#wwclive

Gedurende het hele IDFA kun je bij de Brakke Grond terecht voor (gratis!) exposities. Je kunt er hele toffe dingen bekijken, doen en ervaren. Ik neem je mee..

... naar limboland! In de DocLab Expo: Immersive Reality kun je achter verschillende computers plaatsnemen. De eerste die ik bekeek heet 'In Limbo' en was een echte eye-opener. Het gaat over het enorm gedetailleerde archief van informatie op het Internet. Je kon je eigen Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter-account en naam opgeven om te achterhalen wat ze over jou weten. Er staat zoveel informatie over mij online, best wel creepy. 

"The Internet knows more about me than my own mother - than myself." - Limbo Expert

En toen was het tijd voor - waar ik al heel lang naar uit keek - 'I know where your cat lives'. Ik heb een lichte obsessie voor katten ontwikkeld en kon dan ook niet wachten. Miljoenen mensen uploaden foto's van hun katten op sociale media. Owen Mundy heeft een project opgezet waarbij hij zoveel mogelijk katten heeft gelokaliseerd en geïntegreerd in Google Maps. GEWELDIG! Je kunt op deze manier zien welke katten er bij jou in de buurt wonen, maar ook welke aan de andere kant van de wereld leven. Heerlijk tijdverdrijf! (Natuurlijk is het project niet opgezet om schattige katjes te bekijken, maar om een beeld te geven hoe gemakkelijk persoonlijke data kan worden verzameld en openbaar wordt gemaakt). Deze twee wonen vlakbij ons kantoor :-). 

Daarna mocht ik naar het leukste onderdeel: DocLab: Virtual Reality Screening Room. Ik kreeg een grote Virtual Reality-bril met koptelefoon op en waande me in een compleet andere wereld. Ik keek naar het filmpje Strangers with Patrick Watson. Ik zat plotseling op een poef in de kamer van deze singer-songwriter. Hij speelde piano en zong, naast mij lag een hond. Ik kon 360 graden rond kijken, echt heel vet. Een echte aanrader!

Tenslotte ging ik naar Aernout Mik - Raw Footage. In deze ruimte lieten ze beelden zien van de oorlog in voormalig Joegoslavië, die nooit op tv zijn vertoond. Voor 1 minuut beeld op tv, wordt natuurlijk veel meer materiaal geschoten. Het was echt heel heftig. Je zag verschillende lichaamsdelen, hoe lijken werden geruimd, maar ook hoe kinderen aan het voetballen waren tussen oorlogstanks in. 

It’s 8:50 early in morning when I arrived at the Tushinski on the first day of IDFA to the very first screening of the festival. Given it was an industry screening there were a lot of members of the Dutch press who greeted each other with a familiarity that resembled more a family reunion than a work assignment.

As I settled into my comfy seat, I felt a little sleepy and wondered whether I would have trouble keeping my eyes open in the darkness. It is safe to say that CITIZENFOUR kept me on the edge of my seat and with my mouth wide open during its 2-hours runtime.  

Laura Poitras’ poignant portrayal of the events leading up to Edward Snowden’s leak of the NSA documents and the chain of events that followed is intense. Poitras and Glenn Greenwald were the first people contacted by Snowden, under the pseudonym Citizenfour. It shows the two of them with Snowden in a nondescript hotel room in Hong Kong – as Snowden reveals the data he stole from the NSA, the reasons why and what his course of action will be. The film is part of IDFA’s special themed programme Of Media and Men that focuses on the increasing power of media in our perception of events but also on hacktivism and the role of media in society.

Snowden and Greenwald

  Many reviews have already been written on CITIZENFOUR (see most recent review in the Filmkrant), so instead I would like to observe how it really changed how I feel about privacy issues. When Snowden was in the news last year, I didn't really pay attention since I did not feel that the issues directly affected me. The NSA surely would not spy on me through my ISP or through the webcam on my laptop. Of course not, I am uninteresting and I do not do anything suspicious on the web. Selfishly, I thought it did not concern me.

Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Apple apps all collect information on me that I am willingly providing. Despite hearing stories of privacy breach on Facebook and the way Google logs every search term I ever typed, it still did not bother me. Poitras managed to break through my apathy and I got to truly appreciate the message that she and Snowden want to spread. It somehow flipped a switch in my brain. 

I whole-heartedly recommend this documentary to anyone who does not know too much about the issue, who like me, thought it does not concern them. Hopefully, you got your tickets fast, since all the IDFA screenings were sold out really fast. 

Text by Petra Albu

I caught a screening  of The Infinite Man at Leiden International Film Festival this week and it was a gem. Deemed as a time-travel comedy-romance, it delivers on many levels. But then again,being familiar with this type of time-travel film, I thought it less strange and confusing than many of the other spectators in the auditorium. Primer is one of my favorite films (If you haven’t seen Primer, do yourself a favor and go see it!Time travel is scary!) and this was quite similar but with the added comedy.

The story revolves around a couple, Dean and Lana. They arrive at a deserted hotel in the Australian countryside for their perfect anniversary. Dean is somewhat of a control freak and incidentally a scientist. He is working on a helmet device that can capture the present /past and  relive it. And so, the layering of levels begins. Dean wants them to relive their perfect anniversary, once it goes wrong, he tries to go back and fix it. Dean and Lana soon are joined by Terry, Lana’s ex-lover who just does not get it that it is over between him and Lana. A surreal character, Terry is a chain-smoking ex-olympic javelin thrower who considers himself a Greek god and more of a man than Dean.

The whole narrative and its layers are actually motivated by Dean’s insecurities and wish to capture the perfect moment. Not only that, but also to please Lana in every possible way. He cooks her the perfect meal, he plays her music from her Dutch ancestors, he prepares intensively for their love-making. But will they manage to fix the past? Make things perfect? Is there such a thing as absolute hapiness and perfection?

The film is light-hearted, funny, at times confusing, however not in an annoying way. It is extremely refreshing to watch a film like this in the cinema! I tip my hat to the Leiden Film Festival and its organizers, I wish more film like these would find their way to our big screens.

  Text by Petra

A new day starts at NFF and We Want Cinema is there to represent! No, we are not experts in romance and dating, this is not one of those singles activities. Lilian and I are here as professionals to advise young filmmakers on the best way to self-distribute their film.

  We are here to offer these newbies, who by the way already have quite impressive portfolios, information on what We Want Cinema can offer them. We get our little table and with a short introductory word, the session starts. The idea is that we get 5 minutes with each filmmaker, during which they have to present their project and we in turn have to explain in what ways we could be relevant to them. We must’ve talked to around 10 filmmakers in 2 hours, a fruitful session indeed.

  The idea we got from the conversations  is that film students find it really hard to finance their films. They have to really start from scratch. One of the now graduated students, Bregje, said that coming from the HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) they know that they get zero funding from the school itself. They have to be creative and find ways to fund their thesis films. So, Bregje and her partner used crowd-funding to raise 3000.- to be able to complete their film project, Beeld van een vrouw. They relied on the good will of their acquaintances to realize their film.

  Our self-distribution platform is very suitable for a filmmaker like Bregje. She is entrepreneurial, takes matters into her own hands and thinks practically about how to develop her film and ways to bring it to an audience. Self-distribution, then, would be the next step for her.

  Some of the filmmakers’ shorts will premiere tonight at NFF Kort! at 20.30.  I recommend everyone to go see these talented young people arriving fresh from school ready to take on the world. It is quite inspiring.

This was a spontaneous decision: what is on right now? Indigo on Cloud Nine at Tivoli Vredenburg. Sounds mysterious enough, the event turned out to be quite interesting and eye-opening.

  Indigo, powered by Dutch Game Garden, is a showcase of talented young Dutch game developers and their newest work. For it is not only in the film industry where independent companies are trying to make their way into the market, it is also in the world of games. Really, I have never been into gaming, so I was fascinated by the different types of innovative games that were presented. There were 32 new games showcased, some finished, some still prototypes with their developers standing close-by to explain their process.

  One of them in particular I would like to share with you is a prototype where the boundaries between game and film are blurred. The game-play centers on moving the narrative forward, and just like a film, it is immersive and emotionally engaging. I think  that Fragments of Him,  by Sassybot Studios is one of those games that is, pardon the pun, a game-changer. For me, it was the stand-out project that seemed to deviate from the traditional idea of what a game should be . Also, the girl from Sassybot Studios explained to me that the appeal of this game is really broad because of it’s emotional theme. A  large proportion of game players, be it women, men, young and old will relate to it.

  The other games were really reminiscent of old arcade games, which I aptly named hipster games. Nowadays it is quite hip to recycle retro trends and old arcade games with a new twist might be the game worlds equivalent of beards, vinyl records and vintage clothing.

  The atmosphere was nerdy in the best sense of the word! I sometimes think that everyone is trying to be too cool and they forget the childish joys of something as simple as sitting down and playing a game.

Photo taken from film1.nl

Leafing through the programme schedule of NFF, looking for something to do on Saturday, suddenly I saw it: In Memoriam George Sluizer: Dark Blood, free entrance. This last minute addition to the programme made me quite happy, my expectations were high and they were totally justified. It was a very special occassion.

  I picked up my free ticket at the Kassa where the person behind the counter was slightly confused, apparently not many people knew this screening would take place.

I made my way to Hertz, the same zaal I was in for the opening. This time I was sitting nicely in the middle of the auditorium, on my right side were Anouk Sluizer and Anne Lordon, daughter and wife of George Sluizer and on my left were Willemien van Aalst and Hans Heesen, amongst others.

  Willemien van Aalst welcomed everyone to this special screening, exactly one week after Sluizer passed away and exactly two years after Dark Blood premiered at NFF in 2012. She then introduced Hans Heesen who wrote “Wie zijn ogen niet gebruikt, is een verloren mens: In gesprek met George Sluizer”(2012). The book is about, not only Sluizer’s interesting character but also his passion for films, for beauty and for life. Heesen shared a little anecdote to illustrate the way Sluizer worked: there was the normal way of going about doing things and then there was the George Sluizer way.

The moral of the story was that when Sluizer wanted something, he could get it in very creative ways. From downing a steaming hot mug of coffee to fund his project to convincing Soviet officials to let him shoot his film, Sluizer was not only a magnificent storyteller, but also a determined and driven go-getter.

  The film itself, Dark Blood from 1993, was the last film of River Phoenix. He died of an overdose a few weeks before the shooting was completed. When Sluizer managed to get the rights back (after he got sued for 1 million dollars) to his film he filled the missing scenes with voiceovers.  It strangely works.

The story follows Buffy and Harry, a Hollywood couple who get stranded in the desert after their car breaks down. River Phoenix plays a disturbed character referred to as Boy, who lives in the desert with his Dog and he helps the couple out. However, Boy becomes more and more possessive of Buffy which shows that he still has not gotten over his young wife dying from radiation cancer. The film has many layers and themes - different levels of suffering against the beautiful backdrop of the New Mexico desert.  It’s also about relationships and clash between different strata of society.  Boy’s suffering is mainly related to US nuclear testing in the desert that affected many Native Americans living around these sites that still suffer from radiation related illnesses.

  With little dialogue, Sluizer managed to draw out these three characters perfectly, although sometimes I had a hard time understanding the motivations of Buffy and Harry. River Phoenix’ s portrayal of Boy was absolutely magnificent,he was such a young charismatic actor.

  All in all it was a very memorable screening and as the credits rolled I felt goosebumps, knowing that both Sluizer and Phoenix are gone. Two greats whose work and spark is still so much present.