2014 Catalog

Transcription

2014 Catalog

Front cover image copyright Lara Zankoul Photography.
6 Concept
80 TRANSCENDING REALITY
8 Festival Board
88 DANCE CINEMA FROM THE NETHERLANDS
Theme Program: INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Special Program: CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN FESTIVAL
10 Festival Team
12 UNATC / UNARTE Presentation
AMSTERDAM
97 DIARY FILMS: The Intimacy Of Politics And The Politics Of
Intimacy
14 Partner Festivals
Theme Program: INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM
FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM
20 International Competition Jury
103 THE FEMALE GAZE: Cinematic Confessions By Women
22 Opening Gala / Closing Gala
Filmmakers
Theme Program: INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
26 ALTERNATIVE HISTORY: Lying To Tell The Truth
OBERHAUSEN
International Competition I
109 GOLDEN SHORTS: Best Films In Major Festivals
32 FAMILY TIES: Love Bonds Or Prison Bars?
Special Program
International Competition II
114 ROMANIAN CINEMATIC EXPERIMENTS
42 RECYCLED CINEMA: Films Made Of Films
Special Program
International competition III
126 ANDY WARHOL FILM RETROSPECTIVE
52 IN SEARCH OF A SOUL: Spiritual Journeys
International Competition IV
60 URBAN GHOSTS: Between Foreboding And Nostalgia
127 NISI MASA EXPERIMENTAL FILM WORKSHOP
128 JAN ŠVANKMAJER RETROSPECTIVE AND EXHIBITION
International Competition V
129 ROMANIAN ENTERPRISE #norma
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
68 POLITICS VERSUS META-CINEMA: Layered Perspectives on
Contemporary Reality
Theme Program: BERLINALE FORUM EXPANDED
76 QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS: Cannes Film Festival
Special Program
Special Acknowledgments:
to all the directors, producers and distributors whose films are screened in BIEFF 2014 and to the following persons and institutions:
Adrian Titieni – National University of Theatre
Gabriela Petre – “Vito Grasso” Italian Cultural
Mihai Chirilov - Transilvania International Film
and Film Bucharest
Institute Bucharest
Festival
Alecsandru Papagheorghiu – Bucharest City
Hilke Doering - Oberhausen International
Mihai Orășanu – MDV Film
Hall
Short Film Festival
Natalia Trebik - Le Fresnoy Studio National des
Alessandro Raja - Festival Scope
Iulia Blaga
Arts Contemporains
Alina Cantacuzino – Cervantes Institute
Jing Haase - Filmkontakt Nord
Nora Molitor - BERLINALE Forum Expanded
Anca Hudac - Book4Travel
Johannes Klein - The Festival Agency
Paolo Moretti - Rome International Film Festival
Andrei Rus - Film Menu
Jonathan Pouthier - Centre Pompidou
Peter Greenaway
Angelika Ramlow - BERLINALE Forum
Joost Daamen - IDFA International
Peter van Hoof - International Film Festival
Expanded
Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
Rotterdam
Anna Abrahams - EYE Film Institute
Juhani Alanen - Tampere International Short
Rémi Bonhomme - Semaine de la Critique,
Netherlands
Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
Beate Koehler – Goethe Institut
Jukka Pekka Laasko - Tampere International
Rene Kubasek – Czech Centre Bucharest
Brigitta Burger Utzer - Sixpack Film
Short Film Festival
Roxana Calinescu – Romanian Cultural
Boglarka Nagy - French Institute Bucharest
Lara Zankoul
Institute
Carmen Grigoraş – Embassy of Finland -
Lars Henrik Gass - Oberhausen International
Roxana Gibescu – Galateca Gallery
Bucharest
Short Film Festival
Roxana Trestioreanu – UNARTE National
Carsten Spicher - Oberhausen International
Laurențiu Brătan - Anim’est Bucharest
University of Arts Bucharest
Short Film Festival
International Animation Film Festival
Salette Ramalho - Agência da Curta Metragem
Cătălin Bălescu - UNARTE National University
Lavinia Sîrbulescu – Austrian Cultural Forum
Sergi Steegmann - The Match Factory
of Arts Bucharest
Bucharest
Simona Pop – Embassy of Sweden - Bucharest
Codrin Tofan – Embassy of Israel - Bucharest
Lilian Zamfiroiu – Romanian Cultural Institute
Shelly Hagler Livne – Embassy of Israel -
Cornelia Popa – Cinelabs Romania
Liliana Costa - Agência da Curta Metragem
Bucharest
Christoph Terhechte - BERLINALE Forum
Luiza Domnișoru – Dacia Automobile
Ștefana Mărmureanu – Romanian Cultural
Expanded
Magdolna Csegedi – Balassi Institute
Institute
Christophe Leparc - Quinzaine des
Bucharest
Thania Dimitrakopoulou - The Match Factory
Réalisateurs, Cannes Film Festival
Marie-Louise Thaning – Embassy of Sweden
Theo Tsappos - The Swedish Film Institute
Cornelia Popa – Cinelabs Romania
Bucharest
Theus Zwakhals - LIMA Amsterdam
Florin Oslobanu - Control Club
Marina Neacşu - Goethe Institut
Thomas Grand - French Institute Bucharest
Cristian Petcu – Romanian Cultural Institute
Marion Poeth - Cinedans Dance On Screen
Thorsten Geissler – Rule of Law Program
Cristophe Pomez - French Institute Bucharest
Festival Amsterdam
South East Europe, Konrad-Adenauer
Daniela Russo - LUX Artists’ Moving Image
Marta Jurkiewicz - EYE Film Institute
Foundation
Dana Toader – Abis Studio
Netherlands
Tudor Ciortea – Noumax
Doru Toma - Rule of Law Program South East
Martijn te Pas - IDFA International
Vava Ştefănescu - Centrul Național al Dansului
Europe, Konrad-Adenauer Foundation
Documentary Festival Amsterdam
CNDB
Dietmar Schwärzler - Sixpack Film
Martin Scheuring - German Films
Vesa Puhakka - AV-arkki
Elisabeth Marinkovic – Austrian Cultural
Martine Dekker - Cinedans Dance On Screen
Yvonne Irimescu - NexT International Short
Forum Bucharest
Festival Amsterdam
Film Festival
Florentina Ciuvercă - Film Reporter
Mary Scherer - Video Data Bank
François Bonenfant - Le Fresnoy Studio
Miguel Dias - Agencia Da Curta Metragem
and to all BIEFF 2014 interns and
National des Arts Contemporains
Miguel Valverde - Indielisboa International
volunteers.
Gabriel Antal – Abis Studio
Independent Film Festival
Bucharest International Experimental Film
Festival BIEFF - Concept
Copel Moscu, Festival Director
Adina Pintilie, Curator of the International Program
Created under the patronage of the
and visual art students and professionals.
cinema screen. We do this, because we believe
National University of Theater and Film “I.L.
Therefore we present films which are “lessons”
this border area is an extremely rich, creatively
Caragiale” and the National University of Arts
of cinema, emblematic pieces, eye-openers
nourishing territory, from where unique artistic
Bucharest, with the support of the Romanian
about the unlimited possibilities offered
voices constantly emerged over the years,
National Cinema Centre, the BUCHAREST
by the cinematic medium, about the ways
such as Peter Greenaway, David Lynch, Derek
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL FILM
to transcend any possible borders between
Jarman, Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage and
FESTIVAL BIEFF has as its main focus the
fiction, documentary and visual art, about the
others.
courage to experiment in cinematic language.
transgression of boundaries on every level,
BIEFF is the first showcase of avant-garde
from concept, structure, rhythm, to the very
BIEFF presents on one side, an
cinema and visual art in Romania, a non-
shot construction.
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL SHORT
commercial event with educational purpose,
FILM COMPETITION, consisting of some of
aimed at bringing in front of the audience
BIEFF is also the first event in Romania
the most intriguing and innovative visual
highly innovative films, and filmmakers with
dedicated to promoting the border area
experiments from the last years, titles awarded
strong personal views on contemporary reality,
between cinema and visual art, offering
and screened in prestigious festivals, museums
which also daringly explore the boundaries of
increased visibility to cutting edge visual
and galleries all over the world, such as Cannes,
cinematic language.
artists, whose work is mainly accessible in
Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam, Oberhausen,
A cinema of total creative freedom and lack of
museums and art galleries circuit and rarely on
Toronto, Centre Pompidou etc.
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compromise.
We believe BIEFF is a highly necessary event,
As well, BIEFF is honored to collaborate with some of the major international film festivals and
particularly for Romania, whose cinema already
institutions in the area of avant-garde cinema and visual art, recognized worldwide for their
proved its amazing strength in the past years,
consistent creative support of innovative, radical filmmaking and visual art: QUINZAINE DES
through outstanding voices such as Cristi Puiu,
RÉALISATEURS - Cannes Film Festival, BERLINALE FORUM EXPANDED – Berlin International Film
Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristian Mungiu, Radu
Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Short Film Festival OBERHAUSEN,
Jude, and others, yet mainly in the area of
IDFA International Documentary Festival Amsterdam - Paradocs, Centre POMPIDOU Paris, Le
realistic narrative fiction. On this flourishing
FRESNOY – Studio National des Arts Contemporains, CINEDANS - Dance on Screen Festival
creative background, BIEFF comes as a natural
Amsterdam, TAMPERE Film Festival, SIXPACKFILM Austria, and EYE Film Institute Netherlands,
complementary reaction, its main goal being
each of them bringing to Bucharest a selection of highly innovative multi-awarded films from their
to broaden perception, to open a whole new
last years selections.
artistic territory, both for the general and the
specialized audience, particularly for the film
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We are honored to welcome in our
France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands,
International Competition Jury prestigious
Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland
films professionals such as: Anne Delseth
and the UK.
Cannes Film Festival), Theus Zwakhals (Film
Starting with 2012, PETER GREENAWAY
programmer - International Film Festival
became the HONORIFIC PRESIDENT of the
Rotterdam), Jonathan Pouthier (Film
Bucharest International Experimental Film
Programmer - National Museum of Modern Art
Festival BIEFF, generously joining us in our
Centre Pompidou, Paris), and Marion Poeth
educational initiative. PETER GREENAWAY
(Artistic Programmer, Producer – Cinedans
is one of the key voices of the contemporary
Dance on Screen Festival, Amsterdam)
avant-garde cinema, one of the most ambitious
As well, BIEFF started in 2010 a wonderful
and controversial experimental filmmakers of our time. Trained as a painter and heavily influenced
collaboration with one of the main
by theories of structural linguistics, ethnography, and philosophy, PETER GREENAWAY’s films
experimental filmmakers of our time,
often traversed unexplored territories, rejecting conventional narrative structures, in favor of
PETER GREENAWAY. He opened our festival
awe-striking imagery, constantly testing the limits of the cinematic medium. Regularly nominated
in 2010 with an impressive Masterclass,
in prestigious film festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin, he has an impressive body of work,
addressed especially to our main audience,
consisting of 13 feature films and 50 short-films and documentaries, plus exhibitions, visual
Romanian cinema and visual art students
installations, VJ performances, paintings, books, opera librettos.
and professionals, and, in 2011, with
his groundbreaking LIVE CINEMA VJ
Also, following its previous years’ success, BIEFF will dedicate again its 2014 Opening and Closing
PERFORMANCE LUPERCYCLOPEDIA, a highly
Ceremony to the most recent works of some major names of contemporary cinema. In 2010, BIEFF
innovative audio-visual experiment, intended
presented, for the first time in Romania, the latest film by master of experimental cinema JAN
to challenge the borders of film language and
SVANKMAJER, right after its premiere in Venice. In 2011, BIEFF screened the Romanian premiere
offer the audience a totally new cinematic
of the most recent work of ALEXANDER SOKUROV, his impressive FAUST, winner of the Golden
experience, performance which was immensely
Lion in Venice 2011. In 2012, BIEFF presented the Romanian premiere of PETER GREENAWAY’s
successful all over the world, traveling in only 4
latest feature, the outstanding GOLTZIUS AND THE PELICAN COMPANY, while in 2013 the film to
years to 14 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
open the festival was TERRY GILLIAM’s most recent feature, THE ZERO THEOREM.
\\ BUCHAREST INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
(Programmer – Quinzaine des Réalisateurs,
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FESTIVAL BOARD
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PETER GREENAWAY
COPEL MOSCU
HONORIFIC PRESIDENT
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
One of the key voices of contemporary
Copel Moscu (b.1953) graduated from
2010, consistent with his free innovative
avant-garde cinema, PETER GREENAWAY
the National Institute of Drama and Film
vision and educational commitment, he took
is one of the most ambitious and
Bucharest in 1978, after which he worked
the challenge to offer Romanian audiences,
controversial experimental filmmakers of
at the Sahia Documentary Film Studio.
particularly to cinema and visual students,
our time. Trained as a painter and heavily
One of the key authors of the Romanian
the first international experimental film
influenced by theories of structural
Documentary New Wave from the ’80
festival in Romania.
linguistics, ethnography, and philosophy,
(together with Ovidiu Bose Pastina, Tereza
PETER GREENAWAY’s films often
Barta, Laurentiu Damian, Sabina Pop), he
traverse unexplored territories, rejecting
was a pioneer in challenging the borders of
conventional narrative structures in favor of
cinema language, in controversial subversive
an awe-striking imagery, constantly testing
films which concealed, under daring
the limits and canons of the cinematic
conceptual and formal experimenting, a
medium. Regularly nominated in prestigious
fierce criticism of the communist regime,
film festivals such as Cannes, Venice and
films banned by the establishment’s
Berlin, he has an impressive body of work,
censorship. Copel Moscu created over 50
consisting of 13 feature films and 50 short-
short and feature films, as director and
films and documentaries, plus exhibitions,
scriptwriter, for which he was awarded over
visual installations, VJ performances,
25 international and national prizes (THE
paintings, books, opera librettos. His first
EVENING SCHOOL, ON THE OZANA SHORE,
narrative feature film, THE DRAUGHTSMAN’S
MY BELOVED SCHOOL, THE BRONZE AGE,
CONTRACT, completed in 1982, received
A DAY WILL COME and I CHOSE FREEDOM).
great critical acclaim and established him
He presently teaches film directing at
internationally as an original filmmaker, a
the National University of Theater and
reputation consolidated by his following
Film Bucharest (UNATC) and video-art
films, such as THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE
at National University of Arts Bucharest
AND HER LOVER, THE PILLOW BOOK and THE
(UNARTE) and is referred to as an artistic
TULSE LUPER SUITCASES.
consultant for television and cinema. In
ADINA PINTILIE
OZANA NICOLAU
CURATOR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Adina Pintilie is a Romanian filmmaker, recent
which premiered in Locarno, won a Runner Up
Ozana Nicolau is an alumnus of Berlinale
graduate of the National University of Theater
Award at the Miami IFF and a Special Mention
Talent Campus, of Locarno Summer Academy
and Film Bucharest, Directing Department.
in Trieste in 2009. Her latest short DIARY#2
and a recent graduate of the National
At the border between fiction, documentary
won the ZONTA Award for Best Woman
University of Theatre and Film Bucharest,
and visual art, her films are very particular
Filmmaker at Oberhausen International Short
Directing Department. SURROUNDED BY
in the new Romanian cinema landscape,
Film Festival 2013.
FRIENDS, her graduation film, was presented
standing out through a highly personal
in over 15 film festivals all over the world,
visual style, daring experimenting in cinema
from Tampere Film Festival to International
language and uncompromising exploration
Short Film Festival In Drama Greece and
of human psychology. In 2007, her medium
from Cannes Film Festival - Short Film
length DON’T GET ME WRONG - produced
Corner and Clermont Ferrand to Karlovy
by Aristoteles Workshop, with the support
Vary International Short Film Festival. Ozana
of ARTE France and the Romanian National
Nicolau has worked as assistant director
Television, was world premiered in Locarno
with acclaimed Romanian filmmakers of the
- Filmmakers of the Present Competition,
Romanian New Wave, such as Călin-Peter
included in IDFA 2007-Best of Fests selection,
Netzer (CHILD’S POSE – winner of Golden
awarded Golden Dove Best Documentary
Bear at Berlinale 2013) and Radu Jude (
Award at DOK LEIPZIG 2007 and selected/
EVERYBODY IN OUR FAMILY – awarded
awarded in 50 international film festivals such
The Heart of Sarajevo). Presently, Ozana
as: Thessaloniki, Montpellier, Trieste, Namur,
is developing a documentary within the
Munchen, Moscow, Sarajevo, Indielisboa,
framework of I-Doc Workshop – Visions du
Warszaw, Krakow etc. Her last medium length,
Réel Nyon and is working on her latest film,
OXYGEN, was screened in Tiger Awards Short
a documentary produced by Aristoteles
Film Competition of Rotterdam Film Festival
Workshop with the support of ARTE France.
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
2010, Buenos Aires BAFICI, Montpellier,
Thessaloniki, Warszaw, Bilbao etc. In 2008 she
co-directed Sandpit#186 with George Chiper,
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FESTIVAL TEAM
Festival Coordinator:
Print Traffic & Technical Coordinator:
Video Department Interns:
Dan Angelescu
Elena Găgeanu
Patricia Chelaru
Program Department Coordinator:
Technical Department Interns:
Alexandra Furdui
Diana Mereoiu
Simona Mirițescu
Nicolae Gaburici
Georgiana Surugiu
Diana Halmaghi
Vlad Cocoș
Program Department & Curatorial Texts:
Paul Lupașcu
Diana Mereoiu
Guest Coordinator:
Mihai Marin
Andrei Tănăsescu
Lilia Brăila
Georgiana Surugiu
Adina Pintilie
Guest Department Interns:
Volunteers Coordinator:
Program Department Interns:
Alina Dima
Adriana Susmă
Bianca Bănică
Doris Dănilă
Gabriela Lupu
Sponsoring Manager:
NISI MASA Workshop Coordinator:
Catalogue Coordinator:
Sorina Diaconu
Diana Mereoiu
Dora Nedeczky
Ozana Nicolau
Andra Gheorghiu
Catalogue DTP:
PR & Press Department:
Vadim Ciocazan
Ruxandra Dobândă
Ozana Nicolau
Subtitling & Translations Coordinator:
Mădălina Matei
Graphic Designer:
Bogdan Cătălin Cazacioc
Press Releases:
Subtitling Department Interns:
Anna Berza
Diana Mereoiu
Graphic Design Intern:
Oana Alina Mania
Ozana Nicolau
Anda Stăncescu
Teodora Morar
Adina Pintilie
PR & Press Department Intern:
Sînziana Perțea
Webdeveloper:
Maria Raicu
Tiberiu Andrișan
Alina Vlad
Photo Coordinator:
Production Department Interns:
Ionuț Dobre
Adina Daneș
\\
Adriana Maricari
Online Presence Coordinator:
Dan Angelescu
Online Department Intern:
Paul Petrache
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Smaranda Enache
Video Coordinator:
Carla Fotea
Alice Gheorghiu
Ana-Maria Uluceanu
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THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
OF THEATER AND FILM
“I.L. CARAGIALE” BUCHAREST
The NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATER AND FILM “I.L. CARAGIALE” BUCHAREST (UNATC) counts among the most prestigious European film
schools, together with the Film And TV School Of Academy Of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), and the National Film School in Lodz. The
history of UNATC begins as early as 1864, the year when the first Theatre School was founded in Bucharest. In 1954, the old school merged
with the Institute of Film Art, to become UNATC, The National School of Theatre and Cinema.
Great names of Romanian cinema are UNATC alumni; among them: Cristian Mungiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Cătălin Mitulescu, Radu Muntean,
Tudor Giurgiu.
THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
OF ARTS BUCHAREST
Founded in 1864, the NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARTS BUCHAREST (UNARTE) proposes, through the creative work of its students, a
cultural model that links universal art forms to the contemporary cultural space. The specificity of the curriculum offered by UNARTE, and
by the Photography and Video Department in particular, relies in the fostering of a flexible thinking, and in promoting themes related to
contemporary issues, and a variety of approaches that avoid conservatism and dogma.
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UNARTE promotes the works and ideas of its students in symposia, exhibitions, and press conferences, and offers them opportunities
of exchanges and collaborations with art universities all over Europe. Among its most celebrated professors and alumni, UNARTE counts
Constantin Brâncuşi, Theodor Aman, Gheorghe Tattarescu, Ştefan Luchian, Alexandru Ciucurencu, Corneliu Baba.
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CĂTĂLIN BĂLESCU
Cătălin Bălescu (b. 1962), graduated from The School for Fine Arts ”Nicolae Grigorescu” in Bucharest in 1986. He is a professor at the National
University of Arts Bucharest, a member of the Romanian Artists’ Union, and the Rector of the National University of Arts Senate. He is a Doctor
of Visual Arts, and an internationally renowned artist, whose work has been presented at the International Festival of Painting at Cagnes sur
Mer in France, and at the Print and Drawing Biennial Taipei in Taiwan. In Romania, he is present in group exhibitions, most recently at the Visual
Arts Centre, and with personal exhibitions opened at Apollo Art Gallery, and Simeza Art Gallery, both in Bucharest. In addition to his academic
and artistic work, he has collaborated with the School of Mathematics within the Faculty of Computer Science of the Romanian Academy of
Economics, working for research projects on advanced techniques in the analysis of the artistic visual image. He works as an associate expert
with the National Institute for Optoelectronics in a project for the development of a method of basic analysis of artistic visual image elements.
ROXANA TRESTIOREANU
HEAD OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY AND TIME BASED ARTS DEPARTMENT AT THE NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY OF ARTS BUCHAREST (UNARTE)
Visual artist and curator. Works and lives in Bucharest. BA degree in painting at the „N. Grigorescu” Fine Arts Institute, Bucharest in 1981, and
PhD in Visual Arts of the National University of Arts Bucharest, in 2006. Associate Professor, she is the head of the Photography and Time
Based Arts Department, as well as head of the International Relations Department in the National University of Arts Bucharest. She is member
of the representative boards of: ELIA - the European League of Institutes of the Arts, ICCA - the International Center for Contemporary
Art, transFORMA (Romanian-Dutch foundation focusing on human rights and transparency of decisions), META Cultural Foundation. She is
affiliated with the Romanian Union of Artists – since 1990 and the International Association of Art Critics – AICA, Romanian Section, since 2005.
Since 1981 she works and exhibits her projects in painting, drawing, artist book, installation, object, clothing and accessories design, film, video,
photography, social practice and relational art. Her conceptual discourse revolves around identity, feminism, human rights.
RECTOR OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF ARTS BUCHAREST (UNARTE)
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PRESENTATION
QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS
CANNES
PARTNER FESTIVAL
Parallel section of Cannes Film Festival,
created by the French Directors Guild in the
wake of the events of May ’68, QUINZAINE
DES RÉALISATEURS (the DIRECTORS’
FORTHNIGHT) seeks to aid filmmakers and
contribute to their discovery by the critics
and audiences alike. From its initial program
in 1969, it cast its lot with the avant-garde
(the glorious seventies), as well as it created
a breeding ground where the Cannes
Festival would regularly find its prestigious
auteurs.
Since its inception, QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS has showcased the first films of Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima,
George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Ken Loach, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, Chantal Akerman, Spike Lee, Luc et Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Sofia
Coppola, Robert Bresson, Manoel de Oliveira, Stephen Frears, Jerzy Skolimowski, William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola... among others.
Among the various sections at the Cannes Film Festival, QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS is distinguished by its independent-mindedness, its
non-competitive nature and its concern to cater to non-professional Cannes audiences, which can buy a subscription for the entire Fortnight
program or purchase tickets for individual screenings. Striving to be eclectic and receptive to all forms of cinematic expression, QUINZAINE
DES RÉALISATEURS pays particular attention to the annual production of fiction features, short films and documentaries, to the emergence of
independent fringe filmmaking, and even to contemporary popular genres, provided these films are the expression of an individual talent and
an original directorial style.
CHRISTOPHE LEPARC
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Managing Director of QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS, Festival de CANNES.
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Has been working in the film industry since
1990, specialized in the organization of
film festivals; has notably worked for the
International Women Directors’ Film Festival
of Créteil during 10 years as “prospector”
of films. He has begun to work for
Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier in
1994 as prospector, member of the selection
committee, elaborating retrospectives.
Between 2000 and 2008, he has worked
as Program Manager for the International
Critics’ Week, sidebar of Cannes Film Festival
devoted to new talents. Since 2007, he
is Managing Director of QUINZAINE DES
RÉALISATEURS (DIRECTORS’ FORTHNIGHT),
the other sidebar of Cannes Film Festival.
He’s currently working with Edouard
Waintrop, the new Artistic Director of the
Fortnight.
PARTNER FESTIVAL
Avant garde, experimental works, essays, long-term observations, political reportage and yet-to-be-discovered cinematic landscapes: the
INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF NEW CINEMA, FORUM in short, is the most daring section of the BERLINALE.
There are few formal limitations when it comes to the selection of films, resulting in even greater freedom. Documentaries and feature films
are given equal consideration. The films in the Forum straddle the line between art and cinema.
In 2006 BERLINALE FORUM EXPANDED was launched. Presenting film, video, installation and performative works on varying themes and in
multiple venues across Berlin, works in FORUM EXPANDED provide a critical perspective and an expanded sense of cinematography.
The director of this section is Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, who also works as a curator, alongside Anselm Franke, Nanna Heidenreich, Bettina
Steinbrügge and Uli Ziemons.
ARSENAL Institute for Film and Video Art
Communicating international film culture in a lively manner is both the aim and mission of ARSENAL Institute for Film and Video Art. Working
at the point where practice and theory come together, the institute comprises a space for thinking outside the box in (film) cultural terms, a
cinema whose attention is focused on independent and experimental film and a communication platform for promoting dynamic exchange
between film, academia and art linked to a whole network of different organizations. Its work encompasses the running of the two-screen
Arsenal cinema, putting on the BERLINALE FORUM and FORUM EXPANDED, distributing films as Arsenal Distribution and collecting and
communicating works of independent and experimental cinema as well as avant-garde film history. Presenting video art and experimental
films at the Filmhaus, at festivals, and in art and gallery spaces all plays a part in the ongoing investigation of what the conditions that
constitute cinema actually are. The board of directors is made up of the film scholars and curators Milena Gregor, Birgit Kohler and Stefanie
Schulte Strathaus.
PRESENTATION
BERLINALE FORUM
EXPANDED
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PRESENTATION
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
ROTTERDAM
PARTNER FESTIVAL
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)
offers a high quality line-up of carefully
selected fiction and documentary feature
films, short films and media art. IFFR is
one of the largest audience and industrydriven film festivals in the world. Famously,
only seventeen people attended the
opening night of the first Film International
Rotterdam on 28 June 1972. Presently,
during twelve festival days, hundreds of
filmmakers and other artists present their
work to a large audience (2014: 287.000
admissions) and over 2.000 film professionals. The festival’s Official Selection includes some 220 feature films and 320 short films out of 60
countries. The 44th edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam takes place from Wednesday 21 January till Sunday 1 February 2015.
The Shorts section of International Film Festival Rotterdam has no fixed agenda, boundaries or statement, but aims to show films that are
experimental, innovative and contemporary, with a maximum length of 60 minutes. It contains, besides the regular competition and spectrum
programs, special thematic and solo programs, and also holds a series of MindThe Gap-nights with live audio-visual events. The selection
committee of the IFFR Shorts doesn’t thoroughly reflect in advance on what experimental or innovative means. We’re interested in work
that challenges generic designations (including the traditional “avant-garde”, “underground” or “video art” ones). Work may also draw on
documentary, narrative, animation or any other tradition – or no tradition at all. So, what is experimental, what is contemporary in the eyes of
IFFR Shorts? I’m hoping this program (partly) gives the answer.
CURATOR - THEUS ZWAKHALS
\\
Short film programmer at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
16
Lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has studied Cultural History at the University of Utrecht. He works for the distribution and collection
department of LIMA (previously known as the Netherlands Media Arts Institute (NIMk)) in Amsterdam since 2002. Previously, ZWAKHALS was
also the producer of the Impakt Festival in Utrecht from 1994 until 2000. Currently, he is also a curator for Rumor Festival for adventurous
music in Utrecht, and programmer for the Shorts-section of the International Film Festival Rotterdam since 2009.
PARTNER FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM
FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM (IDFA) is one of the
largest documentary festivals in the world.
An exciting meeting place for documentary
programme. Besides the festival, IDFA
hosts the prominent co-financing market
for documentaries, the FORUM, the (online)
market for new documentaries, Docsa for
known as Jan Vrijman Fund) and organises
activities aimed at both documentary
professionals and audiences. These include
the theatrical tour Best of IDFA, a DVD label,
directors, producers, buyers, financiers
and audiences alike. Every year since 1988,
over 300 international documentaries are
screened alongside an extensive off-screen
Sale, and various other industry events such
as the IDFAcademy. Throughout the year,
IDFA supports filmmakers from developing
countries with its IDFA Fund (formerly
online documentary channel IDFAtv and
several workshops. This year IDFA celebrated
its 27th edition from 19th to the 30th of
November.
PARADOCS
CURATOR - JOOST DAAMEN
PARADOCS is IDFA’s platform for showing
experimental documentaries and video
art. It’s open to everything that can be
shown in a cinema and is related to the
representation of reality. Besides being a
film program, it’s also part of the exhibition
Expanding Documentary - in collaboration
with the Brakke Grond and IDFA Doclab. This
exhibition contains a.o. (video) installations,
photography, theater and performances
related to documentary or representation
of reality.
JOOST DAAMEN is a film programmer at the INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY
FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM (IDFA). He studied Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
In 2005 he joined IDFA’s Program Department. Since 2007 he’s the programmer for IDFA’s
experimental film section PARADOCS. He’s also a member of the advisory committee for the
competition programmes and works as a researcher for archive programmes.
PRESENTATION
IDFA - INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
AMSTERDAM
17
PRESENTATION
CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN
AMSTERDAM
PARTNER FESTIVAL
CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN Festival is unique – in the Netherlands and in the world. The central focus of the festival is on dance film.
CINEDANS sees the ideal dance film as a true synthesis between the two media of dance and cinematography. At CINEDANS the emphasis lies
on choreographies created specifically for the camera and on special film adaptations of existing dance performances.
In the ever-changing media landscape, creators are increasingly seeking different ways to tell their stories. New media and modern technology
have entered the scene bringing new possibilities and insights. Dance film is no longer “movement on the black screen”, with new forms being
developed such as installations, video clips, interactive projects and more. Contemporary dance films are often autonomous art works with a
language of their own and an expressiveness that cannot be pigeonholed. CINEDANS closely follows these movements. In addition to the film
programme, the festival focuses on various forms of crossover projects and media installations that involve movement.
For this film-program, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival BIEFF has selected a range of films from the CINEDANS 2014
selection. In these films surprising stories are told through movement, composition and choreography, dances that can only exist by the use of
film.
CURATOR - MARION POETH
\\
Artistic Programmer, Producer, CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN FESTIVAL, Amsterdam.
18
MARION POETH is both artistic programmer and producer for CINEDANS. She gained her Masters in Theatre Studies from the University of
Utrecht with a study on screen dance, having previously studied dance at Amsterdam School of the Arts, and audiovisual design and film in the
Netherlands and England. Next to CINEDANS, she works as a freelance editor and media designer.
PARTNER FESTIVAL
At its 60th edition in 2014, the
International Short Film Festival
OBERHAUSEN is one of the major
international crossroads for the short
Internet” in 2013, a program that
looks at the future of cinematographic
production. The 2014 thematic
programme (“Memories can’t wait: Film
form, unique in the range of forms and
genres it presents to the public, and
particularly well known for its spotlight
on experimentation. In the course of
more than five decades, filmmakers and
artists ranging from Roman Polanski to
Cate Shortland, from George Lucas to
Pipilotti Rist, have presented their first
works in OBERHAUSEN.
without Film”) focused on the current shift of moving image and sound from cinemas
to galleries and museums world-wide. The festival also operates a well-stocked Video
Library, a non-commercial short film distribution branch and a unique archive of short
films from more than 50 years of festival history.
The Festival organizes an International
Competition, a Children’s and Youth
Films and a German Competition and the
MuVi Award for the best German music
video as well as the NRW Competition
for productions from North RhineWestphalia. In addition, OBERHAUSEN
is known for its strong line of thematic
programmes such as “Provoking Reality”
in 2012, dedicated to the 50th anniversary
of the OBERHAUSEN Manifesto from
1962, or “Flatness: Cinema after the
“Short film is a great first step for a budding filmmaker. That’s how I made my beginnings
and OBERHAUSEN was an important step on my path to become a Director.” Roman
Polanski
“I smoked my first cigarette here. For years, I saw every single film at the Westdeutsche
Kurzfilmtage, looking forward to those days in OBERHAUSEN every year. These events
were important for me, for my decision to become a filmmaker.” Wim Wenders
“There can be no doubt that the OBERHAUSEN Short Film Festival has written film
history... The short film has kept itself young, and so has OBERHAUSEN. This atmosphere,
this creative power are what still distinguishes short films today.” Gerhard Schröder,
German Chancellor 1998-2005
PRESENTATION
INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM
FESTIVAL OBERHAUSEN
19
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY
ANNE DELSETH
THEUS ZWAKHALS
JONATHAN
POUTHIER
Member of the Selection Committee,
Short Film Programmer,
Cinema Programmer,
QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS, CANNES
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
CENTRE POMPIDOU Paris
Film Festival
ROTTERDAM
ANNE DELSETH studied journalism in
THEUS ZWAKHALS (b. 1964) lives in
JONATHAN POUTHIER (b. 1983) - since
Fribourg, Switzerland, where she rapidly
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has studied
January 2012, he is in charge of the
got involved in the Fribourg International
Cultural History at the University of Utrecht.
programming of the film department of
Film Festival, initially as volunteer,
He works for the distribution and collection
National Museum of Modern Art CENTRE
secretary, director’s assistant and eventually
department of LIMA (previously known
POMPIDOU, Paris. He curated several large
programmer. While later obtaining a Masters
as the Netherlands Media Arts Institute
film programs such as Back to East, the
in cultural management, she worked for a
(NIMk)) in Amsterdam since 2002. Previously,
Croatian avant-garde (2012), Film Culture
film distributor, as a production assistant and
ZWAKHALS was also the producer of the
(2013), Shirley Clarke, An American Experience
then returned to Fribourg as deputy director
Impakt Festival in Utrecht from 1994 until
(2013), Common Places (2014) or Duchamp as
(2008-2011). In 2011 she left Switzerland for
2000. Currently, he is also a curator for Rumor
Film (2014). Graduated from LA FEMIS (École
Paris to try international sales with Urban
Festival for adventurous music in Utrecht, and
nationale supérieure des métiers de l’image et
Distribution International, but after a few
programmer for the Short Film section of the
du son), his researches are focused on cinema
months, was sourced by Edouard Waintrop to
International Film Festival Rotterdam since
exhibition and distribution practices inside
be part of the new programming team at la
2009.
the museum network. He was also in charge
QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS/ DIRECTORS’
with the acquisitions for the Coproduction
FORTNIGHT (2012 to present). Living between
Office Berlin and associated to the curatorial
Paris and Lausanne (Switzerland), she is
project of KOW Berlin gallery from 2010 to
currently also responsible for the Masters in
2012. He curated the exhibition Abweichung
Film Studies in art schools Ecal (Lausanne) and
(Outsiders) at Brandenburger Kunstverein,
Head (Geneva), is a consultant for Neuchâtel
2011.
\\
International Fantastic Film Festival, a
program delegate for Zürich International
Film Festival, and also runs an independent
cinema theatre near Lausanne which imports
films that don’t find distributors in the
country.
20
MARION POETH
ILEANA BÎRSAN
Program Manager,
Film Critic and Cinema Educator
CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN FESTIVAL,
MARION POETH is both artistic programmer
ILEANA BÎRSAN graduated from the Faculty
and producer for CINEDANS. She received
of Philology in Bucharest and studied film at
her Masters in Theatre Studies from the
the University of Zürich. She was editor of
University of Utrecht with an analysis paper
the film section in the TimeOut Bucharest
study on screen dance, having previously
and BeWhere! magazines, and signed articles
studied dance at Amsterdam School of the
on cinema in publications such as Dilema
Arts, and audiovisual design and film in the
Veche, Observator Cultural, LaPunkt.
Netherlands and England. Next to CINEDANS,
ro, TheChronicle.ro. She is the founder
she works as a freelance editor and media
of filmikon, education through cinema
designer.
workshops and lectures. Ileana Bîrsan is
currently a PhD student at CESI (Centre of
Excellence in Image Studies) and participates
in various programs of cinematographic
education.
Amsterdam
21
OPENING GALA
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence
100’, 2014, Sweden/ Germany/ Norway/ France
DIRECTOR: ROY ANDERSSON
CAST: Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom, Charlotta
ART DIRECTION: Adrian Curelea
Larsson, Viktor Gyllenberg, Lotti Törnros, Jonas
EDITING: Alexandra Strauss
Gerholm, Ola Stensson, Oscar Salomonsson, Roger
SOUND: Robert Hefter
Olsen Likvern
MUSIC: traditional
SCREENPLAY: Roy Andersson
PRODUCER: Pernilla Sandström, Philippe Bober, Håkon Øverås
CINEMATOGRAPHY: István Borbás, Gergely Pálos
PRODUCTION: Roy Andersson filmproduktion AB
ROY ANDERSSON: .
FILM PRESENTATION:
WITH THE SUPPORT OF:
absurdity as well. Life is unlikely, humans are ridiculous, and the world is
“Like a collaboration between Monty Python and Samuel Beckett
in the last days of the Neue Sachlichkeit. You just have to watch
it, then grab a net and try to coax your soul back down from the
ceiling.”
cruel: isn’t it great?”
(Jessica Kiang, INDIEWIRE)
“A cross between a «Where’s Waldo» cartoon and a Gregory Crewdson
photograph, the best way to approach [it] is as you might a large-canvas
(Robbie Collin, THE TELEGRAPH)
painting or a Jacques Tati film. Where other directors seek out exceptional
“A cavalcade of oddness, humour, banality and even horror...
manages the uniquely Anderssonian trick of not just making you
moments, ANDERSSON endeavors to capture the poetry of the mundane.”
(Peter Debruge. VARIETY)
notice the absurdity of existence, but reminding you to love that
Concluding the trilogy on being human (along with SONGS FROM THE
SECOND FLOOR and YOU, THE LIVING), A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Golden Lion - Venice Film Festival 2014
/ Toronto International Film Festival 2014 / Reykjavik Film
Festival 2014 / Busan International Film Festival 2014 / Abu
Dhabi Film Festival 2014 / Tokyo International Film Festival
\\
2014 / Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2014 / Stockholm
International Film Festival 2014 / Ljubljana International Film
Festival 2014 / Seville European Film Festival 2014 / Tallinn Black
Nights Film Festival 2014
REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE follows Sam and Jonathan, a modern-day
Don Quixote and Sancho, two travelling salesmen peddling grotesque
party masks and quarrelling continuously. Sam, who considers himself
the brains of the operation, ceaselessly patronizes his companion.
Jonathan is slow and phlegmatic, finding happiness in the simple act of
eating. Taking us on a kaleidoscopic wandering through multiple human
destinies, the two inspire hilarity as much as gravity. We wander through
the film, tasting the beauty and absurdity of the moment, surrounded
by others all too much like ourselves. It is a journey that unveils the
beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humour and
22
WORLD SALES: COPRODUCTION OFFICE
Diana Alonso - Festivals | T: +49 30 32 77 78 78 | F: +49 30 32 77 78 74 |
E: [email protected] |
W: www.coproductionoffice.eu
DIRECTOR’S CONTACT:
E: [email protected]
tragedy hidden within us, life’s grandeur as well as the ultimate frailty of
humanity.
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.royandersson.com/pigeon/
SELECTIVE AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:
2014: Golden Lion – Venice Film Festival for A PIGEON SAT ON A
BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE;
2008: Nordic Film Prize - Nordic Council for YOU, THE LIVING;
2007: Best Director nomination - European Film Awards for YOU,
THE LIVING;
2007: Best Feature Film and Titra Film Award - Neuchâtel
International Fantasty Film Festival for YOU, THE LIVING;
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: In BRUEGEL THE ELDER’s «Hunters in the
Snow”» we can see in the foreground, perched on the naked branches of a
tree, three birds curiously observe the endeavours and pursuits of the people
below. A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH consists of a bird’s panoramic view of
the human condition, in which the bird not only reflects on human existence
but also worries deeply about it, as I do myself. A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH
shows the looming apocalypse and offers the possibility to believe in our
capacity to avoid it.
With my last two movies I dared to leave realism and naturalism and
entered the territory of abstract aesthetics. This ambition echoes the «New
2000: Jury Prize - Cannes Film Festival for SONGS FROM THE
Objectivity» art movement that swept through Germany in the 1920s. Their
SECOND FLOOR;
combination of reality and fantasy resulted in a kind of “super-realism”,
2000: Norwegian Film Critics Award - Norwegian International
Film Festival for SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR;
2000: Uppsalla Film Trust Award - Uppsala International Film
Festival
an ambition that I also have for A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH, in which
abstraction is to be condensed, purified, and simplified; scenes should
emerge as cleansed as memories and dreams.
The nonlinear narrative found in The Odyssey, a work that remains uniquely
profound and compelling, is an inspiration for the film. The epic nature and
1993: First Prize - Odense International Film Festival for WORLD
content of the film references the thematic and contextual richness of The
OF GLORY;
Odyssey. The journey in A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH will involve myriad
1992: Best Fiction - Tampere International Short Film Festival for
WORLD OF GLORY;
aspects of existence, reality, and time.
(ROY ANDERSSON)
OPENING GALA
1970: Interfilm Award, UNICRIT, IWG Golden Plaque, Journalists’
Special Award - Berlin Film Festival for A SWEDISH LOVE STORY
23
CLOSING GALA
In The Basement
85’, 2014, Austria
DIRECTOR: ULRICH SEIDL
CAST: Fritz Lang, Alfreda Klebinger, Manfred
EDITING: Christoph Brunner
Ellinger, Inge Ellinger
SOUND: Ekkehart Baumung
SCREENPLAY: Ulrich Seidl
PRODUCER: Ulrich Seidl
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Martin Gschlacht
PRODUCTION: Ulrich Seidl Film Produktion
ULRICH SEIDL: .
FILM PRESENTATION:
“Underlying IN THE BASEMENT is the notion that every man and woman on
“Corpulent sex slaves, tuba-playing Nazi obsessives, reborn doll
fantasists — just a regular stroll through the neighbourhood, then,
for patented guru of the grotesque ULRICH SEIDL, who makes an
intriguing return to documentary filmmaking with IN THE BASEMENT.
Grabby and grubby in equal measure, this meticulously composed trawl
the street could, in secret, be a bigot or a great opera singer. That IN THE
BASEMENT considers a range of possibilities on this spectrum of hidden
identities is what makes its exploration of the darkest corners of the human
psyche equal to, if not superior, to SEIDL’s most recent narrative features.”
(Tomas Hachard, SLANT MAGAZINE)
through the contents of several middle-class Austrians’ cellars (a space,
according to SEIDL, that his countrymen traditionally give over to their
The basement in Austria is a place of free time and the private sphere.
most personal hobbies) yields more than a few startling discoveries.”
Many Austrians spend more time in the basement of their home than
in their living room, which often is only for show. In the basement they
(Guy Lodge, VARIETY)
actually indulge their needs, their hobbies, passions and obsessions.
But in our unconscious, the basement is also a place of darkness, a
place of fear, a place of human abysses. The film is about people and
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Venice Film Festival 2014 / Politiken’s
Audience Award Nomination - CPH:DOX 2014 / Best Central
& Eastern European Documentary - Jihlava International
\\
Documentary Film Festival 2014 / Zürich Film Festival 2014
/ Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal 2014 / London
Film Festival 2014 / Seville European Film Festival / Ljubljana
International Film Festival 2014
film is about obsessions. The film is about brass-band music and opera
arias, about expensive furniture and cheap male jokes, about sexuality
and shooting, fitness and fascism, whips and dolls. After his ambitious
PARADISE Trilogy, ULRICH SEIDL returns to the documentary form with
IN THE BASEMENT. A film essay that is both funny and sad, it uses the
director’s characteristic film tableaux to delve into the underground of
the Austrian soul.
WORLD SALES: COPRODUCTION OFFICE
Diana Alonso - Festivals | T: +49 30 32 77 78 78 | F: +49 30 32 77 78 74 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.coproductionoffice.eu
24
basements and what people do in their basements in their free time. The
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.im-keller.at
2013: Best Feature Film, Best Director - Austrian Film Award for
PARADISE: LOVE
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The idea for this film occurred to me around the
time of DOG DAYS (2001), when I was location-scouting with my crew in the
suburbs, exploring and nosing around housing developments, urban deserts,
row houses and single-family-housing ghettos. The more homes I visited and
2012: Special Jury Prize, CinemAvvenire Award - Venice Film
the more basements I went down into, the more I realized that basement
Festival for PARADISE: LOVE
rooms were often more lavishly conceived than actual living areas, and that
2007: Award For Artistic Excellence - Bratislava International Film
Festival
the inhabitants of these dwellings preferred their basements more than
their living rooms and spent more time there. As always with my films, you
set out on a journey into the unknown, into unknown places and people.
2007: Grand Prix Golden Apricot - Yerevan International Film
With my cinematographic gaze I try to approach my protagonists and to
Festival for IMPORT/EXPORT
gather filmic fragments of reality, none of which is complete or definitive.
2003: Best Documentary - Karlovy Vary International Film
Festival for JESUS YOU KNOW
2003: Vienna Film Award - Viennale for JESUS YOU KNOW
2001: Special Jury Prize, FIPRESCI Prize - Bratislava International
Film Festival for DOG DAYS
2001: Grand Special Jury Prize - Venice Film Festival for DOG
DAYS
1992: Special Jury Award - IDFA for LOSS IS TO BE EXPECTED
1991: Vienna Film Award - Viennale for GOOD NEWS:
Beneath that is the private, the real truth, real life. We all have our fears and
abysses — be they fascistic sympathies, repressed tendencies to violence,
unexpressed desires for power, or repression or sexual fantasies that deviate
from so-called normalcy. Often, what I experience and witness seizes hold
of me, often I close the door shaken, often I am dismayed by the images of
what people do to each other, usually without bad intentions. It‘s normal.
You sense and feel the abysses hidden there — and in the best case you
sense your own abysses as well.
(ULRICH SEIDL)
CLOSING GALA
NEWSPAPER SALESMEN, DEAD DOGS AND OTHER PEOPLE
FROM WIENNA
25
PRESENTATION
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY:
LYING TO TELL THE TRUTH
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION I
Curatorial presentation by: DIANA MEREOIU
Paraphrasing Jean Cocteau’s saying “I am the lie that always tells the truth”, the competition theme program ALTERNATIVE HISTORY relativizes
notions such as falsehood and truth, reality and fiction, analysing the way objectivity and subjectivity intertwine in constructing personal and
collective memory. In the end, history is always a relative construct, according to the perspective it is seen from. A thought-provoking proposal,
made possible thanks to the kind support offered by the Rule of Law Program South-East Europe of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
\\ INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION I
The spectator finds himself in a vulnerable position, taken out of his comfort zone and challenged to look at reality with a critical
and nuanced view. One after another, personal history, universal history and cinema itself are deconstructed and our preconceptions
crumble, leaving room for a new, fresh way to perceive the world.
26
Directly attacking capitalism, consumer society and their influence on our culture, THE BURIED ALIVE VIDEOS, a new work by
unconventional visual artist ROEE ROSEN, exposes history as nothing more than a construct, while wittingly tackling the taboos
around topics such as sexuality and religion. Fighting history with counterfeit history, this compilation of videos attributed to a
supposed collective of ex-Soviet artists at odds with the values around them fictionalizes reality in order to convey essential truths, in
a thoroughly enjoyable mix of cynicism and absurd humour.
Keeping up with debunking the myths
of universal history in the making,
REDEMPTION reveals the fluidity of
cinematic meaning and the mechanisms
of the collective construction of public
figures. Voice-overs (attributed to some
of the most controversial politicians of
our times: Pedro Passos Coelho, Silvio
Berlusconi, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela
Merkel) recall important stages in the
characters’ lives which had an impact
on who they became, continuously
transforming the 8mm archive footage
into devices of remembrance, abstraction, idealized reconstructions of the past and
projections of the most intimate desires and thoughts. Opening thus a possibility of
“redemption”, MIGUEL GOMES exposes our natural tendency to construct simplified
representations, a mechanism in which we often also cannibalize public figures and
their personal histories, draining them of humanness, in our effort to make sense of the
world. The screening is possible courtesy of THE MATCH FACTORY and LE FRESNOY –
Studio national des arts contemporains.
THE SHADOW’S SHARE also uses our susceptibility to believing stories of exceptionality
and personal struggles of (more or less) known individuals, and our assumption that
this way we can get to truly know that person on an intimate level. A falsification of
In FOREVER, personal and universal
history collide in a woman’s story of
adolescence after the Chernobyl accident.
Visually replicating the effects of
radioactivity, this nostalgic bricolage of
archive and pop-culture material signed
by DANIEL MCINTYRE creates a complex
comparison between the ephemerality
of film, that of the human body and
of memory. As the image withers into
abstraction, the only thing that is left is to
accept that individual lives cannot be lived
outside of worldly struggles, but are an
organic part of them, forever locked in a
mutually influenced process of change.
artistic avant-garde history, this short
film of aestheticized macabre weaves a
counterfeit personal history around its
character, the vanished photographer
Oskar Benedek. Offering his protagonist
for examination, OLIVIER SMOLDERS
violently brings down the viewer from
his ultimately condescending position
of one who believes he has solved the
mystery of how another is, and shows him
that people cannot be known, much less
deciphered.
27
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
Redemption
27’, 2013, Portugal/France/Germany/ Italy
DIRECTOR: MIGUEL GOMES
CAST: Jaime Pereira, Donatello Brida, Jean-Pierre
Rehm, Maren Ade
SCRIPTWRITER: Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo
EDITING: João Nicolau, Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo
SOUND: Miguel Martins
PRODUCER: Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar, Jonas
Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade, Paolo Benzi
PRODUCTION COMPANY: O Som e a Fúria, Le Fresnoy,
Komplizen Film, Okta Film
MIGUEL GOMES: .
© O Som e a Furia: .
FILM PRESENTATION: REDEMPTION reveals the fluidity of
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: For all their Rivettian game-playing and winking
cinematic meaning and the mechanisms through which collective
self-awareness, GOMES’ films are all, at root, portraits of cooped-up,
memory constructs public figures and universal history. Voice-overs
restless people who crave an escape from their present situations, whether
attributed to some of the most controversial politicians of our times
through fantasy, music, role-playing, movie-going or memory. The same
continuously transform the 8 mm archive footage into devices of
goes for REDEMPTION which (…) plays like a breathless highlight reel. That
remembrance, idealized reconstructions of the past and projections
said, it’s also marked by many GOMES trademarks: his profound sympathy
of the most intimate desires and thoughts. GOMES exposes
for people cut off from their own pasts; his conflicted attitude towards how
our natural tendency to construct simplified representations, a
movies function as a kind of memory surrogate; his interest in the grey areas
mechanism in which we often also cannibalize public figures and
between national and personal remembrance; and his tendency to lace
their personal histories, draining them of humanness, in our effort
his satire with sympathy.(…) On one level, REDEMPTION’s subjects come
to make sense of the world. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
across as pathetically tragicomic figures, cut off from their own private lives
by their Wagnerian dreams of glory. But it’s the fact that this same sense
of estrangement comes through in the structure of the movie itself (in the
divide between who’s supposed to be speaking and the voices we hear, or
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Vanguard & Genre Prize for Best Short -
between the memories we’re supposed to be watching and those we actually
BAFICI Argentina 2014/ Venice International Film Festival 2013/
see) makes REDEMPTION at once so funny and so profoundly sad. In the end,
Toronto International Film Festival 2013/ Rotterdam International
the only eternal present open to these lost souls is the collective memory of
Film Festival 2014/ Vienna International Film Festival 2013/
the movies which is both a kind of redemption and a bitter compromise.
Vancouver International Film Festival 2013/ Edinburgh International
Film Festival 2014/ Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de
Montréal 2013/ Melbourne International Film Festival 2014
28
WORLD SALES: THE MATCH FACTORY
Toril Simonsen - Head of International Relations, short and
documentary films | T: 49 221 539 709-0 | E: [email protected] |
W: http://www.the-match-factory.com
(Max Nelson, Cinema Scope)
36’, 2013, Israel
DIRECTOR: ROEE ROSEN
CAST: Lucy Dubinchik, Yonni Feimer, Arkady
Greenman, Liz Hagag, Igor Krutogolov, Andrey Lev,
Max Lomberg, Ruth Patir, Piotr Shmogliakov, Malki
Tesler, Natalia Zurobova SCRIPTWRITER: Roee
Rosen CINEMATOGRAPHY: Avner Shahaf
EDITING: Maxim Lomberg, Gal Katzir
SOUND: Danny Shitrit MUSIC: Igor Krutogolov
PRODUCER: Roee Rosen
ROEE ROSEN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A compilation of videos attributed
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: A series of mockumentary «historical jokes»,
to a supposed collective of ex-Soviet artists at odds with the
THE BURIED ALIVE VIDEOS returns to a type of characters dear to visual
values around them, THE BURIED ALIVE VIDEOS centers on a
artist ROEE ROSEN, that of people displaced from culture and history. This
group of cultural zombies who have retreated into isolation and
makeshift group of cultural revolutionaries, or cultural zombies as they
secrecy to make a statement against the present socio-political
call themselves, deconstructs Russian iconic figures and exposes them as
system. Assembled in a pseudo-documentary fashion, the film
paper cardboard masks, while also attacking sexual politics and sexual
fictionalizes reality in order to convey essential truths, through
taboos from a historical point of view. Here parody distils reality, and
a mix of cynical and absurd humor. Directly attacking capitalism
fiction becomes the magnifying glass to actual faults. With a postmodernist
and consumer society, ROSEN exposes history as nothing more
sensibility, in THE BURIED ALIVE VIDEOS the future is in the past, and «the
than a construct, wittingly tackling the taboo around topics such
grand narrative» is proven to be but fictional constructs. The kidnappings of
as sexuality and religion. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
renowned artists and turning them into the group’s spokespersons function
as a passive «call to arms» in debunking myths. If the artists have slacked
behind and allowed the «grand narrative» to take centre-stage, it’s up to the
culturally and artistically undead to revive that healthy dose of disbelief and
scepticism.
(Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Cinema XXI Award for Short and Medium
Film Special Mention - Rome International Film Festival 2013
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
The Buried Alive
Videos
/ Rotterdam International Film Festival 2014 / FIDMarseille
WORLD SALES: ROEE ROSEN
E: [email protected] | W : www.roeerosen.com
29
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
Forever
9’, 2014, Canada
DIRECTOR: DANIEL MCINTYRE
CAST: Slavka Nogrady
SCRIPTWRITER: Daniel McIntyre
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Daniel McIntyre
ART DIRECTION: Daniel McIntyre
EDITING: Daniel McIntyre
SOUND: Daniel McIntyre, Mark Savoia
MUSIC: Mark Savoia
PRODUCER: Daniel McIntyre
DANIEL MCINTYRE: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Visually replicating the effects of
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: In all of my work I’ve had the tendency to
radioactivity, FOREVER documents the dispersion of radiation
attempt and replicate in a filmic environment a memory space, and that’s
and propaganda in the USSR, after the Chernobyl accident,
perhaps the largest force that influences the aesthetics of my work.” (ZOO
through a woman’s story of adolescence. Personal and universal
MAGAZINE INTERVIEW) “Physically, I painstakingly treated the film by
history collide in a nostalgic bricolage of archive and pop-culture
spraying a mist of particles of developer on the emulsion in order to process,
material that creates a complex comparison between the
among other techniques. The completed work looks like a contaminated
ephemerality of film, that of the human body and of memory. The
object, a memory covered in radioactive dust.
insistence of the officials on denying the existence of any danger
makes the people’s inability to defend themselves painfully
(DANIEL MCINTYRE)
concrete. As the image withers into abstraction, the only thing
that is left is to accept the imminent threat. (Diana Mereoiu,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Exploring collective memory through the lens
BIEFF 2014)
of personal memory, FOREVER studies reality through a process closer to
hypnosis rather than classical documenting. The authorities’ stubbornness
at the time of the Chernobyl accident in denying the event is mirrored in the
archive materials’ escapist nature: Julie Andrews twirling around the hills
of Bavaria in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, fresh-faced young women glancing
seductively from underneath their lashes, or sportsmen competing in a
cycling tournament, all of which are images celebrating the human spirit.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: British Film Institute London LGBT Film
The optimistic undertone is, however, undermined, and the impression of
Festival 2014 / Research/Creation Grant to Film and Video Artists,
human control and invincibility melts away with the film stock.
Canada Council for the Arts Grant 2012
WORLD SALES: DANIEL MCINTRYRE
T: +1 416 566 0863 | E: [email protected] |
W : www.danielmcintyre.info
30
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.danielmcintyre.info/forever
28’, 2013, Belgium/France
DIRECTOR: OLIVIER SMOLDERS
CAST: Benoît Peeters, Marie Lecomte, Tatiana
Nette
SCRIPTWRITER: Olivier Smolders,Thierry
Horguelin
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jean-François Spricigo
EDITING: Olivier Smolders SOUND: Marc Bastien
PRODUCER: Olivier Smolders, Christian Popp
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Les Films du Scarabée,
Yuzu Productions, Wallonie Image Production
OLIVIER SMOLDERS: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Questioning the history of the artistic
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The «Benedek case» is very distinct in the
avant-garde, THE SHADOW’S SHARE is a work of aestheticized
history of photography and art in general. The problems posed by Benedek’s
macabre founded on the myth of photography as art that little
work are both ethical - some of his images, taken during the war, continue
by little kills its subject. Screened at Clermont-Ferrand, the film
to shock even now – and aesthetic : he spanned the days of all of the avant-
explores the pains, obsessions and especially grotesque works
gardes of his time, sometimes strokes ahead of other artists who went on to
of the vanished photographer Oskar Benedek, and weaves
become famous. Benedek’s story can seem dubious, rather like his images,
around him a whole counterfeit personal history. Offering his
appearing to constantly deceive with what they show us and tell us. THE
protagonist up for examination, SMOLDERS violently brings
SHADOW’S SHARE examines this duplicity, focusing both on the historical
down the viewer from his condescendingly detached position of
context of 1940s Hungary and the very nature of this body of work obsessed
one who believes he has solved the mystery, and shows him that
by the theme of masks. (…) It’s a work of mosaic composition and the idea
people cannot be known, much less deciphered. (Diana Mereoiu,
of the film’s «stitching» is composed little by little, adding one element
BIEFF 2014)
after another, as tangible pieces of evidence regarding the artist’s different
stages. It was shown that what actually lies behind History, when we talk
about history with a capital “H”, are the personalities of those deceased. In
what I’m concerned, the film starts from the idea that we never know the
truth about people, and that all fiction, be it based on actual events or not,
is nothing more than a reconstruction. The film leaves it to the viewer to
take the elements brought to the screen and rewrite them.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film
(OLIVIER SMOLDERS)
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY
The Shadow’s Share
Festival 2014 / IndieLisboa Independent Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: LES FILMS DU SCARABEE
Olivier Smolders | T: + 47 22 47 45 00 | E: [email protected] |
W : http://www.smolderscarabee.be
31
PRESENTATION
FAMILY TIES:
LOVE BONDS OR PRISON BARS?
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION II
Curatorial presentation by: BIANCA BĂNICĂ
\\ INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION II
The Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival BIEFF international competition continues its thematic inquires, looking at
the forces that shape us, give us strength, but also confine us, within the program FAMILY TIES: LOVE BONDS OR PRISON BARS?,
which explores different perspectives on the notion of family and family relationships.
The natural protective capsule in which a
person is born sets his behavior, his limits
and his expectations. Further contact with
life makes that same person want to protect
the natural capsule from any adversities
that would change it, consequently shake
the certain universe he has lived in. Once
society has become a character in someone’s
story, it is community that takes over the
role of «the belonging cell», with all its
constructs, going from neighborhood to
religion. After a while, society itself starts
defining the individual as a family, nurturing
him by imposing restrictions or shaping his
desires. Going beyond the conventional
definition of a family, we expand its meaning
and explore its nuances and the structures
similar to it that govern our lives; any system
that nurtures our perception of the world,
of ourselves and that teaches us the rules of
being.
“These films explore the profound
contradictory nature of our affective bonds,
32
which on one side nourish, protect us and
support us in our growth, while at the same
time can limit our personal freedom and our
natural impulse to explore life, through more
or less conscious patterns of behaviour and
thought deeply ingrained in our psyche.”
(Adina Pintilie, BIEFF 2014)
Family ties become issues of self-expression,
identity formation, personal boundaries,
loss and grief, solitude, sexual exploration,
crossing over the canonical motives of age
or generational contradictions to reveal
intimate perceptions of life. With an aesthetic
that goes all the way through photography,
symbolism, surrealism or black and white
features, the film images are charged with
strong political, cultural, sexual meaning or
become emotional testimonials along with
the voice-over that complements them.
In THIS TIME, LAST YEAR, a production of
the National University of Theatre and Film
Bucharest, a friendship between two girls
faces the risk of falling apart because of
the inevitable process of growing up- a
connection more powerful than a blood
tie, a sense of possession that is genuine
and dangerous at the same time, filled
with the fear of being left alone, of
someone breaking the safe family bulb
that the girls have built all their lives.
By taking a simple way of public
self-expression such as dancing and
associating it with a woman wearing
a burka, (a cultural symbol that limits
the freedom of that woman), in THAT
HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME THE WHOLE
TIME, ARASH T. RIAHI makes the
utopian suggestion of an emancipation
which he himself hijacks in the end. A
choreography-film charged with political
struggle. This screening is made possible
with the support of SIXPACKFILM and the
Austrian Cultural Forum.
while they themselves are still looking for
structure and for balance.
In JORGE QUINTELA’s CAROUSEL, a pocketfilm full of nostalgia, the present becomes
the time of meditation and reflection about
one’s own principles, the way in which
they served you a lifetime and the people
who have instilled them in you. The film
questions the notions of family and identity,
asking whether we are defined by who we
are or by the ones that surround us. Through
a man’s glasses, the reflection of a carousel
keeps turning and turning while, through
a voice-over narration, his memories,
wishes and regrets run through his mind
like a vertigo. With nostalgic sadness and
thoughtful humor, the film becomes a poetic
cinematic experiment, a fragment from the
intimate diary of a man looking back at who
he was, trying to understand who he is. The
screening is possible with the support of
Agência da Curta Metragem.
The flux of memories continues with THIS IS
NOW by ANDERS JEDENFORS, an intimate
portrayal of loneliness, that masterfully
captures in black and white images the
painful emptiness left behind when family
ties have dissolved, the feeling of isolation
and longing felt in old age. Downhearted
voice-overs of elders speak to us of the
universal difficulties that each person
experiences: the physical and psychic need
for affection and the recurring memories
of dear ones. The stillness of the shots
emphasizes a heavily bearing atmosphere, where the layers of gray in the image suffocate the space, hope and, finally, the sanity of the soul.
This film is screened with the kind support of the Swedish Film Institute.
Coping with loss is also the main emotional struggle of THE TREE by MIHAI SOFRONEA , an experiment on immobility and motion referencing
the beginning of cinema, which combines a photographic approach to films with dramatic elements which need to be progressively decoded.
Long-shots show from a distance two silhouettes, one of a woman, another of a man, a tree, a car, a book, and a story told in reverse. A
minimalist film with an original concept, THE TREE brings almost imperceptible variations on the same tableau, while keeping the viewer’s
narrative expectations in suspense until the very end.
Further exploring loss and grief, THE WHITE ROSES, by DIOGO COSTA AMARATE, questions identity, gender and family roles, while creating a
general sense of ambiguity, underlined by absurd and oneiric elements. Symbolist in content and post-modernist in succession, relying on its
minimalist aesthetic and extra-diegetic performances, the film boldly presents the mechanism of coping with the loss of a loved one, and the
irrational side of mourning. The screening is possible courtesy of FiGa Films.
Taking it all one step further, this program also glances at the way in which society as a whole determines our understanding of ourselves and
our primordial impulses, namely our sexual desires. A mix of quick and sudden sensations, ALL WE NEED IS SLAVES, directed by LUIZ NIETO is
the experiment of subconscious thoughts and sexual healing as a reflex of the body and mind towards the limitations that society imposes.
The film becomes a supra-realist combat between the norm of self-control and the boiling desires, hidden from society’s direct look.
Another artistic struggle, this time with the
uncertainty of post-modern times that have
no boundaries, restrictions, almost no end
and no beginning is being shown in visual
artist PAULINE JULIER’s AFTER. Over the
aerial view of a night-time cityscape lighted
up with fireworks, a meditative voice-over
talks about the postmodern generation
(of artists) as a bunch of kids who wrecked
everything in the wake of their huge party
and now, while waiting and secretly craving
the return of their parents to restore order,
they realize the parents are not returning
anymore. Inspired by a quote from David
Foster Wallace, comparing cultural to familial
stability, AFTER unveils the insecurities
and anxieties of the ones who soon have
to become “parents” of a new generation
33
FAMILY TIES
The White Roses
20’, 2013, Portugal/USA
DIRECTOR: DIOGO COSTA AMARANTE
CAST: Carolina Tamez, Cristina Tamez, Francisco
Rodriguez, Oisin Managhan
SCRIPTWRITER: Diogo Costa Amarante
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Federico Martin Cesca
SOUND: Erin Michelle Vassilopoulos, Jono Chanin
MUSIC: Rodger Hodgson, Simon Boswell
PRODUCER: Wyatt Rockefeller
DIOGO COSTA AMARANTE: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Screened at Berlinale 2014, THE WHITE
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 1: A group of people dance on an open space to
ROSES, by DIOGO COSTA AMARATE, questions identity, gender
the music of Supertramp. The siblings take flowers to a grave in deep snow,
and family roles, while creating a general sense of ambiguity,
wearing floral wreaths in their hair. The father directs them. They embrace
underlined by absurd and oneiric elements. Symbolist in content
one another. Memories are invoked by pictures enclosed inside Gabriel’s, the
and post-modernist in succession, relying on its minimalist
brother’s, amulet. The mother is dead – how will they fill the void she left
aesthetic and extra-diegetic performances, the film boldly
behind? Each individual family member tries to find their way, is obliged to
presents the mechanism of coping with the loss of a loved one,
redefine their course.
and the irrational side of mourning (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
(Maike Mia Höhne)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 2: We are faced with a dispersed narrative (…)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Berlin International Film Festival 2014
it tries to show a different side of the one who suffered a loss and is now
/ São Paulo International Short Film Festival 2014 / IndieLisboa
trying to find himself. If on one side any «logic» is gone, on the other, we
International Film Festival 2014 / Vila do Conde International Film
are shown a series of slow-motion images with choir singers from a church,
Festival 2014 / Kaunas International Film Festival - Lithuania, 2014
as if AMARANTE’s intention were to tell us that faith and hope are still an
/Best Short European Award - Brest European Film Festival 2014 /
important part of this family’s life. If on one hand the rural environment
Festival International de Cine Guanajuato 2014 / Mezipatra Queer
where the family lives is a clear reflection of the cold, distant and isolated
Film, Prague, 2014 / Festival Cinema de las Américas, Texas 2014
psychological space that brilliantly blends with the gloomy morning
/ Xposed Film Festival, Germany, 2014 / International Short Film
atmosphere, it is no less true that this kind of actions, like the one that lead
Festival – San Petersburg 2014 / International Film Festival of
us to the choir sequence, are meant to deliver a hint of comfort that may (or
Fortaleza, Brasil, 2014 / Whistler Film Festival, Canada 2014.
may not) be found again.
(Paulo Peralta, CinEuphoria)
WORLD SALES: FIGA FILMS
Sandro Fiorin | E: [email protected] |
W : http://www.figafilms.com
34
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.diogocostaamarante.com/Diogo_Costa_Amarante/ROSAS.html
7’, 2013, Portugal
DIRECTOR: JORGE QUINTELA
CAST: Francisco Dias de Castro, Vittorio Luciani
SCRIPTWRITER: Pedro Bastos
CINEMATOGRAPHY / EDITING: Jorge Quintela
SOUND: Davide Luciani
MUSIC: Morteshopping
PRODUCER: Davide Luciani, Ricardo Freitas,
Rodrigo Areias
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Bando à Parte
JORGE QUINTELA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Through a man’s glasses the reflection
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: CAROUSEL concentrates in a single shot the
of a carousel keeps turning and turning while, through a voice
many levels of identity that merge inside a single person. Remembrance-
over narration, his memories, wishes and regrets run through his
forgetting and acceptance-denial are the forces that transform
mind like a vertigo. A single-shot film, CAROUSEL questions the
introspection into confusion for the protagonist. Trying to build a character
notions of family and identity, asking whether we are defined by
that belongs to the filming location (Florence), the voice-over is in Italian
who we are or by the ones that surround us. Which family bond is
and not in Portuguese (the director’s mother tongue) or in English (the
stronger? The one you are born with or the one that you choose?
language spectators would consider convenient). In this way, the character
With nostalgic sadness and thoughtful humor, the film becomes a
is establishing his identity on a double ground, trying to detach himself
poetic cinematic experiment, a fragment from the intimate diary
both from impersonating his father (his creator- the director) and from
of a man looking back at who he was, trying to understand who
the convenient life with his wife and daughter (which could stand for the
he is. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
viewer’s expectations). The overlay of the two shots of the carousel turning
fast in opposite directions (one of the carousel directly and one of its
reflection in the man’s glasses), combined with the slow closing and opening
of the man’s weary eyes gives the suggestion of two rhythms. The first
makes one think of the past whose images run quickly, just before one being
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Great Prize “Cidade de Vila do Conde”
able to recall them clearly, while the second of the present, whose unmoving
- Curtas Vila do Conde 2013/ Torino Film Festival 2013/ New
loneliness suggests the sadness and fatigue of having to carry a lifetime on
Cinema Festival Montréal 2013/ São Paulo International Short
one’s shoulders.
Film Festival 2014/ Encounters Bristol International Film
Festival 2014/ Tenerife International Short Film Festival 2014/
(Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
FAMILY TIES
Carousel
International Film Festival of Uruguay 2014
WORLD SALES: AGÊNCIA DA CURTA METRAGEM
Salette Ramalho – Chief of Distribution | T: +351252646683 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.curtas.pt/agencia
35
FAMILY TIES
That Has Been Bothering
Me The Whole Time
10’, 2013, Austria
DIRECTOR: ARASH T. RIAHI
CAST: Silke Grabinger
SCRIPTWRITER: Arash T. Riahi
CINEMATOGRAPHY / EDITING: Arian Jalaeefar,
Arash T. Riahi
SOUND: Naurak, Arian Jalaeefar, Atanas Tcholakov
PRODUCER: Ola Swietlicka
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Golden Girls
Filmproduktion & SILK Cie
ARASH T. RIAHI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A choreography-film charged with
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The film can be seen as a utopian suggestion.
political significance, THAT HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME THE
What happens if you let a woman in a Burka do a performance, which could
WHOLE TIME brings up issues of freedom and prohibition in
never be allowed to show publicly. At the end, the set-up is brought back to
the life of Muslim women. Here the burka represents a form
reality. We don’t claim this to be a real woman in a Burka, it becomes clear,
of self-expression. The viewer is kept at a distance through
that this is only a representation.
disparate shots of a moving body, while very intense rustling and
breathing places him right in the middle of the scene. Since this
(ARASH T. RIAHI)
could never actually be possible in public, the short’s statement
can only be done by showing that the film itself is an illusion. The
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Although solely fragments of the body can be
final behind-the-scenes shot reveals that everything was just a
discerned at first, the gestures, strides and sounds convey an awareness of
performance, hijacking cinema through cinema. (Bianca Bănică,
the body we would expect of a martial-arts fighter. As soon as the dancer is
BIEFF 2014)
shown in full, all this reverses: the clothing can now be identified as a burka,
the complex history of which charges each movement and gesture with
political significance. As it obviously wasn’t ARASH T. RIAHI’s intention to
gloss over reality, this almost optimistic image is soon followed by a radical
rupture: in the next shot the dancer hangs in the air like a marionette, all
her freedom of movement and any possibility of personal expression taken
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Cinema XXI International Film Festival
away. Her motionlessness signals the end, though this isn’t the final image in
Rome 2013/ Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent
this unusual dance film: in a figurative sense the filmmaker lets the curtain
Cinema 2014/ Hong Kong International Film Festival 2014/ New
fall and shows in colorful images that what we have seen is «merely» the
Horizons Film Festival, Wroclaw 2014
impressive result of an extremely experimental fusion of modern dance,
political issues and physical liberation.
WORLD SALES: SIXPACKFILM
Brigitta Burger-Utzer - Managing Director | T: +43 1 526 09 90 0 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.sixpackfilm.com
(Christa Benzer/ Sixpackfilm Catalogue)
36
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/show/2090
10’, 2012, Sweden
DIRECTOR: ANDERS JEDENFORS
CAST: Sonja Britsson, Stig Lindstrand, Margaretha
Eklund, Karin Sternemyr
SCRIPTWRITER: Anders Jedenfors
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Anders Jedenfors
EDITING: Henning Jonsäter
MUSIC: Rasmus Hägg
PRODUCER: Kalle Wettre
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Malade Aktiebolag
ANDERS JEDENFORS: .
FILM PRESENTATION: An intimate portrayal of loneliness that
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: My goal with this film is to give the opportunity
comes with old age, THIS IS NOW masterfully captures in black
of listening to a generation who rarely gets to speak. We experience their
and white images the feeling of isolation and longing felt in the
thoughts on everyday life, thoughts of longing and regret. My belief is that
winter of one’s life. Downhearted voice-overs of elders intimately
the film will touch the spectator and that it will leave a mark on him.
speak to us of the universal difficulties that each person
experiences: the physical and psychic need for affection and
(ANDERS JEDENFORS)
the recurring memories of dear ones. The stillness of the shots
emphasizes a heavily bearing atmosphere, where the layers of
gray in the image suffocate the space, hope and finally, the sanity
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: THIS IS NOW describes the inevitable
of the soul. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
state people reach, but not from the perspective of physical or mental
degradation. It is the desolation of the spirit that affects the old persons
more than anything else, the stillness around them, the silence and the
routine of being lonely. Experiencing loneliness as emptiness, loneliness as
longing for touch and finally loneliness as finding yourself next to someone
you no longer know, THIS IS NOW brings up the acute need that the elders
have for tenderness and for sharing, also showing the incompatibility
between this need and real life. The characters move one step forward from
wishful thinking. What they try to understand is that loneliness becomes
permanent before you have time to prepare or acknowledge it. As the
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Gothenburg International Film Festival
characters in the movie, you just stand and bear the passing of time and
2013 / Audience Award - Upsalla International Film Festival 2013
the grayness around you. What weapons could you possibly use except for
FAMILY TIES
This Is Now
patience?
WORLD SALES: MALADE FILM PRODUCTION
Kalle Wettre | T: +46 707.147727 | E: [email protected]
37
FAMILY TIES
All We Need Is Slaves
3’, 2014, Russia
DIRECTOR: LUIZ NIETO
CAST: Anna Chernyakhovskaya, Michael Zubko, Boris
Begin, Johnny Yaremenko, Karina Paulkina, Yulia
Tsvitko, Evgeniy Konovalov, Milos Duric, Valentina
Antonova, Maxim Voskoboyev, Andrey Kim, Anna
Sarazhina CINEMATOGRAPHY: Boris Begin, Milos
Duric, Michael Zubko, Alena Kirin-Styrikovich
SOUND: Valentina Antonova, Maxim Kupriyanov, Anna
Korovotskaya, Olga Piloyan PRODUCER: Yulia Tsvitko,
Alyona Kirin-Styrikovich PRODUCTION COMPANY:
Stink and KinoMoscow
LUIZ NIETO: .
38
FILM PRESENTATION: A series of psychoanalytic thoughts
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: ALL WE NEED IS SLAVES manages to
expressed through voice-overs accompany images of body
dehumanize the body, to create a certain distance between the regular
parts reconstructing a body that has violent sexual suggestions.
sexual perception of a body and the almost monstrous collage that can
ALL WE NEED IS SLAVES is an editing experiment with a very
suggest a primary instinct aimed directly towards dispersed parts (organs)
precise rhythm, presenting an original concept of combining
and not towards the person as a whole. A head with ten eyes has in the
erogenous zones of the body with sense organs, building the
middle a big mouth with a huge tongue, several arms come out of a head
puzzle of a Sambuca dream in which the delirium takes the lead.
with one eye, the size of the mouth below that has some very red lips and
The collage leaves no room for spontaneous interpretation, as
a smooth trace of beard, heads with three mouths each, a hammer playing
the images’ transformation and succession is so quick, therefore,
a piano seen from inside a wide opened mouth, words written with the
the spectators’ ideas on the movie appear strictly in the
help of hands and fingers, and a little mouth bouncing on top of them, like
subconscious. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
on karaoke lyrics. The astonishing rhythm of the images, combined with
the almost unintelligible whispers and the violent shouts can represent
the warped perception that sexual thoughts can bring in a person’s
subconscious. Delirious glimpses of body parts repeating themselves,
combining themselves in an almost hallucinating experience.
WORLD SALES: KINOMOSCOW
Alyona Kirin-Styrikovich - Head of KinoMoscow, Director,
producer | T:+79161806036 | E: [email protected] |
W : www.kinomoscow.net
13’, 2013, Romania
DIRECTOR: MIHAI SOFRONEA
CAST: Adrian Văncică, Costina Ciuciulică
SCRIPTWRITER: Mihai Sofronea
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Toni Cartu
EDITING: Sorin Baican
SOUND: Ioan Filip, Marius Obretin
PRODUCER: Cezara Armașu, Adina Dulcu, Cosmin
Ionescu, Adrian Smarandache, Mihai Sofronea
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Danubius Film
Production
MIHAI SOFRONEA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: An experiment on immobility and motion
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: The movie is composed of six scenes. The first
referencing the beginning of cinema, THE TREE combines a
three of them take the project on a path that few dare to choose. Not
photographic approach to films with dramatic elements which
many people enjoy a discussion about the essence of cinema, about the
need to be progressively decoded. Long-shots show from a
way in which motion and time meet the questions and expectations of the
distance of two silhouettes, one of a woman, another of a man,
viewer and about the way in which the author of the project anticipates
a tree, a car, a book, and a story told in reverse. A minimalist film
and investigates the possible questions and expectations of the viewer.
with an original concept, THE TREE brings variations on the same
In the first three scenes, THE TREE is an exercise in cinematography. A
tableau, in which every return unveils a new layer of meaning, and
photographic shot in which a leafless tree sometimes sways in the wind
the almost imperceptible differences in color and shadows build
while a woman walks towards it. A second shot, a cut-in compared to the
a different atmosphere each time, while keeping the viewer’s
first one, in which the wind turns the pages of a book left behind by the
narrative expectations in suspense until the very end. (Bianca
woman sitting next to the tree. A captivating approach of the crossing from
Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
photography (the ontological statics that Roland Barthes mentions, at least
in the case of analogic photography) to film (anima-tion). In the third scene
- with sharp irony - MIHAI SOFRONEA overturns the current set-up. What
follows is a detouring of the discussion on Cinema towards drama.
(Lucian Maier, FILM SENSE)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Romanian Short Waves – Cannes
International Film Festival 2013/ Ankara International Film
FAMILY TIES
Copacul
Festival 2014/ Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival
2014/ NexT International Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: DANUBIUS FILM PRODUCTION
Adina Dulcu - producer | T: +40 (0)723 331 415 |
39
FAMILY TIES
After
8’, 2012, Switzerland
DIRECTOR: PAULINE JULIER
SCRIPTWRITER: Pauline Julier
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Pauline Julier
EDITING: Pauline Julier
SOUND: Xavier Lavorel
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Association Le Poulpe
PAULINE JULIER: .
FILM PRESENTATION: The high view of a city at night, fireworks
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Aesthetically, the panoramic images of the city
sparkling in the distance, a party that just finished and sounds
from the beginning of the film stand for a flamboyant world which someone
like a whisper in the empty silence. A meditative voice-over talks
has stepped away from. There is a sense of doubt there, regarding the
about the postmodern generation as of a bunch of kids who
real meaning of all that sparkle seen from a distanced party and whether
wrecked everything in the wake of their huge party. They are
it belongs there. The following disruption made by the shot of a burning
waiting and secretly craving for their parents to restore order.
building is a suggestion of a dangerous stand-by, a feeling of guilt and yet
But the parents are not returning. Inspired by a quote from D. F.
of denial, the fear of not knowing what to do along with the impossibility of
Wallace, comparing cultural to familial stability, AFTER unveils the
doing anything helpful at all. The voice-over then comes with a monologue
insecurities and anxieties of the ones who soon have to become
of an analogy that reflects (socially and culturally) the present times of
“parents” of a new generation while they themselves are still
those who have not experienced anything else, who wish for a landmark,
looking for structure and for balance. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
who have lost themselves in too much rebellion. How can they become
„parents” of a future generation, when „parenting” is something they never
had in the post-modern times of no limitations and no authority? How
should they deal with the feeling of wanting back what they themselves
have fought against? The clear still sky from the last shot reflects the numb
emptiness of being aware of what you wish (in this case authority), but still
wondering why you want it now and why you did not want it in the first
place.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: International Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
2013/ First Prize - Zürich Videoex International Experimental Film
and Video Festival 2013
WORLD SALES: LE POUPLE
T: +4176 615 76 79 | E: [email protected]
40
14’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: ANA MARIA SAVIN
CAST: Ana-Maria Preduț, Tatiana Moise, Andrei Ion
SCRIPTWRITER: Ana Maria Savin, Andrei Vâlcu,
Irina Radu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Andrei Vâlcu, Ana Maria
Savin, Teodor Horea
EDITING: Andrei Vâlcu
SOUND: Andrei Vâlcu
PRODUCER: Ana Maria Savin
PRODUCTION COMPANY: UNATC “I.L. Caragiale”
ANA MARIA SAVIN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A home-movie shot throughout a
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I’ve always shown a genuine interest towards
weekend in the countryside, THIS TIME, LAST YEAR depicts an
friendship. To be more precise, towards friendship between girls. As I had no
almost symbiotic friendship between two girls and what happens
siblings, I fulfilled life’s requirement of having a best friend for life. Growing
when a third person comes between them. The film becomes
up with somebody the same age as yours, gives you a certain stability. For
an audio-visual transposition of a diary page in which memories
me, it was an escapist friendship. The way I interacted with my first best
and feelings are connected in an elliptical way, capturing the
friend turned into a pattern of how I developed my future friendships. But
irrationality inherent to love. With a raw aesthetic at the border
for me, there was always this question coming up again and again. I know,
between diary film and found footage, THIS TIME, LAST YEAR
from other people’s experiences that friendships sometimes don’t last
by ANA MARIA SAVIN explores not only the ties of human
forever. I grew up with this fear. I always pictured my first best friend being
attachment and its consequences, but also the implications of
one of the few people I would still keep in contact with in my 60’s. And I kept
memory and its deceitful alterations.
telling myself that maybe if we were blood related, this wouldn’t have been
part of my fears, because in my ideal picture, siblings always stick to each
other, no matter what. So, how does a lifelong friendship develop? How
will it be when one of them will have a boyfriend and the other one won’t?
How will they manage to stick together? Will they be jealous? Is this going
to tear the friendship apart? If one of them has different views on life, will
the other one be able to accept this fact? Can true friendship ever be thicker
than blood?
(ANA MARIA SAVIN)
FAMILY TIES
This Time, Last Year
WORLD SALES: UNATC - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRE
AND FILM “I.L. CARAGIALE”
T: +40212528193 | E: [email protected] | W: www.unatc.ro
41
PRESENTATION
RECYCLED CINEMA:
FILMS MADE OF FILMS
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION III
Curatorial presentation by: ANDREI TĂNĂSESCU
The competition program RECYCLED CINEMA draws on a cinematic tradition begun more than 70 years ago with Joseph Cornell’s
ROSE HOBART (1936), and takes the repurposing of film to new, creatively exalting heights. Working directly with pre-existing
materials, the filmmakers isolate the alchemical elements of cinema and manipulate them to deliver fresh and deeply engaging
works. Whether through playful enthusiasm or reflective analysis, each film’s post-modernist deconstruction of its source material
\\ INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION III
engages the viewer in a structural game
of active participation, drawing him in its
own process of reconstruction.
42
Addressing ethical issues of authenticity
and creative ownership, EL ADIOS
LARGOS playfully restores the opening
scene of the (supposedly) only surviving
print (a black and white, truncated,
Spanish dubbed version) of Robert
Altman’s classic, THE LONG GOODBYE.
ANDREW LAMPERT’s self-declared
“painstaking restoration” sees the
protagonist’s nocturnal ride to the
supermarket becoming a psychedelic
somnambulist’s trip. The characters
float within a cinematic space, where
analogue and digital artefacts playfully
deconstruct the mise-en-scène, blotches
of paint transforming the black-and-white
space into a surreal carnival of color. A
mischievous cinematic (re)reading that
purposefully gets lost in the process,
down the rabbit-hole.
With the audience’s eye trained and
ready, ALEXEI DMITRIEV’s THE SHADOW
OF YOUR SMILE looks at the hidden
pleasures that lurk behind and inbetween the artefacts of VHS adult
films. A cocky experiment full of irony
that plays freely with the audience’s
expectations and simultaneously explores
the possibility of re-inscribing meaning
to the images by manipulating sound and
removing them from their context.
Switching to different adolescent
nostalgia, the sincere confessional ME,
NOBODY AND I is a rite of passage into
adulthood (or is it “manhood”?). Via voiceover, director JOERG HURSCHLER recalls
and confronts his childhood idols and
ideals. By literally becoming the macho
wrestler, the mysterious cowboy of the
Wild West or the alluring action figure
(here David Hasselhoff!), HURSCHLER
figuratively employs their specific genre
stylistics to make them come alive. In the
process, archetypes of TV and cinema
are collaged together as the existential
conflict of the director lures the viewer
towards its victorious conclusion of selfrealization.
Cinematic role-models undertake a
different form of scrutiny in G/R/E/A/S/E,
a self-described “handmade décollage”
that takes the famous rock’n’roll musical
comedy GREASE as source material.
ANTONI PINENT literally puts John
Travolta and Olivia Newton John’s
characters under his camera-stylo
knife: working directly with 35mm
prints, PINENT isolates and magnifies
the cult film’s pop(ular) imagery and
dialogue of the cult film by splitting
and splicing frames into a physical and
formal cinematic “remix” that becomes
a pure delight for the senses. Cultural
signifiers deconstructed, the film’s campy,
manufactured pop-cinema is taken to the
The deconstruction of characters is taken
further in MICHAEL ROBINSON’s THE
DARK, KRYSTLE, where footage from
the popular 1980s soap opera Dynasty
is skillfully turned into an unsettling
psychodrama that pits against each other
the polar-opposite female protagonists of
the TV show, Krystle and Alexis. Making
use of soap opera’s good-evil archetypes
and their trademark emotive gestures,
ROBINSON’s dramatically-precise
montage and electronic score transports
the characters in a multi-layered,
metaphysical realm. Recalling David
Lynch’s split-psyche narratives, THE DARK,
KRYSTLE transcends its source material
to become a wholly original and selfcontained work of cinema. The screening
is possible courtesy of VIDEO DATA BANK.
Shifting registers to a singular character’s
re-construction, QUESTIONS TO MY
FATHER is an emotional, imaginary
dialogue between visual artist KONRAD
MÜHE and his recently deceased
father, the famous actor Ulrich Mühe
(protagonist of THE LIFE OF OTHERS).
Questioning the boundary between
reality and fiction, privacy and artistic
act, the director cuts together excerpts
from his father’s films, merging all
the characters played by him into one
person, in an attempt to find answers
to questions that he never had the
opportunity to ask while he was alive.
In the hands of multidisciplinary artist
WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI, cinematic
soul-searching turns into confessional
abstraction. In DRY STANDPIPE, working
from his private collection of Hi8 videos,
BĄKOWSKI literally wraps selected
film sequences around CGI sculptures
and presents them in their formal
minimalism against a black background.
Counteracting these conceptual
abstractions with his deadpan description
of their personal meaning, each
sculpture’s signifiers are deconstructed
with candidness and unsophistication.
The result is a poetic piece of art unconventional in style and materials – an arte povera for the digital age, where artist and audience
are on equal, analytical footing.
This free-spirited and playfully imaginative re-visitation of cinema comes full circle with the latest work from master of experimental
film, PETER TSCHERKASSKY, COMING ATTRACTIONS, a (post)modernist homage to silent film’s cinema of attractions. His 35mm
celluloid manipulation of fragments from advertising footage references sequences from silent films by adhering to their respective
cinematic language. A pas-de-deux of form and rhythm, COMING ATTRACTIONS brings the past to the present by offering a lesson in
the history of cinema that is as much food for thought as it delights the senses.
extreme, letting the viewer know that its
cross-cultural resonance (and dominance)
has just begun.
43
RECYCLED CINEMA
El Adios Largos
11’, 2013, USA/ Mexico
DIRECTOR: ANDREW LAMPERT
CAST: Elliott Gould, Jim Bouton, Rodney Moss
SCRIPTWRITER: Leigh Brackett, Angelina Fernandez
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vilmos Zsigmond
ART DIRECTION: Sidney H. Greenwood
EDITING: Lou Lombardo, Jody Blyer
SOUND DESIGN: John Speak
MUSIC: John Williams
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Public Opinion Laboratory
ANDREW LAMPERT: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Addressing ethical issues of authenticity
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: In 1973, Robert Altman’s THE LONG GOODBYE
and creative ownership, EL ADIOS LARGOS playfully restores the
was both a critical and commercial flop. The film flew out of theatres and
opening scene of the (supposedly) only surviving print of Robert
was never shown on television. All known prints were destroyed after the
Altman’s classic, THE LONG GOODBYE. LAMPERT’s self-declared
film’s dismal commercial release, and the original production elements
“painstaking restoration” sees the protagonist’s nocturnal ride
were ruined by a leaky sprinkler system in a Culver City storage facility in
to the supermarket becoming a psychedelic somnambulist’s trip.
1983. For years, THE LONG GOODBYE was considered irrevocably lost, an
The characters float within a cinematic space, where analogue
all too important missing link from Altman’s greatest period. Scholars and
and digital artefacts playfully deconstruct the mise-en-scène,
cinephiles were stunned when filmmaker and archivist ANDREW LAMPERT
blotches of paint transforming the black-and-white space into
serendipitously purchased a film print titled EL ADIOS LARGO from a
a surreal carnival of color. A mischievous cinematic (re)reading
collector through the mail. Closer examination revealed that this 16mm,
that purposefully gets lost in the process, down the rabbit-hole.
black and white, cropped, Spanish-language dubbed copy was actually a
(Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014).
reduction of Altman’s 35mm, color, widescreen, English-language film.
Knowing the importance of his discovery, LAMPERT and a team of volunteer
preservationists set out on a multi-year mission to preserve this unearthed
gem using the most up-to-date digital technology. As you will see, LAMPERT
has gone to extensive lengths to painstakingly reproduce the most authentic
restoration possible given the considerable difference in materials.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Oberhausen International Short Film
Festival 2014 / Toronto International Film Festival 2013 /
Rotterdam International Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: PUBLIC OPINION LABORATORY
Andrew Lampert | T: + 212.505.5181 x16 | E: [email protected]
W: www.andrewlampert.com/
44
DIRECTOR’S WEBSITE:
www.andrewlampert.com/
(ANDREW LAMPERT)
3’, 2014, Russia
DIRECTOR: ALEXEI DMITRIEV
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Krisztina Kerekes
EDITING: Alexei Dmitriev
SOUND: Alexei Dmitriev
ALEXEI DMITRIEV: .
FILM PRESENTATION: THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE looks
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I was watching a porn film for recreational
at the hidden pleasures that lurk behind the artefacts of VHS
purposes in which I saw a laughing girl whose partners were clearly
adult films. An invisible protagonist starts a video cassette. The
uncomfortable with the fact that she was having fun. So I’ve decided to
enigmatic smile of a girl fills the screen, in slow motion, making
make a film that explores the female beauty in a pornographic environment.
us imagine an unrequited love story between her and the unseen
character. Yet, as the source-material begins to censor itself via
(ALEXEI DMITRIEV)
its unstable image calibration, the film gets fast-forwarded by
the typical impatient viewer and the supposed “love story” takes
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: A blue screen. The smile of a young woman.
an unexpected turn. DMITRIEV plays freely with the viewer’s
Her lo-fi image is little more than an out-of-focus shadow on the screen, her
expectations, while exploring the possibility of reshaping the
ambiguous serenity suspended and amplified by slow motion and the notes
semantics of images by manipulating their sound and taking them
of a piano: «The shadow of your smile… when you are gone // A teardrop
out of context. (Andrei Tănăsescu & Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
kissed your lips and so did I», go the lyrics to this hit written in 1964 by Paul
Francis Webster and Johnny Mandel, made famous by dozens of renditions.
ALEXEI DMITRIEV returns, after HERMENEUTICS, to work on the status of
images and their possible re-semantization through the manipulation of
sound: an old VHS, the unfading trace of images it holds, a declaration of
love that is both affectionate and ironic at the same time.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Best Experimental Film - Kratkofil Plus
Bosnia Herzegovina 2014 / Edinburgh International Film Festival
(Alessandro Uccelli, Milano Film Festival)
RECYCLED CINEMA
The Shadow Of
Your Smile
2014 / Milano Film Fesival 2014 / dokumentART European Film
Festival for Documentaries, Neubrandenburg 2014
WORLD SALES: ALEXEI DMITRIEV
T: +79219861669 | E: [email protected]
45
RECYCLED CINEMA
Me, Nobody And I
8’, 2012, Switzerland
DIRECTOR: JOERG HURSCHLER
CAST: Elias Bannwart, Wrestling Club Rorbas
SCRIPTWRITER: Joerg Hurschler
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Samuel Weniger
EDITING: Joerg Hurschler
SOUND: Sin Starlett
MUSIC: Sin Starlett
PRODUCTION: Hochschule Luzern, Schweizer
Radio und Fernsehen
JOERG HURSCHLER: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A sincere confessional, ME, NOBODY AND
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Super hero David Hasselhoff and his car Kitt
I is a playful rite of passage into adulthood (or is it manhood?)
have influenced a whole generation, director JOERG HURSCHLER being one
that is sure to resonate on multiple levels with viewers. Via
of them. The idols of that time are now in the middle of his final film. For this
voice-over, HURSCHLER recalls and confronts his childhood
purpose, he immersed himself in the fictional world of his idols. In pain, he
idols and ideals. By literally becoming the macho wrestler, the
discovers that wrestling is not so cool. The super-car KITT loses its flair when
mysterious cowboy of the Wild West or the alluring action figure
the battery dies. And in the Wild West of Sergio Leone’s PLAY ME THE SONG
(here David Hasselhoff!), HURSCHLER figuratively employs
OF DEATH there’s a lot more dust than action. The real HURSCHLER merges
their specific genre stylistics to make them come alive. In the
with his TV heroes and recognizes not everyone is born to be a hero.
process, archetypes of TV and cinema are collaged together as
the director’s existential conflict lures the viewer towards its
victorious conclusion of self-realization. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF
2014)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: 3rd place Best School Film - Winterthurer
Schulfilmtage 2013 / Videoex Zürich 2013 / Fresh Film Fest Prague
2013 / Jugendfilmtage Zürich 2013
WORLD SALES: LUCERNE SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN
Edith Flueckiger | T: 0041 41 248 61 12 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.video.hslu.ch
46
(Schweizer Radio und Fersehen)
20’, 2008-2013, Switzerland / Spain / Germany
DIRECTOR: ANTONI PINENT
CAST: John Newton-John, Olivia Travolta
ANIMATION: Antoni Pinent
EDITING: Antoni Pinent
SOUND: Dirk Schaefer
MUSIC: Dirk Schaefer
PRODUCER: Antoni Pinent
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Dr. Nessuno,
Contradiction Frame
ANTONI PINENT: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A self-described “handmade décollage”,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: G/R/E/A/S/E is a cinematographic collage by
G/R/E/A/S/E takes the famous rock’n’roll musical comedy
ANTONI PINENT, made out of fragments of the renowned musical film
GREASE as source material. ANTONI PINENT literally puts the
[from 1978, “GREASE”].(...) G/R/E/A/S/E is not just about a movie from
main characters under his caméra-stylo’s knife: working directly
the seventies, it also shows the cultural phenomenon that it turned out to
with 35mm prints, the filmmaker isolates and magnifies the
be: we hear the characters utter their cliché love words in every language
pop(ular) imagery and dialogue of the cult film by splitting
and we read the subtitles (it’s a Spanish production) with the words that
and splicing frames into a physical and formal cinematic remix
hold the ideology of this and many other products of the film industry.
that becomes a pure delight for the senses. Cultural signifiers
Ultimately, what this film is talking about is the spectator who has watched
deconstructed, the film’s campy, manufactured pop-cinema look
many movies but has never watched GREASE, and can still recognize it
is taken to the extreme, letting the viewer know that its cross-
without hesitation. It’s about certain cultural product’s ability to be part of
cultural resonance (and dominance) have just begun. (Andrei
collective imagination, even beyond its audience. This film’s goal is not the
Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
transmission of a distinctive message; it’s the manipulation of something
pre-existing, turning it into something with many probable meanings. It is
the audience’s job to choose those meanings.
(Sofia Castaño, INDIAS/INDIES)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Curtas Vila do Conde International Film
Festival 2013 / BFI London Film Festival 2013 / BAFICI Buenos
Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2014 / Vienna
RECYCLED CINEMA
G/R/E/A/S/E
International Film Festival 2014 / Barcelona Independent Film
Festival 2013
WORLD SALES: ANTONI PINENT
47
RECYCLED CINEMA
The Dark, Krystle
10’, 2013, USA
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL ROBINSON
CAST: Joan Collins, Linda Evans
EDITING: Michael Robinson
SOUND: Michael Robinson
PRODUCER: Michael Robinson
MICHAEL ROBINSON: .
FILM PRESENTATION: In THE DARK, KRYSTLE, footage from
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Of ROBINSON, curator and writer Colin Beckett
the popular 1980s soap opera DYNASTY is skillfully turned into
said in a lecture on the current state of experimental cinema that his films
an unsettling psychodrama that pits against each other the
«romanticize the ironic and ironize the romantic, refusing pride of place
polar-opposite female protagonists of the TV show, Krystle and
to either one of them. » THE DARK, KRYSTLE (which premiered in the
Alexis. Making use of soap opera’s good-evil archetypes and their
New York Film Festival’s Views from the Avant-Garde last fall) is one of
trademark emotive gestures, ROBINSON’s dramatically-precise
ROBINSON’s most focused forays in this regard, using as its source material
montage and electronic score transports the characters in a
two women, one suffering and the other scheming, from the Eighties soap
multi-layered, metaphysical realm. Recalling David Lynch’s split-
opera DYNASTY. A montage of Krystle’s tormented expressions presents her
psyche narratives, THE DARK, KRYSTLE transcends its source
in varied states of dress and distress, her bangs windblown in one shot, her
material to become a wholly original and self-contained work of
hand clutching a Danielle Steele novel in another; the second part of the film
cinema. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
answers the first with a montage of Alexis drinking an astounding variety
of alcoholic beverages. Accompanied by Alexis’s taunts played as voiceover,
ROBINSON’s montage is dense and accumulative, underlining the sadistic
psychodrama at the heart of the show.
Festival 2014 / Best Experimental Film - Melbourne International
Film Festival 2014 / Vienna International Film Festival 2014 /
BFI London Film Festival 2014 / Festival du Nouveau Cinema,
Montreal 2014 / Ann Arbor Film Festival 2014 / New York Film
Festival: Views from the Avant-Garde 2013
WORLD SALES: VIDEO DATA BANK
Carl Elsaesser - Distribution Assistant | T: 312.345.3550 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.vdb.org
48
(Genevieve Yue, FILM COMMENT)
11’, 2011, Germany
DIRECTOR: KONRAD MÜHE
CAST: Ulrich Mühe
SCRIPTWRITER: Konrad Mühe
EDITING: Konrad Mühe
SOUND: Jochen Jezussek, Silvio Naumann
KONRAD MÜHE: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Awarded a Special Mention at Berlinale,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: In his search for truth the artist finds answers
QUESTIONS TO MY FATHER is an imaginary dialogue between the
between all that fictional material. The truth of who this man really was.
filmmaker and his father, ULRICH MÜHE, star-actor in THE LIFE
Can an actor really escape the man, the father or the friend he is? And is it
OF OTHERS. Interrogating the limit between reality and fiction,
possible to get to know someone through the roles he played as an actor?
privacy and art, KONRAD MÜHE edits fragments from his father’s
In QUESTIONS TO MY FATHER all the characters Ulrich Mühe played melt
films, attempting to find answers to the questions he never had
into one person. We see him sitting behind a desk in a backdrop reminiscent
the chance to ask him while he was alive. However the dialogue
of the 1980’s, asking «Like, what?» and then the movie quickly cuts to an
turns to an interrogation, and feelings blend together in a mix
even younger Mühe, who seems to come from a vacuum, asking the same
of conflicting emotions. A painful, but affectionate reunion, the
question: «What?» Later we see Ulrich being interrogated with the bright
film becomes both a way to handle the loss of the father, and of
light of a desk lamp aimed at his face, denying he has anything to do with
keeping his memory alive. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
the case. And then we see a furious Ulrich wearing overalls, holding a
plunger in his hand. In this film, the actor is as much perpetrator as victim,
at the same time questioner and suspect. The viewer slowly notices he is
following a man who constantly seems to escape him. The moment Mühe
desperately raises his hands up in the air as someone threatens to shoot him
immediately makes one think of the recent death of the actor. It’s a scene
where fiction and reality coincidentally meet.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Special Mention – Berlin International
(Maurits de Bruijn, Mister Motley)
RECYCLED CINEMA
Questions To My
Father
Film Festival 2011 / Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
2011 / CPH:DOX Copenhagen / Augsburger Short Film Festival
WORLD SALES: KONRAD MÜHE
49
RECYCLED CINEMA
Dry Standpipe
12’, 2013, Poland
DIRECTOR: WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI
ANIMATION: Wojciech Bąkowski
EDITING: Wojciech Bąkowski
SOUND: Wojciech Bąkowski
WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Screened at Toronto and Oberhausen,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 1: A raw, personal, confessional narration
DRY STANDPIPE is a unique object d’art. Working from his
undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet WOJCIECH
private collection of Hi8 videos, the visual artist BĄKOWSKI
BĄKOWSKI’S interlaced video collage DRY STANDPIPE. Condensing home
literally wraps selected film sequences around CGI sculptures
videos into blocks of abstraction, BĄKOWSKI creates a startling account of
and presents them in their formal minimalism against a black
depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity.
background. Counteracting these conceptual abstractions
with his deadpan description of their personal meaning, each
(Andréa Picard, Toronto International Film Festival 2013)
sculpture’s signifiers are deconstructed with candidness
and unsophistication. The result is a poetic piece of art,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 2: In his curious digital work DRY STANDPIPE,
unconventional in style and materials - an arte povera for the
WOJCIECH BĄKOWSKI crafts what he calls «a video of videos»: interlaced
digital-age, where artist and audience are on equal, analytical
videos composited and contorted into strange, CGI sculptures—tunnels,
footing. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
pipes, strings, and blocks. But against Pixar’s prevailing model, these
absurdist architectures serve not as vehicles for fantasy but as monuments
to the filmmaker/narrator’s own bathos and inertia, delivered in monotone
musings that hint back to the banalities of the experimental animator’s
everyday life.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Best experimental movie, European short
movie competition - New Horizons Wrocław 2013 / Oberhausen
International Short Film Festival 2013 / Toronto International
Film Festival 2013 / Ann Arbor Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: GALERIA STEREO
Zuzanna Hadryś | T: +48 509 099 786 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.galeriastereo.pl
50
(Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes, the Brooklyn Rail 2014)
25’, 2010, Austria
DIRECTOR: PETER TSCHERKASSKY
EDITING: Peter Tscherkassky, Eve Heller
SOUND: Dirk Schaefer
PETER TSCHERKASSKY: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of Best Short Film at Venice,
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: COMING ATTRACTIONS additionally addresses
the latest film from master of (post)modernist experimental
Gunning’s concept of a «cinema of attractions». This term is used to describe
cinema PETER TSCHERKASSKY, COMING ATTRACTIONS is an
a completely different relation between actor, camera and audience to
homage to silent film’s cinema of attractions. His 35mm celluloid
be found in early cinema in general, as compared to the «modern cinema»
manipulation of fragments from advertising footage references
which developed after 1910, gradually leading to the narrative technique
sequences from silent films by adhering to their respective
of D. W. Griffith. The notion of a «cinema of attractions» touches upon the
cinematic language. A pas-de-deux of form and rhythm, COMING
exhibitionistic character of early film, the undaunted show-and-tell of its
ATTRACTIONS brings the past to the present by offering a lesson
creative possibilities, and its direct addressing of the audience. At some
in the history of cinema that is as much food for thought as it
point it occurred to me that another residue of the cinema of attractions
delights the senses. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
lies within the genre of advertising: here we also often encounter a uniquely
direct relation between actor, camera and audience. The impetus for
COMING ATTRACTIONS was to bring the three together: commercials, early
cinema, and avant-garde film.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Best Short Film - Venice Film Festival
2010 / New York Film Festival 2010 / Toronto International Film
Festival 2010 / Vienna International Film Festival 2010 / Festival
du Nouveau Cinéma Montréal 2010 / Rotterdam International
Film Festival 2011 / Cinéma du Réel International Documentary
(PETER TSCHERKASSKY)
RECYCLED CINEMA
Coming Attractions
Film Festival Paris 2011 / Jeonju International Film Festival 2011 /
Uppsala International Short Film Festival 2011
Dietmar Schwärzler - Festivals, Programs, Care of Distribution
Submissions | T: (+43-1) 526 09 90 15 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.sixpackfilm.com
http://www.tscherkassky.at/
51
PRESENTATION
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL:
SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IV
Curatorial presentation by: GABRIELA LUPU
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL: Spiritual Journeys is primarily an internal examination, a reflection on the self, on the divine and demonic
nature of mortals, of arts, and beyond that, a desire to transcend them. There are no limits to the exploration of the soul and neither
to the techniques through which the films in this program were made, starting from experimental documentary, to animation, CGI
and motion capture. The emergence of an existential crisis due to the recognition of lack of control over one’s destiny sometimes
\\ INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION IV
leads to the doubt that we are that we are spiritual beings, and we begin to look inside and outside of ourselves for evidence. These
six short films succeed to affirm each in its own way that we have without a doubt a spiritual core.
52
Soul searching in the experimental documentary VIA DOLOROSA starts with exploring the physical involvement in the ritual process.
Observed through close-ups, mystically accompanied by drum rhythms in sync with the steps of men, pain is seen as a transcendent
and unifying experience. The film shows in a condensed and intense way a transformative journey, both for the participants and the
spectators.
In the next films, classical art forms, expressed in a modern manner and adapted to our age, represent the starting point of the
spiritual journey or the destination of
revealing the soul’s identity.
In THE GREEN SERPENT: OF VODKA, MEN
AND DISTILLED DREAMS, vodka, initially
presented as a masochistic way to escape
reality, and thus to avoid spiritual search,
is finally the substance which brings the
creative revelation of the soul, making it
possible to achieve transcendence and
reach quintessence. Surrounded by a note
of mystery, vodka alters consciousness,
enabling the transition from agony to
ecstasy and vice versa.
HKDPGH is a collage-exploration into the deepest layers of the human subconscious.
The lack of control and frustrations the faceless character is dealing with lead to
an existential crisis, the starting point of a philosophical-poetical hypothesis about
identity, perceived as a dream in a dream.
A lack of control ending in an existential crisis is also a common theme in HOWTO, an
intriguing video tutorial in which the author gradually loses control over the computer
program. Surprising and original, the film combines computerized art and contemporary
dance, providing a hypnotic and disturbing experience that urges self-examination.
Unlike the others, the film does not show anyone in an intended “soul-searching”
process, but someone unaware of the existence of such a thing, until proven otherwise.
WHO STRUGGLED WITH THE ANGEL
REMAINS PHOSPORESCENT is an artistic
testimony of a poet about the link
between poetry, magic and inspiration,
where poetry is seen as “pure soul” which
doesn’t ask for anything in return. Here,
the poet, a servant of divine inspiration,
that is both generous and capricious in
character, has the power to increase the
value of the most common objects. A
contemplative piece, this short film shows
us Art’s immense power to re-teach people
how to see the purest form of Grace in
everyday life.
An exploration of the main human
emotions that shape the spiritual
dimension, BEAUTY is an animation that
brings to life classical paintings, in which
the human condition is shown in combat
with the carnal dimension, subject to the
forces of good and evil alike. The subtle
manipulation of the paintings highlights
the unexpected transformation of the
human character that comes with the
passage through life.
53
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
Via Dolorosa
15’, 2013, The Netherlands
DIRECTOR: MENNO OTTEN
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Lennart Verstegen,
Menno Otten
EDITING: Saskia Kievits
MUSIC: Daan Temmink, Cilia Erens
SOUND: Evelien van der Molen
PRODUCER: Frank Hoeve, Katja Draaijer,
Menno Otten
PRODUCTION: BALDR Film
MENNO OTTEN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the Dutch Directors Guild
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Filmed on the streets of Malaga, VIA
Award, VIA DOLOROSA shows an intense catholic ritual, willfully
DOLOROSA catches a group of men during an ancient religious ritual: every
separated from its religious context. Through a subtle montage of
year they walk <<the way of Grief>>. Along with my crew, I decided to tackle
short-focused close-ups, MENNO OTTEN captures the emotions
this subject in a physical way, as if performing the same thing as the people
of the men as they carry a heavy cross, ultimately revealing pain as
we film: to carry the one they love most. Unique both in form and content,
a transcendental experience. As the exterior sounds are gradually
this short, clenched film leaves the viewer with a drastic and yet meditative
muted, the beating of the drum sets the pace of the men’s ritualistic
experience.
stride, their labored breathing unconsciously synchronized in
a unitary hum of quiet suffering. Thus, empathy awakened, we
(MENNO OTTEN)
are taken on an initiatory journey through cheerfulness, pain,
acceptance, peace and finally release. (BIEFF 2014)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: VIA DOLOROSA, is a pretext for MENNO
OTTEN to explore in a condensed manner the cathartic power of suffering.
An important element of its special atmosphere is the binaural sound
recording, which creates a 3D audio experience. The drumming sound that
accompanies and coordinates the joint effort the men put into carrying the
ritualistic objects transforms, during their walk, into a church song that
urges to meditation. During the entire movie, the camera stays solely on the
faces of the participants, never on the road per se or the statues they carry.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Dutch Directors Guild Award 2014/ IDFA
Thus, it highlights the humane value of the ritual, focusing on the effort,
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2013 -
involvement and harmony that forms between those who have joined forces
PARADOCS/ Santa Fe Filmfestival New Mexico 2014
for a common ideal.
(Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
WORLD SALES: BALDR FILM
Frank Hoeve | T: +31 20 3032670 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.baldrfilm.nl
54
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.mennootten.nl/portfolio/via-dolorosa/
19’, 2013, Italy
DIRECTOR: RICCARDO GIACCONI
CAST: Maria Luisa Spaziani
TEXTS: Maria Luisa Spaziani
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mario Ciaramitaro,
Riccardo Giacconi
EDITING: Riccardo Giacconi
SOUND: Riccardo Giacconi
PRODUCED: MACRO - Museo d’Arte
Contemporanea Roma
RICCARDO GIACCONI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: With a title that urges to reflection, a verse
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Before her death in 2014, Italian poet Maria
by Maria Luisa Spaziani, WHO STRUGGLED WITH THE ANGEL REMAINS
Luisa Spaziani had lived in Rome since the seventies. Maria Luisa told me
PHOSPHORESCENT submerges the viewer in a deeply meditative
a lot about a language she invented for her book «Giovanna D’Arco». Such
atmosphere of inspiration and poetry, which exceeds the power of
nonexistent, unheard language, through which she makes an angel talk to
magic. Combining splendid underwater images of sea-creatures,
Giovanna, is not a single example throughout her work. In various occasions
ambient noises and the voice-over recital of poetry, the film re-teaches
throughout her written production, the theme of the «logos» (word) often
viewers how to see the beauty in neglected things. Poetry resides in all
recurs, that escapes any symbolic interpretation; glossolalia, or pure voice.
things, in the hypnotic movement of the images, colors and textures,
evoking the mysterious appeal of art and inspiration, shown to be true
(RICCARDO GIACCONI)
spiritual experiences. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: RICCARDO GIACCONI presents the poetic
universe of Spaziani, combining elements of two worlds; one inner, deep similar to the underwater territory - and another one on the outside, at the
surface, through ambient noises, so creating an unexpected synchronized
overlap. On the background of her poems, the sea creatures appear in a
mysterious light, affirming that poetry gives a special perspective on things.
Inspiration gains here a divine dimension, and is represented symbolically by
the angel, which comes regularly, to give «non-human clarity» that probes
the depths of the poet’s sea; something everyone secretly craves but fears,
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: CinemaXXI Rome International Film
Festival 2013 / Euganea Film Festival 2014
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
Who Struggled With The Angel
Remains Phosphorescent
because it would make them different.
(GABRIELA LUPU, BIEFF 2014)
WORLD SALES: MACRO
Rossana Miele - Artists in Residence Program Coordinator
E: [email protected] | W: http://www.museomacro.org
55
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
HKDPGH
6’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDRU PETRU BĂDELIȚĂ
CAST: Cătălin Anchidin
SCRIPTWRITER: Alexandru Petru Bădeliță
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alexandru Petru Bădeliță
EDITING: Alexandru Petru Bădeliță
SOUND: Alexandru Petru Bădeliță
PRODUCER: UNATC - National University of
Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale”
ALEXANDRU PETRU BĂDELIȚĂ: .
FILM PRESENTATION: HKDPGH is the protagonist’s journey on the
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Starting from the idea of the dream within a
beach of the subconscious on which waves break as rhythmically as
dream, BĂDELIȚĂ combines the sleeping protagonist’s mundane thoughts
thoughts. A meditative audio-visual collage of film and animation,
with symbolic images that show these thoughts’ crippling effects. Forced to
the short compiles multiple audio poems and director’s voice-over
bury his childhood dreams, he digs a weapon with which he learns to protect
confessions, exploring the existential turmoil of a person at a
himself from the existential crisis he is facing and the pressure that comes
crossroads of his life. Like in a lucid dream, the man is aware that
along with maturity. The disoriented walk by the beach ends in a hopeless
he sleeps, but is unable to wake up, deepening in strong symbolic
note, with him lying on the sand in the fetal position, returning to a childish
explorations of a black and white dream. BĂDELIȚĂ reveals to us
state, not being in control of his life. The conclusion and the quieting of
the subconscious, while the subconscious itself buries and digs up
anxiety comes with a combination of lines from Edgar Allan Poe: «These
memories, dreams and fears in an attempt to reconcile with reality.
things that I have been so far it’s but a dream within a dream.» suggesting a
needed philosophical detatchement from the self.
WORLD SALES: UNATC - NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRE
AND FILM “I.L. CARAGIALE”
T: +40212528193 | E: [email protected] | W: www.unatc.ro
56
21’, 2013, Switzerland/Russia
DIRECTOR: BENNY JABERG
CAST: Mstislav Biserov, Aleksandr Nikolaevich
Bashirov, Nikolai Mikhailovich Budnev
SCRIPTWRITER: Benny Jaberg
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Joona Pettersson, Benny
Jaberg EDITING: Benny Jaberg
SOUND: Xavier Thieulin, Benny Jaberg
MUSIC: Marcel Vaid PRODUCER: Tanya Petrik,
Guillaume Protsenko, Benny Jaberg
BENNY JABERG: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Set against visually piercing Russian
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Driven by an interest in those substances
landscapes, THE GREEN SERPENT explores the conflicting feelings vodka
that enhance life, I intended to show human nature through a prism where
awakens, from liberating creative urges, to (self-)destructive behaviors.
vodka is a catalyst for emotions and thoughts. Are we looking for ecstasy
The interviewees’ sincere testimonies that talk about the transition from
and finding escapism? Where does the longing for distraction transform
agony to ecstasy and vice versa gradually become priceless existential
into numbness? Does the lack or absence of something lead us humans to
meditations. Initially presented as a masochistic way to escape reality,
stumble and seek refuge in substances? Drunk or sober, which is the «real»
and thus to avoid spiritual search, the drink proves to be the substance
person? According to who? To explore these questions, I sought passionate
which brings them the creative revelation of the soul, making it possible
vodka drinkers. Those who walk a thin line between euphoric inspiration and
to achieve transcendence and reach quintessence. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF
bleak visions of a more psychotic nature.[…] My film explores how drinkers
2014)
aren’t always feeble, violent characters, but rather people with perhaps too
much sensitivity.
(BENNY JABERG)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: THE GREEN SERPENT presents the experience of
consuming vodka as a double encounter with two animals: the green snake
and the white elephant, symbolizing Good and Evil, although both contain
the two valences. The film begins with emphasis on the serpent’s selfFESTIVALS/AWARDS: Locarno International Film Festival 2013 /
destructive presence, and ends in a testimony of creativity, in the elephant’s
Quartz Swiss Film Award 2014/ Cadrage Zürich Film Award 2013/
presence. As the actor Aleksandr Bashirov said in the film: «There are many
Best Short Film Darklight Film Festival 2014
sides to the same crystal».
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
The Green Serpent: Of Vodka,
Men and Distilled Dreams
(GABRIELA LUPU, BIEFF 2014)
WORLD SALES: MIRUMIR FILM STUDIO
Tanya Petrik - Director | T: +79096807310 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.cinetrain.net
57
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.thegreenserpent.ch/
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
How To
25’, 2014, France
DIRECTOR: ELISABETH CARAVELLA
CAST: Elisabeth Caravella, Aina Alegre
SCRIPTWRITER: Elisabeth Caravella
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Elisabeth Caravella
EDITING: Elisabeth Caravella
SOUND: Thomas Fourel
MUSIC: Elisabeth Caravella
PRODUCER: Eric Prigent, Estelle Benazet
PRODUCTION: Le Fresnoy – Studio national des
arts contemporains
ELISABETH CARAVELLA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Originally, HOWTO is presented to us as
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: «How to» is the key phrase used for Internet
a conventional video tutorial, but as the computer program used
tutorials. Originally intended for computing, these explanatory screen
starts becoming unpredictable, throbbing with autonomy, the film
captures are generally made by amateurs. Detecting the cinematographic
develops into an existential quest for meaning and spirituality.
potential of these screencasts, I wanted to make a new-generation fiction
Mixing animation, motion capture and CGI, the tutorial evolves into
documentary filmed entirely from my computer screen. Like a mirror, the
a dynamic struggle for authority between the program and the
tutorial is filmed with the screen that shows it. Heterotopian and utopian,
author. Closing with a hypnotic contemporary dance full of emotion
this short-film is the image of a reality.
and poetry, ELISABETH CARAVELLA unfolds a philosophical
existential crisis, only to guide us to the conclusion that only by
letting go and stop resisting change can you truly find yourself.
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: ELISABETH CARAVELLA gives us an unusual
experience that will make us rethink the way in which we look at video
tutorials. The mirror used as an object to be molded through the software,
in the parallel virtual universe is the symbol upon which the entire film
is built, representing a method of examination and reflection of an inner
world haunted both by fear and beauty. The software user’s reflection in
the virtual objects creates a tension between real and virtual worlds which
reminds us of our own observational role. However, all of this disappears
when the ghostly presence that haunts the software’s cyber space earns its
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: D25 FPS – International Experimental Film
and Video Festival, Zagreb, Croatia - 2014
58
(ELISABETH CARAVELLA)
autonomy and triggers the user’s existential crisis.
WORLD SALES: Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts
Contemporains
Natalia Trebik | T: 03 20 28 38 64 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.lefresnoy.net
FILMMAKER’S WEBSITE:
http://elisabethboissoncaravella.com/
10’, 2014, Italy
DIRECTOR: RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO
EDITING: Rino Stefano Tagliafierro
ANIMATION: Rino Stefano Tagliafierro
SOUND: Enrico Ascoli
MUSIC: Enrico Ascoli
PRODUCER: Rino Stefano Tagliafierro
RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A hypnotic film of incredible visual appeal,
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The idea of BEAUTY is born by the challenge
BEAUTY animates classic paintings by artists such as Caravaggio,
of describing the most important emotions that everyone can feel in their
William Bouguereau and others in order to explore the main human
life, from birth to death, through fear, sexuality, pain and love. Classical
experiences and feelings. RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO starts
art for me has always been the best way to visualize this kind of feeling.
from representations of innocence (infants, children and angels)
Hidden behind the cracks of reality there are unusual worlds and disturbing
which gradually evolve into studies of topics such as sexuality, pain,
environments: these are the places that I love to visit. The characters that
old age and death. All are highlighted by an ambient soundtrack
animate them seem to come from a collective memory and are thawed by
that evokes inspirational and frightening feelings. The movie is a
the imagination, in a play with time, slowing and accelerating it to my liking.
unique sensorial experience that revives classical works and delves
The bodies are transformed and, unexpectedly, reveal a monstrous nature.
into the essential duality of human nature, both demonic and divine.
There are fictional references to guide the viewer, only situations enigmatic
and full of symbols. In my work, there is the desire to create emotions,
surprise and disturb, the need to respond to a creative need and, above all,
the desire to look elsewhere.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: ANNECY Film Festival 2014 / Lille
(RINO STEFANO TAGLIAFIERRO)
International Short Film Festival 2014 / Milano Film Festival 2014/
VAEFF Video Art and Experimental Film Festival New York 2014/
Venice International Experimental Cinema and Performance
Art 2014 / Rooftop Films New York 2014/ International ArtExpo
IN SEARCH OF A SOUL
Beauty
Venice 2014/ ANIM’EST International Animation Film Festival
Romania 2014
WORLD SALES: AUTOUR DE MINUIT
Annabel Sebag – Head of Distribution | T: +33 (0)1 42 81 17 28 |
W: http://blog.autourdeminuit.com/
[email protected]
FILMMAKER’S WEBSITE:
http://www.rinostefanotagliafierro.com/
59
PRESENTATION
URBAN GHOSTS:
BETWEEN FOREBODING AND NOSTALGIA
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION V
\\ INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION V
In today’s hyper-digital-and-(re)active world, we seem to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Our contemporary transient
existence (post-post-modern?) leaves behind “uninhabited” spaces that still retain traces of our passing - be they virtual, material or
metaphysical. How does one reconcile humanity’s absence of presence (or, presence of absence) in the 21st century? Under cinema’s
scrupulous investigating lens of formal experimentation, these seven films exorcise the spectral traces of “foreboding and nostalgia”
60
left behind by the Urban (human) Ghosts
that inhabit them. In their journey, the
films channel a metaphysical “flâneur”,
recalling Baudelaire’s cinematic traveller,
who looks at its surroundings for the ties
that bind the vestiges of humanity left
behind.
Serving as an apt prologue to the
thematic odyssey is DOUWE DIJKSTRA’s
DÉMONTABLE, a film that transforms our
domestic space into a world reminiscent
of Gulliver’s Travels, invaded by miniature
projections of the outside world (as
defined and constructed by the massmedia). “The level of media saturation
we’re bombarded with creates an absurd
distortion and distance between our daily
routine and current affairs. DÉMONTABLE
explores this bizarre melange of realities
by throwing the two worlds together:
attack helicopters shred a newspaper,
while a dinner plate suffers a drone strike.
They’re a series of attempts to try and
understand our world better by playing
with its violent protagonists.” (DOUWE
DIJKSTRA) Screening possible courtesy of
LIMA Amsterdam.
With the wall of reality broken down,
ULU BRAUN’s BIRDS provides a canted
look at the human presence in urban
spaces through the primordial, prehistoric
perspective of the titular animals.
Breaking down societal construction by
hinting at a dormant danger through
a mesmerizing Hitchcockian visual
study in ornithology, BRAUN pushes
cinematic pedagogy to cerebral limits.
He observes Earth’s winged inhabitants
from up close, looking to their ominous
and omniscient presence that watches
over us in quiet surveillance. Associative
editing brings out the sinuous elegance
of wild and domestic birds, positioning
them against the glamour and refuse of
urban cities shaped by human civilization.
A cohabitation of prehistoric lineage
estranged by an abstract soundtrack, this
unlikely pairing of fowl and man becomes
a premonitory reminder of the fallacy
of modern civilization’s “progress”. The
screening of this film is possible thanks to
the support offered by GERMAN FILMS.
Continuing the tension omnipresent in
mankind’s existence, EMERGENCY CALLS
(nominated for the European Film Awards
2014) is an intense vision of human
distress, composed to pitch-perfect
tension between recordings of various
people in varying states of peril and the
guiding guardians of safety to whom they
reach out to. Through a tense musical
score, disembodied voices and visuals
that underline mankind’s microscopic
existence in the universe, co-directors
HANNES VARTIAINEN and PEKKA
VEIKKOLAINEN construct a palpable
sense of imminent danger. From its midst,
the viewer escapes as a spectral witness,
Moving from the universal to the
specific, in STORM IS COMING the plight
of mankind is contoured in an indirect
fashion by the absent presence of
interviewed Romanian immigrants as
the transcript of their words are overlain
against a grey, rainy French countryside,
retaining its idyllic beauty. Through fixed
long takes and muted field recordings,
visual artist DANIEL DJAMO engages us to
read and thus embody voices that recount
the varied experiences of earning a living
on the streets of Paris. In this process of
identification, the practical “when” and
“how” of the titular tempest give way
to the metaphysical “where” and “why”,
allowing DJAMO to bring to life the
spectres of migrants’ experiences within
the viewer. Reconciled and contradictory,
heart wrenching and deeply poignant,
these are the collective voices of our
contemporary, human condition.
ARASH NASSIRI’s TEHRANGELES shifts
spatial monitoring to a Los Angeles-ian
Tehran, where “recorded phone calls
relate memories of events that took
place in Tehran. These stories refer us to
the city’s past. In the 1970s and 80s the
reality of American life was projected
onto Tehran’s social and urban fabric.
The music, clothes, cars, boulevards and
motorways of Iran echoed that way of
life. The revolution brought this period
to an end. Like science fiction cinema, in
which the present of a city is projected
into the future, this video projects the
past of Tehran into the present, taking
Los Angeles as a setting.” (LE FRESNOY)
YEAR’S EVE 2014. On the 1st of January,
2014, UK visa restrictions for Romanian
workers were lifted, prompting fears
of an impending invasion. Avoiding
the news coverage of British reaction,
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014 looks, rather,
at the hypothetical results in Romania.
Local TV news fragments ferment the
hysteria while the streets blink their neon
lights in a deserted city. Utopia turns to
dystopia, where an abandoned Romania
is left to ponder its future. Deliberate
and foreboding, BORUZS’ satire turns
to science-fiction, offering a timely
alternative to the underlying issue of
global overpopulation.
Migratory ghosts return to assert their
existence in ARTUR BORUZS’ NEW
Moving beyond the physical realm,
DANIEL MOSHEL’s METUBE consolidates
the ephemeral presence of our internet identities. Famous opera tenor August Schram
plays the balding, meek protagonist whose self-recorded performance of Habanera
from Bizet’s “Carmen” is interrupted by his doting mother. From there, METUBE’s oneman show unleashes a flurry of genre-and-gender benders, reflecting the internet’s
kaleidoscopic personalities. As the film tango(e)s on, the mirroring effect celebrates
both the artistic spirit of YouTubers, as well as our aspiring, inner diva. This screening is
made possible with the support of Sixpackfilm and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
privy to the fragility of its own human
life and the unseen guarding forces that
restore order to our natural world.
61
URBAN GHOSTS
Birds
15’, 2014, Germany
DIRECTOR: ULU BRAUN
SCRIPTWRITER: Ulu Braun
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Ulu Braun
EDITING: Ulu Braun
SOUND: Felix Andriessens
ULU BRAUN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A mesmerizing Hitchcockian visual study
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The film discovers and empathizes with its
in ornithology, BIRDS, by visual artist ULU BRAUN, breaks down
protagonists, the BIRDS, as prehistorical creatures. The footage was
societal construction, hinting at a dormant danger: he observes
gathered during journeys to cities and suburban habitats during the last
Earth’s winged inhabitants from up close, looking at their
years. How do birds orientate themselves in spaces that we consider as ours?
ominous and omniscient presence that watches over us in quiet
The rhythms through which they move their heads, turn their eyes and shake
surveillance. Associative editing brings out the sinuous elegance
their feathers are intense and lead to a different understanding of the time
of the creatures, placing them against the glamour and refuse of
scale and possession of space.
cities shaped by human civilization. A cohabitation of prehistoric
lineage estranged by an abstract soundtrack, this unlikely pairing
(ULU BRAUN)
of fowl and man becomes a premonitory reminder of the fallacy of
modern civilization’s “progress”. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Down there - a crowded city, pale and distant.
Up there - an eagle spreading its wings, both threatening and fascinating.
BRAUN does more than merely study the meeting point between the savage
and urban habitat. He looks at the subjects he’s filming as if they themselves
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Berlin International Film Festival
were pieces of art, as if every small part of them is impressive if you focus
2014 / Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2014 /
on it from the right angle and then you just wait, observe, admire. As a
EMAF European Media Art Festival 2014 / Clermont-Ferrand
viewer of the film, you stay with the birds, almost confront them closely
International Short Film Festival 2014 / Kiev International Short
while human presence is just something you’re vaguely aware of, from the
Film Festival 2014 / Hamburg International Short Film Festival
distance. You follow the predator as if you are the one about to attack,
2014 / Lima Independent Festival 2014 /Guanajuato International
while having the constant feeling that at any moment you can turn into
Film Festival, Mexico 2014 / Traverse City Film Festival, USA 2014
being the prey.
WORLD SALES: ULU BRAUN SCHÖNHAUSER
Ulu Braun | T: +49(0)17622253040 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.ulubraun.com
62
[email protected]
www.ulubraun.com
15’, 2013, Finland
DIRECTORS: HANNES VARTIAINEN,
PEKKA VEIKKOLAINEN
CAST: Lauri Hynninen, Jonna Uhrman, Eeva Putro,
Juha Hippi
SCRIPTWRITER / CINEMATOGRAPHY /
ANIMATION / EDITING / PRODUCER:
Hannes Vartiainen, Pekka Veikkolainen
SOUND / MUSIC: Joonatan Portaankorva
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pohjankonna Oy
HANNES VARTIAINEN, PEKKA VEIKKOLAINEN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Using actual emergency call center recordings,
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: EMERGENCY CALLS (…) deals with real, original
EMERGENCY CALLS (nominated for the European Film Awards 2014)
recordings. Most of them are emergency calls documented by the Finnish
creates an intense vision of human suffering and frailty. With an eerie,
emergency response centre administration. They are cut into pieces and
almost surreal atmosphere, the callers’ faceless voices recount the
intertwine cleverly. Some stories get closure, others remain open, leaving
horrors they are going through. Through a tense musical score and
the viewer to wonder about the denouement. The audio material is matched
visuals that underline mankind’s microscopic existence in the universe,
with seemingly random footage, such as radar signals, blinking lights and
filmmakers HANNES VARTIAINEN and PEKKA VEIKKOLAINEN’s celestial
cloudy skies that in an abstract way adds meaning to the calls coming in.
vision constructs a palpable sense of imminent danger. From its midst,
Furthermore, there are less arbitrary images too, for example of different
the viewer escapes as a spectral witness, privy to the fragility of its own
first-aid vehicles. Also, a regularly recurring element is the NASA space
human life.” (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
footage from the International Space Station showing the immensity of the
Earth as seen from above. The alarm center operators were given a face as
well. A tranquil man and woman take turns in reading along the recordings
and at times they look directly into the camera. The lighting is slightly eerie
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Main Prize Finnish Short Film - Tampere
and there is no equipment, headset nor computer monitor. The directors
International Film Festival 2014 / Best European Short Nominee
deliberately chose to recreate the emergency call center in an unrealistic
- European Film Awards 2014 / Sleepwalkers Special Mention -
way to make tangible what it basically all comes down to: just one human
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2013 / Hamburg International
being helping another in a matter of life and death.
Film Festival 2014 / DOK Leipzig 2013 / Leeds Film Festival 2013 /
ZubrOFFka Short Film Festival 2013 / Glasgow Film Festival 2014
(GERDIEN SMIT)
URBAN GHOSTS
Emergency Calls
/ Gent Film Festival 2014 / DOC Point Helsinki 2014 / Go Short
Nijmegen 2014 / Documenta Madrid 2014
WORLD SALES: KURZ FILM AGENTUR HAMBURG e.V.
Alexandra Heneka - Sales & Distribution | E: [email protected]
63
Hannes Vartiainen: [email protected] | Pekka Veikkolainen: [email protected]
URBAN GHOSTS
Démontable
DIRECTOR: DOUWE DIJKSTRA
CAST: Douwe Dijkstra, Jesse Strikwerda
SCRIPTWRITER: Douwe Dijkstra
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Douwe Dijkstra
ART DIRECTION: Douwe Dijkstra
ANIMATION: Douwe Dijkstra
EDITING: Douwe Dijkstra
SOUND: Rob Peters
MUSIC: Seven League Beats
DOUWE DIJKSTRA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: In DÉMONTABLE, our domestic space
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: As an artist I respond to my environment. To
turns into a world reminiscent of Gulliver’s Travels, invaded by
me, one of the most interesting and striking things about the world I live
miniature projections of the outside world. “A funny, playful film
in is the presence and influence of media. They represent, correspond and
on the absurd relationship between daily life and global news. The
contradict the western world I am accustomed to. A world that sometimes
level of media saturation we’re bombarded with creates an absurd
strikes me as spoiled and ignorant. The films that resulted out of this process
distortion and distance between our daily routine and current
were shown as an installation in my first solo exhibition DOORDOUWE,
affairs. DÉMONTABLE explores this bizarre melange of realities
together with a corresponding video compilation that shows the work
by throwing the two worlds together: attack helicopters shred
from my perspective as the creator. Often I find the accidental images or
a newspaper, while a dinner plate suffers a drone strike. They’re
making-of footage in my projects very telling. By showing the relation
a series of attempts to try and understand our world better by
between myself as an artist and the films I create, the footage reveals
playing with its violent protagonists.” (DOUWE DIJKSTRA)
additional stories. The resulting short film, DÉMONTABLE, is a mix of the
films shown in combination with the making of footage, together with a lot
of new material and changes. As a short film on one screen it’s a new work
on its own. The topics of the material didn’t change, but the film shows
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Rotterdam International Film Festival
new links between different scenes and between maker and creation. It’s a
2014 / Hamburg International Short Film Festival 2014 / Curtas
combination between my visual statements about the conflicting realities of
Vila do Conde 2014 / Special Mention for the Best Dutch
daily life and global news, and the process of making them.
short film - Go Short Film Festival 2014 / 2nd Place Jury Prize Oberursel Film Festival, Germany 2014 / Honorable Mention for
(DOUWE DIJKSTRA)
the Youth Award - Norwegian Short Film Festival 2014 / Image
Forum Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: LIMA
Theus Zwakhals - collection/ distribution | T: +31 (0)20 389 20 30 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.li-ma.nl/
64
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://douwedijkstra.nl/projects/demontable/
4’, 2013, Austria
DIRECTOR: DANIEL MOSHEL
CAST: August Schram
SCRIPTWRITER: Daniel Moshel
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Martin Bauer
EDITING: Christine Veith
SOUND: Bernhard Drax
MUSIC: George Bizet, Philip Preuss
PRODUCER: August Schram
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Moshelfilm
DANIEL MOSHEL: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Isolating himself from the outside world
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: A YouTube anachronism as the overture of a
and real human contact, the urban man reinvents his identity in the
clever opera-remix spectacle. A man’s surrounded by the most conservative
virtual realm, in the deliciously cheeky METUBE, by DANIEL MOSHEL, “a
´70s interior furnishings imaginable. The beige patterned wallpaper is
tribute to the countless «performers» seeking self-expression through
dominated by a portrait of Maria Callas, while a cassette recorder plays
the rhizomes of YouTube. Famous opera tenor August Schram plays
«Habanera» from Bizet´s opera «Carmen». While streaks move across the
the balding, meek protagonist whose self-recorded performance of
static picture of what seems to be a webcam, the protagonist (tenor August
Habanera from Bizet’s «Carmen» is interrupted by his doting mother.
Schram), reservedly plays the singer while his mother hands him a glass of
From there, the one-man show unleashes a flurry of genre-and-gender
milk and a sandwich. Like varying layers of Schram’s personality, camera
benders, reflecting the Internet’s kaleidoscopic personalities, as well as
filters are superimposed over the picture, now in high resolution and in
celebrating our aspiring, inner diva.” (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
motion: Schram dressed as Carmen, surrounded by men in latex outfits.
Schram as a bleached-blond Adonis standing in between young women in
cat suits. On the Internet at least, identities and body images are diverse
and genuinely fluid. As a result METUBE turns into a fetish machine. In
a combination of dance club and S&M dungeon, the director, DANIEL
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Clermont-Ferrand International Short
MOSHEL, stages a minutely choreographed trip into the subconscious: when
Film Festival 2014 / Sundance Film Festival 2014 / Tampere
«Habanera» booms in Schram’s magnificent techno remix, genders and
Film Festival 2014 / Hamburg International Short Film Festival
realities collide and overlap, and suppressed emotions noisily forge ahead.
/ Jury Award - Interfilm Festival Berlin, 2013 / Special Mention
- Queerlisboa Lesbian & Gay Festival 2013 / Grand Prix: Best
(SEBASTIAN HÖGLINGER)
URBAN GHOSTS
Metube
Production & Concept - Festival du Film Court, Brest 2013 /
European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück 2014
Brigitta Burger-Utzer - Managing Director | T: +43.1.526.09.90.13 |
E: [email protected] | W: http://www.sixpackfilm.com
65
[email protected]
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.metube.at
URBAN GHOSTS
Tehran-Geles
18’, 2014, France/ USA/ Iran
DIRECTOR: ARASH NASSIRI
SCRIPTWRITER: Arash Nassiri
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Arash Nassiri - Axiom Images
EDITING: Arash Nassiri
SOUND: Margot Priem
MUSIC: Flavien Berger
PRODUCER: Estelle Benazet
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Le Fresnoy
ARASH NASSIRI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: TEHRAN-GELES flies us over a would-be
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: TEHRAN-GELES is an overview of a night-time
space, where past and present, memory and imagination merge
cityscape, how Tehran could have looked, had its Americanization continued
under luminous Iranian adverts and signs projected over an aerial
from the ‘70s until present day. While watching the aerial images we hear
night-time image of Los Angeles. “During the flight, phone call
stories from former residents of Tehran. These memories create another
recordings relate memories of events that took place in Tehran.
off-screen image of Tehran. They bring the past to life, similar to the way
These stories refer us to the city’s past. In the 1970s and 80s the
in which we tell an anecdote to a friend. They were recorded on the phone
reality of American life was projected onto Tehran’s social and
because I wanted to use that sense of distance as when you talk to someone
urban fabric. The revolution brought this period to an end. Like
who is near to you, while he could be on the other side of the world. (…)
science fiction cinema, in which the present of a city is projected
I think that in cases such as this the artist always has the same role, but
into the future, this video projects the past of Tehran into the
one which is different from that of a director who builds the images from
present, taking Los Angeles as a setting.” (Le Fresnoy)
scratch. Making the video resembles more like making a collage, it’s not
quite the same approach. (…) It is the joining of the two types of images,
the aerial shots and the inlaid luminous signs, which forms the piece. At the
same time, using the overlaid banners makes TEHRAN-GELES fall into the
line of fantastic cinema, like SUPERMAN or BLADE RUNNER.
(ARASH NASSIRI, Lechassis interview)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: World premiere
WORLD SALES: LE FRESNOY
Natalia Trebik - Head of Distribution and Festivals | T: 03 20 28 38 64 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.lefresnoy.net
66
28’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: DANIEL DJAMO
SCRIPTWRITER: Daniel Djamo
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Daniel Djamo
EDITING: Daniel Djamo
SOUND: Daniel Djamo
PRODUCER: Daniel Djamo
DANIEL DJAMO: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Transcripts of interviews with Romanian
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: How does one tackle the contentious topic
immigrants added over the image of the grey, yet idyllic French
of Romanian immigrant workers in Western Europe and the backlash
countryside warn of an approaching storm. Through fixed
that they face day-to-day? By treading lightly and delicately, creating a
long takes and muted field recordings, the viewer is engaged
morally and ethically fool proof dialogue. Employing a dialectic comprised
in reading and thus embodying the voices of the people living
of visual signifiers, DANIEL DJAMO’s fixed and meditative long takes of
on the streets of Paris. In this process of identification, the
idyllic French countryside contrapuntally join with voiceless, subtitled
practical “when” and “how” of the titular tempest give way to the
interviews of migrant workers. Against the consistently languid landscape,
metaphysical “where” and “why”, bringing to life the spectres of
these varied testimonies increase their dogmatic subjectivities, creating a
the migrants’ experiences. Reconciled and contradictory, heart
dialectical «storm» of ideas that unfurls within the viewer. Distancing the
wrenching and deeply poignant, these are the collective voices
dialogue from the bustling streets of Paris and disembodying the narrators,
of our contemporary, human condition. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF
DJAMO succeeds in removing any visual bias that might impede in the
2014)
viewer’s reading of the topic. A wisely calculated ethical statement, this
formal construction of the film lets humour and consternation animate the
displacement created within the spectator. DJAMO’s political frenzy leaves
us no option of avoidance - the eye of the storm grows with each transcribed
account, taking root within. A probing piece of subconscious cine-activism,
STORM IS COMING leaves it up to us to decide when to fully engage and
unleash it.
(Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
URBAN GHOSTS
Storm Is Coming
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: World Premiere
WORLD SALES: DANIEL NICOLAE DJAMO
T: +40.721.51.75.31 | E: [email protected]
67
URBAN GHOSTS
New Year’s Eve 2014
4’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: ARTUR BORUZS
SCRIPTWRITER: Artur Boruzs
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Artur Boruzs
EDITING: Cristian Radu
SOUND: Cristian Radu
PRODUCTION COMPANY: National University of
Theatre and Film “I. L. Caragiale”, Bucharest
ARTUR BORUZS: .
FILM PRESENTATION: On the 1st of January, 2014, UK visa
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: When the UK visa ban on Romanian and
restrictions for Romanian workers were lifted, prompting fears of
Bulgarian workers was lifted earlier this year, the celebrations in-waiting
an impending invasion. Avoiding the news coverage of the British
were stifled by raucous premonitions of migrants flooding in. Just as the
reaction, NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014 looks, rather, at the hypothetical
two states were finally welcomed on equal footing in the EU, a different
results in Romania. Local TV news fragments ferment the hysteria
vox populi created a blowback wind that ARTUR BORUZS wittily captures,
while the streets blink their neon lights in a deserted city. Utopia
reflects on, and subverts. TV static introduces the viewer to the most
turns to dystopia, where an abandoned Romania is left to ponder
anticipated yearly event – the changing of the years, the shift of tide into
its future. Deliberate and foreboding, BORUZS’s satire turns to
a new era, of new opportunities. While an apologetic President tries to
science-fiction, offering a timely alternative to the underlying
deflate hysteria surrounding the «Romanian Invasion» and airline companies
issue of global overpopulation. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
increase in anticipation their cross-continental flights, we’re shown instead
a wintry, deserted city, devoid of any human presence. Has it come true? Or
have Romanians stayed in as sign of protest? BORUZS assembles a ghostly
vision of Bucharest. Silence leads to exorcism: a voice-over announces the
chance of a lifetime - a one-way ticket to colonize Mars. The absurdity and
veracity of the newscast mirrors that of the UK labour-hysteria and in a
flash of light, the (labouring?) spirits dissipate, leaving us with our uncertain
future-present.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: World premiere
WORLD SALES: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRE AND FILM
T: +40 021 252 81 93 | E: [email protected] | W: www.unatc.ro
68
LAYERED PERSPECTIVES ON
CONTEMPORARY REALITY
THEME PROGRAM:
BERLINALE FORUM EXPANDED
POLITICS VERSUS METACINEMA:
69
PRESENTATION
POLITICS VERSUS METACINEMA: LAYERED PERSPECTIVES ON
CONTEMPORARY REALITY
True to its main focus on cinematic experimentation, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival BIEFF is honoured to launch this
year a new educational partnership, with the INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF NEW CINEMA, BERLINALE FORUM in short, the most daring
section of BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. The theme program POLITICS VERSUS META-CINEMA: LAYERED PERSPECTIVES
ON CONTEMPORARY REALITY offers Romanian film lovers the rare opportunity to watch several thought-provoking and conceptually
\\ BERLINALE FORUM EXPANDED
innovative titles from BERLINALE FORUM
EXPANDED 2014 Line-up.
Screened with the kind support of ARSENAL
Institute for Film and Video Art, GERMAN
FILMS and The Rule of Law Program
South-East Europe of Konrad-AdenauerStiftung, this program brings together a
selection of films whose political themes are
constructed through meta-cinematic modes
of representation and ultimately, narration.
Crossing the boundaries between cinema
and visual art, their individual dialectical
approaches to theory and practice give
birth to highly engrossing narratives that
do not shy away from their conceptual
roots. As such, the political becomes much
more than a simple thematic, as each film’s
formal negotiation of its narrative becomes
a politicized process, implicating the viewer
as witness.
In YAEL BARTANA’s INFERNO, religion and
its symbolism’s (mis)appropriations take
70
centre stage. In present-day São Paulo,
the inauguration of The Third Temple of
Solomon turns from jubilant celebration to
horrific apocalypse. Visual artist BARTANA
opts to tell this story without dialogue,
relying on a glossy, Hollywood style to
transport this Biblical event in the present.
As much as it is a high-budget disaster film,
INFERNO ultimately becomes a multilayered commentary on religion, history and
the politics of their conflation by today’s
seemingly amnesiac collective memory.
The political dimension of images carries
forth in MONIRA AL-QADIRI’s breathtaking BEHIND THE SUN, a video piece that
“attempts to explore the decaying portrait
of the end of the world by using real-life
footage: VHS tapes of the burning oil
fields in Kuwait in 1991 - a contemporary
<<update>> to Werner Herzog’s film
LESSONS IN DARKNESS.” (MONIRA AL
QADIRI) The use of religious monologues
pulled from Islamic TV programs endows
the apocalyptic imagery with a hypnotic
quality, elevating the political to the
transcendent, “creating a picture of
sublimity within destruction”, as the
visual artist herself names it.
Walking the fine line between non-narrative
and fiction cinema, the TEDDY Award
winning film MONDIAL 2010 is a heartbreaking and deeply insightful musing on
love, identity and the borders that restrain
and define them. A Lebanese gay couple
decides to take a road trip to Ramallah and
we experience their journey first-person
through the lens of the camera. Meeting
their friends, “sight-seeing” at the WestBank wall or simply observing the city as it
zooms past the lens, the audience is offered
a privileged perspective that looks beyond
the travel-diary surface of the footage, to
unravel a disheartening narrative drama. The
politics of identity and its complexity have
never been so achingly expressed.
RAINBOW’S GRAVITY looks at the way in
which politics also function retroactively
in shaping our lives and perception of
reality. “Cheerful, carefree and lively –
this is what Nazi Germany looks like in the
period’s escapist cinema made on Agfa
film stock, which promise colours <<truer
than true>>. Shooting in the former
factory where the stock was produced,
visual artists MAREIKE BERNIEN and
KERSTIN SCHROEDINGER examine
how images from film and media, by
ignoring reality, end up rewriting it in the
collective memory. And thus, as time goes
by, they become what we call history.
Addressing the issue of the political and
ideological implications of colour, the
film portrays a country and a generation
suffering from an identity crisis, caught in
the struggle of reconciling the past with
historical fabrications.” (Diana Mereoiu,
BIEFF 2014)
71
POLITICS VERSUS META-CINEMA
Rainbow’s Gravity
32’, 2014, Germany / UK
DIRECTORS: MAREIKE BERNIEN,
KERSTIN SCHROEDINGER
CAST: Berit Ehmke, Hanna Bergfors, Mayan Printz,
Michał Głazik, Tanja Kämper SCRIPTWRITER:
Mareike Bernien, Kerstin Schroedinger
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Smina Bluth, Mareike
Bernien, Kerstin Schroedinger
EDITING: Mareike Bernien, Kerstin Schroedinger
SOUND: Birte Gerstenkorn, Olivia Oyama
MUSIC: Wibke Tiarks PRODUCER: Mareike
Bernien, Kerstin Schroedinger
MAREIKE BERNIEN, KERSTIN SCHROEDINGER .
FILM PRESENTATION: Cheerful, carefree and lively – this is what
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: RAINBOW’S GRAVITY is a cinematic study
Nazi Germany looks like in the period’s escapist cinema made on
on the Agfacolor-Neu colour film stock made in Nazi Germany. Along its
Agfa film stock, which promises colours “truer than true”. Shot in
three layers of emulsion, the film digs deep into the escapist colourised
the former factory where the stock was produced, RAINBOW’S
landscape of this time and asks for the material requirements, retentions
GRAVITY examines how images from film and media, by ignoring
and ideological continuities of the Agfacolor palette. The film sequences,
reality end up rewriting it in the collective memory, and as time
projected in the former production line, dismantle not only themselves, but
goes by, become what we call history. Addressing the issue of
also our view accustomed to historicise. Those scenes aim to visualise what
the political and ideological implications of colour, the short film
the colour does not show. The film tries to realise, not only how it had been -
portrays a country and a generation suffering from an identity
in the darkrooms of the Agfa film factory - but also how it can be possible at
crisis, caught in the struggle of reconciling the past with historical
all to face this reality today within film, in images and movements without a
fabrications. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
final or even conciliatory view of the past.
(MAREIKE BERNIEN, KERSTIN SCHROEDINGER)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Berlin International Film Festival 2014 /
Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival Brazil 2014
72
WORLD SALES: ARSENAL - INSTITUT FÜR FILM UND
VIDEOKUNST
Angelika Ramlow | T: +49 (0)30 26955 110 / 250 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.arsenal-berlin.de
E: [email protected] / [email protected]
10’, 2014, Kuwait
DIRECTOR: MONIRA AL QADIRI
SCRIPTWRITER: Monira Al Qadiri
EDITING: Monira Al Qadiri
SOUND: Fadi Tabbal
MONIRA AL QADIRI: .
© Yasmina Haddad: .
FILM PRESENTATION: “With all the upheavals taking place in
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: After the first Gulf War in 1991, countless
today’s uncertain world, how has the image of the apocalypse
oil fields in Kuwait were set ablaze during the retreat of invading forces.
transformed over time? Is it still imagined within a romantic
Werner Herzog, lured by the surrealism of this present-day hell, shot his
religious framework, or has it shifted towards darker, more
docu-fiction film LESSONS OF DARKNESS there which placed images of the
unknown territory? BEHIND THE SUN attempts to explore the
oil fires alongside Christian biblical texts and a Wagner soundtrack. Inspired
decaying portrait of the end of the world by using real-life
by his endeavour 20 years later, I am re-exploring this cataclysmic event and
footage: VHS tapes of the burning oil fields in Kuwait in 1991
attempting to expand its meaning, especially because the idea of imminent
- a contemporary «update» to Werner Herzog’s film LESSONS
doom is even more present in today’s world. Amateur VHS footage of the oil
IN DARKNESS. These hellish images are combined with audio
fires is juxtaposed with audio monologues from Islamic television programs
monologues from Islamic television programs, creating a picture
of the same period. At the time, the tools used to represent Islam consisted
of sublimity within destruction.” (MONIRA AL QADIRI)
primarily of visualizing God through natural miracles. Trees, waterfalls,
mountains, animals and insect life were the visual staples of religious
media, and the narration was not that of the Koran, but of beautiful Arabic
poetry recited by a skilled orator with a deep voice. This holistic image of
religion has been increasingly replaced by social and political interpretations
of religious scripture. Therefore, the images of dying nature effectively
represent the death of nature within religion. Religion’s subsequent
mutation into new extreme imaginaries since that time parallels the
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Berlin International Film Festival 2013 /
Whitechapel Gallery / Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna / Beirut Art
Center, Beirut
VIDEOKUNST
transforming portrait of «the end of the world».
Behind The Sun
(MONIRA AL QADIRI)
73
Mondial 2010
19’, 2013, Lebanon/ Palestine
DIRECTOR: ROY DIB
CAST: Abed Kobeissy, Ziad Chakaroun
SCREENWRITER: Roy Dib
SOUND: Fadi Tabbal, Stephane Reeves
ROY DIB: .
by Jad Abou Khalil: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the TEDDY Award at Berlinale,
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: MONDIAL 2010 is a discussion of institutional
MONDIAL 2010 is a heart-breaking and deeply insightful musing
borders in modern day Middle East. It uses video as an apparatus to
on love, identity and the borders that restrain and define them.
transgress boundaries that are inflicted on people in spite of them. It is a
A Lebanese gay couple decides to take a road trip to Ramallah
travel film in a trajectory that doesn’t allow travel, starring two male lovers,
and we experience their journey first-person through the camera
in a setting where homosexuality is a punishable felony. Shot with a hand-
lens. Meeting their friends, “sight-seeing” at the West-Bank wall
held camcorder, MONDIAL 2010 borrows the aesthetics of a travel video
or simply observing the city as it zooms past the lens, are seen
log. It normalizes the abnormal, and by doing so creates its own universe of
from a privileged perspective that looks beyond the travel-diary
possibility. It is a shift from the mainstream passive view of the Palestinian/
surface of the footage, to unravel a disheartening narrative
Israeli conflict that places the victim/oppressor in the forefront of the
drama. The politics of identity and its complexity have never
produced imagery. This video glides over this conflict with an upper hand.
been so achingly expressed. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
At the same time MONDIAL 2010 invites viewers through the protagonists
conversations into the universe of a fading city, Ramallah.
(ROY DIB)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Teddy Award Best Short Film – Berlin
International Film Festival 2014 / Best First Film - Lebanese Film
Festival, Beirut 2014 / Melbourne International Film Festival 2014
/ Middle East Now Film Festival, Florence 2014
74
VIDEOKUNST e.V.
Angelika Ramlow | T: +49 (0)30 26955 110 / 250
22’, 2013, The Netherlands / USA
DIRECTOR: YAEL BARTANA
SCREENWRITER: Yael Bartana
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Itai Neeman, Mick van
Rossum
ART DIRECTION: Fabinho Goldfarb
EDITING: Yael Bartana
SOUND: Daniel Meir
PRODUCER: Naama Pyritz
PRODUCTION COMPANY: My-i Productions
YAEL BARTANA, INFERNO, 2013, video still, courtesy of Petzel Gallery, New
York; Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel
YAEL BARTANA: .
© Itai Neeman: .
Aviv
FILM PRESENTATION: In YAEL BARTANA’s INFERNO, religion
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The starting point of INFERNO is the current
and its symbolism’s (mis)appropriations take front stage, in a
construction of the third Temple of Solomon (Templo de Salmão) in São
film of epic proportions. In present-day São Paulo, Brazil, the
Paulo by a Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal Church. Built to biblical specifications,
inauguration of The Third Temple of Solomon turns from jubilant
this new temple will be a replica of the first temple in Jerusalem, the violent
celebration to horrific apocalypse. BARTANA opts to tell this
destruction of which signalled the diaspora of the Jewish people in the
story without dialogue, relying on a glossy, Hollywood style to
6th century BCE. INFERNO confronts this conflation of place, history, and
transport this Biblical event in the present. As much as it is a
belief, providing insight into the complex realities of Latin America that have
high-budget disaster film, INFERNO ultimately becomes a multi-
given rise to the temple project. Shot and edited with stylistic references to
layered commentary on religion, history and the politics of their
Hollywood action epics, the film employs what I refer to as «historical pre
conflation by today’s seemingly amnesiac collective memory.
enactment», a methodology that commingles fact and fiction, prophecy and
history. This work addresses the grandiose temple project through a vision
of its future: does its construction necessarily foreshadow its destruction?
Using a powerful cinematic language, INFERNO collapses histories of
antiquity in the Middle East with a surreal present unfolding halfway around
the world.
(YAEL BARTANA)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Rotterdam International Film Festival
2014 / Berlin International Film Festival 2014 / Sydney Biennale
Inferno
2014 / São Paulo Art Biennial / Pérez Art Museum Miami, USA
2013
VIDEOKUNST
75
QUINZAINE DES
RÉALISATEURS,
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
\\
SPECIAL PROGRAM
76
26’, 2014, Chile / France / USA
DIRECTOR: ADAN JODOROWSKY
CAST: Asia Argento, Cristobal Jodorowsky,
Helene Nymann, Jean Yves Thual
SCRIPTWRITER: Adan Jodorowsky, Alejandro
Jodorowsky CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alexis Zabe
ART DIRECTION: Julien Richard EDITING:
Mathias Trouvat SOUND: Pascal Busolin MUSIC:
Adan Jodorowsky PRODUCER: Aurélie Florent,
Adan Jodorowsky, Mathieu Sauer, Gabriela Serra
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Borscht, Knightworks,
Le Soleil Films
ADAN JODOROWSKY: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Taking place in a mythical Miami, THE VOICE
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: We are fruits of sexuality. Our parents had sex
THIEF follows the protagonist’s nighttime odyssey in search of his
and here we are. You cannot erase sexuality in the movies, it’s a part of life.
opera-singer-wife’s lost voice, as he meets a dwarf prostitute, a
And the fact that everyone is half woman, half man always attracted me.
transvestite and her gold dripping vagina, and many self-doubts.
We have two parts. That’s what I’m showing.
“Embodied with humor and absurdity, the film is a neo-extravagant
fantasy blending the bitter-sweetness of a romantic drama with the
(ADAN JODOROWSKY, NISIMAZINE Interview)
grotesqueness of an ego-maniacal intensity. Its multiple layers are
captivating: it is as much a strong essay focused on searching the
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Although the cinematic diegesis seems to
essence of humanity, as it is a contemplation on the alienated self in
portray Naya – a soprano who loses her voice – as the protagonist, the
a mad world invaded by over-sexuality, rebelliousness and despair.”
most powerful character is Naver, her husband, who tries desperately to
(Ioana Mischie, NISIMAZINE)
recover her voice, in order to regain her love and faith. (…) The voice itself
is distinctly envisaged in the film – as a spiritual, contagious fluid. Although
the master plan is not successful, the characters seem to «save» their souls
in an unexpected way. It’s hard to choose a visual eikon when everything is
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: International Film Festival Rotterdam
a tableau vivant: over-filled with axiological and genealogical references,
2014 / Short Film Grand Jury Prize, Short Film Audience Award
the film still breathes a fresh, mesmerizing Jodorowskyian perspective.
– l’Etrange Festival, Paris 2014 / Short Film Grand Prize –
(…) The interconnectedness of all the meanings transforms this short film
Gérardmer International Fantastical Film Festival 2014 / Seattle
into a controversial, yet juicy, in depth-contemplation of the contemporary
International Film Festival 2014 / Nashville Film Festival 2014 /
values we aim/love/die for. THE VOICE THIEF succeeds to give wholeness to
Slamdance Film Festival 2014 / Marfa International Short Film
a vibrantly imaginative universe.
Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: GONELLA PRODUCTIONS
Mariana Ortega - Director of International Sales |
T: + 33 633 062 907 | E: [email protected] |
W : www.gonellaproductions.com/
The Voice Thief
(Ioana Mischie, NISIMAZINE)
77
The Dance Of Reality
130’, 2013, France/ Chile
DIRECTOR: ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
CAST: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias
Herskovtis, Cristobal Jodorowsky, Adan Jodorowsky
SCREENPLAY: Alejandro Jodorowsky
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jean-Marie Dreujou
ART DIRECTION: Alisarine Ducolomb
EDITING: Maryline Monthieux
MUSIC: Adan Jodorowsky
PRODUCER: Moisés Cosío, Alejandro Jodorowsky,
Michel Seydoux
PRODUCTION: Caméra One, Le Soleil Films
\\ CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY: .
Credits: Pascale Montandon-Jodorowsky: .
FILM PRESENTATION: “Mr. Jodorowsky’s reputation for
With a fierce cult following, best known for his outrageously surreal
extremity and surrealist inventiveness is upheld by grotesque,
films from the 60s and 70s (EL TOPO, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN), blending
horrifying and comical images that seek out zones of maximum
mysticism, sexualized violence and religious provocation, the “Grand
sexual, social and political sensitivity. (…) Its blend of visual
Wizard of midnight movies” (as HOLLYWOOD REPORTER calls him)
elegance and perversity recalls the work of Luis Buñuel, and
returned to the big screen after a hiatus of nearly 25 years, with his 2013
also of Mr. JODOROWSKY’s countryman, Raúl Ruiz. The streets
feature THE DANCE OF REALITY, a semi-autobiographical look at the
of Tocopilla are touched with some of the magic realism that
filmmaker’s youth in the remote Chilean town of Tocopilla in the early
animated Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo on the other side of
1930s. Blending his personal history with metaphor, mythology, and
the continent, and also with a tragic sense of history.”
poetry, the film reflects JODOROWSKY’s philosophy that reality is not
(A. O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES)
objective, but rather a “dance” created by our own imagination.
With the filmmaker himself serving as both the narrator and as an onscreen guide, “the first half of the film focuses on young Alejandro and
his complicated relationship with his parents—father Jaime (played
by the filmmaker’s son, Brontis Jodorowsky) is a Stalin-obsessed brute
consumed with making a man out of his seemingly effeminate son by any
means necessary; mother Sara is an overly doting type whose every word
is literally delivered as an operatic aria. In the second half, the focus shifts
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS - Cannes
Film Festival 2013 / Morelia International Film Festival 2013 /
South by South East International Film Festival 2014
to Jaime and his dramatic conversion from communism to radicalism that
leads him to abandon his family to set off on a quest to assassinate the
hateful military leader, Carlos Ibanez, a mission that threatens to leave
him both physically and spiritually crippled as a result..”
(Peter Sobczynski, ROGEREBERT.COM)
WORLD SALES: THE FESTIVAL AGENCY
Johannes Klein - Festival Coordinator | M:+34 637 173 332 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.thefestivalagency.com
78
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.DanceOfRealityMovie.com
in «A Hundred Years of Solitude», describes a town, Macondo, that never
changes. But that is a novel. My town was still there. I was astonished.
The square, the street, had been a universe for me. Seeing it now, it was so
small. Then I understood: you see your memory, they have an age. As you
revisit your memory as an older person, you change them. This is what I did
with the film: I changed myself, I changed the reality. Now, my memory is
different. (…) I changed my reality, and that is not only for movies. It is an
act of psychological healing. The world is so ill and we need to make art that
can heal. We need to try to heal something, not go to movies to forget. You
2006: Time-Machine Honorary Award - Sitges - Catalonian
need to go to movies to find yourself. It’s different. That is what I do or what
International Film Festival
I try to do.
2000: Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award - Chicago
(Alex Zafiris interview with ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY)
Underground Film Festival
1991: Nominated for the Best Director Saturn Award - Academy
of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA for the feature
SANTA SANGRE
DIRECTOR’S BIO-FILMOGRAPHY: ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY is a
Chilean scholar in comparative religion, playwright, director, producer,
composer, actor, mime, comic book writer, tarot reader, historian and
psychotherapist. His filmography includes revered movies such as EL TOPO
1989: Nominated for the Gold Hugo Award - Chicago
(1970), SANTA SANGRE (1989), and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973). In the age
International Film Festival for the feature SANTA SANGRE
of psychedelia, with its new permissiveness in terms of sex and violence,
1989: Career Award – Fantafestival
JODOROWSKY was a visionary, favorably compared to Fellini or Kubrick. He
has always found himself in between the two, worshipped by fans of rock
1974: Special Jury Award - Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival for the
music and science fiction for the power of his imagery. JODOROWSKY is an
feature EL TOPO
incredible cineaste, with each of his films tracing the path of an adventure,
1973: Special Mention - Taormina International Film Festival, for
the feature THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Everything changes. Gabriel Garcia Márquez,
vision or experience ever crazier, terrifying or dangerous, comparable to the
work of Dario Argento or Werner Herzog.
79
PRESENTATION
TRANSCENDING REALITY
THEME PROGRAM:
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM
\\ INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM
Taking further its fruitful long term collaboration with the Dutch film industry, the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival
BIEFF initiates this year a new inspiring partnership, with the innovative International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which offers
the Romanian cinema lovers the rare opportunity to view some of the most intriguing 2014 Tiger Awards For Short Films Nominees,
within a thought provoking theme program: TRANSCENDING REALITY.
The transcendence to which we invite
you with this program is twofold. On
the one hand, these films beckon us to
explore cinematic language’s ability to
interpret and transform what we perceive
as reality and show us a stylized version
of it. What we come to experience is a
distillation of the cluster of facts, events
and information, which introduces us to a
completely new subjective perspective.
On the other hand, some other shorts
from the program make it their goal to
expose the multiple layers of convention
and often unseen mechanisms of
fabrication which are ingrained into
reality. Both types of films are a call to
play, a challenge to leave behind our way
of perceiving and welcome a novel point
of view.
Choosing cinema itself as a target for
demystification, HACKED CIRCUIT, this
single-shot choreographic portrait of a
80
Foley studio, reveals the multiple layers
of fabrication inherent to filmmaking.
Creating a sense of paranoia and
uncertainty, DEBORAH STRATMAN
builds an unsettling parallel between
the stagecraft of Foley and the pervasive
climate of government surveillance that
threatens our right to privacy.
If the previous short aimed to broaden
our understanding of reality, GIANT
(winner of the Tiger Award For Short
Film at Rotterdam 2014), signed by
Finish visual artist SALLA TYKKÄ, opts
to create an alternative space-time, ripe
for contemplation and reflection. The
seemingly distant observation of the
very young gymnasts from a Romanian
training centre becomes a sensorial
experience which makes us viscerally
experience the tension between human
fascination with grace and beauty and the
dehumanizing process of attaining them.
Screening possible courtesy of AV-ARKKI
- The Distribution Centre for Finish Media
Art.
Deconstructing the fictionalization of
reality for propaganda purposes, MODEL
VILLAGE reflects on the fake projections
and empty promises of politics. Denied
access to the North Korean village built
for agitprop, the filmmaker HAYOUN
KWON resorts to a solution truer than
reality: she makes a miniature replica out
of plastic and Styrofoam and brings it to
life through the soundtrack mixed from
phone conversations, natural sounds
and dialogue excerpts from propaganda
films. An imitation of a phantasm,
MODEL VILLAGE is a chilling piece that
exposes the lengths to which life can be
fabricated.
Also dealing with fictionalizing reality,
this time of a personal nature, LAURE
PROUVOST, winner of the prestigious
Reality is traded in for a world of
imagination in WALK WITH ME, as the
protagonist, a little Ugandan girl, first
encounters and tries to make sense
of death. The universe created by her
is an ante-chamber of maturity where
the demise of one of the girl’s animals
is envisioned as a surrealistic struggle
between disembodied doll heads and
makeshift toy creatures. Far from being
just a film for children, WALK WITH ME,
signed by PETER TUKEI MUHUMUZA
and JOHAN OETTINGER looks upon
death with wide, innocent eyes and
discovers that reality is at times both
cruel and beautiful. The film is made
within the DOX: LAB project of CPH:DOX
Copenhagen International Documentary
Film Festival - a true laboratory of
innovation which every year produces
impressive works that daringly explore
the thin line between reality and fiction,
works signed by young filmmakers
from all over the world and screened in
prestigious festivals like Berlinale, Venice,
Locarno, Toronto etc.
A film like an epitaph, TWO POINTS OF FAILURE by MICHAEL MOSHE DAHAN dissolves
in negative emulsion a photograph of Jean-Luc Godard, thus conceptualizing the
slow disappearance of analogic techniques of filmmaking and, with it, the death of
an entire tradition in cinema. The image melts into abstract patterns of movement
and colour, the process then being reversed, ironically, by digital means. Screened at
the Tribeca Film Festival, this short-film inspired by the failure of a camera prototype
commissioned by Godard, deconstructs and reassembles itself, being both a testament
of a disappearance, and a question about the future of cinema.
Turner Prize awarded by Tate Museum
London, uses her grandmother’s
supposed wishes and repressed desires to
paint the portrait of the artist’s fictional
missing grandfather. A careful play of
distance and intimacy, GRANDMA’S
DREAM, presented with the support
of LUX Artists’ Moving Image, draws
the viewer into a whirlwind of silent
frustrations and made-up biographies.
81
Giant
14’, 2014, Finland / Romania
DIRECTOR: SALLA TYKKÄ
SCRIPTWRITER: Salla Tykkä
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Samuli Saastamoinen
EDITING: Salla Tykkä
SOUND: Janne Jankeri
PRODUCER: Marcela Ursu
SALLA TYKKÄ: .
FILM PRESENTATION: In GIANT by SALLA TYKKÄ, the seemingly
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Gymnastics is both acrobatics and an
distant observation of the very young gymnasts from the Deva
endurance sport. (…) I became very aware about my bodily abilities and
sports-center becomes a subtle stylization of reality, creating an
malfunctions. Especially about the fact that humans can’t fly. (…) I am
alternative space-time, ripe for contemplation and reflection.
interested in how beauty is created by humans. Where do our concepts of
Through the elegance of the camera’s choreography and the
beauty come from and how do they reflect history and power? We take in a
soundtrack’s sensuality, which skillfully relies on the play
lot of visual information, values and messages through seeing. Can aesthetic
between silence and noise, GIANT (Tiger Award for Short Film
experiences also affect our ideas of good and evil?
at Rotterdam 2014) offers a sensorial experience that makes us
viscerally experience the tension between human fascination
(SALLA TYKKÄ)
with grace and beauty and the dehumanizing process of attaining
them.
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: GIANT is a very focused and pure portrait of a place
and a political history. The brilliant editing and sound design push the seemingly
distant observations to a thrilling friction between dehumanization and man’s
quest for beauty and grace. Not simply repeating well-known cinematic language
but looking for renewal within these boundaries, as well as trying to expand the
parameters of the cinematic realm. Here we can see glimpses of newer forms
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Tiger Award for Short Film –International
of cinema that will enrich the language in many ways. We were not necessarily
Film Festival Rotterdam 2014/ Oberhausen International Short
looking for craftsmanship in the way the short was executed, but rather at
Film Festival 2014/ Hamburg International Film Festival/ Curtas
the approach taken by the maker towards the story or subject matter, and the
Vila do Conde International Short Film Festival 2014/ Saguenay
ambition to celebrate the power of the cinema in personal, thorough or witty
International Short Film Festival 2014
ways. And most importantly, in an uncompromised way.
(Rotterdam Jury Statement)
82
WORLD SALES: AV-ARKKI – THE DISTRIBUTION CENTRE FOR
FINNISH MEDIA ART
Vesa Puhakka – Distribution Manager | T: +358-40-557 0321 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.av-arkki.fi
DIRECTOR’S WEBPAGE:
http://www.sallatykka.com
9’, 2013, UK
DIRECTOR: LAURE PROUVOST
SCRIPTWRITER: Laure Prouvost
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Laure Prouvost
ART DIRECTION: Laure Prouvost
EDITING: Laure Prouvost
PRODUCER: Laure Prouvost
Courtesy of Laure Prouvost and LUX, London
LAURE PROUVOST: .
Courtesy of Laure Prouvost: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the prestigious Turner Prize
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 1: LAURE PROUVOST explores the sorrows
awarded by Tate Museum London, LAURE PROUVOST carefully
and dreams of her grandmother, the abandoned partner of her missing
plays with distance and intimacy in the surreal GRANDMA’S
artist « grandfather». PROUVOST first introduced the character of the
DREAM. Testing the limits between reality and fiction, the
«grandfather» in her 2010 films I NEED TO TAKE CARE OF MY CONCEPTUAL
short subtly slips from the artist’s grandmother candid wishes
GRANDAD and THE ARTIST: an absent figure, he exists only in PROUVOST’s
into violent and sensual imagery of suppressed desires and
films, sculptures and monologues. In the rosy, blue sky visions of
woes. The impersonality of stock material contrasts with the
GRANDMA’S DREAM, planes that are half teapot, half-plane serve tea
naïve tenderness of a whispered voice-over. Juxtaposing and
from the sky, and the grandma figure wishes for a world where conceptual
superimposing the images following a flow of consciousness logic
art takes care of dinner. However the work is suffused with anxiety, and
creates a world in which the viewer gets lost in the whirlwind of
PROUVOST combines language and images to construct invented storylines,
silent frustrations and made-up biographies. (Diana Mereoiu,
exploring the slippages between fiction and reality.
BIEFF 2014)
(LUX ARTISTS’ MOVING IMAGE)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT 2: The narrative becomes crazily surreal, with
erotic references to «grandad» touching the naked body of «grandma» and
their kissing. Many different clips are collaged together with the voiceover
repeating each time «in Grandma’s dream …». Despite, or perhaps because
2014 / Melbourne International Film Festival 2014/ Paris Cinema
of, the harshness of the lighting, the dream almost becomes your own.
Festival 2014/ Seattle International Film Festival 2014/ Videoex
Experimental Film & Video Festival Zürich 2014
Grandma’s Dream
(Anna McNay)
WORLD SALES: LUX ARTISTS’ MOVING IMAGE
Daniella Russo - Distribution Assistant | T: +44 (0)20 7503 3980 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.lux.org.uk
83
Hacked Circuit
15’, 2013, USA
DIRECTOR: DEBORAH STRATMAN
CAST: Gregg Barbanell, Darrin Mann
SCRIPTWRITER: Deborah Stratman
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Norbert Shieh
EDITING: Deborah Stratman
SOUND: Deborah Stratman
MUSIC: David Shire
PRODUCER: Deborah Stratman, Steven Badgett
DEBORAH STRATMAN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A portrait of a Foley studio, fluidly
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I would like, without relying on language,
choreographed in a single-shot, HACKED CIRCUIT reveals the
to achieve an intellectual cinema. I want my work to question its own
multiple layers of fabrication inherent to filmmaking. Portraying
social function while remaining aesthetically seductive. I make film for the
sound artists working on the final scene of COPPOLA’S THE
pleasure of creating a temporal universe. Film demands a mute viewer,
CONVERSATION, DEBORAH STRATMAN exposes the invisible
willing to leave her own temporal space in order to enter mine. I love and
mechanisms of cinema, evoking paranoia and uncertainty
struggle with the totalitarianism behind this fact. So my work tends to be
regarding what we see and hear. Thus she creates an unsettling
encountered by accident, requiring participation or collaboration to be
parallel between the stagecraft of Foley and the pervasive
activated, approaching something closer to a dialogue.
climate of government surveillance that threatens our right to
privacy.
(DEBORAH STRATMAN)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: In HACKED CIRCUIT, (…) STRATMAN aims to subvert
Coppola’s fetishization of defeat with a sonic reclamation of individual agency.
[Foley artist Gregg] Barbanell’s attentive and precise replication of the sounds
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Sundance Film Festival 2014 / Rotterdam
elicited by Caul’s search take on the quality of an incantation: a catalyst that
International Film Festival 2014 / Best Sound Design - Ann Arbor
seeks to rewrite Caul’s preordained defeat through an intent and intense audio-
Film Festival 2014 / Best Experimental Film - Curtas Vila do
visual immediacy, reviving sounds that have been frozen in the source material
Conde International Film Festival 2014 / Edinburgh International
so as to draw the character out of his impotent stasis. At the same time, this
Film Festival 2014 / Documentary Fortnight Museum of Modern
act of solidarity wrests back the audio-visual apparatus from those organs of
Art New York 2014 / Viennale Film Festival 2014 / Melbourne
control that have turned it to the purposes of fear, revealing its possibilities as an
International Film Festival 2014 / Videoex Festival Zürich 2014
instrument of resistance as well as domination.
(Samuel La France, Cinemascope)
WORLD SALES: PYTHAGORAS FILM
Deborah Stratman | E: [email protected] |
W: http://www.pythagorasfilm.com
84
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.pythagorasfilm.com/hacked-circuit.html
13’, 2013, USA
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL MOSHE DAHAN
CAST: Jean-Luc Godard
SCRIPTWRITER: Michael Moshe Dahan
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tobias Spellman
EDITING: Michael Moshe Dahan
SOUND: Josh Eichenbaum, Kevin DeKimpe, Josh
Eichenbaum PRODUCER: Braxton Pope
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Studio Dahan, Sodium Fox
MICHAEL MOSHE DAHAN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A film like an epitaph, TWO POINTS OF
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: In 1976, the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
FAILURE dissolves in negative emulsion a photograph of Jean-Luc
commissioned the design and fabrication of a 35mm motion picture camera
Godard, thus conceptualizing the slow disappearance of analogic
that would be as compact as an 8mm camera and as self-contained as
techniques of filmmaking and, with it, the death of an entire
the video portapak. The arrival of the portapak signaled the beginning
tradition in cinema. The image melts into abstract patterns of
of the slow demise of analogue film recording techniques, a cycle whose
movement and color, the process then being reversed, ironically,
finality can be marked most recently by the wholesale transition to digital
by digital means. Inspired by the failure of a camera prototype
technologies. TWO POINTS OF FAILURE is a conceptual experimental
commissioned by Godard, the film deconstructs and reassembles
35mm film which frames this demise and takes as its primary subject matter
itself, being both a testament of a disappearance, and a question
Godard’s failed prototype for the compact 35mm camera. Named the Aaton
about the future of cinema. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
35-8, this camera, while small and portable, suffered from myopia and was
simply too loud. TWO POINTS OF FAILURE is about this camera that could
not «see». The film as you see it was constituted by dissolving negative
emulsion in a chemical solution while recording the sounds of its own
making. It functions as an index of a disappearance, a trace of the objects,
techniques and analogue medium which has been all but lost to us, and the
remainder of the object that has been extirpated. The primary operation of
the film is a process of closer, repeated, extended looking.
2014 / Tribeca Film Festival 2014 / Edinburgh International Film
(MICHAEL MOSHE DAHAN)
Two Points Of
Failure
Festival 2014 / MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles
2013
WORLD SALES: SODIUM FOX
Braxton Pope - producer | T: 00 1 310 315 8700 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.braxtonpope.net
85
[email protected]
Walk With Me
12’, 2013, Denmark / Uganda
PETER TUKEI MUHUMUZA,
JOHAN OETTINGER
DIRECTOR:
CAST: Melanie Kemigisa, Lillian Kateba,
Frederik Fikadu Oettinger SCRIPTWRITER/
CINEMATOGRAPHY/ANIMATION: Johan
Oettinger, Peter Tukei Muhumuza EDITING:
Jesper Maintz SOUND: Rune Thuelund, Troels
Floe Kristensen, AudioNation MUSIC: Marybell
Katastrophy PRODUCER: Johan Oettinger, Nathan
Magoola, Patricia Drati Rond, Ellen Riis, Tine Fischer
PRODUCTION COMPANY: CPH:DOX, WiredFly
PETER MUHUMUZA TUKEI, JOHAN OETTINGER: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Made within DOX:LAB project of the
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: This first collaboration is an intuitive
CPH:DOX Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival,
exploration of what it means to be a child, at the age when reality begins to
WALK WITH ME swoops the viewer into a little Ugandan girl’s
reveal to be a bit different than what you expected. The film is seen from a
world of imagination, as she first encounters and tries to
Ugandan child’s point of view, but has no ethnic focus, it’s a universal poetic
make sense of death. Through a mix of live-action and stop
exploration of childhood, and it is meant to be seen with an open mind and
motion puppet animation techniques, the demise of one of the
curiosity of the joy of seeing, dancing and playing.
girl’s animals is envisioned as a surrealistic struggle between
disembodied doll heads and makeshift toy creatures, brought to
(PETER TUKEI MUHUMUZA, JOHAN OETTINGER)
life by the child’s creativity. Far from being just a film for children,
WALK WITH ME looks upon death with wide, innocent eyes and
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Imagination serves both as an escapist and learning
discovers that the world is both a cruel, but also beautiful place.
mechanism in WALK WITH ME. In rich tones of purple and inhabited by bizarre
creatures assembled at random from different doll parts, the universe created
by the protagonist is an ante-chamber of maturity. Faced for the first time with
the feeling of helplessness and death’s apparent lack of sense, when one of her
animals falls to its death, the girl lives the experience only in her inner world. But
instead of beginning to see the grotesque in the world, she keeps her childlike
openness, of someone who hasn’t learned the meaning of fear. Instead of being
a film about death, WALK WITH ME is a film about how to face life. In the girl’s
words, «we have to get up! »
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014
WORLD SALES: JOHAN OETTINGER
86
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.wiredfly.dk/?p=12
10’, 2013, France
DIRECTOR: HAYOUN KWON
SCRIPTWRITER: Hayoun Kwon
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Simon Gesrel
ANIMATION: Simon Gesrel, Balthazar Auxietre
EDITING: Hayoun Kwon
SOUND: Hayoun Kwon, Samuel Mittelman
PRODUCER: Olivier Chantriaux
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Filmo 22
HAYOUN KWON: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Deconstructing the fictionalization of
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: A village loosely inspired by a North Korean
reality for propaganda purposes, MODEL VILLAGE reflects on the
propaganda village, Kijong-dong. MODEL VILLAGE reveals a setting and
fake projections and empty promises of politics. Denied access to
invites us into a fiction, carrying out the journey by proxy. This film testifies
the village built for agitprop, director KWON resorts to a solution
to this ghost town in its true state as a mechanism of fiction. The reality of
truer than reality: she makes a miniature replica out of plastic and
a border confronted with its staging. This village can only be reached within
Styrofoam and brings it to life through the soundtrack mixed from
our imagination.
phone conversations, natural sounds and dialogue excerpts from
indoctrinating films. An imitation of a phantasm, MODEL VILLAGE
(HAYOUN KWON)
is a thought-provoking piece that exposes the lengths to which life
can be fabricated, while instilling a chilling sense of fear in the face
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: HAYOUN KWON performs herself. She is a
of governmental control. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
new generation of South Korean artists, who dares to move further with
the memories of the promise of utopian space given by the propaganda of
North Korea. MODEL VILLAGE comprehensively translates the oral myth
into a visual that can be seen in a tangible way. Production-wise, she has
successfully employed physical craftsmanship with generated images
2014 / São Paulo International Short Film Festival 2014 /
that blur each other, in the same way the narration does with the reality
IndieLisboa 2014 International Film Festival / Arte Creative Award
and fiction about a fake and hollow border village. Arte Creative for the
– European Media Arts Festival Osnabrück 2014 / Ann Arbor Film
Newcomer Award is granted to this work for its ability to incorporate the
Festival 2014 / Cinema du Réel Paris 2014 / Milano Film Festival
actual technical language of the artist’s generation, as an instrument to
2014 / Guanajuato International Film Festival 2014 / ONE World
encounter history and overcome displacement.
Romania 2014
WORLD SALES: L’AGENCE DU COURT METRAGE
Florence Keller - Head of International Distribution |
T: + 33 01 44 69 26 65 | E: [email protected] |
W : http://www.agencecm.com/
Model Village
(European Media Arts Festival Jury Statement)
87
PRESENTATION
DANCE CINEMA FROM THE
NETHERLANDS
SPECIAL PROGRAM:
CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM
\\
After last year’s wonderous succes, the special program dedicated to dance-films returns to the Bucharest International Experimental Film
Festival BIEFF, this time through an inspiring partnership with one of the main European dance-film festivals - CINEDANS DANCE ON SCREEN
Amsterdam. Cinema and dance merge in seven charming short films, in which the human body becomes synonymous with emotion, a means
of defining one’s own personal identity, of reclaiming the urban space, an expression of love and community.
88
Dance-film is not a simple transposition
of choreography on the screen, but an
integrated experience of the two arts,
which reveals new facets of the human
body. The material, physical part and the
emotional, spiritual one are no longer caught
in an inevitable dichotomy, but are fully
compatible and mutually reinforcing. Thus
man re-emerges in a new form, a stronger,
more expressive one, fully involved in what
he is experiencing, being an organic part of
his living environment. Dance thus becomes
a form of discovery and self-discovery, an
initiation journey. Part of the films from this
program reflect on personal development
and on universal human experiences.
I AM THE ONLY tells the coming of age story
of a boy in the context of a troublesome
relationship between him and his family.
In symbolic images, we are shown the
expanding, undaunted nature of the child,
in contrast with the irrational fearing
attitude of his older relatives. In a sinister
atmosphere the child becomes the parent
and the parents become a burden. Allowing
a close relationship to form, he quickly learns
of their deviant, sick nature that leads to
nowhere. In his good intentions, he tries
to rescue them, but one by one they fall,
leaving him alone. Unsurprisingly, the young
adult expresses his joy in a power-extruding
choreography returning him to his previous
innocent self. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
Continuing the coming-of-age story
approach, INTRINSIC MORAL EVIL follows
a lone male protagonist in the middle of a
darkened marbled interior. Approached by
another man, he enters into a playful game
of magnetism, their bodies attracting and
repelling each other in sinuous sensuality.
Stasis brings forth a third person, the
one that separates the two and lures the
protagonist in his narrative’s metaphor
of personal (sexual) development. Their
embracing dance cut short, he is left once
again on his own, this time with an assurance
and understanding that radiates in the
tomb-like interior. A game of attractions and
identity, chasing each other to their final
destination - that of self-empowerment
and pride, glowing in the face of prejudice.
Shifting its gaze towards the universal
experience of love, FLIGHT OF LIFE looks
at a young couple taking their breakfast
in unison and heading off, driving down a
mountainside on their way to a birthday
party. Everlasting love pulsates the past into
the present: as flashbacks recall their first
date, the present moves toward unavoidable
tragedy. Rhythm and movement secure their
bodies in the synchronized dance of life,
death being the only disruptive element that
cuts off their love’s intense continuity. An
effervescent drama, FLIGHT OF LIFE takes
the viewer on the timeless and fateful trip
that binds two souls to the passage of life.
Shifting its gaze from personal experiences
lived in intimacy to the interaction between
people, bodies and their surroundings, the
next shortfilms show an unconventional
repurposing of urban space. With a fresh
perspective on the role of urban space,
HORIZON means the break of the routine,
in search for the skyline and balance.
The functional essential role of space is
reimagined through the protagonist’s playful
acrobatics, which enfolds her ignoring the
suspicious eyes of the surrounding robotic
world. The desperate and disoriented
search of the young woman, culminates
with the discovery of a wall blocking her
way, raising questions about the effect
of urban space on personal freedom.
Although treated with humor, the film
tackles a serious subject, namely that the
horizon remains only a concept in a society
obsessed with ascending. (Gabriela Lupu,
BIEFF 2014) Winner of the Audience Award
at CINEDANS 2014, SLOW is a performance
that shows the defenceless human body
surrounded by machines, systems, etc. In
Taiwan, like in other Asian countries, there
are strict rules people have to live by, rules
which cannot be easily put aside. Slowly but
imperturbably the boy in the video follows
his own path. Using an invisible electric
tackle he drags himself in an even tempo
through the Taiwanese urban landscape,
marking in an entertaining and wondrous
way the contrast between the route of the
defenseless human body and the hectic
world surrounding it.
Also concerned with the relationship
between the individual and his (this time
communal) environment, THE GINGER
CONNECTION is a film about being an
outsider and belonging, about the unspoken
connection between redhead people,
seen in correlation with dance. Out on his
daily run, the main character, a redhead,
is greeted on his way by fellow gingers,
getting to compete in skills in a mix of sport
movements, gymnastics, street dance
and break dance. A special atmosphere
is created, by the overlap of permanent
violin sounds with various modern pieces
underlining the sensibility that lays beyond
the strong surface. Exciting, with the
potential of socio-artistic manifesto, the
film exudes optimism, urging minorities to
gather. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
If the previous film compressed the experience of love into a few brief hours, the next short works as a sort of “time-lapse” of this sentiment.
An emotional, expressive film, enriched by a skillful play on genre film conventions (thriller, burlesque comedy, melodrama), BETWEEN
ENTRANCE AND EXIT shows life as an abandoned, haunted house, in the captivity of which lay the memories of a heartbreaking love story.
In a dysfunctional relationship like an out of tune piano, the two protagonists repeatedly seek and find each other in a labyrinth of rooms
and mirrors, each showing a different stage of a dichotomic vicious circle of love and hate. The film successfully combines choreography and
film language in a captivating way that triggers empathy and urges reflection on the nature of human desires and the ephemerality of life.
89
DANCE CINEMA FROM THE NETHERLANDS
Horizon
KATHARINA CONRADI,
SERGIO GRIDELLI
DIRECTOR:
CAST: Marieke Dermul, Marcel Musters
SCRIPTWRITER: Katharina Conradi, Sergio Gridelli
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Sergio Gridelli
CHOREOGRAPHY: Katharina Conradi
EDITING: Sergio Gridelli
MUSIC: Dirk Serries
PRODUCER: Katharina Conradi
PRODUCTION: Stichting Fresh Tracks
SERGIO GRIDELLI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: With a fresh perspective on the role of
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival,
steal my horizon or did I allow it to happen? It is paradoxical, since the city is
\\
KATHARINA CONRADI: .
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT 1: In my work the environment always plays an
urban space, HORIZON means the break of the routine, in search
important role. I find it a challenge to create a dance in an existing landscape
for the skyline and balance. The functional essential role of space
and to watch the interaction. I am intrigued by the contrast in settings
is reimagined through the protagonist’s playful acrobatics, which
of a vulnerable body in rugged nature or a landscape solely consisting of
enfolds her, ignoring the suspicious eyes of the surrounding
concrete. HORIZON focuses on a dancer who uses her surroundings in a
robotic world. The desperate and disoriented search of the young
search for parts of herself. My fascination springs forth from a longing for
woman, culminates with the discovery of a wall blocking her way,
originality that I so often miss within urban environments. Just as the tops
raising questions about the effect of urban space on personal
of mountains exude a feeling of freedom, in the Netherlands the broad
freedom. Although treated with humor, the film tackles a serious
horizon brings about a longing for nature.
Amsterdam 2014/ Metro Movies Amsterdam 2014/ 24 uur Cultuur
a human concept. We have almost taken for granted that we can no longer
Rotterdam, Netherlands 2014 / Athens Video Dance Project 2015/
see the horizon when we move through the city. I want the audience to
World Urban Forum, Colombia 2014
experience this through the lens of the camera, by observing the dancer.
subject, namely that the horizon remains only a concept in a
society obsessed with ascending. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
(KATHARINA CONRADI)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT 2: In my projects I always like to focus on
consciously watching and listening. Not in order to draw conclusions, but
because I like to create an awareness for that which surrounds us. HORIZON
is part of my analysis of man and city and how they influence each other.
I want to question the absent horizon in urban surroundings. Did the city
(SERGIO GRIDELLI)
WORLD SALES: STICHTING FRESH TRACKS
Katharina Conradi | T: +31 20 423 49 51 / +31 6 270 70 906 |
90
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.facebook.com/HORIZONthefilm
DIRECTOR: BORIS PAVAL CONEN
CAST: Sabine Kupferberg, David Krügel
SCRIPTWRITER / CHOREOGRAPHY: Jiří Kylián
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Martijn van Broekhuizen
EDITING: Boris Paval Conen ART DIRECTOR:
Roland Mylanus SOUND / MUSIC: Han Otten
PRODUCER: Annemiek van der Hell
PRODUCTION: NTR, Kylian Productions BV,
Mediafonds and Rolex
BORIS PAVAL CONEN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: An emotional, expressive film, enriched
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: BETWEEN ENTRANCE AND EXIT is a film
by a skillful play on genre film conventions (thriller, burlesque
greatly influenced by the emotional world of my youth, by the apartment
comedy, melodrama), BETWEEN ENTRANCE AND EXIT shows life
in which I was born, filled with heavy, dark 19th century furniture, by the
as an abandoned, haunted house, in the captivity of which lay
city of Prague and by three personalities who were born in my country and
the memories of a heartbreaking love story. In a dysfunctional
whose work influenced much of the world: Franz Kafka, Sigmund Freud
relationship like an out of tune piano, the two protagonists
and Gustav Mahler. Their work which explored the extremities of human
repeatedly seek and find each other in a labyrinth of rooms
existence with its contradicting emotionality and inexplicable desires, was
and mirrors, each showing a different stage of a dichotomic
our guide-line throughout the creation of this film. The symbolic character
vicious circle of love and hate. The film successfully combines
of the title BETWEEN ENTRANCE AND EXIT is very easy to understand. But
choreography and film language in a captivating way that triggers
it is as «easily» understood as the time given to us between our birth and our
empathy and urges reflection on the nature of human desires and
death.
the ephemerality of life. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
(JIŘÍ KYLIÁN)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Between encapsulated entrances and walls,
there hides a haunting, unfulfilled story of two lovers, that alternates
between attraction and rejection, violence and tenderness, offering an
emotional show, of which overwhelming mountains of furniture are
disapproving witnesses. The music, strengthening the filmic conventions
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: CINEDANS Dance On Screen Festival
- from oneiric sounds, to lively piano chords and romantic harmonies-, is
Amsterdam 2014 / Netherlands Film Festival 2013
the emotion that moves us along the sensitive bodies for which the act of
Between Entrance
And Exit
lovemaking and kisses can cause pain. Unable to detach from each another, in
a final encounter, mourning, they accept the ephemerality of their desires by
WORLD SALES: KYLIAN PRODUCTIONS BV
Carmen Thomas | T: +31.6.150 666 34 |
E: [email protected] | W: http://www.jirikylian.com/
blowing out the flames of passion that heated but also burned them.
91
[email protected]
http://www.bpconen.nl
The Ginger
Connection
DIRECTOR: THOMAS BOS
CAST: Wouter Vrijlandt, Laura Engelbrecht
SCRIPTWRITER: Thomas Bos
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Arno Kwint
CHOREOGRAPHY: Erik Bos
EDITING: Thomas Bos
SOUND: Erik Bos
PRODUCER: Thomas Bos
FILM PRESENTATION: Honest and original, THE GINGER
\\
THOMAS BOS: .
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I have kind of seen gingers like bus drivers all
CONNECTION is a film about being an outsider and belonging,
of my life: they all have something in common and in a public space they can
about the unspoken connection between redhead people, seen
look at each other and just nod, no words, they understand each other. To
in correlation with dance. Out on his daily run, the main character,
me it felt like there was some kind of connection, I wanted to research this
a redhead, is greeted on his way by fellow gingers, getting to
and make a (dance) film about it. Gingers are all born in this red uniform so
compete in skills in a mix of sport movements, gymnastics, street
they have to deal with what comes with that uniform their whole life. Play
dance and break dance. A special atmosphere is createed, by the
the part. To some extent they are the everlasting outsiders, to another they
overlap of permanent violin sounds with various modern pieces
are not, because they have this strong connection to other red haired people
underlining the sensibility that lays beyond the strong surface.
that «normal» people don’t have.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival
to dance. The desire of the readhead to belong is finally fulfilled in a fresh
Amsterdam 2014 / SinemaDansAnkara, Turkey 2014 / InShadow
sports dance, synchronized with his fellows.
Exciting, with a potential of socio-artistic manifesto, the film
exudes optimism, urging minorities to gather. (Gabriela Lupu,
(THOMAS BOS)
BIEFF 2014)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT 2: Beyond the group movement THE GINGER
CONNECTION is the story of a reddish individual, which perceives his
peculiarities strongly, thus the pleasure to imagine the heroines of classical
black and white films as being reddish or listening to classical music to
reduce the guilt in moments of sexual self-satisfaction. The link between
classical and modern values is about as subtle as the transition from running
Festival Lisbon, Portugal 2014
WORLD SALES: THOMAS BOS
T: +31 614827319 | E: [email protected] |
W: http://www.eenvijfvijf.nl/
92
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.eenvijfvijf.nl/
DIRECTOR:
BARBARA MAKKINGA
CAST: Wolfgang van Oostrom, Golan Yosef, Lin He
Rong, Boris de Leeuw SCRIPTWRITER: Toer van
Schayk, Barbara Makkinga, Lies Janssen
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Maarten van Rossem
CHOREOGRAPHY: Toer van Schayk
EDITING: Jos Driessen ART DIRECTOR: Amasja
Koolen SOUND: Alex Booy MUSIC: Bob Zimmerman
PRODUCER: René and Mira Mendel
PRODUCTION: Interakt
BARBARA MAKKINGA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: I AM THE ONLY tells the coming of age
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Toer (the film’s choreographer) and dance are
story of a boy in the context of a troublesome relationship
almost synonymous. His whole life he has danced and at the age of 76 he
between him and his family. In symbolic images, we are shown
still dances while creating and rehearsing his choreography. For me he is the
the expanding, undaunted nature of the child, in contrast with
personification of a dancing life. He mastered all facets of his profession
the irrational fearing attitude of his older relatives. In a sinister
with a selfless love, and with an unprecedented commitment. As for me,
atmosphere the child becomes the parent and the parents
ballet and dance were my childhood sweethearts, I wanted to be a dancer.
become a burden. Allowing a close relationships to form, he
My aspirations to make it my profession as a kid didn’t work out. During my
quickly learns of their deviant, sick nature that leads to nowhere.
medical studies I even gave up dancing as a hobby because lack of time. At
In his good intentions, he tries to rescue them, but one by one
film school, my fascination for dancing came back. An image is the starting
they fall, leaving him alone. Unsurprisingly, the young adult,
point, from there we compose the rest. Toer has an image in mind and draws
expresses his joy in a power extruding choreography returning
or paints it immediately on paper, he finds fitting music for it and that is the
him to his previous innocent self. (Gabriela Lupu, BIEFF 2014)
start of a new choreography. I describe an image, that pops into my head
when thinking of a scenario. Then I’ll think of the meaning of it and create a
story around the image.
(BARBARA MAKKINGA)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Cinedans Dance on Screen Film Festival,
I Am The Only
the Netherlands 2014 / NFF Netherlands Film Festival 2014 / Du
grain à démoudre Film Festival, France 2014
WORLD SALES: INTERAKT
T: +31620-6237982 | E: [email protected]
93
ARTIST’S WEBSITE:
http://www.barbaramakkinga.nl/
Intrinsic Moral
Evil
DIRECTOR: HARM WEISTRA
CAST: Joan Ferré, Frago Pena Gonzales, Jorge
Guillen Ortiz SCRIPTWRITER: Harm Weistra
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jorrit Garretsen
CHOREOGRAPHER: Fernando Domínguez Rincón
EDITING: Michiel Boesveldt SOUND: Aline Bruijns
PRODUCER: Harm Weistra
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Framelab
\\
HARM WEISTRA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A lone male protagonist in the middle of a
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Most of my work tends to radiate a latent
darkened marbled interior. Approached by another man, he enters
disturbance, but always simultaneously a disconcerting beauty; on the
into a playful game of magnetism, their bodies attracting and
one hand touchingly beautiful, on the other hand painfully disruptive.
repelling each other in sinuous sensuality. Stasis brings forth a third
Emphasizing aesthetics is not a mean in itself, but a way to seduce the
person, the one that separates the two and lures the protagonist
viewer to watch. By creating confusion and by manipulating the viewer’s
in his narrative’s metaphor of personal (sexual) development. Their
perception, I invite the audience to become partaker and to reflect. The
embracing dance cut short, he is left once again on his own, this time
inherent visual seductiveness, along with the consciousness that the work
with an assurance and understanding that radiates in the tomb-
evokes, complicates the reception of their manifold layers of meaning.
like interior. A game of attraction and identity, chasing each other
By creating disruptive situations and by breaking the passivity of the
to their final destination - that of self-empowerment and pride,
spectator, my works reference avant-garde theory as well as emancipatory
glowing in the face of prejudice. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
movements. They question the apparently rationally, logically but often
culturally entrenched beliefs and opinions.
(HARM WEISTRA)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: First National Screendance Award - Agite y Sirva
- Screendance Touring Festival 2014 / Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival,
Amsterdam 2014/ ScreenDance Festival Stockholm 2014 / San Francisco
Dance Film Festival, San Francisco 2014 / Vida de Perro Short Film Festival,
Barcelona 2014 / International Video Art House Madrid 2014 / Festival
dança em foco, Rio de Janeiro 2014 / Festival International de Vidéodanse
de Bourgogne Le Creusot (France) 2014 / Breaking 8, Cagliari, Italy 2014
WORLD SALES: HARM WEISTRA
T: +31 65 33 444 88 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.harmweistra.com
94
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.harmweistra.com
DIRECTOR:
ELBE STEVENS
CAST: Maité Guerin, Joost Vrouenraets
SCRIPTWRITER: Elbe Stevens CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Rolf Dekens ART DIRECTION: Lorien Mouyal
EDITING: Stijn Halfens, Synco Schölvinck
SOUND: Erik van der Ven, Eline Vera de Reus
CHOREOGRAPHER: Joost Vrouenraets, Maïte
Guérin MUSIC: Gé Reinders, Joep Reinders
PRODUCER: David-Jan Bijker PRODUCTION
COMPANY: Bijker Film & TV
ELBE STEVENS: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A young couple take their breakfast in
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Structuring its narrative around a deftly
unison and head off, driving down a mountainside on their way
constructed re-appropriation of Godard’s coffee-cup scene from TWO
to a birthday party. Everlasting love pulsates the past into the
OR THREE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER, ELBE STEVENS employs the
present: as flashbacks recall their first date, the present moves
effervescence of water to tie together the essences of FLIGHT OF LIFE.
toward unavoidable tragedy. Rhythm and movement secure their
Encapsulating the vivacity of life and its participants within the carbonated
bodies in the synchronized dance of life, death being the only
bubbles that rise to the top, we’re offered a loving, domestic couple
disruptive element that cuts off their love’s intense continuity.
whose symbiosis dances a synchronous pas-de-deux. Simple yet highly
An effervescent drama, FLIGHT OF LIFE takes the viewer on the
effective, STEVENS’ depiction of true love through dance (flirting seen
timeless and fateful trip that binds two souls to the passage of
as mating dance, the habit of companionship as a Fred Astaire & Ginger
life. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
Rogers routine) burrows to the soul of the film and its message. Beyond its
allegorical take on the fleeting dimension of life and its moments, STEVENS
succinctly coalesces the performative down to the essential force of Love. As
such, the protagonists’ sexual unity offers them (and by proxy, the viewer), a
brief but orgasmic vision of life and death...love, conquering both.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: SinemaDansAnkara Film Festival,
Turkey 2014 / Cinedans Dance on Screen Festival, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands 2014 / Official opening ECI Cultuurfabriek,
Roermond, The Netherlands 2013 / Dutch Dance Festival,
Flight Of Life
Maastricht, The Netherlands 2013 / Festival Cultura Nova,
Heerlen, The Netherlands 2013
WORLD SALES: BIJKER FILM & TV
David-Jan Bijker | T: +31 20 22 60 100 | E: [email protected] |
W: www.bijker.tv
95
SLow
DIRECTOR:
KAREL VAN LAERE
CAST: Karel van Laere
SCRIPTWRITER: Karel van Laere
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Shao-Che Lee
FILM PRESENTATION: SLow is a performance that shows the
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Emerging out of the sea like a human flotsam,
defenceless human body surrounded by machines, systems, etc. In
KAREL VAN LAERE enters the frame dragging behind him metaphors and
Taiwan, like in other Asian countries, there are strict rules people
relevant global issues as his still body skims the frame, left-to-right, across
have to live by, rules which cannot easily be put aside. Slowly but
each of SLOW’s six minutes of fourteen long takes. A deceptively simple
imperturbable the boy in the video follows his own path. Using an
set-up and physical action is thus transformed in a brilliant performance
invisible electric tackle, he drags himself in an even tempo through
that figuratively «pulls in» topics of globalisation, pollution, social self-
the Taiwanese urban landscape, marking in an entertaining and
awareness and ultimately, the transitory (existential and physical) nature
wondrous way the contrast between the route of the defenceless
of human life. As VAN LAERE moves in-land, his lifeless body is hauled at its
human body and the hectic world surrounding it.
own pace, drawing a straight line through its increasingly urban milieu. His
\\
KAREL VAN LAERE: .
Dance on Screen Amsterdam 2014 / SinemaDansAnkara, Turkey
oppositional presence (differing from the surroundings by speed, movement,
interaction, direction, etc.), is countered by a myriad of reactions from
passers-by (from indifferent looks, to playful interaction). VAN LAERE’s body
scratches the surface of discussions on social responsibility, individuality in
the midst of global overpopulation and mobility in an increasingly cluttered
urban sprawl. Yet his literal, physical scraping of the ground that leaves his
body in tatters, closes the film in a cycle of life that returns us to the watery
element from which our molecular ancestors came.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Audience Award for Best Film – Cinedans
2014 / Black Warehouse Museum Japan 2014 /Taoyuan Airport
galley, Taiwan 2013/ ILTWT Festival, Paradiso Netherlands 2013
WORLD SALES: KAREL VAN LAERE
W: http://karelvanlaere.com/?page_id=102
96
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.karelvanlaere.com
POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF INTIMACY
THEME PROGRAM:
INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM
Curatorial presentation by: BIANCA BĂNICĂ
The prestigious IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam comes back to BIEFF with a deeply moving and insightful
theme program: DIARY FILMS: The Intimacy of Politics and the Politics of Intimacy, screened with the kind support of the Rule of Law
Program South-East Europe of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
Curated by Mr. Joost Daamen (the
programmer of the PARADOCS section),
the DIARY FILM theme program
goes beyond the frame of traditional
documentary filmmaking, on the borders
between film and art, truth and fiction,
narrative and conceptual. Exploring
the complex tensions and connections
between private lives and political
contexts, these compelling four short
films question the representational
instruments of cinematic language and
the various nuances of their inherent
subjectivity.
It is not just subjectivity that governs
these productions, as the phrase “diary
films” might be a false friend phrase in
this case, but also the auctorial aspect of
the movies, in relation to the ontology
of the image, contemporary political
conflicts or deconstruction of myths.
In a permanent switch between frontal
confrontation and a “behind-the-curtains”
reality, these films bring up the issue of
cinematographic manipulation through
image and sound. There is no certain
story, but there is a certain reality
happening around us. Reality is witnessed
once through the lens and then a second
time on screen, turning cinema into a
series of choices that the spectator is
made aware of, sometimes even part of.
From the heart of the Civil War from
Lebanon, JULY TRIP brings us violent
images of street fights, demolished
buildings, and people trying to escape
from the wrecks left behind by
spontaneous explosions. Showing the
desperation of people trapped in the
middle of chaos, the irrational fear that
has them hiding behind curtains that will
never provide enough protection, but
also the international photographers
pinning to get an award-winning picture,
the film raises awareness about a conflict
that resulted in nothing but destruction.
Mixing complete silence with the
extra-diegetic sounds that mimic the
intensity of bombs through music, WAËL
NOUREDDINE forces out contradictory
attitudes from a viewer that is left to
build and then analyze the image of
victims, whether they are dead or alive.
While in JULY TRIP we are given a sense
of the war through the filmmaker’s direct
contact with the terror raging on the civil
battlefield, in DIRTY PICTURES (HOTEL
DIARIES) the conflict is moved off-camera.
Screened in 2013 at Oberhausen, what at
first seems to be the start of a SciFi movie
transforms into a handy-cam video about
the contrast between the normality of
the hotel room and the abnormality of
the society surrounding it. Beginning in
Bethlehem and ending on the other side
of the Separation Wall, JOHN SMITH
builds a thought provoking sample of
meta-cinema reminiscent of Chris Marker,
PRESENTATION
DIARY FILMS: THE INTIMACY OF
97
PRESENTATION
\\ IDFA AMSTERDAM
which relates his own experience of the
Israeli occupation of Palestine, brilliantly
managing to trim down the monstrosity
of history to human proportions. The
screening is possible courtesy of LUX
Artists’ Moving Image.
98
Remaining related to war, but this time
getting close to those who wage it,
DIARY OF SOMEONE WAITING by JUDITH
ZDESAR shows the usual non-heroic life
of young soldiers guarding the border,
preparing for a war that is not coming,
waiting to catch immigrants that never
appear, bouncing around in the snow
like twelve-year boys in a summer camp.
With absurd beckettian humor, any sense
of authority disappears as the soldiers
film one-another. The movie is a generic
description of what life itself becomes at
one point: a long wait for something to
happen. With a keen eye that sketches
sharp observations, the film explores
these soldiers’ true selves, in time of
peace, of no strict authority or imminent
danger, when they have to make up
their own minds on who and how to be.
The screening is possible courtesy of
SIXPACKFILM Austria.
Going deeper into the private sphere, LIMITS 1st PERSON by LEÓN SIMINIANI is a
movie about a love lost in the loneliness of the desert, and regained through cinema
that puts the viewer in the position of doubting the meaning of the reality shown
on-screen. “Using clever but extremely simple means, LIMITS 1st PERSON plays with
the ambivalent meaning of images. The filmmaker manages to completely invert
the significance of the images not once, but twice. Where are the boundaries of the
viewer’s perspective, of the first person, as the title suggests? It appears they are all
over the place. The viewer can think he knows what he is seeing, but a smart filmmaker
takes that viewer by the hand and determines his place in the world like a god. If a miseen-scène as apparently straightforward as a woman in a desert can so enthrall us, then
just how powerful is the art of film?” (IDFA PARADOCS)
8’, 2009, Spain / Morocco
DIRECTOR: LEÓN SIMINIANI
SCRIPTWRITER: León Siminiani
CINEMATOGRAPHY: León Siminiani
EDITING: León Siminiani
MUSIC: Claude Debussy
PRODUCER: Mario Madueño/ Samuel Martínez
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Pantalla Partida
LEÓN SIMINIANI: .
FILM PRESENTATION: LIMITS 1st PERSON is a movie about a
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I tried with this work to investigate two notions
love lost in the loneliness of desert and regained through cinema.
that have grown very important for me in my relationship to cinema: the
“Using clever but extremely simple means, the film plays with the
first person as a starting point, using my own circumstances and feelings
ambivalent meaning of images. The filmmaker completely inverts
as the material of work; and the posibilities of reworking domestic and-or
the significance of the images not once, but twice. Where are
personal images, images that weren´t created acording to a previous plan.
the boundaries of the viewer’s perspective, of the first person,
I find a deep sense of freedom and order in doing so. It is as if something
as the title suggests? The viewer can think he knows what he is
back then, when the images were captured, wasn´t close. I didn´t manage to
seeing, but a smart filmmaker takes that viewer by the hand and
live and understand a situation at its full, something remained incomplete.
determines his place in the world like a god. If a mise-en-scène as
Today with the help of cinema, I manage to get close to that experience.
apparently straightforward as a woman in a desert can so enthrall
Cinema becomes a great tool to help me find order (or the illusion of
us, then just how powerful is the art of film?” (IDFA presentation)
an order at least). It is truly a contradiction: on the one hand I embrace
unshaped, domestic, shot-by-instinct images as material; on the other
hand I try to use all the tools that cinema gives us (grammar and dramatic
structure) to create meaning and turn some tiny portions of that great
overwhelming mess into something I can understand.
(LEÓN SIMINIANI)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Locarno International Film Festival 2009 /
IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2009 /
DIARY FILMS
Limits 1st Person
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 / Kassel International
Documentary and Video Film Festival 2009
WORLD SALES: PANTALLA PARTIDA
Samuel Martinez | T: (+34) 654 740 512 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.pantallapartida.es
99
[email protected]
DIARY FILMS
Dirty Pictures
(Hotel Diaries 7)
15’, 2007, UK
DIRECTOR: JOHN SMITH
CINEMATOGRAPHY: John Smith
EDITING: John Smith
PRODUCER: John Smith
\\ IDFA AMSTERDAM
JOHN SMITH: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Screened in 2013 at Oberhausen, what at
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Nothing in JOHN SMITH’s long career as
first seems to be the start of a SF movie (a ceiling filmed in a fixed
Britain’s wittiest maker of avant-garde films suggested that he would turn
shot, with a voice talking about a strange movement witnessed
his deadpan gaze on the plight of the Palestinian people, yet this is the
earlier) turns into a handy-cam video about the contrast between
theme that slowly comes to dominate the diary pieces that SMITH made
the normality of a hotel room and the abnormality of the society
during his travels around film festivals. [Tristam] Shandy-esque observations
surrounding it. Beginning in Bethlehem and ending on the other
on his immediate surroundings gradually turn into a sustained reflection on
side of the Separation Wall, DIRTY PICTURES builds a sample
what it would be like to be trapped in Palestine. Finally, SMITH finds himself
of meta-cinema reminiscent of Chris Marker, which relates the
in Israel, able to see the territory that has begun to obsess him - the result
director’s own experience of the Israeli occupation of Palestine,
is as powerful as Simone Bitton’s MUR (WALL 2004). A deeply engaging
brilliantly managing to trim down the monstrosity of history to
work that provokes an unexpected comparison with the master of oblique
human proportions. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
polemic, Chris Marker.
(Ian Christie, “Best of 2008”, SIGHT & SOUND)
Festival 2013/ Cinema du Réel International Documentary
Film Festival/ Copenhagen International Documentary Film
Festival 2007/ Best Short Documentary - Chicago Underground
Film Festival 2008 / Honorary Mention for an Outstanding
Documentary Film - Leipzig International Festival for
Documentary and Animated Film/ Pompidou Centre, Paris 2008
WORLD SALES: LUX Artists’ Moving Image
Daniella Russo – Distribution Assistant | T: +44 (0)20 7503 3980 |
E: [email protected] | W : www.lux.org.uk
100
[email protected]
23’, 2007, Austria
DIRECTOR: JUDITH ZDESAR
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Krisztina Kerekes
EDITING: Judith Zdesar, Dominique Gromes
SOUND: Dominique Gromes, Judith Zdesar
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Universität für
Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien,
Abteilung Film und Fernsehen
JUDITH ZDESAR: .
FILM PRESENTATION: DIARY OF SOMEONE WAITING shows
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I always knew I wanted to show the loneliness
the usual non-heroic life of young soldiers guarding the
of waiting and that I would not be able to show this by being present all the
border, preparing for a war that is not coming, waiting to catch
time. That’s why I decided to leave the camera with the soldiers, asking them
immigrants that never appear, bouncing around in the snow like
to do whatever they like, but use the camera as a mean of communication:
twelve-year boys at camp. With absurd beckettian humor, any
to show/tell me what it is like to wait. The result was a kaleidoscope of
sense of authority disappears as the soldiers film one-another.
absurdity. Mixed with the intimate stories the men told me, it became a
The movie is a generic description of what life itself becomes at
sad synopsis of life: waiting for nothing to happen, trying to do silly stuff to
one point: a long wait for something to happen. With a keen eye
make the time go by. I understood that the absurdity of this mission would
sketching sharp observations, the film explores the soldiers’ true
not end when the soldiers are allowed to go back to their homes after their
selves, in time of peace, when they have to make up their own
service.
minds on who and how to be. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
(JUDITH ZDESAR)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: (…) A war movie without a war. The only thing
that remains is concentrating on one´s own emotional situation. When your
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: IDFA International Documentary Film
existence becomes a kind of service and your superior has lost the authority
Festival Amsterdam 2007 / Jury Prize for Best Short Film -
which gives him meaning, service on the border becomes a borderline case
Diagonale Austrian Film Festival 2007 / Hot Springs Documentary
of filmic/linguistic representation. Though these images from DIARY OF
Film Festival, 2009 / Istanbul International Short Film Festival
SOMEONE WAITING seem strange and foreign, they have more to do with
2008 / India International Women Film Festival 2007 / Denver
us than we would prefer. Lo-fi science fiction without a future, the soldiers
themselves are the aliens, and the enemy looks like your best friend.
DIARY FILMS
Diary Of Someone
Waiting
(Michael Palm)
Brigitta Burger-Utzer - Managing Director | T: +43.1.526.09.90.13 |
E: [email protected] | W: http://www.sixpackfilm.com
101
FILM’S WEBSITE:
www.sixpackfilmdata.com/filmdb_display.php?id=1614&len=en
DIARY FILMS
July Trip
35’, 2007, France
DIRECTOR: WAËL NOUREDDINE
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Waël Noureddine
EDITING: Waël Noureddine, Caroline Bevalot
SOUND: Thomas Buet, Guillaume Leriche
MUSIC: FJ Ossang, Belsen Haumont
PRODUCER: Matteo Minetto
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Micromega
WAËL NOUREDDINE: .
FILM PRESENTATION: From the heart of the Civil War from
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: When this last war broke out, I was faraway
Lebanon, JULY TRIP brings us violent images of street fights,
in my house in Paris. I had but one idea: to return to Beirut as quickly as
demolished buildings, people trying to escape from the wrecks
possible and to begin shooting a film, for historical moments were taking
left behind spontaneous explosions. Showing the fear and
place. This film became indispensible: to film so that history would cease
desperation of people trapped in the middle of the chaos, the
repeating itself and to build up a picture library for future generations. I
film movie raises awareness about a conflict that made nothing
never understood why so few films were made during the Lebanese Civil
but destruction. Mixing complete silence with the extra-diegetic
War. Apart from the odd film, nothing remains from that time. The war
sounds that mimes the intensity of bombs through music, the
surely merited more attention.
director forces out contradictory attitudes from the viewer who
\\ IDFA AMSTERDAM
is left to build and then analyze the frontal image of victims,
(WAËL NOUREDDINE)
whether they are dead or alive. (Bianca Bănică, BIEFF 2014)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: This film is more an essay than a documentary.
The film plunges us in a universe in war: the images shot in 16mm sublimate
a tension, frightening because of the lack of sound. An incipit in silence,
almost a reference made to all the noises caused by the bombs, by the
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Clermont-Ferrand International Short-
explosions, which will follow to this unconventional beginning. More than
Film Festival 2007 / IDFA International Documentary Film Festival
to give us his version of the war in Lebanon, the director suggests to us
Amsterdam 2007 / Torino Film Festival 2007 / Toronto Reel World
keys of reading throughout film. What does one have to think about the
Film Festival 2007 / Jeonju Film Festival Korea 2007 / Huesca
foreign journalists, who put themselves in scene in front of the camera? Do
International Film Festival 2007/ Brooklyn Film Festival 2007/
they remain bits of humanity behind the cameras which pile up in front of a
New York Film Festival 2007
corpse in rigor mortis?
(Mediterranean Films)
102
WORLD SALES: MICROMEGA
Matteo Minetto – Manager and Producer | T: +33684824783 |
W: http://micromega-productions.over-blog.com
CONFESSIONS BY WOMEN FILMMAKERS
THEME PROGRAM:
INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL OBERHAUSEN
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival BIEFF continues its inspiring long-term collaboration with the legendary
International Short Film Festival OBERHAUSEN. With the kind support offered by German Films and Goethe Institut Bukarest, BIEFF
offers Romanian cinema lovers the chance to see some of the most intriguing works signed by female filmmakers, awarded at the
2014 edition of the Oberhausen festival
- within the theme program THE FEMALE
GAZE: Cinematic Confessions by Women
Filmmakers.
While their connective thread transitions
from the metaphysical to the tangible,
the films within this program retain
nonetheless a common grounding within
a space that offers them a privileged
position from which to view their own
diegetic (sub)conscious reality. In these
experiments of cinematic alterity, the
viewer is afforded a level of intimacy that
invites an analytical and yet emotional
observation of the existential anxieties of
womanhood.
MARIA KOURKOUTA’s lyrical portrait
of Greek identity, RETURN TO AEOLUS
STREET (ARTE Award - Oberhausen 2014)
begins the program’s confessional by
navigating through the wandering ghosts
of history, longing for life’s vitality. Black
and white fragments of popular Greek
films are looped, superimposed and
slowed down in a balletic chiaroscuro
while poetic passages are narrated over
melancholy piano pieces. The result
is an engrossing audio-visual poem
whose hypnotic gaze into a collective
consciousness resuscitates its memory and
reinvigorates its dormant desires.
An apt companion-piece to KOURKOUTA’s
film, SUSANN MARIA HEMPEL’s singular
narrator in her SEVEN TIMES A DAY
WE COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR FATE AND
AT NIGHT WE GET UP TO AVOID OUR
DREAMS (Best Film Award - German
Competition Oberhausen 2014) turns to
look at the traumatized psyche of a victim
of abuse. Fully embracing its subjective
form, HEMPEL narrates the film’s intimate
diary-entries and retreats further into
the mind of her character by crafting her
mise-en-scène with phantasmagorical
bric-a-bracs pulled by strings. HEMPEL’s
mesmerizing puppet-show convincingly
describes the psychological and physical
abuse, drawing the viewer down its
downward spiral with childlike fortitude.
Bringing the program’s narrative
disclosures to a seemingly more familiar
territory, HELENA WITTMANN’s multiple
award-winning film THE WILD introduces
us to the ideal, peaceful picture of longlived domesticity. In a sun-filled home, a
husband waters the plants while the wife
prepares their meal. Yet behind the veneer
of their quiet existence, the camera glides
slowly through empty rooms, revealing
projections of wildlife taking over their
home, their sounds striking off against
the solitude of old age. THE WILD’s
juxtaposition of homely tranquillity with
primal savagery invites the viewer to
look beyond surface symbolism, coming
face-to-face with the primal nature of our
domesticized humanity.
PRESENTATION
THE FEMALE GAZE: CINEMATIC
103
PRESENTATION
\\
104
Concluding the program’s introspective gaze with a true celebration of femininity, A MILLION MILES AWAY (ZONTA Award Oberhausen 2014 - special prize celebrating female filmmakers) tackles the subject of repressed anxiety and teenage angst. This
emotionally rich portrayal of feminine empowerment sees a substitute music-class teacher incapable of quelling her nervousness in
front of the class. That is, until her class’ soothing vocal harmonies grant her a mature sense of self-esteem. Creating an impressive
visual universe, flights of magical-realism turn the narrative into a wholly therapeutic experience. A matryoshka doll of layered
insecurities and anxieties, JENNIFER REEDER’s film reveals and revers the inner child, to the rhythm of heavy metal harmonies.
28’, 2014, USA
DIRECTOR: JENNIFER REEDER
CAST: Jennifer Estlin, Amaya Lorick, Crystal Staley,
Grace Davies SCRIPTWRITER: Jennifer Reeder
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Chris Rejano
EDITING: Mike Olenick SOUND: Paul Dickinson
MUSIC: Sunn O))), Ulrich Schauss, Brian McBride,
Arms and Sleepers, Haki
PRODUCER: Steven Hudosh
JENNIFER REEDER: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the ZONTA Award at Oberhausen, A
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: If I think of my films as having a sort of a
MILLION MILES AWAY tackles the subject of repressed anxiety and teenage
feminist agenda, it could be only in a way of presenting a female experience
angst. This emotionally rich portrayal of feminine empowerment sees a
or a female perspective that has some level of empowerment. (…) People
substitute music-class teacher incapable of quelling her nervousness in front of
are very complicated creatures; what I wanted to disrupt with my films is
the class. That is, until her class’ soothing vocal harmonies grant her a mature
more or less this conventional portrayal of girls and women: if we think
sense of self-esteem. Creating an impressive visual universe, flights of magical-
about mainstream cinema, American cinema in particular, I think that
realism turn the narrative into a wholly therapeutic experience. A matryoshka
they kind of get it wrong. (…) And, even if I’m making short films and more
doll of layered insecurities and anxieties, JENNIFER REEDER’s film reveals
experimental narratives, part of my feminism offers a kind of alternative to
and revers the inner child, to the rhythm of heavy metal harmonies. (Andrei
this kind of more conventional cinematic portrayal of girls and women.
(JENNIFER REEDER, Desistfilm interview)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: More than anything these confident teenagers
seem to be aware of their own worth – an awareness adults loose in the
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: ZONTA Prize - Oberhausen International
course of a woman’s life. This sharply delineated confrontation of young,
Short Film Festival 2014 / Audience Award Best Female Director - Vienna
undisputed strength and the cracks and fractures caused by society
Independent Shorts 2014 / The Eileen Maitland Award - Ann Arbor Flim
ultimately dissolves in mutual recognition and solidarity. In a compact
Festival 2014 / Best Short - Chicago Underground Film Festival 2014 /
sketch consisting of a few, condensed scenes rooted in pop culture, with
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014 / IndieLisboa 2014 / BAFICI 2014
strong actors and precise dialogue, JENNIFER REEDER opens up a wide
/ Festival Du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal 2014 / London Film Festival 2014 /
space, narrating two opposite biographical stages of female self-assurance
Torino Film Festival 2014 / New Filmmakers NY, Anthology Film Archive 2014
with equal measures of sarcasm and tenderness.
THE FEMALE GAZE
A Million Miles
Away
(Oberhausen Jury Statement)
WORLD SALES: INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
OBERHAUSEN
Carsten Spicher - Archive and distribution | T: +49 (0)208 825-2319 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.kurzfilmtage.de
105
THE FEMALE GAZE
Seven Times A Day We
Complain About Our Fate And
At Night We Get Up To Avoid
Our Dreams
18’, 2014, Germany
DIRECTOR: SUSANN MARIA HEMPEL
CAST: Henning Kunze SCRIPTWRITER: Susann
Maria Hempel CINEMATOGRAPHY: Berta Valín
Escofet ART DIRECTION: Susann Maria Hempel
& Philipp Herlt EDITING / SOUND / MUSIC /
PRODUCER: Susann Maria Hempel PRODUCTION
COMPANY: Susann Maria Hempel/Greiz
\\
SUSANN MARIA HEMPEL: .
FILM PRESENTATION: SEVEN TIMES A DAY WE COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: The re-enactment of a specific East German
FATE AND AT NIGHT WE GET UP TO AVOID OUR DREAMS (Best Film Award -
post-1989 experience. Its horror and cruelties are performed with fragments
German Competition Oberhausen 2014) turns to look at a traumatized psyche of
of an exploded doll’s house. In simple kinetics set in motion by nylon strings,
a victim of abuse. Fully embracing its subjective form, HEMPEL narrates the film’s
objects and parts of dolls become actors in a scenario of suffering and sexual
intimate diary-entries and retreats further into the mind of her character by
abuse. In SEVEN TIMES A DAY WE COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR FATE AND AT
crafting her mise-en-scène with phantasmagorical bric-a-bracs pulled by strings.
NIGHT WE GET UP TO AVOID OUR DREAMS, the artist and director SUSANN
HEMPEL’s mesmerizing puppet-show convincingly describes the psychological
MARIA HEMPEL constructs a drastic tableau of Thuringian case studies,
and physical abuse, drawing the viewer down its downward spiral with childlike
moving with the sureness of a sleepwalker between various object levels,
fortitude. (Andrei Tănăsescu,BIEFF 2014)
idiomatic speech, writing and singing. The sexual charge lies not only in
the accusations of traumatisation suffered in the past, it also emerges in a
strong fascination with transgression. Horror and cuteness are inextricably
linked.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Best Contribution to the German Competition
Prize - Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2014 / Minister of Fine
Arts Promotion Prize (National Competition) - Filmfest Dresden, Germany
2014 / Jury Award (German Competition) - Hamburg International Short
Film Festival 2014 / “EMAF-MEDIENKUNST-PREIS” of the German Critics
- European media Art Festival Osnabrück 2014 / Golden Horseman of the
Youth Jury (National Competition) - Dresden International Short Film
Festival 2014
106
OBERHAUSEN
(Jury Statement - German Competition, Oberhausen Film
Festival 2014)
14’, 2013, France/Greece
DIRECTOR: MARIA KOURKOUTA
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Maria Kourkouta
EDITING: Maria Kourkouta
SOUND: Maria Kourkouta
MUSIC: Manos Hadjidakis
PRODUCER: Maria Kourkouta
MARIA KOURKOUTA: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A lyrical portrait of Greek identity,
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I believe that experimental cinema always has
MARIA KOURKOUTA’s RETURN TO AEOLUS STREET (ARTE Award
the possibility to keep or reveal the secrets of time. In my film, RETURN TO
- Oberhausen 2014) navigates the wandering ghosts of history
AEOLUS STREET, I worked with materials of old Greek movies of ‘50s and
that long for life’s vitality. Black and white fragments of popular
‘60s. I wanted to disclose the fragments of the concentrated time closed
Greek films are looped, superimposed and slowed down in a balletic
inside them. Inevitably, I talked about the historical time of Greece, as
chiaroscuro while poetic passages are narrated over melancholy piano
recorded - without realizing it - in our consciousness. In the heart of cinema,
pieces. The result is an engrossing audio-visual poem whose hypnotic
politics and poetry, there is something that escapes from the form and the
gaze into a collective consciousness resuscitates its memory and
narration. With this 16mm found footage movie, I tried to feel and fumble
reinvigorates its dormant desires. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
what escapes from them and even from our gaze.
(MARIA KOURKOUTA)
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: A filmmaker performs cultural memory in her
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: ARTE Prize for European Short Film -
effort to reclaim a sense of belonging. With passionate use of appropriated
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2014 / Jury Prize
filmic materials, poetry, text and music, RETURN TO AEOLUS STREET is a
- Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux - Paris 2013
multi-layered and evocative work of film art.
/ Festival international du cinéma méditerranéen - Montpellier
2013 / Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains - Lille
2014 / New Horizons Film Festival - Wroclaw 2014 / São Paulo
(Oberhausen Jury Statement)
THE FEMALE GAZE
Return To Aeolus
Street
Short Film Festival 2014 / Festcurtas Belo Horizonte Film Festival
2014 / Message to Man Film Festival - St Petersburg 2014
OBERHAUSEN
107
THE FEMALE GAZE
The Wild
12’, 2013, Germany
DIRECTOR: HELENA WITTMANN
CAST: Barbara Nüsse, Peter Maertens
SCRIPTWRITER: Helena Wittmann
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Helena Wittmann, Jakob
Gerresheim
ART DIRECTION: Therese Schneider
EDITING: Helena Wittmann
SOUND: Chinook Schneider, Nika Breithaupt
\\
HELENA WITTMANN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: HELENA WITTMANN’s multiple award-
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Besides the theme of unexpected complexity
winning film THE WILD introduces us to the ideal, peaceful picture
of individual life paths, THE WILD particularly points out the possibility of
of long-lived domesticity. In a sun-filled home, a husband waters the
«cinematic space» in form of a «third space». The construction is based on
plants while the wife prepares their meal. Yet behind the veneer of
the merging of two spaces that are seemingly in contrast to each other.
their quiet existence, the camera glides slowly through empty rooms,
The first is the specific living space of a retired couple. The second space
revealing projections of wildlife taking over their home, their sounds
is embodied in film recordings by the man, which were shot on Super 8
striking off against the solitude of old age. THE WILD’s juxtaposition
between the sixties and nineties during numerous travels to Africa and Asia.
of homely tranquillity with primal savagery invites the viewer to
The pictures show animals, which over the course of the film are projected
look beyond surface symbolism, coming face-to-face with the primal
into the living space. The specific of this construction is that not frontiers
nature of our domesticized humanity. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
but a verge is formed between the spaces mentioned above. Therefore in the
moment of the third space - as it is limited in time - a new cinematic reality
is formed.
(HELENA WITTMANN)
Festival 2013 / Ann Arbor Film Festival 2014 / Special Jury
Mention - Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt, 2013 / Main Prize
Experiment - Flensburger Short Film Festival 2013 / European
Media Art Festival, Osnabrück 2013 / Festival du Nouveau Cinéma
Montréal 2014 / New Directors/New Films (MoMA und Lincoln
Center) 2014 / Images Festival, Toronto 2014 / New Horizon Film
Festival, Poland, 2014
108
OBERHAUSEN
FILM’S WEBSITE:
http://www.helenawittmann.de/index.php?id=1
SPECIAL PROGRAM
GOLDEN SHORTS:
BEST FILMS IN MAJOR
FESTIVALS
109
GOLDEN SHORTS
As Long As Shotguns
Remain
30’, 2014, France
DIRECTORS: CAROLINE POGGI,
JONATHAN VINEL
CAST: Lucas Doméjean, Nicolas Mias, Naël
Malassage, Benoît Roux SCRIPTWRITER: Caroline
Poggi, Jonathan Vinel CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Raphaël Vanderbussche EDITING: Vincent Tricon
SOUND: Romain Ozanne PRODUCER: Anne
Luthaud, Marcello Cavagna, Lou Chicoteau
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Le G.R.E.C.
\\ BEST FILMS IN MAJOR FESTIVALS
CAROLINE POGGI: .
JONATHAN VINEL: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, AS
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: CAROLINE POGGI and JONATHAN VINEL’s AS
LONG AS SHOTGUNS REMAIN takes place in the “summer in Bouloc,
LONG AS SHOTGUNS REMAIN could be easily classified among the so-called
a small village in the south of France. It is extremely hot and all lies
French New Extremity, a trend that comprises filmmakers such as Gaspar
abandoned. The streets are deserted, devoid of people. 18-year-old
Noé and Bruno Dumont. The world of AS LONG AS SHOTGUNS REMAIN
Joshua wanders around aimlessly. Single-family homes, rows of
would fit right in between of the ones of those two (maybe also recalling
swimming pools. It is the memories of his best friend Silvain’s suicide
that of Gus Van Sant), mixing punk, bizarre elements with an ascetic, eerie
that guide him and that he reads in the walls of the houses. Joshua
style in the approach to the story. The story of two teenagers in the French
doesn’t want to continue living either. He already belongs to the
countryside, after the suicide of one of their friends (whom one of them
world of the dead, but still has to take care of his brother before he
still sees and talks to), drifting from boredom to adventure, tracks their
can cross over completely. He must find a family for him. His brother
willingness to find their purpose within the world they know, which finally
ought to be saved, even without him. Joshua commences his search.”
happens to be in a gang of young tattooed bikers. POGGI and VINEL choose
(Berlinale Film Festival 2014)
to unsettle and confound rather than explain, making the most of their
original stylistic decisions (from the visual interlude to the great choice of
classical, vocal, techno music) and even setting the water on fire.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Golden Bear for Best Short Film – Berlin International
(David González, Cineuropa)
Film Festival 2014 / Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2014 / Hamburg
International Short Film Festival 2014 / Curtas Vila do Conde 2014 / São Paolo
International Film Festival 2014 / Cine + Special Prize - European Medium Length
Film Meetings, France 2014 / Aust-Adger County’s Youth Award - Norwegian Short
Film Festival, Norway 2014 / Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: LE G.R.E.C.
Marie-Anne CAMPOS | T: +33(0)144899950 |
E: [email protected] | W: www.grec-info.com
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CAROLINE POGGI - E: [email protected] / JONATHAN VINEL - E: [email protected]
CAST: Sam Kantor, Caitlin McConkey-Pirie
SCRIPTWRITER: Walter Woodman, Patrick
Cederberg CINEMATOGRAPHY: Matthew Kinch
ART DIRECTION: Alexis Cuthbert
ANIMATION / EDITING: Patrick Cederberg
SOUND: Aaron Yeung
PRODUCER: Walter Woodman, Patrick Cederberg
PRODUCTION COMPANY: KoalaMotion
WALTER WOODMAN, PATRICK CEDERBERG: .
FILM PRESENTATION: “NOAH represents the romance that occurs
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: Among the many films that attempt to
in the era of online networking, consisting only of images displayed
investigate people’s behaviour in the digital era, NOAH is one of the most
on a computer monitor. It is about the life of the main character, Noah
radical and effective. The cinema screen is replaced entirely by the desktop
Lennox, who even while talking with his girlfriend, often connects
(or smartphone home screen), and the protagonist disappears down internet
to other trivial happenings in another city or around the world. He
rabbit holes. Through both these things, the film frames ideas that are
feels, communicates, and eventually loses something on the Internet
impossible to fully describe in any other way. But its strength doesn’t lie
- on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. With a narrative focused on
solely in its methods: with an almost poetic touch, there is the suggestion
our era of doubt and grief, the film is nothing but a comprehensive
at the end that humanity hasn’t destroyed itself through these millions of
interpretation of how digital story-telling has changed our daily life,
accounts and profiles, but that maybe it’s just changed shape: like a song
thoughts, and emotions.” (Byeong-won Jang, Jeonju International
dedicated to a chance encounter on Chatroulette.
Film Festival)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Grand Prix, Audience Award - Lab
Competition Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
2014 / Best Short-Film, Toronto Film Critics Award - Toronto
International Film Festival 2013 / São Paolo International Film
Festival 2013 / Milano Film Festival 2013 / Istanbul Film Festival
(Vincent Rossini - Milano Film Festival)
GOLDEN SHORTS
Noah
17’, 2013, Canada
DIRECTORS: WALTER WOODMAN,
PATRICK CEDERBERG
2013 / Nashville International Film Festival 2014 / Mexico
WORLD SALES:
WALTER WOODMAN | E: [email protected]
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GOLDEN SHORTS
Abandoned Goods
36’, 2014, UK
DIRECTORS: PIA BORG,
EDWARD LAWRENSON
CAST: Iain Sinclair
SCRIPTWRITER: Pia Borg & Edward Lawrenson
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nick Gordon Smith
EDITING: Philippe Ciompi
SOUND: Philippe Ciompi
MUSIC: Philippe Ciompi
PRODUCER: Kate Ogborn and Lisa Marie Russo
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fly Film
\\ BEST FILMS IN MAJOR FESTIVALS
PIA BORG: .
EDWARD LAWRENSON: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno,
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT: The story of the Adamson Collection is a
ABANDONED GOODS tells the story of the journey of the Adamson
fascinating one, but not as widely known as it should be - which was one
Collection, one of the major bodies of British “asylum art”. It
impulse for us to make ABANDONED GOODS. In exploring the history of key
contains around 5,500 objects created between 1946 and 1981 by
objects from the collection, we also hoped to bring to life «unseen» aspects
patients in Netherne psychiatric hospital in Surrey. Blending archive,
of post-war asylum life in Britain; through archive, photographs and voice,
reconstruction, interviews and observational footage, the film
we wanted to point to the challenging circumstances in which the artworks
explores the transformation of the objects, from clinical material
were produced and evoke the lives of the artists, many of whom spent
to revered artworks, examining the lives of the creators and the
decades compelled to live in an asylum.
changing contexts in which the objects were produced and displayed.
Narrated by an unseen cataloguer, the result is a moving impression
of the unseen history of post-war asylum life in the UK.
Above all we wanted to celebrate the artworks themselves, capturing, with
the beauty of 35mm film, the rich and subtle detail of our featured paintings
and sculptures. Exploring the different ways the Adamson Collection has
been viewed over the years - from clinical material to revered artwork ABANDONED GOODS interrogates ideas about status and value, concerns
that, we hope, resonate with debates around the representation of people
with mental illness. Now displayed for public appreciation, the objects in the
Collection make visible the work of men and women, who were hidden away
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Golden Pardino for Best International
Short Film – Locarno International Film Festival 2014 / London
and neglected in hospital during their lifetime.
(PIA BORG & EDWARD LAWRENSON)
Film Festival 2014 / Janela Internatcional de Cinema Do Recife
2014 / Hamptons International Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: FLY FILM
E: [email protected] | W: www.flyfilm.co.uk
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EDWARD LAWRENSON - E: [email protected] / PIA BORG - E: [email protected]
CAST: Natxo Checa, Jani Zhao, U.G. Punchi Banda, B.
Wimalawte, Lasantha David SCRIPTWRITER: Gabriel
Abrantes CINEMATOGRAPHY: Gabriel Abrantes,
Natxo Checa, Lakruwan Withanage
ANIMATION / EDITING: Gabriel Abrantes
SOUND: Daniel Gries, Hugo Leitão PRODUCER: Joana
Botelho, Marta Furtado, Deepal Gunaratne
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Mutual Respect
Productions
GABRIEL ABRANTES: .
FILM PRESENTATION: “In this short comedy, Luis Vaz de Camões,
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Camões was the first European poet to have an
the greatest Portuguese Renaissance poet, struggles creatively while
extended experience in Africa, India and Indochina. He wrote Os Lusíadas
engaging in a hedonistic, coprophagic, and drug addled lifestyle.
while he was exiled in the Indes, a poem that glorifies the Portuguese
TAPROBANA follows the poet, and his lover Dinamene, as he writes
navigators that departed from Lusitanian shores and traveled to Taprobana,
his masterpiece, the epic poem Os Lusíadas. He travels from the
now known as Sri Lanka. Many myths surround Camões’ voyages, and one in
cacophony of the Indic jungles, surrounded by allegorical elephants
particular was an inspiration for this film. It has Camões falling in love with
and rhyming macaques, to the frontier of Heaven and Hell, where
a Chinese courtesan, whom he then baptized with a Greek nymph’s name:
he is confronted by his fantasy: fame and immortality.” (GABRIEL
Dinamene. The myth goes on to have Camões and Dinamene imprisoned
ABRANTES)
on a boat to Goa and suffering a shipwreck. Supposedly his lover drowned,
as Camões was too busy swimming after his manuscript. TAPROBANA
is intended as a poetic and absurd satire about this contradictory and
charming character; a European exiled in the Indes, but obsessed with
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Prix UIP Berlin (European Short Film) -
his homeland; an iconoclast rapscallion that wrote some of the most
Berlin International Film Festival 2014 / Best European Short Film
sublime verses of the Portuguese language, where spiritual illumination is
Nominee - European Film Awards 2014 / Toronto International
inextricable from sexual apotheosis.
Film Festival 2014 / BFI London Film Festival 2014 / Curtas Vila
do Conde 2014 / Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève 2014 /
Gent International Film Festival 2014 / World Film Festival of
Bangkok 2014 / Guanajuato International Film Festival 2014
(GABRIEL ABRANTES)
GOLDEN SHORTS
Taprobana
24’, 2014, Portugal/ Sri Lanka/ Denmark
DIRECTOR: GABRIEL ABRANTES
/ Kyiv International Short Film Festival 2014/ Curto Circuito
International Short Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: MUTUAL RESPECT PRODUCTIONS
T: +351 21 3430205 | E: [email protected]
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ROMANIAN CINEMATIC
EXPERIMENTS
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SPECIAL PROGRAM
114
4’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: VLAD FENEŞAN
CAST: Malvina Cservenschi, Ioana Macarie, Andy
Gonczi CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mihai Marius Apopei
ART DIRECTION: Bogdan Pop ANIMATION:
Răzvan Chiş EDITING: Mihai Codleanu
SOUND/ MUSIC: Marius Leftarache
PRODUCER: Barna Nemethi, Radu Stancu, Carmen
Rizac
VLAD FENEȘAN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Under the WARDEN COLLECTIVE creative
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: DAUGHTER OF THE EARTH is an experimental
trademark, in DAUGHTER OF THE EARTH, Romanian folklore gets
fashion film that reinvents the story of the Romanian creation myth
a 21st century make-over courtesy of director VLAD FENEŞAN. The
around the idea that archaic Romanian society was a maternal one. The
proverbial «growth of the soil» is fused with folk stories and the myth
creation process is presented as a series of rituals, borrowed from folklore
of creation, to deliver an audio-visual pastiche of the highest (dis)
or fabricated for the sake of the story, and revolves around a key/dominant
order. Combining traditional costumes and their visual patterning
dynamic element: the national costume. The film itself can be seen as
with a pixel aesthetic (similarly present in the 8-bit sounds of the
ceremonial, making usage of folk tales/allegories, pagan dances, archaic
genre-hopping electronic soundtrack), primordial man and woman
motifs and digital imagery, all mashed up together in order to give rise to a
beget from the soil a new life after a ritualistic dance. FENEŞAN’s
new order, a new outlook to how we see and understand our origins.
accentuated aesthetics update Romanian tradition in a glitzy,
glamorous but also playful manner, bridging gap between history and
tradition. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
(VLAD FENEŞAN)
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Daughter Of The
Earth
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Best Costume Design nominee - La Jolla
International Fashion Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES:
Carmen Rizac | T: 0740 436 284 | E: [email protected]
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ARTIST’S WEBSITE:
www.vladfenesan.com
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Silent Places
12’, 2013, Romania
DIRECTOR: SIMONA DEACONESCU
CAST: Dragoș Istvan Roșu, Răzvan Stoian, Irina
Ștefan, Simona Deaconescu, Alexandra Bălășoiu
SCRIPTWRITER: Simona Deaconescu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Oleg Mutu
EDITING: Codrin Iftodi
SOUND: Sebastian Zsemlye
MUSIC: Tibor Cári
PRODUCER: Anamaria Antoci
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Tapioca Film
FILM PRESENTATION: “SILENT PLACES is a unique collaboration
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Five strangers are gathered in the same
between the choreographer-director SIMONA DEACONESCU and
unwelcoming space, fighting together for a way out, tired by their confused
cinematographer Oleg Mutu, in which dance is not illustrated, but
thoughts, trying to regain strength over their altered bodies. The story
interpreted and reinterpreted via cinematic language. SILENT PLACES is
unfolds itself from within. The camera bursts into the heart of the dance
a dance-based film examining the inner life of the characters, capturing
whilst the music copes with the cruelty and the fever of everyday’s battles. A
ROMANIAN CINEMATIC EXPERIMENTS
their perplexities, questions and fears in a moment of intimacy. Cruelty
moment of silence can form an emotional flux that further flows in different
and frenzy, childhood and feelings for which there are no words but
dynamics.
\\
SIMONA DEACONESCU: .
2014 / Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema - Colorado, USA 2014 /
which we all feel, anguish of the mind, inner chaos and recovery of
equilibrium are the feelings restored in the crowded consciousness of
the character’s self-evaluation. Through movement and action the five
characters depict feelings that turn into agony, people are prisoners of
infinite freedom in an infinite space.” (Hot News)
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Loikka Dance Film Festival - Finland 2014 /
European Film Festival - Bucharest 2014 / International Screendance
Festival - North Carolina, USA 2014 / Ceau, Cinema! - Timișoara, Romania
Ammutinamenti Film Festival - Ravenna, Italy 2014 / POOL - Internationale
TanzFilmPlattform - Berlin 2014 / San Francisco Dance Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: TAPIOCA FILM, TANGAJ DANCE
Anamaria Antoci | T: +40740155602 |
116
(SIMONA DEACONESCU)
8’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: CARIOCA STUDIO
CAST: Sandra Mavhima, Momo Peter Sanno,
Mircea Ghinea
CONCEPT/ DIRECTION/ CGI: Carioca Studio
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Radu Voinea
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Carioca Studio and
Studio Set
POST-PRODUCTION: Studio Set
DRAGOS TRĂISTARU: .
ANDREI STOLERU: .
DRAGOŞ COMAN: .
FILM PRESENTATION: A conceptual piece signed by CARIOCA
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Our project DEATH BY DIAMONDS AND PEARLS
STUDIO, DEATH BY DIAMONDS AND PEARLS is an unconventional
is a conceptual mix between mythological symbols from the Middle Ages,
re-visitation of mythology. “Evoking cultural references, historical
mythology (from myth and metaphorical characters to cult objects and
moments, and social rebellion, the film proposes connections
social status) and the contemporary time.
between old and new and into the spotlight transformations that
took place due to the passing of time. It explores notions of myth,
violence, hypocrisy, lust for power, duality. A corrupt world, split
between abusers and their victims. Above all there is a punishing
force of justice that resets the general equilibrium. The artists
question the idea of the human condition during different time
periods and our interaction with its spiritual belonging. This makes
the audience think of issues concerning the significance and presence
of myths in our life in the 21st century.” (CARIOCA STUDIO)
The stylistics is based on combining elements from different periods of time
(armours, helmets, contemporary clothes, motorcycles, accessories) and
proposes the viewer an image of an atemporal space where he is invited to
meditate about the human and spiritual side.
(CARIOCA STUDIO)
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Death By Diamonds
And Pearls
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Romanian Design Week 2013
WORLD SALES: CARIOCA STUDIO
T: +4031 405 5504 | E: [email protected] | W: http://carioca.ro
117
SPECIAL PROGRAM
On Photography
1’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: ALEX GÂLMEANU
CAST: Ana Ularu
SCRIPTWRITER: Alex Gâlmeanu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alex Gâlmeanu
EDITING: Alex Gâlmeanu
SOUND: Alex Gâlmeanu
PRODUCER: Alex Gâlmeanu
FILM PRESENTATION: Inspired by Susan Sontag’s dictum (“time
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The film, like the fragment it’s based on, is
eventually positions most photographs, even the most amateurish, at
a discourse about time and its influence on the importance we attach to
the level of art”), ON PHOTOGRAPHY is a deceptively playful musing
objects. Time - and its passing - is one of the key contextual variables of
on cinema. Divided along a 3x3 split-screen, the film assembles Ana
valuing the things that surround us. Almost everything tends to become
Ularu’s syncopated and disordered iterations of Sontag’s maxim,
valuable if it stands the test of time, if it survives long enough. Objects,
with each repeated utterance bringing in semantic alignment the
probably insignificant at the time of their creation, are fascinating today
haphazard vocal montage. Visual artist ALEX GÂLMEANU’s semiotic
and will be even more fascinating in the future, while the only factor, the
puzzle thus compels the viewer to re-assemble the jumbled message
only added ingredient is time.
while simultaneously playing catch-up within the split-screen montage.
Conceptually astute, the film is a fitting homage to time, the value
it imparts to objects and to the spectator as their mediator. (Andrei
Sometimes it takes centuries or millennia, sometimes hundreds of years or
decades; there are cases in which a few years are enough, or maybe months
or weeks, - there is no formula to apply- , we do not know how long it takes
to ensure value, perhaps it might be a matter of a few minutes. In this
regard, the actress Ana Ularu utters her words on nine different occasions, in
individual sequences recorded at different times. The text acquires meaning
only when these sequences are played back simultaneously, through their
underlying editing structure. It is a visual experiment where the ingredient
called «time» is introduced deliberately, during a speech that is essentially
talking about time.
\\
ALEX GÂLMEANU: .
(ALEX GÂLMEANU)
WORLD SALES:
Alex Gâlmeanu | E: [email protected]
118
www.alexgalmeanu.com
3’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: ALEX MIRONESCU
CAST: Vlad Bobe
SCRIPTWRITER: Alex Mironescu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bogdan Petrovan
EDITING: Cosmin Stanga
SOUND: Roxana Bain
PRODUCER: Alex Mironescu
ALEX MIRONESCU: .
FILM PRESENTATION: Yet another sample of creatively
CURATOR’S STATEMENT: By the time credits roll, THE GOLDEN DREAM’s
repurposing found footage, intelligently combined with fictional
prophecy of Romania in the year 2000 as a bastion for socialism, has
elements, “THE GOLDEN DREAM is an attempt of deconstructing
already come and gone. An utterly thought-provoking piece of audio-
the communication process, using as a pretext the exponents of the
visual dialectics, MIRONESCU’s film cleverly manipulates footage of the
two most representative forms of propaganda encountered in recent
Nuremberg Rally. Hitler is removed from the source material and replaced
history. The experimental film captures Adolf Hitler’s defining non-
with the figure of an unknown dictator, lip-synching one of Nicolae
verbal, body language elements, superimposed on the very original
Ceauşescu’s speeches. In so doing, he echoes Walter Benjamin’s famous
speech of Nicolae Ceausescu, with the purpose of observing effective
decree that «the logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics
manipulation techniques.” (ALEX MIRONESCU)
into political life». Breaking down the symbolic signifiers of fascism
ingrained in the collective subconscious, the film knowingly employs the
highly aestheticized imagery of power but removes its emblematic source.
Pantomiming Hitler’s well-known gesticulations, the stand-in extends the
subversion by mouthing Ceauşescu’s speech, exalting the citizenry and its
victorious efforts to fulfil «mankind’s golden dream of Communism» Yet
deprived of its original visual pathos, the film’s soundtrack is combined
in a dialectic «newspeak» of Orwellian gravitas. What we’re left with is a
biting satire of the power of propaganda aesthetics that, courtesy of our
contemporary hindsight and its distancing effect, allows individual thought
to break away and reflect (or dream?) on its own.
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: CineMAIubit International Student Short
Film Festival 2014
SPECIAL PROGRAM
The Golden Dream
WORLD SALES:
Alex Mironescu | T: +40742628178 |
119
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Fish
6’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: DELIA ONIGA
SCRIPTWRITER: Delia Oniga
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Dragoș Hanciu
ART DIRECTION: Delia Oniga
EDITING: Delia Oniga
SOUND: Delia Oniga
FILM PRESENTATION:Further into the surreal realm, there is the
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Caloric extremes cannot be felt by the «self»
idiosyncratic FISH, signed by visual artist DELIA ONIGA. “Absurd is
directly, immediately. And, in order not to dilute the intimacy in which the
that which is devoid of purpose” proclaimed Eugene Ionesco. But
adjacent is crystallized, the notion of complicity appears. In a culture of
what do you call that which consciously goes against its purpose?
repair, where intent employs as means of expression, floral motifs engraved
Two fish wake up from their cryogenic slumber as water swallows
on the rim of an old, porcelain cymas, the idyllic is forced to take a step back
them and the ornate plate they’re photogenically placed on.
from the path of imminence.
Bubbling brooks and mumbled songs sonically engulf the titular
partners’ travels as crickets chirp away into the domestic space
they’ve infiltrated. The fish float, they party, they float some
more and by the time their pescaterian fever dream ends, fish
and film alike are dead in the water. As avant-garde as salmon is
avant-current, FISH is an astute and witty paradigm shift. (Andrei
A bloated Jesus is not the same as one that’s starved. Just as the Shroud of
the Dead Sea is not the same as the heart’s melancholy blues. What links
them is the possibility of being served as “ready-mades,” as expedients of
the melancholy obsessed by the mythological, aiming towards satisfactions
that can be stomached; thawed out, the anonymous fish will be bathed by
the culinary procession’s hot effluvia, never again to be seduced by the flow
of cold water.
Originally “Diegesis” referred to what we would call today the narrative
universe, but perhaps the digestion process begins before a meal, at the
same time as feeling empty. Hunger-as-lack, (re)sensed by the pseudo-sited
soul is not the same as the hunger before lunch, but rather the Last Supper.
\\
DELIA ONIGA: .
(DELIA ONIGA)
WORLD SALES:
Delia Oniga | E: [email protected]
120
12’, 2013, Romania
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDRU PETRU BĂDELIŢĂ
CAST: Alexandru Petru Bădeliţă
SCRIPTWRITER: Alexandru Petru Bădeliţă
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Alexandru Petru Bădeliţă
EDITING: Alexandru Petru Bădeliţă
SOUND: Alexandru Petru Bădeliţă
ALEXANDRU PETRU BĂDELIŢĂ: .
FILM PRESENTATION: An intimate, overcast film, AUTISM
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: I wanted to make this film because I felt the
splits open the claustrophobic heart of depression and looks at
need to have a creative retreat while working in an English call center. It
its psychologically and physically debilitating effects. Dividing its
was my first job and the experience changed me; I learned a lot about myself
thematic and formal construction along oppositional lines, the film
and the choices I have on hand to make my life possible in Bucharest. It’s
looks at the oppressive, external forces (e.g. politics, religion) that
an attempt to «self-fictionalise» a few days in the summer of 2013. I tried
bear down on the soul of man. Trapped between the claustrophobia
to look from the outside, at my own hang-up of finding a job in the field
of the young, depressive protagonist and his apartment, we observe
in which I formed: an artistic one. This frustration moulded on an atypical
him going about his daily routine, in an attempt to stave off a growing
character, who walks along the barriers of social anxiety, synchronized with
anxiety. Through the power of exposition, cinema thus becomes the
me. A kind of sympathetic embarrassment settles on the crude title AUTISM
therapeutic catharsis for both protagonist and viewer alike. (Andrei
- and indirectly on the character. Yet the reason for this sequence of frames,
no matter how they are, lies in not wanting to let the interior and exterior of
the person/ character break apart and become nothing.
(ALEXANDRU PETRU BĂDELIŢĂ)
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Autism
FESTIVALS/AWARDS: NexT Film Festival 2014
WORLD SALES: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THEATRE AND FILM
BUCHAREST
T: +40 021 252 81 93 | E: [email protected] | W: www.unatc.ro
121
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Please Be Patient
(While We Fuck You)
2’, 2013, Romania
DIRECTOR: ANDREI POPA
SCRIPTWRITER: Andrei Popa
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Andrei Popa
ANIMATION: Andrei Popa
EDITING: Andrei Popa
SOUND: Andrei Popa
PRODUCER: Andrei Popa
FILM PRESENTATION: “PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE WE FUCK
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE WE FUCK YOU is a
YOU is a metaphor about the society we live in and the direction it is
spontaneous film, made in one morning, as a stream of consciousness type
heading to if driven solely by profit. Banks and corporations are more
of thing, after a night without sleep. Generated digitally, the screen may
powerful than the state, making their own rules and standards by
look static, but if one looks and listens carefully, there are numerous visual,
ignoring human rights and considering people to be objects, numbers
chromatic, sonic and stylistic details that lie beneath the surface. A little
or statistics, which must be used for maximum profit with minimum
digital sketch, a visual poem, about the state of society and how people are
investment. This can be seen by the way companies treat and talk to
treated, and how it could get beyond the absurd if things go this way.
people, like slaves, without even trying to hide it. All made possible
by a herd mentality, lack of independent thought and of initiative on
(ANDREI POPA)
the part of the individual. Although abuses can reach way beyond the
absurd, a lot of people accept them, without raising any questions or
doing anything about it.” (ANDREI POPA)
\\
ANDREI POPA: .
WORLD SALES:
Andrei Popa | T: 073.111.42.25 | E: [email protected]
122
www.about.me/thirtythreemadspirals
7’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: MIRCEA BOBÎNĂ
CAST: Mircea Bobînă
SCRIPTWRITER: Mircea Bobînă
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mircea Bobînă
ANIMATION: Mihai Bruma
EDITING: Mircea Bobînă
SOUND: Mircea Bobînă
PRODUCER: Mircea Bobînă
MIRCEA BOBÎNĂ: .
FILM PRESENTATION: The 20th century gets broken down to its
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The film is a subjective approach to the events
essentials, in MIRCEA BOBÎNĂ’s history lesson CINESCOPE. Formally
of the twentieth century. An attempt to highlight the absurdity of human
recalling the intellectual montage of the Soviets as well as the ironic
existence in light of its weaknesses. The struggle for power, xenophobia,
humour of Bruce Conner, archive footage and historical moments
bigotry, brainwashing, beauty turned to mutilation, a lot of major events
are cut together to sequence the might and plight of modern man.
that make us forget the simple pleasures of life, the little things that make
Carried by narrated poetry and pointed nursery rhymes, the film
us happy.
reveals its titular double-entendre as both a microscopic macrovision of modern civilization and a confirmation for the cinematic
dramaturgy that fuels the mechanism of life. (Andrei Tănăsescu,
BIEFF 2014)
(MIRCEA BOBÎNĂ)
SPECIAL PROGRAM
Cinescop
WORLD SALES:
Mircea Bobînă | T: +373 79 840 777 | E: [email protected]
123
SPECIAL PROGRAM
I Will Never Walk
Alone
4’, 2014, Romania
DIRECTOR: CARMEN LIDIA VIDU
CAST: Iulia Burtea
SCRIPTWRITER: Carmen Lidia Vidu
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Dani Ioniţă
EDITING: Carmen Lidia Vidu
SOUND: Ovidiu Chihaia
FILM PRESENTATION: I WILL NEVER WALK ALONE by CARMEN
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Sometimes reality is not enough. We let
LIDIA VIDU (known for her innovative multimedia performances)
ourselves be lived by spirits, by desires, lies, fashion, insufficiency,
lends an ear to the voice within us all, presenting a space for the
aesthetics, fairy tales, love dramas, horror movies ... no longer knowing if
contradiction between our inner Ego and Super-Ego to reveal itself.
those around us are our fiction or reality. The important thing is not to be
A female narrator runs through a series of confessions, repeating
alone.
her childlike vocal mirror’s high-pitched utterances. Still images of a
female figure fade from one to the next, as coloured plasmic auras
cover up her face. As darkness creeps over her portrait, the tension
revealed between the narrator’s inner and outer personas peels away
the layers of loneliness. In the process, the director reminds our inner
ID that we never truly are alone. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF 2014)
\\
CARMEN LIDIA VIDU: .
WORLD SALES:
CARMEN LIDIA VIDU | E: [email protected]
124
ARTIST’S WEBSITE:
www.carmenlidiavidu.ro
(CARMEN LIDIA VIDU)
SIDE EVENTS:
NISI MASA EXPERIMENTAL FILM WORKSHOP
JAN ŠVANKMAJER
RETROSPECTIVE AND EXHIBITION
ROMANIA ENTERPRISE - #NORMA
ANDY WARHOL FILM RETROSPECTIVE
SLEEP / EMPIRE / KISS
125
SIDE EVENT
Andy Warhol Film Retrospective
Sleep
Empire
Kiss
ANDY WARHOL : .
At the beginning of the 60s, ANDY WARHOL temporarily quit
Other important films: KISS (1963) - to be projected on 14 December at
painting - even though he was at the height of his success - and
Galateca Gallery, EMPIRE (1964) - to be projected on 13 December at
began some new adventures in multimedia. Taking a quick
Galateca Gallery, SCREEN TEST (1964), BLOW JOB (1964), and CHELSEA
detour into music, WARHOL became the manager, “producer”
GIRLS (1966). In the early 1970s, most of the films directed by WARHOL
and overall patron of the up-and-coming band, The Velvet
were pulled out of circulation, but after ANDY WARHOL’s death in
Underground. But film is where he focused his creative energies.
1987, the films were slowly restored and are occasionally projected at
WARHOL came to the avant-garde cinema in a way no one else
museums, galleries and film festivals.
had. Despite being a fully developed artist in one medium, he
entered the realm of cinematography, but not as an amateur, but
with total commitment. He immediately began to produce major
cinema which still echoes to this day.
After 50 years since he made his first film SLEEP, ANDY WARHOL’s films
are considered instrumental in the development of contemporary cinema
and many subsequent generations of film directors and artists cite his
films as major influence.
\\ SIDE EVENTS
Between 1964 and 1966, the pop artist shot close to 500
short movies — or what he called “screen tests” — of friends,
celebrities and models.
And then he shot a series of longer films, or rather “anti-films,”
that challenged the conventions of filmmaking and its three
act structure, he first one being SLEEP (1963), which follows
his friend and lover at that time, John Giorno, and the title is
self-explanatory - to be projected on 11th December at Galateca
Gallery.
126
Project by Galateca Gallery in partnership with BIEFF
The Experimental Film Workshop is organized by NISI MASA European Network of Young Cinema, in association with The CAN, Refresh Vision,
Artidava and J’ai Bistrot, between the 5th - 14th of December 2014.
COORDINATORS:
Independent producer Dóra Nedeczky (HU/UK) - NISI MASA Head of
Film Lab, Copywriter Andra Gheorghiu (RO) - alumna of the workshop
and co-founder of The CAN and Scriptwriter kino mermaid Sorina
Diaconu (RO) – NISI MASA Advisory Board Member.
TUTORS:
Composer and photographer Sabina Ulubeanu, the co-artistic director
of InnerSound New Arts Festival, Director/writer/editor/VFX artist and
video performer Adrian Manolescu – the director and curator of the
itinerant psychedelic film & art festival Tripoteca, Multimedia artist
During the 10-day workshop, 30 young filmmakers from
Adela Muntean, researcher of the intermedia and interdisciplinary
Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France,
nature of contemporary art and the sciences, Electronic music pioneer
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia,
and animation teacher Adrian Budrițan aka Kubikmilk, AV performer,
Sweden, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and The USA -
director and producer Monica Vlad and also, a diverse community of
directors, cinematographers, editors, sound designers, visual
Romanian artists and musicians, such as the avant-garde experimental
artists, musicians, composers and performing artists, will be
bands POETRIP and ABATOR INDUSTRIES, who will host a series of
guided by tutors and create short cinematic experiments that
shows based on improvisation, to keep the creative vibes at a maximum
will be premiered on the very last day of the festival.
level. These shows and some of the workshop seminars are open for the
The working method of the workshop is collaboration,
public – please check their availability online.
reflection and sharing with fellow participants, with the aim
The previous editions of the workshop (November 2012 and December
of learning, exploring and developing creativity together,
2013) have brought together NISI MASA, BIEFF, The National University
combining the principles of the international kino movement
of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale” (UNATC), Artidava, Radio GrooveOn,
with film school exam frenzy.
Carter Films, Kodak Cinelabs Romania and Hostel Doors as partners
This year’s edition encourages and supports the relationship
between film, music, mapping and live performance, aiming to
and kind supporters of the workshop. Also, the first edition (2012) was
financed by the Media Programme of the European Union.
render obsolete the gap between the screen and the audience,
NISI MASA is a European network of 32 cinema associations, present
by making the whole process a great interactive experience for
in 28 countries. These associations consist of young professionals,
all those involved.
students and enthusiasts with a common cause - European cinema.
Keep up with us:
www.facebook.com/nisimasa | www.vimeo.com/nisimasa |
www.twitter.com/nisimasanetwork
SIDE EVENT
Nisi Masa Experimental Film Workshop
127
SIDE EVENT
Jan Švankmajer
Retrospective and Exhibition
OTHER AIR
Jan Švankmajer & the Slovakian and Czech Surrealists
11 December 2014 – 31 January 2015
Exhibition:
11 December 2014, 18:00, UNAgaleria
The Czech Center organizes the OTHER AIR exhibition, which
Jan Švankmajer Retrospective
will arrive for the first time in Romania, an exhibition containing
12 – 14 December 2014, 19:00 Cinemateca Eforie
the most important works of surrealist artists in the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. The event will be accompanied by a
retrospective of films directed by Jan Švankmajer, who will
come in Bucharest.
The Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group is today the largest
surrealist group in the world. Born in 1920 in Prague, the
group acted illegally when Czech territories were occupied by
Nazi Germany and, later, the Warsaw Pact troops. Emerging
from the underground in 1990, the group began to organize
A shot-film in which Jan Švankmajer uses different animation techniques
to study the relationship between man and food during the three main
meals of the day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.
SURVIVING LIFE (102’, 2010, Czech Republic/ Slovakia / Japan)
The adventure of a man living a second life through his own dreams, an
absurd comedy. The film is remarkable for its ingenious use of fiction and
animated photography collages.
collective exhibitions both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
THE DEATH OF STALINISM IN BOHEMIA (10‘, 1990, UK)
and abroad. In 2014, the Czech and Slovak Surrealist group has
A short satire about a statue under the scalpel. The bust, representing
24 members. One of the most active is the famous Czech artist
Stalin, is laid on the operation table, ushering in an animated sequence on
Jan Švankmajer.
Czech Republic’s history, from the Communists seizing power in 1948, up
Jan Švankmajer’s work covers many artistic media. A self-
\\ SIDE EVENTS
FOOD (16‘, 1992, Czechoslovakia / UK)
until the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
proclaimed surrealist, he is best known for his animation
LUNACY (118’, 2005, Czech Republic/ Slovakia)
and fiction films. Švankmajer has gained a reputation for his
The film centres on Liska, a character suffering from violent
distinctive use of stop-motion technique and an ability to make
hallucinations. The story is inspired by two short stories by Edgar Allen
surreal, nightmarish, yet humorous movies. The exhibition OTHER
Poe, but also partially by the works of Marquis de Sade.
AIR will be accompanied by a retrospective of Švankmajer’s films.
DIMENSIONS OF DIALOGUE (12’, 1983, Czechoslovakia)
A stop-motion animation short-film in three parts. The first stages a
series of decaying portraits in the style of Archimboldo, the second
follows the theme of sexuality. The ending shows two elderly characters
holding different objects on their tongue.
CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE (85’, 1996, Czech Republic/ Switzerland/ UK)
The surrealist tale of six characters that satisfy their own fetishes.
128
The entrance to the exhibition and screenings is free of charge.
You can find more information on www.czech-it.ro
54’, 2013, Romania
DIRECTORS: MARIA DRĂGHICI,
IOANA PĂUN
CAST: Irina Ungureanu, Monica Marinescu,
Sever Bârzan, Ionuț Kivu, Monica Săndulescu,
Lucian Iftime, Adrian Titieni, Mihaela Mihai
SCRIPTWRITER: Ioana Păun
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Maria Drăghici, Vlad Petri,
Adrian Bulboacă, Răzvan Leucea, Andrei Marcu
EDITING: Maria Drăghici, Dana Bunescu
SOUND: Ștefan Drăgușin
MUSIC: Cătălin Rulea
PRODUCTION COMPANY: #norma
FILM PRESENTATION: On September 22nd 2013, two filmmakers
LIVE ACTION: EVERYTHING IS REAL. EVERYTHING IS STAGED
relocate 50 angry young people to a village, into an imaginary
30’, 2013, Romania
2015 when Romania is no longer a state but a private enterprise.
This dystopian village was entirely bought – the land, houses,
animals and people – by a large exploiting company.
#norma action group generates a performative situation in which a
Romanian politician answers questions about the film, addressed by
activist-journalist Mircea Toma.
Exposed fully frontal to the imminent bulldozing of the entire
What does state politics and cinematography have in common?
village, the participants get positioned as either attackers or
There is sequence in the film when the real Romanian president meets
defenders of Romania Enterprise. But the arrival of the bulldozer
the real villagers from Roşia Montana. Is the president`s attitude staged
suddenly destabilizes the core identities of the ones involved:
or not?
the victim becomes the aggressor, the director becomes the
There is a sequence in the film where the director becomes character.
dictator and the dictator becomes the negotiator. They slowly
How staged is her part?
get absorbed into a hectic battle that pushes them to rely blindly
Will the dystopia imagined by the film ever become true?
on something that was no longer clean: the water.
Who is the owner of this film?
A film that equates the democracy sham of the Romanian state
and the production politics of cinema.
Can this film be seen as propagandistic?
What is the next burning issue in Romania where you see this film crew
staging another hyper-real situation? Why?
Whom from the film did you empathise the most with? Why?
SIDE EVENT
Romania Enterprise
#norma
Are you an actor?
#norma – PRESENTATION:
#norma is an anarcho-feminist action group which spontaneously emerged in May 2014 at the first encounter of the three artists: Andra Popescu,
Ioana Păun and Maria Drăghici. #norma infiltrates where the artistic and cultural establishment manifests itself, in order to disrupt it. Whether it’s
concerts, protests, launches, festivals, exhibitions - #norma take the form of the event and subsequently destabilize it, derailing its path from a
comfortable and convenient mode to a gaseous and volatile state of affairs. #norma questions the rules, the quietude and the resignation.
129
Ioana Păun: [email protected] / Maria Drăghici: [email protected]
NOTES

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