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.
During two months of this summer I was working on the webseries called "Licensed" as a producer. These are webseries about Raymond Hewitt, a TV Licensing detective enforcement officer. His sole mission in life is to find all those who have failed to pay for their TV Licences and punish them. He will do so in style.
The production of series was a great pleasure and surely a lot of hard work. It was a great experience and I shall take some time one day to share with you my idea of making webseries on low budget.
Here is a 4th episode of Licensed, where Raymond Hewitt visits a student house...
If you like the series, subscribe to us on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/LicensedProductions
I have been quiet on this blog for a while, please forgive me for such a long silence. I was going to create a new blog but then decided that this one has too many things I value.
I am co-producing a feature documentary called "My Side Of School".
My Side of School' will be an observational documentary about the division between young and old in the small town of Stolac in Bosnia & Herzegovina. There is already division in Stolac - the population of Bosniaks (Muslim) and Croats (Catholic) has endured nationalist rule since the end of the war in the 90s, and local politics aims to keep the two groups apart.
Most young people do not mix with those from the other group, drinking coffee in their own cafes.
However Edvin, Nives and friends are unconventional in that they are a group from both backgrounds.
These characters find it hard to spend time together, especially during the week, as the school they all attend keeps the two ethnicities apart: Croats attend in the morning, and Bosniaks in the afternoon.
Separate sets of staff teach them their own languages and their own versions of history.
This division is clear in the open, but away from the public eye, it's a different story.
There is a hotel in the centre of town which has been decaying since it was burnt out during the war.
Nives and her friend Zora joke that it's now alive again - its dark rooms are the perfect place for clandestine, cross-ethnic teenage adventures.
If their parents knew they were romantically involved with Muslim boys, there would be hell to pay.
This feature-length observational documentary will follow these and other characters over 12 months, to provide a picture of young love, ambition versus apathy, and the conflict between religion, politics and identity in a country that is struggling to prepare itself for the future.
We are funding the next trip to Bosnia via crowdfunding on the website called Indiegogo. For as little as $5 you can be involved in making this documentary and be part of this project.
July 9 - crime scene
This dream was again without my presence and not about me. I was a constructor of a dream, I was a director looking through the camera display, a writer putting the words in the mouth of a man.
This man, a cow-boy looking old man with grey hair but yrt black moustache, was shot in two places. His first thought was how is it fair, but it soon passed away necause a sharp wave of pain hit his brain and soul. He thought for a moment that he can trick death yet again. He covered the wound with his hand and on camera he was alive. But he was dying in a movie, and for him - both an actor and character it was a point of no return.
He died in my dream, he died in a movie, but that image of an old hand covering wound is still there.
My friends from FirstShowing.Net created a wonderful list of film releases in 2011 (US dates).
This list should be as usual divided into the Pre-Oscar season untill March and Post-Oscar season.
January is full of funny blockbusters and comedies with the highlight of beloved "Green Hornet".
Not so many big names are released in February as companies will be busy with the awards season.
March comes back to screens with several interesting-looking thrillers: The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless and The Lincoln Lawyer.
April looks interesting as it highlites the release of comedy "Your Highness", a detective action film "Hanna" and circus drama "Water for Elephants".
May is definately a big month for blockbusters: Hangover part 2, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom. Another film that is coming out in May is the film I am most looking forward to "The Tree of Life" starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt.
Summer brings us a great number of summer actions flicks like Green Lantern, X-Men, Cars 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Captain America: The First Avenger, Cowboys & Aliens and the final part of Harry Potter.
Can you imaine spending New Year's Eve and Christmas in prison? for 15 days? in the 3 meters square room with no window, no bed or charis, just walls. Can you imgaine that you are a world-wide well-known politician who can't spend holidays at home because you were arrested at the political demonstration which was legally authorised by police and local authorities?
If you can't imagine those things happening you clearly are not from Russia, for in modern Russia human rights and government do not go along.
Source: www.echo.msk.ru
On the 31st of December 2010, the former deputy prime minister and opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was arrested after political demonstration for "failing to follow police instructions". He was arrested after the demonstration that is held every 31st and 30st of the month to support the 31st article of Russian Constitution which states that every citizen has gor a freedom of speech. This human right is one of the basic rights in democratic countries, however it is contantly violated in Russia and the latest events proved it. The opposition has obtained a permission to hold this demonstration, so police arrested Nemtsov and other demonstraters after the event was over on their way home for not obeying police instructions. Those who were at the event say that there were indeed some anti-Putin and anti-government discussions at the demonstration.
Source: www.echo.msk.ru
This event was not covered on any of the TV channels in news. Most of the country who does not have access to internet does not know what is going on with the government opposition.
The court decided to give 15 days of imprisonment to Boris Nemtsov. For what? for merely questioning the work of Russian government. Considering that upcoming government elections will probably have the same level of equality we have no prospects in near future for the change of course.
We are given with tools, knowledge and freedom to build the new house of humanity. But standing here with spade in our hands, how can we be sure that we are building a basement - not a graveyard. And yes, we are children of our parents, whose blood and soul were tortured by the inhuman kinds of the 20th century. For more then 100 years they learnt to be brave and oh not so vulnerable. What can we rely on if church is no longer united, there are no souls left in the parents' house or the library - where shall we take the inspiration to restore nature and house?
Earth... First we need to get strength, we need to get rid of thirsty feeling and get back to job, and we are the diggers, graving the past and mourning about it, even though we didn't do it. We are here because someone else didn't do it either - in the 20th century of inhuman kinds there was place for humans, we are here because of them. How many are not. We are diggers, our ignorance and inner conflict take us down, standing on our knees, doubts like worms eating us from inside. Our elder brothers and sisters lost themselves in the agonizing freedom and oblivion of drugs, sex and videogames. We can't count on them, can't look up to them. Their dreams are dead and Requiem is conducted.
Digging is not an honorable job, not at all. Each of us asks question: why on earth do I have to do it? I didn't do anything wrong, it's all because of those generations before me, leave me alone, people, all I want to do is sit back and enjoy life, if stupid Paris Hilton does that, why can't I do it?"
I know life is unfair. But I guess each generation as each person has got its mission, its pre-destination. Isn't our mission now to save earth and to show next generations how it's done? Wouldn't it be a great example for our children how to treat nature? Maybe they'll call us "the people who saved us"; maybe they'll make movies about us? Maybe the house on the basement that we first destroy and then build again - maybe it'll be a brilliant example of architecture, a piece of art, a masterpiece. Can they count on us? Those future generations, those unborn kids. Will they praise our Requiem for a Dream? Or will they just acknowledge "Glamour life and no dreams"?
Sitting here at 2 am in the morning and burning energy on this PC, I am asking whether I am any better, whether I am brave enough to start digging the basement, no glamour dress, but gloves to clean oil from birds. Is this a dress code for the 21st century? Or is it just another costume party?
I am not saying that we have to sacrifice ourselves. But let's start thinking! Reflect!
We are the awareness. We are the start of today. We are the fresh green grass outside of OUR house. We are the faces on google map. We are switched off lights. We are saved tuna dolphins. We are windmills. We are the beauty of unspoiled sea. We are the sustainable farms. We are the wind. We are the people of the 21st century.
Let our children be proud. I am not saying - sacrifice yourself. I'm saying - SWTICH ON YOUR MIND.
Next time you are switching on lights in several rooms - switch on your mind.
Next time you are taking plastic bag in the supermarket - switch on your mind.
Next time you print stupid emails - switch on your mind.
Next time you use your car - switch on your mind - maybe there's a bus or a bike.
Next time you are washing dishes and leave water on for ages - switch on your mind.
Next time you throw something away - switch on your mind and sort out garbage.
Next time you see people in need - switch on your heart.
Next time you see dirt on the sky - wipe it off and switch on some smiles.
Next time you hear about some "oil spill" - switch on your conscious and don't illusionate yourself thinking that this doesn't concern you.
Next time you go to a picnic - switch on your esthetic sense and don't leave garbage.
Next time you see a master peace in the nature - don't ruin it, save it to the future people who will call you proudly "he was a man of the 21st century".
Here's a trailer to my friend Brian Hill's documentary "A Climate of Change"
