A few weeks back, on a dark and still wintry Sunday night, the second annual CINEMA EYE HONORS awards ceremony was hosted at the elegant and stylish Times Center in the recently opened New York Times Building. A good number of NY’s who’s who of independent documentary filmmaking gathered for a fun and fact filled evening celebration of non-fiction filmmaking. Awards for outstanding achievements in 10 different categories were given out, ranging from the AUDIENCE AWARD, which went to UP THE YANGTZE by Yung Chang, to OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL FEATURE for Golden Globe winner WALTZ WITH BASHIR by Ari…
Author: Tanja Meding
In March, German Premiers, NY’s ongoing presentation of new and noteworthy German productions, organized by German Films, presented HILDE – a feature film by Kai Wessel, produced by Judy Tossell of Berlin based Egoli Tossell Film. Both filmmaker and producer were in town to present the film to a packed theater. The film had its world premier at this years Berlinale and just opened theatrically in Germany. Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer and writer – was an icon of postwar Germany. Born in 1925, she studied acting at the UFA film studios during the second world war, became a…
One of the highly anticipated films in the main section of the Berlinale was the German Anthology Collection DEUTSCHLAND 09 – 13 SHORT FILMS ABOUT THE STATE OF THE NATION. Initiated and produced by Tom Tykwer and Dirk Wilutzky’s production company Herbstfilm, the film was produced by Dirk Wilutzky and Verena Rahmig. Using fact, fiction and a few hybrids, some of Germany’s top emerging and established filmmakers offer interesting and inspiring snippets of subjects, they themselves and the German people struggle with these days. Dominik Graf’s thoughtful contribution THE ROAD WE DON’T WALK TOGETHER (DEN WEG, DEN WIR NICHT ZUSAMMEN…
Last September, award winning German documentary filmmaker Britta Wauer (EGON SCHULZ: A HEROES DEATH, THE RAPPAPORTS, OUR THREE LIVES, and others) spent two months in and around New York researching and filming her first feature length documentary titled GERDA’S SILENCE. I was the NY production manager for this documentary and, upon completion have now had the pleasure to review the film. Based on German journalist Knut Elstermann’s book of the same title, the documentary was produced by Volker Hahn, of Cologne based production company ZEITSPRUNG ENTERTAINMENT and premiered theatrically in Germany on November 6, 2008. GERDA’S SILENCE tells the devastating…
Berlin, Germany — Some days into the festival, here is a brief review of what James and myself have been up to so far and what to look forward to on this site. We started our work last weekend of with some sound bites from Tribeca Film Institute CEO Brian Newman, who granted us an interview in a truly cinematic setting at his hotel. Brian talked about his work at the Tribeca Institute and introduced the new online distribution platform Reframe Collection (www.reframecollection.org) – a filmmaker friendly distribution model for independent filmmakers offering their films to download, stream or purchase.…
In November 2004, German Film Services launched German Premieres, an ongoing presentation of new and noteworthy German films for the US market. This very successful screening series opened with Dennis Gansel’s NAPOLA. Since then, German Film Service NY representative Oliver Mahrdt has presented more than 15 films to the NY industry, ranging from such high-end documentaries as Thomas Grube’s TRIP TO ASIA (2008) to low-budget indie films like Robert Thalheim’s NETTO (2005). Earlier this December, German filmmaker Connie Walther arrived in New York to present her latest feature film, SCHATTENWELT (Long Shadows) (2008).Walther’s film tells the tragic story of Valerie,…
For 29 years now, each fall the Museum of Modern Art together with the Goethe Institute New York, The Consulate General of German as well as German Films present an annual slate of new and noteworthy films from emerging and established German filmmakers. CHERRY BLOSSOMS – HANAMI (Kirschblueten- Hanami, 2008) by acclaimed writer-director Dorris Doerrie opened the series. The film premiered at this year’s Berlinale, had a successful theatrical release in Germany, and received a number of awards, including German Film Award for Best Actor for Elmar Wepper and Best Film in Silver. Doerrie and leading actress Hannelore Elsner were…
The Philippines of Southeast Asia are an archipelago of 7107 islands with around 91 million inhabitants. Its capital, Manila, is located on the island of Luzon and with 15 million citizens is one of the worlds’ largest and most densely populated cities. Between October 16 and 29, CINEMANILA International Film Festival, celebrated its 10th anniversary in this exciting city. Named after legendary Filipino filmmaker Lino Brocka’s production company, CINEMANILA’s mission is to bring the best of world cinema to the Filipino audiences and the best of Filipino filmmaking into the world. The festival does well in fulfilling its mission –…
In addition to presenting numerous films firmly rooted in reality, the 46th New York Film Festival also offered works focusing on family issues throughout different parts of the world . French filmmaker Agnès Jaoui’s latest work, LET IT RAIN, talks about politics within society, in families and relationships and between friends. Co-written with Jean-Pierre Bacri, who also co-stars with Jaoui in the film, Let it Rain continues the pair’s writing-acting collaboration. Joui plays Agathe Villanova, a feminist writer turned politician visiting her family home town to spend some time with her sister and family but also to take part in…
For the 46th time, this October, The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival offered the crème de la crème of world cinema to New York audiences. It was a real treat and a great preview of the upcoming slated art-house films. Reality meets Fiction seemed to be the subtitle for a large number of this year’s festival’s films. The selected works were either based on true events, portraits of real people, or conceived and filmed with the goal to be as authentic as possible. Many of them resonated long after their onscreen conclusions. Following are some highlights…