Phil Grabsky's Blog - New York - The Boy Mir, Docuweeks Theatrical Documentary Showcase 2011

Thursday 11th August 2011

A full-on documentary day. Meetings with distributors; and emails and texts galore. Watched Errol Morris' Tabloid - there are not that many documentary film-makers whose name alone makes me want to see whatever they do. Morris, however, is one. Tabloid doesn't disappoint - great style, entertaining and interesting - although I have to say I'm left at the end slightly unsure of Morris' attitude to the story. Then went to a HBO-hosted event for the Docuweek Showcase. It seemed to be a clever mix of opening event and excuse to show one of their own films that isn't in the Showcase. Marathon Boy is about that little Indian kid we all gawped at a few years back when he ran 42 miles. Very nicely made film, albeit half an hour too long. I won't give much away but the film has many good moments and some shocks too. I was, however, left with rather too many questions. Still, the film-maker really must have worked hard and I hope the film does well for her. At the event tonight there were something like 200 folk, just to show once again how competitive the doc world is now. So it's such a bunfight what films do well and which don't - plus the importance of contacts, publicity budget and what-not... A few observations from this event too: 1: I listened in to three conversations. Each was exactly the same. Person one says 'I ...' the second person listens for a pause and then says 'I..' and so it goes on. Not one of those people asked a question of the other! 2: at any one time there were 30 people on mobiles. No-one feels able to stand for a second on their own. 3: I overheard a woman discussing her forthcoming $65,000 food and beverage bill for her wedding. She can't have been a documentary film-maker. 4: the Time Warner building has a great view over Central Park, reminding you that this has to be the most exciting city in the world. 5: I hope one day Mir gets to visit. Back at the hotel, the all-important New York Times review comes in...bit so-so I have to say. The reviewer loved The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan and thinks the long span of time for the new film makes it a little patchy. Which it is...but you don't want to sit and watch a three-hour film. Luckily on Rotten Tomatoes they mark it down as a positive review with the summary: 'If you've seen the first film, you'll want to come back to see Mir's progress through life. And no matter what happens, it seems, the smile remains.' Also Jules Brenner on Filmcritic.com writes a great review whose summary is 'Conveys an understanding of Afghan culture better than anything we've seen yet. Well worth its ninety minute screen time, and a lot more.'.

Phil Grabsky's Blog - Croatia, Brighton and New York

Monday 8 August: A big week for the release of my film: The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan. Today in Croatia at a film festival. The films get shown in the most beautiful setting: on a huge inflatable screen in a mountain canyon, bizarrely next to the entrance to Tito’s once-secret cave complex. This could so easily be a peaceful Afghanistan in 20 years. Could but won’t be. At 2 o’clock in the morning I was in a bar with singing Croats, Serbians, Macedonians, Slovenians…I can’t say the former Yugoslavia is totally at ease with itself but what a dream for Afghanistan to get here. Bed at 2.30am .

Tuesday 9 August: Hotel balcony door bursts open at 3.50am. A storm has whipped up and it’s mighty windy. Slept on and off till 6am. Went downstairs for the car that was to take me to Zagreb airport. Only problem was the local tunnel had been shut by the storm – disaster; I had to get to the airport. Eventually a high-speed dash at Top Gear speeds along an alternative (and beautiful) coast road got me to the gate with 3 minutes to spare. Went in to the office in Brighton and waded through emails and post. Was heading to London for Kevin Spacey’s Richard III but rioting London kind of put me and the clan off. I was never scared to go out in Kabul.

Wednesday 10th August: New York Times get in touch – I’m nervous about their review as it’s the one review that everyone in the US and indeed internationally takes notice of. Meanwhile two other projects I have underway take up a lot of time – one on the life of Haydn and the other called Leonardo Live – a live broadcast to TV and cinemas in November from what will be an extraordinary exhibition at the National Gallery. But I’m drowning in contractual squabbles. Talking to my lawyer till the plane took off for New York didn’t feel like I was any kind of a hot-shot; I felt like an overworked, underpaid, tired Dad that was spending another three days away from his kids.

Thursday 11th August: Making War Horse was on PBS last night, which is great. I have to admit my first thought though was to check any press for Mir.. and the Village Voice had posted something. Relief, it's great: 'makes you laugh and breaks your heart in equal measure'...That's the DVD cover sorted then! I hope the NY Times tomorrow is even half as nice - or, at least, not bad. Off walking to a meeting in this wild, wonderful New York City. An American male is more likely to die here than in the US military in Afghanistan. Statistics, huh? $600 billion dollars, Thousands dead. Is life any better there? Depends who you are. Has there been progress? Of course. Is the country any less likely to return to civil war? No. Are we any safer in the West? You can die from a million ways. Terrorism is not your biggest worry – maybe those cigarettes, or that drink at lunchtime before you drive home. New York City though…no sign of being in a country at war. I know a film won't do much - if anything at all - but I do hope some people take a look.

The Boy Mir - Ten Years in Afghanistan will be showing in the excellent Docuweeks Theatrical Showcase at the IFC Center. It's an honour to have been selected and I can't wait, among other things, to see the other films. Anyone who loves films - actually anyone who loves life! - should come here or to LA to see what's been chosen for screening.

Leonardo Live - Tuesday 8th November 2011

I am not sure whether to breathe a sigh of relief or become more nervous...as tickets are now on sale for our big autumn arts project - LEONARDO LIVE. I came up with the idea almost two years ago to bring the big London exhibitions to a wider, even worldwide, audience - a mix of live Tim Marlow show to both Sky Arts and cinemas but LIVE on the eve of the exhibition's opening. I choose the huge November show at the National Gallery - Leonardo da Vinci. Like all these things, I severely underestimated the complexities in ramping up from a pre-recorded show to a live one and I'd say it's been a project that has needed my attention and input every single day! But I won't bore you with the horrors of negotiating contracts, access, budgets, etc. - what I will say is that there will be ten Leonardo paintings remarkably brought to the exhibition - unique and unlikely to ever be repeated. Plus dozens of other artworks that are relevant to the core show too. Tim Marlow and Mariella Frostrup will present an 85' show at 7pm on the 8th November and you can watch it on Sky Arts in the UK or at selected Picturehouse Cinemas. We'll have background mini-docs and expert guests and hopefully no-one will fall over or slip up. It is scary doing live stuff but if I can get through Afghanistan I can get through this! More to the point, it will bring Leonardo to a wider audience in, I hope, a wonderful way - and I always want to encourage people to look and admire the work of creative genius - whether a Beethoven or a Bruegel. TV broadcasters doubt there is an audience for art and stick any shows they do make on the smaller 4th channels (BBC4/More4 in the UK - or NOT AT ALL in the USA!) but you and I KNOW they are wrong, don't we?

Tickets for Leonardo Live are available to purhcase here.

23 July 2011

That's scary - the 23rd July already. We're only three weeks off the US premiere of THE BOY MIR - TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN and there remains so much to do. New York on the 12th and then LA the 19th and Chicago the 21st.I've enjoyed not being stuck in airports and airplanes for a while but that's sound about to change! Leigh, Christina and everyone in the office are working hard to get the word out but the demands upon any individual's time these days are enormous - you simply never know if the cinema will be full or empty. That's why my intention is simply to always feel we have done our best and then let the dice fall as they will. At very least we have done well to secure a two week run in both LA and NY - which, incidentally, means the film will be considered by the Oscar committee...(Hey, you never know! Mind you, a colleague in LA who works closely with the Oscars folk said he thought the film was stunning and stood no chance of being nominated - 'they simply don't nominate those kind of international social docs...' - though Born into Brothels was nominated I remember).
Anyway, more importantly, will the press give us any coverage? That's the key - and maybe it being summer won't help. It's also Ramadan so some of our Muslim audience will stay away too. Oh well, as I said, we do the best we can. The film launches in Holland soon and that will be interesting as a guide to what folk think.

I've been doing a fair bit of reading about Afghanistan recently - and the book I'd most recommend is Cables from Kabul by Sherard Cowper-Coles, the former Ambassador in Kabul. Fascinating, erudite, funny and, for me anyway, on the nail. I met him briefly last year at a conference on Afghanistan and he was all those things in person too. It's a shame I didn't get anywhere with the book idea for Mir but I'd have struggled to write anything as relevant as Sherard's insights. I must also mention in passing an excellent film made by that excellent journalist Lyse Doucet - it was on the BBC recently (and was the best of their short 'Afghanistan after 10 years' series - if you've access to I-Player, have a look. There really is no shortage of material about Afghanistan these days - quite what the public's attitude is I find hard to gauge. Certainly, when I hear the public talk on, for example, Question Time, they are extremely poorly informed - mind you, some of the panellists talk absolute rot too. And THAT'S why they have to watch my film....

Bafta - Documentary Award - At Last!

At last! BAFTA sees sense. For over 20 years, BAFTA has been embarrassingly short of a Documentary Award in its Film Awards. The OSCARS have one, so do the CESARS..and now finally – after a lot of lobbying – does the BAFTAS. It has been absurdly slow in doing this and one can only breathe a sigh of relief and say ‘about time too!’.

In Search of Haydn - the Endellion String Quartet - St. George's Bristol

These are the days I like best: today I filmed the Endellion String Quartet playing Haydn extracts / complete movements for IN SEARCH OF HAYDN. We decided that the best location for acoustic reasons was St George’s in Bristol. Chris (the sound recordist) and I travelled up late the night before to make sure we were bright & breezy for the day ahead… The day actually started with a fascinating and very useful interview with David Wyn Jones – an acknowledged expert on Haydn’s life. These are the guys that make me look good! Really all I have to do is point the camera in his direction and ask sensible, interested questions. He was an articulate, treasure trove of information and, while I need to guard against too many British historians dotted throughout the film, I know I’ll use him. It’s always more exciting to do the interviews late in the process too as (1) your questions are more focussed but (2) you can immediately see where parts of answers will slot straight into the film. Phil Reynolds (the genius editor) and I have been editing the film for three weeks, mainly working on the musical moments, but now we can start laying in the narrative moments. All very exciting. My only concerns are that I’ll run out of time before examining every avenue but that’s always the case with any film. It’s also the downside of the struggle to raise funds – I can’t afford a full-time researcher for instance (which we always used to have on projects).
Anyway, after the interview, we set up for the recording of the music. The Endellion had wisely suggested we use a company called Classic Sound to help on this one – as the sound of a quartet has to be very carefully recorded. I have to say that Classic Sound were fantastic and we let them sort out the mics (only 4 are used, hanging above the quartet). By 1pm we were ready to start filming and for five hours I had the absolute pleasure of filming 10 different pieces – all of them gorgeous to listen to and gorgeous (I think anyway) to look at. The Endellion are not only at the top of the field musically but are great to film too – expressive, active, emotive. For those of you interested, the pieces (in extracts of maybe three minutes) we chose to film were Opus 20/4 (3rd movement), Opus 20/6 (2nd and 4th), Opus 33 /2 (finale), Opus 54/2 (slow movement), Opus 64/5 (1st movement), Opus 74/3 (finale), Opus 76/1 (first – all for the DVD extras !), Opus 76/3 (slow – the German National Anthem tune), Opus 77/2 (3rd). We finished bang on 7pm and went for a well-deserved meal…and I clung tight to my rushes knowing I had struck gold. More good news: the Endellion will ‘open’ for the world premiere of IN SEARCH OF HAYDN at the Barbican in January. They will play 76/1 and then the film will run. That’s brilliant – what a night it could be. See you there….

Hay Festival 2011

I'm at the Hay Festival in Wales and it is absolutely fantastic. It has helped, of course, to have been doing a couple of talks but whether a punter or performer, this festival is certainly one of the best. For me as a film-maker, it is without doubt more useful than any film festival. I think I learnt more about a certain area of South America yesterday a one-hour talk by an author than in any number of documentary films. Indeed, it makes you wonder (once again) what are documentary films best at? So many these days are slight, poorly crafted and without depth or thesis. Radio and books are where its at...and that is so well reflected at Hay. There are dozens of tents, there must be 2000 performers over the 9 or 10 days and the setting (especially in the sun) is outstanding. We went up to Capel-y-ffin (near Hay) and a more beautiful drive is hard to imagine. My son and I chatted to a shepherd who was rounding up (with his 5 Border Collies) 800 sheep. He was working in a tradition that was centuties old and it was as fascinating to watch as any movie. Back at the Festival, I shared the Green Room with Jo Brand, Paul Merton, Arthur Smith and Dara O'Briain and couldn't help but wonder who was the funniest! Michael Morpurgo was here too and did two wonderful readings...I said hi and gave him the latest film on Mir (he based his recent book Shadow a bit on Mir). Michael and his wife are wonderful folk. Naturally we bought a stack more books and made all sorts of plans to do way more events at literary festivals and far less as film festivals...we'll see. But we'll certainly come back to Hay next year!