pictured: Dr Valentyn Machines A Heart by Stephen Dirkes

THE END CAME QUIETLY: BUT ONLY TODAY’S

After the noisy festivities of last night’s FESTIWELT party at [DL8] (the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge, of course), the program swings consequently in the opposite direction. But not right away. First, at 19:00 (7pm), we bring you an extra-special DL Selection: our sixth in sequence also presents six back-to-back Premieres (two German, European and World each), so get ready to see what you’ve likely seen nowhere else, ranging from one to 14 minutes. There’s even more at 21:00 (9pm), DL Selection VII, featuring two shorts from the mysterious J.X. Williams, 1967’s “Credit Sequences From ‘Space Vixens’” and 1961’s “The 400 Blow Jobs”, for a nifty twist on Truffault’s title. This line-up also has its share of Premieres, four in all. Then comes the hush, but only somewhat: “Moving Silence” at 23:00 (11pm) unites modern silent films with live musical accompaniment, reminding us that “silence is not silent”. Indeed. At Naherholung Sternchen, Berolinastr. 7 (U-Schillingstr., behind Kino International).

KT/Team DL

Feb. 16, the program

find us here

Thurs 16 | 9pm

MISS CANDACE HILLIGOSS’ FLICKERING HALO by Fabio Scacchioli and Vincenzo Core | German Premiere

The beginning is another movie, an American noir of the early 60s: gutted and disemboweled, tortured and “detourned” images organize themselves into precarious and evolving structures, intertwined in multiples and twisted plots in a state of permanent collapse. The aim is to incite the explosion of a closed system through a dispositive of audiovisual implosions. Forget what you see while you are actually watching it, and soak in a vibrating, optical ancestry. A scream without a reason.

The human eye can see the world through photoreceptive cells on the retina, a membrane sensitive to light emitted or reflected by objects. Light travels through time and space at a certain speed. For example, sunlight takes 8 minutes to get to our eyes, while from other stars it takes several lightyears.
Also the light generated or reflected by an object or a person on Earth takes a certain time, even if short and infinitesimal. There is a distance (short, eternal) between us and our image of reality. Even between thought and action, between thought and language, there is a similar lapse, necessary to transmit the signal via electrical impulses from the brain to different parts of the body.

“Miss Candace Hilligoss’ flickering halo” is a film about this distance, about the interval simultaneously separating and uniting, the silence between words, the black between pictures. It ’s a film against the dialectical opposites in cinema, assembled according to the Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and the use of the phenomenon of retinal persistence as an expressive tool. Vincenzo Core, sound director, believes the audio element is not just a naturalistic comment of pictures, but rather a counterpoint between sound and images able to turn the experience into a real “audiovision ”.

Fabio Scacchioli (Direction and editing) was born in Teramo in 1979. He studied in Perugia and Madrid, graduating with a thesis on the semiotics of experimental cinema. In 2006, he met Gianfranco Baruchello and attended his Foundation, taking part in meetings on artistic practice, participating in exhibitions and seminars, and collaborating on his latest film Another day, another day, another day. His research focuses on the relationship between memory, perception and thought. He works with film, video and installations.

Vincenzo Core (Music direction) was born in Giulianova in 1982. He studied electronic music with Alessandro Cipriani, at the “L. Refice” conservatory of Frosinone. Since 2008 composes for video, dance, installations and performances. His expressive research concentrates on the relationships between various compositional materials to trace paths of meaning, and to express the complexity and vitality of Self.

“Miss Candace Hilligoss’ Flickering Halo” will be screened in German Premiere on Feb 16 as part of the DL Selection VII

Thurs 16 | 9pm

The 400 Blow Jobs

While banished to the Hollywood blacklist, Williams wrote and directed over 200 stag films over a period of fifteen years. Decades before Pulp Friction and Forrest Hump, Williams perfected the art of the porn parody with films such as A Streetwalker Named Desire and High Poon. Only a few of these films still exist today, often in nearly unwatchable condition. This wickedly funny take-off of Truffaut’ 400 Coups is one the few remaining artifacts from this period in Williams’ filmography.

Noel Lawrence, curator of the J. X. Williams Archive

The 400 Blow Jobs
1960 | 8mm | 5:00

J.X. Williams “The 400 Blow Jobs” as well as the “Credit Sequence from Space Vixens” will be screened on Feb 16 as part of the DL Selection VII

DAY 7, Feb. 15

Line up Festivals:

The Festiwelt Party is hosted by the following festivals:

11mm Fußballfilmfestival Achtung Berlin – New Berlin Film Award Alfilm – Arabisches Filmfestival Berlin Asian Hot Shots Baltic Film Festival British Shorts Contravision Down Under Berlin – Australian Film Festival Französische Filmwoche Going Underground interfilm Internationales Kurzfilmfestival Berlin Kiezkieken KUKI Internationales Kinder und Jugendkurzfilmfestival Berlin Kurzfilmfestival Oberschöneweide Northzone One World Berlin Russische Filmwoche Trash Filmfestival Unknown Pleasures – American Independent Film Festival Webcuts – internationales Internet Film Fest Xposed Queer Film Festival Zebra Poetry Film Festival

Location:Directors Lounge

@Naherholung Sternchen

Directors Lounge [DL8]at Naherholung Sternchen behind the Kino International /Rathaus Mitte

Screenings upfront the party:

6pm: URBAN RESEARCH – II The Future is Now, the City Imagination
8pm: One Minute Volume 5

9pm – Party

10pm – Festivals on Stage
After 10pm: 3,- Euro (admission fee)

Line up Party:

Acoustic Lab-Top Mobile – Jürg Bariletti

JAZZ aus BERLIN – Piano: Sebastian Kommerell Gesang: Marbo Becker

The Foxy Boxers – Indie, Electro, Rock’n’Roll

DJ Starfish – Electro, Indie, Hiphop

The Berlin Dustbusters: DJ Cup of Jazz & Stephie Strumpet & The Henrik Maneuver
– Swing vs. Electro

The incredible YipYips – Electro

VJ Chuuu – Turntable Animation

www.festiwelt-berlin.de

DAY 6,Feb. 14

FROM UNDERWEAR TO OVERKILL, OR B-CUP TO B-GRADE

Dessous take front and centre stage at 18:00 (6pm) at the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge, a.k.a. [DL8] tonight, with the so-named program of short “Bra-Fitting” (World Premiere) and feature “Buy Me!” bringing a girl’s boldest obsession together with the world’s oldest profession. Then at 20:00 (8pm) we switch from street-walkers to street walking, literally, courtesy of Ivan Garcia (ES), whose “The Hard Art Of Strolling” takes us sauntering through Shanghai, Paris, the USSR, Japan and Barcelona at key junctures in their histories. A rare sort of documentary, 48 minutes of wayward wandering, in its German Premiere. And still more comes when the DL Selection V rolls through ten little gems, with Stephan Kaempf on hand with his 5-minute “Chaos”, plus one World and four German Premieres and more. (Almost) finally, at 23:00 (11pm), don’t miss guest curator Shaun Wilson’s “Creatures Of The Night” horror shorts special – films so bad (in taste, acting, technical quality, just about everything) they’re good, and deliciously so. All capped off with live music at midnight from the really good Susanna Berivan, a young singer/songwriter/guitarist whose repertoire defies categorization, spanning dirty country to Lady-Day-jazz to personal punk, stopping at all stations between with a voice of myriad shades. Wow. Another night with a bang at Naherholung Sternchen (behind Kino International).

KT/Team DL

pictured: Susanna Berivan by Jon Clay

Feb. 14, the program

find us here

Tues 14 | 6pm

BUY ME! – CATALINA FLOREZ

Vivan designs dessous for prostitutes. With her partner Michel she sells her
creations to the girls in the red-light districts in the Netherlands which seduce their costumers with the bikinis.

Vivian’s longtime relationship with the prostitutes allow filmmaker Catalina Flórez an exceptionally intimate view into the minds of the girls behind the glass windows. Very personal Interviews show the human side of the girls, often judged as immoral and pitiful.

Buy me! tells about the search for easy money, freedom, fun and love. In a live between show window and relationship, between moral and necessity,
between beauty and age.

Catalina Flórez COLUMBIA Buy me! 59min 2011

BUY ME! will be shown as part of “DESSOUS” together with Cristina Zabalaga’s BRA-FITTING on Tues 14 | 6pm

Tues 14 | 8pm

ON HARD ART OF STROLLING – IVAN GARCIA

Five strolls. Shanghai before Mao, interwar Paris, the Soviet Union during industrialization, Japan before invading Manchuria and Barcelona at the beginning of Spanish Civil War. It’s just about wandering down the streets, taking a tram, having lunch in a restaurant, seeing how the ships unload their goods on the quay, entering a cinema, travelling cross-country by train, attending a concert, taking a bath in the lake, drinking in a nightclub … As Joseph Roth quoted: “The tiny small part impresses more than the whole thing. I’m a stroller”.

Ivan Garcia ES On Hard Art Of Strolling 48 min 2011 | German Premiere

Tues 14 | 9pm

THERE IS WIND THAT BLEW – CARL ELSAESSER

Two parents insert themselves into their son’s diary and assume several roles until the diary realizes their presence. As the passages fall apart and the son violently tries to get rid of his parents, a film crew appears-framing specifics-searching for concrete answers to an echoing repression. There is Wind That Blows explores the relationship between, closeted repression, film making, narrative representation, family history and agency.

“This film was designed as an attempt to actively forget a period of time in my life and ends today with an act of giving in and letting stay.” C.Elsaesser

THERE IS WIND THAT BLEW will be shown as part of the DL Selection on Feb 14 | 9pm, followed by Shaun Wilson’s B-Grade and the DL Double Feature at 11pm

DAY 5, Feb 13th

SUDDENLY: IT CAME FROM HERE AND BEYOND

Fans of the sudden will like short films coming at them “Out Of The Blue” at [DL8] (the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge), as curated and presented by Deborah S. Phillips, and including five World Premieres. Film titles like “PFFFHP TT!” can make you wonder just what you’ll be seeing. It all jumps at you starting at 18:00 (6pm). Then DL’s own Klaus W. Eisenlohr treats us to a program of Urban Observations and Local Studies at 20:00 (8pm), chock full of metropolitan moments. Look for Klaus there too, recognizable in his trademark fedora. Then still more follows, with the DL Selection IV at 22:00, getting underway with “Silhouette” by Astrid Busch (in attendance), and weaving its way through shorts from Finland, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, France and the U.S, with a couple of World Premieres in the mix. One film in this block is entitled “The Last Picture”, but we certainly promise you more. In Naherholung Sternchen (near Alexanderplatz at U-Schillingstr., second building behind Kino International)

KT/Team DL

pictured: 10 Moments by Wenhua Shi (Urban Research)

Sun 12 | 6pm

MY SWEET CANARY – ROY SHER

A journey through the life and music of Roza Eskenazi

She was the most famous singer of the ‘30s in Greece and Turkey, the Diva of Rebetiko. With her posters displayed in every gramophone store, her Bohemian looks would drive even the toughest men crazy. (From the short story Roza, by Dinos Christianopoulos)

Roza Eskenazi sang the way she lived, with passion, fire and love.
This is the story of three young musicians from Greece, Turkey, and Israel,
who embark on an exciting musical journey, to tell the story of Greece’s
best-known and best-loved rebetiko singer for the first time on film.
It’s a journey that will take them from Istanbul to Thessaloniki and to
Athens, following the musical trail she left behind. Most of all, it’s a
journey into a world that has largely vanished, but whose sounds continue
to echo throughout the Mediterranean Basin.

pictured:The three musicians at the sirkeci train station, Istanbul

The ensemble, that is featuring the musicians from the film, will play live in Rudolstadt folk roots Festival on the 7th of July, as well as in Düsseldorf on the 23rd of September 2012.

More information:

www.mysweetcanary.com

Roy Sher IL My Sweet Canary 89 min 2011