Berlin Film Festival - Festival Central

From The Workbook Project comes M dot Strange at Berlin's Talent Campus.  He forgoed regular distribution for his 2007 Sundance film, "We are the Strange," to self distribute his self-financed animated feature.

I'm not trying to make it in Hollywood.  I have nothing to do with the movie business at all.  So I can speak with you honestly. 

I had the Cinderalla story.  Make a film in a bedroom.  Go to Sundance.  But it turned into a nightmare.  In the end it ended up being okay through self distribution.

M dot Strange: Berlin Talent Campus 08 from M dot Strange on Vimeo.

by Vicci Ho
I am convinced that the Teddy organized scheduled "Otto; or, Up With Dead People" as our final 'to view' film on purpose. After seeing six films in one day, Bruce LaBruce's latest was exactly what it took to put me in the mood (zombiefied) for the post-screening party. It was at a fairly large underground gay club (literally) and by the time we got there after the film it was 1am. My friends and I found a quiet corner in the back room, but within twenty minutes it was not only over-packed, but over-smokey. The party was fun but I did find the service lacking. After waiting at the bar for over 10 minutes as the bartender took over a minute to mix one drink, I wonder if I would have had my booze faster if I was served by a real zombie.

I managed to get to bed just after 6am so I could get some rest before our jury deliberation meeting at 11.30am. With tired bodies and hungover minds, we hoped the meeting would not go as long as our scheduled 8 hours, but in the end it still took 6...by the time we had to write the jury statements we struggled so much we had to keep consulting the online thesaurus while half-sleeping on the table. By then I decided to at least have one quiet night before the big awards night and catch up on my beauty sleep!

The Teddy Awards was held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and as they sent cars to pick us up from the hotel beforehand, it once again dawned on me just how special this experience is, especially for a Berlinale virgin like myself. The big excitement of the evening was the attendance of Special Teddy award winner Tilda Swinton (for her contribution in preserving Derek Jarman's legacy.) It didn't take long for us to forget about the television cameras and potentially doing something embarrassing that will be seen across Europe and focused our thoughts solely on whether we will get a chance to take a photo with her (we did.)

By forgetting to collect the translation headphones, I really don't know half of what was happening during the ceremony, but the performances did leave a lasting impression. Most of the acts were acrobatics by men with extremely fit bodies. They were nothing but impressive but it does beg the question: why acrobatics?

After the ceremony we were ready to let our hair down and enjoy some down, drunken time. The party took place on two floors...with the top floor feeling like a gay high school prom and downstairs a pumping German techno discotheque that is so smokey my eyes teared up. After a few hours of drinking, it was finally time to wrap up such a wonderful and valuable experience in the only way it should be: an unforgettable high.

"In Germany we didn't have a feeling of negative criticism of the film. We felt the film was going really well. It was only later on the Internet we saw the opposite," director Jose Padilha (pictured) said to Reuters.

And boy was the internet the opposite.  But Padilha could have seen it coming.  Variety's Jay Weissberg couldn't have been more pointed in his review of Padilha's film about Rio cops and criminals, "The Elite Squad":

...a one-note celebration of violence-for-good that plays like a recruitment film for fascist thugs.

And Jay wasn't the only one surprised by the film's Golden Bear win. 

Shane Danielson at indieWIRE also brought out the f word, remarking on the film's "genuinely fascist sensibility…Since when did Mike Huckabee start scripting action-thrillers?" 

NY Times' Dennis Lim wasn't impressed.  And now Filmbrain smells a conspiracy and he's fingering Harvey:

Did Harvey in any way influence this win? We'll never know for sure, but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to believe this was the result of an honest vote.

Without seeing the film, I find it difficult to believe that a jury run by Costa Gavras would bestow a Golden Bear to fascism.  It's also certainly not in Harvey's public character to back a right wing film at script stage (though the script was rewritten). 

There are also rumors that the film was rejected from the festival completely until Harvey intervened.

But within all this outrage, another issue is emerging -- is the message of "The Elite Squad" lost in translation, literally and culturally? 

Blog commmenters are jumping to the film's defense, many of them from South America where the film has been released and hugely successful.

from the NY Times:

It looks like the technical problems in the Berlin showing of “Elite Squad” really confused the perception of many reviewers. Just to make it clear. The narration and focus of the movie are not supposed to be neutral!! Of course they aren’t.

from Jurgen Fauth's blog on About:

The Elite Squad is a great film that represents a punch in the face of a wrotten society. I am sorry that some people just couldn´t understand the film's message... Hope that the eurocentric avan-guardist arguments stop there. Cinema is not the priviledge the initiated [sic] and the fact that one is familiar with Fassbinder or Stroheim or whatever does not in itself make your opinion about a movie valid without reasoning.

from The Circuit:

Variety's comment on the presumed fascism of "Elite Squad" is an absurd. The review is not substantially justified. If the voiceover is sufficient to define the ideological position of the narrative, most of the noir movies, "The Clockwork Orange", among other masterpieces should be called "fascists" also.

The team from the Berlinale Golden Bear winner, "Elite Squad," celebrates after the awards.

A beaming Glen Basner (buried in the center), president of international distribution for The Weinstein Company, said: "We are so pleased for Jose Padilha and everyone involved in 'Tropa de Elite' and we are grateful to the Berlin Film Festival for embracing the film."

From left:  Wagner Moura (Actor), Daniela Bromfman (wife, Pedro), Pedro Bromfman (composer) Michelle Krumm and Glen Basner (The Weinstein Company), Jose Padilha (director), Jozane Resende (Jose's wife), Maria Ribeiro (Actress).

Complete list of winners is here.

“Elite Squad,” Jose Padilha's story on crime and corruption in the Rio slums, has won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival while Errol Morris' doc on the Abu Ghraib scandal, "Standard Operating Procedure," won the Silver Bear. 

Paul Thomas Anderson was awarded the Silver Bear for best director for "There Will Be Blood" while John Greenwood was recognized for artist contribution in scoring the film.  Wang Ziaoshuai won for his screenplay to "In Love We Trust."

Keiko Araki and Kumasaka Izuru won the Best First Feature award for "Park and Love Hotel."

Actors winning Silver Bears include Reza Najie for "The Song of Sparrows" and Sally Hawkins for her work in "Happy Go Lucky."

Complete list of winners is here.