IDFA Competition for Green Screen Documentary
Raising Resistance David Bernet, Bettina Borgfeld
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Germany, Switzerland, 2011 DCP, color, 84 min
Bettina Borgfield:
Director: David Bernet, Bettina Borgfeld Photography: Boerres Weiffenbach, Marcus Winterbauer Screenplay: David Bernet, Bettina Borgfeld Editing: Inge Schneider Sound: Joerg Kidrowski, Maximilian Pellnitz, Mauricio Wells Music: Ali N. Askin Production: Oliver Stoltz for Dreamer Joint Venture Co-Production: Maximage Gmbh, Pandora Film World Sales: Dreamer Joint Venture Screening Copy: Dreamer Joint Venture Involved TV Channels: WDR, ARTE
Shooting Under Fire (2004)
Doctors without Borders (2011)
Bettina Borgfeld & Sacha Mirzoeff: David Bernet:
The Wispherers (2005) Jew by Choice (2007)
Awards: SRG SSR Award Best Swiss Film Visions du Réel in Nyon Pitched at the Forum 2007
The ground in Paraguay is perfect for the cultivation of soy. In recent years, countless acres of forest have been chopped down to make room for the growing of this proteinrich bean. The land of a farmer named Geronimo is now completely surrounded by soy plantations. These are generously sprayed with pesticides – poison that only the genetically modified soy plants are immune to. Unfortunately, the pesticides spread farther than the boundaries of the soy fields. So not only is there less and less land for the campesinos, or local farmers like Geronimo, but it also becomes impossible for them to cultivate healthy crops themselves. In Raising Resistance, Bettina Borgfeld and David Bernet capture the campesinos as they revolt against the enormous soy business in their country. Led by the ever-friendly Geronimo, they squat a section of farmland, try to stop the spraying of pesticides, and make their voices heard in the media. The filmmakers also give the floor to the large landowners.
IDFA Competition for Green Screen Documentary
Red Forest Hotel Mika Koskinen
WORLD PREMIERE
Finland, 2011 DCP, color, 87 min Director: Mika Koskinen Photography: Mika Mattila Editing: Kauko Lindfors Sound: Janne Laine Narration: Mika Koskinen Narrator: Jason Marshall Production: Mika Koskinen, Risto Rumpunen Co-Production: Luxian Productions Screening Copy: Finnish Film Foundation Involved TV Channels: SVT, NRK, YLE Website: www.redforesthotelthemovie.com
Mike Koskinen:
White Panda (1999) Zhang’s Diner (2004) Facing Changes (2008)
Pitched at the Forum 2010
In rural China, farmers are intimidated into relinquishing their land for tree plantations. The Finnish-Swedish company Stora Enso is planting water-guzzling eucalyptus trees for a pulp and paper factory that is due to be built. Finnish filmmaker Mika Koskinen travels to the affected region in Southern China to talk with the farmers, only to find himself in an absurd situation where friendly propaganda officers want to provide “impartial and objective information from the government.” One of their pieces of advice for him is to take a vacation at the seaside. Meanwhile, the people with whom he wanted to make contact are arrested or “given a holiday.” The director himself is more or less confined to the Red Forest Hotel, hopelessly waiting for authorization to film in the affected villages. Some brave and desperate farmers try to make contact with the filmmaker, but the film project is obstructed at every turn. There is nothing to do but give up. A year later, he tries once again to find out what is taking place in the Chinese countryside. The film offers some fascinating insights into China’s “new green politics” in a globalized economy. Can companies co-operate with authoritarian states while respecting local people’s rights, or are these problems inherent in the current economic order? Some thought-provoking answers are provided by the ethnic Pumi people, who have guarded the ancient trees of Southern China for centuries.
99