Festivals: Hana Jušić and Salomé Jashi Win Top Awards In Belgrade and Zagreb

SEEfest Editorial | March 6 , 2017 — BELGRADE: Croatian Quit Staring at My Plate by Hana Jušić was awarded the Belgrade Victor for Best Film at the 45th Belgrade International Film Festival – FEST, while Serbia’s Requiem for Mrs. J by Bojan Vuletić was awarded Best Film in the National Competition program. 

ZAGREB: Georgian/German coproduction The Dazzling Light of Sunset by Salomé Jashi won the Big Stamp for Best Film in the International Competition of the 13th edition of ZagrebDox. 

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Serbian-American VR Wunderkind at Tribeca

Only a year ago at Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier did Milica Zec present a short narrative piece called “Giant.” By this Spring she, together with her partner, Winslow Turner Porter III, has become a fixture on the festival circuit with stops at Cannes and now Tribeca. At Tribeca Milica will present “Tree,” which premiered earlier this year.

“See and feel what it is like to become a tree in this haptically enhanced VR experience. With your arms as the branches and your body as the trunk, you experience the growth from a seedling to its fullest form, taking on its role in the majestic rain forest and witnessing its fate firsthand.”

If you live in New York City, don’t miss the opportunity to experience Milica’s work and meet her in person. She’s quite charming! 

More about the Virtual Arcade at Tribeca 

More about Milica Zec and TREE 

Consider joining our Cine-Fan membership program – enjoy members-only events and discounted passes and tickets during the annual Festival and throughout the year. JOIN today and become SEEfest Cine-Fan! 

SEEfest Hosting 2 Films at AFI Fest 2016

Vera Mijojlic | November 3, 2016, 12:28 PM

This year, SEEfest will be hosting two South East European films at the 2016 AFI Fest, Graduation and Death in Sarajevo. Both are fantastic films by phenomenally prominent South East European directors, and the SEEfest family could not be more proud to be associated with them at AFI this year.

The AFI Festival 2016 will be held at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood from November 10th-17th, and tickets are free on a first come first served basis.

GRADUATION (BACALAUREAT)

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu
Producer: Cristian Mungiu
Executive Producer: Tudor Reu
Director of Photography: Tudor Vladimir Panduru
Editor: Mircea Olteanu
Production Designer: Simona Pădurețu
Cast: Adrian Titieni, Maria Drăguș, Lia Bugnar, Mălina Manovici, Vlad Ivanov, Gelu Colceag, Rareș Andrici, Petre Ciubotaru

Romania, 2016
128 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section

When a doctor’s bright young daughter is assaulted the day before her final exams, he will do anything to make sure her scholarship to Cambridge isn’t jeopardized.

Romeo, a middle-aged doctor living in the Romanian city of Cluj, is faced with a brutal moral dilemma. His bright young daughter, Eliza, is on the cusp of receiving a scholarship to Cambridge — she just needs to ace her final exam to secure her placement at the prestigious British university. When Eliza is assaulted the day before her exam, suddenly the likelihood of her passing the test with flying colors grows dim. Desperate to see his daughter leave the corrupt and dysfunctional Cluj and start a life of opportunity in the UK, Romeo begins the precarious dance of pulling strings around town with various higher-ups to make sure Eliza receives the marks she needs. Romanian master and AFI FEST alum Cristian Mungiu again crafts a deft, slow-burn social thriller that exposes the diseased nature of the system and how it infects everyone operating within it. With Mungiu’s signature long takes, and a finely modulated performance by Adrien Titieni as Romeo, GRADUATION is a film not only about corruption but also the grey areas of parenting and family striving. — Beth Hanna

DEATH IN SARAJEVO (SMRT U SARAJEVU)

Director: Danis Tanović
Screenwriter: Danis Tanović
Producer: Francois Margolin, Amra Bakšić Čamo
Director of Photography: Erol Zubčević
Editor: Redžinald Šimek
Production Designer: Mirna Ler
Music: Mirza Tahirović
Cast: Jaques Weber, Snežana Vidović, Izudin Bajrovic, Vedrana Seksan, Muhamed Hadžović, Faketa Salihbegović-Avdagić, Edin Avdagić, Aleksandar Seksan

France l Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016
85 min.
Feature
World Cinema Section

Director Danis Tanović turns the luxurious Hotel Europa in the heart of Sarajevo into an ideological battleground in this Silver Bear winner out of the Berlinale.

In 1914, a Serbian man named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, kicking off the chain of events that led to World War I. One hundred years later, during a centennial commemoration of those events, Academy Award®-winning director Danis Tanović turns the luxurious Hotel Europa in the heart of Sarajevo into an ideological battleground. As visiting luminaries arrive for the ceremony, a looming hotel-worker strike pits a furious staff against management’s underhanded cronies, while elsewhere, arguments about the region’s turbulent history of violent conflict — beginning with Princip’s fateful act — threaten to reach a dangerous boiling point. Tanović’s sublimely fluid camera glides through every corner of the expansive hotel, breathlessly capturing the escalating tensions with virtuosic panache. The film, a potent reminder that our unstable present has deep roots in the past, won the Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. — Mike Dougherty

Support international cinema in Los Angeles and new film talent from South East Europe. Donate here!

California Arts Council “Grant Season” is Underway!

SEEfest Staff Writer | November 3, 2016, 12:22 PM

We at SEEfest are one of many arts organizations in California receiving support from the California Arts Council. Hundreds of organizations and schools are able to do arts programming thanks to this support. We are very excited to share the news about current new grant opportunities and hope that some of our colleagues in the arts anywhere in our state will apply and hopefully get the funding for their programs.

Open Programs

The following grant programs are currently accepting applications as of 11/1/2016:

ARTISTS ACTIVATING COMMUNITIES: Up to $18,000 for artist residencies in community settings.

LOCAL IMPACT: Up to $18,000 for arts projects in underserved communities.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONSULTING: $1,000–$5,000 for capacity-building professional development or consulting projects for arts organizations.

STATEWIDE AND REGIONAL NETWORKS: Up to $30,000 to support culturally-specific, multicultural, and discipline-based statewide and regional arts networks and services organizations.

57th Annual Thessaloniki Film Festival Begins This Week

SEEfest Staff Writer | November 1, 2016, 4:06 PM

This week kicks off the 57th Annual Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece. The festival is held at the Olympion Theater- a magnificent piece of architecture which was built in the 1920’s and sits in the center of the city. Every year hundreds of films are shown at the festival, and this year introduces new program sections and welcomes three films of the Official Competition of the European Parliament’s Lux Prize.

It’s a special festival that’s consistently celebrated much talent over the years. Among this talent is Dimitri Kerkinos who has been showcasing Balkan cinema for years, and consistently brings selections of the SEE region’s finest films to the TIFF audience.

Below, you will find info from TIFF on the Balkan Survey program:

BALKAN SURVEY

For 23 years the Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s Balkan Survey section, curated by Dimitri Kerkinos, has been showcasing the best samples of the Balkan area’s film production. A variety of film genres and styles coupled with a genuinely engaging approach of contemporary issues describe this year’s Balkan offerings. The 57th TIFF Balkan Survey also celebrates the work of Turkish auteur Zeki Demirkubuz by presenting -for the first time internationally- a full retrospective of his films. The filmmaker will be in Thessaloniki to introduce his work to the Festival’s audience.

 

Directors in attendance also include Cristi Puiu (Romania), Paul Negoescu (Romania), Reha Erdem (Turkey), Bariş Kaya (Turkey), Faton Bajraktari(UNMI Kosovo), Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu (Moldavia) and Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria), whose new films will also be screened in the 57th TIFF.

 

Zeki Demirkubuz Tribute

“Sometimes I think that if it wasn’t for jail, I would not be a filmmaker.” -Zeki Demirkubuz

 

Pioneer of the new Turkish independent cinema Zeki Demirkubuz was born in Isparta, Turkey, in 1964. Following the 1980 military coup, his left-wing beliefs led him to prison for three years, at age 17. It was there that he found inspiration in the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and went on to create film characters born and bred in the Turkish society. Demirkubuz’s cinema is deeply existential and contemplative; it elegantly reflects class and sex discriminations with exceptional realism and sensitivity. His films are a multi-faceted examination of both the Turkish society and the human psyche.

 

Demirkubuz began his film career as assistant director to Zeki Ökten in 1986, and worked as such for various filmmakers until making his feature film debut Block C (1994), about a middle-class housewife struggling to escape from her boring life and society’s conflicting expectations of the role of women. The film established Demirkubuz’s style and themes. After this, he continued to work as an independent filmmaker writing his own original screenplays.

 

His second feature Innocence (1997) –a complex study of love, loss and human obsessions-, drew the attention of film critics and international audiences and redefined the melodrama genre, becoming also one of the most influential films in new Turkish cinema. The Third Page (1999) is a film about fate and moral dilemmas that evokes Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, featuring another handful of the director’s trademark marginalized characters. Demirkubuz’s “Tales of Darkness” trilogy masterfully explores guilt, morality and freedom in three riveting films: Fate (2001) –loosely based on Camus’ “The Stranger”-, Confession (2001) and The Waiting Room (2003), which features the director as protagonist. Destiny (2006) traces the characters of Innocence in their youth, introducing us to the chronicle of an unrequited love, where desire haunts everyone’s fate. The intense period drama Envy (2009) captures the darkest side of human emotions, unfolding a tale of beauty and ugliness, jealousy and lust. Inside (2012), a free adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground”, also delves into the abyss of the soul, focusing on a self-destructive man driven by hatred and revenge. Nausea (2015) is a character study of another disturbing male personality; an emotionless man (played by Demirkubuz himself) who loses his family and surrenders to apathy and meaningless affairs.

 

The director’s latest film Ember (2016) is another thorough, slow burning examination about a society trapped in the past, confirming once more why Demirkubuz is established as one of the most important filmmakers of the independent European cinema.

 

With the support of the Culture & Tourism Office of the Turkish Embassy in Athens:  

The Balkan Survey Films:

The Balkan Survey main program presents the latest and most notable works by renowned filmmakers of the region, as well as promising newcomers.

Cristi Puiu returns with Sieranevada (Romania’s official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film) and zooms in a family that reunites to honour their late patriarch in a meal which keeps getting postponed; people and conversations come and go, while secrets and truths emerge unexpectedly in this comedy/drama with surreal hues. Also from Romania, Bogdan Mirica’s gripping debut Dogs (FIPRESCI prize, Un Certain Regard – Cannes Film Festival) is a violent western about the story of a man who inherits his grandfather’s land in the countryside; soon he will brutally confront the local mafia, whose lord was his deceased relative. Set in 1937, in a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast, Radu Jude’s latest film Scarred Hearts -based on the autobiographical novel from Max Blecher-, is an intriguing drama about a young man suffering from bone tuberculosis; he quickly becomes part of the hospital’s microcosm, where friendship, love and politics thrive despite the circumstances. On a lighter tone, Paul Negoescu’s comedy Two Lottery Tickets is an entertaining road movie in which three friends set off on a journey to retrieve their lost lottery ticket.

 

Serbian actress Mirjana Karanović makes her directorial debut with the film A Good Wife, where she also stars as the main character; a woman who is devastated to discover that her husband is involved in horrific war crimes.

Reha Erdem’s modern fairytale Big Big World, filled with both beauty and violence, shares the story of a brother and a sister who flee into a dazzling forest after a crime is committed (Special Jury Prize, Venice Horizons-Venice Film Festival). Mehmet Can Mertoğlu’s first feature Album is an irrational comedy that reflects upon the contemporary Turkish society through the story of a couple who try to conceal that they adopted a child (France 4 Visionary Award, Semaine de la Critique-Cannes Film Festival). In Bariş Kaya and Soner Caner’s bittersweet debut Rauf, a young boy embarks on a journey in search of pink fabric for the girl he loves, facing the hardships of the adult world, amidst a turbulent socio-political situation.

 

An honest man becomes the pawn of a PR plan organized and executed by the government, in Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Glory; a poignant, tragicomic  satire about politics and corruption.

 

Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu’s Anishoara observes the life of a teenage girl who falls in love for the first time; an almost silent and truly captivating coming-of-age story, set in the ravishing Moldavian countryside, a place forgotten in time.

 

Two films of the Balkan Survey section delve into the aftermath of the war. In Zrinko Ogresta’s On the Other Side, a traitor who fought for “the other side” reappears and disrupts his family’s balances in this powerful psychological drama with exemplary script and plot twist (Label Europa Cinemas – Special Mention-Berlin Film Festival / Croatia’s official Oscar submission). Faton Bajraktari’s debut film Home Sweet Home points to the absurdity of the post-war society by unfolding the story of a man considered dead in battle; when he suddenly returns to his family, he realizes that their prosperity relies exclusively on his death (UNMI Kosovo’s official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language film).

 

In addition, the Balkan Survey section of the 57th TIFF will present 5 short films that skilfully tackle with various significant themes, such as the refugees issue (A New Home by Žiga  Virc), gender (Transition by Milica Tomovic) and father-son relations (The Beast by Miroslav Sikavica, The Son by Hristo Simeonov), but also shed a humorous light on modern Balkan living (A Night in Tokoriki by Roxana Stroe).

Support international cinema in Los Angeles and new film talent from South East Europe. Donate here!

Cinema Under Siege – UC Berkeley, 10/7/16

SEEfest Staff Writer | October 20, 2016, 2:11 PM

SEEfest’s friend Fareed Ben-Youssef, Chancellor Fellow in PhD Program in Film & Media at UC Berkeley, coordinated a lovely event earlier this month: “Cinema Under Siege: The Sarajevo Film Festival and the Question of Curatorial Responsibility.” It was held on UC Berkeley’s campus on October 7th, 2016, and attracted a very successful turn-out.

The event included a discussion with Elma Tataragic, a successful programmer who worked on the Sarajevo Film Festival during wartime in the 1990’s and all subsequent 21 iterations. This was followed by a screening of The Diplomat, a reflective documentary about the life of former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, directed by his son, David Holbrooke, who was present for a Q&A following the film.

Thought provoking and all too rare are these discussion of cinema and curation as art forms which carry with them a unique type of accountability. This event touched upon just that and much more in what was surely a thoughtful evening of audience participation and artistic reflection.

Here, in Fareed’s own words, is a review:

We began the evening with Elma’s discussing everyday life during the Siege as well as the urge to preserve a sense of normalcy. Then, she detailed the history of the film festival’s first iteration and considered the question of her curatorial responsibility to the city and its history. The audience asked her to further elaborate on her feelings leaving the city during festival preparation (which sparked an account of how she longed to return to Sarajevo) as well as her thoughts on cinema as a mode of grieving and healing.

 

David Holbrooke opened The Diplomat with a passage from Ambassador Richard Holbrooke’s biography wherein he described his less-than-ideal time at UC Berkeley in the sixties – I think Holbrooke the Younger had a much more positive experience!

 

The Q+A with David touched on the question of cinema as a tool of diplomacy as well as his experiences in Sarajevo during the festival. The audience asked for further elaboration on how he visualized the grind of negotiation and another student interested in the diplomacy posed a question on the problem of ambition.

 

Following the event, audience members spoke very highly of the proceedings, especially citing the valuable contextual work that Elma brought to the film. In short, it was a fascinating evening! See the attached photos. Please feel free to share any and all.

Fareed Ben-Youssef is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Film and Media at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his BA in English Literature with a Film Concentration from Princeton University and his master’s degree in the Film Studies Program in the department of Rhetoric at Berkeley. His dissertation, Visions of Power: Violence, the Law, and the Post-9/11 Genre Film, is concerned with specific moments where genre films (the Western, Film noir, and the Superhero film) disrupt a public discourse shaped by Manichean divisions. His conclusion examines international genre films to show how these texts articulate regional concerns and reflect on the ways in which their respective governments have responded to America’s global War on Terror. Aware of the cross-sections, slippages, and conflicts that exist within the ongoing dialogue between Hollywood entertainment and political discourse in the creation of competing visions of power, his study frames genre as a contested critical site—one of equal interest to politicians and to resistant filmmakers. Vacillating between wielders of state power and its victims, he ultimately shows how genre can serve as an invaluable mode of human rights critique. 

Support international cinema in Los Angeles and new film talent from South East Europe. Donate here!

Transformation in the Asylum

Catharine Christof | October 11, 2016, 10:57 AM

Il Dolce Theater Company at Highways Performance Space presents: “The Colonel and The Birds.” Written by Hristo Boytchev. Directed by Neno Pervan.

For me – and I think for many of us – the theatre has to prove its worth by being something genuinely extraordinary. Something that means that if I do choose to leave the comfort of my home (sofa) that I’ll have a real opportunity to engage with something so vital and alive visceral that my opinions and beliefs are at risk of being changed. Last night, I wasn’t disappointed. Il Dolce’s production of The Colonel and the Birds – currently playing at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica was a piece of total theatre. It’s apparently one of the better-known plays of Bulgarian playwright, Hristo Boychev (I’d never heard of him – but I have every reason to believe the director, Neno Pervan).

I was present at something that was utterly engrossing not just because of the insanity of the story (and the story about insane people), but because of the completely immersive world the ensemble created. Their bodies were involved, their minds, the whole of their vulnerable beings were there – in front of me. The result was an experience that not only made me question my biases about madness (cultural? personal?), but also made me feel deep compassion for those that are the “left behind.” We’re all painfully aware of the horrors that war wreaks on civilians. But what about those who can’t take care of themselves? What happens to them? And what about those whose infirmities – for whatever reason – are in their minds?

Il Dolce Theatre Company’s production is not a dance piece – but it demands such total physicality from its actors that it became like a choreographed piece of insane reality. Getting the most out of the evening actually came down to a choice that I had to make. Because, at first I really didn’t want to engage with these insane creatures, stranded in the Balkans and stranded in their own minds. But the physicality of the actors, to a man and to a woman (and also to a man-woman), and the sheer virtuosity of their total commitment forced me to care about them. As the differences between the characters fell away scene by scene, so too did my own barriers to caring about them. And they – the most unlikely team of the war-damaged, war deranged and forgotten creatures –touched me.

The performances are worth mentioning for the virtuosity and the total immersion of the actors. It was truly an ensemble piece – led by the deeply charismatic Ian Salazar as the Colonel, encouraging transformation for the inmates with applied military precision. In no particular order, other performances worth mentioning include: Cameron Kauffman as Titch. Kaufman is utterly engaging, trapped in her own childlike and apparently innocent madness, but willing to play along with everyone else’s story. Lauren Elyse Buckley’s sexy nymph Meral required – and delivered – a sense of whole body engagement. Katie Robbins’ Mata Hari wields a potently aggressive sexy power – as if she’d been running the show for ages – that is, until the Colonel wakes up. Annalisa Cochrane’s Nina is trapped in her own Chekhovian nightmare. Cochrane does a wonderfully sensitive take on the ethereal loop-tape of an actress condemned to always deliver the same story and the same lines. Irish Giron’s Teresa is an extraordinary, clear and compassionate vision of transgender insanity. In Giron’s work, Teresa’s centre of gravity has shifted so high in his body that we get a visceral sense of the history that he/she might have been running from, and additional nuances further suggest why he/she would choose to “become” a nun. Alexa Vellanoweth’s Doctor, might be the sane one, but she too is trapped in her mind and in her own version of hellish reality. The Doctor’s honesty from early on in the play does make us wonder who she really was before the war. Vellanoweth’s honesty as a performer gives this an even richer framing, and her clear and direct addresses to the audience help frame the changing picture of reality.

When the Colonel’s vision for activity sets off a transformation in the asylum, ultimately the characters find more in common with each other than that which had previously separated them. That shared vision creates a bond – and a space that allows for us to share in some of that transformative journey too.

The Colonel and The Birds – Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica.
October 7th to October 30th. Friday and Saturday at 8pm & Sunday matinees at 3pm. For tickets & directions, go to highwaysperformance.org.

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New Grant from the California Arts Council

SEEfest Staff Writer | July 7, 2016, 12:176 PM

On July 7, 2016 California Arts Council announced their grant awards to 712 non profit organizations, and SEEfest is proud to again be one of the recipients. Congratulations to all our colleagues statewide. We share this recognition with our supporters and many individual donors and volunteers. We look forward to a great 12th edition of the festival in 2017. Kudos to California Arts Council and the state legislators for supporting the arts! THANK YOU.

The California Arts Council’s competitive grant programs are administered through an open call for applications with all submissions adjudicated by peer review panels made up of experts from the arts field.

A Fiscal Year 2015-16 permanent state budget increase allowed the California Arts Council to award the largest number of grants provided by the state agency in 14 years.

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SEEfest 2015 Awards

Vera Mijojlic | May 8, 2015, 9:08 PM

SEEfest 2015 Awards

After eight days and 47 films shown to diverse audiences in Los Angeles, the 10th anniversary South East European Film Festival, SEEfest 2015 concluded Thursday night with an awards gala presentation at The Mark.

Director Tudor Jurgiu from Romania won Bridging the Borders award for Best Feature Film of the festival for his debut film, The Japanese Dog. Special Jury Mention went to Croatian filmmaker Tomislav Mršić for his debut film, Cowboys, and Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble Cast was awarded to Albanian feature Bota, co-directed by Iris Elezi and Thomas Logoreci.

Down the River by Asif Rustamov from Azerbaijan won the Best First Feature award. Two narrative documentaries shared the Best Documentary Award, The Undertaker by Dragan Nikolić from Serbia, and Romania’s Flowers in the Shadows by Belgian director Olivier Magis.   Awards for Best Cinematography went to Bulgarian Rat Poison director of photography Krasimir Andonov (feature film), and Dragan Vildović (documentary film) for his work in In the Dark from Serbia.

In the shorts category Strahinja Savić from Serbia won Best Short Fiction award for Nine Days, Alexandr Baev’s Once Upon Another Time from Georgia won for Best Documentary short, and Anton Octavian from Romania won Best Animation Short award for Elmando.

Winners of 2015 Audience Award were Albanian Bota (feature film), and Serbian In the Dark (narrative documentary).

The 2015 Juries included AFI faculty member and industry veteran Barry Sabath, filmmaker Mimi Freedman, Sundance associate programmer for international feature films Heidi Zwicker, actresses-turned-directors Christina Beck and Christiane Georgi, director of the cinematheque and the Frida cinema Logan Crow, filmmakers Guido Santi, Tina Mascara, John Fitzgerald Keitel, Jay Miracle, filmmaker and director of the Echo Park Film Center Paolo Davanzo, director of the Villa Aurora artist residence Margit Kleinman, Oscar-winning filmmaker and designer Arnold Schwartzman, filmmaker and cinematographer Roger Staub, and visual artist, designer and educator Jerry W. McDaniel.

Support international cinema in Los Angeles and new film talent from South East Europe. Donate here!

Volunteer Spotlight: Nick Bergen

SEEfest Staff Writer | April 5, 2015, 10:47 AM

Nick Bergen is a musician and composer for visual and interactive media. A recent graduate of Berklee College of Music, he has extensive experience in arranging and producing music and has written and produced music for mobile games, advertisements, and television.