Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 4

The SEEfest retrospective continues! Following is part four in the series of posts SEEfest at Your Home, featuring films that were included in previous Festivals.

You can find Part 1 here,  Part 2 here and Part 3 here. And, please let us know which films you’re revisiting or watching for the first time. We’d love to know which are your faves.

Glory

The second feature by the Bulgarian directing duo, Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov, focuses on a quiet, undemonstrative railway worker who happens to find a large amount of money scattered around the railway tracks. His decision to report the find to the police triggers disturbingly hilarious chain of events. Winner of 19 awards at international festivals including Best Film in Kolkata, Hamptons, Boulder, Gijon, special mentions and nominations for top prizes in Locarno and Ghent, and other awards. GLORY screened at SEEfest 2017.

GLORY is available free of charge on Tubi.

Watch Wonderful New SEE Movies & Support our Indie Cinema Friends!

For the price of a ticket you can:

1. discover excellent new films from South East Europe;
2. support shuttered cinemas that are the lifeline of indie filmmakers, and
3. increase your coolness factor.

Laemmle, Lumiere Cinema and The Frida Cinema each offer a wide variety of films for you to stream online.

Filmmaker News

Vojin Vasović’s Project @ Bordeaux Market Winner of Best Pitch at 2016 SEEfest Project Accelerator, Vojin Vasović was selected to present his new feature animation project at the Cartoon Forum in Bordeaux last month. It is based on his animated short “Twice Upon a Time,” screened at SEEfest 2018.

THANK YOU and STAY SAFE!

We appreciate all of you who continue to be engaged with SEEfest and have given us great feedback on our weekly virtual program offerings. The feedback we have received and support from organizations and individuals are more important than ever. Thank you, be safe and enjoy the company of movies from all over our beautiful world.

You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!

Consider making a donation to SEEfest and taking advantage of the provisions in the COVID-19 stimulus package regarding charitable giving, specifically aimed at non-profits: Charitable Giving Tax Deduction The stimulus legislation lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for itemizers from 60 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) to 100 percent of AGI for contributions made in 2020.

Additionally, an “above-the-line” or universal charitable giving incentive for contributions made in 2020 of up to $300. This provision will now allow all non-itemizer taxpayers (close to 90% of all taxpayers) to deduct charitable contributions from their tax return, an incentive previously unavailable to them.

Click the donate button or send a check made out to the South East European Film Festival, and mail to 7119 W. Sunset Blvd., Unit 306, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Thank you!

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 3

The SEEfest retrospective continues! Following is part three in the series of posts SEEfest at Your Home, featuring films that were included in previous Festivals.

You can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. And, please let us know which films you’re revisiting or watching for the first time. We’d love to know which are your faves.

LOSERS

Inseparable friends Elena, Koko, Patso, and Gosho are high school students in a small provincial town in Bulgaria. They mockingly call themselves ‘losers’ as a self-deprecating reference to the society at large. Hapless Koko is in love with rebellious Elena, who harbors hopes of becoming a singer. When a rock band of traveling musicians comes to town things get complicated, giving birth to new love affairs, disappointments, and realizations that come with growing up. In the great ensemble cast Elena Telbis and Ovanes Torosyan shine.

First screened in the U.S. at SEEfest 2016 and picked up for distribution by Synergetic Films. Directed by Ivaylo Hristov. Main cast: Elena Telbis, Ovanes Torosyan, Georgi Gotsin

LOSERS is available on Amazon.

BRASSLANDS

Wild, riotous brass music draws tens of thousands of people each year to a tiny Serbian village of Guča for the largest brass band competition festival in the world. The performers highlighted in the film include an American brass band from New York, named ’Zlatne Uste,’ and a veteran Serbian trumpeter returning to the festival to defend his status as a reigning champion. Screened at SEEfest 2014.

Directed by: Meerkat Collective – Adam Pogoff, Bryan Chang, Jay Arthur Sterrenberg. Featuring: Demiran Cerimovic, Dejan Petrovic, ‘Zlatne Uste’ Balkan Brass Band.

BRASSLANDS is available on Amazon Prime.

BALCONY

Shot in one continuous take, this hilarious and many-times awarded short film from Kosovo is a finely crafted study of human nature and capacity for ‘much ado about nothing.’ Screened at SEEfest 2014.

Directed by Lendita Zeqiraj. Main Cast: Arben Bajraktaraj, Sevdai Radogoshi, Osman Ahmet.

BALCONY is available on Amazon Prime.

HALF SHAVED

In post-communist Romania, a barber recognizes his former torturer as his latest customer. What ensues is a reverse cat-and-mouse situation with barber holding the razor in his hand. Screened at SEEfest 2014.

Directed by Bogdan Muresanu. Main cast: Victor Rebengiuc, Michel Horatiu Bob, Alexandru Georgescu.

HALF SHAVED is available on Amazon Prime.

A STEP INTO THE DARKNESS

Shot on location under extremely dangerous conditions in Iraqi cities of Arbil and Mosul, and in Adiyaman, Urfa, and Istanbul, Turkey, the film follows a young woman, the sole survivor of a US-led operation against insurgents in her village in US-occupied Iraq. She is rescued by the members of a radical Islamist organization and brought to Istanbul, where she is groomed by a charismatic religious figure to carry out his devastating plan. The Film screened at SEEfest 2010.

Directed by Atil İnaç. Main cast: Suzan Genc, Selen Ucer, Serdal Genc, Rana Cabbar, Selim Bayraktar.

A STEP INTO THE DARKNESS is available on Google play.

SUPERMAN, SPIDERMAN OR BATMAN

A young boy goes on a journey with his worried father. Like the titular comic books superheroes, he too wishes to save his mother suffering from a heart condition. Screened at SEEfest 2013.

Directed by Tudor Giurgiu. Main cast: Zsolt Bogdan.

SUPERMAN, SPIDERMAN OR BATMAN is available on Amazon Prime.

DINNER FOR FEW

In this acclaimed short animation, a dinner turns bloody in an allegorical depiction of the modern Greek society beset with economic troubles. Screened at SEEfest 2015.

Directed by: Nassos Vakalis.

DINNER FOR FEW is available on Amazon Prime.

You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!

Consider making a donation to SEEfest and taking advantage of the provisions in the COVID-19 stimulus package regarding charitable giving, specifically aimed at non-profits: Charitable Giving Tax Deduction The stimulus legislation lifts the existing cap on annual contributions for itemizers from 60 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) to 100 percent of AGI for contributions made in 2020.

Additionally, an “above-the-line” or universal charitable giving incentive for contributions made in 2020 of up to $300. This provision will now allow all non-itemizer taxpayers (close to 90% of all taxpayers) to deduct charitable contributions from their tax return, an incentive previously unavailable to them.

Click the donate button or send a check made out to the South East European Film Festival, and mail to 7119 W. Sunset Blvd., Unit 306, Los Angeles, CA 90046. Thank you!

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.

Enjoy SEEfest At Your Home – Part 2

Following enthusiastic responses to our news bulletin last week we continue with a second curated selection of hand-picked movies so you can enjoy SEEfest at home! Check out our previous recommendations in Part 1 here.

BLISS (Mutluluk)

Based on the international bestseller, and Barnes & Noble 2006 Discovery award for the author, the celebrated Turkish novelist, composer and prominent humanitarian Zülfü Livaneli, BLISS is one of the first films about honor killing. Filmed almost entirely on the beautiful lake locations in Eastern Turkey, BLISS follows Meriyem and Camal on a journey that brings both the traditional and modern faces of Turkey together. Joined by a disillusioned intellectual from Istanbul on his boat that goes nowhere, the two protagonists face head-on the ongoing argument between tradition and modernity. BLISS screened at SEEfest 2008.

Directed by Abdullah Oguz. Main cast: Talat Bulut, Özgü Namal, Murat Han.

BLISS is available on Amazon.

OF SNAILS AND MEN

The film is based on a true story of a union organizer who hatches a most unusual plan to buy the factory that is about to be sold to foreign investors. His plan involves a double love triangle and a sperm clinic, both of which put a strain on the machismo of the workers. OF SNAILS AND MEN screened at SEEfest 2013.

Directed by Tudor Giurgiu. Main cast: And Vasluianu, Monica Barladeanu.

OF SNAILS AND MEN is available on Amazon Prime.

A TOUCH OF SPICE

First Greek-Turkish co-production, the beloved Politiki Kouzina/A TOUCH OF SPICE tells the story of an ethnic Greek family uprooted from Istanbul in the turbulent 1960s when most Greek citizens were deported to Greece. As a young boy the main character used to spend time in his grandfather’s spice shop with the daughter of his family’s Turkish friends. Years later he goes back to revisit his childhood memories, and to find her.

Directed by Tassos Boulmetis. Main cast: Georges Corraface, Ieroklis Michaelidis, Renia Louizidou, Başak Köklükaya, Tamer Karadağlı.

A TOUCH OF SPICE is available on Amazon.

FUTURE LASTS FOREVER

Sumru is a university student researching Anatolian elegies in southeastern Turkey, with the help of a young street vendor Ahmet who sells bootleg movies. She is also trying to locate her missing Kurdish boyfriend. Sumru and Ahmet embark on a reflective journey through past and memory. The Film screened at SEEfest 2012. Directed by Özcan Alper. Main cast: Ersin Celik, Soner Alper.

FUTURE LASTS FOREVER is available on Amazon Prime.

Online archive of thousands of old European films

European Film Gateway is a terrific resource with “Hundreds of thousands of film historical documents – photos, posters, programmes, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials. Targeted at scientific researchers and the interested public alike, the EFG offers a look at and behind the scenes of filmmaking in Europe from the early days until today.” Browse and enjoy!

You have the power to keep international cinema in L.A.!

SEEfest is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public benefit arts organization supported by donations from people like you. Become a sustaining member and join a growing circle of patrons and fans. You can make a tax-deductible donation online through PayPal, and support a program of trailblazing films from 20 countries of South East Europe; sponsor a single screening, a salon-style event, or host a visiting filmmaker. Donate online here or mail a check made out to the South East European Film Festival, and mail to 7119 W. Sunset Blvd., Unit 306, Los Angeles, CA 90046. To contact the festival email us at [email protected]. We are deeply grateful for your support at this critical time!

SEEfest program and activities are supported, in part, by the California Arts Council, a state agency; Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Art and Culture; and presented with the support of the City of West Hollywood. For more info on WeHo Arts programming please visit www.weho.org/arts or follow via social media @WeHoArts. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.