FOCAL

FOCAL Awards

Award for Best Use of Footage in a Current Affairs Production

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Nomination details

Cited Work

Tin Soldiers

Production Company

Piraya Film as

Producer

Torstein Grude

Director

Stian Indrevoll

Film/VT Editor

Erik Andersson

Archive Researcher (s)

Stian Indrevoll

Top Sources of Footage

Gunnar Brandsdal Home Video

Dark Side TV

ITN Archive

NRK aktivum

Norwegian Army Media Center

Duration

48 minutes

First Shown

NRK - 28/10/2004

Country of Origin

Norway

Synopsis

Through UN-soldier Gunnar Brandsdal's video diary, we get to know the life inside Force Mobile Reserve camp in South Lebanon 1996. It is a military service resembling a holiday in the sun with parties and drinking; But soon the gravity picks up and the laughter gets stuck in their throats. April 18th, the Israeli army bombs a nearby UN camp that hosts more than 500 Palestinian refugees. The soldiers are sent out on a rescue operation, to find survivors among all the dead. Afterwards the Israeli army claims the bombing was a accident, but Gunnar Brandsdal's tapes show something else.

Reasons for Submission

In midst of the fog of war, the images from a handycam prooved that Israel commited a war crime when they bombed the Qana compound. The political cover up was revealed by a single video tape, brought to the attention of the world by a UN soldier who disobeyed orders. Tin Soldiers has three interwoven timelines, two of which are told entirely through archival material. Our goal was to take the audience back in time through the archival material in such a way as to forget that the main part of what they see is actually 7 years old. We wanted to bring the present day experience and that of 7 years ago together.

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JURY COMMENTS

Excellent. Sensible integration of Brandsal's video diary with his thoughts at the time the film was shot. An expose which could not have been revealed in the absence of archive film naively shot by the combatants. This is a raw, powerful and uncompromising documentary and highly commendable. A work of art it is not – but if “best use of footage” is to be evaluated from all perspectives, this comes pretty close to it. The amateur video used as proof of a war crime is really strong. These images play a big role and the way they have been used is very sobering - they speak for themselves. Well done.

Cited Work

Kursk, a Submarine in Troubled Waters

Production Company

Les Films Grain De Sable

Producer / Director

Jean-Michel Carré

Writer

Jean-Michel Carré

Film/VT Editor

Michèle Hollander

Archive Researcher (s)

Masha Olénéva

Top Sources of Footage

NTV Russia

RTR Russia

Television Mourmansk

Private sources

LCI France

Duration

70 minutes

First Shown

RTBF, 24/10/2004

Country of Origin

France

Synopsis

During a military exercise in August 2000, Kursk, the state of the art Russian nuclear submarine, sank with its crew in the Barents Sea. The tragedy has never been completely elucidated. Four years later this film retraces the events, throwing astonishing new light on the affair and disclosing facts hitherto carefully concealed for diplomatic reasons. American and Chinese involvement in the affair could have led to a third world war. A political documentary thriller, this film shows how the Kursk tragedy forced Vladimir Putin to show his political intentions more rapidly than he had intended and paradoxically, his unexpected qualities as a statesman in the making and the development of his relations with the West. The events concerning Kursk, are intimately linked with his methodical and calculated acquisition of power.

Reasons for Submission

This film is largely constructed from archives obtained in Russia over the 3 years that followed the Kursk tragedy. Most of these archives were difficult to obtain at the time and will be even more so in the future as they illustrate aspects of Russian politics that those in power would like to conceal. Some of them also come from private sources. They enabled us to construct our story and some (those of the shkval torpedo and Kursk submarine enabled the 3D graphist to reconstruct the actual weapons and submarines. The originality of their use is in the form of the documentary itself which uses certain options belonging to the world of fiction.

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JURY COMMENTS

Excellent and powerful production with tight use of archive elements though some questionable use of archive images as wallpaper. An interesting polemic, (the sinking of the Kursk by an American torpedo nearly lead to a third world war). Remarkable footage.

Cited Work

The Power of Nightmares

Eps. 1 Baby It's Cold Outside

Production Company

BBC

Producer / Director

Adam Curtis

Assistant Producer / Camera

Lucy Kelsall

Archive Researcher (s)

Stuart Robertson

Top Sources of Footage

BBC Motion Gallery

APTN Library

CNN

Getty Images

Duration

60 minutes x 3 episodes

First Shown

BBC2, 20/10/2004

Country of Origin

Synopsis

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams weren't true - neither are these nightmares. This series shows dramatically how the threat of Islamist terrorism has been distorted and exaggerated by politicians. While there is a terrorist threat from radical Islamism, the idea that we are faced by a terrifying hidden organisation of unique power orchestrated by an evil mastermind Osama bin Laden is a fantasy. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neoconservatives and the radical Islamists. Together they created today's nightmare vision of an organised terror network. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age.

Reasons for Submission

The aim of the Power of Nightmares was to use the past to look again at the present and cut through many of the myths that now surround the War on terror. Because of this archive film from a multitude of sources was central to the project. Archive was used in a creative and often surprising way not just to illustrate past events but also to imaginatively understand the present in a new way. It was a modern collage that showed the extent to which archive film can be used in new ways that allow the audience to step back and view the present day in a new and informative light.

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JURY COMMENTS

Great concepts well represented in archival footage. Great craftsmanship. Intelligent, witty, often uses archive material as a metaphor rather than literally. Much more than simple illustration, archive footage is used very creatively to express feelings and emotions. Excellent use of archive footage. Intellectual yet visually powerful without need for a lot of talking heads. Remarkably clever use of footage.

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