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Open Screening for Filmmakers and Fans

10. Mai 2013 in Berlin, Events, Film by Paul

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Coming up next Wednesday 15th May at the Sputnik Kino in Kreuzberg is an event that sounds quite scary if you are the filmmakers involved… basically they get the chance to present their short films to an audience – there is no application, pre-selection or jury – and they will be simply judged by those watching. Any type of film can be presented, but if enough of the audience show the red card then the screening will be stopped. Nerve-wracking!

After the screenings there will be a short Q & A to give the filmmakers and the audience the chance to talk about the films, and this is a great opportunity not only for the filmmakers themselves to test their work, but also for those of us interested in film to get an idea of what is being created. The screenings start at 8.30pm and admission is free.

Berlin Film Society launches Documentary Donnerstag

22. März 2013 in Events, Film, Stuff We Like by Paul

Documentary Donnerstag

Our mates at the Berlin Film Society are at it again, as they have just announced the launch of DOCUMENTARY DONNERSTAG, a unique programme of award-winning documentary films curated from the most acclaimed international film festivals, and brought to Berlin for your viewing pleasure on a series of Thursday evenings.

The first half of the programme (28th March – 18th April) includes the recently restored version of Shirley Clarke’s groundbreaking PORTAIT OF JASON (1967), the controversial Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winner THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Eugene Jarecki, 2012), Chris Marker’s stunning SANS SOLEIL (1983), and the remarkable SXSW-winning film MARWENCOL (Jeff Malmberg, 2010).

The second half of the programme (2nd – 23rd May) will be announced to Berlin Film Society members via the newsletter on 11th April, with a public announcement made on 18th April.

Documentary Donnerstag is being hosted by Urban Spree in Friedrichshain, there is food and an after party, and entry costs €8 (€4 for Film Society members). The first event is on the 28th March – check out the facebook page – and the film to be showing is Jeff Melmberg’s MARWENCOL:

After a vicious attack leaves him brain-damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in “Marwencol”, a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he creates in his backyard. When Mark and his photographs are discovered, a prestigious New York gallery sets up an art show. Suddenly Mark’s homemade therapy is deemed “art”, forcing him to choose between the safety of his fantasy life in Marwencol and the real world that he’s avoided since the attack.

Berlin Film Society website
Marwencol website

11mm – International Football Film Festival in Berlin

11. März 2013 in Berlin, Festivals, Film, Football by Paul

11mm

Starting this Thursday is the tenth anniversary edition of the 11mm International Football Film Festival. The festival includes feature, documentary and short films from around the world, and for 2013 there is also a special selection of the best films of previous editions of the festival.

Some of the highlights of 11mm in 2013, which runs from Thursday 14th March to Tuesday 19th March include The Damned United – the story of Brian Clough’s brief reign as Leeds United manager – Das Wunder von Bern – telling the dramatic tale of West Germany’s triumph at the 1954 World Cup – and the Two Escobars – which tells the tragic story of defender Andrés Escobar and Pablo Escobar, then the world’s most notorious drug baron, and how the intersection of crime and football led to Andrés’s murder.

Tickets to all films cost €7, there are plenty of films in English or with subtitles, and the venue for the festival is Babylon, just a short walk down the road from The Circus on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. A must for any football fans in town over the next weekend.

Festival Website

 

The Circus Guide to the Berlinale 2013

6. Februar 2013 in Film by Paul

BerlinalePerhaps because the powers that be know how long and drawn out the Berlin winter can be, they thankfully schedule some of the city’s best cultural events into these, the darkest and coldest months of the year. Whether those wearing the glamorous dresses on the red carpets of the Berlinale International Film Festival would agree is another thing altogether. In any case, every February the best filmmakers from around the world descend on our home city to present their work, and it is always a highlight.

What is especially nice is that for the average cinema-going Joe or Josephine the Berlinale is quite a democratic film festival, with a good number of general sale tickets available. Yes, demand is high for those red carpet premieres and the other hyped films, especially in the competition, but then again – those are exactly the films that are going to end up in your local multiplex at some point in the near future anyway. No, for us the thing that makes the Berlinale great is the chance to catch something that would not make it even to your neighbourhood arthouse screen, let alone the local WorldofCine… so if you want to see something interesting from Serbia, Thailand or Argentina, then delve into the programme… we are sure you will find something you like.

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From the home of dirty weather – British Short Film Festival in Berlin

7. Januar 2013 in Film by Paul

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Starting this Friday 11th January is the sixth edition of “British Shorts”, the short film festival that – in the organizers own words – brings to the screens of Berlin “the most exciting, funniest, strangest and most thrilling short films from the home of dirty weather.” This includes drama, comedy, thriller, animation, documentary, horror, science fiction and music… all from Great Britain, and with a prize at the end of the festival for the best short film.

As well as the film programme, which you can find on the website here, there is also an accompanying programme of events including concerts, exhibitions, DJ sets and even an open screening where the audience decide through the use of red cards whether or not the screening of a particular film

can continue. Brutal democracy, indeed. It looks like it will be – once again – a wonderful weekend of short cinema from “the island” so go check it out. And here is a trailer so you can see some of what awaits:

interfilm FESTIVAL 2012

12. November 2012 in Film by Paul

Interfilm Short Film Festival 2012 Trailer from markus kempken on Vimeo.

Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is just down the road from The Circus and, through the Babylon cinema, the Volksbühne, and the Roter and Grüner Salons, it is also the main location for the upcoming interfilm short film festival. Interfilm is

one of the largest and most respected short film festivals in Europe, and with over seven thousand submissions, it is a job just to make the final selection of 500. Altogether seventy different countries are represented by filmmakers taking part in the interfilm, and so you can imagine the breadth and the depth of the different short films on offer.

interfilm

The festival runs from the 13th to the 18th November, and is split into a number of different sections that will help you decide what to go and see. The sections are then divided into different “programmes” – the selection of films for each individual screening – that are arranged by competition/theme. Alongside the main international competition, there are also selections devoted to German short films, documentary films, focus on Africa and Iceland, and even an evening devoted to “The Long Night of Very Odd Films” … truly, there is something for everyone!

Interfilm Festival 2012 Website

ALFILM – 4th Arab Film Festival Berlin

6. November 2012 in Film by Paul

ALFILMExcuse us for being a little slow on the uptake, and

apologies for the fact that the 4th edition of the Berlin Arab Film Festival began yesterday, but you still have five days to catch some of the over forty films from Arab directors and productions from Arab countries that are being shown at ALFILM 2012. The main program features fiction and documentary films from Algeria, Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon (amongst others), and many screenings are taking place at the Babylon cinema, which is just down the road from the Circus on Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße.

Tickets cost €7 (€6 reduced) and the good news for those of you whose Arabic is somewhat rusty, most of the films are being shown with English subtitles.

More information on the website.

Berlin Film Society: La Dolce Vita

4. September 2012 in Events, Film by Paul

Our mates at the Berlin Film Society have another great evening coming up on Friday 7th September:

BFS La Dolce Vita poster2

About the Event:

Berlin Film Society is kick-starting the Autumn programme with our biggest, most extravagant event to date. On Friday 7th September, join us for a very special screening of Federico Fellini’s masterpiece, ‘LA DOLCE VITA’, in the stunning surroundings of a soon-to-be renovated, neo-Gothic Church. The event starts at 7pm and will feature a very unique pre-film line-up, including the live jazz trio, ‘…e la luna?’, and an exclusively commissioned fashion show hosted by Emilio El-Lauren, showcasing one of Berlin’s most exciting Italian designers: MOGA E MAGO. To accompany the pre-film programme, Fratelli la Bufala restaurant will serve fine Italian canapés, whist a variety of drinks will be served (including Martini cocktails, Peroni beer, Italian wine, and complimentary welcome drinks, courtesy of BORCO). The film will then start at 9pm.

Find out more on the event’s facebook page

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