19th jihlava idff programme specials 4

First Lights

The impersonal eye of the camera glides along the polished surface of an office building that is equally impenetrable as the incomprehensible algorithm of global financial transactions. A sometimes robotic woman’s voice switches between scientific discourse and personal viewpoint. The words and images become tangled in ever more complicated linkages.

The filmmaker, who was Fassbinder’s friend, built this documentary around a core of sensitive material that he was “afraid to look at” for a long time. In one single interview, the mentally and physically completely exhausted auteur revealed the key to his own self-image. This found footage film includes talks with people close to Fassbinder, excerpts from his films, and a lightly sarcastic Freudian commentary.

Over forty years ago Marcel fled from Spain to avoid military service. He found his paradise in Latin America, in the heart of the Costa Rican rainforest, where he lives as a shaman practising mystical rituals, often in the company of young travellers escaping from hectic Western civilisation. The film, like his deeply sensory ceremonies, is played out in a hypnotic rhythm, almost without words.

He is serving a life sentence for the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. She is a divorced mother of four children, originally from the Soviet Union. Together they are looking for a path open to love and life in a country divided by religion and violence. This heartfelt portrait of a separated family provides indirect testimony about the elusive political and cultural situation in Israel.

Located 110 km off the coast of Africa, the island of Lampedusa is obliged to act as the gateway to Europe. During the winter, no tourists travel here, nor TV crews; all that remains is a small community and rescued refugees. Careful observation of everyday details and dramatic situations map both the refugee crisis and the struggle of the fishermen to get a new ferry.

The author’s vision of the current geological age charts the human effort to control the forces of nature that leave indelible physical traces on the face of the earth. The reversed-light images accentuate the contours of forms. The flickers of moments point out how blind and deaf we are to the striking degree of our impact, allowing for a deeper insight into the geometrical poetry of the landscape.

First contact with an alien civilization drives the imagination of many dreamers and sci-fi authors. At the same time, however, such an event would raise numerous biological, cultural, legal, and other dilemmas. This documentary sci-fi fantasy consists of interviews with experts and of hypnotic visions of the moment of the first encounter.

This contribution by former Monty Python Terry Jones and economist Theo Kocken to the discussion on the causes and effects of financial crises falls somewhere between Woody Allen, Oliver Stone, and educational puppetry for adults. The barrage of scholarly economist “talking heads” is relieved by absurd humour, animations, and in particular a “straight to the point” approach.

This portrait of Steve Jobs is a delicate diagnostic of an era’s value system whereby man and machine no longer have a purely utilitarian relationship, but rather an emotional bond. The story of Jobs fulfilling his vision is not a celebration of the American dream. On the contrary, it calls for a reassessment of the unconditional affection towards a person and the products he personifies.

Chilean history unfolds in front of our eyes, forming a comprehensive picture that encompasses the story of ancient aboriginals, cosmic research based on a scorched desert and the monstrosity of the Pinochet regime. The film can also be viewed as a meditation on water – the all-pervading cosmic element that creates Chile’s natural border.

This documentary portrait follows Orson Welles from his early days in radio to his breakthrough work for RKO and his European exile. His non-conformist personality is presented through interview with his daughter, directors and fans such as Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich, and archival interviews with Welles himself.

A group of veteran environmental activists looks back at the early days of Greenpeace kin the 1970s: direct action, demonstrations, repression. With the benefit of hindsight, how do they view their actions today? Their stories are accompanied by previously unpublished footage of their activities that shows the movement’s growth from a small group of enthusiasts to a worldwide environmental movement.