yearbook 2004/05 - The European Film College

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stacles/challenges from Cuba: Two weeks before departure I heard from the very same friends in Cuba that a tragic incident had happened to the family – “El Niño”, the eldest son of Don Robaina and whom he had seen as his successor, had tragically died from a heart failure. Once more it was too late to cancel the flight-ticket and not being able to phone Don Robaina, (as there are no telephones on the plantation or in the area), to ask his acceptance of our arrival, we started out for the plantation once more not knowing whether we would be allowed to shoot or not. Arriving with full equipment on the plantation I paid my condolences to the Don and asked him permission to portray his grief in the picture and dedicate the final cut to his son “El Niño”. I had his and the whole family’s permission to do so, and we could continue to shoot Robaina and the family on the plantation that was now marked by quite a different and mourning atmosphere. But their grief also helped us to become even closer to the family and Don Robaina. Cuban Lifestyle Apart from the tragedy in the family, we witnessed a lot of minor difficulties during, as well as before the production of the movie. Cuba is Cuba and Cubans are Cubans! They have a much more laid back relationship to what we in our part of the world consider fixed deals and time-schedules! Everything is “mañana” and this can be quite frustrating in the beginning, but as the days pass, you experience a lot of things that make you tune in to the culture of the country, you get accustomed to the nontime-fixated lifestyle that is much more healthy for body and soul. And which is so soothing for people from our part of the world where life is so controlled by our watches. You learn that you CANNOT plan yourself out of everything but have to live life in the moment and accept what comes next. The wonderful lesson in this is that Cubans in their own quiet and calm way actually get WORK done – DO things – and that the workers at the plantation produce the best tobacco in the whole wide world while they ALSO have time to sing, dance, drink rum and have a siesta. We could learn a lot from their gentle and relaxed – but also hardworking, productive attitude! The level of stress is very low and it makes an impact on you and does you good! Apart from the cultural differences that I so much wanted to learn from, the communication to Don Robaina both in pre- and postproduction was very their difficult because of lack of communication in their infrastructure – no telephone in the area, slow mail etc. – so every time I had important information for him or had to ask him about something in particular I had to mail my Havana assistant and ask her to get into the car and drive the 250 kilometres down there to talk to Don Robaina. Difficult but also intriguing and fascinating, I think. I like challenges like that – especially when they are over and done with……. The Story It was a great personal experience to shoot on the plantation and especially to be so close to Don Robaina, his family and the workers. As Don Robaina is a kind of icon in the Cuban cigar business a lot of reports, articles, photographic books and TV-shots have been made about him – he is such a darling to the camera! But where everything else that has been made about him (I am sure they are just as interesting as my movie) focuses on the icon, the cult-figure and the more technical details behind the production of the cigars in Cuba, my film, emphasizes on “the man behind the icon and the success”, namely his family and his workers to whom he has a very close relationship. Don Robaina and the rest of the family allowed me to get very close to them. Perhaps they did it because they could feel that I knew that my principal duty as a director
was to make extreme efforts to show them my humbleness and will to listen to the universe to which they so lovingly gave me an access. I believe this is the utmost challenge you can have as a documentarist – to step into other peoples’ lives and universe and rest there for a while as long as the production is going on – and experience what you gain yourself! And to learn from it whilst giving something of yourself to these persons and their universe. Then afterwards the art is to tell the story in the most personal and dedicated way to the audience. It is my sincere wish that with “The Love of Don Robaina” I have created a personal, sensitive and human movie that honours some universal and deeply human feelings with which I hope people on all continents can identify, as I believe our feelings are the same wherever we are situated in the world or whatever our situations…… “The Love of Don Robaina” was produced with financial support for the manuscript from The Danish Film Institute, equipment kindly lent from DR-TV, edit and colour-corrections on Angel Production – and my own means. The film was finished in spring 2003, was screened on DR-TV, in 5 different cinemas in Denmark and has now been shown on various foreign festivals such as Hollywood, Barcelona, Havana and Gothenburg. A new documentary production is taking form…. For all you students in the year 2003/04: Good luck and best wishes in your future work, remember if you really want to do it: Never give up – Never, never give up – Never, never, never give up! 0 Don Robaina - Legendary tobacco grower in Cuba Photo: Helle Windeløv
Page 1 and 2: The Yearbook of the European Film C
Page 3 and 4: The Yearbook of the European Film C
Page 5 and 6: Executive Board og the European Fil
Page 7 and 8: Life after the EFC By Jens Rykær I
Page 9: Creating the documentary on Don Rob
Page 13 and 14: The New Student Lounge Cleaning Dut
Page 15 and 16: stone. Now she has made a feature-l
Page 17 and 18: Photo: Jens Rykær The summer that
Page 19 and 20: SUMMER 2003 Irm Hermann Morten Arnf
Page 21 and 22: SUMMER 2003 Harriet Knitter and the
Page 23 and 24: SUMMER 2003 “For example”, cont
Page 25 and 26: Diary 2003-04 By Jens Rykær SUMMER
Page 27 and 28: SUMMER 2003 Chr. Brand Thomsen & Ho
Page 29 and 30: Photo: Jens Rykær Christopher Wint
Page 31 and 32: SUMMER 2003 0
Page 33 and 34: Jubilee Celebrations By Mark Le Fan
Page 35 and 36: During the weekend, guests from abr
Page 37 and 38: Ebeltoft Lecture By Mark Le Fanu EV
Page 39 and 40: EVENTS spent a wonderful summer wor
Page 41 and 42: EVENTS ly. Peter left school early
Page 43 and 44: Photo: Jean Leander News Year’s C
Page 45 and 46: at the school we began the behind-t
Page 47 and 48: FROM THE TEACHERS Visiting the Film
Page 49 and 50: Ghosts of EFC By James Fernald FROM
Page 51 and 52: Why Seek Globally... By Esben Høil
Page 53 and 54: FROM THE TEACHERS lectic process of
Page 55 and 56: FROM THE TEACHERS Having said that
Page 57 and 58: FROM THE STUDENTS At a slight angle
Page 59 and 60: Present State of Art and some Recom
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FROM THE STUDENTS [The] artists wer
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The Greeks at the EFC By Persefone
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A step on the journey By Nahed Awwa
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Framing the Subjective By Laurent Z
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The Duellists By Bue B. Petersen Em
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FROM THE STUDENTS Feraud walks from
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The Berlinale Experience By Kjetil
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My left foot AWAY FROM THE EFC Rott
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AWAY FROM THE EFC
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Are you bored? LET’S GO TO THE MO
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Photo: Jens Rykær LET’S GO TO TH
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This also meant that all teachers a
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Staff News By Jens Rykær WHO’s W
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Principal and teachers: Jens Rykær
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to the “script”: preliminary re
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Guess who’s coming to dinner The
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Richard Martin: Teachers’ assista
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education as a kitchen assistant in
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Students 2003-2004 Adler, Sonny Ana
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