July 31st marked the beginning of the 31. INSKIE LATO FILMOWE / 31st INSKO FILM SUMMER, which is one of Poland's oldest film events and is simultaneously the largest and most interesting cinema gathering in the north of the country.
This year's festival opened with a screening of NOI ALBINOI, the most renowned Icelandic film of the last year that is also Iceland's candidate for the Academy Awards and for the European Film Prize. The film is the directing debut of 30-year-old Dagur Kari. Set in a far-away fiord in the north of Iceland, the film tells the story of a seventeen-year-old youth who dreams of escaping from his small home town, a town that in winter is entirely isolated from the world. The lovely Iris, who works at the local gas station, is supposed to accompany the young man in his escape.
This edition of the festival will include over thirty feature films and approximately twenty short films grouped into thirteen series:
The Cinema of Our Neighbors
6th Review of Ukrainian Cinema
Cinema Classics: Images of Italy
A series focusing on cinema classics, among them four masterpieces of the Italian cinema. Audiences will have an opportunity to see Italy trough four different gazes and aesthetics: neo-realist (Rossellini), auteur-based (Fellini), ethnographic (Rosi) and rebellious (Bellocchio).
Documents of the World - Images of Contemporaneity
Kristen Winter Retrospective
Kristen Winter (born in 1962 in Hanover) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and began as a photographer for local magazines. She was among the co-founders of the "anigraf" production company, for which she designed scenery for low-budget films, created graphic designs and made promotional and educational films, and participated in organizing film festivals in Braunschweig, Eden and Verden. She also spent some time as a researcher on the documentary "History of German Animation." In addition to working on her films, she has also conducted workshops in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. She also taught animation for a time at the university level (Hanover), and experimental animation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and at the California Art Institute.
Winter is a creator who enjoys experimenting. Her film JUST IN TIME was considered exceptional and won the Best Short Film award at the World Film Festival in Montreal. In her films she often creates a counterpoint between music and imagery. Winter says of her own work:
"Music is 50% of the content of my films. Music allows us to focus more intently on feelings, to calm things down, though it can just as easily destroy the mood."
With CLOCKS the filmmaker began her collaboration with composer Elen Kats-Chernin, having developed a fascination for her music previously. Her next animated film, SMASH, is a series of impressions and images in which we can see the composer at work. In both these films the music of Kats-Chernin was performed by the Modern Ensemble. SMASH is based partly on Winter's own experiences, for since she was in an accident in 1983, Winter has had to rely on crutches to move around. For JUST IN TIME the filmmaker worked with Simon Stockhausen. This film has no dialogue and features images and music that combine to create an impression of the author's voyage throughout the United States. Winter's films have brought her tremendous success, as a result of which the artist is free to decide on the productions she undertakes.
The following films will be presented during the festival in Insk: RESTORED WEEKEND (2003), ESCAPE (2001), KANDINSKY'S VIOLET (1999), SMASH (1997), CLOCKS (1995).
Our Cinema
Within this series, audiences will have an opportunity to see:
KROLOWA CHMUR / QUEEN OF THE CLOUDS, directed by Radoslaw Piwowarski (2003) - a nostalgic tale about the inevitability of passing, a mother's love, loyalty and values that are not for sale;
JESTES TAM / THERE YOU ARE, directed by Anna Kazejak (2004) - an interesting psychological portrait of a rebellious teenager, contrasted against a tragic story;
GENERACJA C.K.O.D. / C.K.O.D. GENERATION, directed by Piotr Szczepanski (2004) - a documentary about two years in the life of the members of the band Cool Kids Of Death;
DZIEN, W KTORYM UMRE / THE DAY I DIE (2003), directed by Grzegorz Lipiec;
DLUGI WEEKEND / LONG WEEKEND, directed by Robert Glinski (2004), who provides a penetrating and humorous look at Polish reality, a look about the things we consider most important and the things we are capable of doing to achieve them;
CZY JEST TU PANNA NA WYDANIU / IS THERE A MARRIAGEABLE MAIDEN HERE - a satirical comedy by Janusz Kondratiuk;
CUDOWNIE OCALONY / MIRACULOUSLY SAVED, directed by Janusz Zatorski (2004) - set in the Polish provinces in the 1960s, this film brings to mind the unforgettable atmosphere of the films of Sylwester Checinski;
BAR NA VICTORII / A BAR ON VICTORIA STREET, directed by Leszek Dawid (2003);
W SRODKU / IN THE MIDDLE, directed by Aleksandra Czernecka, Dariusz Pawelec - a portrait of Central Europe as seen through the eyes of two writers, Andrzej Stasiuk, from the village of Wolowiec in the Lower Beskid Mountains of Poland, and Yuriy Andrukhovych, from Ivanofrankiysk (formerly Stanislawow) in the Ukrainian section of Galicia.
Preview screenings
Ku pamieci / To Remember
WARSZAWA WALCZY / WARSAW FIGHTS ON - newsreels from the Warsaw Uprising, shot by Stefan Baginski, Wladyslaw Jewsiewicki, Zygmunt Walkowski
Though largely incomplete, the newsreels that were salvaged from the inferno of the Warsaw Uprising remain among the most valuable films chronicling the activities of resistance organizations in Europe between 1939 and 1945. The salvaged documentary material shows fighting and the progressive destruction of the city, though it also includes uplifting, even humorous scenes from dialing life in the struggling metropolis
The Best of the 44th Krakow Film Festival
European Film Schools - The COPENHAGEN Danish National Film School
In 1966 Theodor Christensen founded one of Europe's most important film schools, a school that would prove to be the cradle of the DOGMA movement and a fertile cultivating ground for such directors as Lars von Trier or Leone Scherfig. This Danish national institution aims to provide students with a universal film education in both artistic and ethical terms. It offers programs in photography (film and video), directing (for film and television), editing, sound production, film animation and production.
The school works with numerous professionals from Denmark and abroad, who provide instruction to almost one hundred students in groups of six people. Students must work together in creating one to two productions per semester. They also take part in smaller scale practical exercises.
Projects of a narrative, documentary and typically television nature are supplemented with lectures on the theory and history of film, music, philosophy, literature and the fine arts. The festival in Insk will include a presentation of the most interesting films produced at the school in 2003.
Films and Tales for Children
Voyages
This series will feature documentaries from China, including FAMILIES OF LAKE QINGHAI, WUZHEN CITY, MOON FIELD.
The 2004 Season - Staying Cool
This series will include screenings of the 2002 Best Foreign Film Academy Award nominee THE BRIDE'S SON (2001), directed by Juan Jose Campanella, which was Argentina's most commercially successful film in years. Other selections include Joel Coen's LADYKILLERS (2004).
Information: Urzad Gminy i Miasta Insko
ul. Bohaterow Warszawy 38, 73-140 Insko
tel. (+48 91) 562 30 25, 562 30
fax (+48 91) 562 30 63
Stopklatka Sp. z o.o.
ul. Matejki 22, 70-530 Szczecin
Przemyslaw Lewandowski
tel. (+48 91) 480 42 90
www.ilf.stopklatka.pl