Mini-INPUT - United Kingdom
6th Mini INPUT to be held in London - 18 & 19 January 2008
As 2008 gains momentum, the Goethe-Institut London is set to present its 6th Mini-Input. This year we will for the first time host an extended version, which is not only longer, with the programme spread out over Friday night and all of Saturday, but will also be expanded to include some of the best films that were shown at the last Prix Europa festival, which took place in Berlin in October 2007.
The screenings of these films underlines one key fact – very few of them will be broadcast on UK television, and for this Mini-Input we are holding a panel discussion on Friday evening, 18 January, to examine this issue. The members of the panel, including Jane Balfour and Greg Sanderson (Storyville, BBC4) will discuss why there seems to be no room, amongst the plethora of digital channels, for important documentary and drama from the rest of the world.
Also on Friday there will be a screening of Margo Harkin’s documentary Bloody Sunday, made for RTE and Arte, which is the first film to track the extensive Saville inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, when the British army shot 26 civil rights protesters, of whom fourteen died. The film includes footage from the day never released before. It is hoped film-maker Margo Harkin will attend the screening.
Saturday, 19 January, includes a full day and evening of screenings from Input and the Prix Europa, including one of the top rated films from the documentary competition in Berlin, The Putin System, produced & directed by Jean-Michel Carré and Jill Emery for France 2 and NDR. This film examines how Putin came to power in Russia, and how his regime operates. The film-makers will be present to take part in a discussion on the film.
The day starts with one of the most controversial films to come out of Belgium in recent years - Bye Bye Belgium, from RTBF – which purports to be a live action record of the day the Flemish part of Belgium decided to abandon the Belgian state and declare independence. In fact, the film is a drama, using real-life, well known journalists, and was one of the key talking points at the last Input.
Over the Hill is a documentary from Viewpoint Productions & VPRO in the Netherlands about the tyranny of size zero and all the other ‘perfections’ that fashion magazines encourage young women to emulate – including enduring spurious cosmetic surgery.
Sunny Bergman was a model, has been a film-maker for ten years, and takes a close look at the effect the dishonesties of the fashion industry are having on women’s view of themselves.
The evening on Saturday is devoted to a screening of the entire three hour TV drama series Dresden, from ZDF – one of highest rated German TV productions of recent years, which sets a love story against the background of the bombing of Dresden in WW2. This series has been seen on UK TV, on More4 a year ago.
Other films during the day include a groundbreaking drama series from Israel, In Treatment, that emulates the experience of psychotherapy, and In Koht With the Family from Norway, a larger than life female presenter takes a very different look at family life.
WHEN: Friday evening and all-day Saturday January 18 & 19th 2008
WHERE: Goethe Institute, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition road, London SW7 2PH
COST: £3 for Friday discussion & screening, , £9 for Saturday screenings, £10 for both
Full Programme
Friday, 18th January
7.00PM
Panel Discussion: "British TV was once a window on the world - Is it Still?" with sales agent Jane Balfour, Greg Sanderson from BBC Storyville and former MEP Carole Tongue, plus some of the film-makers.
8.30PM Bloody Sunday
This highly personal documentary by Derry based Margo Harkin is the first account by a local director who was herself an eye witness to that tragic day in Derry, 30th of January 1972, when the British Army shot dead thirteen unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march to the town centre. The film follows the long search for the truth at the second Inquiry led by Lord Saville of Newdigate, announced in 1998 and held in Derry and London over a period of six years. We are introduced to the stories of the people whose lives have been dramatically changed as a result of Bloody Sunday and hear many new eye witness accounts by families and friends of the dead and those wounded on the day.
Ireland / Germany 2007, 85mins. Directed by Margo Harkin. Documentary. Shown at Prix Europa 2007.
Q & A with Margo Harkin
SATURDAY 19 JANUARY
8.30am Registration and Ticket Collection
9.00am Bye Bye Belgium
Wednesday, 13 December 2006, 8:15 PM: the live studio broadcast Front Page Questions, the weekly news magazine of RTBF (Radio et Télévision Belges Francophones). The anchor has just begun his presentation when the programme is interrupted by a special news bulletin. According to the star journalist, the Flemish parliament has voted to separate from the Kingdom of Belgium. The King has fled as a refugee and the country is in chaos. The old Belgium is dead, confirming long-held fears. Politicians, artists, sports celebrities, people in the streets comment and express their feelings, including the RTBF TV manager himself. This historical moment generates incredibly high ratings. Until the programme is exposed as a fake, and French-speaking Belgian politicians call for the RTBF chief ’s dismissal.
Belgium 2005. 95mins. Directed by Philippe Dutilleul. Fiction – TV Movie. Shown at INPUT 2007.
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11.00am Koht with the Family
How is the Norwegian family doing? Is life focused on the time squeeze, clean socks, and transporting the kids to and from practice, school band, and friends? Or is life nice and pleasant with everyone gathered around a homemade pizza? Kristine Koht has done research on and spent time with several families, and in the course of eight programmes she presents her findings. Through probing questions, an active presence, meticulously recorded statistics, and an uncanny ability to gain people’s trust, Koht sketches a picture of the state of Norwegian families. We’re pleased to report that the Norwegian family is doing surprisingly well. Quite simply, Koht is deeply impressed by what the families are able to accomplish.
Norway 2006, 29 mins. Directed by Kristin Ekker. Docu Soap. Shown at INPUT 2007.
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11.45am Over The Hill
34-year-old director Sunny Bergmann, former model, philosophy graduate, daughter of a feminist filmmaker, and a mother herself, is worried that her days as an attractive young woman are numbered. At the same time, she is angry that women are constantly judged on their looks and are considered to be “over the hill” once they reach 35. It is this ambivalence that motivates her to take a closer look at the ways in which plastic surgery, the cosmetics industry, and women’s magazines contribute to and at the same time capitalize on women’s increasing insecurity about their looks. Apart from interviewing surgeons, editors, academics, Sunny also submits herself to the critical gaze of a plastic surgeon, or sees herself transformed into a glamour girl by the power of photoshop. The comparison with the film that her mother made 30 years ago indicates that today’s beauty standards couldn’t be further removed from reality.
The Netherlands 2007, 59 mins. Directed by Sunny Bergmann. Documentary. Shown at Prix Europa 2007.
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1.00pm – 2.00pm Lunch Break
2.00pm The Putin System
Russia’s re-emergence on the world stage is reminiscent of the glory days of the Soviet Union. But, with democratic opposition in the country being systematically crushed, does Valdimir Putin’s ultra-authoritarian leadership have more in common with his communist predecessors than previously thought? This film is an investigative documentary covering 30 years in the history of Russia through the personal history of Vladimir Putin: a man who has single-mindedly played all the rules of the game to reach the throne of power. It covers all the major events and aspects of the “Putin system” up to the present day .
France / Germany 2007, 95mins. Directed by Jean Michel Carré, Jill Emery. Shown at Prix Europa 2007.
Jean Michel Carré and Jill Emery will be present for a Q & A after the film.
With the kind support of the Institut-Français.
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4.15pm Yaptik-Hasse
Yaptik-Hasse is one of the younger members of the very large Yaptik family, and also their good spirit. As it is the end of August, the Nenets people begin their usual journey through the ‘middle-world’ between North and South, setting off from their camp in the tundra, on the Yamal peninsula. Filmmaker Edgar Bartenev chooses three different means to tell the story of the breathtaking everyday life of these Siberian nomads: music, intertitles, and a camera. The result is one of the most exciting forms to reanimate the ethnographic genre.
Russia 2006, 31 minutes. Directed by Edgar Bartenev. Documentary. Shown at INPUT 2007.
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5.00pm In Treatment
A groundbreaking new format that takes viewers on a journey through the intriguing and fascinating world of psychotherapy. A unique drama that follows five ongoing psychotherapy patients through nine sessions each, all shot in the therapist’s clinic. Each day of the week is dedicated to one person’s therapy session. Monday: Na’ama is a beautiful young woman who falls in love with Ruben and draws him into deep confusion that leads him to question both his personal and professional life. Tuesday: Yadin, an air force pilot, suspended from the army after bombing civilians during a military operation. Wednesday: Ayala, a suicidal seventeen-year-old Olympic gymnast. Thursday: Michael and Orna, a couple attempting to rehabilitate their fragile marriage. Friday: Ruben meets with his supervisor from his early years as a therapist. During these Friday sessions, Ruben deals with his own problems: his patients, his professional life and his crumbling personal affairs.
Israel 2005, 30mins. Directed by Hagai Levi. Drama. Shown at INPUT 2007.
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6.30pm Dresden
From the producers of The Tunnel, this moving, authentic drama shot in and around Dresden incorporates both the English and German perspectives on the Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945. Anna, a young nurse, is fighting to save the lives of wounded soldiers in Dresden during the cold, dark winter of 1945. Such is her concern that she hardly even looks forward to her forthcoming engagement with the ambitious young surgeon Alexander. One day, Anna finds a soldier hiding in the hospital. Assuming he is a German deserter, she keeps quiet; but when she later learns that he is a British soldier who was shot down, she still cannot betray him, for she has begun to fall in love with him. As British bombers begin their attack on Dresden, Anna discovers the true nature of her fiancé Alexander and risks her life to save the British soldier. Directed by Roland Suso Richter (The Tunnel), it tells the stories not of the generals and commanders who, but of the normal men and women at the center of the catastrophe.
Benjamin Sadler. Fiction – TV Movie. Shown at INPUT 2007.
With kind support from teamWorx Television & Film.
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For more information, please contact Maren Hobein.
Tickets: £3 for Friday discussion & screening, , £9 for Saturday screenings, £10 for both. Tickets can be reserved on Tel: +44 (0)20 7596 4000. There is no advance payment for this event. Tickets can only be collected and paid on the day.
For more information on the films, contact Nick Radlo, RTS London Centre & Input UK.
