The Female Gaze
Startup.com
Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim Every citizen has the right to apply for a fishing permit in the middle of the night. This is more or less the idea behind govWorks.com, a creation of the two friends Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman. Their website allows direct access to the municipal authorities for services such as applying for a driver’s license, or paying a parking ticket online. With this brilliant idea, the two manage to raise $ 60 million in investments within a short time and transform govWorks.com from a two-man operation into an enterprise employing 200 people. The documentary closely follows the rise and inevitable fall of the company. Best friends since their schooldays, Tuzman and Herman are confronted with success, stress in their relationships and at work, and some very stiff competition. The enormous pressures that come along with this life in the fast lane also take their toll on their friendship, the tragic low being a conflict around the leadership of the company and the subsequent rift between the two chums. The camera, omnipresent without becoming obtrusive, infallibly unveils the subdued tensions and intimate emotions. Old hand Chris Hegedus (The War Room, Moon Over Broadway) and newcomer Jehane Noujaim have turned this boys’ adventure tale into a poignant and personal document.
USA, 2001 35mm, color, 103 min
Chris Hegedus:
Director: Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim Cinematography: Jehane Noujaim Screenplay: Chris Hegedus Editing: Chris Hegedus, Erez Laufer, Jehane Noujaim Sound: Chris Hegedus Production: D.A. Pennebaker & Frazer Pennebaker for Pennebaker Hegedus Films World Sales/Screening Copy: Jane Balfour Services
Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker:
Awards: Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Directors Guild of America a.o.
Bessie: A Portrait of Bessie Schonberg (1998) Town Bloody Hall (1979), DeLorean (1981), Rockaby (1981), The War Room (1993), Keine Zeit (1996), Moon over Broadway (1998), a.o.
Jehane Noujaim:
Control Room (2004), The Square (2013)
Jehane Noujaim & Walid Al-Awadi:
Storm from the South (2006)
Jehane Noujaim & Mona Eldaief: Rafea: Solar mama (2012)
Tanjuska and the 7 Devils Tanjuska ja 7 perkelettä Pirjo Honkasalo
When at the end of the summer vacation 10-year old Tanjuska from Belarus suddenly stops eating and talking, her parents are at their wits’ end. Both the village healers’ medicinal water and the insulin treatment in a psychiatric hospital fail to bring any improvement. Then Tanjuska’s parents meet Father Vasili, an exorcist from Estonia who believes that the girl is possessed by seven devils that can only be expelled by God. As Tanjuska – now a 12-year-old with stunted growth – sits through the priest’s interminable masses, the film ponders what exactly is wrong with her. Pirjo Honkasalo’s camera is a close observer, tacitly adding perspective to a situation where convictions seem to be much in the way of quiet observation. In this second installment of her “Trilogy of the Sacred and the Satanic” (encompassing also Mysterion and Atman), Finnish filmmaker Pirjo Honkasalo succeeds in subtly contrasting Tanjuska’s father’s blind faith in Father Vasili’s therapy with her mother’s cautiously expressed doubts.
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Finland, Sweden, 1993 35mm, color, 80 min Director: Pirjo Honkasalo Cinematography: Pirjo Honkasalo Screenplay: Pirjo Honkasalo Editing: Pirjo Honkasalo Sound: Mart Kessel-Otsa, Martti Turunen Music: Pirjo Bergström, Matti Bergström Production: Pirjo Honkasalo for Baabeli Screening Copy: Finnish Film Foundation Awards: Best Documentary Amanda Awards Norway, International Jury Award Bombay International Documentary Short And Animation Film Festival a.o.
Pirjo Honkasalo:
Leonardo’s Windows (fiction, 1986), Mysterion (1991), Cinderella of Tallinn (1996), Atman (1997), FireEater (fiction, 1998), The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (2004), ITO – A Diary of an Urban Priest (2009)
Pirjo Honkasalo & Pekka Lehto:
Their Age (1976), Two Forces (fiction, 1979), Svástika (1978), Flame Top (fiction, 1980), 250 Grammes: A Radioactive Testament (fiction, 1983), Da Capo (fiction, 1985)