"Remember Belsen" a film by Frank Shields

Recently I received an email from Frank Shields an old friend I met about 50 years ago. At that time Frank was trying to make a film about Australian soldiers who participated in the Boer War. As luck would have it I was selected to be the sound recordist for some of the interviews which Frank conducted with these fellows who were in their nineties. Then Frank and I met again via Facebook about three years ago, when he told me he was trying to get up another film project which he has recenlty completed: "Remember Belsen".

Frank is unstoppable! Not even Covid and the long periods of the lockdowns could prevent him from making this film. He sent me these notes which were prepared by Carmela Baranowska, a fine young woman whom I taught about 25 years ago when she was a doco student at VCA.

Writer/Director/Producer Frank Shields: A window into the Holocaust...What should we remember? Or, What does Remember Belsen mean? On viewing there will be no doubt about the answer to either question. Will the viewer compare Belsen with Rwanda, Cambodia or even Ukraine. This film will spark debate.' The Melbourne Documentary Film Festival

From Frank:

I did an interview with Paul Harris for his Filmbuff podcast and one of the audience at the Sydney Film Museum who did translation work on James Dean Le Sueur’s award winning film, “The Art of Dissent” wrote a testimonial: 

"So amazed to have unexpectedly met director Frank Shields & some survivor protagonists at Sydney's premiere of Remember Belsen - a moving homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s long-buried film F3080, whose footage of the camp's liberation was considered to be too horrific for the post-war healing public to see. Now that it has been sensitively reworked, however, including vignettes from Australian author Nadia Wheatley & war artist Alan Moore, it should now be a permanent testament to that human experience of world significance. Originally pitched at 75 minutes, its 110 minute screening does not falter. Alena Jirasek, Czlink,Translator Services.

To give you some clarity, I have attached the synopsis which explains Hitchcock’s participation.  Here is the TRAILER for my film:

Good news is, you can see my film without leaving your living room, for my film is not showing at MIFF but online at MDFF until end of July.  

 watch.eventive.org/mdff  

Open link, go to Australian documentary line and scroll to Remember Belsen.

If you have any problems with links please let know. Thanks for spreading the news.

Frank

"SMALL CHANGE ..." From Darko in Croatia

 

SMALL CHANGE PANIC CINE REVUE 

         AT THE EXOTIC HARBOUR IN CROATIA

I was really glad to receive Peter's invitation to share my impressions from the three-day presentation of experimental cinematography in Bol on Brač Island for the "Friends of the Armchair Traveller" blog.


As a main selector, I organized two two-hour long sessions of recent film works directed by several renowned authors with most of whom I have previously collaborated while I was active as a programmer at the KKS, Split Cinema Club. The film program was conceived in accordance with the alarmist "panic art" intentions of the central seven-day exhibition of archived (paper) prohibitions and warnings organized by the "Centar za kulturu Bol".

First day screenings on the 9th of July formally represented my first author's retrospective, for which films from my recent works digital archive were selected by the organizers of the event. My personal choice would have been, of course, more modest and somewhat different. I would like to thank those involved for their support and trust. 

Before I elaborate the concept of the second screening evening, on which I worked in collaboration with David King (Melbourne), Gwendolyn Audrey Foster & Wheeler Winston Dixon (Lincoln; USA) and Giorgos Efthimiou (Athens), it may be worthwhile to describe the place of the event in more detail.

As Wikipedia states: 

“Bol is a municipality on the south of the island of Brač in the Split-Dalmatia County of Croatia, population 1,630 (2011). Bol (its name is derived from the Latin word "vallum") is renowned for its most popular beach, the Zlatni Rat ("Golden cape"). It is a promontory composed mostly of pebble rock that visibly shifts with the tidal movement. The Adriatic Sea water at Zlatni Rat is clear and somewhat cold, due to the strong current of the strait it is situated in. There is a beach on either side of the horn. Bol itself is a popular tourist destination, known for its harborside bars and restaurants, and windsurfing conditions. The first mention of Bol as a settlement dates from October 10, 1475”.

I am personally connected with this island and the place through my short-term engagement at the local high school (more than 20 years ago) and the fact that my grandmother on my father's side was born in the nearby village of Dol.

The program of the second film screening evening (10th of July), in accordance with the basic "panic" concept of the main event, was organized in four blocks. The first is based on David King's project "ABODE", which integrates (along with David`s one) the recent works of four younger authors who freely and in a short form interpreted the central concept (ghost story) of the classic experimental film "Grim" (1985) directed by Takashi Ito. The project was assembled by Serge Maslov-Szymarski (expatriate), Camelia Mirescu (Italy), Kunal Biswas (India), Debjit Bagchi (India) and David.

Besides the "ABODE" project, three other works realised by David King during the last two years also were shown as a first presentation block segments:

“A Compendium of Impossible Shadows”, 

“Mansions In Eternity” 

“Imaginarium of the Unnown Traveller"  

                                 (See additional notes ps., * from David below )

The second block of the first screening set for the second evening was reserved for the premiere presentation of Giorgos Efthimiou's new film "You are Fire" (2022) and several works from the "Pugnant Film Series" archive maintained by Giorgos. For this occasion, he chose the following films: 

 "In Campania, in the Winter" Théo Verprat  (France, 2020); 

 "Sarcophagus" Aleksei Klimon & Andrey Hess (Russia, 2022); 

 "Love Machine" Milo Masoničić (Montenegro, 2021); 

                                         Buja Alimani - Gas (Albania, 2006).

The second screening set was composed out of a “bi-retrospective” selection of films directed by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster and Wheeler Winston Dixon accompanied by films directed by younger authors suggested for this occasion by Wheeler and Gwendolyn. (Donna Kuhn - USA, Larry Wang - USA and Penumbra Carter - UK) and out of my personal bonus “shovel of summer cinema gems'' directed by Marie Craven (Australia), Usama Alshaibi (USA), Pierre-Luc Vaillancourt (Canada) and Walter Ungerer (USA). The program of the second evening was interrupted around midnight by local authorities (not to mention permanent fried chicken smell), so the last hour of announced film material was shown the next day (July 11th). I take this opportunity to thank all the authors and apologize to those who did not receive my messages because my emails were recently hacked.

The last projection evening organized in two sessions on 15th of July was reserved for the presentation of two feature classics (panic film alerts) of German neo avant-garde cinematography: “Die Hamburger Krankheit” (1979) directed by Peter Fleischmann and Die totale Therapie (1996) directed by Christian Frosch. I hope that the opportunity for a new edition of this cinema revue will happen, if not soon, then at least next summer, and maybe at another (exotic?) place.

Personally, I am additionally satisfied that my "promise" about the organization of a small summer film festival (from the interview given more than two years ago for the local daily newspaper "Slobodna Dalmacija") has been fulfilled in this way. Although Cinema Club Split is not among the organizers, it can be said that everything happened in a pleasant and “clubbing” atmosphere…

Here's a short experimental video I made just for this occasion and for our blog video archive.

         Darko Duilo

                                            ps., *  from David King

I was honored to be asked by Darko if he might screen my recent works in a new program he was curating. I've always admired Darko as a curator of experimental film and as a filmmaker in his own right.

Back in the Kino Klub Split days, Darko was responsible for showcasing not only works by myself and many other fine experimental filmmakers I happen to know, but also many wonderful works that many of us would never have known about except for his screenings. 

I sincerely hope Darko continues to program independently as he has here with the Progressive Cinema Screenings at Bol, Brac and I'm happy to pledge any help I can give to future screenings.

DJK