Leave to remain. Movie at the local cinema today.

Leave to remain.

Director Bruce Goodison


This is a movie about a group of young people coming on their own to England, each one of them leaving hell behind. Trying to cope, to find a new life, find friends and a sence of family and belonging. The fear is everywhere, but there is also laughter and life. The scenes of how the dance lift them away from their dark memories for some moments are some of my favourite scenes in the film.
Another strong scene is when 15 year old Abdul, played by Zarrien Masieh, get lost in his memories of his home and get lost in the mountains when they all are out for a hike. He is highly traumatized by the violence he has witnessed and the only help he gets is coming from the young friends around him, youth who likewise carry their own heavy stuff.

" Based on real-life stories, Leave to Remain is a coming of age drama that depicts a world hidden from view. Featuring a soundtrack by the award winning band Alt-J, this provocative debut feature from BAFTA winner Bruce Goodison, introduces an ensemble cast of emerging talent, young refugees and acclaimed actor, Toby Jones."



Great story, great acting by the youth in leading roles. I will always remember this film. Also knowing that young people like the ones in the film is right here where I live, right among us, some of them going to the local gymnasium school.

The film today was choosen by a youthgroup in Angered, and my youthgroup in Hjällbo was invited to the show. It's looks promising that we might establish more contact and see if we can have a bigger youth-film-club here. What a dream! Yes, I'm in!
Lets see and talk movie.


Eva

Hallå hallå filmtips

Passa på att se filmen Hallå hallå.
Särskilt kul för oss med rötterna i Falun. Hög igenkänningsfaktor.




En fin film tycker jag. Lite skruvade rollkaraktärer men jag köper det, helt ok att det blir lite tillspetsat ibland. Och jag skrattade högt och mycket, det är härligt att få skratta! Jag skrattade mycket mer åt Hallå hallå än åt Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann. Även den sistnämnda filmen har jag sett nyss så det har varit mycket komedi på bio för mig.

Eva

GIFF - Gothenburg Film Festival 2014

Yesterday I enjoyed two films. And I really enjoyed. This years GIFF has delivered again. I had great company too, a friend who also enjoys slow movies that gives you a lot of food for thought.

Previous years I have chosen to se movies from Asia. So I'm glad my friend choose this one. (To surprise eachother we picked one film each)  I love the rythm, the symbolic pictures, the way of getting a glimpse of how it can be for people who live there.


Toilet Blues, by Dirmawan Hatta. A poetic, dramatic, symbolic film from Indonesia. It talks about the good and bad in every human, how life concists of both.



In one scene in Toilet Blues it's a rail road worker standing with a light on his hand saying: the train you know where it goes, it follows the track. But a humans head can go whichever way. Listen to the heart. The heart will lead, the heart is the track and the head will follow.


To widen my insights in what it is to be young and native in the US I wanted to see Pine Ridge, documentary movie by swedish film maker Anna Eborn.
Because I have a big interest in Idle No More movement.
Because indigenous knowledge is spreading and doing so much good work for clean air and water.
Because it's about indigenous rights.
I have to tap into this whole thing to understand better. Hopefully my contacts will lead me to travel there in a not too far away future.

Anna Eborn's film is not about Idle No More, it's about the people living on Pine Ridge. Are you interested to know how Idle No More comes into this? Check out social Media Hashtags: #MoccasinsontheGround #HonourTheEarth #NoKXL

Here's an interview with Anna Eborn:

Eva

To eco-nomy from ego-nomy

Advent calendar #22
Write a short poem of three lines.

In this time of the year it's obvious that commersialism is a problem to many of us. The way we consume, buy and try to fill our lives with stuff. And a majority on our earth have just no possibility to take part in this, the question of poverty is a painful reality.

The child birth in Betlehem wich started our Chistmas history is somehow forgotten. How this child was born into poverty, and had to flee to Egypt  just a couple of weeks old with his young parents. To escape threat of life. This is what the story tells, if you believe it or not.

I love Christmas-time, I'm lucky to have a good history of how to gather in the family, open the doors for friends around us who maybe don't have a family to go to. I've spend Christmas in many different ways, in foreign countries, in big gatherings of friends, in smaller family settings. I feel I'm ready to have one more type of Christmas. Tell you later.

Then I came across this little excellent film on sacred economy. As another voice in the ongoing debate.





If you might think that new ecnomy systems have support from small groups of die hard fans, then take a look at the Idle No More movement, who proudly carry indigenous way of caring and sharing, respecting Mother Earth and maintain life in a beautiful way.
Women hand drummers called to the front. Idle No More 1 year anniversary
I love theese pictures!

Eva 

Yippie GIFF Yippie!

Göteborg Film Festival, GIFF

GIFF is a highlight in wintertime for me. Something to look forward to every year. I love to go to a couple a movies and have a "window" to places elsewhere, situations and lifestyles I couldn't imagine before. And I love to catch a glimpse of the daily life ordinary heroes. To me they are the true heroes.

Today I could have my fill of that,  to get a little glimpse of what it is to be in an emergency unit in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. How do they cope? How do they get through the day? What do they feel sitting in that ambulance on bumpy roads, in traffic jam? They are working way behind the clock as the cases pile up and the inter com system has broken down.

The three main caracters, playing themselves in this documentary movie, are nurse Mila Mikhailova, driver Plamen Slavkov, and doctor Krassimir "Krassi" Yordanov.
I give this movie high scores! It's taking me right in there, in the middle of their story, like if I was a fly on the wall in the front seat in that ambulance.

Sofia's last ambulance (2012, Bulgaria)

"In a city where 13 ambulances struggle to serve 2 million people, Krassi, Mila and Plamen are our unlikely heroes: chain-smoking, filled with humour, relentlessly saving lives against all odds. Yet, the strain of a broken system is taking a human toll: how long can they keep fixing society's injured until they lose their empathy? Written by Betina Ip  "






Yesterday I saw Smokin' Fish (2011, Alaska).

Smokin' Fish movie is full of scenery, mountains, lakes, rivers, beauty of nature. Very good soundtrack to all the goodies for my eye. But most of all, a very good story. A documentary about Cory Mann, a Tlingit Nation member, who grew up with his aunts and grand mother and great grand mother in remote parts of Alaska. Smoking fish in traditional way is the center of the story and out from it I learn quite a lot about the view of life this people have, ancient traditions, ways of living. With lots of humour the different members of the family (so fantastic persons they couldn't be found in a fiction movie) give their story, wich also includes many tragic points of the hardships coming along with european culture invading. Of course I want to learn as much as I can now in the days of Idle No More rising. It breaks my heart to hear how cruel we europeans have treated natives. And like much my heart rejoice when I learn that their lifestyle and culture is rising, and it's now up to western "civilization" to take a seat, listen and learn.





Eva

Wim Wenders desert dreamlike images

How come deserts plus good music makes such a good combo?

Until the end of the world


Paris Texas. Desert scene again. Beautiful music by Ry Cooder.




I'm working on some really interesting music now, modal music for voice, oud and upright base. This beginning of a new year has really come with some new energy. At the end of last year I felt deeply tired after releasing a book and recording a cd, plus many tours, travels and concerts. It's good to know then that the energy can come back, even if it takes time. I'm taking it a bit more slowly now, knowing better now how stress can sneak up on you.

Oh, I'm lucky to have so good role models among my collegues, people who teach me how to take time to reflect and reduce schedule in order to be able to deliver something and be happy. You know who you are :-)

Eva

Two films about shoveling snow

My brother with Belos. Hey, I really admire him! This old machine Belos is covered with snow, and starts instantly!





Equal and sustainable:


Hållbar jämställdhet - SNÖRÖJNING from Hållbar Stad on Vimeo.


Eva

Kieslowski memories

Excuse me, is your name Marie Veronique?

A man asked me in the train. If my name is Marie Veronique. His voice asked in a soft and polite way, giving a slight impression that he felt uncomfortable to ask me.

Things like this can start my fantasy. What would have been if I had a french double name? How would that have formed me? What comes with a name? How much do we build up in expectations when hearing a name?

Who could this Marie Veronique be, the woman he must have thought of when he saw me? What was their history together? Long lost friends? The man must have been maybe 10-15 years older than me. What was their relation?

Are we twin-like, this woman Marie Veronique and I?

Could it be like the mesmerizing movie La doble vie de Veronique, by Kieslowski? I've seen that film a couple of times and I'm still fascinated by the whole story. And of course, the great soundtrack and the choir music. It's a story about two young women who are born at the same day in different countries, and they don't know each other. But they have a feeling of a presence of another twin somewhere, a secret twin.

Have you had a feeling of a presence?

The man who asked me went to by coffee or something in the dining-car, and we never saw eachother on the train again.

Let's do something!

Today I saw the film "Sing your song", a documentary of Harry Belafonte and his tremendous history in arts, music and social activism. Stunning history! And not always the history told as I learned from his daughter Gina Belafonte, producer of the film. Gina met us the audience here in Göteborg today and after the screening we could ask her questions and she really met us with a warm heart and openess.

It's all really touching. There's pictures in this movie from the most heart aching moments of human despair, from the violent days of racism, apartheid, famine and war. Each time Harry Belafonte heard the cries he acted: Let's do something! He was constantly movement-building and searching for Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities, Freedom for the people who lack this.

He got very close to Martin Luther King and the non violent movement. He met Mandela, who greeted him: "-Ah, there you are Harry-boy!" when Mandela came to the US for the first time after being released from his 27 years in prison.

The story is really long, how he always stood up for human rights. And Harry Belafonte called himself a constant optimist, that's the only way to have hope.

The film is a great portrait of a unique artist who devoted his whole life for the believes he had, to make his country a good place to live for all inhabitants. In his old days he put a lot of focus on children and young voices all around the world. Being a Unicef embassador he really gained a lot achivement.
It's also scary to see how other forces tried to stop him and destroy for all the leaders of the movement, blacklisting them, threatening them. Bravery is what' always been needed if you want to really make a difference. How hard the struggle was at some point.

Harry once asked Martin Luther King if he feared for his life, and the answer was firm: I care mostly for doing a good job. Life is somehow short, and it's not so much about how long you live but what you do with your life.

As always when I see the documentary pictures of killings in Soweto during the 1960th I can hardly breath, I get an immediate pain in my body. But most of all, I feel so uplifted to see the determination and the achievements and how people stood up and joined for freedom and equal rights.

Listen to this interview:



And here's some happy jumping film-festival visitors!
Long live hope!
Eva

On poetry and reading loud

This past weeks I've been taking part in a 5 mondays long course on how to work with reading poetry loud. The course is given by actor Henric Holmberg, who created the course because he wished he could go such a course himself. He has a long time experience of reading poetry, creating performances with a big portion of poetry reading, and as an actor he's brilliant with making the words come in a way you are hit by the deeper message.
Each monday all of us prepare to read two poems, infront of the rest of the group, and Henric gives us feed back.

This whole workshop has been so right on the spot for me. It's close to preparing songs for a concert. There's a big difference in reading with eyes or reading loud, and when I reherse my songs for a concert things start to happen when I spend time with the words and melody doing it loud. It's almost impossible to try to incorporate the material with just reading it with my eyes.

Henric also said many times that when a material of poems (or songs, in my daily work) is resting for a while the deeper parts of our conciousness keep on working with it. I recognize this. A concert done a year ago that is revitalised is somehow more mature and comes out again in a new form. Like now, I have to re-create the christmas songs for this years performances, and it never feels old or the same. I'm one year richer in experience and the songs will reflect other things, I'm able to deal with the songs from new levels.

It would also be interesting to go through the songs just reading them, as poems. Work it through the way we have worked in Henrics course. We've trained a lot how to gather focus, how to work with tempo, with starts and endings, with voice possibilities. All poems can't be read the same, the particular poem (or song) evoke different volume, speed, rythm.

The first session with Henric I recognized his voice. I was outside the room where we work, hanging up my jacket, and Henric was talking to someone in the other room. Without seeing the person talking I knew exactly that it's him doing the speaker voice in the awesome short film "Den fjärde kungen" by Ted Sieger. In my family we sometimes gather friends for a film-party shortly after christmas, seeing Den fjärde kungen. I love the film and I cry at the end every time I see it.

Thank you Henric for bringing the stories and poetry loud and live.
Eva

Skyping with Miranda July on a foggy november night

Stockholm Film Festival on a foggy November night. Before show, I'm so much longing to visit the magic, absurd and fascinating world of Miranda July in her film The Future. She wrote the manus, directed the film and play one of the main roles in it. I feel at home in her world, I've seen the previous film and read her earlier book.

After the show Miranda skyped with us in the audience. This was absolutley special to me, and a historic moment in the film festival, first time they had a face to face talk on skype. Normally the directors are present in the room, this time Miranda was in her home in Los Angeles. Miranda was speaking of the artistic process making the movie, how it was sprung from performance she made. She also explained the symbols and the roots of certain parts of the movie, her way of looking at contamporary society, us humans how we look at our time, our lives, our future.


Miranda waving good bye to us and recieving our warm and heartful ovations.



Official trailer for the The Future, by Miranda July:

Concert preparations

Tonight I'm doing a concert with Hannu Kella.

This is the way it goes on a day of a concert. Contemplating and doing practical preparations.

As usual, I feel a little disorganized but at the same time so strong about the music we are going to play. Like a feeling that the whole world needs to hear the songs we will play tonight, as answer to all kinds of questions there might be in a human mind. Because we are mirrors, music is like poetry, it's open for understanding in many ways. Folk music is often a reflection of timeless questions about life and death, jealosy, love, broken hearts, boldness and courage.

I've sung the songs on my own, I've read the lyrics loud (my daughter is sighing about this...)
I've decided what the outfit will be, most black and white colours for the sake of the drama ingredients found in the swedish-finnish songs.

I've almost packed the bag with stage clothes, shoes, microphone, book of lyrics and set list. What else do I need to bring?

I will just now, after I've finished writing, do some yoga.

A cup of coffé and then go.



Life is so fantastic. Here's one of my inspirational movies, made by multi-artist Miranda July:

Säkra Stallets fortsatta utveckling, och en liten film

Idag åker jag till Stockholm.
Irmelin ska repa, Maria Misgeld, Karin Ericsson Back och jag. Fantastiskt roligt!

Och imrgon ska vi sitta i möte hela dagen, VU och kansliet i RFoD. Viktiga diskussioner om hur vi ska säkra Stallets framtid. För vi tror verkligen att den typen av scen behövs i Stockholm. Det är en mindre scen, och det behövs just scener i det formatet där publik och musiker kommer nära varandra. Just det utbud och den verksamhet som finns på Stallet saknar motsvarighet i Stockholm och det skulle vara väldig förlust att lägga ner. I ett enda pennstreck kan fungerande verksamhet försvinna, sånt som tagit 10 år att bygga upp. Så kom med och visa vad ni tycker! Vi behöver många röster för Stallet.

När det är många saker som kräver vår kamp-vilja och solidaritet så får vi ta till vara de vackra guldkornen i vardagen. Det faktum att våren är på väg. Ljuset ger oss ny energi att klara av det vi står i. Stanna upp och njut.

Och här är en favorit bland Miranda July's underfundiga kortfilmer:




Kram!
Eva

Ny film av och med Miranda July

Nu kommer en ny film, "The future", av denna begåvade mulitkonstnär, den visades på filmfestivalen i Berlin nyligen. Ännu har jag inte sett om den kommer till Göteborg. Hoppas hoppas!

Minns ni filmen Me and you and everyone we know? Jag såg den för några år sedan och verkligen älskade den. Miranda July har skrivit, regisserat och spelar själv en huvudroll i filmen. Den är lite skruvad, handlar om hur skört det är mellan människor, hur komplicerat men komiskt vackert det är att närma sig varandra.

Något senare hittade jag en novell-samling av samma Miranda July, Ingen hör hemma här mer än du. Samma sak här. Små knasigt roliga och tänkvärda noveller med en blick för att beskriva verkligheten som gör den vacker att se och vara i.
Denna intervju är gjord i samband med en konstutställning, och handlar inte om nya filmen.




Nu ska jag fortsätta med dagens jobb på mitt kontor Oceanen.
Kram alla vänner, i Göteborg och långt borta på vidderna.

Eva