This year's IDOCS International Documentary Forum opens on December 12, 2009.
The opening film is Dutch master Heddy Honigmann's "Forever." This film is about the power and vitality of art,about a place where love and death go hand in hand and art lives on:the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.After the film screening, the director will be on hand to discuss the film with the audience.This is the first screening of "Forever" in China.
FOREVER
Director: Heddy Honigmann
95 minutes / Color / 35 mm / 2006
This film is about the power and vitality of art, about a place where love and death go hand in hand and art lives on: the Pre-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.
The Pre-Lachaise cemetery is one the world's most beautiful and well-known. Buried there are some of the world's great artistic figures, including singer Edith Piaf, writer Marcel Proust, and musician Jim Morrison, as well as artists who have faded from the world's consciousness.
In "Forever" we see the mysterious, calming and consoling beauty of this unique cemetery through the eyes of today's visitors. Many come for their 'own' beloved: husbands, wives, family and friends. Others honor 'their' artist by leaving behind a personal message or a flower. While admirers share with us the importance of art and beauty in their lives and their sorrow for the loss of those dearly departed, the graveyard gradually reveals itself not only as a resting place for the dead, but also as a source of peace and inspiration for the living.
Awards:
2007 Hot Docs Outstanding Achievement Award, Canada
2007 Hot Docs Top 10 Audience Award
2007 Full Frame Inspiration Award, USA
2006 Leipzig International Documentary Festival Ecumenical Jury Award
2006 Dutch Film Award, Best Feature Documentary, Utrecht
2006 Crystal Film Award, The Netherlands
One Person's "Forever"
Guo Xiaocong
I just finished watching "Forever." To receive the true feeling of this film, you should not only be in a calm state of mind, but perhaps also alone, like a person strolling in a cemetery. From a Chinese audience perspective, I noticed several points.
1) "Forever" is so graceful and elegant in its artistic style, that it is unlikely to be fully appreciated by Chinese audiences, even among the intellectuals. The Chinese audience has long been mired in heroic epics or tales of practicality and survival, so it is unusually difficult for them to enter a state of peaceful meditation. This film impressed upon me that there is a clear cultural, psychological and artistic distance between the film and the Chinese audience.
2) If a Chinese director were to make a film on the same subject, he might take many shots of famous people's tombs because each tombstone, with its attendant gifts and marks, reveals a story. Also, he might shoot interviews with famous or eccentric people, thus creating a gallery of personalities. But Forever stays consistent in its deep artistic vision. No matter if it's a deceased musician or magician, the director did not dwell on recollections of the deceased, rather she showed an emotional tone, and the effect of the deceased on the living. It allows the audience to feel that no matter if the deceased was extraordinarily successful or an average person, famous or not, they all fall into the quietude of death. And what does this quietude reveal? It reveals a sense of grief but even more so of deep meditation. These two strands are tied together in the film through the music of the Japanese pianist.
3) The biggest difference is not a matter of technical skill but the ability to truly reveal human nature on film. So gently, quietly, with dignity and warmth, we are introduced to the similarities among human beings. Those "hateful Japanese" turn out to be quite likeable, passionate about art, and sometimes even bashful. It turns out not all Iranians are terrorists. That taxi driver's exotic song embraces the hopes and dreams of all individuals. Under the cold exterior of the funeral worker lies a kind and delicate heart. All those foreign women reminiscing about their husbands also cry. The daughters also sweep the tombs of their parents. And that old woman who tends the tombs of strangers, what great conviction sustains her humble actions? In short, without the director's vision and wisdom, it would impossible to combine these diverse vignettes into an overall piece that reflects on the true meaning of our lives.
We, Chinese,even though we can be overly simple, are slowly moved by the final music of the piece. It represents the overall commonality of all humanity.
