DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - A Tribute to the Non-Fiction film-making of Martin Scorsese

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - A Tribute to the Non-Fiction film-making of Martin Scorsese

Dylan quote I most liked: It's not about knowing yourself. It's about creating something.


The film was comprised of restored 100's of hours of concert footage into a coherent story by Martin Scorsese. The footage was from 1975-76 and was crystal sharp with beautiful close ups of Dylan performing his concert of that time "The Rolling Thunder Review".

In Scorsese's interview he said that Dylan wanted to have a concert that was like a travelling Commedia del Arte, going in to set up a stage at small towns and have a group of different entertainers.

The film included amazing interviews of people who were involved with the tour. Afterwards Scorsese told us it was all a parody of an interview documentary and that those were all made up with fantastical stories. He explained it in a video clip I have with his Italian hand waving and humor. He says didn't you see the beginning where there was a disappearing lady trick. That should have given you a clue. He made up a whole story line where Sharon Stone was picked out of the crowd by Dylan and given free access to his concert. Then years later he asked her to join the tour. It was all contrived and his little joke. Sharon is a good friend who did the interview with him. It was really convincing and I was fooled.

He also made up a fake documentary Dutch or Swedish film maker Van Dorp who could barely tolerate Dylan and gave these shocking interviews putting him down.

Scorsese said that it was Dylan who suggested to him to make the documentary full of people who weren't even there and he thought that was a great idea. Thus the 40% fictional characters and interviews. He really fooled me on the fake film maker Van Dorp. What a name though.

It wasn't asked but he offered saying why should we explain anyway who Dylan is...read his songs and you'll learn everything there is to know about him.

What wasn't scripted was documentary footage of Dylan and his friendship with Alan Ginsberg. It was amazing to see those two geniuses (sp?) interact. There is one scene where they are at Jack Keroac's grave reading his poem Mexico City Blues. A lot of scenes also at Ginsberg's apartment which was a gathering of a lot of artists at the time.

Another two stand out scenes for me was his relationships with Joan Baez and Joni Mitchel. Joan Baez and Dylan had scenes of beautifully singing together and also heavy flirting. He asks her, "Why didn't you ever tell me you were getting married?" They're coy and shy flirts back saying "Why didn't you ever tell me you were got married?" He answered because he found the love of his life and then some comments about it was too bad it never happened for them.

Joni Mitchel was a charismatic woman and they showed the most beautiful clip of her and Dylan jamming and her singing on the tour bus. I can't remember the song but her voice was amazing.
She brought up how she was being criticized on the tour for not playing her hits but she refused to do it, she would only play her new music.

The film closed with the group playing 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' which was amazing. They ignored some of his bigger hits like 'Mr. Tambourine Man' or maybe other songs weren't written in 1975 yet.  Ron is older than I am and he knew the Dylan music very well. We texted after the film and he said he loved very scene with Dylan singing. He cried in one scene where Dylan does a special concert for Native Americans to honor the Indian Rolling Thunder who he said the tour was named after.

He didn't want the singing to stop and wondered how the original filmmakers got such close up footage of him singing. It was a few feet from his face in close ups a lot of time but I know that Scorsese heavily enhanced and edited the footage.

We also chatted about the scene where he plays in a jail which was heavily black incarcerated men and he championed the release of a boxer Hurricane and played them a song he wrote about incarceration and wanting to free Hurricane. He had an interview with Hurricane but I think it was fake.

Ron also said he was surprised by how much Dylan spoke in the film but he said he hung on every word. Although looking back now I don't know how much of the truth he was telling in the new interviews of him or how much he was going along with the fiction parts.

Someone had asked me why he wore face paint and masks on the tour. He said if someone is wearing a mask you know they are telling the truth. People who don't wear masks aren't truthful. He said there weren't enough masks on the tour. Scorsese said what do you do with an answer like that? He wanted more masks!

I just found a link to the whole interview by SF Film Society - wow!
Click here to see the Martin Scorsese interview I saw


Here's my video of him explaining the documentary is a farce. It's really funny. This is a temporary URL I think off Facebook so I don't know how long it will be up.
Click here for interview bit I recorded of Scorsese

Supposedly Dylan singing Knockin' on Heaven's Door - although it really doesn't sound like him. Good pictures of him though.
Possibly Dylan singing Knockin on Heaven's door - doubtful

Footage of Dylan at Live Aid singing with Ron Wood and Keith Richards
Click here for video of Dylan at Live Aid
This footage wasn't from the film but shows they're great voice melding and chemistry.
Click here for Joan Baez and Bob Dylan singing Blowing in the Wind

This is a clip I found of Allen Ginsberg reading a bit of Kerouac's 'Mexico City Blues'
Click here for Ginsberg reading Kerouac.

Guests Expected
Director Martin Scorsese is expected to attend.

Description
While he is beloved for his epic fiction features, Martin Scorsese’s non-fiction films are among his best work. Whether depicting tales of American life, illuminating the history of cinema, or capturing the exuberant spirit of contemporary music, his documentaries are insightful and often playful, revealing his curiosity and passion. We are thrilled to be welcoming this master filmmaker for an onstage conversation about his documentary work following a screening of his latest imaginative hybrid.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese
(Martin Scorsese, USA 2019, 142 min)
In the summer of 1975, Bob Dylan embarked on a tour across a divided America with a group of entertainers including Joan Baez, Sam Shepard, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Allen Ginsberg. Using a wealth of gorgeously restored onstage and behind-the-scenes footage from the time and contemporary interviews with subjects both real and fictional, including the first on-camera interview with Bob Dylan in over a decade, Scorsese concocts a mischievous mix of fact and fantasy that explores the boundaries of both artistic self-invention and documentary film.

“Dylan obsessives will obviously be in heaven — gasping at the sparks that fly when old flame Joan Baez touches the folk legend’s shoulder, awing at what happens during an impromptu party at Gordon Lightfoot’s house, and observing a holy silence throughout the sustained long take in which Dylan and witchy violinist Scarlet Rivera crush ‘A Simple Twist of Fate’ — but the film digs so deep into its strange bag of tricks that even non-fans and neophytes are liable to be caught in its spell.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Director
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese is an Academy Award-winning director and one of the most influential filmmakers working today. Scorsese has directed numerous acclaimed documentaries including the Peabody Award winning No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) and Elia Kazan: A Letter to Elia (2010); as well as Italianamerican (1974), The Last Waltz (1978), A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies (1995), Il Mio Viaggio in Italia (SFFILM Festival 2002), Public Speaking (2010), and George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011), for which Scorsese received Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Special. Scorsese co-directed The 50-Year Argument in 2014 with his long time documentary editor David Tedeschi. He has directed numerous award-winning films including Mean Streets (SFFILM Festival 1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), which won an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture, and Hugo (2011) for which he received a Golden Globe for Best Director. Scorsese is the founder and chair of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of motion picture history.

Ok, now I'm just going crazy with film links. But these are two I found of Scorsese on the David Letterman show - which I used to love. One is at the beginning of his career when Raging Bull is just coming out and the other is when Wolf of Wall Street came out. The second interview especially is amazing as these two are good friends and it shows in the interview.

Old Interview - Scorsese and Letterman
click here for video

Later Interview - Scorsese and Letterman
Click here for interview

Film Details
LanguageEnglish
Year2019
Runtime142
CountryUSA
DirectorMartin Scorsese
ProducerMargaret Bodde, Jeff Rosen
EditorDamian Rodriguez, David Tedeschi
CinematographerHoward Alk, Paul Goldsmith, Ellen Kuras, David Myers
Print SourceNetflix

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - Shooting the Mafia

My thoughts:
I chose to watch this movie from a different angle perhaps from most people. I chose to see it as a 50 year portrait of a strong amazing woman. The film is perhaps stronger on her photography work documenting the history of the Mafia from the 70's to the 90's in Palermo, Sicily. She documented the history of the Mafia through bloody corpse photos. They were gruesome. I had to close my eyes and just listen to the background information of what was happening in that era.

SFFILM Program description:
Description

Bold and brash, Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia began her brilliant career late in life, after divorcing at 35 in the early 1970s. Working for a left-wing Palermo newspaper, she documented the local Mafia’s rise to power and its societal impact, accumulating a record of over 600,000 images. Anchored by Battaglia’s vivid and graphic work and her engrossing personal reflections, the latest film by director Kim Longinotto (SFFILM Festival POV Award 2015) weaves Battaglia’s life story with the Mafia’s bloody history, illustrating the anxiety and fear of this tumultuous time.

“Director Kim Longinotto’s unerring eye for a great subject is underlined by Shooting the Mafia. Fearless photojournalist Letizia Battaglia has been an eyewitness to history in her native Palermo, capturing indelible images of the brutal atrocities of life under the Mafia. Her personal story, and the wider picture of a society living in fear, make for a compelling and moving documentary.” —Allan Hunter, Screen Daily

DirectorKim Longinotto

Kim Longinotto studied cinematography and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England. While studying at NFTS, she made a documentary about the draconian all-girls boarding school she attended as a child that was shown at the London Film Festival. She has continued to be a prolific observational documentary filmmaker ever since. Her films have won dozens of top awards at festivals worldwide, including the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Documentary at Sundance 2009 (Rough Aunties), a Peabody award (Sisters in Law), and a BAFTA (Divorce Iranian Style, SFFILM Festival 1999). Longinotto has directed many documentaries for broadcasters including BBC, HBO, PBS, and Channel 4. For her contribution to non-fiction filmmaking, she received the Persistence of Vision award from at the 2015 SFFILM Festival.

Film Details

LanguageEnglish, Italian

Year2019

Runtime94

CountryIreland/USA

DirectorKim Longinotto

ProducerNiamh Fagan

EditorOllie Huddleston

MusicRay Harman

Print SourceCohen Media

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

MY IMPRESSION:
While I was watching this film I was shocked that they got such an intimate portrait of these young girls in Afghanistan. No less, filming women and girls in Afghanistan. The director, Carol Dysinger has been making films in Afghanistan for a long time. Usually they are related to the war. This was her first outing on a lighter topic. I believe she was asked to direct it, it wasn't her concept.

Knowing the culture as well as she does, she knew that the young girls would not open up to speak to her because in their culture there is a respect towards elders where you do not have a frank conversation. Carol found a younger woman who had been born in Afghanistan and moved to the United States when she was three. Carol asked her to do the one on one interviews with the girls telling them that she had left Afghanistan when she was three and always wondered what her life would be like if she had stayed. The girls gave very open interviews about their lives as Afghani girls.

They said that before this program, they were not allowed to leave the house. They would always stay inside and help their mother. Their brothers were allowed to go out to play. The boys all enjoyed skate boarding outside - girls could not do this.

The international non-profit that provides the skateboard lessons along with reading and writing courses recruits girls that are from poor areas. Their mothers cannot read and write and the future for most of these girls was marriage at 14. Some mothers were also interviewed and they were brave strong women. They said they couldn't read and write because they grew up during the war and all the schools were closed. They hoped that their daughters could become literate and maybe continue their education. One mother hopes they will continue to college.

The interviews were amazing in that the girls opened up and were smiling and happy. They were joyful when they learned how to write new words. They were taught to have courage. To always raise their hands and come up to the front board if they didn't know the answer, they would be helped at the front.

The skate boarding was also for the girls to be brave. That there was nothing they couldn't do. They were shown quite advanced things of even rolling off ramps and going through cones. The girls were so happy. They cut to the streets where there are many boys skate boarding on the streets.



SFFILM Program description:
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
(Carol Dysinger, UK/USA 2019, 40 min)
In war-torn Afghanistan, where girls are not encouraged to pursue an education, Skatestan is a special school that works with girls from impoverished neighborhoods. Along with reading and writing, instruction in skateboarding gives them a chance to face their fears and discover their strength.

I like their description.

DirectorCarol Dysinger

Carol Dysinger is a filmmaker, writer, artist, and educator, whose contemporary work offers a counter-narrative to traditional stories of conflict. She is in the midst of a trilogy of films on Afghanistan and America post 9/11.

Carol Dysinger attended for q and a

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - Lost and Found

Impressions:
A beautiful story of Kamal, a man who decided what the refugee camp needed was a lost and found for children. He's lovely probably 30 year old man with a great smile and warm heart. He tells his own story of having to flee Mynamar as a child of 12 because soldiers on the street had stopped him and beat him close to death. He left because he didn't want it to happen again and came to the refugee camp himself. I think eventually his parents came.

He works at this Lost and Found he created in the camp that somehow got U.N. backing and they gave him a microphone and a speaker system. I believe they said in the post interviews that he had reunited over 500 children with their parents. Children can be easily kidnapped if they are left alone on the streets.

There is an aerial shot of the camp of the 700,000 people camp. It is a little less than the population of San Francisco. It is a huge camp country of it's own. It is amazing to see the views of what it is like to live in this camp and how these people survive. It shows a view of refugee life that is never seen. That I didn't even know existed. The camp I believe they said was financed by the United Nations. The people were clothed but dirty. There food shipments coming into the camp that I saw but it doesn't really explain how so many people can live in these camps. What they do during the day and if they get any education. I don't think there is any electricity in the camp. It made me curious for more about life there. However, just getting to meet this incredible altruistic, happy man who helps life for everyone in the camp was satisfying.

The editor of the film was there to speak. There were over a hundred hours of film. At first she was going to make the story edit about the experience of one child being lost and then found. However there were so many cases that occurred when they did the filming that they decided to make the story arc around Kamal. I think this made a better story. I'll try to find a picture of his sweet face. The program works because of him. He is very kind and someone that a child could easily trust.

Here are some closer up pictures I found of the Refugee camp in Bangladesh

SFFILM Program Description:
Lost and Found
(Orlando von Einsiedel, UK 2019, 22 min)
The world’s largest refugee camp is temporary home to nearly 700,000 Rohingya forced to flee persecution by the Myanmar military. There, Kamal Hossain dedicates himself to helping children who have become separated from their families.

Description from another website:

Lost and Found

Directed by: Orlando von Einsiedel

Runtime: 21 minutes

Rohingya refugees fleeing ethnic cleansing from the brutal regime in Myanmar, has resulted in an exodus of more than 700,000 Rohingya from their homes into the largest resettlement camps in the world. Lost and Found, directed by Academy Award winner Orlando von Einsiedel (“The White Helmets”, “Virunga"), tells the uplifting story of Kamal Hussein, a Rohingya who has dedicated his life to taking children who get separated and lost from their parents in this sprawling camp and reuniting them.

https://www.originalthinkers.com/2019-films

DirectorOrlando von Einsiedel

Orlando von Einsiedel is the Oscar-winning director of the short documentary The White Helmets. His first feature documentary, the Bafta and Academy Award nominated documentary Virunga, won over 50 international film awards including an Emmy, a Peabody, a Grierson, and a DuPont-Columbia Award for outstanding journalism.

The editor came to speak
Katie Bryer, editor of Lost and Found.

Click here to see trailer of Lost and Found - after a long ad

DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL - A Childhood on Fire

My thoughts... too tired to write at this time

The title of the documentary has a double meaning. The literal meaning is from a childhood experience of child abuse. He said that as children they had a racist, cruel and abusive white step-father. Nick and his two brothers had been playing in the kitchen with the stove. The step-father said that he'd show them what it was like to play with fire. He lined up the three small boys and lit their pajamas on fire one at a time burning up their stomachs.

When Nick went to school his teacher noticed the burns and called child protective services on the parents. The children went to foster care and the parents were temporarily put in jail. They were acquitted and the children had to go back to live with their parents again. The abuse continued through his childhood until he went away to the Marines when he was 18. The step-father also using racial nick names as he addressed the boys.

When Nick came back from the Marines he got married and had two children. Although he got divorced he is a devoted dad. He writes notes of encouragement and support to his children constantly. He wants them to feel the love of a parent that he never had.

The director said that he got to know Nick slowly over years before they could have the conversations that were brought up in the film. So it was raw and deep portrait.

SFFILM Program Description:
(Jason Hanasik, USA 2019, 14 min)

A father writes notes of encouragement to his sons, trying use the lessons he has learned from his own difficult childhood and painful experiences with toxic masculinity to forge a better path for his own children.

Better Description from the filmmakers website:

Synopsis:

When Nick was six years old, he and his two older brothers were set on fire by their white stepfather.

Now in his early forties, Nick is a retired Marine, small business owner and raising two sons that are the same age he and his brothers were when they were set ablaze.

“A Childhood on Fire” is a film about the father figures who violated Nick, the effects that abuse had on Nick’s sense of self and security, and the ways he is interrupting a cycle of violence so that his two boys thrive. 

At its core, the film wonders, what do you do when you're constantly told you're disposable? Can you reparent yourself? If so, what could that look like?

“A Childhood on Fire” was commissioned by The Guardian’s Documentaries Division.

http://www.jasonhanasik.com/a-childhood-on-fire

DirectorJason Hanasik

Jason Hanasik is a filmmaker, artist, curator, and journalist. His work has appeared in The Guardian, at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, in the Los Angeles Times, in the academic journal Critical Military Studies, at various international film festivals, on stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Ace Theatre in LA, and in solo and group visual art exhibitions worldwide. He is currently a resident at SFFILM’s FilmHouse where he is developing a screenplay and editing new films for The Guardian’s Documentaries Division and the BBC. (SFFILM)

Jason Hanasik and the subject Nick were present for q an a