RIDM 2015: The Chinese Mayor

THE CHINESE MAYOR

by HAO ZHOU

THE STATE OF THE WORLD

2015 / Colour / China / 86 min. / Mandarin with English subtitles 

This film is about a remarkable man with a big vision. Since I am a Montrealer, I immediately thought of the Montreal's famous former mayor Jean Drapeau who had grand projects for Montreal and thought in big pictures. He built Montreal's metro, the cultural centre Place-des-Arts, the Olympic Stadium, all this and more with a single vision of making Montreal into a big and well functioning metropolis, the way it is today. Fortunately, our former mayor had a lot of time to carry his grand projects to completion, which was not the case with Geng Yanbo, the Chinese mayor of Datong city. Montreal's mayor Drapeau also had to relocate many people to free the space for his projects, which created similar controversies that Chinese mayor Geng Yanbo had to deal with. 

The film The Chinese Mayor shows how even in a very restrictive political setting a single man can take charge of city's affairs. And then with a powerful determination and a great love for the ancient Chinese culture, art, and history, start rebuilding ancient monuments to revive in Chinese people their cultural memory, their pride and love of their history. The mission he himself chose to put on his shoulders was monumental. He had to push the officials and sway them away from their inertia, profiteering, dishonesty, laziness and incompetence. He had to keep them in line so the projects would be accomplished and done. He even told a city contractor on camera that he looked like an honest person but he was not. Geng Yanbo's job was titanic. Time and again the film showed how at every step of the project he met and had to deal with delays, inertness, incompetence, and even swindling and corruption. Yet as much as physically possible, he tried to keep the tabs on all the aspects and on all the stages of his city's project.

The film shows the mayor's approachability by the city dwellers who were falling through the system's cracks. They always had his ear regarding their problem's. With one stroke of his pen on a document shown to him, he would resolve the people's problems. This demonstrated his very human and non bureaucratic respect for ordinary people and their difficulties.

It is sad that his efforts were not better appreciated by the country's leadership and that he was not able to complete his very ambitious project. Yet he had learned a lot at Datong. As the film seems to indicate, at his subsequent posting, Geng Yanbo's very first step was to relocate people successfully before embarking on any construction, rather than doing both at the same time as was the case in Datong city. 

The film has also touching and comical elements in addition to the seriousness of the main topic. The camera seems to pick up with ease various small vignettes that complete the overall grand picture of the film.

The film not only brings to the viewer the Chinese realities but also demonstrates to what an extent we are all the same, just human beings, regardless of our cultural differences and where we live on our planet Earth. I highly recommend to see this film.

Film's Official Synopsis

"Geng Yanbo, the mayor of the Chinese city of Datong, is a very, very busy man. Obsessed with the idea of restoring the old imperial city to its former glory, he has decided to demolish one third of the town so as to rebuild its legendary walls. Nothing can stop this hyper-energetic, permanently active man, who is blessed with powers of persuasion capable of swaying significant numbers of sceptics. Is he a visionary, or a progress-at-all costs type on a collision course with a wall? Thanks to almost unlimited access, the film leaves the question open but gives us an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at how socio-economic issues are playing out in today’s China."

COUNTRY : CHINA
YEAR : 2015
LANGUAGE : MANDARIN
SUBTITLES : ENGLISH
RUNTIME : 86 MIN
PRODUCTION : QI ZHAO
CINEMATOGRAPHY : TIANHUI ZHANG
EDITING : TOM HSINGMING LIN, XIAOCHUAN YU
SOUND : JING XIAO

CONTACT (PRODUCTION)
QI ZHAO
ZHAOQI FILMS
ZHAOQIFILMS@GMAIL.COM

 

HAO ZHOU

FILMOGRAPHY
HOU JIE TOWNSHIP (2001)
SENIOR YEAR (2005)
USING (2008)
THE TRANSITION PERIOD (2010)
COTTON (2014)

Watch the FILM'S TRAILER on vimeo.

For more information about the documentary film festival visit the RIDM website.

Montreal Planetarium: aurōrae

aurōrae 
Starting on November 10,  2015

aurōrae is an original multimedia show by flmmaker Philippe Baylaucq and Sébastien Gauthier, a member of the Montréal Space for Life team. They put together some 179,000 images of the aurora borealis, the spectacular shimmering curtains over northern skies, to create an exceptional 360° immersive experience.

This new creation by Montréal Space for Life at the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, aurōrae, is the result of many frigid nights spent filming the sky over Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories, where the Northern Lights can be seen on average 240 nights per year. The final result - the fascinating multihued shimmering sky curtains that light up the Planetarium's Milky Way Theatre. Set to music by DJ Champion, it is an impressive end to this year’s Montréal Space for Life's tribute to light.

During the presentation, the planetarium’s science interpreters will explain the mysteries behind this extraordinary astronomical spectacle and the magnetic disturbances that cause it. They will also reveal what causes auroras' various colours.

Production Team

Production: Montréal Space for Life

Directors: Philippe Baylaucq and Sébastien Gauthier

Executive Producer and Project Manager: Sébastien Gauthier

Script: Sébastien Gauthier and Loïc Quesnel

Music: DJ Champion

Sound Designer: Benoît Dame

Artistic Director – special effects: François Guinaudeau

Artistic Director – aurora borealis: Rémi Boucher

Immersive filming: Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, Society for Arts and Technology, Kwon O Chull, Göran Strand

Type of show: Multimedia show with live commentary

Location: Milky Way Theatre

Target audience: Ages 7 and up

Length: 40 minutes

For more information and to purchase tickets online, see the Montreal's Space for Life website.

RIDM 2015: Oncle Bernard

ONCLE BERNARD - L'ANTI-LEÇON D'ÉCONOMIE

by RICHARD BROUILLETTE

THE STATE OF THE WORLD

2015 / Black and White / Quebec, Spain / 79 min. / French with English subtitles 

This film was shot in 2000 using an old fashioned black and white cellulose film. Since the interview was done in one sitting with only a few breaks, there was a problem with reloading new reels while Uncle Bernard, the economist Bernard Maris, was still responding to the preceding question. Time and again the spectator is left to watch a black screen with only white English subtitles at the bottom, while Uncle Bernard is finishing his thought. There is a repeated switch between a television type of interview and a radio-like audio narrative. This constant change of the visual to audio presentation creates a rhythmic type of effect.

Bernard Maris was a university professor. He also worked at the Charlie Hebdo periodical where he published his articles under the pseudonym Uncle Bernard. In this film he is dispelling all the illusions about the scientific basis of the modern economical theory. The economy is presently considered as belonging to science, it uses mathematical formulas and has a well established investigative approach. Even Nobel prizes are awarded for economy in the science category. Yet Bernard Maris  with his sharp and precise intellectual approach, dispels any notion that economy is a science, and that it is used for the best interests of all.

This film might especially interest those who like to ponder the realities of the intellectual thought and discourse, and the realities of our modern society, its values, and how it functions. It is thought provoking.

Bernard Maris passed away during the attack on Charlie Hebdo offices on January 7, 2015.  

Film's Official Synopsis

"Filmed in 2000 during the making of Encirclement – Neo-Liberalism Ensnares Democracy, this interview with Bernard Maris, aka Uncle Bernard, is a fascinating conversation with an independent thinker who was the economic analyst at Charlie Hebdo, assassinated with his colleagues last January. A tireless debunker of the myths that prop up an ever less transparent market economy, this peerless populariser of ideas had a vision of the world founded on social solidarity – a vision that needs exposure more than ever before. Keeping edits to a minimum, Richard Brouillette also includes candid off-camera moments whose warmth honours the man beyond the thinker, and with him the living spirit of Charlie."

COUNTRY : QUEBEC, SPAIN

YEAR : 2015
LANGUAGE : FRENCH
SUBTITLES : ENGLISH
RUNTIME : 79 MIN
PRODUCTION : RICHARD BROUILLETTE
CINEMATOGRAPHY : MICHEL LAMOTHE
EDITING : RICHARD BROUILLETTE
SOUND : SIMON GOULET

CONTACT
RICHARD BROUILLETTE
LES FILMS DU PASSEUR
INFO@FILMSDUPASSEUR.COM

RICHARD BROUILLETTE

FILMOGRAPHY
TROP C'EST ASSEZ (1995)
L’ENCERCLEMENT – LA DÉMOCRATIE DANS LES RETS DU NÉOLIBÉRALISME (2008)

For more information about the documentary film festival visit the RIDM website.

RIDM 2015: My Love, Don't Cross that River

MY LOVE, DON'T CROSS THAT RIVER
by MOYOUNG JIN

PREMIER LONG MÉTRAGE - FIRST FEATURE - Portraits
2014 / Colour / South Korea / 86 min. / English & French subtitles 

It was real a pleasure to witness on the screen a real-life, true love story, which endured through many decades and never faded or changed into something it has not been from the start. This couple was so close and united that they even wore matching traditional Korean outfits of the same colour. The bright colours of those traditional textiles were candies to the eyes as compared to the mostly quite drab present day wear. 

One is especially touched by the couple's concern about each other,  their playfulness, tenderness, and sweetness with which they touch and embrace each other. They got married when she was only 14 and he was a considerably older young man. As she tells it in her own words, he waited until she matured and for her to make her own move towards him first. That took place when she was 17, and this was when they truly became a couple. He said he did not want to hurt her since she was still a child. That was a really remarkable attitude, especially when taking into consideration that he was a very simple, uneducated, countryside man, yet he had a remarkable understanding of his young not yet mature bride, and chose to wait patiently for her to blossom into womanhood. I wonder how many present day young man have this type of sensitivity and intuitive understanding?

The photography of this film is remarkable. Some images are stunning, as those of the opening and the closing scenes. Throughout the entire film there is a great sensitivity to shapes, colours and forms, to the shooting angles, the light, the natural imagery, sounds, and even the design of natural shapes. All this helps to reveal the deep sense of satisfaction, love and value that such a relationship experienced, and even conveyed a Zen sate those two people were able to create in their life.

This is a beautiful and deeply touching film. All those to whom I talked and who have seen it just simply loved it. It is a jewel of a film, a portrait of a very rare relationship, especially in our modern society.

Film's Official Synopsis

"This is a story of unconditional, larger-than-life love. Byeongman Jo is 98 and Kyeyeol Kang is 89. After 76 years of marriage, they still hold hands as they stroll in their Sunday best; they still have snowball fights. She takes care of him, he sings and picks flowers for her. Every moment is proof of their indestructible bond, strong enough to overcome the struggles of a harsh life. But their twilight years are fast approaching... For more than a year, Moyoung Jin discreetly filmed the everyday life of this exceptional yet entirely ordinary couple. An unprecedented success for an independent Korean documentary, the film deserves a place among the great tragic romances. A heartbreaking meditation on the fragility of happiness."

COUNTRY : SOUTH KOREA
YEAR : 2014
LANGUAGE : KOREAN
SUBTITLES : FRENCH, ENGLISH
RUNTIME : 86 MIN
PRODUCTION : KYUNGSOO HAN
CINEMATOGRAPHY : MOYOUNG JIN
EDITING : ZINSIK HYUN
SOUND : MINU JUNG

CONTACT
MAËLLE GUENEGUES
CAT & DOCS
MAELLE@CATNDOCS.COM

MOYOUNG JIN

FILMOGRAPHY

Film's trailer

For more information about the documentary film festival visit the RIDM website.

MWFF 2015: Under Heaven

ASMAN ALDYNDA / UNDER HEAVEN

2015, Colour, Kyrgyzstan, First Films World Competition 

This film from Kyrghystan won a Special Mentions of the First Feature Film Jury at the Montreal World Film Festival 2015. 

The film shows us a rural setting in Kyrghystan, a Central Asia country that we, in the west, know very little about. This former Soviet Union republic had fallen on hard economical times after the fall of the Soviet Union. Many of its inhabitants have to travel to Russia to find work to be able to support themselves and their families back home. Most do honest work, but some either become victims to, or consciously choose the make-fast-money-whichever-way-possible schemes, even if they are criminal. 

The film shows us the Kyrghyz customs, some rituals and believes. But the main theme is the relationship between two brothers, what is important to each one of them, what they value the most in their lives, as well as how they relate to others, work, money, love, their community and country. Each of the brothers has a strong character, yet they are very different and choose different paths in life. What they have in common is their attraction to their neighbour girl Saltanat. Her name is symbolic, since in many Asian languages it means: realm, kingdom, monarchy, celebration, festivities or triumph (see here). So the brother's individual relationship with this girl basically symbolizes their relationship to life and even spirituality at large, their relationship to their country, the honesty of their actions, intentions, and workmanship. Each provides an example of what type of society their approach to life would create and how strong that "kingdom" would be.

The film is basically a retelling of the biblical story of Cain and Abel within the contemporary Kyrghystan setting. The brother's names Kerim and Aman also appear to be symbolic. Though they are Kyrghiz names, they seem to have been chosen to come the closest possible to those of the biblical personages. The film, though simply showing the everyday lives of two young Kyrghiz men, illustrates anew some core human principles that were immortalized in the Bible for the future generations to come, including ours.

Film's Official Synopsis

This modern day re-working of the biblical tale of Cain and Abel is set in a remote mountain village in Central Asia. Two brothers, rebellious Kerim and conscientious Aman, live with their mother and work at the family stonemason business. Their father has been forced to find work in Russia in order to pay off Kerim's debts, incurred as a result of his eldest son's drug dealing activities. The brothers both fall for a local village girl, Saltanat, which ultimately leads to a bitter dispute and unforeseen and tragic consequences. 

Director

Born in 1967, Dalmira Tilepbergen graduated philology from Kyrgyz National University and has worked as a teacher, journalist, librarian and assistant director at the Kyrgyzfilm National Studio. She has written and edited several volumes of poetry. She began making her own films in 2001 with a short, Cap for a Falcon, and followed quickly with other shorts and documentaries, including Fragile Wings (2004), Crush Down from the Seventh Floor (2005), First Born (2007), Year of Fire (2011) and Well Being (2012). UNDER HEAVEN is her first fiction feature. 

Production Team

Director : Dalmira Tilepbergen

Screenwriter : Dalmira Tilepbergen

Cinematographer : Akjol Bekbolotov

Editor : Eldiar Madakim

Cast : Anvar Osmonaliev, Taalaikan Abazova, Nurjigit Kanaev, Munara Dooronbekova

Music : Murzali Jenbaev
Film production and Sales : Prod.: Goulmira Kerimova, Kyrgyzfilm, 1 Dinara Asanova Street, Bishkek (Kirghizistan), tél.: +99 (631) 231 48 75, dalmira.cinema@gmail.com

Projections

Saturday August 29, 2015 - 07:00 PM - CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 9
Sunday August 30, 2015 - 05:00 PM - CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 9
Friday September 4, 2015 - 04:00 PM - CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 11

Image courtesy of MWFF and the director of the film.
Film review © Nadia Slejskova

MWFF 2015 Awards

AWARDS OF THE MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL MONTRÉAL 2015

Monday September 7, 2015

Jury

President : Dany Laferrière, writer (Canada)

Luis Urquiza, filmmaker (Mexico)

Gerardo Salcedo, festival programmer (Mexico)

Peter Rainer, writer & film critic (United States)

Ventura Pons, filmmaker, (Spain)

Tea Falco, actress (Italy)

Feature Films

Grand Prize of the Americas:

Mad Love, director Philippe Ramos (France)

Special Grand Jury Award:

Misafir (The Visitor/La Visiteuse), director Mehmet Eryilmaz (Turkey)

Two Films-Tie for Best Director:

2 Nights Till Morning, director Mikko Kuparinen (Finland / Lithuania) 

Dosieto Petrov (Petrov File / Le Dossier Petrov), director Georgi Balabanov (Bulgaria / Germany)

Best Actress:

Malin Buska for The Girl King, director Mika Kaurismäki (Canada / Finland /Germany / Sweden)

Best Actor:

Wolfram Berger for Rider Jack, director This Lüscher (Switzerland)

Best Screenplay:

Letnie Przesilenie (Summer Solstice / Solstice d’été), director Michal Rogalski (Poland/ Germany)

Best Artistic contribution:

Seven Days, director Xing Jian (China)

Innovation Award:

Un Instante En La Habana (Havana Moment), director Guillermo Ivàn Duenas (USA / Cuba / Mexico/ Colombia)

Short Films 

1st Prize :
La Voce (La voix), director David Uloth (Canada)

Jury Award:
Honeysuckle, director Lucy Lumsden (United Kingdom)

Zenith awards for best first fiction feature

Jury members for First Fiction Films:
Pierre Henri Deleau
Donald Ranvaud 
Antoine Zeind

Golden Zenith for the Best First Fiction Feature Film:

Chuyi (The Funeral / Les funérailles), director Qi Wang (China)

Silver Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film:

Para Minha Amada Morta (To My Beloved / À Ma Bien Aimée), director Ali Muritiba (Brazil))

Bronze Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film:

La Linea Delgada Amarilla (The Thin Yellow Line), director Celso Garcia (Mexico)

Special Mentions of the First Feature Film Jury:

Asman Aldynda (Under Heaven), director Dalmira Tilepbergen (Kyrgyzstan)
Rosa Chumbe, director Jonatan Relayze Chiang (Peru)

Public Awards

The Public was invited to vote for the most popular films presented during the 2015 Montreal World film festival

Public Awards for the most popular film of the Festival:
Chucks, directors Sabine Hiebler and Gerhard Ertl, from the Cornelia Travnicek novel (Austria)

Public Award for the most popular Canadian film of the Festival:

The Girl King, director Mika Kaurismäki (Canada / Finland /Germany / Sweden)

Glauber Rocha Award for the Best Latin American:

La Delgada Linea Amarilla (The Thin Yellow Line), director Celso Garcia (Mexico)

Awards for Best Documentary:

TIE Marzia, Ystäväni (Marzia My Friend / Marzia Mon Amie), director Kirsi Mattila (Finland)
Playing Lecuona, director Pavel Giroud (Spain-Colombia)

Best Canadian Short Film:

La Voce (The Voice / La Voix), director David Uloth (Canada)

FIPRESCI PRIZE (INTERNATIONALE FILM CRITICS), WORLD compétition:

Misafir (The Visitor / La Visiteuse), director Mehmet Eryilmaz (Turkey)

FIPRESCI PRIZE (INTERNATIONALE FILM CRITICS), First Feature:

Rosa Chumbe, director Jonatan Relayze Chiang (Peru)

Ecumenical Jury Prize:

L’orchestre de minuit, director Jérôme Cohen Olivar (Morroco)

Ecumenical Jury Mentions:

Doroga Na Berlin (On The Road To Berlin), director Sergei Popov (Russia)
Un Instante En La Habana, director Guillermo Ivàn Duenas (USA, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia)

OTHER AWARDS:

A special grand prize of the Americas is awarded to producer Lord Puttnam for his exceptional contribution to the world of cinema.