HEARTOF THETIGER photo: Ruud Jonkers
43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam #7 Wednesday 29 January 2014
Tatiana Leite and Gustavo Pizzi (Craft, 2010) discuss their project Loveling – the story of a woman struggling to overcome her anxiety and renew her strength before sending her eldest son out into the world – at the CineMart one-on-one meetings yesterday.
Dream pitchers
Don’t exaggerate!
Another successful edition of CineMart winds up today.
It can be “What do you want from me?” or “What do you want from me?” It can be “What do you want from me” straight, but then the soundtrack of the film usually carries the weight of the question.
Michael Pattison reports After four hectic days of meet-and-greets, enterprising and pitching, the 25 projects selected for the latest edition of IFFR’s co-production market head home with a better idea of the steps they will take next in order to turn their dreams to reality. Babis Makridis, director of Pity, says, “I think some of our meetings have been very helpful creative-wise. The feedback of the professionals really helped with my thoughts on our story – they showed me new perspectives and revealed new elements of the story.” Indeed, it appears that when it comes to marketability, there is still room for story-driven cinema. Says Makridis, “I met people who are hungry for good stories. I think this is the best thing that happened today. Let’s hope for more good things tomorrow.” For those not attending IFFR as part of CineMart, the event itself can seem like an alien world. Needless to say, the event is a round-the-clock endeavor for all participants. Says acting Head of CineMart Bianca Taal, “We start daily with CineMart breakfasts at 9 a.m. The one-to-one meetings [between filmmakers and industry professionals] run from 9.30 to 5.30 p.m., with an hour-long lunch break at 1 p.m. and cocktails after the meetings end.” Of course, CineMart has by now established other strands. “In addition to the normal programme,” remarks Taal, “other events take place. On Sunday the IFFR Live Summit took place, on Monday the Art:Film Conference, and on Tuesday Creative Europe hosted two presentations. Tonight, the CineMart Awards will be handed out.” These awards are three juried prizes, which are presented each year to the most distinguished CineMart projects. The ARTE International Prize (€5,000) is given by ARTE France Cinéma to the producer of the most promising CineMart project. The Eurim-
ages Co-Production Development Award is decided by a jury that presents €30,000 to a project which is to be a European co-production. Finally, there is the Prins Claus Fund Film Grant, which awards €15,000 to a project from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean. The latter prize is designed to support the initial creative phases of the winning film’s production process. It isn’t just producers who attend CineMart. Organisations with a wide range of aims and responsibilities interact and function in their own unique ways. Among the 682 guests at this year’s event were many film festivals, for example. As Bianca Taal notes, “Many of the festivals visiting Rotterdam are on the lookout for new films, and of course it is a place to network. In addition, at CineMart we have partnerships with various other co-production platforms. For those markets, CineMart is a good place to discover the selection and meet with producers about other upcoming projects.” We can look forward with some confidence then to watching these productions at future editions. Onward!
“people ... are hungry for good stories”
UPC Audience Award RANKINGS As of Tuesday 13:51 hours 1. Nebraska............................................................4,74 2. Starred Up..........................................................4,63 3. After the Tone....................................................4,61 4. Feel My Love......................................................4,58 5. Zombie: The Resurrection of Tim Zom .......4,57 6. The Selfish Giant...............................................4,50 7. Papusza..............................................................4,49 8. The Creator of the Jungle................................4,45
“there is still room for story-driven cinema” 12
9. Eastern Boys......................................................4,39 10. See No Evil.........................................................4,37
By Irina Trocan There can be repetitions What do you want from me? I asked you a thousand times and variations – “What the hell do you want from me?” – or shifts to a more philosophical perspective – “What do people want from me?” It can be pronounced jokingly, flirtingly, spitefully, fearfully, desperately, or with any of these tones masking any of the others (for instance, it can be told with a smile which actually masks desperation). As the title of the supercut (What do you want from me? I asked you a thousand times) suggests, it’s an incessant and badgering question; one that film talking, or we’re not allowed to discover who the characters simply can’t dismiss. In its many variations listener is; and any sequence longer than five seconds of tone and emotion, “the question would appear not in which we still haven’t heard the question becomes only synonymous with cinema”, the supercut’s author somehow problematic – or intriguing as to why it’s Savage suggests, “but is perhaps indicative of a wider taking so long. As if posing the question sooner would paradox in the human condition.” automatically precipitate the answer. “It’s an ongoing Shown as an installation in the Rotterdam Schouw project that started in 2008”, Savage says. “I will keep burg running on two parallel screens in the Foyer going until I have a thousand of them. Eventually the (daily between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.), the montage film will quite literally ask you a thousand times ‘what compiles over 350 clips from (mostly commercial) do you want from me?’ It is not uncommon for people films, as recent as 2011 and as old as 1942. Familiar to use the exaggeration of saying they’ve ‘asked you a faces of actors, familiar action sequences leading to thousand times’ a specific question. In this case, this confrontations and an over-familiar question that will literally be the case, creating a pointlessly literal might at best leave us waiting for an answer the first manifestation of a metaphorical question.” Whether ten or twenty times we hear it spoken. While watch- it’s actually pointless, however, is open to debate; one ing the film, after several repetitions, what becomes use of the supercut for us, as spectators, is to offer a interesting is where the clips are taken from and how degree of detachment from a recurrent film situation. much of it is edited in – for instance, there are several The next time we hear this question, for instance, we clips from one TV show popular among teenagers; may well dismiss the reflex of being curious with a there are some in which we can’t see the speaker skeptical “hahaha!”
international film festival rotterdam