ARTICLES FROM THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 1

Coming soon to a computer near you

3 February 2004

BERLIN - One day soon film buffs will not have to travel to Sundance or Berlin or Cannes to attend a film festival - because the fest showings will be available to them at home via cyber-space link- ups.

Taking a bold step in that direction, the 54th Berlin Film Festival opens Thursday in the German capital - and simultaneously in five other cities across Germany and globally via the internet.

When Jude Law, director Anthony Minghella, Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and other dignitaries stride up the red carpet at Marlene Dietrich Platz in Berlin for the festival's opening film, Minghella's "Cold Mountain", the gala opening ceremony will be broadcast live in selected cinemas in Munich, Nuremberg, Cologne, Dettelbach and Hamburg.

Then, as the Berlin audience settles back to watch "Cold Mountain" in Berlin, audiences in the other five cities will view 35 mm prints of the film made exclusively available for the occasion by Buena Vista.

In addition, the red-carpet ceremonies will be accessible on the internet via video streaming at www.berlinale.de.

And in another cyber-first, all the major news conferences during the festival, where directors and actors discuss their films, will also be accessible on the internet - in either German or English.

To do so users need Windows Media Player (56 and 300 KB). The news conferences will also be available after the festival ends 15 February in an online archive.

"I think it is fantastic that thanks to broadcaster support and our web streams, we will be able to make the festival even more accessible to the general public and to film industries around the globe," festival director Dieter Kosslick remarked.

The first news conference to be streamed on the internet will be for the opening night film "Cold Mountain" with Minghella and Jude Law on hand live 5 February at 3:20 p.m. (1320 GMT) at <http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/videostreaming/videostreaming/f_mai n.html>.

Long thought lost, Cassavetes's early version sees the light
The Return of Shadows
by J. Hoberman
February 4 - 10, 2004

Rotterdam, The Netherlands—John Cassavetes's Shadows, the founding work of the American independent cinema, has always had its own shadow—an ur-version championed in these pages in 1959 by Voice critic Jonas Mekas, who subsequently disowned the filmmaker's longer, revised cut. Unseen, supposedly dismantled, and thought lost for over four decades, an ur-Shadows has unexpectedly surfaced.

Turned down by Sundance, where it might logically have been shown, this ur-Shadows premiered at the ultra-cinephilic Rotterdam Film Festival. To anyone familiar with the controversy around Shadows and its shadow, the 78-minute ur-film is full of surprises. The known version is not, as Mekas suggested, a virtual remake. Most of Shadows is already ur. Nor is the ur-version less narrative. On the contrary: There is radical concentration of activity. The frantic round of parties, performances, and pickups on Manhattan's main stem begs to be diluted. Does the action span 24, 36, 48 hours? Where's the downtime? Other differences: Ur-Shadows lacks a bedroom scene but boasts a more experimental Mingus score, as well as a few songs whose rights would not have come cheaply.

The reappearance of this extinct creature is due to Ray Carney, a Boston University film scholar who spent years in search of this particular grail. The provenance is still mysterious. Carney, who must utter the word "Cassavetes" more times in a day than most people take a breath, credits the New York City Transit Authority. The movie was apparently left on the subway sometime after its screenings at the 92nd Street Y. Who lost it and how exactly the professor found it remain to be explained.

German film industry revitalised by new-look Berlinale
BERLIN Feb 4 - Revitalised by an Oscar and a string of domestic box office hits, Germany's film industry is basking in the glow of international recognition ahead of this year's Berlin Film Festival.

``Nowhere in Africa'', a film about the challenges facing a Jewish family who flee to Kenya after the Nazis take power, won the Academy Award for best foreign language movie last March and ``Good Bye, Lenin'' won six European Film Awards in December.

The comedy about a son who conceals the fall of the Berlin Wall from his ailing mother, ``Good Bye, Lenin'' topped Germany's box office last year with nearly $40 million and rights have been sold to 68 foreign markets.

``It's obviously been a great year for German film,'' said Rolf Baehr, chairman of the German film board, told Reuters in the run-up to the 54th Berlin festival, which begins on Thursday and runs to February 15.

``German films are now reaching audiences with good stories,'' he added. ``Film makers are concentrating on viewers more and not focused on their own self-realisation. The experience and training are also greatly improved. It's all coming together.''

Although the domestic market share climbed to about 15 percent in 2003 from around 11 percent the year before, Hollywood films still dominate Europe's biggest market as they do around the world. The fight for a share of the market in key countries like Germany is becoming tougher every year.

The signs of a renaissance are everywhere.

Apart from the Oscar for director Caroline Link and the success of ``Good Bye, Lenin'', Katja Riemann won a best actress award at the Venice film festival in September for her performance in ``Rosenstrasse'', as the Aryan wife of a Jew in Nazi Germany.

``The Miracle of Berne'', a film about West Germany's soccer team winning the 1954 World Cup, and ``Luther'' also scored with audiences inside and outside Germany, and film makers are hopeful the festival will herald another big year.

Ranked just behind Cannes and alongside Venice as one of the world's three most important film festivals, the Berlinale has been turned into a showcase for German productions by its director Dieter Kosslick.

``Thanks to Caroline Link's Oscar, there's now a lot more interest in German films from abroad,'' said Romuald Karmaker, a German director whose film ``Nightsongs'' is one of 23 competing for the top Golden Bear awards.

``The entire atmosphere is completely different now,'' he added, referring to the past when the Berlinale only grudgingly and rarely included German films in its programme. ``The attention we're getting now is absolutely essential.''

Kosslick, previously head of Germany's biggest film subsidy board, said he wanted to make the festival a showcase for German film.

``As long as I'm the head of this festival, its backing for German films will remain high,'' Kosslick said in an interview.

``I've never had to push for German films because I've always found them to be very good. It was always other people who had problems with them.''

Germany used to have a reputation for producing an inordinate number of dark and depressing ``auteur'' genre films - in which the director is seen as the key creative force. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was the epitome of that era.

That's all changing now.

Even foreign film makers are turning to Germany to shoot their films.

``Enemy at the Gates'' was filmed at the refurbished Babelsberg Studios south of Berlin and Hollywood heartthrob Matt Damon is filming ``The Bourne Supremacy'' in Berlin. Kevin Spacey is directing his film ``Beyond the Sea'' here.

``It's been one of the best years ever for cinema in Germany,'' said Kosslick. - Reuters

Hello to Berlin

Organisers hope the German capital's film festival will help boost its status as a place in which to make movies. Luke Harding reports

Wednesday February 4, 2004

The Berlin film festival has not yet started, but the buzz has already begun.
Yesterday, Tony Curtis became the first Hollywood star to arrive for this year's event. He was wearing a pair of white shorts and open-toed sandals, even though the snow has only just melted in the German capital.

Admittedly, the weather has recently become a bit warmer, but the German tabloid Bild was surely right to ask: "Doesn't Tony know it's winter?"

Other Hollywood celebrities on their way to the 54th Berlinale festival, which opens tomorrow, include Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Sylvester Stallone.

Last year, the festival found itself overshadowed by the impending war in Iraq. This year, however, organisers are hopeful that it will regain its status as one of the world's premiere film festivals, and showcase Berlin as a place in which Hollywood directors can make films cheaply.

The festival features films from around 44 countries, but appears to be strongly dominated by Hollywood. Its official programme begins on Thursday night with Cold Mountain, Anthony Minghella's Oscar-nominated American civil war saga starring Kidman and Jude Law.

The film is not in competition, but several other US movies are, including Richard Linklater's Before Sunset, Patty Jenkins's Monster, and The Missing, a western starring Tommy Lee Jones as a man who abandons his family to live with the Apaches.

Earlier this week, the festival's director, Dieter Kosslick, said that he has tried to bring world cinema to the Berlinale this year, with particular emphasis on South Africa and Latin America.

He admitted that the Berlinale is less glamorous than other European festivals, such as those held in Cannes or Venice, but pointed out that, here, ordinary people could get in. "The difference in Berlin is that hundreds of thousands of normal people go to the cinema," he said.

Festivalgoers will be able to see other competition contenders including Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss, which depicts the conflicts that arise when a Pakistani immigrant and a Roman Catholic woman fall in love in Scotland, and Intimate Strangers, French director Patrice Leconte's comedy about a woman who accidentally confides her marital problems to a tax consultant.

The festival's organisers also hope that this year's event will once again highlight Europe's newest capital as a place to make movies. During the 80s, in the words of Der Spiegel magazine, Berlin was virtually a "forgotten island", featuring only fleetingly in cold war thrillers and James Bond films.

Recently, however, the city has been enjoying a cinematic renaissance. That renaissance began last year, when Roman Polanski filmed much of The Piano on Berlin's outskirts.

Kevin Spacey, the star of American Beauty, is directing Beyond the Sea in Berlin and Potsdam, while Matt Damon is in Berlin filming The Bourne Supremacy, a sequel to the successful thriller The Bourne Identity.

Meanwhile, Hollywood scouts are looking for suitable locations for Mission Impossible 3, which is to be shot in Berlin and will star Tom Cruise.

Hollywood's new-found enthusiasm for locations such as Berlin and Prague - as well as Romania, where much of Cold Mountain was filmed - is not hard to fathom.

Despite Germany's notoriously high labour costs, a German producer earns about one third as much as his US equivalent. In Romania, the wages are even lower, with film technicians earning as little as $200 (£110) per month.

The makers of Cold Mountain were also able to hire 1,200 Romanian soldiers for the battle scenes at a minimal cost. "If we had made the film in the USA, it would have been almost unaffordable," Minghella explained to Der Spiegel this week.

"A few people in American believe that we - a British director and his international team - have stolen from them this quintessentially American story."

Whoever wins the festival's coveted Golden Bear award on February 15, there seems to be little doubt about one thing - after a long and uncertain gap, Berlin is back on Hollywood's map.

Email
luke.harding@guardian.co.uk

Column: Cuddling at the Berlinale


Berlin’s film festival is a glamorous affair, but not for this average movie-fan, who is having a tough time getting access. A not completely serious Berlinale survival guide.

Geographically speaking, the Berlinale is the northeasternmost A-list film festival. The location has few ramifications for the program, but many for the festival’s climate. In 1978, the then-Berlinale director decided to move his show from early summer to February.

This proved to be a wise step in terms of getting publicity mainly because no other European film festival takes place in winter. But at what price? It’s usually bitter cold in Berlin in February, which is probably why the Berlinale mainly takes place inside. There’s no festival promenade, but a high cuddling factor instead.

Antifreeze for the movie theater

A few years ago, quite a number of festival-lovers dropped the intellectual black dress code for a more cheerful affirmation of all things colorful. There’s clearly no better way than winter accessories to brighten things up: Caps, scarves, gloves, knitted things to throw around you. As wardrobes on deposit still haven’t achieved hip-dom, this stuff – along with woolen coats and down jackets – gets dragged inside the theater, where it’s strategically placed around the seat.

Anyone arriving late to claim his seat in the middle of a row is therefore forced to climb over these mountains of “antifreeze” and has to endure evil snarls for stepping on precious Gucci shawls. But there’s no point in engaging in a Berliner’s stereotypically favorite past-time – complaining. Think positive: Just like at home, watching a movie at the Berlinale guarantees entertainment with a “blanket” for cuddling on the side.

But we’ve still got a long way to go to get there. Choosing a film, or putting together a list of personal favorites, is the first hurdle. Fortunately there’s the Berlinale magazine with short introductions to all the movies to make things easier. The Berlinale-Berliner grabs it and rushes to one of the many Café-Latte-islands to show it off and comprise a wish list.

A lot of people already start getting depressed at this point as they remember that they’ve once again failed to get a press pass. That’s a sure way to be kept out of the A-list events, leaving only the hope of pushing aside the mouth-protecting scarf and screaming at celebrities on the red carpet from afar.

Socialist ticket lines

Buying the tickets is best described as pure torture. Grab your magazine and pen, race to one of the Berlinale ticket booths, despair for a moment over lines reminiscent of those common under socialist rule, take up position 128 and start waiting. While doing so, the snow on your feet will turn to small puddles around your shoes and leave ugly marks on the leather.

It’s time for a reality check: Most films will be sold out – ticket sellers will let you know by crossing out the movie title with red ink. Be prepared to experience this several times while waiting. Once you’ve reached the front of the line, it’s possible that the last film on your wish list has just received the red cross treatment.

But you’re not about to leave without a ticket and end up taking anything – some B-movie that will make you wonder afterwards why so many people went to see it (until you start recognizing people who were waiting in line with you). Again, think positive: The whole standing-in-line-business gives you plenty of opportunities to flirt – and end up getting some cuddling of your own.

Is Weimar more sophisticated?

As a Berliner, one is always eager to bring some culture to those less fortunate and invites friends from the provinces to experience the metropolitan Berlinale. Better be careful. For reasons stated above, tickets for a – supposedly excellent – lesbian pirate movie are the only ones left in this particular case, which involves a visitor from the culturally-sophisticated eastern German town of Weimar.

The movie turns out to star a lot of hormonally-bred moustaches on rather rough female upper lips. The sound could be better, the air conditioning isn’t working and blankets and similar devices don’t help to stay awake. “Did you enjoy it,” one cautiously asks the non-Berliner after the credits. “The jury at the student film festival in Weimar decided not to show this film,” comes the proud answer. Ouch!

Celebrity sightings are another Berlinale dream. Meeting A-list stars is out of the question for the average festival-goer, but those ranking a few letters below are attainable. Even that’s not completely without risk. Stuck again with left-over tickets, you’re sitting in yet another fetish movie. This time the director shows how Californians get all sorts of things shoved through ear lobes, mouths and other skin parts. The companion, who has disappeared underneath a blanket in his seat, is surprisingly excited about this, ends up talking to the director and doesn’t surface again for a day. Touching stars, high cuddling factor – it’s all been done.

My own favorite Berlinale moment? Happened three years ago. On the spur of the moment I went to the last screening of the festival and met friends in an A-list spot in the ticket line. I got in and watched “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Afterwards, they handed out the Berlinale awards in front of the screen where Kubrick’s masterpiece had just been shown. A rare rush of happiness.
Kay-Alexander Scholz

Balancing act
The Berlin Film Festival continues to walk a fine line between the A-list and the art house.

By Scott Roxborough

Reel democracy: Berlin takes a timely look back at the short films of the Marshall Plan
After the blowout success of last year's Berlin International Film Festival -- with a lineup that managed to balance the razzle-dazzle of best picture Oscar winner "Chicago" with the sober themes and digital-camera aesthetics of Michael Winterbottom's Golden Bear winner "In This World" -- festival director Dieter Kosslick has the nearly impossible job of trying to do even better this time around.

The lineup for the 54th Berlin fest suggests that the formula hasn't changed much from 2003 -- but the Oscar-date change certainly has complicated matters. Last year, Miramax used the Berlin event as a springboard in its Oscar campaign for "Chicago" and a platform for the film's European release; this year, Miramax's "Cold Mountain" will open the fest -- as "Chicago" did last year -- but its failure to land noms in such key categories as best picture and best director raises doubts as to whether Berlin can remain the strategic showcase for awards-season prestige pictures.

But Kosslick remains optimistic. "'Cold Mountain' got nominations for cinematography, for film editing, for original score, for actors Jude Law and Renee Zellweger -- that's quite a few. I think it is great news -- it is a great film, and I think it will be a great success in Berlin."

Nonetheless, Oscar pressure will force a change in this year's program. To ensure the maximum star quotient, Berlin is front-loading the festival with Hollywood films in order to let actors and directors return to Los Angeles in time to schmooze the Academy.

"We will try to run the big Hollywood films with big Hollywood stars at the beginning of the festival, so that no one has a scheduling conflict," Kosslick says, adding that Berlin is considering shifting next year to accommodate the new Oscar schedule. "We might switch the dates of the festival, but not to another month; it will still be in February."

Berlin's determination to satisfy Hollywood is evident in its selections. In addition to "Mountain," two other high-profile studio productions made the official cut -- Ron Howard's dark Western "The Missing" (Sony) and Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy "Something's Gotta Give" (Sony) -- but only "Missing" will screen in Competition for the Golden Bear. ("Mountain" and "Give" will screen in special out-of-competition slots.)

Other competition selections sure to satisfy Berlin's red-carpet paparazzi this year include "Before Sunset," the sequel to Richard Linklater's Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy 1995 starrer "Before Sunrise"; Omar Naim's "The Final Cut" (Lions Gate) featuring Robin Williams; and Patty Jenkins' "Monster" (Newmarket) with Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci.

A glance through the rest of this year's roster, however, reveals that the German fest hasn't lost its taste for politically charged "issue" cinema. This time around, these include films such as John Boorman's examination of South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, "Country of My Skull" (Icon); a front-line view of the recent Croatian war in Vinko Bresan's "Witnesses"; Ken Loach's working-class drama "Ae Fond Kiss"; Hans Petter Moland's "Beautiful Country" (Sony Pictures Classics) and Daniel Burman's "El abrazo partido" (Lost Embrace), both of which look at illegal immigration; and Joshua Marston's "Maria Full of Grace," about a poor Colombian woman who takes up drug smuggling to escape poverty.

Films with a strong political theme have won the Golden Bear two years running -- the immigration drama "In This World" in 2003 and Peter Greengrass' civil rights docudrama "Bloody Sunday" in 2002 (a prize it shared with Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"), so handicappers are already giving the edge to politically minded films even before the festival starts.

But Berlin's penchant for "serious" movies can also work against it.

"Frankly, if you have a film with crossover potential, it's not always a good idea to take it to Berlin," one industry insider says. "Unless you have released your film at home already and it's been a big success, a competition slot in Berlin can brand a movie with the 'art house' label that can make it difficult to sell."

The crossover success of Wolfgang Becker's "Good Bye Lenin!," which premiered in Berlin in 2003 and went on to become the highest-grossing German film of the year as well as scooping numerous international awards, would seem to counter that wisdom, but Berlin's image as a tough festival for mainstream movies is a persistent one. It is an image Kosslick has been trying to change, particularly as he attempts to expand the festival's industry component.

Berlin's European Film Market is a small sideshow compared with the sales bustle of the Festival de Cannes or Sundance, but with AFM likely to drop its February meet in its effort to go head-to-head with MIFED in November, the EFM is well positioned to pick up the start-of-year slack. Already this year, the EFM is reaching out to U.S. companies by offering one free screening at Berlin's market for films that debuted at Sundance (see related story below).

EFM's "Straight From Sundance" showcase is, in some ways, a natural extension of the Berlin festival's co-operation with Park City. For the first time this year, a film in competition at Sundance, "Maria Full of Grace," will also screen in competition at Berlin. Another Sundance entry, Walter Salles' "The Motorcycle Diaries," was slated to head to Berlin, but the film was snatched by Cannes at the last minute.

The Sundance entry is a result of a pact, signed between Kosslick and Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore last year, aimed at keeping the back-to-back events from fighting over top films. "First off, you have to think -- what is good for the film and then what is good for the festival," says Kosslick, explaining the arrangement. "If we can do something good for the distributors, that's the main thing -- it isn't so important if the films were at other festivals. The films should be in competition, not the festivals."

Kosslick is, however, in competition with himself. In his three years at the job, Berlin's director has tried to shape the event in his own image -- adding events like the Talent Campus for young filmmakers and this year's Co-production Market for pitching new projects that could have come right out of Kosslick's days as head of regional film-funding body Filmstiftung NRW.

Kosslick has also injected a strong dose of his unique brand of easygoing charm into the once dour Berlin fest. Anyone who saw his comedy routine with German entertainer Anke Engelke at last year's opening and closing ceremonies (Kosslick played straight man) knew this would not be your father's uptight festival.

"I think it is really amazing what he has done," EFM director Beki Probst says. "He has created a really relaxed, fun atmosphere where it wasn't there before."
Kosslick will have a tough time topping last year's fest, where Hollywood and Euro art house crowds, as well as the commercially fixated and the political purists all went home happy. That might be too much to hope for in the 54th edition of Germany's most prestigious film festival. But if Kosslick has his way, at least most people heading to Berlin this year will have a good time.

Published Feb. 03, 2004

Young Film Makers Gather at Talent Campus

The event will be held at Berlin's House of World Cultures.

http://berlinale-talentcampus.de/

About 500 budding movie makers will flock to Berlin this week to participate in the film festival's Talent Campus, where they will work with accomplished colleagues and could receive funding to realize their own project.

When Dieter Kosslick took over as director of the Berlin film festival in 2001, he knew he wanted to use the pulling power and infrastructure of the event to promote young film makers. The Berlin Brandenburg Film Board and the UK Film Council offered their help.

That led to the creation of the Berlinale Talent Campus, which opened its doors for the first time last year. Some 500 young film makers from around the world took part in the five-day seminar, hoping to learn something from established names in the field, like German director Wim Wenders, actor Dennis Hopper and legendary set designer Ken Adam, famous for his work on the James Bond films. The course also gave the newcomers a chance to make those all-important film business contacts.

Following the internationally recognized success of last year's Talent Campus, the seminar will run again this year, under the motto "Let's get passionate about film." Berlin’s House of World Cultures will again be converted into a dynamic hive of cinematic creativity. More than three and a half thousand young people applied to take part this year. 520 candidates from 84 countries have been selected. The organizers are particularly pleased about applications from countries which don't have a recognized film industry, such as Ghana, Bangladesh, Syria or Afghanistan.

Deutsche Welle Brings Afghan film makers to Berlin

Three young film makers from Afghanistan are coming to the campus to present documentaries about their country and the fate of its people. The films were made with help from the AÏNA media centre in Kabul. AÏNA is an Afghan-French project which is setting up a network of independent journalists and media in Afghanistan. Deutsche Welle is a partner of the Berlinale Talent Campus, and is sponsoring the three Afghan film makers during their stay in Berlin.

Each applicant to the Berlinale Talent Campus was asked to supply examples of their work, for example a one minute short film, and proof of advanced practical experience. The seminars are aim ed at prospective film makers - which make up the largest group - but also at script writers, producers, camera operators, actors and this year, for the first time, sound designers and film editors.

Workshops include all aspects of film making

The workshops, lectures and screenings followed by discussion groups are ordered according to the five most important aspects of film making: philosophy, pre-production, production, postproduction and promotion. In the Working Campus section, small teams will work on presentations such as digital shorts. It's hoped participants will learn methods of professional and respectful mutual communication as well as being able to garner valuable professional experience.

Successful film industry veterans will again be on hand to pass on their experience and knowledge to the upcoming talent. They include director, screenplay writer and producer Anthony Minghella, director of the multi-Oscar winner The English Patient. Minghella's latest film Cold Mountain will open the Berlinale on Feb. 5.

Walter Murch, sound designer and film editor, who's credits also include The English Patient as well as Apocalypse Now, is in charge of the main thrust of this year's seminar "The Sound and Music."

Director Wim Wenders and set designer Ken Adam (photo) will take part in discussion forums.

Some events open to the public

Speaking of forums, the Berlinale Talent Campus is also offering events each afternoon that are open to interested members of the public who want to get an insider view of the exciting and creative world of film.

All the seminar participants will be eagerly looking forward to the grand finale of the Berlinale Talent Campus - the presentation of the first Berlin Today Award on Feb. 11. The Berlin Brandenburg Film Board invited all participants from the first campus to submit short film treatments with a Berlin theme.

A jury chose three projects from the numerous submissions and the winners - all female - were able to realize their ideas with the support of a Berlin film production company, the Berlin-Brandenburg Film Fund and up to €70,000 ($87,000) per film. The young filmmakers were also able to rely on the advice of renowned directors Volker Schlöndorff, Esther Gronenborn and Andreas Dresen.

Berlin Talent Campus media partner DW-TV will broadcast the winning film - an international exclusive - on Feb.12 at 18:30 UTC.

Michael Ballhaus To Host Seminar At Berlinale Talent Campus

BERLIN, GERMANY, February 2, 2004 – Michael Ballhaus, ASC will focus on the art and craft of cinematography during a seminar here at the second annual Berlinale Talent Campus which is an integral part of the Berlin International Film Festival. The seminar will begin at 10:30 a.m. on February 11 at the House of World Cultures auditorium.
The Berlinale Talent Campus is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival. Some 500 young script writers, producers, cinematographers, directors, actors, composers, sound designers and film editors from all over the globe were chosen to participate in the program.

Ballhaus will focus on how the convergence of film and digital intermediate technologies is expanding the role that cinematographers play in postproduction. He will explore how this evolution of technology provides new aesthetic options and challenges. As part of his discussion, Ballhaus will show excerpts from his films Wild Wild West and Gone Underground.

The seminar is sponsored by Kodak.

“Michael Ballhaus is one of the most talented and influential filmmakers of modern times,” says Janet Anderson, European Marketing Director, for Kodak’s Entertainment Imaging division. “He is a true artist, who has mastered every aspect of the complex craft of visual storytelling. This discussion will provide valuable insights into a complex topic, including both the aesthetic possibilities offered by digital intermediate technology and the pitfalls of relying on overly manipulated images.”

Ballhaus has compiled nearly 100 narrative film credits, including Broadcast News, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Gangs of New York, which earned Oscar nominations for cinematography. He was born and raised in Germany, where his parents were stage performers. Ballhaus began his career shooting television films. He collaborated with director R.W. Fassbinder on 15 features, including The Stationmaster’s Wife, Fox and His Friends and The Marriage of Maria Braun. Ballhaus earned his first credit in the United States in 1982 for Dear Mr. Wonderful. His other memorable credits include The Color of Money, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence, The House on Carroll Street, Postcards from the Edge, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Air Force One.

The Berlinale Talent Campus is a weeklong program that will run from February 7-12, 2004. The program attracts participants from around the world, and explores all aspects of filmmaking, including the latest technical developments, creative tools, stylistic trends, future markets and philosophical perspectives. The participants have ample opportunities to meet their peers from different parts of the world. Other seminars will be conducted by Eleanor Bergstein, Anthony Minghella, Walter Murch, Nicolas Philibert, Zbigniew Preisner, Alan Parker and Wim Wenders.

For more information about Kodak, visit www.kodak.com/go/motion. For more information about the Berlinale Talent Campus, visit www.berlinale-talentcampus.de.

German Films at Berlinale

"Head On" by Fatih Akin is one of two German competition entries.



Germany's movie industry is presenting 58 films at the Berlin Film Festival. DW-TV's KINO program is taking a closer look at some of them.

The German film industry has long been criticized for failing to break into the international market. But 2003 was a watershed year: Starting at the Berlin Film Festival, Wolfgang Becker's Good bye, Lenin! set out on a triumphal sweep, packing cinemas across the globe and sweeping the floor at award ceremonies. That was followed with an Oscar for Caroline Link for Nowhere in Africa and continued with respectable success for Margarethe von Trotta's The Women of Rosenstrasse at the Venice Film Festival.

This development vindicates the course to be taken at the Berlin Film Festival, which this year runs from Feb. 5 to Feb. 15. Festival director Dieter Kosslick wants to use the event to strengthen the position of German cinema on the world market. During his first year in charge he introduced the category "German Films" and a new section "Young Innovative Cinema in Germany".

Competition includes two German films

Fifty-eight German productions will be running at this year's festival and two German films are taking part in the competition. Romuald Karmakar's Nightsongs (Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder) is a heavily atmospheric portrayal of a couple with very different ideas about life. The film is based on a work by Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse. Fatih Akin's Head On (Gegen die Wand) looks at the disastrous results of a loveless marriage between the young Sibel, who is trying to escape the influence of her family, and the somewhat older alcoholic fellow Turk Cahit.

The Panorama section includes Andres Veiel’s documentary Addicted to Acting (Die Spielwütigen), a refreshing and entertaining look at four drama students.

Love and Thoughts (Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken) by Achim von Borries is the dramatization of the story of a group of Berlin schoolboys, whose 1927 search for absolute love and passion ended in death for some of them.

The brand new section ”14plus” includes a German entry from Icelandic director Maria Solrun Sigurdottir. Jargo is a thrilling coming-of-age drama about a 16-year-old youth in a Berlin high-rise suburb. It deals with love, friendship and betrayal in a group of kids united by their taste in music. ”14plus” is a forum for films made for young people and includes a prize in this category for the first time.

DW-TV's KINO at the Berlinale

On Feb. 13, DW-TV's cinema magazine KINO takes a close look at these films. The program will include a profile of Alfred Holighaus. The organizer of the festival’s "Young Innovative Cinema in Germany" section will talk about films he has on offer. Kino will also carry up-to-date reports on the stars attending the event and other news of note.

KINO will also be in attendance at the Berlinale. The program will be represented at the European Film Market, a trade fair linked to the festival, where it shares a booth with the film sponsoring body FFA and the body responsible for marketing German films abroad, Export-Union. Within the framework of a series of talks on "German Cinema" and "Young Innovative Cinema in Germany”, KINO will be inviting filmmakers and journalists to join a discussion panel.

The darkest day in a violent city
When a desperate gunman held hostage the passengers of a Brazilian bus in 2000, it was headline news, but as filmmaker Jose Padilha tells Jay Stone, the event revealed far more about Brazil's ills.

Jay Stone
The Ottawa Citizen

Monday, February 02, 2004

TORONTO - There is a day-to-day kind of violence in Rio de Janeiro -- "every week, every day I think, 10 people are murdered," says Jose Padilha, a filmmaker who lives there -- but even for such a violent place, the events of June 12, 2000, were extraordinary.

That was the day of the Bus 174 incident, when an apparently crazed young gunman named Santo do Nascimento hijacked a city bus and held its passengers hostage, threatening to kill everyone. The Brazilian press descended on the scene, and the around-the-clock, live coverage was the highest-rated television program of the year in Brazil.

Padilha, who had in the past produced documentaries, was at his gym when Bus 174 was taken hostage. He watched it unfold on television, and he was struck by something unusual.

"There are some particular violent events that are symbolic for the city," Padilha says. One was the Candelaria massacre of 1993, when seven street children were shot dead by police officers in downtown Rio. Bus 174 seemed to be another one, and while it was going on Sandro was yelling out of the bus window that he was a survivor of the Candelaria massacre.

It dawned on Padilha that one person had lived through two symbolic events. "And more than that, he had come from being a victim in the first one to being the perpetrator of Bus 174.

"So my question was, how could this happen. How could the state let it happen? Because being a street kid, Sandro was supposed to be taken care of by the state."

Those questions led to Bus 174, a documentary that intercuts the drama of the hijacking with an investigation into just who Sandro do Nascimento was and what his life represented. The film, which opens Friday, has become the darling of the world's film festivals, winning awards in Miami, Rotterdam, Chicago, Rio and Sao Paulo. It was shown at the Toronto festival, where Padilha talked about his investigations.

Brazilian television networks had 36 hours of footage of the five-hour hijack, but most of it was not broadcast. For one thing, there wasn't time for the stations to look at it all in the rush to get the news onto the screen. The result, says Padilha, was a rather shallow look at what happened.

"They classified Sandro as 'this crazy guy hijacked a bus,' as if that sentence would explain him," he says. Padilha wanted to tell Sandro's life story, from the moment he became a street kid, to explain his violence.

"My question is, 'Why did he behave like he did on the bus? How did the city, the state, mould his character so that he would behave like this?' "

The filmmaker hired a police detective and a lawyer, and for two years they dug into the story to find Sandro's origins. He turned out to be a young man whose history stands as a symbol for Third World poverty. He was born in a favilla, and saw his mother being stabbed to death by thugs. He lived on the streets, robbing people to get drug money. He was sleeping in the streets in the Candelaria neighbourhood when two carloads of police arrived and began shooting at the street children, killing seven of them. When Sandro was arrested for theft, he was thrown into a fearsome prison where prisoners were crowded into small cells.

"There are two currents of thought in Brazil," Padilha says. "On the one hand, you have people who think the violence comes out of misery: you have a lot of poor people, therefore you have violence. On the other hand you have some people who think violence is the result of bad, repressive politics, like the police.

"What I think Sandro's life story says is that there is another thing involved: the state also creates violence itself ... the state is organized in such a way that it actually produces violent individuals." Padilha says that by locking Sandro into a tough and overcrowded prison, the state was helping turn a desperate boy into a violent man.

"You do this to someone who has just stolen a wallet, and after a couple of years, these people will be ready to kill you."

Bus 174 alternates documentary scenes of the hijacking -- scenes filmed by the TV networks of Sandro screaming out of the window, or holding a gun to the heads of his terrified hostages -- with interviews with old friends, family members and social workers who remember him. Padilha says that he had two charts on the wall of his editing room, one showing all the important dates in Sandro's life and the other mapping the events of the Bus 174 incident.

"So on the bus he would say, 'I would rather die than give myself up and go to jail because in jail I was beaten up,' so out of this speech on the bus, I looked at the map of his life and I saw Sandro was arrested and he was at this prison. What happened at this prison? So I would go to the prison and talk to the guys and see. So then I would understand that the conditions of the prison were so bad that he would never give himself up."

The film takes a turn near the end, so that the official version of the Bus 174 incident is thrown into some doubt and Sandro emerges as someone slightly different from the way he is portrayed at the beginning. As expected, the movie caused something of a sensation when it was screened in Brazil last year.

Padilha said he was worried Bus 174 would be repressed because it was critical of the actions of the police -- portrayed as incompetent -- and the governor. Therefore, he arranged to have it premiere at the Rio film festival where it would be harder to stop.

It won the Best Film award, and it brought the affair back into the press. Bus 174 was in the news again, but in a different way.

"Now they were talking about Sandro," Padilha says. "At the time the hijack happened they talked about the police, they talked about the governor, they completely forgot to talk about Sandro's life. And I think Sandro's life is the point of this whole affair."

Rotterdam Report: Breillat's "Anatomy" Lesson and Rediscovering Cassavetes' "Shadows" (January 30, 2004)
Chilly air? Overcast skies? Rain-soaked streets? What better way to avoid gloomy weather than indoors at the multiplex. No other major festival is as conducive to moviegoing as the Rotterdam International Film Festival, where winter doldrums are cast away under a rainbow of cinephile's delights. A taster's choice of the year's festival circuit, Rotterdam handily offers festgoers a chance to catch up on smaller films that have been making the rounds, while also boasting its own share of world and international premieres. Stephen Garrett looks at some notable screenings so far.

Berlin focuses on South Africa

One of the major players on the international film festival circuit is the prodigious Berlinale, whose Golden and Silver Bears awarded to the best films in competition are as highly prized by filmmakers as the coveted Palmes dished out at Cannes, writes Alexander Sudheim

ne of the major players on the international film festival circuit is the prodigious Berlinale, whose Golden and Silver Bears awarded to the best films in competition are as highly prized by filmmakers as the coveted Palmes dished out at Cannes.

This year, from February 6 to 15, the 54th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin takes place in the pulsating German capital and boasts a jaw-dropping cornucopia of film and film activity. Aside from the Official Competition Selection — whose jury is headed by Frances McDormand and which features 26 films, 19 world premieres, 18 countries and two debuts, including that of Country of My Skull, the United Kingdom/South African co-production of Antjie Krog’s novel directed by John Boorman, starring Samuel L Jackson and Juliette Binoche — there are two other aspects of the festival whose importance is equal to, if not greater than, that of the official selection.

Chief among these is the 34th International Forum of New Cinema, an event considered worldwide to be one of the most prestigious showcases for independent and alternative films as well as a barometer for future film trends.

As such, the global cinematic eye is firmly fixed on the forum, which showcases films from developing countries and gives voice to a cinema that exists outside established genres and is independent of market considerations.

Moreover, since this year the Berlin International Film Festival is focusing on South Africa, the forum programme features 10 films produced by young South African filmmakers as part of the Project 10: Real Stories from a Free South Africa initiative.

According to festival director Dieter Kosslick: “The works of directors from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds courageously present intimate snapshots of life in this forward-looking country. Uncompromisingly, with eyes wide open and from numerous perspectives, they draw a true picture of the trials and triumphs of the rainbow nation’s fledgling steps to freedom. Never before has South African filmmaking been presented in such depth and breadth.”

The programme is supplemented by the three-hour German-South African documentary Memories of Rain by Gisela Albrecht and Angela Mai, which looks back at the struggle against apartheid.

The 10, hour-long films on show here are Home (Ikhaya) by Omelga Hlengiwe Mthiyane; Thru the Eyes of My Daughter by Zulfah Otto-Sallies; The Devil Breaks My Heart Ten Years Later by Laderle Bosch; Solly’s Story by Asivhanzhi Mathaba; Being Pavarotti by Odette Geldenhuys; Mix by Rudzani Dzuguda; The Meaning of the Buffalo by Karin Slater; Hot Wax by Anrea Spitz; Belonging by Kethiwe Ngcobo and Minky Schlesinger; and With My Children (Nabantwa Bam) by Khulile Nxumalo. Also featured in the forum is Western 4.33, the acclaimed experimental documentary by South African artist and filmmaker Aryan Kaganof (Ian Kerkhof), which takes an elliptical look at the German enslavement of the Herero people in turn-of-the-century Namibia.

Another highly progressive aspect of the festival is the second installation of the Berlinale Talent Campus, an initiative for the world’s up-and-coming and avant-garde film directors, which was inaugurated last year. According to talent manager Thomas Stück, the project is “principally an arena for know-how and inspiration. Emerging filmmakers meet experienced professionals from all cultures, generations and genres. The crème de la crème of the international film industry interacts with the bright young stars of tomorrow to put the finger on the pulse of the film of the future.” In the Berlinale Talent Campus the South African connection is kept alive with Claire Angelique, a final-year film student at the Cape Town International Film School, who was selected as one of the 26 invited participants out of about 4 000 applicants from around the world.

Said Stück of Angelique’s application: “Claire was selected because she has a lot of talent as a writer, director and actress in a very modern and mature way despite her young age. In her script, her characters narrated moments from their life in a way that was simultaneously real, subtle and honest.”

During the rigorous series of workshops that Angelique — a graduate of the recent ResFest Skills Programme — and her peers will undergo they will absorb the expertise of a variety of cinematic heavyweights such as Dennis Hopper, Spike Lee, Anthony Minghella, Wim Wenders, Tom Tykwer and Stephen Frears.

Russian film is awarded with "International Amnesty"
01/31/2004 14:13
27-year-old Russian Director Alexei German Jr. received International Amnesty Award for his recent film "The Last Train" at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam, reports RIA "Novosti".

"The Last Train" tells a story of life and death of ordinary people, Russians and Germans who were unfortunate enough to witness and live through the horrors of the WWII," states the official letter of the jurors. This is the first film of the young director.

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"International Amnesty" is awarded to those works which vividly depict the subject of human rights. Last year, German Jr. was also awarded with the main prize and the Fipressi prize of the International Festival in Salonik, a prize for Best Director at the open festival of CIS and Baltiya "Kinoshock" as well as a prize for his best picture concerning the subject of human rights "Stalker" at the International Festival. The film press-screening took place on January 20th in Moscow.

The language of film

Mark Moormann, a filmmaker based in Hollywood (Fla.), showed his documentary Tom Dowd & the Language of Music at the Miami International Film Festival last year. This year's festival began on Friday.

Q: Tell us about your film.

A: Tom Dowd, who lived in Miami the last 30 years of his life, was a pioneer of recording technique beloved by all the people he worked with -- Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, the Allman Brothers, etc.

You met Tom once, and you liked him. You met him twice, and you loved him. He was an unsung hero who didn't get what he deserved. I read a manuscript of his autobiography and couldn't believe that one man had been a participant in so much history. Yet no one outside of the music industry knew who he was. That's why the film was made by a community of filmmakers in South Florida -- no one got paid upfront. They did it for Tom. If the film makes money, they'll get paid.

Q: How did your film get into the Miami film festival last year?

A: We had been accepted into the Sundance Film Festival. When we were in the final stages of editing, I called up the Miami festival almost at the deadline. I asked if they would look at the rough cut. [Festival director] Nicole [Guillemet] called while we were in the editing room, said she loved it and wanted to include it in the program.

We were really happy about that. Tom had just passed away. It would have meant a lot to him, and did mean a lot to his family and friends who live here. Those two screenings in Miami were two of best we had anywhere. There was a real communal feeling.

Q: What has happened to the film since then?

A: After it got into Sundance, I was inundated with phone calls. Then there were five soldout shows with distributors that got us exposure and a distribution deal. Palm Pictures, owned by Chris Blackwell, picked up the domestic and Caribbean rights. It going to be released in big markets nationwide this spring. I met with Blackwell at the Tides Hotel on Miami Beach. We had a lot of connections. I had made a film called Once Upon a Time on South Beach, which he liked a lot -- he had owned a lot of the hotels there. I met Dowd at a recording session for Island Records, which Blackwell owned at the time. He knew Tom well and respected him.

Then Lightening Entertainment out of L.A. acquired the foreign rights. So it's going to play all over the world. We also sold it to Sundance Channel, which showed it last October. Now the Sundance Institute has invited the film and me to play in Park City, Utah, as part of an outreach effort, and I'm going to speak at a couple of high schools.

Q: What does Miami's film festival do for South Florida?

A: Historically it hasn't emphasized local films. I think that it's doing a better job these days of reaching out to the local film community. That's good. For the community it offers a great opportunity to see international films and to meet filmmakers in person. I notice there are some good panels this year with professional people.

Q: Why have you stayed in South Florida?

A: This is a really nice place to live. I just never wanted to raise a family in Los Angeles. I've been in South Florida 18 years. I had been at the Florida State film school and came down for the work. I worked in the camera department on movies, commercials and music videos. I'm making some decisions about which project to take on now. After having made a full-length film and having had success, it's going to be a lot easier to make the next one.

Herald Editorial Board member Susana Barciela prepared this report.