WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8
PART 3

Quentin Tarantino Named Cannes Jury Head

Associated Press

PARIS - American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino will preside over the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival, organizers said Friday.

Tarantino's celebrated crime romp "Pulp Fiction" won the festival's top honor - the Palme d'Or - in 1994. His earlier cult classic "Reservoir Dogs" was nominated for the festival's top prize in 1992.

"For a filmmaker and film lover, there's no greater honor than to be on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival," Tarantino said in a statement issued by the festival's organizers.

To be president of the jury, the 40-year-old Tarantino said, was "the crowning achievement of a lifetime spent in cinematic obsession - a magnificent obsession."

Tarantino's latest film, "Kill Bill - Vol. 1," an ultra-violent vengeance flick, was released in the United States in October after a six-year hiatus for the filmmaker. The next chapter: "Kill Bill - Vol. 2" was due for release later this month, completing a saga that began on the "Pulp Fiction" shoot 10 years ago.

Tarantino succeeds last year's jury president Patrice Cheraud for the festival running from May 12-23.

Berlin Today Award: And the winner is...

Myrna Maakaron in "BerlinBeirut"



The Berlin Film Festival's Talent Campus celebrated its first Awards Night on Wednesday in the Kulturbrauerei, a popular venue for cultural events and a former brewery.

More than 1,200 participants thronged the Kesselhaus, which once served as a boiler room, as Michael Verhoeven announced the winner of the first Berlin Today Award: Myrna Maakaron. In her film essay "BerlinBeirut", the Lebanese filmmaker shows the common and contrasting features of the two cities.

As director and author, Maakaron uses parallel montage techniques to make the locations of her film appear to melt together. As she embarks by bicycle on her voyage of discovery, Berlin and Beirut -- two six-letter words, two cities with a common past -- blend into one city. Both were destroyed in wars, divided into east and west, and rebuilt. This is a thought-provoking, but humorous homage to two cities and to Myrna Maakaron's old and new home countries.

This year's jury, producer Maria Köpf and directors Hans-Christian Schmid and Michael Verhoeven, are also hosts for next year's candidates. After taking part in the Berlinale Talent Campus, the promising young film talents have until April 2004 to hand in a concept for a short film relating to Berlin.

A jury will select three projects from among the applications. The Berlin-Brandenburg film industry, a Berlin production firm and up to €70,000 in funding will help the young filmmakers realize their projects in the course of the year. The second Berlin Today Award will be conferred in February 2005.

DW-TV is a media partner of the Berlin Today Award.

Stefanie Zobl

Emotions run high at Berlin Film Fest

13 February 2004

BERLIN - Given the complex mix of good, bad and indifferent movies, it's not surprising that we've had more than the usual amount of emotion generated at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

Hollywood star Diane Keaton broke down in tears when confronted with reporters' questions she felt "too personal", as did Hans Peter Moland, director of the compelling movie "Beautiful Country".

Moland wept when journalists questioned him about the dramatic American pull out from Vietnam almost 30 years ago, which left behind a war-traumatised nation and countless children, who like "Binh" in the movie, had GI's as fathers.

He was comforted by the film's leading lady, Chinese-born actress Bai Ling, after bursting into tears.

Miss Keaton, 58, who briefly appears nude in the movie, "Something's Gotta Give" co-starring Jack Nicholson, felt reporters' questions were too intrusive at a crowded late night news conference.

Some critics covering the festival have also been getting worked up. They booed and gave cynical handclaps during the rowdy screening of director Romuald Karmakar's movie, "Nightsongs" Tuesday.

The sombre movie is about a luckless novelist and his frustrated wife who plans to escape with her lover when the writer commits suicide by throwing himself off a balcony.

Frustrated at its poor reception, director Karmakar, 38, lashed out at movie critics, saying American films are "influencing the language of film. Anyone who dares object to that has a struggle in Germany".

But he insisted he wasn't peeved at seeing some members of the audience walk out during the film. "That sometimes happens," he said, adding: "I'll fight for this type of cinema. We need diversity."

There was a further angry moment Wednesday evening when "The Final Cut", director Omah Naim's first feature film about chips and so- called Zoe-Tech implants, starring Hollywood actor Robin Williams, was about to be screened in competition.

Most competition films are being screened in the spacious "Berlinale Palast" cinema on the Potsdamer Platz. Not so with "Final Cut" which was switched to the smaller CinemaxX 7 studios nearby.

Critics found themselves jostling to get into the crowded first floor cinema premises. Appeals had to be made for some scribes to vacate seats reserved for the festival jury.

One red-face woman journalist, refusing to budge, yelled: "If the international jury isn't able to get here on time, they can't complain about their reserved seats being taken."

After further commotion, anger subsided when a spokesman announced that an additional screening of the movie - 30 minutes later - was being arranged for those without seats, in a nearby studio.

Meanwhile, in the side-streets running off the Marlene Dietrich square, movie-goers have been treated every night this week to the spectacle of hundreds of crows jostling among the trees, cawing and flapping their wings in their annual search of food haunts.

"I've never seen such a spectacle like this before - right in the heart of a city," said a Japanese visitor. "It's a bit scary."

Dancing Close to the Sun
Aaron Raskin, February 12, 2004
The fabled Festival of the Dance of the Sun took place once again this year, at the sacred site during the usual dates determined by the position of the moon and the stars. This collection of independent film festivals occurs in a single location known as Park City, a seemingly affluent and self-consciously picturesque ski town at the foot of three enormous corporate ski resorts.

I awoke somewhere in the middle of the madness; Sundance would have the giddy energy of summer camp if it weren't populated by a crowd that is predominantly over the age of forty. My awakening was not without cause; a large Mormon woman, nay, a Mormopolis, had stepped upon me, only to daintily pivot and land her other mountain of sock upon my eighteen-year old dog, Skippy. "Don't worry, I hardly weigh anything right now." She's been rolling on liquid E for sixteen hours now, her (unwilling) first and her (God willing) last drug experience in life. "Liz, I'm going to cut your feet off, and stick you out on the ice like a scarecrow." She shakes her head and begins the incessant baby talk again; her eyes perched somewhere in the recesses of her head. I notice that she's naked, horribly so, and covered in water. I've got some explaining to do.

The enigmatic truth gets lost in the glitz and hype of an event like Sundance. The details are informative: Park City is a town in the Mormon promised land of Utah, and though there is a Wellness Family Center situated mid Main Street, it is somewhat of a oasis of the un-Mormon, harboring a healthy nightlife scene as well as a small enclave of seasonal snowboarders and ski bums. These groups are in abject opposition to the zeitgeist of greater Utah, which a local forest ranger described to me as "the epitome of a religious corpocracy." It is not generalizing to depict the Mormon faith as all encompassing and severely restrictive. Not only does the Church of Latter Day Saints prohibit caffeine, alcohol and profanity, it also excludes a great deal of the cinema that would otherwise be described as "independent". Which is not to present Park City as a commune of liberal thinking. Street parking is consistently clogged with spanky new SUV's and even H2's, a testament to the elites who rotate through town on their monthly timeshares.

Sundance proper showcased a number of counter culture, anti-corporate films this season. "Super Size Me," which won the documentary director's award, amounted essentially to performance activism, captured on video. The director and willing subject of his own experiment, Morgan Spurlock documents the effects of a ninety-day non-stop fast food binge. Most prominent of this family of films was "The Corporation," directed by Canadian and GNN supporter Mark Achbar ("Manufacturing Content"). The doc is an engaging, fatalistic and exhaustive inquiry into the nature, cause and effects of the corporation. As winner of the prestigious Audience Award, it would seem "The Corporation" ultimately is a testament to the sentiment of the festival attendees, a call for work that is at least socially conscious, if not politically active.

For this festive-goer, however, it was difficult to see the progressive, aught-age politics through the retro, 90's style partying. Perhaps the cumulative effect of a week long gummyberry binge had me more in tune with the semiotic turbulence surrounding the event, perhaps a life devoted to a lack of devotion had finally found me devoutly jaded, but how seriously can one take this seemingly anti-corporate stance, either on the part of the festival, its followers or its filmmakers, given that Park City seemed without a square foot of real estate unclaimed by four-color printed big business advertisements and the ubiquitous aqueous coating to make it all that much more scratch and tear resistant. Celebs and brands banded together to draw in the big crowds at the after parties, like the "Madonna/Levis" party, where trick-or-treater looking "playas" and "playettes" froze patiently at a mansion door emblazoned with the Levi's emblem, all for the late night schmooze with free booze and a party bag of product placements. And try finding a filmmaker there who isn't looking for a producer/distributor, or visa-versa. Try having a conversation that doesn't end in business card flinging. You'll need a strong batch of gummyberry juice to keep you going on that mission, believe me.

The "truly independent" scene didn't look much different, on the outside. Among the many alternative -dance festivals, Slamdance has endured ten years, offering a venue for first time filmmakers and experimental works in video and film. Given the precipitously growing cost of hosting such an event, Slamdance had its fair share of handy endorsements; the free FCUK condoms were a welcomed gift in my condo. As for the lineup of finalists, Slamdance certainly had the grit and grunge indy market covered, but more importantly, Slamdance represented movies with non-traditional or fringe content proudly. Just by the low price of a festival pass alone, Slamdance welcomes a much poorer crowd than Sundance. The content itself seems curated to a younger crowd as well. Aside from hosting Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival, Slamdance showcased such works as "Deliverance the Musical." This short was hilarious, very well conceived and pretty well made, and had no chance of ever screening at Sundance. Orwell Rolls in his Grave, which had a nice guerilla marketing campaign, was a methodical course through the last twenty years of media deception and manipulation. While Slamdance and Sundance both offered works of corporate and media criticism, there was a lack of overt political material in their respective lineups.

On the second floor, in the space usually taken by the now deceased NoDance film festival, stood what seemed to be a bastion of purely political cinema. The festival co-founder Andrew Thompson claimed that their event had no political bias, other than showing films that addressed political issues. Glancing at their festival guidebook, a staple-stitched Kinko copied pile of papers, the cover design seemed to suggest otherwise: a veritable army of bleeding hearts, beneath the wings of a flying dove. At least I assume the hearts were bleeding - the black and white photocopy finish leaves one to wonder whether the hearts were actually slathered in Karo syrup (filmmaker joke, get it!). Also telling was the primary sponsor, the ACLU, the lack of Coca-cola or dairy products at the concession stand, and the omnipresent smell of patchuli oil. I would preface everything that follows by saying it had some good content, albeit thrown together from an assortment of secondhand sources, including most of the other festivals in town. The FCF approach to this technique lacked the democratic, anyone can screen here feel of the popular SlumFest of olden days, when a shopping cart served as the late night submission bin. The Franken-fest style worked well with big name films such as "The Corporation," which screened to a packed crowd hours after the announcement of the Sundance Audience Award. When the Freedom Fest showed its own original content, however, the results were often an abject failure. One of the people working at the Freedom Cinema Festival described it as "a study in how not to run your film fest." More than anything, it demonstrated most clearly the problems at the crux of activism itself in America, as embodied by the flagrant lack of marketing that almost seemed to be a statement against self-promotion, which in Sundance-town amounts to Festival-a-cide. And I am not even addressing the numerous catastrophic technical failures. If it were a soccer match, FCF got a yellow card from this referee.

The lack of self promotion was ironic, for after all the Freedom Fest was essentially a vehicle to unabashedly promote the lengthy trailer for Andrew Thompson's recent production, currently unfinished on the editing board at three and a half hours. The title, The Making of the Invasion of the Freedom Snatchers, contrasts starkly with the content, an assortment of impromptu soundbites from any and every celebrity the filmmakers managed to detain at last years Sundance. Showcasing your own work is tacky at best. Putting your work's logo on every piece of festival material is downright corrupt. Might as well have Coco-cola commercials between the flics and let the highest bidder take the audience award. Red card.

The assortment of other minor festivals aside, there were a few politically minded spectacles and parties worthy of note. Moveon.org hosted a low key finalists party at a bar on Main Street for an assortment of people, although the bulk of the celebrity judges from the BushIn30Seconds advertising contest did not attend. After screening the winning advertisements, contest co-founder Laura Dawn announced the commencement of "Version 2.0," a series of ads featuring the judges themselves with their respective angles on the same anti-bush theme. PETA caused a good deal of minor discomfort with what one pedestrian called "their roving van of death." Though I missed the gory details, apparently they had been driving up and down Main Street in a van rigged with monitors displaying their own film festival, with such hits as Vivasectomy on "Dogs I" and "II", "Exposed Brain Monkey" and the classic "All the Dead Mice" (can you count them all?)

While the results aren't in yet, it is clear that political content at Sundance 2k4 took the form of the anti-corporate and the media watchdog. While these are both important, the time has come for cinema that is "independent" of the Hollywood money machine to declare itself politically untethered as well. Moveon.org could have stood alone in the anti-bush camp, though they did not have anything close to a market share on Sundance activity; their event was designed to be a one-time remake of the NYC awards party, rather than a festival proper. The Freedom Cinema Festival may have had all the bleeding hearts an 8.5x11 inch page could hold, but to get attention in a media circus you have to play the clown, and showcasing your own stuff merely makes you look like a seal with a beach ball on your nose. Ultimately, next year will be a litmus test of sorts, as a tremendous amount of purely political work will arrive fresh from Iraq and the campaign trail. How the festivals play them will be significant, though the real controversy will already be nearly two years old, and the fresh dirt will most likely be covered by plastic Astroturf and the stench of free booze.

GNN's Chief Film Festival Correspondent Aaron Raskin is a filmmaker and writer. He recently returned from Iraq, where started a production company with a group of Iraqi filmmakers. He is the founder of New York-based Harbinger Films. Next up: SXSW.

All-star blues tribute at Berlinale carries on ``Buena Vista'' tradition

BERLIN Feb 13 - ``Lightning in a Bottle,'' an all-star concert film on the blues, premiered to raves at the Berlin film festival late Thursday, riding a wave of documentary features on nearly forgotten music greats.

With Martin Scorsese at its executive producer, the film showcases highlights from a tribute concert in February 2003 at New York's Radio City Music Hall which brought contemporary stars together with blues legends.

``It looked like you looked in the phone book under 'Blues','' said New Orleans pianist Dr. John of the line-up including veterans such as B.B. King and Buddy Guy teamed up with younger stars like Bonnie Raitt, Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler and rapper Chuck D.

Dr. John anchored a back-up band that played throughout the five-hour performance, accompanying octogenarians and young upstarts as they rollicked through a repertoire of standards.

B.B. King plays favourites ``Sweet Sixteen'' and ``Paying the Cost to Be the Boss'' on his treasured guitar Lucille while Angelique Kidjo of Benin gives an ecstatic performance of Jimi Hendrix's ``Voodoo Child'' accompanied by Guy, himself an apprentice of the late Muddy Waters.

Natalie Cole, daughter of Nat King Cole, brings down the house with ``St. Louis Blues'' - one of her father's earliest hits.

Chuck D, formerly of Public Enemy, transforms John Lee Hooker's ``Boom Boom'' into a fierce anti-war rap on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq, as contemporary soul singer Macy Gray croons ``Hound Dog,'' most famously covered by Elvis Presley.

India Arie sings a haunting version of Billie Holiday's 1939 anti-lynching ballad ``Strange Fruit''.

And Tyler and his Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry rip through a bawdy rendition of ``I'm a King Bee''.

``It is such a fundamental kind of music to perform and its legacy had kind of been forgotten,'' producer Alex Gibney told a news conference after the screening.

''(The film) creates a lifeline between the present and the past.''

``Lightning in a Bottle'' is part of a series of eight films simply called ``The Blues'' that also includes a contribution by German director Wim Wenders, who made the Oscar-nominated ``Buena Vista Social Club''.

That film, about long neglected Cuban musicians, and recent hits such as ``Standing in the Shadows of Motown'' about the studio band behind the wildly successful 1960s Detroit label, have drawn huge audiences to the music documentary genre.

Wenders told reporters that it took a particular feeling for music to make a picture like ``Lightning in a Bottle,'' directed by US filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (``Training Day'').

``Music films must above all love the music they are presenting,'' he said.

``It's got to be contagious and the music has to live on in the images and rhythm of the film.''

Steve Jordan, the musical director of the film and the concert, said it was a mixture of love, sex and heartache that made the blues one of the signature forms of American music, and as relevant as ever.

``The blues isn't always about pain and suffering,'' he said.

``A very important part of the blues is the dancing, groove, love, feeling, joyful aspect. And so we wanted to depict that.''

``Lightning in a Bottle'' is appearing out of competition at the 54th Berlinale, which ends Sunday. - AFP

Kosslick Considers Festival and Market Changes as 54th Berlinale Nears Conclusion

by Eugene Hernandez

Dieter Kosslick, festival director at the Berlinale, talks Thursday about the festival's future. Photo by Eugene Hernandez

Despite concluding a multi-year process of streamlining and re-positioning the Berlinale since taking the helm as festival director, Dieter Kosslick is facing new challenges in light of the American Film Market moving to the fall and the Oscars shifting its dates into February. Yet, after leading the Berlinale for three years now, festival director Dieter Kosslick is feeling a sense of accomplishment as he ponders future changes here at the Berlin International Film Festival.

"We had to start all over again," Kosslick said Thursday morning during a conversation with a small group of journalists at the Grand Hyatt in Potsdamer Platz. He was referring to the fact that after moving the festival from the west to the center of the city four years ago, festival organizers were forced to focus on restructuring the event. It was a move that pre-dated Kosslick's arrival at the event, but one that continued as he took the reigns. read entire article

Belgian report brings mixed film news
Current projects succeeding; future funding tight

By ANDY STERN


BRUSSELS -- Belgian film funding org the Centre du Cinema et de l'Audiovisuel (CCA) has released an upbeat assessment of the French-speaking Belgian film biz in 2003, but warned that money is getting tight.
High points, per report, included the success of Belgian helmer Lucas Belvaux's trilogy of films "An Amazing Couple," "On the Run" and "After Life," which were seen by 700,000 French and Belgian moviegoers, and netted France's prestigious Louis Delluc award.

Some 230,000 tickets were sold for Sam Garbarski's "Rashevski's Tango," while Stephane Vuillet's "25 Degrees in Winter" has been chosen as the closing film for this month's Berlin film festival.

The profession has also seen more money go to arthouse cinemas, a reform of the tax shelter law making it easier for producers to benefit from tax breaks, and the beginnings of the Bruxellimage project that will offer financial assistance to filmmakers.

However, the CCA selection committee, which makes the decisions about which films to fund, is short of resources.

Prexy Chantal Pirlot says that at the committee's last meeting, members felt one in three of the projects presented deserved financial support, but due to lack of funds, they had only been able to back two out of a possible 17.

The committee instead supported only those pics with strong B.O. potential at the expense of more adventurous films.

The committee had E7.68 million ($9.55 million) to spend in 2003, 46% more than in 2002, and considered 327 projects.

In 2004, there has already been a 20% increase in the number of ideas, but there has not been a corresponding increase in budget.

Some suggest generating new revenue by imposing a tax on cinema tickets like the one in France, or by getting French-language TV channels to increase their contributions to the film biz.

Loach Wants 'Kiss' to Be Uplifting Movie

Associated Press

BERLIN - British filmmaker Ken Loach came to Berlin Friday with "Ae Fond Kiss," the ultimately upbeat tale of a Roman Catholic Scottish woman and a second-generation Pakistani immigrant who fall in love.

Loach, known for the gritty realism of films such as "Bread and Roses" and 2002's "Sweet Sixteen," said as the movie premiered that he hoped his latest production would convey a hopeful message.

"The process of assimilation will happen eventually, but there may be some pain on the way," he told reporters at the Berlin International Film Festival. "A happy ending seemed appropriate for the whole story."

"Ae Fond Kiss" is one of 23 movies competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Bear. A seven-member international jury will announce the winner Saturday.

The film stars Atta Yaqub as Casim, a Glasgow disc jockey whose devout Muslim parents plan for him to marry his cousin - plans that are derailed when he meets Roisin (Eva Birthistle), a teacher at his sister's school. It explores the culture clash between their religiously conservative backgrounds that results when their relationship is discovered.

Loach screenwriter Paul Laverty said the idea for the film came from anti-Muslim sentiments that arose after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"At the heart of all this was how Muslims were demonized," Laverty said.

Turkish-German Film Tops Berlin Festival

HANNAH LOBEL

Associated Press

BERLIN - "Gegen die Wand" ("Head On"), a story of a young Turkish-German woman who marries a man she doesn't love to escape her conservative Muslim family, won the Golden Bear top prize at the 54th annual Berlin Film Festival Saturday.

Directed by Fatih Akin - himself a German of Turkish parents - the film chronicles the life of Sibel, played by Sibel Kekilli, who marries a beer-guzzling, middle-aged Turkish-German punk. As the two revel in their party lifestyles and separate sexual affairs, they unwittingly fall in love - a situation that ends when the husband kills one of her lovers in a jealous rage.

Born to Turkish parents in Hamburg, Akin said he lives in "loyal opposition" to the traditions of Turkish culture, and the film reflects his version of immigrant life.

"I hope that this will finally blow away the label of the exotic immigrant," Akin told reporters. "I think the prize will help that."

The sexually explicit and often violent film is sure to spark discussion in Germany's Turkish community as well as among Germans themselves, who have struggled in finding an effective integration policy for the 2 million Turks living in Germany.

Another tale of a child from an immigrant family searching for identity, Daniel Burman's "El abrazo partido" ("Lost Embrace"), won the runner-up Silver Bear film award.

The film follows Ariel, a young Argentine Jew, whose attempts to gain a Polish passport through his grandmother's original citizenship, lead him to explore his father's decision to fight for Israel.

The best actor award went to the film's star, Daniel Hendler.

Best directing honors went to South Korean director Kim Ki-Duk for "Samaria" ("Samaritan Girl"), the tragic account of a teenage girl's sexual exploitation and her father's murderous rampage that it triggers.

For the second year in a row, the jury recognized more than one actress for leading performance, granting Silver Bears to both Charlize Theron, for her role in "Monster," and Catalina Sandino Moreno for "Maria, llena eres de gracia" ("Maria Full of Grace").

Theron, who is also up for an Oscar for the part, went through a remarkable transformation in the film, putting on 30 pounds and wearing false teeth to portray Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos. But Theron said it was her research into the executed killer's life that provided the foundation for her performance.

"If you do those things without any kind of core it becomes meaningless," Theron told reporters after the film screened at the festival. "Everything about her physically was a mirror or a map to what she had gone through emotionally."

She shared her award with 22-year-old newcomer Moreno, who played a Colombian drug "mule" in U.S. director Joshua Marston's debut feature "Maria, llena eres de gracia."

Marston had scoured Colombia for his a leading lady and was ready to postpone the production until he looked at one last videotape. The first audition on it was Moreno's.

"I knew in 30 seconds it was her," Marston told reporters after the film screened Wednesday.

The episodic, day-in-the-life film "Om Jag Vaender Mig Om" ("Daybreak") from Swedish director Bjoern Runge received the Blue Angel award for the best European film.

Banda Osiris picked up a Silver Bear for best score in "Primo Amore" (First Love), by Italian director Matteo Garrone.

The prizes were announced by the head of the festival's seven-member jury, U.S. actress Frances McDormand, and her fellow juror, German producer Peter Rommel.

Angry German director erupts after premiere
Wed 11 February, 2004 18:01

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Director Romuald Karmakar got embroiled in a heated exchange with journalists at the Berlin Film Festival after his gloomy German love story was jeered and even laughed at during its world premiere.

Bristling at the criticism of "Nightsongs", Karmakar erupted into a lengthy attack on a surplus of "happy ending" films in a world filled with so many problems and assailed film journalists at a press conference on Wednesday for too much attention on Hollywood films.

"It's getting too primitive here and I'm sick and tired of it," Karmakar said testily when asked about the audience laughing during the drama's tragic conclusion. "How far have we fallen?"

"Nightsongs" is one of 23 films competing for Golden and Silver Bear awards at the 11-day Berlin festival, ranked beside Venice and just after Cannes among the world's top festivals.

Set in Berlin and based on a play by Norway's Jon Fosse, "Nightsongs" is about an unsuccessful, depressed novelist and his frustrated wife who is about to run away with her lover when the writer kills himself by jumping out of the window.

"It's a love story, just without a happy ending," said Karmakar, who said he struggled to get financing. "You find that everywhere but it's underrepresented in movies. Reality is full of problems. We have four million unemployed in Germany."

DIRECTOR NOT BOTHERED BY FILM CRITICS

Karmakar, whose film "Der Totmacher" (The Deathmaker) won the German film prize and Venice Film Festival Awards in 1996, also said he wasn't bothered by the hundreds who walked out of the theatre during the competition screening at the Berlinale.

"That always happens during my films, it's okay," said Karmakar, born in Wiesbaden. His mother is from France and father from Iran. He said those who laughed at the serious lines near the end of the film were free to express their own opinion.

"I have no problem with people not liking my film," said Karmakar, who also produced it. "That doesn't bother me. But I'll fight for this type of cinema. We need diversity. Music to set the mood is so overused that we don't know our own emotions anymore. Cinema can be so much more than it is these days."

One of two German films in the competition, "Nightsongs" follows a tradition at the Berlinale of depicting bleak worlds in Germany that are in marked contrast to lighter and wittier German films that have been winning huge box offices.

Karmakar, 38, said those films don't reflect reality.

"A lot of journalists watch too many American films," he said. "They're influencing the language of film. Anyone who dares object to that has a struggle in Germany. It's hardly possible to make a film that's not the same crap as that."

In recent years there have nevertheless been dark, brooding German films in the Berlinale about topics such as extremist Red Army Faction leader Andreas Baader, a mistress dumped on holiday ending up with delinquent teenagers, and a sympathetic portrayal of a woman who plants a bomb in a high-rise building.

"It's hard to get these types of films, but that won't stop me from trying," Karmakar said.

Briefs from the Berlinale
BERLIN Feb 11 - It's been a busy week at the Berlin film festival. Herewith are some briefs pending the weekend's awards.

``Cold Mountain'' stars turn up late

The stay-away stars of ``Cold Mountain,'' the movie which opened the Berlin film festival, aren't staying away any more. Jude Law was due to fly into the German capital Wednesday, six days after the screening.

Renee Zellweger beat him to it, having arrived Sunday pleading scheduling difficulties due to filming the sequel to her ``Bridget Jones'' hit. ``Sorry I'm late,'' she told a brief photocall.

Still, there's no word from Nicole Kidman. She was last heard of excusing herself because of ``family problems'' in her native Australia. Unkind newspaper reports had suggested she was not best pleased at the film's relatively poor show in the Oscar nominations.

Jack Nicholson proud of his butt

Serial womaniser Jack Nicholson - who does a spot of acting in his spare time - is proud of his attributes, on display in ``Something's gotta give.''

``I'm very proud of my ass,'' he drawled.

``I did suggest it for the poster of the picture and was told that would be illegal which I found both complimentary and interesting at the same time.''

Nicholson, 66, couldn't help flirting with co-star Diane Keaton, who also takes her kit off in the film.

``She likes to get naked in bed,'' he joked to hundreds of journalists as she shrieked in delight. ``She blushes easily, don't you honey?''

North Korea debuts at Berlinale; not everyone's happy

Judging by its debut film here, Stalinist North Korea's movie industry has some way to go to appeal to a global audience.

Unless you're a big fan of its leader Kim Jong-Il, of course, described in ``On the green carpet,'' a love story set in the unlikely world of synchronised gymnastics, as the sun around whom we rotate.

There were some biting comments at a question and answer session after the showing - like, what about your six million starving? - but as the Goethe Institute, which presented the screening, said, the fact North Korea was here at all was a small step out of the cold.

Red carpet suffers

Berlin's mercurial weather, which can't seem to decide what to do next as long as it involves blizzards of sleet, has claimed its first victim - the Berlinale's red carpet.

The walkway was to be changed Wednesday after six days of being trod on by stars, film-makers and producers alike. Silver Schrodi of Minuth, the company in charge of its daily upkeep, said it was a precaution because of the ``harsh weather'' to make sure no big names trip up.

Cabaret girl Liza Minelli, again

Liza Minelli swept back the years with a well-received reprise of ``Welcome to the cabaret,'' the song from the movie ``Cabaret,'' set mostly in Berlin, that won her an Oscar in 1972.

This time she was doing it for a good cause at the Berlinale's ``Cinema for peace'' gala, a fundraiser for UNICEF and the fight against AIDS.

It was a pricey do with guests paying 1,000 euros (US$1,270) to hear her croon. Add to that the auction of a Vivienne Westwood dress, a VW Beetle car signed by Matt Damon ... and nearly 300,000 euros was raised.

Lars von Trier ``censored''

Danish director Lars von Trier, he of ``Dogville'' fame, couldn't be at the ``Cinema for peace'' gala to receive an award for the Nicole Kidman film, so as is now customary he pre-recorded a message of thanks.

Unfortunately, only a shortened version was shown on the big screen, so up popped his producer Vibeke Wineloev on stage to announce that she was really quite ``pissed off'' that his message had been, as she said, censored.

It turns out the original version contained a few pertinent criticisms by Trier of charity galas ... such as ``Cinema for peace.''

Schwarzenegger? It wouldn't happen here ...

Arnie may have moved from Terminator to the California governor's mansion, but in Berlin they're a bit sniffy about actors who think they can turn their hand to politics.

``I don't think Schwarzenegger would have had a chance here,'' Hans-Ulrich Joerges, an expert on politics and the media, told a discussion panel.

``People aren't stupid. They want serious people in politics. An actor who's only known from the screen needs to have something else.''

Lothar Bisky, head of Germany's ex-communist PDS party, was more welcoming - ``why shouldn't they play a role in politics?'' - but couldn't resist a dig either. ``I know some highly intelligent actors.'' And the others, Lothar?

Israelis, Palestinians told they're European now

Israeli and Palestinian directors will now be allowed to enter the running for the European Film Award and become members of the academy that dishes it out, the organisation said on the sidelines of the Berlinale.

It's ``a first step toward countries of the Mediterranean, where the art of film has a natural, historic link to Europe,'' opined the academy's chairman, Humbert Balsan. - AFP

Afghan Film Makers at the Berlinale Talent Campus

"Afghanistan: Film, Freedom, Future“ was the panel's topic.


DW-TV and the International Film Festival invited three young female documentary film makers to Berlin to participate in workshops with accomplished colleagues.

It took six long weeks of wrestling with the Afghan authorities to get visas and exit permits for the three film makers. Gul Makai Ranjbar, Halima Hussiani and Shakeba Adill had a hard time getting to Germany and the Berlinale Talent Campus.

Although they had the support of international television broadcaster DW-TV and the German foreign ministry, it became increasingly doubtful whether they would be able to make the journey at all. To cap it all off, the weather almost put an end to their plans. The Bundeswehr plane that was to bring the three young women safely to Germany had to leave a day earlier than planned.

From the airport in Berlin, Gul Makai, Halima and Shakeba had to go straight to the "Afghanistan: Film, Freedom, Future" event at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt the House of World Cultures, which took place last Sunday.

After finally arriving, they told the young audience at the Talent Campus about their work and lives in one of the poorest and most crisis-ridden countries in the world. They also presented excerpts from two of their films.

Dressed in jeans, sweaters and leather jackets, only their heads covered with the traditional hijab or headscarf, the women sat on the podium while talking about their work to Iranian writer, documentary film maker and Afghanistan expert, Siba Shakib, who hosted the discussion and acted as their interpreter.

Siba Shakib presented the AÏNA media center in her introduction. Independent from the government, AÏNA is an Afghan-French project that has been running for two years and has built up a network of independent journalists and media in Afghanistan. Gul Makai, Halima and Shakeba were trained through AÏNA and are now, with the aid of the organisation, producing their own films.

"Afghanistan Unveiled"

Gul Makai, who is 22-years-old, said that she had never known a life without war. Her father and brothers are dead, and even as a young girl she had to work to feed the family, despite having an injured leg.

Hard as this life may seem, it's all too common in Afghanistan. Apart from depicting the years of war against the Russians, the three film makers concentrated on the reign of terror carried out by the radical Islamic Taliban. The six years of their dictatorship were known to have been especially cruel for Afghanistan's female population.

The film makers travelled to the Afghan countryside to make their documentary film "Afghanistan Unveiled". It was probably the first time that women had travelled into the rural provinces alone. They talked to women about their life and their experiences under the Taliban. Whether they were female nomads with machine guns in their tents, or cave dwellers in the Bamian valley, where the Taliban destroyed the giant statues of Buddha, their stories are very similar. They deal with murder, rape and destruction, with unimaginable violence and contempt for the people, especially the women.

The young film makers found filming an intense and disturbing experience. During their courageous work, they learned much about their own country and its inhabitants. Afghanistan is a country full of cultural variety, they saidl. The desolate countryside and harsh climate make basic living conditions very difficult for its people.

Critiquing the new Afghanistan

Another important subject is the period since the end of the Taliban regime. Life in Afghanistan is still far from any kind of normality. A critical view of the situation is presented in the women's second film, "Shadows", the sequel to "Afghanistan Unveiled". While Kabul University prefers to enroll students with money and the right contacts, in the provinces, women and girls are still being abducted and raped. There is a considerable amount of work left before there is real freedom of expression and the press.

All the same, Gul Makai, Halima and Shakeba say that there have been great improvements in the direction of freedom. What people in Afghanistan need most for social change after such a long period of destructive chaos is time. The presence of ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force, and the Americans is necessary at the moment to ensure relative calm in the country. In the long term, the Afghans would like to develop their future identity free from external influences.

Gul Makai, Halima and Shakeba are sure that their informative films will contribute to bringing about change in Afghanistan. The strength and intelligence, the involvement and self-confidence of these three young women provides hope for the future of their country.

At the end of the discussion, Günter Knabe, Deutsche Welle's Afghanistan expert, spoke about "Afghanistan: Film, Freedom, Future" as a representative of the international broadcaster and organiser of the event. He introduced the audience to DW-TV's Afghan program which broadcasts daily in Dari and Pashtu, and the donation campaign: "100 Classrooms for Afghanistan" which was sponsored by the aid organisation Cap Anamur and Deutsche Welle. DW-TV's culture department is sponsoring the Afghan film makers visit to Berlin.

Stefanie Zobl

Watch Out Hollywood, Here Comes Nollywood

"Dynasty," Nigerian style.



South Africa might be the special focus at this year's Berlin film festival, but the continent's movie industry epicenter seems to lie further north: Thousands of low-budget pictures are released in Nigeria every year.

When Hollywood star Charlize Theron recently told reporters that it took just 28 days to shoot her latest film, "Monster," an appreciative murmur went through the room. Any Nigerian filmmakers present must have chuckled a little -- shooting a movie in five days sounds about right to them.

"I've made 25 films over the last five years," Charles Novia, a Nigerian director and producer, told his audience at a panel discussion on "Nollywood," Nigeria's booming movie industry in Berlin this week. Equipped with a video camera, a script and often as little as € 5,000, Novia and his colleagues churn out up to 50 feature-length films every week.

"Sometimes people sell their cars to start a film," said Peace Fiberesima, another producer and director. Others borrow money from relatives or friends or call colleagues who owe them a favor to help out for free, she added.

The video boom came after Nigeria's movie theaters started losing customers during an economic downturn in the 1980s. While many of the theaters have now been turned into churches, about 200,000 people earn their money through working for the movies. Estimates of the industry's revenue range from €95 million ($121 million) to €680 million.

"I didn't believe what they were telling me," said Dorothee Wenner, who works for the Berlinale's international forum and organized the two-day event at Berlin's Hebbel am Ufer theater. "In the end, I came back (to Germany) and found out that I wasn't the only one who didn't have a clue."

Nollywood booms without government funding. In fact, Nigeria's movie industry, which is centered in the country's former capital, Lagos (photo), pays the government about €3.5 million per year to censor its products, according to Fiberesima.

"I don't think anyone from the West can understand what it's like to build an industry without any help from the state," said Brenda Goldblatt, a South African filmmaker who recently made a documentary on Nollywood. "These films are companions in life for people. In the West, there's nothing like the depth of the relationship (between viewers and movies)."

Movies people can relate to

What's produced looks a lot like Latin American telenovelas and has little to do with Hollywood blockbusters. Viewers seem to like it that way. Renting American-made films in the video stores costs half as much as Nollywood productions, but the imports still collect dust on the shelves. "Most Nigerians don’t want to watch 'Terminator 3,'" Fiberesima said. "They want to watch 'Real Love' or 'True Love' or 'Saving Alero,'" she added, referring to recent Nigerian releases.

Unlike Bollywood films -- melodramatic productions from India -- not all Nollywood movies are similar, as Fiberesima, Amata and their colleagues are eager to point out. "It's not a style of making films, it's the Nigerian market for films," said Jeta Amata, a 29-year-old director, producer and actor who has already made 40 movies. He added that all he wants to do is entertain his countrymen.

"It's a cultural thing of appreciating home," Fiberesima said, adding that Nigerians can relate to the stories about crime, love, sex, and power which are set in their neighborhoods. While some films focus on rituals and myths from a specific ethnic group, "most of the films talk to everybody," she said.

Mathis Winkler

Miami Jury Awards Top Prize To "A Thousand Months"

by Brian Brooks

A scene from "Ondskan" (Evil) by Mikael Hafstrom, which took the Audience Award at the Miami International Film Festival.

Fifteen recipients received accolades during an awards brunch in South Beach at the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Hotel concluding the Miami International Film Festival. Faouzi Bensaidi's "A Thousand Months" (Milles Mois) about a 7-year-old's experience in a village in Morocco during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan took the festival's grand jury prize for best dramatic feature. Golden-Globe winner "Osama" by Siddiq Barmak, which United Artists released in theaters last weekend, received the grand jury special citation at the ceremony. Also receiving honorable mentions were actress Anna Ovsianikova for her work in Lidia Bobrova's "Granny" (Baboussia) and to Wolfgang Becker, director of "Good Bye, Lenin!" "Lenin" won best film last year at the European Film Awards as well as best actor (Daniel Bruhl). see the whole article