Black Bus (Soreret) R: Anat Yuta Zuria Land: Israel 2009 Drehformat: DV Format: Digibeta Länge: 76 Minuten Sprache: Hebräisch mehr Informationen

Zwei junge Frauen aus Israel, die in keinem coolen Café dieser Welt auffallen würden: Sie wirken so smart und modebewusst wie viele ihrer Altersgenossinnen in Berlin oder Buenos Aires. Doch Sarah, die Bloggerin, und Shulamit, die Fotografin, haben einen hohen Preis dafür bezahlt, als moderne Frauen in der Jetztzeit angekommen zu sein. Die beiden wurden von ihren Familien verstoßen, nachdem sie aus der ultra-orthodoxen Haredi-Gemeinde geflohen waren. Die Gemeinde hat sich in der letzten Dekade stark fundamentalisiert, Frauen und Mädchen haben den Radikalisierungsschub durch verschärfte Repressionen und eine extreme Einengung ihrer Bewegungsfreiheit zu spüren bekommen. So sind im sogenannten Black Bus Frauen nur noch auf den hinteren Sitzplätzen zugelassen, damit jeder noch so flüchtige Kontakt mit fremden Männern vermieden werden kann. [aus dem Forumprogramm]

How would you describe the aesthetics of your film?
The esthetics of the cinematography of The Black Bus are related to the film’s unique cinematic story. The Black Bus depicts a world in which the unwritten ultra-orthodox law forbids looking at women. The film's subversiveness lies at its attempts to visually describe this violent invisibility imposed on women. The film’s cinematographer, Roni Katznelson, created a dark, stylized, minimalist visual world through the employment of a restrained cinematographic approach. The Black Bus tells the unknown story of women in Israel’s isolated ultra-Orthodox society. The story of these women is told from a unique perspective – that of two rebellious young women who have fled from the prohibitions forced upon them by that society. Through their writing and photography, both try to document denied images and situations.
The film features two young women, who represent almost complete opposites. We chose a different cinematic characterization for each of them. One, a quiet, more withdrawn type, is shot as she takes her pictures in the streets, and the other is a blogger, a teller of stories, who works mostly at night in the safety of her home, from where she tries to provoke rebellions. The documentary cinematographic style moves constantly between the dynamic movement in the street and of the buses to the dense, static world of the young women’s homes. Shulamit herself takes pictures of the Jerusalem streets where she grew up. She moves around in the ultra-Orthodox surroundings, occupied with her observations, trying to capture the images of the absurd day-to-day situations in which the women find themselves. Among other things, she chronicles the segregated buses that pass through the streets of the city, where the women are squeezed into the back part of the bus. The documentation carried out by Shulamit, the photographer protagonist, leads the film’s cinematographer into an environment that is dangerous and hostile to the presence of his camera. The filming emphasizes the subjectivity of the observation from the perspective of the protagonist. The cinematographic concept tends to emphasize Shulamit’s changing moods, which range from dejected passivity to dynamism. The camera intersects both the perspective of the stills photographer as she observes and documents the street and the suspicious or hostile looks she receives from the people in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.
The other protagonist of the film is Sara, a subversive blogger who interviews ultra-Orthodox acquaintances and recounts their stories on her critical Internet blog. Cinematographic characterization of her world depicts the unspoken loneliness in which she lives. The conscious decision to film her at night, in dark lighting, with a static camera that documents conversations and intimate stories, sometimes remotely in a way that reflects the extreme situations of alienation with which she contends. In one shot typical of the cinematographer’s approach, he created a long, static shot of the protagonist’s face as she sits alone in her room. This is the final shot in the film, and it touches on the crisis she is experiencing. She is shown at a very fragile moment, as she confesses that she is no longer sure of her own sanity as the voices from her past continue to haunt her. The choice of low, bluish lighting, lend the long, probing shot an almost hyper-realistic sense.

Why did you choose to shoot on a digital format (was it solely for financial reasons, or did aesthetics play a role)?
The complex subject matter and difficult filming conditions required the right choice of format, one that would allow easy and effective negotiation of the streets and buses.
At first, we tried to film on the buses with a hidden camera, but I was dissatisfied with the outcome, and furthermore, the cinematographer insisted on filming openly and normally. On the other hand, we wanted to be discreet and not to draw too much attention or cause suspicion among people. The best format for this aim was a digital camera small enough not to attract too much attention, but of a high enough quality for the large screen.
The film was shot over a period of a year, and the fact that this format is also less expensive contributed to our being able to shoot as much as we wanted without getting in over our heads financially.
The choice of the digital format suited the film for practical, esthetic and budgetary reasons.

Which format exactly did you choose (MiniDV, DVCAM, HDV, HD...), and why?
DV (25p). We shot with a Panasonic DVX100 BE camera that gave us freedom of action and a great deal of creativity, and was particularly suited to the unique character of the film. Surprisingly, its picture and color quality, with the help of exposure and precision lighting gave a feeling of film.

What was special about shooting with Red (e.g. compared to 35-mm or
other digital formats)? Was it your first time with Red / digital or are
you used to it?
It is impossible to shoot a documentary film that involves taking risks using a 35mm film format or with large HD cameras. This is not my first experience shooting in a DV or DVCAM format. Although it is considered an inferior format among the digital formats, the result on the big screen after final color correction in post production and transfer to master digital beta is surprisingly good in quality.

What was your shoot-edit ratio?
30:1

One good word about DV / HDV / HD (or two):
The results of the indoor shooting with low, dim and contrastive lighting was outstanding. The situation was similar for the outdoor shots towards evening and at night, and even in the outdoor daytime shots in wintertime, when the light was soft and there were no immediate contrasts.

One bad word about DV / HDV / HD (or two):
The picture quality is not good enough in outdoor / daytime shots when there is high contrast, as we find in the strong Mediterranean sun most days of the year in Israel.