2001-2010

Let Each One Go Where He May
Ben Russell
2009
2hr. 13min.

Chicago-based filmmaker Ben Russell has gone international with Trypps – a series of short, mesmerizing films loosely interpreting the notion of “trip,” from literal, geographic journeys to ecstatic music-induced highs, variations of trance and spasmodic filmic episodes. Along with Tjüba Tën/The Wet Season (co-directed by Brigid McCaffrey), his medium-length experimental documentary shot in Suriname, and his live projector performances, Russell’s body of work displays an ever-increasing interest in cinematic anthropologies.

Let Each One Go Where He May is Russell’s stunning feature debut, a film that both partakes in and dismantles traditional ethnography, opts for mystery and natural beauty over annotation and artifice, and employs unconventional storytelling as a means toward historical remembrance. A rigorous, exquisite work with a structure at once defined and winding, the film traces the extensive journey of two unidentified brothers who venture from the outskirts of Paramaribo, Suriname, on land and through rapids, past a Maroon village on the Upper Suriname River, in a rehearsal of the voyage undertaken by their ancestors, who escaped from slavery at the hands of the Dutch 300 years earlier. The path is still travelled to this day and its changing topography bespeaks a diverse history of forced migration.Read More »

Following his father’s death, Nikos leaves the provinces to work in Athens guarding his brutish uncle’s dogs. Nikos finds the dynamic of his relationship with his uncle changing when his uncle’s wife draws closer to him. This relentlessly gritty film noir won seven Hellenic Film Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture.Read More »

Plot:
Tommaso (Riccardo Scamarcio, Eden Is West) has a comfortable life in Rome as an aspiring writer and a steady relationship with his boyfriend Marco—a life he has kept secret from his family. So when he’s called back to his hometown of Lecce in Italy’s deep south to help run the family pasta business, he decides to finally reveal his homosexuality to his conservative family and hopefully get out of his business obligations in the process. But when his plans are thwarted by his brother, Tommaso gets stuck on the path that he was desperately trying to avoid.Read More »

The potent work of two filmmakers from diverse backgrounds are bought together in this book. Correspondence uniquely presents the work of two filmmakers who share a profound and deliberate vision, in spite of their vastly different backgrounds. The work of Spaniard Victor Erice and Iranian Abbas Kiarostami share a common preoccupation with investigating the tension that exists between the individual and society. As filmmakers, they are both intensely independent, determined to advance the expressive potential and capacity of cinema. Working in contemporary cinema, these two quintessential figures often purposely recapture the stark and primal character developed by early cinema pioneers.Read More »

Lynch’s short from Cannes 2007.
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Lust: 12 sexy short brings to light a wide range of cutting-edge films from 8 different countries that takes a humoristic look at the search for pleasure. It’s a discovery of a wide range of low-budget film-making styles that strolls us through a frenetic world that begins with sex for some and ends in separations for others. These films portray experiences that dissolve into a blurry vision of love. Lust is an incomplete inventory – who could pretend otherwise !! – of the different strategies of attack and defense within the permanent struggle against loneliness. Lust shows us a world where although the rules are simple, the winner never adheres to them. (-Lowave)Read More »

LINK

Directed by

• Tora Mårtens
• Elin Magnusson
• Sara Kaaman
• Ester Martin Bergsmark
• Nelli, Andreas
• Åsa Sandzén
• Malin Erkkonen
• Pella Kågerman
• Wolfe Madam
• Ingrid Ryberg
• Universal Pussy
• Joanna Rytel
• Marit Östberg
• Jennifer Rainsford

Internet wrote:

There’s to much to say about each individual movie, but the level of quality is high and most of them has very strong concepts. My favorite is also the first one, “Skin”, directed by Elin Magnusson. It’s a beautifully shot sex scene between a man and a woman all dressed in a skin-colored body stocking. Slowly they cut parts of their body skin open, and in the end there’s nothing left of this shell. Only humans. It’s sexy, erotic is probably the best in this collection of high quality shorts. “Body Contact” was almost scary to see, because it seems so real at first. It’s about a girl who want’s to make a porn movie and films the whole experience together with her friend. They find a man from the southern parts of Sweden and manipulates him to be in the movie. It’s both funny, and even a bit unpleasent. “On Your Back Woman” is a cute wrestling-themed short with three lesbian couple. I think cute is a good word (maybe the director will disapprove there?), but it’s also strong movie with strong love.
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Rotterdam 2009: Guy Maddin Will “Send Me To the ‘Lectric Chair”
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 01/29/2009
Guy Maddin, courtesy of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2009

Guy Maddin is a hoarder of uncanny images, from the candy-colored Alpine tableaus of “Careful” to the frozen horse heads of last year’s “My Winnipeg.” A commission from the Rotterdam Film Festival centers around another: Isabella Rossellini blasted out of an electric chair. It’s the basis for his new short film, “Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair,” part of the Urban Screens series at the festival, which is projecting three works onto office buildings throughout the city. It’s an archetypal Maddin film, conflating sex, death and film history in a manic seven minutes. I spoke with him at the festival about the new work, collage parties, Thomas Edison and the hazards of Dutch public transit.

How did you get this assignment, and how did you conceive it?Read More »

Quote:
If you are moved by the death of a parakeet at the beginning of The Elementary Particles (Elementarteilchen), you are in for a bumpy ride, as all of humanity as we know it will be wiped out by the film’s end in a brief written epilogue. Of course, those who have read the novel (Les particules élémentaires in its original French, Atomised in its UK version) saw this coming, but for those who are unfamiliar with Michel Houellebecq’s cult hit that explosively mixes sex, death and science to annihilate mankind – and blames the flower power generation for it in the process – this might come as something of a shock.Read More »