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Transitions: Recent Polish Cinema
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Events
- Published on Saturday, 10 September 2011 19:05
- Written by Adrienne Kehn
From September 9 to 15, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, in collaboration with the Polish Film Institute in Warsaw and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, will present Transitions: Recent Poli
sh Cinema, a series of recent films that collectively offer a provocative look at Poland today.
While the Revolution of 1989 is the great moment of change for contemporary Poland, this Eastern European country has never stopped changing.
The nation has had to adapt to a "European" identity; learned to deal with new, emerging centers of power, such as China, India, and once again Russia; and deal with a dizzying array of social movements from ecology to gay rights. Moreover, there was the question of the country’s past: how to understand it and explain it to new generations of Poles.
Throughout this period, Polish cinema — always an able chronicler of Polish life — has tried to keep up with this "New Poland."
The series includes two classic films starring the great Zbigniew Cybulski, shown in beautifully restored copies.
Listed below are short descriptions of the films in the series:
All That I Love (2009)
directed by Jacek Borcuch
Amidst the Solidarity strikes and crackdowns of 1981, punk rock and hormones distract the son of a naval officer in Borcuch’s coming-of-age crowd-pleaser. A Sundance 2010 selection.
Black Thursday (2011)
directed by Antoni Krauze
The brutally suppressed Gdynia shipyard strikes of 1970 get a stirring reconstruction, spiraling out from the senseless shooting of a man on his way to work.
Erratum (2010)
directed by Marek Lechki
30-something dad Michal is called back to his hometown and drawn into stories and lives from his past, in Lechki’s sensitively observed, lyrical debut.
Goodbye Until Tomorrow (1960)
directed by Janusz Morgenstern
Zbigniew Cybulski, the James Dean of Poland, shines as a charming actor in a traveling troupe who catches the eye of a fetching Frenchwoman. Scored by Krzysztof Komeda.
Mall Girls (2009)
directed by Katarzyna Roslaniec
Roslaniec’s darkly devastating film, which spurred nationwide debates, follows teens who get the latest fashions by offering themselves to men known as “sponsors.”
Mother Teresa of Cats (2009)
directed by Pawel Sala .
Dysfunction turns to disaster when two brothers, aged 22 and 12, murder their cat-loving mother, in this sobering drama told through serial flashbacks and based on a true story.
Night Train (1959)
directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
In this masterfully shot classic of postwar Polish cinema, a fateful train hosts a diverse mosaic of personalities—including a murderer. With Zbigniew Cybulski as a spurned lover.
Out of Love (2011)
directed by Anna Jadowska
Hard up for cash, a young married couple decide to act in a porn movie — just once — but the experience opens up emotional and moral issues.
Suicide Room (2010)
directed by Jan Komasa
After a high-school dare leads to humiliation, a rich teen spirals into an abyss of virtual online worlds, in Komasa’s coolly visualized tale of youth and oblivion.
Venice (2010)
directed by Jan Jakub Kolski
Re-creating the wonders of Venice in their basement, a boy and his family find a magic-realist escape from World War II in this visually striking film.
For information on screening times and more, go to: http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/transitions-recent-polish-cinema
Transitions: Recent Polish Cinema
September 9 - 15, 2011
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 W. 65th St.
New York, NY
212-875-5456
box[ur]shorts Film Festival
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Events
- Published on Tuesday, 04 January 2011 10:00
- Written by Film Festival Traveler Staff
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box[ur]shorts™ Film Festival, a yearlong short film exhibition taking place internationally from Los Angeles across the globe to Den Haag, Netherlands will hold its fifth annual awards night at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 8, 2011. Doors open at 7:30pm.
Perugia Int'l Film Festival
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: International
- Published on Thursday, 06 October 2011 16:04
- Written by Adrienne Kehn
Lovers of "la dolce vita," take note: The new Perugia International Film Festival will launch its first annual Festival from March 22nd to 25th, 2012. As a non-competitive festival, the Perugia International Film Festival aims to present groundbreaking films while also celebrating the art and the craft of cinema, and sharing the beauty of the city itself.
Set in Umbria’s picturesque hills—“the green heart of Italy”—Perugia is home to two leading universities, extraordinary Umbrian architecture, and a rich artistic and cultural heritage from Etruscan times to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Festival draws inspiration form the city’s historical narrative, paying tribute while creating a framework for innovation. A different kind of festival, it is an idyllic forum for original thinkers and visionaries to start conversations, generate new ideas, and immerse themselves in all artistic genres.
The Perugia International Film Festival will present films that exemplify traditions of craftsmanship as well as of aesthetic and technological innovation. An annual focus of the Festival will be to honor the work of the masters behind Costume Design and Production Design - integral, but rarely recognized, disciplines. In addition, the Festival intends to celebrate recent developments in film preservation and will showcase newly restored award-winning films. Moderated discussions and panels will present audiences with an opportunity for an immersive experience in all aspects filmmaking.
"Perugia is the perfect location for an international film festival where there can be an opportunity for a lively exchange on the possibilities of the medium of cinema,” says Paul Feller, Chief Executive Officer, Stratus Media Group, which conceived the idea for the festival, and is producing the event.
Seattle Int'l Film Festival Launches African Picture Lineup
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- Parent Category: Film Festivals
- Category: Trends
- Published on Tuesday, 26 March 2013 10:00
- Written by Matt Oakes
SIFF is renowned for not only its massive size but its near limitless scope as the festival, which spans 25 days, features over 250 full length and 150 short films from over 70 countries worldwide.
Last year, SIFF was awarded a grant by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to sponsor their blossoming African Pictures program. As part of this new charter, SIFF has an unparalleled opportunity to bring African films which would otherwise go largely unnoticed to a new, Western audience.
Festival coordinator Carl Spence had the following to say:
"We are excited to launch African Pictures as a major program of the Seattle International Film Festival. With vital support from AMPAS along with other partners we look forward to the opportunity to shine a light on and bring awareness to provocative, relevant and entertaining stories being told across the continent of Africa through the medium of film."
Amongst this maiden African Picture program is an eclectic group of features sure to capture the attention of many festival-goers. The twelve films included in this year's African Pictures category each offer a unique perspective on modern Africa and span genres from rom-com to suspense, documentary to drama.
- Documentarian Bryan Little focuses his camera on street dance throughout South Africa in The African Cypher, a North American premiere which presents the punchy soul of modern African dance.
- Coming Forth by Day comes forth from female Arab filmmaker Hala Lofty and focuses on the living relationship between a mother and daughter in modern day Egypt.
- Filmmakers worldwide will be sure to enjoy this provocative first look at Hillywood, the Rwandan Film Industry, in Leah Warshawski’s lovingly made Finding Hollywood. Warshawksi’s film sets it’s sights on the emerging culture of film and filmmakers within the auspicious confines of Rwanda.
- Following up on the 2011 SIFF hit Spud, Spud 2 returns to the life of the titular character going through the motions in a South African boarding school and features the return of Monty Python alum John Cleese.
- An impactful and important look at climate change and human influence in Mali, Sand Fishers by Samouté Andrey Diarra takes the narrative of a group of fishermen forced out of a job due to overfishing and turn to collecting sand and gravel to sell to the local big cement industry.
- Comrade President by Mosco Kamwendo of Zimbabwe documents the life and death of revolutionary leader Samora Moises Machel and illuminates the shifting political winds within the Mozambican government and the eternal struggle for independence.
- From South Africa director Henk Pretorious comes Fanie Fourie’s Lobola, a new age rom-com that explores the cross pollination of cultures in the midst of a multi-cultural wedding.
- Kasper Bisgaard of Uganda brings his film Kampala story which follow the young Apio, a 14-year-old Karamojong girl, as she tries to find her father after he suddenly stops sending money home to her and her mother.
- Co-financed between Nigeria and the UK, Obi Emelonye’s Last Flight to Abuja is already a bona fide box-office hit even before it’s North American Premiere and focuses on a group of airline passengers as they deal with romance, blackmail and murder.
- First time filmmaker Joel Karekezi takes a heart wrenching look at the twisted ethos that led to the Rwandan genocide with The Pardon (Imbabazi) which deals with a pair of friends who fight on different sides of the horrific genocide and how they struggle to make amends later.
- The Repentant, directed with heart and panache by Merzak Allocate, showcases a Jihadist who escapes his violent lifestyle in pursuit of peace and a new lease on life only to find that his past isn’t as escapable as he might have thought.
Running from May 16 - June 9, the Seattle International Film Festival will play a host of venues including the SIFF Cinema Uptown, SIFF Film Center, AMC Pacific Place, Egyptian Theatre, Harvard Exit, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, MOHAI and the Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center.
For more info on the Seattle International Film Festival go to: http://www.siff.net/festival-2013
