What goes around, comes around, and what goes around more than the André Werner (not to mention his brainchildren: films as vivd headbirths and the perfect forum to view other such ventures, the cult-fixation Directors Lounge)? And so his day has come around again, and we join in wishing the tireless idea-factory and all-around cool guy his greatest birthday yet, and know you join in doing the same! Hats off to The Man In The Hat!

The gang at Directors Lounge

gif via pandawhale

Flyer design: Christin Grothe

THE 9th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE [DL9]

08.02.13 / Friday / Day 2

GROOVY > MOVIE > DO ME!

Crashing in from New York via time machine and landing in Berlin is “The Groovy Dada Lounge Revisted,” a photo show of rare vision by photog supremo Robert Carrithers, who was there when it was happening and was smart enough to capture it in pix… Basquiat, Haring, Club 57, the whole beautiful, crazy mess. Prague’s DJ Ida T spins us through it, and tonight Carrithers will himself be present (show from 18:00/6:00pm, daily)… then comes “Autoluminescent” (by Richard Lowenstein and Lynn-Maree Milburn, Berlin Premiere),a motion picture trip Way Down Under capturing the enigmatic Stoker-esque guitarist Rowland S. Howard in all his gothic glory (19:30/7:30pm). After that, Dim Locator hits with live tones – remnants of the legendary band Fatal Shore with new blood crank “industrial psych-rock” out at 22:00 (10:00pm), and DJ/producer Steve Morell, yes, the “Pale Music Int.” and “Berlin Insane” underground festival founder, spins more to make it all move even more starting at 22:30 (11:30pm). You know you gotta be there!

Fri 08 the program

the complete program

WELCOME TO THE OPENING RECEPTION OF THE 9th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE [DL9]

07.02.13 / Wednesday / Day 1

 

Directors Lounge, Number Nine. Nine years of genre-straddling cinematic and media art. Nine years of non-festival festival atmosphere, more circus than film space. Filmmakers and film-goers, without velvet barriers. The festival that provides the backdrop and erases the lines.

Exactly the concept. First and foremost cutting edge cinematic visions, but with the surrounding atmosphere as a good part of our jag. Shorts and features of every cut and dimension. Plus Q&A’s. And beyond the screen, singers, musicians, poets, VJ’s, DJ’s doing their respective things. More than simply a festival, more than simply a lounge.

No red carpets, but premieres aplenty, German, European or World. Plus the Festiwelt Party, a heady powwow of many thematic filmfests, jamming film folk of every stripe into every corner.

And here is Nine following Eight, not just chronologically, but bringing more colour and breadth. A kaleidoscope of fluidity without chaos, diversity without confusion. Myriad offerings from the worldwide Open Call. Creators, performers and viewers rubbing shoulders. Not where projects end, but where they begin. A unique safari into the terrain of cinematic and media-art wildlife.

Thurs 07 | doors open at 8pm

the complete program

Good news for all of you with iPads, iPhones or anything smart and android.

Directors Lounge on currents is a snazzy way to read all about DL on anything slim and shiny.
You can now star stories to save them to look at later, stories have read / unread indicators, everything is neatly organized, magazine, program, all is included and remains offline.

Go here to subscribe (You need to have currents installed). Works on iPad, iPhone and Android. Of course everything is free.

image

Finally there is a reason to have one of these flat and black gadgets 🙂

DIRECTORS LOUNGE@ L’ISOLA DEL CINEMA | Cinelab Groupama

as part of Iolanda La Carrubba’s project L’Altra Faccia Della Luna

July 22nd and 29th, 2012 at 7 pm – 9 pm

Isola Tiberina, Roma (map)

7.10 pm
Sigla a cura del cantautore AMEDEO MORRONE

7.15 pm
Video di presentazione della rassegna “L’Altra Faccia Della Luna” di IOLANDA LA CARRUBBA

7.25 pm
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE
curated by Julia Murakami and André Werner

PROGRAM I (July 22nd)

Gerard Cairaschi  FR Magia 6 min 35s
John Woods 
CA Victor #5 3 min 38s 2011
Kote Camacho  ES  La Gran Carrera 6 min 55s  2011
John Christopher Gibson
  US Gillespie  8 min 08s  2010
Javier Chillon
ES Decapoda Shock 9 min 15s 2011
Mihai Grecu 
FR  We’ll Become Oil  8 min  2011
Jean-Gabriel Périot
FR Dies Irae 10 min 2005
ZhenChen Liu CN Under Construction 10 min  2007
Hendrick Dusollier
FR Babel 15 min 2010
Masha Godovannaya
RU Untitled #1 4 min 2005 musical score LU
André Werner
DE The Eyes Of Mankind 14 min 39 sec 2007

PROGRAM II (July 29th)

Marco Gianfreda IT Pizzangrillo 15 min 2011
Ali Asgari 
IR  Tonight Is Not A Good Night For Dying 4 min 20s 2011
Farnoosh Samadi Frooshani
IR  It’s Your Turn 7min 2s 2011
Rosetta Messori 
IT Primordial Breath 5 min 18s 2011
Andreas Rost
DE Solo für Ramallah 5 min 2005
Francesca Fini
  IT  Parnasus  10 min  2011
Fabio Scacchioli and Vincenzo Core 
IT Miss Candace Hilligoss’ Flickering Halo 13 min 40s 2011
Charles Fairbanks
  US/MX  Irma 12 min 15s 2010
Santiago Parres (EZO)
ES  Dove  2 min 40s  2011
Simon Ellis
GB What About GB The Bodies 7min 17s 2002
Eytan Heller
IL World Cup 2018 48s 2008
Lucas Figueroa
ES Because there are things you never forget 13 min 2008

Directors Lounge is coming to Rome!

We are preparing to go to Rome for some dedicated screenings at L’ISOLA DEL CINEMA

Cinelab Groupama | L’Altra Faccia Della Luna curated by Iolanda La Carrubba

July 22nd and 29th, 2012 at 7 pm -9 pm

on the beautiful Isola Tiberina, Roma, right in the very heart of Rome. (map)

More soon. See you there.

pictured: The Japanese Guerilla Paparazzi World TourJGP in front of  Santa Trinità dei Monti    

more about the project: sometimes they shoot back

Impressions from DL: Short Cuts to Japan, (curated by André Werner and Julia Murakami), June 2, 2012 at the Black Box Kino, Filmmuseum in Düsseldorf:

VJ Chuuu and Eberhard Kranemann

André Werner presenting DL: Short Cuts to Japan

Multitasking: Eberhard Kranemann (multimedia artist and founding member of “Kraftwerk”) playing the piano and the historical Welte Cinema Pipe Organ built in 1924.

Inside the belly of the Welte Cinema Organ

VJ Chuuu and his astonishing “Turntable Animation”

the complete program

find here a cool review by perisphere

pictured: Fritz Stolberg’s “Of This, Men Shall Know Nothing”

“Arise cinephile-comrades! Pick up your cameras and join us as we reclaim the media pixel by bloody pixel!”   Bryan Konefsky, Experiments in Cinema


Directors Lounge @ Experiments in Cinema V7.9 in New Mexico

Guild Cinema, Tuesday April 17, 2012

As last year, we are going to participate in the finest cinematic event of New Mexico, the Experiments in Cinema. Experiments in Cinema is an annual, Albuquerque-based festival that celebrates recent trends in international, cinematic experimentation and offers a variety of ways in which attendees might think about the history of media representation and participate in shaping future trends in cultural representation.


Assorted films from The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge [DL8]
curated by Julia Murakami and André Werner

Farnoosh Samadi Frooshani IR “It’s Your Turn”, 2011
Fritz Stolberg GB  “Of This, Men Shall Know Nothing!”, 2010
Samuel Blain GB “In Dreams”, 2011
John Woods CA “7246 120’ WE”, 2011
Santiago Parres (EZO) ES “Sinecdoquanon”, 2011
Kote Camacho
ES “La Gran Carrera”, 2011
Joe McClean and Sarju Patel US “How To Make a David Lynch Film”, 2011

pictured: Kote Kamacho’s “La Gran Carrera”

still from Glorious, 2009 by Guy Maddin

THIRTY FRAMES A SECOND, TWO HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR
DIRECTORS LOUNGE’S GUY MADDIN SHORTS HEADING FOR ESSEN

No longer an upstart after seven consecutive years and scads of films of every conceivable genre, the Berlin International Directors Lounge (DL to the initiated) is still free of formula, corralling batches of like-minded works into presentable groupings but not bowing to predictability. No one knows quite what they are going to see here. That viewers can move freely about, mounting stairs and draping themselves over balcony railings to take in what’s splashed onto the screen may add to the slightly helter-skelter atmosphere. Question-and-answer sessions with selected directors and performers can prove as offbeat as some of the offerings, and left field live performances take it over the top. For free. There is nothing else like this in Berlin, one of the hardest claims you can make in this city. DL, while still arriving, has arrived. Renowned artists such as Michael Nyman have chosen to reveal their newest visions here, and films are being sent for consideration by the hundreds from all over the globe, with their creators and stars often enough making the trip to see how it looks up there, larger than life. Add to that fast-appearing online reviews of films and audience reaction, and you’ve got the makings of a cult carnival waiting to be reborn on a yearly basis, like a child who enjoyed the process enough to want to give it yet another go.
It had to happen that Berlin’s DL and Winnipeg’s enfant bizarre Guy Maddin would come together, and this year marked the time, when the Berlinale jury member brought a handful of his short features to form the backbone of an evening dedicated to his peculiar view of things, as seen through the (filmic) eyes of the influenced, heard via live readings from his enigmatic book From The Atelier Tovar and not least declared by way of the master’s aforementioned shorts themselves. A bit of everything was there. The giddy tomfoolery of Nude Caboose, the frenetic, fetishistic mock-punishment of Sissy Boy Slap Party, the industrial expressionism of The Heart Of The World. The house was full and imagination running at full tilt.
Directors Lounge is, with Mr. Maddin’s blessing, showing these tasty celluloid morsels at C.A.R. in Essen, offering up a peak into many little worlds portrayed in a myriad of ways: playful, distressing, subtle, haunting, head-on. Maddin comes to DL comes to you, and you only need eyes and ears to make it work.

–    Kenton Turk

still from Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity, 1995 by Guy Maddin

Beyond The Atelier Tovard , the collection of shorts by Guy Maddin, will be accompanied by works that are influenced by him, dedicated to him, or otherwise Under The Influence Of The Atelier Maddin.

C.A.R. details here

FRI 18th 8pm | MUSE | Massimo Salvato GB  2010 | European Premiere

In attendance of Massimo Salvato (director), Julia Krynke (lead actress, Ludmilla), Adam Harvey (Co-producer and composer), Rich Swingle cinematographer), Alastair Scott (executive producer, TankSchool) and Robin Mitchell (photographer)

Ludmilla is a force of nature driven on a voyage of discovery by the ghost of her grandfather as she seduces and spell-bounds two writers to secrete the essence of their genius, which she taps and distills to create a voice that manifests in the novel, Muse.

“…Like Mullholland Drive I am not sure I fully understood the journey – but I loved and was intrigued by the journey. I think it is essentially a simple idea about the interaction and rather selfish nature of creativity – wrapped in a beautiful convolution. Really loved it…!”

                         Christopher Morris (BAFTA Award winning documentary filmmaker)

Massimo Salvato is fascinated by structures and the way things work. He enjoys the ‘ambiguity’ of his love for narrative films and his disbelief that a film must necessarily have a narrative. This in-between space/time provides Massimo with fields which he feels are not researched enough in cinema. He studied economics in Italy before exploring his passion for theatre and film, founding in 1998 a cultural association in Italy, organising short film, music and theatre events; and achieving a Master’s Degree in Film at the International Film School Wales in 2005. In 2004 he wrote, produced and directed Carmen, a UK and Italian short film co-production dealing with gender issues and rural conservatism. In 2007 his first feature film script won him a place at Ekran, European Training Programme for Film Professionals, at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, in Warsaw. In 2008 he made a promo teaser for his new project Muse which helped him to build the team with which he completed the film in 2010. Massimo lectures in Film and Visual Culture at the Newport Film School, University of Wales Newport, and he is Course Leader in Film Studies in Coleg Gwent, South Wales.

 

Massimo Salvato GB Muse 19min 43s 2010

exact screening time might be subject to change