Category: Film

As the IDFA festival unfolded during its 30th edition, I got a chance to speak to Augustina Comedi, director of the feature length film: Silence is a falling body. I was introduced by a friend interested in gender issue related films and I had no expectations whatsoever before entering the screening. The film is mainly… Continue reading Silence is a Falling Body

Kari Ann Moe’s new internationally released documentary film ‘Rebels’ deals with young people in their late teens or early twenties in the city of Oslo. Most of them dropped out of society at an early stage in life. Many of them have a very low self-esteem, have a small or larger criminal past, are simply… Continue reading Kari Anne Moe interview in 2016

When shown first to an international audience at IDFA festival in Amsterdam last November in 2014, the documentary ‘OUR CITY’, made around the city of Brussels and its inhabitants was likely to be focusing on the many different kinds of people who have come there in the past and present to build themselves a new… Continue reading Our City by Maria Tarantino

As the 27th IDFA festival is coming to an end it is time to analyze the successes of this event. Noteworthy is the fact that the amounts of people attending the screenings and also the professionals engaged in and present at the festival have once again risen, compared to previous editions of IDFA.

If a road movie is supposed to be on wheels, this doc on an exceptional trainride over 2000 miles with 3 folk bands in it, is a memorably new way of looking at what a road movie really is.

Bertolucci did it again.

After years of virtual silence Bernardo Bertollucci, one of the masters of Italian cinema has come up with a new masterpiece.

Set in contemporary Italy it zooms in on the relationship of a young teenager, his mother and his few years older half sister.

A Story of Love and Revolution When East Timor became independent from its occupier, Indonesia, the youngest democracy of the 21st century was born. At the core of that event possibly taking place a large number of political actions had to be made before this independence came into being. Told from the perspective of human… Continue reading Alias Ruby Blade

When Daniel Abma was still a young guy he always felt afraid to get close to criminals like the three guys who are the leading characters in Abma’s three-year long filmic study with a video camera. Before that time he had already been able to come up close to them in prison where he was… Continue reading Beyond Wriezen

When director Kari-Anne Moe and cameraman Havard Fossum were doing their shooting of a documentary on 4 young political activists in Norway, a terrible event shocked the Norwegian nation of the assault and murders on the 22nd of July 2011. This day is enshrined in the conscience of all Norwegians and bringing the mad assassin… Continue reading Bravehearts

The world largest Documentary Film Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in Amsterdam.

In development for decades by Francis Ford Coppola, who remains a key producer on the film, the eagerly anticipated big screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” has been a long time coming. But the project’s lengthy journey has finally seen the light of day, as the post-production was finished recently and the European… Continue reading On the Road again?

is a 2011 French romantic drama film directed by Michel Hazanavicius and was shot entirely in black and white.The story takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932 and focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star and a rising young actress. Making a silent movie feature film close to a 100 years… Continue reading The Artist

This year already highly debated and to some critics overrated new feature ‘Shame’ directed by Steve Mc Queen does in several ways stand out as a cinematographic exercise but honestly also disappoints in other ways. This can easily explain the controversy around a film in which the protagonists who are mentally and physically suffering while… Continue reading Shame through the eyes of Mc Queen

If you have never seen a film by Aki Kaurismäki , the current Finish master of cinema, you should not stagger to go see this one. ”Le Havre” blends in so many facets of true cinema and storytelling that it should be considered already a classic shortly after its release in late 2011. In a… Continue reading Le Havre by Aki Kaurismäki

ON THE SLY: 1. Clever or cunning, especially in the practice of deceit. 2. Stealthy or surreptitious: took a sly look at the letter on the table. 3. Playfully mischievous: a sly laugh. Idiom:   In a way intended to escape notice: took extra payments on the sly. In 2011 ECFA (European Children’s Film Association)… Continue reading ECFA AWARD 2012

”Last Train Home ” is an award winning documentary of a massive migration of 130 million people across China every year around this day, the Chinese New Year: Handpicked from various media sources: BE THANKFUL that you don’t already have everything you desire. If you did, what would there be to look forward to? Be thankful… Continue reading What 2 do if 2012 is tough on u?

Director: Lise Birk Pedersen, Denmark Synopsis Westerners may view Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as an undemocratic tyrant, but to many Russians he embodies all the qualities of a strong and charismatic father figure. An entire new generation has been united in the patriotic youth movement Nashi, which seeks to rid Russia of its “enemies.”… Continue reading Putin’s Kiss

PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as the main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time… Continue reading Inside the New York Times

A great documentary  film on a fake Guru. These are  in short the terms that we could use to describe this wonderfully edited documentary. In short we follow the life of a self made Guru, who in fact does not want to be one at all and also does not believe in them. But as… Continue reading Kumaré

In a packed Tuschinski filmtheatre musician and teacher Daniel Vedia and Fabrizio Aramayio, one of his talented pupils, gave a little live concert after their filmscreening at IDFA festival 2011. Present at this screening were also princess Maxima and crown prince Willem-Alexander of Orange. Both Argentinians were a major part of the documentary film :… Continue reading El Sonido Del Bandonéon

LOS ANGELES — Alfred Hitchcock (Born 13 of August 1894, died in 1980) is still surprising his fans. Film preservationists said they’ve found the first half of the earliest known surviving feature film on which Hitchcock has a credit: a silent melodrama called “The White Shadow.” The first three reels of the six-reel film, made… Continue reading First film Hitchcock recovered

Stanley Kubrick Born July 26 (The Day of the Symbolic Herald) The film director Stanley Kubrick had a long list of impressive films to his credit, probably of higher quality than any other American filmmaker. Just scanning the list of his works makes one aware of how magnificent his film achievement really was: – The… Continue reading Stanley Kubrick

Etienne Decroux Born July 19 (The Day of Controlled Movement) The master of mime, Etienne Decroux, was the teacher of all the major mimetic artists of the 20th century, including Marcel Marceau and the actor Jean-Louis Barrault whom he coached to play the role of the mime Baptiste in the film Les Enfants du Paradis… Continue reading Etienne Decroux

Born July 17 (The Day of Career Concerns) Often playing tough guys, hard as nails, both of these dedicated  Hollywood actors were prominent male leads whose careers each spanned over 50 years, with Sutherland still active today. Interestingly, Cagney’s career came to an end in 1961 (he returned  only briefly in 1981 to do the film… Continue reading J. Cagney & D. Sutherland

  Ingmar Bergman Born July 14 (The Day of the Convincing Storyteller) If Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman are to be regarded as the holy trinity of 20th century filmmakers, then it is suggestive to call the venerable Kurosawa the father, the youthful Fellini the son, and the mysterious Bergman the holy ghost.… Continue reading Ingmar Bergman

Born June 27 (The Day of the Defensive Developer) The Polish filmmaking giant Krzysztof Kieslowski was prolific in his short life as both a maker of feature and documentary films. Kieslowski’s filmography shows him beginning with documentaries and short films in 1966 and then in 1975 turning to directing features until 1994 when he retired… Continue reading Krzysztof Kieslowski

Founder and director of IDFA Ally Derks is the recipient of this year’s Doc Mogul Award at the Hot Docs documentary festival in Toronto.  The prize was presented on Tuesday 3 May at a lunch in Derks’ honor in recognition of her important contribution to the documentary industry, both nationally and internationally. Hot Docs, which… Continue reading Doc Diva receives award