Films presented at the Third MIT Short Film Festival 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
PART 1: RECONCILIATIONS
Nummer twee by Guido van der Werve (Netherlands, 2003), 2’
“Just because I am standing here doesn’t mean I want to. In my works I always look for elements that are metaphors for the state of mind I'm in at that particular time and place. These elements express in a direct and non-rational way my feelings, but I don't expect or want the audience to guess what my motives are for picking these elements. I prefer to put them in an open context. Usually I transfer these elements to performances. The ideas for the elements of ›Nummer twee‹ came from Russia. I studied Russian for two years and during this period I was on an exchange at the St. Petersburg State University. I lived there for two months at the campus. This campus was located next to an 18-lane highway. Almost every week I witnessed a car accident. In the evenings I went to the theatre most of the time. With my student card I could get tickets for almost nothing. Also the text at the beginning of the film is from my diary at that time.”
Alim Market by Özgür Yildirim (Germany, 2004), 14’
“Tyrannic Turkish grandpa DEDE forces lovely ALIM to take revenge for his father’s death and to kill the Greek KORDA next door. But Alim wants to run his vegetable store in peace and is longing for his old friendship to his best former friend Korda. The family store is at stake because Dede wants to hand it over to crazy cousin SULTAN in case Alim cannot kill Korda and keep up the pride.”
Frequencies by Priit Pääsuke, (Estonia, 2005), 16’
“Oliver, a yuppie, lives with his handicapped grandfather. The old man's reality is constantly encroached upon by his past and Word War II. He also smells and talks to his radio. Oliver feels embarrassed. When he starts an argument with his girlfriend Liina, tragic events ensue.”
Deus Ex Machina by Moonika Siimets (Estonia, 2005), 12’
“Former KGB spy Wilhelm tries to find his place in a newborn Estonian Republic, but it seems that his past has not forgotten him. One day, strange things start to happen. A story about fate and conscience.”
The laws of Life in a Colony of Bees by Radek Tuma (Czech Republic, 2005), 8’30”
Pastoral by Grigorij Rud'ko (Russia, 2005), 8’
“A Munich native decides to live in a secluded, dilapidated Russian village. He buys a horse, does repairs on the house and works the farm – to the utter amazement of the locals.”
The German Lesson by Igor Strembitskyy (Ukraine, 2005), 10’
West-Berlin by Daniel Erb (Germany, 2006), 3’40”
“West Berlin, as east as it gets: There's a place in Russia with the same name.”
Clay Pigeon by Milos Tomic (Czech Republic, 2005), 7’
“A touching movie that shows what love can do to a Serbian human.”
PART 2: GENERATIONS (1)
Waves by Daniel Burkhardt (Germany, 2007), 3’
Stella by Anke Hentschel (Germany, 2005), 13’
“One night, as 7-year-old Stella is leading her drunk father home, her love for him is painfully put to the test.”
Neon-orange Cow by Mischa Leinkauf & Matthias Wermke (Germany, 2005), 6’
“An expedition through Berlin at nighttime, a Berlin one usually doesn’t perceive. This approach to dealing with public space opens the view to discover something new in the known. Berlin from a different perspective.”
Meander by Joke Liberge (Belgium, 2005) 13’
“A warm sunny day. Five adolescents are looking for some coolness by the riverside. What began as a quiet day, will slowly change into something else.”
Hi Cristina! Bye Cristina! by Iulia Rugina (Romania, 2005), 13’
“She is thirteen and she is experiencing her first love. This unique experience, that may seem common for the surrounding people, is in fact a major moment for any teenage girl and brings about excitement and fear, absolute happiness and tears, as well as desperate attempts to make HIM notice HER as a first step for falling in love for her.”
A Trip to the City by Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania, 2003), 20’
“A beautiful spring morning, the need for Internet connectivity in a little Romanian village, and the pink WC that the mayor's wife is crying for, all these bring together the local teacher impassioned with computers and the mayor's driver, for a little trip to the nearby city. Once arrived in the city, the two heroes find themselves at the official reception occasioned by the celebration of 854 years from the first documented mention of the town. This event, together with the flair of two pocket thieves endanger the "mission" of our two heroes ...”
Gone with the Wine Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania, 2002), 10’
“A young man wants to get away from his native village, where drunkenness has become a way of living. To fulfill his dream of getting to UK, he only has one task left - the medical checkup. In the end, this turns into an unexpected obstacle.”
Saturday, April 14, 2007
PART 1: GENERATIONS (2)
Thanks Anyway by Mischa Leinkauf & Matthias Wermke (Germany, 2006), 6’
“With a bucket of water we are going to fight the “stiff german” and hereby proof once more that Berlin might be poor but is also damn sexy.”
Benidorm by Carolin Schmitz (Germany, 2006), 19’
“The Mediterranean city of Benidorm stands for all-inclusive tourism, permanent sunlight, booze for crash prizes, and for a coast poured in concrete. During the winter its residents are almost exclusively pensioners. “Benidorm” is a film about age, dignity, and life’s transience.”
Heim by Marc Brummund (Germany, 2005), 6’
“Sometimes the truth is hard to face. An old man tries desperately to defend his house against burglars and gets a rude awakening.”
The Sunflyers by Tim Mielants (Belgium, 2005), 14’
“This year’s aero-modeling championship marks the final game for the modeling club ‘the Sunflyers’. To celebrate their final game, the men invite the 83-year old honorary member Hubert to join them.”
Calling 911 by Jan de Bruin (The Netherlands, 2004), 8’
“‘Calling 911’, recorded in Los Angeles in November 2003, is a film about the hidden network of emergency and social safety nets in the United States. It illustrates the idea that recorded reality sometimes seems to exist only as a constant continuation of a narrative.”
L’axe du mal/Axis of Evil by Pascal Lièvre (France/Canada), 12’
“L'Axe du mal (Axis of Evil) uses the formal background of extremely sentimental love singing to present one of the decisive political speeches of the new century: George W. Bush's axis of evil terminology, the preparation for new wars. It is the contradiction between archaic feelings of love and hate on the one hand and the modern media-based telling between TV-kitsch and media conducted, 'intelligent' bombs on the other.”
Bon voyage by Bukela Campbell (Germany, 2005/2006), 7’
“A gargoyle on Nôtre-Dame de Paris and a little sparrow are friends. The Gargoyle's greatest wish is to fly to Easter Island with its large figures made of stone, which he is fascinated by. The sparrow tries to convince him that that there is a chance for his dream to finally come true - an upcoming solar eclipse…”
PART 2: DOUBTS
Quio, So Dazed by Christine Lang (Germany, 2006), 3’30”
“In this experimental music video, the singer is put to the test: a day like everyday. But suddenly something happens – the reflection of quio herself appears on the tv-screen, the water doesn’t fall downwards anymore, the cutlery falls to the ceiling… gravitation is suspended. Quio has to orientate herself in a new way and then she discovers the advantages of the new room structure. This almost ‘gondryesk’ video cites a kind of futuristic fifties aesthetics and is a play with space, camera and film technologies.”
Angst by Emiel Penders (Belgium, 2005) 7’
“André has a wind phobia. When his dog gets in trouble, his is forced to confront his fear”
Rauschen und Brausen by Daniel Burkhardt (Germany, 2007), 5’
"Alles, was man weiß, nicht bloß rauschen und brausen gehört hat, läßt sich in drei Worten sagen." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
The One Thing to Do by Michael R. Roskam (Belgium, 2005), 22’
“Two men are sitting on a Corsican bar terrace, waiting for a long before prepared mission, as an older man joins their table, a tense and possibly dangerous situation arises…”
The Invisible Hand by Dirk Lütter (Germany, 2006), 22’40”
“Marc, in his mid-thirties and a failure, spends his first day working as a mystery shopper. On long cross-country trips he gets to know the subtleties determining a mystery shoppers’ life, his three colleagues and the East-German countryside. And he has to learn that the job is not all that interesting for his colleagues until they catch a fraudulent female clerk.” Dirk Lütter
Eigelstein by Daniel Burkhardt (Germany, 2007), 4’
The Notwist - One with the Freaks by Florian Böck (Germany, 2006), 3’55”
“A man lives isolated in his own metaphysical world. After everything gets totally messed up, he recognizes that there is another world outside his cube.”
Karaoke Show by Karl Tebbe (Germany, 2007), 4’30”
“Animation filmmakers usually like to stand behind the camera rather than in front of it. At the age of 14, Karl Tebbe badly wanted to be able to dance like Michael Jackson. But you either have rhythm in your blood or you don’t. Now, 22 years later, stop-motion-animation has allowed him to finally fulfill his lifelong dream.”
Sunday, April 15, 2007
PART 1: ADORATIONS
We are the faithful by Michael Koch (Germany, 2005), 9’
“The Swiss football team FC Basel’s crowd animator gives his all for the team: he decides what music to play at matches and choreographs the fans to peak performance. It’s all about the energy and emotion he transmits to the fans and how he directs them. Or is it rather the game itself that the fans follow?”
We missed our stop by Attila Gigor (Hungary, 2006), 22’
“Alien. Cast away. 1492 – The conquest of paradise. Schindler’s list. Great films. Or at least famous ones. However, the basic conflict in each film is the same: the protagonists missed their stops.”
Der Geist von St. Pauli/St. Pauli Forever by Michael Sommer (Germany, 2005), 7’30”
“The groundsman of the FC St. Pauli is just about to finish his work, when he suddenly finds a dead fan on the grandstand of the stadium. And even after the funeral, the groundskeeper is not allowed to rest. The ghost of the dead man haunts him and makes him realize, that the motto of the football club is more than just a stadium song: ‘You’ll never walk alone’…”
Alice, or Life in Black and White by Sophie Schoukens (Belgium, 2005), 15’
“Alice (13) doesn’t live in wonderland. She doesn’t eat anymore. Her life is in black and white: life-death, girl-woman, child-parent, love-loveless-ness… Will she be able to bring her own colors back in sight?”
Close Encounter by Stanca Radu (Romania 2006), 12’
“Lucretia has a job, a son, a daughter, a mother, a dog and… a date. She tries, as best as she can, to get ready for this special occasion, but, seeing that she is the one who has to take care of everything, she is bound to leave something out. Finding herself at utmost embarrassment on the hopeful evening, the world seems like one huge hallucinatory TV show. But no, everything does not fall into pieces. Everybody just plays along. She is only left to accept who she is and move on.”
Film vs. Music by Jörg Hommer (Germany 2005), 2’03”
“Film vs. Music is a homage to the Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren and the classical animation film.
Figures and elements are drawn directly on 35mm blank- or black-film by hand. These unique forms – and every single frame for itself – playfully start to join the music of Arnold Schoenbergs early dynamic fragment-composition ‘Scherzo for clavier’ and merge into perfect harmony.”
PART 2: FRINGES
Noi Doi by Paul Manolescu (Romania, 2004) 6’30”
Home Run by Philipp Osthus (Germany, 2005), 6’
“16-year old Henry is in love with Anna, a woman behind the window across the street. But when he expresses his love through a rose, he observes Anna being brutally beaten by her husband. Henry takes all his courage and ambushes the tyrant to free his lady-love.”
Neuland by Katrin Lehnert (Germany, 2004), 15’
“Koja, Sascha, Pete and Weste grew up in the same hood. A ride in a cab triggers the end of their lifelong friendship: Sascha assaults the attractive Uta, the friends take the money and run. But Kolja is stuck to his seat and can’t take his eyes off Uta: He’s fallen in love.”
Tower Block by Nikias Chryssos (Germany, 2006), 40’
“The story of twelve-year-old Daniel and his brother Patrick who live in a high-rise in Germany. A film about animal rights, kids, drugs, love, violence, the USA and Jesus – like “Gummo” meets “Mary Poppins.”
The Festival is presented in conjunction with Prof. Isabelle de Courtivron's course "Topics in Modern French Literature and Culture - Paris au Cinéma" (21F.346)
For further information please contact the Festival Organizer, Kurt Fendt <fendt
mit.edu>
