Jørgen Leth and Hamburger in Four Minutes

Jørgen Leth (born 1937), living legend of world documentary, writer and poet, studied literature and anthropology. In the 1960s, he became a leading personality of Danish poetic modernism and experimental film. In his films, Leth creates film images similarly to a painter. At the beginning, he directs both the characters and the camera; during shooting, he stops “painting” the scenes and becomes an observer of the depicted events.

His film 66 Scenes from America reminds of a series of film postcards. One of them includes a scene of a hamburger being eaten in four minutes by Andy Warhol. This peculiar scene captures the emptiness of pop culture, the realistic tempo as well as the naively cynical gesture of Andy Warhol. It is the very ability to capture the uniqueness of space, time and personality by means of static composition that has brought Leth recognition. On the other hand, by taking characters out of their characteristic environment in Good and Evil, he has created a series of sketches accompanied by clichés (“good thoughts” / “bad thoughts” or “necessary actions” / “unnecessary actions”). Combining ballet scenes and images from the Trobriand Islands, his film Notes on Love captures love in its shades of restlessness and indecision.

We offer a rigorously selected retrospective of this Danish director most known for example for The Five Obstructions or his last film Erotic Man, start with an introduction to Jorgen Leth's work in the documentary Seduced Human by Truls Lie. Stream FOR FREE from November 13 to 25.

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DOC ALLIANCE SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FILMS

We have prepared a retrospective of the films nominated for the Doc Alliance Selection Award (a distinctive choice of films from all DAFilms partner festivals).

You can stream 4 of them to May 26 FOR FREE: The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years without Images – director Eric Baudelaire reveals one of the best kept secrets of Japanese cinematography and society associated with the Japanese red army. The story of a forgotten visionary, a maverick, a wanderer: One Billion Happy People. Or a filmic search for the worldwide phenomenon of the micronation movement Empire Me - New Worlds Are Happening. Work Hard, Play Hard about a world in which people are completely committed to making their job their purpose in life.

Canada through poetic and experimental lens

We offer a selection of the most interesting Canadian documentaries from the database of the National Film Board. Until the end of the week, you have the opportunity to watch poetic, experimental and animated documentary films made in Canada. We will introduce, for instance, works by the noteworthy avant-garde author of film collages, Arthur Lipsett, and films such as Pour la suite du monde, Le règne du jour, Les voitures d'eau by the Canadian documentarist Pierre Perrault.

COOKING HISTORY

A documentary film about army cooks and how the everyday needs of thousands of armed stomachs affect the victories and defeats of statesmen. About the field kitchen as a model of a world where food preparation becomes a fight strategy; a fight for great ideals standing on strong legs of the kitchen table. The film is based on eleven recipes of the cooks since the Second World War till the war in Tchechenia; from France through the Balkans to Russia.

FOR FREE STREAM TO MAY 12.

Jørgen Leth and Hamburger in Four Minutes

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News

DOC ALLIANCE SELECTION OF THE MOST INTERESTING FILMS

Canada through poetic and experimental lens

COOKING HISTORY