9 May 2011
I feel like a boxer that has just taken two almighty blows to the gut and is wondering whether to bother getting up off his knees. Just as I was talking in my last blog about festival programmers I get an email today saying a big festival I was desperate to get in to has decided no. Then a cinema chain who I thought were going to support us have moved in a different direction. Maybe I really do over-estimate the film; maybe there are so many better films out there. But it is really disheartening. I'm not really sure how best to proceed - all this distribution work & effort is self-financed and without outlets to show the film, you're stuck. We've lots of TV support - but of course these days TV show social docs on their cable networks late at night ...I don't know. I've been at this computer now for 9 hours knocking out emails in the effort to keep The Boy Mir fight going but some of these upper cuts are starting to sting....
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Istanbul - TRT 2011 Documentary Awards - The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan
7 May 2011
Arriving at 4am into Istanbul is undoubtedly exciting, especially when the taxi driver as taken this weekend's Grand Prix to heart and decides to drive through the harbours, the ancient walls, the minarets at 140 kph. Exciting but potentially deadly. Crazy town, crazy people. I haven't been here for a while (after many filming visits in the 1990s) and am delighted to be back for a documentary film festival. Too often my films have played here and I haven't been able to afford to attend. I have only had the first screening so far of The Boy Mir - Ten years in Afghanistan but it went really well. The audience afterwards refused to leave they had so many questions...I find it so strange that an audience can be so moved by a film and yet a festival programmer (who should know a thing or two about audiences) will reject a film - as Mir has been rejected recently by a Canadian festival Hot Docs that I was, frankly, sure we'd get into. I know it's all down to personal taste, zeitgeist, contacts and all that but I was still surprised. Still, saved me yet another transatlantic trip. And it meant I could come to Turkey. This is certainly one of the most interesting countries for me and I'd love more time to explore - and it was also lovely how interested the TV channels were in the film and how I came to make it. I also had the chance to see a couple of good docs: Ward 54 and Israel v Israel. Both very moving. There really are so many wrongs to right - although I doubt that life has ever been as safe and sound as it is for most people in most places. Mind you, next door in Syria, all sorts of chaos and bloodshed are breaking out. Anyway, having savoured the delights of an Istanbul kebab I retired to my hotel room to work through the endless avalanche of emails...outside, a great city roared through the night.
Arriving at 4am into Istanbul is undoubtedly exciting, especially when the taxi driver as taken this weekend's Grand Prix to heart and decides to drive through the harbours, the ancient walls, the minarets at 140 kph. Exciting but potentially deadly. Crazy town, crazy people. I haven't been here for a while (after many filming visits in the 1990s) and am delighted to be back for a documentary film festival. Too often my films have played here and I haven't been able to afford to attend. I have only had the first screening so far of The Boy Mir - Ten years in Afghanistan but it went really well. The audience afterwards refused to leave they had so many questions...I find it so strange that an audience can be so moved by a film and yet a festival programmer (who should know a thing or two about audiences) will reject a film - as Mir has been rejected recently by a Canadian festival Hot Docs that I was, frankly, sure we'd get into. I know it's all down to personal taste, zeitgeist, contacts and all that but I was still surprised. Still, saved me yet another transatlantic trip. And it meant I could come to Turkey. This is certainly one of the most interesting countries for me and I'd love more time to explore - and it was also lovely how interested the TV channels were in the film and how I came to make it. I also had the chance to see a couple of good docs: Ward 54 and Israel v Israel. Both very moving. There really are so many wrongs to right - although I doubt that life has ever been as safe and sound as it is for most people in most places. Mind you, next door in Syria, all sorts of chaos and bloodshed are breaking out. Anyway, having savoured the delights of an Istanbul kebab I retired to my hotel room to work through the endless avalanche of emails...outside, a great city roared through the night.
Friday, 15 April 2011
Friday 15th April - War Horse - New York
Making War Horse - trailer from David Bickerstaff on Vimeo.
The War Horse publicity is everywhere - gosh, I wish I had a budget like that for The Boy Mir. It's on buses, billboards, newspapers... The show is up and running at the Lincoln Centre and I'm sure (and hope) it does really well. It deserves to. AND I want folk to buy the 'Making of' DVD!!
I had dinner with Tom Morris (the co-director) and the poor guy has been here for weeks and weeks fine-tuning the show. I'm ready to go home after just over two weeks! Michael Morpurgo was interviewed by The New York Times so he's in town - I dropped by to see him on the off-chance but he was out, no doubt doing a hundred radio and newspaper interviews. If you don't do the time, you don't earn a dime. Did I just make that up? Anyway, anyone who is in New York or near by should go see the show - War Horse is spectacularly good.
Spielberg’s film comes out in December I believe and it will be fascinating to see how he adapts the same material. I'll be chatting to Tom about his adaptation at the Hay Literary Festival in May - it's a tremendously interesting craft to take a book and turn it into a film or play. Naturally it involves a whole team of people too - these things really are co-operative. The National Theatre's great skill was to have such a wonderful team right across the board.
Making War Horse - written, filmed and directed by David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky
Thursday, 14 April 2011
IFP - Envision Forum - Phil Grabsky - Guest Blogger - The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan
Phil Grabsky was invited by IFP Envision to take part in their guest blog spot prior to The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan screening at the IFP Envision Forum.
Photo Credit: Phil Stearns/Envision
Here is what Phil had to say about The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan.
"We talked about going to Mazar in April or May but I said I would be in the USA and we'd go to Mazar in June instead. There we would see Mir and his family and sort out Mir's further education and probably a new home for the entire family. Everything seemed to be going well - the film (THE BOY MIR - TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN) was starting its festival life and in a month won two awards - Santa Barbara and Washington. At Seventh Art we were all excited and I looked forward to telling Mir all about it. Then, yesterday, I turned on the news. 12 people killed, slaughtered, inside the UN compound in Mazar. 12 people who would have felt really pretty safe in that northern Afghan city. 12 people with lives ahead of them, families & friends, pasts and futures. Then murdered - for what? Because some loony pastor with no brain adds petrol to a fire that just doesn't die.... All Mir wants, all 95% of Afghans want, is an education, a job, a mobile phone, a girlfriend, a future.. Stuff. Like you and I like stuff and indeed have so much stuff we stick it in attics, lock-ups, cupboards. Have you ever had nothing? I mean nothing at all. Have you ever spent all day collecting water and ploughing a field to grow wheat for bread? No, nor have I. Why should some human beings suffer so badly while the lucky few, we lucky few, drown in excess - and we do, don't deny it. Look at your CD collection, the clothes in your cupboard, the food in your fridge, the sporting gear in the garage. Your bike, my bike, is worth more than Mir earns in a year shovelling coal, ploughing the rocky earth, collecting twigs before school. I make films to entertain, to move you, to inform you - I make films to make a difference. A tiny pebble thrown into an endless lake perhaps but if we all throw a pebble, maybe one day the shadow of movement becomes a ripple, becomes a wave and change will come. Until then, mourn those poor folk in Mazar who just wanted to help. I've no intention of having less food in my cupboard or spending less on my holidays but I, we, should work towards the day when Mir too has a fully stocked fridge and sits at his computer to book a trip to Hawaii."
To read other guest blog posts from Envision speakers and panelists please visit the IFP Envison Blog
Photo Credit: Michael Cerda/Envision
Here is what Phil had to say about The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan.
"We talked about going to Mazar in April or May but I said I would be in the USA and we'd go to Mazar in June instead. There we would see Mir and his family and sort out Mir's further education and probably a new home for the entire family. Everything seemed to be going well - the film (THE BOY MIR - TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN) was starting its festival life and in a month won two awards - Santa Barbara and Washington. At Seventh Art we were all excited and I looked forward to telling Mir all about it. Then, yesterday, I turned on the news. 12 people killed, slaughtered, inside the UN compound in Mazar. 12 people who would have felt really pretty safe in that northern Afghan city. 12 people with lives ahead of them, families & friends, pasts and futures. Then murdered - for what? Because some loony pastor with no brain adds petrol to a fire that just doesn't die.... All Mir wants, all 95% of Afghans want, is an education, a job, a mobile phone, a girlfriend, a future.. Stuff. Like you and I like stuff and indeed have so much stuff we stick it in attics, lock-ups, cupboards. Have you ever had nothing? I mean nothing at all. Have you ever spent all day collecting water and ploughing a field to grow wheat for bread? No, nor have I. Why should some human beings suffer so badly while the lucky few, we lucky few, drown in excess - and we do, don't deny it. Look at your CD collection, the clothes in your cupboard, the food in your fridge, the sporting gear in the garage. Your bike, my bike, is worth more than Mir earns in a year shovelling coal, ploughing the rocky earth, collecting twigs before school. I make films to entertain, to move you, to inform you - I make films to make a difference. A tiny pebble thrown into an endless lake perhaps but if we all throw a pebble, maybe one day the shadow of movement becomes a ripple, becomes a wave and change will come. Until then, mourn those poor folk in Mazar who just wanted to help. I've no intention of having less food in my cupboard or spending less on my holidays but I, we, should work towards the day when Mir too has a fully stocked fridge and sits at his computer to book a trip to Hawaii."
To read other guest blog posts from Envision speakers and panelists please visit the IFP Envison Blog
Monday, 11 April 2011
The Boy Mir film hosted by the UN in New York and Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in Boston..
The Boy Mir film hosted by the UN in New York and Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn in Boston..
Another Best Western…this time in some industrial estate in Boston. Hmmm.. Can I go home now? The Wi-Fi is useless, the TV appalling, and my work pile gets bigger not smaller…this must be some cosmic joke. For every email or phone call, two are created. I know it’s my own fault but still… Anyway, after that little moan I should say that Boston is a super city (or so it says in the hotel guide). I do know that the Museum of Fine Arts is extraordinary and it’s great that we’re screening Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn (preview) there later today as it will give me a chance to look round. I know I moan but my word, what good fortune I have really: filming in art museums after they’re closed to the public, talking to the world’s best musicians, filming backstage at the National theatre, ENO, etc, travelling the stunning landscapes of Afghanistan and so on.
So…no more moaning. If I have learnt anything from being with Mir in Afghanistan it is to appreciate every single thing I own and experience. Yesterday in New York I showed The Boy Mir at a fabulous event hosted by Envision which is a partnership between the UN and the IFP. It started on Friday with an introduction by Harry Belafonte followed by a super film ('The Sound of Mumbai') and then Saturday they showed my film followed by a discussion on documentaries and their potential impact, etc. Actually the discussion was broader than that but no less interesting. The film screening was downtown just off Times Square and the audience received the film very enthusiastically – I hope some more comes of it.
I need donations for the charities, more screening invitations, etc. It’s not enough at this stage that folk watch, applaud but then go away and think no more of it. But that involves me running around a lot, handing out business cards, selling DVDs, asking for email addresses, and so on… I had to run to Penn Station to catch my 2pm train and got there just in time…with suitcases in tow. Still, the 4 hour train journey allowed me to catch my breath as we travelled through the gorgeous landscapes between these two key US cities. One sees an enormous amount of wealth on the way up – huge houses in the woods, yachts, endless 4x4s…but it’s strange when, on arrival, you pop into the nearest McDonalds (to connect to the Wi-Fi they offer) and the place is full (I mean at least 15 or 20 folk) of crack addicts and drunks and down-on-their-luck souls.. It really can be a country of extremes. There’s so much for documentary film-makers to make films about….
Another Best Western…this time in some industrial estate in Boston. Hmmm.. Can I go home now? The Wi-Fi is useless, the TV appalling, and my work pile gets bigger not smaller…this must be some cosmic joke. For every email or phone call, two are created. I know it’s my own fault but still… Anyway, after that little moan I should say that Boston is a super city (or so it says in the hotel guide). I do know that the Museum of Fine Arts is extraordinary and it’s great that we’re screening Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn (preview) there later today as it will give me a chance to look round. I know I moan but my word, what good fortune I have really: filming in art museums after they’re closed to the public, talking to the world’s best musicians, filming backstage at the National theatre, ENO, etc, travelling the stunning landscapes of Afghanistan and so on.
So…no more moaning. If I have learnt anything from being with Mir in Afghanistan it is to appreciate every single thing I own and experience. Yesterday in New York I showed The Boy Mir at a fabulous event hosted by Envision which is a partnership between the UN and the IFP. It started on Friday with an introduction by Harry Belafonte followed by a super film ('The Sound of Mumbai') and then Saturday they showed my film followed by a discussion on documentaries and their potential impact, etc. Actually the discussion was broader than that but no less interesting. The film screening was downtown just off Times Square and the audience received the film very enthusiastically – I hope some more comes of it.
I need donations for the charities, more screening invitations, etc. It’s not enough at this stage that folk watch, applaud but then go away and think no more of it. But that involves me running around a lot, handing out business cards, selling DVDs, asking for email addresses, and so on… I had to run to Penn Station to catch my 2pm train and got there just in time…with suitcases in tow. Still, the 4 hour train journey allowed me to catch my breath as we travelled through the gorgeous landscapes between these two key US cities. One sees an enormous amount of wealth on the way up – huge houses in the woods, yachts, endless 4x4s…but it’s strange when, on arrival, you pop into the nearest McDonalds (to connect to the Wi-Fi they offer) and the place is full (I mean at least 15 or 20 folk) of crack addicts and drunks and down-on-their-luck souls.. It really can be a country of extremes. There’s so much for documentary film-makers to make films about….
Friday, 8 April 2011
Do documentaries make a difference?
It’s a bit like the lyrics of a song…’Woke up this morning and didn’t know where I was…’. Well. the tone of the tour has switched from classical music screenings (after a relatively poorly attended one in Michigan three nights ago) to The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan. Yesterday was a presentation in Pittsburgh of the first film The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan to a university class of under-graduates studying international relations. A very interesting day in a fascinating town. It’s striking to me how fresh the film is even though it was finished back in 2003. I guess its universal themes of childhood, poverty, education and so on prevent it from becoming dated. Similarly the question of how documentaries can reflect, even affect, the world remain constant. Do documentaries make a difference? I naturally believe in their power and possibility but I know many broadcasters that don’t care too much about that anymore. To me it’s an abandonment of public service principle if a broadcaster retreats to a insular view of the world and frequently one toploaded with game shows, youth culture and the promotion of acquisition: food, houses, clothes, etc. I flicked through 40 channels of American TV in my hotel room last night: in those 60 seconds I saw a reality show singer discussing her shoes, a photo of a woman beaten to death in her garage, two kids kissing in a high-school drama, a tattooed man beating on a door, 4 talk shows, 3 music shows and my favourite: a panel discussion deciding if Britney Spears ‘pooped’ before a flight or during (I kid you not!)…OK, you get the idea. What wasn’t there? World news, art, any serious documentaries at all, intelligent discussion, classical music, opera, foreign languages (except Spanish soap opera). It’s more than a shame, it’s is undermining a nation. Despite ten years of war and huge expense in Afghanistan I still meet folk here who don’t know where it is. That’s why I have to work to ensure people see the film. If not on TV, then in the cinemas, internet, DVD… Tomorrow, here now in New York, I have an important screening with the UN agency that deals with education and poverty. Maybe they’re will only be 200 people there but with blogs, Facebook, general chit-chat, word spreads. And who knows who’ll be there and what they’ll do. Someone I met yesterday is going to try and get the film into the White House….I would LOVE to imagine Michelle calling in the kids to sit on the sofa while Dad prepares the popcorn and then, as a family, they watch Mir’s story… Then of course, in my dreamworld, I get a call…. Hey, you can but hope.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Grand Rapids, Michigan
The problem with changing hotels in America every night…
• you forget your room number
• you forget where the bathroom is in the night
• you spend ages connecting to the wi-fi
• you waste time trying to find ONE DECENT programme on the TV
• you give up trying to follow world events
• you long for an Italian cappuccino
• you long for bread, butter, eggs, bacon, orange juice that taste natural
• you give up trying to open a window
BUT
• you sleep really well on big comfortable beds
• the staff are friendly
• there is free parking
• there are lots of towels, hangers, soaps, etc
• the wi-fi is free
• you forget your room number
• you forget where the bathroom is in the night
• you spend ages connecting to the wi-fi
• you waste time trying to find ONE DECENT programme on the TV
• you give up trying to follow world events
• you long for an Italian cappuccino
• you long for bread, butter, eggs, bacon, orange juice that taste natural
• you give up trying to open a window
BUT
• you sleep really well on big comfortable beds
• the staff are friendly
• there is free parking
• there are lots of towels, hangers, soaps, etc
• the wi-fi is free
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