DOX:LAB
DOX:LAB is an international talent development programme launched by CPH:DOX for young film makers from the whole world. Eight of the greatest director talents from a number of developing countries are put together with eight Nordic colleagues to create a common ground between diverse cultures, storytelling traditions and production methods and thereby create a foundation for new and visually original films.
DOX:LAB is an experiment, where film makers are challenged to think differently and find new ways to make films – artistically and economically. In the centre of it all is the artistic exploration and development of the documentary genre. Six of the eight DOX:LAB films will be screened for the first time during Filmlab Aarhus and will in many instances be accompanied by director-presentations. Every year Filmlab Aarhus selects talents to participate as observers in a DOX:LAB workshop. Last year, Aarhus native Kasper Bisgaard, who this year has made the DOX:LAB film ‘The Kampala Story’ with Uganda native Donald Mugisha, participated in the event.
DOX:LAB was launched in 2009 by CPH:DOX as a cross-cultural festival programme for a selected number of film makers from EU and non-EU countries. DOX:LAB is supported by Aarhus Festival, The Swedish Film Institute, The Finnish Film Institute, The Danish Film Institute, Maisha, Media Mundus, The Obel Family Fund, IMS and CKU.
LILIBETH CUENCA (DOX:LAB artist talk)
31 Aug., 7pm-8pm, Screen C
Moderator: Christian Monggaard
The filming of Nidal Hassan and Lilibeth Cuenca’s DOX:LAB film ‘Three Stories of Life, Love and Death’ coincided with the uprising against the government in Syria, which broke out March 16th 2011. Filming was discontinued, and Nidal Hassan was incarcerated by the Syrian government forces. He has later been released, but now lives in hiding, while his Danish co-director attempts to remain in contact, so they can tell their story without aggravating Nidal’s situation.
Despite the fact that it was not possible to finish the film, and that some footage is still stranded in Syria, Lilibeth Cuenca will participate in Filmlab Aarhus and talk about her dramatic experiences as well as showing clips from the filming.
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen is a Danish-Philippian performance artist, who has shown her work throughout the world, and has lately represented Denmark at Venice Biennalen 2011.
THE KAMPALA STORY
+ DOX:LAB artist talk: Donald Mugisha (UG) & Kasper Bisgaard
Moderator: Christian Monggaard
30 Aug., 4pm-6.45pm (artist talk 4pm-5.30pm), Screen A
’The Kampala Story’ is a docu-drama from the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The film revolves around how and to what degree the technology in the 21st Century affects everyday life of an African citizen.
A fourteen year-old girl, Apio, and her mother manages the household with the money the father, who works for a communications company in Kampala, wires to them online. One day the money transfers stop, and Apio decides to travel alone to Kampala to track down her father.
Before the film ’The Kampala Story’ starts, the audience can meet the two directors Donald Mugisha and Kasper Bisgaard for a conversation about their film and experiences from the DOX:LAB course.
Kasper Bisgaard comes from the film environment in Aarhus and has been selected as a participant in DOX:LAB by Filmlab Aarhus. Donald Mugisha has helped found the Ugandan film collective ‘Yes! That’s us’, which debuted with the ground-breaking feature film ‘Divizionz’ from 2008.
ACCIDENTES GLORIOSOS
+ DOX:LAB artist talk: Mauro Andrizzi (AR) & Marcus Lindeen (SE)
Moderator: Christian Monggaard
29 Aug., 4pm-6.15pm (artist talk 4pm-5.30pm), Screen C
Car accidents are instant art. They are sculptures formed in a flash. At least if you ask a certain photographer from Buenos Aires, who spends his nights on the road searching for the perfect accident. In the meantime, another place in Buenos Aires a man is looking for a legendary cocksucker, who is hiding in the dark rooms of a gay club. ‘Accidentes Gloriosos’ tells nine different stories about death and transformation. From the man, who after a heart transplantation wakes up with new artistic talents, to the woman, who reads a letter written by her husband just before he freezes to death in one of history’s most dramatic polar expeditions.
’Accidentes Glorioses’ has been shot for the official competition at the prestigious Venice Film Festival. First, however, the directors will visit Filmlab Aarhus to tell about their collaboration on the film.
Marcus Lindeen used to work as a TV- and radio journalist and has eventually gotten an education as a director from the Dramatiska Institut in Stockholm. He debuted in 2010 with the documentary ’Regretters’ about two Swedish men, who changed their sex twice.
Mauro Andrizzi got his international breakthrough with the film ‘Iraqi Short Films’ from 2008, which consisted of cell phone recordings from the Internet filmed by al-Qaeda groups and British and American soldiers during the Iraq war. Since then, he has further experimented with documentaries in ‘In the Future’, which competed in the main competition at CPH:DOX in 2010.
SHOT IN BEIRUT (Duration: app. 20 min)
29 Aug., 8.30pm, Screen B
Director: Halim Sabbagh (LB) & Camilla Nielsson
The film is about the creation of Arabic television commercials. The capitol of Lebanon, Beirut, is the centre of the advertising industry in the Middle East. Corporations from the Arab countries come here to produce TV ads for their million dollar brands. Using an observational approach, Shot in Beirut follows a production of a TV advertisement campaign shot in Beirut. What are the cultural faux pas, how are they negotiated and what does that tell us about the contemporary Arab world in general?
GIRL IN THE WATER (Duration: app. 25 min.)
30 Aug., 8pm, Screen C
Director: Woo Ming Jin (MY) & Jeppe Rønde
Fern is a young Thai woman who flees with her husband and child to Malaysia in search of work. Something happens during their journey by sea, and only Fern makes it to the final destination. She starts a new life, living in a house by the sea and working as a collector of a rare Chinese delicacy- bird’s nest. One day Fern finds a baby by the beach, who she takes in as her own – but her actions are not without consequences….
VANISHING WOMAN (Duration: app. 20 min.)
30 Aug., 9pm, Screen C
Director: Uruphong Raksasad (TH) & Jesper Just
This is a story of an obese woman from Bangkok, whose only wish is to see the ocean. Although it sounds like a modest wish, it is almost impossible to grant, as her obesity has more or less grounded her inside her home. Nevertheless she gets in a tuk tuk, and travels through Bangkok, towards the ocean. All the while, the rest of society is characterized by political changes and conflicts, leading up to the presidential election.
TATARE (Duration: 50 min)
31 Aug., 8.30pm, Hall C
Instruktør: Renate Costa (PY) & Salla Sorri (FI)
‘Tatare’ is filmed in Paraguay, and tells the story of 84 year old Don Alberto Bonnet, a soul searcher with a strong belief in reincarnation.
He has yet to find what he has been searching for his entire life, and is fed up with the thought of having to be reborn in order to find it. But he hasn’t given up hope. While the spider weaves its web and the sun brings a gentle hope for change, Alberto yet again opens his favourite book. It opens with the following words: ‘There is a faith in the essence of man, and a faith as a gift from god. A strong faith that lies within the nature of the fallen and a strong faith given from above…’
