DL X, please stay for the credits.
SAILING OUT WITH COLOURFUL CARGO AND (ANYTHING BUT) PALE MUSIC
Tonight we turn it up with the final farrago of film gems in DL Selection XVII, 19 arty snacks from around the world into yours. Among World Premieres are Canadian Víctor Ballesteros’ “VVOOLLVVOO” and Karl F. Stewart’s (who just arrived in town) “Video of Shadows – Title A B or C.” In town and on board are Javier Pernas, Euro-premiering his “Piel/Skin” (Argentina/Spain), Dimitris Argyriou (Greece) with his short film “One Line” and Dutchman Michael Fleming with “Avalanche.” Also expect Studio Twins (Caroline Fayette & Chloé Guerbois) of France, whose “The Island Where I Come From” is in the mix. Start: 7pm. Our Farewell Mix, up at 9pm, offers more morsels, and maybe a surprise or two thrown in. World Premieres include two of attending filmmakers: Fried Rosenstock (“Der Schatten Meiner Selbst”) and Arthur Patching (GB), whose “Il Ritorno” leaves harbour as the final film. Then at 10:30pm, we get loose when the singular Steve Morell, founder of Pale Music and the “Berlin Insane” festival and sought-after remixer (Miss Yetti, Boy George and scores more) carts in his trove of pure and respun beats, setting the joint a-jump. Kings of Spreedelta will also swing it up, and DJ Jense will also have a go at the turntables. No end programmed – dance like there’s no (DLX) tomorrow. Freaks and friends welcome; surprise guests and past alumni may well drop by. Our adieu to this year’s festival feast, and segue into DL’s 2014 assault on other cities. Join us for a last blast!
the complete program, 6 – 16 Feb
pictured:Alexis Barbosa “Mona”, Michael Fleming “Avalanche”, Steve Morell, Arthur Patching “Il Ritorno”, Kings of Spreedelta
DAY 10
PIPER > PARANORMAL > PARANOIA! 100 YEARS OF BURROUGHS BEAT
It’s the first-ever screening of this Indian film in Germany: Vivek Budakoti’s feature “Pied Piper” uses a Brechtian slant and black humour to reflect India’s current desperation-to-elation climate. It begins at 6:30pm in Space A; don’t miss a minute. Already at 7pm, Space B gives itself over to the less-than-alive and more in DL Plus: Ghosts. Let reason fly in 69 minutes of short film shivers, with Nicolaas Schmidt on hand to give us the inside track on his “Break.” Shuttling back to Space A, take a seat at 9pm for even more film nuggets in DL Selection XVI. Making stops in Iraq, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and more, it includes World Premieres from Afghanistan (Habib Sadaat’s “Kite Of Wishes”) and the UK (Brazilian Bruna Capozzoli’s “Mamo”). But also at 9pm (Space B), the all-Euro DL Plus: Comme une image II screens a good half hour of mini-movies, with multi-award-winning kaleidoscope video artist Max Hattler’s “X” in the bunch. A whirlwind outing! The topper hits at 10:30pm – Beat god William Burroughs gets the once-over in a special performance by Kraftwerk founding member Eberhard Kranemann and Ina Sladic dubbed “100 Years of Paranoia.” This word-sound-dance-video spectacle shifts forms via a “puzzle principle,” with Burroughs’ words triggering a theoretical-to-physical transition. As supporting film, in World Premiere, Kranemann’s short “Im Panikraum.” A smash at last year’s [DL9], Kranemann is definitely a must-see. At 11:30 groovy rhythms, abstract sounds and spaced-out blue notes with Flicka live on stage. Be there!
Day 10 program, Feb 15
the complete program, 6 – 16 Feb
pictured:Sahim Omar Kalifa"Baghdad Messi", Vivek Budakoti “Pied Piper”; Ina Sladic and Eberhard Kranemann
Tonight: 14 Feb
URBAN POCKETS AND HARDCORE CHOCOLATE
Tonight’s almost all-European DL Selection XIV opens the run of eye-openers Directors Lounge is known for, fresh up at 6pm. Get in to see these, including the Euro-Premiere of “Sleepwalk” by Italy’s Laura Salvini. City themes get their share of screen time, too, with DL’s Urban Research III: Subverting Leviathan, which concentrates on urban metamorphosis through uprisings in Istanbul but takes in Damascus, Tel Aviv, Belfast and more. Don’t miss this, the final curation in this specially-focused section of DL (8pm, Space B). At 9pm, let it all come at you – from “Down Under” (Australian Marian Diaz’s “Diamonds”) to “Up Over” (Juha Mäki-Jussila’s truly bizarre Finnish short “Suddenly Last Summer”), the trek from southern to northern hemisphere was never made easier (or more jarring!) than in DL Selection XV, our stab at your senses. An Indian, Belarussian and American film each will be in World Premiere, and Turkish filmmaker Özgür Özcan will be there in person with his short “Ars Gratia Artis.” Then! The Punk and Chocolate Party kicks back at everything that needs kicking with live chops from Hans am Felsen (aka HAF) bringing violin and punk together and roughboys Buman grinding out made-in-Berlin guitar growls, all rolling from 10:30pm. Put together with the offbeat club of legend, Schokoladen, this will wake any sleeping dogs. See ya there!
the complete program, 6 – 16 Feb
pictured: Francesca Fini, White Sugar, Daria Korol, Touch, Chema García Ibarra, Misterio, Lioba von den Driesch,Last Supper
The doyen of experimental film Gerard Freixes speaking to the audience.
ISAC INCA DOARME
review by Katja Avant-Hard
This is one of those pieces which you can interpret to your own understanding. It’s rich with symbols and connotations. It’s a nightmare, where your “Dad is a pig, and a Mum is a sheep, of course” and all three of you, the son and the parents, are sitting at the table and are eating fresh and bloody pieces of pork. But the scariest part in this nightmare is, that your strictly catholic mother tries to control your dreams. And the time goes back, to your childhood and back again. There are some epic scenes like when the mum leaks her sun ear with so much enjoyment as if it was the highest quality pork; or when they both sit in the milk bath tab, and she feeds him like a newborn. It’s a mind game, where you don’t know where the dream stops and the reality begins. And what if your own reality is more terrifying than your dreams? It’s a trap! Mum, don’t come closer! The director deliberately confuses us in the parallels and its faces of fantasy and the state of actual.
“Isac Inca Doarme” by Alexandru Ponoran was screened during the 10th Berlin International Directors Lounge [DLX], Feb 6 – 16, 2014
DL Selection XI: Wed 12 | 8:30pm | space A
TONIGHT, 13 Feb:
TOLSTOY & CO., SILENTLY, DARKLY NOT BELONGING…
DL Selection XII, hitting the screen at 6pm, runs 30 minutes, 28 of which are Jean-Gabriel Périot’s “The Day has Conquered The Night,” where dreams, screams, a woman’s body and rap music meet. Next up, at 7pm, DL Selection XIII features three German Premieres, with two of the filmmakers there in person: Jacob Podber (US, “Vishneva Belarus Soviet Union Poland”) and Henrike Naumann, (“Triangular Stories,” her very personal approach to dealing with her hometown Zwickau’s fascist tendencies in her generation’s hedonistic drive). A winning program, but over in Space B at the same time, you can catch the past and present of abstract animation in “Visual Music,” with Manfred Miersch of Medienwerkstatt Berlin screening and lecturing (in German, please note!). A World Premiere at 8pm (Space A): DL Feature “Non-Conformity” by Ukrainian filmmaker Igor Parfenov tells the tale of a butcher with a past, but no present or future. Add a mental hospital, a black market, a crippled girl and organ dealers… this will be a twisted ride. Later in the evening (10pm), witness the audio-visual performance of Christoph Brünggel and Benny Jaberg entitled “Still und Dunkel” (“Silent and Dark”) on the centre stage. Film sequences of “non-spaces” (disused factories and civil defense facilities) are combined with the work of VJ collective “Pixel-punx,” creating impressions and sensations centring on their silence and their darkness. All tonight, at DLX!
Day 8 program, 13 Feb
the complete program, 6 – 16 Feb
pictured: Igor Parfenov “Non-Conformity”, Jacob Podber (US, “Vishneva Belarus Soviet Union Poland”, Henrike Naumann “Triangular Stories”, “Still und Dunkel
DL Birthday message from New Mexico: Festival Director Bryan Konefsky (Experiments in Cinema; Basement films) like you’ve never seen him before …
B-day video-gift from Italy: Fabio Scacchioli and Vincenzo Core just sent us a sneak peek at their next work … Molto grazie!
Greetings from Canada: Filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg congratulating DLX for the 10th edition. Thanks Brandon!