarkable FIFA films here.

And more about the Grand Prize Winner:

Helsinki Music Centre – Prelude

http://news-reel.blogspot.in/2013/03/art-fifa-2013-grand-prix.html

Art FIFA 2013: Grand Prix

Helsinki Music Centre – Prelude

Finland | 2012 | colour | 93 min. | Finnish with English subtitles

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director(s): Matti Reinikka, Miisa Latikka 
Screenplay: Matti Reinikka, Miisa Latikka 
Cinematography: Matti Reinikka, Pentti Pällijeff 
Sound: Juha Hakanen, Lauri Vänskä, Ville Jankeri, Tero Suvilammi, Kimmo Vänttinen 
Editing: Matti Reinikka 
Music: Jussi Latikka 
Participation: Helena Hiilivirta, Marko Kivistö, Dalia Stasevska, Santtu-Matias Rouvali 
Producer(s): Matti Reinikka 
Production: Elokuvaosuuskunta Siperia 
Distribution: Elokuvaosuuskunta Siperia

Official description of the film:

August 2011 saw the opening of the Helsinki Music Centre in Finland. In addition to a 1,700-seat concert hall that can accommodate Helsinki’s two excellent classical music orchestras, the Finnish Radio Symphony and the Helsinki Philharmonic, it also has five smaller concert halls, the Sibelius Academy, which trains promising Finnish musicians for the future, a media library and a café-restaurant. The architects had two main objectives: to create, in the heart of the Finnish capital, a building in harmony with its urban surroundings, and a concert hall with outstanding acoustics. This documentary provides an overview of the history of the creation of the Helsinki Music Centre, a project that sparked a vast debate over its high cost, and features comments by its four main players: its director, Helena Hiilivirta, chief architect Marko Kivistö, and two young conductors, Dalia Stasevska and Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

This film received the prestigious Grand Prix at the Montreal's annual International Festival of Films on Art 2013. I have to commend the jury for their choice of awarding this prize. The film epitomizes the struggle that the world of art has to endure in our present commercialized world to be able to get a funding for a cultural project, even for such a prestigious institution as a country's principal music centre. The film documents the veritable battle required so that Helsinki and the entire Finland could have a national monument - the Helsinki Music Centre - of which the whole country could be proud.

The problem was not only the lack of funding and of finding the money needed for such a grand undertaking, but also a public scrutiny and questioning whether Helsinki needs a music centre at all, especially in view of the sharp falling interest in classical arts like music and opera, and whether an old warehouse that occupied the terrain should be demolished for this project. It was only because of the steel-like dedication of a small group of people, with Helena Hiilivirta as a driving force and the project's spokesman (or rather a spokeswoman), that the project not only got off the ground but came to a successful fruition, to the obvious delight of the Finish people.

Ms. Hiilivirta, now the Helsinki Music Centre's director, is the main character of this film, if one could refer to a real person in a documentary film as a character. She is the principal person who helps the film crew to unfold the story line of this film. And it is through her efforts, thoughts, and emotions that one gets to appreciate the tremendous energy required from her and several other people to accomplish and bring to life the great vision for their country.

The film makes a a strong statement that to create something of value one should not rash. Most importantly, only that which is true counts and will survive, it will endure into the future and for the future generations, regardless of present momentary fads. And additionally: if you build a national cultural centre, a music centre, the people will come, even youth and small children will come, regardless of the fad of the day. 

Photo above courtesy of FIFA.

Art FIFA 2013: The Ballet Masters

The Ballet Masters 

Netherlands | 2012 | colour | 59 min | English, Dutch, English subtitles

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Sonia Herman Dolz
Cinematography: Paul van den Bos, Sonia Herman Dolz
Sound: Menno Euwe
Editing: Rémi Van Der Heiden
Music: Paul M. Van Brugge
Participation: Rachel Beaujean, Guillaume Graffin, Larissa Lezhnina, Arthur Shesterikov
Producer(s): Michiel Van Erp, Monique Busman
Production: De Familie
Distribution: De Familie

Official description of the film:

After brilliant respective careers as principal dancers, Guillaume Graffin and Rachel Beaujean have become ballet masters with the Dutch National Ballet, where they prepare a performance of the legendary Giselle (1841). Rather than an oral history, the film shows how choreographic history is handed down, the literal, physical transfer of crucial knowledge from one generation of dancers to the next, a process that is usually invisible to the outside world. Building a bridge between past and present, the ballet masters play a key role behind the scenes. Without them, the heritage of hundreds of years of classical ballet repertoire would die.

This  film documents the artistic workings of the Dutch National Ballet. The title The Ballet Masters denotes the professionals, most often the former lead dancers, who conduct rehearsals and prepare dancers for the company's repertoire. But regardless of its title,  the film's scope is actually much wider as it encompasses other aspects of the successful ballet making.

First of all, the film shows most directly how the ballet's best classical traditions are being passed onto the new generation of dancers. It reveals the art of the ballet masters as they bring out the best in the dancers and create a harmonious and coherent whole of the masterpiece that the audience will see on the stage. The focus is on the painstaking coaching of both the principal as well as supporting and secondary dancers to perform one of the most romantic classical ballet Giselle. 

At the same time, the film highlights the mastery of the dancers themselves. It shows how they train, practice their movements over and over again, while soaking in the creative guidance of their ballet masters, transforming it into their body movements, gestures, and emotional expressions. It shows the artistic and emotional artistry of principal dancers, their performing splendour and maturity.

This film is also about how body movements and expressive means of the ballet are used to tell a story without words and  in such a way as to enchant the audience, while making everything look perfectly effortless, regardless of the strain, of hours of practising involved, and even of physical pain.

If you love the ballet, or do not know much about it and would like to learn how it is made, then this film is definitely for you.

Photo above courtesy of FIFA.

Art FIFA 2013: In Search of Haydn

In Search of Haydn

United Kingdom | 2011 | colour | 102 min | English, German, French, English subtitles

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Phil Grabsky
Cinematography: Phil Grabsky
Sound: Phil Grabsky, Chris Wright
Editing: Phil Reynolds
Narration: Juliet Stevenson
Participation: Walter Reicher, Bayan Northcott, Theresa Gabriel, Zsuzsanna Vörös, David Wyn Jones, Rupert Ridgewell, Camilla Tilling, David Ward
Cast: Sir Roger Norrington, Gianandrea Noseda, Frans Brüggen, Christophe Rousset, Ian Page, Ronald Brautigam, Sophie Bevan, Emmanuel Ax
Producer: Phil Grabsky
Production: Seventh Art Productions
Distribution: Seventh Art Productions

Official description of the film:

A biographical account of the life of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) presented chronologically, with breathtaking performances of his music by some of the world’s most celebrated talents: Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, the Orchestra of the 18th Century with Frans Brüggen, the Endellion String Quartet, Christophe Rousset and Les Talents Lyriques, Ian Page and the Classical Opera Company, Ronald Brautigam, Sophie Bevan and Emmanuel Ax, among others. Through revealing interviews with musicologists and experts and excerpts from Haydn’s memoirs, the film provides insight not only into the music but an appreciation of the composer himself. The emphasis is on the performance and interpretation of Haydn’s music, with recordings of concerts by some of the world’s greatest musicians and orchestras.

For those who love classical music this film will be a true delight. It features some superbly interpreted extracts from Haydn's work, it explains the composer's humble beginnings, and presents his meteoritic and unforgettable musical career.

Hayden taught both Mozart and Beethoven and had a tremendous influence on the composition choices of both of those music giants. And although Mozart's and Beethoven's music now, in popular mind, seems to overshadow that of their teacher, for the music connoisseurs Haydn will always remain the musical genius that he truly was. His musical innovations, which might be lost on contemporary audience, were truly significant in his epoch, coming from under very structured Renaissance as well as subsequent Baroque music periods. Haydn truly ushered in the classical music style that was further developed by Mozart and Beethoven. During Haydn's lavish 76th birthday celebrations, Beethoven had publicly expressed his appreciation of Haydn by kneeling down in front of the older composer, surrounded by all the dignitaries, and kissing his forehead. 

Haydn is also renowned and remembered for creating such musical forms as Symphonies and Sonatas, which offered a perfect platform of creative expression for many subsequent music geniuses.

I invite everybody to see this film as it offers a delightful and vast understanding of Haydn's creative genius and his musical journey.

Photo above courtesy of FIFA,  © Seventh Art Productions

Art FIFA 2013: Bolchoï, une renaissance

Bolchoï, une renaissance

France | 2011 | colour, b&w | 55 min | French, Russian, French subtitles

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Denis Sneguirev 
Screenplay: Denis Sneguirev 
Cinematography: Dmitri Rakov 
Sound: Christophe De Pinho, Maxim Tchetchkenev, Vladimir Stekachev 
Editing: Fabien Leroy 
Music: Christophe De Pinho, Andres Soto 
Narration: Guillaume Galienne 
Participation: Anatolly Iksanov, Nikita Changuine, Pavel Batov, Sergeui Lemechev, Dmitry Tcherniakov, Gérard Mortier, Tatiana Monogarova, Ürgen Reihhold, Lilian Hochhauser 
Producer(s): Emelie De Jong, François Duplat 
Production: ARTE France/Bel Air Média 
Distribution: ARTE France

Official description of the film:

Opera house, high temple of ballet and concert hall, the legendary Bolshoi theatre is the very symbol of classical Russian culture. But, in 2005, a victim of the ravages of time, unsanitary and dangerous, the Bolshoi was a ghost of its former glory, its facades stained, foundations cracked, walls sagging and gilding tarnished. For six years, architects, engineers and workers laboured on a gigantic overhaul, dubbed by the Russian media as the “project of the century.” Combining 3D images, animation, interviews and archives, the film brings the Bolshoi to life, from its origins to the present day, and shows that the challenges in its restoration are architectural, artistic, sentimental and patriotic. A former showcase for the Soviet Union known for its conservative approach, the Bolshoi has also updated its repertoire with the addition of contemporary productions. 

This film is a superb documentation of all the tremendous work required to preserve the Bolshoi Theatre. The building was in such a bad shape that it had actually split into 7 separate structures through deep cracked in the masonry walls and the foundation. The original theatre was build between 1821 and 1824. It was damaged by fire in 1953 and underwent a reconstruction by and Italian architect Alberto Cavos who, apparently, to speed the reconstruction process, neglected to pay closer attention to the stability of the theatre's foundations. This caused the building to begin to crack through the ensuing decades, to the point where it became dangerous to use since it became structurally unstable.

The film shows minutely all the stages of the reconstruction process, how the theatre was supported on metal pylons, and how seven sections of the theatre that had separated from each other had to be held together throughout the laying of new foundation. Moreover, not only was the foundation reinforced,  but actually several new theatrical spaces were constructed under the original Bolshoi building. 

The main Bolshoi theatre was renovated to its old royal splendour, paying special attention to all the decorative elements such as covering with gold leaves all that was decorated with gold in the past. Yet the entirely modern technology and equipment was brought in, mainly for the scenic and decoration changing purposes. In addition, a special attention was paid to acquiring the superb acoustics, where the acoustic elements could be changed according to the performance's needs. For example, the presentation of the ballet requires very different stage acoustics as opposed to an opera or a symphony orchestra performances.

This film is a must see for all those who love old style theatres. The film shows how such theatres can be preserved, and how they can acquire modern technical infrastructure.

Photo above by Denis Sneugirev, courtesy of FIFA.

Art FIFA 2013: Angkor

Angkor : la civilisation engloutie

France | 2012 | colour | 52 min | French

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director:  Saléha Gherdane

Cinematography: Jean-Pierre Guillerez, Fred Forêt, Raphaël Beauvois 

Editing: Sophie Le Strat 

Music: Films Distribution 

Narration: Agnès Barge

Participation: Christophe Pottier, Roland Fletcher, Jacques Gaucher, Dominique Soutif, Daniel Penny 

Producers: Hélène Coldefy 

Production: ARTE France/Iliade Productions, Crépuscule des civilisations/Les Films de l Odyssée 

Narration: Agnès Barge

Producers: Hélène Coldefy

Production: ARTE France/Iliade Productions, Crépuscule des civilisations/Les Films de l Odyssée

Distribution:  ARTE France

Official description of the film:

Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire, the world’s largest city in the thirteenth century, was rediscovered by French explorers in the nineteenth century. They found an abandoned city whose ruins have been a source of fascination ever since. Today, the Greater Angkor Project, involving scientists of all nationalities, is attempting to penetrate the mysteries behind the disappearance of this civilization using the latest technologies. Archeologist Christophe Pottier analyzes the factors in the brutal demise of the Khmer Empire, which had dominated the region for centuries. The kingdom’s waterworks (more than 200 large canals) were key to its power, but also its Achilles heel.

The photography in this film is stunning. The areal views are magnificent. This film makes one to discover an old and complex culture which created monumental sculptures, built complex stone edifices, and participated in a grand scale projects such as building irrigation canals and water reservoirs. Just the scale of those utility works, especially as seen from the air, will amazes any spectator. Although the explanation in the film of why this culture, which strived on such grandiose building projects, has so suddenly come to an extinction seems quite logical, I found it quite unsatisfactory. Those ancient people were magnificent builders, and this despite the fact they had no access to areal views and therefore had to have an instinctive understanding of the terrain, of the minute ground inclinations, of the miles of water flow and drainage routes in order to be able to build such a complex irrigation and water storage system. Moreover, they were precise carvers of huge pieces of stone, both rectangular and sculptural. They would even chisel through a solid rock in order to establish some of the irrigation routes, if that was what it took to ensure the correct water flow. Surely such masterful craftsmen would have been able to figure out how to deepen the water reservoirs and protect them from the earth being washed off into the water system. If they were able to organize themselves to build such a complex and vast water system, they surely would have been able to organize themselves for a lesser technical task of undertaking regular maintenance works. The film concludes that their were no money for the water works maintenance. Yet where did the money come from to build this complex system to begin with?

Basically, this is a chicken and an egg dilemma. Which came first, the great civilization with smart engineers who were able to create most complex, kilometres-long water irrigation and water storage systems? Or did the water system and smart engineers came first before the civilized cities, popping up from nowhere, in order to create canals so complex, long and vast so that grand cities could be establish next to them? The engineers do not grow by themselves in the jungle communities. Big cities, which would have access to many trained and skilled people could not be established in the jungle without any secure multi-miles water supply system already being right there in place. Because of this dilemma, this civilization, though explained so skilfully in this film, still remains a great enigma to me.

Photo above courtesy of FIFA.