The Åke Blomström Masterclass, which continues the legacy of the Åke Blomström Award, entered its 3rd round. On 5 and 6 October 15 participants from 11 European countries were guests in the beautiful radio play studio of Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg. Léa Chatauret from France, Andrew Harding from the UK, Inga Lizengevic from Berlin and Ole Hafsmo from Norway presented their masterpieces this year.
Ole Hafsmo, Prix Europa winner 2023 with the series "Shit Town", lamented the seriousness of so many documentaries. Especially when it comes to social issues. It always annoyed him. "Telling stories with humor is a dramatic device and does not mean disregarding them". With his work about his mother, he wanted to show that being poor doesn't have to be something sad in principle. For Hafsmo, his series is an example of the fact that working on a documentary is not completely controllable, that no matter how much experience you already have, you still always act a bit like an idiot and don't know what will come out in the end. Hafsmo didn't have a clear story at the beginning, more like a string of pearls of good scenes. The story only became clear at the moment when his mother was given notice to leave the apartment. And a second thing was important to Hafsmo. To make a really good documentary, you have to be clear about what the story is actually about. What does it stand for? In his case, too, this was not clear for a long time. It was only when he began to recount the circumstances of why his mother ended up in the precarious situation she was living in at the time that he realized that his series was not simply a light-hearted story about a poor woman, but that it was essentially about domestic violence against women.
Inga Lizengevic, winner of the 2022 Prix Italia with her feature "Babies for the World", described how she came across the issue of surrogate mothers in Ukraine. A topic in the family circle turned into the question: Is this actually fair for the surrogates? Inga is convinced: Because she approached this investigative research so openly, so many women, intended parents, agents and doctors spoke openly with her about it. The research went on for two years, she was often in the Ukraine, but also in the Czech Republic and Austria. Many women were willing to talk about their circumstances because they had no one else to talk to. As word of her research spread, a snowball effect developed. In the end, she had spoken to 30 surrogate mothers and had access to their patient files. She was able to confront those responsible for the most serious cases with a great deal of detailed knowledge. Nevertheless, the research had no legal consequences. One of the agency owners also openly admitted that if there was no one to call the business abuse, it would be bad for business. Inga's work shows how important it is to choose the right characters and reduce the recorded material to the minimum necessary, to get to the heart of the problem.
The Åke Blomström Masterclass of 2024
Anna Joyce (Ireland), Carys Wall (United Kingdom), Clara Neubert (Germany), Fabiana Blasco (Germany), James Bonney (United Kingdom), Juli Schulz (Germany), Karolina Szulejewska (Germany/Poland), Lydia Bandolin Sörlin (Sweden), Marcia Sandee (Netherlands), Miranda Wretman (Sweden), Omara Poppe (Belgium), Raymond Lydal (Norway), Robin Mayer (Czech Republic), Rytis Skamarakas (Lithuania), Tereza Simanová (Slovakia)
Léa Chatauret talked about her work on "Open Hearts" also winning piece at Prix Europa 2023. It was triggered by a synchronicity that many people experience at certain times in their lives. Her grandmother was dying, her father had a heart attack and needed a new heart. She herself was expecting her first child. Obsessively recording was her strategy for coping. At the heart of the story, however, is the abuse her father suffered as a chorister at the hands of his universally acclaimed choir director, and how this abuse affected his life and that of his family. She was sure she had a good story. But it was hard to sell. She emphasized how important it is in moments like this to believe in your story. One strategy for talking to people about unpleasant things is to reach them about everyday, practical things that interest them. In her father's case, music, and the technique of recording it to find a way to talk about the abuse and its consequences. She always edited her material immediately into sequences to make it easier to find later. The principle of sequences also runs through the construction of the piece. There is a sequence of development in the music or in the story of her daughter for example. Many of the recordings from the first period are not particularly good. But the interview with her father is technically perfect and that makes up for the shortcomings of the poor recordings.
Andrew Harding spoke about "Bloodlands", a five-part podcast bout a murder and justice scandal in South Africa in 2016, that won Best Audio Investigation at the 2021 Prix Europa and was preceded by a book project. Harding said that he had recorded a lot of the material for the book project using a dictaphone, but the quality of the material was unusable. For the audio project, he had to re-record all the interviews. However, he had developed such a good relationship with the important protagonists over time that this was possible. Nevertheless, much of the piece is a reconstruction with the distance of years. It is important to Harding to get straight to the point in his narrative. To grab the listener immediately and say, this is an important thing, deal with it. Nevertheless, the documentary left him a bit frustrated because so many things could not be told in the airtime available. The pervasive domestic violence in all parts of society. The incredible poverty. The injustice. Many things could only be hinted at.
A wide variety of topics and creative approaches became clear in the pitches that each participant was allowed to present. It was about dangerous products for women's bodies, mysterious motives of fathers who fled to Europe, a Berlin repair café as an ideal fishing pond for stories. Incredible crime stories such as the failed suicide attack by a Scotsman on Franko or the inexplicable disappearance of a woman in Ireland on September 11, 2001. The experience of gamblers, stories of a family divided between Eastern and Western Europe. Megalomaniac projects such as that of a Liverpool man who has rebuilt an ancient villa in his apartment, which is now a listed building. Or a Czech composer who composes almost unperformable works for Vladimir Putin. Female imams in Sweden or the question of identities in Estonia in the face of the threat from Russia.
Once again the Åke Blomström Masterclass was a place for young and older generation of creators to share their experiences and comments in a friendly atmosphere. Everyone wanted to make the art of storytelling with sound better and more adequate. Many participants took the opportunity to take part in the jury sessions of the Prix Europa in the following days. With Lydia Bandolin Miranda Wretman, two participants were even nominated in the Audio Documentary category. We hope that one or the other participant will also be nominated with a piece at the Prix Europa in the coming years. In any case, there will be another Åke Blomström Masterclass next year.
Agnieszka Czyżewska and Wolfgang Schiller
