Documentary Films at FFHH 2024
by Becky Tan

This year, seventeen of the one hundred twenty-four films shown were documentaries. By chance I saw seven of them. They happened to show at times that were practical for my schedule. However, I do seem to enjoy both documentary books and films more than fiction—possibly due to getting older. Real life seems more exciting than anything you or I could create for fiction.

A documentary film captures reality: real-life stories, authentic emotions, and truths or, as the internet says, “…documentary filmmaking means not just directing a film but curating a slice of reality for your audience to experience and learn from.”

For SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui interviewed Reeve’s colleagues and friends such as Glenn Close, Marlon Brando, and Whoopi Goldberg. They researched archives of past events to tell the story of Christopher Reeve and his friend Robin Williams. Reeve was born on September 25, 1952. He starred in four Superman films. In 1995 he fell from a horse, and this accident resulted in him being bedridden and then later confined to a wheelchair. He established a foundation to support victims of disabilities. Reeve died in 2004; his wife Dana two years later. His foundation is now run by his three children.

THE APPRENTICE: THE TRUMP STORY covers the life of Donald J. Trump in the 1970-80s. He meets Roy Cohn who calls him “Donnie Boy” and becomes his advisor and lawyer, saying, “Admit nothing, deny everything, never admit defeat, always claim victory.” Trump bought and developed real estate. In 1978-80 he bought the Commodore Hotel and converted it to the Grand Hyatt with 1400 rooms. Then there is the Trump Tower, also in New York City, opening in 1983. We meet another advisor-manager: Roger Stone, as well as Trump’s first wife Ivana, as well as his father, his brother, and a son. THE APPRENTICE was very popular at the film festival with at least 700 viewers in my showing, which was a German premiere, directed by Ali Abbasi and starring an excellent Sebastian Stan as Trump. Donald Trump attempted to prevent the film’s showing in the USA, but it eventually made it into the cinemas mid-October right before the presidential election on November 5.

The festival featured a second documentary pertaining to Donald J. Trump: HOMEGROWN. Here we follow Thad Cisneros, Chris Quaglin, and Randy Ireland as they work to get Trump elected to the presidency in 2020. They are members of the Proud Boys who are “all aboard the Trump train” and demonstrate in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then naturally New York City and Washington D.C. They support Make America Great Again (MAGA). They say that CNN invents reality on a regular basis. They believe that capitalism is doing something good, and Biden is a communist. They vote against social security, healthcare, and are extremely far right. Trump refuses to concede that he lost the election, and the Proud Boys continue to demonstrate in his defense including the attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6. Director Michael Premo started filming Trump supporters in 2018 and then, for this, his first long film, spent over three years accompanying and filming Chris who lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Chris flunked college, has a large collection of guns, and is the father of a new baby with his immigrant Chinese wife. He also has an older son Nathan. Eventually Chris was taken to court for his actions and Director Premo said that he did not give his film material to the court for the case. HOMEGROWN premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

It’s possible to make a documentary film based almost entirely on photographs as we see in ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND. Cole was born March 21, 1940, in South Africa and became the first Black freelance photographer in that country. In 1966 with the help of a fund from the Ford Foundation, he left for New York City where he wrote his book House of Bondage about apartheid and white supremacy in his home country, South Africa, which forbid the book, so that, as a result, it has never sold in that country. In New York exile he was homesick, but not allowed to return to South Africa. Eventually his mother was asked to visit due to him being ill; he died in 1990. Director Raoul Peck follows Cole’s life throughout the 1960s-1980s, including visits to cities throughout the USA, as well as his trips to Sweden. His 60,000 negatives were lost for over forty years and eventually found in a bank account in Sweden, which probably is the basis for the title: ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND. Almost all of his photos were of people, mostly in black and white, although the film eventually shows photos in color. The film premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where it won a prize.

FREIHEIT IM HERZEN—LASST ES UNS EILIG HABEN, MENSCHLICH ZU SEIN translates perhaps to “Heartfelt Freedom—Become Human Quickly.” Germany is a second home for thousands of over four million Iranians who have left their own country; they are called the “dispora.” They are well-organized and come together for serious reasons, often to demonstrate in Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, etc. In September 2022, Jina Masha Amini was arrested in Iran for not wearing her scarf in the required manner. She died in jail three days later. The Iranian/Germans hit the streets to proclaim loyalty, including over 100,000 in Berlin where the “winds of freedom flew through the women’s hair.” This is director Roxana Samadi’s first film, which won the festival audience prize of €5000. Samadi appeared on Hamburg’s festival stage to discuss her work and to accept the prize. She was accompanied by nine others connected to the film. Iranians living in Germany tell their countrymen, “We are there for you,” but there seems to be no effect on the conditions in Iran, which is not free. Samadi said that “one must not concentrate on an end goal but go one step at a time.”

In SUGARCANE, director Julian Brave NoiseCat shares information about his father Ed Archie NoiseCat, who was born in Canada at the St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School. Canada forced segregation between its white community and native Indians, i.e., members of the First Nation. The Indians were forced to attend residential mission schools, in which they lived and were controlled by priests of the Catholic Church beginning around 1867. As a result, young girls were raped and forced to give birth at school. Many babies were then thrown into garbage burners to die. Ed Archie NoiseCat survived. The St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School closed in 1981 and now relatives of such babies, in this case Julian Brave NoiseCat, are researching DNA, as well as graves to learn about their own origins. Indigenous Canadians visited the Pope in Rome; the Pope apologized. There were over 130 such schools in Canada and over 500 in the USA. The last one closed in 1997. At our Hamburg film showing, Stine Klapper of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung introduced D.S. Red Haircrow, an Apache and Cherokee writer, filmmaker, and educator who has lived in Germany for twenty years. He said that the trauma is deep, with still a high suicide rate in these communities. The tribes want to be in charge of the land taken from them. SUGARCANE won the prize for best director in the category of political film in the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (Stiftung).

WENN ES DUNKEL UND KALT WIRD IN BERLIN. This translates into “When it’s dark and cold in Berlin” and features the rock band Element of Crime, which naturally is good protection against cold and dark anywhere. This German band was founded in 1985. They often discussed whether to sing in English or in German and also often mentioned Bob Dylan, who seemed to set examples for their own goals. We enjoy twenty-two of their songs. Charly Hübner, accompanied by one of the band’s original founders, Jakob Ilja Friedrichs, stood on stage and answered our questions. Charly Hübner accompanied them on tour for five days, acquiring almost fifty hours of film material which he could use along with information from archives which include films of them in their younger years. NDR (Nord Deutsche Rundfunk) financed this tour. Some of their earnings were donated to an organization which supports girls and women in Afghanistan.

Thanks to FFHH I could learn much in a few days. I met an actor who remained creative in spite of having to stay in a wheelchair. I saw how Donald Trump reached his present state of success being supported by special lawyers and groups. Photographs and a band can both accompany our lives in creative ways. Protestors go onto the street not only for politicians or to protest countries but also to support disadvantaged (deprived) women. The Catholic Church can have a background of mistreating children and women, even in what we consider a modern country.