Eighteen documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe will take part this week in Between the Seas, a competition section at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, including a host of world premieres from emerging and established filmmakers.
“It’s very rare to have this type of program focusing on [Central and] Eastern Europe,” said festival director Marek Hovorka. “We are part of this region, and we want to be able to support professionals in film in this region [to] meet professionals in film from outside this region—not only from Europe, but from the rest of the world.”
Launched in 2001 with a focus on Central European documentaries – and expanded to include Eastern Europe the following year – Between the Seas was the first international competition at Ji.hlava, and it remains an “essential” part of the festival, said Hovorka.
Among the highlights of this year’s competition are the world premiere of “The End and the Means,...
“It’s very rare to have this type of program focusing on [Central and] Eastern Europe,” said festival director Marek Hovorka. “We are part of this region, and we want to be able to support professionals in film in this region [to] meet professionals in film from outside this region—not only from Europe, but from the rest of the world.”
Launched in 2001 with a focus on Central European documentaries – and expanded to include Eastern Europe the following year – Between the Seas was the first international competition at Ji.hlava, and it remains an “essential” part of the festival, said Hovorka.
Among the highlights of this year’s competition are the world premiere of “The End and the Means,...
- 10/27/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
An unflinching look at people during the final years, or days, of their existence, End of Life captures how our last moments can be filled with wonder, terror, and even bursts of creativity and humor, focusing on several characters who do not wish to go gentle into that good night.
Directed by John Bruce and Pawel Wojtasik, who shot footage for over four years and trained as doulas in order to get as close to their subjects as possible, the experimental documentary is made up of different sequences — many of them shot in uninterrupted takes — where the camera...
Directed by John Bruce and Pawel Wojtasik, who shot footage for over four years and trained as doulas in order to get as close to their subjects as possible, the experimental documentary is made up of different sequences — many of them shot in uninterrupted takes — where the camera...
- 4/6/2018
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An unflinching look at people during the final years, or days, of their existence, <em>End of Life</em> captures how our last moments can be filled with wonder, terror, and even bursts of creativity and humor, focusing on several characters who do not wish to go gentle into that good night.
Directed by John Bruce and Pawel Wojtasik, who shot footage for over four years and trained as doulas in order to get as close to their subjects as possible, the experimental documentary is made up of different sequences — many of them shot in uninterrupted takes — where the camera remains ...
Directed by John Bruce and Pawel Wojtasik, who shot footage for over four years and trained as doulas in order to get as close to their subjects as possible, the experimental documentary is made up of different sequences — many of them shot in uninterrupted takes — where the camera remains ...
Below you will find an index of all our coverage of the 67th Locarno Film Festival by Adam Cook, Marie-Pierre Duhamel, and Celluloid Liberation Front.
Web Exclusive: The World of Titanus by Carlo Chatrian
Films
From What is Before by Lav Diaz
The Princess of France by Matías Piñeiro
Buzzard by Joel Potrykus (x two)
Listen Up Philip by Alex Ross Perry
Horse Money by Pedro Costa
Sosialismi by Peter von Bagh
Single Stream by Ernst Karel, Toby Lee, & Pawel Wojtasik
White Nights on the Pier by Paul Vecchiali
La Sapienza by Eugène Green
Une jeune poète by Damien Manivel
Interviews
Soon-Mi Yoo (director of Songs From the North)...
Web Exclusive: The World of Titanus by Carlo Chatrian
Films
From What is Before by Lav Diaz
The Princess of France by Matías Piñeiro
Buzzard by Joel Potrykus (x two)
Listen Up Philip by Alex Ross Perry
Horse Money by Pedro Costa
Sosialismi by Peter von Bagh
Single Stream by Ernst Karel, Toby Lee, & Pawel Wojtasik
White Nights on the Pier by Paul Vecchiali
La Sapienza by Eugène Green
Une jeune poète by Damien Manivel
Interviews
Soon-Mi Yoo (director of Songs From the North)...
- 9/9/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Described by the filmmaker as a "gallery," Sosialismi assembles footage from 40-something films, while also mixing in quotes, songs, and more. The theme that unites the cited material is, as the title might suggest, socialism. Peter von Bagh appropriates the footage to reconstruct a unified, idealist, and even dreamlike vision of socialist / left-wing ideas...or maybe not ideas so much as faith. This reconstruction knows no borders, and transcends place and temporality. Rather than delving into the details of the history/reality of socialism in the 20th century, the film creates a tapestry of socialist belief as found in disparate works from around the world. It is a take on what cinema thinks of / imagines as socialism. Ranging from Dziga Vertov to John Ford to Chaplin to Pasolini, dozens of films and filmmakers take part, if only implicitly, in testifying to a certain way of thinking/believing/living.
Von Bagh...
Von Bagh...
- 8/19/2014
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Just steps from the outdoor screen and the 8,000 seats that have been set up on the Piazza Grande where the 67th Locarno International Film Festival will open on 6 August, I sat down with Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to talk about films of the past and present, the American independent film line-up, Roman Polanski and Agnès Varda.
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
- 8/6/2014
- by Susan Kouguell
- Sydney's Buzz
The 21st annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, which will run April 2-6 at the Logan Theater, will be extra special this year. Why? Because Mike Everleth, the Executive Editor of the Underground Film Journal, is sitting on this year’s festival jury! And looking over the fest lineup below, he is incredibly excited to witness this visual extravaganza of revolutionary cinematic madness. (Other jurors are Brian Chankin, Therese Grisham and Alison Cuddy.)
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
- 3/28/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 9th annual Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, aka Flex, was held on February 15-17 in Gainesville, Florida. This year was one of the fest’s competitive years — (it alternates years with a curated event) – so they gave out 12 awards to 14 deserving filmmakers.
Awards were given out to both film and video artists and were broken up into both long form and short form categories. The film awards included projects in 35mm (Scott Stark), 16mm (Robert Todd) and Super 8 (Paul Clipson).
Below is the full list of winners. And below that is the full program lineup of the fest.
Film (long)
1. Scott Stark, Traces ($600 Kodak product grant)
2. Josh Gibson, Kudzu Vine ($200)
3. Shinya Isobe, Eden ($100)
Film (short)
1. Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy, Awe Shocks ($600 Kodak product grant)
2. Robert Todd, Cove ($200)
3. Paul Clipson, Compound Eyes No. 1 ($100)
Video (long)
1. Ben Russell and Jim Drain, Ponce de León ($300)
2. Benjamin Pearson, Former Models ($200)
3. Paul Tarragó,...
Awards were given out to both film and video artists and were broken up into both long form and short form categories. The film awards included projects in 35mm (Scott Stark), 16mm (Robert Todd) and Super 8 (Paul Clipson).
Below is the full list of winners. And below that is the full program lineup of the fest.
Film (long)
1. Scott Stark, Traces ($600 Kodak product grant)
2. Josh Gibson, Kudzu Vine ($200)
3. Shinya Isobe, Eden ($100)
Film (short)
1. Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy, Awe Shocks ($600 Kodak product grant)
2. Robert Todd, Cove ($200)
3. Paul Clipson, Compound Eyes No. 1 ($100)
Video (long)
1. Ben Russell and Jim Drain, Ponce de León ($300)
2. Benjamin Pearson, Former Models ($200)
3. Paul Tarragó,...
- 2/20/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 15th annual Antimatter Film Festival is grinding out, as it always does, an incredible program of avant-garde and experimental short films and features from all over the world. The visual smorgasbord is assaulting Victoria, British Columbia on Oct. 12-20.
Some of the features include Matt McCormick‘s lyrical travelogue road trip The Great Northwest, Sabine Gruffat‘s Detroit & Dubai contrast and comparison I Have Always Been a Dreamer and Ben Rivers‘ acclaimed pastoral odyssey Two Years at Sea.
On the short film front, there’s Salise Hughes‘ vanishing Erasable Cities, Deborah Stratman‘s reworked silent film Village, silenced, Matt McCormick‘s meditation on abandoned spaces Future So Bright, Jem Cohen‘s portrait doc Crossing Paths With Luce Vigo, Lyn Elliot‘s stop-motion Another Dress, Another Button, Alyssa Timon‘s A Dog Wearing Glasses; and tons more.
Plus, there’s the special “Home Movie Day” tribute to Victoria, BC on Oct.
Some of the features include Matt McCormick‘s lyrical travelogue road trip The Great Northwest, Sabine Gruffat‘s Detroit & Dubai contrast and comparison I Have Always Been a Dreamer and Ben Rivers‘ acclaimed pastoral odyssey Two Years at Sea.
On the short film front, there’s Salise Hughes‘ vanishing Erasable Cities, Deborah Stratman‘s reworked silent film Village, silenced, Matt McCormick‘s meditation on abandoned spaces Future So Bright, Jem Cohen‘s portrait doc Crossing Paths With Luce Vigo, Lyn Elliot‘s stop-motion Another Dress, Another Button, Alyssa Timon‘s A Dog Wearing Glasses; and tons more.
Plus, there’s the special “Home Movie Day” tribute to Victoria, BC on Oct.
- 10/15/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 23rd annual Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, which wrapped up on June 26, has announced a trio of award winners, plus a trio of honorable mentions.
The first place winner is prolific experimental filmmaker Robert Todd for his film Morning Glory. Todd, a film professor at Emerson College, regularly screens new work at Onion City. The second and third place winners both have animals for film titles: Pawel Wojtasik’s Pigs and Milena Gierke’s Toads, respectively.
The three filmmakers who won honorable mentions are: Yoel Meranda, Neil Beloufa and Lennon Batchelor.
The jury for this edition of Onion City were: Lou Mallozzi, an audio artist; Spencer Parsons, a filmmaker and film professor at Northwestern University; and Jennifer Wild, a Cinema and Media Studies professor at the University of Chicago.
The list of winners is below:
First Place
Morning Glory, dir. Robert Todd
Second Place
Pigs, dir. Pawel Wojtasik
Third Place
Toads,...
The first place winner is prolific experimental filmmaker Robert Todd for his film Morning Glory. Todd, a film professor at Emerson College, regularly screens new work at Onion City. The second and third place winners both have animals for film titles: Pawel Wojtasik’s Pigs and Milena Gierke’s Toads, respectively.
The three filmmakers who won honorable mentions are: Yoel Meranda, Neil Beloufa and Lennon Batchelor.
The jury for this edition of Onion City were: Lou Mallozzi, an audio artist; Spencer Parsons, a filmmaker and film professor at Northwestern University; and Jennifer Wild, a Cinema and Media Studies professor at the University of Chicago.
The list of winners is below:
First Place
Morning Glory, dir. Robert Todd
Second Place
Pigs, dir. Pawel Wojtasik
Third Place
Toads,...
- 6/28/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 23rd annual Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival presents four nights of international avant-garde and experimental media from all over the world. The fest runs June 23-26 with the Opening Night festivities taking place at the Gene Siskel Film Center and the rest of the screenings held at the venerable Chicago Filmmakers, which has been behind the event for the past 11 years.
The Opening Night presentation begins with the new short film from the Brothers Quay, Maska, which was produced in Poland and based on a short story by Polish author Stanislaw Lem (Solaris). Also included in the opening screening are films by Thom Anderson, Mati Diop, Christopher Becks, Milena Gierke and more.
The Closing Night film is the much anticipated new feature by former Chicagoan James Fotopoulos. He will be screening Alice in Wonderland, an adaptation of an 1886 musical based on the classic children’s book. The film features hundreds of drawings,...
The Opening Night presentation begins with the new short film from the Brothers Quay, Maska, which was produced in Poland and based on a short story by Polish author Stanislaw Lem (Solaris). Also included in the opening screening are films by Thom Anderson, Mati Diop, Christopher Becks, Milena Gierke and more.
The Closing Night film is the much anticipated new feature by former Chicagoan James Fotopoulos. He will be screening Alice in Wonderland, an adaptation of an 1886 musical based on the classic children’s book. The film features hundreds of drawings,...
- 6/10/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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