Browsing: Other Arts

Since last year’s edition, New York’s Museum of Modern Art moved the dates of its annual survey of German films from a dark November slot to a sunny spring one, to benefit from the new crop of German productions premiering at the Berlin Film Festival. And so this year’s KINO! 2010: New Films from Germany took place between April 21-30, featuring some familiar as well as fresh faces, with an unusually high number of documentaries. 7 out of 10 full length film slots were occupied by non-fiction films! Margarethe von Trotta’s latest work VISION (VISION – AUS DEM LEBEN DER…

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Already in its 39th year, NEW DIRECTORS NEW FILMS is firmly established in the annual NY Film Festival calendar. Jointly selected and presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, it’s an annual showcase of noteworthy films –documentaries and fiction—by emerging filmmakers from around the world. This year’s edition features twenty-seven highlights from the past festival season, including this year’s Sundance and Berlin Film Festival. Fresh from its world premiere at the Berlinale, HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER (KAL YA PROVYOL ETIM LETOM, 2010) comes Russian filmmaker Alexei Popogrebsky’s follow up to his 2003…

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BERLIN — One of Europe’s foremost producers of feature films and television, Regina Ziegler has become renowned over the past three decades for her work with leading directors Rainer Fassbinder, Andrzej Wajda, Nic Roeg, Ken Russell, Krzysztof Zanussi and Bob Rafelson, among many, and for her tenacity, taste and talent in putting Europe’s top-tier actors and crews onto the same team. With her current historical epic Henri IV, based on the novel by Heinrich Mann, the indefatigable Zielger continues a tradition of bringing to the big screen quality stories supported by top-flight production values. Set against the backdrop of 16th-century…

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In 1995, Pastor Richard Gazowsky of the Pentecostal Church in San Francisco received a calling; to set up a Christian film company and deliver the Lord’s message to the people through the power of film. Inspired, he founded WYSIWYG—WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET FILMWORKS. Michael Jacobs verité style documentary, AUDIENCE OF ONE, enters the world of Pastor Gazowsky; Jacobs accompanies the pastor on his quest to produce GRAVITY: THE SHADOW OF JOSEPH, a multi-million dollar biblical science-fiction-epic shot in 70mm. With an incomplete script, half baked ideas about film making, an amateur cast and crew, and a shortfall…

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Are you looking for a film about beauty and aesthetics? Look no further; Fredrick Wiseman’s latest documentary, LA DANSE, about the Paris Opera Ballet has it all: amazing dancers, spellbinding choreography, beautiful photography, and gorgeous architecture all set against the backdrop of the city of Paris.Through the course of 158 minutes, Wiseman introduces us to seven different choreographers and lets us spend time with them and the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet, who easily adapt to each of their particular styles and creative processes. In addition to the rehearsal footage, Wiseman also takes us behind the scenes to meet…

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A couple of weeks ago, Green Screens, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s film series about all things sustainable, returned after the summer break with a pre-release screening of NO IMPACT MAN – a documentary by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein. This high concept documentary in the line of Morgan Spurlock’s SUPERSIZE ME, features Colin Beavan and his family as they set out to turn into a carbon neutral family within a year. Over the course of a year, the film-team follows Colin, his wife Michelle and their daughter Isabella as they embark on their adventure and experience a number…

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Academy award-winning German filmmaker Caroline Link’s latest work, A YEAR AGO IN WINTER, is a compelling, evenly-paced psycho-gramme of a family struggling to come to terms with death. In the opening scene Lilli, a 21-year-old theater student, observes her brother Alex dancing in the snow while their mother, Eliane, films him. 9 months later, Eliane visits Max Hollander, a painter, to commission a portrait of her two children, Alex and Lilli. As she talks about her son and daughter, she reluctantly discloses to Max that Alex has passed away. Eliane never discusses why she wants this painting, but it is…

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When I first received a copy of composer Ronen Landa’s “Picturebooks”, I knew I was in for an astounding auditory journey. The packaging perfectly states what you are in for; the mysterious photo of a film reel showing a seascape bay reflects the impactful music within. The album itself is a compilation of soundtrack works from this imaginative composer.The album is organized into three different books. Book One being from the acclaimed 2005 film by Iraqi director Haydar Daffar, ‘The Dreams of Sparrows”. Tracks 1-8 bring a combination of strings, Oud, electronics and haunting lead vocals/whispers by Vlada Tomova, a…

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Germany, 1942 – David Silberstein and Heinrich Meissner are best friends—they practice the piano and play together in the neighborhood. However, there is a dark cloud hanging over their friendship.To protect Herman from the horrors of the Holocaust, everyone, including his own mother and best friend David, never talk about the pending deportation of the Silbersteins. Instead, Heinrich is told the Silbersteins are going on a long trip to TOYLAND – and so Heinrich wants to join them. With his little suitcase all packed, he is ready to go…The film effortlessly jumps back and forth in time, telling of the…

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A first in Europe is DOKU.ARTS – an international film festival entirely dedicated to documentaries about art and artist – portraying, surveying and contemplating the artistic process – whether in visual arts, music, dance, literature film, photography, design or architecture. Back in 2006, Andreas Lewin, festival founder and artistic director, premiered the festival in Berlin – and in 2008 moved to Amsterdam – at the invitation of Sandra den Hame, former festival director of the acclaimed audience favorite Rotterdam International Film Festival and now director of the Amsterdam Filmmuseum.DOKU.ARTS is only matched in North America by the Montreal based FIFA…

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