sound + vision
on the radar
asger leth
director
words by Petra Sjouwerman
Ghosts of Cité Soleil, a Danish documentary released in May, is a powerful portrayal of life in the slums of Haiti: a lawless place presided over by ruthless young men known as ‘chimères’ or ghosts. With a soundtrack made by the hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, himself a Haitian refugee living in the US, the documentary follows two gang-leader brothers armed to the teeth by president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide famously used the city’s gangs as his private militia to terrorise and kill his opponents. When he suddenly fled the country in 2004, these gang members then became the subject of a violent hunt.
“The one brother 2Pac, who took his name from the American rapper he admired, is now dead. And the other brother almost certainly died during a prison revolt,” explains 36-year-old Asger Leth, who followed the young men for six months in the making of his debut film. “In fact, only one person featured in the film is still alive today.”
Prior to Ghosts of Cité Soleil, Leth worked mainly on advertising films, short films and on others’ projects. He’s also assisted his father, the well-known Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth, who’s lived on the Caribbean island for over 20 years. Thus, the young director speaks both French and the local Creole. When he met two Europeans who could help him to enter the otherwise closed environment of Haiti’s slums, he jumped at the chance. And, despite being shot at twice while driving with the gang leaders, he didn’t let the extreme circumstances deter him.
“I have waited a very long time for my own film to come along,” he says. “This was it.”
But Leth underlines that he’s a filmmaker, not a war correspondent. “Many people found me courageous. But I feel I had a story to tell and therefore I was ready to take chances. I am no adrenaline junkie. ‘Never again,’ I said to myself.”
Leth is currently busy with “new, wild projects”, but “nothing that requires a bullet-proof vest”. His current work-in-progress is an American feature film set in Denmark and the US. The self-confessed “film freak” thinks we can learn something from American filmmakers. “Innovation comes from the US.”
The categorisation of film, however, is something he dislikes. “I prefer to play with film genres – for example, with the combination of documentary and fiction. Why should we speak about documentary, feature film, or even about mockumentary? It’s silly to categorise. Film should be a category in itself.”
flashy photography
words by Sohie Grimshaw
Parisian gallery Jeu de Paume, which specialises in promoting photographic and video art, has teamed up with France’s Ministry of Culture and Communication to establish an annual photography prize with both cred and clout. There are two winners of the Jeu de Paume prize – one voted for by an expert jury and another by the public. The 2006 winners, whose prize work is being exhibited at the Hotel de Sully now, are Jürgen Nefzger (the public’s winner) and Jean-Christian Bourcart (winner of the jury prize).
Bourcart is based in New York and his background is one of news reportage and celebrity portraits. His winning entry includes Traffic, for which he captured drivers stuck at a red light in New York City and the full spectrum of their moods. Nefzger won the audience prize with Fluffy Clouds, a series of panoramic shots of rolling landscapes that reference long-established painterly traditions – but with the twist that nuclear-power station chimneys and their billowing emissions are entrenched in all the backdrops.
CD review
New Young Pony Club – New Young Pony Club
“Vodka, cake and emotion” are the influences London five-piece New Young Pony Club list on their MySpace page. Not a bad recipe to get the party started. Their single Ice Cream is scooped from the same ice-box of attitude as Kelis’s Milkshake and its stroppy disco-punk has already soundtracked an Intel advert. Having upstaged Lily Allen on tour, vocalist Tahita Bulmer’s flavour most definitely isn’t vanilla. Like your oats with swaggering electro? Then these ponies just might be your bag.
New Young Pony Club – Modular, released 4 June
Art review
DUMP: PostModern Sculpture in the Dissolved Field
Aesthetic recycling is the guiding principle of a new exhibition at Oslo’s National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. This is sculpture as salvage, creating order – of a sort – from society’s waste and detritus. Big names present include Americans Sol LeWitt, Richard Serra and the late ‘land artist’ Robert Smithson, but check out how Scandinavians Inghild Karlsen, Snorre Ytterstad and Camilla Løw rise to the curators’ scrapheap challenge.
DUMP: PostModern Sculpture in the Dissolved Field – 3 May – 19 August, Art Hall, Tullinløkka, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. www.nationalmuseum.no
Film review
Spider-Man 3 – directed by Sam Raimi
Played by the goofily vulnerable Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man is the most human of superheroes, making this series the most reliably engaging of summer blockbusters. All set to marry MJ (Kirsten Dunst), he soon has anger-management issues when his suit gets a nasty stain. Suddenly, the wall-crawler’s web starts to unravel. Can he persuade Mary Jane to wipe the slate clean and defeat the villainous Sandman (Thomas Haden Church)? Spidey, we feel your pain.
Spider-Man 3 – Sony Pictures, released 4 May worldwide, Cert 12A
Also out this month…
The Art of Crying, a Danish black comedy directed by Peter Schonau Fog, looks terrific – it’s the story of an 11 year old (the excellent Jannik Lorenzen) on a 1970s south Jutland dairy farm. Also: Al Pacino joins the other clothes-horses (Clooney, Pitt, Damon et al) as Soderbergh gives his heist-caper franchise another throw of the dice in Ocean’s 13.
Have you been watching our in-flight films? Test your knowledge here
1. Dan Castellaneta (The Pursuit of Happyness) is also known as the voice of:
a. Kermit the frog
b. Homer Simpson
c. Bugs Bunny
2. What’s the name of Hugh Grant’s character in Music and Lyrics?
a. Daniel Fletcher
b. Alex Fletcher
c. Simon Fletcher
Keeping you entertained…
Through May and June, Music and Lyrics and The Pursuit of Happyness are being shown on selected Sterling flights. Turn to the back of this magazine for more information.
words by Richard Clayton
Answers 1. b – Homer Simpson 2. b – Alex Fletcher
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