Big Sky Documentary Film Festival has announced the official selections for their ninth annual event to be held in Missoula, Montana February 17-26, 2012, at the Historic Wilma Theatre. The 144 film program, culled from nearly 1000 entries from all over the world will feature a free opening night screening of Matthew Akers’s new film Marina Abramovi The Artist is Present .
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Evelyn McGee-Colbert, Stephen Colbert, Chairman of the Board Bob Feinberg, Raphaela Neilhausen, Thom Powers, and journalist Jonathan Alter.[/caption]
The inaugural Montclair Film Festival has hired the festival director duo of Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen to organize and program the 2012 Festival.
Thom and Raphaela started New York’s documentary film festival DOC NYC as well as the IFC Center’s documentary series Stranger than Fiction. Thom is also a programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The board of directors includes Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert.
The Montclair Film Festival will take place May 2 -6, 2012 in Montclair, New Jersey.
Submissions are now open for the inaugural edition of the Montclair Film Festival. MFF will be accepting feature films (55 min. or longer) for the following program strands:
COMEDY COMPETITION – These films showcase a wide range of comedic expression including independent, international, documentary, and animation. They are eligible for a jury prize.
FICTION SHOWCASE – Films surveying outstanding achievements in American and International fiction.
DOCUMENTARY SHOWCASE – Films surveying outstanding achievements in contemporary documentary making.
NEW JERSEY SPOTLIGHT – Films about NJ or with NJ connected talent.
FAMILY FILMS – Films for all ages.
SHORT FILMS (55 min or less in length) are eligible for MFF’s “New Jersey Spotlight” section, dedicated to films about NJ or with NJ connected talent.
Here are some key deadlines:
Earlybird deadline: Jan. 27
Regular deadline: Feb. 10
Late deadline: Feb. 24
WAB special deadline: March 2
The Festival will take place May 2 -6, 2012.
The New York International Film Festival (NYIFF) in Los Angeles 2012 is now open and accepting entries (features, shorts, documentaries, music videos, animations, webisodes, TV pilots, screenplays, etc.) for the 2012 LA Festival. Festival dates: April 12th-19th, 2012.
Festival screenings will take place exclusively at Raleigh Studios located at 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA 90038.
The Deadline for entering is January 21st, 2012. If you are mailing your submission, it must be POSTMARKED by January 21st, 2012 OR you can submit INSTANTLY online.
NYIFF SUBMISSION FORM:
New York International Film Festival Submission Form
Direct Link on Site (to access submission form)
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TOKYO PLAYBOY CLUB, Okuda Yosuke[/caption]
Fifteen films have been selected for IFFR’s Tiger Awards Competition 2012. The complete lineup, comprising first or second feature films concurring for three equal Hivos Tiger Awards of each 15,000 euro, includes eight world premieres. Five competing films have received support from Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund.
The Rotterdam Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2012 comprises twenty-one films, ranging in length from five to fifty-six minutes. Nine short films in competition will see their world premieres in Rotterdam.[caption id="attachment_2409" align="alignnone"]
LASTUJA – TAITEILIJASUVUN VUOSISATA (SPLINTERS – A CENTURY OF AN ARTISTIC FAMILY)[/caption]
The International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012 will pay tribute to Peter von Bagh by presenting a selection of his films, as well as showing three rare classics from Finnish cinema history that have been essential in his oeuvre. The tribute program, with Peter von Bagh in attendance, will be part of IFFR’s main Signals section.
With over fifty film titles under his belt, Peter von Bagh may still be the better known in his other persona: as writer of more than twenty books, as television presenter, as artistic director of the Midnight Sun Festival in Sodankyla, which he co-founded in 1986 with the Kaurismäki brothers and as well Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, since 2001. He also is editor-in-chief, since 1971, of the ‘Filmihullu’ magazine, and a professor of film history in the Helsinki University of Arts.
Never simple history lessons, his films usually draw on Finnish history. IFFR will present eleven feature length films and four short films by Peter von Bagh, including KREIVI (THE COUNT, 1971), his first feature film – and his only fictional work to date – and his latest work, LASTUJA – TAITEILIJASUVUN VUOSISATA (SPLINTERS – A CENTURY OF AN ARTISTIC FAMILY, 2011) that shows a family like a nation. Finland’s painful path to independence, its development from a poor rural backwater to a prime example of progress and liberalism as seen through three generations of the Ahos family consisting of pioneering artist in cinema, literature, painting and more.
The selection also includes the other production that Von Bagh finshed this year, being MIKKO NISKANEN – OHJAAJA MATKALLA IHMISEKSI (THE STORY OF MIKKO NISKANEN, 2010), his portrait of the legendary Finnish filmmaker, a too-little-known master of world cinema and a sketch of a typical 20th century person’s struggles and doubts.
IFFR is also very glad to present in this context, the international premiere of the original version of Mikko Niskanen’s masterpiece KAHDEKSAN SURMANLUOTIA (EIGHT DEADLY SHOTS, 1972), originally produced as a TV series, based on a certain Tauno Veikko Pasanen who shot four police officers, in which Niskanen himself plays the main role.
The program Signals: Peter von Bagh has been curated by Olaf Möller.
The IFFR’s festival program consists of three main sections: Bright Future – idiosyncratic and adventurous new work by novice makers, including the Tiger Awards Competitions -, Spectrum – new and recent work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture -, and Signals, a series of thematic programs and retrospectives offering insight in topical as well as timeless ideas within cinema.
Signals: Peter von Bagh, line-up of films:
Feature films
LASTUJA – TAITEILIJASUVUN VUOSISATA (SPLINTERS – A CENTURY OF AN ARTISTIC FAMILY)
Finland, 2011, 74’
A century of development, starting in the era of Finland’s nascent nationalism, when the country still belonged to Tsarist Russia, ending in the heydays of post-WWII liberalism, when it was hip to be Scandinavian among the moderate Euro-left. A meditation on memory and heritage.
MIKKO NISKANEN – OHJAAJA MATKALLA IHMISEKSI (THE STORY OF MIKKO NISKANEN)
Finland, 2010, 178’
Portrait of a genius as a troubled human being trying his best to find a way through life. A documentary about a too- little- known master of world cinema; an epic sketch of the typical 20th century person’s struggles and doubts. Within Signals:Peter von Bagh, IFFR screens Niskanen’s EIGHT DEADLY SHOTS.
SODANKYLÄ IKUISESTI. ELOKUVAN VUOSISATA (SODANKYLÄ FOREVER: THE CENTURY OF CINEMA)
Finland, 2010, 90’
Since 1969, masters of cinema have shown their films at the legendary Midnight Sun Film Festival and talked about their art. With choice moments from several hundred hours of these talks, Von Bagh created a heavenly symposium on cinema as the most decent way to walk the earth.
HELSINKI, IKUISESTI (HELSINKI FOREVER)
Finland, 2008, 74’
Helsinki vu par Peter von Bagh: a vision of Finland’s capital through the ages, created with pictures and sounds from myriads of films, newsreels and songs. A stunning achievement – an epic of time regained and lost again.
MIES VARJOSSA (MAN IN THE SHADOWS)
Co-Directors: Elina Katainen & Iikka Vehkalahti)
Finland, 1994, 165’
Otto Wille Kuusinen – communist, traitor, political survivor, is one of the most disputed characters of Finnish history. Von Bagh’s most journalistic work: a study of common corruption, the smashing of one human being’s soul.
VUOSI 1939 (THE YEAR 1939)
Finland, 1993, 107’
In 1939, Finland was preparing for a 1940 Helsinki Olympics that wouldn’t happen, as well as for a war that indeed would. A collage of a moment in time filled with nothing but extremes. A profound meditation on doubt, sorrow and hope against all odds.
VIIMEINEN KESÄ 1944 (LAST SUMMER 1944)
Finland, 1992, 105’
A plunge into the last months of Finland’s WWII in all its tired gruesomeness. A fugue of dour, sad, doubt-ridden, sorrow-filled faces, confessions and oratorical detours, an in memoriam of a time and people gone by. A masterpiece of AV oral history.
VUOSI 1952 (THE YEAR 1952)
Finland, 1980, 120’
In 1952, Helsinki finally hosted the Summer Olympics, which marked the beginning of the nation’s postwar regeneration. It was a good year for many things. A masterpiece of cinematic collage, with a surprising flow and cheerfulness.
SINITAIVAS – MATKA MUISTOJEN MAISEMAAN (BLUE SKY – JOURNEY INTO THE LAND OF MEMORIES)
Finland, 1978, 71’
The dance pavilion considered as the centre of social life, with the Finnish tango as the key to the collective unconscious – the dream life of the nation. One of the few honest monuments to popular culture. Simply lovely, and genuinely moving.
PAAVO NURMI – MIES JA AIKA (PAAVO NURMI – THE MAN AND HIS TIMES)
Co-Director: Markku Koski
Finland, 1978, 61’
Paavo Nurmi is a sports legend, a name people know to this day. For Finland, Nurmi was an ideal, an axiom of the nation’s spirit – which includes his failings as well. A rigorously composed high mass for an icon maudit.
KREIVI (THE COUNT)
Finland, 1971, 92’
Portrait of a real-life swindler – played by himself! Von Bagh’s feature debut: a weird ‘n wild mix of fact and fiction, documentary scenes and exuberant reconstructions of purportedly true-life events, full of lewd humour and driven by a good-natured humanism. A true discovery!
Short films
AJAN DRAMA (DRAMA OF TIME)
Finland, 1986, 15’
A brief essay on time triggered by a hostage crisis drowned in blood. A fine cinematic exercise in philosophy. Screened before A Time of Roses.
FAARAOIDEN MAA (LAND OF THE PHARAOHS)
Finland, 1988, 29’
Sights and tunes from postwar Finland interspersed with quotes from Mika Waltari’s classic Sinuhe egyptiläinen (1945). An astonishing exercise in reading history – in more than one sense.
PÄIVÄ KARL MARXIN HAUDALLA (A DAY AT KARL MARX’S GRAVE)
Finland, 1983, 16’
A hundred years after the great 19th-century German philosopher’s demise, ordinary people from some 20 nations talk about his legacy. To the people, Marx is still alive.
OLAVI VIRTA
Finland, 1972, 30’
Olavi Virta, Finnish tango’s greatest voice, as an old, lost and lonely man. Time as the great leveller in all its morose unforgivingness.
POCKPICKET ELI KATKELMIA HELSINKILAISEN PORVARISNUOREN ELÄMÄSTÄ (POCKPICKET – RECOLLECTIONS OF A HELSINKI BOURGEOIS YOUTH)
Co-Director: Pertti Maisala
Finland, 1968, 18’
Bresson topsy-turvy: the desolate rich put money into the pockets of the needy. Hilarious, and politically perversely poignant.
Films by other filmmakers:
KAHDEKSAN SURMANLUOTIA (EIGHT DEADLY SHOTS) by Mikko Niskanen
Finland, 1972, 316’
A poor farmer tries to get by, but fails. Blood is shed, not out of malice, but simple desperation. A raw exposé on human degradation and deprivation. A work of Zola-esque violence and grandeur, shown here in its ultra-rare, 5h+ original version. The greatest Finnish film ever.
SF- PARAATI by Yrjö Norta
Finland, 1939, 86’
A musical comedy about a singing cabby and a singing tourist guide in Helsinki which, if viewed with discernment, presents all of Finland’s contradictions and problems in its most troubled moment. An X-ray of an era – and a true Von Bagh favourite.
RUUSUJEN AIKA (A TIME OF ROSES) by Risto Jarva
Finland, 1969, 108’
In 2012, a historian/artist tries to recreate the life of a loose woman from the 1970s – and gets lost in a hall of mirrors of his own creation. Quite frightening to see this film now: back in 1969, it was a dystopia – now, it’s daily life as we know it. An under-appreciated gem!
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Parker Posey in Price Check[/caption]
The Sundance Film Festival announced today the 22 members of the six juries awarding prizes at the 2012 festival, as well as the host of the Awards Ceremony on January 28. The Festival takes place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
Actress and writer Parker Posey will serve as the host of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony, set to take place January 28 at 7:00 p.m. Posey has appeared in more than a dozen films at the Sundance Film Festival, including Party Girl (1995), House of Yes (1997) and Broken English (2007). Posey also appears in Price Check in the out-of-competition Premieres section at this year’s Festival.
Awards for short films will also be announced at a separate ceremony on January 24.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY JURY
Fenton Bailey
Fenton Bailey made his Sundance Film Festival debut in 1998 with the documentary Party Monster. He later co-wrote and co-directed a narrative version of Party Monster, which debuted at Sundance in 2003. Fenton has gone on to produce and/or direct seven films launched at the festival, including Inside Deep Throat and, most recently, the Emmy®-nominated documentary Becoming Chaz. In 2010 he produced the Emmy®-winning documentary The Last Beekeeper, and in 2011 he produced and directed the Emmy®- nominated Wishful Drinking.
Shari Berman
Shari Springer Berman is an Oscar- and Emmy®-nominated filmmaker. With partner Robert Pulcini, she wrote and directed American Splendor (Grand Jury Prize, 2003 Sundance Film Festival; FIPRESCI Award, Cannes Film Festival; Best Adapted Screenplay, Writers Guild Awards and Best Adapted Screenplay Nomination, Academy Awards®). Cinema Verite, Berman and Pulcini’s most recent film,
received nine Emmy® nominations including Best Movie, Outstanding Directing and a win for Best Editing. Their first film, Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen’s, won Best Documentary Feature at the 1997 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Heather Croall
Heather Croall is the Director for Sheffield Doc/Fest, the premiere documentary event in the UK and regarded as one of the best documentary events in the world. Heather was previously the director of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), where she developed the innovative matchmaking pitching initiative MeetMarket.
Charles Ferguson
Charles Ferguson directed and produced Inside Job, which won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature in 2011. His first documentary, No End In Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize. The film went on to be nominated for the Oscar in 2008. Charles is the author of four books, including High Stakes, No Prisoners: A Winner’s Tale of Greed and Glory in the Internet Wars and Computer Wars: The Post-IBM World (co-authored with Charles Morris). He is currently working on a book about the global financial crisis, to be released by Random House in Spring 2012. Charles is the founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc.
Kim Roberts
Kim Roberts is an editor of feature documentaries. Her recent work includes Waiting for Superman, Food, Inc., Autism the Musical, and the upcoming Last Call at the Oasis. Kim won an Emmy® for Autism the Musical, her third nomination. She has received two Eddie Award nominations from the American Cinema Editors, and a WGA nomination. Her other films include: Oscar Nominees and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winners Daughter from Danang and Long Night’s Journey into Day, Two Days in October, The Fall of Fujimori, Lost Boys of Sudan, Daddy & Papa, A Hard Straight and Splinters.
U.S. DRAMATIC JURY
Justin Lin
Justin Lin’s solo directorial debut, the critically acclaimed Better Luck Tomorrow, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and garnered a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize. In April 2003, the film went on to make box office history as the highest-grossing (per-screen average) opening weekend film for MTV Films/Paramount Pictures. In 2009, he directed Universal’s Fast & Furious, which reunited the original cast of the franchise and sparked new life for series. Justin then directed the critically-acclaimed fifth installment of the franchise, Fast Five, which has become one of Universal’s most financially successful movies of all time.
Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie is a classically trained actor who studied at the Julliard School of Drama. His work spans the stage and screen. He was discovered after receiving rave reviews while playing Tupac Shakur in the off-Broadway Up Against the Wind. He earned IFP Spirit and Gotham Award nominations for his performance in Rodney Evan’s Brother to Brother, which won the Special Dramatic Jury Price at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, as well as best feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. He also played Sgt. JT Sanborn in Kathryn’s Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, a film that not only earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination, but also earned Academy Awards® for the Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing and Best Writing.
Cliff Martinez
Cliff Martinez began as a drummer for several bands during the punk era including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Dickies. He later scored Steven Soderbergh’s first theatrical release, 1989’s sex, lies, and videotape, leading to a longstanding relationship which includes Kafka, The Limey, Traffic, Solaris and Contagion. His credits also include Narc, The Lincoln Lawyer and Nicolas Refn’s Drive.
Lynn Shelton
Lynn Shelton was a stage actor until attending graduate school in photography at the School of Visual Arts, at which point she became an editor and experimental filmmaker. Her first narrative feature as a writer/director, We Go Way Back, won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2006. Her second, My Effortless Beauty, premiered at SXSW and earned her the Acura Someone to Watch Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Humpday, her third feature, was awarded a Special Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival as well as the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Your Sister’s Sister premiered at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival and is playing in the out-of-competition Spotlight section at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
Amy Vincent
Amy Vincent is an award-winning cinematographer. She has worked with Kasi Lemmons on Eve’s Bayou, Dr. Hugo, Caveman’s Valentine and with Craig Brewer on Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan, and the recently released Footloose. In addition, Amy’s work has garnered prestigious awards, including the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award for Hustle & Flow and the 2001 Women in Film Kodak Vision Award.
WORLD DOCUMENTARY JURY
Nick Fraser
Nick Fraser has served as the Editor of Storyville since it started in 1997. After graduating from Oxford he worked as a reporter, television producer and editor. His publications include a biography of Eva Peron, The Voice of Modern Hatred, and The Importance of Being Eton. Storyville films have won more than 200 awards, including four Oscars, a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and several Griersons, Emmys® and Peabodys.
Clara Kim
Clara Kim is Senior Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center. She was formerly Gallery Director & Curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles where she organized residencies, commissions, exhibitions and publications with international contemporary artists. She was co-curator of the international biennial Media City Seoul 2010 and organized a global forum on independent spaces called State of Independence in 2011. She has sat on juries for Creative Capital Foundation, Artadia Artist Fellowship, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Louis Comfort Tiffany Award; is on the advisory board of East of Borneo; and is the recipient of fellowships from the Warhol Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council.
Jean-Marie Teno
Jean-Marie Teno has been producing and directing films on the colonial and post-colonial history of Africa for over 25 years. His films are noted for their personal and original approach to issues of race, cultural identity, African history and contemporary politics. Teno’s films have been honored at festivals worldwide: Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Yamagata, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Liepzig, San Francisco, and London. Teno has been a guest of the Flaherty Seminar, an artist in residence at the Pacific Film Archive of the University of California, Berkeley, a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College, and has lectured at numerous universities. He was a Visiting professor at Hampshire College in 2009.
WORLD DRAMATIC JURY
Julia Ormond
British actress Julia Ormond received the London Drama Critics’ Award for Best Newcomer in Christopher Hampton’s Faith, Hope and Charity. She starred in the epic Legends of the Fall, played the lead role with Harrison Ford in the film Sabrina, and starred in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. In 2010 she won a supporting actress Emmy® Award for her role in the HBO Movie Temple Grandin. She is the Founder and President of the Alliance to Stop Slavery and End Trafficking (ASSET), which works with corporations, NGOs, government officials, and individuals to create the systemic change needed to eradicate slavery at source. Julia is a former United Nations Goodwill Ambassador against Trafficking and Slavery, and the founding co-chair of Film Aid International. She can currently be seen in the Weinstein Company’s My Week with Marilyn in which she plays actress Vivien Leigh.
Richard Pena
Richard Peña has been the Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Director of the New York Film Festival since 1988. At the Film Society, Peña has organized retrospectives of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sacha Guitry, Abbas Kiarostami, Robert Aldrich, Roberto Gavaldon, Ritwik Ghatak, Kira Muratova, Youssef Chahine, Yasujiro Ozu, Carlos Saura and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as major film series devoted to African, Swedish, Israeli, Cuban, Polish, Hungarian, Arab, Korean, Taiwanese and Argentine cinema. He is a Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in film theory and international cinema, and from 2006-2009 was a Visiting Professor in Spanish at Princeton University. He is also currently the co-host of WNET/Channel 13’s weekly Reel 13.
Alexei Popogrebsky
Alexei Popogrebsky was born in 1972 in Moscow into a family of a screenwriter. He wrote and directed the award-winning films Roads to Koktebel (2003) (with Boris Khlebnikov), Simple Things (2007), and How I Ended This Summer (2010), set and shot on a polar station in the Russian Arctic and based entirely around two characters. The film won two Silver Bears in Berlin, Gold Hugo in Chicago and Best Film at BFI London Film Festival. Alexei is currently developing his first English-language project, a 3D fantasy drama.
ALFRED P. SLOAN JURY
Scott Burns
Scott Burns recently wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros. film, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The film, starring Bradley Cooper and currently in development, is set to begin production in early 2012 and marks Burns’ fourth collaboration with Steven Soderbergh, who will direct. He also wrote Contagion and co- wrote the Academy Award®-winning Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass. As a producer, he received the Humanitas Prize and the Stanley Kramer Award from the Producers Guild of America for his Academy Award®-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. He wrote and directed HBO Films’ critically acclaimed PU-239, which was produced by Soderbergh and George Clooney. Scott also wrote The Library, a stage play based on the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School with Kennedy/Marshall producing. He began his career in advertising and was part of the creative team responsible for the original “Got Milk?” campaign.
Tracy Day
Tracy Day co-founded the World Science Festival in 2008 with world-renowned physicist and best-selling author Brian Greene. She serves as CEO and oversees the creative and programmatic offerings of the World Science Festival. She is a four-time National News Emmy® award-winning journalist and has produced live and documentary programming for the nation’s preeminent television news divisions for over two decades. At ABC News she was producer for This Week with David Brinkley, editorial and field producer for Nightline and story editor for the news magazine, Day One. Tracy has produced documentaries, specials and live town meeting broadcasts for PBS, The Discovery Channel, CNN, Lifetime and CNBC. In addition to Emmy® Awards, she won a Hugo Award, a 2004 Clarion Award and the CINE Golden Eagle for investigative journalism. She has been an adjunct professor in the Leadership and the Arts program at the Sanford Institute for Public Policy.
Helen Fisher
Helen Fisher, PhD, is a biological Anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems (fMRI) and cross-cultural patterns of romantic love, mate choice, marriage, adultery, divorce, gender differences in the brain, personality, temperament, and business personalities. She has written five internationally best selling books, including WHY HIM? WHY HER?; WHY WE LOVE; and ANATOMY OF LOVE. She lectures worldwide. Among her speeches are those at the World Economic Forum at Davos, TED, United Nations, Smithsonian, Salk Institute, Harvard Medical School and Aspen Institute.
She publishes widely in academic and lay journals. For her work in the media, Helen received the American Anthropological Association’s Distinguished Service Award.
SHORT FILM JURY
Mike Judge
Mike Judge is the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head for MTV and King of the Hill for FOX TV. He expanded into writing and directing his own live-action films, Office Space, Idiocracy and Extract. He’s done voices for South Park and acted in Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids movies. Mike recently resurrected Beavis and Butt-Head with 12 new shows for MTV.
Dee Rees
Dee Rees is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a Sundance Institute Directing Lab Fellow. She’s written and directed several short films including the award-winning Pariah, which screened at over 40 festivals worldwide. Her feature documentary, Eventual Salvation, premiered on the Sundance Channel in 2009, and her debut narrative feature, Pariah, opened the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Dee received a Renew Media Arts Fellowship for her work, and recently completed an endowed residency at Yaddo. Currently, Dee is writing an original screenplay for Focus Features and is also in development on a new television series with HBO. Dee interned on Spike Lee’s films When The Levees Broke and Inside Man.
Shane Smith
Shane Smith has been a programmer, jury member and speaker at film festivals all over the world. He is currently the Director of Public Programmes at TIFF Bell Lightbox. He previously served as the Executive Producer, In-flight Entertainment at Spafax Canada Inc., where he oversaw all in-flight programming for Air Canada. He also was the Director of Programming for the digital TV channels Movieola: The Short Film Channel and Silver Screen Classics. He was a Short Film Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival from 2006-2010 and for six years was the Director of the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival. He is a former Programmer for the Inside Out Festival, a member of the Organizing Committee of the International Short Film Conference and was formerly on the Board of Directors of the Centre for Aboriginal Media, presenters of the imagineNATIVE Film Festival.
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This Ain’t California by Marten Persiel[/caption]
With 13 films, including three full-length documentaries and four full-length fictional films as well two sets of three medium-long films each, the programme of the 2012 Perspektive Deutsches Kino is complete . Section director Linda Söffker sums up the selection: “The GDR was colourful, adolescents are critical and good films end in our minds.”
West Berliner Michael Schöbel and East Berliner Ronald Vietz launched Wildfremd Productions in 2011 so as to make a film such as had never been seen on the screen before about teenagers in the GDR in the 1980s. Under the direction of Marten Persiel, they revived the weird and strange world of “Rollbrettffahrer”, as skateboarders were called in the GDR, using a veritable treasure trove of footage from super-8 films they had dug up from the period. This Ain’t California is Persiel’s first full-length documentary.
Unlike the skateboarders in the GDR, today’s young slam poets rebel with rhymes and verses, political and socio-critical visions or just plain nonsense. Marion Hütter’s documentary Dichter und Kämpfer accompanies four word-acrobats from Berlin, Leipzig, Bochum and Stuttgart with a camera for a year and shows how they enjoy giving their audiences food for thought.
Jan Speckenbach’s dffb graduation film, DIE VERMISSTEN with André M. Hennicke in the lead, envisions parents’ fears when their children are missing. Have they disappeared against their will because something happened to them? Or have they disappeared because they wanted to rebel against their parents and find a life different from theirs? Jan Speckenbach, whose short film Gestern in Eden screened in the Cinefondation in Cannes in 2008, plays with a threatening scenario in his debut film.
In their self-financed production Karaman, Tamer Yigit and Branka Prlic also tell a story that ends differently in each viewer’s mind. Zehra (Isilay Gül) wants to immigrate to Germany. But as a Muslim woman, can she leave an Islamic country for the West? The family are against it. Karaman is the second full-length feature by directing duo Yigit and Prlic.
Four medium-long films round off the programme:
The 43-minute fictional film Trattoria (directed by Soleen Yusef), produced at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg; the 26-minute fictional film Ararat by Engin Kundag made at the ifs köln; the 32-minute fictional work about the pleasure of idleness, Sometimes we sit and think and sometimes we just sit (directed by Julian Pörksen), produced by Credofilm (Berlin); and Alice Gruia’s self-produced 53-minute documentary, Rodicas, about two friends of the same name.
An overview of all the films in Perspektive Deutsches Kino:
Ararat by Engin Kundag
Dichter und Kämpfer (Rhymers and Rivals) by Marion Hütter (documentary)
DIE VERMISSTEN (REPORTED MISSING) by Jan Speckenbach
Gegen Morgen (Before Tomorrow) by Joachim Schoenfeld
Karaman by Tamer Yigit and Branka Prlic
Man for a Day by Katarina Peters (documentary)
Rodicas by Alice Gruia (documentary)
Sometimes we sit and think, and sometimes we just sit by Julian Pörksen
Sterben nicht vorgesehen (Dying Not Planned For) by Matthias Stoll (documentary)
Tage in der Stadt (Out Off) by Janis Mazuch
This Ain’t California by Marten Persiel (documentary)
Trattoria by Soleen Yusef
Westerland by Tim Staffel
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In the Land of Blood and Honey[/caption]
An additional ten world premieres will be screening in the Competition programme of the Berlinale 2012. Directors Billy Bob Thornton, Christian Petzold, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Benedek Fliegauf, Hans-Christian Schmid, Matthias Glasner, Miguel Gomes, Alain Gomis, Ursula Meier and Spiros Stathoulopoulos will all be competing for this year’s Berlinale Bears.
On the first weekend of the Festival, Angelina Jolie will be presenting her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele’s new cinema.
Competition
Aujourd´hui
France/Senegal
By Alain Gomis (L´Afrance, Andalucia)
With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M’bengue
World premiere
Barbara
Germany
By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben)
With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld
World premiere
Cesare deve morire (Caesar Must Die)
Italy
By Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone, La notte di San Lorenzo, La masseria delle allodole, San Michele aveva un gallo)
With Fabio Cavalli, Salvatore Striano
World premiere
Gnade
Germany/Norway
By Matthias Glasner (The Free Will, Sexy Sadie)
With Jürgen Vogel, Birgit Minichmayr, Henry Stange
World premiere
Jayne Mansfield’s Car
Russian Federation/USA
By Billy Bob Thornton (Sling Blade, The King of Luck, All the pretty Horses)
With Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon
World premiere
L´enfant d´en haut (Sister)
Switzerland/France
By Ursula Meier (Tous à table, Des épaules solides, Home)
With Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Gillian Anderson, Martin Compston
World premiere
Metéora (Meteora)
Germany/Greece
By Spiros Stathoulopoulos (PVC-1)
With Theo Alexander, Tamila Koulieva
World premiere
Tabu
Portugal/Germany/Brazil/France
By Miguel Gomes (The Face You Deserve, Our Beloved Month Of August)
With Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira, Carloto Cotta
World premiere
Csak a szél (Just The Wind)
Hungary/Germany/France
By Benedek Fliegauf (Dealer, Rengeteg, Tejút, Womb)
With Lajos Sárkány, Katalin Toldi, Gyöngyi Lendvai, Géza Jungwirth
World premiere
Was bleibt (Home For The Weekend)
Germany
By Hans-Christian Schmid (Storm, Requiem, Distant Lights)
With Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Sebastian Zimmler, Ernst Stötzner
World premiere
Berlinale Special
In The Land Of Blood And Honey
USA
By Angelina Jolie (directorial debut)
With Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Šrbedžija, Vanesa Glodjo
German premiere
[caption id="attachment_2165" align="alignnone"]
Special Flight[/caption]
The 9th Human Rights Watch Film Festival opens on February 29, 2012 in Toronto Canada at TIFF Bell Lightbox with Fernand Melgar’s documentary Special Flight, a portrait of the legal limbo that faces thousands of detainees in Switzerland’s Frambois detention centre as refugees anxiously await confirmation of their requests for asylum. The festival is a co-presentation between TIFF and Human Rights Watch, and will run until March 9.
Festival highlights include Jon Shenk’s The Island President (2011), winner of the Cadillac People’s Choice Documentary Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011, which follows Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed as he tries to save his country from being inundated by rising sea levels – the result of global warming; Pamela Yates’ Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011), a haunting tale of genocide and delayed justice that spans four decades, two films, and director Yates’ own career; Mimi Chakarova’s The Price of Sex (2011), a startling exposé of sex trafficking in Europe and the Middle East; and Sundance and Emmy Award-winning director Lee Hirsch’s The Bully Project (2011), which acts as a catalyst for change by confronting the prejudices which spark bullying and giving voice to those who work tirelessly to protect the vulnerable.
“The lineup of timely films in this festival inform and remind audiences of human rights issues being faced around the world,” said Helga Stephenson, chairperson of the festival. “The themes that emerge this year – the plight of refugees, the trafficking of young women, bullying among teens – are extremely relevant. We hope the films will provide a springboard for discussion and increase awareness of human rights issues – both locally and globally.”
The full line-up of films follows.
Special Flight (Vol spécial) Dir: Fernand Melgar
Wednesday, February 29 at 8pm *OPENING NIGHT*
In Switzerland’s Frambois detention centre, refugees anxiously await confirmation of their requests for asylum while living in fear of the “special flights” that face those who are rejected, returning them to their countries of origin and crushing their dreams of a new life. Fernand Melgar’s film is a deeply affecting portrait of the legal limbo that faces thousands of detainees every year. Melgar evocatively captures the atmosphere of agonizing tedium and sudden, shocking rupture that characterizes these institutions: deportation notices arrive swiftly, with no option for appeal, and the physical removals from the centre are even more harrowing as the wardens often develop deep connections with the detainees.
Habibi Dir: Susan Youssef
Thursday, March 1 at 8pm
While shooting her documentary Forbidden to Wander, Susan Youssef travelled the Gaza Strip and observed how restricted access impeded development and stability, deepened poverty and radicalized the political conflict, with the resulting violence and despair permeating communities and individual psyches alike. This experience informed the making of Habibi, a tragic romance about Layla (Maisa Abd Elhadi) and Qays (Kais Nashef), university students whose blossoming passion is interrupted when they are forced to
return home to their families, their student visas having been revoked during the latest wave of restrictions. The young lovers find themselves trapped between the physical barriers of political oppression and the restrictive, patriarchal ideology of the oppressed.
The Bully Project Dir: Lee Hirsch
Friday, March 2 at 8pm
News stories across North America attest to the destructive impact of bullying, as dozens of teens every year commit suicide following histories of emotional and physical violence from their peers that went unchecked and unchanged. Sundance and Emmy-award winning director Lee Hirsch spent a year documenting the lives of tormented teens and their families, exposing shocking scenes of verbal and physical abuse and vividly depicting bureaucratic indifference or impotence, parents who are powerless to help, and innocent kids on the cusp of adulthood who desperately cling to the slim hope that “things will get better.” The Bully Project acts as a catalyst for change by confronting the prejudices which spark bullying and giving voice to those who work tirelessly to protect the vulnerable.
Color of the Ocean (Die Farbe des Ozeans) Dir: Maggie Peren
Saturday, March 3 at 8pm
Located off the coast of northwest Africa, the Canary Islands are both a tourist paradise and a purgatory for refugees. Border guard José (Alex González) is cynical about his work, but his weary attitude is put to the test when he encounters Nathalie (Sabine Timoteo), a German tourist assisting a boatload of refugees she discovered landing on the coast. When one of the refugees, a Congolese man named Zola (Hubert Koundé), is placed in an internment camp with his son, Nathalie determines to help them escape – but the two soon find themselves in yet another precarious situation, in which they are dependent on nefarious smugglers.
Burma Soldier Dirs: Nic Dunlop, Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern
Sunday, March 4 at 8pm
Myo Myint’s decision to enlist in the Burmese army at the age of seventeen was not motivated by ideology, but simply because it was the only path to employment, respect and security. In this capacity he supported the brutal military junta that dominated the nation for nearly half a century until he lost a limb to a mortar explosion, and emerged from this trauma as an activist determined to bring democracy to his country. Speaking from the Umpeim Mai refugee camp in northern Thailand as he awaits refugee status, Myint gives a sobering record of his experiences and his suffering at the hands of the military regime he once served, including over a decade in solitary confinement for voicing his disapproval of the junta. Myint’s story, illustrated by archival footage smuggled out of Burma, is a vivid account of an individual’s sacrifice to help change the lives of millions.
This Is My Land… Hebron Dirs: Giulia Amati & Stephen Natanson
Monday, March 5 at 8pm
The largest city in the occupied West Bank and the site of one of the first Israeli settlements there, Hebron is populated by 160,000 Palestinians and 600 Israeli settlers who require a garrison of 2,000 Israeli soldiers for protection. For these unwilling neighbours, conflict has become a way of life, and directors Giulia Amati and Stephen Natanson capture this charged situation through the multiple, interweaving narratives of residents and observers. Featuring interviews with ordinary Israelis and Palestinians living in the city, activists on both sides, prominent Ha’aretz journalists and members of the Israeli parliament, This Is My Land… Hebron is a vivid portrait of a chasm between cultures.
The Price of Sex Dir: Mimi Chakarova
Tuesday, March 6 at 8pm
Award-winning photojournalist Mimi Chakarova delves into the world of international sex trafficking in this startling exposé, revealing the cruel conditions that have forced thousands of women into a life defined by fear, shame and violence. With brutal honesty and courageous perseverance, these young women relate how they were bought, sold, and taken far from home to toil in brothels across Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. The culmination of an eight-year investigative journalism project that took Chakarova through Moldova, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Dubai, The Price of Sex boldly brings this ever more pressing issue into stark relief, and was awarded Human Rights Watch International’s 2011 Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking.
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator Dir: Pamela Yates
Thursday, March 8 at 8pm
Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito takes us through a haunting tale of genocide and delayed justice that spans four decades, two films, and director Pamela Yates’ own career. While filming in Guatemala, then under the harsh military dictatorship of General Efraín Ríos Montt, to make her 1982 documentary When the Mountains Tremble, Yates managed to capture the only known footage of the Guatemalan army as it carried out its genocidal campaign against the indigenous Mayan population. Twenty-five years later, this footage becomes evidence in an international war crimes case against the very army commander who permitted Yates to film. Conducting new interviews with activists, witnesses and forensic experts, Yates herself joins this disparate movement of truth-seekers, each of them contributing their own granito, or grain of sand, to the reconstruction of collective memory and the pursuit of justice.
The Island President Dir: Jon Shenk
Friday, March 9 at 8pm *CLOSING NIGHT*
Cadillac People’s Choice Documentary Award, Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Mohamed Nasheed spent two decades leading a pro-democracy movement against a cruel dictatorship in the Maldives, suffering imprisonments and torture until groundswell support elected him president at age 41. Suddenly he found himself facing a new crisis: the possible extinction of his own country. If ocean levels continue to rise at their current rate, over a thousand coral islands of the Maldives will be submerged like a modern Atlantis. Obtaining remarkable access to Nasheed during his first year in office, director Jon Shenk offers both an inspiring personal story and an insider’s look at the dirty business of political deal-making during the 2009 climate change summit at Copenhagen. Featuring stunning cinematography and a haunting score by Radiohead, The Island President is one of the year’s most essential documentaries.
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Manhattan’s Bryant Park[/caption]
Tropfest, which describes itself as the world’s largest short film festival, announced it is calling for entries for Tropfest New York, which will take place at Manhattan’s Bryant Park on June 23rd. Filmmakers will have the opportunity to see their short film screened in front of a massive live and online audience, and judged by an industry and celebrity panel for a chance to win $20,000 cash and other prizes.
Founded 20 years ago in Sydney, Australia, Tropfest is supported by some of the biggest stars in the international film community, Tropfest New York Ambassadors include: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman, Anthony Lapaglia, Liev Schreiber, Geoffrey Rush and Charles Randolph.
Dozens of successful directors, writers, actors and others got their start at Tropfest. Festival alumni include: Sam Worthington (Avatar, Last Night); Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, Warrior, Animal Kingdom); Alister Grierson (director of the James Cameron-produced Sanctum); and Tony Rogers, whose Tropfest short, Wilfred, was the origin of the popular U.S. TV series of the same name starring Elijah Wood.
There are a few simple guidelines Tropfest entrants must follow: all short films must be produced specifically for the event and have their premiere at Tropfest New York; films cannot exceed seven minutes, including titles and credits; and each film must contain the Tropfest Signature Item (TSI), which changes each year. For the inaugural Tropfest New York, the chosen TSI is a staple of New York culinary culture, the “Bagel”. In Tropfest tradition, filmmakers can include the “Bagel” in their films in any manner they choose.
The Tropfest New York main event will be open to the public, free of charge. It will take place on Saturday June 23, 2012 at New York City’s Bryant Park, located in midtown on Sixth Avenue between West 40th and West 42nd Street. An industry and celebrity panel will judge the selected finalists live, under the stars. During the final awards ceremony, the panel will announce the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners as well as awards for Best Actor and Best Actress and a People’s Choice award. Previous Tropfest judges have included some of the biggest names in the international film community
In addition to the short film competition that serves as the centerpiece for the 3 day-long event, other ticketed festivities will include musical performances and a filmmaker symposium.
In its main section Spectrum, the International Film Festival Rotterdam screens films by experienced directors and maestros of artistic and experimental cinema. In total, Spectrum is made up of seventy-two features and documentaries from thirty-two countries, among which eight films supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund. The full Spectrum title list is available here.