In this documentary the film maker is following Roma singer Vera Bila and her band Kale and shows how she lives in Slovakia. After watching the documentary I was confused and I did not knew how to explain to myself what I just watched.
As a fly on the wall "Black and White in Colour" shows Vera Bila as the Roma singer, the mother of an adopted son, a dedicated wife but also as a woman who sabotages her own life. Although short in height, this Czech Roma lady has a great voice. I was touched by all songs featured in the documentary and I have been frantically surfing the Internet to find out more about her music.
But at times the documentary feels as a long PR video to promote Vera Bila and sometimes it feels as the scenes are manipulated either by Vera or the film maker. I felt a bit 'cheated' and I do not know if I even could blame someone for it as the objective of the documentary is not clear to me. The topic of how Romany live in Slovakia and are viewed by society is only briefly touched and brushed away by Vera which I find disappointing as I believe it would do more justice to the documentary and mostly to the Roma singer Vera Bila. Thinking more about it, I believe I have not seen one documentary that is totally 'objective' about its subject, but is edited the way the film maker wants to get his/her message across. And if the message is to show the talent of Vera Bila then that message surely comes across loud and clear.
Video clip or not, I am impressed by Vera's voice and would like to show you a musical excerpt from "Black and White in Colour".
Black and White in Colour, 1999
Director: Mira Erdevicki
Producer: David Charap
Showing posts with label Documentaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Documentaries. Show all posts
Friday, May 4, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
IDFA Update - Dreaming by Numbers
The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) announced that three documentaries will be released on DVD this year. Lucky for me, the first documentary to be released is the one that impressed me most and that I liked very much.
The documentary 'Dreaming by Numbers' is shot in black and white and gives you a feeling of nostalgia. It shows how gamblers in a run-down neighbourhood in Naples are guided by numbers. Some gamblers see numbers in their dreams, others take their numbers from the news paper or derive it from an accident or tragedy. What is important is that these numbers are 'holy' to them and that they will find no peace until they have bought a lottery ticket with these numbers. The documentary shows how much faith these people have in the lottery and in their numbers even though they did not win this time, again. There is faith that if you recognize the significance, the meaningful coincidence, of a number that you take from a poster or a license plate of a car (even if this car almost hit you), you can change your fate. In fact faith is the only thing they have, as without faith there is no hope and their life has no meaning and certainly no future.
Director: Anna Buchetti.
Nominated in the category 'Best Documentary': European Film Awards 2006 and Golden Calf 2006
The documentary 'Dreaming by Numbers' is shot in black and white and gives you a feeling of nostalgia. It shows how gamblers in a run-down neighbourhood in Naples are guided by numbers. Some gamblers see numbers in their dreams, others take their numbers from the news paper or derive it from an accident or tragedy. What is important is that these numbers are 'holy' to them and that they will find no peace until they have bought a lottery ticket with these numbers. The documentary shows how much faith these people have in the lottery and in their numbers even though they did not win this time, again. There is faith that if you recognize the significance, the meaningful coincidence, of a number that you take from a poster or a license plate of a car (even if this car almost hit you), you can change your fate. In fact faith is the only thing they have, as without faith there is no hope and their life has no meaning and certainly no future.
Director: Anna Buchetti.
Nominated in the category 'Best Documentary': European Film Awards 2006 and Golden Calf 2006
De IDFA (Internationaal Documentaire Film Festival Amsterdam) gaat drie docu-klassiekers op DVD uitbrengen dit jaar. Een van de documentaires is 'Dreaming by Numbers' waar ik zeer van onder de indruk was. De docu is in zwart/wit opgenomen en gaf mij een nostalgisch gevoel, wat alleen maar meer sympathie bij mij opwekte (heel slim dus van de makers..).
De documentaire-makers bezoeken een lotto-kantoor in een achterstandswijk in Napels waar dagelijks vele gokkers inzetten op voor hen belangrijke getallen. Deze getallen zien zij in dromen, op een willekeurige poster of herleiden het zelfs van een gebeurtenis of een ongeluk. Voor de interpretatie van de nummers wordt het getallenboek 'De Grimas' gebruikt. De obsessie voor cijfers kan heel komisch zijn; zo vraagt een gokker zich af welke getallen een droom over een manke kakkerlak oplevert. Ook worden de dromen van de afgelopen nacht gedeeld met de werknemers van het lotto-kantoor die de droom in getallen proberen te interpreteren. Zelfs de cijfers van een kentekenplaat van de auto die een gokker bijna overreed worden serieus genomen en voor het gokken gebruikt. Maar achter deze verhalen gaan ook tragedies schuil en zien we hoe een oude vrouw die moet rondkomen van een karige uitkering toch gaat gokken. Immers, hoop doet leven?
Regisseur: Anna Buchetti. Nominaties in de categorie 'Beste Documentaire': European Film Awards 2006 en Gouden Kalf 2006
Regisseur: Anna Buchetti. Nominaties in de categorie 'Beste Documentaire': European Film Awards 2006 en Gouden Kalf 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)