Mas y Mas June 2010

más ymás

monthly newsletter of NISI MASA

JUNE10

OPEN AIR CINEMA spotlight:

Nisimazine Cannes

special events:

cover: Cinema de la Plage, Festival de Cannes 2010. Photo by Damien Rayuela

Up (stairs) -Torino IMAGeIN’AIR and Iber Open Air Kosovo

agenda 4 - 12 JUNE

Malmö Doc Workshop

11 JUNE

21 JUNE

15 JUNE

1 JULY

Call for Participants Visions of Prague Call for Participants Istanbul Express

editorial The sun is finally coming back… It’s time to have a drink on a terrace… And what about watching a movie in the open air? Exciting, isn’t it..?! Open Air Cinema is not only a delicious way to enjoy a film, but it is more than ever a way to develop public cultural spaces and make cinema a popular and collective experience where people can think, talk, laugh, dream, and cry together. Because cinema is also a question of sharing and exchanging (with the audience, with the film, with different ways of directing, with different cultures, etc…)

Art and culture in the public space give many possibilities and opportunities to create and reinforce social links. In our individualistic society where people can watch a movie at home and where access to art and cultural places are still sometimes limited, open air cinema is more than needed.

Call for Participants Nisimazine Abu Dhabi Call for Participants Polyglot Video Contest

Preparing for Up (stairs): una notte sui tetti, Torino. Photo by Marco Rastello

maybe particularly where there is a lack of infrastructure and in transition countries. Like today in Kosovo after the war, cultural public spaces are needed to re-socialize the public space (pages 3 and 4).

Let’s give way to our imagination and creativity by exploring alternatives places for cinema: yes you can watch a movie on the roof! It is indeed a great way to enjoy movies! (page 3) . Yes it changes your way to watch movie and it now makes for a popular collective experience. And yes we need it.

And finally in this new Mas y Mas issue, we will have the chance to have feedback from our Nisimazine team that went to Cannes.

Don't forget that you can find all coverage on Nisimazine.eu!

Enjoy!

This is a political stand as Agustín Mango explains in his article about the Rotterdam Film Festival (page 5). We need to create new places for showcasing culture everywhere in Europe, and

by Clara Guillaud

Mas y Mas is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Coordination Clara Guillaud Adrien Lenoir Design Maartje Alders

Contributors to this issue: Charlotte Bohl, Blendar Cana, Olivier Croughs, Andreea Dobre, Cristina Grosan, Clara Guillaud, Lulzim Hoti, Agustín Mango, Marta Musso, Marco Rastello, Damien Rayuela.

NISI MASA (European Office) 99 Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010, Paris, France Tel/Fax: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

credits.

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dossier

Open Air Cinema

GO

OUT

SIDE!

UP (Stairs) : a night on the roofs TORINO, 3 June - 1 July 2010

Of all the places in a house you could watch a film, the roof is not exactly the first option that comes to mind. But apparently, it’s the coolest place to organize a screening these days.

It all started in New York City: Laura D’Amore, young event organizer and member of Franti, collaborated with Rooftop Film, which for 13 years has been screening independent films on the rooftops of the Big Apple. With friend and co-member Giorgia Bonfante, Laura decided to bring the event to Turin, in partnership with Rooftop. “Roofs are empty, unexplored places says Laura - They offer new landscapes, a whole new perspective on things. Watching a film on a roof is an adventure!”

Indeed, organizing it was not easy. “Roofs are not meant to host an audience. Most of them are not fit to host more than one or two people at a time and they often lack electricity or have pipes coming out. We even found an elementary

school with asbestos ridges! Also, we did not simply consider the technicalities: we looked for the highest roofs possible in different parts of the city. We want to give to the audience the most complete and new view possible”. All the films screened between June 3rd and the July 1st deal with new perspectives: the opening night, organized with the Environmental Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in Turin, is the best example.

Giorgia and Laura will definitely not stop at one set of roofs: “We won’t give up before the third edition is complete. Our dream is to have the format travelling in other cities, spreading the roof-habit all around the world”. After all, who can resist the idea of sneaking up to the roof of a house to watch the world from up there? And you get a film, too!

by Marta Musso (Franti) see all upcoming screening dates on page 7!

Open Air Cinema in Iber

Mitrovica, 2010

4th-8th

August

The Iber is known as a river which divides Albanian and Serb communities in Mitrovica. The area close to the bridge was under the control of KFOR military troops for 10 years. In 2009 for the first time an Open Air Cinema was organized on the riverside. In cooperation with Balkan Sunfllowers and Mitrovica Munici-

pality, the 7arte association established a screen near the bridge and invited citizens from both sides of the city to watch films over three days. Screenings were dedicated to youth, families and kids. On one night we screened European films and had interactive communication amongst audiences and local filmmakers.

This summer, our concept is already on the right path.

In cooperation with Zones IMAGeIN’AIR from Paris, we are looking forward to screening European and local films in Mitrovica. Last year we had around 300 people per night, this year we are expecting around 500 per night.

The screenings in Mitrovica will be held between the 4th and 8th of August. After screenings, local rock bands will perform for the audiences.

August will bring many screenings around Kosovo.

The international documentary and short film festival DOKU FEST will also start with three Open Air Cinemas.

The event takes place from 30th July- 7th of August in Prizren, Kosovo. (www.dokufest.com)

by Lulzim Hoti and Blendar Cana (7 ARTE) Contact: shtatearte@yahoo.com http://www.7-arte.org/web/

First screening night on the roofs of Torino, last thursday (3rd June). Photo by Marco Rastello

dossier

Open Air Cinema

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IMAGeIN’AIR FILM FESTIVAL

AN IMAGINARY ZONE MADE FOR YOUTH The IMAGeIN’AIR Film Festival in Gjilan/Gnjilane was created in 2009 by our NGO Zones IMAGeIN’AIR with the goal of creating a local cultural activity geared specifically towards young people. We have created this OPEN AIR festival in Kosovo to develop public spaces for new European young talents, and to contribute to the “re-socialization” of this public space.

Photo: Charlotte Bohl

Of over two millions inhabitants, more than 50% of Kosovo’s population is under 30. Ten years after the end of the war, and two years after its independence, Kosovo is a territory in the making, and youth offer a dynamic potential in this period of transition but the lack of economic, social and cultural activities renders the situation of young people particularly precarious. The consolidation of community and public cultural activities geared towards youth, and their sustainability, is a major issue and a challenge.

„Lebendkontrolle“ The choice of the open-air has been also moby Schewe tivatedFlorian by the local context, by the fact that

most Kosovan young people have an “outdoor culture”, that is, they tend to congregate in public places to meet and spend time with each other - like cafés or in the streets, etc. But if public spaces are very present in Kosovo, there isn’t much offer in terms of cultural activities and for Youth.

The main objective of the IMAGeIN’AIR festival is to create a local cultural activity for young people in Kosovo that promotes European cultural diversity, especially young creativity.

We want to develop public cultural spaces, to gather youth and create “imaginary zones” in the open air, where it is possible to confront imaginations, to exchange, discover, criticize, share, discuss, think, and dream. We believe that new places are needed in Kosovo and in Europe for showcasing culture, giving a voice to under-represented groups, furthering the goal of intercultural understanding, developing cultural public spaces… This is our political position. And we are definitively convinced that Cinema in Open Air reaches those goals.

Contrary to the city of Prishtinë/Pristina, which benefits from a relatively dynamic cultural life, the region of Gjilan/Gnjilane is marked by a lack of cultural activities and distribution infrastructure. Indeed,

there are only two cinema halls in Kosovo, located in the capital. There is a real gap between Prishtinë/Pristina and the other towns; peripheral and rural areas are often localities in the margin. This is also why cultural public places in Open Air are needed. The first edition of the festival was created in this context, and also with the desire of providing to a large audience a cultural alternative to the commercial film and to support independent filmmakers in a region where films primarily known and available on DVD are American blockbusters.

The festival is co-organized with local partners such as 7 ARTE (Kosovan NISI MASA member) who are “cinema activists” that believe that there is another cinema to promote in Europe, and that cultural public spaces are needed.

by Charlotte Bohl and Clara Guillaud (founders of the IMAGeIN’AIR Film Festival) Contact: Zones.imaginaires@gmail.com www.zonesimageinair.org

IMAGeIN’AIR film festival 2010 (2ND edition) from 24th to 29th July 2010 in Gjilan/Gnjilane

The festival showcases films made by young European filmmakers and is organized in partnership with different organizations from Kosovo, France and Germany.

Through broadcasting European films in the Open Air (European short and middle-length films, of any genre, with a special interest for films that address cultural and social issues such as street art, urban life, minorities, migration, neighbours, intercultural dialogue, dreams, youth etc…), we expect to reach large audiences, spread awareness and contribute to intercultural dialogue. The Festival will offer again the opportunity for local initiatives to organize events “around” the festival (such as concerts, theatre plays, etc).

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Open Air Cinema

dossier

Open air cinema; a political stand Last year, the Rotterdam Film Festival did something that changed the city’s landscape for ten days. The festival’s Size Matters section commissioned Guy Maddin, Carlos Reygadas and Nanouk Leopold to make three films that were screened on the facades of the tallest buildings in town. Cinema took over the skyscrapers, turning Rotterdam into a sort of City of Cinema with a Blade Runner feel to it (see right): huge images waving from up high, like huge holes on the buildings leading to a world of mystery and amazement. As it was placed over the buildings’ windows, the notion of the film screen being a different sort of window – one that lets us see into another dimension: fiction – was certainly there, showing Isabella Rossellini twitched on an electric chair in Guy Maddin’s disturbing short Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair a blend of S&M stag, Caligari, and Metropolis.

Speaking of Metropolis, Fritz Lang’s film recently had a huge role in the last Berlinale edition.

A never-seen-before, thought-to-be-lost full version of the film was discovered in Buenos Aires by film historian Fernando Martín Peña and Film Museum director Paula Félix-Didier. After being restored by the Murnau Foundation, it was presented in full splendor at a gala at the Friedrichstadt Palast opera house. However, as if the film was too powerful to be contained by red velvet curtains and an exclusive, tuxedowearing audience and needed to get out there to the people, a much more spectacular and relevant open air screening (a thousand spectators enduring the cold German winter) took place at the Pariser Platz. There, Metropolis came in contact with Berlin’s very own history

and architecture: the futuristic picture of a city placed over the Dorian and deeply meaningful set of the Brandenburg Gate.

Argentine journalist Javier Alcacer reported how the images seemed as if “they were coming out of an inter-dimensional gap that tore up the middle of the square”, and also noticed how locals were “proudly bragging about being able to showscreen that way such an important piece of film history”.

The link open air cinema establishes with large audiences and the location in which it is set, echoes the idea of public art. As its own very name describes, the idea of collective appreciation lies at the core of it. And although the formats one most often relates to this art form are more the likes of urban sculptures, happenings, and installations, cinema and its two dimensions can also (as it happened with the Brandenburg columns and Metropolis expressionist diagonal lines) articulate with public three-dimensional spaces.

As today the film watching experience finds itself more and more withdrawn into the privacy

of one’s own home, pushed back as it is by online downloading+home-theater+LCD TV situation, the industry is witnessing a slow tendency some extend to the point of pronouncing the future death of cinema as we know it; that is, as an art form thought to be enjoyed collectively (the return of the 3D format can actually be seen as a resource closer to desperate measure than a true technical and aesthetic step forward). If traditional screenings (i.e. in a movie theater) tend to act as a last stand against this process by maintaining its ritual quality, while placing cinema in a playful two-way tension with the scenery where is projected (in Rotterdam, Maddin noticed the street noises seemed to add new meanings to his silent short); the open air screenings sit at the extreme of the this stubborn rebellion against individualization. Thus, they become not so much a way of clinging on to an ancient régime, but a political stand for collective communion through art.

by Agustín Mango

news & screeni European Short Pitch 2011

Call for entries NISI MASA organises a call for scripts in the frame of European Short Pitch‘s project with the aim to support the development of young European short films to get their work produced in the framework of a European coproduction.

You must be between 18 and 28 years of age on the closing date of the call for scripts, 31/07/2010.

In each country where the call for scripts 2010 takes place, the local NISI MASA group will constitute a jury to proceed with the selection of from one to three scripts, which will be allowed to compete on an international level. NISI MASA will then form an international jury, consisting of two board members, one person of the European Office of NISI MASA, two established film professionals (producers, directors, scriptwriters, critics, etc.).

For more information, please visit: www.nisimasa.com

FEST TRAINING GROUND registration DEADLINE EXTENSION!

Training Ground will take place from the 22nd to the 27 of June in Espinho , Portugal , it is a place where filmmakers and film enthusiasts from all over the world gather in one week, to attend a deluxe training from workshops to master classes, lectured by industry top experts with recognized achievements. Participants will be able to interact with them in debates, small group sessions or even informally meeting and also to attend the screenings of FEST – International Youth Film Festival. Every filmmaker or film enthusiast is eligible for registering; you just need to have a genuine interest in the subject, an open spirit, and the will to learn. Exchange experience and knowledge with participants from all over the world!

Due to high demand registrations have been extended until 19th of June, and 30 further places have been added.

Register at : www.trainingground.fest.pt

Deadline: June 19th, 2010

FILMINI International Short Film Festival Call for entries

The 4th FILMINI International Short Film Festival will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 13 to 17 October 2010.

FILMINI Festival is the most important event in Bulgaria dedicated to short films. The particular character of the festival originates from its diverse competition programme, as well as from a range of accompanying events: tributes, workshops, master classes among others. A special focus of the festival is films coming from the Balkans.

For more information, please visit: http://www.filmini.org/en

Deadline: July 31st, 2010

EUROPEAN OFFICE NEWS The NISI MASA European Office in Paris announces the arrival of two new staff members: Esra Demirkiran from Turkey who will be our Deputy Director for the next 6 months, and Jass Seljamaa from Estonia who is making an internship as Communications Assistant until next January.

Welcome to both!

Kinopaname KinoPaname organises June 10th - June 12th a 48 hours Kabaret in Paris! This time, the topic is “cinéma de genre”.Directors, technicians, comedians, musicians, French or foreigners, professionals or amateurs: you'll have 48 hours develop a project. Action or adventure movies, western, Sci Fi every single genre can be chosen, you just have to pick one!

The event will take place at the Nouveau Latina: 20, rue du Temple, 75004 Paris. The kinolab (where you can shoot and edit your film)will be installed there.

For more information, please visit: www.kinopaname.org

ings

COMING SOON : ISTANBUL EXPRESS exploring multilingualism across Europe

I

n autumn, NISI MASA is organizing an ambitious, itinerant filmmaking workshop in 24 cities of Europe!

45 young participants (aged 18 – 30) will cross the continent by train, making short documentaries together, crossing the multiple borders and experiencing linguistic situations first-hand will be the best way to understand them.

Film crews will meet in Tallinn (Estonia), San Sebastian (Spain) and Turin (Italy) on the 20th of September, starting the journey and finally arriving Istanbul on the 10th of October. The 3 different trains will travel through Europe and stop at the following cities:

• • •

Tallinn / Helsinki/ Turku / Stockholm / Berlin / Prague / Bratislava / Bucharest /Istanbul San Sebastian/ Paris / Brussels / Amsterdam / Essen/ Vienna / Budapest / Sofia/ Istanbul Turin / Ljubljana / Zagreb / Pecs / Belgrad/ Skopje/ Thessaloniki/ Istanbul

Applications to participate as director, cinematographer and sound designer are opening on Tuesday 15th of June 2010!

The deadline to apply is Thursday 15th July 2010 NISI MASA members can also apply to be coordinators on the trains! Please check the application materials to be diffused soon.

ITALY

Multilingualism and travelling - two of the defining elements of the young “Euro-generation” - are the main themes of 2010-11 for NISI MASA! Watch out for another ambitious audiovisual project coming up very soon…

Please keep an eye on www.nisimasa.com!

The project is supported by the EU Central Finance and Contracts Unit Civil Society Dialogue – Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture.

UP (STAIRS) SCREENINGS, TORINO

11.06.10 - 21.30

23.06.10 - 21.30

La Belle Verte by Coline Serreau (France, 1996, 99')

Il Pasticcere by Alberto Antinori, Adolfo di Molfetta, Giulia Landi and Eugenio Laviola (Italy, 2009, 6’)

Location: Basic Village, C.so Regio Parco, 39

17.06.10 - 21.30 Scenes from Enigma by Jean Rouch, Alberto Chiantaretto, Marco Di Castri, Daniele Pianciola (Italy - France, 1986, 95') Peur(s) du noir by Blutch, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo (France, 2007, 85') Location: Villa Gualino, Viale Settimio Severo, 63

Il naturalista by Giulia Barbera, Gianluca Lo Presti, Federico Parodi, Michele Tozzi (Italy, 2007, 5’40’’) Followed by a screening of selected short films of NISI MASA Location: Roof at Piazza Vittorio

01.07.10 - 21.30 Giallo a Milano by Sergio Basso (Italia, 2009, 75') Location: Pista del Lingotto

Entrance is free for all projections (according to availability)

For more information, please visit: www.frantinisimasa.it

The 5-year-old toddler Nisimazine crawled back to its roots again, where the coffee and champagne freely flows: Cannes.

This year, with a record-breaking team of 13 young journalists from Romania, Belgium and France, not even the red carpet stayed untrampled by their eager feet. Read about the euphoria, anxiety, marvel and violence felt by two of our participants.

Photo: Andreea Dobre

NISIMAZINE CANNES 2010

spotlight

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(editors' note: even we were surprised by the structural similarities of their articles - and this time, it's nothing to do with us!)

Olivier Croughs (critic) - Belgium “Call for participants: We are seeking for applications from young aspiring film critics and photographers who would like to be part of our editorial team during the Cannes Film Festival …”. This is basically how I first heard from the NISI MASA network. As I actually am a young aspiring film critic, I decided to give it a try with no solid expectations.

Two weeks later, there was this almost forgotten answer written in bold, on the top of my mailbox: “Congratulations, you have been selected to be part of our team…”. I must say I am an impulsive person, and this news would surely be one of my triggers. Indeed, as soon as I really got the meaning of that mail, I turned into the most violent, and yet paradoxically happy beast one has ever seen. As a matter of fact, I almost destroyed everything and everyone that was in a 10 metre range around me. Let me put it that way: if I knew exactly what I was about to experience in Cannes at that very moment, I would be the most wanted homeless serial killer by now…

Nevertheless I was way behind the real thing. Yes; I had to deal with a cinephile accreditation which did not allow me to see whatever I wanted. Yes; I had to wait in line before entering a theatre; and yes; I mostly watched movies from the Critics ‘week and the Directors Fortnight but actually…there was strictly nothing to regret at all! In less than two weeks, I watched 15 movies, met awesome people to work, party and build a strong relationship with, drank I don’t know how many champagne glasses on a couple of yachts, took part in many official and unofficial cocktails on several terraces… It was the very first time I could successfully combine work and pleasure. You may think I am telling you a dream I never really lived and yes, you’re completely right. My Cannes journey was no more and no less than a dream I hardly can believe in now I am back home.

Photos: Cristina Grosan

I came in Cannes with the idea that I would train my writing skills, know a bit more about cinema and hopefully meet some good people. I came back with a lot more and I hope this won’t be the last time.

Andreea Dobre (critic) Romania

"This email brings you some good news": almost three months ago, I found out I was going to Cannes as a journalist. Being selected to write for the film Eden daily was a bit like from another reality: as a confused teenager searching for a path, the expectations about my application were not exactly high. Excited?

Forget about that, freaked out would be a better way to put it.

As the date got closer and the inner 'yikes' got louder, research started to hijack most of my time. Endless googling turned out to be partially useless. Nothing is set in stone, and the only way to stay on track is to be flexible and curious: after all, life is a process of learning, not of showing off what you know. And that is what Nisimazine is about: the hands-on, eyes-open, raise-yourglass side of education.

Coming from a country where the festival is perceived as a grand saviour of arts and culture, I did carry a lot of worries about the comme il faut way of things. Relief came soon: before being one of the main places of contemporary mythology, Cannes is, first of all, a city. Walking down the famous Croisette Boulevard feels like the subway train at rush hour. The difference is no one stops to take pictures in the subway. However, when corner shops have a red carpet too, you know there are some wonderlandish aspects involved. Rivers of coffee await: someone must keep over 4,000 bar-coded journalists alive and kicking. Legends turn into traffic signs, shiny heels and party dresses get squeezed into the Noctam'bus: it is no surprise to see casually-dressed people, cinematically glamorous couples and beggars, all waiting to cross the same streets. In the Palais des Festivals, the smartly-dressed staff is ready to welcome you with a jolly, graceful Bonjour! and remind you that this is France, not the Tower of Babel.

Maybe A-list film festivals were invented so that people who thrive in chaos can feel happy. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life, but I know for sure where I want to be next May.

FOR MORE PICTURES, BLOGS, VIDEOS AND ALL CANNES 2010 COVERAGE:

WWW.NISIMAZINE.EU

Open air cinema in Cannes. f.l.t.r.: Vincent, Mirona, Betty, Olivier, Miruna, Max.