Schüren Verlag: Lebensläufe – Die Kinder von Golzow 2008
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
Class Danielson, director of the 51st Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animation Film (27 October to 2 November 2008), paid homage to Barbara and Winfried Junge. Their Die Kinder von Golzow (The Children of Golzow) recently completed its run as the longest documentary cycle in the history of cinema, from Wenn ich erst zur Schule geh’ (When I First went to School) in 1961 to …dann leben sie noch heute: Die Kinder von Golzow, das Ende der unendlichen Geschichte (…Then They Are Living Happily Ever After: The Children of Golzow, The End of the Neverending Story) in 2008. The story of this splendid accomplishment is chronicled in Lebensläufe – Die Kinder von Golzow (Paths of Life – The Children of Golzow) (Marburg: Shüren Verlag, 2004, 328 pp, photos), edited by Dieter Wolf, with contributions by Günther Rücker and Karl Gass and editorial assistance by Ralf Schenk. Better still, pay a visit to the Golzow Museum in this friendly town near the Polish border. Once again, congratulations!
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Filmfest Dresden Sommernacht in Berlin 2008
By Dorothea Holloway | December 31, 2008
Robin Malick, director of the Dresden International Short Film Festival – aka Filmfest Dresden – is always on the lookout for more film friends in Berlin. Last April 1st, he presented a preview of the 20th Filmfest Dresden (15-20 April 2008) in the Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen in Berlin-Mitte. Then, on April 26, he returned to Berlin to present a roundup of awarded festival hits at Babylon Kino. Now, for his third visit to Berlin on July 31, Robin has teamed with Simon Chappuzeau and Mark Müller at their Home Base Lounge for a Summer Night in Berlin on the banks of the Spree. Read the rest of this entry »
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MDM Film Location Sites
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
“Sexy Anhalt” is how Oscar winner Helen Mirren described the region in northern Saxony-Anhalt while the Hollywood project, Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, was being filmed last April to June. That the attraction of Middle Germany as location site is generally increasing, this is proven by several other large-scale projects produced in the region. Stephen Daldry shot parts of his Hollywood adaptation of Der Vorleser (The Reader) in Görlitz, a site already discovered in 2004 by Frank Coraci with Jackie Chan when the duo were shooting there a Paris-set scene for their action comedy Around the World in 80 Days. French film star Julie Delpy found the locations for her historical film The Countess on the Wartburg and Königstein Fortress, among other sites, while Sönke Wortmann is directing the film adaptation of bestseller Die Päpstin (The Popess) in grand style and partly on Burg Querfurt. By contrast, Schiwago Film discovered its own 1910 Vienna in Zittau. There the company spent 23 days shooting the grotesque drama Mein Kampf, based on the stage classic by George Tabori. Read the rest of this entry »
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Awards for MDM-funded Films
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
The following is a list of awarded film productions that have been funded by Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, as of October 2008. Only the key prizes and awards at major or relevant film festivals are listed. Also, citations by critical journals and/or film organizations are limited to the best known internationally. It is estimated that some films on the following list – for instance, Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan – have accumulated numerous awards beyond the range of this survey. In this regard, it is recommended to click the respective websites on the internet for an up-to-date account of awards. Read the rest of this entry »
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MDM Training Initiatives
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
Since its founding, the MDM Leipzig has advocated an advanced media-specific training program with an international orientation. Consideration is given particularly to programs anchored in Middle Germany that would be supported with funds from the MEDIA Program of the European Union, as well as to facilitate access to training initiatives by regional representative. EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneur) (www.eave.org) is viewed here as the leading advanced training program for European coproductions. Over the past years EAVE has developed a combination of producer training, project development, and network configuration. The aim of the Program is the modernization and improvement of methods for production and co production, as well as the motivation to work together. Read the rest of this entry »
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MDM Media Talks & Workshops
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
Medientreffpunkt Mitteldeutschland – The Middle German Media Rendezvous took place for the 10th time in 2008. Each year in Leipzig, the representatives of the German media branches, as well as politicians, discuss under a continually changing motto the latest trends and strategies in radio-, TV-, print-, and online-journalism. Several special events, such as roundtable discussions and workshops, form the center of the program. May 2009. www.medientreffpunkt.de Read the rest of this entry »
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MDM Festival Landscape
By Ron Holloway | December 31, 2008
Internationales Leipziger Festival für Dokumentar- und Animationsfilm – The Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animation Films – aka DOK Leipzig – is the most prominent German and one of the leading international festivals for artistic documentary and animation films. The festival was founded in 1955 by the Club der Filmschaffenden der DDR (Club of Filmmakers of GDR) as an Leipzig All-German (East/West) Week for Cultural and Documentary Films and thus marked the first independent film festival of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Parallel to the festival, DOK Leipzig and DOK Industry offers a unique professional program for the development and consolidation of the German and international documentary film. Its core is the digital DOK Markt, at which professional participants can view and evaluate new documentary films in a congenial atmosphere at modern viewing counters. 27 October to 2 November 2008. www.dok-leipzig.de Read the rest of this entry »
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Connie Walter’s Schattenwelt – Terrorist’s Long Shadows
By Tanja Meding | December 19, 2008
In November 2004, German Film Services launched German Premieres, an ongoing presentation of new and noteworthy German films for the US market. This very successful screening series opened with Dennis Gansel’s Napola. Since then, German Film Service NY representative Oliver Mahrdt has presented more than 15 films to the NY industry, ranging from such high-end documentaries as Thomas Grube’s Trip To Asia to low-budget indie films like Robert Thalheim’s Netto. Earlier this December, German filmmaker Connie Walther arrived in New York to present her latest feature film, Schattenwelt (Long Shadows) (Germany, 2008). Read the rest of this entry »
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57th Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival 2008
By Ron Holloway | December 13, 2008
The oldest German film festival on record – launched in 1952, when Walter Thalmon-Gross decided to expand his Mannheim-Ludwigshafen Film Club into an international event – the 57th International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (IFFMH) (6-16 November 2008) straddles two cities in the populous Rhein-Neckar Triangle, both with university crowds to draw upon to assure an enthusiastic film public. Originally planned by Thalmon-Gross as a film week programming shorts and documentaries, the Internationale Filmwoche Mannheim quickly expanded to include features and experimental films as well. Under his initiative, seconded in later years by Fee Vailliant and Hanns Meier, a competition for first and second features opened the door wide for entries from Eastern Europe. Prizes were awarded to Czechoslovak New Wave directors in the 1960s, followed by recognition for New Hungarian Cinema in the 1970s. As the festival’s reputation grew in Eastern Europe as an indispensable Window to the West, Polish animation directors Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk found themselves rubbing shoulders with New American Cinema filmmakers Jim McBride and Stan van der Beek. Most important of all, the historic Mannheim Declaration of 1967 supported New German Cinema directors wholeheartedly – so much so that today’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize continues to honor creative works by young talent. Read the rest of this entry »
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First-ever Khakas film premieres in Abakan Russia 2008
By Kirill Galetski | December 9, 2008
Ada Chiri (Land of Our Fathers) , the first-ever film from the Khakas ethnic group, premiered on December 1 in the city of Abakan (pop. 162,000) in the internal Russian republic of Khakasia, located in southern central Siberia. Ada Chiri is a production of the new production company Khakasfilm, with the support of the local government and ministry of the Republic of Khakasia. The film is the first full-length feature film shot entirely in Khakas, a Turkic language (international screenings of the film are in Khakas with English subtitles). The film is based on an eponymous play by Khakas playwright and actress Alisa Kyzlasova, laureate of the top prize at Khakasia’s second annual playwriting competition. The stage play premiered last year at the Topanov Khakas National Drama Theater in Abakan. Even though the story takes place in the 18th century in a remote corner of Siberia, the issues raised are universal. Read the rest of this entry »
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