Sarah Maldoror Films @ Centre Pompidou, Paris (Text in English)

Sarah Maldoror

Centre Pompidou, Paris 

Cinéma 1 | Level 1

April 3 - 7, 2025 

Sarah Maldoror @ Christine Lipinska 

Courtesy Annouchka de Andrade et Henda Ducados

Associated programme to the Black Paris exhibition

The "Black Paris" exhibition features the work of artist Sarah Maldoror, including one of her major productions, And the Dogs Were Quiet. Filmed in the collections of the Musée de l’Homme in 1978, this motion picture is built around filmed excerpts of Aimé Césaire’s drama And the Dogs Were Silent. During the exhibition, the Centre Pompidou’s cinemas are paying tribute to this unique filmmaker whose work documents and questions the present more than ever before.

A five-day event that includes screenings (all accompanied by artists and witnesses on whom Sarah Maldoror’s work has had a lasting influence), readings, encounters, and the presentation of previously unseen archives, invites the public to hear the filmmaker’s voice in the present. Restored versions of the films Monangambé (1969, 17 min), And the Dogs Were Quiet (1978, 13 min), Le masque des mots (1987, 47 min) and Regards de mémoire (2003, 24 min) will be presented for the first time in France thanks to the support of MansA – Maison des Mondes Africains. Sarah Maldoror’s 1979 trilogy composed of Carnaval in the Sahel (28 min), Fogo, Fire Island (34 min) and Carnaval in Bissau (18 min) will also be shown.

Filmmaker Sarah Maldoror’s life and career tie in with all currents of activism in the 20th century: surrealism, Négritude, Pan-Africanism, feminism and communism. 

Born Marguerite Sarah Ducados in 1929 to a mother from Gers and a Guadeloupean father, she chose the pseudonym Maldoror, inspired by Lautréamont’s The Songs of Maldoror, rediscovered by the Surrealists during the interwar period. In 1956, Sarah Maldoror founded Les Griots, the first Black theater troupe in Paris. She later studied filmmaking in Moscow before directing her first short film, Monangambééé, in 1969. Her first feature film released in theaters, Sambizanga (1972), widely regarded as her masterpiece, was restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation. 

Sarah Maldoror passed away in 2020, leaving behind a legacy of over 40 films, including both fiction and documentaries of varying lengths, shot in France, Algeria, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Colombia, as well as numerous unrealized projects. Her work, deeply poetic and artistically driven, consistently explored struggles for independence, especially in African nations, alongside her companion, Angolan poet and anti-colonialist activist Mario Pinto de Andrade.

“We will never be free as long as you see us the way you do. We must free you from the idea you have of Black people so that we can be free Black people...” Sarah Maldoror declared to writer Marguerite Duras in a 1958 interview, encapsulating the direction of her life’s work.

She adapted and brought to the screen the portraits of numerous artists and intellectuals of the 20th century, including Aimé Césaire, Léon-Gontran Damas, Caribbean poet René Depestre, Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, French figures Louis Aragon and Robert Doisneau, and Mexican painter Vlady Rusakov. Maldoror also collaborated with filmmakers such as Chris Marker, Gillo Pontecorvo, and William Klein.

As part of ongoing tributes, Sarah Maldoror’s work was featured in the exhibition "After the End: Maps for Another Future" at the Centre Pompidou-Metz from January 2025, and in the "Regards Satellites" festival at the L’Écran cinema in Saint-Denis, from January 29 to February 9, 2025. Carlotta Films released restored editions of Sambizanga, Monangambééé, and the Carnaval trilogy in a special box set in early 2025, accompanied by a dedicated issue of Avant-Scène Cinéma in February focusing on Sambizanga.

In spring 2025, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York hosts a complete retrospective of her films, followed by another in São Paulo in 2026.

CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS

centrepompidou.fr

Introduction to Holography - Vintage Video (1972)

A 1972 introduction to Holography in motion pictures

This film examines the process of holography, types of holograms, and the uses of the hologram for artistic and scientific purposes, as demonstrated by Tung H. Jeong, PhD, Lake Forest College.

This vintage educational film in color with sound from the beginning of the seventies was directed and produced by Thomas G. Smith. (16mn 29 sec.)

Production Company: Encyclopedia Britannica

Source: archive.org

Vision Globale Canada Joins Kodak Imagecare Program

Kodak Motion Picture Film Processing Laboratory in Montreal: Vision Globale is a newest member of the KODAK IMAGECARE Program and the first Canadian lab to be accredited by Kodak for this program. This is a quality program for motion picture film processing laboratories with member labs in 23 countries worldwide.

The KODAK IMAGECARE Program includes quality standards that assure member labs adhere to established practices with full documentation of procedures and calibration. Kodak works very closely with laboratory personnel to assure these standards are met and maintained.

In 2001, Vision Globale opened a small, independent boutique film laboratory to expand their range of services to the entertainment industry. They have now received KODAK IMAGECARE Program accreditation in Phase I, Camera Negative Processing operations, indicating to filmmakers that critical film handling techniques and quality processing standards are being maintained by the facility.

“Over the years, Kodak has been a great partner in the ongoing task of achieving consistency,” said Paul Dion, Director of Operations at the lab. “The Kodak Imagecare Program accreditation gives us credibility and instant recognition of our continuous commitment to the highest quality standards and assurance that all assets entrusted to us will be handled with the highest level of expertise. Throughout the process and right up to the final audit, we had the continuous support of Kodak. Our commitment to the highest-quality services has rewarded us with repeat business from enthusiastic filmmakers who count on us to bring their wildest projects to life. In a sense, the existence of a strong infrastructure is necessary to promote film as a superior medium.”

“We are delighted and proud to welcome Vision Globale as the first Canadian laboratory into the Program,” says Diane Carroll-Yacoby, worldwide manager of the KODAK IMAGECARE Program. “They are committed to excellence and delivering the best that film can offer a customer.”

For details on Vision Globale visit their website at www.visionglobale.com

Visit www.kodak.com/go/imagecare for further information on the KODAK IMAGECARE Program.

Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2010

Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2010

November 10 - 14, 2010

Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS) is a non-profit organization created in 2008. With the support of former Houston Mayor Bill White and the leadership of Franci Crane, HCAS organized and hosted the 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. The festival celebrates the vitality and diversity of the arts in Houston and showcased the international city that Houston is with a total of over 6000 people who attended 34 events and screenings of films and new media by and about artists working in the visual, performing and literary arts. Following the  success of the inaugural festival, the second annual Cinema Arts Festival Houston will be presented November 10-14, 2010. 

HCAS is funded in part by grants from the Crane Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, City of Houston Convention and Entertainment Facilities Department, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston Film Commission and Texas Film Commission.

Among the 2010 film selections is director Mark Landsmanʼs documentary Thender Soul, which earned the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2010. Thunder Soul also took home audience awards at SXSW in Austin, the Dallas International Film Festival, and the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.

Landsmanʼs film is a reverent homage to Houston native and Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame  inductee Conrad O. “Prof” Johnson and his work with Kashmere High Schoolʼs Kashmere Stage Band during the late 1960ʼs and 70ʼs. Thunder Soul recounts the Kashmere Stage Bandʼs remarkable run for a national title in 1972 along with the events leading up to a reunion performance in February 2008 when 30 original members (now in their mid-fifties) performed a tribute concert in honor of Mr. Johnson, who was 92 at the time. The Kashmere Reunion Band will perform live following the free screening of Thunder Soul at Discovery Green during the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston.

“My fatherʼs legacy is the continued education of Houston-area youths, and this film shows how that can be achieved,” says Prof Johnsonʼs son, Conrad O. Johnson, Jr. “Mark really knows the mechanics of documentary storytelling and knows how to fit together this type of film. My father never got a chance to see the final product, but I do believe he would have been proud of Markʼs work. I hope weʼre able to get more documentaries such as this one exposed to the people of Houston, not only because its about Houston, but also because its about the power of achievement.”

For the second consecutive year, nationally recognized film programmer Richard Herskowitz will serve as the festivalʼs artistic director. In addition to his work as director of the Virginia Film Festival  –  one of two regional festivals to be awarded multi-year support from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  –  from 1994  through 2008, Herskowitz also helmed Cornell Cinema, the media arts center at Cornell University, for twelve years. While with Cornell Cinema, he served as adjunct curator for film and video at  the universityʼs Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. He currently teaches Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon.

 
“Houston is fortunate, indeed, to have the talented visionary Richard Herskowitz returning as the artistic director of Cinema Arts Houston 2010,” says HCAS Board Chair Franci Crane. “Just like last November, Richard will bring Houston a sizzling film and media arts festival, one for which all Houstonians will be grateful.”

Also scheduled to be shown are:

Waste Land (2010): This Sundance Audience Award-Winning documentary follows artist Vik Muniz as he collaborates with catadores (pickers of recyclable material) in the worldʼs largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro to create internationally recognized art.

Ride, Rise, Roar (2010): A feature-length documentary profiling Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne and his collaboration with choreographers and dancers on his recent concert tour. The film was screened to great acclaim this year at SXSW.

The Woman with Five Elephants (2009): Winner of the Sterling World Feature Award at the 2010 AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival, this documentary follows the twilight years of renowned translator Svetlana Geier and her meticulous process of translating the five great novels of Dostoyevsky from Russian into German. 

The New Rijksmuseum (2008): Winner of the Jury Award at the 2010 International Festival of Films on Art (Montreal), the documentary chronicles the renovation of the world-famous Amsterdam art museum through the eyes of several colorful characters including the flamboyant museum director and the beleaguered Spanish architecture team.

The Woodmans (2010): The documentary which debuted to rave reviews at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival is the story of a family of artists scarred by the tragic death of daughter Francesca, one the late 20th Centuryʼs most recognized photographers.

Isabella Rossellini will participate in “An Evening with Isabella Rossellini” at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston at 7:00 PM on Friday, November 12, during the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. At the event, Rossellini will receive the Cinema Arts Festival's first Levantine Cinema Arts Award.  Additionally, she will present highlights from her Sundance Channel series Green Porno (2008-2009) and  Seduce Me  (2010), along with an intimate portrait of her life and history called Isabella Rossellini - My Wild Life (2010). 

Green Porno and Seduce Me are short, funny and irreverent films exploring mating and attraction among animals. Conceived as a cross-platform project with Sundance, Green Porno netted  the 2009 Webby Awards for Online Film and Video Best Individual Performance (Isabella Rossellini) and Experimental (Green Porno). To date, the short film series has appeared on the Sundance Channelʼs website, its television broadcast network, and in a book / DVD combo (HarperStudio, 2009).

The Levantine Cinema Arts Award honors a leading actor, director, or other creative artist who has stretched the boundaries of cinematic expression throughout an illustrious film career. The award is sponsored by Levantine Entertainment, a new motion picture development, financing and production company aiming to provide U.S. and worldwide audiences with high quality, socially conscious, and character-driven films.

Jamal Daniel, owner of Levantine Entertainment and a board member of the Houston Cinema Arts Society, comments: "Isabella Rossellini is not only a beautiful embodiment of the union of parentsʼ Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, she has also in her own right contributed landmark moments to the world of cinema, whether as an actress under the direction of the greats, David Lynch and Guy Maddin, or as a director of entertaining innovative and educational films.  Isabella Rossellini is an ideal and inspiring recipient of the inaugural Levantine Cinema Arts Award.”

On November 11 at 8:00 PM, Rossellini will help launch the Festival's 40th anniversary tribute to the Rice Media  Center. Her father, the legendary Italian director Roberto Rossellini, worked with Dominique and John de Menil to establish the Rice Media Center in its early years. Rossellini will introduce  Journey to Italy  (Viaggio in Italia) in the Rice Cinema. The 1954 masterpiece about a married couple headed for divorce was directed by her father and stars her mother, Academy, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress Ingrid Bergman.  Also on the program will be Isabella Rossellini's own film tribute to Roberto Rossellini, My Father is 100 Years Old,  and a rare interview with the de Menils conducted by her father.

The tribute to the Rice Media Center exemplifies a major theme of the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston. According to Richard Herskowitz, "The enormous value of arts education programs in schools and universities, which John and Dominique de Menil believed in passionately and supported through their founding of the Rice Media Center, is powerfully conveyed in several of our film selections."  The life-changing value of the musical education  and  self-esteem  students  gained from  joining Houston's Kashmere High School band is the message of  Thunder Soul.

Other films about arts education also scheduled are:

Chekov for Children (2010): This documentary film from director Sasha Waters Fryer premiered as an Official Selection at the 2010 Telluride Film Festival. It follows Phillip Lopate's teaching experience in 1970ʼs New York City. Lopate is one of Americaʼs greatest film critics and essayists, taught at the University of Houston during the 1980ʼs and started the Writers in the Schools Program. Both Lopate and Fryer will be in attendance.

Louder Than a Bomb (2010): From co-directors Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs, this documentary chronicles the stereotype-confounding stories of four slam poetry teams as they prepare for and compete in Chicago's Louder Than a Bomb Festival – the largest youth poetry slam competition in the world. The film has won Audience Awards at the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Woods Hole Film Festival, where it also received the Jury Prize for Best Documentary. Five student poets from the film will perform live at the November 11 Thunder Soul event at Discovery Green. Co-Director Jon Siskel will also be on hand.

Academy Award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine will attend a screening of Terms of Endearment (1983) at 7:00 PM, Saturday November 13, 2010 at  the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. During the special event, MacLaine will be presented with the 2010 Texas Film Award, which honors a classic film made in Texas or an artist who has made significant contributions to film in the Lone Star State. Following the screening, Ms. MacLaine will engage in a conversation with Houston-based Variety film critic Joe Leydon about Terms of Endearment and her extraordinary career.

Shirley MacLaine created the unforgettable character of Aurora Greenway in James L. Brooksʼ classic romantic comedy drama, which earned her the Best Actress Oscar. Terms of Endearment – produced, directed and written for the screen by Brooks – features scenes shot in and around Houstonʼs River Oaks and The Heights neighborhoods, and famously, Brennanʼs restaurant. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Actress for MacLaine, and four Golden Globes. 

Other films – new and classic – will join Terms of Endearment in celebrating the great and growing tradition of film in Texas.  

This State Iʼm In (1990): 20th Anniversary Presentation: The initial grant funding for the project was to create a trailer for a film that would never be made. Encouraged by the outstanding performances of a number of characters from the Houston, Texas art scene, lens-based artist Robert Ziebell expanded his initial concept into a feature film. In addition to its Wizard of Oz-inspired narrative, the movie documented Ziebellʼs first impressions and actual experiences in Texas since relocating to Houston for the Museum of Fine Artsʼ newly established Core Artist-in-Residence program. It features performances by noted Texas art personalities such as the late Curator and Menil Founding Director Walter Hopps; Museum of Fine Arts Houston Contemporary Art Curator Alison de Lima Greene; MFAH Film Curator Marian Luntz and Houston arts patron and socialite Carolyn Farb. Houston arts leaders, including Fredericka Hunter of the Texas Gallery, will join Ziebell for a post-screening discussion. Also, Ziebell will participate in a panel discussion in the festival's "Meet the Makers" series on low-budget feature filmmaking from twenty years ago to the digital productions of today.

The Texas Filmmakers Showcase is a special screening event consisting of the best of Texas short films and videos under 40 minutes in length. Each year, the program is presented to studio executives, agents and producers in the Hollywood film community, with subsequent screenings around Texas throughout the rest of the year. The Showcase is presented by the Houston Film Commission with the generous support of additional sponsors.

Texas Film at the Visitors Center: Cinema Arts Festival Houston will introduce this new series of programs highlighting new and upcoming arts films by Texas filmmakers at the Visitors Center located in City Hall. All programs are free to the public. Included in the multi-part series is First Look: Houston Arts Films in Progress, a series of  excerpts from three Houston-based films currently in production:  Jenalia Moreno's  Stitched is  a documentary that gives viewers a glimpse at the life of competitive quilters; Ford Gunter and Carlton Ahrens' Art Car follows a handful of local artists as they prepare their entries for the 2010 Houston Art Car Parade; and Alex Luster's Stick 'Em Up  takes an in depth look into the overshadowed world of wheat pasting in Houston. Also in this series will be artist portraits by Mark and Angela Walley, Painting Poetry by Earl Latchley, and "Pixel Painting" by Johnny DeKam, with the filmmakers present.

With Isabella Rossellini and Shirley MacLaine, American writer, director, and actor John Turturro will attend the 2010 Cinema Arts Houston. Also confirmed to attend are Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, celebrated American animator Bill Plympton, and Houstonʼs own world-famous rodeo hotshot  Clint Cannon, subject of two films from French filmmaker Frédéric Laffont.

Turturroʼs latest creation, Passione (2010), will kick off the festival on Wednesday, November 10 at a red carpet screening to be held at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston at 7:00 PM. Passione, which made its debut at the Venice Film Festival in September, is a “musical adventure” directed, co-written, and narrated by Turturro that takes viewers on a journey through Naples and its musical history with over 25 cinematic renderings of songs dating from the thirteenth century to the present.

On Thursday, November 11 at 4:00 PM at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Turturro will present Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy (2010), which he co-wrote with director and noted puppeteer Roman Paska. Also appearing on camera, Turturro takes audiences on an intimate journey through his ancestral homeland, where he is researching a prospective film to be set in the world of the island's unique puppet theater.

Although best known to mainstream audiences for his portrayal of Agent Seymour Simmons in Michael Bayʼs blockbuster Transformers franchise, in over 30 years in the business, Turturro has appeared in more than 60 films, establishing himself as one of the most skilled and dynamic actors in the industry.  Among his most memorable are roles in Spike Leeʼs Do the Right Thing (1989), Robert Redfordʼs Quiz Show (1994), and the Coen Brothersʼ Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000).

In addition to John Turturro, the 2010 Cinema Arts Festival Houston will host a number of additional film heavyweights. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney will present My Trip To Al Qaeda (2010) at 6:45 PM on Saturday, November 13 at Edwards Greenway Stadium Palace 24. The film explores 9/11 and the Iraq War, also the subjects of Gibneyʼs Oscar-winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side (2007). The film is a cinematic adaptation of journalist and  author Lawrence Wrightʼs  one-man show about Americaʼs vexed  relationship with the Middle East. Wright will join Gibney to present My Trip To Al Qaeda. Gibney will also screen his current project, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) at 1:00 PM on Sunday, November 14 at Edwards. The film is an in-depth look at the meteoric rise and scandalous fall of former, disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Groundbreaking American animator Bill Plympton will present his newest project, Idiots and Angels (2008), a darkly comic tale of Angel, a misanthrope in a battle for his soul, at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24 on Friday, November 12 at 9:45pm. Plympton, best known for his Academy Award-nominated animated shorts Your Face (1987) and Guard Dog (2005), will also conduct a master class for fans and aspiring animators  on Friday, November 12 at 1pm  and introduce the short animated and experimental films he has curated for Independent Exposure 2010 at 1pm on Saturday November 13 at Edwards.

Accomplished French filmmaker Frédéric Laffont will present Ballad for a Cowboy (Ballade pour un Cow-boy) – his portrait of rodeo sensation Clint Cannon produced for French television in 2006 – on Saturday November 13 at 9:45 PM at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24. The film depicts a charismatic hero following in the footsteps of his father, Jay, who competed in rodeo for 20 years. Cannonʼs dream is to gain enough points to reach the finals in Houston and, ultimately, win the national championship. Frédéric Laffont is completing a new project featuring Cannon titled Cowboy Solitude, a section of which will be screened after Ballad for a Cowboy. The film blends documentary and fiction, and takes off from an imagined Dictaphone recording by Clint to his father, questioning his choice to give up the rodeo. Both Cannon and Laffont will be on hand.

2010 CINEMA ARTS FESTIVAL HOUSTON, TEXAS

http://cinemaarts.bside.com

IFFR Tiger Awards Short Films Competition 2010

 

INTERNATIONAL

FILM FESTIVAL

ROTTERDAM

2010

 

Thirty-one titles have been selected for the Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films. The lineup includes films by Greg Smith (South Africa), Mark Lewis (UK), Rosa Barba (Italy), Anna Abrahams (Netherlands), Mihai Grecu (France), Phil Collins (UK), Mati Diop (Senegal), Ying Liang (China), Cameron Jamie (USA) and Merve Kayan (Turkey).

The ‘Spectrum: Shorts’-section of nearly 200 short films runs within the festival from January 28 till February 1. See full Competition line up below.

 

Competition and Jury

To raise the profile of short films as a highly influential form of art but also a the realm in which cinema has been both democratized and popularized by the online and digital developments, the International Film Festival Rotterdam founded its Competition for short films in 2005. This edition, thirty-one films of up to sixty minutes in length will be presented to the international jury consisting of Jeremy Rigsby (programmer of Media City Festival in Ottawa, Canada), Shai Heredia (director of Filter India Festival, Mumbai, India) and Albert Wulffers (filmmaker, writer, visual artist and teacher, The Netherlands). The winners of the three equal Tiger Awards for Short Films, with prize money of 3.000 euro each, will be announced on Monday February 1.

 

Spectrum: Shorts

From the overwhelming worldwide production, the IFFR has selected 210 short films, including thirteen ‘short features’ with durations between forty and sixty minutes, for its dedicated section ‘Spectrum: Shorts’. All films are screened during a five-day event in festival location Lantaren/Venster. Here festival audiences, filmmakers and industry professionals gather to watch the films, introduce their works and meet for getting the lowdown on the latest developments. The films are grouped by four or five titles in screening slots of 80 minutes that allow introductions and Q&A sessions. The Shorts Marathon, a usually sold out program of repeat screenings, takes place on Saturday February 6.

Spectrum: Shorts 2010 presents six programs of narrative works including premieres of medium lengths films by Geetu Mohan Das (India), José Luis Torres Leiva (Chili), Terril Calder (Canada) and Julia Kozyreva (Russia/Estonia).

Furthermore, Spectrum: Shorts comprises a wide range of essayistic, abstract and experimental short filmmaking by, among many others, Jem Cohen (USA), John Price (Canada), Liu Wei (China), Kleber Mendonca Filho (Brazil) and prolific US filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson who presents four films in IFFR 2010: his short films Company Line and The Citizens as well as his feature film Erie in Spectrum and the commissioned short film BZV in the Africa focus program.

The program committee that selects films for Spectrum: Shorts consists of IFFR programmers Peter van Hoof, Juliette Jansen, Erwin van 't Hart, Sacha Bronwasser, Peter Taylor and Theus Zwakhals.

 

Focus on Jim Jennings, homage to Frank Cole

As part of Spectrum: Shorts, NYC-based filmmaker Jim Jennings will present eight of his recent 16 mm works, all filmed on location in his home town. Mostly edited in the camera Jennings' films are tributes to the NYC landscape and urban architecture. Jim Jennings will attend the festival to introduce his films.

Within its Regained section, the festival presents a tribute to Canadian filmmaker Frank Cole (1954-2000), who entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first man to cross the Sahara on foot. His murder in Mali left us with a legacy of two features, a pair of award-winning short films and a mystery that may never be solved. IFFR 2010 presents his short documentaries A Documentary (1979), The Mountenays (1981) and A Life (1986) as well as The Man Who Crossed the Sahara, Korbett Matthews recent documentary about Frank Cole. The program was curated and will be introduced by Canadian filmmaker Mike Hoolboom. In the Spectrum section, Hoolboom presents his documentary Mark, an elegiac portrait of his friend and long time editor Mark Karbusicky.

 

Tiger Awards Competition for Short Films 2010

 

Backstory, Mark Lewis, Canada, 39’, European premiere

Oops Wrong Planet, Anouk de Clerq, Belgium, 8’, European premiere

Gaarud (The Spell), Umesh Vinayak Kulkami, India, 10’

Bruits de fond, Jean-Claude Ruggirello, France, 17’, world premiere

Hoe vertel ik het mijn ouders #1 (How to Explain My Parents #1), Lemert Engelberts, Netherlands, 9’, world premiere

Rendez-vous à Stella Plage, (Rendez-vous at Stella Beach), Shalimar Preuss, France, 18’, world premiere

Drömmar fran skogen (Dreams from the Woods), Johannes Nyholm, Sweden, 9’

La trilogie chrysalides (The Chrysalides Trilogy), Patrick Bernatchez, Canada, 17’

White Shoe Station, Sara Preibsch, UK/Germany, 15’, world premiere

Travelling Fields, Inger Lise Hansen, Norway, 9’, international premiere

For Cultural Purposes Only, Sarah Wood, UK, 9’

Oxigen (Oxygen), Adina Pintilie, Romania, 40’, world premiere

Wednesday Morning Two A.M., Lewis Klahr, USA, 6’, European premiere

Underexposed, Greg Smith, France, 23’, world premiere

Centipede Sun, Mihai Grecu, France, 10’, world premiere

Soy mi madre, Phil Collins, USA, 28’

Monuments, Redmond Entwistle, UK, 30’, European premiere

Mudanza (Removal), Pere Portabella, Spain, 20’

Sex Is Sentimental, Erik van Lieshout, Netherlands, 21’

Empirical Effect, Rosa Barba, Italy, 27’, world premiere

Atlantiques, Mati Diop, France/Senegal, 27’

Heliocentric, Semiconductor, UK, 15’, world premiere

Wei wen (Condolences), Ying Liang, China, 19’, international premiere

M, Félix Dufour-Laperrière, Canada, 8’, international premiere

Out of Love, Brigitte Staermose, Denmark, 29’, international premiere

Dissonant, Manon de Boer, Belgium, 11’, world premiere

Desert 79°: 3 Journeys Beyond the Known World, Anna Abrahams, Netherlands, 18’, world premiere

Palmele (Palm Lines), George Chiper, Romania, 17’

Bu sahilde (On the Coast), Merve Kayan, Turkey, 21’, world premiere

Over the Bones, Charlotte Ginsborg, UK, 30’

Massage the History, Cameron Jamie, USA, 10’, world premiere

 

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Rotterdam Lab welcomes 67 producers for tenth anniversary edition

67 Producers at Rotterdam Lab 2010

 

INTERNATIONAL

FILM FESTIVAL

ROTTERDAM

2010

 

Rotterdam Lab welcomes 67 producers for tenth anniversary edition

The International Film Festival Rotterdam welcomes sixty-seven young producers taking part in the tenth anniversary edition of Rotterdam Lab. CineMart’s highly successful event for emerging producers has expanded steadily over the past decade. The participants have been nominated by the twenty-one Rotterdam Lab partner organizations. Rotterdam Lab, part of CineMart, takes place January 30 – February 3. (See full list of participants and partner organizations below)

Rotterdam Lab Coordinator Jacobine van der Vloed: “Finding your way in a large international festival and market can be daunting for an emerging producer. Buyers, sellers and funders are not easy to track down. The Rotterdam Lab creates a somewhat safer and easier environment for these producers to present their companies and projects, test the grounds, receive feedback on how to proceed and expand their network in an effective way. The Rotterdam Lab fits very well in Rotterdam’s spirit of nurturing emerging talent. Moreover, the Rotterdam Lab has developed into a valuable tool to strengthen CineMart's international network of independent producers.”

Over the past years, the Rotterdam Lab has expanded steadily, with more producers from more regions participating every year. The Lab has already resulted in many producers returning to CineMart, and films by producers who have attended the Lab have been screened in the official Festival Programme. By bringing together a mix of producers from around Europe and the rest of the world, the Rotterdam Lab has also generated many alluring international co-productions.

The participants of the Rotterdam Lab are starting producers, who are ‘nominated’ by the international training bodies and funding agencies with which the CineMart has partnerships. Traditionally, panel discussions are organized on different topics such as production, sales, financing, distribution, press & promotion and television. These panels take place in an informal setting and are organized to illustrate the process by which a project in need of financing is completed and brought to its audience. In these panels, experts from the industry give the producers tools on how to present their project and how to build up an international network.

Complimentary to the panels, participants take part in “speed-dating” sessions, during which they have time to meet personally with industry delegates and receive advice on their own projects.

CineMart has always had a focus on producers who are in the beginning of their careers. Several years ago, the CineMart staff realized that many new producers lack the knowledge on how to operate in an international film festival or market setting. Therefore, in 2001, based on the belief that these skills are vital for any producer, and to provide young professionals the means to develop an international network, CineMart organized the first CineMart International Trainee Project, later renamed the Rotterdam Lab.

In addition to the organized Rotterdam Lab programme, it is important that the producers take the chance to participate in all other CineMart events, such as networking lunches, cocktails and other panels. They are encouraged to take advantage of their time in Rotterdam as much as possible by strengthening their network.

 

Rotterdam Lab Participants 2010

Amanda De Luis, Alta Realitat, Spain, ACE / Ateliers du Cinéma Européen
Gabor Sipos, Laokoon Filmgroup, Hungary, ACE / Ateliers du Cinéma Européen
Josefine Tengblad, Yellow Bird Productions, Sweden, EAVE
Jennifer Sabbah, Boa Films, France, EAVE
Darija Kulenovic Gudan, Studio dim d.o.o., Croatia, EAVE
Ewa Borowski, eastart pictures, Germany, Filmstiftung NRW
Nicole Ringhut, Maranto Films GmbH, Germany, Filmstiftung NRW
Xavier Rombaut, Emerald Films, Belgium, Flanders Image/VAF
Emily Wanja, Visual Asili, Kenya, IFFR - Africa
Alberto Botelho, Novos Sonhos Audiovisuais, Angola, IFFR - Africa
Paul Lwanga Jr, Vilole Images Productions, Zambia, IFFR - Africa
Thomas Woodrow, Furnace Films, LLC, USA, IFP
Jason Orans, Gigantic Pictures, USA, IFP
Rhea Stephenson, Independent Producer, Australia, Indigenous Branch/Screen Australia
Wayne Denning, Carbon media Pty Ltd, Australia, Indigenous Branch/Screen Australia
John Wallace, Black Sheep, Productions, Ireland, Irish Film Board
Heidi Madsen, Paper Dreams Limited, Ireland, Irish Film Board
Michael Rozenbaum, Transfax Film Productions ltd., Israel, Israel Film Fund
Yochanan Kredo, July August Productions, Israel, Israel Film Fund
Aurit Zamir, Gum Films, Israel, Israel Film Fund
Mayumi Sanda, Elephante Inc., Japan, J-Pitch/UNIJAPAN
Kousuke Ono, WA Entertainment Inc., Japan, J-Pitch/UNIJAPAN
Yuki Toyoyama, Esprit Inc., Japan, J-Pitch/UNIJAPAN
Cho Yoon-Jung, BlueMoonPark, South Korea, KOFIC
Always-Han, InOK Films, South Korea, KOFIC
Jang Su-Young, Swimming Pictures, South Korea, KOFIC
Jang Sung-Young, Film Factory nu:n, South Korea, KOFIC
Choi Nak-kwon, CHOICEcut Pictures, South Korea, KOFIC
Sanjay Suri, Anticlock Films, India, NFDC
Ben Rekhi, Ben Rekhi Productions, USA, NFDC
Sandeep A. Varma, ICOMO Advertising India Pvt. Ltd., India, NFCD
Pierre Walfisz, Trompe Le Monde, France, NFDC
Gertjan Langeland, LEV Pictures, The Netherlands, Netherlands Film Fund
Eva Eisenloeffel, Lemming Film, The Netherlands, Netherlands Film Fund
Keren Cogan, Phanta Vision, The Netherlands, Netherlands Film Fund
Natasja Mohrs, Column Film, The Netherlands, Netherlands Film Fund
Ellen Havenith, Column Film, The Netherlands, Netherlands Film Fund
Kristian Eek, Independent Producer, New Zealand, New Zealand Film Commission
Maile Daugherty, Independent Producer, New Zealand, New Zealand Film Commission
Tom Hern, Six String Pictures Ltd, New Zealand, New Zealand Film Commission
Dijana Olcay-Hot, Revolver Media Productions, The Netherlands, Rotterdam Film Fund
Sophie Slabbekoorn, seriousFilm, The Netherlands, Rotterdam Film Fund
Jesse de Jong, JesseFilms, The Netherlands, Rotterdam Film Fund
Kat Hebden, Blindside Productions, UK, Scottisch Screen
Carolynne Sinclair Kidd, Hopscotch Films Ltd., UK Scottisch Screen
Ciara Barry, Digicult Ltd, UK, Scottisch Screen
Sylvia Wilcynski, Lemur Films Pty Ltd, Australia, Screen Australia
Angie Fielder, Aquarius Films, Australia, Screen Australia
Kristina Ceyton, Independent Producer, Australia, Screen Australia
James Leong, Lianain Films, Singapore, Singapore Film Commission
Fran Borgia, Akanga Film Asia, Singapore, Singapore Film Commission
Rajvinder Uppal, Mama-oo Pictures ltd, Canada, Telefilm Canada
Bev Bliss, Moving Films Inc, Canada, Telefilm, Canada
Nicolas Comeau, 1976 Productions, Canada, Telefilm Canada
Ingrid Veninger, pUNK Films, Inc. Canada, Telefilm Canada
Pablo Lamar, Sapukai Cine, Paraguay, Typa
Rodrigo Marin, Propagandacine, Chile, Typa
Fernando A. P. Ruiz, Fábrica de Cine S.R.L, Argentina, Typa
Fabiola Ramos, Independent Producer, Mexico, Typa
Ruben Sierra Salles, Peliculas Prescindibles, Venezuela, Typa
Tom Wood, Wellington Films, UK, UK Film Council
Rachel Dargavel, Steel Mill Pictures, UK, UK Film Council
Rhodri Thomas, Independent Producer, UK, UK Film Council
David Boaretto, Revolution Films, GBR, UK Film Council
Megan S. Wallace, Blirt Ltd / Incendiary Pictures, UK, UK Film Council
Samantha Price, Sparkler Productions, UK, UK Film Council
Julien Sigalas, Stempel, Belgium, Wallonie Bruxelles Images

 

International partners participating in Rotterdam Lab

Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE), France
European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAvE), Luxembourg
Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Fundación TyPA, Argentina
Independent Feature Project (IFP), USA
Indigenous Branch – Screen Australia
Irish Film Board
Israel Film Fund
J-Pitch - UNIJAPAN
Korean Film Council (KOFIC)
National Film Development Corporation India
Netherlands Film Fund
New Zealand Film Commission
Rotterdam Media Fund, the Netherlands
Scottish Screen, United Kingdom
Screen Australia
Singapore Film Commission
Telefilm Canada
UK Film Council
Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds, Belgium
Wallonie Bruxelles Images, Belgium

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Fujicolor Eterna-RDI Academy Award

 

FUJIFILM TO RECEIVE SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING AWARD
FROM THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES

Award Given For Development Of World's First Film Stock
Specifically Designed To Produce High Picture Quality
From Digital Image Data

 

FUJIFILM Corporation has announced that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected FUJIFILM Corporation to receive an Academy Award® on February 20, 2010, in the Scientific and Engineering category.

The award is being given in recognition of the significant picture quality and workflow improvements made possible in the moviemaking process through the development of Fujicolor ETERNA-RDI, the first motion picture film in the world designed specifically for use in converting digital image data to negative film. The award is given in the name of FUJIFILM Corporation as well as in the names of Ryoji Nishimura, Masaaki Miki and Youichi Hosoya, the three Fujifilm engineers who designed and developed the product.

“Everyone at Fujifilm is proud of this achievement and proud to be recognized by the most prestigious institution in the motion picture industry. Best of all, we are gratified that our work has helped to answer an unmet industry need with a solution that will contribute to the enjoyment of motion pictures and to visual technology and cinema culture,” said Graeme Parcher, group vice president, FUJIFILM North American Motion Picture Division. “Most importantly, our sincere congratulations go to Ryoji, Masaaki, Youichi and the entire R&D and engineering team for their hard work and dedication in making this industry recognition possible and for receiving this high honor from the Academy.”

Today the use of digital technology in the making of motion pictures, especially in the editing and visual effects process, is widespread; yet the majority of movie theaters still present on silver halide film. To bridge this digital/analog gap the moviemaker must convert the digital master to intermediate film. However, since no intermediate film had been specially designed for this application there had been a large disparity in image quality between the digital master and the film reproduction, resulting in a strong industry demand for something better. In 2007, Fujifilm answered that demand, introducing ETERNA-RDI -- the first specialized film for digital recorder output that dramatically improved the image quality of film recording.

ETERNA-RDI offers a significant improvement over intermediate films not specifically designed for digital reproduction, producing fine detail and accurate color from digital image data. In order to achieve high picture image quality Mssrs. Nishimura, Miki and Hosoya developed two proprietary technologies, Super Nano Cubic Grain Technology and Super Efficient Light Control Technology, and worked to ensure that the technologies would complement and enhance each other. As a result ETERNA-RDI can faithfully reproduce even the most challenging high contrast images. This contributes to the printing of sharp, crisp images and makes it possible to achieve rich images that convey a strong sense of depth and dimension.

 

ETERNA-RDI Features

Great Image Blur Reduction: Laser-created high-detail digital images that could not be reproduced on intermediate film can be reproduced on ETERNA-RDI. Ordinarily, when the intensities of lines and text contrast strongly with those of their surroundings, thin lines become thinner and disappear, and fat lines are blurred. This makes the reproduction of details difficult. With ETERNA-RDI, even the highlighted areas of high-contrast images can be reproduced with very high similarity to the original image.

Faithful Tone and Color Reproduction: ETERNA-RDI widens the range of expressible densities. ETERNA-RDI reduces image irregularities even in highlighted areas, makes the expression of darker shadowed areas richer, and increases resolution. The combination of these factors leads to tone reproduction that conveys an intense sense of depth. Furthermore, while the reproduction of original colors at the edges of the color range was difficult in the past, ETERNA-RDI is capable of reproducing these colors faithfully.

Improved Lab Handling: In the post-production phase accurate reproduction in the film development process is the goal. It takes a few seconds to record a single frame; this means that for a single 2000-ft roll the time between when the film is exposed and when it is developed is 15 hours or more. When using conventional intermediate film, this long duration causes color discrepancies between the top frame and the last frame in long reels of film and requires additional lab hours to correct the discrepancies. The superior photographic stability of ETERNA-RDI maintains true color reproduction from the top to the last frame, thereby reducing lab workload.

Up In The Air Music from the Motion Picture

Rhino Presents Soundtrack To Latest Jason Reitman Film, Including CSNY, Elliott Smith, Dan Auerbach, Sad Brad Smith, And Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Paramount Pictures presents in association with Cold Springs Pictures and DW Studios Up In The Air, a film by Jason Reitman – the Oscar®-nominated director of Juno. Due in theaters nationwide this December, the film stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer and consummate modern business traveler who, after years of staying happily airborne, suddenly finds himself ready to make a real connection. Rhino fastens its seat belt for the film's musical journey with a collection of songs compiled by Reitman, who previously won a Grammy® for the Juno soundtrack. UP IN THE AIR: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE will be available December 1, 2009 from Rhino Records for a suggested list price of $13.98 (physical) and $9.99 (digital).

The soundtrack, Reitman says, is like a character in the film. "I start thinking about the music very early on. While I'm writing the script, I'm putting together a matching iTunes library. The result is a collection of songs that speaks to the nature of travel and warmth of human connection."

The film and soundtrack both open with a funky, contemporary cover of Woody Guthrie's working-class American classic "This Land Is Your Land" by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. "It's a really lovely, soulful entrance to the journey of this film about the American landscape," Reitman says.

UP IN THE AIR includes two previously unreleased tracks with unique personal connections to Reitman. The first is "Help Yourself" by Chicago-based singer-songwriter Sad Brad Smith. Reitman discovered Smith through his brother-in-law, who became a fan after seeing a performance by Smith at a Chicago coffee shop. The second track, "Up In The Air" by Kevin Renick, was personally handed to Reitman on a cassette during a speaking engagement in St. Louis. A recently laid off Renick had heard Reitman was working on a film adaptation to the popular book and had written this song with the story in mind. The track, complete with Renick's spoken word introduction included on the original cassette, now plays over the end credits.

The soundtrack also includes "Thank You Lord," from legendary guitarist Roy Buchanan's 1973 Second Album; Elliott Smith's "Angel In The Snow" from his posthumous collection of unreleased music; "Goin' Home," a solo track by Dan Auerbach, half of the Black Keys; "The Snow Before Us" by San Francisco trio Charles Atlas; plus two appearances by Graham Nash, with CSNY on "Taken At All" and solo on "Be Yourself" from 1971's Songs For Beginners. Along with the featured songs, UP IN THE AIR also includes two tracks from Rolfe Kent's musical score.

UP IN THE AIR: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE

Track Listing

1. This Land Is Your Land – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

2. Security Ballet – Rolfe Kent

3. Goin' Home – Dan Auerbach

4. Taken At All – CSNY

5. Angel In The Snow – Elliott Smith

6. Help Yourself – Sad Brad Smith

7. Genova –Charles Atlas

8. Lost In Detroit – Rolfe Kent

9. Thank You Lord – Roy Buchanan

10. Be Yourself – Graham Nash

11. The Snow Before Us – Charles Atlas

12. Up In The Air – Kevin Renick

.

Destiny’s Son by Kenji Misumi

 

Destiny’s Son (Kiru)

1962, 71 min., 16 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Directed by Kenji Misumi

With Raizo Ichikawa, Eijiro Yanagi, Yoshio Inaba, Masayo Banri.

 

In director Kenji Misumi’s breakthrough film, Ichikawa seeks revenge and redemption after his family is murdered by a rival clan. An astonishing, dreamlike samurai film written by Kaneto Shindo, Destiny’s Son is a demonic masterpiece--designed with quasi-expressionist artistry, awash with surreal landscapes, and subsumed in an otherworldly beauty that fuses Zen and sword.

 

>>> Go back to the main page: Japan Society: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

>>> Samurai Vendetta by Kazuo Mori
>>> Zatoichi, the Fugitive by Tokuzo Tanaka   
>>> Destiny’s Son by Kenji Misumi    <<< You are here :)
>>> Zatoichi On the Road: Fighting Journey by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
>>> Scar Yosaburo by Daisuke Ito
>>> New Tale of Zatoichi by Tokuzo Tanaka
>>> Nemuri Kyoshiro At Bay: The Sword of Seduction by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> Lone Wolf Isazo by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> The Devil's Temple by Kenji Misumi

Zatoichi, the Fugitive by Tokuzo Tanaka

 

Zatoichi, the Fugitive (Zatoichi kyojo-tabi)

1963, 86 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka.

With Shintaro Katsu, Miwa Takada, Misayo Banri, Junichiro Narita, Katsuhiko Kobayashi.

 

As the iconic blind masseur Zatoichi, Katsu enters this fourth--and one of the most acclaimed--episode of the saga with a bounty on his head. Soon he is up to his neck slicing and dicing through a throng of yakuza thugs, fending off a long-lost love and battling a ruthless rogue samurai for hire.

.

>>> Go back to the main page: Japan Society: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

>>> Samurai Vendetta by Kazuo Mori
>>> Zatoichi, the Fugitive by Tokuzo Tanaka   <<< You are here :)
>>> Destiny’s Son by Kenji Misumi
>>> Zatoichi On the Road: Fighting Journey by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
>>> Scar Yosaburo by Daisuke Ito
>>> New Tale of Zatoichi by Tokuzo Tanaka
>>> Nemuri Kyoshiro At Bay: The Sword of Seduction by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> Lone Wolf Isazo by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> The Devil's Temple by Kenji Misumi

Samurai Vendetta by Kazuo Mori

 

Samurai Vendetta (Hakuoki)

1959, 109 min., 16mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles.

Directed by Kazuo Mori.

With Raizo Ichikawa, Shintaro Katsu, Chitose Maki.

A unique take on the 47 Ronin story, this epic film propelled Shintaro Katsu to superstardom alongside then-reigning Raizo Ichikawa. Betrayal, dishonor and death imbue this tragic tale of two swordsmen whose clans are embroiled in a blood feud and who vie for the same woman. The film is also known as A Chronicle of Pale Cherry Blossoms.

 

>>> Go back to the main page: Japan Society: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

>>> Samurai Vendetta by Kazuo Mori                 <<< You are here :)
>>> Zatoichi, the Fugitive by Tokuzo Tanaka
>>> Destiny’s Son by Kenji Misumi
>>> Zatoichi On the Road: Fighting Journey by Kimiyoshi Yasuda
>>> Scar Yosaburo by Daisuke Ito
>>> New Tale of Zatoichi by Tokuzo Tanaka
>>> Nemuri Kyoshiro At Bay: The Sword of Seduction by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> Lone Wolf Isazo by Kazuo Ikehiro
>>> The Devil's Temple by Kenji Misumi

The Double-Edged Sword Screening Details and Description Links

 

Links to each Film’s description

 

>> Samurai Vendetta (aka A Chronicle of Pale Cherry Blossoms) by Kazuo Mori

>> Zatoichi, the Fugitive by Tokuzo Tanaka

>> Destiny’s Son by Kenji Misumi

>> Zatoichi On the Road: Fighting Journey (aka Zatoichi and the Scoundrels) by Kimiyoshi Yasuda

>> Scar Yosaburo by Daisuke Ito

>> New Tale of Zatoichi by Tokuzo Tanaka

>> Nemuri Kyoshiro At Bay: The Sword of Seduction (aka  Sleepy Eyes of Death 4) by Kazuo Ikehiro

>> Lone Wolf Isazo (The Lone Stalker) by Kazuo Ikehiro

>> The Devil's Temple by Kenji Misumi

 

>>> Go back to the main page - Japan Society: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

 

Japan Society's Monthly Classics Film Series Delivers 9 Slices of Rare '60s Samurai Cool with a Duel Dose of Masculine Mystique

The Double-Edged Sword:
The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu and Raizo Ichikawa

Opening Screening: Samurai Vendetta on Friday, December 11, 2009, 7:30 PM

Introduced by curator Chris D. with reception and book signing

 

Japan Society's latest Monthly Classics film series The Double-Edged Sword: The Chambara Films of Shintaro Katsu & Raizo Ichikawa pays tribute to two Japanese screen legends in their most respected, representative and stylish chambara (sword fighting) films. Curated by film expert and author Chris D. (Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film), the series features 9 films slated to be screened monthly from December 2009 through May 2010. The opening night screening Samurai Vendetta takes place Friday, December 11 at 7:30 pm, and is followed by a reception and book signing. (Opening night tickets including reception are $15/$10 members, students & seniors; all subsequent screenings are $11/$7.)

Macho cool had two faces in Japanese cinema from the 1960s: Daiei Studios’ cult stars Shintaro Katsu (1931-1997) and Raizo Ichikawa (1931-1969). The actors dominated postwar genre films in Japan, projecting a disparate duality of masculine mystique. The earthy Katsu played the affable anti-idol rogue, unpredictable onscreen (and off), while ethereal, coolly enigmatic Ichikawa was considered the "James Dean of Japan." Beyond their differences, both stars instilled in their roles a poisonous poetry and existential angst that lifted their art into genre-transcending territory.

The Double-Edged Sword film series offers seminal works from each actor's arsenal chambara epics. Popular films such as Samurai Vendetta and three choice selections from the Zatoichi series are coupled with the surreal Destiny’s Son and art house film Scar Yosaburo. The series also presents Nemuri Kyoshiro's At Bay: The Sword of Seduction and Kenji Misumi's little known masterpiece The Devil’s Temple for the first time in 35 mm on the big screen with English subtitles.

With 2009 marking the 40th anniversary of Raizo Ichikawa’s death, The Double-Edged Sword series also anticipates the centennial of legendary director Akira Kurosawa in 2010. Samuel Jamier, newly appointed film programmer at Japan Society, notes, "While the Kurosawa/Mifune collaborations have long been consecrated as examples of ultimate samurai films, this retrospective series gives the occasion to unearth cinematic treasures that are too often overlooked, exposing an entire movement that took place parallel to Kurosawa and Cie."

Chambara designates a category of films that involve swordplay. Alternately romanized as chanbara, the label is an onomatopoeia, mimicking the "chan-chan, bara-bara" sound of clashing swords. The origin of chambara can be traced back to dramatized sword fights in kabuki dramas. Some of the earliest silent films in Japan were chambara with elaborate, balletic fight scenes. The genre reached maturity in the 1960s (many critics and fans describe that period as the golden age of chambara). The central figure in chambara films is the swordsman, who could be a samurai (often a ronin–a masterless samurai), ninja, or yakuza, always armed and dangerous. Chambara is part of the jidai-geki genre (period drama) and includes the matatabi sub-genre (wanderer or drifter that becomes a gambler).

“The chambara genre… was one of the central vehicles by which Japan would reexamine its culture and values in light of its new postwar, post-imperial role," notes Allen White, in his essay “A Man, a Blade, an Empty Road: Postwar Samurai Film to 1970” (GreenCine). "Chambara not only recycled and redefined Japanese history; it also used it as a thinly-coded metaphor for present-day struggles." Today, with anime reaching a peak of popularity, many of the most popular series among young Americans--from Samurai Champloo to Afro-Samurai—are based on and inspired by old chambara movies.

 

THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD SCREENING SCHEDULE

 

Friday, December 11, 2009, 7:30 pm

Samurai Vendetta (A.K.A A Chronicle of Pale Cherry Blossoms)

Opening screening with curator Chris D., reception and book signing

 

Friday, Jan. 22, 2010, 7:30 pm

Zatoichi, the Fugitive

 

Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, 7:30 pm

Destiny’s Son

 

Saturday, March 20, 2010

5:00 pm Zatoichi On the Road (A.K.A Zatoichi and the Scoundrels)

7:00 pm: Scar Yosaburo

 

Saturday, April 24, 2010

5:00 pm: New Tale of Zatoichi

7:00 pm: Nemuri Kyoshiro At Bay: The Sword of Seduction (A.K.A. Sleepy Eyes of Death 4)

 

Friday, May 14, 2010

5:00 pm: The Lone Stalker (A.K.A. Lone Wolf Isazo)

7:00 pm: The Devil’s Temple

 

Chris D. (aka Chris Desjardins) is the author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film (2005, I.B. Tauris), which features essays and interviews with Japanese genre film directors from the '60s to the '90s. He recently completed work on two forthcoming books: an exhaustive study of yakuza films titled Gun And Sword – An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, and an anthology of prose and poetry entitled A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die (New Texture Books, due Dec. 9). Chris D. worked as a film programmer at The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles 1999-2005 and was the main programmer of the Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre from 2006-09. Chris D. was also a singer/songwriter/producer for The Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen between 1978 and 2003. As an actor, Chris D. has appeared in Border Radio (1987), No Way Out (1987), Tweeked (1999) and Double Deception (2001). I Pass For Human (2004) was his feature film debut behind the camera. Japan Society's presentation of The Double-Edged Sword is an updated edition of a series he presented in Los Angeles in 2002.

 

The Japan Society Film Program offers a diverse selection of Japanese films, from classics to contemporary independent productions. Its aim is to entertain, educate and support activities in the Society's Arts & Culture programs. The Film Program has included retrospectives of great directors, thematic series and many U.S. premieres. Some original film series curated by Japan Society have traveled to other U.S. venues in tours organized by the Film Program. Since 2007, the Program has presented the annual summer JAPAN CUTS Festival of New Japanese Film in collaboration with the New York Asian Film Festival. The Monthly Classics series are yearly events inviting guest curators to organize film series with once-a-month screenings.

 

Established in 1907, Japan Society has evolved into North America's major producer of high-quality content on Japan for an English-speaking audience. Presenting over 100 events annually through well established Corporate, Education, Film, Gallery, Language, Lectures, Performing Arts and Innovators Network programs, the Society is an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia.

 

Tickets for regular screenings in The Doubled-Edged Sword series are $11/$7 members, students & seniors; the Dec. 11 opening night screening including reception is $15/$10.

Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E and V at Lexington Avenue and 53rd St.)

 

Go to >>> THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD SCREENING DETAILS AND DESCRIPTION

 

JAPAN SOCIETY
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017
www.japansociety.org

Jan and Zdenek Sverak – A Tribute

 

Jan and Zdenek Sverak will launch the season with their latest success, Czech box office hit Empties. This comic love story about a man facing old age is arguably their best film yet. It completes an informal trilogy and a personal history of the Czech experience as embodied in Zdenek Sverak’s scripts and central performances. The trilogy started with Oscar-nominated Elementary School, directly based on Zdenek Sverak’s childhood memories of the post-war period, and continued with Kolya, depicting the relationship between an unlikely father-son duo set in the 1980s.  Jan Sverak’s documentary Daddy portraying his father and revealing a painful creative crisis during their work on Empties will complement the screening. The name of Sverak resonates strongly not only on their home ground of the Czech Republic, but also internationally thanks mainly to their 1994 Oscar-winning success Kolya. While Jan Sverak is recognised as the most successful of the post 1990 generation of Czech Directors, his father Zdenek has been described as the best screenwriter in the Czech Republic. The season follows their careers showcasing their successful individual work, which has reached new heights since the beginning of their partnership in 1991.

JAN SVERAK began his career by winning a student Oscar for his short mockumentary about a new animal species, The Oil Gobblers.  His films range from the low budget road movie The Ride, a homage to Easy Rider, to the big budget WWII love story Dark Blue World, loosely based on the real-life experience of Czech fighter pilots who survived the conflict only to be persecuted when they returned home by the post-war Communist regime. Shown side by side in the same evening they illustrate why Jan Sverak is internationally recognised as one of the best directors. The precision and timing of his work is clearly apparent.

ZDENEK SVERAK, who made his film debut in the late 1960s, despite writing scripts for 16 films, is best known in his own country as one of the leading figures in the Jara Cimrman theatre, which has been entertaining Czech audiences with its comic, absurd, and mystifying productions for nearly 40 years.  Jiri Menzel’s films, Oscar-nominated My Sweet Little Village and The Life and Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, both prove Sverak’s abilities as scriptwriter and demonstrate why Jiri Menzel (of Oscar-winning Closely Observed Trains) regrets the loss of his scriptwriter to Sverak Junior. While the first film finds humour in an abundance of everyday situations centered around a Laurel and Hardy-like couple, the second one depicts the absurdity of Soviet bureaucracy via comic encounters with its representatives in a faithful adaptation of the classic comic novel by Vladimir Voinovich. It was with this film that the name of Sverak became associated with UK–based producer Eric Abraham who co-produced four of Sveraks’ movies.

The Sveraks’ films represent those qualities for which Czech cinema is best known – its human insight, observation, and use of comic irony.  This short tribute will include discussions with Jan and Zdenek Sverak about their best-known films and, following the screening of Dark Blue World, a discussion with producer Eric Abraham.

 

Jan and Zdenek Sverak – A Tribute
7 - 9 November 2008
Riverside Studios, London W6

The season is organised by the Czech Centre London in collaboration with Biograf Jan Sverak and Portobello Pictures.

 

Czech Centre London
13 Harley Street
London W1G 9QG