Jared Bloch
Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon
Nyon, Switzerland – Sometimes a film is just a film. And sometimes films resonate within, for hours or days until the brain unscrambles the layers of message imbued by the filmmaker. That is the case of Visions du Reel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland.
The quartet of short films, “Extravios” by A. Campany Buisan; “Accepting the Image” by K. de Cock, “Father’s Prayer” by A. Horman, and “Elegie de Port-au-Prince” by A. Maigre-Touchet unfolded as disconnected ad hoc works, slowly working one with the other until my brain was able to comfortably look at them side by side.
While all of the films explored what it is to search in earnest, the first, “Extravios” was the most poignant in this, chronicling the work of Mexico City’s Bureau for missing persons, and offering a window into the lives of those in need of their services.
The film is a snapshot and does not make pretenses to either explore or develop the few protagonists introduced. Rather the subject is the searching itself, for hope, for lost loved ones, One client asks when he should return to the office to check the lists of the missing, indicating more a visit to the therapist’s office, than to an office tasked with identifying the dead and missing.
Fashion life
Immediately following, “Accepting the Image” presented a perverse twist on the search for meaning, as three young women, all transplanted New Yorkers, reflect on how they fit into the city, through the commercial lens of New York glamour.
For such an interesting city, and as a former resident, I found the depictions to be victims of the same imagery the filmmaker is ostensibly asking us to examine objectively. The first two self-portraits are in fact of women either in or around the fashion industry; while they are conscious of the fleeting nature of this life, it doesn’t make their reflections (essentially self-concerned blabbering) any more interesting.
Jared Bloch
Audience at FIFDH opening weekend screening
Geneva, Switzerland - I remember watching John Sayles’ 2007 “Men with Guns,” and thinking that something as terrible as the genocide which took place in Guatemala in the 1980′s, could not, or should not be fictionalized. A trio of new documentaries screened on the opening weekend of the 2011 International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) in Geneva, both challenged and reinforced this notion.
At the heart of this dialogue is the portrayal of brutal realities through traditional documentary methods as in Pamela Yates’ “Granito” and the film “Impunity” by Juan José Lozano and Hollman Morris, versus the use of fictionalized characters, animation and multimedia montage in films like Ali Samadis Ahadi’s “Green Wave.”
Maybe it is no accident that the first two films focused on the irrepressible hope of humans in the face of oppression, while the latter depicted a sea of humanity defeated by ignorance.
Jared Bloch
An estimated 200,000 visitors attended the Montreux Jazz Festival this year, 23 of 33 concerts were sold out
Quincy Jones at Montreux Jazz Festival ©Lionel Flusin
Montreux, Switzerland - This year I caught not one, but two rainbow’s on my way to the Montreux Jazz Festival (MJF). I glimpsed the first one while getting soaked on my motorcycle in a summer downpour that appeared just after Lausanne.
Friday’s light show, if less dramatic, was sweetened by the fact I was on my bicycle outside of Vevey, and had time to stop and savour the ion-filled air.
Friday 16 July was my last night for this year’s fest and the evening was something of a question mark, not having listened to anything recently from Quincy Jones.
Jared Bloch
Ben Harper ©MJF/Lionel Flusin
Montreux, Switzerland- Ben Harper took the stage on 7 July with no fanfare, but to great applause, and launched into “Diamonds on the Inside.” Having seen Harper in three live performances in Switzerland, I thought he looked calm even serene. Age has served him well.
His second number was a bluesy roll, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder (whose “Superstition” he has covered in the past). On Wednesday night he was all blues, all moaning bass, winding guitar solos and wailing drums that left me thinking of early Led Zeppelin.
For the third number he sat down and leaned into a slide guitar, moving his fingers over the fret like Jam Master J on a piece of a squeaky vinyl – this is the best intensity from Harper since “Fight for Your Life.”
Jared Bloch
Jessye Norman at a music workshop - Photo ©MJF
Montreux, Switzerland- The stars may have descended on Montreux mid-last week, but impossibly, I followed a rainbow’s arc down the highway from Lavaux on Sunday 4 July to arrive, thoroughly soaked, and high on the energy that is the Montreux Jazz Festival.
The evening headliners at Stravinsky Hall included two genre bending musicians as yet unknown to me; the pianist Brad Mehldau and the contemporary opera singer, Jessye Norman.
Jared Bloch
Film Festival and international Forum on Human Rights Venue
Geneva, Switzerland - This past weekend marked the opening of the eighth edition of the Film Festival and International Forum for Human Rights in Geneva which serves as a platform between human-rights activists and filmmakers.
One of the first documentaries screened was Roshane Saidnattar‘s “L’important c’est de rester vivant,” or “The Important Part is to Stay Alive,” a haunting personal account of life under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Jared Bloch
The Asteroïds Galaxy Tour, energizing crowds at Montreux' Jazz Cafe-Photo, Jared Bloch
Montreux, Switzerland - In the afterglow of the musical smorgasbord that is July in Switzerland, I am left wondering, what’s next? Of all the shows I had the pleasure of seeing last month, one of the highlights was the Scandinavian Night at the Montreux Jazz Festival hosted by Spot on Denmark.
Jared Bloch
On display at SIG Gallery, Pont de la Machine, through June 30 and outdoors at Quai Wilson from August 31 – September 20.
"Our World - at War" Exhibition
The ”Our World – At War,” exhibit on display at the SIG Gallery, commemorates 150 years of documenting humanitarian disasters and providing assistance, beginning with Henri Dunant’s vivid description of the Battle of Solferino.
It was this battle that prompted Dunant to write “A Memory of Solferino,” and which subsequently spawned creation of the original Geneva Convention, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. 2009 also marks the 60th anniversary since ratification of the subsequent Geneva Conventions for the protection of non-combatants; together, these have effectively become univeral law protecting civilians worldwide.
Jared Bloch
Geneva is a paradox to me in the summer when literally hundreds of
happenings spill forth onto the weekend pages of the newspaper and on
the GenevaLunch Events page.
This weekend I was nearly paralyzed by indecision as I pondered which bands I was missing at the Fete de la Musique, or the similarly free movies in the festival I would not see, or the knuckle biting penalty goals I was missing in the Euro Cup…