PRESS RELEASE
INDEPENDENCE DAYS AT THE 49TH THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL
Terence Davies, Kim Jee-woon, Jose Mojica Marins and Azazel Jacobs are only some of the filmmakers who will attend the 49th Thessaloniki Film Festival as guests of the Independence Days section.
As previously announced, ID organizes, under the auspices of the British Council in Greece, a complete Retrospective to the work of British film director, actor and novelist Terence Davies, who will attend the 49th TIFF with his producer Olivia Stewart and will conduct a Masterclass on the 20th of November. The Ousmane Sembene Retrospective will showcase the film work of the icon of African cinema and literature and Alain Sembene, the son of the Senegalese director, will attend the Festival to present the work of his father. On the occasion of the Sembene Retrospective, one of Africa’s most celebrated ensembles, Orchestra Baobab, a Senegalese, Afro-Cuban, Son, and Pachanga band, will perform a concert on Wednesday the 19th of November.
The Independence Days section, curated by film critic Lefteris Adamidis and in its fourth year as part of the Thessaloniki Festival, remains committed to showcasing independent and unique works, to discovering emerging filmmakers and to introducing those master directors whose work may have fallen off the popular radar. The section’s core program, under the title ID-08, identifies this year’s political, aesthetic, and thematic landscape of worldwide independent production. The ID section is formed in its entirety by the addition of parallel tributes, special screenings and events.
ID-08
For the fourth edition of the ID-08 program, new filmmakers showcase their work and ID staples return to Thessaloniki with their latest films.
Filipino director Brillante Mendoza will present Serbis (2008), while the section continues to showcase new talents from the Philippines: Jay by Francis X. Pasion (2008) is a disturbing satire on the lack of ethics in contemporary TV.
Kim Jee-woon will introduce his immense hit The Good, the Bad and the Weird (Korea, 2008), in which the genre-bending director borrows the ways of the Spaghetti Western to make a highly entertaining film.
Tariq Teguia -who competed in the 47th TIFF with Rome Rather Than You- returns with Inland (Algeria/France, 2008), winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2008 Venice Festival.
As Simple As That by Reza Mir Karimi (Iran, 2008) is a breakthrough in the context of contemporary Iranian cinema, for its honest portrait of a middle class woman’s everyday life and the various predicaments it entails.
Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy (Denmark, 2008), this year’s Grystal Globe winner in the Karlovy Vary Festival, is the dark story of a Copenhagen policeman who transfers to a remote place on the Jutland peninsula.
Parking by Chung Mong-hong (Taiwan, 2008) and Daytime Drinking by Noh Young-seok (Korea, 2008) are this year’s most promising debut features from Asia. While Parking is a darkly comic drama taking place over the course of one night, Daytime Driniking, shot on a budget of $10.000, is the drinking journey of a young man nursing a broken heart.
Also from Asia comes All Around Us (Japan, 2008), the long-awaited film of one of the most promising and lyrical directors of contemporary Japanese cinema, Ryosuke Hashiguchi.
YOUNG AMERICANS
In the tradition established by the ID section, this year’s gems of the American independent scene will be screened during the 49th TIFF. Ballast by Lance Hammer (2008), who won the Director Award at this year’s Sundance Festival, is a striking debut that follows three characters living on the impoverished Mississipi delta.
David and Nathan Zellner, included in this year’s Filmmaker 25 breaking talents list, will present the film Goliath, a quirky and affecting character drama.
Sugar by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (2008) follows their acclaimed debut, Half Nelson and presents, in a humane, subtle manner, the world of Dominican baseball players who try to succeed in the US.
Finally, the Safdie Brothers will attend the 49th TIFF to present the feature The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008) and 2 of their short films, The Acquaintances of a Lonely John (2008) and I Think I’m Missing Parts (2007). 20 somethings Bennie and Joshua Safdie work together but direct separately; both of their home-made films screened during the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes 2008.
SOMEONE TO WATCH: DESPERATE OPTIMISTS & AZAZEL JACOBS
Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, the Desperate Optimists duo, embarked on their cinematic career after a well-established one in theater and experimental performance. They will present their Civic Life tableaux of 7 short films -a unique experiment made with the cooperation of local community groups in England and in Ireland-, as well as their feature debut, Helen (UK/Ireland, 2008). Their work will be presented in cooperation with the British Council in Greece.
Azazel Jacobs, son of American experimental legend Ken Jacobs, will introduce his two latest films, The GoodTimes Kid (USA, 2005), co-written with Gerardo Naranjo and Momma’s Man (USA, 2008), shot in the Tribeca apartment where he grew up and starring his parents. A filmmaker on his own right, Jacobs makes unique, quirky films that share little with one another, apart from the deadpan humor that runs through all of them.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Filmmakers Charles Burnett and Sherman Alexie were the ones who brought attention to The Exiles by Kent Mac Kenzie (USA, 1961), a recently restored American masterpiece that never received a commercial release. Shot in Bunker Hill, a then dilapidated LA neighbourhood, The Exiles is unique and extremely modern in its portrayal of Native American life.
After the success of last year’s music event (the scoring of Mikio Naruse’s Every Night Dreams by duo Your Hand in Mine), silent film The Phantom Carriage by Victor Sjostrom (Sweden, 1921) gets its own exclusive music treatment for the 49th TIFF. 2 post-rock bands from Thessaloniki, Good Luck Mister Gorsky and Eventless Plot, have composed an original soundtrack that will be performed during the screening on Tuesday the 18th.
Sonic Youth, Sleeping Nights Awake by Michael Albright (USA, 2007) is a Sonic Youth concert documentary shot by high school kids participating in Project Moonshine, a non-profit organization teaching filmmaking skills to students by providing them with opportunities to document events happening in their community.
Finally, horror director, actor and cult figure Jose Mojica Marins will present his latest and most brutal film, Encarnacao do Demonio (Brazil, 2008), the final part of the infamous Coffin Joe trilogy of terrors.
