Diario del Festival de Berlín: Parte 6

Siempre que vengo a Berlin me voy con la sensación de haber visto muchas películas flojas y suponiendo que se debe a que tengo que ver la competencia y no puedo ni tengo tiempo de ver películas en otras secciones. Hoy vengo pudiendo, hoy tuve tiempo, ya que habìa visto la de Martin Scorsese, lo que me abrió varias horas para ver "otras cosas".

Y ya vengo por la tercera (una de Panorama, dos de Forum) y la verdad es que estoy empezando a extrañar la competencia. De hecho, la película rumana que vi esta mañana en competición es la mejor del día (Scorsese no cuenta...)

Una pésima película israelí en Panorama sobre un tipo que hace cuatro años que no sale de su casa, una comedia japonesa sobre una chica que vuelve a su pueblo con chistes malos ya vistos en cientos de películas japonesas y la decepción de una película latinoamericana que me habían "vendido" como muy buena. De cualquier manera, un aclaración con la peli latina: palmé, mal, en la mitad... tremenda siesta. Por eso ni quiero decir cuál es ni tengo una opinión del todo formada al respecto. La vi con los ojos entreabiertos y el cerebro apagado por completo...

Ahora insisto con la quinta y última del día (renuncié a la sexta de la noche porque estoy harto y quiero cenar como un ser humano normal). Es una peli coreana del Forum. Vamos a ver cómo va. Mañana les cuento...

Diario del Festival de Berlín: Parte 4

Mientras me voy enterando que cierran blogs que linkean a discos por todos lados -yo dejé de hacerlo hace tiempo previendo que la mano podía ponerse pesada-, les dejo un breve repaso de mi primera jornada en Berlin, que tiene más componentes anecdóticos que específicamente cinematográficos.

Demoras de vuelo, una larga revisada a todos los pasajeros por una sospecha de drogas en alguna valija, una llegada corriendo a la sala de prensa, un escribir igualmente veloz para el diario, todo para llegar a las 7pm a ver la nueva película del lituano Sharunas Bartas, EASTERN DRIFT, y para comprobar que era una mierda... Mierda del todo no, en realidad, pero si venís corriendo durante horas más vale que sea una obra maestra, no?

Y no, no lo es. Una película de gangsters y prostitutas en Europa del Este y París, es la película màs comercial y convencional de Bartas, pero eso no la hace mejor que las anteriores ni mucho menos. Lo hace más... convencional. Un traficante de drogas metido en problemas, en lío además con dos mujeres -una de ellas prostituta-, persecuciones de otros mafiosos con acento y caras de "mafiosos rusos", una huída desesperada por parajes inhóspitos, escenas de sexo y violencia. Una película más. Robert Koehler decía que Bartas la hizo para "tener sexo con esas dos chicas" (es que el propio Bartas la protagoniza) y tal vez no esté equivocado. Toda la carrera de Bartas puede ser tomada de esa manera. Pero, de hecho, también la de cientos de cineastas y sus "musas", por más que no tengan sexo... delante de cámaras.

Ya me voy a dormir que mañana arranco con la dupla "Howl" y "The Ghost Writer". Después, Dios proveerá hasta la noche, en la que pienso apostarme bajo el frío a ver la nueva versión "argenta" de METROPOLIS en la puerta de Brandenburgo.

Fuera de lo cinematográfico, no mucho. Fiesta de apertura en Berlin oriental. Muy buena comida, excelente bebida, un lugar del carajo, pero entre el cansancio y la necesidad de madrugar mañana, el team argento (Batlle, Monteagudo, Wolf) y yo nos retiramos a nuestros aposentos. Ellos seguro duermen. Yo, como un boludo, no. Estoy acá, escribiendo esto, y en cinco horas tengo que estar arriba.

Hasta mañana.

Berlinale: "Dialogues with Films" - The Forum turns 40

As the Berlinale celebrates its 60th anniversary, the Forum will also be looking back on four decades of film and festival work. The stories of the two events are inextricably linked, with their shared paths yielding a fascinating piece of (film) history. When the Friends of the German Film Archive organised an event at the Akademie der Künste in the summer of 1969 to “supplement” the Berlin International Film Festival, it was primarily to express criticism at the Berlinale’s perceived conservatism and outdated views. Few expected that, only two years later, the event would develop into the “International Forum of New Cinema”, which has been an integral part of the Berlinale ever since.

How should one do justice to such an anniversary? Given the more than two thousand films shown at the Forum, no one selection of films could ever be truly representative. With this in mind, the Forum decided to take a different approach for its 40th birthday. The “Dialogues with Films” symposium was held at Kino Arsenal from July 1st - 5th 2009 in order to commemorate the original inaugural event. Twelve filmmakers who had already shown their work at the Forum were asked to present their favourite films from four decades of the Forum. Their selection was supposed to be subjective, unexpected, perhaps even random. The only restriction was the decade which each of the “curators” was allocated. Four groups of three directors thus each chose films shown at the Forum in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and, finally, in the 2000s. Each of them was still more than spoilt for choice however, having to make their selection from around 500 films.

This curatorial model also reflects one of the essential features of the Forum. Says section director Christoph Terhechte: “Many of the directors who showed their early works here have retained links to the programme, whether as mentors, frequently returning guests or as members of the audience seeking to gain insights into the films of younger filmmaking colleagues. This trend works in both directions though, with many directors going on to become role models for subsequent generations of filmmakers.”

The “Dialogues with Films” curators were Aditya Assarat, Bradley Rust Gray & So Yong Kim, Jia Zhangke, Ulrich Köhler, Sharon Lockhart, Avi Mograbi, Ulrike Ottinger, Sabu, Anja Salomonowitz, Angela Schanelec, Jean-Marie Téno and Jasmila Žbanić. They chose films by: Chantal Akerman, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Souleymane Cissé, Claire Denis, Bill Douglas, Jean-Luc Godard, David Gordon Green, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Aki Kaurismäki, Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio, Sharon Lockhart, Helke Sander and Michael Snow.

The Forum does not look to represent one particular idea, or strive to be a “best of” list, instead seeking to make connections and set trends, to allow its films to enter into a dialogue or sometimes even contradict one another. That is something which has not changed over the last four decades. “We are still just as excited by every new voice, by every new generation of filmmakers”, says Christoph Terhechte. “We are convinced that we, in this way, provide a Forum in the truest sense of the word for both our audiences and the directors whose works we show.”

The selected films will now be shown again during the Berlinale. Three of the curators are also back at the Forum with their new films: Sharon Lockhart, Sabu und Angela Schanelec.

The Bill Douglas Trilogy, which was selected by Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim, with only the first two parts being shown in the summer, will now be screened in its entirety and opens the 40th Forum at the Delphi Filmpalast on February 11th.

The publication “Dialogues with Films – 4 Decades of the Forum” will also be appearing for the festival. In addition to a foreword by Mark Peranson and texts written by the guest curators about the films they selected, it also includes a DVD with excerpts from the discussions held in the summer as well as from the films themselves. The publication will be sold at the cost price of 5 Euros.

The anniversary programmes and the publication have been made possible thanks to the support of the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.


The “4 Decades of the Forum” Film Programme

Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers (The All-Around Reduced Personality – Outtakes) by Helke Sander , West Germany 1977, selected by Ulrich Köhler

Baara by Souleymane Cissé , Mali 1978, selected by Jean-Marie Téno

Beau travail by Claire Denis, France 1999, selected by Anja Salomonowitz

D’Est by Chantal Akerman , France / Belgium 1993, selected by Avi Mograbi

Dust in the Wind (Lien lien fung chen) by Hou Hsiao Hsien, Taiwan 1986, selected by Sabu

George Washington by David Gordon Green, USA 2000, selected by Aditya Assarat

Kasaba by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey 1998, selected by Jia Zhangke

The Match Factory Girl (Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö) by Aki Kaurismäki , Finland 1989, selected by Jasmila Žbanić

My Childhood/My Ain Folk/My Way Home by Bill Douglas, UK 1972/73/78, selected by So Yong Kim und Bradley Rust Gray

Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Slow Motion) by Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland/France 1980, selected by Angela Schanelec

So Is This by Michael Snow, Canada 1982, selected by Sharon Lockhart, and Nō by Sharon Lockhart, USA 2003, selected by Anja Salomonowitz

Seven Songs from the Tundra (Seitsemän laulua tundralta) by Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland 2000, selected by Ulrike Ottinger

The Films of the 40th Berlinale Forum

A world in pieces: the films of the 40th Berlinale Forum

In its 40th year, the Berlinale Forum features a selection of films that capture the mood of the times in a sensitive way. Rarely have there been, in feature films and documentaries alike, as many people caught in insolvable conflicts, faced with essential decisions or staring into the abyss as in this year’s selection of films.

Domestic filmmaking makes its presence felt in the programme in a manner exciting, varied and surprising in its strength. In Orly , Angela Schanelec succeeds in staging an intimate chamber piece in a setting known for its hectic pace. The hall of departures at Orly airport in Paris serves as the backdrop for a mosaic of personal stories, small dramas and existential conflicts. Tatjana Turanskyj’s feature debut The Drifter has a feel for subtle comedy, creating a portrait of a woman in her early forties who, despite losing her job as an architect, is not willing to bow to the pressures of the workfare society.

Dominik Graf’s Im Angesicht des Verbrechens deals with the Russian underworld, albeit right in the middle of the former West Berlin . Conceived as a television series, this eight-hour mammoth work is above all a bold epic about obligation, guilt and the difficulty of holding one’s own in a world where everyone’s place is determined by their origin. The protagonist of Thomas Arslan’s new feature In the Shadows is just as incapable of changing his spots; the film tells the story of a robber released from prison who is preparing one last job whilst trying to evade a police officer who is corrupt through and through.

By appropriating classic elements of the gangster drama, Arslan and Graf represent the trend for using the rules of genre cinema in an unconventional way. In a similar manner, the French feature Native of Eurasia by Lithuanian director Sharunas Bartas tells the story of a gangster who sets off on an odyssey across Europe in an attempt to save his skin. The chase across a continent full of contrasts turns into a dark vision of the future. In Haze, Turkish director Tayfun Pirselimoğlu alludes to a criminal plot surrounding a contract killing, in whose shadow he situates a laconic drama about life and death on the periphery of Istanbul .

The documentary works in this year’s Forum cover a broad spectrum of filmic forms and subjects. The Swiss contribution Aisheen [Still Alive in Gaza ] by Nicolas Wadimoff paints an unadorned picture of life in a place sealed off from the outside. In The Oath, American director Laura Poitras gains an extraordinary inside view of militant Islamism. And in La belle visite, Canadian Jean-François Caissy observes life in a former motel converted into an old people’s home.

In the essayistic Head Cold, Berlin director Gamma Bak shows great courage in making herself and her psychosis the subject of her film. Philip Scheffner’s The Day of the Sparrow deals with the deceptive peace in a country that is conducting a war elsewhere. In Sunny Land , Aljoscha Weskott and Marietta Kesting are also concerned with looking beyond a deceptive surface. Their documentary film essay travels back in time to South Africa under Apartheid, to the “ Sun City ” entertainment complex, which emerges as a global metaphor.

A total of four directorial debuts from Korea and Taiwan offers enjoyable takes on a generation about to take over the reins for the future, for better or worse. In Au revoir Taipei, director Arvin Chen focuses on a young man who is eagerly yet unsuccessfully swotting up on French in order to follow his beloved to Paris , embroiling him in a gangster story full of absurd situation comedy. In I’m in Trouble!, So Sang-min is equally interested in the peculiarities of men in love, pushing an unsuccessful poet from one faux pas to the next.

The 40th Berlinale Forum will be showing a total of 34 films in the main programme, 19 of which are world premieres and 12 of which are international premieres. As part of its special screenings, the section will be showing a three film homage to director Shimazu Yasujiro, a director who is still largely unknown in this part of the world and who is seen as one of the modernisers of Japanese pre-war cinema.

A separate press release will be made for the “Four Decades of the Forum” anniversary programme.

The films to be shown in the 40th Forum as part of the official programme of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival:

A Crowd of Three (Kenta to Jun to Kayo chan no kuni) by Omori Tatsushi , Japan (IP)

Aisheen [Still Alive in Gaza ] by Nicolas Wadimoff, Switzerland/Qatar/France (WP)

Au revoir Taipei (Yī yè Tái běi) by Arvin Chen, Taiwan/USA/Germany (WP)

La belle visite by Jean-François Caissy, Canada (IP)

Bibliothèque Pascal by Szabolcs Hajdu , Hungary / Germany (IP)

Black Bus (Soreret) by Anat Yuta Zuria , Israel (IP)

La bocca del lupo by Pietro Marcello , Italy (IP)

Congo in Four Acts by Dieudo Hamadi, Divita Wa Lusala, Patrick Ken Kalala, Kiripi Katembo Siku, Democratic Republic of Congo/South Africa (WP)

Crossing the Mountain (Fān shān) by Yang Rui, People’s Republic of China (WP)

Double Tide by Sharon Lockhart, USA/Austria (IP)

Eine flexible Frau (The Drifter) by Tatjana Turanskyj , Germany (WP)

El recuento de los daños (The Counting of the Damages) by Inés de Oliveira Cézar, Argentina (WP)

El vuelco del cangrejo (Crab Trap) by Oscar Ruíz Navia , Colombia /France (EP)

Fin (End) by Luis Sampieri, Spain (WP)

Im Schatten (In the Shadows) by Thomas Arslan, Germany (WP)

I’m in Trouble! (Na-neun gon-kyeong-e cheo-haet-da!) by So Sang-min, Republic of Korea (IP)

Imani by Caroline Kamya, Uganda/Sweden/Canada (WP)

Indigène d’Eurasie (Native of Eurasia) by Sharunas Bartas, France/Lithuania/Russian Federation (WP)

Kanikōsen by Sabu , Japan (EP)

The Man Beyond the Bridge (Paltadacho Munis) by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar , India (EP)

The Oath by Laura Poitras, USA (IP)

One Day (Yǒu yī tiān) by Hou Chi-Jan , Taiwan (WP)

Orly by Angela Schanelec, Germany/France (WP)

Our Fantastic 21st Century (Neo-wa na-eui i-shib-il-seki) by Ryu Hyung-ki, Republic of Korea (IP)

Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man (Portretul luptătorului la tinereţe) by Constantin Popescu , Romania (WP)

Pus (Haze) by Tayfun Pirselimoğlu , Turkey / Greece (IP)

Putty Hill by Matthew Porterfield, USA (WP)

Sawako Decides (Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa) by Ishii Yuya, Japan (IP)

Schnupfen im Kopf (Head Cold) by Gamma Bak , Germany /Hungary (WP)

Sona, the Other Myself (Sona, mō hitori no watashi) by Yang Yonghi , Japan / Republic of Korea (WP)

Sunny Land by Aljoscha Weskott, Marietta Kesting , Germany / South Africa (WP)

Der Tag des Spatzen (The Day of the Sparrow) by Philip Scheffner, Germany (WP)

Winter’s Bone by Debra Granik, USA (IP)

Ya (I am) by Igor Voloshin, Russian Federation (IP)

Special Screenings

Antonio das Mortes (O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro) by Glauber Rocha, Brasil

Boris Lehman et ses amis – Three short films by Boris Lehman

Retouches et réparations by Boris Lehman, Belgium (WP)

Choses qui me rattachent aux êtres by Boris Lehman, Belgium (WP)

Un peintre sous surveillance by Boris Lehman, Belgium

Im Angesicht des Verbrechens by Dominik Graf, Germany (WP)

Kyoto Story (Kyōto Uzumasa monogatari) by Yoji Yamada, Tsutomu Abe, Japan (WP)

Nénette by Nicolas Philibert, France (WP)

Word is Out – Stories of Some of Our Lives by Rob Epstein, USA

The Lights of Asakusa (Asakusa no tomoshibi) by Shimazu Yasujiro , Japan

So Goes My Love (Ai yori ai e) by Shimazu Yasujiro , Japan

The Trio’s Engagement (Konyaku sanbagarasu) by Shimazu Yasujiro , Japan

Berlinale 2010: Forum Expanded

Forum Expanded, which explores the intersections between film and other arts, remains a programme on the move. Looking at the selection of more than 40 films, installations and performances from 20 countries reveals that this year’s Forum Expanded will be making room for new perspectives, both artistically and geopolitically.

"Cinema City", for example, an installation project initiated by Indian filmmaker, curator and activist Madhusree Dutta will be on display in several cinema foyers, exploring questions about the relationship between urban space and cinema. The omnibus film Embargo Project by young filmmakers from North America, New Zealand and Australia addresses the marginalization of indigenous artists; there will also be a panel discussion devoted to the conditions of artistic practice in today’s Iran.

With a thematic emphasis on the return of “structural cinema” in contemporary artistic and curatorial practice, Forum Expanded gives the moving image back its temporality. An exhibition of the early films of Heinz Emigholz, as well as a number of works in the cinema and in exhibition spaces employ contemplation as a means of countering the popular assumption that audiences have a limited attention span.

Concentrating on the relationship between time and space can turn the cinema into a stage. This is not only reflected in the practice of a luminary of structural film such as James Benning, who will be presenting a new work as a performance, but also in the engagement of performance artists with the medium of film. Consequently Forum Expanded will, for the first time this year, also be taking place in the theatre. We are particularly looking forward to Christoph Schlingensief presenting and providing a commentary for the silent film L’Inferno (Italy, 1911) at HAU – Hebbel Theater am Ufer.

A historical discovery in the programme is Flug durch die Nacht (Flight Through the Night, Federal Republic of Germany, 1980), a film by Ilona Baltrusch, then a German Film and Television Academy (DFFB) student. Two people wander through a highly staged West Berlin, their philosophical conversation looping endlessly and capturing the apocalyptic atmosphere typical of the 80s. At the same time, the film’s playful defiance of film and theatre conventions gives it a very contemporary feel.

The 2010 Forum Expanded programme will be presented at the Arsenal cinema in the Filmhaus, the Akademie der Künste on Hanseatenweg, the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, the House of World Cultures (in cooperation with the transmediale), the Temporäre Kunsthalle (in cooperation with the artist Phil Collins), the HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, the DAAD Gallery, the Barbara Weiss and Tanya Leighton galleries, as well as the foyers of the Berlinale cinemas Delphi and CineStar Cubix at Alexanderplatz.

Forum Expanded was curated this year by Stefanie Schulte Strathaus together with Anselm Franke, Nanna Heidenreich and Bettina Steinbrügge. Further information on the programme as well as a list of all the participating artists will be announced in a second press release.

Playing with Fire, Gaps in Memory: The 39th Forum Presents a Programme Full of Connections, Contradictions, and Mirror Images (Berlinale)

Harun Farocki

The 39^th Forum of the Berlinale will be showing a total of 48 films from 31 countries.

The selection will take festival-goers around the world - not so much in terms of the number of countries represented, but rather in the abundant connections to be discovered between the films, their often shared concerns and kindred worldviews, as well as their contradictions and mirror images. Eleven films are debuts, 25 world premieres, and twelve international premieres.

This lineup includes a diverse sample of current German filmmaking, with documentaries by Hans-Christian Schmid, Ulrike Ottinger, Harun Farocki, and Thomas Heise, as well as Sebastian Schipper’s new feature.

Goethe’s Elective Affinities has inspired numerous films, but never has it appeared as it does in Schipper’s Sometime in August: a playful and sun-drenched experiment in storytelling. Marie Bäumer, Milan Peschel, Anna Brüggemann, André Hennicke, and a lonely house in the country play the leads in this contemporary adaptation refreshingly unencumbered by historicism. The soundtrack was composed by rock poet Vic Chesnutt.

Hans-Christian Schmid in The Wondrous World of Laundry turns his attention once again to the changed conditions on both sides of the German-Polish border. His film follows dirty washing from Berlin hotel rooms to an industrial laundry in Poland , listening in on what the people whose hands it passes through en route have to say about their lives. Harun Farocki’s latest film, By Comparison, takes a look at different brick-making techniques, from handmade clay bricks to high-tech precision building components. While Farocki seeks out his subjects in Burkina Faso, India, and France, Thomas Heise turns to his own archives, and thus to the past: in Material he brings together previously unreleased footage he shot during the period surrounding the fall of the Wall in 1989. The result is a panorama that challenges us to recollect, but that is above all concerned with the gaps the progress of history leaves in memory. Ulrike Ottinger also sets out on a journey in her latest film The Korean Wedding Chest, which explores the relationship between tradition and modernity in the megacity of Seoul .

Documentaries, particularly when they venture into the domain of narrative cinema, play an important role in the Forum. It is striking how many of the documentaries in this year’s programme investigate the ways in which public opinion is formed. Together these films make up a portrait of a world in which knowledge has been commodified and shaping public opinion means playing with fire.

The ignominious role of the state as aggravator of conflicts forms the backdrop of the Thai documentary Citizen Juling, for instance. After a fanatical mob brutally attacked two school teachers in the spring of 2006, filmmaker Ing K and politician and human rights activist Kraisak Choonhavan set out on a journey across Thailand , a country divided by violence and prejudice. Citizen Juling is the attempt to use film as a tool of reconciliation, and the same is true for two films addressing violent conflicts on the African continent. A selection of four short documentaries by the South African collective “Filmmakers Against Racism” grapples with the xenophobic violence that shocked the country in May 2008, while Christophe Gagnot’s documentary From Arusha to Arusha is concerned with the longterm effects of the 1994 genocide in Ruanda, in which close to a million people were killed. His fascinating and illuminating film contrasts the prosecution of the crimes by the international tribunal in Arusha with the struggle to cope with the trauma on an individual and interpersonal level.

Defamation by Yoav Shamir (whose Flipping Out showed in the Forum in 2008) was originally intended to be a film about contemporary, often highly subtle varieties of anti-semitism. But Shamir’s research surrounding the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) put him on the trail of quite a different phenomenon—the delicate matter of confronting the aura of the perpetual victim. The documentary Letters to the President by Czech filmmaker Petr Lom appears as the mirror image of the Israeli film: here the subject is the letters that millions of Iranians, encouraged by state propaganda, write to their president. All too often these letters are indicators of the successful manipulation of public opinion by the state, which reinforces religious Muslims in their belief that they are the victims of world-wide persecution.

Two other films in the programme also focus on the turmoil caused by the politics of hate and its longterm effects. Simone Bitton’s investigative documentary Rachel takes up the case of American peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip. In The One Man Village, Simon El-Habre from Lebanon paints a portrait of his uncle Semaan, the sole inhabitant of a mountain village turned into a ghost town by the Lebanese civil war. Despite its sadness, this wonderfully photographed film is also a story about the joy of a life lived in peace.

Filmlist

The Films of the 39^th Forum of the Berlinale

Aguas Verdes (Green Waters) by Mariano De Rosa , Argentina (WP)

D'Arusha à Arusha (From Arusha to Arusha) by Christophe Gargot, France/Canada/Ruanda (IP)

Beeswax by Andrew Bujalski, USA (WP)

Calimucho by Eugenie Jansen, The Netherlands (IP)

Cea mai fericită fată din lume (The Happiest Girl in the World) by Radu Jude , Romania /The Netherlands (WP)

Citizen Juling (Polamuang Juling) by Kraisak Choonhavan, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Ing K, Thailand (EP)

The Day After (Eoddeon gaien nal) by Lee Suk-Gyung, Republic of Korea (WP)

Deep in the Valley (Yanaka boshoku) by Funahashi Atsushi , Japan (WP)

Defamation (Hashmatsa) by Yoav Shamir , Israel / Austria (WP)

Doctor Ma's Country Clinic (Ma dai fu de zhen suo) by Cong Feng, People’s Republic of China (EP)

L'encerclement (Encirclement) by Richard Brouillette, Canada (IP)

The Exploding Girl by Bradley Rust Gray , USA (WP)

H:r Landshövding (Mr Governor) by Måns Månsson , Sweden (IP)

Hayat var (My Only Sunshine) by Reha Erdem, Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria (IP)

Help Gone Mad (Sumashedshaya pomosh) by Boris Khlebnikov, Russia (WP)

Kan door huid heen (Can Go Through Skin) by Esther Rots, The Netherlands (IP)

Die koreanische Hochzeitstruhe (The Korean Wedding Chest) by Ulrike Ottinger , Germany (WP)

Land of Scarecrows (Heosuabideuleui ddang) by Roh Gyeong-Tae, Republic of Korea/France (IP)

Letters to the President by Petr Lom , Canada / Iran (WP)

Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi) by Sono Sion , Japan (IP)

Man tänker sitt (Burrowing) by Fredrik Wenzel, Henrik Hellström , Sweden (WP)

Marin Blue by Matthew Hysell, USA (WP)

Members of the Funeral (Jangryesigeui member) by Baek Seung-Bin, Republic of Korea (IP)

Mental (Seishin) by Soda Kazuhiro , Japan (EP)

Mitte Ende August (Sometime in August) by Sebastian Schipper, Germany (WP)

My Dear Enemy (Meotjin haru) by Lee Yoon-Ki, Republic of Korea (IP)

Naked of Defenses (Mubōbi) by Ichii Masahide , Japan (EP)

Ne me libérez pas, je m'en charge (My Greatest Escape) by Fabienne Godet, France (WP)

The One Man Village (Semaan Bilda'ia) by Simon El Habre , Lebanon (EP)

Rachel by Simone Bitton, France/Belgium (WP)

La sirena y el buzo (The Mermaid and the Diver) by Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez, Mexico/Nicaragua/Spain (WP)

Soundless Wind Chime (Wu Sheng Feng Ling) by Kit Hung, Hong Kong/Switzerland (WP)

Sweetgrass by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA (WP)

Treeless Mountain by So-Yong Kim, USA / Republic of Korea (EP)

Un chat un chat (Pardon my French) by Sophie Fillières, France (WP)

Winterstilte (Winter Silence) by Sonja Wyss, The Netherlands/Switzerland (IP)

Zum Vergleich (By Comparison) by Harun Farocki , Germany / Austria (WP)

Special Screenings

A History of Israeli Cinema by Raphaël Nadjari , France / Israel (WP)

Araya by Margot Benacerraf , Venezuela /France (WP of the restored print)

The Beast Stalker (Ching yan) by Dante Lam, Hong Kong (IP)

Filmmakers Against Racism:

Affectionately Known as Alex by Danny Turken, South Africa (EP)

Angels on our Shoulders by Andy Spitz, South Africa (EP)

Baraka (The Blessing) by Omelga Mthiyane, Riaan Hendriks, Marianne Gysae, South Africa (EP)

The Burning Man by Adze Ugah , South Africa (EP)

Generasi biru (The Blue Generation) by Garin Nugroho, John De Rantau, Dosy Omar, Indonesia (WP)

Langsamer Sommer (Slow Summer) by John Cook, Austria

Material by Thomas Heise, Germany (WP)

Schwitzkasten (Clinch) by John Cook, Austria

Soul Power by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, USA (EP)

When it was Blue by Jennifer Reeves, USA/Iceland (EP)

Burrowing into Familiar Terrain: Young Independent Filmmakers in Confident Form at This Year’s Forum (Berlinale)

Among the many delights to be found in this year’s Forum programme are the eclecticism and confidence of the next generation of independent filmmakers. After a year of global crises, economic instability, and military conflicts, this year’s films surprise with their attention to detail, their willingness to draw from personal experiences, and their astonishing faith in their own filmic language. Despite their broad range of concerns, these young filmmakers share a readiness to see their medium as a challenge, instead of relying all too quickly on its universality: independent cinema at its best.

Within this year’s globe-spanning Forum , Korea , the US , Romania , and the Netherlands all contribute films that delight in telling stories from close to home in emotional and social terms. The films burrow into familiar terrain, discovering fine fissures and ruptures that give these “little stories” an existential urgency. Many of these films are debuts, with most of them being shown as world premieres, thus further underscoring their topicality.

Three US independent productions will receive their world premieres at the Forum 2009. Andrew Bujalski’s Beeswax is in many ways symptomatic of the search for a new autonomy of narrative. Using the gestures, manner of speaking, and props of everyday life, Bujalski discovers small dramatic episodes of an astonishing cinematographic quality. His laconicism and intimacy can be considered the marks of a trend; a special genre term has, in fact, already been coined to reflect the way the actors, mostly non-professionals, speak in his films: “mumblecore”. This term can also be seen as an indication that the mumbling of everyday life all too often transmits the clearest signs of life.

While Bujalski is interested in the vagaries of oral communication, in Marin Blue, Matthew Hysell surrounds his characters with a puzzling silence that alludes to a traumatic past. In the perplexing void of Los Angeles ’s suburban architecture, the ruins of real estate speculation, they seek out temporary housing, and wait for their memories to return. The Exploding Girl by Bradley Rust Gray is another quietly staged emotional drama. During their summer vacation, Ivy and Al discover that a shift from “best friends” to lovers may be on the cards. It is, however, precisely their familiarity that now represents a barrier between them. One of the film´s co-producers is So Yong Kim, whose own directorial work Treeless Mountain was, in turn, co-produced by Bradley Rust Gray. Kim’s film tells the story of two sisters who, at a very early age, are confronted with a world that they do not understand and in which they are not welcome.

Unlike Kim’s directing debut In Between Days, which was shown at the Forum three years ago, Treeless Mountain was made in South Korea, and thus forms one of a whole series of films in this year’s program from a country that, following a period of prosperity, is now facing harder times. Whether elegant, like My Dear Enemy by Lee Yoon-Ki with the excellent lead actress Jeon Do-Yeon, subtle and existential, such as the debuts Members of the Funeral by Baek Seung-bin, and The Day After by Lee Suk-Gyung, a world premiere, or sparse and silent like Land of Scarecrows by Roh Gyeong-Tae: Korean cinema, which many sceptics have already seen as entering a crisis, pulls out all the stops in these films, emerging as a highly sensitive barometer for the longings that continue to lurk in the shadows, even when everything seems to be doing fine.

Among this year’s narratively urgent and stylistically mature debut films is Kan door huid heen (Can Go Through Skin), a psychological portrait of a young woman who, following two personal catastrophes, stubbornly attempts to deal with them on her own. Equally remarkable yet entirely different is Eugenie Jansen’s Calimucho. For an entire season the director travelled with a circus through the small towns of the Dutch countryside, going on to stage a fictional story in which all the characters more or less play themselves in an atmosphere reminiscent of a fairy tale. The Dutch trio is completed by Sonja Wyss’ directorial debut Winterstilte (Winter Silence), which tells an archaic story of sexual awakening and religious mysticism in the director’s Swiss homeland.

Radu Jude’s feature film debut The Happiest Girl in the World, a Romanian-Dutch co-production, tells the story of Delia, a teenager who feels like she’s entered another world after winning a car. When she is expected to play the “happiest girl in the world” in a TV advertisement in return, the shoot quickly becomes a crash course on growing up in this painfully telling film, a comment as relentless as it is comic on the situation in post-Communist Romania .

The complete programme of the 39^th Forum is soon to be announced.