Movie reviews

16TH DOCS AGAINST GRAVITY FILM FESTIVAL

The debate on women in the movie industry was eye-opening. There are few female composers, in the US less than 10%. More women work in documentaries and that's because of lower budgets - the higher the budget, the more a producer earns. In Poland, assistants are mostly female while directors etc. mostly male. Costumes, make-up, decor are all feminised. If you talk to men, you need numbers so a study was conducted to prove to men what women have known all along. In Poland between 2006 and 2017, feature-length movies were 14% female-directed, documentaries 30%, short films 27%, animation 30%. It's more than in Hollywood but if women reach the 30% threshold in any field, it starts to be called "miażdżąca przewaga kobiet" ("the overwhelming preponderance of women"). Women constitute 38% of producers and 47% production directors in co-operation with others and only 15% as sole producers. In feature productions, 4% of music composers are female, as are 5% cinematographers, 27% editors, 25% scriptwriters. But in total on the market, more editors are female than male. If a profession is feminised, the pay is lower and the rights and conditions of work are inferior. PISF (Polish Film Institute) has devoted 13% of the budget on movies directed by women but it's those productions that actually brought more awards. Most Polish productions are bankrolled by this institution. The experts now are 50/50 male/female. According to the Canadian director of "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch", Jennifer Baichwal: "most critics are white middle-aged men". Only strict laws, not soft rules can change the situation in the industry. Director of "Komunia" ("Communion") works with professionals so she ends up working with women. Men invite women to work with them because they need "a female eye", "female sensitivity". For "Anthropocene: The Human Epoch" all composers were female but were very hard to find. The director is respected by men more since she's very hands on with technicalities of the job. At the debate, most of the people in the audience were women, more than 100, and only 6 men. The much-awarded "Komunia" ("Communion") director gets no job offers from Poland but did from France,  though she'd have no right to the final cut so she declined. Many women after their first great success, whether at festivals or commercial, don't get offers from Poland. But they do get from foreign producers. Polish producers fight for male movie-makers.

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? 

Watchable. A grim picture of democracy not just failing nowadays but having failed and having to fail because people are selfish and the rich control the middle layer of the society to keep the poor in check. If you ask for a right, a right you have already will be taken away from you. The smartest voices in the film are those of an ex-convict and of a black schoolgirl. Philosophers have their say too but the only thing both comprehensible and to the point you hear from them, although on the margin only, is that originally, in Athens, democracy comprised no elections but a lottery. I'd love it to come back! Now financial and trade institutions have their global representations while the global populace doesn't.

I attended a meeting with "The Reformist - a Female Imam" protagonist. She says that to create change, you don't ask for permission, you take it yourself. She also pointed out that prophet Mohammad had appointed female imams. It was only the second Caliph Omar who forbade it.

I also went to a meeting with the director of "Meeting Gorbachev". Apparently, the politician negotiated with Hollywood for 5 years and Leonardo di Caprio was to impersonate him. Gorbachev is nearly 90, with diabetes. He's a passionate environmentalist. A lot of Russians don't like him because he gave up on the Soviet empire and the economy crashed before his reforms worked. His family live in Berlin. He's very circumspect. He would ponder over questions before answering. To Andre Singer, the British director who has been working with Werner Herzog for several years, a documentary is objective truth, to Herzog, it's poetic truth.