SEEfest At Home – Spotlight on Short Films, An Inventor and An Acrobat
The clock is ticking…SEEfest 2020 ends it’s run on August 16
With the festival halfway through, make sure you use your passes within the next 14 days! Once we hit Aug 16, our online edition will no longer be available. So get your pass and popcorn, and spend the night with three police units patrolling the capital in Stephan Komandarev’s Rounds (Bulgaria), revisit history in Croatian Schindler’s List-type story, The Diary of Diana B. about the unsung heroine of WWII, follow an orphan’s journey to her long-lost family in Come Find Me (US/Romania) and meet the first-ever indigenous Roma woman to graduate from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in the Bulgarian documentary My Gypsy Road.
Get your movie travel pass to South East Europe!
The flamboyant inventor, and an old-fashioned acrobat
The Century of Dreams protagonist invented the perfume spray bottle, the plastic zipper, the lighter with a side-button and 400 other patents, was also among the first airbag developers and managed to socialize with movie stars in Monte Carlo. A very different man is the subject of Greek documentary Spiros and the Circle of Death, a throwback to an older, dying art of motorcycle death-rides and family tradition of circus acrobats.
Spotlight on short films: nature, politics, techno absurd, sci-fi, and more!
Spend some time with the poetic and powerful ode to nature Then Comes the Evening (Serbia/Bosnia Herzegovina), devastating political satire Zimnicea (Romania), laugh-out-loud Best Game Ever (Hungary), and Two (USA/Turkey) which tips its hat to sci-fi fans. Each of our three program blocks with diverse short vignettes offers plenty to explore.
SUPPORT SEEFEST
If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!
FRIENDS OF SEEFEST
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 Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.
Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!
Movie Marathon at Your Home
A movie marathon curated for movie lovers: Legacy, Zana, Omar and Us, and Open Door
Fans of genre films will find a lot to be appreciated in Dorian Boguta’s debut feature gem Legacy, an atmospheric psychological thriller from Romania with Teodor Corban in the role of the world-weary detective, crime genre’s iconic character.
Two SEEfest jury award-winners: Kosovo’s Zana, by newcomer Antoneta Kastrati and starring the captivating Adriana Matoshi as the troubled survivor; and Turkey’s refugee saga Omar and Us by the directing duo Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er.
Another strong debut comes from Albania’s Florenc Papas whose women-centric Open Door journeys into a patriarchal society by staying firmly focused on the inner world of its women.
Get your movie travel pass to South East Europe!
The epic wind Bora of Northern Adriatic and Turkey’s Queen Lear
These two films shared SEEfest 2020 Jury award for Best Documentary, and it is easy to see why: Bora, Story about a Wind follows the eponymous gale around the intersection of cultures in Northern Adriatic, while Queen Lear takes us to rural Turkey where local women take part in the production of Shakespeare’s play with their own twist. Both films are blowing much-needed laughter into the cinematic sails and regaling us with entertaining and uplifting stories.
Buy festival PASS to these, and other movies HERE.
Poetry behind SEEfest 2020 film: Pumpkin on the hot roof of the world
Celebrated Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun (1941-2014), ‘a leading figure of postwar neo-avant-garde poetry in Central Europe and internationally acclaimed absurdist,’ is the subject of the documentary film featured at SEEfest 2020 – Pumpkin on the hot roof of the world: Poetry and the Eternal Life of Tomaž Šalamun. He believed passionately in the power of poetry to liberate the human spirit, and so do we.
Nine of Šalamun’s books of poetry have been translated into English. He lived in the U.S. for a while, exhibited his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and taught at the University of Pittsburgh.
Watch this entertaining cinematic portrait that bridges Central Europe and America through world-class poetry.
SUPPORT SEEFEST
If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!
FRIENDS OF SEEFEST
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 Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.
Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!
Get the Festival Pass to all SEEfest 2020 films!
Full-scale SEEfest 2020 program is live!
Are you ready to binge-watch the 2020 selection of new films from South East Europe? Travel with movies to a region where diversity and entangled histories lend rich material to filmmakers of all stripes. From WWII dramas to intense chamber pieces, movies about the wind – or Shakespeare plays starring women from rural Turkey; sci-fi political satire, and comic retelling of a marriage headed for divorce. These films take you to remote villages and the pains of acting auditions, atmospheric police procedural, and corporate takeovers of inner-city neighborhoods.
Movies are indeed a great way to travel, especially to a region with dozens of mostly small countries that are still the least known part of Europe for most Americans. Travel with SEEfest pass and visit South East Europe! Note: Available only to patrons in the U.S. All films with English subtitles.
TAKE THE JOURNEY ONLINE AND BUY FESTIVAL PASS
Book recommendation: An Armenian Sketchbook, by Vasily Grossman
Discover Armenia from the early 1960s in this wonderful account by Grossman, whose astute observations on human nature are uncannily applicable to our own times. The book is entertaining, a fast read, gripping, philosophical, and intimate, all at the same time. A major 20th-century writer, Grossman wrote about the WWII horrors as well as the horrors of the Stalinist era. His sketchbook on Armenia is a short-form masterpiece and an excellent introduction to Grossman’s other works.
An Armenian Sketchbook is available on Amazon.
Films from Yugoslavia’s storied cinematic past at Cannes Classics 2020:
Two unforgettable films from ex-Yugoslavia are included in this year’s Cannes Classics: Who’s Singing Over There? (1980, Serbia) by Slobodan Šijan; and The Ninth Circle (1960, Croatia) by France Štiglic. Hungarian 1968 Upthrown Stone by Sándor Sára is also featured in the selection, as well as two more Eastern European films: Polish The Hourglass Sanatory (1973) by Wojciech J. Has, and Russian July Rain (1966) by Marlen Khutsiev.
This year’s program will be shown, in whole or in part, by the festival Lumière in Lyon (October 10-18, 2020) and by the Rencontres Cinématographiques de Cannes (November, 23-26, 2020).
Cannes Classics 2020 complete selection can be found HERE.
SUPPORT SEEFEST
If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!
FRIENDS OF SEEFEST
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 Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.
Follow SEEfest on Instagram and Facebook where we post SEE news as it happens!
SEEfest Launches 15th Edition Online July 15 – August 16, 2020
The 15th annual South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles (SEEfest), postponed in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic, announced the official launch of its 2020 edition which will run from July 15 – August 16, at the dedicated online outlet (athome.seefilmla.org).
“After months of incredible work by our very own dream team, the 2020 festival is happening online,” said Vera Mijojlic, Founder and Director of SEEfest. “It was truly a heroic effort. We battled technical issues, filmmakers reluctance, and lots of night time work – but we did it.”
In a joint statement the SEEfest Board of Directors noted, “While many other festivals have completely canceled their 2020 editions, SEEfest has not only kept up its programming, but managed to produce the full festival on one of the top software platforms in the world which serves the likes of Cannes, American Film Market, and Hollywood studios.”
The 2020 festival edition, SEEfest’s 15th annual, features a rigorously curated program of 57 films highlighting the cinematic expressions of South East Europe’s cultural diversity across twenty countries.
North American premieres in the program include, among others, three remarkable debuts: Romania’s Legacy, a rare psychological thriller from the country known for its trailblazing new wave cinema; Kosovo’s haunting story about motherhood and struggles with war times traumas in Zana; and mother-daughter story about aging in the modern world, Pilate, an adaptation of the novel by the celebrated Hungarian writer, Magda Szabó.
Also on the program are Bulgarian My Gypsy Road whose heroine is the first-ever Roma woman to graduate from the Academy of Dramatic Arts; and Bora, Stories of a Wind, a visually magnificent parable about freedom paying a poignant tribute to the multi-ethnic intersection of Slavic, Italian, and Germanic cultures in the Northern Adriatic.
All program information and links are published here.
Festival passes and individual tickets are available at https://athome.seefilmla.org/.
About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest)
SEEfest presents cinematic and cultural diversity of South East Europe to American audiences and creates cultural connections through films, artistic and social events. 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 Arts and Culture; and by an Arts Grant from the City of West Hollywood. Special thanks to ELMA Foundation, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for their continued support of our programs.
Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 6
Missed the Salon? Watch the Video!
The video of our 2020 Cultural & Literary Salon, Boundaries of Belonging, is now available online. If you like wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating conversation, we invite you to join in by posting your comments, suggestions, and critique!
Congratulations to all Accelerator filmmakers, with our thanks to panelists and actors
The 2020 SEEfest Accelerator for new projects in development concluded on May 3rd, after two weeks and seven sessions. Huge thanks to industry advisors and talented actors for their contributions.
We are proud of our Accelerator alumni from the past four years who have successfully completed one feature film and one narrative documentary, one short animation with a feature animation in development, and three docs currently in post-production. We hope 2020 participants will follow a similar path!
Films from SEEfest Archives
We pay tribute to a great friend of SEEfest, the late Albanian writer/director Artan Minarolli whose film ALIVE! screened at SEEfest 2010 and was subsequently Albania’s Oscar submission. A carefree Albanian student gets drawn into an ancient gjakmarrja, or blood feud when he returns to his native village for his father’s funeral. This fascinating drama considers how deeply the traditions of one’s forebears can affect one’s life. Lead actor, Nik Xhelilaj , was one of the actors named European Shooting Stars at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.
Here are links to the previous SEEfest At Your Home posts: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
You can now deduct 100% of your contribution in 2020!
If you like our programming orientation and the cultural mission of SEEfest, consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!
Friends of SEEfest
Laemmle, Lumiere Cinema, The Frida Cinema, and New Filmmakers L.A. each offer a wide variety of films for you to stream online.
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.
Boundaries of Belonging: Culture, Identity, and Narrative in South East Europe – Video
The 2020 edition of SEEfest officially began on April 22, 2020, with the Cultural and Literary Salon, our now traditional pre-festival event. A wide-ranging discussion covered many aspects of this year’s festival theme, Boundaries of Belonging.
We paid tribute to Fellini’s centennial and his magical cinematic universe, announced the upcoming BRIDGES book about the cultural bridges of South East Europe, touched on the French 1920’s famous court case that still challenges our conceptions of identity, and discussed minority cultures and language as homeland.
The presentation also gave SEEfest viewers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the 3D design work on Black Panther, a film that featured an altogether imagined universe.
Our panelists questioned the limits of art in expressions of difference—cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and political—to consider how historical processes shape our understanding of self in an increasingly hybrid world.
The Panelists
Julia Koerner, Designer
Julia Koerner is an award-winning Austrian designer working at the convergence of architecture, product, and fashion design. She is internationally recognized for design innovation in 3D-Printing, Julia’s work stands out at the top of these disciplines.
Thomas Harrison, UCLA Professor
Thomas Harrison is a professor in the UCLA Department of Italian. He is the author of the seminal book 1910. His research focusses especially on Italy and Austria, and the region of Trieste and northern Adriatic from 1860 to the present.
David Shafer, CSULB Professor
David Shafer is a specialist in modern French history, with an emphasis on cultural history and a secondary interest in the history of former Yugoslavia. His most recent book is a biography of Antonin Artaud.
Nina Bjekovic, UCLA Ph.D. Candidate: Moderator
Nina Bjekovic specializes in 19th and 20th-century Italian culture and literature, with an upcoming doctoral dissertation, The Triestine Other: Negotiating Alterity in Claudio Magris, Boris Pahor, Giuliana Morandini, and Giorgio Pressburger.
This program is 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; and in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles.
SEEfest 2020 screens over 50 new films from South East Europe – features, documentaries, short and animation. SEEfest promotes cultural diversity, serves as the cultural hub for ex-pat independent artists and filmmakers, and creates opportunities for a lively cultural exchange.
#SEEfest2020
Enjoy SEEfest at Your Home – Part 5
The pre-festival events that launched the 2020 SEEfest
The 2020 edition of SEEfest officially began last week with the Cultural and Literary Salon, our now traditional pre-festival event. A wide-ranging discussion covered many aspects of this year’s festival theme, Boundaries of Belonging. We paid tribute to Fellini’s centennial and his magical cinematic universe, announced the upcoming BRIDGES book about the cultural bridges of South East Europe, touched on the French 1920’s famous court case that still challenges our conceptions of identity, and discussed minority cultures and language as homeland.
The presentation also gave SEEfest viewers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into the 3D design work on Black Panther, a film that featured an altogether imagined universe. Note: the video replay of the Salon will be posted online soon.
We are grateful for the support of the City of West Hollywood, the Instituto Italiano di Cultura Los Angeles, the Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, and UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies.
Concurrently SEEfest launched the 2020 series of workshops for this year’s participants of the festival’s industry platform, Accelerator for new projects in development. The second round of workshops took place towards the end of April, with 15 participants from Eastern Europe, Canada, and the U.S.
Thank you to European Languages and Movies in America (EMLA), Hollywood Foreign Press Association, International Documentary Association, Film & Ink, Synergetic, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, and the City of West Hollywood for their ongoing support of SEEfest programs.
Films from SEEfest Archives
Back in 2012, the festival traveled to Austin, Texas for a special presentation of the cinema of South East Europe – thanks to the legendary director of programming and one of the founding board members of the Austin Film Society, Chale Nafus. It was an honor to be included in his long-running signature series, Essential Cinema. Some of the films SEEfest presented can be viewed on Prime Video. Here are links to the previous SEEfest At Your Home posts: Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3, and Part 4.
Friends of SEEfest
Laemmle, Lumiere Cinema, The Frida Cinema, and New Filmmakers L.A. each offer a wide variety of films for you to stream online.
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 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.
15th SEEfest Cultural and Literary Salon to Explore “Boundaries of Belonging”In South East Europe
The 15th annual South East European Film Festival (SEEfest) running April 29-May 6 in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, announced today the theme for the 2020 Cultural and Literary Salon: “Boundaries of Belonging: Culture, Identity, and Narrative in South East Europe.”
The Salon will explore contemporary artistic approaches to identity, nostalgia, and narrative representation. Using the conflict-ridden history of South East Europe as a springboard for a wide-ranging discussion, a diverse panel of specialists will offer perspectives on past and current issues of belonging.
Panelists will question the limits of art in expressions of difference—cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and political—to consider how historical processes shape our understanding of self in an increasingly hybrid world.
The Cultural and Literary Salon will take place on April 15, 2020, at 7 PM at the West Hollywood Council Chambers at the West Hollywood Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069. RSVP Required. Tickets are free and can be reserved here.
This program is 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.
Festival passes will go on sale in March. Individual tickets will go on sale on March 16.
About the South East European Film Festival (SEEfest)
SEEfest presents cinematic and cultural diversity of South East Europe to American audiences and creates cultural connections through films, artistic and social events. 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 ELMA, Foundation for European Languages and Movies in America.