(Thinley Lhamo from Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham, © Aditya Basnet / Shooney Films)
By M.R. D’Amico
It is the first Nepalese film to be in competition at Berlinale and one of the best surprises of the festival. In a Nepalese Himalayan village a young beautiful woman, Pema, starts her adult life with a polyandrous marriage to Tashi and his two younger brothe...
(A still of Thinley Lhamo from Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham, © Aditya Basnet / Shooney Films)
By Lindsay R. ''Lulu'' Bellinger
Shambhala is a glorious exploration of womanhood, being true to one's self and determination. Thinley Lhamo's riveting and subtle portrayal of Pema is so gentle yet strong. I would not be at all disappointed if she won the Silver Bear for best leading performance. Pema becomes the wife of Tashi and his two ...
DOKUARTS 2023: CALL FOR ENTRIES!
Deadline May 31, 2023
After three long years, we are delighted to finally announce our next festival edition: DOKUARTS will take place from October 4th to October 15th, 2023, thanks to the renewed support of Berlin’s Capital Cultural Fund. We will move our program to three new venues: Kino in der Kulturbrauerei, Kino in der Brotfabrik and Klick Kino. A fourth venue will be the Haus für Poesie.
DOKUARTS screens documentaries on the ar...
Odd Couple, Review: Tying the not
It’s nice to be taken by surprise, especially if the film is not a suspense thriller. And Odd Couple does just that. Borrowing its title from the 1965 Neil Simon comedy play, The Odd Couple, made into a film (1968) starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, in which one of the two bosom friends does all the household chores that you would normally associate with a woman, this film has the man, of a man-woman couple, doing the laundry and the cooking, and ...
VALLEY OF THE GODS (Dolina Bogów) by director Lech Majewski from Poland and the documentary BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES (I CORAGGIOSI) by Australian-Italian director Lisa Camillo are the winners of the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) in Berlin 2020. Honorable Mentions received the German documentary About the Meaning of Everything (VOM SINN DES GANZEN - DAS NETZWERK DES PHYSIKERS HANS-PETER DÜRR) directed by Claus Biegert, docu...
VALLEY OF THE GODS (Dolina Bogów) by director Lech Majewski from Poland and the documentary BALENTES - THE BRAVE ONES (I CORAGGIOSI) by Australian-Italian director Lisa Camillo are the winners of the International Uranium Film Festival (IUFF) in Berlin 2020. Honorable Mentions received the German documentary About the Meaning of Everything (VOM SINN DES GANZEN - DAS NETZWERK DES PHYSIKERS HANS-PETER DÜRR) directed by Claus Biegert, docu...
"terroir" has been accepted out of 2000 entries to screen at the 2020 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin, Germany from November 19-22. This is a very special selection as the idea for "terroir" was first conceived by writer/director Dawn Westlake while she was attending the 2018 Zebra Fest with her award-winning poetry film "Scrappy".
"terroir" is a musical documentary about the mother-child relationship and how it can sometimes influence our perception...
The International Uranium Film Festival has selected 14 amazing documentaries and movies from 10 countries for its next edition in October in Berlin. The films show a broad spectrum of the atomic age and focus on nuclear tests in the Pacific and Algeria, the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, uranium mining in the Navajo territory, a planned nuclear waste dump in Australia, Austria's anti-nuclear movement and the use of nuclear research to transform the agriculture in Moldova.
...
The International Uranium Film Festival has selected 14 amazing documentaries and movies from 10 countries for its next edition in October in Berlin. The films show a broad spectrum of the atomic age and focus on nuclear tests in the Pacific and Algeria, the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters, uranium mining in the Navajo territory, a planned nuclear waste dump in Australia, Austria's anti-nuclear movement and the use of nuclear research to transform the agriculture in Moldova.
...
(Annie Heger, Eidin Jalali, Edson Cordeiro, Banafshe Hourmazdi, Faraz Shariat, TEDDY winners © Lindsay R. Bellinger)
by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
German singer/actress/moderator Annie Heger as host of the TEDDY Awards was an inspired choice! On the evening of February 28, 2020 she brought the right amount of energy to the Volksbühne, maybe even more than some members of the audience. I was a little surprised that the older male German couple...
(Nico Rockwell & Lana Rockwell, © Lasse Tolbøll)
Antonio Castello:
Sweet Thing was a pleasure to the eyes; the genius mix of black and white and color 16mm films was very well done and goes according with our times. A story is only a good story when is well told and this movie finds a visual unique way to narrate the story using basic techniques, a low budget, and the love of his family and friends.
(Director/writer Alexandre Rockwell, © Ant...
(Thaia Perez, Agyei Augusto, Mawusi Tulani, © Hélène Louvart/Dezenove Som e Imagens)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Two Brazilians living in Berlin praised Competition film Todos os mortos (All The Dead Ones/All die Toten), a Brazilian-French co-production, at Berlinale 2020. Dimas Souza, living here for the past 17 years, and classically trained guitarist Victor Santana shared their impressions of Marco Dutra and Caetano Gotardo's film after its final scre...
(© Rithy Panh)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Cambodian Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rithy Panh presented his shocking documentary to the world at the Berlinale Palast with his filmmaking team by his side. His documentary Irradiés (Irradiated), which is a Cambodian/French co-production running in Competition at Berlinale, is not an easy watch and clearly it was too heavy and vivid for some of the audience members who left during the screening. For those of us who stayed, we were treated to...
(Noel Comia Jr., Kim Chloie Oquendo, screenwriter/producer Valerie Martinez, © Lindsay Bellinger)
by Lindsay R. Bellinger
Filipino director Raya Martin, who participated in Berlinale Talents and screened his film La última película at Berlinale in 2014's Forum Expanded, has also taken part in Cannes Cinéfondation and screened at Cannes' Un Certain Regard in 2009. For the 70th Berlin International Film Festival Martin and screenwriter/...
(Oleg Sentsov, Akhtem Seitablaiev before the world premiere of Nomera, © Lindsay Bellinger)
by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
Ukrainian filmmaker, activist and writer Oleg Sentsov was unjustly imprisoned in a Russian gulag for six years after being arrested by the Russian secret service in May 2014. His alleged terrorist activities led to a 20 year prison sentence but he was released in September 2019 in a prisoner swap. Over the course of these six years many people protested worldw...
(Joachim von Vietinghoff, Gisela Kayser, and Peter Lilienthal, © Lindsay Bellinger)
by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
On the evening of the 27th of January, Peter Lilenthal presented his 1979 Berlinale Golden Bear winning film David to a full house at Willy Brandt Haus in Berlin. The line stretched around the corner, comprised mostly of an older audience, in order to secure a spot to watch Lilenthal's extraordinary film that explores the origin of prejudice and ...
by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
Kino Moviemento, Germany's oldest still-running cinema, needs your help to keep their doors open. They are an independently-run cinema that first began screening films in 1907 as Topps Kino and over the course of the past 113 years has been a safe haven for Berliner film culture. The Moviemento team continues to showcase numerous film festivals and unique cinematic experiences each and every year. The 4th annual Weihnachtsfilmfestival was the latest film fe...
(Still from We Will Survive, © Nele Dehlenkamp 2018)
This year's Weihnachtfilmfestival in Berlin was another success even if the audience turnout was not as big as the previous year. Perhaps more Berliners chose to stay at home with their family and friends this Christmas rather than venture out to the cinema. Sadly, I was one of those who was not able to make it to more screenings of this Christmas film festival's eclectic offerings.
One section that I en...
The 10th International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro is now accepting submissions. Works in all genres, forms, and lengths are considered. Deadline: January 1st, 2020. The festival will take place from May 21 to May 31, 2020, in Rio de Janeiro, Modern Art Museum Cinematheque (MAM) and from October 15th to 18th in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg.
The International Uranium Film Festival is dedicated to all fiction and nonfiction films about nuclear power and the ...
DOKUARTS-Symposium "Nuances Now"
The 5th DOKUARTS-symposium takes place on October 11 and will look at the current relevance of nuance and discuss its significance in the realm of documentary filmmaking.
Date/Time Friday, October 11, 2019 from 2 pm – 8.30 pm (including film programme with guests)
Location Zeughauskino of the German Historical Museum, Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Conference Language German/English
Registration info@doku-arts.de
Parti...
By Maria Esteves – July 12, 2019
The Amazon Web Services Summit New York 2019 (AWSSNY19) Opening Keynote Presentation with Dr. Werner Vogels, chief technology officer, Amazon, commenced Thursday, July 11, 9AM at Javits Convention Center. Amazon’s legendary keynote presentation by Vogels was par excellence. Launch announcements included Eventbridge, a serverless microservice; Cloud Development Kit (CDK), an infrastructure as code that automates the deployment for serverless applicati...
(Outside the Brotfabrik Berlin, © Lindsay Bellinger 2019)
By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
The Film:Schweiz 2019 (Swiss Film Festival) had a very interesting mix of films curated this year. Clearly festival director Teresa Vena carefully selected this year's program with a lot of courage, not just going after big names that will please everybody. The mix of feature films, short films, experimentals films, discussions, exhibitions and guest filmmakers were d...
(© Film:Schweiz 2019)
By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
The 2nd annual Swiss Film Festival 2019 (Film:Schweiz 2019) opens this coming Thursday in Berlin. Festival director Teresa Vena curated a wonderful selection for this year's Film:Schweiz edition. This year looks quite interesting, ranging from feature films to short films, experimentals films and even some discussions and exhibitions. Switzerland's cinema has perhaps a leg up on much other world cinema because they hav...
(Berlin Feminist Film Week 2019 © Lindsay Bellinger)
By LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
The Berlin Feminist Film Week closed out their 6th consecutive year last night, after having an eventful seven-day run filled with screenings with q&a's, panels and workshops. This particular film festival was founded in 2014 by Karin Fornander and has steadily grown in popularity with each passing year. This year's Feminist Film Week started with a sold out screening of Desiree Akha...
Ritesh Batra is an Indian filmmaker based in NYC. He rose to fame with his feature film The Lunchbox, which premiered in Cannes in 2013.
His new film, Photograph, premiered at this year’s Berlinale Special programme is a unique love story of a photographer in Mumbai and a girl he meets on the streets while looking for his next customer. From different backgrounds and each carrying their own baggage, the two strangers embark on a bittersweet journey.
...
