Import Export – CentEast Despair Personified
By Ron Holloway | August 25, 2008
Ulrich Seidl, a leading figure in Austrian cinema, whose critically acclaimed Hundstage (Dog Days) (Austria, 2001) exposed the soft underbelly of a decaying, prone-to violence bourgeois society, has now turned his attention in Import Export (Austria/France, 2007) to the challenges facing CentEast members of the European Union.
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Der Letzte macht das Licht aus! – East Berlin Hijinks
By Eva-Marie Lenz | August 25, 2008
The inspiration for Der Letzte macht das Licht aus! (The Last One Turns Out the Lights!) (Germany, 2007) came spontaneously when filmmaker Clemens Schönborn noticed near his Berlin flat a special language course: Norwegian for Unemployed in Building Trade Applying for Work Under Good Conditions in Land of Fjords. The men, whom Schönborn had become acquainted with while fetching his daily biscuits, have, in the meantime, long gone northwards.
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Progress Film-Verleih – Golzow Premiere at Kino Toni 2008
By Dorothea Holloway | August 25, 2008
On 3 April 2008, at Kino Toni in Berlin-Weissensee, the gala premiere of Barbara and Winfried Junge’s …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), the final episode of The Children of Golzow cycle, was duly recorded in the annals of German filmmaking as a warming farewell to the longest running documentary portrait in the history of the cinema.
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Wallflower Press – Key Film Reference Books 2004-2008
By Ron Holloway | August 25, 2008
The Wallflower Press film publications are valuable resource and reference books on the national cinematographies. Herewith reviews on theIan Haydn Smith’s edited International Film Guide (2008), John Cunningham’s Hungarian Cinema – From Coffee House to Multiplex (2004), and Dina Iordanova’s edited The Cinema of the Balkans (2006).
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From Filmverlag der Autoren to New German Cinema
By Ron Holloway | August 24, 2008
When Dominik Wessely’s documentary Gegenschuss – Aufbruch der Filmemacher (Germany, 2008), a Kinowelt film production, was screened in the middle of the 58th Berlin International Film Festival (7-17 February 2008) as a “Berlinale Special,” it prompted lengthy essays in the press and talkshows on television. Indeed, Reverse Angle – Rebellion of the Filmmakers scored as a viewing pleasure for all those in the Berlinale audience who remembered, for better or worse, the student revolt of 1968 and the founding of the Filmverlag der Autoren.
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Die Kinder von Golzow – KINO Film of the Year 2008
By Ron Holloway | August 24, 2008
The story of Barbara and Winfried Junge’s Die Kinder von Golzow, the longest running documentary portrait in the history of the cinema, began in August of 1961 right after the erection of the Berlin Wall and fence separating two Germanys. The idea for The Children of Golzow came from Karl Gass at the DEFA Documentary Studio. Its aim was to document the life-styles of a new generation of children educated in a socialist land.
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Rubljowka – Russian Tenderloin for Millionaires
By Ron Holloway | August 24, 2008
One wonders how Irene Langemann ever got permission to shoot her stunning documentary Rubljowka – Strasse zur Glückseligkeit in the first place! But since the German-Russian filmmaker was born in Siberia, worked in Moscow as an actress and filmmaker before emigrating to Germany in 1990, she knows her way around the Russian ministries. Still, Rublyovka – Road to Bliss, an inside report about Russian millionaires living just 30 miles outside of Moscow known on the Rublyovka-Uspenskoye-Chaussee, might send shivers down the backs of some of the nouveau riche.
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Für den unbekannten Hund – Guild Brotherhood Saga
By Dorothea Holloway | August 24, 2008
For even the best informed cineaste, Für den unbekannten Hund (Germany, 2007) by the brothers Benjamin und Dominik Reding handles an unusual and fascinating theme – the wandering Gesellenbruderschaften (Guild Journeymen Brotherhoods). You notice them at road-crossings, bus-stops, gas-stations, fast-food-counters, just about anywhere on the open roads in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And you spot them by their antiquated togs, broad-brim hats, over-the-shoulder swags, and curled walking canes.
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20th Filmfest Dresden – Screenings in Berlin 2008
By Ron Holloway | August 21, 2008
Filmfest Dresden Preview in Berlin
Thanks again to Filmfest Dresden director Robin Malick, Berliners were treated on 1 April 2008 to a preview to the 20th Dresden International Short Film Festival (15-20 April 2008) in the Vertretung des Freistaates Sachsen in Berlin-Mitte, a welcomed opportunity for cineastes and public alike to preview some of the key attractions at the upcoming festival.
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4th Achtung Berlin! – New Berlin Film Award 2008
By Ron Holloway | August 21, 2008
The Fourth Achtung Berlin! – New Berlin Film Award (16-22 April 2008) under Hajo Schäfer added on extra screenings to accommodate an overall attendance topping 10,000 at Kino Babylon. Indeed, Achtung Berlin has become an vital showcase of films produced in Berlin and surrounding Land Brandenburg. This year, five juries were summoned to decide on awards for features, shorts, documentaries, experimental and animation films.
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