contemporary art and media
Looking for your Japan
Directors Lounge will participate in this year’s Japan Day in Duesseldorf, May 25th. A screening at the Black Box /Filmmuseum will be dedicated to Japan in experimental cinema and video art. Short films included will cover a wide range of “Japans”, from fictional to historical to personal…
If you think you should be included, get in touch: contact
More impressions from The 9th Berlin International Directors Lounge [DL9] here
More impressions from The 9th Berlin International Directors Lounge [DL9] here
Many thanks to all participants, guests, friends and new friends, helping hands, like-minded idealists, sympathizers, weirdos and fellow festivals!! Keep in mind: Happiness is a warm projector, to quote Bryan Konefsky.
Till the next one!
Team DL
More impressions from The 9th Berlin International Directors Lounge [DL9] here
THE 9th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE [DL9]
17.02.13 / Sunday / Day 11
NOW THIS IS REALLY IT…!
Tonight we send Number Nine out flying, and high. You won’t want to miss the final of our Open Call set of cinematic slices, DL Selection VIII, at 19:30 (7:30 pm). Focusing on five short flicks, it offers the World Premiere screening of US filmmaker John Hawk’s 8-minute “Menopause in Guppies,” providing a special first-time look at what could hide behind the curious title. Portugal’s Marco Miranda gives us a well-needed “Prescrição” (Prescription) in European Premiere, while the German Premiere of Canadian Hervé Demers’ “Les Adieux De La Grise,” bids farewell to grey. Another must-see is the Chad/US production “Faisal Goes West” by Bentley Brown, which follows a Sudanese youth and his family landed in distinctly un-Sudanese Texas in a sobering film at times ironically humorous, while India’s Abhilash Vijayan will make the guys squirm at their next visit to the barber’s in “The Dual.” Then we really let loose… officially at 21:00 (9:00 pm), the last shindig begins: FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE FAREWELL PARTY starts out with our surprise mix of gems from all our programs plus Liu Zhenchen’s fitting “Adieu” in Euro-Premiere and continues right after with a live juggernaut at 22:00 (10:00 pm), The Kings of Spreedelta, “fast swing & dirty jazz” fired on by the powerhouse voice of Nadin Bieschke. If you can still get your breath at 23:30 (11:30 pm), you can’t use it for anything better than to hoof it to the sartorially elegant spinner of shellac discs known as DJ Grammophon. White gloves grab 78 RPM platters and set them rotating on turntables mounted in a travelling trunk. Swing, rock, shuck and jive until the floors wear through. There’s no better way we know to send off [DL9]… as you’ll see!
the complete program
16.02.13 / Saturday / Day 10
THE DL9-EST NIGHT OF THEM ALL
Dive into the international pool of the Directors Lounge Open Call, not once, not twice, but THREE times, with back-to-back DL Selection programs that rule this night of short film splashes. DL Selection V throws up three of tonight’s six World Premieres, one each from the US (JB Mabe), Italy (Fabio Scacchioli & Vincenzo Core) and Germany. Petra Lottje is personally on hand for the last of these, with her quick flick “Also gut”. Also in the swim of the visiting filmmakers in this block is Daniela Zahlner (Austria) with “Bolex Mon Amour”. Throw in a European and two German Premieres, plus a host of other short film pearls and you’ve got a cinematic high-water mark, starting at 18:00 (6:00 pm). Selection VI (at 21:00/9:00 pm) is no less buoyant, with one European and two World Premieres (from Canada’s Grace Wang and France’s Pierre et Jean Villemin) in this set, plus a visit from Alina Cyranek (DE/CN) with her short dip “Fractured”. The third grouping, DL Selection VII at 22:15 (10:15 pm), has another World Premiere (from Christinavon Greve, DE) plus one German and three European ones. Bernd Lützeler will also be in attendance to shed light on “The Voice of God”. A set to wade chin-deep in! Then Lilian-Maria does it live at 23:30 (11:30 pm), purring and growling out music to get happily drenched in. Powerful strokes toward the horizon follow from Sternchen house DJs Jouka & Stupid Muzak, who set down beats you can submerge yourself into in the open-end Night Lounge. Leave dry land (and film events) and take the plunge with us tonight!
Sat. 16 the program
the complete program
pictured: Bernd Lützeler The Voice of God; Josh Weissbach, 106 River Road
15.02.13 / Friday / Day 9
THE SPACE RACE AND THE SHORT AND LONG OF IT ALL
If you think you know this world, think again… Klaus W. Eisenlohr’s Urban Research programs (tonight, Mark III) always get you thinking again. “Interventions, Transforming Space” goes that mile and more: ignore those film titles like “Pass by” and “sawaruna [don’t touch!],” the door is wide open and the screen is waiting for you, starting at 18:00 (6:00 pm). From 21:00 (9:00 pm), it’s the SHORT FILM PARTY, which is anything but (short, that is)! Running till dawn, it’s hardly short on moving picture gems either, throwing up the choicest cuts from 28th (!) outing of the ever-popular Interfilm Short Film Festival, which teases the genre out of the museum and back to the big screen with in turns thought-provoking, off-the-wall and hilarious shorts that have crowds yelling for more. Into the mix come live sets from the Israeli psychedelic trance act Analog Pussy (22:00/10:00 pm) and the dirty-country-jazz diva Susanna Berivan (23:30/11:30 pm), plus the inimitable “Pale Music Int.” and “Berlin Insane” underground festival founder Steve Morell at the turntables starting around midnight. This is a party that won’t take no for an answer. Miss it at your own peril!
Fri. 15 the program
the complete program
pictured: Vägra Dö Slöe by Anna Azcárate
14.02.13 / Thursday / Day 8
PARADISE(S) LOST… AND FOUND
First up tonight, Medienwerkstatt Berlin introduces their smorgasbord of possibilities. If you’re looking for better ways to get your creative juices out of the glass and into a presentable, produced form, don’t look further… be there at 18:00 (6:00 pm). Then festival director Levent Arslan and our compatriots from the International Short Film Festival Detmold (ISFF) show why this film fe(a)st draws such crowds, with the cream of their crop on the screen at 19:30 (7:30 pm). Dalia Huerta Cano (Mexico) then asks the cinematic question “¿Olvida Usted Algo?” in European Premiere… objects shift space and meaning in this short film at 21:00 (9:00 pm). Following the voyage, DL Selection IV brings another sackful of World Premieres: Mihai Grecu and Thibault Gleize (Romania), Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez (Mexico), Oded Arad in attendance (Israel) and Karl F. Stewart (US/Germany) all give [DL9] the honour of screening their new films here first, alongside further European and German Premieres tonight at 21:30 (9:30 pm). Last up, putting a manic, dysfunctional family where they belong (on the screen), “Paradise East” by Nick Taylor (USA, in attendance) takes over as DL Night Movie. Here, you’ll meet an unhinged dad and his even more unhinged sons, crazy ladies and a minister you’ll not likely forget. Valentine’s Day with a twist (and the twisted). Compare notes and feel better about your own family with this pitch black comedy starting at 23:00 (11:00 pm). The best way to spend an evening “at home”!
Thu. 14 the program
the complete program
pictured: Nick Taylor (US) “Paradise East"; Wuttin Chansataboot (TH) “Visual Element”
THE 9th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE [DL9]
13.02.13 / Wednesday / Day 7
WOW… AND HOW! FESTIWELT, GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
What pleasure can’t you service tonight? First with a four-pack of filmmakers in person with their fine flicks in tow. From Iran, Ali Asgari; from the USA, Roger Deutsch, from the Netherlands, Irina Birger… and native daughter Dagie Brundert rounds up the announced arrivals for the film block DL Selection III, which promises the open your eyes wide and keep them that way. Plenty of premieres here too, three German and two European. The indulgence gets underway at 19:00 (7:00 pm)… and opens up wide at 21:00 (9:00 pm), when the Big Bang goes from theory to fact and the nothing short of fab FESTIWELT PARTY gets swinging. A staggering list of filmfests come together and get loose and funky, with live kicks coming at you from the soul songstress Lili Sommerfeld and heavy chanson dynamo Shirley Holmes, plus spinning disc sets from DJs ALTERnEGrO (House), Foxy Boxer (Indie, Electro), Youngbois (Italo Disco) and DJ Just Aprés (Deep House, Deep Feeling), and more you can’t do without. Scintillatingly, sinfully cinelicious… you’ll want to be there to lap it up, every last drop. Open end, but of course! Make sure you make your way over!
Irina Birger “Irina Birger thinks drawing is important”
Tues. 13 the program
the complete program
THE 9th BERLIN INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORS LOUNGE [DL9]
12.02.13 / Tuesday / Day 6
RIGA TELLS, CINEMA GELS, FAMILY DWELLS, SEX SELLS
The Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS kicks off tonight’s cinematic morsels with Latvia’s choicest contemporary screen works, presented by Amanda Boka and Baiba Matisone at 18:00 (6:00 pm). It’s not far from there to Albuquerque, care of Experiments in Cinema, whose “un-dependents” remind us that there is more to cinema than “popcorn poo-poo” with this healthy portion of appetizing works from Basement Films first seven years. These tasty film-snacks, presented by Bryan Konefsky, and entitled “Happiness is a Warm Projector,” can be had at 20:00 (8:00 pm). At 21:30 (9:30 pm), “Semalu” by Jimmy Hendrickx from Belgium will be shown in European Premiere, a short film on the children of the swamp-turned-Kuala-Lumpur-suburb Cheras and their self-discovery. Our resident Russian rebel filmmaker/curator Alexei Dmitriev then follows this with his program “I, Us, Them: Person, Family, Society,” about individuals in groups of all sizes, in attendance of director Vika Kirchenbauer. Be there for these treats (and Dmitriev’s extra-dry wit) at 22:00 (10:00 pm) The night slides sensuously into seduction with “Sex Equo” (Sex in the Foreground) by Werther Germondari and Maria Laura Spagnoli in German Premiere, with its platter of naughty, voyeueristic, non-linear pleasures, one for each fruit. Leave the kids at home, these vignettes are chock full of X-rated X-factor, a perfect prelude to your own playful proposals… food for thought (and some chuckles) at 23:30 (11:30). Finally, the Nightlounge takes over the wee hours the best way possible. The whole shebang tonight at [DL9]!
Tues. 12 the program
the complete program