INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

44th International Film Festival Rotterdam #5 Monday 26 January 2015 ENGLISH EDITION

Three established artists present their feature fi lm projects at IFFR’s Art:Film meeting today. Melanie Goodfellow reports

Since the early days of cinema, artists have worked with fi lm, from Salvador Dalí’s collaboration with Luis Buñuel on Un Chien Andalou to Andy Warhol’s experimental 1960s works such as Empire and Chelsea Girls, or more recently Ben Russell and Ben River’s A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness. As media, art and entertainment converge in the digital age, there has been an increase in the number of artists producing works for the big screen – but the crossover is not always easy, as they grapple with different funding and distribution models. Art:Film, an initiative set up in collaboration with IFFR’s CineMart and Danish documentary festival CPH:DOX, is aimed at helping some of these projects fi nd fi nancing and get made.

Work-in-progress“We’re a sort of work-in-progress ourselves,” says Tobias Pausinger, who founded and manages the initiative with former CineMart acting chief Jacobine van de Vloed. “ART:Film was born out of our observation four years

ago that more and more artists were trying to cross over – it started with a series of panels and workshops on art and fi lm and has grown from there.”“While at CineMart, Jacobine and me saw that more and more visual artists were applying with their fi lms. My background is in sales and acquisitions, and while working at The Match Factory I was also seeing more visual artists crossing over from installation work into features, like Pipilotti Rist or Apichatpong Weera-sethakul, who won the Palme D’Or.”“There’s a lot arthouse fi lm professionals can learn from the art world about private funding and alternative distribution, while artists need to understand the industry psychologies of the fi lm world, which sometimes collide with for example the development and funding practices of the art world,” continues Pausinger. “On the surface, the two worlds look very similar, but the deeper you dig you fi nd they’re quite different.”

Hand-pickedUnder the initiative, three CineMart projects by fi lmmakers from the art world are presented at a day-long meeting to a group of hand-picked arts funders and fi lm professionals with an interest in artistic cinema. This year’s selection comprises Egyptian artist Hala Elkoussy’s Cactus Flower, Polish Agnieszka’s Hurray, We’re Still Alive! and British Phil Collins Mr. Sing Sing. After Monday’s meeting, the projects will also be presented at CineMart. Elkoussy’s Cactus Flower revolves around a strug-gling actress, a reclusive, bourgeois beauty and a rebellious, street-savvy young woman who are thrown together after their homes and belongings are destroyed by a fl ash-fl ood; Polska’s Hurry, We’re Still Alive! follows the last hours in the life of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Phil Collins’ Mr. Sing Sing is a hybrid fi lm about a maximum secu-rity prison in New York State, involving the inmates and a European dance company.

“These three projects are CineMart projects, but we’re interested in fi nding fi nance for all aspects of the larger project. The most important criteria is that the fi lmmakers have an established track record in the art world,” says Pausinger.

Case studyNew this year is a case study. Emily Morgan at London-based Soda Film + Art (SoFA) – the sister company of UK distributer Soda Pictures – will present Mark Lewis’s Invention, a feature-length, work-in-progress linked to his show of the same name imagining a contemporary world without cinema or other moving images. The project was presented last year at Art:Film while in development.The feature is described as a “straightforward, messed-up love story set in a contemporary world” on the cusp of inventing cinema.Artists to have previously presented works at the meeting which is in its third year include Fiona Tan, Rosa Barba, Sven Augustijnen, Mark Lewis, Willie Doherty, Pierre Bismuth (who is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for his fi lm Where is Rocky II), Sergio Caballero and Michelangelo Frammar-tino. All projects are close to physical production, in post-production or already shot. “We’re building up quite a catalogue,” says Pausinger. “We hope that all these projects got valuable input and some profi t from their participation.” 

ProfessionalsArt world professionals attending Monday’s meeting include Charlene Dinhut, the fi lm curator of the Centre Pompidou in France, Margaret Parsons, curator and founder of the fi lm programme at the National Gallery of Art Washington, and Andrea Lissoni, fi lm and inter-national art curator at the Tate Modern in London.  Representatives of the fi lm industry include Natasha Dack of Tigerlily Films, which recently produced Jerusalem-born artist Omer Fast’s debut feature

phot

o: N

icho

n G

leru

m

Where is Rocky IISouth Africa to IFFRTransition is the MissionCross Channel Film Lab

3 Tired MoonlightSignals: Jang JinMatthäus Passion StoriesTiger Releases

4 Another Trip to the MoonAbove and Below5

CineMart in full swing: Sacha Polak (fourth from left at table), whose project Vita & Virginia is in CineMart, at the CineMart Meeting Panels on Sunday.

CinemArt

DAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGERDAILY TIGER

IFFR LATE NIGHTTonight’s guests are the director and composer of Das Zimmermädchen Lynn (The Chambermaid Lynn), Ingo Haeb & Jakob Ilja, and director of Tiger competitor Bridgend, Jeppe Rønde. The Movie Dogs Quiz will focus in on ’80s Dogs!

TIGER ALERTPrepare for your trip to IFFR with the Tiger Alert Pro newsletter with all the latest industry news. Sign up at www.iffr.com/professionals.

AUDIENCE AWARDTOP 10

1. The Dark Horse 4.73 2. Ik ben Alice 4.58 3. Loin des hommes 4.52 4. Timbuktu 4.40 5. Phoenix 4.33 6. Turist 4.32 7. Charlie’s Country 4.17 8. War Book 4.15 9. The Golden Era 4.14 10. Gluckauf 4.13

Remainder; industry veterans Keith Griffi ths and Simon Field of Illumination Films, and Nadia Turincev of Paris-based Rouge International, which produced A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness. The presentations will be moderated by Ben Cook, founding director of the international arts agency LUX, and fi lm and arts journalist Erika Balsom. 

FLANDERSIMAGE.COM

PRESS & INDUSTRY25/01 10:45 Cinerama 429/01 14:00 de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

PUBLIC

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Isabelle Tollenaere A Michigan Films PRODUCTION IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH Wit�lm & Tax Shelter Ethique CINEMATOGRAPHY Frédéric Noirhomme SOUND Kwinten Van Laethem EDITING Nico Leunen SOUND DESIGN & MIX Michel Schöpping PRODUCTION MANAGER Marie Géhin PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Fedra Dekeyser POST-PRODUCTION MANAGER Nazima Mintjes DELEGATE CO-PRODUCERS Iris Lammertsma & Boudewijn Koole DELEGATE PRODUCERS Olivier Burlet, Sébastien Andres & Inneke Van Waeyenberghe

A Michigan Films production IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH Wit�lm and Tax Shelter Ethique WITH THE SUPPORT OF Flanders Audiovisual Fund,The Netherlands Film Fund and The Belgian Federal Government Tax Shelter IN ASSOCIATION WITH Cobra Films and Atopic.

A FILM BY Isabelle Tollenaere

27/01 21:30 Pathé 228/01 19:15 Pathé 729/01 11:30 Cinerama 531/01 22:00 Lantarenvenster 5

CONTACT Michigan Films, Olivier Burlet, olivier@michigan�lms.be

3INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

By Nick CunninghamIn Pierre Bismuth’s directorial debut Where is Rocky II (pitched at CineMart Art:Film in 2013, currently “90% complete” and hopeful of an early 2016 festival debut), a rock in the desert becomes something of a needle in a haystack. The premise of the film, part doc/part fiction, is entertaining, if slightly bonkers. Bismuth was fascina-ted by a late 1970s BBC documentary he saw on America artist Ed Ruscha, who created a fake rock that he placed somewhere in the Californian desert. Ruscha is seen removing the papier-mâché rock (named Rocky) from the desert as it was partly eaten by vermin. So he created

an altogether more robust rock (Rocky II), this time made of resin, which was transported back to the desert. Bismuth was intrigued, but for years he was the only person who seemed to be aware of this story, and was evermore determined to get to the strange truth, as well as discover the whereabouts of the fake rock. What’s more, Ruscha himself showed no interest in enligh-tening the filmmaker. So Bismuth set out to solve the mystery of the hidden rock, and to create a groundbrea-king film in the process – one that blurs the line between fiction and reality.

Now Bismuth and producer Gregoire Gensollen are looking to raise a final €134,000 ($150,000) of the film’s overall €900k budget through the Indiegogo crowd-funding site. This will pay for the fictional component within the ostensibly documentary film. “If we are to raise this extra $150,000, then we will shoot the fiction part in March/April,” Bismuth points out. “The structu-re is established but there is a lot of material so we will now edit intensely what we have. This will be finished in September 2015, as the Sundance Institute – which has been extremely supportive – would like to see a pre-cut then; if everything goes as planned the film will be presented at Sundance in 2016.”In the film, the character of Ruscha himself is as essential a component as the mythical rock. “I realised the rock was the maguffin, the entry point into a work that is much more than an investigation into the rock’s whereabouts,”

Bismuth says of his aim to also provide a cinematic profile of the artist. “I also realised the only way that I could start my film was by confronting Ruscha publicly about this mysterious piece, so I did so when he had a big exhibition at the Hayward in London.” There is a resolution to the mystery, but of course that is under wraps.Of his 2013 CineMart, experience Bismuth is effusive. “It was great. It was a very convivial environment, but also for me it was a first taste of the film [business] world,” says Bismuth, who won a screenplay Academy Award for his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. “I had never pitched a film before, and at the same time its very challenging, as the people who were dealing with the Art Section had a good understanding of what an artist is doing and understood we don’t have the full package of technical terms and the right language. It was a perfect introduction, and I really enjoyed every minute of it.”

By Nick CunninghamThis evening at de Doelen, the five members of Rotter-dam-based maverick theatre collective Wunderbaum will present footage from Transition is the Mission, their “unconventional collaboration” with Dutch director Mijke de Jong, who directed the highly controversial Brozer in 2014. The film, which grew out of the stage play The New Forest, has been invited to premiere at IFFR 2016.In the highly polemical work, the Wunderbaum actors, all of whom enjoy equal status within the group, step away from their thespianism to engage in political and socially-engaged projects. Actor Matijs Jansen explains how in one of the strands the actors set up “a place for negativity,” to show how, in a society that promotes endlessly positivity, life can be “really fucked-up”. Another section rails against the use

of child labour in the manufacture of mobile phone batteries. A third strand involves the development of an app to “professionalise” and connect propo-nents of city farming. The app will be available in the AppStore to coincide with the film’s release. “We are doing the projects throughout the year, so the border between fiction and reality is almost completely gone. This is for us a very interesting line to walk.”Two thirds of the film finances are covered and Wunder-baum personnel are “looking for daredevils who recognise themselves in our story and would like to co-fi-nance bottom-up.” Contributions start at €50 for 1/20th of a scene, and a guarantee of your name in the credits. Full scene “adoption” gets you a full production day visit to the set.

Today, the Cross Channel Film Lab – an Anglo-French training initiative supported by Creative Europe – launches a new programme focussing on the development of low-to-medium budget feature films utilising VFX and Stereo 3D technologies to enhance storytelling  and reach new audiences.  Running for six months, from June to November 2015, a core programme will offer 24 Europe-based filmma-kers, each with early-stage feature film projects, the chance  to engage in a mix of residential workshops and online seminars, masterclasses and specialist consultancy, and to learn more about the intersection of visual technology and screenwriting. A further 24 filmmakers will be offered the chance to participate in CCFL Training’s online-only programme. The

programmes are being run in collaboration with Le Groupe Ouest (Brittany, France), Creative England and Falmouth University (Cornwall, UK).Pproject co-director Mary Davies, who can be found in the Industry Club on the 4th  Floor of de Doelen, commented: “This will allow us to extend the range of the Cross Channel Film Lab into Europe beyond the UK and France, where we have been working for the past three years. Now we can reach more filmmakers as we are opening it up to a total of 48 participants. We are very excited that Creative Europe have given us this new opportunity and we are hoping that some of the filmma-kers here in Rotterdam will have a look at our website and come along to talk to me if they are interested.” (For info see http://crosschannelfilmlab.com/apply/) NC

Rockfest

It’s a Wunderful life

Cross Channel Film Lab enhances storytelling

South Africa to IFFR

Tiger Shorts Awards Announced

By Nick CunninghamA delegation of sixteen filmmakers representing new Rotterdam Lab partner ATFT (South Africa) arrived at IFFR Saturday ahead of an intense 4-day period of project pitching and close observation of the workings of the international co-production trade. The stated aim of the institution is “to empower, develop and inspire black individuals, as well as black-owned companies, and grow the South African film, tele-vision, animation and transmedia industries,” and aspires to a 200% growth in South African content on local and international platforms, of which 80% is made and sold by black filmmakers and black-owned companies by the end of 2018. Five ATFT filmmakers have been chosen for the Lab, while the rest of the delegation are enjoying CineMart observer status.“We specifically chose the Rotterdam Lab because of the programmes which focus on emerging produ-cers and filmmakers, and I want to see how we can align our mandate as an association with CineMart,” explained Mayenzeke Baza, Director of Intl. Relations

for ATFT. “It is a very competitive platform, so our producers are here to observe how it works.”“South Africa is a very good landscape for co-pro-duction,” Baza continues, citing the country’s treaties with Germany, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Canada and France. “And we are awaiting signature on a treaty with Brazil. So co-production is important for us. It’s our first time here in Rotterdam. In the past, we have always gone to markets as an asso-ciation, like Mipcom, MipTv and the Cannes Marché, but this is a festival with an industry programme, so I think based on the projects on display and the people that are here, my expectation is that our producers will learn a lot. When they go back they will reas-sess their projects, maybe write new scripts, having hopefully begun to create an international network of other producers and directors that they can work with in the future, and reassess what local and inter-national audiences really want. That is the strategy here.”

At last night’s IFFR Late Night, the winners were announced of the Canon Tiger Awards For Short Films (prize €3,000 and a video camera). The winners are: Things by Ben Rivers (UK), “ For its exquisite crafting and ambitious approach to the personal and the diaryistic”; La Fievre by Safia Benhaim (France), “For its poetic and human use of images and sounds to engage with complex political histories”; and Greetings to the Ancestors

by Ben Russell (USA/South Africa/UK), “For its complex approach to ethnographic filmmaking, its sensuous psychedelia, its self-reflexive and intricate weaving of voice and landscape.”Also at the Late Night, the Rotterdam nomination for the EFA was announced. This is Our Body by Dane Komljen (Serbia/Germany), “For its interweaving of the literary and the philosophical, and compelling juxtaposition of the gentle and the abrupt.”

Pascal Schmitz, Public Officer ATFT & Mayenzeke Baza arrive at IFFR photo: Nadine Maas

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM4

That Gieling feelingBy Nick Cunningham“Until the film is over I don’t know what to expect,” commented Dutch auteur Ramón Gieling before the world premiere of his Erbarme Dich – Matthäus Passion Stories, screening in IFFR Live. “On paper, it’s beautiful that people all over Europe are able to see the film. For me, it is more important that the film is in Rotterdam, as the festival has a real tradition of cinematic, cinematographic productions, so in that sense I am really very happy to be back here after five years [with Tramontana].”Erbarme Dich is a complex and multi-layered essay/documentary/performance during which Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion is played to an audience of homeless who themselves pose within painterly tableaus. In addi-tion, a series of artistic luminaries explain the profound effect the music has on them. “The best films I know are the ones you cannot put into a synopsis. The films of Antonioni – how do you describe them? – a man and a woman are about to divorce and go to a party. La Notte for example. So the truth is, it is hard for me to put Erbarme Dich into a synopsis. You experience the immense quality of the music through these witnesses, these testimonies of people that relate their connection with it, and then there is this artificial, non-existent space [Gieling recreated a church in the studio], so I wanted to take it out of reality in that sense.”“I am quite cynical, but not when I make films – then I try to be serious,” he continued. “Good music or good literature make you a better human being – it makes you understand the cruel contradiction of life. Life is very cruel – and good art and a good film gives you the

armour to understand how contradictory it can be; we keep forgetting St. Matthew’s Passion is a horrible, cruel story of betrayal about a guy who suffers without knowing why. That is what is happening to all of us.”Gieling revealed that he is developing two further projects. “One is with San Fu Maltha [of Fu Works]. It is a beautiful love story, also about religion, between a brother and a sister who get to know each other when they are already in their 20s,” he explained. “It is an impossible amour fou which has to end in a mutual

suicide. This love […] can only exist in death.”The other he describes as a “kammerspiel” in which three ageing Indonesians meet every five years to cele-brate the dropping of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima as, for them, the event heralded their liberation from the Japanese. “Every five years they go to a hotel in The Hague and, of course, they all have these traumas they never talk about. On one particular evening these traumas come out and reveal some horrible facts about their past in Indonesia.”

IFFR and Dutch technology company Infostrada will unveil their joint digital distribution initiative Tiger Release at the festival today. By Melanie Goodfellow

How many times have you heard digital distribution championed in industry panels as the future for inde-pendent filmmakers? Getting a film on to platforms like iTunes or Amazon Instant Video, however, often proves as difficult and costly a process as a securing a theatrical release – especially for cash-strapped filmmakers who cannot afford the formatting costs. This is set to change for filmmakers with a title in the IFFR’s 2015 selection. IFFR and Dutch technology company Infostrada will unveil their new initiative Tiger Releases, aimed at taking the pain and upfront costs out of processing a film for a digital release, at the festival on Monday. “I’m a strong believer that video on demand needs to be for everybody and not just the big studios and majors, otherwise we’ll end up with a one-way system,” says Infostrada CCO Karel van der Flier. “Disrupt is a strong word, perhaps, but it’s time to disrupt the current status quo and make it easier for small independent filmmakers to show their films digitally,” he adds. Under the initiative, all filmmak-ers with works at IFFR this year will be offered the opportunity to use Infostrada’s services to format their titles for digital release. They will not have to pay upfront, but rather the costs will be recouped through audience revenues and eventually written off if there are none.  Infostrada is the go-to company in the Netherlands

for video encoding, with certifications with iTunes, Netflix, Google Play, Microsoft Xbox, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video, which already works with Dutch VOD platforms Pathé-Thuis, NPO Live and RTL Videoland.“The complicated part is that every platform has its own formatting rules, or ways of locking content. iTunes, for example, asks that actors are listed with their first name followed by the last name and if you go to Google, it’s the other way round. If you do it wrong they won’t allow you on the platform. There are some some 1,500 bits of metadata for every movie,” says Van der Flier. “We’ve built a web-based software system which

processes metadata and automatically makes the information plugged by the rights-holder compatible with whichever platform it’s destined for,” he adds. Infostrada will be holding a two-hour seminar on the new initiative at the festival on Monday, at which film-makers will be invited to sign up for the scheme. This will include a presentation of how to use the Tiger Release platform based on the example of two early signees, Limbo by Anna Sofie Hartmann (screening in Bright Future) and Edmund Yeo’s River of Exploding Durians (screening in Bright Future Premieres). “Our experience with VOD platforms is that it takes time to build an audience. Nobody is going to get rich any time soon, but it’s a start,” says Van der Flier.

Jang Jin sweeps inSouth Korean directing star Jang Jin hits IFFR on Monday. Melanie Goodfellow reports Popular South Korean director Jang Jin, whose 20-year career is the subject of a Signals retrospective this year, is the guest at an IFFR Critics’ Talk today. The filmmaker is held in huge affection by South Korean audiences for his satirical comedies but less well known internationally. “When IFFR 2015 is over, you may well find yourself wondering why you didn’t know Jang Jin before. Pretty much everyone in South Korea does know Jing Jan,” writes East Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns, who programmed the sidebar and will be modera-ting the talk. 

“He’s the country’s most famous modern playwright and theatre director – and he’s often on television, recently as the mastermind behind the sketch show Saturday Night Live Korea, which more than once caused a national uproar,” he explains. “Jang Jin is best known for one thing: satire. He doesn’t respect institutions, powerful individuals or dogmas of any kind. He believes endearingly that sati-rical comedy might change society more effectively than throwing Molotov cocktails,” Rayns adds. Monday’s Critics’ Talk will be accompanied by a screening of Jang’s satirical 2006 short Someone Grateful, in which he subverts the popular discourse over the suffering of student activists in pro-demo-cracy protests.

The tale, revolving around the interrogation of a student, scandalised the left-wing chattering classes for the way in which it focuses on the suffering of the officer conducting the questioning. It was made as part of a series of films commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea following the end of military rule in 1993.  The Jang Jin retrospective will continue later on in the day with a screening of the 2005 film Murder, Take One, in which a murder trial involving the death of a woman in a hotel room is staged as a TV show. Other Jang Jin titles screening in the IFFR selection include Anne Lee’s The Recipe, which Jang Jin produ-ced, and Romantic Heaven, three intersecting tales in which romantic ideals are shattered.

Tiger Release: time to get disruptive

Ramón Gieling photo: Ruud Jonkers

Limbo

Small town storiesBy Mark Baker“I started the film after receiving a Jerome Foundation grant in 2011,” director Britni West says of the genesis of her debut feature, Tired Moonlight, competing in the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition. “I spent a lot of time in Montana where I grew up, hanging out at my parents’ house, taking long walks and biking. I’ve always found that doing rhythmic activities lulls my mind into a nice empty place where ideas can bounce around – doing this while surrounded by mountains and open space really helped set a very specific tone for the film.” A free-flowing, associative sojourn in West’s home-town, Kalispell, set mostly during the summer

months, Tired Moonlight was cast from locals she found by posting ads in local papers, on bulletin boards and even pinning up signs in local bars. “It’s funny, I still occasionally get calls from people who had my number back then – there was a while I would get consistent phone calls at two in the morning from people who seemed to just need someone to talk to. I didn’t necessarily reject any of them, but none of these ones ever showed up to the auditions.” Of those who were cast, local poet Paul Dickinson’s poetry – recited over lingering shots of beautiful Montana landscapes or everyday domestic scenes – adds an extra layer of incisive, bittersweet observation to the film’s lingering exploration of the vicissitudes of small-town living. “I always had Paul Dickinson in mind,” West says. “His poetry sort of becomes a commentary that ties the film together. I liked the idea of this man coming into town and writing poetry about the places he was seeing.”

“I tried to use the personalities of the actors to inform their performances”, West recalls of the process of directing her cast, most of whom had no previous acting experience. “I got to know them all really well, so it wasn’t difficult to discuss intent. And it was a really small crew, which I think made it fairly low-pressure for the cast – if acting for your first time can ever be low-pressure!” In spite of the film largely eschewing traditional narrative structure, West did write a detailed script before shooting. “I scripted the entire film to give the actors a sense of the story and the direction we were all headed. The script was more narrative-driven than the final product, but the intention was never to stick to it entirely. I had always planned on picking up little moments along the way, and adding in characters as we find them.” “I am looking forward to seeing how a foreign audi-ence responds to it,” West says ahead of tonight’s international premiere. “It seems like a very specific small-town-America story, but I know if I saw that story set somewhere in Europe, I would be very excited by it.” 

Tired Moonlight

Hivos Tiger Awards Competition

Mon 26 Jan 11:45 PA5 (P&I); Mon 26 Jan 22:00 PA4;

Tue 27 Jan 15:45 PA5; Wed 28 Jan 15:45 PA5;

Fri 30 Jan 14:30 LV2; Sat 31 Jan 14:30 CI3

Tired Moonlight

Britni West

5INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

By Tina PoglajenThere is a distinct quality to Ismail Basbeth’s film Another Trip to the Moon. It walks an almost ethereal line between losing itself in the richness of Indo-nesia’s mythological narratives – poetically shot streams, vast woods and picturesque herbs, spices and colourful fabrics of Southeast Asia – while at the same time subtly mocking it all, playing with the “seriousness of oral lore transmitted from one generation to another, that still holds a prominent place in Indonesia’s culture.” Apart from this, Basbeth comments on the symbolic power of film

as a medium: “It enables us to legitimise our own re-telling of these narratives, even as a joke.”In an almost camp combination of Indonesian legends, animals are often played by people in costumes instead of actual animals. Featuring them in the film would be difficult to pull off exactly as planned, and expensive too. Instead, Basbeth turned to the rich theatrical heritage of Yogyakarta. “The city has a history of hosting stage performances and plays and is particularly famous for its art scene. I studied filmmaking here, so maybe it became second nature to use several art forms to help me tell the story. That is why on this film, we collaborated with many artists and musicians. I think it works, but I’m curious as to what the audiences are going to say about this.”Asa, the daughter of a seer, lives in a forest together with her girlfriend to escape her mother’s clutches. Are stories with such prominent female characters common in Indonesia’s mythological narratives? Not at all, it turns out. “Here in Indonesia, the culture is very patriarchal. There’s not a lot of power given to

women – neither in their personal nor public lives.” So was switching traditional gender roles a political statement for Basbeth? Yes and no. “I’m definitely a supporter of women’s rights. Let’s respect each other as human beings – the world will be a better place.” On the other hand, femininity is something specific to his artistic mode of expression, it seems. “I always seem to invest all of my hopes and expectations into female characters. I’m not sure why, but almost every short film I’ve made so far has turned like that. Maybe a part of me is more feminine than I’m aware of.”“The legends featured in Another Trip to the Moon are well-known to Indonesia’s youth – they will probably notice that I am interpreting them in my own way,” explains Basbeth. “It would be a great experience for me to watch them watch the film,” he adds. “I am hoping that will happen soon after Rotterdam. I am not sure it will get the chance to have a theatrical release here [in Indonesia], since we have an unfriendly Censor Board, but we will try. Our plan B is to have it screened in film communities and film clubs.”

Another Trip to the Moon

Hivos Tiger Awards Competition

Mon 26 Jan 19:15 PA7; Tue 27 Jan 12:15 PA6;

Wed 28 Jan 22:00 PA7; Thu 29 Jan 18:00 LV3;

Thu 29 Jan 19:30 DWBZ (P&I); Sat 31 Jan 09:15 CI2

Woman on the moon

“the culture is very patriarchal”

Life on MarsBy Harriet WarmanFor his second feature film, director Nicolas Steiner set out to discover people hidden from the world. Those who have chosen a life away from the cities and communities – and the luxuries therein – that most ordinary folk take for granted. Above and Below docu-ments the lives of Cindy, Rick, and Lalo who live in the flood tunnels below Las Vegas; David, who lives in a reclaimed military bunker in the Californian desert; and April, a geologist living out a red planet expedition simulation for the Mars Society. Though each protagonist seems to be wilfully rejecting a normal life, for Steiner they all represent the will to survive that is natural to all of us, and have created their own kind of ‘normal’ within which to do this: “It’s amazing how fast human beings attach to their surroundings and what the formula of three walls and a ceiling can be.”What’s striking about Above and Below is how successfully it makes seemingly ignored lives cinematically epic, whilst retaining an intimacy with the protagonists. Shooting wide and employ-ing strategic use of a crane, Steiner and DoP Markus Nestroy convey the scale of the desert, the Mars-like terrain and the Las Vegas skyline in such a way that the individuals who inhabit these mostly forgotten lands, appear heroic in their choice to live apart from the mainstream. For Steiner, this wide scope was essential to the concept of Above and Below, allowing him to visualise the connections between his star-gazing and tunnel-dwelling protagonists.

For the most part however, a looser, more spon-taneous approach was needed in order to remain discrete. “We didn’t want to attract too much atten-tion from the ‘outside’ world, because especially in the underground of Las Vegas, we were shooting illegally. We were constantly trespassing.” Building an intimacy with his subjects was also vital to achieving Steiner’s vision for the film. Before shooting, he spent months with each protag-onist without the film’s crew, which allowed the director to gain their trust and, whilst filming, this effort to respect their lives remained important. “[During the] shooting period, which was over two and a half months, we didn’t shoot that much daily. Instead, we spent a lot of time with them. Often-

times we went down into the tunnels, for example, without any equipment. It was more to hang out and help them: driving around, organizing stuff, collecting bottles, trying to help fix Dave’s RV, etc. We did what we could to be part of the whole life system within.” Such respect and empathy for the subject is what makes Above and Below so effective, allowing for moments in which the protagonists reveal the difficulties that have come from their life choices. For Steiner, this closeness dismantled what he had imagined such hidden lives to involve: “The true story is sometimes so much harder than anything that you could possibly even think of.”

Above and Below

Hivos Tiger Awards Competition

Mon 26 Jan 18:45 PA4; Tue 27 Jan 11:30 DJZ (P&I);

Tue 27 Jan 12:15 PA2; Wed 28 Jan 21:45 PA2;

Thu 29 Jan 15:00 LV3; Sat 31 Jan 14:15 CI2

“The true story is sometimes so much harder”

CONGRATULATESSTRANDED IN CANTON

A CPH:LAB FILM BY MÅNS MÅNSSON ROTTERDAM IFF 2015

OFFICIAL SELECTION

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM6

20

PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS10.00 11.00 12.00 13.00 14.00 15.00 16.00 17.00 18.00 19.00 20.00 21.00 22.00 23.00 24.0009.00

LantarenVenster 2

de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

MAANDAG 26-01-2015

ParabellumLukas Valenta Rinner 09:15 – 10:30

TGde Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

Made in ChinaKim Dong-Hoo 11:00 – 12:40

EP

NorfolkMartin Radich 18:00 – 19:27

TGde Doelen Willem Burger Zaal

La mujer de los perrosLaura Citarella/Verónica Llinás 20:00 – 21:35

TG BridgendJeppe Rønde 22:00 – 23:39

TG

Tired MoonlightBritni West 11:45 – 13:03

TGPathé 5

La vie de Jean-MariePeter van Houten 09:30 – 12:16

SPCinerama 2

The Wolf’s LairCatarina Mourao 13:00 – 14:45

SP CrumbsMiguel Llansó 17:00 – 18:08

BF

The Second Life of ThievesWoo Ming Jin 09:00 – 10:27

SPCinerama 4

La scuola d’estateJacopo Quadri 11:30 – 12:57

SP River of Exploding DuriansEdmund Yeo 14:00 – 16:08

BF The MoveMarat Sarulu 21:00 – 23:58

SP

LantarenVenster 2DINAMO P&I Screenings 4comb. prog. 10:00 – 10:53

SH

Heaven Knows WhatJosh Safdie/Benny Safdie 15:00 – 16:34

SP

Cinerama 6To the Editor of Amateur PhotographerFowler/Fell

WF

09:30 – 10:38

Amour fouJessica Hausner 13:15 – 14:51

LLde Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

La obra del sigloCarlos M. Quintela 15:45 – 17:25

TG Vanishing PointJakrawal Nilthamrong 18:15 – 19:55

TG

de Doelen Jurriaanse Zaal

09:15Parabellum [wp] TGLukas Valenta Rinner, Argentina/Austria/Uruguay, 2015, DCP, 75 min, Spanish, e.s.Threatened by the end of the world, a group of Buenos Aires residents receive lessons in survival at a resort in the marshy Tigre delta. The Austrian background of Rinner, who trained in Argentina, shines through in this bitterly comical stylisation of human failings when face-to-face with the apocalypse.

11:00Made in China [ep] EP •blauw•

Kim Dong-Hoo, South Korea, 2014, DCP, 100 min, Korean, e.s.A Chinese eel farmer illegally goes to South Korea to fi ght against its offi cials, who label his products contaminated and ban them. Written by Kim Ki-Duk, this furious drama and heartbreaking love story examines the dreadful extent to which neighbouring nations go to protect their mindsets, formed by years of propaganda.

13:15Amour fou LL •blauw•

Jessica Hausner, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany, 2014, DCP, 96 min, GermanGerman poet Heinrich von Kleist propo-ses committing a double suicide to his lover Henriette Vogel. He truly believes that this act will praise and commemo-rate their love. Keen on paradoxes, Haus-ner examines the romantic sensibility and insanity with both rigour and irony, and delivers a visual masterpiece.

15:45La obra del siglo [wp] TGCarlos M. Quintela, Argentina/Cuba/Switzerland/Germany, 2015, DCP, 100 min, Spanish, e.s.Drifting effortlessly between raw psycho-logical realism and dreamy surrealism and loaded with unique Cuban archive footage, this fi lm portrays three generati-ons of Cubans. In their apartment in the workers’ quarters at a half-built nuclear power station, they are forced to simply carry on. A fresh voice from, and about, a country in a stalemate.

18:15Vanishing Point [wp] TGJakrawal Nilthamrong, Thailand, 2015, DCP, 100 min, Thai, e.s.A serious fi lm about serious, complex issues (including a dramatic car crash), presented in a light, playful way. The fi lm follows two very different men, each of whom changes his life in his own way. This doesn’t seem to be a direct result of the choices they make. Change can be like that.

de Doelen Willem Burger Zaal

18:00Norfolk [wp] TGMartin Radich, United Kingdom, 2015, DCP, 87 min, EnglishA father and son live isolated from the outside world. Following a confl ict, a painful family story unfolds. Who is in the right and who is wrong remains a mystery, however - also for the audience. The landscape of Norfolk forms the perfect backdrop to this at times dis-concerting but always visually stunning drama.

20:00La mujer de los perros TGLaura Citarella/Verónica Llinás, Argentina, 2015, DCP, 95 min, Spanish, e.s.Co-director Llinás plays an intriguing, unique character in this existentialist fable about a woman who lives with a pack of dogs on the very edge of the populated world, with minimal contact with other people. The seasons come and go. On life and survival, love and death.

22:00Bridgend [wp] TGJeppe Rønde, Denmark, 2015, DCP, 99 min, EnglishOver a 5-year period in Bridgend in Wales, 79 people, many of them teenagers, committed suicide without leaving any clue as to why. This is the starting point for Danish Rønde’s feature debut - an atmospheric, at times mysterious social drama. Hannah Mur-ray convinces as the ‘new girl in town’.

Pathé 511:45

Tired Moonlight [ip] TGBritni West, USA, 2015, Video, 78 min, EnglishAt fi rst sight, small towns are not so different from one another: identical shops and identical pleasures. So Tired Moonlight mainly focuses on the inhabi-tants. Loosely connected to one another, their dreams and desires are what distinguishes them. Intuitive Americana movie gives an atmospheric impression of a small community.

Cinerama 209:30

La vie de Jean-Marie [wp] SP•paars01•

Peter van Houten, Netherlands, 2015, DCP, 166 min, Dutch/French, e.s.Beautiful, poetic documentary portrait of an aged Dutch pastor who watches over the spiritual life of about 25 villages in the French Pyrenees and does so with an unprecedented vivacity, sincerity and sensitivity for female beauty.

13:00The Wolf’s Lair [wp] SP•paars01•

Catarina Mourão, Portugal, 2015, DCP, 102 min, Portuguese, e.s.Every family has its secrets, the family of Portuguese fi lmmaker Mourão included. As the granddaughter of the well-known writer Tomaz de Figueiredo, she picks apart several of them in an intimate yet universally meaningful way.

15:00Heaven Knows What SP•paars01•

Josh Safdie/Benny Safdie, USA/France, 2014, DCP, 94 min, English, e.s.The junkie subculture of the Upper West Side in New York is still very much alive and that is demonstrated by 19-year-old Arielle Holmes, who surprises as an excellent actress.

17:00Crumbs [wp] BF•geel•

Miguel Llansó, Spain/Ethiopia/Finland, 2015, DCP, 68 min, Amharic, e.s.A post-apocalyptic, Surrealist science-fi ction romance from Ethiopia is not something you come across every day. Sequal to his fascinating short Chigger Ale. Daniel Tadesse again plays the lead.

Cinerama 409:00

The Second Life of Thieves [ep] SP•paars01•

Woo Ming Jin, Malaysia, 2014, DCP, 87 min, Cantonese/Mandarin/Malay, e.s.In a small fi shing village in Malaysia, it’s not easy to keep anything hidden. Yet the village chief has kept a great secret throughout his life: he had a relationship with a man who disappeared one day. The village chief then starts a quest that brings back many events from the past.

11:30La scuola d’estate [ip] SP•paars01•

Jacopo Quadri, Italy, 2014, DCP, 87 min, Italian, e.s.Documentary follows the experimental drama course given by the old Italian theatre and opera legend Lucio Ronconi every summer in a remote corner of Umbria, where young, dedicated acting talent rehearse several plays. Fascinating.

14:00River of Exploding Durians [ep] BF•geel•

Edmund Yeo, Malaysia, 2014, DCP, 128 min, Mandarin, e.s.In commercials, Malaysia is heaven on earth. Palm trees, white beaches and clear blue seas. In that same country, an extremely polluting factory has been built on the coast. As a result, the romantic and unpolitical life at a local secondary school changes drastically. A contemporary environmental story.

21:00The Move SP•paars01•

Marat Sarulu, Kyrgyzstan, 2014, DCP, 178 min, Kyrgyz, e.s.An old man and his little granddaughter peacefully live in a small village by the river. One day his daughter pushes him to sell the house and move with her to the city. An epic family drama and an outstanding piece of cinema. Minimalist and monumental at once. Nominated for The Big Screen Award.

Cinerama 609:30

To the Editor of Amateur Photographer [ip] WF•blauw•

Luke Fowler/Mark Fell, United Kingdom, 2014, DCP, 68 min, EnglishImpressionist journey through the archive of the Leeds Pavilion, which in the 1980s started out as a feminist photo studio. Former members, male and female, give their vision of the studio’s artistic and activist past, the reasons for which are as current as ever.

LantarenVenster 210:00

DINAMO P&I Screenings: 4 SHCombined programme, 47 minDINAMO (Distribution Network of Artists’ Moving Image Organizations) distributors show recently acquired work. These titles can also be seen in IFFR’s video library during the festival.

CBE Languages RotterdamTel: 010-282-7820 / info@cbelanguages.nl

How was the film?

English & Dutch courses for all levelsCambridge & IELTS exam preparationFluency courses

ENROLL NOW FOR COURSESSTARTING APRIL 2015!WWW.CBELANGUAGES.NL

Certified Cambridge ESOLpreparation centre

Develop your language skills in the heart of Rotterdam. . .

7INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

Subsidiënten

Hoofdsponsors

Suppliers

Media partners

Partners

Embassy of Austria • Embassy of Spain • Embassy of the Republic Indonesia • Embassy of the Republic of Poland in The Hague • Erasmusstichting • Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam • Goethe-Institut Niederlande • Istituto Italiano di Cultura Amsterdam • Institut Français des Pays-Bas - Maison Descartes • Romanian Cultural Institute • Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds • Taipei Representative Offi ce • Under The Milky Way • Van Leeuwen Van Lignac Stichting • G.Ph. Verhagen-Stichting

Argos Energies • BeamSystems • ESB.TSB • Zicht online • FestivalTickets • Gofilex • Indyvideo • Leo Ringelberg Touringcars • Maarsen Groep Vastgoedinvesteringen • Roos+Bijl • Veenman+

would like to thank

Hubert Bals Fund

ACE • ATFT • Berlinale Co-Production Market • Binger Filmlab • Catalan Films • Cinéfondation - Résidence du Festival • CineLink • Cinergia • CPH:DOX • Creative Skillset • Danish Film Institute • Durban FilmMart / Durban Film Office • EAVE • EYE Film Institute Netherlands • Festival Scope • Film I Väst • Film und Medienstiftung • Finnish Film Foundation • Flanders Image • Fundación TyPA • Guanajuato International Film Festival • Haghefilm • Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) • Irish Film Board • Israel Film Fund • Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg • Meetings on the Bridge • New Cinema Network - Rome • Netherlands Film Fund • Northern Film & Media • One Fine Day Workshop • Producers Network Cannes • PROIMAGENES Colombia • Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Culture • Sundance Institute • Swedish Film Institute • Telefilm Canada • Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival • Wallonie Bruxelles Images

CineMart

SQUAT DELUXEAudio-visual rental

LIONS CLUB L’ESPRIT DU TEMPS

Distributeurs

ABC-CinemienA FilmAmstelfi lmBuena Vista InternationalCinéart NederlandCinema DelicatessenDe Filmfreak distributieImagine FilmdistributieJust Film DistributieLumière Mokum FilmRemain in LightSeptember FilmWarner Bros. Pictures Holland

COLOFON DAILY TIGER

Anton Damen (hoofdredactie), Radboud de Bree, Sanne de Maijer (eindredactie), Joost Broeren, Tara Lewis, Sietse Meijer, Maricke Nieuwdorp, Nicole Santé, Paul van de Graaf (redactie), Martje van Nes, Jodie de Groot, Anne van de Wetering (marketing en communicatie)English section: Nick Cunningham (editor-in-chief ), Mark Baker (copy and production editor), Melanie Goodfellow (editor),Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, Ruben Demasure, Tina Poglajen, Harriet Warman (trainees), Lot Piscaer (online)Programma informatie: Chris Schouten, Melissa van der SchoorCoördinatie A-Z: Saskia Gravelijn (tekst), Erik Diekstra (beeld)Fotografi e: Felix Kalkman (coördinatie), Bram Belloni, Bas Czerwinski, Corinne de Korver, Nichon Glerum, Ruud Jonkers, Nadine Maas, Marije van Woerden Vormgeving: Sjoukje van Gool, Pascal Tieman, Gerald Zevenboom Drukker: Veenman+Acquisitie: Daily ProductionsOplage: 10.000 per dag

Tiger Business Lounge

3POABN AMROBilderberg ParkhotelcitizenMDubois & CoDyade AdviesEYFreeland Corporate AdvisorsGrafi sch Lyceum RotterdamHAL Investments B.V.Hogeschool RotterdamHouthoff BurumaIN10ING BankIntermaxManhave VastgoedMatrans Holding BVMen at Work TV ProduktiesNautaDutilhNedspice HoldingSyntrus AchmeaVeenman+Zadkine Rotterdam