You might think you know what to expect of this film on the basis of the title. Yet, shoehorning So Help Me God into the category of spiritual documentaries would not be quite right, as the film is a highly personal story of exploration, brisk yet thought-provoking, not to mention visually captivating. Our protagonist is one Simon Cole, a well-off man, happily married and seemingly economically unburdened. Simon however carries a load he regretfully cannot drop off his shoulders--he greatly longs for a connection to God. This is a presence Simon does not have in his life and he is driven to at the very least understand it.
add comment As proof that inspiration can come from unlikely places, Emma Franz’s debut film is incontrovertible evidence. But it’s also a pleasant surprise to see such great care taken to shape a documentary by turns surprising and touching, emotionally affecting without feeling manipulative. Shot with great care and featuring artful cinematography that captures the subtle beauty of a little-known artform (outside of South Korea, anyway) and a landscape seemingly unburdened by human intrusion.
Back from Silver Docs, where Albert Maysles was awarded the 2009 Guggenheim Lifetime Achievement Award. A fun time was had by all at the after-party with Al, Christo, Jeanne-Claude and the entire Maysles team basking in the limelight and enjoying the champagne.
Lots of great films and filmmakers from around the world in competition, including Emma Franz's Intangible Asset #82.
More to come...
Filmmaker Q&A with Emma Franz
Introduce yourself:
A broad education specialising in the visual and performing arts, law, jazz piano, history & politics and film making, has led Emma Franz to an interesting and diverse career. 17 years of professional jazz singing has taken her to 33 different countries. She has produced many stage performances, three CDs under her own name, and managed a series of musical groups. She is a session singer and songwriter signed to Warner Chappell, has sung more than fifty feature performances on national Australian television, and in 1998, was a finalist in the Australian National Jazz Awards. Emma has a deep interest in people, their stories and cultures, and has been involved in social work locally and abroad.
Emma has worked in various capacities on both narrative and documentary short and feature films, and in 2005 started her own production company, In The Sprocket Productions.
INTANGIBLE ASSET NUMBER 82 is Emma’s directorial debut.
What inspired this film? How did you find your subjects?
Following eight years working around the world enjoying wonderful exchanges and making close friendships through music, I was inspired to make a film that illustrated music as the universal language that it is.
Read the rest of this story »
Q. Why is it important that this story be told?
A. My films always begin with something that is happening inside myself, but that I also see reflected in the world around me. I think people are starting to feel like they're coming to a dead end with the old models of creating change in the world, especially some of the forms of activism that are focused on what we're against, as opposed to what we're for, and that are anger-based. I definitely found that with myself, and so I discovered a new kind activism that has its roots in the attitudes of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. You could call it compassionate activism or spiritual activism -- positive, celebrating life, and solution based.
Read full interview at National Post
Read Velcrow Ripper Blog at MyFilmBlog
Fierce Light Available Now to All Americans with Fierce Light On Demand
Inspirational Film Offered in Homes and on Mobile in Nationwide Launch from Alive Mind at Fiercelight.MyFilmblog.com
NEW YORK (MAY 4, 2009) - Beginning today, millions of people across the United States will be able to access the transformational documentary that captures the wave of Spiritual Activism exploding around the planet, and the powerful personalities who are igniting it on Video On Demand (VOD). Not yet available on DVD, Fierce Light is now accessible to viewers from the comfort of their homes or on the go at Fiercelight.MyFilmBlog.com. Available to all U.S households or mobile devices with a high-speed Internet connection, Fierce Light inspires viewers to embrace the transformational power of what Martin Luther King called "Love in Action," and what Gandhi called "Soul Force." Filmmaker Velcrow Ripper calls this uncompromisingly non-violent phenomenon Fierce Light-and attests that it is this very spirit that swept Barack Obama into the White House.
It's the most unlikely of road-trip movies. Simon Barker is already a noted Australian jazz drummer when he first hears the music of Korean shaman Kim Seok-Chul (pictured above). He's so inspired he travels to the country to seek out the source of this incredible sound, but there are a few problems.
For one, his guide takes it upon himself to decide if Barker is worthy of making the journey, or if he's just another Westerner who wants to exploit the centuries-old culture. For another, Seok-Chul is an 80-year-old recluse, protected by the government. The shaman and drummer is one of the country's most important cultural treasures, so much so that he has his own designation: Seok-Chul is the Intangible Asset No. 82.
It's a race against time to meet the ill man and part of the journey is spent learning the intricacies of Korean music. The style is all about relaxed power, Barker describes.
"I was sitting in the practice room, throwing myself on the ground as if someone in my life had just died," he says in astonishment.
Once he's mastered some of the techniques, and performed with Korean musicians, he's finally deemed ready to meet the master himself. Barker and his guide travel to a remote area to witness a ceremony few have seen: a shaman praying for himself.
Read the original article by Erin Criger here.
To read director Emma Franz's blog, click here.
By Chris Knight, National Post
You might expect the director of programming at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival to have a fixed notion of what is and isn’t a documentary, but Sean Farnel, now in his fourth year in the job, says it’s a moving target.
“I’m becoming less of a purist about the form as I see filmmakers doing impressive things,” Farnel says. “This is a case where the term ‘non-fiction’ is better than ‘reality’ — whatever that is. Documentary as a non-fiction form has become very fluid in the last 10 years ... You see docs consistently pushing the form in new directions.”
Two popular, form-pushing films released last year illustrate his point. Waltz with Bashir, by Ari Folman, recreates the Israeli filmmaker’s memories of the 1982 war with Lebanon through animation. Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg was part monologue, part travelogue and partly made up, though clearly even the imaginary parts of Manitoba’s capital are close to Maddin’s heart.
This year’s festival, which opens next Thursday with a screening of Jennifer Baichwal’s Act of God, includes a number of what Farnel calls “creative documentaries.”
Cooking History, about soldiers’ food during wartime, uses tableaux and elaborate reconstructions. Antoine, a Canadian film by Laura Bari, immerses the viewer in the universe of a blind five-year-old boy. Big River Man, which Farnel calls a “demi-documentary” in the festival’s program notes, “might be another example of walking the line between fiction and non-fiction to achieve what Werner Herzog would call poetic truth.”
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