Category Archives: Berlin Film Festival

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Documentary

Forum 2017: Realistic and Surreal

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

The 47th Berlinale Forum is showing 43 films in its main program, 29 of which as world premieres and 10 as international premieres. This year’s Special Screenings will be announced in a later post.

This year’s program shines a light on the sheer wealth of forms employed by the documentary, including films from Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. The spectrum could hardly be broader here, encompassing institutional portraits, long-term observational projects, and works that employ participatory, narrative, essayistic, ethnographic, political and experimental approaches. These are joined by various hybrid forms that cannot be clearly categorized as either fiction or non-fiction. One recurring motif is that of landscape, which is seldom relegated to the status of backdrop, but rather frequently takes on a leading role.

One regional focus is formed by films from Latin America, with six works from Brazil, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Argentina exhibiting a wide range of different formal approaches.

 

screen-shot-2017-01-18-at-10-28-59-am

Davi Pretto’s narrative feature Rifle sets out for the endless plains of the Brazilian south to stage a modern Western there. A taciturn former soldier is employed to guard a small landholder’s estate. But when an agricultural company seeks to buy up the land, he reacts in truly drastic fashion.

Peruvian brothers Alvaro und Diego Sarmiento find stunning images to convey the leisurely flow of life in a verdant river landscape. Río Verde. El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River. The Time of the Yakurunas) is an attentive observation of the daily routines of the indigenous inhabitants of Peru’s Amazon region.

In Casa Roshell, Chilean director Camila José Donoso assembles a portrait of a most unusual institution in the Mexican capital, a place where men learn to be women during the day, before the parties get going at night. All manner of boundaries blur in this tiny utopia: between gay, straight and bi, male and female, past and present, reality and fiction.

Vladimir Durán’s debut feature Adiós entusiasmo (So Long Enthusiasm) is at once realistic and surreal and one of three Argentinian films showing in the main program. Ten-year-old Axel lives with his mother and three sisters in a flat in Buenos Aires. They’d be a perfectly normal family if only the mother weren’t imprisoned in one of the rooms.

El teatro de la desaparición (The Theatre of Disappearance) by sculptor and installation artist Adrián Villar Rojas presents a hypnotic triptych which depicts latent states of war, drawing on sensual images seemingly only tenuously connected that employ disparate styles and jump freely from continent to continent.

Albertina Carri’s Cuatreros (Rustlers) examines Argentina’s complex recent past: Isidro Velázquez was a bandit and dissident active in the 1960s whose story formed both the basis for a sociology book by her father Roberto Carri and a feature film that is now lost. The director draws on archive images to bring her own biography into alignment with wider historical events.

The Sensory Ethnographic Lab has already been well-represented at the Forum and Forum Expanded in the form of Sweetgrass, Leviathan and Yumen and several of its key figures now return to this year’s program. Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s somniloquies works with sound recordings of Dion McGregor, who became famous for talking in his sleep. In El mar la mar, J.P. Sniadecki and Joshua Bonnetta dissect the Sonoran Desert – a landscape marked by the border between the United States and Mexico.

North American cinema once again forms a strong presence at this year’s Forum. Golden Exits by Alex Ross Perry tells the story of a young Australian woman who comes to New York for a few months and unwittingly throws the lives of two couples into disarray.

Menashe, the feature debut by Joshua Z Weinstein, is set in Borough Park, Brooklyn and is almost entirely in Yiddish. The titular Menashe fights to keep custody of his son following the death of his wife. Yet the Hasidic community demands he lead a more ordered life and find a new spouse, neither of which come easy to this kind, but awkward loner.

Amman Abbasi is also showing his debut feature at the Forum. It tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who has lost direction following the death of his brother, meaning that being initiated into a local gang now appears a necessary step towards becoming a man. Dayveon is a search for brotherhood in an African American community in the rural South.

Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest’s sensitive long-term documentary For Ahkeem was shot in Missouri, focussing on Daje, who lives with her single mother in St. Louis. Like many black teenagers in the neighbourhood, she has problems at school, while her everyday life is shaken again and again by the violent deaths of her friends.

The many strong documentaries in the program also include works from Germany. Ann Carolin Renninger and René Frölke’s Aus einem Jahr der Nichtereignisse (From a Year of Non-Events) follows a year in the life of a 90-year-old north German farmer, who lives alone on a rural farmstead.

Heinz Emigholz, a familiar Forum guest for many years now, returns to the programme with his “Streetscapes” series, which loosely links together four separate films. 2+2=22 [The Alphabet] documents the recording sessions for the album “ABC” by electronic music group Kreidler in Tbilisi, Georgia. Bickels [Socialism] examines the architecture of Samuel Bickels, who created numerous kibbutz buildings and museums in Israel. Streetscapes [Dialogue] is a fictionalized dialogue about filmmaking based on the protocols of a mammoth psychoanalysis session and was shot in buildings by Julio Vilamajó, Eladio Dieste and Arno Brandlhuber in Uruguay and Berlin, some of which then pop up again in the final chapter Dieste [Uruguay].

Nicolas Wackerbarth’s feature Casting is also dedicated to the process of filmmaking. Director Vera is unwilling to compromise when it comes to finding the right lead actress for a Fassbinder remake for television. Acting assistant Gerwin delivers dialogues with a bevy of famous actresses and soon realises that this could be his big chance. The film’s starry cast includes Ursina Lardi, Andrea Sawatzki, Corinna Kirchhoff, Judith Engel, Marie-Lou Sellem and many more.

The films of the 47th Forum

2+2=22 [The Alphabet] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Adiós entusiasmo (So Long Enthusiasm) by Vladimir Durán, Argentina / Colombia – WP

At Elske Pia (Loving Pia) by Daniel Joseph Borgmann, Denmark – WP

Aus einem Jahr der Nichtereignisse (From a Year of Non-Events) by Ann Carolin Renninger, René Frölke, Germany – WP

Autumn, Autumn by Jang Woo-jin, Republic of Korea – IP

Barrage by Laura Schroeder, Luxembourg / Belgium / France – WP

Bickels [Socialism] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany / Israel – WP

Casa Roshell by Camila José Donoso, Mexico / Chile – WP

Casting by Nicolas Wackerbarth, Germany – WP

Chemi bednieri ojakhi (My Happy Family) by Nana & Simon, Germany / Georgia/France

Cuatreros (Rustlers) by Albertina Carri, Argentina – IP

Dayveon by Amman Abbasi, USA – IP

Dieste [Uruguay] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Drôles d’oiseaux (Strange Birds) by Elise Girard, France – IP

For Ahkeem by Jeremy Levine, Landon Van Soest, USA – WP

Golden Exits by Alex Ross Perry, USA – IP

Jassad gharib (Foreign Body) by Raja Amari, Tunisia / France

Loktak Lairembee (Lady of the Lake) by Haobam Paban Kumar, India

Maman Colonelle (Mama Colonel) by Dieudo Hamadi, Democratic Republic of Congo / France – WP

El mar la mar by J.P. Sniadecki, Joshua Bonnetta, USA – WP

El mar nos mira de lejos (The Sea Stares at Us from Afar) by Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Spain / The Netherlands – WP

Menashe by Joshua Z Weinstein, USA / Israel – IP

Mittsu no hikari (Three Lights) by Kohki Yoshida, Japan – WP

Mon rot fai (Railway Sleepers) by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Thailand

Motherland (Bayang Ina Mo) by Ramona S. Diaz, USA / The Philippines – IP

Motza el hayam (Low Tide) by Daniel Mann, Israel / France – WP

Mzis qalaqi (City of the Sun) by Rati Oneli, Georgia / USA / The Netherlands / Qatar / USA – WP

Newton by Amit V Masurkar, India – WP

Occidental by Neïl Beloufa, France – IP

Qiu (Inmates) by Ma Li, People’s Republic of China – WP

Rifle by Davi Pretto, Brazil / Germany – IP

Río Verde. El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River. The Time of the Yakurunas) by Alvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento, Peru – WP

Shu’our akbar min el hob (A Feeling Greater than Love) by Mary Jirmanus Saba, Lebanon – WP

somniloquies by Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, France / USA – WP

Spell Reel by Filipa César, Germany / Portugal / France / Guinea-Bissau – WP

Streetscapes [Dialogue] by Heinz Emigholz, Germany – WP

Tamaroz (Simulation) by Abed Abest, Iran – WP

El teatro de la desaparición (The Theatre of Disappearance) by Adrián Villar Rojas, Argentina – WP

Tiere (Animals) by Greg Zglinski, Switzerland / Austria / Poland – WP

Tigmi n Igren (House in the Fields) by Tala Hadid, Morocco / Qatar – WP

Tinselwood by Marie Voignier, France – WP

Werewolf by Ashley McKenzie, Canada – IP

Yozora ha itsu demo saikou mitsudo no aoiro da (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue) by Yuya Ishii, Japan – WP

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale Talents, European Film Market

Berlin’s Drama Series Days 2017 Expanded!

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Berlin Drama Series Days 2017 Expanded!

Program / Series Events for Berlinale Market Attendees at Legendary Zoo Palast

The “Drama Series Days”, a joint initiative for series content co-organized by the industry platforms European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market and Berlinale Talents, are set to celebrate their third annual edition this year. Building on the great success of the previous years, a third day has been added to the program for 2017, which runs from February 13 to the 15.

The new venue for the panel discussions and market screenings, which are offered by the European Film Market, is Berlin’s legendary Zoo Palast cinema, which will be transformed this year into the premiere meeting place for series content for members of the industry. “CoPro Series”, the pitching session organized by the Berlinale Co-Production Market, will also take place there.

The “Drama Series Days” are a vibrant, specialized platform, which invites filmmakers, buyers, salespeople, producers, editors and financiers of high quality drama series to come together to share their knowledge and ideas and present new series content.

“CoPro Series” creates an active space for networking and exchange between the film and series industries. At this event, the registered participants – producers and financiers from the pool of the Berlinale Co-Production Market – and the “Drama Series Days” industry guests have the opportunity to get to know the series’ creators and producers at the Networking Get-Together after the pitching session, where they can learn more about the pitched content. In previously arranged one-on-one meetings, participants can also engage in concrete talks with the aim of developing potential partnerships.

A portion of the “Drama Series Days” program for 2017 is already confirmed:

“CoPro Series” 2017: Seven International Series Projects Pitching Their Content and Searching for Partners

On February 15 the Berlinale Co-Production Market is inviting producers, television representatives, distributors and further series financiers for the third time to the exclusive series pitching session “CoPro Series”, which will be taking place for the first time this year at the new venue for the “Drama Series Days”, the fabled Zoo Palast cinema.

Seven select series projects will be on the lookout for co-production and financing partners here among the industry guests. The productions include for instance Cognition, a crime thriller concept from director Alex Garcia Lopez (Misfits, Utopia), which is being produced by companies from the United Kingdom and the USA. The team behind the French series Trepalium, which gained positive attention last year from critics and series audiences alike in France and Germany, will be presenting their new project Metro, a historical thriller set in the days of the first efforts to construct the subway system in Paris.

In the Austrian-German crime project Freud, the psychoanalytical skills of the titular hero are needed in the race to catch a serial killer. German author and director Till Kleinert’s Hausen on the other hand, a project produced in Bulgaria, combines elements of the mystery, horror and drama genres in a story set in a run-down high-rise estate.
The Belgian crime series Omerta, whose characters must constantly walk a fine line between trust and betrayal, is also searching for partners at the event – and the same goes for the drama series State of Happiness, in which a small Norwegian city gets caught up unexpectedly in the oil boom.

A further project will be presented in co-operation with the renowned Paris-based series festival and co-production forum “Series Mania”: the series Warrior, featured at the Paris festival’s 2016 edition and directed by Christoffer Boe, who has previously made a name for himself primarily as a feature film director (Reconstruction; Offscreen; Sex, Drugs & Taxation), has also been invited to Berlin. As in previous years, one of the six other series presented at “CoPro Series” will once again have the opportunity to meet additional potential partners at “Series Mania” in April.

The main partners for the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 15, 2017) are the MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe – MEDIA, a program of the European Union.

The Networking Get-Together at “CoPro Series” at the Zoo Palast cinema is being held in co-operation with the Norwegian Film Institute.

Projects selected to participate at “CoPro Series” 2017 (in alphabetical order by production company):

  • Freud (Bavaria Fernsehproduktion & Satel Film), Germany & Austria
  • Cognition (Catalyst Global Media & A Better Tomorrow Films), United Kingdom & USA
  • Omerta (Caviar), Belgium
  • Metro (Kelija), France
  • State of Happiness (Maipo Film), Norway
  • Hausen (Tanuki Films), Bulgaria

Project in co-operation with “Series Mania”:

  • Warrior (Miso Film), Denmark

EFM: 20 Series from Around the World in Market Screenings, Successful Industry Get-Together for the International Series Scene To Be Expanded with New Conference Program

20 new series from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, France, Island, Israel, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA will be presented to series buyers from February 13 to 15 in the market cinemas at Berlin’s Zoo Palast. They feature a broad spectrum of subjects and demonstrate a high level of quality, as attendees of the event have come to expect. With established market players such as Global Screen, Red Arrow, Studio Canal, eOne, DR, Keshet, Lagardère, Sony TV, ITV, Dutch Features and TV Globo and producers like Vimeo and Left Bank Pictures on board, the specialist audience will be treated to a wide range of content.

For the first time, a multifaceted conference program will take place on February 13 and 14 at Zoo Palast, where the newest trends and developments – from forecasted shifts in genre popularity to new European funding options – will be presented and discussed by experts in the field.

The program is only accessible for accredited industry attendees in possession of a Market Badge and will consist of the following events:

Monday, February 13
1.00 pm Opening of “Drama Series Days”
1.30 pm “How to Make Your Series Go Global? Co-Production, Financing and Distribution Strategies for Binge-worthy TV” in co-operation with Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and The Hollywood Reporter
2.30 pm “New Frontiers: Creating Original Content in Mexico and Latin America” in co-operation with IMCINE
3.30 pm “European Series Funding At a Glance”

Tuesday, February 14
1.00 pm “Berlin on Screen: Zeitgeist in Serial Drama” supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
2:00 pm “Spotlight UFA: High-End Drama for the International Market” in co-operation with UFA Fiction
3:00 pm “Pay TV Expanding: What to Expect?” in co-operation with HBO Europe and C21

Official partner for “Drama Series Days” 2017 at the European Film Market is the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW; the platform is organised in co-operation with HBO Europe and made possible with the support of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

“Drama Series Days” @ Berlinale Talents

In addition, on Monday, February 13 (from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm at HAU Hebbel am Ufer 3), Berlinale Talents will present and discuss the production conditions for the spy series Berlin Station in a detailed case study with numerous members of the German crew in attendance. The series from the USA was shot entirely on location in Berlin last year.

The full program for the “Drama Series Days”, including all scheduled screenings, will be made public on January 31.

In addition to the “Drama Series Days”, series content will also be featured once again in the festival program of the Berlinale: in the framework of the Berlinale Special Series, a hand-picked selection of high-quality series will be shown again this year at Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Berlin’s Panorama Dokumente Complete: Opening on February 10, 2017

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

 

 

Authoritarian Regimes Under Observation / Music Documentaries Featuring Almodóvar’s Muse and Electronic Avant-Garde

Director Monika Treut Receives Special TEDDY Award 2017

 

The French production Belinda by Marie Dumora is slated to open Panorama Dokumente with a contribution to the previously announced thematic focus “Europa Europa” (see post here). The Yenish people have occupied a difficult position in the national fabric of Europe since time immemorial: like the Sinti and Roma, they typically have trouble aligning themselves as they are legally and socially excluded by majority populations. The grandparents of 15-year-old sisters Belinda and Sabrina first met in a German concentration camp – the young women were placed in foster care at an early age and were lucky to land in the La Nichée children’s home. With the start of life comes the start of a long struggle with the world – a world also determined by limits and rules on this most diverse of all continents. A haunting, harrowing documentation of everyday life as it is lived on the margins of society.

Three films demand that we take a fresh historical look at European events whose echoes are still felt so many years later:

First off is No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) from Brazil’s João Moreira Salles, who juxtaposes a cornucopia of archive materials documenting the events which unfolded in Paris in 1968 with amateur footage showing the suppression of the Prague Spring and footage of a self -confident Chinese society under Mao, just as his mother experienced it back then – as a private political reflection.

Next up is an exciting bit of time travel in Jochen Hick’s Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin), an account of queer living situations in West Berlin in an era when emancipation had yet to be invented, primarily covering the 1960s to the the 1980s but also taking time to revisit the roots of the gay rights movement in the immediate post-war period.

 

bones_biff
Bones of Contention, by American Andrea Weiss, is an in-depth look at the LGBT community in Spain during the Franco regime into the present. (Photo courtesy of Berlinale Press Office)

 

And finally, a long look underneath the rug of Spanish reticence in Bones of Contention by Andrea Weiss of the USA: In search of the earthly remains of iconic Spanish poet and fascist murder victim Federico García Lorca, the filmmaker stumbles upon the entirely unexamined history of the suppression of the LGBT community under Franco, while also becoming familiar with the struggles of today’s movement, whose efforts to procure some sort of long overdue justice for the hundreds of thousands who were “disappeared” during the fascist era are met with little support.

In Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise), distinguished French director Merzak Allouache seeks answers to a question which also exerts an influence on today’s Europa. In order to try to fathom the origins of the desire for death exhibited by so many young Arab men in Algeria, one must understand that they are motivated by the florid fairy tales that their spiritual leaders have led them to believe, including above all the notion that sex and wine will finally be available in abundance after death. The young Algerian journalist Nedjma researches the paradise that Salafist preachers promise young men together with her colleague Mustapha. A dense analysis of the extreme manifestations of a destructive, conservative Islam that seeks to dominate.

The second of the two previously mentioned thematic focal points “Black Worlds” is reinforced by Yance Ford’s Strong Island. The director processes the murder of his own brother 25 years ago in a documentary film by equal turns personal and political, in a formally open examination of racist terror, grief work and smouldering anger about inequality.

Is this the heart of “America”? And does Rambo live inside it like the man in the moon lives inside his satellite? Erase and Forget by Andrea Luka Zimmerman (Great Britain) doesn’t pose the question, it answers it instead. The all American hero, the most highly decorated soldier of all time with hundreds of human lives on his conscience, roams like a benevolent patriarch through Idaho, where the people are proud of the high level of diversity in the available flavours of right-wing radicalism, just another normal part of life out here.

Two films turn their attention to Latin America and structures that still make their effects felt from left and right-wing authoritarian forms of society.

In Tania Libre, Lynn Hershman Leeson, a guest at Panorama for the third time, accompanies Cuban artist Tania Bruguera during sessions with trauma therapist Dr. Frank Ochberg. After having served a sentence for treason meted out in the wake of a performance that expressed criticism of the regime, she wants to acquire the skills necessary to process the invasive infringement wrought by the paranoid machinery of the people’s dictatorship, including the revocation of her right to practice her art. The founder of the Institute for Artivism Hannah Arendt in Havana intends to campaign in Cuba’s next presidential election in 2018.

The second film hails from Chile: El Pacto De Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) by Lissette Orozco. The director accidently comes across indications that her once favourite aunt Adriana colluded actively with the secret service back in the days of the Pinochet junta. Her research yields a picture that can be found after the fall of every dictatorship ever: those that lived well under the terror regime steadfastly deny their involvement after the winds have shifted. A macrocosm opens up within a family’s intimate history – and no one knew nothing.

The French-Swiss-Palestinian co-production Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) by Raed Andoni on the other hand leads us back into the present. In the scope of shooting for a film, a group of ex-prisoners from Israeli detention re-enact a sort of exhaustive catalogue of their experiences, in role plays and often in what borders on trauma therapy. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have experienced things like this in a variety of forms – what impact will these experiences have on the affected societies in the future?

 

screen-shot-2017-01-17-at-12-26-10-pm

 

Three extraordinary music documentaries make up a last thematic focus: On the one hand, we have Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, an homage to the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, whose exceptional talent carried her to the world’s most notable concert halls, and whose independence and prodigious sacrifice in her life as a lesbian testified to an admirable attitude that stayed with her to a ripe old age. The last concert of this lover of Frida Kahlo, which took place under the patronage of Pedro Almodóvar (who has featured her music consistently in his films), was an homage performed in Madrid to the great gay Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (see also the Panorama production Bones of Contention in this connection).

On the other hand, Panorama brings together two films that treat electronic music culture in Germany: An inventor, innovator, a creator of genres, that’s Edgar Froese. Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream by Margarete Kreuzer is devoted to the story of the band and their influential, world famous music – while director Romuald Karmakar turns his attention once again to the settings of his “Club Land Trilogy”: With Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) he shows the development of the music genres in question in the here and now, by enabling us to watch and listen to notable DJs while they work, including Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata Macias, Roman Flügel and Move D/David Moufang.

After her success at Panorama with Anderson, Annekatrin Hendel is back with an extremely intimate story of friendship that has larger societal implications. In Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) she spends four existential weeks in a seaside hotel with a close female friend. The two women’s conversations revolve around the often glamorous past in East Berlin, the current struggle with a diagnosis – and how our life plans relate to our actual lives.
Speaking of life plans: they can be found in abundance in Tristan Milewski’s Dream Boat – even if they seem to resemble one another, here under the premise of a temporary manipulation of society on a cruise exclusively for gay men. A society completely devoid of heteros, who normally rule the world, and completely devoid of women too: by purging the majority the minority becomes one. Many of the guests come from countries where simply being the way they are exposes them to serious danger: a concentrated form of existence is the result here, which represents a challenge beyond the purely physical for the participants.

Special TEDDY for Monika Treut

The Special TEDDY Award is presented by the friends’ association TEDDY e.V. to a filmmaker whose accomplishments have made an especially significant contribution to the characterisation of queer filmmaking over the years.

As a director, producer and author, Monika Treut has not only left her mark on feminist and lesbian cinema since the 1980s – she has also had a great impact on the German-speaking independent film scene and inspired practitioners and audiences alike all the way into world of US American indie cinema as a trailblazer for the New Queer Cinema. The boldness of and iconoclastic approach to her subjects and aesthetics are closely linked with the liberating energy of the Spontex movement of the 1970s. Her documentary Gendernauts won the TEDDY Award for Best Documentary Film in 1999 as well as audience prizes the world over. Since the presentation of her feature film debut with Elfi Mikesch Seduction: The Cruel Woman in 1985, the Berlinale has shown more than twelve of her films. On the occasion of the presentation of the award in the scope of the 31st TEDDY Awards on Friday, February 17th, Panorama will be showing her second feature film, the 1989 classic Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine).

 

Panorama Dokumente

Belinda – France
By Marie Dumora
World premiere

Bones of Contention – USA
By Andrea Weiss
World premiere

Chavela – USA
By Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi
With Chavela Vargas, Pedro Almodóvar
World premiere

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) – Germany
By Romuald Karmakar
With Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flügel, Move D/David Moufang
World premiere

Dream Boat – Germany
By Tristan Ferland Milewski
World premiere

Erase and Forget – United Kingdom
By Andrea Luka Zimmerman
World premiere

Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) – Germany
By Annekatrin Hendel
World premiere

Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) – France / Palestinian Territories / Switzerland / Quatar
By Raed Andoni
World premiere

Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin) – Germany
By Jochen Hick
World premiere

No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) – Brazil
By João Moreira Salles
World premiere

El Pacto de Adriana (Adriana’s Pact) – Chile
By Lissette Orozco
World premiere

Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream – Germany
By Margarete Kreuzer
With Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Christoph Franke, Johannes Schmoelling
World premiere

Strong Island – USA / Denmark
By Yance Ford
International premiere

Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise) – France / Algeria
By Merzak Allouache
International premiere

Tania Libre – USA
By Lynn Hershman Leeson
With Tania Bruguera, Frank Ochberg
Spoken by Tilda Swinton
World premiere

 

Already announced for Panorama Dokumente:

Casting JonBenet – USA / Australia, by Kitty Green
Combat au bout de la nuit (Fighting Through the Night) – Canada by Sylvain L’Espérance
I Am Not Your Negro – France / USA / Belgium / Switzerland, by Raoul Peck
Política, manual de instrucciones (Politics, instructions manual) – Spain, by Fernando León de Aranoa
Ri Chang Dui Hua (Small Talk) – Taiwan, by Hui-chen Huang
Untitled – Austria / Germany, by Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

 

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival

Berlinale NATIVe 2017 Features Indigenous Films from the Arctic Circle

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

 

Cinema Born of the Icy Cold

NATIVe – A Journey into Indigenous Cinema will focus in 2017 on Indigenous cinema from the Arctic. The film programme for the special series, which is comprised of nine short and ten feature-length films, will also be complemented by a number of events featuring discussion and other spoken word formats.

screen-shot-2017-01-16-at-11-19-15-am

NATIVe 2017 will open with a film from the cultural sphere of the Sámi, Europe’s only Indigenous people: 2016’s Kuun metsän Kaisa (Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest), by Finnish Skolt Sámi director Katja Gauriloff.

Kuun metsän Kaisa tells the story of Gauriloff’s charismatic great-grandmother Kaisa. This personal and poetic documentary film effortlessly weaves original film and sound recordings from the 1930s to the 1970s together with animated sequences and folk tales of the Skolt Sámi. It stands as a testament to the eventful history of the Skolt Sámi and their struggle to preserve their unique culture in the wake of resettlements brought about by shifting borders throughout the course of the 20th century.

The pressure to assimilate and wider social change influence all of the Indigenous peoples who call the area around the Arctic Circle home: these include the Inuit of Canada, the Greenlanders, the Sámi of Northern Europe and Russia’s Kola Peninsula as well as the Yakuts and Chukchi of the Russian Federation’s Eastern Siberian region.

Sustainability, climate change, delocalisation and questions of Indigenous rights and self-empowerment are further themes addressed in this year’s featured films. “Climate change in the Arctic and the economic machinations of the industrialised nations of the West represent serious impositions in the everyday lives of the Indigenous communities which still inhabit the region. The medium of film can play a positive role by enabling them to position themselves and gain international exposure for their points of view,” comments NATIVe Curator Maryanne Redpath.

Festival Director Dieter Kosslick also emphasises the significance of Indigenous cinema: “With each new regional focus, NATIVe demonstrates how multifaceted and creative the world of Indigenous filmmaking is and how much its films enrich the international cinema landscape.”

As in previous years, the film programme of this special series will be accompanied by an extensive supporting programme. On two afternoons, the Embassy of Canada will assist the NATIVe team in co-hosting panel discussions with Indigenous filmmakers and international guests in the rooms of their Leipziger Platz location, to be followed by film screenings.

The event “Arctic Change, Indigenous Life and Scientific Tracks in Sakha / Russia”, organised in co-operation with the Climate Initiative Regional Climate Change (REKLIM) at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and the DEKRA Hochschule für Medien, will present the effects of climate change on everyday life and the environment in Sakha to a Berlin audience in the scope of talks and short films.

For the first time, NATIVe will also be represented in the special series Berlinale Goes Kiez with an additional screening of the documentary film Angry Inuk, which provides insight into the Inuit perspective on the heated international debate surrounding seal hunting.

 

Feature Films at NATIVe:

24 Snega (24 Snow)
By Mikhail Barynin, Russian Federation 2016
Documentary form
International premiere
Despite the sacrifices it entails, Sergei passionately devotes his life to traditional horse breeding, toughing out the winter in the taiga like a lone cowboy hero. Spectacular cinematography conveys the biting cold feeling of nomadic life in Sakha.

Angry Inuk
By Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Canada 2016
Documentary form
A vivid depiction of the quiet anger of a people whose very subsistence is being threatened from many angles. An outcry to reassess the preconceptions around commercial seal-hunting, while illustrating the role of global sealskin trade for Inuit.

Johogoi Aiyy (God Johogoi)
By Sergei Potapov, Russian Federation 2016
Documentary form
International premiere
The young horse herder Johogoi feels summoned by the equine deity to attend the celebrated summer festival of Sakha. His excitement radiates through his smile as he participates in the rituals, believing he will find the woman who appears in his dreams.

Jumalan morsian (A Bride of the Seventh Heaven)
By Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland 2003
With Angelina Saraleta, Viktoria Hudi, Ljuba Filipova, Jevgeni Hudi
At birth, Syarda was promised as a bride to Num, the highest god of the Nenets. Now an elderly lady, still bound to this fate, she tells the story of her wistful, yet self-determined life to a blind young girl who alleviates her loneliness.

Kniga Tundry. Povest’ o Vukvukaye – Malen’kom Kamne. (The Tundra Book. A Tale of Vukvuka – the Little Rock.)
By Aleksei Vakhrushev, Russian Federation 2011
Documentary form
Jovial and as energetic as a teenager, the wise Vukvukai guides his nomadic Chukchi community. These tough reindeer herders survive in their snowy wonderland despite the harsh threats posed by the weather and Russian politics.

Kuun metsän Kaisa (Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest)
By Katja Gauriloff, Finland 2016
Documentary form
The Swiss author Robert Crottet visits the Skolt Sámi and records spirited Kaisa’s unique storytelling gift. Handmade animation and rare archival footage illustrate the full world of the Skolt Sámi, from magical moments to the hardships of war.

Maliglutit (Searchers)
By Zacharias Kunuk, Canada 2016
With Benjamin Kunuk, Jocelyne Immaroitok, Karen Ivalu, Joseph Uttak
European premiere
The tranquil life of a nomadic family in Nunavut is torn apart by a marauding gang of hunters looking for wives. Kuanana, the head of the family, goes out for revenge. A poetic Inuit Western.

Sameblod (Sami Blood)
By Amanda Kernell, Sweden 2016
With Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Maj Doris Rimpi, Julius Fleischanderl
A teenage girl from a traditional Sámi family yearns to be accepted by the Swedish society of the 1930s, a society full of prejudice and discrimination against her people. A shrewd commentary on institutionalised abuse and its consequences.

Seitsemän laulua tundralta (Seven Songs from the Tundra)
By Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland 2000
With Vitalina Hudi, Hatjako Yzangi, Gregory Anaguritsi, Nadezhda Volodeeva
A rich contemplation of the Nenets in a seven-part chronicle, each guided by a meaningful song. Once a free people, the Soviet rule arrives to infringe upon their culture, affecting their identity irreversibly. An emotional political statement.

SUME – Mumisitsinerup Nipaa (SUMÉ – The Sound of a Revolution)
By Inuk Silis Høegh, Greenland / Denmark / Norway 2014
Documentary form
For the Greenlanders of the 1970s, the surge of the progressive rock band SUME was mind-blowing: lyrics in their own language, inspiring them to act against the repression of their people. This is the compelling testimony to their revolution.

 

Short Films at NATIVe:

Bihttoš (Rebel)
By Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Canada / Norway 2014
Documentary form
In a poignant personal essay, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers examines her complex relationship to her Sámi father. Her family’s blissful life was silently affected by a dark pain her father harboured. A pain rooted in past injustices against a whole generation of the Sámi.

Half&half
By Aka Hansen, Denmark / Greenland 2014
Documentary form
Aka Hansen ponders her mixed heritage by posing well-struck questions about how others perceive her, which in contrast to the filmic symmetry suggests that identity cannot be split neatly in half.

Nowhere Land
By Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq, Canada 2015
Documentary form
Denied the opportunity to lead a true Inuit life on Baffin Island, Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq shares the grief she felt when forced to relocate, while witnessing the heartbreaking demise of her homeland. She stands in front of the camera and bares her soul.

Ogo Kuyuurduu Turara (Boy and Lake)
By Prokopyi Nogovitsyn, Russian Federation 2003
With Slava Titov, Roman Danilov, Vladimir Krivoshapkin
A Sakha boy sets out on a lyrical journey through the boreal forest to catch fish in a secluded icebound lake. He performs the laborious task as a meditative ritual, at the same time drifting into a magical oneiric world.

Sámi Boddu (Sámi Moment)
By Ken Are Bongo, Norway 2011
With Nils Henrik Buljo, Svein Birger Olsen
Surrounded only by the wintry tundra, two Sámi men meet and contemplate the immense horizon. The silence is scarcely broken by the soft breeze, shared cigarettes and a few laconic words.

Sikumi (On the Ice)
By Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, USA 2008
With Brad Weyiouanna, Tony Bryant, Olemaun Rexford
On the frozen barren horizon, Apuna spots a furious fight between two hunters, which escalates to a fatality. As Apuna rushes to the scene he becomes conflicted when the perpetrator asks him to bend his morals and appeals to his sense of community.

Sloth
By Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Canada 2011
With Bryan Pearson
A witty sketch of the Inuit way of life, playfully poking fun at stereotypical perceptions.

Tungijuq
By Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël, Canada 2009
With Tanya Tagaq, Zacharias Kunuk
An artistically powerful statement about the reality of hunting, expressed through a fantastic icy universe and Inuit throat singing, embracing the relevance and appreciation of this vital act.

Vor dem Schnee (Before the Snow)
By Christian Vagt, Germany 2007
Documentary form
Eerie first-hand accounts of the supernatural and the dead in the world of the Khanty and Nenets. An intimate atmosphere encompasses the spiritual world void of interpretation, and tells of the mysteries beyond the reality of western Siberia.

 

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, World Premiere

Hedgehog’s Home to Premiere at Berlin International Film Festival

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Hedgehog’s Home (Ježeva kuća), an animated film by Canadian-Croatian Eva Cvijanović based on a classic tale by Branko Ćopić, will have its world premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

The film, which was part of the national curriculum for primary school literature in Croatia, has been included in the Generation Kplus competition programme at the famous festival, which will be held from 9 – 19 February 2017.

Hedgehog’s Home is about a hedgehog who lives in a lush and lively forest. He is respected and envied by the other animals. However, the hedgehog’s unwavering devotion to his home annoys a quartet of insatiable beasts. Together, they march off towards Hedgehog’s home and spark a tense and prickly standoff.

screen-shot-2017-01-16-at-1-41-04-pm

Cvijanović’s 10-minute animated film is based on Ćopić’s classic story which is a warm and universal tale for young and old that reminds us there truly is no place like home.

screen-shot-2017-01-16-at-1-42-10-pm

The film has been narrated in three languages – Croatian (by actor Rade Šerbedžija), English (by actor Kenneth Welsh (Twin Peaks), and in French (by actor France Castel).

The film is co-produced by The National Film Board (NFB) of Canada, winner of 12 Oscar Awards, and Croatia’s Bonobostudio.

Find out more about the film here.

(Source: croatiaweek.com)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Culinary Cinema

11th Culinary Cinema: Passion Food

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

“Passion Food” is the motto of the eleventh Culinary Cinema, which will be held from February 12 to 17, 2017. This year eleven recent full-length films focusing on the relationship between food, culture and politics will be presented.

Berlinale-“Undoubtedly, passion – and its mastery – is a driving force behind the work of cooks and filmmakers, and simultaneously one of its themes,” Festival Director Dieter Kosslick says in explaining the motto.

At 7.30 pm the main programme of Culinary Cinema will present four world and one international premieres. Following these screenings, star chefs Eneko Atxa, Alexander Koppe, Tim Raue, Sebastian Frank and Christian Lohse will take turns serving a menu inspired by the films in the Gropius Mirror Restaurant.

screen-shot-2017-01-16-at-10-57-59-am

The Spanish documentary Soul by José Antonio Blanco and Ángel Parra will open the programme. The film’s protagonist Eneko Atxa runs a restaurant complex near Bilbao in the Basque region. His exploration of the soul of cooking has him travelling to famous colleagues in Catalonia and Japan. Eneko Atxa (three Michelin stars, “Azurmendi”, Larrabetzu, province of Bizkaia) will create the meal on this first evening.

Barkeepers also have to master passions, as otherwise they might lose control of the situation. In the documentary Schumanns Bargespräche (Schumann’s Bar Talks) director Marieke Schroeder accompanies legendary barkeeper Charles Schumann to the world’s best bars. Alexander Koppe (one Michelin star, “Skykitchen”, Berlin) will cook.

In his episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table (dir: Abigail Fuller), Tim Raue tells how he succeeded in turning the negative energies of his youth into positive ones by cooking. In another episode, David Gelb, who created Chef’s Table, takes us to Korea, to the kitchen of a hermitage where Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan prepares temple food. Tim Raue (two Michelin stars, “Tim Raue”, Berlin) will take up his position at the stove of Culinary Cinema for the seventh time.

In Mark Tchelistcheff’s film André – The Voice of Wine we learn that vines have to suffer to bear quality grapes. This knowledge from viniculture is, in a figurative sense, also true of André Tchelistcheff, an oenologist who emigrated from Russia. In the 1930s, after the end of Prohibition, he helped re-establish winemaking in California. Sebastian Frank (two Michelin stars, “Horváth”, Berlin) will serve the meal for this film.

mayo_biff
Monsieur Mayonnaise | Herr Mayonnaise from Director Trevor Graham and filmmaker Philippe Mora will be screening in 2017 Culinary Cinema (Photo courtesy of The Berlinale)

In Monsieur Mayonnaise, Australian director Trevor Graham accompanies painter and filmmaker Philippe Mora who is researching his family’s eventful past. His father, Georges Mora alias Monsieur Mayonnaise fought in the Résistance. After the war he moved to Australia and founded an artist colony. Christian Lohse (two Michelin stars, “Fischers Fritz”, Berlin) will cook on this evening.

To wrap up the main programme, Culinary Cinema Goes Kiez will present the Canadian production Theater of Life by Peter Svatek at EISZEIT Kino. It shows how highly celebrated chef Massimo Bottura sets up a soup kitchen in Milan that cooks meals made from discarded food. Markthalle Neun and restaurant “Restlos Glücklich” will be responsible for this evening’s meal.

At the late-night screenings (where no meals are served afterwards), the passion for good food and ecological engagement will remain the leitmotif. Should we eat animals or just pet them? This is the question explored by filmmakers John Papola and Lisa Versaci in At the Fork. And in Christopher LaMarca’s Boone, three young farmers from Oregon have a dilemma: they may milk their goats but are not allowed to sell the milk. In Atlantic, Risteard Ó Domhnaill examines how it was possible that the fish population of the vast North Atlantic was almost wiped out and the ecosystem destroyed. In addition Wendell Berry, who has shaped ecological thinking in the USA for the past 50 years is portrayed by Laura Dunn in Look & See: The Story of Wendell Berry.

The Canadian short film Hand.Line.Cod. by Justin Simms completes this year’s programme.

“In its eleventh year, Culinary Cinema will once more be a melting pot for films and cooks who explore the human body and soul through the topic of food. Is eating a passion, a vital activity, or a profit-oriented commercial sector? This requires clarification,” says Thomas Struck, curator of Culinary Cinema.

A fiery passion also blazes during Culinary Cinema’s “TeaTime”:The cookbook „Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen“ features the communal spirit of cooking and creativity by one of today’s most recognized artists („TeaTime“, Feb. 14, 2017).
Kamal Mouzawak, Slow Food activist from Lebanon, reflects on problems of migration, and the relationship between a person’s homeland and food. (“TeaTime”, Feb. 15, 2017).

Nobody visiting the Festival should have to forego eating well: in cooperation with Markthalle Neun and Slow Food, delicious Berlinale Street Food will again be on sale at food trucks at the corner of Joseph-von-Eichendorf-Gasse and Alte Potsdamer Straße (Feb 8 – 19, 2017).

Tickets for Culinary Cinema will go on sale starting at 10.00 am on February 6, 2017 at central ticket counters in the Arkaden am Potsdamer Platz, at Kino International, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Audi City Berlin, and online at http://www.berlinale.de.

The films in the Culinary Cinema programme 2017:

André – The Voice of Wine – USA
By Mark Tchelistcheff
Documentary
World premiere

Atlantic – Ireland / Canada
By Risteard Ó Domhnaill
Documentary
German premiere

At The Fork – USA
By John Papola
Documentary
International premiere

Boone – USA
By Christopher LaMarca
Documentary
German premiere

Chef’s Table – Jeong Kwan – USA
By David Gelb
Documentary-Series
World premiere

Chef’s Table – Tim Raue – USA
By Abigail Fuller
Documentary-Series
World premiere

Hand.Line.Cod. – Canada
By Justin Simms
Documentary

Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry – USA
By Laura Dunn
Documentary
European premiere

Monsieur Mayonnaise – Australia / Germany
By Trevor Graham
Documentary
International premiere

Schumanns Bargespräche (Schumann’s Bar Talks) – Germany
By Marieke Schroeder
Documentary
World premiere

Soul – Spain
By Ángel Parra / José Antonio Blanco
Documentary
World premiere

Theater of Life – Canada
By Peter Svatek
Documentary
German premiere

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

Berlin Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival

Generation 2017: Celebrating 40 Years of Film Programming for Young Audiences at the Berlinale

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Forty years ago, the Berlinale launched the festival programme for the young cineastes. From the beginning the concept was embraced and celebrated by its target audiences and consequently expanded through the establishment of a further competition programme catering to adolescents. Since 2007, the Generation section has united the Kplus and 14plus competitions together under one roof and provided an opportunity not only for young people to participate in the greater conversation on cinema and culture that the festival represents.

In 2017, a grand total of 62 short and feature-length films hailing from 41 countries of production will take part in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions. Both programmes feature a wide range of thematic concerns and aesthetic approaches. Animated productions rich in contrast, quiet observations, iconoclastic collages and sensitive dramas signalise the programme. Drawn from life, the films demonstrate the experiential horizons of young people – their desires and dreams, those things they wish to leave behind, those things that bind them and of their sense of longing to explore other realms.

2015_0008_img_175xvar
Maryanne Redpath, head of the Generations section of the Berlin International Film Festival (Photo via berlinale.de)

“Our world is not in great shape. Often this means children and adolescents are left on their own and have to search for solutions and ways out of their predicaments. Generation shows young people on the move, crossing boundaries and tearing down walls, erecting barricades and overcoming them. Everything is in motion,” comments section head Maryanne Redpath in regard to this year’s programme.

 

© Eva-Maude T-Champoux
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves) by Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie

 

Documentary Forms

The programme is enriched by a great variety of approaches to documentary filmmaking. Diverse methods of presentation are utilised by filmmakers in the observation of their subjects. Ever vigilant but never intrusive, they reflect upon the wider topics of our times by capturing intimate portraits. They provide privileged insight into closed-off spaces and direct our attention to the all too easily overlooked. They are always on the move, in search of images of the world and opportunities to render the invisible visible for all to see.

Short Films at Generation

In the short film competitions, Generation is presenting productions from a total of 28 countries. The three Kplus short film programmes are colourful, sensitive and serious; the young protagonists face the challenges life has set before them with great bravery, staking out new spaces for themselves with growing self-confidence. With strong contrasts and brisk pacing, explosive and soothing moments and no lack of twists and turns, the two 14plus short film programmes also pay tribute to the contradictory nature of our world.

Kplus Opening Film

The Generation Kplus competition will open at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt with a screening of Red Dog: True Blue by Kriv Stenders. Generation looks forward to starting the section’s 40th anniversary edition with a bang in the presence of the Australian director and his cast.

Generation 14plus

In addition to the previously announced selections, including the opening film for 14plus, Michael Winterbottom’s On the Road, the following productions have also been invited to screen at Generation 14plus.

 

Ben Niao (The Foolish Bird)

The People’s Republic of China
By Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka
World premiere

For the sake of her mother, who lives far away, withdrawn Lynn searches for a way to be accepted into the local police academy. At the same time, the 16-year-old gets caught up in a criminal mess involving stolen cell phones. Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (The Warmth of Orange Peel, Generation 2010) employ precise imagery to tell a story of isolation and lack of perspective in a small Chinese city marked by corruption, sexual violence and the all-permeating presence of new media.

Freak Show

USA
By Trudie Styler
World premiere

Somewhere between David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Freddy Mercury and Oscar Wilde, Billy has carved out his own spot in the sparkling firmament of pop culture. Though the denizens of his conservative surroundings find all this markedly less fabulous, Billy has no intention of deviating from his plan to campaign for the role of Homecoming Queen at his school. What at first seems a high school caper transforms into a bombastic yet nuanced drama, one which earns the attribution that Billy himself has also claimed as his own: trans-visionary. Aside from Alex Lawther’s brilliant performance, Bette Midler, Laverne Cox, Larry Pine and Ian Nelson also shine in this one-of-a-kind film.

Loving Lorna

Sweden
By Annika Karlsson, Jessica Karlsson
International premiere

In Ballymun, a poor suburb of Dublin, horses have been an integral part of everyday life for generations. 17-year-old Lorna’s family is no exception. Lorna would like to become a farrier after she finishes school, if only she weren’t plagued by a bad back. In this poetic study, the two Swedish directors paint a portrait of a young woman in search of happiness, fulfilled dreams and her own proper place in the world.

Não devore meu coração! (Don’t Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!)

Brazil / The Netherlands / France
By Felipe Bragança
European premiere

The Rio Apa, the river marking the border between Paraguay and Brazil, serves as the central setting for this visually stunning, modern and powerful Romeo and Juliet story of the relationship between 13-year-old Joca and the mysterious Guaraní girl, Basano. Bragança tells his tale of an adolescent “amour fou” against the backdrop of contemporary conflicts concerning land theft and cultural identity. His fiction feature debut makes a strong impression on the big screen also through the successful use of both young Brazilian stars and local non actors.

 

Poi E: The Story of Our Song

New Zealand
By Tearepa Kahi
European premiere

The incredible story of a Maori pop song that took New Zealand’s charts by storm quite unexpectedly in 1984. Back in those days it was a near miracle for a piece of traditionally inspired music to become so popular. That is, until singer Dalvanius Prime, an imposing Maori with a powerfully smooth voice, and the singers of the Patea Maori Club came along. Prime had long been into soul – but now he combined the Maori-language song with modern beats and rap on stage. The media would have preferred to pretend he didn’t exist. Alas, both the song and video managed to become cult hits and helped many Maoris – especially young folks – to gain a new sense of self along the way.

 

The Inland Road

New Zealand
By Jackie van Beek
World premiere

On a road running through the New Zealand countryside, a fatal accident brings 16-year-old Tia together with expectant dad Will. Along with Will’s pregnant wife Donna and four-year-old Lily, a finely spun and electrifying drama about wounds both visible and invisible unfolds. This beautifully shot, atmospherically dense work is New Zealand native Jackie van Beek’s feature film debut as a director. Berlinale audiences have been able to enjoy her comedic and acting talents previously (What We Do in the Shadows, Generation 2014) as well as her work as a short film director (Go the Dogs, Generation 2011).

 

Shkola nomer 3 (School Number 3)

Ukraine / Germany
By Yelizaveta Smith, Georg Genoux
World premiere

Thirteen adolescents from a rebuilt school in South Ukrainian Donbass relate their hopes and fears. In rigorously composed shots, the documentary film shows the protagonists in their everyday environment, while they tell of experiences that move them, of nascent new loves and personal loss alike. The war is often only immediately perceptible on the periphery, yet it makes its presence felt as an unavoidable frame of reference. The puristic way in which it is shot renders the overall impression made by Yelizaveta Smith and Georg Genoux’s film all the more haunting.

 

Soldado (Soldier)

Argentina
By Manuel Abramovich
World premiere

Following orders, rehearsing snappy marches and running through more drills than you can shake a drum stick at. A 19-year-old Argentinian man goes off into the army, where he becomes a drummer in a military band. A measured but poignant study of the collision between young individuality and military uniformity, which expands on the contradictions and uncertainties of entering into adulthood within the constraints of a rigid hierarchy. A coming-of-age story set in a “total institution”.

 

Already announced in the previous press release:

Almost Heaven, United Kingdom, Carol Salter – WP
Butterfly Kisses, United Kingdom, Rafael Kapelinski – WP
Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves), Canada, Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie – EP
Emo the Musical, Australia, Neil Triffett – IP
Mulher do pai (Nalu on the Border), Brazil / Uruguay, Cristiane Oliveira -IP
My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, USA, Dash Shaw – EP
On The Road, United Kingdom, Michael Winterbottom, screening out of competition – IP – opening film for 14plus
Krolewicz Olch (The Erlprince), Poland, Kuba Czekaj – EP
Weirdos, Canada, Bruce McDonald – EP

 

Generation Kplus

 

Amelie rennt (Mountain Miracle – An Unexpected Friendship)

Germany / Italy
By Tobias Wiemann
World premiere

Headstrong Amelie is the queen of cursing – at her parents, her patronising doctors and her damn asthma above all else. During a forced stay in a special clinic in South Tirol she suddenly decides to run away. During the arduous trek up the mountain she not only gains an unsolicited travelling companion, she is also confronted by risky trials of courage and the overwhelming tingle of first love. An emotional roller-coaster ride.

 

Becoming Who I Was

Republic of Korea
By Moon Chang-Yong, Jeon Jin
International premiere

Angdu is not your average boy, he is Rinpoche. In a past life he was actually a venerable Buddhist master. Together with his carer, he sets out one day on foot from India to distant Tibet, the centre of his faith. Questions about friendship and life in general accompany the duo on their trek through the awe-inspiring landscape of the remote alpine region. With its narrative approach steeped in a serene sense of concentration, this film, composed over a period of eight years, is a fundamental experience in its own right.

 

Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993)

Spain
By Carla Simón
World premiere

Summer in Catalonia, 1993. For six-year-old Frida, the death of her mother means the beginning of a whole new life. In the loving care of her uncle and his family far away from her home in Barcelona, she first has to get used to her new life in the countryside. Moments of childish mischievousness turn into thoughtful detachment. Despite the summery atmosphere, serious undertones underlie this precocious coming-of-age drama. The inevitable consequences of AIDS, in those days still incalculable, have induced in gentle images Carla Simón’s (Berlinale Talents alumna) stunning debut feature film.

 

Oskars Amerika (Oskar’s America)

Norway / Sweden
By Torfinn Iversen
World premiere

Torfinn Iversen’s feature debut is based on motifs and characters first explored in his short film Levi’s Horse (Generation, 2012). Now this moving portrait of an unusual friendship can be enjoyed at length on the big screen. Oskar’s deepest wish is to be able to ride on the prairie with his mother over summer break. But alas, everything turns out differently than expected and the 10-year-old is forced to spend his vacation on his grumpy grandfather’s farm. Oskar’s only friend is the outsider Levi, who talks with his pony. Together they hatch a plan to get away from their grim reality: they’ll row across the Atlantic to America in Grandfather’s boat!

 

Piata Loď (Little Harbour)

Slovak Republic / Czech Republic / Hungary
By Iveta Grófová
World premiere

Crushed by her mother’s lack of affection for her, ten-year-old Jarka stumbles upon two abandoned infants. Together with her neighbour, 8-year-old Kristian, she lovingly cares for the tiny twins in what becomes a welcome escape from her own dysfunctional family situation. The Slovakian director’s film is an adaptation of a novel by Monika Kompaníková, in which children assume the roles of adults. The story, sensitively told from the children’s perspective, employs dynamic imagery to trace the universal desire for family and a sense of emotional security and belonging.

Uilenbal (Owls & Mice)

The Netherlands
By Simone van Dusseldorp
International premiere

Meral is new in town and the first friend she makes is her little grey housemate: the mouse Peepeep. On a school trip both are confronted by the wonder and challenges of life. Meral is forced to watch as her beloved new buddy is swept up by an owl. In spite of this frightening development, through rocking musical numbers, owl pellets and the wonders of life in the woods Meral learns to understand the meaning of true friendship. Dutch director Simone von Dusseldorp will celebrate with this Generation highlight for young audiences.

 

Upp i det blå (Up in the Sky)

Sweden
By Petter Lennstrand
International premiere

Pottan’s stressed-out parents actually wanted to drop her off at summer camp, but somehow the 8-year-old ends up at a scrapyard inhabited by extremely odd residents instead. Together the gang is hard at work building a homemade spaceship so that they can blast off for the stars. In his feature film debut, complete with a healthy dose of humour and a great appetite for adventure, television producer and puppeteer Petter Lennstrand tells a tale of unexpected friendships and what they can enable us to accomplish.

 

Wallay

France / Burkina Faso / Qatar
By Berni Goldblat
World premiere

When his father sends him off to Burkina Faso to visit relatives, 15-year-old Ady is excited at the prospect of being able to enjoy a laid-back vacation in his native land. Alas, on arrival the young man is met with a chilly reception and it soon becomes clear to him that his trip is not going to be the pleasant break from life back home that he expected. Swiss director Berni Goldblat approaches his feature film debut with the sharp eye of a documentary filmmaker in this depiction of everyday life in his adopted West African home of Burkina Faso.

 

Already announced in the previous press release:

As duas Irenes (Two Irenes), Brazil, Fabio Meira – WP
Die Häschenschule – Jagd nach dem Goldenen Ei (Rabbit School – Guardians of the Golden Egg), Germany, Ute von Münchow-Pohl – WP
Primero enero (January), Argentina, Darío Mascambroni – EP
Red Dog: True Blue, Australia, Kriv Stenders – EP
Richard the Stork, Germany / Belgium / Luxembourg / Norway, Toby Genkel, Reza Memari – WP
Tesoros, Mexico, María Novaro – WP
Shi Tou (Stonehead), People’s Republic of China, Zhao Xiang – WP

Short Films Generation 14plus

After the Smoke, Australia, Nick Waterman – WP
In a Nutshell, Switzerland, Fabio Friedli – WP
La prima sueca (Swedish Cousin), Argentina, Inés María Barrionuevo, Agustina San Martín – WP
Libélula (Firefly), Mexico, José Pablo Escamilla Gonzáles Aragón – IP
Milk, Lithuania, Daria Vlasova – WP
Morning Cowboy, Spain, Fernando Pomares – WP
Sheva Dakot (Seven Minutes), Israel, Assaf Machnes – IP
Sirens, Monaco, Emmanuel Trousse, screening out of competition – WP
Smashed, Australia, Sean Lahiff – WP
SNIP, Canada, Terril Calder – EP
The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do, Columbia / Belgium, Juanita Onzaga – WP
U Plavetnilo (Into the Blue), Croatia / Slovenia / Sweden, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic – WP
White Riot: London, United Kingdom, Rubika Shah – EP
Wolfe, Australia, Claire Randall – WP

Short Films Generation Kplus

1Minuutje natuur (1Minute of Nature), Netherlands, Stefanie Visjager, Katinka Baehr – IP
Aaba (Grandfather), India, Amar Kaushik – WP
Der kleine Vogel und die Raupe (The Little Bird and the Caterpillar), Switzerland, Lena von Döhren – WP
Dziedošais Hugo un viņa neticamie piedzīvojumi (Singing Hugo and His Incredible Adventures), Latvia, Reinis Kalnaellis – WP
Em busca da terra sem males (In Search of the Land Without Evil), Brazil, Anna Azevedo – WP
Engiteng‘ Narok Lukunya (Black Head Cow), USA, Elizabeth Nichols – EP
Hedgehog´s Home, Canada / Czech Republic, Eva Cvijanovic – WP
Jazzoo, Sweden, Adam Marko-Nord – IP
Li.le, Georgia, Natia Nikolashvili – WP
Min Homosyster (My Gay Sister), Sweden / Norway, Lia Hietala – IP
Odd er et egg (Odd is an Egg), Norway / Portugal, Kristin Ulseth – IP
Promise, USA, Xie Tian – IP
Sabaku, Netherlands, Marlies van der Wel – IP
Terrain de jeux (Playground), France, Maxence Lemonnier – WP
The Catch, Canada, Holly Brace-Lavoie – WP
The Dress on Her, Taiwan, Wen Chih Yi- WP
Vulkánsziget (Volcanoisland), Hungary, Anna Katalin Lovrity – WP
Xalé Bu Rérr (Lost Child), Senegal, Abdou Khadir Ndiaye – WP

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale Co-Productions Market, Venice International Film Festival

European Film Market & Co-Production Market

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

36 Attractive Feature Film Projects Searching for International Partners at the Berlinale Co-Production Market

At the 14th edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 15, 2017) a selection of 36 promising feature-film projects from 29 countries will come together with a wide range of potential co-production and funding partners from around the world. In addition, the market will be presenting several respected production companies in the scope of their exclusive “Company Matching Programme”.

To aid the producers of the selected projects and companies, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team is organizing a total of approximately 1,200 one-on-one meetings with interested potential partners from a participant pool made up of 550 producers, world sales agents, broadcasters, distributors, film funds and financiers from all across the world.

For the official project selection, 20 promising feature-film projects with budgets ranging from 750,000 euros to eleven million euros were chosen from a total of 323 submissions. They will be presented by internationally experienced producers and have all either already secured production funding from their native countries or have at least been able to cover 30% of their projected financing needs to date.

In the scope of the “Rotterdam Berlinale Express”, three additional film projects will take part both in the CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Ten newcomers to the world of international film production will also be presenting their projects at the “Talent Project Market”, which is organized in co-operation with Berlinale Talents. These attendees were chosen from an additional 178 submitted projects.

Among the directors of the selected projects are familiar names such as Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance, A Somewhat Gentle Man, The Beautiful Country), whose films have already been featured three times in the official Berlinale programme, Agnieszka Holland, whose most recent film Spoor is celebrating its premiere at this year’s Berlinale, as well as further directors of Competition films from the past years, including for instance Lou Ye (Blind Massage), Celina Murga (The Third Side of the River), Anne Zohra Berrached (24 Weeks) and Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin).

In the category “Berlinale Directors”, three projects from directors whose previous films were shown at the Berlinale will be presented; though these productions are still in a very early stage of development from a financing perspective, they are considered so promising that they can already benefit from finding co-operation partners in order to ease their way to the big screen.

In addition to the meetings with potential partners, which are arranged individually to satisfy the concrete needs of each project, there are also three awards available: the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, worth 20,000 euros, the VFF Talent Highlight Award, worth 10,000 euros, and the ARTE International Prize, worth 6,000 euros, will all be given away at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The four already confirmed companies featured in the “Company Matching Programme” come from Germany, France, Israel and Norway. The 550 other participants can also request one-on-one meetings with them in order to exchange information on a structural level or on the basis of project slates and move towards exploring the possibility of long-term co-operation.

There are at least two films screening in the festival programme of the upcoming Berlinale which were presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market as projects in previous years and met partners: Una mujer fantástica (A fantastic woman) by Sebastián Lelio, which is part of the Competition, and Mulher do pai (Nalu on the Border) by Cristiane Oliveira, which is being shown in Generation 14plus.

The primary partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are the MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe MEDIA, a programme of the European Union.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a part of the European Film Market.
The Berlin House of Representatives, which is located right across from the European Film Market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, will once again serve as a co-operation partner and main venue for the event.

Official project selection for Berlinale Co-Production Market 2017
(in alphabetical order by production company):
– Where the Summer Went (D: Beatriz Sanchis), Animal de Luz Films, Mexico
– Psychobitch (D: Martin Lund), Ape&Bjørn, Norway
– 7500 (D: Patrick Vollrath), Augenschein Filmproduktion, Germany
– Irene (D: Celina Murga), Cepa Audiovisual & Tresmilmundos Cine, Argentina
– The Ski Jumper Who Didn’t Want to Land (D: Hans Petter Moland), Chezville & Storyline Studios, Norway
– Overgod (D: Gabriel Mascaro), Desvia Produções, Brazil
– Clear Blue (D: Lindsay MacKay), Devonshire Productions, Canada
– Man’s Fate (D: Lou Ye), Dream Factory, China & Chinese Shadows, Hong Kong, China
– The Deer (D: Bogdan George Apetri), Fantascope, Romania
– The Monster Within (D: Rodrigo Susarte), Forastero, Chile
– Lost Country (D: Vladimir Perisic), KinoElektron, France, Trilema, Serbia & MPM Film, France
– Benigno Cruz (D: Jorge Hernandez Aldana), La Pandilla Producciones, Venezuela & Lucía Films & Paloma Negra Films, Mexico
– Eloe (D: Piotr Złotorowicz), Lava Films, Poland
– Charlatan (D: Agnieszka Holland), Marlene Film Production, Czech Republic
– A Film by Verner Holm (D: Jannik Johansen), Profile Pictures, Denmark
– Blanquita (D: Fernando Guzzoni), QuijoteRampante, Chile
– Paloma’s Wedding (D: Marcelo Gomes), Rec Produtores, Brazil
– Waiting for an Angel (D: Akin Omotoso), Rififi Pictures, South Africa & Triptych Media, Canada
– Dead Noon (D: Jeff Desom), Samsa Film, Luxembourg
– Daughter of Mine (D: Laura Bispuri), Vivo Film, Italy

“Berlinale Directors” projects:
– Ten Thousand Happiness (D: Johnny Ma), Image X Productions, China
– Colour of the Skull (D: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer), Mille et Une Productions, France
– Zorro (D: Ronny Trocker), Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Germany

“Rotterdam Berlinale Express”:
– Girls of the Sun (D: Eva Husson), Maneki Films, France
– Jumpman (D: Ivan I. Tverdovsky), New People Film Company, Russia
– The Wife of the Pilot (D: Anne Zohra Berrached), Razor Film Produktion, Germany

“Talent Project Market” – projects and selected production talents (in alphabetical order by production company):
– The Deposit (P: Eva Sigurdardottir), Askja Films, Iceland
– MNK Boy (P: Aydin Dehzad), Kaliber Film, Netherlands / Turkey
– Shock Labor (P: Maria Carla del Rio), Marinca Filmes, Cuba
– The Bus to Amerika (P: Nefes Polat), Mars Production, Turkey
– The Space Between (P: Angela Lee), Nifty Pictures, USA
– Memoryland (P/D: Quy Bui), Pixelholic Media, Vietnam
– Tomorrow is a Long Time (P: Jeremy Chua), Potocol, Singapore
– Never the Bright Lights (P: Tonee Acejo), Quiapost Productions, Philippines
– You Will Die at Twenty (P: Hossam Elouan), Transit Films, Egypt / Sudan
– Breaking Surface (P: Julia Gebauer), Way Creative Films, Sweden

Company Matching (in alphabetical order by company):
Black Sheep Film Productions, Israel
Haut et Court, France
Mer Film, Norway
Weydemann Bros., Germany

Logo-Berlinale-Facebook

(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival

Berlinale Goes Kiez

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

Since 2010, the Berlinale’s Flying Red Carpet has traveled from arthouse cinema to arthouse cinema on seven evenings during the festival, visiting Berlin’s movie lovers in their neighborhood cinemas. On each of these evenings, one Berlin arthouse cinema turns into an additional festival venue and presents two selected films from the Berlinale program.

 

screen-shot-2017-01-12-at-2-24-49-pm

 

Just like they do at the regular festival, the film teams usually introduce their works in person at the neighborhood cinemas and are available to answer questions and discuss their films with audiences after the screening. Besides the film team, a patron of the cinema will also welcome audiences to the small Red Carpet: one prominent film personality acts as the patron of each neighborhood cinema, thereby supporting the cultural work of his or her favorite theatre.

 

screen-shot-2017-01-12-at-2-30-29-pm

 

Please enjoy highlights from last year’s Berlinale Goes Kiez in the following video from the Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival:

 

Neighborhood Cinemas 2017:
Bundesplatz-Kino (Wilmersdorf)
City Kino Wedding im Centre Français de Berlin (Wedding)
Eiszeit Kino (Kreuzberg)
Odeon (Schöneberg)
Thalia Programmkino (Potsdam-Babelsberg)
Toni & Tonino (Weißensee)
w o l f  (Neukölln)

The Berlinale Goes Kiez project was launched in 2010 on the occasion of the festival’s 60th anniversary and has proven to be hugely popular with audiences. In past years, Berlinale Goes Kiez has visited the following cinemas: ACUDkino (Mitte), Adria (Steglitz), Babylon (Kreuzberg), Bundesplatz-Kino (Wilmersdorf), Capitol Dahlem (Zehlendorf), City Kino (Wedding), Die Kurbel (Charlottenburg), Eiszeit Kino (Kreuzberg), Eva Lichtspiele (Wilmersdorf), filmkunst 66 (Charlottenburg), fsk (Kreuzberg), Hackesche Höfe Kino (Mitte), IL KINO (Neukölln), Kant Kino (Charlottenburg), Moviemento (Kreuzberg), Neue Kammerspiele (Kleinmachnow), Neues Off (Neukölln), Odeon (Schöneberg), Passage (Neukölln), Sputnik Kino (Kreuzberg), Thalia Kino Berlin (Lankwitz), Thalia Programm Kino (Potsdam-Babelsberg), Tilsiter Lichtspiele (Friedrichshain), Kino Toni & Tonino (Weissensee), Union Filmtheater (Friedrichshagen) as well as Yorck (Kreuzberg).

*Berlinale Goes Kiez is supported by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.logo_medienboard_berlin-brandenburg_1_(Source: Berlinale Press Office)

#Berlinale, #BIFF, Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale Talents

Hugh Jackman’s Logan claws out world premiere in Berlin film festival

Leave a comment

Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Andrew Pulver

Logan, the third and final standalone Wolverine film to star Hugh Jackman as the adamantine-clawed mutant, is to receive its world premiere at the Berlin film festival in February.

Logan, which follows X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013) in featuring the character as its main protagonist, revolves around an ageing Wolverine whose powers are failing. Directed by James Mangold, and co-starring Patrick Stewart and Dafne Keen, Logan will screen an as out-of-competition film, ahead of its cinematic release in early March.

Also receiving its world premiere at the festival will be Viceroy’s House, the Gurinder Chadha-directed historical drama about the end of the Raj and the partition of India, featuring Hugh Bonneville as Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India, and Gillian Anderson as Lady Edwina Mountbatten.

Like Logan, Viceroy’s House will screen in an out-of-competition slot; as will T2 Trainspotting, the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 Irvine Welsh adaptation. Although T2 Trainspotting will have been released in the UK before the festival begins, its screening at the festival is billed as an “international premiere”.

These films join the already announced lineup, which includes the Richard Gere thriller The Dinner, Penélope Cruz in The Queen of Spain and Aki Kaurismäki’s latest, The Other Side of Hope. The festival also revealed recently that this year’s opening film would be Django, a biopic of the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt directed by Étienne Comar.

67berlinale_logo

The Berlin international film festival runs from 9-18 February.

(Source: theguardian.com)