Berlinale, the Berlin-based international film festival, is one of the best-known in the world and after visiting two shows this year I clearly see the reasons for it. My first close encounter with Berlinale began when I got the programme and had to choose the films to see and screenings to attend from amongst the
TagCinema
“Toonite”: Animated Shorts Screening
On Friday, November 18th, ECLA students organized a screening of short animation films called “TOONite”. The evening presented us with the challenge and pleasure of revisiting the perspective of a child, questioning our normal conception of reality and imagination. Thanks to the organizers, Jelena Ðjokic and Irina Stelea, we traveled to different parts of the
Subtly Disturbing
A life without love, devotion to a person or a profession, and a life without delicious food and drink is a cold and gloomy one. The lives of Martina and Philippa, two sisters in Babette’s Feast, are cold and gloomy. During the week dedicated to the Annual Conference, ECLA students, faculty, as well as our
A Trip to Berlinale and Back
Making “small steps” as the long queue at International Kino meandered, I had the feeling that they were “giant leaps”! And indeed, wasn’t Berlinale a kind of lunar expedition for me, both into cinema (since all my life I had stubbornly passed it by) and into Berlin itself (in other words, Berlinale as Berlin-aller)? What’s
The Annual Conference 2010 at ECLA. Film Night: Lost in Translation
On Tuesday night, two days into the week of the Annual Conference, ECLA students, faculty, and visiting lecturers went to a private theater to watch the Sofia Coppola film “Lost in Translation.” The film touched upon issues of translation and disconnection in the relationship between two Americans visiting Japan. After the screening, faculty member David
Berlinale 2009: “Aguas Verdes” by Mariano De Rosa (Argentina)
If we relieve in symbols, like the main character Juan does, then the red mate among the dirty cutlery in the first shot of the movie marks the onset of the story. But for the moment, everything is happiness. It is summer and the family is finally ready for a well-deserved vacation. And off they
Berlinale 2009: A Horse Is Not A Metaphor
American experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer was present at the Berlin International Film Festival this year with her newest production, entitled A Horse is Not a Metaphor. The thirty-minute film explores details of the director’s biography, with a strong emphasis on her struggle against ovarian cancer. For a public as yet unaccustomed to the work and
Berlinale 2009: Between Magic and Accident
The Berlinale Talent Campus #7 hosted an informational panel discussion on that elusive array of forces (popularly dubbed fate, chance, or destiny) that exert decisive influence in movies. Convened under the title “Fatal attractions—On Chance and Accidents in Cinema,” the panel, moderated by Dorothee Wenner, included Indian producer Sunil Doshi, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, founder and CEO