Astra Film Fest 2004 had 50 films in competition from 24 countries.
|
|
MICHAL BUCHOWSKI
Michal Buchowski is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Poznan and of Comparative Central European Studies at Europe-University Viadrina in Frankfurt am Oder.
His scientific interest is in modes of thought and systems of beliefs, as well as in Central European social and cultural transformations. He was awarded several scholarships. He taught at the Universities of Kansas and Berlin and was a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Columbia University in NY. He published several books and articles in international journals.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
RUSSIA
With the fall of communism, all the countries in the ex-Soviet block have turned their attention to the West. Media coverage tends to reflect this orientation, presenting international issues related to situations in Iraq or Afghanistan, rather than what is happening in the neighbouring country. Each of these countries experiences transition differently, but although they are geographically close, they are unaware of each other's problems.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
| John Marshall Kalahary Family is the definitive work of the world-renowned ethnographic filmmaker. It is the extraordinary story of a people's transition fron a hunting-gathering existence to life as citizens of a complex, global economy. This series is made with a lifetime of documentation, research, and personal contact with the Ju/'hoansi ( Bushmen) of Nyae Nyae..... |
|
|
|
VIEW FROM HOLLAND
Astra Film 2004 presents the famous Dutch documentary tradition through a selection of three Joris Ivens films Komsomol, The Spanish Earth, A Tale Of the Wind as well as three contemporary documentaries, Magnitogorsk- Forging the New Man by Piter Jan Smit, Piter by Jessica Gorter and Frank Gorter, Dutch Light by Pieter Rim the Kroon. The Program offers a double view, one highlighting Iven's achievement and contribution to documentary cinema, and a second view focused on Eastern European realities as perceived and presented by Dutch filmmakers. Joris Ivens (1898-1989) is widely considered as the foremost important pioneer in documentary filmmaking. This ' flying Dutchman' as he was nicknamed in the sixties, made over 80 films and worked in more than 20 countries around the Globe. One cannot grasp the essence of Iven's oeuvre within a few sentences, as it is as diverse as life itself. He started out with home movies in the nineteen tens and twenties, and became famous with his avant-garde short film The Bridge (1928), in which he studied the movements of a railroad bridge in Rotterdam. He filmed wars, cities, wind and water, and people. His films are among the most controversial documentaries of the twentieth century, while they are also considered to be the most poetic and beautiful ones. Watching his films in chronological is like viewing the twentieth century with all its contradictions, wars and beauty. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
 | The Curse Of The Hedgehog
Director: Dumitru Budrala
Country: Romania
Year: 2004
Length: 93
| „I care for my donkey more than I do for my for my own man and kids. But now it’d dead. If I had a donkey now, I would live like a member of Parliament”- concludes Turica, one of the main character in the film. She and her relatives wander from village to village, carrying handmades brooms and baskets, which they try to trade for food. The filmmaker goes beyond stereotypes, following an extremely poor Gypsy in their survival winter trips. The film follows the life of an extended Roma family for a whrole year. They belong to the “Baiesi “group of Roma, who live in extreme poverty. The filmmaker accompanied them on the way from their dwelling place in the mountain to the lowland villages, where they try to trade handmade goods for food or money. These winter tours are survival trips for them, as they have no other income whatsoever. However, the film is more than the story of their struggle to survive. During the 100 minutes, we come to understand why they refuse to work the land, and how they relate to the Romania shepherds, and to the rich Baesi from their village they call “businessmen”, who make large fortunes from selling fake rings abroad. We discover how mythological thinking is activated in their everyday life, along with their Christian Orthodox religiousness. By watching this film, we achieve a better understanding of the absurdities and the pain that fill the lives of these people living on the edge of society, and we come to admire the wit, and the humour, which help them to come through. | |
| |
| |
|
|
Fundatia Soros Romania lanseaza concursul de film de scurtmetraj Open Society Shorts. Deadline: 3 mai 2010
ASTRA FILM promovează documentarul românesc la UCLA Film and Television Archive din Los Angeles
