Tuesday 13 September 2011

Chess is a pure drama

Sometimes as filmmakers we are looking for new fields of drama for ideas for films. Court and medicine are the best examples of pure drama where life and death and other values like justice are at stake. That explains the popularity of courtroom series and hospital tv series.

But sometimes drama lies in the things that we usually regard as boring. Chess is a great example of a dramatic sport where personalities and different temperaments crash and collide.

A new film "Bobby Fischer Against the World" distributed by DogWoof, proves that chess is a great source of drama with great and weird genius at war, like Bobby Fischer himself. This is the first documentary to explore the bizarre life of one of the greatest chess players, Bobby Fischer.

You can watch the preview or the whole film here

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Michael Schumacher. Brilliant 20 years.

The other day I was talking to the priest in Orthodox church as part of my "Leto Be" documentary about the fans of 30secondstomars, Echelon. So I was asking him about the lines in Bible that say that one shall not make yourself an idol in the form of of anything. The truth is that I always had idols in life, they helped me to be who I am.

One of them, the first of them is Michael Schumacher.

He is an unwritten book. He is a warrior in shining arms of nowadays. His poster that I had since I was 15, helped me to believe in myself and to fight till the end. Whether you are at the exam and feel like you lost it all, or in your relationship. He was always fighting till the end even when it was illogical to continue. The most logical driver used his intuition when it mattered the most.


And sometimes he was totally wrong. I admire him for his mistakes more then for his championships. Not that I approve of them and I am glad he acknowledged and apologised and learnt a big deal from them. He didn't give up.

It is very easy to take your mistake of one moment, one wrong choice you did and guide your whole life as a misery and blame yourself and have this eternal excuse of being a wrong-doer. It takes far more courage and inner strength to stand up as if you are a new person with a blank history and go on. It is much easier to be unhappy then happy and brilliant.

Michael Schumacher is not brilliant because he's born brilliant. He is brilliant because he chose to be brilliant. And that choice is a choice of a true hero. Whether it means tragic hero one day, like in Adelaide, or a perfect hero like in Japan (choose your favourite year).

My admiration of him wasn't always consistent. I cried my eyes out when he broke his leg. And his decision of come-back made me cry too, in a good way. But then for numerous races I was questioning his decision and choice to be back. Until I realised again, that he is being himself, not an idol, a real person who makes illogical choices because he believes in them. And he might be wrong sometimes. But yet again, he will never have regrets, that he didn't try.

He is racing for 20 years because he cannot not to race and there is no ego anymore involved in this process. He is doing it because he can and he wants to. I admire this even more then some of his greatest victories. He reached the state of not caring when he cares. It's hard to explain but I guess that's what they call wisdom and I hope that one day I will reach it too. And when I do, I will look back at my most embarrassing moments in life and acknowledge them and be thankful to Michael Schumacher for teaching me not to give up and get pass your own selfish guilt.

Last race (Spa 2011) was amazing and British media and fans all worshipped Button who came third from 13th. But the man who was 5th came from the last place on grid, he overtook 19 cars. He didn't win. Neither did Button. But we know that those two really are true warriors.

I have no vocabulary to express my feelings to Michael!!!

To prove he is not an idol but a human being here is a press-conference of him at Monza when he cried.


Picture taking from F1Racing Facebook page, September issue of F1Racing magazine. 




Friday 2 September 2011

My Short Observational documentary "Two More Sausages"

As some of you know I am co-producing a feature documentary happening in Bosnia "My Side Of School". Director Chris Bates is leaving today for the first trip of shooting today so wish him luck. With your help and support of our friends and relatives we raised $4000 for the first art of the documentary. Check out the fund-raising trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki1zYr3k1Dw&feature=player_embedded


But as a director of documentaries I am very novice, so here is my first very short observational documentary on one day of a local coffeeshop "Two More Sausages". The criteria for this doc was to shoot without words, so no interviewing and not interfering the process and life. This is as part of my documentary module at MetFilm School.

As my tutor, Caroline Deeds, director of some BBC and Channel 4 docs, always says, patience is very important for any documentary-maker. And it was certainly true in case of shooting "Two More Sausages". A 3 hours wait was worth it as a very interesting client appeared in the cofeeshop...



Please let me know what you think and how it can be made better, your advice is very important for me.