Disappearing Act IV Brings The Finest in European FIlm

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 06 April 2012 03:03

Written by Renzo Adler

The fourth annual edition of the Disappearing Act FilmFestival (April 11-22, 2012) presents 25 films from 21 European countries. A veritable smorgasbord of New York based European affiliations, Disappearing Act is organised by the Czech Center, the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Group of European Cultural Institutes in New York together with European Diplomatic Entities.

This year’s festival will be held at three locations:

• The IFC Center (323 Avenue of the Americas)
• Tinker Auditorium at the French Institute Alliance Francaise (22 East 60th Street)
• Bohemian National Hall (321 East 73d Street)

The Disappearing Act program includes a panel discussion, to be held this year on April 10th at the Bohemian National Hall as a pre-festival event. This year’s panel turns its attention to the presence of European cinema at American universities. The festival also opens itself as an educational resource providing an opportunity to students of New York University’s cinema studies program to introduce several films.

Launched in 2009, Disappearing Act feature 25 contemporary European films from:

• Austria
• Wallonia-Brussels region of Belgium 
• Flanders region of Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• the Czech Republic
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Italy
• the Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland

Guests include Marc Bauder, director of The System, along with co-screenwriter Doerte Franke, who will be present for the U.S. premiere of their film on the opening night, April 11th, at the IFC Center. The System examines the role of the police in Romanian society as a young detective that is tasked with tracking down a hash dealer begins to have doubts about his profession.

Based on a true story, Eighty Letters is set in 1980s communist Czechoslovakia and follows a boy who watches as his mother tries to secure the necessary paper work so she can rejoin her husband that defected to England. Vaclav Kadrnka, director and screenwriter of Eighty Letters, will speak at the screening on April 15th.

White White World is an interesting mix of Greek tragedy, Brechtian opera, and European politics. Set in a Serbian mining town, a woman is reunited with her mother. The mother had been sent to prison for murdering her husband, and now reunited, mother and daughter may be torn apart again as the two compete for the affection of the same bar owner. Uliks Fehmiu, producer and star of White White World will do a Q&A after the screening.

Taking place in 2008 Athens, Greece, Wasted Youth follows a teen boy and a middle aged man as the two meet and come to terms with the brutish realities of the global financial crisis. Argyris Papadimitropoulos, co-director of Wasted Youth, will speak to the audience after the screening on April 21st.

Except for the opening night, all screenings of this fest are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis.

To learn more, go to: www.disappearingact.org

Disappearing Act Film Festival 
April 11-22, 2012

Tinker Auditorium at the French Institute Alliance Francaise 
22 East 60th Street
New York, NY 

The IFC Center 
323 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 

Bohemian National Hall 
321 East 73d Street
New York, NY 

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